"I do hope we may succeed in falling in with one," observed the major.
"If you do there is not much chance of your shooting it," said the missionary.
"Why not?"
"Because he is so difficult to approach. Usually he feeds on some open spot where no one can approach him without being detected by his wary eye. However, you have this in your favour, that his stupidity is superior to his extreme caution. If a wagon should chance to move along far to windward of him, he evidently thinks it is trying to circ.u.mvent him, for instead of making off to leeward, as he might easily do, he rushes up to windward with the intention of pa.s.sing _ahead_ of the wagon, and sometimes pa.s.ses so near the front oxen that one may get a shot at the silly thing. I have seen this stupidity of his taken advantage of when he was feeding in a valley open at both ends. A number of men would commence running as if to cut off his retreat from the end through which the wind came, and although he had the whole country hundreds of miles before him by going to the other end, he rushed madly on to get past the men, and so was speared, for it is one of his peculiarities that he never swerves from the course he has once adopted, but rushes wildly and blindly forward, anxious only to increase his speed. Sometimes a horseman may succeed in killing him by cutting across his undeviating course. It is interesting to notice a resemblance between this huge bird and our English wild duck or plover.
I have several times seen newly-hatched young in charge of a c.o.c.k-ostrich who made a very good attempt at appearing lame in order to draw off the attention of pursuers. The young squat down and remain immoveable, when too small to run far, but they attain a wonderful degree of speed when about the size of common fowls. It requires the utmost address of the bushmen, creeping for miles on their stomach, to stalk them successfully; yet the quant.i.ty of feathers collected annually shows that the numbers slain must be considerable, as each bird has only a few feathers in the wings and tail."
"Well," observed the major, shaking the ashes out of his pipe, "your account of the bird makes me hope that we shall fall in with him before our expedition is over."
"Do you mean to be out long?"
"As long as we can manage, which will be a considerable time," answered the major, "because we are well supplied with everything, except, I regret to say, medicine. The fact is that none of us thought much about that, for we have always been in such a robust state of health that we have scarce believed in the possibility of our being knocked down; but the first few weeks of our journey hither taught some of us a lesson when too late."
"Ah, we are often taught lessons when too late," said the missionary; "however, it is not too late on this occasion, for I am happy to say that I can supply you with all the physic you require."
The major expressed much gratification on hearing this, and indeed he felt it, for the country into which they were about to penetrate was said to be rather unhealthy.
"You are very kind, sir," he said; "my companions and I shall feel deeply indebted to you for this opportune a.s.sistance."
"Are you quite sure," asked the missionary pointedly, "that you are supplied with everything else that you require?"
"I think so," replied the major. "Let me see--yes, I don"t know that we need anything more, now that you have so kindly offered to supply us with physic, which I had always held, up to the period of my residence in Africa, was fit only to be thrown to the dog."
The missionary looked earnestly in the major"s face, and said--
"Excuse me, sir, have you got a Bible?"
"Well--a--really, my dear sir," he replied, somewhat confusedly, "I must confess that I have not. The fact is, that it is somewhat inconvenient to carry books in such regions, and I did not think of bringing a Bible.
Perhaps some one of our party may have one, however."
None of the party replied to the major"s look except Tom Brown, who quietly said--
"There is one, I believe, in the bottom of my trunk; one of my sisters told me she put it there, but I cannot say positively that I have seen it."
"Will you accept of one?" said the missionary, rising; "we start at an early hour in the morning, and before going I would like to remind you, gentlemen, that eternity is near--nearer perchance than we suppose to some of us, and that medicine is required for the soul even more than for the body. Jesus Christ, the great Physician, will teach you how to use it, if you will seek advice from himself. I feel a.s.sured that you will not take this parting word ill. Good night, gentlemen. I will give the drugs to your guide before leaving, and pray that G.o.d may prosper you in your way and give you success."
There was a long silence round the camp-fire after the missionary had left. When night closed in, and the sportsmen had retired to rest, the minds of most of them dwelt somewhat seriously on the great truth which he had stated--that medicine is needed not only for the body but the soul.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
DESCRIBES RIVER HUNTING.
"Well, major, what are your orders for the day?" asked Tom Brown one fine morning after breakfast, while they were enjoying their usual pipe under the shade of a large umbrageous tree.
"You"d better try the river that we have just come to," said the major.
"Do you think me amphibious, that you should always a.s.sign me that work?" asked Tom.
"Not exactly, Tom, but I know you are fond of telling fibs, and perhaps the amphibious animals may afford you some scope in that way. At all events they are capable of such astonishing feats that if you merely relate the truth about them you will be sure to get credit in England for telling fibs--like poor Mungo Park, who was laughed at all his life for a notorious drawer of the long-bow, although there never was a more truthful man."
"People won"t judge _us_ so harshly, major," said Wilkins; "for so many African travellers have corroborated Mungo Park"s stories that the truth is pretty well known and believed by people of average education. But pray is it your lordship"s pleasure that I should accompany Tom? You know he cannot take care of himself, and no one of the party can act so powerfully as a check on his inveterate propensity to inordinate smoking as myself."
