Les aventures du Capitaine Magon. English

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  JONAH WAXES AMBITIOUS.

  "Where's my wine?" was Jonah's first inquiry.

  "Coming in good time," I answered; "but you must have patience towait, it may be a few months."

  The giant looked aghast and stupified, until he was recalled tohimself by a friendly poke from Chamai.

  "Glad to see you amongst us again, old tippler!"

  "And I am glad too," he said; "but what am I to do next?"

  "Whatever else you do, you must obey Hanno," I said; "he is trying toaccomplish our escape to our ships."

  What I informed him seemed to have the effect of plunging him intoa deep reverie; he knitted his forehead till a layer of red paintpeeled off, and at last roused himself to ask if he should have toaccompany us.

  "Certainly," I replied; "unless you prefer remaining with thesebarbarians."

  "And with their revolting fish-oil," put in Himilco.

  "But here I am a god," said the trumpeter, slowly, as if ponderingthe matter. "On board ship, Chamai knocks me about, and Hannibalkicks me, and every one calls me a lubber: but here it is alldifferent; instead of being thumped, I may thump whom I please; Igave the god of the savages in the north such a thrashing that hedied an hour afterwards. At home too, in Eltekeh, the little childrenused to call me a blockhead, and the men used to make me carryolive-baskets on my head and sacks of corn on my back, and scantmeasure of wine did I ever get; but here, I blow my trumpet, and inthere comes no end of good things, meat and venison and fish, morethan I can eat. It's no bad thing to be a god."

  We all stared in amazement. He had never been known to make sucha long speech before, far less to arrive so logically at anyconclusion; at any rate, his deification had expanded his ideas, andinspired him with a new ambition.

  "So then," I said, "you do not mean to go back with us."

  He hesitated; but soon said that where Hanno went he should go too.

  Himilco began to jeer him:

  "O! you mean that you like Suomi fish-oil better than Helbon wine?and you prefer the chilly fogs of the marshes to the olive-yards ofDan? and you like slices of reindeer more than wheat and honey cakes?"

  A tear stood trembling in the giant's eye.

  "I think," he said, "I would rather go with you."

  "And surely," added Hanno, "you would wish to go back to Eltekeh; youmust want to tell them all about the leviathans, and the behemoths,and Nergal's kitchen, and how you have been a god yourself."

  "They wouldn't believe me!"

  "And think," said Bichri, "we shall have old Gebal with us to showthe men of Dan!"

  This last appeal was too much for Jonah, and fairly bursting out intotears, he sobbed out:

  "Yes, I must go; I must go with you and Gebal."

  Hannibal laughed outright at what he called Jonah's calf's tears, butdeclared that he was really very pleased to have his trumpeter backagain, and pulling out two silver shekels from his purse, which hehad contrived to retain, he said:

  "There, man, take these; they will pay somebody to give you a goodwash when you get on board."

  Hanno now proceeded to explain his scheme. The written message hehad sent to Hamilcar was to the effect that he should parley with theSuomi until he heard the sound of Jonah's trumpet, and should thenanswer the signal by his own trumpet.

  "I shall pretend to the savages," he continued, "that their god hasordered them to lead out their victims for sacrifice, and if by thisstratagem we can once get over the causeway and within reach of ourown people, everything is easy."

  Approving of his plan, I merely observed that there might be somedifficulty in knowing when our comrades were holding their parley;but Hanno at once assured me that the savages would not do anythingwithout consulting him as their priest, so that he should be fullyinformed of everything that transpired.

  We had now been twenty-four hours without food, and were sufferingfrom fatigue and hunger. Hannibal ventured to ask whether someprovisions were not to be had, and in an instant Hanno went to thedoor and uttered a few syllables that sounded something like thecroaking of an old crow.

  "I have told them," he said, "that Jono wants something to eat. Theyknow what his appetite is; I daresay they will bring enough for youall."

  Very shortly there was a knocking at the entrance of the temple;some savages had brought platters of boiled fish and roast venison,and several large horns full of drink, the whole of which Hanno tookfrom their hands at the door and passed on to us. Half-famished aswe were, we made short work with the dishes, the god appropriatingas his own modest share a fish half as large as a tunny, and areindeer-steak. Hanno joined us, and asked innumerable questions allthe time we were eating. Both he and Jonah drank freely from thehorns, which had been placed with their small ends on the ground;but Himilco and Hannibal could not conceal their disgust at seeingthem swallow what they supposed to be rancid oil. Hanno, however,soon explained that the contents of the horns was a liquid made offermented barley and some vegetable juice, and that it was the commonbeverage, not only of the Suomi and Cymri, but of the Celts of thewest, the Gothi of the east, and the Germani of the south.

