The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, Samuel White Baker [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗

his head, and landing very heavily upon the ground, amidst a

roar of laughter from my men, in which I am afraid Mrs. Baker was rude

enough to join. The crestfallen Katchiba was assisted upon his legs,

and feeling rather stunned, he surveyed the horse with great

astonishment; but his natural instincts soon prompted him to call for

the jar of beer, and after a long draught from the mighty cup, he

regained his courage, and expressed an opinion that the horse was “too

high, as it was a long way to tumble down;” he therefore requested one

of the “little horses;” these were the donkeys. Accordingly he was

mounted on a donkey, and held on by two men, one on either side. Thus he

started most satisfactorily and exceedingly proud. On his return the

following day, he said that the villagers had given him the fowls

immediately, as he had told them that he had thirty Turks staying with

him on a visit, and that they would burn and plunder the country unless

they were immediately supplied. He considered this trifling deviation

from fact as a great stroke of diplomacy in procuring the fowls.

 

Six days after the loss of my horse, I was delighted to see him brought

back by the natives safe and well. They had hunted through an immense

tract of country, and had found him grazing. He was naturally a most

vicious horse, and the natives were afraid to touch him; they had

accordingly driven him before them until they gained the path, which he

then gladly followed. The saddle was in its place, but my sword was

gone.

 

The rains were terrific; the mornings were invariably fine, but the

clouds gathered upon the mountains soon after noon and ended daily in a

perfect deluge. Not being able to proceed south, I determined to return

to my headquarters at Latooka, and to wait for the dry season. I had

made the reconnaissance to Farajoke, in latitude 3 degrees 32’, and I

saw my way clear for the future, provided my animals should remain in

good condition. Accordingly, on the 21st of May, we started for Latooka

in company with Ibrahim and his men, who were thoroughly sick of the

Obbo climate.

 

Before parting, a ceremony had to be performed by Katchiba. His brother

was to be our guide, and he was to receive power to control the elements

as deputy-magician during the journey, lest we should be wetted by the

storms, and the torrents should be so swollen as to be impassable.

 

With great solemnity Katchiba broke a branch from a tree, upon the

leaves of which he spat in several places. This branch, thus blessed

with holy water, was laid upon the ground, and a fowl was dragged around

it by the chief; and our horses were then operated on precisely in the

same manner as had been enacted at Farajoke. This ceremony completed, he

handed the branch to his brother (our guide), who received it with much

gravity, in addition to a magic whistle of antelope’s horn that he

suspended from his neck. All the natives wore whistles similar in

appearance, being simply small horns in which they blew, the sound of

which was considered either to attract or to drive away rain, at the

option of the whistler. No whistle was supposed to be effective unless

it had been blessed by the great magician Katchiba. The ceremony being

over, all commenced whistling with all their might; and taking leave of

Katchiba, with an assurance that we should again return, we started

amidst a din of “toot too too-ing” upon our journey. Having an immense

supply of ammunition at Latooka, I left about 200 lbs. of shot and ball

with Katchiba; therefore my donkeys had but little to carry, and we

travelled easily.

 

That night we bivouacked at the foot of the east-side of the pass at

about half-past five. Ibrahimawa, the Bornu man whom I have already

described as the amateur botanist, had become my great ally in searching

for all that was curious and interesting. Proud of his knowledge of wild

plants, no sooner was the march ended than he commenced a search in the

jungles for something esculent.

 

We were in a deep gorge on a steep knoll bounded by a ravine about sixty

feet of perpendicular depth, at the bottom of which flowed a torrent.

This was an excellent spot for a camp, as no guards were necessary upon

the side thus protected. Bordering the ravine were a number of fine

trees covered with a thorny stem creeper, with leaves much resembling

those of a species of yam. These were at once pronounced by Ibrahimawa

to be a perfect godsend, and after a few minutes’ grubbing he produced

a basketful of fine-looking yams. In an instant this display of food

attracted a crowd of hungry people, including those of Ibrahim and my

own men, who, not being botanists, had left the search for food to

Ibrahimawa, but who determined to share the tempting results. A rush was

made at his basket, which was emptied on the instant; and I am sorry to

confess that the black angel Saat was one of the first to seize three or

four of the largest yams, which he most unceremoniously put in a pot and

deliberately cooked as though he had been the botanical discoverer. How

often the original discoverer suffers, while others benefit from his

labours! Ibrahimawa, the scientific botanist, was left without a yam,

after all his labour of grubbing up a basketful. Pots were boiling in

all directions, and a feast in store for the hungry men who had marched

twenty miles without eating since the morning.

