第96章

Mosquitoes and leeches--I explain pictures--An awkward admission--My great portrait--The stomach as a deity--The portrait a success--A colossal statue of "H.R.H."--Fish without eyes--A sad reflection--A strange illusion--A grave danger--I sink a well --"Universal provider"--A significant phenomenon--Bruno as accomplice--I find Bruno dead.

I must say I was not very much troubled with mosquitoes in my mountain home, and as I had endured dreadful torments from these insects whilst at Port Essington and other swampy places, I had good reason to congratulate myself.Whilst crossing some low country on one occasion I was attacked by these wretched pests, whose bite penetrated even the clay covering that protected my skin.Even the blacks suffered terribly, particularly about the eyes.I, however, had taken the precaution to protect my eyes by means of leaves and twigs.At Port Essington the mosquitoes were remarkably large, and of a greyish colour.They flew about literally in clouds, and it was practically impossible to keep clear of them.

The natives treated the bites with an ointment made from a kind of penny-royal herb and powdered charcoal.Talking about pests, in some parts the ants were even more terrible than the mosquitoes, and I have known one variety--a reddish-brown monster, an inch long--to swarm over and actually kill children by stinging them.

Another pest was the leech.It was rather dangerous to bathe in some of the lagoons on account of the leeches that infested the waters.Often in crossing a swamp I would feel a slight tickling sensation about the legs, and on looking down would find my nether limbs simply coated with these loathsome creatures.The remarkable thing was, that whilst the blacks readily knew when leeches attacked them, I would be ignorant for quite a long time, until Ihad grown positively faint from loss of blood.Furthermore, the blacks seemed to think nothing of their attacks, but would simply crush them on their persons in the most nonchalant manner.

Sometimes they scorch them off their bodies by means of a lighted stick--a kind office which Yamba performed for me.The blacks had very few real cures for ailments, and such as they had were distinctly curious.One cure for rheumatism was to roll in the black, odourless mud at the edge of a lagoon, and then bask in the blazing sun until the mud became quite caked upon the person.

The question may be asked whether I ever tried to tell my cannibals about the outside world.My answer is, that I only told them just so much as I thought their childish imaginations would grasp.Had I told them more, I would simply have puzzled them, and what they do not understand they are apt to suspect.

Thus, when I showed them pictures of horse-races and sheep farms in the copy of the Sydney Town and Country Journal which I had picked up, I was obliged to tell them that horses were used only in warfare, whilst sheep were used only as food.Had I spoken about horses as beasts of burden, and told them what was done with the wool of the sheep, they would have been quite unable to grasp my meaning, and so I should have done myself more harm than good.

They had ideas of their own about astronomy; the fundamental "fact"being that the earth was perfectly flat, the sky being propped up by poles placed at the edges, and kept upright by the spirits of the departed--who, so the medicine-man said, were constantly being sent offerings of food and drink.The Milky Way was a kind of Paradise of souls; whilst the sun was the centre of the whole creation.

I had often puzzled my brain for some method whereby I could convey to these savages some idea of the magnitude of the British Empire.

I always had the BRITISH Empire in my mind, not only because my sympathies inclined that way, but also because I knew that the first friends to receive me on my return to civilisation must necessarily be British.Over and over again did I tell the childish savages grouped around me what a mighty ruler was the Sovereign of the British Empire, which covered the whole world.

Also how that Sovereign HAD SENT ME AS a SPECIAL AMBASSADOR, to describe to them the greatness of the nation of which they formed part.Thus you will observe I never let my blacks suspect I was a mere unfortunate, cast into their midst by a series of strange chances.I mentioned the whole world because nothing less than this would have done.Had I endeavoured to distinguish between the British Empire and, say, the German, I should have again got beyond my hearers' depth, so to speak, and involved myself in difficulties.