The Three Mulla-mulgars

by Walter De la Mare

  CHAPTER X

  It was many a day after Nod had been taken in the sailor's snare, andone very snowy, when the little Mulgar, looking up over his cooking, sawBattle come limping white and blood-beslobbered across the frozen streamtowards home. He carried nothing except his gun, neither beast nor bird.He stumbled over the ice, and walked crazily. And when he reached thefire, he just tumbled his musket against a log and sat himself downheavily, holding his head in his hands, with a sighing groan. Now, thiswas the fifth day or more that Battle had gone out and returned withoutmeat, and Nod, in his vanity, thought the sailor was beginning to wearyof flesh, and to take pleasure only in nuts and fruit, as theMulla-mulgars do. But when Battle had dried up the deep scratch on hisneck, and eaten a morsel or two of Nod's fresh-baked Nano-cake, he toldhim of his doings.

  Nod could even now, of course, only understand a little here and thereof what Battle said. But he twisted out enough words to learn that thesailor was astonished and perplexed at finding such a scarcity of game,howsoever far or cautiously he roamed in search of it.

  "Ay, and maybe that's no great wonder, neether, what with thiseverlasting snow and all. But tell me this, Nod Mulgar: Why does,whenever I spies a fine fat four-legged breakfast or two-winged supperfeeding within comfortable musket-shot--why does a howl like aM'keesoe's, dismal and devilish, break out not fifteen paces off, andscare away every living creature for leagues around? Why does leopardsand Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays swarm round Andy Battle when he goesa-walking, thick as cats round cream? They've scotched me this once, myson--an old she-leopard, black as pitch out of an Ollacondy. And I couldhave staked a ransom I cast my eye over every bough. Next time who's toknow what may happen? Nizza-neela will go on cooking his little hotniminy-cakes, and wait and wait--only for bones--only for Battle'sbones, Mulgar _mio_. What I says is this-how: leopards and Jaccatrays,from being what they once was, two or three, one to-day and threeto-morrow, now lurks everywhere, looking me in the face as bold asbrass, and sniffling at my very musket. But, there! that's allplain-sailing. What Andy wants to know for sartin sure is: what beast itis grinds out so close against his ear that unearthly human howling?'Twixt me and you and Lord Makellacolongee, it criddles my very blood tohear it. My finger begins tapping on the musket-trigger like hail on amillpond."

  Nod listened, puckered and intent, and looked a good deal wiser than hewas. And when supper was done he fetched out the thick rhinoceros-shoeswhich Battle had made him, as if to go disporting himself as usual onthe ice. But, instead of this, he hid them behind a hummock of snow,and, crossing over the stream, crept to the edge of the snowy shelf, andsat under an Exxswixxia-bush, gazing down into the gloom, silentlywatching and listening. He heard soft, furtive calls, whimperings. Astartled bird flew up on beating wings, and far and near the Jack-Allswere hollowly barking one to another in their hunting-bands. But he sawno leopards nor heard any voice or sound he knew no reason for, or hadnot heard before. Perhaps, he thought, his dull wits had misunderstoodthe Oomgar's talk.

  He was just about to turn away, when he heard a little call, oftenrepeated, "Chikka, chikka," which means in Munza-mulgar, "Bide here," or"Wait awhile." And there, stealing up from under the longer grasses,came who but Mishcha, the old witch-hare. But very slowly and cautiouslyshe came, pretending that she was searching out what poor fare she couldfind in the dismal snow.

  When she was come close, she whispered: "Move not; stir not a finger,Mulla-mulgar; speak to me as I am. I have a secret thing to say to you.These seven long frozen evenings have I come fretting abroad in myforest and watched and watched, and chikka'd and chikka'd, but you havenot come. Why, O Prince of Tishnar, do you linger here with thisflesh-eating Oomgar, whose gun barks N[=o][=o]manossi all day long? Whydo you think no more of your brothers and of the distant valleys?"

  Nod crouched in silence a little while, twitching his small brows. "Butthis Oomgar took me in a snare," he said at last. "And he has fed me,and been like my own father Seelem come again to me, and we arefriends--'messimuts,' old hare. Besides, I wait only until I am healedof my blains and thorns, and my shoulder is quite whole again. Then Igo. But even then, why has the old Queen duatta come louping throughMunza all these seven evenings past, only to tell me that?"

