DEPARTURE FROM THE OTANDO COUNTRY.--TALK WITH MAYOLO.--LIVING ON
MONKEY-MEAT.--ASTRONOMICAL STUDIES.--LUNAR OBSERVATIONS.--INTENSE HEAT.
THE day of my departure from the Otando country was approaching.
Mayolo was getting better and better every day. So, two days after
the ceremony I have described in the preceding chapter, I summoned
Mayolo and his people, and received them in state. I was dressed for
the occasion, as if ready to start, with my otaitai on my back. I was
surrounded by my body-guard, and they also were ready for the start,
each man carrying his otaitai. I spoke to the people in similitudes, in
the African fashion:
"Mayolo, I have called you and your people, that you may have my mouth.
You black people have a saying among yourselves that a man does not
stand alone--that he has friends. You Otando people have friends among
the Apono and Ishogo people." "We will take you there!" shouted the
Otandos. "I come to ask you the road through the Apono country. Come
and show me the road. It is the one I like best; it is the shortest. I
will make your heart glad if you make my heart glad. I have nice things
to give you all, and I want the news to spread that Mayolo and I are
two great friends, so that after I am gone people may say, 'Mayolo was
the friend of the Oguizi.'" The last part of the speech was received
with tremendous shouts of applause, and cries of "Rovano! Rovano!"
Mayolo deferred his answer till the next day. I suppose he wanted to
prepare himself for a great speech. The following morning he came
before my hut, surrounded by his people. Mayolo began:
"When a hunter goes into the forest in search of game, he is not glad
until he returns home with meat; so Chally's heart will not be glad
until he finishes what he wishes to do." Then he continued to speak for
more than an hour, and ended by saying, "Chally, we shall soon be on
the _long road_, and go toward where the sun rises."
As soon as the recovery of Mayolo seemed certain, the people prepared
to celebrate the event. Jar after jar of native beer came in, and in
the evening the people of the village had a grand time. Mayolo was the
most uproarious of all, dancing, slapping his chest, and shouting,
"Here I am, alive! The Otando people said I should die because the
Spirit had come, but here I am! Here I am, Chally, well at last! I tell
you I am well, Oguizi!" and, to show me that he was well, he began to
leap about, and to strike the ground with his feet, saying, "Don't you
see I am well? The Otando people said, the Apono said, as soon as they
heard you had arrived in my village, 'Mayolo is a dead man!' As soon
as I fell ill, they said, 'Mayolo will never get up again! Has not the
Oguizi killed Remandji and Olenda?' But here I am, alive and well! Fire
guns, that the people of the villages around may know that Mayolo is
well!" As he went, he shouted, "I knew that the Oguizi did not like to
see me ill. I am Mayolo! I will take him farther on!"
I never knew how good Mayolo was till I saw him in better health. He
had a good, kind heart, though he was a savage, and we had nice talks
together. He asked me all sorts of questions. When I told him that in
my country we had more cattle than he, but that they remained on our
plantations, just as his goats did, he seemed incredulous. Then I told
him that as I went inland I would meet tribes of blacks who kept tame
cattle. He said he had never heard of such people; he could not believe
what I said. But when I told him that there were countries where
elephants were tamed, and that the people rode on their backs, the
astonishment of Mayolo and of his people became great. Then I showed
him an illustrated paper. "Oh! oh! oh!" they shouted. In the evening
Mayolo presented me with a splendid fat monkey.
I should tell you that all this time I had really splendid food. The
monkeys were delicious, and so plentiful in the woods near Mayolo's
village that we could have them wherever we pleased. It was in the
season when they were fat. The nchègai, the nkago, the miengai, and
the ndova were also abundant, and we enjoyed eating them, for those
creatures seemed, in the months of April and May, to be nothing but
balls of fat. It was the time of the year, too, when the forest trees
bore most fruit, berries, and nuts. The miengai and the ndova were the
species of animals which I preferred for food. I defy any one to find
nicer venison in any part of the world. A haunch grilled on a bright
charcoal fire was simply delicious. "Horrible!" you will say; "the
idea of eating monkeys! It is perfectly dreadful!" and at the same
time I am sure you will make a face so ugly that it would frighten
you if you were to look at yourself in the glass. You may say, "Oh, a
roast monkey must look so much like a roasted little baby! Fy!" Never
mind. I can only say that if you ever go into the forests of Equatorial
Africa, and taste of a monkey in the season when those animals are
fat, you will exclaim with me, "What delicious and delicate food! how
exquisite!" As I am writing these lines, the recollection of those
meals makes me hungry. I wish I had a monkey here, ready for cooking. I
would invite you to partake of it; and I think you could eat the monkey
without being accused of cannibalism.
