Return of the Spirit

by Tawfiq al-Hakim

  In the morning the expedition traveled on. As they went, they hunted for their food. There were a lot of animals to hunt, from fatty wild teetal goats to greasy water buffalo. For long periods the doctor would split from the expedition in pursuit of fine game. It was the same with all new recruits who had been given a rifle: He shot, without thinking, at every animal he encountered, whether it was a predator or not.

  The Sudanese soldier assigned to him noticed this and cautioned him one day, “Shoot any animal in these forests you want, whether life-threatening or not, but be careful not to harm the monkey or the entire expedition will be harmed. Don’t get in a fight with the forest monkey.”

  The expedition traveled on for several days, until it was exhausted and the water gave out.

  The guide said, “There’s no hope for water until three stages further, where there is a single well. The bush country is sometimes like the desert in having everything except water fit to drink.”

  Finally the soldiers neared the well, where they would rest and quench their thirst after greasy food and an exhausting journey in intense heat. A few hundred meters before they reached the well, it occurred to the doctor to sneak off from the expedition and speed on alone via a shortcut through the jungle thickets to get to the well before them. He carried out the idea at once without telling even his Sudanese soldier. As soon as he arrived at the well, he stopped in astonished surprise, for he observed a ferocious-looking monkey standing motionless by the well.

  He hesitated a little and then gestured at him with his hand, but the monkey did not move. He picked up a small stone and threw it, but the ape still did not move. So he aimed his rifle at him. The monkey gave him a piercing look but did not leave his post. The doctor grew nervous about his situation. He saw no alternative to opening fire on that strange monkey.

  He did, and the monkey fell, stained with blood, into the well without uttering a cry. The doctor went forward at once toward the well and leaned over to look at the monkey in it and to see how much water it contained. What he saw there astonished him. He found more than a hundred monkeys had also fallen down it. He asked himself what had brought all these monkeys to the well. What were they doing in it?

  He thought it over and came to an amazing realization: These monkeys had actually come to drink from the well and their method of reaching the distant water was for that large monkey to stand and grasp a second monkey who let himself down. This second monkey grabbed hold of a third who let himself down below him in the same way, and the third a fourth. Thus some of the monkeys made a ladder of their bodies inside the well so others could climb down and then back up.

  The doctor could discern this from the position of the monkeys. Some were still clasping hands.

  He was amazed and commented to himself on the solidarity of these monkeys and on the great sacrifice that large monkey had made on behalf of the group. This monkey had not wanted to move even after the doctor threw a stone at him and aimed at him. He was holding his comrades who were dangling down the well. He accepted death with steady eyes and a steadfast body and did not abandon his mission. It would have been possible for him to desert his comrades and save himself by racing and leaping into the bush as soon as he saw the doctor.

  The doctor regretted killing that monkey a little, although his mind was troubled then by a much more important matter. The exhausted expedition would be arriving shortly and would throw itself upon the well in search of water. Now this well was fouled by blood and monkeys. To go on to another well would take further stages and require days and nights. Could the expedition continue marching on more days without water? And who had caused this? Who was responsible for what had happened and for exposing the soldiers to a danger like this? To contaminate or poison a well was a crime under military law . . . all the more so when the person who did it was the army medic, in other words the official who was charged with safeguarding the health of the soldiers and whose sole concern was the health of the soldiers. When all this flashed through the doctor’s mind, he trembled and felt stunned for a time. But he roused himself suddenly and raced into the bush at once, because he thought the best way out of this predicament was to pretend ignorance of everything and return to the expedition, to trail along after it without anyone noticing him, as though he had not separated from it at all, had not preceded them to the well, and did not know what was in it!

  It was not long before the expedition reached the well. The soldiers sped to it joyously and jubilantly after they put down their packs, removed the loads from their animals, and readied their empty waterskins.

  When they saw what was in the well they shouted angrily and cursed. They became desperate. Their jubilation turned into moans of rage and grief. The doctor was at the very rear, observing silently and sadly, tormented by anxiety. But no one noticed how troubled he was.

  The expedition began to brainstorm about what to do. The anxious doctor tried to hide and to steel himself. Then he suddenly felt someone behind him. He turned and saw the Sudanese soldier giving him a look that told him the soldier had grasped what had happened.

  The soldier did not utter a word after that. Instead he took a sturdy rope from the supplies and went silently to the well. He fastened one end of it to a boulder and let the other end down the well. Then he shouted for everyone to get away and to hide in the nearby bushes. Once the members of the expedition were concealed in the jungle, staring dejectedly at the well, they all immediately saw, from their hiding places, a monkey emerge from the well after having climbed up the rope. The rest of the monkeys followed him. Then they watched in amazement as two large monkeys in the group carried away the dead monkey, which was soaked in blood. They raced off with him, and the other monkeys disappeared, leaping from tree to tree.

