When the railway construction reached to within reasonable distance of
my camp, I realised how tired I was of living in a mud hut, and acquired
sufficient material from the contractor for a small house. I also asked
him to spare one of his carpenters to erect it for me.
The man sent to me was a German named Fritz Kunst. He was not only a
carpenter, but a mason, bricklayer, plumber, and painter as well. He was
an excellent workman, a member of no union, and intent only on finishing
his job quickly and well. I hasten to explain that this was many years
before the war.
In build he was very short, almost deformed. His head was abnormally
large; so, too, were his hands and feet, especially his feet. He looked
upon his feet as his salvation. He was flat-footed, and on that account
had never served in the German army. He referred to his feet as, "My
goot luck, isn't it?"
I had but one fault to find with him. He was rough with his native
servant. The boy sometimes complained to me, and when I remonstrated
with Kunst or threatened him with the law he would burst into a flood of
tears and offer to pay cash for his lapse. One day the boy complained
to me that Kunst had beaten him severely and without cause. He could,
however, show no mark, but I sent for his master and demanded an
explanation. Kunst was evidently very angry with the boy, for he shook
his fist in his face and bellowed in his coarse, guttural voice: "Zo,
you make er tam vool of me, eh? I will your head break. You spoil my
money. Gott tam you!"
In broken English, but with considerable fluency and force, Kunst told
me the source of his indignation. It appeared that from time to time he
commissioned his boy to make small purchases for him--eggs, fowls, milk,
fish, and the like. On the previous evening the boy produced a very
large egg for which he said he had paid sixpence. As eggs were then
never more than sixpence a dozen in that country, Kunst charged him with
cheating. The boy explained that the egg was a very large one. It was
large--huge, in fact--for a hen's egg, so Kunst did not press the
charge, but went to bed, telling the boy to boil it for breakfast next
morning.
On the breakfast-table the egg looked larger than ever. It couldn't sit
in the tin egg-cup, so lay on the table beside it.
Now Kunst was a greedy man and attacked the egg in the best of good
spirits. He tried to crack it in the usual way with a spoon, but without
success. He banged it on the table. The shell did crack then, but, to
Kunst's indignation, the egg proved to be hard set. Whether he thought
parts of it might be good I cannot say, but the German broke open the
egg and examined it more closely. He then became very angry indeed, for
what he found satisfied him that the egg was not a hen's egg at all. The
creature upon which he gazed was three-parts beak and most of the rest
was made up of feet. Kunst had never seen anything like it. In a rage of
disappointment he beat the boy. He had so looked forward to eating that
very large egg which the boy assured him was a hen's egg. Had not his
trusted servant declared that the egg had cost sixpence?
I soothed Kunst's ruffled feelings, and persuaded him to go to his work
and forgive the boy.
When I had settled the little differences between the German and the
native, I cross-questioned the latter. It transpired that the giant egg
was that of a marabout stork which had nested in a tree a few miles
away. As one egg still remained in the nest, I told the boy to let a
week or two go by, and if by then the egg had hatched out to bring the
chick to me.
In due course Darwin arrived. I did not call him Darwin for several
weeks; the name occurred to me later. Darwin was the queerest of
objects. He was a large ball of fluff based on two very long legs, and
surmounted by a huge beak protruding from a bald head. He was wise from
birth; it was when I had fully realised how very wise he was that I
christened him Darwin.
When he first came to me he made no proper use of his legs. He could not
stand erect, but sat awkwardly with his bird equivalent to knees
protruding behind and his large feet, with toes spread out, in front. He
resembled a downy globe on rails. He crawled about my bungalow almost
from the first day I had him. This he managed by sliding first his right
hand rail along the floor and then his left, clapping his huge beak
after each movement. I suppose I subconsciously accepted this beak
clapping as the crooning of a baby bird, for I soon found myself
indulging in baby talk with him.
His appetite was amazing; moreover, he was omnivorous.
When it was neither his meal time nor mine, he would sit on the floor in
front of me blinking up at me with wisdom in his eyes. He winked. There
is no doubt about it. It was as if he had just remarked: "What you and I
don't know isn't worth knowing." I soon dropped the baby talk with
Darwin, and discussed with him Affairs of State.
He grew rapidly. One day I detected a feather. By degrees feathers
replaced the down, but the most important sign of Darwin's growing up
was when he took his first step. One morning without warning he heaved
himself up, and, by using his beak as a third leg, actually stood on his
feet. For the space of a full minute he remained in this position, then,
suddenly lifting his head, he was erect. For one moment only; then,
overbalancing backwards, he fell with a crash full length on the floor.
He appeared stunned at first. I picked him up and placed him on his
rails again, and there he sat, thinking the matter over. Presently he
repeated the manoeuvre, but with no better success, falling this time on
his "front" as a child would say. Again I gathered him up, and
apparently, after mature consideration, he decided that his time for
walking had not yet come, for he made no more attempts that day.
