Cinq semaines en ballon. English

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER TWENTIETH.

  The Celestial Bottle.--The Fig-Palms.--The Mammoth Trees.--The Tree ofWar.--The Winged Team.--Two Native Tribes in Battle.--A Massacre.--AnIntervention from above.

  The wind had become violent and irregular; the balloon was runningthe gantlet through the air. Tossed at one moment toward the north, atanother toward the south, it could not find one steady current.

  "We are moving very swiftly without advancing much," said Kennedy,remarking the frequent oscillations of the needle of the compass.

  "The balloon is rushing at the rate of at least thirty miles an hour.Lean over, and see how the country is gliding away beneath us!" said thedoctor.

  "See! that forest looks as though it were precipitating itself upon us!"

  "The forest has become a clearing!" added the other.

  "And the clearing a village!" continued Joe, a moment or two later."Look at the faces of those astonished darkys!"

  "Oh! it's natural enough that they should be astonished," said thedoctor. "The French peasants, when they first saw a balloon, firedat it, thinking that it was an aerial monster. A Soudan negro may beexcused, then, for opening his eyes VERY wide!"

  "Faith!" said Joe, as the Victoria skimmed closely along the ground,at scarcely the elevation of one hundred feet, and immediately over avillage, "I'll throw them an empty bottle, with your leave, doctor, andif it reaches them safe and sound, they'll worship it; if it breaks,they'll make talismans of the pieces."

  So saying, he flung out a bottle, which, of course, was broken into athousand fragments, while the negroes scampered into their round huts,uttering shrill cries.

  A little farther on, Kennedy called out: "Look at that strange tree! Theupper part is of one kind and the lower part of another!"

  "Well!" said Joe, "here's a country where the trees grow on top of eachother."

  "It's simply the trunk of a fig-tree," replied the doctor, "on whichthere is a little vegetating earth. Some fine day, the wind left theseed of a palm on it, and the seed has taken root and grown as though itwere on the plain ground."

  "A fine new style of gardening," said Joe, "and I'll import the ideato England. It would be just the thing in the London parks; withoutcounting that it would be another way to increase the number offruit-trees. We could have gardens up in the air; and the smallhouse-owners would like that!"

  At this moment, they had to raise the balloon so as to pass over aforest of trees that were more than three hundred feet in height--a kindof ancient banyan.

  "What magnificent trees!" exclaimed Kennedy. "I never saw any thing sofine as the appearance of these venerable forests. Look, doctor!"

  "The height of these banyans is really remarkable, my dear Dick; andyet, they would be nothing astonishing in the New World."

  "Why, are there still loftier trees in existence?"

  "Undoubtedly; among the 'mammoth trees' of California, there is a cedarfour hundred and eighty feet in height. It would overtop the Housesof Parliament, and even the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The trunk at thesurface of the ground was one hundred and twenty feet in circumference,and the concentric layers of the wood disclosed an age of more than fourthousand years."

  "But then, sir, there was nothing wonderful in it! When one has livedfour thousand years, one ought to be pretty tall!" was Joe's remark.

  Meanwhile, during the doctor's recital and Joe's response, the foresthad given place to a large collection of huts surrounding an open space.In the middle of this grew a solitary tree, and Joe exclaimed, as hecaught sight of it:

  "Well! if that tree has produced such flowers as those, for the lastfour thousand years, I have to offer it my compliments, anyhow," and hepointed to a gigantic sycamore, whose whole trunk was covered with humanbones. The flowers of which Joe spoke were heads freshly severed fromthe bodies, and suspended by daggers thrust into the bark of the tree.

  "The war-tree of these cannibals!" said the doctor; "the Indians merelycarry off the scalp, but these negroes take the whole head."

  "A mere matter of fashion!" said Joe. But, already, the village and thebleeding heads were disappearing on the horizon. Another place offereda still more revolting spectacle--half-devoured corpses; skeletonsmouldering to dust; human limbs scattered here and there, and left tofeed the jackals and hyenas.

  "No doubt, these are the bodies of criminals; according to the customin Abyssinia, these people have left them a prey to the wild beasts, whokill them with their terrible teeth and claws, and then devour them attheir leisure.

  "Not a whit more cruel than hanging!" said the Scot; "filthier, that'sall!"

  "In the southern regions of Africa, they content themselves," resumedthe doctor, "with shutting up the criminal in his own hut with hiscattle, and sometimes with his family. They then set fire to the hut,and the whole party are burned together. I call that cruel; but, likefriend Kennedy, I think that the gallows is quite as cruel, quite asbarbarous."

  Joe, by the aid of his keen sight, which he did not fail to usecontinually, noticed some flocks of birds of prey flitting about thehorizon.

  "They are eagles!" exclaimed Kennedy, after reconnoitring them throughthe glass, "magnificent birds, whose flight is as rapid as ours."

