Could I then refuse their hospitality?
Politely had I declined circumcision, by the claim that it was a matter of religious belief not to give myself over to it. Well, and I had kept my foreskin, though at the time I still was not sure I would be excused from the surgery altogether. But how, at a feast, could I turn away the meat they would proffer me? More religious qualms? Would they accept that answer, or would Calandola’s lively spirit, that had been so amused by my whiteness of skin and the virginity of my Queen, suddenly turn against me, so that in wrath he condemned me to the stew-pot? Perilous indeed it was to throw myself upon the mercies of these cannibals: for they were devils, in good sooth, and I was minded of that old saw, that he who sups with the Devil must have a long spoon.
“A feast!” they all cried. “A feast!”
Whereupon the Jaqqas rushed as though caught by a whirlwind out of the house of the Imbe-Jaqqa, though each, as he took his leave, did spin about and make a sign of respect to their terrible master. Calandola and Kinguri and the wives and witches were the last to leave, and they took me with them. Across all the town of the Jaqqas did we walk, and into the town of Calicansamba, and to the open square where the three gigantic metal tubs were seated. Now was the feast prepared before our eyes, to the accompaniment of much beating on drums, and hellish playing of trumpets and fifes, and awful screeching on other instruments the like of which I had not seen before, that were something like the viols of Europe, but with only a single string.
Fires were lit, and the kettle-water was heated. And into the kettles went these things:
The flesh of a cow, that was butchered before us with a single stroke of a sword against its neck, and then fast work done with a flaying knife.
The flesh of a goat, slain the same way.
The flesh of a yellow dog, that howled most piteously until the knife took its throat.
A cock. A pigeon.
And into each pot, also, the body of a prisoner that they summoned out from a pen and slew before my eyes. These were three heavy-muscled warriors of some interior tribe, that spoke out curses in a language I did not know, and raged, and pounded his fists together. As much avail them to rail at the Angel of Death! Each of these three was killed with a wound that preserved the blood within his body, and fell away from life with a long sighing gurgle of despair, and then the blood was carefully drained off by artisans whose science this was, and shunted into the storage vessel where that fluid was kept. Jaqqa carvers next did work upon these new corpses to make them ready for the cooking, and when they were well carved to fit the vessels, in they went, alongside the other meats.
To the bubbling cook-pots also were added fruits and vegetables of the region, heaps and mounds of them, the bean called nkasa and the hot pepper and the onions, and cucurbits, and I know not what else: for I must tell you that my brain was so numbed by seeing those protesting men slain and chopped and put to boil that I failed to observe some of the latter details of the cooking.
And all the while did the drums resound, the trumpets shriek.
And what did I think, what did I feel?
Why, I tell you on my oath, I felt nothing. Nothing did I feel. For there comes a time, I tell you, when the mind is so overladen by strangeness and shock that it merely sees without reflecting and that was what I did now, standing beside the lord of the cannibals and his brothers and the priests of the tribe. And I said nothing, I thought nothing, I only watched. This was what the voyage of my life had brought me to, that I had drifted as though by sea-wrack to this place at this time, among these harsh folk, and they were readying their evening meal. And God in His wisdom had caused me to be here, wherefore I was not to ask questions of Him.
I did pray, though, that when it came to the serving out of the meat, they would give me to partake of the cow, or of the goat, or even of the dog, and of no other kind of flesh.
Now the palm-wine did flow freely, the Imbe-Jaqqa drinking in his gluttonous way from his special skull-cup, and having his wine mixed with blood the half to the half, and all the others of us taking our fill from a seemingly limitless supply that came in vessels of wood. My head did sway and my face came to be flushed and moist. There was dancing, most lewd and lascivious in its nature, by the younger men and some of the women, and the drums grew even louder, so that they pounded against the temples of my skull like hammers.
Calandola now rose and stepped from his garment. Several of his wives reached into the vat where the human fat was stored, and gathered the same and rubbed it on his naked body to renew his gloss, covering every inch of him, his belly and his thighs and his huge privities and all else. After which, new ornaments were drawn upon him with colored stones, and he clothed himself once more in his beads and shells and fine waist-cloth. Some of the wives did also swab themselves with the glistening fat, but no others. There was loud singing, and forty or fifty women did come and stand about the Imbe-Jaqqa, holding in each hand the tail of that wild horse called the zevvera, which they switched back and forth. The handles of these switches, so it was said, contain a potent medicine, that protected the Imbe-Jaqqa from all harm.
And after a long while of these barbarous festivities, the cry went up that the meat was cooked, and the eating could thereupon commence.
Kinguri said to me, “It is first-feast for you, and so we make great holiday tonight, Andubatil!”
“I am grateful for this high honor.”
“It is the law that the Imbe-Jaqqa must eat before all others. But you are to be second.”
For this, too, I did give most courteous thanks.
Then did a man-witch of the royal court, covered from head to toe with chalked markings that made him look himself like a capering zevvera, go to the centermost of the three cauldrons, and take from it with his bare hands out of the boiling water a joint of meat, and hold it high, and show it to the Jaqqas. Who set up at once the most hideous howling and wailing, as is their way of showing approval, though it sounds like the shrieks of Pandemonium itself.
And there was no mistaking this haunch, that it was neither cow nor goat nor dog, and I knew whereof that meat had come.
The witch did carry the steaming meat forth to Calandola, and held it out to the Imbe-Jaqqa to be inspected. Calandola made a sound of assent, and took a deep slavering draught of his bloodied palm-wine, and seized the haunch after that with both his hands, and put his jaws to it and ripped away a great piece.
“Ayayya! Ayayya! Ayayya!” cried the Jaqqas, capering ever more wildly.
And then did the Imbe-Jaqqa turn to me, with the great slab of meat in his hands.
O! The world did spin about me, so that I was the very center and vortex of it, and thought I would be whirled apart! O! And there was a storm in my brain, and a throbbing of my soul, and I felt my breast would burst!
O! and I prayed that the earth might open and swallow me, that I should not have to partake of this that was offered me!
Yet was I not engulfed, nor did I fall down faint, nor was there any hiding place. And I grew calm and told myself, as I had told myself often enough before, that all this was meant for some high purpose beyond my understanding.
“Take and eat,” said Calandola.
“Lord,” I said, saying it aloud and in English, “I am Andrew Battell Thy servant, and I have fallen into a strange fate, which no doubt Thou had good reason for sending upon me. I will do Thy bidding in all things and I look to Thee to preserve me and to keep my body from peril and my soul from corruption. Amen.” This was mine own prayer, that I had invented myself long ago among the Portugals of São Paulo de Loanda. That prayer had stood me in such good stead thus far, and in uttering it now I felt a great ease of the soul. I took the meat from Calandola, who smiled upon me as benignly as though this were my baptism.