Presently they went back to the Njambai-house, and I felt quite relieved. I had become almost deaf, and had wondered how I should get out of the scrape.
At last a deputation of the women came to King Mbango and to Quengueza, who told the women I was their guest. The women did not wish to yield, but at last King Mbango and his male subjects came one by one and put their offerings before the women. These consisted of grass-cloth, knives, plates, bracelets, anklets, etc., etc. With these the angry women were appeased, and there the quarrel ended. Of course I could not make any further investigations into their mysteries. I was watched very closely, and Mbango came and implored me not to go again, saying—“The wrath of Njambai may come upon us!”
The Njambai feast lasted about two weeks. I could learn very little about the spirit which they call by this name. It protects the women against their male enemies, avenges their wrongs, and serves them in various ways.
What I have told you is all I know about it, but I thought it might interest you as it did me. I only hope that, whenever you travel, it will never happen to you to have several hundreds of infuriated women after you, for I can assure you that I would have rather encountered a gorilla of the worst kind than to face them.
CHAPTER XX.
SICK IN A STRANGE LAND.—ADVENTURE WITH A SNAKE.—HOW A SQUIRREL WAS CHARMED.
I was in the forest, under a large tree, very ill. I had been sick with a fever for some weeks, and all the medicine I had taken seemed to do me no good. Little by little my strength gave way. The days and the nights seemed so long! I am sure that if you had seen me you would have pitied me. There I was in that great forest, which was full of wild men and still wilder beasts. How helpless, how sad, how lonely I felt!
The hand of death was close upon me. Looking at myself in the looking-glass, the sunken and pallid cheeks told how much I had suffered. My eyes grew dim, and I began to realize that soon my days were to be ended, and that I was to die in that desert place, far away from home and friends, and that the wild beasts of the woods would come and devour me.
My bed was made of leaves, my pillow was the branch of a tree. Instead of blankets I had two fires, but I was so burning hot the greater part of the time with fever that I cared not for these. Close to me lay my little Bible, on my small and now almost empty medicine chest, but I could only look at it, for I could not read any more; there were a few books also, and a few old newspapers from New York.