The men slowly got up and moved off and the drums at a much slower pace started up again and it was now time for the children to dance their own special way. What seemed like dozens of children emulated the grownups and it was a delight to watch them all dressed up looking like miniatures of the big people. Clare clapped her hands and looked on with pure enjoyment on her face. Sean now back from where he was a while ago, watched his first love and longed to hold her in his arms and make love to her with the drums beating outside his tent.
The elders were in a conversation to each other when their wives and the old ladies walked up and sat behind them. Also the lesser wealthy and old folks moved up closer to the circle while the children danced. Soon some of the old people entered the circle of dancing children. The professor took special notice of the old with the young and made some notes with only the light of the fire to write by. This went on for awhile and then the drums stopped and all of the tribe stood at attention as a very old man came from a hut behind the elders. His headdress was much larger and his many necklaces of shells rattled his coming. He had a spear that looked like it had seen better days and it was evident he used it as a walking stick more than a means of protection. Both Clare and her father knew this was the medicine man of this tribe. The elders had stood back when he approached the fire. The circle was closed up as the drums started to softly beat a slow rhythm. The medicine man started a slow dance despite his obvious lack of movement in his legs and arms. He began a slow jumble of words and the more circles he made of the fire, the louder his voice became. Mostly his head was raised up to the heavens and he pointed his spear at the tall mountains in the back of the camp.
The professor was writing quickly, but Clare looked on in amazement at her good luck to have witnessed this religious ceremony. The crowd of onlookers were themselves speaking a bunch of words over and over as they pointed to the sacred mountain. The moon was full and the sky was cloudless. Looking up at the mountain you could see to its black peak which in the daylight was white with snow. Now shadows blocked its true color.
Sean and Slim along with Matt guessed that if there were diamonds somewhere, they had to be somewhere in the mountains. No way without a guide or map would they ever discover their location? Let alone have the freedom to explore without the Massai knowing what they were searching for.
The medicine man continued his ritual for at least an hour or two. Clare was getting a little tired and Jasmine behind her said this religious ceremony with dancing would continue until dawn. Clare told her she would never make the complete ceremony and if the elders would grant her leave, she would go to her tent and take a rest. Jasmine told her it would be fine if she left and Sean watching her every move, waited his turn to escort her to her tent. Clare said goodnight to her father and bowed to the elders and set off with Sean right behind her. Slim and Matt looked at each other and knew what was going to happen once they reached his tent.
The elders meanwhile offered some drink to the professor and both Slim and Matt. Never one to turn down a drink, Slim and Matt both gladly accepted a gourd of drink. The professor tentatively took his offered drink and smelled it first and then put it to his lips and took a sip. He smiled and took a larger drink. It tasted to him like a special fruit drink. Slim and Matt watched and they tilted up the container and drank deeply. It went down smoothly Slim told Sean the next day with a headache that wouldn’t quit. Two drinks later and they never knew what the rest of the night was like. Totally able to move, but in a special trace of some sort, Matt, Slim and the professor danced the night away. The three of them woke the next day around noon with giant headaches. When they exited the tents, an old lady was waiting for them with another drink. No way were they going to drink anymore of that mind bending stuff. Not until Jasmine was called over from her lunch preparation did she explain the drink was to cure their hangover and make them feel better. They gladly accepted the drink and twenty minutes later felt awake and refreshed. ‘Wonderful stuff,’ they said to each other as they made their way to lunch.
Sean was sitting at a table with Clare and he had a look about him that was so school boy it was a little comical. Clare was leaning into him and they were munching a sandwich and drinking some fruit juice. Later Sean told Slim he was in love and to hell with the diamonds. He had his diamond right here and there was no need to look any further than right here for his treasure. Slim laughed and said he felt the same way about Jasmine. Matt on the other hand suspected the duality and soon realized he was on his own if he wanted to find the diamonds.
Chapter 7
The next week went by quickly. Jasmine spent a lot of time with the professor and the elders of the village. The professor had a mountain of notes and every afternoon until late at night he rewrote by the light of a kerosene lamp. Clare spent most of her time observing the Massai daily activities and wrote up her notes at night with her father. She paid particular attention to the kids and women. When Jasmine wasn’t with the professor, she was with Clare explaining what they were doing and why. Clare dreamed of a PhD that would be the results of her studies of the Massai. As far as her research went, she knew of no study about the Massai women. She wouldn’t be real popular as women still were not accepted as scholars, but somebody had to break the ice.
Jasmine told her part of the ritual with the young people before and after they got married. It was hard for Clare to understand as women would move from man to man even after they were married! She needed to think about that and talk further with Jasmine to give her an example of what she was trying to tell her.
Sean spent his time down the porters camp with Chicken Charley. The porters were happy laying around doing nothing and getting paid for it. Word had reached Charley that Horn was on his way up to see them. ‘He should be here in a day or so,’ Charley told Sean with a serious look on his face.
Charley knew about guys like Red and when they got mad as hell they would stop at nothing for some revenge. Charley and Sean sat under a shade tree and discussed ways of putting a stop to Red and his gang once and for all.
