HOW WE FILMED "THE WHITE GODDESS OF THE WANGORA"
Oh that railway journey! Shall I ever forget it? The dust and heat were
awful, and owing to some unaccountable oversight, nobody had thought
to lay in any provisions for the trip, which lasted from six o'clock
in the morning till four in the afternoon. The only food we were able
to obtain _en route_ consisted of monkey nuts. Our thirst, however,
we quenched quite satisfactorily with luscious, juicy pine-apples,
of which the natives brought us unlimited supplies at every
stopping-place, offering them clamorously for sale at the uniform rate
of one penny each.
Arrived at Atakpame, we were given a right royal welcome by Baron
Codelli von Fahnenfeld, who is building for the German Government, at
Kamina near by, an immense wireless station, intended to communicate
direct with the wireless station at Nauen, just outside Berlin.
The baron first introduced to me my "house," a straw hut, like all the
dwellings hereabouts, but, as he proudly pointed out, it was, unlike
them, possessed of a cement floor. I duly thanked him, and tried to
smile my gratitude. But my heart misgave me, for to my mind it seemed
to lack pretty well all the essentials that a dwelling-place should by
rights possess.
To begin with, it most certainly was not weather-proof, for I could
see, through the interstices of the loosely-thatched roof, the stars
twinkling far above. The wind blew in the front and out at the back,
and I was conscious, all the time I was dressing for dinner, that I was
the cynosure of several hundred pairs of eyes, belonging to as many
natives, men and women, who, "clad in the climate," as the saying is
out there, crowded in serried ranks all round the wattle walls, anxious
for a glimpse through the all too numerous chinks at the wonderful
white woman timidly robing and disrobing within.
But dinner made amends for everything. We were the baron's guests for
that evening. It was a glorious, gorgeous meal, beautifully prepared
and perfectly served under conditions which seemed ideal to me, partly
no doubt because they were so altogether novel. The warm African night
was absolutely still, save for the continual monotonous humming of
myriads of insects. All around was the silent mysterious bush, from
which came no sound, either of man, or of beast, or of bird.
And we--we were in a little gastronomic world of our own; a tiny bit
of London, or Paris, or Berlin, planted out in the wild. There was
the same sheen of damask napery, the same glitter of crystal and
silver, the same faint, almost imperceptible perfume of exotics, as
one associates mentally with, say, the Ritz or the Savoy. Only the
servitors here, instead of wearing black clothes and having white
faces, were ebon black in colour, and their liveries were white, all
white, from head to foot, save for the silver blazonry of the baron's
crest.
Oh, how I enjoyed this my first real meal in the real heart of Africa!
The memory of the taste of it lingers on my palate yet, even as I
write. Nothing was lacking, nothing was _de trop_. The caviare was
as good as the consommé, and both were perfect. The partridge _en
casserol_ was hot, juicy, and tender. The spring lamb with asparagus
shoots was a dream. The peach Melba melted in one's mouth. The coffee
was as good as any I have tasted in Vienna, which is only another
way of saying that it was the very best possible. The wines, like
the liqueurs, were just "it." When my host informed me, over our
cigarettes, that all the comestibles came out of cans, I simply could
not believe it. But it was the truth, of course, nevertheless. Only
canned provisions are available in the Togo hinterland, if one excepts
chickens and eggs, and an occasional joint of very tough and very
insipid beef.
After dinner, however, came my first real African ordeal. Wishful to do
honour to our genial host, I had donned one of my prettiest low-necked
frocks, and the mosquitoes took a mean and dastardly advantage of
my innocent inexperience. The baron and Major Schomburgk swathed me
from head to foot in blankets and tablecloths, so that I looked like
an Egyptian mummy. Nevertheless, ere bedtime, I grew unbeautifully
speckled, and very, very lumpy.
I had almost forgotten to record that the dinner was served in an open
thatched house, like my own, but somewhat larger, so that the insects
had free access everywhere. The light came from one of Baron Codelli's
acetylene motor-bike lamps, placed at some distance from the table. A
lamp placed anywhere on, or near the table, attracts insects in such
countless myriads as to render eating and drinking almost out of the
question.
I slept fairly well through my first night in the African bush, having
previously learnt to lie perfectly straight and still on the narrow
camp bedsteads that are everywhere in vogue in Togo. If one wriggles
about under one's mosquito-net, or throws one's arms about, the
bloodthirsty little brutes are sure to get at one, and then woe betide
the sleeper. He, or she, becomes the sleeper awakened with a vengeance.
On rising at sunrise, I asked quite innocently for my bath. My native
boy grinned; and pointed to a bucket hanging from the top of a tall
pole in the open compound fronting my hut. At the same time he
explained by gestures that by pulling out, by means of a cord that was
attached to it, the bung in the bottom, I could manage to obtain a very
good imitation of a genuine shower-bath.
