The Ivory Child

H >> H. Rider Haggard >> The Ivory Child


Thrice did Jana repeat this manoeuvre, and at the third onslaught I saw
to my horror that the roots were loosening. I heard some of them snap,
and a crack appeared in the ground not far from the bole. Fortunately
Jana never noted these symptoms, for abandoning a plan which he
considered unavailing, he stood for a while swaying his trunk and lost
in gentle thought.

"Hans," I whispered, "load the rifle quick! I can get him in the spine
or the other eye."

"Wet powder won't go off, Baas," groaned Hans. "The water got to it in
the river."

"No," I answered, "and it is all your fault for making me shoot at him
when I could take no aim."

"It would have been just the same, Baas, for the rifle went under water
also when we fell from the camel, and the cap would have been damp, and
perhaps the powder too. Also the shot made Jana stop for a moment."

This was true, but it was maddening to be obliged to sit there with an
empty gun, when if I had but one charge, or even my pistol, I was sure
that I could have blinded or crippled this satanic pachyderm.

A few minutes later Jana played his last card. Coming quite close to
the trunk of the tree he reared himself up as before, but this time
stretched out his forelegs so that these and his body were supported on
the broad bole. Then he elongated his trunk and with it began to break
off boughs which grew between us and him.

"I don't think he can reach us," I said doubtfully to Hans, "that is,
unless he brings a stone to stand on."

"Oh! Baas, pray be silent," answered Hans, "or he will understand and
fetch one."

Although the idea seemed absurd, on the whole I thought it well to take
the hint, for who knew how much this experienced beast did or did not
understand? Then, as we could go no higher, we wriggled as far as we
dared along our boughs and waited.

Presently Jana, having finished his clearing operations, began to
lengthen his trunk to its full measure. Literally, it seemed to expand
like a telescope or an indiarubber ring. Out it came, foot after foot,
till its snapping tip was waving within a few inches of us, just short
of my foot and Han's head, or rather felt hat. One final stretch and he
reached the hat, which he removed with a flourish and thrust into the
red cavern of his mouth. As it appeared no more I suppose he ate it.
This loss of his hat moved Hans to fury. Hurling horrible curses at Jana
he drew his butcher's knife and made ready.

Once more the sinuous brown trunk elongated itself. Evidently Jana had
got a better hold with his hind legs this time, or perhaps had actually
wriggled himself a few inches up the tree. At any rate I saw to my
dismay that there was every prospect of my making a second acquaintance
with that snapping tip. The end of the trunk was lying along my bough
like a huge brown snake and creeping up, up, up.

"He'll get us," I muttered.

Hans said nothing but leaned forward a little, holding on with his left
hand. Next instant in the light of the rising sun I saw a knife flash,
saw also that the point of it had been driven through the lower lip of
Jana's trunk, pinning it to the bough like a butterfly to a board.

My word! what a commotion ensued! Up the trunk came a scream which
nearly blew me away. Then Jana, with a wriggling motion, tried to unnail
himself as gently as possible, for it was clear that the knife point
hurt him, but could not do so because Hans still held the handle and had
driven the blade deep into the wood. Lastly he dragged himself downwards
with such energy that something had to go, that something being the skin
and muscle of the lower lip, which was cut clean through, leaving the
knife erect in the bough.

Over he went backwards, a most imperial cropper. Then he picked himself
up, thrust the tip of his trunk into his mouth, sucked it as one does a
cut finger, and finally, roaring in defeated rage, fled into the river,
which he waded, and back upon his tracks towards his own home. Yes, off
he went, Hans screaming curses and demands that he should restore his
hat to him, and very seldom in all my life have I seen a sight that I
thought more beautiful than that of his whisking tail.

"Now, Baas," chuckled Hans, "the old devil has got a sore nose as well
as a sore eye by which to remember us. And, Baas, I think we had better
be going before he has time to think and comes back with a long stick to
knock us out of this tree."

So we went, in double-quick time I can assure you, or at any rate as
fast as my stiff limbs and general condition would allow. Fortunately
we had now no doubt as to our direction, since standing up through the
mists of dawn with the sunbeams resting on its forest-clad crest, we
could clearly see the strange, tumulus-shaped hill which the White
Kendah called the Holy Mount, the Home of the Child. It appeared to be
about twenty miles away, but in reality was a good deal farther, for
when we had walked for several hours it seemed almost as distant as
ever.