  Mishcha eyed him silently with her whitening eyes. "Not so blind am Iyet, little Mulgar, as not to creep and creep a league for the sake of afriend. Be off to-morrow, Nizza-neela! What knows an Oomgar offriendship? _That_ brings only the last sleep."

  "I mind not the last sleep, old hare," said Nod in his vanity. "Did Ifear it when half-frozen in the snow? Besides, my friend, the Oomgar,whose name is Battle, he will guard me."

  Mishcha crept nearer. "Has not the little Mulla-mulgar, then, heardImmanala's hunting-cry?"

  Now, Immanala in Munza means, as it were, unstoried, nameless, unknown,darkness, secrecy. All these the word means. Night is Immanala toMunza-mulgar. So is sorcery. So, too, is the dark journey to death orthe Third Sleep. And this _Beast_ they name Immanala because it comes ofno other beast that is known, has no likeness to any. Child of nothing,wits of all things, ravenous yet hungerless, she lures, lures, and ifshe die at all, dies alone. By some it is said that this Immanala is theservant of N[=o][=o]manossi, and has as many lives as his whiteresting-tree has branches. And so she is born again to haunt and ravenand poison Munza with cruelty and strife. All this Nod had heard fromhis father Seelem, and his skin crept at sound of the name. But hepretended he felt no fear.

  "Who is this Immanala, the Nameless?" he scoffed softly, "that aMulla-mulgar should heed her yapping (uggagugga)?"

  "Ah," said the old hare, "he boasts best who boasts in safety. Mishcha,little Mulgar, has met the Nameless face to face, and when I hear herhunting-cry I do not make merry. How could she all these days have givenear to the Oomgar's gun in the forest, and make no sign--she who has forher servants leopards and Jaccatrays of many years' hunting? Mark this,too," said Mishcha, "if the little Mulgar were not the chosen ofTishnar, his Oomgar would long ago have been nothing but a few pickedbones."

  The old hare touched him with her long-clawed foot, and gazed earnestlyinto his face with her half-blind, whitening eyes. "Yes, Mulgar," shesaid at last, whispering, "your brothers that rode on the little Horsesof Tishnar are none so far away. 'Why,' say they to each other, roostinghalf-frozen in their tree-huts--'why does Ummanodda betray allMunza-mulgar to the Oomgar's gun? He is no child of Royal Seelem'snow.'"

  Nod's heart stood still to hear again of his brothers, and that theywere so near. And Mishcha promised if he would abandon the Oomgar, shewould lead him to them. Nod gazed long into the gloom before he sadlyanswered:

  "I cannot leave my master," he said, "who has fed and befriended me. Icannot leave him to be torn in pieces by this Beast of Shadows. He iswise--oh, he is wise! He was born to stand upright. He fears not anyshadow. He walks with N[=o][=o]mas beneath every tree. He kills, oldMishcha--that I know well--and feeds like a glutton on flesh. But ashe-leopard in one moon eats as many of the Munza-mulgars as she hasroses on her skin. As for the Nameless, my father Seelem told me many atime of _her_ thirsty tongue."

  Then Mishcha whispered warily in Nod's ear in the shadow of thethorn-bush beneath which they sat, turning her staring stone-colouredeyes this way, that way. "If the Oomgar were safe from her," she said,scarcely opening her thin lips above the lean curved teeth, "would_then_ the little Mulgar go?"

  Nod laughed. "Then would I go on all fours, O Mishcha, for I am weary ofwaiting and being far from my brothers, Thumb and Thimble. Then would Igo at once if I could leave the Oomgar quietly to his hunting, and safefrom this Shadow-beast and from more than three lean hunting leopards onthe Ollaconda boughs at one time."

  Then Mishcha told him what he should do. And Nod listened, shivering, inpart for the cold, and in part for dread of what she was saying. "Therebe three things, Nizza-neela," she said, when she had told him all herstratagem--"there be three things even a Mulla-mulgar must have whofights with Immanala, Queen of Shadows: he must ha
ve Magic, he must havecunning, and he must have courage. Oh, little Prince of Tishnar, shouldI have physicked you and saved you from the sooty spits of the Minimulsif you had been neither wise nor brave?"

