People lived in floating villages ( Villages built on huge rafts are still to be seen on the great East African lakes) on the freshwater seas where they could not be reached by their enemies; these were savage people who gave no quarter to anybody.
Pandion asked the chief how far to the south the land of Africa ran and whether it was true that there the sun was again lower.
The old man livened up at this question. It turned out that he had commanded a big expedition to the south when he had been less than forty years old. They went on twenty selected elephants for gold and for the precious grass of the southern plains that gives strength to the aged and health to the sick.
Beyond the great river (The Zambezi with the Victoria Falls.) that flows from west to east, where there are giant waterfalls and a permanent rainbow plays in the high columns of spray, there are endless blue grass plains. Along the fringes of these grassy plains, along the seacoast, in the west and in the east, there are mighty trees whose leaves seem to be made from polished metal and glitter in the sun like a million mirrors.
The grass and leaves in the south, said the old man, are not green but grey, pale blue and dove-coloured, which makes the country look strange and cold. It is true, too, that the farther you go to the south the colder becomes the climate. The period of the rains, he added, which coincides with our dry season, is unbearably cold for northern people.
The old man told Pandion about an extraordinary silver tree that is found in the mountain gorges far to the south. The tree grows to a height of thirty cubits, has thin bark with transverse wrinkles, many branches covered with leaves shine like silver and are as soft as down; the tree, he said, is possessed of a magic beauty that charms all who see it.
Barren stony mountains, he continued, rose up like gigantic purple towers with vertical walls, at the foot of which crouched twisted trees, covered with large bunches of bright red flowers.
On the barren parts of the plain and the stony slopes of the hills ugly, twisted bushes and low trees grew.
(Various kinds of aloe-trees from the Liliaceae family, also dragon-trees.)
Their fleshy leaves, filled with poisonous sap, were attached like outspread fingers to the ends of twin branches that shot straight up into the air. Other trees had the same sort of leaves, reddish in colour, growing in the form of a cap curving downwards at the end of a curved stem, four cubits high, on which there were no branches.
Near the rivers and on the fringe of the forests, there were the ruins of ancient buildings made of huge dressed stones, apparently the work of a powerful and highly skilled people. “Today,” said the old chief, “there is nobody living in the vicinity of these ruins except the dangerous wild dogs that howl there in the moonlight. Nomad herdsmen and poor hunters wander the plains. Still farther to the south there are people with light grey skins, who have huge herds of cattle, but the expedition of the Elephant People did not go so far.” (Tribes of the Hottentot type were much more widespread in times of antiquity than at present. There is some reason to believe them related to the ancient Egyptians.)
Pandion and Kidogo listened avidly to the old chief’s stories. His tale of the blue plains seemed like fancy interwoven with fact, but still the old man’s voice sounded convincing; he frequently stared into the distance, his eyes flashing with excitement, and it seemed to Pandion that pictures of the past, retained in his memory, were passing before the old man’s eyes.
Suddenly the chief broke off.
“You’ve stopped working,” he said, “and I’ll have to sit before you for many more days!”
Pandion hurried although it did not seem as though haste were essential; he felt that the old chief’s bust was more successful than anything he had ever done before. He had acquired his skill gradually and imperceptibly, despite all he had gone through; his tremendous experience and his observations in Aigyptos stood him in good stead.
On the third day Pandion compared his bust with the face of the chief several times.
“It’s ready,” he said with a profound sigh.
“Have you finished?” asked the chief and, seeing that Pandion nodded in confirmation, got up and went over to his portrait.
Kidogo looked in admiration at Pandion’s work, scarcely able to restrain words of approval.
The clay, despite its uniform colour, had taken on all typical features of that stern, wise and imperious face, with its firm, protruding jaws, its wide, sloping forehead, heavy lips and thick nose with distended nostrils.
The old man turned to the house and called out softly.
His call was answered by one of his wives, a young woman, with a large number of tiny plaits cut short like a fringe on her forehead. She gave the chief a mirror of polished silver, obviously northern work, that had got into the centre of Africa by some unknown ways.
The chief held the mirror at arm’s length against the cheek of the statue and began to compare his reflection with Pandion’s work.
Pandion and Kidogo awaited the old man’s judgement. The chief was silent for a long time, and then he put down the mirror and said:
“Great is the power of man’s ability… You, stranger, possess this ability more than anybody in our country. You have made me better than I am — that means that you think well of me. I’ll pay you in your own coin. What reward do you want?”
Kidogo gave Pandion a push, but the young Hellene answered the chief with words that seemed to come from his very heart.
“Everything I own you see before you. I have nothing but the spear that was given to me…” Pandion stammered and continued jerkily: “I need nothing here in a strange land. I have my own country; it is far away but still it is my greatest treasure. Help me get back home.”
The elephant trainer placed his hand on the Hellene’s shoulder with a paternal gesture.
“I want to talk with you again, come tomorrow with your friend. Now we’ll finish this off. I’ll order our potters to dry the clay so that it will never crack. I want to keep this picture of myself. They’ll take out the surplus clay from inside and will cover it with a special pitch — they know how. The only thing I don’t like is the blind eyes. Can you put some stones in them that I’ll give you?”
