CHAPTER XXV

The Malabar Eagle—Sago Manufactory—Bees

My wife next morning began the conversation. She told me that the boys had been good and diligent; that they had ascended Cape Disappointment with her, and had gathered wood, and made some torches for the night; and, what seemed almost incredible, had ventured to fell and bring down an immense palm-tree. It lay prostrate on the ground, and covered a space of at least seventy feet in length. To effect their purpose, Fritz had got up the tree with a long rope, which he fastened tight to the top of it. As soon as he had come down again, he and Ernest worked with the axe and saw to cut it through. When it was nearly divided, they carefully managed its fall with the rope, and in this manner they succeeded. Fritz was in high spirits too on another account: he brought me on his wrist a young bird of prey, of the most beauteous plumage; he had taken it from the nest in one of the rocks near Cape Disappointment. Very young as the bird was, it had already all its feathers, though they had not yet received their full colouring: it answered to the description I had read of the beautiful eagle of Malabar, and I viewed it with the admiration it was entitled to: meeting with one of these birds is thought a lucky omen; and it being neither large nor expensive in its food, I was desirous to keep it and train it like a falcon, to pursue smaller birds. Fritz had already covered its eyes, and tied a string to its foot: and I advised him to hold it often, and for a length of time, on his hand, and to tame it with hunger, as falconers do.

When all the narratives were concluded, I ordered a fire to be lighted, and a quantity of green wood to be put on it, for the purpose of raising a thick smoke, over which I meant to hang the buffalo meat I had salted, to dry and preserve it for our future use. The young buffalo was beginning to browse, and we gave him also a little of the cow’s milk; and in a few days we fed him with a heap of sliced roots, which he greedily devoured; and this led us to conclude that the pains from the wound in his nose had subsided, and that he would soon become tame.

The morning of this day was spent in again talking over our late extraordinary adventures; we left our meat suspended over the smoke of the fires during our sleep; we tied the young buffalo by the side of the cow, and were pleased to see them agree and bid fair to live in peace together. At night the dogs were set upon the watch. The time of repose elapsed so calmly that none of us awoke to keep in the torchlights, which now for the first time the industry of the boys had supplied us with, and we did not get up till after sunrise. After a moderate breakfast, I chanted the accustomed summons for our setting out; but my young ones had some projects in their heads, and neither they nor their mother were just then in the humour to obey me.

“Let us reflect a little first,” said my wife: “as we had so much difficulty in felling the palm-tree, would it not be a pity to lose our labour, by leaving it in this place? Ernest assures me it is a sago-tree; if so, the pith would be an excellent ingredient for our soups. Do, my dear, examine it, and let us see if in any way we can turn it to account.”

I found she was in the right; but in that case it was necessary to employ a day in the business; since to lay open from one end to the other a tree of such a length and substance, was no trivial task. I however consented; as, independent of the use of the farinaceous pith, I could, by emptying it, obtain two handsome and large troughs for the conveyance of water from Jackal’s River to my wife’s kitchen garden at Tent House, and thence to my new plantations of trees.

I now desired them to bring me the graters they had used for the manioc, and observed that they had to assist me in raising the palm-tree from the ground, which must be done, continued I, by fixing at each end two small cross pieces or props to support it; to split it open as it lies would be a work of too much labour: this done, I shall want several wooden wedges to keep the cleft open while I am sawing it, and afterwards a sufficient quantity of water. “There is the difficulty,” said my wife; “our Falcon’s Stream is too far off, and we have not yet discovered any spring in the neighbourhood of this place.”

Ernest.—That is of no consequence, mother; I have seen hereabouts so great an abundance of plants which contain water, that we need not be at a loss; for they will fully supply us if I could only contrive to get vessels enough to hold it.

We now produced the enormous reeds we had brought home, which, being hollow, would answer the purpose of vessels; and as some time was required to draw off the water from such small tubes, he and Francis at once set to work: they cut a number of the plants, which they placed slantingly over the brim of a vessel, and whilst that was filling, they were preparing another. The rest of us got round the tree, and with our united strength we soon succeeded in raising the heavy trunk, and the top of it was then sawn off. We next began to split it through the whole length, and this the softness of the wood enabled us to effect with little trouble. We soon reached the pith or marrow that fills up the middle of the trunk the whole of its length. When divided, we laid one half on the ground, and we pressed the pith together with our hands, so as to make temporary room for the pith of the other half of the trunk, which rested still on the props. We wished to empty it entirely, that we might employ it as a kneading-trough, leaving merely enough of the pith at both ends to prevent a running-out; and then we proceeded to form our paste.

