I AM LED INTO CAPTIVITY.
I was aroused next morning by a vigorous shaking, and, opening my
eyes, found Abduláhi Dan-jiwa bending over me.
“Come, rouse up, thou sluggard,” said he, giving me another gentle
shake that was like to have dislocated my shoulder; “the sun is up and
I have found a lovely stream of pure water. Come and bathe so that we
begin the day all fresh and clean.”
I rose and rubbed my eyes, yawning sleepily, for I was none the
livelier for my nocturnal adventures; but I slipped off my _riga_, and
folding it up neatly on the mat, followed my big friend who was
frisking along with the buoyancy of a child.
The river was one of those beautiful little streams that are so
plentiful in North Ashanti, whose crystal-clear waters trickle over
beds of white sand between high banks carpeted with moss and fringed
with lacy, delicate ferns.
Several of our people were already splashing about in the water, and
when Abduláhi and I, flinging our remaining clothes down on the bank,
leaped in and joined the party, a regular water frolic began; and as I
watched these boisterous, high-spirited Africans chasing one another
up and down the stream, sousing one another with water, and shouting
with laughter and delight, my thoughts went back to the far-away
Kentish shore and the sun-browned fisher-boys who gambol in the pools
when the tide is out in the long summer days.
The fun was at its height when a loud shouting in the camp attracted
our attention.
We stopped our play and listened.
Plainly enough the sound came down the wind, and we could clearly
distinguish angry voices raised in high dispute. With one accord we
rushed to the bank, and huddling on our clothes, ran off at top speed
in the direction of the camp.
And as we came out into the opening I saw at a glance that there was
going to be very serious trouble--for me at least. A party of some
thirty natives, all armed with long muskets, stood at a little
distance, motionless but alert, and close by the fire half-a-dozen
men, whose cowrie ornaments showed them to be fetish priests, were
talking excitedly to our companions. As I appeared, one of these men,
whose head was bound up with a blood-stained rag, pointed to me, and I
then noticed that my _riga_ lay at his feet, and that he held in his
hand the sinker with its coil of line.
“What is this thing that thou hast done, Yúsufu, fool that thou art?”
exclaimed Musa, furiously, as I came up. “Did I not tell thee that thy
folly would bring a mischief on us?”
“What say the wizards, my father?” I asked meekly, for my conscience
was mighty sore at having brought this trouble upon my friends.
“This man saith thou hast killed one of his brethren, and also hast
robbed the river god of his gold.”
“As to the man,” said I, “he fell into the water as we struggled
together and the great fishes devoured him, and as to the gold I found
none.”
“What, then, is this?” demanded Musa, taking the sinker from the
fetish man’s hand and picking up the rag with the fragment of muddy
grease in it. “What hast thou to say to these? Are they not thine?”
“They are mine, my father, but they are not gold,” said I.
He held out the rag with one hand and with the other presented the
sinker with its arming still covered with mud.
“What is this on the shea butter, and what is sticking to this iron?”
he asked.
“Surely it is dirt,” said I.
“It is very precious dirt,” he replied. “Look more closely.”
I did so, and then, to my amazement, I perceived that the mud was
charged with gold dust; but so minute were the particles that it was
only on the closest inspection that they could be distinguished amidst
the grey deposit with which they were mixed.
“I see now,” said I, “there is gold among the dirt. I was deceived in
the darkness.”
“The wizards speak the truth, then,” said he. “Thou didst go to rob
their god?”
“It is so, my father,” I answered.
“Then I fear thou wilt pay a heavy price for thy folly,” rejoined
Musa. “The wizards say that thou must go with them.”
“And what will they do with me?”
“That I know not,” he replied; “but I fear they mean to kill thee.”
“And if I will not go with them?”
“Then,” said Musa, “they will kill thee and us also.”
“It is enough, my father,” said I. “I will go with the wizards.”
Our people had gathered round to listen and, as the evidence of my
misdoing had come to light, they, like Musa, had been highly incensed
with me for thus bringing them into collision with the natives. But my
frank acceptance of the responsibility for my actions mollified them
considerably, and now the tide was suddenly turned in my favour by
Abduláhi.
