CEREMONY OF BROTHERHOOD--CEREMONY OF BLOOD-DRINKING--SELIM BROUGHT INTO
FERODIA'S PRESENCE--SIMBA TO THE RESCUE--THE WARNING TO KALULU--KALULU
SPEAKS FOR SELIM--WHERE IS PARADISE?--SELIM AND ABDULLAH ARE CLOTHED--
DOWN THE LIEMBRA--THE HIPPOPOTAMUS--OVERBOARD--FIGHTING THE CROCODILE--
HOW KALULU FOUGHT THE CROCODILE--SECURING THE RIVER-HORSE.
On the third day after his discovery in the forest by his friends Simba,
Moto, and young Kalulu, Selim was sufficiently strong to begin his
journey to the village of Katalambula. Had Kalulu not assured him of
his friendship, and that he would be a brother to him, it is doubtful
that Selim would have looked upon the idea of meeting Ferodia and his
obsequious servant Tifum Byah--to whose tyranny he owed so much misery--
again with pleasure. But it was agreed between Kalulu and Selim that
the ceremony of brotherhood, of which he had heard much before, should
take place the evening before they arrived at Katalambula's village.
The party travelled by easy stages, and on the fifth day of the journey,
the day set apart for the ceremony of brotherhood, they found themselves
close to the Liemba stream, at a village called Kisari, distant but
eight miles from the capital of Katalambula.
Here the author may remark, for the benefit of the younger readers, that
a close brotherhood among men or boys, unrelated by blood, birth, or
marriage, is in no way singular. I need but mention David and Jonathan,
Achilles and Patroclus, Damon and Pythias, as examples among men; and
what boy of any nation, in any public school, has not some friend who is
as dear to him as a born brother? It arises from a similarity of
dispositions generally, from the desire to relieve ourselves from little
anxieties, and to have some one in whom we have thorough confidence.
There were two things singular about this ceremony of brotherhood about,
to be enacted between Selim and Kalulu. First, was the ceremony of
blood-drinking connected with it; and, secondly, was the fact that a
Moslem boy--a true believer--was about to become a brother with a Pagan
boy--an unbeliever--and to drink his blood. For it is expressly
prohibited by the Kuran that blood shall be drunk by the true believer;
next, it is expressly prohibited that a true believer shall make any
such close friendship with an infidel. But it may be argued for poor
Selim that he was yet but a young boy; that he was driven by necessity
to this as the best method of assuring his freedom and safety from
recapture, and this the Kuran, whose laws are not cruel, permits when
there is necessity; and it might be said that Selim was, perhaps, not
aware of the Kuran's prohibition in this small matter; otherwise, I
doubt that a boy so generally pious would have erred against the law of
the Prophet consciously.
On Kalulu's side, nothing could be said against the ceremony. It was a
common custom with his tribe, when any of them met anybody they liked
better than another, to go through the ceremony. Sometimes the chiefs
did it with neighbouring chiefs, to strengthen their alliance from
motives of policy, for the same reason that European monarchs contract--
or rather did, for it has lost long ago its former significance--
advantageous alliances among themselves for their sons and daughters.
Kalulu wished the ceremony to proceed, because he had a strong liking
for Selim, born of gratitude to Moto; because Selim was of his own age;
because he had pleasant ways with him, and friendship having grown out
of the accidental circumstances under which they met, he desired to
assure himself, with the ardour of a boy, that real friendship existed
between them. Once his brother by this ceremony, no one of his tribe
could injure Selim; and Ferodia and Tifum Byah might storm and fret in
vain, for the ceremony of brotherhood with Kalulu could not be
disregarded. We shall see, however, what came of it.
At sunset, Kalulu was asked to seat himself side by side with Selim on
the ground, which he did, taking hold of Selim's right hand, each with
his profile half turned to the other. Simba was the master of the
ceremonies on this occasion, who held a knife with all the solemnity of
one who was about to offer a sacrifice to some horrid deity who
delighted in the blood of youths. Moto stood by as a supernumerary, and
to interpret the words of Simba for Kalulu. The people of Kisari had
also come to witness the ceremony.
Simba advanced as the sun was setting, knife in hand, while the two boys
retained each other's right hands, and said to Kalulu:
"Art thou willing to be a brother to Selim, to be more than a friend to
him, to share what thou hast with him, to defend him against all enemies
to the best of thy power, and to stand by him until death?"