The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗
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would be impregnable when held, as now, by fifty men well armed with
guns against a mob whose best weapons were only lances. I sent men up
the watchmen’s stations; these were about twenty-five feet high; and the
night being clear, they could distinctly report the movements of a dark
mass of natives that were ever increasing on the outside of the town at
about two hundred yards’ distance. The rattle of the Turks’ drum
repeatedly sounded in reply to the nogara, and the intended attack
seemed destined to relapse into a noisy but empty battle of the drums.
A few hours passed in uncertainty, when, at about midnight, the chief
Commoro came fearlessly to the patrol, and was admitted to the
quadrangle. He seemed greatly struck with the preparations for defence,
and explained that the nogara had been beaten without his orders, and
accordingly the whole country had risen; but that he had explained to
the people that I had no hostile intentions, and that all would be well
if they only kept the peace. He said they certainly had intended to
attack us, and were surprised that we were prepared, as proved by the
immediate reply of the Turks’ drum to their nogara. He assured us that
he would not sleep that night, but would watch that nothing should
happen. I assured him that we should also keep awake, but should the
nogara sound once more I should give orders to my men to set fire to the
town, as I should not allow the natives to make use of such threats with
impunity. I agreed to use what little interest I had to keep the Turks
in order, but that I must not be held responsible by the natives for
their proceedings, as I was not of their country, neither had I anything
to do with them. I explained, that upon Ibrahim’s return from Gondokoro
things might improve, as he was the captain of the Turks, and might be
able to hold his men in command. Commoro departed, and about 2 A.M. the
dense crowds of armed men that had accumulated outside the town began to
disperse.
The morning broke and saw the men still under arms, but the excitement
had passed. The women soon reappeared with their water jars as usual,
but on this occasion they were perfectly unmolested by the Turks, who,
having passed the night in momentary expectation of an attack, were now
upon their best behaviour. However, I heard them muttering among
themselves, “Wait until Ibrahim returns with reinforcements and
ammunition, and we will pay the Latookas for last night.”
The town filled; and the Latookas behaved as though nothing out of the
common had occurred; but when questioned, they coolly confessed that
they had intended to surprise us, but that we were too “wide awake.”. It
is extraordinary that these fellows are so stupid as to beat the drum or
nogara before the attack, as it naturally gives the alarm, and renders a
surprise impossible; nevertheless, the war-drum is always a preliminary
step to hostilities. I now resolved to camp outside the town, so as not
to be mixed up in any way with the Turks, whose presence was certain to
create enmity. Accordingly I engaged a number of natives to cut thorns,
and to make a zareeba, or camp, about four hundred yards from the main
entrance of the town, on the road to the stream of water. In a few days
it was completed, and I constructed houses for my men, and two good huts
for ourselves. Having a supply of garden seeds, I arranged a few beds,
which I sowed with onions, cabbages, and radishes. My camp was eighty
yards long, and forty wide. My horses were picqueted in two corners,
while the donkeys and camels occupied the opposite extremity. We now
felt perfectly independent. I had masses of supplies, and I resolved to
work round to the southwest whenever it might be possible, and thus to
recover the route that I had originally proposed for my journey south.
My present difficulty was the want of an interpreter. The Turks had
several, and I hoped that on the return of Ibrahim from Gondokoro I
might induce him to lend me a Bari lad for some consideration. For the
present I was obliged to send to the Turks’ camp and borrow an
interpreter whenever I required one, which was both troublesome and
expensive.
Although I was willing to purchase all supplies with either beads or
copper bracelets, I found it was impossible to procure meat. The natives
refused to sell either cattle or goats. This was most tantalizing, as
not less than 10,000 head of cattle filed by my camp every morning as
they were driven from the town to pasturage. All this amount of beef
paraded before me, and did not produce a steak! Milk was cheap and
abundant; fowl were scarce; corn was plentiful; vegetables were unknown;
not even pumpkins were grown by the Latookas.
Fortunately there was an abundance of small game in the shape of wild
ducks, pigeons, doves; and a great variety of birds such as herons,
cranes, spoonbills, &c. Travellers should always take as large a supply
of shot as possible. I had four hundred weight, and prodigious
quantities of powder and caps: thus I could at all times kill sufficient
game for ourselves and people. There were a series of small marshy pools
scattered over the country near the stream that ran through the valley;
these were the resort of numerous ducks, which afforded excellent sport.