In truth that was a dreadful trudge. Not only was I exhausted with all
the terrors I had passed and our long midnight flight, but the wound
where Jana had pinched out a portion of my frame, inflamed by the
riding, had now grown stiff and intolerably sore, so that every step
gave me pain which sometimes culminated in agony. Moreover, it was
no use giving in, foodless as we were, for Marut had carried the
provisions, and with the chance of Jana returning to look us up. So I
stuck to it and said nothing.

For the first ten miles the country seemed uninhabited; doubtless it
was too near the borders of the Black Kendah to be popular as a place
of residence. After this we saw herds of cattle and a few camels,
apparently untended; perhaps their guards were hidden away in the long
grass. Then we came to some fields of mealies that were, I noticed,
quite untouched by the hailstorm, which, it would seem, had confined its
attentions to the land of the Black Kendah. Of these we ate thankfully
enough. A little farther on we perceived huts perched on an inaccessible
place in a kloof. Also their inhabitants perceived us, for they ran away
as though in a great fright.

Still we did not try to approach the huts, not knowing how we should
be received. After my sojourn in Simba Town I had become possessed of a
love of life in the open.

For another two hours I limped forward with pain and grief--by now I was
leaning on Hans' shoulder--up an endless, uncultivated rise clothed with
euphorbias and fern-like cycads. At length we reached its top and found
ourselves within a rifle shot of a fenced native village. I suppose that
its inhabitants had been warned of our coming by runners from the huts
I have mentioned. At any rate the moment we appeared the men, to the
number of thirty or more, poured out of the south gate armed with spears
and other weapons and proceeded to ring us round and behave in a very
threatening manner. I noticed at once that, although most of them were
comparatively light in colour, some of these men partook of the negro
characteristics of the Black Kendah from whom we had escaped, to such an
extent indeed that this blood was clearly predominant in them. Still,
it was also clear that they were deadly foes of this people, for when
I shouted out to them that we were the friends of Harut and those who
worshipped the Child, they yelled back that we were liars. No friends
of the Child, they said, came from the country of the Black Kendah, who
worshipped the devil Jana. I tried to explain that least of all men in
the world did we worship Jana, who had been hunting us for hours, but
they would not listen.

"You are spies of Simba's, the smell of Jana is upon you" (this may have
been true enough), they yelled, adding: "We will kill you, white-faced
goat. We will kill you, little yellow monkey, for none who are not
enemies come here from the land of the Black Kendah."

"Kill us then," I answered, "and bring the curse of the Child upon you.
Bring famine, bring hail, bring war!"

These words were, I think, well chosen; at any rate they induced a pause
in their murderous intentions. For a while they hesitated, all talking
together at once. At last the advocates of violence appeared to get the
upper hand, and once more a number of the men began to dance about us,
waving their spears and crying out that we must die who came from the
Black Kendah.

I sat down upon the ground, for I was so exhausted that at the time I
did not greatly care whether I died or lived, while Hans drew his
knife and stood over me, cursing them as he had cursed at Jana. By slow
degrees they drew nearer and nearer. I watched them with a kind of
idle curiosity, believing that the moment when they came within actual
spear-thrust would be our last, but, as I have said, not greatly caring
because of my mental and physical exhaustion.

I had already closed my eyes that I might not see the flash of the
falling steel, when an exclamation from Hans caused me to open them
again. Following the line of the knife with which he pointed, I
perceived a troop of men on camels emerging from the gates of the
village at full speed. In front of these, his white garments fluttering
on the wind, rode a bearded and dignified person in whom I recognized
Harut, Harut himself, waving a spear and shouting as he came. Our
assailants heard and saw him also, then flung down their weapons as
though in dismay either at his appearance or his words, which I could
not catch. Harut guided his rushing camel straight at the man who I
presume was their leader, and struck at him with his spear, as though
in fury, wounding him in the shoulder and causing him to fall to the
ground. As he struck he called out:

"Dog! Would you harm the guests of the Child?"

Then I heard no more because I fainted away.