Nobody seemed to think that there was anything amiss in the publicity
that must of necessity have attached to the proposed performance, but I
was of a different opinion. I shirked my bath for that one morning, and
during the afternoon my boy, acting on my instructions, built a wattle
screen round the compound.
I was looking forward to start rehearsing that day on the first of our
native plays, which we had entitled tentatively, _The White Goddess
of the Wangora_; but then I knew nothing at the time of the delays
incidental to any kind of work in which natives play a part.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR
Painted in Togoland, by Ernst Vollbehr of München. The native is a
Konkombwa.]
Time is of no value whatever to these wild and woolly savages, and
as we had of necessity to get together a small army of several hundred
"supers," literally weeks elapsed before we were ready. I chafed
dreadfully at the delay, but there was no help for it. The requisite
number of natives had to be laboriously collected from a score or more
of villages scattered over a wide area of country, and then, when we
had got them together, everything had to be explained to them over and
over again through the medium of three or four different interpreters.
In fact, it was nothing but talk, talk, talk, palaver, palaver,
palaver, from morning till night.
There was considerable difficulty, too, in getting them to face the
camera. Like most savages, these Togo natives have an inherent rooted
aversion to being photographed. Luckily, however, Major Schomburgk
had taken moving pictures of some of their villages during a previous
expedition he had led into these parts, and some of the very natives we
had engaged figured in them.
So, as we had brought a projecting machine with us, we made shift to
rig up a screen, and showed them themselves, their wives and their
little ones, going about their ordinary avocations in their own homes.
The effect was instantaneous. They had, of course, seen ordinary
photographs before, but none of them had ever beheld any moving
pictures. Now they all wanted to come into one; and whereas before
the most of them hung back, they were now only too anxious to push
themselves in the forefront of every scene.
Only one act they shirked. This was a battle scene in which several of
the warriors were supposed to be slain. We had the greatest difficulty
in persuading even one native to "act dead." Their objection, they
explained, was due to the fact that they believed that if they played
at being dead before the white man's mysterious machine, they would
most likely be dead in reality before morning.
At length, by the promise of a liberal bonus, one warrior, greatly
daring, consented to play the part. The next morning the head
interpreter knocked at the door of my hut to inform me that there were
"eight dead natives lying in the compound outside."
"What!" I screamed, in great alarm. And, hastily donning my
dressing-gown, I ran out.
But I need not have got scared. The eight were not really defunct. They
were merely shamming death, and wanted me to see how well they could do
it, with a view to being taken on for the part in the forthcoming day's
rehearsal.
The one who had played dead the day before had not of course died
during the night, as they more than half expected he would have done,
and they were consequently now only too willing and anxious to follow
the lead he had set them.
At length the long, wearisome series of preliminary rehearsals came to
an end. Everybody was supposed to be part perfect, and we made ready to
film the play.
Up to this I had, of course, rehearsed in ordinary attire. Now
I had to don native dress; and as I am a stickler for realism I
insisted--against Major Schomburgk's advice--in playing in bare feet
and legs, bare shoulders and arms, and with no head covering.
As the principal scenes were laid out of doors in the middle of the
bush, and under a blazing tropical sun, this, as was pointed out to me,
was a pretty "big order." Nevertheless, I thought I could "stick it";
and, as a matter of fact, I did, though I suffered for it afterwards.
My part was, of course, that of the "White Goddess." I was supposed
to have been cast ashore as a babe on the coast of Togo, and taken
up-country by the savages who found me, and who afterwards placed me
in charge of their principal ju-ju shrine, paying me, in the course of
time, almost divine honours.
I had grown to womanhood without ever having seen one of my own colour
and race, and when a white hunter (Major Schomburgk) was taken prisoner
by the tribe whose high priestess I was, I was naturally attracted to
him. Bound hand and foot, he was cast into a hut, preparatory to being
put to death. I had to free him from his bonds, and guide him in a wild
flight for freedom over rocks and bushes, through foaming streams, and
up hill and down dale.
All this I did. It is the great scene of the play, and to film it took
one whole day. Major Schomburgk had given strict orders for all our
eight hundred or so of supers to muster at 6 A.M. sharp, but with the
irritating perverseness of natives they did not put in an appearance
until 10 A.M., when, of course, the sun was already high in the heavens.
This added tremendously to my trials and tribulations, and was, in
fact, to a great extent the cause of my subsequent breakdown. By noon,
when the sun was directly overhead, it was so hot that the operator
was unable to bear to touch with his ungloved hand the brass work of
his machine.
How I got through the afternoon's work I don't know to this day. I
managed it somehow. There is a marvellous sustaining power in the mere
nervous tension of acting, and the click, click, click of the camera
helps to keep one tuned up as it were. But directly it was all over
I fell fainting on my camp bed in my hut, and the doctor had to be
called in. My feet were all cut and scarred, and full of thorns and
jiggers.[1] My legs, too, were pretty badly scratched and torn. And, to
crown all, I had got a "touch of the sun."
