The Adventures of Captain Mago

Standing at the doorway in the character of Hono the priest, Hanno encouraged the people to re-enter their temple. Gradually the more courageous were induced to return, and ultimately about fifty, still tremulous with their recent alarm, were assembled in front of the shrine. Jono once again made the building ring with a tremendous blast, and Hanno delivered a brief oration, which seemed to have a soothing effect. The Suomi quietly retired, and we could hear them placing sentinels outside to prevent any one from entering.

Finding that we were not likely to be disturbed again, Hanno extinguished all the lights except two torches, and led us into the darkest corner of the temple, whither Jonah, after flinging off all his gew-gaws, was only too delighted to follow us.

CHAPTER XVIII

JONAH WAXES AMBITIOUS

"Where's my wine?" was Jonah's first inquiry.

"Coming in good time," I answered; "but you must have patience to wait, it may be a few months."

The giant looked aghast and stupified, until he was recalled to himself by a friendly poke from Chamai.

"Glad to see you amongst us again, old tippler!"

"And I am glad too," he said; "but what am I to do next?"

"Whatever else you do, you must obey Hanno," I said; "he is trying to accomplish our escape to our ships."

What I informed him seemed to have the effect of plunging him into a deep reverie; he knitted his forehead till a layer of red paint peeled off, and at last roused himself to ask if he should have to accompany us.

"Certainly," I replied; "unless you prefer remaining with these barbarians."

"And with their revolting fish-oil," put in Himilco.

"But here I am a god," said the trumpeter, slowly, as if pondering the matter. "On board ship, Chamai knocks me about, and Hannibal kicks me, and every one calls me a lubber: but here it is all different; instead of being thumped, I may thump whom I please; I gave the god of the savages in the north such a thrashing that he died an hour afterwards. At home too, in Eltekeh, the little children used to call me a blockhead, and the men used to make me carry olive-baskets on my head and sacks of corn on my back, and scant measure of wine did I ever get; but here, I blow my trumpet, and in there comes no end of good things, meat and venison and fish, more than I can eat. It's no bad thing to be a god."

We all stared in amazement. He had never been known to make such a long speech before, far less to arrive so logically at any conclusion; at any rate, his deification had expanded his ideas, and inspired him with a new ambition.

"So then," I said, "you do not mean to go back with us."

He hesitated; but soon said that where Hanno went he should go too.

Himilco began to jeer him:

"O! you mean that you like Suomi fish-oil better than Helbon wine? and you prefer the chilly fogs of the marshes to the olive-yards of Dan? and you like slices of reindeer more than wheat and honey cakes?"

A tear stood trembling in the giant's eye.

"I think," he said, "I would rather go with you."

"And surely," added Hanno, "you would wish to go back to Eltekeh; you must want to tell them all about the leviathans, and the behemoths, and Nergal's kitchen, and how you have been a god yourself."

"They wouldn't believe me!"

"And think," said Bichri, "we shall have old Gebal with us to show the men of Dan!"

This last appeal was too much for Jonah, and fairly bursting out into tears, he sobbed out:

"Yes, I must go; I must go with you and Gebal."

Hannibal laughed outright at what he called Jonah's calf's tears, but declared that he was really very pleased to have his trumpeter back again, and pulling out two silver shekels from his purse, which he had contrived to retain, he said:

"There, man, take these; they will pay somebody to give you a good wash when you get on board."

Hanno now proceeded to explain his scheme. The written message he had sent to Hamilcar was to the effect that he should parley with the Suomi until he heard the sound of Jonah's trumpet, and should then answer the signal by his own trumpet.

"I shall pretend to the savages," he continued, "that their god has ordered them to lead out their victims for sacrifice, and if by this stratagem we can once get over the causeway and within reach of our own people, everything is easy."

Approving of his plan, I merely observed that there might be some difficulty in knowing when our comrades were holding their parley; but Hanno at once assured me that the savages would not do anything without consulting him as their priest, so that he should be fully informed of everything that transpired.

We had now been twenty-four hours without food, and were suffering from fatigue and hunger. Hannibal ventured to ask whether some provisions were not to be had, and in an instant Hanno went to the door and uttered a few syllables that sounded something like the croaking of an old crow.

"I have told them," he said, "that Jono wants something to eat. They know what his appetite is; I daresay they will bring enough for you all."