  And Nod promised by his Wonderstone to do all that she had bidden him.And she crept soundlessly back into the gloom of the forest. Nodhimself quickly hobbled home, took up his sliding-shoes again, andreturned to the little hut and the Oomgar's red fire.

  Battle sat there, stooping in the light of the rising moon and the ruddyglow over his little book. But he held it for memory's sake rather thanto read in it. His head was jerking in sleep when Nod sat himself downby the fire, and the little Mulgar could think quietly of all that theold hare had told him. He half shut his eyes, watching his slow, curiousMulgar thoughts creep in and out. And while he sat there, lonely andwretched, struggling between love for his brothers and for the Oomgar,he heard a small clear voice within him speaking that said: "Courage,Prince Ummanodda! Tishnar is faithful to the faithful. Who is thisNameless to set snares against her chosen? Fear not, Nizza-neela; allwill be well!" Thus it seemed to Nod the inward voice was saying to him,and he took comfort. He would tell the poor sailor, perhaps, part ofwhat he feared and knew, and with Tishnar to help him would seek outthis Immanala and meet her face to face.

  Night rode in starry darkness above the great black forest. The logsburned low. Close before his fire sat Battle, his chin on his breast,his yellow-haired head rolling from side to side in his sleep. Thinclear flames, blue and sulphur, floated along the logs, and lit up hisfast-shut eyes. Nod sat with his little chops in his hairy handswatching the sailor. Sometimes a solitary beast roared, or a night-birdsqualled out of the gloom. At last the little book fell out of Battle'ssleep-loosened fingers. He started, raised his head, and stared into thedarkness, listening to howl answering to howl, shrill cry to distantcry. He yawned, showing all his small white teeth.

  "Your friends are uncommon fidgety to-night, Nod Mulgar," he said.

  Nod got up and threw more wood on the glowing fire. "Not Mulla-mulgar'sfriends. Nod's friends not hate Oomgar." Up sprang the flames, hissingand crackling.

  The sailor grinned. "Lor' bless ye, my son; you talks wonnerfulhoity-toity; but in _my_ country they would clap ye into a cage."

  "Cage?" said Nod.

  "Ay, in a stinking cage, with iron bars, for the rabble to jeer at. Whatwould the monkeys do with a white man, an Oomgar, if they cotched 'n?"

  "In my father Seelem's hut over there," said Nod, waving his long handtowards the Sulemn[=a]gar, "Oomgar's bones hanged click, click, click inthe wind."

  Battle stared. "They hates us, eh? Picks us clean!"

  Nod looked at him gravely. "Mulla-mulgar--me--not hate Oomgar. AllMunza"--he lifted his brows--"ay! he kill and eat, eat, eat, same asleopard, same as Jaccatray."

  Battle frowned. "It's tit for tat, my son. I kills Roses, or Roses killsme. Not a Jack-All that howls moon up over yonder that wouldn't saygrace for a picking. But apes and monkeys, no; not even a warty olddrumming Pongo that's twice as ugly as his own shadow in the glass. Inever did burn powder 'gainst a monkey yet. What's more," said Battle,"who's to know but we was all what you calls Oomgars once? Good as.You've just come down in the world, that's all. And who's to blame ye?No barbers, no ships, no larnin', no nothing. Breeches?--One pair, myson, to half a million, as far as Andy ever set eyes on. Maybe you comefrom that wicked King Pharaoh over in Egypt there. Maybe you was one ofthe plagues, and scuttled off with all the fleas." He grinnedcheerfully. Nod watched his changing face, but what he said now he couldnot understand.

  "There's just one thing, Master Mulgar," went on Battle solemnly. "Killor not kill, hairy as hairy, or bald as a round-shot, God made us everyone. And speakin' comfortable-like, 'twixt you and me, just as my oldmother taught me years gone by, I planks me down on my knees like anybabby this very hour gone by, while you was sliding in your shoes, andsaid me prayers out loud. I'm getting mortal sick of being lonesome. Notthat I blames _you_, my son. You're better company than fifty millionparakeets, and seven-and-seventy Mullagoes of blackamoors."