  "I should not think of saying that it is in any way equal to thejuice of the grape," he said; "but it is really not unpalatable; youmay safely taste it."

  Hannibal looked doubtful. Himilco said that he had heard Gisgo speakof some preparation of the kind before, and that he was not sure hehad not himself tasted it at the mouth of the Rhone; he raised one ofthe horns cautiously to his lips, sipped, and said nothing.

  We all in turn followed his example. Bichri pronounced it very acid;Chamai declared it was detestably bitter; the sailor and I bothrecognised it as very like what we had tasted elsewhere.

  "Not good for much!" said Hannibal, after he had taken a gooddraught; "is it intoxicating?"

  "Most assuredly it is," replied Hanno.

  "The most villainous stuff I ever tasted," said Himilco, the last topass an opinion. "However, I think I will have a little more."

  And he drained another horn.

  "Disgusting!" he sputtered out; but he seemed so thoroughly to havereconciled himself to the flavour of what he abused, that I was onlyfearful that he would take more than was good for him.

  By the time we had finished our refreshment, day was beginning todawn, and Hanno was summoned outside; he returned almost immediately,ordered Jonah to sound his trumpet, and bade us all be prepared tostart.

  Jonah went to the doorway and delivered a ringing blast.

  Himilco hastily emptied every one of the horns, protesting all thewhile that it was odious stuff, sickening to the palate, and almostas vile a drink as plain water.

  In answer to Jonah's signal we soon heard the reverberation of ourPhœnician trumpets, and without loss of time, Jonah and Hanno atour head, we marched out of the temple. The crowd outside, regardingus with a superstitious reverence, allowed us to pass freely throughthem, and to proceed onwards without hindrance, so that in the courseof half-an-hour we were in the midst of our friends, Hanno claspingChryseis in his arms, Jonah hugging Judge Gebal, and Chamai soengaged with Abigail, that he did not notice how Hannibal, Himilco,and Bichri had been mercilessly thrashing a group of the nearestsavages.

 

  Our reception by our party had the immediate effect of opening theeyes of the barbarians to the terrestrial nature of their supposedgod; and they no sooner became aware how we had escaped theirclutches than they began to assail us with showers of stones andlances, so that our retreat to the ships was a matter of considerableperil. No one, however, was seriously injured; there were many slightcontusions, and Jonah's nose was ignominiously bruised by a stonehurled at him by one of his late worshippers.

  Once safely on board, we made no delay in turning our backs uponthis inhospitable shore, and steering westwards, made towards theisland of Prydhayn.

  With a calm sea and a favourable wind, our progress was easy; andanxious to learn all that had befallen Hanno and Jonah since we hadlost the
m, we assembled on the stern of the _Ashtoreth_ expresslyto hear their story. Jonah, who had been well washed, insisted uponbeing dressed in Phœnician costume, and took his seat, with themonkey upon his shoulder, by the side of the scribe, who proceeded torecount their adventures.

  "It is now, you know, more than a year since the day when we werecaught in the ambush of the men of Tarshish. When we were firstcaptured our lives were in the greatest jeopardy, for according towhat we were told by a Phœnician I met, we were at once to behanded over to Bodmilcar, who was close at hand. Negotiations to thiseffect were going on, when it transpired that one of the Iberianchiefs had been so fascinated by Jonah's trumpet that we were to beretained, and not given over to the Tyrian, who was reported to bewounded. During this respite I contrived, by means of a stick andsome blood from a wound of my own, to write a message for you onmy sandal-strap; I had no doubt that the instinct of Gebal wouldtake him back to Bichri, and accordingly I resolved to make him mymessenger."

  "Yes; and your message came that night," I said.