"You must have studied Johnson"s dictionary very closely in your boyhood," said Tom, puffing a prolonged cloud as a termination to the sentence.
"But, major, if you do condemn me to his company, please let us have Mafuta again, for Wilkins and I are like two uncongenial stones, and he acts as lime to keep us together."
"Don"t you think that Hicks had better be consulted before we make arrangements?" suggested Pearson.
"Hear, hear," cried Ogilvie; "and I should like to know what is to be done with Brand and Anson, for they are both very much down with fever of some sort this morning."
"Leave Jumbo with them," said Tom Brown; "he"s better at nursing than hunting. By the way, was it not he who nursed the native that died last night in the kraal?"
"It was, and they say he killed the poor n.i.g.g.e.r by careless treatment,"
said Pearson.
"What n.i.g.g.e.r do you refer to?" asked Ogilvie.
"The one who died--but, I forgot, you were out after that hyena when it happened, and so I suppose have not heard of it," said Pearson. "We had a funeral in the village over there last night, and they say that our fellow Jumbo, who it seems was once a friend of the sick man, offered to sit up with him last night. There is a rumour that he was an enemy of Jumbo"s, and that our cowardly scoundrel made this offer in order to have an opportunity of killing him in a quiet way. Hicks even goes the length of saying he is sure that Jumbo killed him, for when he saw the sick man last he was under the impression what he had got the turn, and gave him a powder that would have been certain to cure--"
"Or kill," interrupted Tom Brown; "I"ve no faith in Hicks"s skill as a pract.i.tioner."
"Of course not," said Wilkins, "proverbial philosophy a.s.serts and requires that doctors should disagree."
"Be that as it may," continued Pearson, "the native did die and was buried, so that"s an end of him, and yonder sits Jumbo eating his breakfast at the camp-fire as if he had done a most virtuous action.
The fact is, I don"t believe the reports. I cannot believe that poor Jumbo, coward though he is, would be guilty of such an act."
"Perhaps not," said the major, rising, "but there"s no possibility of settling the question now, and here comes Hicks, so I"ll go and make arrangements with him about the day"s proceedings."
"They have a primitive mode of conducting funerals here," said Tom Brown when the major had left. "I happened to be up at the kraal currying favour with the chief man, for he has the power of bothering us a good deal if he chooses, and I observed what they did with this same dead man. I saw that he was very low as I pa.s.sed the hut where he lay, and stopped to look on. His breath was very short, and presently he fell into what either might have been a profound sleep, or a swoon, or death; I could not be quite sure which, not being used to black fellows. I would have examined the poor man, but the friends kicked up a great row and shoved me off. Before the breath could have been well out of his body, they hoisted him up and carried him away to burial. I followed out of mere curiosity, and found that the lazy rascals had shoved the body into an ant-eater"s hole in order to save the trouble of digging a grave."
While Tom and his friends were thus conversing over their pipes, their attention was attracted by a peculiar cry or howl of terror, such as they had never heard from any animal of those regions. Starting up they instinctively grasped their guns and looked about them. The utterer of the cry was soon obvious in the person of Jumbo, who had leaped up suddenly--overturning his breakfast in the act--and stood gazing before him with his eyes starting out of their sockets, his teeth rattling together like a pair of castanets, his limbs quivering, and in fact his whole person displaying symptoms of the most abject terror of which the human frame is capable.
The major and Hicks, who stood not far from him, were both unusually pale in the face, as they gazed motionless before them.
The fixedness of their looks directed the eyes of Tom Brown and his comrades towards a neighbouring thicket, where they beheld an object that was well calculated to inspire dread. It appeared to be a living skeleton covered with a black skin of the most ghastly appearance, and came staggering towards them like a drunken man. As it drew nearer Jumbo"s limbs trembled more and more violently and his face became of a leaden blue colour. At last he became desperate, turned round, dashed right through the embers of the fire, and fled wildly from the spot with a howl that ended in a shriek of terror.
"No wonder he"s terrified," observed Tom Brown to his alarmed comrades; "I felt more than half certain the n.i.g.g.e.r was not dead last night, and now it is beyond question that they had buried him alive. Jumbo evidently thinks it"s his ghost!"
"_Won"t_ he give his friend a fright?" said Wilkins, on observing that the poor man went staggering on in the direction of the kraal.
"He will," said Hicks, laughing; "but they"ll make up for their haste by taking good care of him now. I declare I thought for a moment or two that it was a real ghost! Come now, gentlemen, if you want good sport you"ve got the chance before you to-day. The last party that pa.s.sed this way left an old boat on the river. I dare say it won"t be very leaky. Some of you had better take it and go after the "potimusses.
There"s plenty of buffalo and elephants in this region also, and the natives are anxious to have a dash at them along with you. Divide yourselves as you choose, and I"ll go up to make arrangements with the old chief."
In accordance with the trader"s advice the party was divided. Tom Brown, Wilkins, and Mafuta, as on a former occasion, determined to stick together and take to the boat. The others, under the major, went with Hicks and the natives after elephants.