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.
[Illustration]
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."
"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."
[Illustration]
"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:
[Illustration: BLOWING HIS TRUMPET.
_To face page 284._]
"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.