  "Heaven preserve us from their attacks!" said the doctor, "they are moreto be feared by us than wild beasts or savage tribes."

  "Bah!" said the hunter, "we can drive them off with a few rifle-shots."

  "Nevertheless, I would prefer, dear Dick, not having to rely upon yourskill, this time, for the silk of our balloon could not resist theirsharp beaks; fortunately, the huge birds will, I believe, be morefrightened than attracted by our machine."

  "Yes! but a new idea, and I have dozens of them," said Joe; "if we couldonly manage to capture a team of live eagles, we could hitch them to theballoon, and they'd haul us through the air!"

  "The thing has been seriously proposed," replied the doctor, "but Ithink it hardly practicable with creatures naturally so restive."

  "Oh! we'd tame them," said Joe. "Instead of driving them with bits, we'ddo it with eye-blinkers that would cover their eyes. Half blinded inthat way, they'd go to the right or to the left, as we desired; whenblinded completely, they would stop."

  "Allow me, Joe, to prefer a favorable wind to your team of eagles. Itcosts less for fodder, and is more reliable."

  "Well, you may have your choice, master, but I stick to my idea."

  It now was noon. The Victoria had been going at a more moderate speedfor some time; the country merely passed below it; it no longer flew.

  Suddenly, shouts and whistlings were heard by our aeronauts, and,leaning over the edge of the car, they saw on the open plain below theman exciting spectacle.

  Two hostile tribes were fighting furiously, and the air was dotted withvolleys of arrows. The combatants were so intent upon their murderouswork that they did not notice the arrival of the balloon; there wereabout three hundred mingled confusedly in the deadly struggle: most ofthem, red with the blood of the wounded, in which they fairly wallowed,were horrible to behold.

  As they at last caught sight of the balloon, there was a momentarypause; but their yells redoubled, and some arrows were shot at theVictoria, one of them coming close enough for Joe to catch it with hishand.

  "Let us rise out of range," exclaimed the doctor; "there must be norashness! We are forbidden any risk."

  Meanwhile, the massacre continued on both sides, with battle-axes andwar-clubs; as quickly as one of the combatants fell, a hostile warriorran up to cut off his head, while the women, mingling in the fray,gathered up these bloody trophies, and piled them together at eitherextremity of the battle-field. Often, too, they even fought for thesehideous spoils.

  "What a frightful scene!" said Kennedy, with profound disgust.

  "They're ugly acquaintances!" added Joe; "but then, if they had uniformsthey'd be just like the fighters of all the rest of the world!"

  "I have a keen hankering to take a hand in at that fight," said thehunter, brandi
shing his rifle.

  "No! no!" objected the doctor, vehemently; "no, let us not meddle withwhat don't concern us. Do you know which is right or which is wrong,that you would assume the part of the Almighty? Let us, rather, hurryaway from this revolting spectacle. Could the great captains of theworld float thus above the scenes of their exploits, they would at last,perhaps, conceive a disgust for blood and conquest."

  The chieftain of one of the contending parties was remarkable for hisathletic proportions, his great height, and herculean strength. Withone hand he plunged his spear into the compact ranks of his enemies, andwith the other mowed large spaces in them with his battle-axe. Suddenlyhe flung away his war-club, red with blood, rushed upon a woundedwarrior, and, chopping off his arm at a single stroke, carried thedissevered member to his mouth, and bit it again and again.

  "Ah!" ejaculated Kennedy, "the horrible brute! I can hold back nolonger," and, as he spoke, the huge savage, struck full in the foreheadwith a rifle-ball, fell headlong to the ground.

  Upon this sudden mishap of their leader, his warriors seemed struck dumbwith amazement; his supernatural death awed them, while it reanimatedthe courage and ardor of their adversaries, and, in a twinkling, thefield was abandoned by half the combatants.

  "Come, let us look higher up for a current to bear us away. I am sick ofthis spectacle," said the doctor.

  But they could not get away so rapidly as to avoid the sight of thevictorious tribe rushing upon the dead and the wounded, scrambling anddisputing for the still warm and reeking flesh, and eagerly devouringit.

  "Faugh!" uttered Joe, "it's sickening."

  The balloon rose as it expanded; the howlings of the brutal horde, inthe delirium of their orgy, pursued them for a few minutes; but, atlength, borne away toward the south, they were carried out of sight andhearing of this horrible spectacle of cannibalism.

  The surface of the country was now greatly varied, with numerous streamsof water, bearing toward the east. The latter, undoubtedly, ran intothose affluents of Lake Nu, or of the River of the Gazelles, concerningwhich M. Guillaume Lejean has given such curious details.

  At nightfall, the balloon cast anchor in twenty-seven degrees eastlongitude, and four degrees twenty minutes north latitude, after a day'strip of one hundred and fifty miles.