Pandion agreed to this. The old man called to his wife again; this time she brought out a casket covered with a Leopard skin.
The chief took a fairly big bag out of the box and shook out on to his hand a heap of big, faceted stones, oval in shape arid as transparent as water. The unusually brilliant glitter of the stones attracted Pandion’s attention; each stone seemed to concentrate in itself the full power of the sunlight, at the same time remaining cold, transparent and pure. (Diamonds.)
“I’ve always wanted to have such eyes,” said the chief, “so that they would concentrate the light of life but themselves would never change. Select the best of them and put them into the bust.”
The young sculptor obeyed him. The portrait of the chief acquired an aspect that defies description. The iridescent stones gleamed in place of eyes in the wet, grey clay; their gleam filled the face with magic life. The contrast had at first seemed unnatural to Pandion but later it filled him with amazement. The more he looked the greater the harmony he found in the combination of transparent eyes and the dark clay of the sculptured face.
The elephant trainer was very pleased.
“Take these stones as a souvenir, stranger craftsman!” exclaimed the chief and poured a number of them into Pandion’s hand. Some of them were bigger than a plum-stone in size. “These stones come from the southern plains and are found in the rivers there. There’s nothing in the world that’s harder or purer than these stones. When you’re back in your distant land, you can show people the marvels of the south acquired by the Elephant People.”
Pandion thanked the old man and went away, hiding the gift in the bag that held Yakhmos’ stone.
“Don’t forget, come tomorrow!” the chief called after him.
Back in their hut the former slaves talked
excitedly about what would happen as a result of the success that attended Pandion’s work. Their hopes in the early continuance of their journey were strengthened. It seemed that there was every reason to expect the Elephant People would let them go and show them the true road.
At the appointed hour Pandion and Kidogo appeared at the house of the chief. The old man beckoned to them to come up. They sat at the feet of the elephant trainer, hiding their excitement with difficulty.
For some time the chief sat in silence and when he spoke he addressed them both at once.
“I’ve taken counsel with the other chiefs and they agree with me. Half a moon from now, after the grand hunt, we shall be sending a big expedition to the west for Coaling nuts and for gold. Six elephants will go through the forest and farther to the upper reaches of a big river, seven days march from here. Give me that stick,” said the chief to Pandion.
The old man drew the outlines of a big gulf where the sea cut deep into dry land, and Kidogo gave a faint cry. The chief drew a wavy line to indicate a river with two branches at its head and placed a cross in a junction of the waterways.
“The elephants will go this far, you’ll follow them and will pass easily through the forest. From there you’ll have to go alone, but it will take you five days more to reach the sea…”
“O father and — prince!” exclaimed the excited Kidogo, “you are our saviour. That river flows within the bounds of my country, and I know the plateau where the gold is found…” The Negro jumped up in ecstasy.
“I know,” continued the old chief, with a somewhat supercilious smile, “I know your people and your country and was at one time acquainted with one of your strongest chiefs, Yorumefu.”
“Yorumefu!” exclaimed Kidogo. “He’s my mother’s brother!”
“Good,” said the chief, interrupting Kidogo. “You will give him my greetings. Have you understood everything I’ve told you?” Without waiting for an answer he finished by saying, “Now I want to speak to your friend.” The chief turned to Pandion. “I feel that you’ll become a great man in your own country if you succeed in returning home. Ask me whatever you will and I will answer you.” “For a long time I’ve been thinking of asking you how you subdue the elephants,” said Pandion. “Or perhaps it’s a secret,” he added doubtfully.
“The training of elephants is a secret to fools alone,” smiled the old chief, “Any man of wisdom can easily guess how it’s done… Apart from the secret, however, it implies hard and dangerous work and unlimited patience. Brains aren’t sufficient, there’s real hard work as well. There are but few tribes in this land that possess the three qualities my people have — intellect, industry and unbounded courage. You must understand, stranger, that a full-grown elephant cannot be trained. We catch them when they’re still quite young. A young elephant is trained for ten years. Ten years of persistent labour are required for the elephant to begin to understand the commands given him by man and to do the necessary work.”
“Ten years!” exclaimed the astounded Pandion.
“Yes, not a moment less, that is, if you have correctly judged the character of the elephant. And if you make a mistake you will not manage the task even in fifteen years. There are stubborn animals and stupid ones amongst the elephants. And then, you must not forget that the capture of young elephants is a matter of great danger. We have to capture them with our own hands, without the aid of trained elephants because they may go back to join the herd. The trained elephants help us when the herd has been driven off and the youngsters are made fast. Several of our bravest men are always killed during an elephant hunt.” The old chief’s voice took on a note of sorrow. “Tell me, have you seen the exercises that our young warriors perform? You have. ‘Good. These exercises are also necessary training in the art of elephant hunting.”
On several occasions Pandion had seen the unusual games played by the Elephant People. The warriors planted two high posts on a level open space and fixed a bamboo cross-piece between them at a height of about five cubits from the ground.