[1] Also known as the chigoes and the sand-flea.
The next day I was in a high fever, and the day after that in a higher
one. Malaria had gripped me, and I really thought at one time that my
first African photo-play rehearsal was going to be my last one. Even
the doctor looked grave after the first week or so. "You have got
malarial fever," he explained, "and you have got it pretty badly. Your
spleen is about four times larger than it ought to be, and if you cough
it will probably burst."
As at that time I was troubled with an almost incessant cough, this
was not consoling. However, liberal doses of quinine, repeated at
frequent intervals, cured me at last, and in order to celebrate my
convalescence, as soon as I felt well enough I prepared a little dinner
with my own hands, and invited Baron Codelli and Major Schomburgk to my
hut to partake of it.
[Illustration:
_By permission of_ _Maj. H. Schomburgk, F.R.G.S._
REHEARSING FOR THE CINEMA
Another scene from the moving picture play "The White Goddess of the
Wangora." Note the intent look on the little black girl's face, and the
pleased expression on that of the authoress. The black lady on the left
is the head "super" amongst the native women at Kamina.]
[Illustration:
_By permission of_ _Maj. H. Schomburgk, F.R.G.S._
PLAYING AN "INTERIOR" SCENE IN A NATIVE DRAMA
The authoress is reclining on a leopard-skin rug, and is supposed to be
sleeping, while a "slave-girl"--really a native "super"--fans her with
a feather fan. Taken at Kamina.]
I rather fancy myself as a cook, and I had prepared, as the _pièce de
résistance_, a couple of nice plump fowls. When the dish was uncovered
my guests glanced sharply at one another, turned very red, and
looked quite uncomfortable.
I could not make out what was the matter, and in my usual impetuous
way, I blurted out, plump and plain, the question that was uppermost in
my mind.
"Is there anything wrong with the chickens?"
This was too much for their gravity. Both the baron and Schomburgk
burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, and the former ran to fetch
his diary.
"Look here," he said, pointing to one of the last entries, "I have
already, during the years I have spent in this benighted country, eaten
9863 chickens. Schomburgk has probably eaten _pro rata_ at least as
many"--the major nodded--"and now you give us two more _as a treat_! O
Lord!"
I joined in their laughter then. I had to. And, after all, my little
dinner passed off excellently well, for of course there were other
dishes. Meanwhile I had learnt one more African lesson. Never, _never_,
NEVER offer your guests chicken if there is anything else under the
sun obtainable by hook or by crook. Cheese and crackers, if you
like; or tinned salmon, or sardines, or even "bully" beef. But the
domestic fowl, regarded as more or less of a luxury in Europe, is in
Africa absolutely tabu. It is the one article of flesh diet that is
all-pervading everywhere out there, and which everybody consequently
soon heartily sickens of. As well might one offer a dish of salmon to
an Alaskan fisherman; or a ragout of mutton to an Australian boundary
rider.
Another lesson I learnt during my long and wearisome illness was
never to kill a lizard, the reason being that lizards eat insects, and
insects of innumerable and most diverse kinds constitute the principal
pests of equatorial Africa. The houses out there swarm with lizards,
and they are big ones too, fully eighteen inches or more in length.
Nobody dreams of interfering with them. On the contrary, they are
everywhere petted and made much of. One old fellow I got quite attached
to, and he to me. I always knew him from the others because he had only
three legs, having lost the other, probably in an encounter with one
of his kind. He was as good as a watch. I used to call him my tea-time
lizard, because he always put in an appearance precisely at four
o'clock every afternoon.
Schomburgk used to tell me that every lizard was responsible for
killing and eating I don't know how many hundreds--or was it
thousands?--of white ants daily. Very likely. But all the same the ants
did not seem to me to diminish perceptibly. The venomous and vicious
little pests swarmed everywhere in incredible numbers. Nothing seemed
to come amiss to them. Our operator declared that he once found a lot
of them trying to make a meal off a sixteen-pound cannon-ball that he
used as a make-weight to the tripod of his machine to prevent it being
blown or knocked over, but this I altogether decline to believe. He
must have been--well, mistaken. But I can vouch from bitter personal
experience that they will devour, in the course of a single night,
photographs hung on the walls, and boots left standing on the floor;
and once a detachment of them riddled so badly a strong wooden box in
which I kept my letters and papers that it fell to pieces in my hands.
Another troublesome insect pest was a kind of big wood-boring beetle,
that made its home chiefly in the beams of the roof. These he would
riddle so completely that sooner or later the thatch was practically
certain to come tumbling about one's ears. While in between whiles he
peppered the interior with sawdust from his carpentering operations to
such an extent that I was kept continually busy dusting and sweeping it
out.
Later, however, when we trekked further up-country right into the real
heart of the unexplored hinterland, I learnt that Africa held other
even worse insect pests than white ants and wood-boring beetles. But of
these more anon.