My young manufacturers fell joyfully to work: they brought water, and poured it gradually into the trough, whilst we mixed it with the flour. In a short time the paste appeared sufficiently fermented; I then made an aperture at the bottom of the grater on its outside, and pressed the paste strongly with my hand: the farinaceous parts passed with ease through the small holes of the grater, and the ligneous parts which did not pass were thrown aside in a heap, in the hope that mushrooms, etc., might spring from them. My boys were in readiness to receive in reed vessels what fell from the grater, and conveyed it directly to their mother, whose business was to spread out the small grains in the sun upon sail-cloth, for the purpose of drying them. Thus we procured a good supply of a wholesome and pleasant food. The paste which remained was thrown upon the mushroom-bed, and watered well to promote a fermentation.

We next employed ourselves in loading the cart with our tools and the two halves of the tree. Night coming on, we retired to our hut, where we enjoyed our usual repose, and early next morning were ready to return to Falcon’s Stream. Our buffalo now commenced his service, yoked with the cow; he supplied the want of the ass, and was very tractable: it is true, I led him by the cord in his nose, and thus restrained him whenever he was disposed to deviate from his duty.

We returned the same way as we came, in order to load the cart with a provision of berries, wax and elastic gum. I sent forward Fritz and Jack as a vanguard, with one of the dogs: they were to cut an ample road through the bushes for our cart. The two water-conductors, which were very long, produced numerous difficulties, and somewhat impeded our progress. We reached the wax and gum-trees with tolerable speed, and without any accident, and halted to place our sacks of berries in the cart. The elastic gum had not yielded as much as I expected, from the too rapid thickening caused by an ardent sun. We obtained, however, about a quart, which sufficed for the experiment of the impenetrable boots I had so long desired.

We set out again, still preceded by our pioneers, who cleared the way for us through the little wood of guavas. Suddenly we heard a dreadful noise, which came from our vanguard, and beheld Fritz and Jack hastening towards us. I began now to fear a tiger or panther was near at hand, or had perhaps attacked them. Turk began to bark so frightfully, and Flora joined in so hideous a yell, that I prepared myself for a conflict. I advanced at the head of my troop to the assistance of my high-mettled dogs, who ran furiously up to a thicket, where they stopped, and with their noses to the ground, and almost breathless, strove to enter it. I had no doubt some terrible animal was lurking there; and Fritz, who had seen it through the leaves, confirmed my suspicion; he said it was about the size of the young buffalo, and that his hair was black and shaggy. I was going to fire promiscuously into the thicket, when Jack, who had thrown himself on his face on the ground to have a better view of the animal, got up in a fit of laughter. “It is only,” exclaimed he, “our old sow, who is never tired of playing off her tricks upon us.” Half vexed, half laughing, we broke into the midst of the thicket, where in reality we found our old companion stretched supinely on the earth, but by no means in a state of dreary solitude; she had round her seven little creatures, which had been littered a few days, and were sprawling about, contending with each other for the best place near their mother for a hearty meal. This discovery gave us considerable satisfaction, and we all greeted the good matron, who seemed to recollect and welcome us with a sociable kind of grunting, while she licked her young without any ceremony or show of fear. And now a general consultation took place: should this new family be left where we found it, or conveyed to Falcon’s Stream? Opinions being at variance, it was decided that for the present the sow and her young should keep quiet possession of their retreat.

