The Country of the Dwarfs 7

The Country of the Dwarfs 7

The chests were his delight, for the wealth of a king here is composed

chiefly of chests, which, of course, are supposed to be filled with

goods.

 

King Quengueza never thought that his friend Chally would have

remembered him so profitably.

 

After showing him all these things, I made him a speech, and said, in

a low tone, "Quengueza, Chally has a heart (ore'ma); he has a heart

that loves you. When he left you the last time he was poor, and had

nothing to give you, but you loved him the same as if he had possessed

a thousand chests filled with goods. Now he is rich, and has just come

back from the white man's country, and he brings you all these fine

presents, for Chally loves you;" and when I said "loves you" I looked

at him steadily in the face. The sight of all this wealth had almost

dumbfounded the old man, and for a while he could not speak. Finally he

said,

 

"Do you love me, Chally? If you do, do not tell the people what you

have given me, or they will bewitch me to have my property."

 

The fear of witchcraft was a great defect in the character of poor

Quengueza. He was always in dread of being bewitched, and consequently

of dying.

 

Then he knelt down and clasped my feet with his hands, and, with his

face distorted by fear, begged me again not to tell any body in the

country what I had given him. This taking hold of a man's feet is the

most imploring way of asking a favor; it was the first time in his life

that Quengueza, the great chief of the Abouya clan, had done such a

thing. I promised him, of course, never to tell any thing to his people.

 

After a while he went away, and his subjects crowded round him,

expecting fully to hear what fine things his friend Chally had brought

him, when I heard him shout, with the loudest voice he could summon,

 

"My friend Chally knows nothing but talk, and has brought me nothing."

Coming toward me, he repeated the statement just as loudly, and looked

at me at the same time with an imploring sort of a look, as if to say,

"Do not say any thing." But Quengueza's people knew me better; they

knew very well that Chally, the great friend of Quengueza, would not

come back from the white man's country without bringing him something,

and they were smiling all the while, for they were well acquainted with

the ways of their beloved old chief, who was a miser, and never wanted

his people to know what he possessed. I kept his presents till his

departure.

 

I gave presents also to good old Ranpano, to the chiefs that had come

to see me, to their wives, and to my old friends, and then the people

returned to their different villages. Quengueza's people were busy

every day collecting the long bamboo-like branches of palm-trees for my

new settlement, which they were to build for me.

 

Before the departure of the chiefs, I assembled them, and we held a

grand palaver, at which they agreed that the Mentor should not leave

their country until they had laden her with their products--woods,

India-rubber, ivory, wax, etc.

 

The night Quengueza took leave his confidential slaves were busy taking

his presents from my hut to the large canoes they had with them,

which having been safely accomplished, they departed before daylight.

Quengueza threatened with death any one of his men who should say a

word of what had passed.

 

Then, for the first time since my arrival, it looked as if I was going

to have a quiet time. I was glad of it, for I had been ill with fever,

and wanted rest and quiet in order to get well. Old Ranpano would stay

for hours by my bedside, hardly ever uttering a word, but I could see

by his face that the old man felt anxiety on my account. He would say

sometimes, "Chally, Chally, you must not be ill; none of my people want

to see you ill. I love you; we all love you;" and when he went away he

muttered words which no doubt were invocations to spirits, for Ranpano,

like the rest of his people, was very superstitious.

 

The superstition of the natives being so great about the site of my

old settlement of Washington, I found it was impossible to build there

again. Not far from it there was a nice spot, just on the bank of the

river, which I liked very much; but at that spot there was a little

Commi village, whose chief was called Rabolo. The only thing to be done

was to buy Rabolo out, and I succeeded in purchasing the whole village

for several guns, some kegs of powder, a brass kettle, a few brass

rings and iron bars, and two or three pieces of cloth. I allowed the

people to take the houses away with them, and I set to work immediately

to build my new settlement.

 

Quengueza's people went at it vigorously, and, with the help of

Ranpano's people, we began building in earnest, Captain Vardon, myself,

and a negro being the carpenters. The doors and windows we made with

the bottoms of large canoes.

 

The smaller buildings were soon finished, and the people were hard at

work on my large dwelling-house; but when we came to the veranda, and

the posts had to be put in the ground, my men were suddenly seized

with fear.

 

There was in the ground a formidable _monda_, or fetich, which my

friend Rabolo had buried in his village before I purchased it, and

which happened to be exactly upon the site of my house, and almost in

front of my door.

 

Poor Rabolo had never dreamed that I would build my house just on that

very spot.

