Bosambo of the River. Wallace Edgar

Чтение книги онлайн.

      "Chiefs and people," he said, "I am patient, because I love you. But talk to me more about taxation and about puc-a-pucs, and I will find a new chief for me, and you will wish that you had never been born."

      After that Sanders had no further trouble.

      He came to the Ochori, and found Bosambo, wholly engrossed with his new baby, but ripe for action.

      "Bosambo," said the Commissioner, after he had gingerly held the new-comer and bestowed his natal present, "I have a story to tell you."

      He told his story, and Bosambo found it vastly entertaining.

      Five days later, when Sanders was on his way home, Bosambo with ten picked men for paddlers, came sweeping up the river, and beached at Kiko city.

      He was greeted effusively; a feast was prepared for him, the chief's best hut was swept clean.

      "Lord Bosambo," said the Kiko chief, when the meal was finished, "I shall have a sore heart this night when you are gone."

      "I am a kind man," said Bosambo, "so I will not go to-night, for the thought of your sorrow would keep sleep from my eyes."

      "Lord," said the chief hastily, "I am not used to sorrow, and, moreover, I shall sleep heavily, and it would be shameful if I kept you from your people, who sigh like hungry men for your return."

      "That is true," said Bosambo, "yet I will stay this night, because my heart is full of pleasant thoughts for you."

      "If you left to-night," said the embarrassed chief, "I would give you a present of two goats."

      "Goats," said Bosambo, "I do not eat, being of a certain religious faith – "

      "Salt I will give you also," said the chief.

      "I stay to-night," said Bosambo emphatically; "to-morrow I will consider the matter."

      The next morning Bosambo went to bathe in the river, and returned to see the chief of the Kiko squatting before the door of his hut, vastly glum.

      "Ho, Cetomati!" greeted Bosambo, "I have news which will gladden your heart."

      A gleam of hope shone in the chief's eye.

      "Does my brother go so soon?" he asked pointedly.

      "Chief," said Bosambo acidly, "if that be good news to you, I go. And woe to you and your people, for I am a proud man, and my people are also proud. Likewise, they are notoriously vengeful."

      The Kiko king rose in agitation.

      "Lord," he said humbly, "my words are twisted, for, behold, all this night I have spent mourning in fear of losing your lordship. Now, tell me your good news that I may rejoice with you."

      But Bosambo was frowning terribly, and was not appeased for some time.

      "This is my news, O king!" he said. "Whilst I bathed I beheld, far away, certain Ochori canoes, and I think they bring my councillors. If this be so, I may stay with you for a long time – rejoice!"

      The Kiko chief groaned.

      He groaned more when the canoes arrived bringing reinforcements to Bosambo – ten lusty fighting men, terribly tall and muscular.

      He groaned undisguisedly when the morrow brought another ten, and the evening some twenty more.

      There are sayings on the river which are uncomplimentary to the appetites of the Ochori.

      Thus: "Men eat to live fat, but the Ochori live to eat." And: "One field of corn will feed a village for a year, ten goats for a month, and an Ochori for a day."

      Certainly Bosambo's followers were excellent trenchermen. They ate and they ate and they ate; from dawn till star time they alternated between the preparation of meals and their disposal. The simple folk of the Kiko stood in a wondering circle about them and watched in amazement as their good food vanished.

      "I see we shall starve when the rains come," said the chief in despair.

      He sent an urgent canoe to Sanders, but Sanders was without sympathy.

      "Go to your master," he said to the envoy, "telling him that all these things are his palaver. If he does not desire the guests of his house, let him turn them away, for the land is his, and he is chief."

      Cold comfort for Cetomati this, for the Ochori sat in the best huts, eating the best foods, finding the best places at the dance-fires.

      The king called a secret palaver of his headmen.

      "These miserable Ochori thieves ruin us," he said. "Are we men or dogs? Now, I tell you, my people and councillors, that to-morrow I send Bosambo and his robbers away, though I die for it!"

      "Kwai!" said the councillors in unison.

      "Lord," said one, "in the times of cala-calathe Kiko folk were very fierce and bloody; perchance if we rouse the people with our eloquence they are still fierce and bloody."

      The king looked dubious.

      "I do not think," he said, "that the Kiko people are as fierce and bloody as at one time, for we have had many fat years. What I know, O friend, is that the Ochori are very fierce indeed, and Bosambo has killed many men."

      He screwed up his courage through the night, and in the morning put it to the test.

      Bosambo, in his most lordly way, had ordered a big hunting, and he and his men were assembling in the village street when the king and his councillors approached.

      "Lord," said the king mildly, "I have that within me which I must tell."

      "Say on," said Bosambo.

      "Now, I love you, Bosambo," said the chief, "and the thought that I must speed you on your way – with presents – is very sad to me."

      "More sad to me," said Bosambo ominously.

      "Yet lord," said the desperate chief, "I must, for my people are very fierce with me that I keep you so long within our borders. Likewise, there is much sickness, and I fear lest you and your beautiful men also become sick, and die."

      "Only one man in all the world, chief," said Bosambo, speaking with deliberation, "has ever put such shame upon me – and, king, that man – where is he?"

      The king of the Kiko did not say, because he did not know. He could guess – oh, very well he could guess! – and Bosambo's next words justified his guesswork.

      "He is dead," said Bosambo solemnly. "I will not say how he died, lest you think I am a boastful one, or whose hand struck him down, for fear you think vainly – nor as to the manner of his dying, for that would give you sorrow!"

      "Bosambo," said the agitated chief of the Kiko, "these are evil words – "

      "I say no evil words," said Bosambo, "for I am, as you know, the brother-in-law of Sandi, and it would give him great grief. I say nothing, O little king!"

      With a lofty wave of his hand he strode away, and, gathering his men together, he marched them to the beach.

      It was in vain that the chief of СКАЧАТЬ