A Portion Of Land Which I Rode Over While In That District Must Have
Been Just A Thin Crust Covering A Mighty Cave.
The horses' footfalls
made hollow sounds, and when the thin roof shook I half expected to
be precipitated into unknown depths.
After many weeks of varied experiences we arrived at or near the land
I was seeking. There, on the banks of a river, we struck camp, and
from there I made short excursions in all directions in order to
ascertain the approximate value of the old gentleman's estate. On the
land we came upon an encampment of poor, half or wholly naked Caingwa
Indians. By them we were kindly received, and found that,
notwithstanding their extremely sunken condition and abject poverty,
they seemed to have mandioca and bananas in abundance. In return for
a few knives and beads, I was able to purchase quite a stock. Seeing
that all the dishes, plates, and bottles they have grow in the form
of gourds, they imagine all such things we use also grow. It was
amusing to hear them ask for seeds of the glass medicine bottles I
carried with me.
A drum, ingeniously made by stretching a serpent's skin over a large
calabash, was monotonously beaten as our good-night lullaby when we
stretched ourselves out on the grass.
The Caingwa men all had their lower lip pierced, and hanging down
over the breast was a thin stick about ten inches long. Their faces
were also painted in strange patterns.
Learning from their chief that the royal tribe to which they
originally belonged lived away in the depths of the forest to the
east, some moons distant, I became curious. After repeated enquiries
I was told that a king ruled the people there, and that they daily
worshipped the sun. Hearing of these sun-worshippers, I determined,
if possible, to push on thither. The old chief himself offered to
direct us if, in return, I would give him a shirt, a knife, and a
number of white beads. The bargain was struck, and arrangements were
made to start off at sunrise next day, My commission was not only to
see the old gentleman's land, but to visit the surrounding Indians,
with a view to missionary work being commenced among them.
The morning dawned clear and propitious, but the chief had decided
not to go. On enquiring the reason for the change of mind, I
discovered that his people had been telling him that I only wanted to
get him into the forest in order to kill him, and that I would not
give him the promised shirt and beads. I thought that it was much
more likely for him to kill me than I him, and I set his mind at rest
about the reward, for on the spot I gave him the coveted articles. On
receipt of those luxuries his doubts of me fled, and I soon assured
him that I had no intention whatever of taking his life. Towards noon
we started off, and, winding our way through the Indian paths in
single file, we again soon left behind us all signs of man, and saw
nothing to mark that any had passed that way before.
That night, as we sat under a large silk-cotton tree silently eating
supper off plates of palm leaves, the old chief suddenly threw down
his meat, and, with a startled expression, said, "I hear spirits!"
Never having heard such ethereal visitors myself, I smiled
incredulously, whereupon the old savage glared at me, and, leaving
his food upon the ground went away out of the firelight into the
darkness. Afraid that he might take one of the horses and return to
his people, I followed to soothe him, but his offended mood did not
pass until, as he said, the spirits had gone.
On the third day scarcity of water began to be felt. We had been
slowly ascending the rugged steeps of a mountain, and as the day wore
on the thirst grew painful. That night both we and the horses had to
be content with the dew-drops we sucked from the grass, and our dumb
companions showed signs of great exhaustion. The Indian assured me
that if we could push on we would, by next evening, come to a
beautiful lake in the mountains: so, ere the sun rose next morning,
we were in the saddle on our journey to the coveted water.
All that day we plodded along painfully, silently. Our lips were
dried together, and our tongues swollen. Thirst hurts! The horses
hung their heads and ears, and we were compelled to dismount and go
afoot. The poor creatures were getting so thin that our weight seemed
to crush them to the earth. The sun again set, darkness fell, and the
lake was, for all I could see, a dream of the chief, our guide. At
night, after repeating the sucking of the dew, we ate a little, drank
the blood of an animal, and tried to sleep. The patient horses stood
beside us with closed eyes and bowed heads, until the sight was more
than I could bear. Fortunately, a very heavy dew fell, which greatly
helped us, and two hours before sunrise next morning the loads were
equally distributed on the backs of the seven horses and we started
off once again through the mist for water! water! When the sun
illuminated the heavens and lit up the rugged peaks of the strangely
shaped mountains ahead of us, hope was revived. We sucked the fruit
of the date palm, and in imagination bathed and wallowed in the
water - beautiful water - we so soon expected to behold. The poor
horses, however, not buoyed up with sweet hopes as we were, gave out,
one after the other, and we were compelled to cruelly urge them on up
the steep. With it all, I had to leave two of the weaker ones behind,
purposing, if God should in kindness permit us to reach water, to
return and save them.
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