章节正文
But get the house clear, and see that nobody disturbs me at
my toilet. I am a modest man, and sensitive about my looks.'
*Council.
I brought him what he wanted, and looked on at an amazing
transformation. Taking a phial from his bundle, he rubbed
some liquid on his face and neck and hands, and got rid of the
black colouring. His body and legs he left untouched, save that
he covered them with shirt and trousers from my wardrobe.
Then he pulled off a scaly wig, and showed beneath it a head
of close-cropped grizzled hair. In ten minutes the old Kaffir
had been transformed into an active soldierly-looking man of
maybe fifty years. Mr Wardlaw stared as if he had seen a
resurrection.
'I had better introduce myself,' he said, when he had taken
the edge off his thirst and hunger. 'My name is Arcoll, Captain
James Arcoll. I am speaking to Mr Crawfurd, the storekeeper,
and Mr Wardlaw, the schoolmaster, of Blaauwildebeestefontein.
Where, by the way, is Mr Peter Japp? Drunk? Ah, yes, it
was always his failing. The quorum, however, is complete
without him.'
By this time it was about sunset, and I remember I cocked
my ear to hear the drums beat. Captain Arcoll noticed the
movement as he noticed all else.
'You're listening for the drums, but you won't hear them.
That business is over here. To-night they beat in Swaziland
and down into the Tonga border. Three days more, unless you
and I, Mr Crawfurd, are extra smart, and they'll be hearing
them in Durban.'
It was not till the lamp was lit, the fire burning well, and the
house locked and shuttered, that Captain Arcoll began his tale.
'First,' he said, 'let me hear what you know. Colles told me
that you were a keen fellow, and had wind of some mystery
here. You wrote him about the way you were spied on, but I
told him to take no notice. Your affair, Mr Crawfurd, had to
wait on more urgent matters. Now, what do you think is
happening?'
I spoke very shortly, weighing my words, for I felt I was on
trial before these bright eyes. 'I think that some kind of native
rising is about to commence.'
'Ay,' he said dryly, 'you would, and your evidence would be
the spying and drumming. Anything more?'
'I have come on the tracks of a lot of I.D.B. work in the
neighbourhood. The natives have some supply of diamonds,
which they sell bit by bit, and I don't doubt but they have
been getting guns with the proceeds.'
He nodded, 'Have you any notion who has been engaged in
the job?'
I had it on my tongue to mention Japp, but forbore,
remembering my promise. 'I can name one,' I said, 'a little
yellow Portugoose, who calls himself Henriques or Hendricks.
He passed by here the day before yesterday.'
Captain Arcoll suddenly was consumed with quiet laughter.
'Did you notice the Kaffir who rode with him and carried his
saddlebags? Well, he's one of my men. Henriques would have
a fit if he knew what was in those saddlebags. They contain
my change of clothes, and other odds and ends. Henriques'
own stuff is in a hole in the spruit. A handy way of getting
one's luggage sent on, eh? The bags are waiting for me at a
place I appointed.' And again Captain Arcoll indulged his
sense of humour. Then he became grave, and returned to
his examination.
'A rising, with diamonds as the sinews of war, and Henriques
as the chief agent. Well and good! But who is to lead,
and what are the natives going to rise about?'
'I know nothing further, but I have made some guesses.'
'Let's hear your guesses,' he said, blowing smoke rings from
his pipe.
'I think the main mover is a great black minister who calls
himself John Laputa.'
Captain Arcoll nearly sprang out of his chair. 'Now, how on
earth did you find that out? Quick, Mr Crawfurd, tell me all
you know, for this is desperately important.'
I began at the beginning, and told him the story of what
happened on the Kirkcaple shore. Then I spoke of my sight of
him on board ship, his talk with Henriques about
Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his hurrieddeparture from Durban.
