She
bent forward, and kissed him on the lips.
I gave a gasp, expecting to see Leo instantly speared; and Job
ejaculated, “The hussy—well, I never!” As for Leo, he looked
slightly astonished; and then, remarking that we had clearly got
into a country where they followed the customs of the early
Christians, deliberately returned the embrace.
Again I gasped, thinking that something would happen; but, to my
surprise, though some of the young women showed traces of
vexation, the older ones and the men only smiled slightly. When
we came to understand the customs of this extraordinary people
the mystery was explained. It then appeared that, in direct
opposition to the habits of almost every other savage race in the
world, women among the Amahagger are not only upon terms of
perfect equality with the men, but are not held to them by any
binding ties. Descent is traced only through the line of the
mother, and while individuals are as proud of a long and superior
female ancestry as we are of our families in Europe, they never
pay attention to, or even acknowledge, any man as their father,
even when their male parentage is perfectly well known. There is
but one titular male parent of each tribe, or, as they call it,
“Household,” and he is its elected and immediate ruler, with the
title of “Father.” For instance, the man Billali was the father
of this “household,” which consisted of about seven thousand
individuals all told, and no other man was ever called by that
name. When a woman took a fancy to a man she signified her
preference by advancing and embracing him publicly, in the same
way that this handsome and exceedingly prompt young lady, who was
called Ustane, had embraced Leo. If he kissed her back it was a
token that he accepted her, and the arrangement continued until
one of them wearied of it. I am bound, however, to say that the
change of husbands was not nearly so frequent as might have been
expected. Nor did quarrels arise out of it, at least among the
men, who, when their wives deserted them in favour of a rival,
accepted the whole thing much as we accept the income-tax or our
marriage laws, as something not to be disputed, and as tending to
the good of the community, however disagreeable they may in
particular instances prove to the individual.
It is very curious to observe how the customs of mankind on this
matter vary in different countries, making morality an affair of
latitude, and what is right and proper in one place wrong and
improper in another. It must, however, be understood that, since
all civilised nations appear to accept it as an axiom that
ceremony is the touchstone of morality, there is, even according
to our canons, nothing immoral about this Amahagger custom,
seeing that the interchange of the embrace answers to our
ceremony of marriage, which, as we know, justifies most things.
VII.
USTANE SINGS
When the kissing operation was finished—by the way, none of the
young ladies offered to pet me in this fashion, though I saw one
hovering round Job, to that respectable individual’s evident
alarm—the old man Billali advanced, and graciously waved us into
the cave, whither we went, followed by Ustane, who did not seem
inclined to take the hints I gave her that we liked privacy.
Before we had gone five paces it struck me that the cave that we
were entering was none of Nature’s handiwork, but, on the
contrary, had been hollowed by the hand of man. So far as we
could judge it appeared to be about one hundred feet in length by
fifty wide, and very lofty, resembling a cathedral aisle more
than anything else. From this main aisle opened passages at a
distance of every twelve or fifteen feet, leading, I supposed, to
smaller chambers. About fifty feet from the entrance of the cave,
just where the light began to get dim, a fire was burning, which
threw huge shadows upon the gloomy walls around. Here Billali
halted, and asked us to be seated, saying that the people would
bring us food, and accordingly we squatted ourselves down upon
the rugs of skins which were spread for us, and waited. Presently
the food, consisting of goat’s flesh boiled, fresh milk in an
earthenware pot, and boiled cobs of Indian corn, was brought by
young girls. We were almost starving, and I do not think that I
ever in my life before ate with such satisfaction. Indeed, before
we had finished we literally ate up everything that was set
before us.
When we had done, our somewhat saturnine host, Billali, who had
been watching us in perfect silence, rose and addressed us. He
said that it was a wonderful thing that had happened. No man had
ever known or heard of white strangers arriving in the country of
the People of the Rocks. Sometimes, though rarely, black men had
come here, and from them they had heard of the existence of men
much whiter than themselves, who sailed on the sea in ships, but
for the arrival of such there was no precedent. We had, however,
been seen dragging the boat up the canal, and he told us frankly
that he had at once given orders for our destruction, seeing that
it was unlawful for any stranger to enter here, when a message
had come from “_She-who-must-be-obeyed_,” saying that our lives
were to be spared, and that we were to be brought hither.
“Pardon me, my father,” I interrupted at this point; “but if, as
I understand, ‘_She-who-must-be-obeyed_’ lives yet farther off,
how could she have known of our approach?”
