THE HYRAX AND THE ELEPHANT
The returning caravan brought new people to the village. It had met an
Arab trader coming up the river with his porters and some armed men for
a bodyguard. The Arab could speak a little Bantu, and the language he
talked to his men was a dialect called Swahili, which is something like
Bantu and is spoken by most of the traders. When he saw the villagers’
rubber and palm oil and heard about their country, he seemed much
interested, and wished to try their markets. He seemed very glad of
their company on the journey.
When he showed his wares, there was great excitement in the village. He
had brass rods, of course, and glass bottles of perfumery that smelled
stronger than a whole tree in blossom. The bottles themselves would
do to make into bangles; some of the Bantu tribes understood how to
melt glass and make it into ornaments. He had little bright mirrors,
gay cloth, and knives that were more shiny and attractive than any the
people had seen, though Nkula’s father said that they were not very
sharp. The trader wore clothes all over him, and a white cloth on his
head; in the sash round his waist were stuck strange weapons, and he
did not eat as they did in the village. He had his own cook.
The Alo Man did not say much about the trader, and he was polite enough
to him; but Mpoko felt sure that he did not like the stranger. It is
possible to say many things without words.
As time went on, pleasant as it was to see all these new things and
share in the presents the trader gave, Nkunda and some of the other
children began to wish he would go away soon. Everybody was so cross
in these days that there was no comfort in living. Even the mother of
Mpoko and Nkunda, who was usually very gentle and kind, had said sharp
words now and then. In some of the other families the mothers whipped
the children all round with no excuse whatever.
When the trader and his men had gone to the Nkenge market, two days’
journey away, every one was glad to hear the drum sound after supper
for a dance and some story-telling. Mpoko climbed up in the big tree
under which the chief held his councils and gave his judgments, to get
a better view of the dancing. When that was over and the story began,
he let himself down to a lower branch, and lay along it like a little
tree animal. He was almost as much at home in the trees as on the
ground. Sometimes he would go up to the very tiptop of some giant of
the forest and perch among the cool green leaves, looking out over the
great green sea of tree tops and tree ferns beneath him, and thinking.
[Illustration]
Tonight the story was about the Elephant and the Hyrax. One of the
hunters that day had brought home a hyrax from the rocky hillside
where he had been hunting, and that may have been what reminded the
Alo Man of the story. The hyrax is a little beast about as big as a
rabbit and something like one, but with ears like a guinea pig; and
although neither the story-teller nor his listeners knew it, he is a
very distant cousin of the rhinoceros, the elephant, and the other
thick-skinned animals. But he has no tusks or horns, and he wears a
coat of grayish-brown fur, and hides in holes among the rocks.
* * * * *
In the days when all the animals lived in villages and owned
plantations [began the Alo Man], there were a Hyrax and his wife who
had a little son. Father Hyrax was so proud of his baby that he told
Mother Hyrax to ask for anything she liked and she should have it.
“I should like the skin of an Elephant,” said she, for she thought that
her husband could do anything.
The Hyrax did not know what to say to this astonishing request, but
he knew that if he did not keep his word to his wife she would have
no respect for him. At last he went to a very old Hyrax whose fur
was entirely white and who lived in a den by himself far up on the
mountain, and asked his advice.
“It is almost harvest time,” said the very old Hyrax when he had heard
the story. “Go and ask the Earthworm, the Cock, the Cat, the Dog, the
Hyena, the Leopard, and the Elephant to come and help you with your
harvest. When they come, you will see what to do.”
“I do not understand,” said the Hyrax.
“No matter,” said the very old Hyrax. “Do as I tell you, and all will
be well.”
The Hyrax did exactly as he had been told, and asked all the creatures
to come and help him with his harvest. All promised to come. Then he
went home and waited.
Early in the morning the Earthworm came with his spear and his hoe and
went to work. Next the Cock appeared with his spear and his hoe.
“Is any one here?” asked the Cock.
“The Earthworm has come. He is at work over there,” said the Hyrax.
“He will make a fine breakfast for me,” said the Cock, and he gobbled
the Earthworm and went to work.
Then the Cat came with his spear and his hoe.
“Is any one here?” asked the Cat.
“The Cock is here. He is at work yonder,” said the Hyrax.
“He will make a good meal for me,” said the Cat, and he pounced on the
Cock and ate him up, and then went to work.