CHAPTER XV

THE DWELLER IN THE CAVE

After this it seemed to me that I dreamed a long and very troubled dream
concerning all sorts of curious things which I cannot remember. At last
I opened my eyes and observed that I lay on a low bed raised about three
inches above the floor, in an Eastern-looking room, large and cool. It
had window-places in it but no windows, only grass mats hung upon a
rod which, I noted inconsequently, worked on a rough, wooden hinge, or
rather pin, that enabled the curtain to be turned back against the wall.

Through one of these window-places I saw at a little distance the slope
of the forest-covered hill, which reminded me of something to do with a
child--for the life of me I could not remember what. As I lay wondering
over the matter I heard a shuffling step which I recognized, and,
turning, saw Hans twiddling a new hat made of straw in his fingers.

"Hans," I said, "where did you get that new hat?"

"They gave it me here, Baas," he answered. "The Baas will remember that
the devil Jana ate the other."

Then I did remember more or less, while Hans continued to twiddle the
hat. I begged him to put it on his head because it fidgeted me, and then
inquired where we were.

"In the Town of the Child, Baas, where they carried you after you had
seemed to die down yonder. A very nice town, where there is plenty to
eat, though, having been asleep for three days, you have had nothing
except a little milk and soup, which was poured down your throat with a
spoon whenever you seemed to half wake up for a while."

"I was tired and wanted a long rest, Hans, and now I feel hungry. Tell
me, are the lord and Bena here also, or were they killed after all?"

"Yes, Baas, they are safe enough, and so are all our goods. They were
both with Harut when he saved us down by the village yonder, but you
went to sleep and did not see them. They have been nursing you ever
since, Baas."

Just then Savage himself entered, carrying some soup upon a wooden tray
and looking almost as smart as he used to do at Ragnall Castle.

"Good day, sir," he said in his best professional manner. "Very glad to
see you back with us, sir, and getting well, I trust, especially after
we had given you and Mr. Hans up as dead."

I thanked him and drank the soup, asking him to cook me something more
substantial as I was starving, which he departed to do. Then I sent Hans
to find Lord Ragnall, who it appeared was out walking in the town. No
sooner had they gone than Harut entered looking more dignified than ever
and, bowing gravely, seated himself upon the mat in the Eastern fashion.

"Some strong spirit must go with you, Lord Macumazana," he said, "that
you should live today, after we were sure that you had been slain."

"That's where you made a mistake. Your magic was not of much service to
you there, friend Harut."

"Yet my magic, as you call it, though I have none, was of some service
after all, Macumazana. As it chanced I had no opportunity of breathing
in the wisdom of the Child for two days from the hour of our arrival
here, because I was hurt on the knee in the fight and so weary that I
could not travel up the mountain and seek light from the eyes of the
Child. On the third day, however, I went and the Oracle told me all.
Then I descended swiftly, gathered men and reached those fools in time
to keep you from harm. They have paid for what they did, Lord."

"I am sorry, Harut, for they knew no better; and, Harut, although I
saved myself, or rather Hans saved me, we have left your brother behind,
and with him the others."

"I know. Jana was too strong for them; you and your servant alone could
prevail against him."

"Not so, Harut. He prevailed against us; all we could do was to injure
his eye and the tip of his trunk and escape from him."

"Which is more than any others have done for many generations, Lord. But
doubtless as the beginning was, so shall the end be. Jana, I think, is
near his death and through you."

"I don't know," I repeated. "Who and what is Jana?"

"Have I not told you that he is an evil spirit who inhabits the body of
a huge elephant?"

"Yes, and so did Marut; but I think that he is just a huge elephant with
a very bad temper of his own. Still, whatever he is, he will take some
killing, and I don't want to meet him again by that horrible lake."

"Then you will meet him elsewhere, Lord. For if you do not go to look
for Jana, Jana will come to look for you who have hurt him so sorely.
Remember that henceforth, wherever you go in all this land, it may
happen that you will meet Jana."

"Do you mean to say that the brute comes into the territory of the White
Kendah?"

"Yes, Macumazana, at times he comes, or a spirit wearing his shape
comes; I know not which. What I do know is that twice in my life I
myself have seen him upon the Holy Mount, though how he came or how he
went none can tell."

"Why was he wandering there, Harut?"

