CHAPTER XLVIII

Progress in Ostrich Discipline—Efficacy of Tobacco Smoke—Hydromel—The New Hat—Pottery

The day after our arrival at Felsenheim, my wife commenced “cleaning house.” Windows were opened, beds aired, and all swept and garnished. While she and the two younger boys were thus employed, I, with the two elder, unpacked and distributed the riches we had brought home.

We had tied the ostrich, at first, under a tree, and securely fastened his feet; but we changed his situation, and tied him to one of the strong bamboo columns that supported the gallery.

We next visited the eggs, and they were, like the first, submitted to the trial of warm water. Several of them fell heavily to the bottom; but three or four moved slightly when immersed in the water, and these were carefully preserved, in order that we might try the experiment of hatching them by cotton and artificial heat. For this purpose I constructed an oven, in which I took care to maintain that degree of heat which the thermometer marked as being the natural heat of the hen.

We then installed our Angora rabbits on Shark Island; we constructed a burrow in the ground, similar to those of Europe, and, before putting them in, we combed them, and removed all the superfluous hair. We also fixed wooden combs over the entrance of each burrow, so that the rabbits, when passing in or out, would be deprived of some part of their fine wool, which I intended to manufacture into hats.

The two antelopes were also transported to Shark Island. We should have liked very much to keep these charming little creatures about us, but the fear of the dogs and beasts of prey forced us to condemn the timid creatures to confinement. In order to render their exile as agreeable as possible, I erected a hut in the middle of the island, to shelter them, and we took good care to provide them with plenty of provisions.

I wished, before the rains came on, to prepare a field to receive the seeds we had hitherto confided to the earth without any order or regularity. It was a difficult enterprise, and we felt in all its reality the force of that law which condemned man to gain his bread by the sweat of his brow. Our faithful animals were of much assistance to us; but the sun was so intense that the slightest labour utterly exhausted them. We could work but four hours in the day: two in the morning and two in the evening; we were able, however, to prepare at last about two acres of land, which would furnish us an ample harvest of maize, potatoes, and manioc-root.

During the intervals of our fatiguing field labours, we occupied ourselves by beginning the education of the ostrich. It was an enterprise as difficult as it was novel; but I had read that it could be accomplished, and I was resolved to try it.

Our pupil began by putting himself in a terrible passion; he struggled, snapped at us with his beak, and cut up all sorts of capers; but we could find no better remedy for such conduct than to treat him as we had treated Fritz’s eagle, that was, by burning tobacco under his nose. This had the desired effect, and we soon saw the majestic bird totter and fall insensible to the ground. We had recourse to this plan several times. Little by little we relaxed the cord which fastened it to the bamboo post, and gave it room to wander about the doorway. A litter of rushes was provided for him; calabashes filled with sweet nuts, rice, maize, and guavas were placed every day before the animal; in a word, we neglected nothing that we thought would consort with the fellow’s taste.

During three days all our cares were in vain: our choice dishes were regarded with great disdain, the beautiful captive would not eat, and it carried its obstinacy so far that at last I was seriously afraid of the consequences. At last an idea occurred to my wife, which relieved us from all embarrassment. It was to poke down the throat of the bird, willy nilly, balls of maize and butter. The ostrich made horrible faces at first, but when it got a taste of the balls, all trouble on that point was over, and the delicacies we placed before it were quickly devoured, the guavas, by the bye, being especially favoured.

The natural savageness of the bird disappeared more and more every day; it would let us approach it without striking at us, and after some days we thought we could, without much risk, unfasten it, to take a short lesson in the art of walking. We placed it between the buffalo and the bull, and put it through all the exercises of the stable—to trot, to gallop, stop short, trot again, walk slow, etc. I cannot say that the poor bird relished his first lesson very much, but the tobacco pipe and the whip were two admirable instructors, and when he was disposed to become unruly a whiff of tobacco would set all to rights.

At the end of the month its education was complete, and it had so well succeeded that I now seriously thought of making our new conquest of general usefulness. I wished it to associate with our domestic animals, to submit like them to regular movements, and to stop and march as we wished. The first thing that was to be thought of was a bit; but how could I contrive a bit for a beak? I had never seen one, and I must confess that I felt greatly embarrassed; at last I achieved my task. I had remarked that the absence of light had a very direct influence upon the ostrich; it would stop short when blindfolded, and could not be induced to move until its eyes were uncovered. This discovery was the basis of the new invention that I constructed. I made, with the skin of a sea-dog, a sort of hood, like the one we had made for the eagle, which covered the head, being fastened about the neck. I made two openings in the side of this hood, one opposite each eye, and covered each of these holes with one of our little turtle-shells, attached to a whale-bone spring, fixed in such a manner that it would open and shut. Reins were fastened to these springs, so that, by their action, we could admit the light or shut it out, just as we pleased. When the two shells were open, the ostrich galloped straight on; when one was opened, it went in a direction corresponding with the eye that received light, and when both shells were shut, it would stop short. The most fully trained horse could not have obeyed better than our ostrich did under his novel head-dress.

