Lost in the Jungle; Narrated for Young PeopleDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
General
Lost in the Jungle; Narrated for Young People
Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Africa, West -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Remandji, who had built his camp next to ours, came declaring that the
people must have bewitched the place where we had slept, and off he took
us to his village. After a three hours' march, we came at last, through
a sudden opening in the forest, to a magnificent stream, the Rembo
Apingi or Ngouyai. I stood in amazement and delight, looking at the
beautiful and large river I had just discovered, and the waters of which
were gliding toward the big sea, when a tremendous cheer from the
Ashiras announced to the Apingi, Remandji's subjects, who had made their
appearance on the opposite bank, that a spirit had come to visit them.
The latter responded to the cheering, and presently a great number of
exceedingly frail flat canoes and several rafts were pushed across, and
soon reached our side of the river; they had come to ferry us over. The
Apingi people live only on the right bank of this noble river.
I got into a very small canoe, which was managed with great skill by the
Apingi boatman. I did not see how he could keep his equilibrium in the
frail-looking shell.
The shouting on the Apingi side was becoming louder and louder, and when
I landed the excitement was intense. "Look at the spirit!" shouted the
multitude. "Look at his feet! look at his hair! look at his nose!" etc.,
etc.
They followed me till I was safely housed in one of the largest huts in
the town, which was about twelve feet long and seven feet broad, with a
piazza in front. When all my luggage was stored there was hardly room to
move. I had indeed reached a strange country.
Presently Remandji came to me, followed by all the old men of his town
and several chiefs of the neighboring villages. Twenty-four fowls were
laid at my feet; bunches of plantains, with baskets of cassava. And
Remandji, turning toward the old men, said, "I have beheld what our
fathers never saw--what you and I never saw before. I bid thee welcome,
O spirit! I thank your father, King Olenda," said he, turning to Minsho,
"for sending this spirit to me." Then he added, "Be glad, O spirit, and
eat of the things we give thee."
Whereupon, to my great astonishment, a slave was handed over to me,
bound, and Remandji said, "Kill him; he is tender and fat, and you must
be hungry."
I was not prepared for such a present. They thought I was a cannibal--an
eater of human flesh--and there stood before me a fat negro, who during
the night had been caught, for Remandji had sent word to the people of
my coming, and in his forethought determined that I must have a good
meal on my arrival.
Then I shook my head, spat violently on the ground, which is a great way
of showing disgust, the people all the time looking at me with perfect
astonishment. I made Minsho tell them that I abhorred people who ate
human flesh, and that I, and those who were like me in the spirit-land,
never did eat human flesh.
Just fancy! What a fine present! A nice fat negro, ready for cooking. It
was like the presentation of a fat calf.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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