Then the Dog appeared with his spear and his hoe.
“Is any one here?” asked the Dog.
“The Cat is here. He is already at work,” said the Hyrax.
“He will make a good dinner for me,” said the Dog, and he grabbed the
Cat and ate him up, and went to work.
The Hyena came next, and he ate the Dog. The Leopard came next, and he
ate the Hyena. Last of all came the Elephant with his spear and his hoe.
“Is any one here?” asked the Elephant.
“The Leopard is here and is at work yonder,” said the Hyrax.
“Did any one come before the Leopard?” inquired the Elephant.
“The Hyena.”
“And before the Hyena?”
“The Dog.”
“And before the Dog?”
“The Cat.”
“And before the Cat?”
“The Cock.”
“And before the Cock?”
“The Earthworm.”
The Elephant looked about and did not see any of these other animals.
“What became of the Earthworm?” he asked.
“The Cock ate him.”
“And what became of the Cock?”
“The Cat ate him.”
“And what became of the Cat?”
“The Dog ate him.”
“And what became of the Dog?”
“The Hyena ate him.”
“And what became of the Hyena?”
“The Leopard ate him.”
The Elephant looked at the Leopard at work in the field.
“Then,” he said, “I must eat the Leopard or I shall not be respected by
all the other animals. But if I am to do this I must come up behind him
and strike him with my trunk.”
The Hyrax remembered something.
“Come with me,” he said, “and I will show you a way to go round behind
the Leopard without his seeing you.”
Then he led the Elephant along a path in the middle of which was a deep
hole among the rocks, and in the bottom of the hole was a sharp stake,
and over the hole was a great mass of underbrush and vines and grass,
all matted together. The Elephant stepped on it and fell down into the
pit on the sharp stake and was killed. Then the Hyrax climbed down into
the pit and skinned him, and brought the skin home to his wife.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
All the people laughed and clapped their hands and said that the story
was a good story, and some of them began to sing and dance again. Mpoko
climbed a little farther up among the boughs, crooked his arms and legs
around them so that he could sit comfortably, and thought about the
story. It was not so wonderful that the Hyrax had killed the Elephant.
Not long before the hunters of the village had done almost the same
thing. It struck Mpoko that in almost all the stories the little animal
got the best of the bigger ones by wise planning. While he was thinking
it over, he went to sleep. When he awoke, later in the evening, most of
the people had gone into their huts, and his father with some of the
older men sat under the tree talking.
“I am not much like the Hyrax, for I am in a trap myself,” thought
Mpoko, in disgust. “If I get down, they will think I have been
listening and they will certainly make me eat whip. If I keep still
until they go away and then get down, I shall not be beaten unless I
tell what I hear, and I shall be very careful not to do that. This is a
time for the wise man to stay behind the hedge of thorns,”--which was
one of the Alo Man’s proverbs. It means to keep your tongue behind your
teeth.
The boy lay along the bough, as flat as a squirrel or a lizard, while
the palaver went on. He did not expect to hear anything interesting. It
would probably be talk about the crops, or the things to be bought at
the next market, or some such matter. But it proved to be a terribly
fascinating discussion. Mpoko kept stiller than ever as he listened. He
did not know what would happen to him if he should be found there.
The chief and his old men were worried over the trader’s doings. In
some of his glass bottles he had strong drink which took away a man’s
sense and made him quarrelsome and silly. “Drink beer, think beer,” the
Bantu proverb says; but this was something much worse than any of the
mild drinks made by the natives. Even a little of it would lead a man
to make the most foolish bargains and tell whatever he knew. The trader
was spoiling the country, they said.
Then the Alo Man spoke, and he had an even more dreadful thing to tell.
He had once seen this trader coming in from a wild country with about
twenty slaves, forked limbs over their necks, chained to one another
and guarded by armed men. These men carried weapons which could kill
from a distance with a great noise. The trader’s bodyguard had them,
and might have more hidden among their wares.
This was the worst possible news. All the people knew what slave raids
were. They had lived in fear of Tswki for years and years for this
very reason. His army was so strong that he had from time to time come
over the mountain and burned a village and carried off men, women, and
children to a far country where they would never see their own people
again. But for some time now Tswki had let them alone. The Alo Man had
heard that in the country beyond Tswki’s country there were new rulers
and new laws, punishing all who took or sold slaves. If this were so,
it would keep Tswki from selling any captives he might take, and would
make him afraid to raid the villages of his neighbors.