My children thought that the education of our captive was now complete; but I was of a different opinion. The ostrich is a very robust animal, and capable of supporting a great deal of fatigue. I wished it to learn to carry burdens, to draw a carriage, and be adapted for horsemanship; I began, consequently, to make harness for each of these occupations. We had a great deal of difficulty in making the ostrich submit to our wishes; our hardest task was to make it submit to our mounting it; but I knew that patience and perseverance are the two first elements of success in imparting education. I was not, therefore, discouraged, and at last we had the satisfaction to see our new courser galloping between Felsenheim and Falcon’s Nest with one of our young cavaliers mounted on his back.

The artificial nest of ostrich eggs, which we had enveloped in cotton, and placed in a stove, had succeeded; that is to say, out of six eggs, three had hatched. The young ostriches were the drollest-looking animals that could be imagined: they looked like ducks, mounted on long legs, and they tottered awkwardly about on their slender stilts. One died the day after its birth; the two others survived, and we endeavoured to preserve them by taking all possible care for their comfort. Maize, acorns, boiled rice, milk, and cassava, were set before them in rich profusion.

We had had nothing to drink but water since our arrival on the island, if I except the barrel of Cape wine that we had saved from the shipwreck; but that had long ago been exhausted, and I now determined to make some sort of drink for the winter.

I had often heard of the hydromel of the Russians; we had the primary material, honey, from our hives, and I determined to make the experiment. We boiled some honey in a sufficient quantity of water, and after having filled two barrels with the fluid, I threw in a large cake of sour corn bread, to make the liquor ferment; when that process was finished, we tasted it, and found it was of a pleasant flavour, agreeably acid, and a great resource for our long winter days. We placed the two tuns in our cellar, or, to speak more justly, in the hole we had dignified by that name. We then set to work and made a choicer drink than the first: to our honey and water we added nutmegs, ravensara, and, in short, a collection of all the aromatic plants we could find. This drink was reserved for extraordinary occasions, such as holiday banquets, anniversaries, etc.

When all our provisions were gathered in, and we felt sure that we could get through the winter without famine overtaking us, we commenced our manufacture of hats. It was a labour as difficult as novel for us. The first question that presented itself was the form of our hats; each one gave in his opinion, but necessity came into the council, and obliged us to give our new manufacture the form most in unison with our means of execution. It was extremely simple: I cut a wooden head, which divided into two parts, and on which we spread a thick layer of soft paste, composed of rat-skin and the glue of fishes. We let it dry, and as it took the exact impress of the mould, we obtained a sort of cap, of which my readers can form some idea of the shape.

It had cost us a great deal of trouble to produce even this ill-looking affair. My sons were scarcely less satisfied with it than I was; but our European hats were so dilapidated that it became a matter of necessity to procure something to replace them.

I now had recourse to the cochineal, and I soon gave to our beaver a beautiful brilliant purple tint. The hat looked better; I adorned it with a couple of ostrich-plumes, and it looked better still; my wife passed a ribbon round it, which she had found in her enchanted sack, and the disdain with which my poor beaver had been received, was changed into anxious requests for its possession.

But its destination had been fixed beforehand: it belonged to Francis by right, as he had lost his old hat a few days before.

Our success in the manufacture of hats emboldened us to try our hand at other things. We were much in want of kitchen utensils, and I was obliged to pass from the art of hat-making to that of potter.

I did not understand much about pottery; and what puzzled me most was the way in which the earth was to be prepared before using it; and I began my experiments with very little hope of their ever succeeding.

I constructed, in one corner of the grotto, a large stove, divided into compartments, destined to receive the different articles; earthen pipes were conducted all around, so as to equalize the heat as much as possible. These preparations occupied me a long time, as I had no idea how the thing should be done, and I can safely say I invented rather than imitated a furnace for pottery.

I next took a certain quantity of the porcelain earth, which very much resembled fine white sand. I carefully removed all foreign particles, such as bits of stone, etc., as I was afraid they would cut our hands while working the porcelain. I also mixed a quantity of the talc we had brought home for window-panes, thinking, perhaps, it would render the mixture more firm and solid. When all was well worked up together, I left it a little while to dry, while I set to work to invent a machine for turning our utensils on. The wheel of one of our cannon carriages, fixed horizontally on a pivot and surmounted by another wheel, united to it by an axle and turning with it, formed my machine. I first turned out some plates and dishes, cups and saucers, bowls, and other things. I exposed these articles to a very strong heat: a great many broke in pieces, but I completed about half. When baked they were perfectly transparent and of the most beautiful grain. My wife saw her kitchen apparatus enriched with utensils of all sorts, and, overwhelmed with joy, she promised us, in exchange, numberless good dainties, which, for want of a suitable utensil, she had hitherto been unable to make.