Chapter Twenty Nine.A Chariot Drive.Ned woke soon after sunrise the next morning, and before his companions. Fred, Clarence, Cocoeni, and the other Kaffirs were doing their best to eclipse the howling of the caged leopards with their snoring.The slaves were there, also the bakers, cooks, hairdressers, and general all-round men. But the amazons were absent.The general practitioners of the comb and harp were filling in their spare time by whipping the slaves with cruel-looking thongs, as they went about their drudgery.The faces of those clean-shaven, undersized, and lean, white-robed men still looked as expressionless and meek as long-imprisoned convicts usually do. They had likewise the same unwholesome waxiness of complexion; buff-coloured wax their thin cheeks and narrow foreheads were, with purply close-set lips, and long, deep-placed, lustreless blue-black eyes.But, although they did not smile nor sneer, nor ever lose their sad gentleness of expression, they cut pitilessly into those naked black shoulders with their hard flagellators, and often out of ruthless wantonness. The slaves were a square, dwarfish, and repulsive set of bestial wretches, yet Ned began to view these placid and soulless tormentors with greater repugnance and loathing; they were like venomous, icy, and cowardly yellow snakes. Their features, however, were sharp and fine, and of a sameness in profile if cast from one mould. He had seen those calm, bird-like, relentless profiles in prints of the Egyptian sculptures and paintings, with long, straight noses, protruding and short upper lips, and receding small chins,—the true signs of a used-up decadent race.Sick with watching these methodical and pitiless strokes, he walked through the portal and out a few yards into the yielding sand, then he looked back and up the precipice.He could see the broken walls at the top, over which he had peered yesterday. The rising sun was shining upon them, and they gleamed whitely against the soft azure. The precipice also glistened with its variegated blush and yellow rose-leaf tints, with the darker veins of grey and ochre. It was smooth and ridgeless, while the loop-holes were too narrow to be seen from where he stood.The flat lintel and obelisk-like sides of the doorway had been cut a few feet into the rock, so that the precipice protruded. The intaglio slabs were covered with hieroglyphics and figures.His eyes wandered to the sides, and here he met a surprise,—a long line of gaily painted and anciently shaped chariots stood ranged, like bathing-machines, against the base of the cliff. He had never seen a chariot outside of pictures before, therefore these interested him vastly, with their carving, gilding, and bright colours.After looking minutely over one of them, he turned round to scan the desert. Away in the distance rolled a low cloud of dust, through which the sun shone upon glittering metal. It was approaching rapidly, and as he watched resolved itself into the two hundred mail-clad amazons, who were coming in at a swift run and in a straight line.Very soon they were within a hundred yards of him, with flushed faces and heaving breasts. There they stopped suddenly, and, forming rapidly into eight deep, marched steadily towards where he stood.He learned afterwards that they had been out for the past four hours, doing their customary morning exercise of running, which was twenty miles before breakfast. This was to keep them in good condition, and one of their obligations as warriors. With friendly smiles they marched past him and entered through the doorway without other recognition. Following them slowly, he saw them pass through and into a door which he had not observed the previous night.He found his followers awake when he got in, and busy washing their faces in basins, which the slaves were holding for them. As this was exactly what he would have asked for, could he have made his desires known, he straightway proceeded to follow their example.“I expect they have tanks, or some way of catching and keeping the rains from above,” said Ned, seeing that they were so lavish with the precious fluid.A distant sound of splashing, accompanied by female voices, from behind that curtained door answered his surmises.Very soon afterwards the amazons appeared once more, accoutred, and with fresh-coloured faces and damp flowing tresses. Breakfast was ready, and without ceremony they fell to, and hastily did full justice to it.The next operation which our heroes watched, but could not help with, was the liberating and harnessing of the fierce leopards to the chariots. Each amazon led out her own trained animals, like dogs in leash, and strapped two to each chariot.The fair leader now split her regiment, leaving half behind to mount guard over this mine, while the other hundred and twenty distributed the packages of our heroes amongst the chariots. They were ready to start. Ned, the leader, chose to share her chariot, and the others picked out their conquerors and beckoned them to enter.With a swift, cat-like bound the leopards went off, while from the broad wheels the sand flew up, and left behind a trail of yellow clouds that quickly blotted out those left behind.The passengers, not being used to chariot-riding, kneeled on the packages, and hung on to the side-rails frantically.But the drivers stood, like rocks, on their feet, with the reins round their waists, held there by a ring, and their arms and hands free to use their whips or weapons. Over each shoulder was slung a strap filled with long shafts and a black palm bow.They never slackened speed, for the leopards seemed tireless. They ran softly yet swiftly, hour after hour, while the sun rolled overhead with scorching force. The burning glare from the hot sand was blinding, and the helmets and chains must have been almost unbearable, yet the hardy drivers did not appear to feel them. They leaned forward with flashing eyes and streaming tresses, and still urged their willing animals on.Once during that day they roused a pack of fine lions, who bounded after them. Ned saw one of these fierce beasts nearing the chariot, and shouted to his driver to warn her of the danger. His rifle was between his knees, loaded, but it was of no more use to him than a stick. He dare not relax his grip of the side at the rate they were going, or he would have fallen out.The dauntless girl looked back, at his cry, with a merry laugh. Then, gripping her whip with her teeth, she slipped off her bow, and tightening the string, took out one of her shafts, and fitted it.Swiftly turning half round, she bent the bow until the arrow-head was touching it, then the string smote the bow with a twang like a loud harp-note.Ned watched the shaft, as it sped with a whistle through the air. Straight it flew towards the lion, and buried itself in his flaming eye. It was a splendid and deadly, though it looked a careless aim. With one leap upwards the lion rolled over and over, half burying himself in the loose sand in his death-throes.When Ned looked from the lion to his slayer he saw her standing, with her bow once more in its place and the whip in her hand, standing and looking forward, while she drove for all she was worth.The other lions were treated in the same fashion by the rest of the drivers. Evidently they had nothing to learn in the ancient craft of archery.That afternoon, however, as they rested for an hour, Ned found an opportunity of showing what his rifle could do. Yet, after her archery feat, he did not feel too conceited over his most modern of death-dealing implements.The desert appeared infested with lions of the fiercest order. Hardly were they seated when one appeared at a little distance. It was within shooting distance, but too far off for her shaft, so, while she was leisurely tightening her bow-string, he took a steady aim and fired. At the report she started up with unfeigned alarm, but, quickly recovering herself, she sat down again with stoical composure.It was a long shot, but he did not need to repeat it. The lion was done for.When she saw this, she displayed the most lively and childish interest about his rifle. Pointing to a great vulture in the sky, she signed him to shoot it.While he was taking aim, she put her fingers into her ears; then, when she saw the bird drop headlong, she cried with wonder. He had raised her admiration in a new direction.All through that night and the best part of the next day they raced. They only took three or four half-hours’ rest during this time, while they ate a few dates and drank a mouthful of water.As for the leopards, they got nothing except a few small cakes during those short breathing spaces. Our heroes were forced to own that for swiftness and endurance the trained leopard beats both horse and dromedary for desert travel.At midday the distant city and lake appeared on the horizon, and by four o’clock they had passed between the first of the palm trees, and left the desert behind.Ned, Fred, and Clarence had by this time become somewhat used to their uncommon and ancient surroundings. The biblical and archaeological chariots, armour, costumes, and features had startled them when first seen. Now they were only driving toward, what they expected to find, a specimen page of prehistoric illustrations, preserved in the heart of that Africa from which those decayed nations had sprung.Luxury and corruption caused the fall of Rome, Carthage, Greece, Assyria, Egypt, and the countless races that preceded these chronicled nations. When Melchizedek walked the earth, and Lot pleaded with the angels, mankind was old and worn out with self-indulgences. When Noah vainly preached to the sons of men, they had become dilettante, idle, cynical, and luxurious; refined in art, cruelty, and callous vice; enervated to the last degree, and barren of all impulse. This has always been and always must be the results of ultra-civilisation. The second step from utter barbarism which deals with conquest and cruelty, is but the beginning of the end of all nations, ancient and modern. The implacable order of nature is to grow and decline. Matter must change, although its constituents are immortal.The road from the desert to the city was broad and straight. Fifty chariots could drive abreast through the centre, leaving the side paths for the pedestrians.A double line of huge palm trees fringed this wide highway, and cast violet shadows on the side-walks. Between the trunks they could see rich and carefully irrigated fields of grain and vegetables—maize, rice, manioc, wheat, pulse, yams, and pine-apples, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, with shady groves of sugar cane and bananas at the corners, and hedges all around of vines.The glistening of water in the regularly cut canals and lotus-covered ponds, with the fringes of papyrus reeds and varied-tinted blossoms and flowers, made a delicious picture of rural prosperity and radiance. Regular symmetry and mathematical order were the predominant features of these fertile plains, with their straight canals and square ponds. Not a foot of soil was wasted nor left to run wild. It was all under cultivation, like a carefully tended garden.Dark-skinned and semi-nude slaves of both sexes crowded these fields and plantations, while the same class of white-clad, yellow-skinned, and diminutive overseers walked about and plied the whip remorselessly, yet without excitement.Our heroes longed to ask questions, for they were bursting with curiosity, and they inwardly resolved to learn the language as soon as possible, if they were permitted to live here long enough. Already they had mastered the native terms for water, wine, food, chariots, leopards, lions, spears, helmets, and armour. This was a fair beginning. As for Cocoeni and his fellow-Kaffirs, they were devoting themselves most assiduously to the pursuit of their conquests, and, as they showed by their ardent glances, conquerors also. They appeared to be progressing fairly well, considering that looks were their only means of communication at present.As they drove along, eight abreast, they noticed that they were causing a considerable stir amongst the pedestrians and other natives whom they met, overtook, or passed. They were also watching with great interest these inhabitants.They could distinguish the men by their small stature and general spiritless condition. Woman seemed in this land to be the superior animal, both in stature, deportment, and position.Armed amazons, on high-spirited horses, cantered or dashed past them, bestriding their beasts man-fashion. They were all splendidly costumed, and many of them very beautiful. Some drove chariots with trained lions and leopards as well as zebras and horses. It was a dazzling and picturesque sight that impressed our heroes deeply.Elephants also paced the roads with their laden howdahs gaily caparisoned; others, again, drew heavy waggons. Oxen trailed along strange-looking carts and waggons, while the footpaths teemed with life.The men alone wore white robes. Numbers of these were about, carrying or leading children as mothers do in other countries. Some had slaves to do this for them, and when they were so far blest, they carried the invariable whip, which they used unsparingly.The chariots had now passed the fields and farm buildings, and were approaching the city.Massive buildings and walls began to appear, with exquisite gardens and artificial terraces, from which wide steps led down to shady walks and fairy ponds. Vine tendrils hung over the walls, and formed delicious avenues. Ornamental trees and obelisks reared out of the under herbage. Mighty baobabs showed centuries of growth. Monkeys swung from branch to branch. Ibises, pelicans, and flamingoes were everywhere.Between the spaces of those gardens and mansions, they had glimpses of the great lake that supplied the fertility of this highly cultivated region. On its surface they could see barges floating or moored to the embankment. Here were quays, with pillars and steps, also crowded with humanity and animal life.Before them reared a many-columned arch, with battlemented walls on either side, and an avenue of sphinxes leading up to it.They rolled through these, and then they were within the city, with its huge buildings, pillars, obelisks, stairs, fountains, awnings, arches, crowded side streets, and varied bazaars and shops. Our heroes felt abashed before these sublime, living tokens of a civilisation supposed to have been for ages extinct.