About a week later, as if the idea had struck him for the first time, he
got up quite suddenly, and coolly walked out of the back door into the
yard; he stood there sunning himself, and chattering to and at everybody
and everything in sight.
Darwin never looked back. He quickly developed a curiosity as insatiable
as his appetite. He became playful, too. He made friends with the dogs,
and romped with them. He noticed that the doctor paid a daily visit to
the compound, and hid behind the fence in wait for him. As the doctor
sped past on his bicycle, Darwin would shoot out his heavy beak at him.
So sure a marksman did the bird become--he always narrowly missed the
saddle, but hit the doctor--that the good man complained, and approached
the compound by the long way round.
The day arrived when certain puppies had to lose their tails. Darwin
took a proper interest in the operation, and gobbled up each tail as it
fell. He appeared to like dogs' tails, and went in search of more. He
found a nice long one which he tried to swallow, but it happened to be
still attached to an elderly greyhound. Poor Darwin met with his first
serious rebuff in life; he came to me for sympathy with a large puncture
in his beak. The mark of the dog's displeasure was permanent.
When natives came, as they did in hundreds, to sell the produce of their
gardens, woods, and streams, Darwin inspected their wares. With a twist
of his beak he would filch a pinch of meal from a bowl to see, so the
natives declared, whether it was of uniform whiteness throughout. Eggs
had to be protected with outstretched arms, so, too, had baskets of
little fishes, for he was very partial to them both, and only a very
full sample would satisfy him. The natives declared him possessed.
Judging by the way he first abused and then assaulted any one of them
bold enough to resist his inspection, I think they were right.
I have already mentioned his curiosity. He permitted this defect in his
character to carry him too far when he became a common thief. A
traveller stayed with me for a few days. In spite of warning, he left
the door of his hut open when he came across to the mess hut for
breakfast. Darwin entered to inspect. It is surmised that he swallowed
my guest's shaving brush and tooth brush, for they have never been
found. It is only surmise, but there was circumstantial evidence to
support the charge in the form of the stick of shaving soap which was
found on the floor with marks on it which might have been made by the
beak of a large bird.
Again, the contents of two boxes of cigars were found scattered far and
wide; each cigar had been nipped in half. Darwin was questioned; he
looked wise but said nothing. A native witness swore he had seen the
accused walking in the yard with the white man's pipe in his mouth. This
was a wicked slander, for the white man had that pipe in his pocket, and
it was his only one.
The case was not proven, but Darwin left the court without a shred of
character.
I have referred to his appetite. One day the cook missed a piece of
lamb's neck, weighing probably half a dozen pounds. He couldn't blame
the cat, because there wasn't one, so he pointed the finger of
accusation at Darwin. The evil bird was sent for. I felt he was guilty,
and, although he winked at me for sympathy, I had to say so. Besides, he
had not been sufficiently careful to hide the loot; even a professional
detective could have recognised the meat by the very large, irregular
bulge in the bird's pouch. In places the mutton bones threatened to
pierce the thin disguise.
Darwin certainly had his uses. No nasty-smelling scrap could lie
undetected for long. His scent was keen and his eye sharp. I never found
a snake in the house after Darwin grew up, nor were there many rats
about the place.
Once a huge swarm of locusts fell upon us, and all hands turned out to
destroy them. Darwin joined in the fray, and soon we retired and left
him to finish the job, as he disposed of thousands to our joint
hundreds. His method was simplicity itself. He dashed here, there, and
everywhere with his huge beak wide open. Only now and then, and for a
moment, did he close it to gulp down what had fallen in.
The doctor, who lived a mile away, did not like Darwin; partly because
of his stupid trick of pecking at him as he cycled by, but chiefly
because he seemed to know what was going on in the hospital. If an
operation was being performed, Darwin could be heard tramping about
impatiently on the corrugated iron roof of the building. As the marabout
stork mainly lives on carrion scraps, there was, the doctor considered,
questionable taste in Darwin's visits.
Alas! Darwin met with a violent death in his early prime.
Like all others of his kind, he grew those beautiful downy feathers so
highly prized by women who dress well. There was a demand throughout the
country for the feathers, and many of these delightful and useful birds
died at the hands of the natives in consequence.
An operation was going on at the hospital, and Darwin was hurrying
thither on foot, as I had recently cut the feathers of one of his wings.
In the road he met a strange native, who despatched him with his
assegai, stripped him of his feathers, and walked on.
The spoiler soon came up with two of my servants who, on hearing of the
man's good luck, as he put it, took him back to the scene of the
outrage.
Yes, it was "Da-wi-ni"; was not that the hole in his beak which the
angry greyhound made?
My servants decided that Darwin had been most foully murdered, and acted
according to their lights.
* * * * *
It was well that the doctor knew his job. After six anxious weeks the
native was so far recovered from the beating as to be pronounced out of
danger.