W pustyni i w puszczy. English
Page 58
they will rejoice! Then they will startup to prepare to meet us! Then there will be joy in the whole house andour papas will rejoice and everybody will rejoice and they will praiseyou and they will come and I shall hug tightly papa's neck, and afterthat we shall always be--together and--"
And it ended in this: that her chin commenced to quiver, the beautifuleyes changed into two fountains, and in the end she leaned her head onStas' arm and wept from sorrow, longing, and joy at the thought of thefuture meeting. And Stas, allowing his imagination to roam into thefuture, divined that his father would be proud of him; that he wouldsay to him: "You behaved as became a Pole;" and intense emotionpossessed him and in his heart was bred a longing, ardor, and courageas inflexible as steel. "I must," he said to himself, "rescue Nell. Imust live to see that moment." And at such moments it seemed to himthat there were no dangers which he was not able to overcome norobstacles which he could not surmount.
But it was yet far to the final victory. In the meantime they weremaking their way through the acacia grove. The long thorns of thesetrees even made white marks upon the King's hide. Finally the grovebecame thinner and across the branches of the scattered trees could beseen in the distance a green jungle. Stas, notwithstanding that theheat was very oppressive, slipped out of the palanquin and sat on theelephant's neck to see whether there were any herds of antelopes orzebras within view, for he wished to replenish his supply of meat.
In fact, on the right side he espied a herd of ariels, composed of afew head, and among them two ostriches, but when they passed the lastclump of trees and the elephant turned to the left, a different sightstruck the eyes of the boy. At the distance of about a third of a milehe observed a large manioc field and at the border of the field betweenten and twenty black forms apparently engaged at work in the field.
"Negroes!" he exclaimed, turning to Nell.
And his heart began to beat violently. For a while, he hesitated as towhether he should turn back and hide again in the acacias, but itoccurred to him that, sooner or later, he would have to meet thenatives in populated districts and enter into relations with them, andthat the fate of the whole traveling party might depend upon how thoserelations were formed; so, after brief reflection, he guided theelephant towards the field.
At the same moment Kali approached and, pointing his hand at a clump oftrees, said:
"Great master! That is a negro village and there are women working atthe manioc. Shall I ride to them?"
"We will ride together," Stas answered, "and then you shall tell themthat we come as friends."
"I know what to tell them, master," exclaimed the young negro withgreat self-assurance.
And turning the horses towards the workers, he placed the palms of hishands around his lips and began to shout:
"Yambo, he yambo sana!"
At this sound, the women engaged in hoeing the manioc field started upsuddenly and stood as if thunderstruck, but this lasted only thetwinkling of an eye, for afterwards, flinging away in alarm the hoesand baskets, they began to run away, screaming, to the trees amidstwhich the village was concealed.
The little travelers approached slowly and calmly. In the thicketresounded the yelling of some hundred voices, after which silence fell.It was interrupted finally by the hollow but loud rumble of a drum,which did not cease even for a moment.
It was evidently a signal of the warriors for battle, for three hundredof them suddenly emerged from the thicket. All stood in a long rowbefore the village. Stas stopped the King at the distance of onehundred paces and began to gaze at them. The sun illuminated theirwell-shaped forms, wide breasts, and powerful arms. They were armedwith bows and spears. Around their thighs some had short skirts ofheath, and some of monkey skin. Their heads were adorned with ostrichand parrot feathers, or great scalps torn off baboons' skulls. Theyappeared warlike and threatening, but they stood motionless and insilence, for their amazement was simply unbounded and subdued thedesire for fighting. All eyes were fastened upon the King, on the whitepalanquin, and the white man sitting on his neck.