But the village could not send a messenger across Tswki’s country to
these new rulers to get help, even if there were time. The trader might
have many more men coming to help him. His boat, or dhow, was probably
hidden somewhere down the river, and when he had got his slaves he
would put them on board and go away. Even if they warned the other
villages and all the fighting men joined to drive him off, he could
kill them much faster than they could kill his men, with his strange
weapons. And finally, if any such fight happened, Tswki would hear of
it and might come over the mountain to help the trader and get their
country for himself.
It was a very bad situation, and it looked worse and worse to them the
longer they talked. The only hopeful fact in sight was that the trader
did not seem to know anything about Tswki. If he had known, he would
probably have gone to that chief in the beginning, to buy slaves and to
secure his help in getting more. Yet by this time he might have heard
almost anything from the men who had sold their good rubber and oil and
provisions for his bottles of trade gin.
Plan after plan was suggested, and there was something wrong with each
one. At last the men separated and went each to his own hut, all but
the Alo Man, who still sat there in the deep shadow, thinking. Mpoko
slid very cautiously down on the far side of the tree, but just as he
reached the ground the Alo Man spoke his name in a low tone. Then Mpoko
knew that the Alo Man had seen him, but that no one else had.
“I went to sleep in the tree,” he said sheepishly.
“You had better forget what you heard,” said the Alo Man.
Mpoko lingered, digging one bare brown toe into the earth.
“Uncle,” he said, “we are like the Hyrax who had to trap the Elephant.”
After a pause he added, “The Hyrax did it.”
The Alo Man gave Mpoko a quick glance, pleased and surprised and
interested. “What is inside your mind, Mpoko?” he asked.
“This,” said Mpoko. “There is a deep elephant pit on the trail over
the mountain to Tswki’s country. The hunters found it when they were
chasing the hyrax today. Tswki has much ivory, and the trader loves
ivory. He asks about it all the time.”
The Alo Man’s mind began to link itself with Mpoko’s as one monkey
swinging through the tree tops catches the paw of another. “Go on, my
son,” he said.
“We are a little people,” said Mpoko. “We cannot fight the trader. But
Tswki could, and he would do it if he were angry. If the trader came to
take his ivory, Tswki would be very angry. The trader has many men to
serve him. But if they were in the elephant pit, they could not serve
him.”
“Eh-eh-eh-eh!” chuckled the Alo Man, as a plan dawned upon him. “You
are as wise as the very old Hyrax himself. Go now to sleep, or your
head in the morning will be as white as his.”
Mpoko was not sure whether the Alo Man really thought his ideas worth
anything, or not. But on the next day there was another and a better
palaver, and a plan was worked out by the chief and the Alo Man and the
wisest of the old men, in which Mpoko, as was only right, had a chance
to do his part.
Word went out to all the friendly villages to watch the river for any
sign of strange boats or men. When the Arab trader came back from the
market, the river villages knew exactly what they were going to do.
The Arab had planned to take each village by itself, beginning with
this one, attack the people suddenly by night, kill all who were not
able to travel, and send the others down with a guard to the place
where his boat was waiting. Before the news of the raids had gone out
so that the people of the country could resist him, he would be away.
But now he began to hear stories of a chief on the other side of the
mountain who had much ivory. Slaves, in the trade slang, were called
“black ivory,” but this ivory was the real kind--solid elephant tusks.
It struck the trader that if he could get this ivory and make his new
slaves carry it, this would turn out to be a very profitable trip
indeed.
The question was, how to get the ivory. From all accounts Tswki was a
strong, fierce chief, and it might be dangerous to go into his country
with as small a force as the trader had. The Arab had not enough goods
to pay for very much ivory, and he did not wish to pay for it if he
could get it without paying. He might catch his slaves and go down to
the coast, and come back with a larger party of armed men; but after
slave raiding here once it would not be nearly so easy to travel
through the country again. He thought of trying to get the people of
the river villages to join him in raiding Tswki’s country, but they
all seemed so afraid of that chief that he did not believe they would
do it. He kept asking questions about the ivory, and by the time he
had finished trading and was ready to go back down the river, he had
heard so much about it that he dreamed of it every night. He felt that
somehow or other he must have that ivory or he would be sorry to the
end of his days.