My Friends the Savages Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: Three types of tatooed Bretak Sakais.

_p._ 110.]

One day we got as far as the summit of the Berumb.u.m where we pa.s.sed the night among some families that had taken refuge up there. I was enchanted with the starry sky, the quiet air and mild temperature I found upon that height and which made my thoughts fly across oceans and continents to the sea which reflects my Liguria. Up there the nocturnal silence is not rent by the blood-thirsty cries of wild animals, and after having been lulled to sleep for so long by their distant clamour, and especially after the strong emotions I had quite recently experienced, that profound calmness was to me so full of sentimental suggestion that instead of sleeping my spirit wandered into the past, recalling with pleasure and sadness those evenings of sweet intimacy once enjoyed in the bosom of my family, then a numerous one but now reduced by death and other events.

When at last I fell asleep I did not awake till morning.

As soon as I had got up my young Sakai servant took the pillow I always carried with me, and began to shake it, but he shrank back with a frightened cry as a little snake of about a yard long, belonging to a very poisonous cla.s.s, fell from under it.

The dear little beast had slept upon the same pillow as I, perhaps to prove to me that his sort is very much maligned and that if you leave them alone to do what they like, without giving them any disturbance, they will never think of biting you.

Ten Sakai families were encamped up there and I exhorted them all to come down from that height of 5000 feet and occupy themselves in agriculture, for the cold during the night is sometimes severe and the poor things must suffer from it, as they have no clothes to keep them warm.

But all my persuasions were fruitless.

I resumed my journey and it must have been about ten o'clock in the morning when in the distance an old man who, as far as I could understand from the half twilight of the forest, made me signs of friendship.

I went towards him and saw that where he stood there had once been a village but its now miserable aspect made it a strange contrast to the riches of Nature with which it was surrounded.

The solitary inhabitant of that forsaken and dilapidated place offered us some fruit and I asked him the reason of the battered huts and general desolation. He told me with grief in his tones that the village had been devastated by armed enemies. "Many of my brethren were killed and many others were taken away as slaves and the rest have fled to safer and more inaccessible parts, but I could not find it in my heart to abandon this spot where I was born; where I grew up....".

This was indeed a strange sentiment for one whose people for the most lead a roving life either from habit or from superst.i.tion!

Armed enemies! and who were they? For certain they appertained to the sc.u.m of neighbouring peoples of which I have already spoken. Men who, though encompa.s.sed on all sides by civilization, still remain uncivilized; men who, shunned by their honest and laborious countrymen, make the free forest a field for their vile pa.s.sions, and now that they can no longer give vent to their evil desires in depredation and bloodshed, because of the severe measures taken by the Government, continue to damage the poor Sakais in many odious and insidious ways without always drawing down upon their heads the punishment they deserve.

Who were they? Who are they? Delinquents by nature, such as are to be found in most of our large cities; people born with savage instincts; men who would rather pa.s.s their days in the midst of vice and open corruption than live a life of honour and opulence.

None of these delinquents are to be found in thorough-bred Sakai tribes, they may however be met with amongst the inhabitants of the plain where there is a mixture of race, the result of those forced unions which were the desperation of Sakai women when taken prisoners. In the children born of these unions one can often trace the natural impulse towards violence and robbery that they have inherited from their fathers.

I myself had a proof of this.

As Inspector I often used to pa.s.s from one encampment to another, sometimes on the plain and sometimes on the mountain and I frequently took these brief journeys alone as the paths were well trodden.

It so happened that one day I had stopped in the hut of one of these half-breeds--where there were several real Sakais who had come from their jungle home to exchange products--and on my return I was overtaken by one of my good friends that offered to accompany me for a little way.

As we walked along together I noticed he proceeded with great caution and kept looking about with suspicion. All at once he caught me by the arm and pointed to a stick stuck into the ground just in front, from which some leaves were dangling. As I did not understand his act he advanced a step or two and showed me a well concealed trap, set with a poisoned dart.

It had been fixed across the path and I should have a.s.suredly fallen over it, if my companion had not prevented me. He simply said that it must have been prepared for game and soon after left me.