Ned woke soon after sunrise the next morning, and before his companions. Fred, Clarence, Cocoeni, and the other Kaffirs were doing their best to eclipse the howling of the caged leopards with their snoring.
The slaves were there, also the bakers, cooks, hairdressers, and general all-round men. But the amazons were absent.
The general practitioners of the comb and harp were filling in their spare time by whipping the slaves with cruel-looking thongs, as they went about their drudgery.
The faces of those clean-shaven, undersized, and lean, white-robed men still looked as expressionless and meek as long-imprisoned convicts usually do. They had likewise the same unwholesome waxiness of complexion; buff-coloured wax their thin cheeks and narrow foreheads were, with purply close-set lips, and long, deep-placed, lustreless blue-black eyes.
But, although they did not smile nor sneer, nor ever lose their sad gentleness of expression, they cut pitilessly into those naked black shoulders with their hard flagellators, and often out of ruthless wantonness. The slaves were a square, dwarfish, and repulsive set of bestial wretches, yet Ned began to view these placid and soulless tormentors with greater repugnance and loathing; they were like venomous, icy, and cowardly yellow snakes. Their features, however, were sharp and fine, and of a sameness in profile if cast from one mould. He had seen those calm, bird-like, relentless profiles in prints of the Egyptian sculptures and paintings, with long, straight noses, protruding and short upper lips, and receding small chins,—the true signs of a used-up decadent race.
Sick with watching these methodical and pitiless strokes, he walked through the portal and out a few yards into the yielding sand, then he looked back and up the precipice.
He could see the broken walls at the top, over which he had peered yesterday. The rising sun was shining upon them, and they gleamed whitely against the soft azure. The precipice also glistened with its variegated blush and yellow rose-leaf tints, with the darker veins of grey and ochre. It was smooth and ridgeless, while the loop-holes were too narrow to be seen from where he stood.
The flat lintel and obelisk-like sides of the doorway had been cut a few feet into the rock, so that the precipice protruded. The intaglio slabs were covered with hieroglyphics and figures.
His eyes wandered to the sides, and here he met a surprise,—a long line of gaily painted and anciently shaped chariots stood ranged, like bathing-machines, against the base of the cliff. He had never seen a chariot outside of pictures before, therefore these interested him vastly, with their carving, gilding, and bright colours.
After looking minutely over one of them, he turned round to scan the desert. Away in the distance rolled a low cloud of dust, through which the sun shone upon glittering metal. It was approaching rapidly, and as he watched resolved itself into the two hundred mail-clad amazons, who were coming in at a swift run and in a straight line.
Very soon they were within a hundred yards of him, with flushed faces and heaving breasts. There they stopped suddenly, and, forming rapidly into eight deep, marched steadily towards where he stood.
He learned afterwards that they had been out for the past four hours, doing their customary morning exercise of running, which was twenty miles before breakfast. This was to keep them in good condition, and one of their obligations as warriors. With friendly smiles they marched past him and entered through the doorway without other recognition. Following them slowly, he saw them pass through and into a door which he had not observed the previous night.
He found his followers awake when he got in, and busy washing their faces in basins, which the slaves were holding for them. As this was exactly what he would have asked for, could he have made his desires known, he straightway proceeded to follow their example.
“I expect they have tanks, or some way of catching and keeping the rains from above,” said Ned, seeing that they were so lavish with the precious fluid.
A distant sound of splashing, accompanied by female voices, from behind that curtained door answered his surmises.
Very soon afterwards the amazons appeared once more, accoutred, and with fresh-coloured faces and damp flowing tresses. Breakfast was ready, and without ceremony they fell to, and hastily did full justice to it.
The next operation which our heroes watched, but could not help with, was the liberating and harnessing of the fierce leopards to the chariots. Each amazon led out her own trained animals, like dogs in leash, and strapped two to each chariot.
The fair leader now split her regiment, leaving half behind to mount guard over this mine, while the other hundred and twenty distributed the packages of our heroes amongst the chariots. They were ready to start. Ned, the leader, chose to share her chariot, and the others picked out their conquerors and beckoned them to enter.
With a swift, cat-like bound the leopards went off, while from the broad wheels the sand flew up, and left behind a trail of yellow clouds that quickly blotted out those left behind.
The passengers, not being used to chariot-riding, kneeled on the packages, and hung on to the side-rails frantically.
But the drivers stood, like rocks, on their feet, with the reins round their waists, held there by a ring, and their arms and hands free to use their whips or weapons. Over each shoulder was slung a strap filled with long shafts and a black palm bow.
They never slackened speed, for the leopards seemed tireless. They ran softly yet swiftly, hour after hour, while the sun rolled overhead with scorching force. The burning glare from the hot sand was blinding, and the helmets and chains must have been almost unbearable, yet the hardy drivers did not appear to feel them. They leaned forward with flashing eyes and streaming tresses, and still urged their willing animals on.
Once during that day they roused a pack of fine lions, who bounded after them. Ned saw one of these fierce beasts nearing the chariot, and shouted to his driver to warn her of the danger. His rifle was between his knees, loaded, but it was of no more use to him than a stick. He dare not relax his grip of the side at the rate they were going, or he would have fallen out.
The dauntless girl looked back, at his cry, with a merry laugh. Then, gripping her whip with her teeth, she slipped off her bow, and tightening the string, took out one of her shafts, and fitted it.
Swiftly turning half round, she bent the bow until the arrow-head was touching it, then the string smote the bow with a twang like a loud harp-note.
Ned watched the shaft, as it sped with a whistle through the air. Straight it flew towards the lion, and buried itself in his flaming eye. It was a splendid and deadly, though it looked a careless aim. With one leap upwards the lion rolled over and over, half burying himself in the loose sand in his death-throes.
When Ned looked from the lion to his slayer he saw her standing, with her bow once more in its place and the whip in her hand, standing and looking forward, while she drove for all she was worth.
The other lions were treated in the same fashion by the rest of the drivers. Evidently they had nothing to learn in the ancient craft of archery.
That afternoon, however, as they rested for an hour, Ned found an opportunity of showing what his rifle could do. Yet, after her archery feat, he did not feel too conceited over his most modern of death-dealing implements.
The desert appeared infested with lions of the fiercest order. Hardly were they seated when one appeared at a little distance. It was within shooting distance, but too far off for her shaft, so, while she was leisurely tightening her bow-string, he took a steady aim and fired. At the report she started up with unfeigned alarm, but, quickly recovering herself, she sat down again with stoical composure.
It was a long shot, but he did not need to repeat it. The lion was done for.
When she saw this, she displayed the most lively and childish interest about his rifle. Pointing to a great vulture in the sky, she signed him to shoot it.
While he was taking aim, she put her fingers into her ears; then, when she saw the bird drop headlong, she cried with wonder. He had raised her admiration in a new direction.
All through that night and the best part of the next day they raced. They only took three or four half-hours’ rest during this time, while they ate a few dates and drank a mouthful of water.
As for the leopards, they got nothing except a few small cakes during those short breathing spaces. Our heroes were forced to own that for swiftness and endurance the trained leopard beats both horse and dromedary for desert travel.
At midday the distant city and lake appeared on the horizon, and by four o’clock they had passed between the first of the palm trees, and left the desert behind.
Ned, Fred, and Clarence had by this time become somewhat used to their uncommon and ancient surroundings. The biblical and archaeological chariots, armour, costumes, and features had startled them when first seen. Now they were only driving toward, what they expected to find, a specimen page of prehistoric illustrations, preserved in the heart of that Africa from which those decayed nations had sprung.
Luxury and corruption caused the fall of Rome, Carthage, Greece, Assyria, Egypt, and the countless races that preceded these chronicled nations. When Melchizedek walked the earth, and Lot pleaded with the angels, mankind was old and worn out with self-indulgences. When Noah vainly preached to the sons of men, they had become dilettante, idle, cynical, and luxurious; refined in art, cruelty, and callous vice; enervated to the last degree, and barren of all impulse. This has always been and always must be the results of ultra-civilisation. The second step from utter barbarism which deals with conquest and cruelty, is but the beginning of the end of all nations, ancient and modern. The implacable order of nature is to grow and decline. Matter must change, although its constituents are immortal.
The road from the desert to the city was broad and straight. Fifty chariots could drive abreast through the centre, leaving the side paths for the pedestrians.
A double line of huge palm trees fringed this wide highway, and cast violet shadows on the side-walks. Between the trunks they could see rich and carefully irrigated fields of grain and vegetables—maize, rice, manioc, wheat, pulse, yams, and pine-apples, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, with shady groves of sugar cane and bananas at the corners, and hedges all around of vines.
The glistening of water in the regularly cut canals and lotus-covered ponds, with the fringes of papyrus reeds and varied-tinted blossoms and flowers, made a delicious picture of rural prosperity and radiance. Regular symmetry and mathematical order were the predominant features of these fertile plains, with their straight canals and square ponds. Not a foot of soil was wasted nor left to run wild. It was all under cultivation, like a carefully tended garden.
Dark-skinned and semi-nude slaves of both sexes crowded these fields and plantations, while the same class of white-clad, yellow-skinned, and diminutive overseers walked about and plied the whip remorselessly, yet without excitement.
Our heroes longed to ask questions, for they were bursting with curiosity, and they inwardly resolved to learn the language as soon as possible, if they were permitted to live here long enough. Already they had mastered the native terms for water, wine, food, chariots, leopards, lions, spears, helmets, and armour. This was a fair beginning. As for Cocoeni and his fellow-Kaffirs, they were devoting themselves most assiduously to the pursuit of their conquests, and, as they showed by their ardent glances, conquerors also. They appeared to be progressing fairly well, considering that looks were their only means of communication at present.
As they drove along, eight abreast, they noticed that they were causing a considerable stir amongst the pedestrians and other natives whom they met, overtook, or passed. They were also watching with great interest these inhabitants.
They could distinguish the men by their small stature and general spiritless condition. Woman seemed in this land to be the superior animal, both in stature, deportment, and position.
Armed amazons, on high-spirited horses, cantered or dashed past them, bestriding their beasts man-fashion. They were all splendidly costumed, and many of them very beautiful. Some drove chariots with trained lions and leopards as well as zebras and horses. It was a dazzling and picturesque sight that impressed our heroes deeply.
Elephants also paced the roads with their laden howdahs gaily caparisoned; others, again, drew heavy waggons. Oxen trailed along strange-looking carts and waggons, while the footpaths teemed with life.
The men alone wore white robes. Numbers of these were about, carrying or leading children as mothers do in other countries. Some had slaves to do this for them, and when they were so far blest, they carried the invariable whip, which they used unsparingly.
The chariots had now passed the fields and farm buildings, and were approaching the city.
Massive buildings and walls began to appear, with exquisite gardens and artificial terraces, from which wide steps led down to shady walks and fairy ponds. Vine tendrils hung over the walls, and formed delicious avenues. Ornamental trees and obelisks reared out of the under herbage. Mighty baobabs showed centuries of growth. Monkeys swung from branch to branch. Ibises, pelicans, and flamingoes were everywhere.
Between the spaces of those gardens and mansions, they had glimpses of the great lake that supplied the fertility of this highly cultivated region. On its surface they could see barges floating or moored to the embankment. Here were quays, with pillars and steps, also crowded with humanity and animal life.
Before them reared a many-columned arch, with battlemented walls on either side, and an avenue of sphinxes leading up to it.
