That woodman friend of mine proved so engaging it was difficult toget away, and thus when, dusk upon us, and my object still a long distanceoff, he asked me to spend the night at his hut, I gladly assented.
We soon reached the cabin where the man lived by himself whilstworking in the forest. It was a picturesque little place on a tree-overhunglagoon, thatched, wattled, and all about were piles of a pleasant-scentedbark, collected for the purpose of tanning hides, and I could not but marvelthat such a familiar process should be practised identically on two sides ofthe universal ether. But as a matter of fact the similarity of many detailsof existence here and there was the most striking of the things I learnedwhilst in the red planet.
Within the hut stood a hearth in the centre of the floor, whereon acomfortable blaze soon sparkled, and upon the walls hung variousimplements, hides, and a store of dried fruits of various novel kinds. Myhost, when he had somewhat disdainfully watched me wash in a rill ofwater close by, suggested supper, and I agreed with heartiest good will.
"Nothing wonderful! Oh, Mr. Blue-coat!" he said, pranc- ing aboutas he made his hospitable arrangements. "No fine meat or scented wineto unlock, one by one, all the doors of paradise, such as I have heard theyhave in lands be- yond the sea; but fare good enough for plain men whoeat but to live. So! reach me down yonder bunch of yellow aru fruit, anddon't upset that calabash, for all my funniest stories lurk at the bottom ofit."I did as he bid, and soon we were squatting by the fire toasting arus onpointed sticks, the doorway closed with a wattle hurdle, and the black andgold firelight filling the hut with fantastic shadows. Then when thebanana-like fruit was ready, the man fetched from a recess a loaf of breadsavoured with the dust of dried and pounded fish, put the foresaid calabashof strong ale to warm, and down we sat to supper with real woodmanappetites. Seldom have I enjoyed a meal so much, and when we hadfinished the fruit and the wheat cake my guide snatched up the great gourdof ale, and putting it to his lips called out:
"Here's to you, stranger; here's to your country; here's to your girl, ifyou have one, and death to your enemies!" Then he drank deep and long,and, passed the stuff to me.
"Here's to you, bully host, and the missus, and the children, if there areany, and more power to your el- bow!"--the which gratified him greatly,though probably he had small idea of my meaning.
And right merry we were that evening. The host was a jolly goodfellow, and his ale, with a pleasant savour of mint in it, was the heartiestdrink I ever set lips to. We talked and laughed till the very jackalsyapped in sympathy outside. And when he had told a score of wonderfulwood stories as pungent of the life of these fairy forests as the aromaticscent of his bark-heaps outside, as iridescent with the colours of anotherworld as the rainbow bubbles rid-ing down his starlit rill, I took a turn,and told him of the commonplaces of my world so far away, whereat helaughed gloriously again. The greater the commonplace the larger hisjoy. The humblest story, hardly calculated to impress a griffin betweenwatches on the main-deck, was a masterpiece of wit to that gentle savage;and when I "took off" the tricks and foibles of some of my superiors-Heaven forgive me for such treason!--he listened with the exquisite open-mouthed delight of one who wanders in a brand-new world of mirth.
We drank and laughed over that strong beer till the little owls outsideraised their voice in combined accord, and then the woodman, shaking thelast remnant of his sleepy wits together, and giving a reproachful look atme for finally passing him the gourd empty to the last drop, rose, threw afur on a pile of dead grass at one side of the hut, and bid me sleep, "for hisbrain was giddy with the wonders of the incredible and ludicrous spherewhich I had lately in- habited."Slowly the fire died away; slowly the quivering gold and blackarabesques on the walls merged in a red haze as the sticks dropped intotinder, and the great black outline of the hairy monster who had thrownhimself down by the embers rose up the walls against that flush like theoutline of a range of hills against a sunset glow. I listened drowsily for aspace to his snoring and the laughing answer of the brook outside, andthen that ambrosial sleep which is the gentle attendant of hardship and danger touched my tired eyelids, and I, too, slept.
My friend was glum the next morning, as they who stay over-long atthe supper flagon are apt to be. He had been at work an hour on his bark-heaps when I came out into the open, and it was only by a good deal ofdiplomacy and some material help in sorting his faggots that he was gotinto a better frame of mind. I could not, however, trust his moodcompletely, and as I did not want to end so jovial a friendship with aquarrel, I hurried through our breakfast of dry bread, with hard-boiledlizard eggs, and then settling my reckoning with one of the brass buttonsfrom my coat, which he immediately threaded, with every evidence of extreme gratification, on a string of trinkets hanging round his neck, askedhim the way to Ar-hap's capital.
