AMOO.
Amoo, the savage who wore the amulet or coin at his neck, proved to
be the King's brother; and when first dragged to his miserable
dwelling he informed me, by signs--pointing to the earth which I was
to till, and to the trees which I was to hew--that I was to be his
obedient servant or slave, and by placing the poisoned point of his
asseguy in dangerous proximity to my throat, he menacingly indicated
that death would be the result of the least attempt at resistance or
escape.
I understood his grim pantomime in all its terrible minutiæ; but in
no way daunted thereby, resolved, whatever froward fate might have in
store for me, to leave no means untried to fly his thraldom and reach
the coast, in the hope of escaping to any vessel that might come in
sight, or anchor off the Pongos on the same unfortunate errand as the
_Princess_.
I could no longer hope that she was still there, as the chief mate,
after the lapse of a week, would suppose we were all murdered, and so
continue his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.
Amoo, though savage and exacting in the tasks he set me, was nothing
in severity when compared to his wife, for this Brave of the Rio
Serpientes had "a helpmate meet for him," who hoed his rice and
maize, shared his matted hut and couch of skins, and who scraped in
thankful silence what he was pleased to leave her after meals at the
bottom of his calibash; who shared with the house-dog his half-picked
bones, and nursed a frightful little imp about a month old. They had
three others, and Amoo doubtless fondly hoped (to quote Ossian) "they
would carry his name and fame to future times."
By an anomaly in savage life, Amoo was very much attached to his four
children, while their mother was tolerably indifferent about them,
and often forced me to carry her black bantling, which I did, with an
exhibition of all the solicitude I could assume, and with as little
disgust as possible, conceiving that if her good will and confidence
could be won, they might improve my chances of escape; but I strove
in vain, and might as well have caudled the cub of a she-bear.
My mistress was a negress of Guinea, and of unusually horrible
aspect. Her lower lip was slit, and had a long wooden peg inserted
in it so curiously, that the end thereof dangled upon her breast.
Her great ears, set high upon her woolly head, had ponderous rings of
metal, which dragged them downward to her shoulders. Her teeth were
dyed blood red by some native herb, known to the fetishers alone, and
her whole body, where revealed by her only garment--an apron of grass
matting--was covered with a species of tattooing, and always smeared
with a thick unctuous grease, in which the embedded gnats and flies
could revel undisturbed.
To eat repasts which were cooked by her odious hands excited a
loathing which hunger alone could conquer; but anxiety for the
future, and the intense heat of the atmosphere, made me generally
averse to animal food; hence I found the yams, which there grow like
turnips (and shoot out long leaves like French beans), my most
pleasant food, as I could cook them for myself, either by boiling
them in a pipkin, or roasting them among cinders. The inside is
white as flour, and sweet and dry.
For many days I lived on these, with such fruit as I could find when
at work near our wigwam, and Amoo gave me at times a little olive oil
and palm wine, but in secret, for this warrior, though fearless in
other respects, was civilized enough to be afraid of his wife.
My days were spent in hoeing yams, cutting fuel, carrying water in
calibashes, selecting long and straight reeds for baskets, or boughs
and bark to keep the wigwam water-tight. My mistress would have had
me dive into the bay in search of sea-eggs, but to this I would by no
means consent, and my refusal caused an open and standing feud
between us.
At night, in a corner of their wretched dwelling, I coiled myself up
on a panther skin, and for hours would lie awake in the dark,
revolving plans of escape. To push a passage through the wattles,
and make off under cloud of night, would have been an easy task,
could I have silenced or circumvented the herd of ferocious dogs
which guarded the town, or rather village, after sunset, and the
yells of which, on the slightest movement, raised an alarm that would
soon cause their being unleashed and let slip upon my track.
The negroes among whom I was cast worshipped the sun, the moon, and
the devil; and in many instances, with singular barbarity, offered up
their youngest children to the latter, that rain might fall in due
season to make the yams big and the bananas grow.
Amoo strove in vain to lessen the severity of his wife, who
frequently beat me with a hard club, till I grew weary of existence,
and my heart swelled with savage thoughts of revenge.
Among the glass beads, feathers, rusty nails, and other trash which
Amoo wore as a necklace, was his great amulet, a curious coin, which
he one day permitted me to examine, but which he would have yielded
up less readily than his life.
It proved to be a piece of the reign of Servius Tullius, sixth King
of the Romans, and consequently must have been more than twenty-three
centuries old. How came it there, and what was its history? So this
prize, which half the savans of Europe would have rejoiced to
possess, hung, and, for aught that I know, still hangs at the neck of
an African savage, who found it on the sea-shore.
It was several ounces in weight, and bore on one side the head of
Minerva, on the other an ox, as plain as if struck yesterday; and
accoutred with this "great medicine," Amoo rushed fearlessly to
encounter alike human enemies and the wild beasts of the forests
which bordered the Gabon and the River of Snakes.
In the course of three weeks I picked up several words of the native
language, which is full of rather musical sounds, as most of the
words end in a vowel. The desire for escape added to the care with
which I studied it.
One day when Amoo, with other savages, was hunting in the forest, and
his better half was paddling about in her canoe on the river fishing,
she suddenly uttered a shrill yell, which arrested me at my work
among the yams, where I was hoeing under a broiling sun.
She was only about forty yards from me, and was pointing frantically
to a huge baboon, which had squatted itself close by where her
youngest child was asleep, under two large plantain leaves, the stems
of which had been stuck in the turf as a species of sun-shade.
The baboon was of the ursine species, larger than a Newfoundland dog,
and though common enough in South Africa, I now beheld it for the
first time. It was a hideous brute, covered with shaggy brown hair,
except on the hind feet and hands, for its forepaws are literally
_hands_, and bare as a man's, being constantly employed in climbing
rocks and trees, pulling fruit, or grubbing up roots and esculents
for food. Its head resembled that of a dog, but its hind feet were
rather human in form.
These baboons are so strong and bold, that they will attack a leopard
or hyæna, and by their teeth, which are an inch-and-a-half long, and
their sharp fore-claws, can rend the throat and jugular vein with
ferocious dexterity.
The woman uttered yell after yell, and pointing to her nursling with
one hand, paddled vigorously towards the shore with the other, while
I gazed at her with irresolution; thus, before either of us could
come to the rescue, the grisly she-baboon had snatched it up and
bounded into the forest!
Though I had no great love for the tribe of the Rio Serpientes, the
natural impulses of humanity, together with a dread of the vengeance
that might fall upon me for neglect, caused me instantly to rush away
in pursuit.