They rolled through these, and then they were within the city, with its huge buildings, pillars, obelisks, stairs, fountains, awnings, arches, crowded side streets, and varied bazaars and shops. Our heroes felt abashed before these sublime, living tokens of a civilisation supposed to have been for ages extinct.
Chapter Thirty.In the City of Ra-bydus.The rain-season had come and gone, which meant that seven months had elapsed since our heroes were driven into the city of Ra-bydus.They understood a good deal, by this time, about the people and language of Karnadama, for so the land was named, as the city was called Ra-bydus.During these months they had been treated as honoured visitors; yet it was plainly intimated to them that they would not be permitted to depart until her majesty Isori had seen them. No one else could treat with them, or decide what course to pursue respecting them, during the great queen’s absence; therefore they were held in a kind of honourable captivity.They were lodged in princely quarters and all together. The regiment of young amazons who had discovered them were placed in charge of them—to attend upon them, escort them when they went abroad, and were made responsible for their safety and presence.No one interfered with their actions so far. They were free to walk, drive, or ride about the extensive city, provided some of their bodyguard went with them. They could go out hunting, with the same escort, sail on the lake, and view the land as far as it could be viewed between sunrise and sunset. But they were expected to be within the city walls when the gates were closed. Only in this sense were they treated as captives.Ned and his followers did not find the life they led at all irksome. It might become so in time, but they had no intention of staying here much longer. The queen was on her way home to her capital; when she returned they would either get permission to go, or else take French leave.Meantime they were having pretty much the same kind of time as blue-jackets have when they get ashore in a foreign port. They were the heroes of the hour, and were made welcome everywhere, except to the temple. From that sacred portal they were most rigidly excluded.Tutors were provided to teach them the language of the higher classes, so that they might be able to converse with her majesty when she arrived. She had heard about their advent, and these were her orders, sent by special messengers. Like President Kruger, no other language but her own people’s was permitted at court. Our heroes made rapid progress in their studies. While the country was swamped, and the hot rains made the cool interiors of these the most pleasant places to pass the time, they had spent their spare time with the teachers, listening to their explanations, and mastering the meaning and sounds of their vocabulary. The Matabeles and Basutos, also, were apt pupils in the oral part of the instructions. As soon as they could make themselves understood, however, they discarded the male teachers, and took the rest of their instructions from their amazon guards. Ned, Fred, and Clarence went further. They practised the letter-writing, which was like shorthand, to the ordinary hieroglyphic carvings on the walls, and only practised by the educated class. They also asked many questions respecting the history, myths, and habits of the people they were amongst. In this way, and by keeping their eyes and ears open, they acquired a vast amount of knowledge in a short space of time.The Karnadamains were a remnant of the older race, who had fled from Egypt at the time of the invasion of the Shepherd Kings. Like the Israelites, they had wandered far and encountered many vicissitudes before settling down on this remote and central portion of Africa. The history of their wanderings and early rulers was comprised largely, like that of the Greeks, of legend and myth.They still retained the principal features of their ancient religions—that of animal-worship. The serpent, the crocodile, the cat, ibis, and other animals of certain kinds were considered sacred, and rigidly protected. To kill one of these marked animals, either wantonly or accidentally, was a sacrilege, the punishment for which was death. When our heroes learnt this, and remembered their indiscriminate slaughter of the pythons, they felt themselves in a mighty perilous position should any of their friends, the amazons, betray them. Ned took an early opportunity of sounding Captain Pylea on the subject. She, however, laughingly reassured him, and told him to be under no apprehension. Her subordinates were soldiers, not informers; while, as for the slaves who had removed the carcases, they had been slaughtered to a man, so that they might not speak of what they had seen.“It was a terrible crime you committed,” she added, with a shudder; “for these were of the most sacred order, who are fed with slaves. But enough were left to swallow up the remains of their brethren and those who might have spoken about it, and we did not see you do the unholy deed.”Ned shuddered to hear the calmness with which she told this atrocity, grateful although he was for her and her comrades’ kindness to them. She was a frank, generous, and courageous young woman, but she had not much womanly mercy in her composition.“What would you have done, Pylea, if you had been attacked by those sacred—monsters?” he enquired.She looked at him with a humorous twinkle in her dark eyes, and touched her bow and spear.“Afterwards we’d have, as I advise you to do, forgotten all about it.”“Then you don’t pin your faith too closely to this venerable creed of yours, Pylea?”“We expect our fathers, husbands, and brothers to venerate the gods, and attend to their religious, with their other domestic duties, while we do the thinking and the fighting,” she answered significantly.“Do you know, Pylea, you belong to the emancipated sex. In my land the order is reversed.”“Ah, so it might be in mine, if our men were like you and your followers. But look at ours. Could any of them bend my bow or handle my spear? No; they are too fond of their couches, their pipes, their dinners, and their wines. They like to spend their time gossiping and making pretty things. All the exercise they care for is flogging the slaves, so we leave them to what they like best—to look after the children, make poetry, pictures, and pretty carvings, and discuss new dishes, while they fill their empty heads with smoke and strong drink.”“A great number of our men also are fond of the vices you charge yours with, Pylea,” answered Ned, laughing at her indulgent contempt of the lords of creation. “They also drink, smoke, and spend a good deal of time discussing fine dishes and works of art and literature. When they can paint or carve they get mighty conceited about it; but, as a rule, they don’t practise the domestic virtues you speak about.”“Who does this, when there are no slaves?”“Our women.”“And who does the thinking?”“Also a good many of our women.”“And the fighting?” asked Pylea, wonderingly.“Oh, the men are expected to do that.”“I cannot understand it. Once on a time, as our men are fond of singing and boasting about in their cups, they say our men could fight. But we who know them do not believe that, or they would never have fled from the land they ruled over then, according to the legends which they have invented. No,” she continued thoughtfully; “they must always have been as they are, poor, treacherous, mean-spirited cowards, who dare not face a woman, but find a pleasure in tormenting slaves. They must always have been fond of lying upon litters and couches, of wine and tasty dishes. They never could have been trusted out of sight—not our men, who are good for nothing honourable, true, or brave.”“Yet you marry them,” observed Ned.“Oh yes; that is the custom. When we feel ourselves getting too stiff to fight or run, we take a man to keep our house and look after us and our children. We are always strong enough to make them obedient, and we never expect too much from them. They are poor things, who do not know what honour and truth are; only a little more to be tolerated than the slaves. They like to babble about their paltry pastimes, which they call work.”Here were the new woman’s ideas and aspirations put into a nutshell, with man the despised placed on his proper footing.“Once on a time, as our men sing, when they get together and we are out of hearing, their forefathers owned quite a number of wives, as we now own slaves. But they are never so far gone as to whisper that lie when they return home. They dip their bald heads in the fountains on the way back before they face us. This is about the only wisdom which I think they have,” said Pylea, softly, as she laughingly left Ned with a military salute.From what Ned had seen of the amazons, there was not much to fear respecting the python incident, unless Cocoeni and his comrades raised their jealousy. He resolved to warn them to be careful, and confine themselves strictly to brotherly attentions only. It would not be wise for them to play at love with those tigresses.What Pylea had said about the male Karnadamains was all true, as he found out for himself. They were a cringing, lying, vicious-minded set of self-indulgent sots. When they could, they slunk off in company, and boasted about their mean vices as if they were actions to be proud of. A very little of their converse went a long way to sicken and disgust him. They spoke gently, and were choice in their expressions, for they were critical and refined over details, and artistic in their tastes. But the details were nauseating, depraved, and loathsome as slimy snakes. They were vile objects, without one redeeming virtue and with as much human emotion as lizards.As artists, artificers, and musicians, however, he was forced to give them their meed of praise. They followed fixed and long-established rules with undeviating and unoriginal fidelity, and never attempted to break from their bonds.During these months, the queen had been engaged on a warlike expedition with her army, raiding some of the neighbouring tribes to the north. It was from there that the slaves were procured.While she was absent, the king, Sotu, who was also her brother, was left at home to look after the royal palace.Although king, this royal object had no voice in the affairs of the state, or any rule, except over his male subjects, who were, like himself, rigidly excluded from all offices of dignity or authority.The high officials of the temple were priestesses; likewise all the other positions of dignity were filled by women.Sotu was king of the minstrels, poets, painters, musicians, sculptors, and cooks. He was considered to be a great authority on works of art, literature, and the science of the table. He was a profound gourmand, a most princely drunkard, and a superb judge of tobacco. He was also considered one of the best chess-players in the kingdom.Our heroes and their followers had been entertained at the best houses. They also had spent one evening with the king and a select number of aristocrats whose wives were at the wars.They had here the opportunity of witnessing the prodigality of an ancient feast with its curious customs. They also saw evidences of the vast profusion of wealth this nation was possessed of.The feast was held in a magnificent hall, where stood a throne made of solid gold, covered with fine carving, and encrusted with diamonds. All round were richly carved and painted pillars. The walls and ceiling likewise were a mass of painting and plated gilding. The polished and tessellated floor was covered, ankle deep, with flowers. The stools were of ivory and gold; the cups, vases, and dishes were also of the same material, and like the throne, sparkling with diamonds. King Sotu came to the feast garlanded, as were his subjects. Candles burned in golden candlesticks, and the whole air was filled with perfume.It was a bachelors’ feast, for none of the women would condescend to attend such revels; only slaves, single men, and married ones, who had stolen from their homes, were present, besides our heroes and their followers.About a dozen of the temple male servants were in attendance to begin the feast with religious ceremonies, and to drag round the mummy-case before the drinking began.The viands were multitudinous and exquisitely cooked, and while they ate, professional musicians played on various instruments. It was nearly the last night of liberty for the king and his subjects, and they had made up their minds to enjoy themselves.Ned and his followers joined in lustily at the eating part of the ceremony, which caused the dull-eyed, yellow-visaged, and purple-nosed royal host almost to forgive them for their excessive strength and stature.But they completely lost his favour when the serious part came on—the drinking. Ned sat for a short time, but rose gravely at the close of one of Sotu’s favourite stories, and sternly ordered his followers to follow him.King Sotu was too mean-spirited to resent their going, but after they had departed, and he had swallowed many cupfuls of fragrant wine, he shouted loudly—“These cannot be men, for they can neither drink nor enjoy a good joke. We must get rid of them, or we shall not have the life of slaves when our wives return.”Poor King Sotu! he felt at this moment brave enough to poison Ned and his followers.But when morning dawned and he tremblingly seized the goblet of wine which his slaves brought him, he quaked in his sandals as he remembered what he had uttered in his festive mood. A hundred traitor ears had heard the rash words, and he felt sure they would be repeated to their wives.“Oh, Osiris!” he moaned. “If Isori hears of this, I am undone.”After several goblets, he called for his pipe and his whip, and spent the forenoon exercising himself on the backs of his slaves.
The rain-season had come and gone, which meant that seven months had elapsed since our heroes were driven into the city of Ra-bydus.
They understood a good deal, by this time, about the people and language of Karnadama, for so the land was named, as the city was called Ra-bydus.
During these months they had been treated as honoured visitors; yet it was plainly intimated to them that they would not be permitted to depart until her majesty Isori had seen them. No one else could treat with them, or decide what course to pursue respecting them, during the great queen’s absence; therefore they were held in a kind of honourable captivity.
They were lodged in princely quarters and all together. The regiment of young amazons who had discovered them were placed in charge of them—to attend upon them, escort them when they went abroad, and were made responsible for their safety and presence.
No one interfered with their actions so far. They were free to walk, drive, or ride about the extensive city, provided some of their bodyguard went with them. They could go out hunting, with the same escort, sail on the lake, and view the land as far as it could be viewed between sunrise and sunset. But they were expected to be within the city walls when the gates were closed. Only in this sense were they treated as captives.
