The Adventures of Captain Mago
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Six days' rough sailing brought us to the eastern extremity of the island; thence steering due east I came to a low flat coast, along which I continued to advance very cautiously. This took us a week, at the end of which we found ourselves in a wide estuary, on the far side of which the coast resumed its northerly direction. In spite of the violent wind and angry sea I persisted in following the coast for yet five days more, seeking a passage towards the east, holding no communication with the natives, although the glow of the fires inland demonstrated that the country was inhabited. But at last the state of our provisions and the continuance of rough weather compelled us to abandon all hope of discovering a passage, even if one existed, which probably after all was not the case, and we turned back, meeting on our way four large Cymrian canoes coming back from the continent, where their crews had been collecting amber. They assured us we should find unlimited quantities on the eastern shore, and I was preparing to proceed thitherwards when we were enveloped in a fog so dense, that we were forced to lay to. We sent some boats out to reconnoitre; these had some difficulty in getting to the shore, but considerably more in getting back again to the ships, although I had lighted a number of torches and lamps as beacons.
When the fog lifted a little we made our way very gradually until we came to what looked like land. This was the amber country.
"Since there is nothing to be found at sea," I said, "let us disembark."
But disembarkment was no easy matter. We had entered, without knowing it, into what seemed to be the estuary of a river; but we were literally imbedded in mire, and it was next to impossible to define the boundary between the muddy water and the slimy shore; in the gloomy atmosphere, earth, air, sky, seemed all to be blended into one. After four or five hours' toil the Ashtoreth was moored in a small creek, and the other vessels were drawn up on what was the nearest approach to dry land that the sodden sands afforded. It took the rest of the day to dig a trench round the ships, and to make a kind of encampment for ourselves; the fog again became extremely dense, and the gloomy day yielded only to a gloomier night.
Bichri, who with twenty men had started on a foraging expedition, returned shivering with cold; he brought some good faggots, which, though they were damp, were very resinous, and burnt well. We lighted as many fires as we could, and heedless of the volumes of smoke which they emitted, we crouched closely around them as we cooked our supper.
Chamai, who had wrapped himself tightly in his mantle, was the first to break the depressing silence.
"Frightful, odious country!" he exclaimed, "can human creatures exist in such a desolation as this? It is a place for monsters, not for men!"
"It would just suit old Jonah, then," said Hannibal, with a sigh; "it would cheer us up, too, if Hanno were here to entertain us with a sprinkling of his wit."
"I do not think we need have much fear on their account," I said; "by this time, I should hope, they are pacing the sunny streets of Sidon, or enjoying the fragrant heights of Libanus."
"Yes; I daresay," Himilco assented; "and no doubt they have plenty of good wine to drink; wine, rich as nectar, from Helbon, Byblos, and Sarepta!"
"There now, enough of that," cried Hannibal; "cease your talking, or you will be making me as much a wine-bibber as yourself."
"Call me a wine-bibber?" groaned Hannibal, holding up a goblet of turbid water; "do you think this is the kind of stuff to get tipsy on?"
The dull mist grew more and more chilling, and every one appeared quite benumbed. Gebal was wrapped up in folds of woollen cloth, which Bichri had provided for him, but was almost too paralysed to make a grimace. We crouched down still closer to our fires, and obtained what unrefreshing sleep we could.
The morning dawned, grey, and almost as gloomy as ever, without one streak of sunlight. Red with anger was Chamai as he exclaimed impatiently:
"I suppose the sun does not shine in these cursed regions!"
"Oh yes!" replied Gisgo, "he does come now and then, but he finds everything so confoundedly ugly, that he is glad to get back again to the Great Sea, and to his own dear Phœnicia."
Aminocles once again became subject to his nervous fancies; he was sure that we must have entered Hades, and implored us to lose no time in offering a sacrifice to propitiate the gods of the lower world. Naturally enough we ridiculed his fears, but it cannot be denied that the influence of the climate is most depressing, and conducing to hypochondria.
