The war cries, shouts, and the groans of the wounded were also
distinctly heard by us. The Domondoos express their sufferings by the
cry _Aou! Aou!_ or, if their agony is extreme, by _Akonn! Akonn!_ The
Monbuttoo expression, on the contrary, is _Nanegoué! Nanegoué!_
"You see, my dear Périères," said de Morin, "that we were quite right
to leave the pit of the theatre and take our places in the stalls; we
are gaining instruction. These cries teach us that every nation
expresses suffering in a different way. The French people say—_Aïe!
Aïe! Oh! la! la!_ The English call out—_Oh! oh! oh!_ The Germans—
_Och! och! och!_ The Bungos—_Aah!_ The Djours—_Aooay!_ As for the
Monbuttoos, you can hear what they say, and I am free to confess that
the fools cry out loud enough."
"These remarks," chimed in Delange, who, even when he was joking,
maintained his customary air of gravity, "are of immense interest to
science, and we shall have deserved well of all the learned societies
in the world. And to think that those miserable Parisians, with easy
consciences and minds at rest, are at this moment strolling on the
beach at Dieppe and Trouville without giving a thought to the fact
that they are ignorant of the cry of a Monbutto in pain!"
"Too true!" added de Morin. "They have not even a suspicion that such
beings as the Monbuttoos exist."
"Is it possible? Poor creatures, how deeply they are to be pitied!"
We had reached the spot we intended to occupy—a little hillock, very
conspicuous, without shelter of any kind, and equidistant from the
troops of Munza and the hostile force. We seated ourselves on the
grass, which at this precise place was not more than a foot high, and
Delange, taking two packs of cards out of his pocket, said to de
Morin—
"Let us cut for deal."
We were not exposed over-much to the sun, for, as my two companions
had foreseen, the continuous flights of arrows from the two armies
darkened the sky. It was slightly warm, and that was all.
The game commenced, and was played with the utmost seriousness. De
Morin was, perhaps, less interested than his adversary, but as the
stakes were rather high, and losing or winning them meant an entire
change in the state of affairs, with a possibility of his no longer
playing on velvet, as the saying goes, he was tolerably careful in
his play. As regards Delange, the prospect of at last getting rid of
a debt which had for so long been tormenting him, and the idea that
very soon he might be a creditor in his turn, raised his excitement
to a very high pitch, though he played his best and was thoroughly
self-possessed.
Whilst these two were absorbed in their game, I lay at full length on
the grass and watched the progress of the fray. The Monbuttoos,
seeing us advancing towards the field of battle, naturally thought we
were going to help them, and received us with uproarious shouts. But,
when they saw us come to a halt, sit down, take little pictures out
of our pockets, and shuffle them in our hands, they were dumbfounded.
Munza alone, perhaps, was capable of appreciating our idea; he
understood, as we found out later on, that, though we were determined
not to fight, we did not intend to shirk our share of danger.
However, if the motive by which we were actuated escaped the mass of
the people, they recognized the one fact before their eyes—in the
situation occupied by us, of our own free will, we were exposed to
the missiles of both armies. Instinctively they admired our courage
and coolness, and as soon as they saw that the arrows did not hit us,
they thought we were invulnerable, and we must have risen
proportionately in their esteem.
The Domondoos, on their side, were alarmed by the sudden apparition
of three white men, clothed in a strange garb, and advancing quietly
in the open. If they had been gifted with any religious feeling, they
might have taken us for celestial beings, a trio of angels descended
from the clouds, to watch over the struggles of man. But, without
having such an exalted opinion of us, they, possibly, imagined that
we had come up from below to protect them. When they perceived that,
instead of spreading our wings over their army, we were simply
minding our own business—lying down on the grass, and turning our
backs upon them, they were excessively dissatisfied, and set to work
to insult us. Some of them indulged in threatening gestures, others,
shouting their war cry, and bounding from one side to the other, as
if they were taking part in a pantomime, came close up to us and
assailed us with volleys of invective.
A flight of arrows, winged, no doubt, by Munza's orders, compelled
them to retire, and from that moment we heard nothing but the
whizzing of the shafts, and the unceasing din of the battle.
"One game to me," said Delange.
"So much the better," replied de Morin. "I shall win the second, and
then we can play the conqueror."
"Pending which, I mark the king," rejoined the doctor.
"Mark away, but excuse me for one moment whilst I glance at this
arrow which just missed my back."
He put out his hand and, without getting up, pulled the impertinent
missile out of the ground.
"Look," continued de Morin, turning to me, "the shaft is feathered
with the leaves of the banana tree."
"To increase its velocity," remarked Delange, as he shuffled the
cards. "Is the point iron or wood?"
"Iron."
"That is bad; I do not like that, the wound is so much more difficult
to cure."
