VI
The gnats were spinning over the sun-warmed cistern, which was green and yellow and dark by turns. I said to Itelo, “You’re not allowed to molest these animals, but what if a stranger came along-me for instance-and took them on for you?” I realized that I would never rest until I had dealt with these creatures and lifted the plague.
From his attitude I could tell that under some unwritten law he was not allowed to encourage me in my purpose, but that he and all the rest of the Arnewi would consider me their very greatest benefactor. For Itelo would not answer directly but kept sighing and repeating, “Oh, a very sad time. ’Strodinary bad time.” And I then gave him a deep look and said, “Itelo, you leave this to me,” and drew in a sharp breath between my teeth, feeling that I had it in me to be the doom of those frogs. You understand, the Arnewi are milk-drinkers exclusively and the cows are their entire livelihood; they never eat meat except ceremonially whenever a cow meets a natural death, and even this they consider a form of cannibalism and they eat in tears. Therefore the death of some of the animals was sheer disaster, and the families of the deceased every day were performing last rites and crying and eating flesh, so it was no wonder they were in this condition. As we turned away I felt as though that cistern of problem water with its algae and its frogs had entered me, occupying a square space in my interior, and sloshing around as I moved.
We went toward my hut (Itelo’s and Mtalba’s hut), for I wanted to clean up a little before my introduction to the queen, and on the way I read the prince a short lecture. I said, “Do you know why the Jews were defeated by the Romans? Because they wouldn’t fight back on Saturday. And that’s how it is with your water situation. Should you preserve yourself, or the cows, or preserve the custom? I would say, yourself. Live,” I said, “to make another custom. Why should you be ruined by frogs?” The prince listened and said only, “Hm, very interestin’. Is that a fact? ’Strodinary.”
We came to the house where Romilayu and I were to stay; it was within a courtyard and, like the rest of the houses, round, made of clay, and with a conical roof. All inside seemed very brittle and light and empty. Smoke-browned poles were laid across the ceiling at intervals of about three feet and beyond them the long ribs of the palm leaves resembled whalebone. Here I sat down, and Itelo, who had entered with me and left his followers outside in the sunlight, sat opposite me while Romilayu began to unpack. The heat of the day was now at the peak and the air was perfectly quiet; only in the canes above us, that light amber cone of thatch from which a dry vegetable odor descended, I heard small creatures, beetles and perhaps birds or mice, which stirred and batted and bristled. At this moment I was too tired even for a drink (we carried a few canteens filled with bourbon) and was thinking only of the crisis, and how to destroy the frogs in the cistern. But the prince wanted to talk; and at first I took this for sociability, but presently it appeared that he was leading up to something and I became watchful.
“I go to school in Malindi,” he said. “Wondaful, beautiful town.” This town of Malindi I later checked into; it was an old dhow port on the east coast famous in the Arab slave trade. Itelo spoke of his wanderings. He and his friend Dahfu, who was now king of the Wariri, had traveled together, taking off from the south. They shipped on the Red Sea in some old tubs and worked on the railroad built by the Turks to the Al Medinah before the Great War. With this I was slightly familiar, for my mother had been wrapped up in the Armenian cause, and from reading about Lawrence of Arabia I had long ago realized how much American education was spread through the Middle East. The Young Turks, and Enver Pasha himself, if I am not mistaken, studied in American schools-though how they got from “The Village Blacksmith” and “sweet Alice and laughing Allegra” to wars and plots and massacres would make an interesting topic. But this Prince Itelo of the obscure cattle tribe on the Hinchagara plateau had attended a mission school in Syria, and so had his Wariri friend. Both had returned to their remote home. “Well,” I said, “I guess it was great for you to go and find out what things are like.”
The prince was smiling, but his posture had become very tense at the same time; his knees had spread wide apart and he pressed the ground with the thumb and knuckle of one hand. Yet he continued to smile and I realized that we were on the verge of something. We were seated face to face on a pair of low stools within the thatched hut, which gave the effect of a big sewing basket; and everything that had happened to me-the long trek, hearing zebras at night, the sun moving up and down daily like a musical note, the color of Africa, and the cattle and the mourners, and the yellow cistern water and the frogs, had worked so on my mind and feelings that everything was balanced very delicately inside. Not to say precariously.
“Prince,” I said, “what’s coming off here?”
“When stranger guest comes we allways make acquaintance by wrestle. Invariable.”
“That seems like quite a rule,” I said, very hesitant. “Well, I wonder, can’t you waive it once, or wait a while, as I am completely tuckered out?”
“Oh, no,” he said. “New arrival, got to wrestle. Allways.”
“I see,” I said, “and I reckon you must be the champion here.” This was a question I could answer for myself. Naturally, he was the champion, and this was why he had come to meet me and why he had entered the hut. It explained also the excitement of the kids back in the river bed, who knew there would be a wrestling match. “Well, Prince,” I said, “I am almost willing to concede without a contest. After all, you have a tremendous build and, as you see, I am an older fellow.”
This however he disregarded, and he put his hand to the back of my neck and began to pull me to the ground. Surprised, but still respectful, I said, “Don’t, Prince. Don’t do that. I think I have the weight advantage of you.” As a matter of fact, I didn’t know how to take this. Romilayu was standing by but revealed no opinion in answer to the look I shot him. My white helmet, with passport, money, and papers taped into it, fell off and the long-unbarbered karakul hair sprang up at the back of my neck as Itelo tugged me down with him. All the while I was trying-trying, trying, to classify this event. This Itelo was terribly strong, and he got astride me, in his roomy white pants and the short middy, and worked me down on the floor of the hut. But I kept my arms rigid as if they were tied to the sides and let him push and pull me at will. Now I lay on my belly, face in the dust and my legs dragging on the ground.
“Come, come,” he kept saying, “you mus’ fight me, sir.”
“Prince,” I said, “with respect, I am fighting.” You couldn’t blame him for not believing me, and he climbed over me in the long-hung white pants with his huge legs and bare feet of the same light color as his hands, and dropping onto his side he worked a leg under me as a fulcrum and caught me around the throat. Breathing very hard and saying (closer to my face than I liked), “Fight. Fight, you Henderson. What is the mattah?”
“Your Highness,” I said, “I am a kind of commando. I was in the War, and they had a terrific program at Camp Blanding. They taught us to kill, not just wrestle. Consequently, I don’t know how to wrestle. But in man-to-man combat I am pretty ugly to tangle with. I know all kinds of stuff, like how to rip open a person’s cheek by hooking a finger in his mouth, and how to snap bones and gouge the eyes. Naturally I don’t care for that kind of conflict. It so happens I am trying to stay off violence. Why, the last time I just raised my voice it had very bad consequences. You understand,” I panted, as the dust had worked up into my nose, “they taught us all this dangerous know-how and I tell you I shrink from it. So let’s not fight. We’re too high,” I said, “on the scale of civilization-we should be giving all our energy to the question of the frogs instead.”