The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Well, well," I said; "never mind, you will have better luck another time. I don't fear but that we shall soon have another opportunity of improving our acquaintance with these barbarians."

As we proceeded up the river we met occasional groups of the people, who were always full of gesticulations; they snatched greedily at any gifts we offered them, but took themselves off directly we attempted to open any negotiations.

A clearance in the wood made us suspect we were approaching a larger settlement, and we soon came to a large sheet of water, in the middle of which was an island crowded with conical huts, that in the centre being much higher than the rest. The island had been connected with the land by a narrow causeway, which the natives made us understand we were not to cross; but they were not altogether indisposed to transact business with us, and parted with some amber at a very low rate. But although they attached so little value to their amber, it was far otherwise with their weapons; we could not induce them to part with one of their clumsy lances nor one of their smallest bone hooks for any article that we could offer them. They showed us various implements of polished stone, and appeared to be desirous of getting more like them, exhibiting some surprise that we had none to exchange away. Bronze they had seen before, and they were acquainted with the use of bows and arrows; they pointed to the birds upon the trees, as an indication that they wanted Bichri to shoot some; a desire on their part which he was more than ready to gratify.

Not thinking it prudent to remain all night in our present position, I gave orders for making our way back to the ships, yielding, however, to the wish expressed by several of the Suomi to accompany us; but so dark was the night, and so bad were the roads, that we utterly lost our way amidst the quagmires. We wandered about till near daybreak, when six of us – Hannibal, Chamai, Himilco, Bichri, one of the sailors, and myself – found ourselves up to our waists in a swamp. After extricating ourselves with much difficulty, we discovered that the rest of our party was out of sight, and although we shouted with all the strength of our lungs, we failed in making ourselves heard. Terrible as our situation was, there was a still greater dilemma in store. While we were anxiously endeavouring to find some waymarks to guide us, we were all at once surrounded by nearly two hundred of the savages, all stoutly armed. Resistance would have been useless even if it had been possible. The men had started, as if called by an incantation, from the tufted brushwood around, and before we could lay our hands upon our swords, they had felled us to the ground and pinioned our arms, yelling and dancing all the time. They did not allow us time to regain our feet, but pounced down upon us. Two men seized me by the arms, two by the feet, and a fifth, after taking away my sword, my cap, and my shoulder-belt, came dancing along behind, every now and then leaning close over me to peer into my face. They had all evidently tricked themselves out for their adventure; their hair was dyed red, and their faces were tattooed blue and black with war-paints.

After about an hour we were made to cross the causeway from which we had been repelled the day before, and alternately pushed and pulled, we were thrust into one of the huts. Hideous women and still more hideous children followed us in groups until we reached our destination, where a matting was fastened closely over the doorway, and we were left upon the cold damp ground in complete darkness, pillaged, bruised, and bound. There was the sound of retreating footsteps, and soon the noisy yells lapsed into perfect silence.

If we had been pinioned with rope we might perhaps have contrived to extricate ourselves, but we had been tied with a tough twist made of bark, which lacerated our wrists every time we made an attempt to release them. Chamai groaned aloud with agony.

"Who's groaning?" asked Hannibal, his voice being at once recognised in the darkness.

"I cannot slip these cursed cords," said Chamai.

"No," said Himilco, "you might as well try to break a ship's cable;" and remembering that he had not heard either me or Bichri speak, he asked whether we were there.

Bichri replied:

"Here we are, both of us; and I only wish old Judge Gebal was with us; he would have got us out of this dilemma."

"What do you mean?" I said. "I don't understand what good the monkey could do. Anyhow, we must now help ourselves; and that doesn't seem a very easy business."

"If Hamilcar and Hasdrubal do not come to our rescue, I shall think them the vilest cowards on the face of the earth," said Hannibal.

"Ah, you must not judge too hastily," I answered; "I do not doubt but that they will do all in their power, but it is only too likely they have been attacked, and are in the same plight as ourselves. Besides, I hardly see how they are to get across that causeway."

"No difficulty there," said the general, warming into enthusiasm; "archers, right and left; fighting men in a column, four abreast; sound your trumpets and – "

He stopped abruptly; the clang of a trumpet had caught his ears.

"They come! they come!" cried Chamai, all excitement; "The Lord of hosts be with them!"

Another blast.

Hannibal continued to expatiate very scientifically about columns of four and columns of eight, and bewailed his fate that he was not in command; Bichri, less calm, fancied himself at the head of his troop.

The notes of the trumpet seemed more and more distinct.

"I cannot make out that trumpet," said Himilco; "it does not sound like one of ours."

"Whose else should it be?" replied Hannibal, testily. "Savages do not blow trumpets."

The pilot now insisted that the sound did not come across the water at all, but from the very centre of the huts.

"And yet," he said, "if it means an attack, I wonder we do not hear the war-cry."

We were all bewildered, and no less so when we heard three loud shouts rend the air, and the trumpet notes which had been going on at intervals for a quarter of an hour come to an end with a prolonged and thrilling flourish.

"I never knew but one pair of lungs that could make a clarion ring out like that," said Himilco.

The name of Jonah rose simultaneously to the lips of us all, and Bichri said he should like to see Gebal come in and confirm our impression.