  "I conjectured so," he continued, "by the monkey not returning. Wewere soon sent off towards the north, under the guardianship of atroop of Iberians, who did not by any means treat us badly, and aftera toilsome journey came to a region where the mountains were so highthat they were all covered with snow; they separated the land ofTarshish from the land of the Celts, and were called the Pyrenees.Here we were handed over to the chief of the Guipuzcoa, for whom wewere destined. These Guipuzcoa are sometimes known as Bascons; theyare a warlike people, perpetually engaged in hostilities with theAitzcoa, or "men of the rocks," on the north-west, and with otherIberians on the south. We remained for more than two months beforeany opportunity of escape occurred; but at last, during one of theforays, we were left behind in the village, which was built uponpiles at the mouth of a small river. We got possession of a canoe,and having filled it as far as we could with provisions, we venturedout to sea, and contrived to reach the shores of the Celts, fromwhom, in answer to many inquiries, I ascertained that some shipshad recently passed along their coast, and, from various articlesthat they showed me, I had little doubt they were the _Ashtoreth_,the _Dagon_, and the _Cabiros_. Making out from the Celts that youhad gone northwards, we left our canoe, and took passage in one oftheir ships that was on the point of sailing for Ar-Mor; but uponour arrival we found the people engaged in war with the Cymri of theIsland of Prydhayn, so that we could not get transported there. Fortwo months I sojourned in various parts of the islands of Ar-Mor, andpicked up some knowledge of Celtic; but all the time I was trying todevise some plan of following you in the direction I felt sure youhad taken. At length it chanced that I found a tribe of Cymri whowere not at war with the people of Prydhayn, and embarked in one oftheir boats; but a tremendous storm arose, and we were driven faraway to the east."

 

  "Talk of storms," said Jonah, putting in his word; "was not that astorm? I saw leviathans spouting water from their noses as high asyour mast, and we were tossed about the waters like a log. For threedays we had nothing to eat or to drink."

  "Jonah is right," continued Hanno; "the tempest was really frightful,and we were dashed upon the muddy swamps of the coast. The Cymridrowned themselves in sheer desperation, and we, more dead thanalive, existed for more than a week upon roots and wild fruit fromthe wood."

  "And what did you find to drink?" asked Himilco.

  "Nothing but muddy water."

  The good pilot's sympathy was deeply moved, and he said:

  "Sorry drink that, as I know by experience."

  After this interruption, Hanno went on:

  BLOWING HIS TRUMPET. _To face page 284._]

  "Jonah persisted in blowing his trumpet perpetually, resolved ifpossible to attract attention, and at length succeeded in makinghimself heard by a troop of Suomi who were migrating eastwards inconsequence of the aggressions of the Cymri and the Germani, who wereappropriating territory after territory to themselves. Not only didJonah's enormous trumpet excite the wonder of the Suomi, but I couldobserve at once that his huge and imposing stature, and his abundantgrowth of shaggy hair impressed this diminutive, smooth-facedpeople with superstitious awe, a sentiment which I resolved toencourage, with the object of turning it to our own advantage. Weaccompanied them in their migration to their new settlement, wherewe witnessed the erection of the village in which you found us, andmy representations prevailed so completely that they recognisedJonah--Jono, as they called him--as their presiding deity, regardingme as his high priest. For some time, then, you see we have been inthe lap of luxury; but nothing has ever led me for a moment to forgetyou or your ships, or to cease to long for the Great Sea and ournoble Sidon."

  "And Sidon ere long you shall see!" said I, when he had finished hisnarrative; "we are now on our way back; it is impossible to penetratefarther, and we are homeward bound."

  "Sidon for ever! and long live the King!" shouted Chamai; "we shallsee the sun again."

  "And get some wine!" cried Himilco, tossing his cap in the air.

  "And some new clothes!" chimed in Hannibal; "beggars in rags are oursoldiers now."

  In the midst of the general hilarity Jonah sat silent and full ofthought.

  "What ails you, trumpeter?" I asked; "cannot you quite make up yourmind to go back?"

  "It is no good my going back," he half blubbered out; "they willnever believe me; they will only laugh when I tell them I have beento Nergal's kitchen and seen behemoths by dozens; and if I were tosay I have been worshipped for a god, and had dinners brought meevery day, big enough for a month, they will declare I'm stark mad."

  "Never mind, old fellow," said Chamai; "we'll back you up; we willtestify to the truth of your stories; and what's more, you shall bepresented to the King, and he shall hear you blow your trumpet."

  Overcome by Chamai's good-natured encouragement, and his ownprospective honours, he fairly burst into tears.

  "Do you really mean it? and will the King see Gebal too?"

  "Aye, that he will; and we must teach old Gebal to act the courtier,and to make a bow."

  Hannibal declared that he thought Jonah ought to be court-trumpeter,and to wear a scarlet tunic; and I pledged myself to use anyinfluence I could to secure him the appointment, promising that if Isucceeded I would make him a present of his first uniform.

  Jonah chuckled aloud with delight.

  "And shall I wear a scarlet tunic? and shall I play before theKing? What will they say at Eltekeh? Happy day that made me come toTarshish! Long live the King!"

  With ejaculations such as these he withdrew to the extreme limit ofthe prow, and relapsing into silence, mused in solitude upon thedignity that awaited him.

  From that day forward, Jonah was another man.