The town of Tarrangolle is situated at the foot of the mountain, about a
mile from the stream, which is about eighty yards wide, but shallow. In
the dry weather, water is obtained by wells dug in the sandy bed, but
during the rains it is a simple torrent not exceeding three feet in
depth. The bed being sandy, the numerous banks, left dry by the
fluctuations of the stream, are most inviting spots for ducks; and it
was only necessary to wait under a tree, on the river’s bank, to obtain
thirty or forty shots in one morning as the ducks flew down the course
of the stream. I found two varieties: the small brown duck with a grey
head; and a magnificent variety, as large as the Muscovy, having a
copper-and-blue coloured tinselled back and wings, with a white but
speckled head and neck. This duck had a curious peculiarity in a fleshy
protuberance on the beak about as large as a half-crown. This stands
erect, like a cock’s comb. Both this, and the smaller variety, were
delicious eating. There were two varieties of geese—the only two that
I have ever seen on the White Nile—the common Egyptian grey goose, and
a large black and white bird with a crimson head and neck, and a red and
yellow horny protuberance on the top of the head. This variety has a
sharp spur upon the wing an inch long, and exceedingly powerful; it is
used as a weapon of defence for striking, like the spurred wing of the
plover.
I frequeutly shot ten or twelve ducks, and as many cranes, before
breakfast; among others the beautiful crested crane, called by the Arabs
“garranook.” The black velvet head of this crane, surrounded by a golden
crest, was a favourite ornament of the Latookas, and they were
immediately arranged as crests for their helmets. The neighbourhood of
my camp would have made a fortune for a feather-dealer; it was literally
strewn with down and plumes. I was always attended every morning by a
number of Latooka boys, who were eager sportsmen, and returned to camp
daily laden with ducks and geese.
No sooner did we arrive in camp than a number of boys volunteered to
pluck the birds, which they did for the sake of the longest feathers,
with which they immediately decked their woolly heads. Crowds of boys
were to be seen with heads like cauliflowers, all dressed with the
feathers of cranes and wild ducks. It appears to be accepted, both by
the savage and civilized, that birds’ feathers are specially intended
for ornamenting the human head.
It was fortunate that Nature had thus stocked Latooka with game. It was
impossible to procure any other meat; and not only were the ducks and
geese to us what the quails were to the Israelites in the desert, but
they enabled me to make presents to the natives that assured them of our
good will.
Although the Latookas were far better than other tribes that I had met,
they were sufficiently annoying; they gave me no credit for real good
will, but they attributed my forbearance to weakness. On one occasion
Adda, one of the chiefs, came to ask me to join him in attacking a
village to procure molotes (iron hoes); he said, “Come along with me,
bring your men and guns, and we will attack a village near here, and
take their molotes and cattle; you keep the cattle, and I will have the
molotes.” I asked him whether the village was in an enemy’s country. “Oh
no!” he replied, “it is close here; but the people are rather
rebellious, and it will do them good to kill a few, and to take their
molotes. If you are afraid, never mind, I will ask the Turks to do it.”
Thus forbearance on my part was supposed to be caused from weakness, and
it was difficult to persuade them that it originated in a feeling of
justice. This Adda most coolly proposed that we should plunder one of
his own villages that was rather too “liberal” in its views. Nothing is
more heartbreaking than to be so thoroughly misunderstood, and the
obtuseness of the savages was such, that I never could make them
understand the existence of good principle;—their one idea was
“power,”—force that could obtain all—the strong hand that could wrest
from the weak. In disgust I frequently noted the feelings of the moment
in my journal—a memorandum from which I copy as illustrative of the
time. “1863, 10th April, Latooka.—I wish the black sympathisers in
England could see Africa’s inmost heart as I do, much of their sympathy
would subside. Human nature viewed in its crude state as pictured
amongst African savages is quite on a level with that of the brute, and
not to be compared with the noble character of the dog. There is neither
gratitude, pity, love, nor self-denial; no idea of duty; no religion;
but covetousness, ingratitude, selfishness and cruelty. All are thieves,
idle, envious, and ready to plunder and enslave their weaker
neighbours.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE FUNERAL DANCE.
Drums were beating, horns blowing, and people were seen all running in
one direction;—the cause was a funeral dance, and I joined the crowd,
and soon found myself in the midst of the entertainment. The dancers
were most grotesquely got up. About a dozen huge ostrich feathers
adorned their helmets; either leopard or the black and white monkey
skins were suspended from their shoulders, and a leather tied round the
waist covered a large iron bell which was strapped upon the loins of
each dancer, like a woman’s old-fashioned bustle: this they rung to the
time of the dance by jerking their posteriors in the most absurd manner.
A large crowd got up in this style created an indescribable hubbub,
heightened by the blowing of horns and the beating of seven nogaras of
various notes. Every dancer wore an antelope’s horn suspended round the
neck, which he blew occasionally in the height of his excitement. These
instruments produced a sound partaking of the braying of a donkey and
the screech of an owl. Crowds of men rushed round and round in a sort of
“galop infernel,” brandishing their lances and iron-headed maces, and
keeping tolerably in line five
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