 

The yams were cooked; but I did not like the look of them, and seeing

that the multitude were ready, I determined to reserve a few for our own

eating should they be generally pronounced good. The men ate them

voraciously. Hardly ten minutes had elapsed from the commencement of the

feast when first one and then another disappeared, and from a distance I

heard a smothered but unmistakeable sound, that reminded me of the

lurching effect of a channel steamer upon a crowd of passengers.

Presently the boy Saat showed symptoms of distress, and vanished from

our presence; and all those that had dined off Ibrahimawa’s botanical

specimens were suffering from a most powerful “vomi-purgatif.” The

angels that watch over scientific botanists had preserved Ibrahimawa

from all evil. He had discovered the yams, and the men had stolen them

from him; they enjoyed the fruits, while he gained an experience

invaluable at their expense. I was quite contented to have waited until

others had tried them before I made the experiment. Many of the yam

tribe are poisonous; there is one variety much liked at Obbo, but which

is deadly in its effects should it be eaten without a certain

preparation. It is first scraped, and then soaked in a running stream

for a fortnight. It is then cut into thin slices, and dried in the sun

until quite crisp; by this means it is rendered harmless. The dried

slices are stored for use; and they are generally pounded in a mortar

into flour, and used as a kind of porridge.

 

The sickness of the people continued for about an hour, during which

time all kinds of invectives were hurled against Ibrahimawa, and his

botany was termed a gigantic humbug. From that day he was very mild in

his botanical conversation.

 

On the following morning we crossed the last range of rocky hills, and

descended to the Latooka valley. Up to this point, we had seen no game;

but we had now arrived in the game country, and shortly after our

descent from the rocks we saw a herd of about twenty Tetel (hartebeest).

Unfortunately, just as I dismounted for the purpose of stalking them,

the red flags of the Turks attracted the attention of a large party of

baboons, who were sitting on the rocks, and they commenced their hoarse

cry of alarm, and immediately disturbed the Tetel. One of the men, in

revenge, fired a long shot at a great male, who was sitting alone upon a

high rock, and by chance the ball struck him in the head. He was an

immense specimen of the Cynocephalus, about as large as a mastiff, but

with a long brown mane like that of the lion. This mane is much prized

by the natives as an ornament. He was immediately skinned, and the hide

was cut into long strips about three inches broad: the portion of mane

adhering had the appearance of a fringe; each strip was worn as a scarf;

thus one skin will produce about eight or ten ornaments.

 

I sent my men to camp, and, accompanied by Richarn, mounted on my horse

“Mouse,” I rode through the parklike ground in quest of game. I saw

varieties of antelopes, including the rare and beautiful maharif; but

all were so wild, and the ground so open, that I could not get a shot.

This was the more annoying, as the maharif was an antelope that I

believed to be a new species. It had often disappointed me; for although

I had frequently seen them on the southwest frontier of Abyssinia, I

had never been able to procure one, owing to their extreme shyness, and

to the fact of their inhabiting open plains, where stalking was

impossible. I had frequently examined them with a telescope, and had

thus formed an intimate acquaintance with their peculiarities. The

maharif is very similar to the roan antelope of South Africa, but is

mouse colour, with black and white stripes upon the face. The horns are

exactly those of the roan antelope, very massive and corrugated, bending

backwards to the shoulders. The withers are extremely high, which give a

peculiarly heavy appearance to the shoulders, much heightened by a large

and stiff black mane like that of a hog-maned horse. I have a pair of

horns in my possession that I obtained through the assistance of a lion,

who killed the maharif while drinking near my tent; unfortunately, the

skin was torn to pieces, and the horns and skull were all that remained.

 

Failing, as usual, in my endeavours to obtain a shot, I made a

considerable circuit, and shortly observed the tall heads of giraffes

towering over the low mimosas. There is no animal in nature so

picturesque in his native haunts as the giraffe. His food consists of

the leaves of trees, some qualities forming special attractions,

especially the varieties of the mimosa, which, being low, permit an

extensive view to his telescopic eyes. He has a great objection to high

forests. The immense height of the giraffe gives him a peculiar

advantage, as he can command an extraordinary range of vision, and

thereby be warned against the approach of his two great enemies, man and

the lion. No animal is more difficult to stalk than the giraffe, and the

most certain method of hunting is that pursued by the Hamran Arabs, on

the frontiers of Abyssinia, who ride him down and hamstring him with the

broadsword at full gallop. A good horse is required, as, although the

gait of a giraffe appears excessively awkward from the fact of his

moving the fore and hind legs of one side simultaneously, he attains a

great pace, owing to the length of his stride, and his bounding trot is

more than a match for any but a superior horse.

 

The hoof is as beautifully proportioned as that of the smallest gazelle,

and his lengthy legs and short back give him every advantage for speed

and endurance. There is a rule to be observed in hunting the giraffe on

horseback: the instant he starts, he must be pressed—it is the speed

that tells upon him,