"Nonsense," I said, "why indulge these foolish fancies? we must be practical. If we are rescued by our troops, well and good; otherwise we shall either have to buy ourselves off by a ransom or invent some ruse to escape."

The sailor who was with us, speaking now for the first time, reminded us that there were several canoes moored to the causeway, and Himilco recollected having noticed them. This set us speculating whether we could devise any means of getting at the canoes, and using them to facilitate our escape. Hannibal declared that we should still be in the clutches of the savages, even if we got to land; but Bichri and Chamai maintained that once free they could take good care of themselves.

I interrupted them to inquire whether any one amongst them had a knife, but it proved, as might have been expected, that the savages had not left us anything of the sort.

"Then roll yourself over here, Bichri," I said, "and see whether you cannot gnaw this twisted stuff off my hands."

"I have pretty good teeth," replied the youth, "and I will try."

Silence fell upon us all as we listened to him shuffling along the ground and panting with his exertions. I cannot tell how long it was before I felt his warm breath upon my hands, but it seemed to me at least half an hour. He nibbled indefatigably at the cord, giving my flesh an occasional grip in the process, until the material was reduced to the substance of twine, when by a slight effort of my own I burst it asunder, and I was free. An exclamation of delight broke from my lips, and I was about to liberate the others, when Himilco, who was lying across the doorway, said:

"Hush! some one comes!"

In an instant I twisted the broken cord around my wrists, but only just before a party of several of the savages entered the hut. One of them having fastened back the covering at the door, took a long pole and pushed up a kind of trap that had closed the aperture at the top that served the purpose of a chimney, and the gleams of light afforded by these two openings allowed us to inspect our place of confinement.

The hut was perfectly empty, without an article of furniture; the walls were grimed with soot and smoke; upon the clay floor three rude stones formed a kind of fire-place which was filled with ashes and the refuse of some victuals. A cold drizzling rain penetrated the hole in the roof, and pattered down upon the ground below.

The men that had entered were elaborately covered with their war-paint. One of them had the head and skin of a bear drawn over his face like a mask, in the way that I have seen done by the Assyrians; another wore upon his shoulders the head and horns of an elk. A third, who carried a stick in his hand, ushered the other two into the middle of the hut, where they began dancing and making the strangest of contortions, but all without uttering a word. After this had gone on for some time, one of the two, who wore a necklace made of the teeth of wild animals, and who apparently was the chief, walked up to me, and stood gazing in my face. I noticed that he had my own sword in his hand. He began a long harangue of which I could not understand a word, but observed that he repeatedly said "Jono," and as often as he did so, all the others gave a loud shout. When his oration came to an end, the savage sprinkled us with some stinking liquor, which he poured from a horn; and having in chorus muttered some kind of refrain that ended in "Jono," they all quitted the hut, fastening the doorway securely behind them.

"No chance of making terms with such brutes as these," I indignantly exclaimed, when we were again alone.

"Patience!" said Hannibal; "only let me get my hands at liberty, and I'll guarantee to floor half-a-dozen of them, unarmed as I am."

Himilco avowed that he was burning for a chance to avenge himself for the filthy fish-oil; and Chamai protested that though the brutes should be as countless as the palms of Jericho or the fleas at Shechem, he would outwit them yet, and find his way back to Abigail.

While they had been talking in this strain, I had disengaged my hands, and very soon succeeded in freeing Bichri, who assisted me in liberating all the rest. Once again upon their feet, they stretched their stiff and weary limbs, and Hannibal, Chamai, and Himilco each armed themselves with one of the stones that formed the fire-place.

"Here's something that may smash a skull or two," said Chamai, as he poised his stone aloft.

"Not altogether a military-looking weapon," was Hannibal's remark, whilst he examined the cumbersome missile; "but our forefathers have done good execution with worse."

Picking up a few fragments of stone, Bichri was beginning to lament that he had not a sling, when Himilco in a moment produced the rope which he invariably wore, and tore off a piece of the goat-skin that had carried his wine, and with these materials the young archer was not long in putting together a sling which he hoped might do him good service.

Night closed in. It was still raining; the wind blew furiously. Everything seemed to favour our escape.

"Now's your time, my men!" I said. "Make your prayer to your gods, and we will be off at once."

It was agreed that if we should find more than one sentinel, we should fight our way through and make for the canoes, and that if we failed in that attempt, we should take to the water, and swim to the far end of the causeway. Our watch-word should be three raven-croaks.

"Now, invoke your gods," I repeated.

There was silence in the hut, and I noticed that Himilco raised his single eye to the aperture in the roof, as though looking for the Cabiri, but there was nothing to be seen except the pitchy blackness of the night.

I was about to lead the way, when, on peering out, I not only heard the sound of footsteps, but saw the glimmer of a torch. My heart beat fast, and I made my companions arrange themselves on either side of the doorway, so as to guard the entrance. It seemed to me that there were not more than one or two approaching. Chamai pressed his back against the wall, ready to brain the first savage that came within reach; but whoever they were that were coming, it was evident that they were not hurrying themselves: they paused in quiet conversation outside, and at intervals we could again catch the mysterious word "Jono."