“This cannot be,” he exclaimed. “What! shall a servant of the true God
be delivered into the hands of these devil-worshippers? Thou knowest,
my father, how these heathen deal with their prisoners, and Alhassan
hath told us what things are done by this people. Let us refuse, and
then, if they will have it so, we will fight them.”
Musa looked round irresolutely. His anger had quite evaporated, and he
was evidently loth to let me go to what he suspected would be a
horrible death.
“What say you, my brethren?” he asked. “Shall we fight the heathen?”
“No,” I interrupted, “you shall not fight. For one thing, they are too
many and have guns; but also the fault is mine, and if any blood is to
be spilt it must be mine, too,” and by way of ending the debate I
walked over to the fetish men, one of whom immediately seized me by
the wrist.
“Thou shalt not go, Yúsufu,” cried the warm-hearted Abduláhi,
bursting into tears and trying to drag me away. But I gently pushed
him off, and as the armed men closed round me, Musa and Dam-Bornu held
the weeping giant by the arms that he might not attack my captors.
The business was now brought quickly to a conclusion. Two of the
fetish-men took me by the arms, the rest of the party surrounded me,
and I was marched off without more ceremony. I turned to take a last
look at the camp as we moved away. Our people were all talking with
furious excitement, pointing and shaking their fists at the retreating
natives, and I could see the big, soft-hearted Abduláhi lying prone
on the ground, rending his clothes and sobbing aloud.
As long as we were within sight of the camp no affront or violence was
offered to me, for the pagans evidently had no desire to come to blows
with the Hausas; but no sooner was the camp hidden from view than my
captors began to give me a taste of their quality. First my arms were
tightly bound to my sides with grass-rope, and when I had thus been
rendered helpless, the ruffian with the bandaged head dealt me a heavy
blow across the shoulders with his staff. Then a halter was fastened
round my neck and the end taken by one of the fetish-men, who started
off at a trot, dragging me after him.
We soon branched off the main road, and taking a forest path that I
had not noticed before, travelled on rapidly for over half an hour in
a direction which I roughly calculated would bring us to the
neighbourhood of the pool. Presently we entered a large village where
a crowd, largely composed of women and children, had assembled,
apparently in expectation of our arrival.
Down the main street of the village I was dragged in the midst of this
mob, almost deafened by the uproar of their shouting, and nearly
choked by the dust, until we reached a large open space, in the centre
of which stood a gigantic silk-cotton tree. At the foot of this tree,
wedged in between two of the great root-buttresses, was a hut built of
palm sticks, and, as we approached it, a swarm of smallish dog-faced
monkeys ambled out and sat down at a little distance to watch us.
The door of the hut being removed, I was taken inside and my halter
tied securely to one of the uprights, and then all the men went away
with the exception of the fellow with the bandaged head, who remained
behind apparently to gloat over my downfall. He came and stood before
me, holding my unfortunate sinker in his hand and, thrusting his ugly
countenance within an inch of my face, delivered a long and excited
harangue, of which I, naturally, understood not a word. Then he held
up the sinker before my face and put to me what I supposed to be a
number of questions about it, and when I returned no answer, he
slashed me across the face with his stick, and followed this up by
several blows about my fettered arms and shoulders.
This entertainment seemed to satisfy him for the present, and, with a
parting cut at my legs, he went out, leaving the door of the hut open.
The space in which the hut stood appeared to be a sacred precinct, for
the crowd had not followed beyond its border, and I could now see them
through the doorway, a half-naked, jabbering rabble, standing some
sixty yards away, pointing and gazing at the hut, just as a mob at
home hangs about the gates of a hospital when an accident case has
been admitted.
Presently I ascertained that my halter was just long enough to allow
me to sit down in the corner, so I lowered myself with great
care--lest in my helpless state I should slip and thus be
strangled--and seated myself on the bare earth. I had not been long in
this position when a monkey’s head was thrust cautiously round the
corner of the doorway. Soon another appeared, and then two more, and
so on until gradually the whole troop collected, grimacing and
chattering with the greatest concern and anxiety. Then they began to
creep in one by one, eyeing me cunningly and suspiciously all the
time, and sat down before me in a semicircle; and at length one
patriarchal male reached out his hand and pinched my leg, on which I
gave a sudden shout and the whole party bundled pell-mell out through
the door, barking, coughing and clucking in the wildest excitement.