"Who can say, Lord? Tell me why evil wanders through the world and I
will answer your question. Only I repeat--let those who have harmed Jana
beware of Jana."

"And let Jana beware of me if I can meet him with a decent gun in my
hand, for I have a score to settle with the beast. Now, Harut, there is
another matter. Just before he was killed Marut, your brother, began to
tell me something about the wife of the Lord Ragnall. I had no time to
listen to the end of his words, though I thought he said that she was
upon yonder Holy Mount. Did I hear aright?"

Instantly Harut's face became like that of a stone idol, impenetrable,
impassive.

"Either you misunderstood, Lord," he answered, "or my brother raved in
his fear. Wherever she may be, that beautiful lady is not upon the
Holy Mount, unless there is another Holy Mount in the Land of Death.
Moreover, Lord, as we are speaking of this matter, let me tell you the
forest upon that Mount must be trodden by none save the priest of
the Child. If others set foot there they die, for it is watched by a
guardian more terrible even than Jana, nor is he the only one. Ask me
nothing of that guardian, for I will not answer, and, above all, if you
or your comrades value life, let them not seek to look upon him."

Understanding that it was quite useless to pursue this subject farther
at the moment, I turned to another, remarking that the hailstorm which
had smitten the country of the Black Kendah was the worst that I had
ever experienced.

"Yes," answered Harut, "so I have learned. That was the first of the
curses which the Child, through my mouth, promised to Simba and his
people if they molested us upon our road. The second, you will remember,
was famine, which for them is near at hand, seeing that they have little
corn in store and none left to gather, and that most of their cattle are
dead of the hail."

"If they have no corn while, as I noted, you have plenty which the storm
spared, will not they, who are many in number but near to starving,
attack you and take your corn, Harut?"

"Certainly they will do so, Lord, and then will fall the third curse,
the curse of war. All this was foreseen long ago, Macumazana, and you
are here to help us in that war. Among your goods you have many guns and
much powder and lead. You shall teach our people how to use those guns,
that with them we may destroy the Black Kendah."

"I think not," I replied quietly. "I came here to kill a certain
elephant, and to receive payment for my service in ivory, not to fight
the Black Kendah, of whom I have already seen enough. Moreover, the guns
are not my property but that of the Lord Ragnall, who perhaps will ask
his own price for the use of them."

"And the Lord Ragnall, who came here against our will, is, as it
chances, our property and we may ask your own price for his life. Now,
farewell for a while, since you, who are still sick and weak, have
talked enough. Only before I go, as your friend and that of those with
you, I will add one word. If you would continue to look upon the sun,
let none of you try to set foot in the forest upon the Holy Mount.
Wander where you will upon its southern slopes, but strive not to pass
the wall of rock which rings the forest round."

Then he rose, bowed gravely and departed, leaving me full of
reflections.

Shortly afterwards Savage and Hans returned, bringing me some meat which
the former had cooked in an admirable fashion. I ate of it heartily, and
just as they were carrying off the remains of the meal Ragnall himself
arrived. Our greeting was very warm, as might be expected in the case of
two comrades who never thought to speak to each other again on this side
of the grave. As I had supposed, he was certain that Hans and I had been
cut off and killed by the Black Kendah, as, after we were missed, some
of the camelmen asserted that they had actually seen us fall. So he went
on, or rather was carried on by the rush of the camels, grieving, since,
it being impossible to attempt to recover our bodies or even to return,
that was the only thing to do, and in due course reached the Town of
the Child without further accident. Here they rested and mourned for
us, till some days later Harut suddenly announced that we still lived,
though how he knew this they could not ascertain. Then they sallied
out and found us, as has been told, in great danger from the ignorant
villagers who, until we appeared, had not even heard of our existence.

I asked what they had done and what information they had obtained since
their arrival at this place. His answer was: Nothing and none worth
mentioning. The town appeared to be a small one of not much over two
thousand inhabitants, all of whom were engaged in agricultural pursuits
and in camel-breeding. The herds of camels, however, they gathered, for
the most part were kept at outlying settlements on the farther side of
the cone-shaped mountain. As they were unable to talk the language the
only person from whom they could gain knowledge was Harut, who spoke
to them in his broken English and told them much what he had told me,
namely that the upper mountain was a sacred place that might only be
visited by the priests, since any uninitiated person who set foot there
came to a bad end. They had not seen any of these priests in the town,
where no form of worship appeared to be practised, but they had observed
men driving small numbers of sheep or goats up the flanks of the
mountain towards the forest.