Nevertheless, an elephant was not an unknown animal to them. On thecontrary, they continually live in dread of elephants, whole herds ofwhich destroy at night their manioc fields as well as banana anddoom-palm plantations. As the spears and arrows do not pierce theelephant's hide, the poor negroes fight the depredators with the helpof fire, with the aid of cries imitating a cockerel's crow, by diggingpits, and constructing traps made of the trunks of trees. But that anelephant should become slave of man and permit one to sit on his neckwas something which none of them ever saw before, and it never enteredinto the mind of any of them that anything like that was possible. Sothe spectacle which was presented to them passed so far beyond theirunderstanding and imagination that they did not know what to do:whether to fight or to run where their eyes should lead them, though itwould result in leaving them to the caprice of fate.
So in uncertainty, alarm, and amazement they only whispered to eachother:
"Oh, mother! What creatures are these which have come to us, and whatawaits us at their hands?"
But at this Kali, having ridden within a spear's throw of them, stoodup in the stirrups and began to shout:
"People! people! Listen to the voice of Kali, the son of Fumba, themighty king of the Wahimas on the shores of Bassa-Narok. Oh listen,listen, and if you understand his speech, pay heed to each word that heutters."
"We understand," rang the answer of three hundred mouths.
"Let your king stand forth; let him tell his name and let him open hisears and lips that he may hear better."
"M'Rua! M'Rua!" numerous voices began to cry.
M'Rua stepped in front of the ranks, but not more than three paces. Hewas a negro, already old, tall and powerfully built, but evidently didnot suffer from too much courage, as the calves of his legs quivered sothat he had to implant the edge of a spear in the ground and supporthimself on the shaft in order to stand on his legs.
After his example, the other warriors also drove the spears into theground in sign that they wanted to hear peaceably the words of thearrival.
And Kali again raised his voice.
"M'Rua, and you, M'Rua's men, you heard that to you speaks the son ofthe king of the Wahimas, whose cows cover as thickly the mountainsaround the Bassa-Narok as the ants cover the body of a slain giraffe.And what says Kali, the son of the king of Wahima? Lo, he announces toyou the great and happy tidings that there comes to your village the'Good Mzimu.'"
After which he yelled still louder:
"That is so! The Good Mzimu! Ooo!"
In the stillness which ensued could be perceived the great sensationwhich Kali's words created. The wave of warriors surged back and forth,for some, impelled by curiosity, advanced a few paces, while othersretreated in fear. M'Rua supported himself with both hands on thespear--and for some time the hollow silence continued. Only after awhile a murmur passed through the ranks and individual voices began torepeat "Mzimu! Mzimu!" and here and there resounded shouts of "Yancig!Yancig!" expressive at the same time of homage and welcome.
But Kali's voice again predominated over the murmurs and shouts:
"Look and rejoice! Lo, the 'Good Mzimu' sits there in that white hut onthe back of the great elephant and the great elephant obeys her as aslave obeys a master and like a child its mother! Oh, neither yourfathers nor you have seen anything like that."
"We have not seen! Yancig! Yancig!"
And the eyes of all warriors were directed at the "hut," or rather atthe palanquin.
And Kali, who during the religious instructions on Mount Linde hadlearned that faith moves mountains, was deeply convinced that theprayer of the little white "bibi" could procure everything from God; sohe spoke thus further and in perfect sincerity:
"Listen! Listen! The 'Good Mzimu' is riding on an elephant in thedirection in which the sun rises, beyond the mountains out of thewaters; there the 'Good Mzimu' will tell the Great Spirit to send youclouds, and those clouds during a drought will water with ra
in yourmillet, your manioc, your bananas, and the grass in the jungle, inorder that you may have plenty to eat and that your cows shall havegood fodder and shall give thick and fat milk. Do you want to haveplenty of food and milk--oh, men?"
"He! We do, we do!"
"And the 'Good Mzimu' will tell the Great Spirit to send to you thewind, which will blow away from your village that sickness whichchanges the body into a honey-comb. Do you want him to blow itaway--oh, men?"
"He! Let him blow it away!"
"And the Great Spirit at the prayer of the 'Good Mzimu' will protectyou from attacks and slavery and from depredations in your fields andfrom the lion and from the panther and from the snake and from thelocust--"
"Let her