I urged upon my companions the importance of our seeking communication if possible with the natives, and as soon as we had taken our morning meal we arranged to set out and explore the river. Bichri and twenty men went forward as an advanced guard; I followed with Hannibal and the main body of the fighting force; Hamilcar, with about thirty more, brought up the rear. Hasdrubal and fifty men were told off to keep guard over the ships and encampment during our absence. Just as he was setting out Bichri remarked that he wished he had Jonah with his trumpet to attract the attention of the inhabitants, but I bade him not to indulge just then in unavailing regrets.
After wading through such desperate quagmires that we could hardly determine whether we were going by land or by water, we arrived at some forests consisting of black firs, and some other trees that were remarkable for their slimness and scanty grey foliage. The soil everywhere was marshy, and often broken by large pools. Although we did not come across a human being, we observed many vestiges which showed that the place was by no means untrodden by the foot of man. In four places we passed some ruined reed-huts, surrounded by piles of ashes, numbers of shells, and some gnawed bones that bore the marks of fire. But if men were wanting, animals abounded. At every turn we noticed prints, large and small, of cloven hoofs, betokening that we were traversing the haunt both of bullocks and deer, some of the impressions being obviously those of very enormous creatures. Bichri, who followed one of the tracks for some distance into the wood, remarked that branches had been broken off the trees by the animals' horns at so great a height from the ground, that he was convinced it had been done by a beast several hands taller than the largest horse. On our way back to the camp we saw two deer of a smaller species; Gisgo recognised them as the same he had seen in the country of the Celts, who call them renns or reindeer; they took to flight immediately they caught sight of us, a circumstance that convinced me that the inhabitants were accustomed to hunt them; Bichri and Dionysos, however, not only contrived to get within bowshot of them, but brought them both down, a great boon to us all, as we were in much need of fresh meat. The renns were about the size of a donkey; they had very slender legs, large hoofs, thick grey hair, a white spot upon their breasts, and large branching horns.
Next day I sent Hamilcar with two boats to cruise along the coast, and taking nearly all the rest of my people and thirty archers with me, went myself to make a more thorough exploration of the country. We were met by a herd of wild bulls. We attacked them as vigorously as we could, but at the first touch of our arrows the brutes charged down upon us so furiously that we were obliged to take refuge behind the trees. One poor soldier who could not succeed in getting out of the way was trampled under the animals' feet, and another was tossed into the air so violently that his back was broken by the fall. Three of the bullocks were killed, and after being cut in pieces, their flesh was conveyed to the camp.
On our way back Bichri wounded a gigantic stag, which Chamai succeeded in killing by stabbing it just below the shoulder-blade. It was of a kind which Gisgo said was not often seen by the Celts, and he called it an elenn or eland. Elenns are considerably larger than horses, and as a general rule feed upon the lower branches of trees, their necks being so short and rigid that unless they can graze upon soft soil into which they can sink nearly to their knees, they cannot get their heads down sufficiently low to reach the grass; they have very formidable antlers, which do not stand high, but branch out very wide on both sides; their strength is enormous, and, unlike the rest of the deer tribe, they do not exhibit terror when attacked, but boldly front the hunter. They are consequently animals which it is by no means prudent to assail in close quarters, as we subsequently learnt by our own experience.
Hamilcar returned, bringing a fair supply of amber that he had collected along the coast.
We remained in our quarters here for more than a fortnight, spending our time in gathering amber, and subsisting upon whatever renns, elenns, or wild bulls we were able to kill.
The poor fellow who had been killed was buried where he had fallen. Over his grave was placed a stone engraved with his name and an invocation to the gods.
CHAPTER XVII
JONO, THE GOD OF THE SUOMI
After sixteen days' sojourn, finding the amber beginning to run short, and the game getting very wild, I resolved to proceed, and sailed eastwards for five days, until the lack of provisions, no less than the desire of exploring, induced me to enter the mouth of the great river we had previously seen. The aspect of the place was scarcely more inviting than where we had landed before, but we hauled up our ships, and made an encampment as near to them as we could.