They would then take a long run, make a peculiar sort of sideways leap into the air and fly over the cross-bar. The jumper’s body would double up, almost in two, and fly into the air with the right side forward in the direction of the jump. Pandion had never before seen anybody jump so high. Some of the best jumpers could leap to a height of almost six cubits. Pandion was filled with astonishment at the great skill of the Elephant People but could not understand what use they could put this ability to. The words of the stern old chief did something to explain the significance of these exercises.
After a short pause the chief continued in a louder’ voice:
“Now you see how difficult a matter it is. There are other tribes that hunt elephants. They kill them with heavy spears hurled down from trees, drive them into pits or creep up to them when they are asleep in the forest. I’ll do this for you.” The old chief slapped himself on the knee. “I’ll order the elephant hunters to take you with them on; the next hunt. It will be soon, before our expedition leaves for the western forests. Do you want to witness the glory and the torment of my people?”
“I do and I thank you, chief. And may my companions go with me?”
“All of you would be too many. Invite one or two to go with you, more would hamper our hunters.”
“Then let my two friends go with me — he can go,” Pandion indicated Kidogo, “and one other…”
“You mean the morose-looking man with the thick beard?” asked the chief, meaning Cavius; the young Hellene affirmed the correctness of his supposition.
“I also want to have a talk with him, tell him to come to me,” said the old man. “I suppose you’re in a hurry to tell your companions that we are willing to help them. When we appoint the day of the hunt you will be informed.” The old chief dismissed the two friends with a gesture.
To the menacing rumble of tom-toms the tribesmen assembled for the hunt. Some of them were mounted on elephants, loaded with ropes, food and water, the remainder went on foot. Pandion, Kidogo and Cavius, armed with their heavy spears, joined the latter party. Two hundred hunters crossed the river and set out across the plains in a northerly direction, making for a range of bare stony hills faintly visible in the blue haze above the horizon. The hunters moved so fast that even such experienced walkers as our three friends had difficulty in keeping pace with them.
The ground that lay to the south and east of the range of hills was perfectly flat, with huge expanses of level, burnt-up grassland. The wind raised clouds of dust over the yellow plain, obscuring the dull greenery of the trees and bushes. The nearer cliffs were clearly visible, but the rocks beyond them were almost hidden by a greyish-blue mist. Steep rounded peaks jutted up like the skulls of gigantic, phantom elephants; while the lower rocks were hunched up like the backs of huge crocodiles.
The Elephant People spent the night under the southern end of the chain of rocks and at dawn moved off along their eastern slope. Over the plain ahead of them hung a reddish mirage in which quivered the diffused silhouettes of trees. An extensive swamp spread away to the north. A young man left the hunting party and ordered the three strangers to follow him up the rocky ridge.
Cavius, Pandion and Kidogo climbed up to a ledge two hundred cubits higher than the surrounding plain. Over their heads rose a sheer stone precipice that breathed intense heat, its bright yellow surface scored by the zigzags of numerous cracks. The hunter led the friends to another ledge that overlooked the swamp, ordered them to take cover behind tufts of coarse grass and stones, made a sign implying silence and left them.
For a long time the three friends lay still under the blazing sun, not daring to say a word. Not a sound came from the valley that spread out below them.
Suddenly from the left faint squelchy noises came floating towards them, growing louder as they drew nearer. From behind his stone Pandion looked out cautiously through the scarcely moving grass and held his breath.
The dark grey cloud of th
ousands of elephants covered the swamp. The huge animals were crossing it diagonally from the side of the rocks and, passing over the boundary between swamp and grassland, were making for the south-east.
The bodies of the animals stood cut clearly against the yellowish-grey grass. They were moving in herds with anything from a hundred to five hundred head in each, herd following herd with a short interval between them. Each herd formed a solid mass of animals pressed close against each other; viewed from above, it looked like the movement of a grey island whose surface, undulating with hundreds of backs, was scarred by the white streaks of the tusks.
In the swampy places the herd stretched out in a thin line. Some of the elephants left the herd, ran to one side and stood there spreading their great ears and placing their hind-legs apart in a funny way; they soon, however, rejoined the general stream.
Some of them, mostly the huge bulls, moved unhurriedly, their heads and ears lowered; others advanced gravely, holding the forepart of the body high and crisscrossing their hind-legs; a third kind waddled along sideways, their thin tails jutting up above them. Tusks of the most varied shapes and sizes — some short, others so long that they almost reached the ground, some curved upwards and others quite straight — flashed white against the grey background.
Kidogo brought his lips close to Pandion’s ear. “The elephants are moving towards the swamps and rivers,” he said. “The grasslands are burnt up.” “Where are the hunters?” Pandion asked. “They are waiting in hiding for a herd that contains a lot of young elephants; such herds are always at the end. You can see there are only full-grown elephants here.”
“Why is it some elephants have long tusks and others short?”
“The short ones are broken.”
“Fighting amongst themselves?”
“I have bean told that elephants rarely fight amongst themselves. They mostly break their tusks when they pull up trees. They use their tusks to overturn trees so that they can eat the fruits, leaves and thin twigs. The forest elephants have much stronger tusks than the plains elephants; that’s why hard ivory goes to the markets from the forests and soft ivory from the plains.”
The Land of Foam Page 26