They returned from time to time, to my excessive discomfort and
somewhat to my alarm, for if they had really mobbed me, I could have
made no sort of defence; but a sudden movement on my part always
caused them to decamp.
When I had been in the hut about three hours, I saw one of the
fetish-men approaching, followed by a lad who carried a large flat
calabash and an earthen jar. The calabash, I could see, contained some
kind of food, for the monkeys gathered round the lad, chattering
volubly and making snatches at him as he walked.
The fetish-man entered the hut and sat down on the floor, and the
calabash being placed beside him, he began to distribute its
contents--balls of coarse meal--among the monkeys, who came forward
quietly enough to receive their rations, and having each taken a ball
from his hand, ambled away to a little distance, and sat down to eat
it. When the monkeys were all served, the fetish-man laid the
calabash, which still contained a half-dozen balls, before me, and
stood the jar of water beside it; but perceiving that my fetters
prevented me from helping myself, he motioned to the slave boy to come
and feed me, and then went away. The slave, whom I judged, by the
elaborate pattern of incised lines on his face, to be a Dagómba, sat
down by my side, and, breaking the balls into suitable pieces, very
carefully inserted them into my mouth; and when I had finished eating
he held the jar of water to my lips while I took a long draught.
This meal, rough as it was, greatly refreshed me, for I had taken no
food since the previous day; but I was in a good deal of pain from the
tight bands of rope round my arms, and the bruises that the
fetish-man’s staff had produced. This did not escape the good-natured
slave’s observation, for, when I had finished drinking, he proceeded
to loosen the bands somewhat, and soaking a corner of his cloth in
water, he bathed my black and swollen bruises very gently and
tenderly.
These charitable ministrations were interrupted by the approach of a
procession consisting of the fetish-men (who were now loaded with
uncouth cowrie ornaments and had their faces and limbs painted with
broad white stripes), a body of armed men, and a band of musicians,
who produced appalling noises with trumpets formed of large antelope’s
horns and long drums, black and shiny with dried blood and elaborately
ornamented with festoons of human jaw-bones.
When the musicians had played a few selections from some kind of
devil’s opera outside the hut, the fetish-men entered, and having
untied my halter led me forth; and I now observed that a large crowd
had collected near a shade tree in the village. Towards this spot our
procession slowly advanced, preceded by the musicians and followed by
the guard, and as we came near to the crowd the people arranged
themselves into a long line and eventually enclosed us in a circle. I
noticed that the villagers were not dressed in their usual fashion,
but wore kilts or short petticoats of soft fibre and carried on their
wrists and ankles a number of curious plaited bangles that rattled
loudly at every movement; and that, moreover, each bore in his or her
hand a long tassel or brush of the same fibre as the kilts were made
of. When the circle was formed, the musicians and the guard
disappeared; a wooden stool, thickly coated with dried blood, was
placed in the centre of the circle, and I was seated on it with the
party of fetish-men behind me.
Then the people began to chant a melancholy minor air, and as they
chanted, they stooped and swept the ground with their brushes, moving
slowly round me, punctuating the chant by stamping their feet and
shaking their rattles in unison. This strange ceremonial had an effect
that was very devilish and horrid, which was enhanced by the quiet and
orderly manner in which it was performed, and by the sad, plaintive
character of the chant. As I sat and watched the unending line of
stooping figures slowly filing past, the brushes moving softly and
rhythmically to and fro, and listened to the weird song and the murmur
of the rattles, like the shingle on a sea beach, I could scarcely
repress a feeling of superstitious dread.
Suddenly there appeared within the circle a most horrible and
grotesque figure that instantly recalled the horned image in the path
by the pool.
A tall man was shrouded from head to foot in a flowing garment of the
soft palm fibre, and his face was hidden by a great wooden mask,
hideously painted, and furnished with a pair of long, curved horns.
