The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Yes; and your message came that night," I said.

"I conjectured so," he continued, "by the monkey not returning. We were soon sent off towards the north, under the guardianship of a troop of Iberians, who did not by any means treat us badly, and after a toilsome journey came to a region where the mountains were so high that they were all covered with snow; they separated the land of Tarshish from the land of the Celts, and were called the Pyrenees. Here we were handed over to the chief of the Guipuzcoa, for whom we were destined. These Guipuzcoa are sometimes known as Bascons; they are a warlike people, perpetually engaged in hostilities with the Aitzcoa, or "men of the rocks," on the north-west, and with other Iberians on the south. We remained for more than two months before any opportunity of escape occurred; but at last, during one of the forays, we were left behind in the village, which was built upon piles at the mouth of a small river. We got possession of a canoe, and having filled it as far as we could with provisions, we ventured out to sea, and contrived to reach the shores of the Celts, from whom, in answer to many inquiries, I ascertained that some ships had recently passed along their coast, and, from various articles that they showed me, I had little doubt they were the Ashtoreth, the Dagon, and the Cabiros. Making out from the Celts that you had gone northwards, we left our canoe, and took passage in one of their ships that was on the point of sailing for Ar-Mor; but upon our arrival we found the people engaged in war with the Cymri of the Island of Prydhayn, so that we could not get transported there. For two months I sojourned in various parts of the islands of Ar-Mor, and picked up some knowledge of Celtic; but all the time I was trying to devise some plan of following you in the direction I felt sure you had taken. At length it chanced that I found a tribe of Cymri who were not at war with the people of Prydhayn, and embarked in one of their boats; but a tremendous storm arose, and we were driven far away to the east."

"Talk of storms," said Jonah, putting in his word; "was not that a storm? I saw leviathans spouting water from their noses as high as your mast, and we were tossed about the waters like a log. For three days we had nothing to eat or to drink."

"Jonah is right," continued Hanno; "the tempest was really frightful, and we were dashed upon the muddy swamps of the coast. The Cymri drowned themselves in sheer desperation, and we, more dead than alive, existed for more than a week upon roots and wild fruit from the wood."

"And what did you find to drink?" asked Himilco.

"Nothing but muddy water."

The good pilot's sympathy was deeply moved, and he said:

"Sorry drink that, as I know by experience."

After this interruption, Hanno went on:

"Jonah persisted in blowing his trumpet perpetually, resolved if possible to attract attention, and at length succeeded in making himself heard by a troop of Suomi who were migrating eastwards in consequence of the aggressions of the Cymri and the Germani, who were appropriating territory after territory to themselves. Not only did Jonah's enormous trumpet excite the wonder of the Suomi, but I could observe at once that his huge and imposing stature, and his abundant growth of shaggy hair impressed this diminutive, smooth-faced people with superstitious awe, a sentiment which I resolved to encourage, with the object of turning it to our own advantage. We accompanied them in their migration to their new settlement, where we witnessed the erection of the village in which you found us, and my representations prevailed so completely that they recognised Jonah – Jono, as they called him – as their presiding deity, regarding me as his high priest. For some time, then, you see we have been in the lap of luxury; but nothing has ever led me for a moment to forget you or your ships, or to cease to long for the Great Sea and our noble Sidon."

"And Sidon ere long you shall see!" said I, when he had finished his narrative; "we are now on our way back; it is impossible to penetrate farther, and we are homeward bound."

"Sidon for ever! and long live the King!" shouted Chamai; "we shall see the sun again."

"And get some wine!" cried Himilco, tossing his cap in the air.

"And some new clothes!" chimed in Hannibal; "beggars in rags are our soldiers now."

In the midst of the general hilarity Jonah sat silent and full of thought.

"What ails you, trumpeter?" I asked; "cannot you quite make up your mind to go back?"

"It is no good my going back," he half blubbered out; "they will never believe me; they will only laugh when I tell them I have been to Nergal's kitchen and seen behemoths by dozens; and if I were to say I have been worshipped for a god, and had dinners brought me every day, big enough for a month, they will declare I'm stark mad."

"Never mind, old fellow," said Chamai; "we'll back you up; we will testify to the truth of your stories; and what's more, you shall be presented to the King, and he shall hear you blow your trumpet."

Overcome by Chamai's good-natured encouragement, and his own prospective honours, he fairly burst into tears.

"Do you really mean it? and will the King see Gebal too?"

"Aye, that he will; and we must teach old Gebal to act the courtier, and to make a bow."

Hannibal declared that he thought Jonah ought to be court-trumpeter, and to wear a scarlet tunic; and I pledged myself to use any influence I could to secure him the appointment, promising that if I succeeded I would make him a present of his first uniform.