  Thus the well and the area around it were evacuated. The expedition wanted to come out of hiding to run to the well to clean it and supply their needs, but the Sudanese soldier motioned to them to wait and keep still. He scolded the doctor in a whisper, “The monkeys won’t allow the death to go unpunished.”

  In truth, he had scarcely finished his words when monkeys appeared out of the jungle again from every side. It seemed that this group had gone to inform all the monkeys in the vicinity and to mobilize them. One group approached the well and began to examine it with narrow, piercing eyes. They happened upon a soldier who, to his misfortune, had stayed behind his comrades. He was busy setting up tents and hadn’t noticed that the others were hiding. The monkeys pounced on that man and threw him to the ground. They pulled him by his feet and dragged him across the dirt, taking him into the jungle. Before they disappeared with him, the other monkeys leapt into the trees nearby, tore off slender branches like whips, descended with the speed of lightning to that man, and rained blows on him.

  The expedition could not rescue the poor soldier from their hands except at a high price—which was to resume their march at once, leaving that spot after taking a small amount of water, in spite of the fatigue of the exhausted soldiers and their extreme need for rest.

  Thus the expedition left the area hastily and entered another forest, as vast as the ocean. All its trees were mahogany, the type of wood from which expensive furniture is made.

  The expedition rested for some time in this location. The doctor had forgotten his deed and started thinking about other matters and considerations, spurred by his surroundings and the sight of these trees. He thought about the terrific fortunes that would be gained by anyone who could harvest the trees of a forest like this valuable one. The only barrier to that fortune was the difficulty of transport. But if a railroad connected that area with Egypt or the sea, the fortune would be assured. “In the future that will happen. This is why England wants the Sudan; not for today, but tomorrow.”

  He did not spend too much time on these thoughts, for the expedition quickly left the area and continued its journey elsewhere, and then to still another place, until they reach
ed Tungu. They stayed there some time. The doctor was able to explore the place thoroughly and to see its wonders. The most astounding thing he remembered from it was watching a lion eat a gazelle held in its claws. One of the local inhabitants was spying on the lion from nearby, as though waiting for the opportunity to deprive the king of his food.

  The doctor’s Sudanese soldier was with him and said to him, “See what this man does next. There aren’t many gazelle in this region and he wants to pry it out of the lion’s claws.” He had scarcely finished speaking when the doctor saw the man approach the lion and toss a pebble at him provocatively. The lion, however, did not pay any attention to it, as though the stone had been nothing more than a gnat that had touched him. The man repeated the attack with a rock that struck the lion on the head. The lion looked at him. Then it turned its head away as if in disdain and busied itself with its prey again. The man took a larger rock, aimed it at the lion’s nose, and threw it hard. The lion’s patience gave way, and it rose grumpily. Then it stretched and walked slowly toward the man. The doctor said to himself: The man is lost and destroyed if he doesn’t flee at once. The man, however, did not budge until the lion approached so close that only three or four steps remained between them. Then the man took a short spear that was lying near him on the ground and confronted the lion. The attacking lion leapt at him. When the lion was about to jump on the man, the man bent down with the speed of lightning and caught the lower side of the lion’s neck with the spear. Then the king of the jungle fell dead. The doctor in his amazement and bewilderment didn’t know how that had happened in just a few seconds. This feat had fully demonstrated the expertise, deftness, and agility that this African had developed through long training since childhood. The man then went to the gazelle, picked it up, and carried it away, followed by the doctor’s looks of admiration for this person who had snatched the prey by force from the lion’s claws. The Sudanese soldier, however, was not much surprised and told the doctor that the important factor in fighting a lion is to avoid his blow, because all his power is in his blow. One day when he was on the shores of Bahr al-Zaraf, he had seen a lion come down to drink. A horrendous crocodile challenged it and clamped its jaws around one of his legs. There was a terrifying struggle between the two wild beasts in which one of the lion’s legs was torn off, but the lion struck the crocodile’s back with his claws and split it.

  After a few more days, the expedition resumed its march, this time crossing savannah regions. High grass grew there, and people resembling Bedouins lived in the area. Their occupation was camel herding. They lived on the backs of camels in howdah-like dwellings that they carried with them when they followed the migrating herds of camels as they grazed. Thus these people were both sedentary and migratory in perpetuity. They resembled passengers on a ship lost in the middle of the ocean or the skippers of a houseboat on the Nile. Transactions among them were carried out in male or female camels, and it was the same when they traded with outsiders. Otherwise it was with camel milk, skins, and wool. The doctor observed this and mulled it over. He said to himself: How fine it would be to make systematic use of these vast natural grazing areas and exploit the wool and milk.

  As soon as the doctor reached this point in his narration that afternoon, someone asked the pharmacist to fill a prescription. He rose and excused himself. So the doctor was forced to cut short his discussion. Sha’ban Effendi brought out his snuffbox and said, in amazement at what he heard, “That’s something stupendous, doctor!”

