Works of Jules Verne/Five Weeks in a Balloon/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX
FIGHT OF THE TRIBES
The wind was becoming violent and squally. The "Victoria" made "tacks" in the air. Sometimes tossed to the north, sometimes to the south, it could not meet with any steady slant of wind.
"We are going very fast without advancing much," said Kennedy, as he remarked the frequent oscillations of the magnetic needle.
"The 'Victoria' is flying at a speed of nearly thirty leagues an hour," said Ferguson. "Lean over and see how quickly the country disappears from beneath us. Mind, this forest appears as if it were about to precipitate itself against us!"
"The forest is already an open space," said Kennedy.
"And the open space is now a village," added Joe, a few seconds later. "Look at the astonished faces of the niggers!"
"No wonder," replied the doctor. "The French peasants, when they first saw balloons, ran away, taking them for monstrous air-sprites; so we must not be surprised at the natives of the Soudan looking astonished."
"I declare," said Joe, as the "Victoria" just skimmed over a village about 100 feet above it. "I have a great mind to shy an empty bottle at them if you have no objection, sir. If it arrive unbroken they will worship it, if it smash they will make 'charms' of the pieces."
And as he spoke he threw a bottle over; it of course was broken to fragments, while the natives ran into their huts uttering loud cries.
A little farther on Kennedy cried:
"Look at that extraordinary tree—it appears to be of one species at the top and another lower down!"
"Yes," said Joe; "this is apparently a country where trees grow one on top of the other!"
"It is only the trunk of a fig-tree," replied the doctor, "upon which a little mold has fallen. One fine day the wind happened to bring a seed of the palm here, and the palm tree has grown up accordingly."
"A capital plan," said Joe, "and one I shall introduce into England. It would answer capitally in the London parks, not to mention that it would be a way of multiplying fruit trees; one might have gardens in the air, which would be quite to the taste of small proprietors."
At this moment they were obliged to elevate the "Victoria" to about 300 feet, so as to avoid a forest of high trees—very ancient banyans.
"What magnificent trees!" cried Kennedy; "I know nothing finer than these old forests. Look, Samuel!"
"The height of these banyans is truly marvelous, my dear Dick; yet they are not to be compared with the American forests."
"What! are there bigger trees in America?"
"Certainly! amongst those called 'mammoth trees.' Thus in California there is a cedar 450 feet high, which is higher than the tower of the Houses of Parliament or even than the great Pyramid of Egypt. The trunk is 120 feet round at the base, and the concentric rings of the tree declare it to be more than 4,000 years old!"
"Well, sir," said Joe, "that is not very wonderful. When you have lived 4,000 years it is only natural that you should be very big."
During the above conversation the forest had given place to a large collection of huts, disposed in a circle round a clear space. In the center rose an extraordinary tree. Joe cried out when he saw it: "Well, if that tree has produced such flowers as those for 4,000 years, I shall not pay it any compliment."
It was a gigantic sycamore, whose trunk was completely concealed by a heap of human bones. The "flowers" of which Joe spoke were human heads lately cut off, and suspended by daggers fixed in the bark.
"The 'war-tree' of the cannibals," said the doctor. "The Indians take the scalp, the Africans the entire head."
"A matter of taste," said Joe.
But the village of the bleeding heads was fast disappearing on the horizon; yet another farther on offered a not less horrible spectacle. Half-eaten human bodies, crumbling skeletons, human remains, were scattered about, and were left to be devoured by the hyenas and jackals.
"Those are doubtless the bodies of criminals, and, as is the practice in Abyssinia, they are exposed to the attacks of wild beasts, who devour them at their leisure, having first killed them with teeth and claws."
"It is not much more cruel than hanging," said the Scot, "it is more horrible, that's all."
"In the south of Africa," replied the doctor, they merely shut the offender up in his own hut with the wild beasts; perhaps his family is also included. The hut is then set on fire and the occupants are all roasted together. I do call that cruelty, but I agree with Kennedy that if hanging be less cruel it is equally barbarous."