Captain Arcoll listened intently, and at the mention of
Durban he laughed. 'You and I seem to have been running on
lines which nearly touched. I thought I had grabbed my friend
Laputa that night in Durban, but I was too cocksure and he
slipped off. Do you know, Mr Crawfurd, you have been on
the right trail long before me? When did you say you saw him
at his devil-worship? Seven years ago? Then you were the first
man alive to know the Reverend John in his true colours. You
knew seven years ago what I only found out last year.'
'Well, that's my story,' I said. 'I don't know what the rising
is about, but there's one other thing I can tell you. There's
some kind of sacred place for the Kaffirs, and I've found out
where it is.' I gave him a short account of my adventures in
the Rooirand.
He smoked silently for a bit after I had finished. 'You've got
the skeleton of the whole thing right, and you only want the
filling up. And you found out everything for yourself? Colles
was right; you're not wanting in intelligence, Mr Crawfurd.'
It was not much of a compliment, but I have never been
more pleased in my life. This slim, grizzled man, with his
wrinkled face and bright eyes, was clearly not lavish in his
praise. I felt it was no small thing to have earned a word
of commendation.
'And now I will tell you my story,' said Captain Arcoll. 'It is
a long story, and I must begin far back. It has taken me years
to decipher it, and, remember, I've been all my life at this
native business. I can talk every dialect, and I have the customs
of every tribe by heart. I've travelled over every mile of South
Africa, and Central and East Africa too. I was in both the
Matabele wars, and I've seen a heap of other fighting which
never got into the papers. So what I tell you you can take as
gospel, for it is knowledge that was not learned in a day.'
He puffed away, and then asked suddenly, 'Did you ever
hear of Prester John?'
'The man that lived in Central Asia?' I asked, with a
reminiscence of a story-book I had as a boy.
'No, no,' said Mr Wardlaw, 'he means the King of Abyssinia
in the fifteenth century. I've been reading all about him. He
was a Christian, and the Portuguese sent expedition after
expedition to find him, but they never got there. Albuquerque
wanted to make an alliance with him and capture the Holy
Sepulchre.'
Arcoll nodded. 'That's the one I mean. There's not very
much known about him, except Portuguese legends. He was a
sort of Christian, but I expect that his practices were as pagan
as his neighbours'. There is no doubt that he was a great
conqueror. Under him and his successors, the empire of
Ethiopia extended far south of Abyssinia away down to the
Great Lakes.'
'How long did this power last?' I asked wondering to what
tale this was prologue.
'That's a mystery no scholar has ever been able to fathom.
Anyhow, the centre of authority began to shift southward, and
the warrior tribes moved in that direction. At the end of the
sixteenth century the chief native power was round about the
Zambesi. The Mazimba and the Makaranga had come down
from the Lake Nyassa quarter, and there was a strong kingdom
in Manicaland. That was the Monomotapa that the Portuguese
thought so much of.'
Wardlaw nodded eagerly. The story was getting into ground
that he knew about.
'The thing to remember is that all these little empires
thought themselves the successors of Prester John. It took me
a long time to find this out, and I have spent days in the best
libraries in Europe over it. They all looked back to a great king
in the north, whom they called by about twenty different
names. They had forgotten about his Christianity, but they
remembered that he was a conqueror.
'Well, to make a long story short, Monomotapa disappeared
in time, and fresh tribes came down from the north, and
pushed right down to Natal and the Cape. That is how the
Zulus first appeared. They brought with them the story of
Prester John, but by this time it had ceased to be a historical
memory, and had become a religious cult. They worshipped a
great Power who had been their ancestor, and the favourite
Zulu word for him was Umkulunkulu. The belief was perverted
into fifty different forms, but this was the central
creed - that Umkulunkulu had been the father of the tribe,
and was alive as a spirit to watch over them.