  Nod stared gravely. "Oomgar talk; Nod unnerstand--no." He sorrowfullyshook his head.

  "My case all over," said Battle. "Andy unnerstand--no. But there, we'lloff to England, my son, soon as ever this mortal frost breaks. Years andyears have I been in this here dismal Munza. Man-eaters and Ephelantoes,Portingals and blackamoors, chased and harassed up and down, and never aspark of frost seen, unless on the Snowy Mountains. What wouldn't I givefor a sight of Plymouth now!"

  He rose and stretched himself. Facing him, across the unstirringdarkness of the forest shone palely the great new-risen moon. "'Hi, hi,up she rises,'" said Battle, staring over. "'But what's to be done witha shipwrecked sailor?' Nobody knows, but who can't tell us. Now, justone stave, Nod Mulgar, afore we both turns in. Give us 'Cherry-trees.'No, maybe I'll pipe ye one of Andy's Own, and you shall jine in, same ast'other." Nod climbed up and stood on his log, his hands clasped behindhis neck, and stamped softly with his feet in time, while Battle, aftertuning up his great gourd--or Juddie, as he called it--plucked thesounding strings. And soon the Oomgar's voice burst out so loud andfearless that the prowling panthers paused with cowering head andtwitching ears, and the Jaccatrays out of the shadows lifted theircringing eyes up to the moon, dolefully listening. And when the last twolines of each verse had been sung, Battle plucked more loudly at hisstrings, and Nod joined in.

  "Once and there was a young sailor, yeo ho! And he sailed out over the say For the isles where pink coral and palm-branches blow, And the fire-flies turn night into day, Yeo ho! And the fire-flies turn night into day.

  "But the _Dolphin_ went down in a tempest, yeo ho! And with three forsook sailors ashore, The Portingals took him where sugar-canes grow, Their slave for to be evermore, Yeo ho! Their slave for to be evermore.

  "With his musket for mother and brother, yeo ho! He warred wi' the Cannibals drear, In forests where panthers pad soft to and fro, And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear Yeo ho! And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear.

  "Now lean with long travail, all wasted with woe, With a monkey for messmate and friend, He sits 'neath the Cross in the cankering snow, And waits for his sorrowful end, Yeo ho! And waits for his sorrowful end."

  NOD DANCED THE JAQQUAS' WAR-DANCE, ... STOOPING AND CROOKED "WRIGGLE AND STAMP."]

  This song sung, Nod danced the Jaqquas' war-dance, which Battle hadtaught him, stooping and crooked, "wriggle and stamp," gnashing histeeth, waving a club--which waving, indeed, always waved Nod sprawlingoff his log before long, and set Battle rolling with laughter, and endedthe dance.

  That dance danced, they sat quiet awhile, Battle softly, very softly,thrumming on his Juddie, gazing into the fire. And suddenly in thesilence, out of the vast blackness of the moonlit leagues beneath them,broke a strange and dismal cry. It rose lone and hollow, and yet itseemed with its sound to fill the whole enormous bowl of star-bedazzlingsky above the forest. Then down it lingeringly fell, note by note,wailing and menacing, an answering song of hatred against the solitaryOomgar and his gun.

  Battle caught up his musket and stood erect, facing with scowling eyesthe vast silence of the forest. And instantly from far and near,solitary and in hunting-bands, deep and shrill, every beast that slinksand lies in wait beneath the moon broke into its hunting-cry.

  Battle stood listening with a savage grin on his face, until the lastecho had died away. Then, throwing down his musket, he hitched up thecloth bandage on his shoulder, lifted his great Juddie, and strode outfrom the fire a few paces till he stood black and solitary in themoonlight of the snow. And he plucked the girding strings and roared outwith all his lungs his mocking answer:

  "Voice without a body, Panther of black Roses, Jack-Alls fat on icicles, Ephelanto, Aligatha, Zevvera and Jaccatray,
Unicorn and River-horse; Ho, ho, ho! Here's Andy Battle, Waiting for the enemy!

