The next day was what the boys called African day; that is, they
intended to see all that was to be seen from Dahomey to Nubia and
Soudan. Fanny was to spend the morning in the panoramas of the Burnese
Alps and the volcano Kilaueau. At noon she would meet them at one of the
inns.
The boys wandered about for some time in search of adventure. Over in
the street of Cairo there were two peculiar structures that looked like
inverted soup-bowls. There was a three cornered aperture In the front of
each where men and women could be seen crawling in and out. Over one of
these doors was a placard on which was painted, "See the 18 months old
Soudanese baby dance. The only dance of the kind on earth." Over the
door of the other one was a placard on which was printed "Only 25c to
see the great Nubian terpsichorean evolutions." Two or three men would
come up, stand awhile and listen at the curious sounds from within,
resembling very much the noise made by a pack of curs after a rabbit
they did not hope to catch; or, perhaps, more like a plantation jamboree
when all the strings of the banjo were broken but one and it had been
mended twice.
The people came to see the sights, and here was a mysterious something
they might regret a lifetime in the missing. Our two boys required no
mental balancing of any nice points of propriety. It was there to see,
and they had the money to see it with. What more was wanting? Nothing
but to exchange the fee for the yellow ticket and present it to the
saffron-hued keeper of the door. The little half space alloted to
visitors inside was crowded, but the two boys were soon at the front.
This was the Nubian's place. There were two men, two women and two
little girls. All had what seemed very much like bed-sheets wrapped
closely around them. The older girl, according to Johnny's estimate, was
six inches through and about five feet tall. One of the men had a belt
made of goat hoofs. He danced around awhile and then held out his hat
for voluntary contributions. A number of nickels and dimes went in, and
then a vigorous dancing commenced. The dance consisted in all jumping
straight up and down as stiff-legged and as high as possible. The hat
went round again, and the pennies and nickels came in by handfuls. This
made them wild in their desire to give value received, and they jumped
higher and higher, faster and faster. Sometimes they forgot that they
were in Chicago and neglected to attend to the sheet with dexterity. But
when people are in Nubia they are supposed to do as the Nubians do and
not regard these little negligences. Some of the women went out, but
Johnny and Louis stayed in; and they kept staying like a small boy at a
free phonograph. They were studying Nubians.
After being satiated with knowledge, they remembered that there was a
Soudanese baby dance, the only one of its kind on earth. They might be
missing something. Then they wanted out.
In the next place they saw the same kind of people and the same dance.
True, there was a baby eating some candy in the back of the hut, but its
jaws did all the dancing for it. This was a swindle which the boys would
not further encourage by their presence, and they withdrew.
From this they went over to the Dahomey village. Like all Gaul, Dahomey
is divided into three parts, whereof Monsieur and his staff inhabit one,
his warriors a second, and his amazons a third. The amazons are twenty
in number and for the most part are occupied in the pursuit of keeping
their pickaninnies from making mud pies with the drinking water. They
live in a row of long, low huts thatched with palm leaves.
[Illustration: "THE TINT OF A NEWLY BLACKED PAIR OF OXFORDS."]
A rail runs in front of the huts and a board sidewalk, on which the
amazons squat to perform their toilets, mainly consisting of the
application of greasy combs to the half inch of wool accorded them by
their Creator to serve the purpose of hair.
Day and night they oil themselves. Other times they oil one another.
Their shining bodies reflect the glory of the noonday sun. Their
complexions when their toilets are fully complete approach patent
leather. Other times they stop short at the tint of a newly blacked pair
of Oxfords.
Inside the huts the amazons betake themselves to arts of peace. A tall
woman, clad in a striped loin cloth, was rubbing corn between two big
stones in a firm faith that eventually it would become meal. The miller
is the curiosity of the realm, for she only has two husbands, both of
whom, however, she saw fit to leave behind her in Africa to mind the
babies. In Dahomey the hand that rocks the cradle does not bother about
ruling the world. Woman has her rights with a vengeance among those
people and man has fully recognized her fighting qualities.
[Illustration: "HE GAVE A YELL THAT COULD BE HEARD TO THE BEAUTY SHOW."]
They found the village tightly enclosed in a high board fence. Then
began a vigorous search for knot-holes. But every opening they found had
the walls of a hut before it. At last they were partially rewarded by
discovering a fault in one of the boards where they could see past one
of the huts into the enclosure. Half a dozen of the backs of men and
women could be seen about ten steps from the fence. The people would
bend over out of sight and then back again. All kinds of conjectures
came to the boys. Louis suggested that they were "shootin' craps."
Johnny thought they were doing some kind of a religious ceremony. The
pressure of curiosity became too great to be endured. They went around
the corner and discovered that there was not a single guard in sight.