'They brought more than a creed with them. Somehow or
other, some fetich had descended from Prester John by way of
the Mazimba and Angoni and Makaranga. What it is I do not
know, but it was always in the hands of the tribe which for the
moment held the leadership. The great native wars of the
sixteenth century, which you can read about in the Portuguese
historians, were not for territory but for leadership, and mainly
for the possession of this fetich. Anyhow, we know that the
Zulus brought it down with them. They called it Ndhlondhlo,
which means the Great Snake, but I don't suppose that it was
any kind of snake. The snake was their totem, and they would
naturally call their most sacred possession after it.
'Now I will tell you a thing that few know. You have heard
of Tchaka. He was a sort of black Napoleon early in the last
century, and he made the Zulus the paramount power in South
Africa, slaughtering about two million souls to accomplish it.
Well, he had the fetich, whatever it was, and it was believed
that he owed his conquests to it. Mosilikatse tried to steal it,
and that was why he had to fly to Matabeleland. But with
Tchaka it disappeared. Dingaan did not have it, nor Panda,
and Cetewayo never got it, though he searched the length and
breadth of the country for it. It had gone out of existence, and
with it the chance of a Kaffir empire.'
Captain Arcoll got up to light his pipe, and I noticed that
his face was grave. He was not telling us this yarn for
our amusement.
'So much for Prester John and his charm,' he said. 'Now I
have to take up the history at a different point. In spite of
risings here and there, and occasional rows, the Kaffirs have
been quiet for the better part of half a century. It is no credit
to us. They have had plenty of grievances, and we are no
nearer understanding them than our fathers were. But they are
scattered and divided. We have driven great wedges of white
settlement into their territory, and we have taken away their
arms. Still, they are six times as many as we are, and they have
long memories, and a thoughtful man may wonder how long
the peace will last. I have often asked myself that question,
and till lately I used to reply, "For ever because they cannot
find a leader with the proper authority, and they have no
common cause to fight for." But a year or two ago I began to
change my mind.
'It is my business to act as chief Intelligence officer among
the natives. Well, one day, I came on the tracks of a curious
person. He was a Christian minister called Laputa, and he was
going among the tribes from Durban to the Zambesi as a
roving evangelist. I found that he made an enormousimpression,
my toilet. I am a modest man, and sensitive about my looks.'
*Council.
I brought him what he wanted, and looked on at an amazing
transformation. Taking a phial from his bundle, he rubbed
some liquid on his face and neck and hands, and got rid of the
black colouring. His body and legs he left untouched, save that
he covered them with shirt and trousers from my wardrobe.
Then he pulled off a scaly wig, and showed beneath it a head
of close-cropped grizzled hair. In ten minutes the old Kaffir
had been transformed into an active soldierly-looking man of
maybe fifty years. Mr Wardlaw stared as if he had seen a
resurrection.
'I had better introduce myself,' he said, when he had taken
the edge off his thirst and hunger. 'My name is Arcoll, Captain
James Arcoll. I am speaking to Mr Crawfurd, the storekeeper,
and Mr Wardlaw, the schoolmaster, of Blaauwildebeestefontein.
Where, by the way, is Mr Peter Japp? Drunk? Ah, yes, it
was always his failing. The quorum, however, is complete
without him.'
By this time it was about sunset, and I remember I cocked
my ear to hear the drums beat. Captain Arcoll noticed the
movement as he noticed all else.
'You're listening for the drums, but you won't hear them.
That business is over here. To-night they beat in Swaziland
and down into the Tonga border. Three days more, unless you
and I, Mr Crawfurd, are extra smart, and they'll be hearing
them in Durban.'
It was not till the lamp was lit, the fire burning well, and the
house locked and shuttered, that Captain Arcoll began his tale.
'First,' he said, 'let me hear what you know. Colles told me
that you were a keen fellow, and had wind of some mystery
here. You wrote him about the way you were spied on, but I
told him to take no notice. Your affair, Mr Crawfurd, had to
wait on more urgent matters. Now, what do you think is
happening?'
