To My Amazement He Broke Off The Neck, And
Holding His Head Well Back, He Deliberately Allowed The Whole Of The
Contents To Trickle Down His Throat As Innocently As Though It Had Been
Simple Water.
He was thoroughly accustomed to it, as the traders were in
the habit of bringing him presents of araki every season.
He declared
this to be excellent, and demanded another bottle. At that moment a
violent storm of thunder and rain burst upon us with a fury well known
in the tropics; the rain fell like a waterspout, and the throng
immediately fled for shelter. So violent was the storm, that not a man
was to be seen: some were sheltering themselves under the neighbouring
rocks; while others ran to their villages that were close by; the
trader's people commenced a fusilade, firing off all their guns lest
they should get wet and miss fire. I could not help thinking how
completely they were at the mercy of the natives at that moment, had
they chosen to attack them; the trader's party were lying under their
untanned ox-hides with their empty guns.
Each of my men was provided with a piece of mackintosh, with which his
gunlocks were secured. We lay upon an angarep covered with a bull's hide
until the storm was over. The thunder was magnificent, exploding on the
peak of the mountain exactly above us, and in the course of a quarter of
an hour torrents were rushing down the ravines among the rocks, the
effects of the violent storm that had passed away as rapidly as it had
arrived.
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