The reader will perceive from this incident how very necessary it was for me to be quite certain of the precise dispositions of these furious fools, bent upon maltreating me; who pursued their persecutions in a spirit of diabolical calculation, and were bent upon imposing on me the humiliating obligation of doing as a man all that I had formerly made them do as apes. I had made them play the violin in public when they were with me: they compelled me to strum the guitar now that I was their prisoner. I had forced them to dance on the tight-rope, and to climb to the top of a pole: they brought a pole, and commanded me in the most imperious way, by signs which I could not fail to understand, to commence ascending it.
A cold sweat ran down my forehead, although the ball-room was frightfully hot, at the bare idea of the brutish part I was condemned to perform—to amuse apes—I, one of the first citizens of Macao, the descendant of an honourable Portuguese family, and who had been baptised in the church of St. Philip the Elder! The pole was placed in the centre of the apartment, and to sustain it in a perpendicular position thirty quadrumana of three different heights arranged themselves in a very ingenious manner, which I am about to explain.
The smallest, after all having seated themselves on the ground, held the pole, fixed upright in their midst; those of intermediate height grasped the pole with their hands a few inches above, keeping their feet firmly planted on the ground about a yard off; the tallest, and these were ourang-outangs and mandrills, threw their gigantic arms above the arms of the others, and their legs, which were to serve as props, beyond the legs of the lower ranks. It was, in fact, a kind of wheel, formed of sinewy legs and shoulders pressed one against another, and arms of steel, of which the axis was the pole, rising up before me, uncommonly like a gibbet.
A glance which Karabouffi directed towards me enjoined me a second time to climb this pole. As I was balancing myself and preparing to swing over this living pedestal, in order to grasp it firmly within my arms, a mangabey, a giant nearly seven feet high, stiffened his long tail, and by way of incentive struck me with it two smart blows, one on the back and the other on the legs. These had the desired effect, for, bursting with rage, I bounded forward and commenced climbing.
What shall I say with regard to my performance? In spite of my utmost efforts I could not raise myself even half-way up the pole. Unaccustomed as I might have been to this kind of exercise, I must nevertheless confess that I failed most disgracefully. I tugged, I slipped, I tried anew, I slipped again; fresh efforts only caused a still further descent, and, what took the heart quite out of me, I was all the while subjected to undisguised expressions of disapprobation on the part of the audience. They murmured here, they grunted there, they were hissing everywhere. What a revenge these wretches took! It was quite true that I had thrashed them when they climbed awkwardly at Macao, and that I used to laugh at them after having beaten them; still, after all, I was a man possessed of the double light of reason and faith, whilst they were unintelligent beings. But did this give me the right of coercing, insulting, and thrashing them whenever I felt so disposed? My efforts to climb the pole had resulted in certain bruises to my frame, and in tearing my trousers and coat-sleeves—already sufficiently tried in the various turns of fortune they had undergone—almost to tatters. How could I manage to renew them in the destitute condition in which I was? For this moment, however, my skin demanded more of my solicitude than my clothes did, and, in truth, I only turned my attention to these when the incident of my climbing efforts was pretty nigh forgotten.
I never arrived at the upper half of the pole. Probably I should still be occupied with my hopeless task but for a lucky accident which put an end to my ridiculous punishment. Too weak apparently to support the weight of my body at the point to which I had managed to drag myself after unheard-of efforts, the confounded pole snapped asunder and I fell into the arena, bruised with my fall and crushed by the mockeries with which I was overwhelmed. Here I lay stunned, motionless, and degraded, in the midst of an unpitying and jeering crowd.
When I recovered myself, had it not been for the encouraging look which Saïmira—who I could see was occupied with the project of rescuing me from my present frightful position—I should have been tempted to have blown out my brains with my pistols and so made an end of it. But Saïmira was the cause of my resisting the temptation.
Ere, however, she found the means of saving me, I was called upon to perform a new interlude at this brilliant soirée.
I was aroused from the reverie into which I had fallen by a blow like that which had compelled me, in spite of myself, to make an attempt to climb the pole. Only the stiff and sinewy tail of the mandrill struck me this time somewhat more tenderly. He only wished to arouse me, I fancy. On looking up I saw before me one of my new masters—I had now become their creature as completely as they had formerly been creatures of mine—comically scratching his thigh, describing in the air joyous capers, thrusting out his tongue at me in a mocking way, whirling about on his head with his legs spread out like a fork—going through, in fact, a thousand grimaces and contortions such as I had taught my apes to practise at Macao. After some minutes of this performance, which appeared to be rather for my benefit than for that of the other spectators, he suddenly stopped, looked at me with signs of impatience, and waited. But what could he possibly expect from me? A second blow from that vital cord which formed the termination of the mandrill’s back warned me that what was expected from me was nothing less than a public exhibition of my tumbling accomplishments similar to those which he had deigned to display before me. What proved to me that I was not mistaken in my idea was, that having attempted at all hazards a timid somersault, the mandrill’s tail rose and fell without striking me. I had, then, perfectly comprehended him, and all that now remained for me to do was to perform before the company: I had merely to copy the grimaces and contortions which I had just witnessed, that was all. Alas! what misery the vanquished are called upon to endure! Could human degradation sink below this? To be obliged to imitate an ape! The colour rose to my face. I commenced my performance; but who can tell what I endured? Every time that my manly dignity checked me in the midst of a somersault, at that very same instant the sinewy tail of the mandrill caught me a blow in the face. Courage, Polydorus! courage! Indeed I had need of all I possessed. I jumped through hoops, danced the Pyrrhic dance, and imitated the movements of a dancing bear; saluted the gentlemen, and blew kisses to the ladies; finally, I went round, hat in hand, and asked, according to custom, some money from the company.
I was almost dead from fatigue and moral prostration when an uproar louder than any I had previously heard burst forth in the saloon. In a minute the apartment was half emptied: the apes that remained watching me soon followed the example of their fellows. What could possibly have happened? Karabouffi, whom I recognised in the obscurity of the verandah courtyard, appeared to be at the head of this great movement.