Progress in Ostrich Discipline--Efficacy of
Tobacco Smoke--Hydromel--The New
Hat--Pottery
The day after our arrival at Felsenheim, my wife commenced “cleaning
house.” Windows were opened, beds aired, and all swept and garnished.
While she and the two younger boys were thus employed, I, with the
two elder, unpacked and distributed the riches we had brought home.
We had tied the ostrich, at first, under a tree, and securely
fastened his feet; but we changed his situation, and tied him to one
of the strong bamboo columns that supported the gallery.
We next visited the eggs, and they were, like the first, submitted
to the trial of warm water. Several of them fell heavily to the
bottom; but three or four moved slightly when immersed in the water,
and these were carefully preserved, in order that we might try the
experiment of hatching them by cotton and artificial heat. For this
purpose I constructed an oven, in which I took care to maintain that
degree of heat which the thermometer marked as being the natural heat
of the hen.
We then installed our Angora rabbits on Shark Island; we constructed
a burrow in the ground, similar to those of Europe, and, before
putting them in, we combed them, and removed all the superfluous
hair. We also fixed wooden combs over the entrance of each burrow, so
that the rabbits, when passing in or out, would be deprived of some
part of their fine wool, which I intended to manufacture into hats.
The two antelopes were also transported to Shark Island. We should
have liked very much to keep these charming little creatures about
us, but the fear of the dogs and beasts of prey forced us to condemn
the timid creatures to confinement. In order to render their exile as
agreeable as possible, I erected a hut in the middle of the island,
to shelter them, and we took good care to provide them with plenty of
provisions.
I wished, before the rains came on, to prepare a field to receive
the seeds we had hitherto confided to the earth without any order
or regularity. It was a difficult enterprise, and we felt in all
its reality the force of that law which condemned man to gain his
bread by the sweat of his brow. Our faithful animals were of much
assistance to us; but the sun was so intense that the slightest
labour utterly exhausted them. We could work but four hours in
the day: two in the morning and two in the evening; we were able,
however, to prepare at last about two acres of land, which would
furnish us an ample harvest of maize, potatoes, and manioc-root.
During the intervals of our fatiguing field labours, we occupied
ourselves by beginning the education of the ostrich. It was an
enterprise as difficult as it was novel; but I had read that it could
be accomplished, and I was resolved to try it.
Our pupil began by putting himself in a terrible passion; he
struggled, snapped at us with his beak, and cut up all sorts of
capers; but we could find no better remedy for such conduct than to
treat him as we had treated Fritz’s eagle, that was, by burning
tobacco under his nose. This had the desired effect, and we soon saw
the majestic bird totter and fall insensible to the ground. We had
recourse to this plan several times. Little by little we relaxed
the cord which fastened it to the bamboo post, and gave it room to
wander about the doorway. A litter of rushes was provided for him;
calabashes filled with sweet nuts, rice, maize, and guavas were
placed every day before the animal; in a word, we neglected nothing
that we thought would consort with the fellow’s taste.
During three days all our cares were in vain: our choice dishes were
regarded with great disdain, the beautiful captive would not eat, and
it carried its obstinacy so far that at last I was seriously afraid
of the consequences. At last an idea occurred to my wife, which
relieved us from all embarrassment. It was to poke down the throat of
the bird, willy nilly, balls of maize and butter. The ostrich made
horrible faces at first, but when it got a taste of the balls, all
trouble on that point was over, and the delicacies we placed before
it were quickly devoured, the guavas, by the bye, being especially
favoured.
The natural savageness of the bird disappeared more and more every
day; it would let us approach it without striking at us, and after
some days we thought we could, without much risk, unfasten it, to
take a short lesson in the art of walking. We placed it between the
buffalo and the bull, and put it through all the exercises of the
stable--to trot, to gallop, stop short, trot again, walk slow, etc.
I cannot say that the poor bird relished his first lesson very much,
but the tobacco pipe and the whip were two admirable instructors, and
when he was disposed to become unruly a whiff of tobacco would set
all to rights.
At the end of the month its education was complete, and it had so
well succeeded that I now seriously thought of making our new
conquest of general usefulness. I wished it to associate with our
domestic animals, to submit like them to regular movements, and to
stop and march as we wished. The first thing that was to be thought
of was a bit; but how could I contrive a bit for a beak? I had never
seen one, and I must confess that I felt greatly embarrassed; at last
I achieved my task. I had remarked that the absence of light had a
very direct influence upon the ostrich; it would stop short when
blindfolded, and could not be induced to move until its eyes were
uncovered. This discovery was the basis of the new invention that
I constructed. I made, with the skin of a sea-dog, a sort of hood,
like the one we had made for the eagle, which covered the head, being
fastened about the neck. I made two openings in the side of this
hood, one opposite each eye, and covered each of these holes with one
of our little turtle-shells, attached to a whale-bone spring, fixed
in such a manner that it would open and shut. Reins were fastened to
these springs, so that, by their action, we could admit the light
or shut it out, just as we pleased. When the two shells were open,
the ostrich galloped straight on; when one was opened, it went in a
direction corresponding with the eye that received light, and when
both shells were shut, it would stop short. The most fully trained
horse could not have obeyed better than our ostrich did under his
novel head-dress.
