The way of fighting of the Jaqqas was most shrewd. When they came into any country that was strong, which they could not the first day conquer, then Calandola would order them to build their sturdy fort, and they would remain sometimes a month or two quiet. For Calandola said to me, “It is as great a war to the inhabitants to see me settled in their country, as though I fought with them every day.” The houses of the Jaqqa town were built very close together, and outside each the men kept their bows, arrows, and darts; and when the alarm was given, they all would rush suddenly out of the fort and seize their weapons and be ready to do battle, no matter the hour. Every company kept very good watch at the gates in the night, playing upon their drums and the wooden instruments called tavales, and there was never any relaxing of vigilance.
Sometimes some of the most rash of the beleaguered townspeople might come out and assault the Jaqqas at their fort; but when this happened, the Jaqqas did defend themselves most staunchly for two or three days. And when Calandola was minded to give the onset, he would, in the night, put out some one thousand men: which did bed themselves down in an ambuscade about a mile from the fort. Then in the morning the great Jaqqa would go with all his strength out of the fort, as though he would capture the town. The inhabitants coming near the fort to defend their country, the Jaqqas gave the watchword with their drums, and then the men hidden in ambuscade did rise, and fall upon them from the other side, so that very few did escape. And that day Calandola would overrun the country, which in fright and panic yielded itself up without further struggle. I saw this tactic worked many times, and always in success.
Of the courage of the Jaqqas there seemed to be no limit. But there is good reason for this, since like the Spartans of old they are trained from boyhood toward valor. First there is the custom of putting the slave-collar to the newly adopted Jaqqas, that they must wear until they have killed a foe in battle. For a boy to wear this collar is accounted no disgrace, at least when he is thirteen or fourteen. But if he go a year or two beyond that, and still is collared, the men do mock him and the girls will not lie with him, and he will rush forward in battle to slay or be slain, lest he be accounted worthless.
You may readily see from this that only the warlike Jaqqas live to manhood, and the weak ones are culled from the tribe early. But if by some accident of fortune a weakling endures, he will not endure long into his mature years: for those soldiers that are faint-hearted, and are seen turning their backs to the enemy, are presently condemned and killed for cowards, and their bodies eaten. I have seen this.
I asked Kinguri once why they would make the flesh of a coward part of their own flesh, and he looked upon me frowning as if I had asked of him in Greek or Hebrew, and said at last, “The cowardice of them is boiled away in the pot, and what remains is their inborn vigor, which we consume.”
They had many other ways of increasing themselves in courage. One I saw during the time after the conquest of Kalungu, where we remained five or six months, making use of the substance of those farming folk. It happened that some Jaqqa huntsmen did capture a lion of great fierceness, which they took in a very strong trap, using a kid as bait. This lion, which was a she-lion—and they are very much more fierce than the male—they chained down to the trunk of a great red-barked tree in the midst of a spacious plain outside their fort. Nearby, in the top of another tree, the Jaqqas did erect a sort of scaffold, capable of holding the Imbe-Jaqqa and the chiefest of his lords, among whom I was now reckoned.
When Calandola and all his court had mounted this scaffold, the other Jaqqas who had assembled in a great circle began to set up a huge noise, which joined with the untunable discord of a great number of odd musical instruments to compose a hellish concert. Then a sudden sign was given for all to be hush and silent; and then the lion was immediately loosed, though with the loss of her tail, which was at the same time whipped off to make her the more furious.
At her first looking the lion stared about, comprehending that she was again at liberty, but not altogether free, by reason of the multitude of Jaqqas that surrounded her. At once she set up a hideous roar, and then, greedy of revenge, she launched herself into the company of onlookers. Who did not flee, but rather ran toward the lion. She did fall upon them, rending one, and tearing another, and making a fearful havoc among them: all this, while the people ran round her unarmed, being resolved either to kill her with their bare hands, or to perish. I had never seen the like of this bloody event even in my strangest dreams, and I thought for an instant I was at the Circus in old Rome, seeing Christians tossed to the wild beasts. But these were no Christians, and they had gone joyously and willingly toward that ravening she-lion.
In utter amaze I watched as the bleeding beast raked this Jaqqa and that one with her claws, or griped at them with her fangs. She slew more than a few of her assailants, spilling their entrails in the dust with great sweeping onslaughts of her limbs. And all this time the Jaqqas closed their ring, moving inward, and fighting and jostling with one another for the privilege of being of the innermost ring, that confronted the she-lion most closely.
It seemed like madness to me. And yet I was stirred by it: my heart did race, my blood did grow heated, my sweat to flow. I hunched myself forward to the edge of the scaffold, and clenched my fists so that my nails did nigh pierce my palms, and shouted out to the ones below, “Beware! Turn! Jump! Guard yourself!” as the lion worked her rampage.
The other lordly Jaqqas likewise were well gripped by the carnal spectacle. Calandola did growl and roar to himself, eyes half-closed as though he were lost in a dream of gory welter. Ferocious Kulambo, who was a great huntsman, shouted encouragement to those in jeopardy, and clapped his hands and cried out at their bravery. The dark-souled and brooding Machimba-lombo made low sounds in the depths of his throat, and strained in his seat, plainly yearning to be down there with the crowd. Even the austere philosopher Kinguri, who trafficked in such high questions of faith and money and government, showed himself now as bestial as the others, as deep in the sanguinary passion of the moment. Yet were we all but onlookers, constrained to remain in our scaffolding. That was made clear when Machimba-lombo at last could stand no more, and rose, and cried, “I will go to them!”
“You may not,” said the Imbe-Jaqqa, cold and sharp.
“I beg it, Lord Calandola! I cannot sit longer!”
“The lion-circle is no longer for you,” replied his master. “You are of the captains now, and here will you stay.”
There was palpable strain in the air between them: I saw the throbbing in the proud Machimba-lombo’s throat and forehead, like that of a Titan enchained. He moved most slowly, as if through a tangible fog, toward the ladder, and he was trembling with the effort of it. Calandola hissed at him: Machimba-lombo halted. He fought within himself. Kinguri touched his wrist lightly and said in a soft way, “Come, take your ease, and watch the sport. For it is not fitting to go below, at your rank, good friend.” It was like the letting out of air from some swollen bladder. Machimba-lombo, moved by Kinguri’s gentle words where Calandola’s rage had not swayed him, subsided and resumed his place, and the moment passed.
Below, there was scarce any room at last for the beast to make her attack, so tight was the pressing crowd of Jaqqas about her: and they rushed in, with a terrible cry, and seized the beast and forced her down, and by sheer weight and force did crush her and choke the life from her. Each of the Jaqqa warriors strived to outdo the others in the taking of risk and leaping on the lion. And after a time a vast outroar went up from them all, saying, “The beast is dead!” They all did withdraw to the outer edge of the circle, leaving in the midst the dead lion, now looking merely to be a great tabby-cat that was asleep, and about her some members of their own tribe that she had slain.