On setting out next morning to explore, we had proceeded but a little way before we came upon traces proving beyond a question that human beings had been in the neighbourhood quite recently. We entered nearly a dozen of the conical huts that we came to, in one of them finding a fire still burning, and in several of the others a variety of arms and implements, consisting of weapons made of polished stone, hatchets, and some copper caldrons. Examining them with greater minuteness, we ascertained that the huts had been abandoned in great haste; not only were there fragments of partially-consumed meat and fish, but one of the litters of reeds covered with moss was still warm from being lately occupied. I felt convinced that the natives must have evacuated their tenements in alarm at our approach, and suspecting that they were still lurking about, I ordered some red cloth, some beads, some bracelets and necklaces, and other things which I thought might attract their interest, to be displayed in one of the most spacious of the huts. I next made my people retire about three hundred paces, and waited to see the result of my device.
Before long the savages returned, and seeing us stand quietly, without any apparent wish to molest them, they allowed themselves to be seen, and came nearer to us. I took Gisgo and advanced to meet them; but when he addressed them in the Celtic tongue, I found that they did not understand a word he said, but replied in a language that neither of us had ever heard before. Pointing first to a neighbouring marsh, they cried, "Suom, Suom," and then pointing to their own breasts, they said, "Suomi, Suomi," from which I conjectured that they called a marsh "suom," and that they were themselves "people of the marshes." When they showed us their stone weapons, they pointed to the north-east and said "Gothi;" and what struck me as remarkable, they used the same word when they spoke of their articles of Tibarenian bronze. I had never before heard of a people of that name, but could not help wondering whether these "Gothi" could by any possibility be Caucasians.
I had seen many savages in my time, but I had never seen savages so frightfully ugly as these; their huge heads, flat faces, small eyes, enormous mouths, sallow complexions, made up a physiognomy that was simply hideous; their short, thin legs appeared scarcely able to support their clumsy bodies. They made us understand by their gestures that their friends the "Gothi" were taller either than themselves or us.
Besides being ugly, their appearance was most sordid. None of the ornaments so frequently worn by savage tribes adorned them, but their bodies were scantily protected by fragments of skins, and their weapons, for the most part, were clumsy bludgeons, stone lances, and a kind of harpoon tipped with bone. One alone wore a necklace made of shells and pieces of uncut amber. He appeared to be a sort of chieftain, and as a token of his good-will he held out a wild bull's horn full of some yellowish fluid; I was on the point of taking the horn into my hand, when Himilco, ever ready to guzzle, raised it to his lips; but no sooner had he tasted the contents than he dashed it to the ground, and began spitting and spluttering with every expression of disgust.
"Ugh! the vile stuff!" he said, as soon as he could speak; "it's nothing in the world but beastly fish-oil! Ugh!"
We all roared with laughter; but the chief, highly offended at the way in which we received his proferred attention, assumed a threatening attitude, and in spite of my attempts to pacify him, withdrew with his followers to the woods.
Poor Himilco looked very penitent when he saw the mischief he had done.
"What a besotted idiot I am!" he exclaimed; "I declare I deserve nothing less than to be swung up to the nearest oak. But who was to know that what looked so tempting was nothing but stinking oil?"
"Well, well," I said; "never mind, you will have better luck another time. I don't fear but that we shall soon have another opportunity of improving our acquaintance with these barbarians."
As we proceeded up the river we met occasional groups of the people, who were always full of gesticulations; they snatched greedily at any gifts we offered them, but took themselves off directly we attempted to open any negotiations.
A clearance in the wood made us suspect we were approaching a larger settlement, and we soon came to a large sheet of water, in the middle of which was an island crowded with conical huts, that in the centre being much higher than the rest. The island had been connected with the land by a narrow causeway, which the natives made us understand we were not to cross; but they were not altogether indisposed to transact business with us, and parted with some amber at a very low rate. But although they attached so little value to their amber, it was far otherwise with their weapons; we could not induce them to part with one of their clumsy lances nor one of their smallest bone hooks for any article that we could offer them. They showed us various implements of polished stone, and appeared to be desirous of getting more like them, exhibiting some surprise that we had none to exchange away. Bronze they had seen before, and they were acquainted with the use of bows and arrows; they pointed to the birds upon the trees, as an indication that they wanted Bichri to shoot some; a desire on their part which he was more than ready to gratify.