At that moment, one of Charlie’s cousins ran up to him and told him a runner was coming but still a long way off. Charlie said, ‘Maybe Horn is coming sooner than we thought.’ A smile crossed his face as he was proud of his son and he was respected by the Massai even though he was from another tribe.
Horn had gone through the rites of passage when he was younger with the men of the Massai. Charley’s reputation as a fair and honest guy helped Horn’s case for wanting to marry one of the elder’s daughters.
An hour later Horn came up to his father and Sean under the tree breathing hard and very thirsty. He had run out of water around noon and instead of stopping he came on in. Once he had his fill of water and caught his breath he sat on his haunches and told his story.
He had been in town two days before Red and his gang showed up with bloody feet and very hungry. They were staying at the hotel and healing up their feet and sunburned heads. Especially Red’s head as his fair skin wouldn’t turn brown only burn. Horn laughed at the looks of the bedraggled four-some. However, he went on to say that Red had sent word to Nairobi with a truck and Toby to buy some more horses and return as quickly as possible. The horses were to be transported by truck so as not to wear them out. They would travel light with no pack horse’s only saddle bags. Horn had it direct from the driver of the truck.
Sean listened carefully as he asked for more details and Horn delivered answers to every question he had. Sean asked Horn what he would do to keep Red and his gang away from the Massai. Horn told them that he was sure a guard would be posted at night and it might be hard to do much from that angle. Horn suggested they tell the Massai elders about Red and his gang.
‘This wouldn’t be the first white men to try and find the white rocks,’ he said with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his brown eye. To Sean, Horn seemed to know about the legends that drifted on the wind down through East Africa to the tip of South Africa and on ove
r to Australia.
Sean said, with a tight smile, ‘I will leave it up to you to deal with Red and his gang.’ Charlie fully understood what would probably happen to the luckless gang of treasure hunters by the Massai people. He’d heard the stories told over and over again by his own people and from his son. Sean got up and left headed back to his new pretty girlfriend.
For the next few weeks, things were pretty much ordinary and the two anthropologists were very happy to spend their time with the Massai people. Daily new knowledge was gleaned and Clare wished that the Massai people could remain untouched by white civilization. She would do her part to preserve their culture and school the Massai with Jasmines help.
Every morning two young teenage girls came to help Clare dress and comb her hair. They took great care to place the necklaces around her neck. In addition, she had bracelets to put on every day. There was an order of things and Clare never found out what the order was with the jewelry. It had something to do with the moon and the days of the month involving the menstrual cycle of a woman. Before she left the Massai village she discovered the order of bracelets told the male when the women were having their menstrual cycle. Women were taboo when having their cycle.
The girls attending to Clare followed her most everywhere. It was hard to find some private time with her lover Sean. They would have to see Jasmine and have her ask the girls to wait for awhile until they came back from a trip up the creek to a secluded spot they discovered some time back.
At the moment Sean walked back to camp and saw Clare with Jasmine he went up to Clare with a serious look on his face and she became concerned something was wrong. He took her by the arm and they went walking in the hot afternoon sun. Sitting under their favorite tree on the ground out of the sun, with the creek running beside them, he told her all about Red and his gang of thieves.
She was stunned and an angry look appeared on her face. Sean was totally embarrassed and asked her forgiveness. Clare with a stern look said, ‘Sean, how could you do this to us? We have been nothing but fair and generous and some of the safari money is coming out of my father’s pocket.’
She began to cry and Sean felt like a total heel. He didn’t know whether to hold her or not touch her. He was not schooled about women and he sat there with a dumb look on his face. Jesus, he said to himself, what the hell I have done. Now she will hate me and I will lose her back to England. Clare got up and ran away back to camp sobbing all the way. Jasmine and her girls watched her run to her tent and close the flap. No one saw her again till dinner when she came out and sat down saying nothing to no one.
Her father sensed some bad vibes at dinner but was too involved with his paper work to be bothered by some love struck girl in the African bush. Sean sat at the table not eating and hung his head while the rest of the guys, Slim and Matt were talking about when they last bagged a rogue bull elephant that was terrorizing a village. The elephant had killed three people and the British government contacted Matt who then got hold of Slim and Sean to help him rid the village of the crazed bull elephant. Slim barely escaped with his life on the day the elephant decided to traipse through the village again. Slim was staked out where he had broke through the last time and was hiding in the grass laying down waiting for the bull to come. Matt was up in a tree back a little further and Sean was in the village in case they both missed him or only wounded the giant bull elephant.
It didn’t take long to wait as soon a crashing sound was heard coming from the direction they anticipated. Soon a baying sound came to their ears and out of the bush came a roaring mad bull elephant headed directly towards Slim. Matt took a shot and the bull took a dive down but held its self up and continued on to the village. Slim raised up and took a shot to the head between the eyes and the shot hit its mark but the elephant was running on adrenalin. Slim tried to move but almost did not move in time as the bull lowered its head and tried to tusk Slim. The elephants front legs collapsed and the elephant tumbled head over tail landing just in front of the paralyzed Slim.