Johnny was standing the expenses, and Louis was generous enough to
propose that some means be secured to elevate Johnny to the top of the
fence. No more intense brain work was expended on the Ferris wheel than
these two boys gave to the proposed elevation. It took mechanical skill
of the highest order, for the management had provided for these
emergencies, and there was nothing in sight to help them. But necessity
kindly became again the mother of invention. There was a small tool
chest a short distance down the back fence waiting for the wagon to take
it away. It evidently contained no tools, for it was quite light, and
the boys soon had it set on end against the fence. Louis got on top of
this and was able by tip-toeing to get an occasional glimpse over. But
not long enough to reach any conclusions as to the mysterious ceremonies
transpiring within. Louis caught hold of the top of the fence firmly and
told Johnny to climb up over his back. The natives were too intent at
their work to see him, and he got astride of the fence without any
difficulty, but in such a position that he could not see what was going
on. The eaves of the conical shaped hut were almost in reach. He moved
back a little and put his hand on the roof to steady himself. But, alas,
the roof was dried palm leaves, and instead of supporting him his hand
plunged through and before he could recover himself he fell crashing
over against the house, held there for a moment as in despair and then
with an armful of the hut held tight to his breast he fell headlong to
the ground. The excited natives in all styles of dress, from the
voluptuous mother hubbard, much abbreviated above and below to the heavy
slouch hat and military overcoat, all crowded around him in the belief
that somehow he was intending to destroy their domestic happiness.
Johnny did not know in what form the attack was coming and as he could
not turn over to get up without touching one of the natives he concluded
it wisest to lie still on his back with the portion of the hut which he
had brought down with him, remaining over him for protection. Louis gave
a mighty jump upward and got his elbows over the top of the fence. He
drew himself up enough to see Johnny lying on his back so still and the
natives gathered around him gesticulating wildly and talking in a very
excited manner. The sight was enough. Certainly, his friend was dead. He
gave a yell that could be heard to the beauty show, and jumped down to
the ground, calling for the police at the top of his voice. The natives
hearing the noise, supposed there was a plot to murder them all, and one
got a long-handled rake some workman had left and began to pull the
grass off of the prostrate Johnny. Meantime, the frantic explanations of
Louis that the Dahomeys were murdering his friend brought a greater and
greater crowd to the corner of the enclosure. A number of guards came
up, but they had no key and no authority to break into the village. Some
policemen came up, but they were either powerless or could not
comprehend. No one had seen the accident, and Louis was fast becoming
incoherent in his oft repeated explanations. Meanwhile the crowd grew
larger and larger, till hundreds were gathered together. All the
Plaisance was coming to see what extraordinary affair was taking place.
When all the debris was pulled off of Johnny he concluded to get up. He
tried to make them understand that he wanted out, but they could not get
his meaning, for he was so bewildered that he was pointing in another
direction from the gate. At last one seemed to comprehend, and he ran as
fast as he could go to one of the huts toward which Johnny seemed to
point, and returned leading one of the damsels of the place who, from
gorgeousness of native modesty, seemed to be the belle of the village.
The native evidently thought that Johnny was in love with the girl, and
that he had taken this unceremonious method as the last desperate chance
of his life to obtain her. The native was presenting her to him with all
his natural suaveness, and was apparently offering him the freedom of
the town, when the gate opened and two officers rushed in. One of them
took Johnny by the ear and led him outside. People were packed about the
place in enormous masses, and every available fence or elevation was
utilized by the crowd struggling to see. A dozen or more policemen were
outside endeavoring to handle the mass of people. It took half an hour
for them to make a way to get John to the outside. When they saw Johnny,
a great shout was set up, but it only added to the fright that already
possessed Johnny's whole mind.
All sorts of stories were afloat among the people. Some said the
Dahomeys had captured a boy the night before and were just on the eve of
sacrificing him to their idols when a policeman got track of what was
going on. As some policemen passed this part of the crowd they were
cheered, cheer on cheer, for their keenness and bravery in rescuing an
American from such a fate. Others, who claimed to know, said it was
worse even than that, for one of the policemen had confided to him that
the Dahomey people were about to practice canabalism and had secured
the boy in order to eat him. A number were sure that this would cause
our government to have these people sent back to Dahomey and as they
were under the French government and were brought here by French people
it would probably lead to an open rupture between the two republics and
perhaps involve all Europe in a struggle for national existence.
The reporters ran the rumors down to the very last prophecy and sent
post-haste their scoops to their respective papers and a wave of
indignation swept the entire country that canabalism came so near being
enacted in the very midst of the greatest enterprise of modern
civilization.
The name of the boy could not be learned, nor anybody found who knew
anything about him, but there were thousands of people who were
witnesses of the rescue and bore testimony of how near our nation came
of being disgraced forever. The policemen knew nothing about it. All
they could say was that they found the boy surrounded by the natives,
and they since remembered that he seemed too terrified to speak, and the
natives were greatly excited at the presence of the officers. They had
taken the boy to the outside of the crowd and let him go. The natives
themselves could give only a confused account of how they had heard a
noise and had seen the boy lying near one of the huts on his back and
covered with material torn from the roof of one of the huts. Their story
was evidently absurd. Meantime the delivery wagon had taken the tool
chest away and thus destroyed the only evidence that might have cleared
up the case. The fence was too high for the boy to climb over, and the
Columbian guards detailed to that section swore they always kept the
whole village in view, and it was impossible for the boy to have got
over the fence without being seen by them. Like the great wave of the
sea that breaks into a million pieces as it strikes the shore, so this
great question resolved itself into a thousand theories, and at last
lived in the memory of the people only as the great mystery of Midway
Plaisance.
_CHAPTER XII_