The sun was just going down to his bed in the blue Caribbean, and
tinting with a carmine-coloured light the glistening surface of the
Jumbe Rock, when a human figure was seen ascending the mountain path
that led to that noted summit.
Notwithstanding the gloom of the indigenous forest--every moment
becoming more obscure under the fast-deepening twilight--it could be
easily seen that the figure was that of a woman; while the buff
complexion of her face and naked throat, of her gloveless hands, and
shoeless and stockingless feet and ankles, proclaimed her a woman of
colour--a mulatta.
Her costume was in keeping with her caste. A frock of cotton print of
flaunting pattern, half-open at the breast: a toque of Madras kerchief
of gaudy hues--these were all she wore, excepting the chemise of
scarcely white calico, whose embroidered border showed through the
opening of her dress.
She was a woman of large form, and bold, passionate physiognomy;
possessing a countenance not altogether unlovely, though lacking in
delicacy of feature--its beauty, such as it was, being of a purely
sensual character.
Whatever errand she was on, both her step and glance bespoke courageous
resolve. It argued courage--her being upon the "Mountain," and so near
the Jumbe Rock, at that unusual hour.
But there are passions stronger than fear. Even the terror of the
supernatural fades from the heart that is benighted with love, or wrung
by jealousy. Perhaps this lone wanderer of the forest path was the
victim of one or the other?
A certain expression of nervous anxiety--at times becoming more
anguished--would have argued the latter to be the passion which was
uppermost in her mind. Love should have looked more gentle and hopeful.
Though it was evident that her errand was not one of ordinary business,
there was nothing about her to betray its exact purpose. A basket of
palm wickerwork, suspended over her wrist, appeared to be filled with
provisions: the half-closed lid permitting to be seen inside a congeries
of yams, plantains, tomatoes, and capsicums; while the legs of a
guinea-fowl protruded from the opening.
This might have argued a certain purpose--an errand to market; but the
unusual hour, the direction taken, and, above all, the air and bearing
of the mulatta, as she strode up the mountain path, forbade the
supposition that she was going to market. The Jumbe Rock was not a
likely place to find sale for a basket of provisions.
After all, she was not bound thither. On arriving within sight of the
summit, she paused upon the path; and, after looking around for a minute
or two--as if making a reconnoissance--she faced to the left, and
advanced diagonally across the flank of the mountain.
Her turning aside from the Jumbe Rock could not have been from fear: for
the direction she was now following would carry her to a place equally
dreaded by the superstitious--the Duppy's Hole.
That she was proceeding to this place was evident. There was no
distinct path leading thither, but the directness of her course, and the
confidence with which she kept it, told that she must have gone over the
ground before.
Forcing her way through the tangle of vines and branches, she strode
courageously onward--until at length she arrived on the edge of the
cliff that hemmed in the cavernous hollow.
The point where she reached it was just above the gorge--the place where
the tree stairway led down to the lagoon.
From her actions, it was evident that the way was known to her; and that
she meditated a descent into the bottom of the valley.
That she knew she could accomplish this feat of herself, and expected
some one to come to her assistance, was also evident from her proceeding
to make a signal as soon as she arrived upon the edge of the cliff.
Drawing from the bosom of her dress a small white kerchief, she spread
it open upon the branch of a tree that grew conspicuously over the
precipice; and then, resting her hand against the trunk, she stood
gazing with a fixed and earnest look upon the water below.
In the twilight, now fast-darkening down, even the white kerchief might
have remained unnoticed. The woman, however, appeared to have no
apprehension upon this head. Her gaze was expectant and full of
confidence: as if the signal had been a preconcerted one, and she was
conscious that the individual for whom it was intended would be on the
look-out.
Forewarned or not, she was not disappointed. Scarce five minutes had
transpired from the hanging out of the handkerchief, when a canoe was
seen shooting out from under the moss-garnished trees that fringed the
upper edge of the lagoon, and making for the bottom of the cliff beneath
the spot where she stood.
A single individual occupied the canoe; who, even under the sombre
shadow of the twilight, appeared to be a man of dread aspect.
He was a negro of gigantic size; though that might not have appeared as
he sat squatted in the canoe but for the extreme breadth of his
shoulders, between which was set a huge head, almost neckless. His back
was bent like a bow, presenting an enormous hunch--partly the effect of
advanced age, and partly from natural malformation. His attitude in the
canoe gave him a double stoop: so that, as he leant forward to the
paddle, his face was turned downward, as if he was regarding some object
in the bottom of the craft. His long, ape-like arms enabled him to
reach over the gunwale without bending much to either side; and only
with these did he appear to make any exertion--his body remaining
perfectly immobile.
The dress of this individual was at the same time grotesque and savage.
The only part of it which belonged to civilised fashion was a pair of
wide trousers or drawers, of coarse Osnaburgh linen--such as are worn by
the field hands on a sugar plantation. Their dirty yellowish hue told
that they had long been strangers to the laundry: while several
crimson-coloured blotches upon them proclaimed that their last wetting
had been with blood, not water.
A sort of _kaross_, or cloak, made out of the skins of the _utia_, and
hung over his shoulders, was the only other garment he wore. This,
fastened round his thick, short neck by a piece of leathern thong,
covered the whole of his body down to the hams--the Osnaburgh drawers
continuing the costume thence to his ankles.
His feet were bare. Nor needed they any protection from shoes--the
soles being thickly covered with a horn-like callosity, which extended
from the ball of the great toe to the broad heel, far protruding
backward.
The head-dress was equally _bizarre_. It was a sort of cap, constructed
out of the skin of some wild animal; and fitting closely, exhibited, in
all its phrenological fulness, the huge negro cranium which it covered.
There was no brim; but, in its place, the dried and stuffed skin of the
great yellow snake was wreathed around the temples--with the head of the
reptile in front, and two sparkling pebbles set in the sockets of its
eyes to give it the appearance of life!
The countenance of the negro did not need this terrific adornment to
inspire those who beheld it with fear. The sullen glare of his deep-set
eye balls; the broad, gaping nostrils; the teeth, filed to a point, and
gleaming, sharklike, behind his purple lips; the red tattooing upon his
cheeks and broad breast--the latter exposed by the action of his arms--
all combined in making a picture that needed no reptiliform addition to
render it hideous enough for the most horrid of purposes. It seemed to
terrify even the wild denizens of the Duppy's Hole. The heron, couching
in the sedge, flapped up with an affrighted cry; and the flamingo,
spreading her scarlet wings, rose screaming over the cliffs, and flew
far away.
Even the woman who awaited him--hold as she may have been, and voluntary
as her rendezvous appeared to be--could not help shuddering as the canoe
drew near; and for a moment she appeared irresolute, as to whether she
should trust herself in such uncanny company.
Her resolution, however, stimulated by some strong passion, soon
returned; and as the canoe swept in among the bushes at the bottom of
the cliff, and she heard the voice of its occupant summoning her to
descend, she plucked the signal from the tree, fixed the basket firmly
over her arm, and commenced letting herself down through the tangle of
branches.
The canoe re-appeared upon the open water, returning across the lagoon.
The mulatta woman was seated in the stern, the man, as before, plying
the paddle, but now exerting all his strength to prevent the light craft
from being carried down by the current, that could be heard hissing and
groaning through the gorge below.
On getting back under the tree from which he had started, the negro
corded the canoe to one of the branches; and then, scrambling upon
shore, followed by the woman, he walked on towards the temple of Obi--of
which he was himself both oracle and priest.
Volume Two, Chapter XXI.