Ned and his followers did not find the life they led at all irksome. It might become so in time, but they had no intention of staying here much longer. The queen was on her way home to her capital; when she returned they would either get permission to go, or else take French leave.
Meantime they were having pretty much the same kind of time as blue-jackets have when they get ashore in a foreign port. They were the heroes of the hour, and were made welcome everywhere, except to the temple. From that sacred portal they were most rigidly excluded.
Tutors were provided to teach them the language of the higher classes, so that they might be able to converse with her majesty when she arrived. She had heard about their advent, and these were her orders, sent by special messengers. Like President Kruger, no other language but her own people’s was permitted at court. Our heroes made rapid progress in their studies. While the country was swamped, and the hot rains made the cool interiors of these the most pleasant places to pass the time, they had spent their spare time with the teachers, listening to their explanations, and mastering the meaning and sounds of their vocabulary. The Matabeles and Basutos, also, were apt pupils in the oral part of the instructions. As soon as they could make themselves understood, however, they discarded the male teachers, and took the rest of their instructions from their amazon guards. Ned, Fred, and Clarence went further. They practised the letter-writing, which was like shorthand, to the ordinary hieroglyphic carvings on the walls, and only practised by the educated class. They also asked many questions respecting the history, myths, and habits of the people they were amongst. In this way, and by keeping their eyes and ears open, they acquired a vast amount of knowledge in a short space of time.
The Karnadamains were a remnant of the older race, who had fled from Egypt at the time of the invasion of the Shepherd Kings. Like the Israelites, they had wandered far and encountered many vicissitudes before settling down on this remote and central portion of Africa. The history of their wanderings and early rulers was comprised largely, like that of the Greeks, of legend and myth.
They still retained the principal features of their ancient religions—that of animal-worship. The serpent, the crocodile, the cat, ibis, and other animals of certain kinds were considered sacred, and rigidly protected. To kill one of these marked animals, either wantonly or accidentally, was a sacrilege, the punishment for which was death. When our heroes learnt this, and remembered their indiscriminate slaughter of the pythons, they felt themselves in a mighty perilous position should any of their friends, the amazons, betray them. Ned took an early opportunity of sounding Captain Pylea on the subject. She, however, laughingly reassured him, and told him to be under no apprehension. Her subordinates were soldiers, not informers; while, as for the slaves who had removed the carcases, they had been slaughtered to a man, so that they might not speak of what they had seen.
“It was a terrible crime you committed,” she added, with a shudder; “for these were of the most sacred order, who are fed with slaves. But enough were left to swallow up the remains of their brethren and those who might have spoken about it, and we did not see you do the unholy deed.”
Ned shuddered to hear the calmness with which she told this atrocity, grateful although he was for her and her comrades’ kindness to them. She was a frank, generous, and courageous young woman, but she had not much womanly mercy in her composition.
“What would you have done, Pylea, if you had been attacked by those sacred—monsters?” he enquired.
She looked at him with a humorous twinkle in her dark eyes, and touched her bow and spear.
“Afterwards we’d have, as I advise you to do, forgotten all about it.”
“Then you don’t pin your faith too closely to this venerable creed of yours, Pylea?”
“We expect our fathers, husbands, and brothers to venerate the gods, and attend to their religious, with their other domestic duties, while we do the thinking and the fighting,” she answered significantly.
“Do you know, Pylea, you belong to the emancipated sex. In my land the order is reversed.”
“Ah, so it might be in mine, if our men were like you and your followers. But look at ours. Could any of them bend my bow or handle my spear? No; they are too fond of their couches, their pipes, their dinners, and their wines. They like to spend their time gossiping and making pretty things. All the exercise they care for is flogging the slaves, so we leave them to what they like best—to look after the children, make poetry, pictures, and pretty carvings, and discuss new dishes, while they fill their empty heads with smoke and strong drink.”
“A great number of our men also are fond of the vices you charge yours with, Pylea,” answered Ned, laughing at her indulgent contempt of the lords of creation. “They also drink, smoke, and spend a good deal of time discussing fine dishes and works of art and literature. When they can paint or carve they get mighty conceited about it; but, as a rule, they don’t practise the domestic virtues you speak about.”
“Who does this, when there are no slaves?”
“Our women.”
“And who does the thinking?”
“Also a good many of our women.”
“And the fighting?” asked Pylea, wonderingly.
“Oh, the men are expected to do that.”
“I cannot understand it. Once on a time, as our men are fond of singing and boasting about in their cups, they say our men could fight. But we who know them do not believe that, or they would never have fled from the land they ruled over then, according to the legends which they have invented. No,” she continued thoughtfully; “they must always have been as they are, poor, treacherous, mean-spirited cowards, who dare not face a woman, but find a pleasure in tormenting slaves. They must always have been fond of lying upon litters and couches, of wine and tasty dishes. They never could have been trusted out of sight—not our men, who are good for nothing honourable, true, or brave.”
“Yet you marry them,” observed Ned.
“Oh yes; that is the custom. When we feel ourselves getting too stiff to fight or run, we take a man to keep our house and look after us and our children. We are always strong enough to make them obedient, and we never expect too much from them. They are poor things, who do not know what honour and truth are; only a little more to be tolerated than the slaves. They like to babble about their paltry pastimes, which they call work.”
Here were the new woman’s ideas and aspirations put into a nutshell, with man the despised placed on his proper footing.
“Once on a time, as our men sing, when they get together and we are out of hearing, their forefathers owned quite a number of wives, as we now own slaves. But they are never so far gone as to whisper that lie when they return home. They dip their bald heads in the fountains on the way back before they face us. This is about the only wisdom which I think they have,” said Pylea, softly, as she laughingly left Ned with a military salute.
From what Ned had seen of the amazons, there was not much to fear respecting the python incident, unless Cocoeni and his comrades raised their jealousy. He resolved to warn them to be careful, and confine themselves strictly to brotherly attentions only. It would not be wise for them to play at love with those tigresses.
What Pylea had said about the male Karnadamains was all true, as he found out for himself. They were a cringing, lying, vicious-minded set of self-indulgent sots. When they could, they slunk off in company, and boasted about their mean vices as if they were actions to be proud of. A very little of their converse went a long way to sicken and disgust him. They spoke gently, and were choice in their expressions, for they were critical and refined over details, and artistic in their tastes. But the details were nauseating, depraved, and loathsome as slimy snakes. They were vile objects, without one redeeming virtue and with as much human emotion as lizards.
As artists, artificers, and musicians, however, he was forced to give them their meed of praise. They followed fixed and long-established rules with undeviating and unoriginal fidelity, and never attempted to break from their bonds.
During these months, the queen had been engaged on a warlike expedition with her army, raiding some of the neighbouring tribes to the north. It was from there that the slaves were procured.
While she was absent, the king, Sotu, who was also her brother, was left at home to look after the royal palace.
Although king, this royal object had no voice in the affairs of the state, or any rule, except over his male subjects, who were, like himself, rigidly excluded from all offices of dignity or authority.
The high officials of the temple were priestesses; likewise all the other positions of dignity were filled by women.
Sotu was king of the minstrels, poets, painters, musicians, sculptors, and cooks. He was considered to be a great authority on works of art, literature, and the science of the table. He was a profound gourmand, a most princely drunkard, and a superb judge of tobacco. He was also considered one of the best chess-players in the kingdom.
Our heroes and their followers had been entertained at the best houses. They also had spent one evening with the king and a select number of aristocrats whose wives were at the wars.
They had here the opportunity of witnessing the prodigality of an ancient feast with its curious customs. They also saw evidences of the vast profusion of wealth this nation was possessed of.
The feast was held in a magnificent hall, where stood a throne made of solid gold, covered with fine carving, and encrusted with diamonds. All round were richly carved and painted pillars. The walls and ceiling likewise were a mass of painting and plated gilding. The polished and tessellated floor was covered, ankle deep, with flowers. The stools were of ivory and gold; the cups, vases, and dishes were also of the same material, and like the throne, sparkling with diamonds. King Sotu came to the feast garlanded, as were his subjects. Candles burned in golden candlesticks, and the whole air was filled with perfume.
It was a bachelors’ feast, for none of the women would condescend to attend such revels; only slaves, single men, and married ones, who had stolen from their homes, were present, besides our heroes and their followers.
About a dozen of the temple male servants were in attendance to begin the feast with religious ceremonies, and to drag round the mummy-case before the drinking began.
The viands were multitudinous and exquisitely cooked, and while they ate, professional musicians played on various instruments. It was nearly the last night of liberty for the king and his subjects, and they had made up their minds to enjoy themselves.
Ned and his followers joined in lustily at the eating part of the ceremony, which caused the dull-eyed, yellow-visaged, and purple-nosed royal host almost to forgive them for their excessive strength and stature.
But they completely lost his favour when the serious part came on—the drinking. Ned sat for a short time, but rose gravely at the close of one of Sotu’s favourite stories, and sternly ordered his followers to follow him.
King Sotu was too mean-spirited to resent their going, but after they had departed, and he had swallowed many cupfuls of fragrant wine, he shouted loudly—
“These cannot be men, for they can neither drink nor enjoy a good joke. We must get rid of them, or we shall not have the life of slaves when our wives return.”
Poor King Sotu! he felt at this moment brave enough to poison Ned and his followers.
But when morning dawned and he tremblingly seized the goblet of wine which his slaves brought him, he quaked in his sandals as he remembered what he had uttered in his festive mood. A hundred traitor ears had heard the rash words, and he felt sure they would be repeated to their wives.
“Oh, Osiris!” he moaned. “If Isori hears of this, I am undone.”
After several goblets, he called for his pipe and his whip, and spent the forenoon exercising himself on the backs of his slaves.