The first time after my arrival at Mayolo's village that I took my
photographic tent out of its japanned tin box, I called him to look
at it after I had fixed it ready for use, but it was not easy to get
him to come. He had a suspicion that there was witchcraft in it.
Finally I succeeded in getting him to look at the apparatus. I made
him look at the prairie through the yellow window-glass by which the
light came into the little tent while I was working with the chemicals
or the plates. As he looked, the trees, the grass, the sunlight, the
ant-hills, the people, the fowls, the goats, all appeared yellow to
him. The good old fellow was frightened out of his wits. He thought I
was practicing witchcraft. I believe if he had gone into the tent he
would have died of fright. He stepped back, looked at me with fear and
amazement, and went away, raising his hands, and with his mouth wide
open. After a while he said that I had turned the world to another
color. The next day all the people came to see the wonderful thing.
I had so little to do that I gave my whole heart to the contemplation
of the heavens. Many hours of the night were spent by me looking at
the stars. When every one had gone to sleep, I stood all alone on the
prairie, with a gun by my side, watching. There was no place upon our
earth where one could get a grander view of the heavens than that I now
occupied, for I stood almost under the equator, and the months of April
and May in Mayolo were the months when the atmosphere is the purest;
for after the storms the azure of the sky was so intensely deep that it
made the stars doubly bright in the blue vault of heaven.
At that period the finest constellations of the southern hemisphere
were within view at the same time--the constellations of the Ship, the
Cross, the Centaur, the Scorpion, and the Belt of Orion, and also the
three brightest stars in the heavens, Sirius, Canopus, and α Centauri.
How fond I was of looking at the stars! I loved many of them; they were
my great friends, for they were my guides in their apparently ascending
and descending course. How glad I was when one of these lovely friends
again made its appearance after a few months' absence! how anxiously I
watched toward the east for its return! and at last, as it rose from
the dim horizon, and became brighter and brighter in ascending the
heavens, how it delighted my heart! Do not wonder at it when I say I
love the stars, for without them I would not have known where to direct
my steps. I watched them as a tottering child watches his mother.
"Oft the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark;
Would not know which way to go
If you did not twinkle so."
Venus shone splendidly, and threw her radiance all around; red Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn were in sight; the Southern Cross (so named on
account of the four bright stars which form a cross); not far from the
cross were the "Coal-sac," like two dark patches. No telescope powerful
enough has ever been made to see any star there. There is no other spot
of the kind in the starry heavens.
The Magellanic clouds were also seen; they were like two white-looking
patches--especially the larger one--brightly illuminated as they
revolve round the starless South Pole. Then, as if the scene was not
beautiful enough, there stood that part of the Milky Way between the
50th and the 80th parallel, so beautiful and rich in crowded nebulæ and
stars that it seemed to be in a perfect blaze; between Sirius and the
Centaur the heavens appeared most brilliantly illuminated, and as if
they were a blaze of light.
At the same time, looking northward, I could see the beautiful
constellation of the Great Bear, which was about the same altitude
above the horizon as the constellation of the Cross and of the Centaur,
some of the stars in the two constellations passing the meridian within
a short time of each other: γ Ursæ Majoris half an hour before α
Crucis, and Benetnasch eleven minutes before β Centauri.
Where could any one have a grander view of the heavens at one glance?
