CHAPTER XXII.
TO THE UNKNOWN.
WHEN, with elaborate genuflections and vows of allegiance, the governorsof the six principal provinces of the mystic Kingdom had taken leave ofOmar, we remained in consultation with the old sage for upwards ofanother hour. He told us many horrible stories of the Naya's fierce andunrelenting cruelty. It seemed as though during the later years of herreign she had been seized by an insane desire to cause just as muchmisery and suffering as her predecessors on the Emerald Throne hadpromoted prosperity and happiness. In every particular her temperamentwas exactly opposite to the first Naya, the good queen whose memory had,through a thousand years, been revered as that of a goddess.
Goliba explained how, during the past three years, the Great White Queenhad suddenly become highly superstitious. This was not surprising, for asfar as I could gather the people of Mo had no religion as we understandthe term, but their minds were nevertheless filled with ideas relating tosupernatural objects, by which they sought to explain the phenomena aboutthem of which the causes were not immediately obvious. He told us thatthe Naya, preying upon the superstitions of the people, had recentlyintroduced into the country, entirely against the advice of himself andhis fellow-councillors, a number of customs, all of which were apparentlydevised to cause death. He told us that if a great man died his friendsnever now remained content with the explanation that he died from naturalcauses. Their minds flew at once to witchcraft. Some one had cast an evilspell upon him, and it was the duty of the friends of the dead man todiscover who it was that had had dealings with the powers of darkness.Suspicion fell upon a certain member of the tribe, generally a relativeof the deceased, and that suspicion could only be verified by putting theaccused to the test of some dreadful ordeal. A favourite ordeal, he said,was to make the suspected person drink a large quantity--a gallon and ahalf, or more--of a decoction of a bitter and slightly poisonous bark. Ifvomiting occurred, then a verdict of guilty was passed upon theunfortunate wretch, and no protestations, or even direct proof of hisinnocence, could save him from the tortures in store for him. The victimwas condemned to death, and death was inflicted not swiftly andmercifully, but nearly always with some accompaniment of diabolicaltorture.
One method was to hack the body of the wretched person to pieces withknives, the most odious mutilations being resorted to. Occasionally theunfortunate creature was tied to a stake while pepper was rubbed into hiseyes until the fearful irritation so produced caused blindness. Or,again, the victim was tied hand and foot upon an ant-hill, and left tothe agonies of being consumed slowly by the minute aggressors. The mostsatisfactory death, perhaps, was that when the condemned man was allowedto be his own executioner. He was made much of for an hour or so beforethe final scene, and was well fed and primed with palm wine. Under theexcitement of this mild stimulant he mounted a tree, carrying in his handa long rope formed of a kind of stringy vine of tough texture. One end ofthis rope he fastened to a bough, and the other he placed in a runningknot over his neck. Then, quite pleased at being the centre ofobservation of the multitude, even on such a gruesome occasion, thecriminal harangued his tribesmen in a great speech, finally declared thejustice of his sentence, and leaped into space. Should the rope break, asoccasionally happened, then the zeal of the executioner overcame the fearof death of the victim, for he mounted the tree nimbly once more,readjusted the knots, and did his best in the second attempt to avoid therisk of another fiasco.
"And have such pagan customs actually been introduced during my absencein England?" asked Omar astonished.
"They have, alas! O Prince," answered the sage. "The people, taught fromchildhood to respect every word that falleth from the lips of our GreatWhite Queen, adopted these revolting customs, together with certain otherdreadful rites, believing that only by obeying her injunctions can theyescape the wrath of the Crocodile-god. As rapidly as fire spreadeth inthe forest the customs were adopted in every part of the kingdom, untilnow the practices I have briefly enumerated are universal."
"But surely my mother could never have devised such horrible sufferingout of sheer ill-will towards our people?"
"Alas! she hath," answered the old man. "If thou believest not my words,take each of you one of the cloaks hanging yonder, wrap the Arab haicksaround your heads and follow me. Make no sign that ye are strangers, andye shall witness strange sights amazing."
We all three arose, and quickly arraying ourselves in white cottonburnouses, wrapping the haicks around our heads in the manner of theArabs--a fashion adopted by some in the City in the Clouds--and pullingthem across our faces, so as to partially conceal our features, we wentforth with our guide on the tiptoe of expectation.
"What sight, I wonder, are we going to witness?" I whispered in Englishto Omar, as we walked together along one of the narrow streets in thedeep shadow so that we might not be detected.
"I know not," my friend answered, with a heavy sigh. "If what Goliba saysis true, and I fear it is, then our land is doomed."
"The power of the cruel Naya must be broken, and you must reign and bringback to Mo her departing prosperity and happiness," I said.
"I'll do my best, Scarsmere," he answered. "You have been a true,fearless friend all along, and I feel that you will continue until theend."
"Till the end!" I echoed. "The end will be peace, either in life--ordeath."