But later on I heard that he had not told me the truth in saying this for the trap had been put there, on purpose for me, by the villanous b.a.s.t.a.r.d in whose hut I had halted, and whose photograph I was afterwards able to take and here present to my readers.

This man had not the least reason for resentment against me but he was actuated by that spirit of hatred which induces all evil-doers to try and get rid of those who may be an obstacle to their bad living and knowing that I had the intention of pa.s.sing his way again in a few days he had placed the trap there in order to kill me. He was so contented, however, with what he had done that he could not keep the secret to himself, and his wife (a pure Sakai) upon hearing it, despatched my friend to the ambush and so saved me.

If this had been discovered at the moment the wretch would most likely have paid for his sin with his life.

From this episode it is easy to see the difference between a thorough-bred and a half-bred Sakai; the former will risk life itself to impede a crime that has been coolly premeditated by the latter.

Something of the same kind befell me on another occasion when I was returning to my cabin by myself.

At Tapah preparations were being made for celebrating the coronation of King Edward VII and I, as one of His Majesty's colonial officers, of course felt interested in the proceedings and it seemed to me a right thing that a representation of my friends the savages, who were under my administration, should accompany me to town for the occasion. I had therefore been round to as many as I could to tell them to be ready to follow me whenever I gave them notice.

Towards evening I was going quietly along, rather tired with my long march, and listening to the pretty good-night songs of the birds, when I was suddenly hit in the abdomen by a poisoned arrow, shot by an unknown hand. Aware of the terrible power of the forest venoms I gave myself up for lost and so without doubt I should have been if fortune had not sent me a.s.sistance. I was energetically squeezing the wound when one of my faithful Sakais came up. Upon hearing what had happened, he exclaimed:

"This is the work of a _Mai-Gop_, because one of our darts would have pa.s.sed right through you, and besides none of us would harm you because you are good to us".

The kind fellow sucked out my wound and knew by its reddish-black colour that the poison used was a mixture of _legop_ and _ipok_ juices, most deadly in its effect.

Hurrying me towards the village, in a few instants he had prepared an antidote by mixing a pinch of lime and powdered charcoal together and then wetting it with the urine of his little boy.

He washed the wound carefully with this strange lotion, making it penetrate well in, and recommended me not to touch it.

I let him do as he would, as there was no better remedy to my knowledge, although I had little or no faith in the mixture.

I suffered a great deal for some days, but at last the wound (which had all the requisites for a fatal one) healed. Was this fact due to the merits of lime, charcoal, or urine?

Let the disciples of Esculapius decide!

It got to be known not long after that I had been made the victim of one of those ill-disposed individuals who come into the world with criminality written on their brow.

But for one who has the compensation of devotion and affection from the humble and good, is not the hatred of malefactors a thing to be proud of?

So in the year 1901, I was invited by the British Resident (in my quality of Superintendent of the Sakais) to take part in the festivities in honour of King Edward the Seventh's ascension to the throne.

As I before said I had thought it would be nice to take with me a small band of my forest friends and my desire was so well realized that when the time came I gathered around me about 500 men, women and children, belonging to different tribes, and with this troop of followers I descended to Tapah.

Here the reception given to those poor inhabitants of the Jungle was exceptionally kind, and they in their turn gladly did their utmost to satisfy the curiosity they excited and were highly pleased at showing the effect of their powerful poisons upon birds which they hit, with remarkable dexterity, whilst on the wing.

The men displayed their skill in striking the bull's eye with their darts, and in successfully climbing the greasy pole, and the women gave proof of their musical talents by playing their _ciniloi_.

In this way they got a great many dollars and were overwhelmed with presents and attentions by the English ladies and gentlemen, residing at Tapah.

The women were invited to go to the stand reserved for the Authority and came back with necklaces and strings of coloured beads, that they admired with childish delight.

Not much less contented was I at the good impression my simple friends made by their nice behaviour and modest manners.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 6: "Philosophy, poor and naked thou goest". This is a quotation from the Italian poet Petrarch. _Translator's Note._]