Chapter Thirty One.The Queen Isori.Queen Isori had come, and, with her army, was in possession of her royal capital of Karnadama.She had taken away fifty-six thousand foot and mounted soldiers. She brought home forty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty able-bodied amazons. Seven thousand three hundred and eighty dauntless females had found the death they coveted, and over a thousand disconsolate widowers bewailed their fate loudly in the temple courtyards. It was the custom for those bereaved widowers to mourn in public for their departed spouses, while they prayed that their sins might be overbalanced by their good deeds, in the scales of the gods.The men of Karnadama were unquestioning slaves to custom, therefore they covered their smooth heads with ashes, wailed, howled, and prayed during the hours appointed for mourning. Afterwards they met together in those vaults and shades where the wine was kept cool in great clay-baked jars, and drowned their sorrows as deeply as possible.Bands of them reeled past the garden walls, over which Ned and his companions leaned, watching the bustling midnight streets in the moonlight. Some of them were trying to sing, others laughed hysterically, while a few of the morbid class, remembering the fine women they had lost, wept feebly while they recounted the departed one’s charms. Ned almost pitied those ownerless and most degenerate goats.Now that they had seen the great queen, Ned had only one desire left; that was, to lead his men safely from this city, and back to Rhodesia as quickly as possible.He had passed through every street and alley until he knew each mart and building by heart. He and his companions had sailed on the lake and along the canals that intersected the city, hundreds of times. They had watched the men in their open shops: the working jewellers and enamellers, the carvers, sculptors, and painters; the armourers and blacksmiths; the confectioners, bakers, hairdressers, and loom-workers. These were all quaint and interesting for a time, but they had now grown stale. They abhorred the men, and did not feel over comfortable with those bold-eyed, combative women, beautiful although most of them were.The day when Isori returned at the head of her victorious cohorts was the climax to all the brilliant sights they had witnessed; after that procession with the audience which followed were over, Ned began to feel that he could not get too quickly away.The citizens had been preparing for days to give their queen a right royal welcome. For the past week advance messengers had arrived every hour, announcing the progress of the army as it approached. The roads and streets had been crowded with people flocking in, and every house of entertainment was filled.In answer to his enquiries about the country, he was told that the lake was a hundred miles long by fifty broad. A wide river flowed from the eastern end of it, and, after a considerable distance, became a boiling cataract that rushed through deep gorges into low marsh and forest lands. To the north lay a range of lofty mountains, precipitous and densely wooded, where dwelt the dwarfs, who were hunted, captured, and used as slaves. In their wild state those dwarfs were rather troublesome neighbours, being very numerous and fierce, also using poisoned arrows, the slightest prick of which was fatal. They were also cannibals of the most repulsive type, torturing their victims mercilessly when they could trap them. To the west, as in the south, spread vast deserts.The climate of Karnadama was all that could be desired: our heroes and their followers had never had a day of sickness, even during the long and wet season. At present the weather was simply delightful.Diamonds were found in great numbers about halfway between Ra-bydus and the mountains; and, as Ned had seen for himself, their gold-mine yielded them so plentiful a supply that the most ordinary utensils were fashioned from it. On the plains, which were well watered, dense herds of game roamed about.Ra-bydus was the only city of importance, although there were several villages scattered over the country.Queen Isori could call out an army of over a hundred thousand trained amazons. This, however, comprised the bulk of the female population; on ordinary occasions only the young warriors were kept constantly in arms. These seldom exceeded ten thousand, who were spread throughout the country in regiments.The training of these young amazons was exceedingly hard. From their birth they were constantly exercised like Spartans, until they reached the age of sixteen. From that age to twenty-five they were constantly in harness, and kept single. After this age they were allowed to marry and settle down.Pylea and her regiment were about the same age, having been enrolled together four years previously. They were then nineteen years of age, and had six years still before them of active service and enforced celibacy.Ned asked how the population had been kept within limits all these centuries, and was horrified at the reply.All decrepit and sickly children of both sexes were destroyed at birth. Every five years a census was taken, and judges sent round to weed out the surplus population. The victims were selected by the judges appointed, and ruthlessly destroyed by accompanying executioners. These executioners were appointed from the men, who found their opportunity then of indulging in their natural instinct of cruelty. Old age, on the male side, was no more respected than childhood, although the women were exempted from this wholesale massacre.When the husbands became shattered with their vices, they were strangled. When they grew too obnoxious to live with any longer, they were at once made into mummies. The women were the judges and sole arbitresses of their fate. There were no divorces in this wise and loveless community. If a woman wished to be released from one husband, she made herself a widow, and picked out a younger mate. As Pylea had remarked, they did not expect too much from the poor things, so completely at their discretion. They persuaded them to drink, eat, and smoke as they liked, until they were tired of them, then they gave the final wrench to their rope, and ended that domestic worry.It was a paradise for the fair sex, according to the modern ideas of the new womanhood. Also the ceremony of the mummy-case being drawn round the feasting halls was no empty or obsolete sign to the men. “Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves, for tomorrow you die,” was grimly significant to these degraded wretches.When Ned explained these lop-sided laws and customs to his sable followers, they showed the whites of their eyes, and decided that prudence was the better part of valour when dealing with those fascinating amazons. All vowed that they would respect the obligations of the service, and not tempt the girls to break their military engagements for their sakes.“Let us get out of this, baas, before it is too late,” said Cocoeni, gloomily, as he recalled some pleasant evenings he had spent under the trees, while trying to master the language with one of the fair guards.“Yes, we must,” added Clarence, almost as seriously—“Even the forest will be healthier for us than this atmosphere.”“As soon as her majesty turns up, I’ll make the move,” answered Ned.Our heroes were accommodated with horses on the morning of the arrival, while Cocoeni and his comrades walked. They were all in fine condition, and looked like giants behind the undersized bystanders.Pylea and her regiment used their leopard-chariots, and drew up in line along the streets close to the palace to keep the sightseers back. Ned and his company occupied the post nearest the gates. Close to his side Pylea stood in her chariot, splendidly attired and looking her best.“Isori is a great warrior, and the tallest woman of our race, as her mother was before her,” she remarked while they waited.“How old is she?” asked Ned.“Thirty-three, but she has not lost her swiftness, agility, or strength.”The blare of instruments announced that the conquerors were coming, and soon afterwards the first of the procession appeared.A thousand richly caparisoned elephants came first, laden with mail-clad warriors. Behind these came the miserable captives, chained to bars of wood, and drawn along by women on horseback, who cracked their whips over them constantly. Four thousand of these hideous dwarfs of both sexes had been brought alive from their native haunts. Following the elephants, they passed the palace walls, while the people looked at them silently.A large troop of horsewomen came next, and then, at the head of her charioteers, appeared the victorious queen.Our heroes looked at her as she stood upright in her golden chariot, resting on her massive spear, and they were dazzled at her majesty and the light that blazed from her.Over six feet in height she stood in her jewelled sandals. Round her brows wound the royal serpent with uplifted crest, while from behind fell a fringe of blue, red, white, and yellow, barred with gold and crusted with precious stones. Her breasts and limbs were covered with golden links, while from her shoulders fluttered a rich light cloak, that trailed over the back of the chariot. Three young lions dragged the car. She was an imperial woman, with a pale face regularly featured, and great dark eyes that looked out coldly yet steadily as the car slowly glided forward.Beautiful she was, in the full pride of power and matured strength, with a figure that was matchless. But it was a face to shudder before. It was so pitiless, and so icily composed.No cry of welcome greeted her approach, but a great hush fell over the multitude, that was more impressive. She was in their eyes a goddess as well as a queen, and all bent their heads and covered their eyes. Ned and his followers felt decidedly uncomfortable.As she passed the split lines of Matabeles and Basutos, she shot side glances over their stalwart figures without turning her head. Then she came to a dead stop opposite Ned, and fixed upon him her steady great black eyes. He bent his head under that passionless but strangely disquieting stare.While she stood, from the palace gates came her brother consort, mounted on a white horse, and clad in royal robes that were also blazing with precious stones. He was taller than the male attendants who accompanied him, but, in spite of his tiara and rich robes, looked the trembling wreck that he was.Isori looked at her bibulous-faced and purple-nosed consort with a mocking yet indulgent curl of her proud lip, as he bent humbly before her. Then she said, in a rich, clear voice—“Hast thou composed many couplets during our absence, Sotu? I can perceive that thou hast partaken of many cups.”“Immortal one, I have not been idle,” answered the poor king, fumbling nervously in the breast of his robe, and wisely ignoring the latter portion of this wifely greeting. He produced a roll of papyrus. “I have here a powerful epic to read to you, which I composed in honour of your victory, O brave Isori.”“Ah! that is sweet. Keep it till after supper, when thou wilt be in thy best form.”“But, gracious and great one, I hoped to read it here, before our people.”“Ride thou at my side, Sotu, King of Karnadama, and give that roll to one of the servants,” she said, with chilling coldness.Sotu sighed deeply, but yielded, and together the badly assorted pair went between the sphinxes.About two hours later Ned and his followers were commanded to appear in the presence. It was a trying ordeal, but our heroes braced up their courage, and stalked through the crowd of courtiers and warriors with erect heads and bulging chests. They were no slavish male Karnadamains, and they meant to show what men ought to look like; what Britishers are in every land under the sun, except the Transvaal.It was a much more extensive reception-hall than the dining chamber, vast although that was.Four lines of columns with lotus capitals supported the flat roof. The walls were richly covered with varied coloured enamels and plated gold; the floor was of highly polished marble or granite of different tints wrought in subtle patterns of mosaic. It was a noble throne-room, the vast proportions of which dwarfed the humanity that it was meant to hold.Five thousand amazonian captains, officers, and female grandees were assembled, besides the priestesses and other civic dignitaries. There were also the obsequious husbands, in dutiful attendance upon these their imperious mistresses. These, with the waiting slaves and court musicians, brought up the number present to considerably over twelve thousand. Yet there were wide spaces between the pillars, and our heroes with their followers were by no means crowded.The queen and king sat on two thrones, side by side, only her throne was elevated several steps above his, and of a much more gorgeous description.Fifty broad but shallow steps led from the hall up to the platform on which the thrones were placed. At each corner of the steps crouched sphinxes, as large as full grown lions, made from beaten gold. The throne of the queen, with its canopy and dais, were composed entirely of exquisitely carved ivory, encrusted with diamonds. That of the king was of gold, and, beyond the back, had no canopy.Queen Isori had been bathed, perfumed, and re-costumed since our heroes had last seen her. She now appeared more like the conventional woman, and less like the paladin.Her jet black hair was plaited, and hung down over her shoulders in two thick links, being placed also low on her broad forehead. Above this sat her serpent tiara.Her superb arms were naked to the shoulders, except for the jewelled bracelets and wristlets that she wore. One breast was also bare, the other being covered with golden scales. Large ear-rings rested against her cheeks, and a wide necklet of diamonds and a Scarabaeus made of emerald, as a pendant, encircled her smooth neck. From the snake zone round her waist, to her jewelled sandals, fell a robe of diaphanous and changing silk in numerous folds, which, closely plaited as these were, still exhibited her limbs beneath. In her right hand she held a sceptre of ivory, gold, and jewels, while at her sides kneeled eight slaves fanning her with large peacock feathers. In front of them crouched two living lions and four leopards.
Queen Isori had come, and, with her army, was in possession of her royal capital of Karnadama.
She had taken away fifty-six thousand foot and mounted soldiers. She brought home forty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty able-bodied amazons. Seven thousand three hundred and eighty dauntless females had found the death they coveted, and over a thousand disconsolate widowers bewailed their fate loudly in the temple courtyards. It was the custom for those bereaved widowers to mourn in public for their departed spouses, while they prayed that their sins might be overbalanced by their good deeds, in the scales of the gods.
The men of Karnadama were unquestioning slaves to custom, therefore they covered their smooth heads with ashes, wailed, howled, and prayed during the hours appointed for mourning. Afterwards they met together in those vaults and shades where the wine was kept cool in great clay-baked jars, and drowned their sorrows as deeply as possible.
Bands of them reeled past the garden walls, over which Ned and his companions leaned, watching the bustling midnight streets in the moonlight. Some of them were trying to sing, others laughed hysterically, while a few of the morbid class, remembering the fine women they had lost, wept feebly while they recounted the departed one’s charms. Ned almost pitied those ownerless and most degenerate goats.
Now that they had seen the great queen, Ned had only one desire left; that was, to lead his men safely from this city, and back to Rhodesia as quickly as possible.
He had passed through every street and alley until he knew each mart and building by heart. He and his companions had sailed on the lake and along the canals that intersected the city, hundreds of times. They had watched the men in their open shops: the working jewellers and enamellers, the carvers, sculptors, and painters; the armourers and blacksmiths; the confectioners, bakers, hairdressers, and loom-workers. These were all quaint and interesting for a time, but they had now grown stale. They abhorred the men, and did not feel over comfortable with those bold-eyed, combative women, beautiful although most of them were.
The day when Isori returned at the head of her victorious cohorts was the climax to all the brilliant sights they had witnessed; after that procession with the audience which followed were over, Ned began to feel that he could not get too quickly away.
