She
“Yes, yes,” said the other, and chuckled in a rather
blood-curdling tone.
“Are the three white men there?” asked the form.
“Yes, they are there.”
“Then bring up that which is made ready for them, and let the men
take all that can be brought from the thing which floats.”
Hardly had he spoken when men came running up, carrying on their
shoulders neither more nor less than palanquins—four bearers and
two spare men to a palanquin—and in these it was promptly
indicated we were expected to stow ourselves.
“Well!” said Leo, “it is a blessing to find anybody to carry us
after having to carry ourselves so long.”
Leo always takes a cheerful view of things.
There being no help for it, after seeing the others into theirs I
tumbled into my own litter, and very comfortable I found it. It
appeared to be manufactured of cloth woven from grass-fibre,
which stretched and yielded to every motion of the body, and,
being bound top and bottom to the bearing pole, gave a grateful
support to the head and neck.
Scarcely had I settled myself when, accompanying their steps with
a monotonous song, the bearers started at a swinging trot. For
half an hour or so I lay still, reflecting on the very remarkable
experiences that we were going through, and wondering if any of
my eminently respectable fossil friends down at Cambridge would
believe me if I were to be miraculously set at the familiar
dinner-table for the purpose of relating them. I do not want to
convey any disrespectful notion or slight when I call those good
and learned men fossils, but my experience is that people are apt
to fossilise even at a University if they follow the same paths
too persistently. I was getting fossilised myself, but of late my
stock of ideas has been very much enlarged. Well, I lay and
reflected, and wondered what on earth would be the end of it all,
till at last I ceased to wonder, and went to sleep.
I suppose I must have slept for seven or eight hours, getting the
first real rest that I had had since the night before the loss of
the dhow, for when I woke the sun was high in the heavens. We
were still journeying on at a pace of about four miles an hour.
Peeping out through the mist-like curtains of the litter, which
were ingeniously fixed to the bearing pole, I perceived to my
infinite relief that we had passed out of the region of eternal
swamp, and were now travelling over swelling grassy plains
towards a cup-shaped hill. Whether or not it was the same hill
that we had seen from the canal I do not know, and have never
since been able to discover, for, as we afterwards found out,
these people will give little information upon such points. Next
I glanced at the men who were bearing me. They were of a
magnificent build, few of them being under six feet in height,
and yellowish in colour. Generally their appearance had a good
deal in common with that of the East African Somali, only their
hair was not frizzed up, but hung in thick black locks upon their
shoulders. Their features were aquiline, and in many cases
exceedingly handsome, the teeth being especially regular and
beautiful. But notwithstanding their beauty, it struck me that,
on the whole, I had never seen a more evil-looking set of faces.
There was an aspect of cold and sullen cruelty stamped upon them
that revolted me, and which in some cases was almost uncanny in
its intensity.
Another thing that struck me about them was that they never
seemed to smile. Sometimes they sang the monotonous song of which
I have spoken, but when they were not singing they remained
almost perfectly silent, and the light of a laugh never came to
brighten their sombre and evil countenances. Of what race could
these people be? Their language was a bastard Arabic, and yet
they were not Arabs; I was quite sure of that. For one thing they
were too dark, or rather yellow. I could not say why, but I know
that their appearance filled me with a sick fear of which I felt
ashamed. While I was still wondering another litter came up
alongside of mine. In it—for the curtains were drawn—sat an old
man, clothed in a whitish robe, made apparently from coarse
linen, that hung loosely about him, who, I at once jumped to the
conclusion, was the shadowy figure that had stood on the bank and
been addressed as “Father.” He was a wonderful-looking old man,
with a snowy beard, so long that the ends of it hung over the
sides of the litter, and he had a hooked nose, above which
flashed out a pair of eyes as keen as a snake’s, while his whole
countenance was instinct with a look of wise and sardonic humour
impossible to describe on paper.
“Art thou awake, stranger?” he said in a deep and low voice.
“Surely, my father,” I answered courteously, feeling certain that
I should do well to conciliate this ancient Mammon of
Unrighteousness.
He stroked his beautiful white beard, and smiled faintly.
“From whatever country thou camest,” he said, “and by the way it
must be from one where somewhat of our language is known, they
teach their children courtesy there, my stranger son. And now
wherefore comest thou unto this land, which scarce an alien foot
has pressed from the time that man knoweth? Art thou and those
with thee weary of life?”
“We came to find new things,” I answered boldly. “We are tired of
the old things; we have come up out of the sea to know that which
is unknown. We are of a brave race who fear not death, my very
much respected father—that is, if we can get a little information
before we die.”