 

Rabolo was not in town, and the builders did not dare to remove the

monda, declaring that there would be a great palaver if they touched

Rabolo's monda; "for," said they, "Rabolo's monda, which he has put

in the ground, is a very good one; for, since his village has been

established, twelve dry and twelve rainy seasons ago, no one has died

there." This was no great monda after all, for Rabolo's village was

only composed of his family, and there were fifteen inhabitants in all,

not including the dogs, goats, fowls, and parrots.

 

Rabolo was sent for. He was loth to agree to have the monda removed;

"for," said he, "not one of us has died since I made it. You can not

take it." "Then," said I, "Rabolo, give me back the goods I have given

you; I must go somewhere else." But poor Rabolo had given away the

goods--had bought two more wives--and could not give me back my money.

I knew it, and was firm. I insisted that the whole place belonged to

me; that I bought it, above the ground and under the ground, to the

very water's edge. So at last Rabolo, with a sad face, consented to

have the monda removed.

 

To enter Rabolo's settlement you had to go under a portal, which was

made of two upright poles and a crossbar. Round the poles grew a

talismanic creeper, which had been planted immediately after the queer

gate had been erected; but at the erection of the gate there were great

ceremonies, for Rabolo's powerful monda was to be buried in the ground,

and that monda was to protect the village, and Rabolo and his family,

from aniemba (witchcraft) and death; so I did not wonder that it was

with a frightened face poor Rabolo allowed me to take away what he

considered the protector of himself and family.

 

Rabolo was a quiet man--a good man; not a bloodthirsty savage. His

little village lived at peace with all the Commi villages around him.

 

Rabolo asked to be allowed to take the monda away himself. This I

granted. Then he began to cut the bushes and the creeper, which was of

the same kind that grew on the gate, that in the course of time had

grown over his talisman, and, digging a hole in the ground, soon came

to the spot where the wonderful monda lay. The first thing he turned up

was the skull of a chimpanzee; then came the skull of a man, probably

of one of the ancestors of Rabolo. The people were looking in silence

at the scene before them; they seemed to think that Rabolo was doing a

wonderful thing, and some thought that he would have to pay with his

life for his daring deed. Poor superstitious fellow! around the skulls

were pieces of pottery and crockery of all sorts, which had been put

there as an offering, or to keep company with the skulls.

 

Then we went to the entrance, and he removed the upright posts of the

gate, and cut away the creeper that twined itself around it. This

creeper was a long-lived species, and the superstition was that as long

as it kept alive the monda would retain its power. Rabolo dug in the

sandy soil of the prairie near where the creeper grew, and turned up

more skulls of chimpanzees and broken pieces of pottery. The two idols

on either side of the gate were removed also.

 

A few days after, I heard the people say that it was Rabolo's monda

that had made me come to that spot; for they believe, in that far-away

country which is the land of the chimpanzee, that the chimpanzee and

the white man have something to do with each other, the pale yellow

face of the chimpanzee seeming somewhat to resemble ours, while the

dark face of the gorilla leads them to believe that the gorilla sprung

from the black man. Skulls of chimpanzees were just now in great

demand, as mondas were to be made with them in many villages, for they

were fully persuaded that if they had them people from the land of the

white man would come and settle among them.

 

Four weeks after my arrival in the Commi country my new settlement was

built, and was exactly like my old settlement of Washington, a picture

of which I gave you in my Apingi Kingdom, and I gave to it the name of

Plateau, on account of the country being flat.

 

After the completion of my house there was great excitement in the

settlement. Ranpano had declared that he could not enter my house; a

doctor had told him that some person who was an aniemba, a wizard, had

made a monda, a charm, and had put it under the threshold of the door

of my house, so that if he entered my hut the witch or aniemba would go

into him, and he would die.

 

I got furious at Ranpano's superstition, and said to him that, while

he pretended to love me, he insulted me by not coming to see me. His

answer was that he loved me. His people felt badly about it. Doctors

were sent for; they drank the mboundou, and declared that it was true

that some one wanted to bewitch him, and had put a monda under my door

to kill him.

 

Immediately ceremonies for driving away the witch were begun. For

three days they danced almost incessantly, making a terrible noise

near my premises, which almost set me crazy; drums were beating day

and night. At the end of the third day I heard suddenly a tremendous

noise made with the drums, and a gun was fired at my door. Ranpano

entered muttering invocations, and wild with excitement, and the people

declared that the aniemba under my door that was to kill the king had been driven away.