Stasch also taught Kali how to use the Remington rifle, and this he
learned much more easily than the catechism. After ten days’ practice
shooting at a target and at crocodiles sleeping in the sand on the river
banks, the young negro killed a large Pofir-antelope,[25] then several
gazels, and finally a Ndiri wild boar. This hunt came near ending in an
accident similar to that which had befallen Linde, for the boar,[26]
which Kali had carelessly approached after firing the shot, sprang and
flew at him with tail in the air. Kali dropped the gun, took refuge up a
tree, and sat there until his screams attracted the attention of Stasch,
who found that the wild boar had been slain.
Stasch did not as yet permit the boy to hunt for buffaloes, lions, and
rhinoceroses. Stasch would not shoot the elephants which came to the
watering-place by night, for he had promised Nell that he would never
kill one of them.
But from the mountain-top he would look through the telescope morning
and afternoon, and on seeing a herd of zebras, buffaloes, gazels, or
deer grazing in the jungle, he would follow them, taking Kali with him.
During these excursions he often questioned Kali about the Wa-hima and
Samburu tribes that they were bound to meet if they wanted to go east as
far as the seacoast.
“Kali, do you know,” he once said, “that a journey of twenty days, or if
on horseback a journey of only ten days, would enable us to reach your
country?”
“Kali not know where Wa-himas live,” answered the young negro, shaking
his head sadly.
“But I know,” said Stasch; “they live where the sun rises over a large
stretch of water.”
“Yes! yes!” cried the boy joyfully and greatly surprised. “Basso-Narok!
(Dark Water.) That is our name for big black water. Great man knows
everything!”
“No; I don’t know how the Wa-himas would welcome us should we go there.”
“Kali order them to fall on their faces before great man and good
Msimu.”
“And would they obey you?”
“Kali’s father wear leopard skin and Kali, too.”
Stasch understood that this meant that Kali’s father was a king and that
he was the eldest son and the future ruler of the Wa-himas. And so he
inquired further:
“You told me once that white travelers had visited you and that the
older people remember them?”
“Yes; and Kali has heard that they wore a great deal of percale on their
heads.”
“Ah,” thought Stasch to himself, “so they were not Europeans, but Arabs,
whom the negroes, judging from the light color of their skins and their
white clothes, mistook for white people.”
But as Kali remembered nothing about them and could give no further
description of them, Stasch put another question to him.
“Did not the Wa-himas kill any of these people dressed in white?”
“No; neither the Wa-himas nor the Samburus can do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because they said that if the earth sucked up their blood the rain
would cease.”
“I am glad they think that,” thought Stasch. Then he asked:
“Would the Wa-himas go with us as far as the sea, if I were to promise
them quantities of percale, glass beads, and weapons?”
“Kali go and also the Wa-himas, but great man must first conquer the
Samburus, who are on the other side of the water.”
“And who lives back of the Samburus?”
“Back of the Samburus there are no mountains, only a jungle, and in it
live lions.”
This ended the conversation. Stasch now constantly thought of the great
journey to the east, remembering what Linde had said about the
possibility of meeting Arabs from the coast, who trade in ivory, and
perhaps mission expeditions. He was sure that a journey like this would
be very fatiguing and dangerous for Nell, but he knew she could not stay
all her life on Linde Mountain, and that they would soon have to move
on. The best time to leave is after the rainy season, when the
infectious swamps are covered with water and the ground is still damp.
On the summit of the mountain they had not as yet felt the heat; the
nights were so cool that they had to cover themselves up to sleep. But
below, in the jungle, it was now much warmer, and he well knew that it
would soon become unbearably hot there. It now rained less and less and
the water-line of the river became lower every day; so Stasch
conjectured that the river valley would be converted into a dry bed in
summer, the like of which he had formerly seen in the desert of Libya,
and that then there would only remain a narrow stream flowing in the
middle of its bed.
But he deferred the departure from day to day. On Linde Mountain they
all—men as well as animals—felt so much at home! Nell was not only
cured of the fever, but also of her anemic condition. Stasch had no more
headaches and Kali’s and Mea’s skin began to shine like black satin.