“Humph!” said the old gentleman, “that may be true; it is rash to
contradict, otherwise I should say that thou wast lying, my son.
However, I dare to say that ‘_She-who-must-be-obeyed_’ will meet
thy wishes in the matter.”
“Who is ‘_She-who-must-be-obeyed_’?” I asked, curiously.
The old man glanced at the bearers, and then answered, with a
little smile that somehow sent my blood to my heart—
“Surely, my stranger son, thou wilt learn soon enough, if it be
her pleasure to see thee at all in the flesh.”
“In the flesh?” I answered. “What may my father wish to convey?”
But the old man only laughed a dreadful laugh, and made no reply.
“What is the name of my father’s people?” I asked.
“The name of my people is Amahagger” (the People of the Rocks).
“And if a son might ask, what is the name of my father?”
“My name is Billali.”
“And whither go we, my father?”
“That shalt thou see,” and at a sign from him his bearers started
forward at a run till they reached the litter in which Job was
reposing (with one leg hanging over the side). Apparently,
however, he could not make much out of Job, for presently I saw
his bearers trot forward to Leo’s litter.
And after that, as nothing fresh occurred, I yielded to the
pleasant swaying motion of the litter, and went to sleep again. I
was dreadfully tired. When I woke I found that we were passing
through a rocky defile of a lava formation with precipitous
sides, in which grew many beautiful trees and flowering shrubs.
Presently this defile took a turn, and a lovely sight unfolded
itself to my eyes. Before us was a vast cup of green from four to
six miles in extent, in the shape of a Roman amphitheatre. The
sides of this great cup were rocky, and clothed with bush, but
the centre was of the richest meadow land, studded with single
trees of magnificent growth, and watered by meandering brooks. On
this rich plain grazed herds of goats and cattle, but I saw no
sheep. At first I could not imagine what this strange spot could
be, but presently it flashed upon me that it must represent the
crater of some long-extinct volcano which had afterwards been a
lake, and was ultimately drained in some unexplained way. And
here I may state that from my subsequent experience of this and a
much larger, but otherwise similar spot, which I shall have
occasion to describe by-and-by, I have every reason to believe
that this conclusion was correct. What puzzled me, however, was,
that although there were people moving about herding the goats
and cattle, I saw no signs of any human habitation. Where did
they all live? I wondered. My curiosity was soon destined to be
gratified. Turning to the left the string of litters followed the
cliffy sides of the crater for a distance of about half a mile,
or perhaps a little less, and then halted. Seeing the old
gentleman, my adopted “father,” Billali, emerge from his litter,
I did the same, and so did Leo and Job. The first thing I saw was
our wretched Arab companion, Mahomed, lying exhausted on the
ground. It appeared that he had not been provided with a litter,
but had been forced to run the entire distance, and, as he was
already quite worn out when we started, his condition now was one
of great prostration.
On looking round we discovered that the place where we had halted
was a platform in front of the mouth of a great cave, and piled
upon this platform were the entire contents of the whale-boat,
even down to the oars and sail. Round the cave stood groups of
the men who had escorted us, and other men of a similar stamp.
They were all tall and all handsome, though they varied in their
degree of darkness of skin, some being as dark as Mahomed, and
some as yellow as a Chinese. They were naked, except for the
leopard-skin round the waist, and each of them carried a huge
spear.
There were also some women among them, who, instead of the
leopard-skin, wore a tanned hide of a small red buck, something
like that of the oribé, only rather darker in colour. These women
were, as a class, exceedingly good-looking, with large, dark
eyes, well-cut features, and a thick bush of curling hair—not
crisped like a negro’s—ranging from black to chestnut in hue,
with all shades of intermediate colour. Some, but very few of
them, wore a yellowish linen garment, such as I have described as
worn by Billali, but this, as we afterwards discovered, was a
mark of rank, rather than an attempt at clothing. For the rest,
their appearance was not quite so terrifying as that of the men,
and they sometimes, though rarely, smiled. As soon as we had
alighted they gathered round us and examined us with curiosity,
but without excitement. Leo’s tall, athletic form and clear-cut
Grecian face, however, evidently excited their attention, and
when he politely lifted his hat to them, and showed his curling
yellow hair, there was a slight murmur of admiration. Nor did it
stop there; for, after regarding him critically from head to
foot, the handsomest of the young women—one wearing a robe, and
with hair of a shade between brown and chestnut—deliberately
advanced to him, and, in a way that would have been winning had
it not been so determined, quietly put her arm round his neck,