I spoke very shortly, weighing my words, for I felt I was on
trial before these bright eyes. 'I think that some kind of native
rising is about to commence.'
'Ay,' he said dryly, 'you would, and your evidence would be
the spying and drumming. Anything more?'
'I have come on the tracks of a lot of I.D.B. work in the
neighbourhood. The natives have some supply of diamonds,
which they sell bit by bit, and I don't doubt but they have
been getting guns with the proceeds.'
He nodded, 'Have you any notion who has been engaged in
the job?'
I had it on my tongue to mention Japp, but forbore,
remembering my promise. 'I can name one,' I said, 'a little
yellow Portugoose, who calls himself Henriques or Hendricks.
He passed by here the day before yesterday.'
Captain Arcoll suddenly was consumed with quiet laughter.
'Did you notice the Kaffir who rode with him and carried his
saddlebags? Well, he's one of my men. Henriques would have
a fit if he knew what was in those saddlebags. They contain
my change of clothes, and other odds and ends. Henriques'
own stuff is in a hole in the spruit. A handy way of getting
one's luggage sent on, eh? The bags are waiting for me at a
place I appointed.' And again Captain Arcoll indulged his
sense of humour. Then he became grave, and returned to
his examination.
'A rising, with diamonds as the sinews of war, and Henriques
as the chief agent. Well and good! But who is to lead,
and what are the natives going to rise about?'
'I know nothing further, but I have made some guesses.'
'Let's hear your guesses,' he said, blowing smoke rings from
his pipe.
'I think the main mover is a great black minister who calls
himself John Laputa.'
Captain Arcoll nearly sprang out of his chair. 'Now, how on
earth did you find that out? Quick, Mr Crawfurd, tell me all
you know, for this is desperately important.'
I began at the beginning, and told him the story of what
happened on the Kirkcaple shore. Then I spoke of my sight of
him on board ship, his talk with Henriques about
Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his hurrieddeparture from Durban.
Captain Arcoll listened intently, and at the mention of
Durban he laughed. 'You and I seem to have been running on
lines which nearly touched. I thought I had grabbed my friend
Laputa that night in Durban, but I was too cocksure and he
slipped off. Do you know, Mr Crawfurd, you have been on
the right trail long before me? When did you say you saw him
at his devil-worship? Seven years ago? Then you were the first
man alive to know the Reverend John in his true colours. You
knew seven years ago what I only found out last year.'
'Well, that's my story,' I said. 'I don't know what the rising
is about, but there's one other thing I can tell you. There's
some kind of sacred place for the Kaffirs, and I've found out
where it is.' I gave him a short account of my adventures in
the Rooirand.
He smoked silently for a bit after I had finished. 'You've got
the skeleton of the whole thing right, and you only want the
filling up. And you found out everything for yourself? Colles
was right; you're not wanting in intelligence, Mr Crawfurd.'
It was not much of a compliment, but I have never been
more pleased in my life. This slim, grizzled man, with his
wrinkled face and bright eyes, was clearly not lavish in his
praise. I felt it was no small thing to have earned a word
of commendation.
'And now I will tell you my story,' said Captain Arcoll. 'It is
a long story, and I must begin far back. It has taken me years
to decipher it, and, remember, I've been all my life at this
native business. I can talk every dialect, and I have the customs
of every tribe by heart. I've travelled over every mile of South
Africa, and Central and East Africa too. I was in both the
Matabele wars, and I've seen a heap of other fighting which
never got into the papers. So what I tell you you can take as
gospel, for it is knowledge that was not learned in a day.'
He puffed away, and then asked suddenly, 'Did you ever
hear of Prester John?'
'The man that lived in Central Asia?' I asked, with a
reminiscence of a story-book I had as a boy.
'No, no,' said Mr Wardlaw, 'he means the King of Abyssinia
in the fifteenth century. I've been reading all about him. He
was a Christian, and the Portuguese sent expedition after
expedition to find him, but they never got there. Albuquerque
wanted to make an alliance with him and capture the Holy
Sepulchre.'
