Instantly the tiny people of the Wambutti, none of whom reached higher
than my waist, scampered back into the undergrowth, startled by my
unearthly yells, but at the same moment Yakul jumped to his feet in
alarm, an arrow in his bow.
"Why hast thou given warning?" he cried, glancing at me. "What hideous
shape hath frightened thee?"
"See! in yonder bushes, the pigmies are lurking," I gasped in alarm,
pointing to the spot where they had concealed themselves.
"How didst thou detect their presence?" he inquired.
"I watched them."
Turning towards the thick bushes, the savage chieftain shouted some
words in a tongue unknown to me, and next second the impish little
denizens of the forest depths sprang from their hiding-places, and
recognising their friend, came crowding around, dancing and greeting us
effusively.
Briefly Yakul explained our position. His eyes were fire; his passion
for his slaughtered and enslaved race, and his passion for revenge, were
as the lode-star of his life. After consultation, the hunters of the
Wambutti relit our fire by rubbing two sticks together, and squatted
around it, laughing and chattering in their strange language until the
grey light, glimmering through the tall trees, told us that dawn had
come. Times innumerable had the Avejeli assisted the dwarfs against the
raiding dwellers on the grasslands and on the river banks. The
yellow-complexioned pigmies, dwelling as they do deep in the
impenetrable depths of the boundless Forest of Perpetual Night, are
formidable enemies, for they conceal themselves so cleverly that their
arrows and spears pierce the intruder before he is aware of their
presence. As hunters, these little-known men stand first among the
pagan tribes of Central Africa, and in return for food and bark-cloth
supply the neighbouring tribes with quantities of ivory, and the
deadliest of arrow poisons. Their complexions are much lighter than the
dwellers by the river or on the plains, and their villages are mere
collections of tiny huts that appear like little straw-covered mounds
placed in the centre of a forest clearing.
At first our weird little friends seemed inclined to regard me with
considerable distrust, but on Yakul's assurance that I was no ally of
Tippu-Tib's, their distrust gave place to curiosity as to my purpose in
travelling through the forest. Yakul reminded them of the promise of
assistance they had many times given him, and told them of my mission;
whereupon, after consultation with their headman, they consented--not,
however, without some reluctance--to guide us towards the Land of the
Myriad Mysteries; and after re-arranging their elephant-trap into which
we had fallen, our fire was extinguished and we struck camp, turning our
faces in a north-easterly direction. Through a great, gloomy tract of
primeval forest, where the foliage was so dense that scarcely a ray of
light could struggle through to illuminate our weary footsteps, we
passed over marshy ground, where poisonous vapours hung undisturbed by
the faintest breath of air, and where neither animals nor birds could
live; on over the decaying vegetation of centuries; on, day after day,
now scrambling over fallen giants of the forest, and ever and anon
sinking knee-deep in quagmires of foetid slime. Often we struck an
elephant track which assisted us, but were always compelled to leave it
very soon in order to continue our course. Thus through many dreary
hours we pressed forward in the dull, dispiriting gloom.
Confident in the knowledge that each bivouac brought us nearer the spot
for which I searched, I heeded neither fatigue nor peril, and judge my
satisfaction, joy and eagerness, when at last we suddenly emerged from
the forest gloom into the blessed light of day. Halting, I inhaled the
first invigorating breath of pure air I had breathed for many weeks.
The dwarfs raising their hands above their heads, gave vent to some
cabalistic utterances; then, trembling with fear, stood, not daring to
proceed further into the country forbidden. Yakul called us to witness
that our friends had guided us in the right path, and Tiamo, turning to
me, cried excitedly in Arabic,--
"Of a verity, O master, soon will our eyes be delighted at the sight of
the great rock. The chief Yakul is assuredly as sincere a friend as if
he had made blood brotherhood with thee."
Facing towards the holy Ka'aba, I thanked Allah for his deliverance, and
recited the Testification with some verses from the book of Everlasting
Will.
Under a brilliant noonday sun the open country spread wide before us, a
beautiful plain, covered with grass of freshest green, and stretching
away into the far-off horizon, where a range of mountains rose blue,
misty and indistinct.
"Behold!" shouted Yakul, pointing with his spear to the distant serrated
line a moment later. "Behold, yonder peak that standeth higher than the
rest, and is shaped like the prow of a canoe, is the spot which thou
seekest. Lo! it is the Rock of the Great Sin!"
My eyes, strained in the direction indicated, could just distinguish the
point where one mountain rose higher than its neighbours, its summit
apparently obscured by the vapours that hung about it.