We then, so many adventures ended, pursued our road, and arrived at Falcon’s Stream in safety, experiencing what is so generally true, that home is always dear and sacred to the heart, and anticipated with delight. All was in due order, and our animals welcomed our return in their own jargon and manner, but which did not fail to be expressive of their satisfaction at seeing us again. We threw them some of the food they were most partial to, which they greedily accepted, and then voluntarily went back to their usual stand. It was necessary to practise a measure dictated by prudence, which was to tie up the buffalo again, to inure it by degrees to confinement; and the handsome Malabar eagle shared the same fate: Fritz chose to place it near the parrot, on the root of a tree; he fastened it with a piece of packthread, of sufficient length to allow it free motion, and uncovered its eyes: till then the bird had been tolerably quiet: but the instant it was restored to light it fell into a species of rage that surprised us; it proudly raised its head, its feathers became ruffled, and its eyeballs seemed to whirl in their orbits, and dart out vivid lightnings. All the poultry were terrified and fled; but the poor luckless parrot was too near the sanguinary creature to escape. Before we were aware of the danger, it was seized and mangled by the formidable hooked beak of the eagle. Fritz vented his anger in loud and passionate reproaches; he would have killed the murderer on the spot, had not Ernest run up and entreated him to spare its life: “Parrots,” said he, “we shall find in plenty, but never perhaps so beauteous, so magnificent a bird as this eagle, which, as father observes, we may train for hawking. You may too blame only yourself for the parrot’s death;—why did you uncover his eyes? I could have told you that falconers keep them covered six weeks, till they are completely tamed. But now, brother, let me have the care of him; let me manage the unruly fellow; he shall soon, in consequence of the methods I shall use, be as tractable and submissive as a new-born puppy.”

Fritz refused to part with his eagle, and Ernest did not long oppose giving him the information he wanted:—“I have read,” said he, “somewhere, that the Caribs puff tobacco smoke into the nostrils of the birds of prey and of the parrots they catch, until they are giddy and almost senseless;—this stupefaction over, they are no longer wild and untractable.”

Fritz resolved on the experiment; he took some tobacco and a pipe, of which we had plenty in the sailors’ chests, and began to smoke, at the same time gradually approaching the unruly bird. As soon as it was somewhat composed, he replaced the fillet over the eyes, and smoked close to its beak and nostrils so effectually, that it became motionless on the spot, and had the exact air of a stuffed bird. Fritz thought it dead, and was inclined to be angry with his brother; but I told him it would not hold on the perch if it were lifeless, and that its head alone was affected;—and so it proved. The favourite came to itself by degrees, and made no noise when its eyes were unbound; it looked at us with an air of surprise, but void of fury, and grew tamer and calmer every day.

We next began a business which I and my wife had been thinking of for some time: she found it difficult, and even dangerous, to ascend and descend our tree with a rope ladder. We never went there but on going to bed, and each time felt an apprehension that one of the children, who scrambled up like cats, might make a false step, and perhaps be lame for ever: bad weather might come on, and compel us for a long time together to seek an asylum in our aërial apartment, and consequently to ascend and descend oftener.

My wife had repeatedly applied to me to remedy this evil, and my own anxiety had often made me reflect if the thing were really possible. A staircase on the outside was not to be thought of; the considerable height of the tree rendered that impracticable, as I had nothing to rest it on, and should be at a loss to find beams to sustain it; but I had for some time formed the idea of constructing winding stairs within the immense trunk of the tree, if it should happen to be hollow, or I could contrive to make it so. I had heard the boys talking of a hollow in our tree, and of a swarm of bees issuing from it, and I now, therefore, went to examine whether the cavity extended to the roots, or what its circumference might be. The boys seized the idea with ardour; they sprang up, and climbed to the tops of the roots like squirrels, to strike at the trunk with axes, and to judge from the sound how far it was hollow; but they soon paid dearly for their attempt; the whole swarm of bees, alarmed at the noise made against their dwelling, issued forth, buzzing with fury, attacked the little disturbers, began to sting them, stuck to their hair and clothes, and soon put them to flight, uttering lamentable cries. My wife and I had some trouble to stop the course of their uproar, and cover their wounds with fresh earth to allay the smart. Jack, whose temper was on all occasions rash, had struck fiercely upon the bees’ nest, and was more severely attacked by them than the rest: it was necessary, so serious was the injury, to cover the whole of his face with linen. The less active Ernest got up the last, and was the first to run off when he saw the consequences, and thus avoided any further injury than a sting or two; but some hours elapsed before the other boys could open their eyes, or be in the least relieved from the acute pain that had been inflicted. When they grew a little better, the desire of being revenged of the insects that had so roughly used them had the ascendant in their minds: they teased me to hasten the measures for getting everything in readiness for obtaining possession of their honey. The bees in the meantime were still buzzing furiously round the tree. I prepared tobacco, a pipe, some clay, chisels, hammers, etc. I took the large gourd long intended for a hive, and fitted a place for it, by nailing a piece of board on a branch of the tree; I made a straw roof for the top, to screen it from the sun and rain; and as all this took up more time than I was aware of, we deferred the attack of the fortress to the following day, and got ready for a sound sleep, which completed the cure of my wounded patients.