The citizens had been preparing for days to give their queen a right royal welcome. For the past week advance messengers had arrived every hour, announcing the progress of the army as it approached. The roads and streets had been crowded with people flocking in, and every house of entertainment was filled.
In answer to his enquiries about the country, he was told that the lake was a hundred miles long by fifty broad. A wide river flowed from the eastern end of it, and, after a considerable distance, became a boiling cataract that rushed through deep gorges into low marsh and forest lands. To the north lay a range of lofty mountains, precipitous and densely wooded, where dwelt the dwarfs, who were hunted, captured, and used as slaves. In their wild state those dwarfs were rather troublesome neighbours, being very numerous and fierce, also using poisoned arrows, the slightest prick of which was fatal. They were also cannibals of the most repulsive type, torturing their victims mercilessly when they could trap them. To the west, as in the south, spread vast deserts.
The climate of Karnadama was all that could be desired: our heroes and their followers had never had a day of sickness, even during the long and wet season. At present the weather was simply delightful.
Diamonds were found in great numbers about halfway between Ra-bydus and the mountains; and, as Ned had seen for himself, their gold-mine yielded them so plentiful a supply that the most ordinary utensils were fashioned from it. On the plains, which were well watered, dense herds of game roamed about.
Ra-bydus was the only city of importance, although there were several villages scattered over the country.
Queen Isori could call out an army of over a hundred thousand trained amazons. This, however, comprised the bulk of the female population; on ordinary occasions only the young warriors were kept constantly in arms. These seldom exceeded ten thousand, who were spread throughout the country in regiments.
The training of these young amazons was exceedingly hard. From their birth they were constantly exercised like Spartans, until they reached the age of sixteen. From that age to twenty-five they were constantly in harness, and kept single. After this age they were allowed to marry and settle down.
Pylea and her regiment were about the same age, having been enrolled together four years previously. They were then nineteen years of age, and had six years still before them of active service and enforced celibacy.
Ned asked how the population had been kept within limits all these centuries, and was horrified at the reply.
All decrepit and sickly children of both sexes were destroyed at birth. Every five years a census was taken, and judges sent round to weed out the surplus population. The victims were selected by the judges appointed, and ruthlessly destroyed by accompanying executioners. These executioners were appointed from the men, who found their opportunity then of indulging in their natural instinct of cruelty. Old age, on the male side, was no more respected than childhood, although the women were exempted from this wholesale massacre.
When the husbands became shattered with their vices, they were strangled. When they grew too obnoxious to live with any longer, they were at once made into mummies. The women were the judges and sole arbitresses of their fate. There were no divorces in this wise and loveless community. If a woman wished to be released from one husband, she made herself a widow, and picked out a younger mate. As Pylea had remarked, they did not expect too much from the poor things, so completely at their discretion. They persuaded them to drink, eat, and smoke as they liked, until they were tired of them, then they gave the final wrench to their rope, and ended that domestic worry.
It was a paradise for the fair sex, according to the modern ideas of the new womanhood. Also the ceremony of the mummy-case being drawn round the feasting halls was no empty or obsolete sign to the men. “Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves, for tomorrow you die,” was grimly significant to these degraded wretches.
When Ned explained these lop-sided laws and customs to his sable followers, they showed the whites of their eyes, and decided that prudence was the better part of valour when dealing with those fascinating amazons. All vowed that they would respect the obligations of the service, and not tempt the girls to break their military engagements for their sakes.
“Let us get out of this, baas, before it is too late,” said Cocoeni, gloomily, as he recalled some pleasant evenings he had spent under the trees, while trying to master the language with one of the fair guards.
“Yes, we must,” added Clarence, almost as seriously—“Even the forest will be healthier for us than this atmosphere.”
“As soon as her majesty turns up, I’ll make the move,” answered Ned.
Our heroes were accommodated with horses on the morning of the arrival, while Cocoeni and his comrades walked. They were all in fine condition, and looked like giants behind the undersized bystanders.
Pylea and her regiment used their leopard-chariots, and drew up in line along the streets close to the palace to keep the sightseers back. Ned and his company occupied the post nearest the gates. Close to his side Pylea stood in her chariot, splendidly attired and looking her best.
“Isori is a great warrior, and the tallest woman of our race, as her mother was before her,” she remarked while they waited.
“How old is she?” asked Ned.
“Thirty-three, but she has not lost her swiftness, agility, or strength.”
The blare of instruments announced that the conquerors were coming, and soon afterwards the first of the procession appeared.
A thousand richly caparisoned elephants came first, laden with mail-clad warriors. Behind these came the miserable captives, chained to bars of wood, and drawn along by women on horseback, who cracked their whips over them constantly. Four thousand of these hideous dwarfs of both sexes had been brought alive from their native haunts. Following the elephants, they passed the palace walls, while the people looked at them silently.
A large troop of horsewomen came next, and then, at the head of her charioteers, appeared the victorious queen.
Our heroes looked at her as she stood upright in her golden chariot, resting on her massive spear, and they were dazzled at her majesty and the light that blazed from her.
Over six feet in height she stood in her jewelled sandals. Round her brows wound the royal serpent with uplifted crest, while from behind fell a fringe of blue, red, white, and yellow, barred with gold and crusted with precious stones. Her breasts and limbs were covered with golden links, while from her shoulders fluttered a rich light cloak, that trailed over the back of the chariot. Three young lions dragged the car. She was an imperial woman, with a pale face regularly featured, and great dark eyes that looked out coldly yet steadily as the car slowly glided forward.
Beautiful she was, in the full pride of power and matured strength, with a figure that was matchless. But it was a face to shudder before. It was so pitiless, and so icily composed.
No cry of welcome greeted her approach, but a great hush fell over the multitude, that was more impressive. She was in their eyes a goddess as well as a queen, and all bent their heads and covered their eyes. Ned and his followers felt decidedly uncomfortable.
As she passed the split lines of Matabeles and Basutos, she shot side glances over their stalwart figures without turning her head. Then she came to a dead stop opposite Ned, and fixed upon him her steady great black eyes. He bent his head under that passionless but strangely disquieting stare.
While she stood, from the palace gates came her brother consort, mounted on a white horse, and clad in royal robes that were also blazing with precious stones. He was taller than the male attendants who accompanied him, but, in spite of his tiara and rich robes, looked the trembling wreck that he was.
Isori looked at her bibulous-faced and purple-nosed consort with a mocking yet indulgent curl of her proud lip, as he bent humbly before her. Then she said, in a rich, clear voice—
“Hast thou composed many couplets during our absence, Sotu? I can perceive that thou hast partaken of many cups.”
“Immortal one, I have not been idle,” answered the poor king, fumbling nervously in the breast of his robe, and wisely ignoring the latter portion of this wifely greeting. He produced a roll of papyrus. “I have here a powerful epic to read to you, which I composed in honour of your victory, O brave Isori.”
“Ah! that is sweet. Keep it till after supper, when thou wilt be in thy best form.”
“But, gracious and great one, I hoped to read it here, before our people.”
“Ride thou at my side, Sotu, King of Karnadama, and give that roll to one of the servants,” she said, with chilling coldness.
Sotu sighed deeply, but yielded, and together the badly assorted pair went between the sphinxes.
About two hours later Ned and his followers were commanded to appear in the presence. It was a trying ordeal, but our heroes braced up their courage, and stalked through the crowd of courtiers and warriors with erect heads and bulging chests. They were no slavish male Karnadamains, and they meant to show what men ought to look like; what Britishers are in every land under the sun, except the Transvaal.
It was a much more extensive reception-hall than the dining chamber, vast although that was.
Four lines of columns with lotus capitals supported the flat roof. The walls were richly covered with varied coloured enamels and plated gold; the floor was of highly polished marble or granite of different tints wrought in subtle patterns of mosaic. It was a noble throne-room, the vast proportions of which dwarfed the humanity that it was meant to hold.
Five thousand amazonian captains, officers, and female grandees were assembled, besides the priestesses and other civic dignitaries. There were also the obsequious husbands, in dutiful attendance upon these their imperious mistresses. These, with the waiting slaves and court musicians, brought up the number present to considerably over twelve thousand. Yet there were wide spaces between the pillars, and our heroes with their followers were by no means crowded.
The queen and king sat on two thrones, side by side, only her throne was elevated several steps above his, and of a much more gorgeous description.
Fifty broad but shallow steps led from the hall up to the platform on which the thrones were placed. At each corner of the steps crouched sphinxes, as large as full grown lions, made from beaten gold. The throne of the queen, with its canopy and dais, were composed entirely of exquisitely carved ivory, encrusted with diamonds. That of the king was of gold, and, beyond the back, had no canopy.
Queen Isori had been bathed, perfumed, and re-costumed since our heroes had last seen her. She now appeared more like the conventional woman, and less like the paladin.
Her jet black hair was plaited, and hung down over her shoulders in two thick links, being placed also low on her broad forehead. Above this sat her serpent tiara.
Her superb arms were naked to the shoulders, except for the jewelled bracelets and wristlets that she wore. One breast was also bare, the other being covered with golden scales. Large ear-rings rested against her cheeks, and a wide necklet of diamonds and a Scarabaeus made of emerald, as a pendant, encircled her smooth neck. From the snake zone round her waist, to her jewelled sandals, fell a robe of diaphanous and changing silk in numerous folds, which, closely plaited as these were, still exhibited her limbs beneath. In her right hand she held a sceptre of ivory, gold, and jewels, while at her sides kneeled eight slaves fanning her with large peacock feathers. In front of them crouched two living lions and four leopards.