From α Ursæ Majoris to α Crucis there was an arc of
125°; and, as if to give a still grander view of the almost enchanting
scene, the zodiacal light rose after the sun had set, increasing in
brilliancy, of a bright yellow color, and rising in a pyramidal shape
high into the sky, often so bright that the contrast between the
blue sky and this yellow glow was most beautiful. It often became
visible half an hour after the sun had disappeared, and was very
brilliant, like a second sunset; it still increased in brilliancy, and
often attained a bright orange-color at the base, gradually becoming
fainter and fainter at the top. It could be seen almost every night
during the months of April and May. So if, under the equator, I had not
the splendid Aurora Borealis to behold, I had the soft zodiacal light
to contemplate.
[Illustration: TAKING AN OBSERVATION.]
I would take astronomical observations whenever I could, so that I
might know my latitude and longitude, and I took a great many at
Mayolo. In the evening I would bring out my sextant, my policeman's
lantern, my artificial horizon, my thermometer, and would work for
hours.
I will explain to you the use of the artificial horizon. It is so
called on account of being an imitation of the natural horizon.
Quicksilver is the best material. The heavenly bodies are reflected
upon it, and you must lay your artificial horizon in such a way that
the object you are watching is reflected on it, and then, with your
sextant, you bring the direct object to its reflected image on the
quicksilver, and the reading of the sextant gives you the number of
degrees, minutes, and seconds of altitude.
It is always good to take two stars, one north and the other south
of the zenith of the place. While at Mayolo I would often take one
of the stars of the constellation of the Great Bear and one of the
constellation of the Cross the same evening. You have to watch
carefully when the star has reached its highest altitude, that is to
say, when it appears neither to ascend or descend.
But the most difficult observations were those of the lunar distances
for longitude. In those observations I generally used three sextants,
one for the altitude of the moon, another for the altitude of a star,
and another for the distance between the moon and the star. My watch,
my slate, my pencil, and my policeman's lantern were also placed near
me. The two artificial horizons were in front of me, and when every
thing was ready I would take an altitude of the moon, then that of
the star, then look at my watch, and note down the exact time of each
observation; then take four distances, and note the exact time each
distance was taken, and then again the altitude of the star and moon in
the reverse order of the first portion of the observation.
The following example will show you how a lunar distance is taken with
a sextant:
OBSERVATIONS FOR LUNAR DISTANCES.
Date. Place. Time. Object. Alt. and Index Temp Resulting
Distance. Error. Longitude,
E.
H. M. S. ° ' " ' " Fahr. ° ' "
1865. Máyolo 11 1 30 ☾Alt. 121 12 40 on 6 30 11 7 15
May 6 (cont^d)
11 4 30 Jupiter Alt. 62 44 20 on 5 20 11 7 15
11 7 25 Distance 85 43 40 on 0 40 11 7 15
11 9 42 Distance 85 42 50 on 0 40 11 7 15
11 11 53 Distance 85 42 20 on 0 40 11 7 15
11 13 27 Distance 85 42 20 on 0 40 11 7 15
11 15 10 Jupiter Alt. 67 31 0 on 0 40 11 7 15
11 18 2 ☾Alt. 113 5 10 77.0 Planet E.
of Moon.
" " 11 19 44 ☾Alt. 112 16 0 on 6 50 11 11 15
11 22 7 Jupiter Alt. 70 37 40 on 5 20 11 11 15
11 24 24 Distance 85 38 0 on 0 40 11 11 15
11 26 18 Distance 85 37 50 on 0 40 11 11 15
11 31 43 Distance 85 37 0 on 0 40 11 11 15
11 33 10 Distance 85 36 0 on 0 40 11 11 15
11 35 8 Jupiter Alt. 76 22 0 on 0 40 11 11 15
11 36 40 ☾Alt. 103 59 30 77.0 Planet E.
of Moon
Take as many lunar observations as you can east and west of the
moon--the more the better--and you will be able to know your exact
longitude with more certainty. It would be here too complicated to
tell you how to make the calculations, but I am sure that after a while
many of you would be able to make them.
By lunar observations, if sickness or some other cause has made you
forget the day of the month, or even the year, you can find it again.
Several times I lost my days while traveling.
The heat was intense at Mayolo. The rays of the sun were very powerful,
and raised the mercury nearly to 150°. Just think of it! In order
to know the heat of the sun, the thermometer was only a glass tube
supported by two little sticks. I had to take care that the rays of the
sun fell always perpendicularly on the mercury.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]