My children thought that the education of our captive was now
complete; but I was of a different opinion. The ostrich is a very
robust animal, and capable of supporting a great deal of fatigue.
I wished it to learn to carry burdens, to draw a carriage, and be
adapted for horsemanship; I began, consequently, to make harness
for each of these occupations. We had a great deal of difficulty in
making the ostrich submit to our wishes; our hardest task was
to make it submit to our mounting it; but I knew that patience and
perseverance are the two first elements of success in imparting
education. I was not, therefore, discouraged, and at last we had the
satisfaction to see our new courser galloping between Felsenheim and
Falcon’s Nest with one of our young cavaliers mounted on his back.
[Illustration: “With one of our young cavaliers mounted on his back.”]
The artificial nest of ostrich eggs, which we had enveloped in
cotton, and placed in a stove, had succeeded; that is to say,
out of six eggs, three had hatched. The young ostriches were the
drollest-looking animals that could be imagined: they looked like
ducks, mounted on long legs, and they tottered awkwardly about on
their slender stilts. One died the day after its birth; the two
others survived, and we endeavoured to preserve them by taking all
possible care for their comfort. Maize, acorns, boiled rice, milk,
and cassava, were set before them in rich profusion.
We had had nothing to drink but water since our arrival on the
island, if I except the barrel of Cape wine that we had saved from
the shipwreck; but that had long ago been exhausted, and I now
determined to make some sort of drink for the winter.
I had often heard of the hydromel of the Russians; we had the primary
material, honey, from our hives, and I determined to make the
experiment. We boiled some honey in a sufficient quantity of water,
and after having filled two barrels with the fluid, I threw in a
large cake of sour corn bread, to make the liquor ferment; when that
process was finished, we tasted it, and found it was of a pleasant
flavour, agreeably acid, and a great resource for our long winter
days. We placed the two tuns in our cellar, or, to speak more justly,
in the hole we had dignified by that name. We then set to work and
made a choicer drink than the first: to our honey and water we added
nutmegs, ravensara, and, in short, a collection of all the aromatic
plants we could find. This drink was reserved for extraordinary
occasions, such as holiday banquets, anniversaries, etc.
When all our provisions were gathered in, and we felt sure that
we could get through the winter without famine overtaking us, we
commenced our manufacture of hats. It was a labour as difficult as
novel for us. The first question that presented itself was the form
of our hats; each one gave in his opinion, but necessity came into
the council, and obliged us to give our new manufacture the form most
in unison with our means of execution. It was extremely simple: I cut
a wooden head, which divided into two parts, and on which we spread
a thick layer of soft paste, composed of rat-skin and the glue of
fishes. We let it dry, and as it took the exact impress of the mould,
we obtained a sort of cap, of which my readers can form some idea of
the shape.
It had cost us a great deal of trouble to produce even this
ill-looking affair. My sons were scarcely less satisfied with it than
I was; but our European hats were so dilapidated that it became a
matter of necessity to procure something to replace them.
I now had recourse to the cochineal, and I soon gave to our beaver a
beautiful brilliant purple tint. The hat looked better; I adorned it
with a couple of ostrich-plumes, and it looked better still; my wife
passed a ribbon round it, which she had found in her enchanted sack,
and the disdain with which my poor beaver had been received, was
changed into anxious requests for its possession.
But its destination had been fixed beforehand: it belonged to Francis
by right, as he had lost his old hat a few days before.
Our success in the manufacture of hats emboldened us to try our hand
at other things. We were much in want of kitchen utensils, and I was
obliged to pass from the art of hat-making to that of potter.
I did not understand much about pottery; and what puzzled me most was
the way in which the earth was to be prepared before using it; and I
began my experiments with very little hope of their ever succeeding.
I constructed, in one corner of the grotto, a large stove, divided
into compartments, destined to receive the different articles;
earthen pipes were conducted all around, so as to equalize the heat
as much as possible. These preparations occupied me a long time, as
I had no idea how the thing should be done, and I can safely say I
invented rather than imitated a furnace for pottery.
I next took a certain quantity of the porcelain earth, which very
much resembled fine white sand. I carefully removed all foreign
particles, such as bits of stone, etc., as I was afraid they would
cut our hands while working the porcelain. I also mixed a quantity
of the talc we had brought home for window-panes, thinking, perhaps,
it would render the mixture more firm and solid. When all was well
worked up together, I left it a little while to dry, while I set
to work to invent a machine for turning our utensils on. The wheel
of one of our cannon carriages, fixed horizontally on a pivot and
surmounted by another wheel, united to it by an axle and turning with
it, formed my machine. I first turned out some plates and dishes,
cups and saucers, bowls, and other things. I exposed these articles
to a very strong heat: a great many broke in pieces, but I completed
about half. When baked they were perfectly transparent and of the
most beautiful grain. My wife saw her kitchen apparatus enriched with
utensils of all sorts, and, overwhelmed with joy, she promised us,
in exchange, numberless good dainties, which, for want of a suitable
utensil, she had hitherto been unable to make.