This frightful apparition stalked slowly round the circle, creating no
small terror in the people whom he approached. Then he slowly walked
up to me, and, bending over me, thrust the hideous mask in my face and
glared at me through the eye-holes. When he had stood thus for a
minute or so, he stepped back a few paces and began to dance very
slowly and sedately, spreading out his garment on either side and
wagging the great horned mask in a most horrible manner. Then he came
and knelt on the ground before me, remaining perfectly motionless
while the people still sidled round, chanting, sweeping, and shaking
their rattles. At last he nodded the great mask at me, three times, in
a slow and mysterious fashion, and in a twinkling there was slipped
over my head and shoulders a leathern bag, which shut out the light
and sound and nearly suffocated me. A confused din of drums, horns,
and chanting voices came distantly to my ears, and I felt coil after
coil of rope being passed round my body and limbs, and made out that I
was being lashed to some kind of pole. Presently the pole was lifted
into a horizontal position, and as I hung from it, the coils of rope
cut into my flesh in the most agonising manner. I could feel my
bearers lift the pole on to their shoulders, and then they started off
at a brisk walk, each step causing me excruciating pain.
We left the village by a narrow forest path, as I could tell by
feeling leaves and branches brushing against my body, and we travelled
along this, as it seemed to me for hours. Next we crossed a wide
clearing, where I could feel the hot sun pouring down upon my naked
skin--for they had torn off the remnant of my clothing when they bound
me to the pole--and then quite suddenly the air became dank and
chilly, as if we had entered a cellar or a vault, and, in spite of the
bag in which my head was muffled, I could hear that the creaking of
the pole reverberated in a hollow fashion as sounds do in a tunnel.
Presently they laid me on the ground, and then I was tilted over an
edge and partly slid and partly hoisted down what seemed like a
ladder, and again carried along the level for a time. Then came
another steep descent and another stretch along the level, and of a
sudden the air became hot, not with the heat of the sun but with the
close warmth of a fire.
I was now laid down on a smooth, hard surface, and I felt someone
unfastening the lashing that held me to the pole, although my arms and
legs were still tightly bound. Then the bag was plucked from my head
and I drew in a deep breath of hot, stuffy, foul-smelling air.
I was so closely bound that I was barely able to move my head, but I
turned it about as well as I could and gazed round me very earnestly
and curiously. But the place was in total darkness excepting for a
faint red glow upon the roof above me, and I could not turn my head
sufficiently to discover the source of this light. The roof itself I
could barely make out, but it seemed to be formed of rough earth or
rock.
That I was not alone was abundantly clear, for the place resounded
with the murmur of voices, and with various noises as if a number of
persons were engaged in some kind of handicraft, and all these sounds
had a peculiar reverberating quality as sounds have in a vault or
empty building.
The number of persons I judged to be considerable, for, although the
hum of talk was loud and continuous, I could not separate any phrases
or words nor distinguish what language was being spoken. Now and again
I caught the clank as of a metal bucket set down on a hard floor, and
the gurgle of water poured from one vessel into another; indistinct
sounds of hammering came at intervals, and once or twice I thought I
could hear the blowing of bellows.
The tight bands of rope which still encircled my arms and legs caused
me very severe pain, and the more so by reason of the swelling caused
by the blows that the ruffianly priest had dealt me, and it was
intolerably irksome to lie on the hard floor unable to change my
position in the slightest degree. So unbearable did the suffering
become that, as hour after hour passed, I began to long for the return
of my tormentors, although I felt that their arrival would be the
signal for the infliction of new tortures the very thought of which
made me shiver with horror.
For there was now no doubt of the circumstantial truth of Almeida’s
story. I had verified it step by step in every particular but one, and
the time was drawing near when I should receive the last dreadful
proof--when the awful secret of the cavern would be revealed to me.
At length, after what seemed a very eternity of misery, a faint
flickering yellow light appeared on the roof and spread to the
adjacent wall, and as it grew brighter the shadow of a man loomed
vague and gigantic, gradually dwindling in size and growing more
distinct as the light drew nearer, until there swept into my field of
view a man carrying a clay dish on which was a conical heap of shea
butter with a rush wick, forming a sort of primitive candle. He was
accompanied by two others, in one of whom I recognised my acquaintance
with the bandaged head.