Of what went on upon this mountain and who lived there they remained
in complete ignorance. It was a case of stalemate. Harut would not tell
them anything nor could they learn anything for themselves. He added in
a depressed way that the whole business seemed very hopeless, and that
he had begun to doubt whether there was any tidings of his lost wife to
be gained among the Kendah, White or Black.

Now I repeated to him Marut's dying words, of which most unhappily I had
never heard the end. These seemed to give him new life since they showed
that tidings there was of some sort, if only it could be extracted. But
how might this be done? How, how?



For a whole week things went on thus. During this time I recovered
my strength completely, except in one particular which reduced me to
helplessness. The place on my thigh where Jana had pinched out a bit of
the skin healed up well enough, but the inflammation struck inwards to
the nerve of my left leg, where once I had been injured by a lion, with
the result that whenever I tried to move I was tortured by pains of a
sciatic nature. So I was obliged to lie still and to content myself
with being carried on the bed into a little garden which surrounded
the mud-built and white-washed house that had been allotted to us as a
dwelling-place.

There I lay hour after hour, staring at the Holy Mount which began
to spring from the plain within a few hundred yards of the scattered
township. For a mile or so its slopes were bare except for grass on
which sheep and goats were grazed, and a few scattered trees. Studying
the place through glasses I observed that these slopes were crowned by
a vertical precipice of what looked like lava rock, which seemed to
surround the whole mountain and must have been quite a hundred
feet high. Beyond this precipice, which to all appearance was of an
unclimbable nature, began a dense forest of large trees, cedars I
thought, clothing it to the very top, that is so far as I could see.

One day when I was considering the place, Harut entered the garden
suddenly and caught me in the act.

"The House of the god is beautiful," he said, "is it not?"

"Very," I answered, "and of a strange formation. But how do those who
dwell on it climb that precipice?"

"It cannot be climbed," he answered, "but there is a road which I
am about to travel who go to worship the Child. Yet I have told you,
Macumazana, that any strangers who seek to walk that road find death. If
they do not believe me, let them try," he added meaningly.

Then, after many inquiries about my health, he informed me that news had
reached him to the effect that the Black Kendah were mad at the loss
of their crops which the hail had destroyed and because of the near
prospect of starvation.

"Then soon they will be wishing to reap yours with spears," I said.

"That is so. Therefore, my Lord Macumazana, get well quickly that you
may be able to scare away these crows with guns, for in fourteen days
the harvest should begin upon our uplands. Farewell and have no fears,
for during my absence my people will feed and watch you and on the third
night I shall return again."

After Harut's departure a deep depression fell upon all of us. Even
Hans was depressed, while Savage became like a man under sentence of
execution at a near but uncertain date. I tried to cheer him up and
asked him what was the matter.

"I don't know, Mr. Quatermain," he answered, "but the fact is this is
a 'ateful and un'oly 'ole" (in his agitation he quite lost grip of his
h's, which was always weak), "and I am sure that it is the last I shall
ever see, except one."

"Well, Savage," I said jokingly, "at any rate there don't seem to be any
snakes here."

"No, Mr. Quatermain. That is, I haven't met any, but they crawl about me
all night, and whenever I see that prophet man he talks of them to me.
Yes, he talks of them and nothing else with a sort of cold look in his
eyes that makes my back creep. I wish it was over, I do, who shall
never see old England again," and he went away, I think to hide his very
painful and evident emotion.

That evening Hans returned from an expedition on which I had sent him
with instructions to try to get round the mountain and report what was
on its other side. It had been a complete failure, as after he had gone
a few miles men appeared who ordered him back. They were so threatening
in their demeanour that had it not been for the little rifle, Intombi,
which he carried under pretence of shooting buck, a weapon that they
regarded with great awe, they would, he thought, have killed him. He
added that he had been quite unsuccessful in his efforts to collect
any news of value from man, woman or child, all of whom, although very
polite, appeared to have orders to tell him nothing, concluding with the
remark that he considered the White Kendah bigger devils than the Black
Kendah, inasmuch as they were more clever.