"What is that—do you see that, Master de Walden?" said I, as a dark struggling figure seemed to be transferred by force from one of the canoes that showed a light into a smaller one. De Walden could not tell—and the small skiff into which, whatever it was, it had been transhipped, gradually slid away, apparently in the direction of the raft, into the impervious darkness that brooded over the river, above the three advanced canoes with the watch-fires.
I was about resigning the glass once more, when I noticed the raft again suddenly illuminated, and a great bustle among the people on board. Presently a naked human being was dragged under the gallows, and one arm immediately hoisted up, and fastened by cords to one of the angles—a black figure, who had perched himself astride on the cross beam, evincing great activity on the occasion.
For some purpose that I could not divine, the fire was now carried by a group of savages from the foremost part of the raft, that is, from the end of it next us, to the opposite extremity beyond the gibbet, the immediate effect of which was to throw off the latter, and the figure suspended on it, as well as the persons of the people who crowded round, in high relief against the illuminated night damps lit up by the fire, that hung as a bright curtain or background beyond it. In a few seconds, the other arm was drawn up to the opposite corner: and—my blood curdles as I write it—we could now make out that a fellow-creature was suspended by the wrists from the corners of the gibbet, directly under the centre of the beam, as if the sufferer had been stretched on the cross.
The fire increased in intenseness—the noise of the long drums, and the yells of the negroes, came down stronger and stronger; and although I could notice two assistants holding the legs of the suspended figure, yet its struggles seemed to be superhuman, and once or twice I said to young De Walden, "Heaven help me—did you hear nothing?"
"Nothing particular, sir, beyond the infernal howling and drum-beating of these monsters."
A pause—then another terrible convulsion of the suspended victim, as it struggled to and fro with the dark figures that clung to its lower limbs like demons.
"There—heard you nothing now?"
"Yes, sir—oh, yes," gasped my young ally—"such a yell!"
"Oh, may my ears never tingle to such another!" groaned I; and as I spoke, the assistants let go their hold on the suspended victim, when—Heaven have mercy on us! horror on horror—one of the lower limbs had been extracted, or cut out from the socket at the hip joint. The struggles of the mutilated carcass continued. Quacco, hearing his name mentioned by the young midshipman, was now alongside of me. I handed him the glass, which it was some time before he could manage. At length, having got the focus, he took a long, long look—he held his breath.
"What is it?" said I, "what dreadful scene is this? For Heaven's sake, serjeant, tell me what is going on yonder?"
He puffed out his breath like a porpoise, and then answered me as coolly as possible, as if it had been no strange sight to him. "Fetish, massa—grand fetish dem make—such fetish as dem make before dem go fight wid one enemy."
"But what was the figure we saw hoisted up on the gibbet-looking apparatus just now?" said I.
"Can't tell," rejoined Quacco, "can't really tell, massa; at first I taught it was man—but dat cry—so wery bitter and sharp like one knife—no, I tink it must have been woman."
"Almighty powers! Do you mean to say that the figure hung up between us and the fire is really and truly a human being?"
"I do," said Serjeant Quacco, with the same sang froid; "I do, massa. What you tink it was?"
I could not tell—I thought at one moment it was a fellow-creature, and at another that it must be impossible, notwithstanding all the hideous tales I had heard of the doings on this coast; but the truth, the horrible truth could no longer be concealed.
"It is only one man or woman prisoner dat dem are cutting in pieces, and trowing into de river." Here I saw with my glass that the other leg of the victim had been severed from the trunk. "But I sall tell you, dat dem intend to attack you dis wery night."
I heard him, but was riveted to my telescope. All struggles had ceased in the dark and maimed carcass, and presently one of the arms was cut away at the shoulder, when the bloody limb fell against the post on one side, and the mangled trunk banged against the upright on the other, and swung round and round it, making the whole engine reel; while, as the drums and shouts grew louder and louder, the other arm was also cut off at the elbow, and down came the mutilated trunk of the sacrifice into the middle of the fire, which for a moment blazed up, and shot forth showers of sparks and bright smoke, then rapidly declined, and in half a minute it was entirely extinguished.
The fires in the advanced boats were now all put out, and nothing evinced the neighbourhood of our dangerous enemy; while the lovely moon once more looked forth on us, her silver orb reflected on the arrowy streams of the dark river, in a long trembling wake of sparkling ripples, and all was as quiet as if she had been smiling on a scene of peace and gentleness.
To what peculiarity in my moral composition it was to be attributed I do not know, but the change from the infernal scene we had just witnessed to the heavenly quietude of a lovely night had an instantaneous, almost an electrical effect on me; and, wounded and ill at heart as I was, I could not help looking up, out and away from my grovelling condition, until in fancy I forgot my miserable whereabouts, and only saw the deep blue heaven, and its countless stars, and the chaste moon.
"Hillo, Benjie Brail," shouted friend Davie—"where away, my lad? Come back to mother earth"—("alma mater tellus," said a voice near me—Corporal Lennox for a thousand, thought I)—"my dear boy, the bright sky overhead, that I make no doubt you are apostrophising so poetically, will soon be shrouded by that brooding mist there—never doubt me."
He augured rightly; for, in a little, a thick haze did in very deed begin to mantle over the water, and continued to increase until the glorious planet and bright stars were again obscured, and you could scarcely see the length of the felucca.
Quacco's hint, however, was by no means thrown away on us; we immediately saw all clear to give our savage neighbours a warm reception, should they venture down under cover of the fog.
We had been some time at quarters, the boats astern having been hauled up alongside, lest, in the fog, some of the canoes might venture near enough to cut the painters. But every thing continued so quiet and still, that we were beginning to consider our warlike preparations might not altogether have teen called for.
"I say, Sprawl," said I—"Poo, these poor creatures will not venture down on us; especially after the lesson they had yesterday?"
"Don't trust to that, Brail, my good boy," said Davie.
"No, massa, don't you trust to dat, as Massa Prawl say," quoth Quacco—"I know someting—ah, you shall see." Here the poor fellow crept close up to Dick Lanyard, "Captain—if you love sleep in one skin hab no hole in him—if, massa, you walue de life of dem sailor intrust to you—ill-bred fellow as dem may be—let no one—no—not so mosh as de leetle dirty cook-boy—shut him eyelid until to-morrow sun melt de fog, and"——
Something dropped at my foot, with a splintering sort of sound, as if you had cast a long dry reed on the deck. "What is that?" said I.
"Will you be convince now?" said Quacco, slowly and solemnly. "Will Massa Brail,"—turning to me, and handing a slender wand, about ten feet long—"will good Massa Brail be convin"——
Spin—another arrow-like affair quivered in the mast close beside us. It had passed sheer between the first lieutenant and me.
"Ah, ah, ah!" exclaimed Quacco in a mighty great quandary—"dere is anoder—anoder spear—mind,