The first man deposited the light on the floor beside me and the three
fell to examining me attentively with a deal of talk and disputation;
and their gestures made it easy for me to follow the gist of their
discussion, which was as to whether or not my fetters required to be
loosened. Two of the men were evidently in favour of slackening the
cords, experience having, no doubt, taught them that when tight
lashings are kept on a limb for more than a certain time, either
mortification or incurable paralysis results; and as they pointed to
my swollen hands and feet and the deep grooves in the flesh in which
the cords were embedded, they appeared to be explaining this to my old
enemy, who, for his part, was manifestly unwilling that I should be
allowed even this relief. The more reasonable and humane councils,
however, prevailed and one of the men set about making the change.
My feet were first dealt with.
The tight cord lashings having been cut through, a long strand of
grass rope was wound round each ankle, securely but not uncomfortably
tightly, and tied, and the two anklets thus formed were connected by a
short length of cord. My feet were in this manner fastened together
quite firmly but without any painful or injurious ligature. The same
process was applied to my wrists, which were brought together in front
of my body with a play of about two inches between them, and this was
a great relief after having them tied closely to my sides for so many
hours.
When this welcome change had been made, one of the men produced a
calabash with half a dozen meal balls in it, and a very small pot of
water; but my hands were too numbed from the pressure of the cords to
allow me to either feed myself or take up the water jar, so the man
placed the calabash and jar on the ground by my side, and having tied
the halter, which still remained round my neck, to a large peg in the
ground, so that I could not sit up, they went away, taking the light
with them.
I observed now that the red glow was no longer visible upon the roof,
and when the fetish-men with their light were gone, the place in which
I lay was enveloped in total darkness. The hum of conversation
continued, but the sounds indicative of labour had ceased, and I
judged that the workers were settling down to rest.
After a time the talking ceased, and then a confused sound of snoring
and heavy breathing told me that the other occupants of the cavern
were asleep.
The numbness of my hands and feet gave place by degrees to a most
intolerable tingling, but it was a long time before I could move my
fingers in the smallest degree. Still it was an immense relief to have
my arms partly free and to be able to draw my knees up and turn over
on my side; so I rejoiced in my comparative freedom, changing my
position frequently, and vigorously chafing my hands between my knees
in the hope of regaining sensation and the power of movement.
For a long time I was unsuccessful in this, and my hands continued to
be, to all appearance, quite lifeless except for the intense and
painful tingling; but at last some signs of returning animation became
evident in a slight power of stiff movement in the fingers and a
certain amount of dull sensation, giving me the feeling of having
thick gloves on my hands.
As I was suffering from intense thirst I now reached out for the water
jar, and conveying it carefully to my lips, drained it to the last
drop of the earthy-smelling water it contained. I then addressed
myself to the meal balls, which I found gritty and tasteless but very
acceptable nevertheless--so much so that I swept my fingers round the
empty calabash quite regretfully when I had finished the last one.
Being thus refreshed with food and drink I endeavoured to compose
myself for sleep, but the novel and alarming circumstances in which I
found myself were not by any means conducive to slumber. It was
impossible to banish, even for a moment, from my mind the
consciousness of my awful situation, or to lose sight of the terrible
prospect that lay before me in the immediate future. The reflection
that my misfortune was of my own deliberate seeking, so far from
comforting me, but aggravated my wretchedness, and I found myself
again and again cursing the perverse folly that had sent me on this
fool’s errand. I could not help thinking, too, with bitter
self-reproach, of the suffering that I should cause to those whom I
loved so dearly, by my insane foolhardiness. My imagination pictured
Isabel waiting and watching for news of me, and growing ever more
anxious as the months rolled by and I made no sign. Of the painful
suspense and growing dread that she and her father would feel, as
doubts as to my safety merged into the conviction that some dreadful
misfortune had overtaken me, and of the life-long, haunting grief that
would pursue them, when I did not come back, and they would think of
me--only too truly--as a maimed and miserable wretch dragging out an
existence of unvarying woe, with nothing to hope for but the merciful
stroke of an executioner’s sword.