Sean meanwhile came running out to see what happened and found Slim on his backside scared to death. Matt came running up too and when they could see that the elephant was dead and Slim was ok, they all laughed together. Slim got up and shook himself off and looked down at the front of his pants and all of them noticed it was all wet in the crotch. Slim said, ‘If either one of you guys tells this story of me pissing my pants, I’ll never talk to you again in my life!’
Matt told the story at the dinner table but left out the part of Slim wetting his pants. He went on to say the elephant had been wounded by some game hunter and had turned rogue. The village people ate the elephant and the tusks were sold in the city and split up between the big game hunters.
Sean got up and walked to his tent and went inside. It wasn’t till the next morning that anyone saw or heard from Sean. He mopped around all day long and nothing anyone could do or say to cheer him up. Clare was from that time on all business. She rarely spoke to any of the guides and when she did, it was strictly business related talk.
Charley sent word to Sean that he wanted to see him. Sean hurried down to the waiting Charlie and his son. Charlie told him that Red and his gang of thieves were on their way having just left town. It would take them a week to get here, but he would have Horn inform the Massai the situation coming. Sean agreed to inform the Massai and said he would go along with whatever the Massai decided to do. Hopefully, he added, the professor and Clare would remain ignorant of the coming of the Red River Gang. Horn said he would take care of it and that nobody would be the wiser as warriors were always coming and going with their cattle.
Sean wondered back to camp feeling lower than a snake’s belly. He had no idea how to heal the wounds he inflicted on Clare, but thought he might talk to Jasmine.
Later that night he found Jasmine alone with no one around. He asked her, ‘Jasmine I made a big mistake and told Clare about Red and the hunt for the Massai diamonds. What can I do to redeem myself? I love her so much and now she won’t talk to me.’
Jasmine frowned and gave it a few moments thought and replied with a serious look on her face and a feeling of his hurt inside her, ‘If I was you I would give it some time and she will learn that you are a good man and meant no harm to her and the professor. The Massai can take care of themselves very well and to worry about Red and his gang, well, you will see when the time comes.’ Sean thanked her and left for his tent.
As Sean was walking to his tent, Horn was seen entering the hut of the head elder. A few minutes later his old wife left the hut and called to the other two elders to come and see her husband. An hour later, Horn left and went down to where his father was camping and filled him in on the Massai plan to put an end to Red and is gang. Charlie smiled and wished he could be there to see the look on Red’s face when he was surrounded by fierce warriors pointing their spears at the unsuspecting gang.
Two days later what looked like a normal morning of moving the cattle out to feed, a few more than usual Massai followed the cattle out of the compound. Never seen by anyone, about fifty Massai headed in the direction of the intruders.
No reliable report came back to the safari members but Horn told them bits and pieces of what happened. Red and his gang were sleeping with one man on watch as daylight was breaking. The guard never heard a sound as he was stuck in the back with a spear. Not enough to kill him but enough to make him drop his weapon and not say a word. The warriors surrounded the camp not five feet away from the other three gang members. They stayed that way until Red, who was always the first to wake up, sat up and stretched his arms and looked into a solid mass of Massai warriors with their spears pointed at him. He never moved and one of the Massai poked Toby and the other guy with their spears to wake them up.
A few minutes later there could be seen a double row of Massai with the four gang member in the middle headed for the mountains blind folded. Two days later at night they took Red and his gang into the mountains and the next morn
ing all four of them screaming their heads off could be seen running towards town. The friend of Horns’ went on to tell him they gave the gang something to drink and left them next to a cave where they went in to rest after the long hike up the mountain. The Massai gave Horn a rare smile from a warrior and said their heads would never recover from the mountain spirits. For the rest of their lives they would be haunted by nightmares of demons chasing them.
Indeed when the safari returned to Nairobi after leaving the professor and Clare in Mombasa, the word around town was that Red and his sidekick Toby had gone crazy. They hung around the Bath house mumbling to no one in particular and at night could be heard through closed doors of the woodshed, locked of course, moaning and groaning about spirits and such things. Nothing was ever heard of the other two gang members. Most think they were lion fodder before they reached the city. Such was the results of the evil gang of thieves, upon finding out about the diamonds, were bent on discovering the lost Massai white rocks.
Meanwhile back at Massai camp. Life went on as if nothing had ever happened. The professor and Clare were busy with their study of the Massai. Slim wanted to marry Jasmine and she told him she would marry him but only in the Massai traditional way. He agreed and plans were made for the marriage.
Sean was never the same after his confession to Clare. The gang member’s horses were at Charlie’s camp and not long after Slim’s announced marriage to Jasmine, one morning, a horse was missing and so was Sean. He had told nobody including Slim and Matt he was leaving. Slim was in a terrible state and it took some doing to keep him from following Sean. Matt meanwhile kept his cool and bided his time waiting for a chance to capitalize on the treasure. However, he was having second thoughts after hearing what happened to Red. He thought to himself, let it develop and see what happens if an opportunity arises, well……. and he inwardly smiled.
Sacred White Rocks Page 6