Chapter Thirty Two.King Sotu to the Rescue.This was the gorgeous spectacle that greeted our adventurers as they were led by Pylea and her young warriors through the staring crowd of Karnadamains.They paused at the bottom of the steps to make their best bow, yet they did not attempt to kneel as the amazons were doing.The queen looked them over leisurely for a full minute, then she slowly extended her arm and lowered her sceptre towards them; as she raised it again, Pylea and her followers stood up.“You are welcome, strangers, to our court,” she said, in that clear, penetrating voice, so distinct yet so coldly smooth. “Approach, young chief,” she added, pointing to Ned, who slowly went up the steps until he was a few feet from the lions and leopards; then he prudently paused.“We have not beheld a man like you before. You are young and strong and, we hear, can fight. We are pleased with you.”Ned bowed and blushed deeply.“You have a request to make to us. Reveal it without delay.”Ned cleared his throat, and, in the most flowing terms at his command, said that, having seen her greatness and been blinded by her glory and majesty, he was more than satisfied, and would fain take his departure, with his followers.Her majesty frowned as she listened to this request, and when it was finished, she said in the some even tones—“That may be, stranger. But many of my warriors require husbands, as they will be widows presently.”She looked round the hall with a slight smile, embracing Sotu in that sweeping glance before she stared once more at Ned. Poor Sotu shrank on his throne, while the male portion of the audience shook visibly.“We hear you do not spend your leisure hours composing poetry and drinking wine, but that you run and wrestle as our women do. This is a new experience to us, of mankind, and we desire to see more of it.”Like Napoleon the First, and some other great people, Queen Isori was accustomed to utter her thoughts and wishes without the slightest regard for her audience. She continued, as clearly and smoothly as before—“This is our pleasure. Tomorrow we shall hold a tournament of racing and wrestling. We choose you as our antagonist, and those of our warriors who have had enough of their present husbands shall select a man from your followers. If you prevail over us, then we shall be your servants; but if we prevail over you, then you shall be our servants to do with as we please. I have spoken. You may kiss my hand.”Yes; she had spoken, Ned thought, as he bent over the shapely ring-covered fingers extended to him, and touched them with his lips. She had spoken, and placed him in about as bad a fix as Paul Kruger had done.He glanced at Sotu as he hastily retreated from the vicinity of Isori and her wild beasts. The king sat in a limp state of collapse most pitiful to see. His under jaw had fallen, his black eyes showed a bloodshot rim right round them, his saffron cheeks were bleached, and his sharp nose was blue. Already he felt the fatal noose closing round his thirsty throat.“King Sotu gives a feast tonight, and we have promised then to listen to his powerful epic. Those warriors who intend competing tomorrow will be excused from this evening’s revel.”Calm and smooth as ever was that dismissal uttered. Ned and his chums quitted that glorious hall in desperation.Pylea went with them, with her company. They were all very silent and grave as they passed along the streets; nor did they utter a word until they were inside the garden walls. Then Ned could contain his feelings no longer.“See here, Pylea; I cannot stand this sort of arrangement. Poor images as King Sotu and the other objects are; this is playing it too rough on them, and on us also. The stakes are too heavy. As a good chum, give us your advice.”“Her majesty has snared you, my friends,” replied Pylea, sadly. “Whether you win or lose, she will keep to her purpose; for she never changes. If you conquer her tomorrow, it will be all the same as if she conquered you, for she has promised nothing. The king is doomed.”“Then we must escape at once. Will you help us?” Pylea sat silent for a long time, looking at her comrades, then she said—“The queen is immovable, but King Sotu is crafty, and may help us for his own sake. I dare not aid you by day, and no one can leave the city at night without an order from the queen, backed by her signet-ring. Now, Sotu is his wife’s secretary, and he alone dare approach her when she sleeps. Perhaps he will write this order and steal the ring. I shall go and see him while the queen is resting after her journey.”“Good. Meantime see that your chariots are ready and your leopards well fed, and we will pack up!” cried Ned.“Do not stir from here till I come. If I can, I shall bring the king with me.”They had to wait a weary time before Pylea returned with her terror-stricken and dejected male monarch. As soon as Ned saw him he trailed him inside the hall and poured out a flagon of wine for him. This the king swallowed at a gulp, then he sank on a couch with a hollow groan.“Pluck up, your majesty! If you help us to clear out tonight you’ll live to compose many epics, odes, roundelays, and couplets yet. It only wants an effort, and a little wit.”“It requires more than all these to outwit Isori. I can write out the order—nay, it is here. I may also steal the ring while she sleeps if I can only keep sober enough. But ’tis of this I fear; how can I keep so, having to give a feast? Why did you come here to trouble me? Oh, that fatal epic! It has been my ruin.”“You must resist the amber and ruby for this once if you wish to have many more bowls. Let me tie this rope round your neck, and it will remind you of your doom if you swallow one cup too much.”“No, thanks!” cried Sotu, shrinking back.“I shall go to the feast,” said Pylea, quietly, “and guard you as much as I can. The queen will retire early. You must leave the feast immediately she goes; for a time, then I shall walk you about in the gardens till you are quite sober. After you get me the ring you may return to the table and enjoy yourself.”“And what about tomorrow?” asked the king, fearfully.“If you do not get the ring tonight, sire, tomorrow you will be dead,” answered Pylea, impressively.“But who will take the blame?”“I shall,” answered Ned. “I shall write a letter to the queen, and return the ring after I have used it; she will then think that I have taken it. Only get it first, and then make yourself dead drunk afterwards. That will remove her suspicion, if she has any respecting you.”“I’ll keep sober and do it,” cried the king, almost resolutely. “Afterwards, perchance, I may empty a few goblets to avert suspicion. Pour me out another cup of wine.”“No more at present,” said Pylea. “Remember what you have to do.”His majesty was used to being controlled by his female subjects, therefore did not repeat his request. He did not stay long, however, after the arrangements were completed.The gods had gifted him, as they generally do limited and feeble minds, with an amazing amount of vanity and self-complacency. He possessed all the composure, easy assurance, and superciliousness of a tenth-rate actor, weak author, singer, or juvenile critic. He was like the rest of his class, utterly depraved in his habits and instincts; cruel, selfish, crafty, and cold by nature, as well as timid and treacherous. But he was a most highly educated dilettante, and a proficient in those small imitative arts and sciences which his warlike spouse so openly despised; he could paint well, cook well, and play well, according to the stiff, faulty, and formal laws of a limited past. Every art, science, and tradition in this country stood still. Nothing had progressed during the centuries in this land except the women. In fact, he patronised and dabbled in most of the refined branches of that effete civilisation. He had no sense of humour. Shallow-minded and conceited people never are witty, nor can they appreciate a subtile jest. He affected cynicism, but it was of the feeble and tasteless order. In matters of tradition and custom he was a dogged believer and slave. Strength and authority he cringed abjectly under. Insult passed over him like water from the back of a duck. When not under the immediate influence of fear, he was as impervious to all other emotions as consuming vanity could make him. He considered himself as the super-refined salt of the earth, and his wife as a superb animal, who pleased his artistic senses with her matchless charms, and protected him with her strength. He was supremely satisfied with himself, and also with her, and delighted to speak about and extol her superior points.As for the other little drawbacks of his self-indulgent existence, his ignoble place and loss of dignity, he did not feel any more shame in the servitude than a flunkey can; while regarding his eventual destiny, as long as he did not feel the noose at his neck, he was as happily oblivious to it as the contented pig is amongst the acorns.“Death comes to all alike, in some form or other,” he would say cynically, when he saw the mummy-case sent round, “and we must pay some price for our pleasant lives.”He had entered the presence of Ned and his followers the most woebegone and shivering wretch that ever stood on the gallows. But the sight of their stalwart forms and resolute faces restored his confidence. It was like a reprieve to the condemned felon, a week’s engagement to the needy and improvident actor. From abject terror he bounded into the regions of insufferable assurance, like an inflated air-ball.He insisted on reciting his epic before he took his departure, and dwelt lingeringly over its choice language and far-fetched imagery. Fortunately it was brief, for he was one of these poets whose muse is gaspy in her leaps, as well as obscure in her metaphor and phrases. Like a small phial, his mind could not carry or give much at a time, but he fondly believed that what he gave was quintessence. His thoughts were aged, stale, and feeble, but he dressed them well, and considered, as so many of our moderns do, that the dressing was all that need be considered or admitted. Our heroes bore the infliction meekly, for they remembered their own lost and adored diary; but Pylea and her companions, and also the Kaffirs, yawned most rudely.Ned, thinking to please this royal poet, further presented to him a spare compass which he had, also a revolver and a rifle, with some ammunition. Sotu accepted the compass with effusive thanks, but he shuddered and recoiled before the other gifts.“Send these to the queen; she will appreciate them, and they may soften her wrath, after you are gone. Meantime I must go, as I have to superintend my cooks. There is a new dish which I am introducing tonight from an ancient formula, and I find wonderful amusement in preparing it.”“Indeed,” answered Ned, politely. “What is it?”“The forgotten art of cooking quails. We pluck and partly boil them alive in oil before stuffing and roasting them. The natural juices are thus retained, and the flesh is tenderer than by keeping them until stale.”“Ah!” murmured Ned, trusting in his heart that this refined cook might also have a little slow boiling in oil before he was too stale.“I have invented some pots, with lids specially contrived to keep the birds’ heads outside. We plunge their bodies in the cold oil, and bring it very gradually to the boiling-point. We are able to tell in this way when they are sufficiently done, and that is the instant they expire. It is a pleasant sight to watch their heads during the process.”“Is it, sire? For the watcher, or for the birds?”“The watcher, of course,” replied the king, smiling, as he caught what he thought was the joke. “We remove them then, stuff them with garlic, pine-apple, and bananas, and slightly roast them within tamarisk leaves. I shall send you a dish of them tonight. They are most delicate in flavour and rarely succulent.”Ned bowed. He felt like kicking this callous and cowardly fiend, but policy forced him to dissemble.“It will be also strictly necessary for you to take with you some royal gifts, so as to give colour to your leaving. I have control of the queen’s treasure-house, and I shall attend to this, and send you some of our artwork in gold, with a few good stones. I shall also give you, as a parting gift from myself, some dainties of my own preparing to partake of on your journey.”Sotu smiled gently as he said these words, and took his departure.“Have nothing to do with the king’s quails and dainties. He is an adept at poisoning, and he only smiles like that when he meditates torture and death,” said Pylea, earnestly, as soon as the royal wretch had gone.“He is a genial gentleman,” replied Ned, lightly. “I wonder he hasn’t long since poisoned his wife.”“He dare not, for his own sake. When she dies his daughter will reign, and her first act will be to strangle her father.”“Blessed King Sotu!—happy land!” said our heroes.By sundown they were all prepared to leave. In the dusk several mutes brought the promised gifts from the treasury. Some time afterwards the dainties arrived in golden vessels.Our heroes emptied the eatables out on a shrub-covered part of the garden, but the dishes they packed up with the other articles of virtu. There were a water bag full of large diamonds, and over three hundredweight of cups, vases, and images of gods made from the purest gold. The hearts of our adventurers beat lightly as they distributed this precious weight amongst their packages.Six hours after this they paced the ground and watched the illuminated palaces from the walls of their garden, in a fever of unrest and anxiety. Their hopes were all depending upon the self-restraint of this hopeless drunkard, and Pylea. Would she succeed?The full moon shone over the city, so beautiful and stately, with its carved and painted walls, delicious gardens, deep canals, arches, and wide steps; on its monuments, obelisks, sphinxes, and mighty temples; on its crowded, broad avenued streets and gleaming lake beyond, where floated the sloping-prowed barges, with their awnings and gilded saloons.Would Pylea succeed and secure the ring? The chariots were standing laden inside the garden walls, ready for the leopards to be harnessed to them. The young amazons were fondling the fed and tamed beasts in their cages within the stables, or walking beside their sable friends in the side avenues. They were bidding the handsome Kaffirs, whom they could not keep, farewell. Womanlike, they would rather see them go than see them owned by more powerful rivals. But they were grave and melancholy at the coming sacrifice, and did not resent the dark manly arms that were round their armoured waists. Doubtless they were listening to words that they would not soon forget.Gradually the streets emptied, and chariots rolled from the palace gates, drawn by the amazons who had been guests of the queen and king. Only the husbands were left behind with Sotu. The queen had retired. Another hour of fearful suspense passed, and then Pylea appeared with the signet-ring. King Sotu had kept his word for once in his aimless life.
This was the gorgeous spectacle that greeted our adventurers as they were led by Pylea and her young warriors through the staring crowd of Karnadamains.
They paused at the bottom of the steps to make their best bow, yet they did not attempt to kneel as the amazons were doing.
The queen looked them over leisurely for a full minute, then she slowly extended her arm and lowered her sceptre towards them; as she raised it again, Pylea and her followers stood up.
“You are welcome, strangers, to our court,” she said, in that clear, penetrating voice, so distinct yet so coldly smooth. “Approach, young chief,” she added, pointing to Ned, who slowly went up the steps until he was a few feet from the lions and leopards; then he prudently paused.
“We have not beheld a man like you before. You are young and strong and, we hear, can fight. We are pleased with you.”
Ned bowed and blushed deeply.
“You have a request to make to us. Reveal it without delay.”
Ned cleared his throat, and, in the most flowing terms at his command, said that, having seen her greatness and been blinded by her glory and majesty, he was more than satisfied, and would fain take his departure, with his followers.
Her majesty frowned as she listened to this request, and when it was finished, she said in the some even tones—
“That may be, stranger. But many of my warriors require husbands, as they will be widows presently.”