Very shortly there was a knocking at the entrance of the temple; some savages had brought platters of boiled fish and roast venison, and several large horns full of drink, the whole of which Hanno took from their hands at the door and passed on to us. Half-famished as we were, we made short work with the dishes, the god appropriating as his own modest share a fish half as large as a tunny, and a reindeer-steak. Hanno joined us, and asked innumerable questions all the time we were eating. Both he and Jonah drank freely from the horns, which had been placed with their small ends on the ground; but Himilco and Hannibal could not conceal their disgust at seeing them swallow what they supposed to be rancid oil. Hanno, however, soon explained that the contents of the horns was a liquid made of fermented barley and some vegetable juice, and that it was the common beverage, not only of the Suomi and Cymri, but of the Celts of the west, the Gothi of the east, and the Germani of the south.

"I should not think of saying that it is in any way equal to the juice of the grape," he said; "but it is really not unpalatable; you may safely taste it."

Hannibal looked doubtful. Himilco said that he had heard Gisgo speak of some preparation of the kind before, and that he was not sure he had not himself tasted it at the mouth of the Rhone; he raised one of the horns cautiously to his lips, sipped, and said nothing.

We all in turn followed his example. Bichri pronounced it very acid; Chamai declared it was detestably bitter; the sailor and I both recognised it as very like what we had tasted elsewhere.

"Not good for much!" said Hannibal, after he had taken a good draught; "is it intoxicating?"

"Most assuredly it is," replied Hanno.

"The most villainous stuff I ever tasted," said Himilco, the last to pass an opinion. "However, I think I will have a little more."

And he drained another horn.

"Disgusting!" he sputtered out; but he seemed so thoroughly to have reconciled himself to the flavour of what he abused, that I was only fearful that he would take more than was good for him.

By the time we had finished our refreshment, day was beginning to dawn, and Hanno was summoned outside; he returned almost immediately, ordered Jonah to sound his trumpet, and bade us all be prepared to start.

Jonah went to the doorway and delivered a ringing blast.

Himilco hastily emptied every one of the horns, protesting all the while that it was odious stuff, sickening to the palate, and almost as vile a drink as plain water.

In answer to Jonah's signal we soon heard the reverberation of our Phœnician trumpets, and without loss of time, Jonah and Hanno at our head, we marched out of the temple. The crowd outside, regarding us with a superstitious reverence, allowed us to pass freely through them, and to proceed onwards without hindrance, so that in the course of half-an-hour we were in the midst of our friends, Hanno clasping Chryseis in his arms, Jonah hugging Judge Gebal, and Chamai so engaged with Abigail, that he did not notice how Hannibal, Himilco, and Bichri had been mercilessly thrashing a group of the nearest savages.

Our reception by our party had the immediate effect of opening the eyes of the barbarians to the terrestrial nature of their supposed god; and they no sooner became aware how we had escaped their clutches than they began to assail us with showers of stones and lances, so that our retreat to the ships was a matter of considerable peril. No one, however, was seriously injured; there were many slight contusions, and Jonah's nose was ignominiously bruised by a stone hurled at him by one of his late worshippers.

Once safely on board, we made no delay in turning our backs upon this inhospitable shore, and steering westwards, made towards the island of Prydhayn.

With a calm sea and a favourable wind, our progress was easy; and anxious to learn all that had befallen Hanno and Jonah since we had lost them, we assembled on the stern of the Ashtoreth expressly to hear their story. Jonah, who had been well washed, insisted upon being dressed in Phœnician costume, and took his seat, with the monkey upon his shoulder, by the side of the scribe, who proceeded to recount their adventures.

"It is now, you know, more than a year since the day when we were caught in the ambush of the men of Tarshish. When we were first captured our lives were in the greatest jeopardy, for according to what we were told by a Phœnician I met, we were at once to be handed over to Bodmilcar, who was close at hand. Negotiations to this effect were going on, when it transpired that one of the Iberian chiefs had been so fascinated by Jonah's trumpet that we were to be retained, and not given over to the Tyrian, who was reported to be wounded. During this respite I contrived, by means of a stick and some blood from a wound of my own, to write a message for you on my sandal-strap; I had no doubt that the instinct of Gebal would take him back to Bichri, and accordingly I resolved to make him my messenger."