Jonah chuckled aloud with delight.

"And shall I wear a scarlet tunic? and shall I play before the King? What will they say at Eltekeh? Happy day that made me come to Tarshish! Long live the King!"

With ejaculations such as these he withdrew to the extreme limit of the prow, and relapsing into silence, mused in solitude upon the dignity that awaited him.

From that day forward, Jonah was another man.

CHAPTER XIX

BODMILCAR AGAIN

Some easy sailing carried us past both the eastern and western limits of Prydhayn and the Tin Islands, and brought us off the rocky shores of the archipelago of Ar-Mor, with its islands all perforated and undermined by the action of the waves. Hanno recognised nearly every locality.

"There," he said, pointing out one spot after another, "there is the island where I learnt to croak my little bit of Celtic; and that is the rock from which Jonah and I used to fish with bone-hooks; and over there is the island where the priestesses paint their faces blue and black for their religious mysteries. Whilst we were with them they wanted us to shave all our hair off our faces, with razors made of shells."

"They gave the same advice," said Himilco, "on the Tin Islands to Hannibal and Chamai, who came back to us one day with their beards gone and their chins as smooth as pebbles."

"I only wish," remarked Hannibal, "that they would do for Bodmilcar what we did for ourselves; only instead of a shell I should like to have a good sharp sword put across his throat."

The mention of Bodmilcar's name led Hanno to inquire whether we knew anything of him; and this led Hannibal to tell him how on the day of the ambush he had given him a thrust in his side, which had been, no doubt, severely wounded, but his people had succeeded in carrying him off.

"Never mind," exclaimed Chamai; "we are sure to have another chance."

"And then I trust," said Hanno, "it will fall to my lot to deal with him after his deserts."

"Unless I am beforehand with an arrow from my good bow," said a voice from the yard-arm high up in the air. Bichri and Dionysos were up there, playing with the monkey. Hanno laughed, and said that Bichri had been associated so long with the monkey that he was becoming a monkey himself, and was making Dionysos just as volatile. Without leaving his perch Bichri asked:

"Why should I not teach the boy the use of his limbs? and why should I not drill him to use a bow?"

"And why," added Hanno, "should you not teach him to read?"

"How can I," he said, "when I have never learnt myself? besides, reading will not help him to climb mountains, hunt wild goats, or put an arrow in a mark."

"You may learn some day," rejoined the scribe, "that a pen may be a surer and a sharper weapon than an arrow. Would you and Dionysos like to learn to read?"

Startled by the suggestion, the archer caught hold of a rope, and in an instant had slid down to Hanno's feet. Dionysos followed. The monkey flew up to the mast-head.

"To learn to read, did you say?"

"Yes," replied Hanno. "Let us make a compact; you shall teach me to shoot, and I will teach you both to read."

"Agreed!" cried Bichri, enthusiastically; "and I'll warrant that in a month you shall hit a mark no bigger than my hand at the ship's length."

And so the days passed on. Hanno taught Bichri and the young Phocian the alphabet. Himilco, as he piloted the vessel, kept up a perpetual howling over his compulsory abstinence; Chamai and Hannibal, when they were not yawning in idle listlessness, were generally playing at knuckle-bones; the two women gossipped contentedly in their cabin; and Jonah confided to Judge Gebal his dreams of future greatness.

In something more than six weeks we sighted the pillars of Melkarth, and shortly afterwards entered the harbour of Gades. The suffect, Ziba, and all our acquaintances had imagined that we had long since been drowned, and were loud in their congratulations on seeing us back again safe and well, and were full of surprise when I exhibited my magnificent cargo of tin and amber.

I inquired eagerly about Bodmilcar, but could only gather from the suffect's account that fragments of what were supposed to be his vessels had been picked up at the mouth of the Illiturgis, but that nothing whatever had been seen of his gaoul, so that the most probable conjecture I could form was that the scoundrel had been massacred in the interior of the country.

It cannot be denied that we had all been looking forward with much impatience for the opportunity of obtaining some decent food and drink. Himilco was really getting exhausted with his subsistence for so many months on a water diet; so that on reaching land I took the very earliest chance of allowing my men to go ashore, where, doubtless, they directed their steps only too quickly to the wine-shops. Before Jonah left the ship I observed that he had some shekels in his hand, and asked him if he would not put them in his purse.

"No," he said; "they will never be quite safe until I have changed them for wine, and put them into my inside."

Hanno, Chamai, and their sweethearts went with me to dinner at Ziba's house; Bichri and Dionysos wandered about the streets and gardens of the city; while Hannibal, who said that now that we had come to a civilised country he should wish his trumpeter to be a credit to his troop, carried off Jonah to buy him a proper tunic.