"While I have breath I will fight to preserve the traditions of the Nabasand the Nayas who, while ruling their country, gave such satisfaction tothe people that never once has there been a rebellion nor scarcely avoice raised in dissent. It has always been the policy of the Sanoms togive audience to any discontented person, listen to their grievances, andendeavour to redress them. The reign of the Naya is, according to all wehear, one of terror and oppression. The poor are ground down to swellthe wealth of the rich, and no man's life is safe from one moment toanother. It shall be changed, and I, Omar, will fulfil the duty expectedof me."
"Well spoken, old fellow," I answered, enthusiastically. "RememberGoliba's warning regarding the attempts that may be made to assassinateyou, and always carry your revolver loaded. When the Naya hears that youhave defied her she will be as merciless as she was to poor old Babila."
"Ah! Babila," Omar sighed. "He was one of the best and most trustedservants Mo ever had. Having been one of my dead father's personalattendants he was faithful to our family, and altogether the last manwhose head should have fallen in disgrace under Gankoma's sword."
"If the punishment she inflicted upon him was so severe for such a paltryoffence, that which she will seek to bring upon you will be equallyterrible," I observed. "Therefore act always with caution, and take heednever to be entrapped by her paid assassins."
"Don't fear, Scarsmere," he laughed. "I'm safe enough, and I do notanticipate that anybody will try and take my life. If they do they'llfind I can shoot straighter than they imagined."
"But they might shoot first," I suggested with a smile.
"I don't intend to give them a chance," he replied. "We must not feardefeat, but anticipate success. I have made offering to the fetish, andalthough the struggle must be fierce and unrelenting I am determined tostrike a blow for my country's freedom."
At this juncture Goliba joined us, and urging me not to speak in Englishlest the strange language might be overheard, we walked together forabout three-quarters of an hour through thoroughfares so wide and wellbuilt that they would have been termed magnificent if constructed in anyEuropean city. Then we crossed a large square where a great fountainshooting up a hundred feet fell into its bowl, green with water-plantsand white with flowers, and afterwards traversed a maze of narrowerstreets, now silent and deserted, where dwelt the workmen.
Suddenly Goliba halted before an arched door, and directing us to imitatehim, knelt and touched the door-step with his forehead, then passed in.We followed into a place that was strange to even Omar himself, who wasscarce able to suppress an exclamation of astonishment. It was a smallchamber, lit by a single flicker
ing oil lamp of similar shape to those sooften found amid the traces of the Roman occupation of England, whilearound were stone benches built into the wall. Walking to the oppositeside of the narrow, prison-like place, we saw before us an arch with animpenetrable blackness beyond. Before this arch stood a kind of framemade of iron resting on either side upon steel ropes raised slightly fromthe ground. Following Goliba's example, we got upon it, crouching in akneeling position in the same manner as himself.
"Thou wilt find handles, wherewith to steady thyself," he cried to me."Have a care that thou art not thrown off."
I groped with my companions, and we found the handles of which he hadspoken. Then, when all was ready, the grave-faced sage raised some leveror another, and we shot away down, down, down into space with suchfearful velocity that the wind whistled about our ears, our white robesfluttered, and our breath seemed taken away.
The sensation was awful. In utter darkness we were whirled along we knewnot whither, until suddenly the car whereon we travelled gave anunexpected lurch, as a corner was turned, nearly precipitating all of usinto the darkness beneath, and then continued its downward course withincreased speed, until sparks flew from beneath us like flecks of firefrom a blacksmith's forge, and in our breasts was a tightness that becamemore painful every moment.
It seemed as though we were descending to some deep, airless region, forI could not breathe; the atmosphere felt damp and warm, and the velocitywith which we travelled was becoming greater the deeper into the heart ofthe earth we went.
"What is this place?" I heard Omar ask. "I know it not."
"Be patient, O Prince, and thou shalt witness that which must astoundthee," old Goliba shouted, his squeaky voice being just audible above theloud hissing as our car flew along the twisted strands of steel.
Suddenly, above the hiss of our rapid progress, there could be heardstrange noises, as if a hundred war-drums were being beaten, and at thesame instant our curious conveyance gave another sudden lurch in roundinga corner. At that moment Goliba, in turning to speak with Omar, hadunfortunately loosened his hold of one of the handles, and the suddenjolt at such a high speed was so violent that our faithful guide andfriend was shot off backwards, and ere Omar could clutch him he haddisappeared with a shriek of despair into the cavernous darkness.
A thrill of horror ran through us when we realised this terrible mishap.Yet nothing could arrest our swift headlong descent, and feelingconvinced that Goliba, our host and adviser, had met with a terribledeath, we sat staring, motionless, wondering whither we were bound, andhow, now we had lost our guide, we should be able to reach the surfaceagain. At the moment Goliba had been flung off we remembered that theiron frame had jolted and grated, and there seemed no room for doubt thatthe generous sage had been mangled into a shapeless mass. The thought washorrible.
At last, however, we felt the air becoming fresher, and the strangecontraction in our breasts was gradually relieved as our pace became lessrapid, and distant lights showed before us. Then suddenly we emerged fromthe curious shaft down which we had travelled to such enormous depth,gliding slowly out into a place of immeasurable extent, where a mostextraordinary and amazing scene met our gaze.
Truly, poor Goliba had spoken the truth when he had promised that what weshould witness would astound us.