"See," said de Morin, handing the arrow to the doctor. "It seems as
if the point were smeared with some gummy substance."
"So it is, my dear fellow; there is no doubt about that, any more
than that the substance is poison."
"Poison? Brr! as Munza says, that sounds nasty."
"Don't be uneasy," replied the doctor. "If you are wounded by one of
these engines of war, I will wash the wound with a preparation I
have, and you may, possibly, get over it. Cards?"
"No, thanks. I play."
The arrows whizzed by incessantly in a perfect deluge, and as I saw
numbers of them falling all around us, I could not help thinking of
the description given by Schweinfurth of his fight with the Niam-Niam,
where he says that "the storm of arrows which they hurled
against us as we advanced fell like strays from a waggon-load of
straw."
At the same time the war cries, the yelling, the groans of the
wounded and dying, the braying of trumpets, and rolling of drums,
were mingled in one confused, deafening din, slightly trying to the
nerves of peaceable écarté players.
Suddenly, at the very height of the uproar, profound silence fell on
the host of the Monbuttoos, whilst cries of joy and triumph might be
heard from the ranks of the hostile army. Something serious had
evidently happened. I took up my telescope, steadied it on the
shoulder of the doctor, who, more and more absorbed in his game, did
not even know that I was using him as a rest, and looked towards the
Monbuttoos.
"Munza is wounded!" I exclaimed.
"Ah!" said de Morin.
"Ah!" echoed Delange. "I score one. We are four all."
"Are you not going to offer your services to the wounded man?" I
asked.
"Certainly; that is my intention. I know my duty. But on the cards
which de Morin is dealing hangs my fate. If they are good, I shall
win the second game, and, consequently, the rubber. Munza will not
die from the momentary delay."
He took the five cards which his adversary had just laid tenderly on
the grass, looked at him, and said—
"I play."
"Play," said de Morin, with a smile, as if he were sure of the game.
For a moment I forgot all about the King of the Monbuttoos in my
interest in his hand, which might possibly be a decisive one. It was
not so. De Morin, thanks to a wretched little trump, made the third
trick and went out. They were consequently game and game, and had to
play the conqueror.
"I must go and attend to the King's wound," said the doctor, laying
hold of his instrument case, which he had taken care to bring with
him.
"Shall I come with you?" asked de Morin.
"There is no necessity for that," replied Delange, as he went away.
"I shall be back directly. Take care of the cards, whatever you do,
and keep them out of harm's way."
"I will cover them with my body!" exclaimed de Morin.
The doctor, in a hurry to get back and finish the rubber, strode
along rapidly towards the Monbuttoos. I went after him, thinking that
I might be of some use, and, as I felt sure that nobody would ask me
to show my commission or diploma, I at once conferred upon myself the
rank of staff-surgeon of the second class.
Munza's officers, when they saw Delange, the white sorcerer, as they
called him, coming towards them, ran to meet him and brought him to
the spot where their leader lay, to the great dismay of the official
sorcerers, whose position we were, without any ceremony, going to
usurp. The King was resting on a shield and, in marked contrast to
his followers, who were indulging in an incessant chorus of
_Nanegoué! Nanegoué!_ allowed no sign of suffering to escape him. He
welcomed Delange with a smile, and made a sign with his hand that
everybody else should withdraw.
The doctor stooped down and found that the King was suffering from an
arrow wound in the thigh. The iron head was still in the wound, none
of the negro sorcerers having even attempted to extract it. This
operation, as a rule, is not a very difficult one; they seize the
shaft of the arrow with both hands, and tug away until it chooses to
come out. But by a very ingenious device, the Domondoos manufacture
their missiles in such a way that they break at the moment of impact,
the head remaining in the wound, and the shaft falling to the ground.
The operator has, therefore nothing to catch hold of, and when that
functionary happens to be a negro sorcerer, he howls, tears his hair,
and does nothing else.
Delange, without a moment's hesitation, opened his case, and, taking
out one of those horrible little instruments which always cause a
shudder, proceeded to make a large incision in the royal thigh, and
with his forceps extracted the iron barb. This operation was
performed without a sound from Munza, and the doctor then washed the
wound, stanched the blood, bound up the thigh, examined the general
state of his patient, put his implements of torture back into their
case, shook the hand held out to him by the wounded man in token of
gratitude, and made his way back again through the midst of the army.
He had done this all himself, like photographers do, and, no doubt
jealous of me, had not even condescended to give me the lint to hold.
Nevertheless, I thought I might as well go back with him, and in a
few moments we had rejoined de Morin, who, during our absence, had
been amusing himself by making a collection of the arrows which were
falling around him, and had already possessed himself of a
decent-sized bundle.
"Now for the conqueror," said the doctor, as he took his place
opposite his adversary.