Nasibu looked like a walking melon on thin legs, and King, as well as
the horses and the donkey, had become quite fat. Stasch knew very well
that they would not find another island like this in the midst of the
jungle during their entire journey. He looked into the future with much
foreboding, although they now had considerable assistance, and, if need
be, an important defender in King.
And so another week passed before they began making preparations for the
journey. Whenever they were not busy packing they devoted the time to
sending up kites containing the information that they were going in an
easterly direction toward a certain lake. They sent them up continually,
because a strong west wind was blowing almost a hurricane, which carried
them off over the mountains. To protect Nell from the heat Stasch made a
palanquin out of the remains of the tent; this was to be placed on the
elephant’s back, for the girl to ride in. After it had been put on King
a few times he became accustomed to the light weight, and also to having
the palanquin bound to his back with palm thongs. But this was a
featherweight in comparison to the other baggage he was expected to
carry, which Kali and Mea were now busy sorting and packing.
Little Nasibu was told to look for bananas and to rub them to flour
between two flat stones. King assisted him in picking the heavy clusters
of fruit, but they both ate so much that the bananas in the vicinity of
the huts were soon gone, and they were obliged to go to another grove,
situated at the opposite end of the plateau. Saba, who had nothing to
do, often kept them company on these expeditions.
But Nasibu came near paying for his zeal with his life, or at least a
very strange kind of imprisonment. For it happened that once when he was
gathering bananas on the edge of a steep, overhanging cliff he suddenly
saw in a crevice a horrible face, covered with black skin, with eyes
that blinked at him as it laughingly showed its front teeth. At first
the boy was nearly petrified with fear—then he began to run for his
life. But before he had gone far a hairy arm encircled him; he was
lifted into the air, and the night-black monster started off running
with him toward a gorge.
Fortunately the enormous monkey could only run on two feet; consequently
Saba, who happened to be near, easily overtook it and buried his
enormous jaws in his back. A terrible fight ensued, in which the dog,
notwithstanding his great size and strength, would certainly have been
worsted had not succor arrived in time to save him; for a gorilla can
even conquer lions, and monkeys seldom let go their prey, even when it
is a matter of regaining their freedom or their lives.[27] The gorilla,
having been attacked from behind, could not easily get at Saba, but in
spite of that he picked him up by the neck with his left hand and was
lifting him in the air when the ground shook under a heavy tread, and
King came running up.
A slight blow with his trunk was sufficient, and the terrible “forest
devil,” as the negroes call the gorilla, sank to the ground with brains
and neck crushed. But to make sure that the monster was dead, or from
his natural antipathy to it, King nailed it to the ground with his tusks
and then continued to wreak his vengeance on it until Stasch, who had
become alarmed at the roaring and screaming, came running up from the
direction of the huts, gun in hand, and ordered him to stop.
The gorilla lay in a pool of blood, which Saba began to lick up, and
King’s tusks were stained with gore. It was a very large gorilla, and,
though dead, its upturned eyes and its teeth made it still a horrible
looking object. The elephant trumpeted triumphantly, and Nasibu,
ash-gray with terror, told Stasch what had happened. For a moment he
considered whether he should fetch Nell and show her the horrible
monkey, but he dismissed the thought, for suddenly a great fear took
possession of him. Nell often went out walking alone on the island, and
might not the very same thing happen to her?
This proved that Linde Mountain was not such a safe refuge as it at
first seemed. Stasch returned to the hut and told Nell what had
happened; she listened in curiosity and fright, her eyes wide open,
continually repeating:
“You see what would have happened without King?”
“That’s right! One need not worry about a child with a nurse like him;
so while we are here don’t take a step away without him.”
“And when are we going to leave?”
“The provisions are ready, the baggage sorted, and there is nothing to
do but pack the loads on the animals; and so we can start to-morrow.”
“To see our papas?”
“If it be God’s will!” answered Stasch gravely.
-----
Footnote 25:
Bosclapha Canna.
Footnote 26:
The wild boars of Africa have a broad head, round, not three-cornered,
tusks, and a fairly long tail which they elevate when attacked.
Footnote 27:
It is true that gorillas live mostly in the forests of western Africa,
but Livingstone also met them in the east. They often carry off
children. The gorilla of East Africa is less vicious than that of the
west, for it does not kill the wounded huntsman, but is satisfied with
biting off his fingers.