Not thinking it prudent to remain all night in our present position, I gave orders for making our way back to the ships, yielding, however, to the wish expressed by several of the Suomi to accompany us; but so dark was the night, and so bad were the roads, that we utterly lost our way amidst the quagmires. We wandered about till near daybreak, when six of us – Hannibal, Chamai, Himilco, Bichri, one of the sailors, and myself – found ourselves up to our waists in a swamp. After extricating ourselves with much difficulty, we discovered that the rest of our party was out of sight, and although we shouted with all the strength of our lungs, we failed in making ourselves heard. Terrible as our situation was, there was a still greater dilemma in store. While we were anxiously endeavouring to find some waymarks to guide us, we were all at once surrounded by nearly two hundred of the savages, all stoutly armed. Resistance would have been useless even if it had been possible. The men had started, as if called by an incantation, from the tufted brushwood around, and before we could lay our hands upon our swords, they had felled us to the ground and pinioned our arms, yelling and dancing all the time. They did not allow us time to regain our feet, but pounced down upon us. Two men seized me by the arms, two by the feet, and a fifth, after taking away my sword, my cap, and my shoulder-belt, came dancing along behind, every now and then leaning close over me to peer into my face. They had all evidently tricked themselves out for their adventure; their hair was dyed red, and their faces were tattooed blue and black with war-paints.
After about an hour we were made to cross the causeway from which we had been repelled the day before, and alternately pushed and pulled, we were thrust into one of the huts. Hideous women and still more hideous children followed us in groups until we reached our destination, where a matting was fastened closely over the doorway, and we were left upon the cold damp ground in complete darkness, pillaged, bruised, and bound. There was the sound of retreating footsteps, and soon the noisy yells lapsed into perfect silence.
If we had been pinioned with rope we might perhaps have contrived to extricate ourselves, but we had been tied with a tough twist made of bark, which lacerated our wrists every time we made an attempt to release them. Chamai groaned aloud with agony.
"Who's groaning?" asked Hannibal, his voice being at once recognised in the darkness.
"I cannot slip these cursed cords," said Chamai.
"No," said Himilco, "you might as well try to break a ship's cable;" and remembering that he had not heard either me or Bichri speak, he asked whether we were there.
Bichri replied:
"Here we are, both of us; and I only wish old Judge Gebal was with us; he would have got us out of this dilemma."
"What do you mean?" I said. "I don't understand what good the monkey could do. Anyhow, we must now help ourselves; and that doesn't seem a very easy business."
"If Hamilcar and Hasdrubal do not come to our rescue, I shall think them the vilest cowards on the face of the earth," said Hannibal.
"Ah, you must not judge too hastily," I answered; "I do not doubt but that they will do all in their power, but it is only too likely they have been attacked, and are in the same plight as ourselves. Besides, I hardly see how they are to get across that causeway."
"No difficulty there," said the general, warming into enthusiasm; "archers, right and left; fighting men in a column, four abreast; sound your trumpets and – "
He stopped abruptly; the clang of a trumpet had caught his ears.
"They come! they come!" cried Chamai, all excitement; "The Lord of hosts be with them!"
Another blast.
Hannibal continued to expatiate very scientifically about columns of four and columns of eight, and bewailed his fate that he was not in command; Bichri, less calm, fancied himself at the head of his troop.
The notes of the trumpet seemed more and more distinct.
"I cannot make out that trumpet," said Himilco; "it does not sound like one of ours."
"Whose else should it be?" replied Hannibal, testily. "Savages do not blow trumpets."
The pilot now insisted that the sound did not come across the water at all, but from the very centre of the huts.
"And yet," he said, "if it means an attack, I wonder we do not hear the war-cry."
We were all bewildered, and no less so when we heard three loud shouts rend the air, and the trumpet notes which had been going on at intervals for a quarter of an hour come to an end with a prolonged and thrilling flourish.
