Bevis: The Story of a Boy
Page 11
it runs slow, and it's not clear, and we don't know where itcomes from. It's the Nile."
"So it is," said Bevis. "It is the Nile, and some day we will go up tothe source."
"What's that swimming across up there?" said Mark.
"It is too far; I can't tell. Most likely a crocodile. How fortunateyou did not fall in."
When they had crossed, they whistled for Pan, who had been busy amongthe fern on the bank, sniffing after the rabbits which had holes there.Pan came and swam over to them in a minute. They travelled on some wayand found the ground almost level and so thick with sedges and grass andrushes that they walked in a forest of green up to their waists. Thewater was a long way off beyond the weeds. They tried to go down to it,but the ground got very soft and their feet sank into it; it was coveredwith horsetails there, acres and acres of them, and after these shallowwater hidden under floating weeds. Some coots were swimming about theedge of the weeds too far to fear them. So they returned to the firmground and walked on among the sedges and rushes. There was a roughpath, though not much marked, which wound about so as to get the firmestfooting, but every now and then they had to jump over a wet place.
"What immense swamps," said Mark; "I wonder where ever we shall get to."
Underfoot there was a layer of the dead sedges of last year which gavebeneath their weight, and the ground itself was formed of the roots ofsedges and other plants. The water had not long since covered the placewhere they were, and the surface was still damp, for the sunshine couldnot dry it, having to pass through the thick growth above and the mattedstalks below. A few scattered willow bushes showed how high the waterhad been by the fibres on the stems which had once flourished in it andwere now almost dried up by the heat. A faint malarious odour rose fromthe earth, drawn from the rotting stalks by the hot sun. There was noshadow, and after a while they wearied of stepping through the sedges,sinking a little at every step, which much increases the labour ofwalking.
The monotony, too, was oppressive, nothing but sedges, flags, andrushes, sedges and horsetails, and they did not seem to get much fartherafter all their walking. First they were silent, labour makes us quiet;then they stopped and looked back. The perfect level caused thedistance to appear more than it really was, because there was a thininvisible haze hovering over the swamp. Beyond the swamp was the gulfthey had gone round, and across it the yellow sand-quarry facing them.It looked a very long way off.
Volume One, Chapter VI.
CENTRAL AFRICA.
"We shall never get round," said Mark, "just see what a way we havecome, and we are not half up one side of the sea yet."
"I wonder how far it is back to the quarry," said Bevis. "These sedgesare so tiresome."
"We shall never get round," said Mark, "and I am getting hungry, and Panis tired of the rushes too."
Pan, with his red tongue lolling out at one side of his mouth, lookedup, showed his white tusks and wagged his tail at the mention of hisname. He had ceased to quest about for some time; he had been walkingjust at their heels in the path they made.
"We _must_ go on," said Bevis, "we _can't_ go back; it is not proper.Travellers like us never go back. I wish there were no more sedges.Come on."
He marched on again. But now they had once confessed to each other thatthey were tired, this spurt soon died away, and they stopped again.
"It is as hot as Central Africa," said Mark, fanning himself with hishat.
"I am not sure that we are not in Central Africa," said Bevis. "Thereare hundreds of miles of reeds in Africa, and as we have crossed theNile very likely that's where we are."
"It's just like it," said Mark, "I am sure it's Africa."
"Then there ought to be lions in the reeds," said Bevis, "or elephants.Keep your spear ready."
They went on again a little way.
"I want to sit down," said Mark.
"So do I," said Bevis; "in Africa, people generally rest in the middleof the day for fear of sunstrokes."
"So they do; then we ought to rest."
"We can't sit down here," said Bevis; "it is so wet, and it does notsmell very nice: we might have the fever, you know, if we stopped stilllong."
"Let's go to the hedge," said Mark, pointing to the hedge whichsurrounded the shore and was a great way on their left hand. "Perhapsthere is a prairie there. And I am so thirsty, and there is no water wecan drink; give me an apple."
"But we must not go back," said Bevis; "I can't have that; it wouldnever do to let the expedition fail."
"No," said Mark. "But let us sit down first."
Bevis did not quite like to leave the sedges, but he could not gainsaythe heat, and he was weary, so they left the rough path and went towardsthe hedge, pushing through the sedges and rushes. It was some distance,and as they came nearer and the ground very gradually rose and becamedrier, there was a thick growth of coarse grass between the otherplants, and presently a dense mass of reed-grass taller than theirshoulders. This was now in bloom, and the pollen covered their sleevesas they forced a way through it. The closer they got to the hedge thethicker the grasses became, and there were now stoles of willow, andtall umbelliferous plants called "gix," which gave out an unpleasantscent as they rubbed against or pushed them down and stepped on them.It was hard work to get through, and when at last they reached the hedgethey were almost done up.
Now there was a new difficulty, the hedge had grown so close and thickit was impossible to creep through it. They were obliged to follow it,searching for a gap. They could not see a yard in front, so that theycould not tell how far they might have to go. The dust-like pollenflying from the shaken grasses and the flowering plants got inside theirnostrils and on the roofs of their mouths and in their throats, causingan unbearable thirst and tickling. The flies, gathering in crowds,teased them, and would not be driven away. Now and then somethingseemed to sting their necks, and, striking the place with the flat hand,a stoatfly dropped, too bloated with blood, like a larger gnat, toattempt to escape the blow.
Pushing through the plants they stumbled into a hollow which they didnot see on account of the vegetation till they stepped over the edge andfell in it. Mark struck his knee against a stone, and limped; Bevisscratched his hands and wrist with a bramble. The hollow was a littlewet at the bottom, not water, but soft, sticky mud, which clung to theirfeet like gum; but they scrambled out of it quickly, not really hurt,but out of breath and angry. They were obliged to sit down, crushingdown the grasses, to rest a minute.
"Let's go back to the path in the sedges," said Mark.
"I shan't," said Bevis savagely. He got up and went on a few steps, andthen took out his knife. "Couldn't we cut a way through the bushes?" heasked. They went nearer the hedge and looked, but it had been keptthick that cattle might not stray into the marsh. The outside twigscould be cut of course, but hawthorn is hard and close-grained. Withsuch little tools as their pocket-knives it would take hours--verylikely they would break them.
"If we only had something to drink," said Mark. They had no moreapples. Though it was a marsh, though they were on the shore, there wasnot a drop of water; if they went back to the sedges they could not getat the water, they would sink to the knees in mud first. The tallreed-grass and "gix," and other plants which so impeded their progress,were not high enough to protect them in the least from the sun. Thehedge ran north and south, and at noonday gave no shadow. As they wentslowly forward, Mark felt the ground first with his spear to preventtheir falling into another hollow. They pulled rushes, and bit the softwhite part which was cool to the tongue. But the stalks of plants andgrass, each so easily bent when taken by itself, in the mass like thisbegan to prove stronger than they were.
They had to part them with their arms first, like swimming, and thenpush through, and the ceaseless resistance wore out their power. EvenBevis at last agreed that it was not possible, they must go back to thepath in the sedges on their right. After standing still a minute torecover themselves they turned to the rig
ht and went towards the sedges.In about twenty yards Mark, who had been sounding with his spear,touched something that splashed, he stopped and thrust again, there wasno mistake, it was water. On going nearer, and feeling for the bottomwith the spear, Mark found it was deep too, he could not reach thebottom. The grasses grew right to the edge, and the water itself was socovered with weeds that, had they not prodded the ground before theymoved, they would have stepped over the brink into it. The New Sea,receding, had left a long winding pool in a hollow which shut them offfrom getting to the path in the sedges unless by returning the weary waythey had come.
"This is dreadful," said Mark, when they