These gloomy reflections were interrupted by the appearance of a dim
light on the roof above me, and, as I was no longer unable to move, I
turned over to see whence it came. A shaft of light was falling into
the cavern from some opening that I could not see, but presumably the
entrance, and it grew rapidly brighter. Presently a party of eight men
entered the cavern, the foremost of whom carried a flaring palm oil
lamp swinging from a chain, while another bore an earthen pot from
which a stick projected. None of these men wore any special garb, but
I recognised among them the priests who had brought me from the camp
and those who had visited me in the cavern, including the ruffian with
the bandaged head.
By the light of the lamp I could make out to some extent the nature of
the place that I was in. I could see that it was a large chamber or
gallery, of no great width, but stretching away into undistinguishable
gloom in the one direction that was visible to me; that its walls and
low roof were of the rough rock, that it was divided by massive piers
consisting of unexcavated portions of the rock, and that the ceiling
was in places strengthened by great beams, which were supported by
thick timber posts.
I obtained, too, flickering, uncertain glimpses of the objects that it
contained, such as copper buckets standing here and there and piles of
bowl-like calabashes; but my attention was more particularly attracted
by the prostrate forms of my fellow prisoners, who lay about the floor
in every attitude of weariness and repose. Poor wretches! they were at
least unconscious. Perhaps some of them were even happy at that
moment, living over again, in the shadowy land of dreams, the life of
joyous freedom that they knew, while yet their eyes could look upon
the light of heaven, and their ears were familiar with the murmur of
trees and the voices of those they loved.
They were objects of interest to the priests as well as to me, for the
sinister-looking band had evidently made this visit for the purpose of
examining the sleeping captives. I watched them curiously as they
stepped stealthily among the sleepers, lowering the lamp to let its
light glare upon the sightless, unconscious faces, and gathering round
like a pack of obscene carrion-seeking ghouls. They visited each
prisoner by turn, and held a whispered consultation over each, and
some question was evidently put to the white-headed villain who
presided over this diabolical committee, for, as he shook his head,
the party moved away to a fresh prisoner.
After they had inspected half a dozen of the prisoners they came to
one over whom they consulted longer than usual, and eventually the old
priest nodded his head. Then the man who carried the earthen pot took
from it the stick, which appeared to be covered at its lower end with
white paint of some kind, and with it made a mark on each of the
shoulders of the sleeping man, and the procession moved on to the next
prisoner.
I watched for a long time the little band of fetish-men flitting about
from one sleeping form to another. Sometimes they were hidden from me
by one of the great piers of rock, and then by the unsteady light I
scrutinised the strange interior and the dimly-seen forms of the
unconscious slaves. At one time our visitors retired to such a
distance down the gallery that I could see nothing from the alcove or
recess in which I lay but the glare of the lamp twinkling in the
darkness like some red and lurid star; but presently they came back,
having apparently made the round of the prisoners, and approached the
place where I was lying.
As they appeared to be coming to inspect me, I closed my eyes and
simulated sleep, and soon the glare of the light through my eyelids
and the sound of muttered conversation told me that the examination
was in progress.
The consultation over me was long and earnest and, although I spoke
hardly a word of the Ochwi or Ashanti language, I could make out that
they were debating as to who and what I was; and I gathered that they
were not far from the truth, for, when someone suggested “Fulani”
(Fulah), another voice, which sounded within a few inches of my face,
replied very positively, “Broni, Broni” (white man), and with this the
others seemed to agree.
I was very curious to know if I was to be among those distinguished by
the white marking, and held myself prepared to receive it without
starting; but at length the light grew fainter on my eyelids and the
voices receded, and, when I opened my eyes, the party was retreating
towards the entrance, where it vanished, leaving the cavern once more
in total darkness.
I pondered long over this mysterious visitation and what it might
portend.
That it boded no good to those eight or nine men who had been
distinguished by the white markings I had little doubt, but what its
meaning could be I was unable to conjecture, and I was still
speculating upon the subject when, in spite of my mental anxiety and
bodily discomfort, I fell asleep.