  The health inspector bowed his head in thought for a time. Then he inquired, “The land of Al-Jazirah, what’s it like?”

  Dr. Hilmi replied, “The land of Al-Jazirah—don’t worry about it! This, sir, is an area suitable for everything: cotton, rubber. The easiest thing to plant is the rubber tree. It’s one of the future treasures of the Sudan.”

  The health inspector nodded his head appreciatively and then silently bowed it. Suddenly he looked up to say, “I’ve heard, doctor, that you returned with a pretty penny from the Sudan.”

  Dr. Hilmi answered, “You mean the penny I got for the elephants?”

  The head clerk asked, after sneezing vigorously, “Elephants?”

  The health inspector said, “The doctor shot six elephants in the Sudan and sold their ivory for about four thousand pounds when prices were high.”

  Sha’ban Effendi said in awed astonishment, “My goodness! Four thousand pounds for elephants? What kind of elephants were those, brother?”

  The doctor replied with a smile, “So what do you think? A single elephant has an average of sixty kantar of ivory, and the price of a single kantar today is ten pounds. In other words each elephant is worth approximately six hundred pounds. For that reason, anyone who wants to hunt elephants must get a license from the government, and the license fee is exorbitant.”

  Sha’ban Effendi said, “My goodness! Does the Sudan have all these enormous treasures?” Then he sighed and remarked, “How lucky you are, doctor! You fill us with desire. If I were young I would risk everything and go to God’s country. Shaykh, while we’re asleep here, farming, we won’t succeed.” Then he sneezed, wiped his nose with his handkerchief, and asked, “Was your family with you in the Sudan, doctor?”

  The doctor and the health inspector replied in unison that he had not married yet.

  Sha’ban Effendi said, “So you were a bachelor back then!”

  Dr. Hilmi answered, “Naturally. I married and started a family on my return from the Sudan—how time flies—twenty years ago.”

  Sha’ban Effendi exclaimed, “Twenty years! So were you at the Battle of Omdurman?”

  Dr. Hilmi’s face was transfigured by pride and he boasted, “Omdurman and others. . . . That’s well known! I’ve seen combat. I’m not just a doctor; I’m a soldier!”

  At that moment the postman passed and looked at Dr. Hilmi, who cut short this discussion to ask, as usual, if he had any mail. The letter carrier was in the habit of stopping by the pharmacy to give the doctor his mail instead of going to the house. That day, however, he hesitated a little before replying. Then he mumbled in a low voice, while sticking his hand in the case of letters he carried, “No . . . just this letter . . . for . . .”

  The mailman must finally have thought that it was none of his business to be too particular and that in any case the doctor was the father of the addressee. This was especially relevant because the letter was addressed to “Miss Saniya, Daughter of Dr. Ahmad Hilmi.” So he felt obliged to give the letter to him. The doctor took the letter and opened it without looking at what was written on the front. At first he read without understanding anything. He reread it and still did not understand. Then he looked at the envelope and understood. He rose at once and excused himself. His expression had changed, because he thought his military honor had been besmirched. He headed straight home to settle accounts with his daughter.

  When he entered the house, his wife welcomed him. He screamed at her and showed her the letter, summarizing its contents. She began to cajole him, trying to convince him that he should conceal the letter from his daughter to avoid causing a scandal and harming her neighbor Zanuba. She offered to go to complain to Zanuba about what had happened. She was going to work to rectify everything quietly and amicably. Then she helped him understand that their daughter Saniya might have been falsely accused and not know anything about the letter that the neighbor with bad manners and deplorable conduct had sent. Why should he get angry at their daughter and upset her over something for which she was not responsible and for which she bore no blame?

  She continued in this way with him until he fell silent and the affair passed without incident.

  CHAPTER 18

  Mabruk, the servant, finished tying the package and set it aside. He came over to ask what he should do next to prepare for Muhsin’s journey. Zanuba rose with enthusiasm and concern. It seemed she wanted to coddle Muhsin now that he was about to travel, so he w
ould give a good report of her to his wealthy parents. She ordered Mabruk to go at once to the room on the roof to get Muhsin’s suitcase. She motioned to the youth to come show her what he was taking and what he was leaving in her care till he returned. So they began to sort his clothes and personal effects. From the top of the stairs, Mabruk shouted down to Zanuba. She hurried toward him, and he informed her that Saniya was on the roof of her house and wanted to speak with her. Zanuba went up, leaving Muhsin by himself. His heart pounded as he wondered what she wanted to say now. About a quarter of an hour passed before Zanuba returned to resume her work. Muhsin looked at her with inquisitive eyes, but she had hers on a jilbab she was folding to put in his case. She was saying, “Don’t forget the letters, Muhsin, and write to me too. Don’t just think of your uncles and not me, the way you did last year.”