"Art thou certain that yonder crest is actually the rock we seek?" I
asked, shading my eyes with my hands, and eagerly gazing away to the
blue haze that enshrouded a mystery upon the elucidation of which my
whole future depended.
"Of a verity the grassland beneath thy feet is the same field whereon my
people gained the signal victory over their enemies. Behold! their
whitening bones remain as relics of that fight; and yonder, afar, lieth
the forbidden Land of the Myriad Mysteries."
"Let us hasten thither, O master," urged Tiamo, who had been standing
agape in amazement, eagerly drinking in every word uttered by the sable
chieftain.
"In short space shall we reach the shore of the wondrous Lake of the
Accursed," Yakul exclaimed. "By to-morrow's noon our faces shall be
mirrored in its waters."
"Let us speed on the wings of haste," I said; and then, remembering
Yakul's confidence in the non-success of my strange mission, I added,
"Each hour is of serious moment. Already have I tarried too great a
space on my way hither, and must return more quickly than I came. How I
shall journey back to Kano I know not."
"Thou needest not retrace thy footsteps along the route thou hast
traversed," answered the chief. "Due north of yonder rock there runneth
a track which leadeth through the Great Forest to Ipoto. Thence,
crossing the Ihourou river, the way leadeth on through the desolate
country of the Mbelia unto the mountain called Nai, whence thou canst
journey in six marches to Niam-Niam, and onward unto thine own desert
land."
Our friends, the dwarfs, had grouped themselves under the shadow of the
trees on the edge of the forest, conversing seriously. None summoned
sufficient courage to wander forth upon the verdant land, where flowers
grew in wild abundance, and where herds of buffalo grazed undisturbed.
This strange land, unknown to all except themselves, they held in utmost
awe. They dared not approach it more closely, lest the dreaded
pestilence that had been prophesied should fall and sweep them from the
face of the earth.
Yakul approached their headman, urging him to accompany us and explore
the mysterious rock, but the tiny man only shook his head, and drawing
himself up, answered,--
"Verily, we are thy friends, O friend, but seek not to cause us to
invoke the wrath of the Destroyer, lest the pestilence should fall upon
us. He who resteth his eyes on yonder rock will assuredly be smitten,
and his entrails withered by the breath of the Evil Spirit of the Forest
that scorcheth like the flame of a burning brand. To pass over yonder
grassland is forbidden."
"We go forward in search of the Land of the Myriad Mysteries," the chief
of the Avejeli explained.
"Then assuredly thou goest unto certain death," the dwarfs replied,
almost with one accord, shaking their heads and shrugging their narrow
shoulders.
"Be warned," their headman added. "The Destroyer is mighty; he ruleth
the Great Forest and its people. Assuredly he is swift to punish!"
"He who will bear us company unto the Lake of the Accursed, let him
stand forth, or if he dare not venture, then let him hold his peace,"
said Yakul, standing erect, spear in hand.
But not a dwarf advanced. All feared to pass across the fertile plain,
and investigate the mysterious country beyond.
Then, after much parleying and many solemnly-uttered warnings on the
part of the pigmies, my two companions and myself left them, setting our
faces resolutely towards the sacred lake, the approach to which was
prohibited to all.
The grass was soft beneath our feet after the difficult march through
the untrodden forest; the sight of flowers, of animals and of birds
refreshed our eyes after the eternal silence and appalling gloom in
which we had existed through so many weary days; and as the sun sank in
a sea of crimson behind us, and our shadows lengthened across the grass,
I halted for a few moments to repeat the sunset prayer, remembering that
there was one afar off who had opened her lattice and breathed upon the
hot, stifling desert wind a fervent message of love.
Within sight of the entrance to the mysterious Land of the No Return I
wondered, as I strode forward, what the result of my mission would be;
whether, by good fortune, I should be enabled to reach the Rock of the
Great Sin in safety; whether the explanation of the mysterious Mark of
the Asps upon my breast would ever be revealed; whether the true-hearted
woman I loved so dearly still stood in peril of the vile intrigues
around her; whether the Khalifa's plot had been frustrated, and whether,
by Allah's grace, my feet would ever again tread the well-remembered
courts of the luxurious Fada at Kano.
The traditions of the sons of Al-Islam and those of the pagans were
alike so ominous that, as the dark mountains gradually became misty and
indistinct when the night clouds enveloped them, I became filled with
gloomy apprehensions, fearing failure, and the fulfilment of the
strange, terrifying prophecies of the dwarfs.