Joe, with the excellent sight which served him so well now, cried that he could perceive some birds of prey appearing above the horizon.
"They are eagles," replied Kennedy, after having examined them with his telescope; "splendid birds!—their flight is as rapid as our own."
"Heaven preserve us from their attacks!" said the doctor; "they are more to be dreaded than the most ferocious beasts or the most savage tribes."
"Bah!" replied Dick, "we shall drive them off with our rifles."
"I should very much prefer not to be obliged to resort to your skill, my dear Dick. The taffeta could not resist their beaks. Fortunately they appear to be more frightened than attracted by our balloon."
"Yes, but I have got an idea," said Joe, "for ideas are tumbling in by dozens to-day. If we were to procure a team of eagles, we might harness them to the car, and they would draw us through the air."
"The proposal is seriously made," said the doctor; "but I very much question its practicability with such very restive animals."
"We might train them," replied Joe; "instead of bits we could guide them with blinkers, which would cover their eyes completely. Unloose one eye, they would go to the right or left as the case might be; blind them again, and they would stop."
"You must allow me, my good Joe, to prefer a favorable wind to your harnessed eagles. It costs less to keep—that is certain, at any rate."
"Oh, by all means, sir; but I will keep my idea all the same."
It was mid-day. For some time the "Victoria" had been going along steadily, not flying as it lately had been. Suddenly cries and whistling sounds reached the ears of the travelers; they leaned over and perceived in the open plain a sight not easily to be forgotten. Two tribes were engaged in deadly combat and exchanging clouds of arrows. The combatants were so deeply engaged that they did not perceive the "Victoria." They numbered about 300, and were mingled in an inextricable mêlée; the greater part of them were reddened with the blood in which they appeared literally steeped. It was a horrible sight. At the appearance of the balloon there was a pause, the shouts were redoubled, some arrows were launched at the car, and one of them came near enough for Joe to catch it.
"We must get out of reach," said the doctor. "No imprudence, we cannot allow that."
The battle continued. So soon as an enemy "bit the dust," his opponent hastened to decapitate him. The women mixed in this rout, collected the bleeding heads, and piled them up at either extremity of the battle-field, and often fought among themselves for possession of these hideous trophies.
"Horrible scene," said Kennedy, with profound disgust.
"Wretched creatures," cried Joe. "They only want a uniform now to be like all other soldiers."
"I have a great mind to interfere in the battle," cried Kennedy, brandishing a carbine.
"Not so," replied the doctor; "nothing of the sort. Let us mind our own business. How do you know who is right or wrong, that you should play the part of Providence? Let us get farther away from this repulsive scene. If great generals could only look down as we do upon their fields of battle, they would end, perhaps, in losing their taste for blood and conquest."
The chief of one of the bands of savages was remarkable for his tall form and Herculean strength. With one hand he plunged his lance into the thick masses of his enemies, and with the other he cleared the way with tremendous blows of his hatchet. Presently he cast his gory lance from him, and cast himself upon a wounded man, whose arm he swept off with a blow of his hatchet. He then seized the arm and began to devour it on the spot.
"Ugh! cried Kennedy, "the brute! I can't stand any more." And the warrior, hit by a bullet in the forehead, fell dead on his back.
At his fall, a profound terror seized his band. This supernatural death served to reanimate the ardor of their adversaries, and in a moment the battle-field was abandoned by half the combatants.
"Let us seek a higher current to take us along," said the doctor, "I am sick of this."
But they could not get away so quickly, but that they could perceive the victorious tribe seize upon the dead and wounded, and fight over the still warm flesh, and devour it eagerly. "Pugh," said Joe, "that is sickening."
The "Victoria" rose. The shouts of the frenzied crowd followed them for some moments, but at length, impelled towards the south, they escaped from this scene of carnage and cannibalism.
The country appeared undulating with several watercourses, which ran towards the east, and fell doubtless into the affluents of the lake Nu, or of the River of Gazelles, respecting which M. Lejean has given some curious details. When night fell the "Victoria" dropped anchor in 27° E. longitude, and 4° 20′ N. latitude, after a journey of 150 miles.