  "Imbe Calandola, M'keesso and Quesanga, Dondo and Sharammba, Pongo and Enjekko, Millions of monkeys, Rattlesnake and scorpion, Swamp and death and shadow; Ho, ho, ho! Come on, all of ye, Here's Andy Battle, Waiting and--alone!"

  He swept his great scarred thumb over the strings with a resoundingflourish, and burst into a laugh. Then he turned his back on theunanswering forest, and sat down by the fire again, wiping the sweatfrom his face and combing out his tangled beard. Nod drew a little awayfrom the fire, and sat softly watching him. The Oomgar was mutteringwith wide-open lids. He snatched up a lump of the cold Mulgar-bread thatNod had cooked for his supper, and gnawed it with twitching fingers. Heglanced over it with bright blue glittering eyes at his littlehunched-up friend.

  "Don't you have no shadow of fear, my son. If they come, come they must.Just you skip off into the forest with your courage where your tailought to be. I care not a pinch of powder for them or'nery beasts. It'sthat there Shadowlegs that beats me with his mewling. I've heard it downon the coast; I've heard it with the Portingals; I've heard it with theAndalambandoes; I've heard it wake and sleep. But witch-beast or nowitch-beast, and every skulk-by-night that creeps on claws, I'll winhome yet!" He kicked a few loose smoking logs into the blaze. "Morefire, my son! I like a light to fight by when fighting comes."

  The darkness was clear as glass. The sky seemed shaken as if withfire-flies. Not a sound stirred now, not even a hovering wing. Nodheaped high the huge fire, and followed the Oomgar into his hut.

  But not to sleep. He crouched on his snug dry bed of moss, and waitedpatiently till Battle's snores rose slow and mournful beneath thesnow-piled roof. Then very quickly he put on his sheep's-coat over hisJuzanda jacket and breeches. He crawled out, and lifted down with bothhands the heavy bar of the door, and stole out into the moonlight again.He thrust his puckered hand under his jacket, and touched his skinnybreast-bone, beneath which, ever since the little Horse of Tishnar hadtoppled him into the snow, he had felt the slumbering Wonderstonestrangely burning. And, as if even Oomgar magic, too, might help him, hehobbled back into the hut and put Battle's little dog's-eared book intohis pocket. Then, before his heart could fail him, he ran out as fast ashis fours could carry him to where he had heard rise up in the night theHunting-Song of Immanala.

  On the extreme verge of the steep, opposite Battle's hut, stood asolitary flat-headed rock beside the frozen stream. Here the water burstin a blaze of moonlight into a cascade of icicles and foam. Nod stoodthere in the rock's shadow awhile, looking down into the forest. And asif a little cloud had come upon the glittering moon, he felt, as itwere, a sudden darkness above his head, and a cold terror crept over hisskin.

  Then he stepped, trembling, out of the shadow of the rock into themoonlight, and gazed up into the shadowy countenance of Immanala. Shelay gaunt and spare, her long neck touching the snow, her eye-ballsbeneath their wide lids fixed glassily on Nod. He gazed and gazed, untilit seemed he was sinking down, down into those wide unstirring eyes.

  His heart seemed to rise up into his mouth. He coughed, and somethinghard and round and tingling slid on to his tongue. He put up his hand tohis thick lips, and, like courage that steals into the mind when allelse is vain, fell into his hand, milk-pale and magical, the long-hiddenWonder-stone.

  HE FELT A SUDDEN DARKNESS ABOVE HIS HEAD, AND A COLD TERROR CREPT OVER HIS SKIN.]

  "I couch here, Ummanodda," said the Nameless, without stirring, "nightafter night, hungry and thirsty, waiting for the Oomgar's head. Why doesthe Mulla-mulgar keep me waiting so long for my supper?"

  "Because, O Queen of Shadows," said Nod as calmly as he could--"becausethe head of the Oomgar refuses to come without his legs--and his gun."

  "Nay," said she, "there must be many a shallow gourd in the Oomgar'shut. Cut off the head, and bring it hither yourself in that."

  "Ohe," said Nod, "the Nameless has sharp teeth, if all that is said betrue. She shall cut, and I will carry. Princes of Tishnar have no tonguefor blood."

