第27章

Then in hesitating signs, slaps, clicks, and guttural utterances, Igave them to understand that it was against my faith to have anything whatever to do with the horrid orgy they contemplated.

The Great Spirit they dreaded so much yet so vaguely, I went on to say, had revealed to me that it was wrong to kill any one in cold blood, and still more loathsome and horrible to eat the flesh of a murdered fellow-creature.I was very much in earnest, and I waited with nervous trepidation to see the effect of my peroration.Under the circumstances, you may judge of my astonishment when not only the chiefs, but the whole "nation" assembled, suddenly burst into roars of eerie laughter.

Then came Yamba to the rescue.Ah! noble and devoted creature!

The bare mention of her name stirs every fibre of my being with love and wonder.Greater love than hers no creature ever knew, and not once but a thousand times did she save my wretched life at the risk of her own.

Well, Yamba, I say, came up and whispered to me.She had been studying my face quietly and eagerly, and had gradually come to see what was passing in my mind.She whispered that the chiefs, far from desiring me to kill the girl for a cannibal feast, were OFFERING HER TO ME AS A WIFE, and that I was merely expected to tap her on the head with the stick, in token of her subjection to her new spouse! In short, this blow on the head was the legal marriage ceremony tout simple.I maintained my dignity as far as possible, and proceeded to carry out my part of the curious ceremony.

I tapped the bright-eyed girl on the head, and she immediately fell prostrate at my feet, in token of her wifely submission.I then raised her up gently, and all the people came dancing round us, uttering weird cries of satisfaction and delight.Oddly enough, Yamba, far from manifesting any jealousy, seemed to take as much interest as any one in the proceedings, and after everything was over she led my new wife away to the little "humpy," or hut, that had been built for me by the women.That night an indescribably weird corroboree was held in my honour, and I thought it advisable, since so much was being made of me, to remain there all night and acknowledge the impromptu songs that were composed and sung in my honour by the native bards.I am afraid I felt utterly lost without Yamba, who was, in the most literal sense, my right hand.

By this time she could speak a little English, and was so marvellously intelligent that she seemed to discover things by sheer intuition or instinct.I think she never let a day go by without favourably impressing the chiefs concerning me, my prowess and my powers; and without her help I simply could not have lived through the long and weary years, nor should I ever have returned to civilisation.

The very next day after my "marriage," having been still further enlightened as to the manners and customs of the natives, I waited upon Gunda, and calmly made to him the proposition that we should exchange wives.This suggestion he received with a kind of subdued satisfaction, or holy joy, and very few further negotiations were needed to make the transaction complete; and, be it said, it was an every-day transaction, perfectly legal and recognised by all the clans.Yamba was full of vigour and resource, while the only phrase that fitly describes her bush lore is absolutely miraculous.

This will be evinced in a hundred extraordinary instances in this narrative.

But you may be asking, What of my dog, Bruno? Well, I am thankful to say, he was still with me, but it took him a long time to accustom himself to his new surroundings; he particularly objected to associating with the miserable pariah curs that prowled about the encampment.They would take sly bites out of him when he was not looking, but on the whole, he was well able to hold his own, being much more powerful than they.

I settled down to my new life in the course of a few days, but Ineed hardly remark I did not propose staying in that forlorn spot longer than I could help.This was my plan.I would, first of all, make myself acquainted with the habits and customs of the blacks, and pick up as much bushmanship and knowledge of the country as it was possible to acquire, in case I should have to travel inland in search of civilisation instead of oversea.I knew that it would be folly on my part to attempt to leave those hospitable regions without knowing more of the geography of the country and its people.There was always, however, the hope that some day I might be able either to get away by sea in my boat, or else hail some passing vessel.The blacks told me they had seen many pass at a distance.

Every morning I was astir by sunrise, and--hope springing eternal--at once searched for the faintest indication of a passing sail.

Next I would bathe in a lagoon protected from sharks, drying myself by a run on the beach.Meanwhile Yamba would have gone out searching for roots for breakfast, and she seldom returned without a supply of my favourite water-lily buds already mentioned.Often, in the years that followed, did that heroic creature TRAMP ON FOOTA HUNDRED MILES to get me a few sprigs of saline herbs.She had heard me say I wanted salt, which commodity, strange to say, was never used by the natives; and even when I gave them some as an experiment they did not seem to care about it.She would also bring in, by way of seasoning, a kind of small onion, known as the NELGA, which, when roasted, made a very acceptable addition to our limited fare.The natives themselves had but two meals a day--breakfast, between eight and nine o'clock, and then an enormous feast in the late afternoon.Their ordinary food consisted of kangaroo, emu, snakes, rats, and fish; an especial dainty being a worm found in the black ava tree, or in any decaying trunk.