"I never knew but one pair of lungs that could make a clarion ring out like that," said Himilco.
The name of Jonah rose simultaneously to the lips of us all, and Bichri said he should like to see Gebal come in and confirm our impression.
"Nonsense," I said, "why indulge these foolish fancies? we must be practical. If we are rescued by our troops, well and good; otherwise we shall either have to buy ourselves off by a ransom or invent some ruse to escape."
The sailor who was with us, speaking now for the first time, reminded us that there were several canoes moored to the causeway, and Himilco recollected having noticed them. This set us speculating whether we could devise any means of getting at the canoes, and using them to facilitate our escape. Hannibal declared that we should still be in the clutches of the savages, even if we got to land; but Bichri and Chamai maintained that once free they could take good care of themselves.
I interrupted them to inquire whether any one amongst them had a knife, but it proved, as might have been expected, that the savages had not left us anything of the sort.
"Then roll yourself over here, Bichri," I said, "and see whether you cannot gnaw this twisted stuff off my hands."
"I have pretty good teeth," replied the youth, "and I will try."
Silence fell upon us all as we listened to him shuffling along the ground and panting with his exertions. I cannot tell how long it was before I felt his warm breath upon my hands, but it seemed to me at least half an hour. He nibbled indefatigably at the cord, giving my flesh an occasional grip in the process, until the material was reduced to the substance of twine, when by a slight effort of my own I burst it asunder, and I was free. An exclamation of delight broke from my lips, and I was about to liberate the others, when Himilco, who was lying across the doorway, said:
"Hush! some one comes!"
In an instant I twisted the broken cord around my wrists, but only just before a party of several of the savages entered the hut. One of them having fastened back the covering at the door, took a long pole and pushed up a kind of trap that had closed the aperture at the top that served the purpose of a chimney, and the gleams of light afforded by these two openings allowed us to inspect our place of confinement.
The hut was perfectly empty, without an article of furniture; the walls were grimed with soot and smoke; upon the clay floor three rude stones formed a kind of fire-place which was filled with ashes and the refuse of some victuals. A cold drizzling rain penetrated the hole in the roof, and pattered down upon the ground below.
The men that had entered were elaborately covered with their war-paint. One of them had the head and skin of a bear drawn over his face like a mask, in the way that I have seen done by the Assyrians; another wore upon his shoulders the head and horns of an elk. A third, who carried a stick in his hand, ushered the other two into the middle of the hut, where they began dancing and making the strangest of contortions, but all without uttering a word. After this had gone on for some time, one of the two, who wore a necklace made of the teeth of wild animals, and who apparently was the chief, walked up to me, and stood gazing in my face. I noticed that he had my own sword in his hand. He began a long harangue of which I could not understand a word, but observed that he repeatedly said "Jono," and as often as he did so, all the others gave a loud shout. When his oration came to an end, the savage sprinkled us with some stinking liquor, which he poured from a horn; and having in chorus muttered some kind of refrain that ended in "Jono," they all quitted the hut, fastening the doorway securely behind them.
"No chance of making terms with such brutes as these," I indignantly exclaimed, when we were again alone.
"Patience!" said Hannibal; "only let me get my hands at liberty, and I'll guarantee to floor half-a-dozen of them, unarmed as I am."
Himilco avowed that he was burning for a chance to avenge himself for the filthy fish-oil; and Chamai protested that though the brutes should be as countless as the palms of Jericho or the fleas at Shechem, he would outwit them yet, and find his way back to Abigail.
While they had been talking in this strain, I had disengaged my hands, and very soon succeeded in freeing Bichri, who assisted me in liberating all the rest. Once again upon their feet, they stretched their stiff and weary limbs, and Hannibal, Chamai, and Himilco each armed themselves with one of the stones that formed the fire-place.
"Here's something that may smash a skull or two," said Chamai, as he poised his stone aloft.
"Not altogether a military-looking weapon," was Hannibal's remark, whilst he examined the cumbersome missile; "but our forefathers have done good execution with worse."