  Immanala crouched low, with jutting head. "Who is this Prince of Tishnarthat, having no tongue for blood, roasts meat with fire for an Oomgar,the enemy of us all?"

  "I, Nameless, am Nod," said he softly. "But meat dead is dead meat. Whatagainst _me_ is it if this blind Oomgar hungers for scorched bones? Itis a riddle, Immanala. Come with me now, then; let us palaver with himtogether."

  "Yea, together!" snarled the Nameless--"I to ride and thou to carry."She gathered herself as if to spring.

  Nod whispered, "O Tishnar!" and he stood stock-still.

  Immanala drew back her flat grey head from the snow, and shook it,softly glancing at the moon.

  "Why, O Prince of Tishnar, should we be at strife one with another? Wehate the Oomgar. And if it were not for this magic that is yours, myservants would have slain him long since in his hunting."

  "Ah, me!" said Nod, sighing it in Mulgar-royal, as if to himself alone,"I myself love this Oomgar none too much. Did he not catch me walkinglonely in Munza in a wild pig snare? If he is to die, let him die, saysNod. But I like not your fashion of hunting, Beast of Shadows, skulkingand creeping and scaring off his wandering supper-meat. Bring yourhunting-dogs into the open snow here out of their dens and lairs andshadows. Then shall the Oomgar fight like an Oomgar, one against ahundred, and Nod can go free!"

  Immanala rose bristling against the clearness of the moon.

  "Tell me, Prince of Tishnar, what is this story you seem to bewhispering about my hunting-dogs?"

  And Nod, with his Wonderstone clipped tight in his hot palm, bethoughthim of all Mishcha's counsel, and promised Immanala he would come downthe next night following. And if she would call her packs into theravine, he would lead them, and open the door of the hut and lure outthe Oomgar. "Then you, O fearless Queen of Shadows, shall watch the huntin peace," he said. "One forsaken Oomgar without his gun againstnine-and-ninety Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays, and perhaps a Roses or two,famished and parched with cold. Ay, but before I whistle them up," hemuttered, as if to himself, "I must steal the Oomgar's M'Keesso's coat,which is drenched through with magic."

  Immanala peered gloatingly from her rock. "The little Mulla-mulgar has acunning face," she said, "and a heart of many devices. I have heard ofhis comings and goings in Munza-mulgar. But if he deal falsely with me,though Tishnar came herself in all her brightness, I would wait andwait. Not an Utt nor a Nikka-nikka but should be his enemy, and as forthose magicless Mulla-mulgars his brothers, who even now squat sullenand hungry in their leafy houses, they shall lie cold as stones beforethe morning light."

  "Why," said Nod softly, "he must be frightened who begins to threaten. Ihave no fear of you, O Nameless, who are but a creeping candle-fly attwilight to the blaze of Tishnar's moon. Come hither to-morrow with yourhalf-starved hunting-dogs, and I'll show you good hunting, will I."

  Without another word, with every hair on end, he ran swiftly back to thehut by the way he had come. But even now his night's doings were notended, for in a while, by which time the Immanala should have returnedfrom her watching-rock into the shadows of the forest, he ran out again,and, crouching beneath the old Exxswixxia-bush under the Sulemn[=a]gar,he called softly: "Mishcha, old hare! Mishcha!"

  When he had called her many times, she came slowly and warily limpingacross the chequered snow. And Nod told her of all he had done thatnight, and of how he had met and abashed the Nameless face to face. Theold hare watched dimly his flashing eyes and the vainglory of the faceof the young Mulgar Prince boasting in his finery, and she grimlysmiled.

  "Chakka, chakka," says she; "tchackka, tchackka: you bleed before you'rewounded, Mulgar-royal."

  But Nod in the heat of his glory cared nothing for what his old friendsaid to quench it. And he told her to bring his brothers to the greatUkka-tree that stood over against the shadow, where they talked, thereto wait and watch till morning. "By th
at time," he said, "I shall havefinished my supper with the Nameless, and the Oomgar will know me forthe Prince I am."

  Mishcha wagged slowly her old head. She hated the Oomgar, but she hatedthe Beast of Shadows more, and off she hopped again, stiff and cold, toseek out Thimble and Thumb.