Arcoll nodded. 'That's the one I mean. There's not very
much known about him, except Portuguese legends. He was a
sort of Christian, but I expect that his practices were as pagan
as his neighbours'. There is no doubt that he was a great
conqueror. Under him and his successors, the empire of
Ethiopia extended far south of Abyssinia away down to the
Great Lakes.'
'How long did this power last?' I asked wondering to what
tale this was prologue.
'That's a mystery no scholar has ever been able to fathom.
Anyhow, the centre of authority began to shift southward, and
the warrior tribes moved in that direction. At the end of the
sixteenth century the chief native power was round about the
Zambesi. The Mazimba and the Makaranga had come down
from the Lake Nyassa quarter, and there was a strong kingdom
in Manicaland. That was the Monomotapa that the Portuguese
thought so much of.'
Wardlaw nodded eagerly. The story was getting into ground
that he knew about.
'The thing to remember is that all these little empires
thought themselves the successors of Prester John. It took me
a long time to find this out, and I have spent days in the best
libraries in Europe over it. They all looked back to a great king
in the north, whom they called by about twenty different
names. They had forgotten about his Christianity, but they
remembered that he was a conqueror.
'Well, to make a long story short, Monomotapa disappeared
in time, and fresh tribes came down from the north, and
pushed right down to Natal and the Cape. That is how the
Zulus first appeared. They brought with them the story of
Prester John, but by this time it had ceased to be a historical
memory, and had become a religious cult. They worshipped a
great Power who had been their ancestor, and the favourite
Zulu word for him was Umkulunkulu. The belief was perverted
into fifty different forms, but this was the central
creed - that Umkulunkulu had been the father of the tribe,
and was alive as a spirit to watch over them.
'They brought more than a creed with them. Somehow or
other, some fetich had descended from Prester John by way of
the Mazimba and Angoni and Makaranga. What it is I do not
know, but it was always in the hands of the tribe which for the
moment held the leadership. The great native wars of the
sixteenth century, which you can read about in the Portuguese
historians, were not for territory but for leadership, and mainly
for the possession of this fetich. Anyhow, we know that the
Zulus brought it down with them. They called it Ndhlondhlo,
which means the Great Snake, but I don't suppose that it was
any kind of snake. The snake was their totem, and they would
naturally call their most sacred possession after it.
'Now I will tell you a thing that few know. You have heard
of Tchaka. He was a sort of black Napoleon early in the last
century, and he made the Zulus the paramount power in South
Africa, slaughtering about two million souls to accomplish it.
Well, he had the fetich, whatever it was, and it was believed
that he owed his conquests to it. Mosilikatse tried to steal it,
and that was why he had to fly to Matabeleland. But with
Tchaka it disappeared. Dingaan did not have it, nor Panda,
and Cetewayo never got it, though he searched the length and
breadth of the country for it. It had gone out of existence, and
with it the chance of a Kaffir empire.'
Captain Arcoll got up to light his pipe, and I noticed that
his face was grave. He was not telling us this yarn for
our amusement.
'So much for Prester John and his charm,' he said. 'Now I
have to take up the history at a different point. In spite of
risings here and there, and occasional rows, the Kaffirs have
been quiet for the better part of half a century. It is no credit
to us. They have had plenty of grievances, and we are no
nearer understanding them than our fathers were. But they are
scattered and divided. We have driven great wedges of white
settlement into their territory, and we have taken away their
arms. Still, they are six times as many as we are, and they have
long memories, and a thoughtful man may wonder how long
the peace will last. I have often asked myself that question,
and till lately I used to reply, "For ever because they cannot
find a leader with the proper authority, and they have no
common cause to fight for." But a year or two ago I began to
change my mind.