Billali turned, and seeing that we were alone—for the young lady,
Ustane, had withdrawn when he had begun to speak—said, with a
curious little laugh—
“Are there none in your land who can see without eyes and hear
without ears? Ask no questions; _She_ knew.”
I shrugged my shoulders at this, and he proceeded to say that no
further instructions had been received on the subject of our
disposal, and this being so he was about to start to interview
“_She-who-must-be-obeyed_,” generally spoken of, for the sake of
brevity, as “Hiya” or _She_ simply, who he gave us to understand
was the Queen of the Amahagger, and learn her wishes.
I asked him how long he proposed to be away, and he said that by
travelling hard he might be back on the fifth day, but there were
many miles of marsh to cross before he came to where _She_ was.
He then said that every arrangement would be made for our comfort
during his absence, and that, as he personally had taken a fancy
to us, he sincerely trusted that the answer he should bring from
_She_ would be one favourable to the continuation of our
existence, but at the same time he did not wish to conceal from
us that he thought this doubtful, as every stranger who had ever
come into the country during his grandmother’s life, his mother’s
life, and his own life, had been put to death without mercy, and
in a way he would not harrow our feelings by describing; and this
had been done by the order of _She_ herself, at least he supposed
that it was by her order. At any rate, she never interfered to
save them.
“Why,” I said, “but how can that be? You are an old man, and the
time you talk of must reach back three men’s lives. How therefore
could _She_ have ordered the death of anybody at the beginning of
the life of your grandmother, seeing that herself she would not
have been born?”
Again he smiled—that same faint, peculiar smile, and with a deep
bow departed, without making any answer; nor did we see him again
for five days.
When he had gone we discussed the situation, which filled me with
alarm. I did not at all like the accounts of this mysterious
Queen, “_She-who-must-be-obeyed_,” or more shortly _She_, who
apparently ordered the execution of any unfortunate stranger in a
fashion so unmerciful. Leo, too, was depressed about it, but
consoled himself by triumphantly pointing out that this _She_ was
undoubtedly the person referred to in the writing on the potsherd
and in his father’s letter, in proof of which he advanced
Billali’s allusions to her age and power. I was by this time too
overwhelmed with the whole course of events that I had not even
the heart left to dispute a proposition so absurd, so I suggested
that we should try to go out and get a bath, of which we all
stood sadly in need.
Accordingly, having indicated our wish to a middle-aged individual of
an unusually saturnine cast of countenance, even among this saturnine
people, who appeared to be deputed to look after us now that the Father
of the hamlet had departed, we started in a body—having first lit our
pipes. Outside the cave we found quite a crowd of people evidently
watching for our appearance, but when they saw us come out smoking they
vanished this way and that, calling out that we were great magicians.
Indeed, nothing about us created so great a sensation as our tobacco
smoke—not even our firearms.[1] After this we succeeded in reaching a
stream that had its source in a strong ground spring, and taking our
bath in peace, though some of the women, not excepting Ustane, showed a
decided inclination to follow us even there.
[1] We found tobacco growing in this country as it does in every other
part of Africa, and, although they were so absolutely ignorant of its
other blessed qualities, the Amahagger use it habitually in the form
of snuff and also for medicinal purposes.—L. H. H.
By the time that we had finished this most refreshing bath the
sun was setting; indeed, when we got back to the big cave it had
already set. The cave itself was full of people gathered round
fires—for several more had now been lighted—and eating their
evening meal by their lurid light, and by that of various lamps
which were set about or hung upon the walls. These lamps were of
a rude manufacture of baked earthenware, and of all shapes, some
of them graceful enough. The larger ones were formed of big red
earthenware pots, filled with clarified melted fat, and having a
reed wick stuck through a wooden disk which filled the top of the
pot. This sort of lamp required the most constant attention to
prevent its going out whenever the wick burnt down, as there were
no means of turning it up. The smaller hand lamps, however, which
were also made of baked clay, were fitted with wicks manufactured
from the pith of a palm-tree, or sometimes from the stem of a
very handsome variety of fern. This kind of wick was passed
through a round hole at the end of the lamp, to which a sharp
piece of hard wood was attached wherewith to pierce and draw it
up whenever it showed signs of burning low.
For a while we sat down and watched this grim people eating their
evening meal in silence as grim as themselves, till at length,
getting tired of contemplating them and the huge moving shadows
on the rocky walls, I suggested to our new keeper that we should
like to go to bed.
Without a word he rose, and, taking me politely by the hand,