She looked round the hall with a slight smile, embracing Sotu in that sweeping glance before she stared once more at Ned. Poor Sotu shrank on his throne, while the male portion of the audience shook visibly.
“We hear you do not spend your leisure hours composing poetry and drinking wine, but that you run and wrestle as our women do. This is a new experience to us, of mankind, and we desire to see more of it.”
Like Napoleon the First, and some other great people, Queen Isori was accustomed to utter her thoughts and wishes without the slightest regard for her audience. She continued, as clearly and smoothly as before—
“This is our pleasure. Tomorrow we shall hold a tournament of racing and wrestling. We choose you as our antagonist, and those of our warriors who have had enough of their present husbands shall select a man from your followers. If you prevail over us, then we shall be your servants; but if we prevail over you, then you shall be our servants to do with as we please. I have spoken. You may kiss my hand.”
Yes; she had spoken, Ned thought, as he bent over the shapely ring-covered fingers extended to him, and touched them with his lips. She had spoken, and placed him in about as bad a fix as Paul Kruger had done.
He glanced at Sotu as he hastily retreated from the vicinity of Isori and her wild beasts. The king sat in a limp state of collapse most pitiful to see. His under jaw had fallen, his black eyes showed a bloodshot rim right round them, his saffron cheeks were bleached, and his sharp nose was blue. Already he felt the fatal noose closing round his thirsty throat.
“King Sotu gives a feast tonight, and we have promised then to listen to his powerful epic. Those warriors who intend competing tomorrow will be excused from this evening’s revel.”
Calm and smooth as ever was that dismissal uttered. Ned and his chums quitted that glorious hall in desperation.
Pylea went with them, with her company. They were all very silent and grave as they passed along the streets; nor did they utter a word until they were inside the garden walls. Then Ned could contain his feelings no longer.
“See here, Pylea; I cannot stand this sort of arrangement. Poor images as King Sotu and the other objects are; this is playing it too rough on them, and on us also. The stakes are too heavy. As a good chum, give us your advice.”
“Her majesty has snared you, my friends,” replied Pylea, sadly. “Whether you win or lose, she will keep to her purpose; for she never changes. If you conquer her tomorrow, it will be all the same as if she conquered you, for she has promised nothing. The king is doomed.”
“Then we must escape at once. Will you help us?” Pylea sat silent for a long time, looking at her comrades, then she said—
“The queen is immovable, but King Sotu is crafty, and may help us for his own sake. I dare not aid you by day, and no one can leave the city at night without an order from the queen, backed by her signet-ring. Now, Sotu is his wife’s secretary, and he alone dare approach her when she sleeps. Perhaps he will write this order and steal the ring. I shall go and see him while the queen is resting after her journey.”
“Good. Meantime see that your chariots are ready and your leopards well fed, and we will pack up!” cried Ned.
“Do not stir from here till I come. If I can, I shall bring the king with me.”
They had to wait a weary time before Pylea returned with her terror-stricken and dejected male monarch. As soon as Ned saw him he trailed him inside the hall and poured out a flagon of wine for him. This the king swallowed at a gulp, then he sank on a couch with a hollow groan.
“Pluck up, your majesty! If you help us to clear out tonight you’ll live to compose many epics, odes, roundelays, and couplets yet. It only wants an effort, and a little wit.”
“It requires more than all these to outwit Isori. I can write out the order—nay, it is here. I may also steal the ring while she sleeps if I can only keep sober enough. But ’tis of this I fear; how can I keep so, having to give a feast? Why did you come here to trouble me? Oh, that fatal epic! It has been my ruin.”
“You must resist the amber and ruby for this once if you wish to have many more bowls. Let me tie this rope round your neck, and it will remind you of your doom if you swallow one cup too much.”
“No, thanks!” cried Sotu, shrinking back.
“I shall go to the feast,” said Pylea, quietly, “and guard you as much as I can. The queen will retire early. You must leave the feast immediately she goes; for a time, then I shall walk you about in the gardens till you are quite sober. After you get me the ring you may return to the table and enjoy yourself.”
“And what about tomorrow?” asked the king, fearfully.
“If you do not get the ring tonight, sire, tomorrow you will be dead,” answered Pylea, impressively.
“But who will take the blame?”
“I shall,” answered Ned. “I shall write a letter to the queen, and return the ring after I have used it; she will then think that I have taken it. Only get it first, and then make yourself dead drunk afterwards. That will remove her suspicion, if she has any respecting you.”
“I’ll keep sober and do it,” cried the king, almost resolutely. “Afterwards, perchance, I may empty a few goblets to avert suspicion. Pour me out another cup of wine.”
“No more at present,” said Pylea. “Remember what you have to do.”
His majesty was used to being controlled by his female subjects, therefore did not repeat his request. He did not stay long, however, after the arrangements were completed.
The gods had gifted him, as they generally do limited and feeble minds, with an amazing amount of vanity and self-complacency. He possessed all the composure, easy assurance, and superciliousness of a tenth-rate actor, weak author, singer, or juvenile critic. He was like the rest of his class, utterly depraved in his habits and instincts; cruel, selfish, crafty, and cold by nature, as well as timid and treacherous. But he was a most highly educated dilettante, and a proficient in those small imitative arts and sciences which his warlike spouse so openly despised; he could paint well, cook well, and play well, according to the stiff, faulty, and formal laws of a limited past. Every art, science, and tradition in this country stood still. Nothing had progressed during the centuries in this land except the women. In fact, he patronised and dabbled in most of the refined branches of that effete civilisation. He had no sense of humour. Shallow-minded and conceited people never are witty, nor can they appreciate a subtile jest. He affected cynicism, but it was of the feeble and tasteless order. In matters of tradition and custom he was a dogged believer and slave. Strength and authority he cringed abjectly under. Insult passed over him like water from the back of a duck. When not under the immediate influence of fear, he was as impervious to all other emotions as consuming vanity could make him. He considered himself as the super-refined salt of the earth, and his wife as a superb animal, who pleased his artistic senses with her matchless charms, and protected him with her strength. He was supremely satisfied with himself, and also with her, and delighted to speak about and extol her superior points.
As for the other little drawbacks of his self-indulgent existence, his ignoble place and loss of dignity, he did not feel any more shame in the servitude than a flunkey can; while regarding his eventual destiny, as long as he did not feel the noose at his neck, he was as happily oblivious to it as the contented pig is amongst the acorns.
“Death comes to all alike, in some form or other,” he would say cynically, when he saw the mummy-case sent round, “and we must pay some price for our pleasant lives.”
He had entered the presence of Ned and his followers the most woebegone and shivering wretch that ever stood on the gallows. But the sight of their stalwart forms and resolute faces restored his confidence. It was like a reprieve to the condemned felon, a week’s engagement to the needy and improvident actor. From abject terror he bounded into the regions of insufferable assurance, like an inflated air-ball.
He insisted on reciting his epic before he took his departure, and dwelt lingeringly over its choice language and far-fetched imagery. Fortunately it was brief, for he was one of these poets whose muse is gaspy in her leaps, as well as obscure in her metaphor and phrases. Like a small phial, his mind could not carry or give much at a time, but he fondly believed that what he gave was quintessence. His thoughts were aged, stale, and feeble, but he dressed them well, and considered, as so many of our moderns do, that the dressing was all that need be considered or admitted. Our heroes bore the infliction meekly, for they remembered their own lost and adored diary; but Pylea and her companions, and also the Kaffirs, yawned most rudely.
Ned, thinking to please this royal poet, further presented to him a spare compass which he had, also a revolver and a rifle, with some ammunition. Sotu accepted the compass with effusive thanks, but he shuddered and recoiled before the other gifts.
“Send these to the queen; she will appreciate them, and they may soften her wrath, after you are gone. Meantime I must go, as I have to superintend my cooks. There is a new dish which I am introducing tonight from an ancient formula, and I find wonderful amusement in preparing it.”
“Indeed,” answered Ned, politely. “What is it?”
“The forgotten art of cooking quails. We pluck and partly boil them alive in oil before stuffing and roasting them. The natural juices are thus retained, and the flesh is tenderer than by keeping them until stale.”
“Ah!” murmured Ned, trusting in his heart that this refined cook might also have a little slow boiling in oil before he was too stale.
“I have invented some pots, with lids specially contrived to keep the birds’ heads outside. We plunge their bodies in the cold oil, and bring it very gradually to the boiling-point. We are able to tell in this way when they are sufficiently done, and that is the instant they expire. It is a pleasant sight to watch their heads during the process.”
“Is it, sire? For the watcher, or for the birds?”
“The watcher, of course,” replied the king, smiling, as he caught what he thought was the joke. “We remove them then, stuff them with garlic, pine-apple, and bananas, and slightly roast them within tamarisk leaves. I shall send you a dish of them tonight. They are most delicate in flavour and rarely succulent.”
Ned bowed. He felt like kicking this callous and cowardly fiend, but policy forced him to dissemble.
“It will be also strictly necessary for you to take with you some royal gifts, so as to give colour to your leaving. I have control of the queen’s treasure-house, and I shall attend to this, and send you some of our artwork in gold, with a few good stones. I shall also give you, as a parting gift from myself, some dainties of my own preparing to partake of on your journey.”
Sotu smiled gently as he said these words, and took his departure.
“Have nothing to do with the king’s quails and dainties. He is an adept at poisoning, and he only smiles like that when he meditates torture and death,” said Pylea, earnestly, as soon as the royal wretch had gone.
“He is a genial gentleman,” replied Ned, lightly. “I wonder he hasn’t long since poisoned his wife.”
“He dare not, for his own sake. When she dies his daughter will reign, and her first act will be to strangle her father.”
“Blessed King Sotu!—happy land!” said our heroes.
By sundown they were all prepared to leave. In the dusk several mutes brought the promised gifts from the treasury. Some time afterwards the dainties arrived in golden vessels.
Our heroes emptied the eatables out on a shrub-covered part of the garden, but the dishes they packed up with the other articles of virtu. There were a water bag full of large diamonds, and over three hundredweight of cups, vases, and images of gods made from the purest gold. The hearts of our adventurers beat lightly as they distributed this precious weight amongst their packages.
Six hours after this they paced the ground and watched the illuminated palaces from the walls of their garden, in a fever of unrest and anxiety. Their hopes were all depending upon the self-restraint of this hopeless drunkard, and Pylea. Would she succeed?
The full moon shone over the city, so beautiful and stately, with its carved and painted walls, delicious gardens, deep canals, arches, and wide steps; on its monuments, obelisks, sphinxes, and mighty temples; on its crowded, broad avenued streets and gleaming lake beyond, where floated the sloping-prowed barges, with their awnings and gilded saloons.
Would Pylea succeed and secure the ring? The chariots were standing laden inside the garden walls, ready for the leopards to be harnessed to them. The young amazons were fondling the fed and tamed beasts in their cages within the stables, or walking beside their sable friends in the side avenues. They were bidding the handsome Kaffirs, whom they could not keep, farewell. Womanlike, they would rather see them go than see them owned by more powerful rivals. But they were grave and melancholy at the coming sacrifice, and did not resent the dark manly arms that were round their armoured waists. Doubtless they were listening to words that they would not soon forget.
Gradually the streets emptied, and chariots rolled from the palace gates, drawn by the amazons who had been guests of the queen and king. Only the husbands were left behind with Sotu. The queen had retired. Another hour of fearful suspense passed, and then Pylea appeared with the signet-ring. King Sotu had kept his word for once in his aimless life.