'It is my business to act as chief Intelligence officer among
the natives. Well, one day, I came on the tracks of a curious
person. He was a Christian minister called Laputa, and he was
going among the tribes from Durban to the Zambesi as a
roving evangelist. I found that he made an enormousimpression,
- modest [´mɔdist]
a.谦虚的；朴素的 (初中英语单词) - bundle [´bʌndl] n.包，捆；包袱(裹) (初中英语单词)
- liquid [´likwid] n.液体 a.流动的 (初中英语单词)
- trousers [´trauzəz] n.裤子，长裤 (初中英语单词)
- thirst [θə:st] n.渴，口渴；渴望 (初中英语单词)
- hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
- sunset [´sʌnset] n.日落；晚霞 (初中英语单词)
- shortly [´ʃɔ:tli] ad.立刻，马上；不久 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- humour [´hju:mə] n.幽默，诙谐 (初中英语单词)
- minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- departure [di´pɑ:tʃə] n.离开，出发 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- silently [´sailəntli] ad.寂静地；沉默地 (初中英语单词)
- intelligence [in´telidʒəns] n.智力；消息 (初中英语单词)
- dialect [´daiəlekt] n.方言，土语，地方话 (初中英语单词)
- reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- expedition [,ekspi´diʃən] n.远征；探险；迅速 (初中英语单词)
- alliance [ə´laiəns] n.联盟；同盟 (初中英语单词)
- capture [´kæptʃə] vt.&n.捕获；俘获；夺取 (初中英语单词)
- mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
- scholar [´skɔlə, ´skɑ-] n.学者；奖学金获得者 (初中英语单词)
- warrior [´wɔriə] n.勇士，战士 (初中英语单词)
- eagerly [´i:gəli] ad.渴望地，急切地 (初中英语单词)
- ancestor [´ænsəstə] n.祖宗，祖先 (初中英语单词)
- belief [bi´li:f] n.相信；信仰，信条 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
- occasional [ə´keiʒənəl] a.偶然的；临时的 (初中英语单词)
- driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- lately [´leitli] ad.近来，不久前 (初中英语单词)
- enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
- impression [im´preʃən] n.印刷；印象；效果 (初中英语单词)
- toilet [´tɔilit] n.梳妆(台)；卫生间 (高中英语单词)
- sensitive [´sensitiv] a.敏感的；感光的 (高中英语单词)
- luggage [´lʌgidʒ] n.行李；皮箱 (高中英语单词)
- desperately [´despəritli] ad.绝望地；拼命地 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- reverend [´revərənd] a.可尊敬的 (高中英语单词)
- skeleton [´skelitən] n.骨骼；骷髅 (高中英语单词)
- compliment [´kɔmplimənt] n.敬意 vt.赞美；祝贺 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- southward [´sauθwəd] a.&n.向南方向(的) (高中英语单词)
- christianity [,kristi´æniti] n.基督教；基督精神 (高中英语单词)
- leadership [´li:dəʃip] n.领导(能力) (高中英语单词)
- napoleon [nə´pəuljən] n.拿破仑 (高中英语单词)
- thoughtful [´θɔ:tfəl] a.深思的；体贴的 (高中英语单词)
- schoolmaster [´sku:l,mɑ:stə] n.教练；(男)教师 (英语四级单词)
- urgent [´ə:dʒənt] a.急迫的，紧急的 (英语四级单词)
- intently [in´tentli] ad.专心地 (英语四级单词)
- lavish [´læviʃ] a.慷慨的；浪费的 (英语四级单词)
- portuguese [,pɔ:tʃu´gi:z] a.葡萄牙的 n.葡萄牙人 (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- colouring [´kʌləriŋ] n.色彩；外貌；伪装 (英语六级单词)
- untouched [ʌn´tʌtʃt] a.原样的；未触动过的 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-] a.短缺的；不足的 (英语六级单词)
- extended [iks´tendid] a.伸长的；广大的 (英语六级单词)
- paramount [´pærəmaunt] a.最高的 n.元首 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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