"Your way is easy, friend, as long as you keep to the straight path andhave yonder two-humped mountain in front. To the left is the sea, andbehind the hill runs the canal and road by which all traffic comes or goesto Ar-hap. But above all things pass not to the hills right, for no man goesthere; there away the forests are thick as night, and in their perpetualshadows are the ruins of a Hither city, a haunted fairy town to which sometravellers have been, but whence none ever returned alive.""By the great Jove, that sounds promising! I would like to see thattown if my errand were not so urgent."But the old fellow shook his shaggy head and turned a shade yellower.
"It is no place for decent folk," he growled. "I myself once passed within amile of its outskirts at dusk, and saw the unholy little people's lanternedprocessions starting for the shrine of Queen Yang, who, tradition says,killed herself and a thousand babies with her when we took this land.""My word, that was a holocaust! Couldn't I drop in there to lunch? Itwould make a fine paper for an anti- quarian society."Again the woodman frowned. "Do as I bid you, son. You are tooyoung and green to go on ventures by yourself. Keep to the straight road:
shun the swamps and the fairy forest, else will you never see Ar-hap.""And as I have very urgent and very important business with him,comrade, no doubt your advice is good. I will call on Princess Yangsome other day. And now goodbye! Rougher but friendlier shelter than you have given me no man could ask for. I am downright sorry to partwith you in this lonely land. If ever we meet again--" but we never did!
The honest old churl clasped me into his hairy bosom three times, stuffedmy wallet with dry fruit and bread, and once more repeating his directions,sent me on my lonely way.
I confess I sighed while turning into the forest, and looked back morethan once at his retreating form. The loneliness of my position, thehopelessness of my venture, welled up in my heart after that goodcomradeship, and when the hut was out of sight I went forward down thegreen grass road, chin on chest, for twenty minutes in the deepestdejection. But, thank Heaven, I was born with a tough spirit, and possess amind which has learned in many fights to give brave counsel to my spirit,and thus presently I shook myself together, setting my face boldly to thequest and the day's work.
It was not so clear a morning as the previous one, and a steamy windon what at sea I should have called the starboard bow, as I pressed forwardto the distant hill, had a curiously subduing effect on my thoughts, andfilled the forest glades with a tremulous unreality like to nothing on ourearth, and distinctly embarrassing to a stranger in a strange land. Smallbirds in that quaint atmospheric haze looked like condors, butterflies likegiant fowl, and the sim-plest objects of the forest like the imaginations ofa disordered dream. Behind that gauzy hallucination a fine white mistcame up, and the sun spread out flat and red in the sky, while the pent-inheat became almost unendurable.
Still I plodded on, growling to myself that in Christian latitudes all theevidences would have been held to be- token a storm before night,whatever they might do here, but for the most part lost in my own gloomyspeculations. That was the more pity since, in thinking the walk over now,it seems to me that I passed many marvels, saw many glorious vistas inthose nameless forests, many spreads of colour, many incidents that, couldI but remember them more distinctly, would supply material for makingmy fortune as a descriptive traveller. But what would you? I haveforgotten, and am too virtuous to draw on my imagination, as it issometimes said other travellers have done when picturesque facts were deficient. Yes, I have forgotten all about that day, save that it was sultryhot, that I took off my coat and waistcoat to be cooler, carrying them, likethe tramp I was, across my arm, and thus dishevelled passed some time inthe afternoon an encampment of forest folk, wherefrom almost all the menwere gone, and the women shy and surly.
In no very social humour myself, I walked round their woodlandvillage, and on the outskirts, by a brook, just as I was wishing there weresome one to eat my solitary lunch with, chanced upon a fellow busilyengaged in hammering stones into weapons upon a flint anvil.
He was an ugly-looking individual at best, yet I was hard up forcompany, so I put my coat down, and, seating myself on a log opposite,proceeded to open my wallet, and take out the frugal stores the woodmanhad given me that morning.
The man was seated upon the ground holding a stone anvil betweenhis feet, while with his hands he turned and chipped with great skill aspear-head he was making out of flint. It was about the only pastime hehad, and his little yellow eyes gleamed with a craftsman's pleasure, hisshaggy round shoulders were bent over the task, the chips flew in quickparticles, and the wood echoed............