The chief told them that farther to the east and the south of the place where the former slaves lived as the guests of an hospitable people, beyond the swamps and mountains, there were big freshwater seas. The seas were so big that they could only be crossed on special boats and that the crossing took several days. These freshwater seas* formed a long chain, one after the other, running in a southerly direction, and were surrounded by mountains that belched smoke, flames and rivers of fire. (The freshwater seas — the great lakes of East Africa). Beyond these seas, however, there was dry land, high plateaux with numerous wild animals, while the real edge of the earth, the shore of the endless sea, lay still farther to the east, beyond a fringe of swamps.
On the plateaux stood two gigantic, blindingly white mountains, not very far from each caber, the beauty of which cannot be conceived by a man who has not seen them for himself. (Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro, two of the highest peaks on the African continent.)
These mountains, he said, were surrounded by dense jungles inhabited by savage peoples and mysterious animals of an ancient type that were very rare and quite impossible to describe. The Elephant People had seen canyons filled with the bones of huge animals mixed with the bones of human beings and fragments of their stone weapons. In the thickets that surround the northernmost white mountain there were wild boars as big as a rhinoceros, and once they had seen an animal there as big as an elephant and much heavier, with two horns placed side by side at the end of its jowl.
People lived in floating villages ( Villages built on huge rafts are still to be seen on the great East African lakes) on the freshwater seas where they could not be reached by their enemies; these were savage people who gave no quarter to anybody.
Pandion asked the chief how far to the south the land of Africa ran and whether it was true that there the sun was again lower.
The old man livened up at this question. It turned out that he had commanded a big expedition to the south when he had been less than forty years old. They went on twenty selected elephants for gold and for the precious grass of the southern plains that gives strength to the aged and health to the sick.
Beyond the great river (The Zambezi with the Victoria Falls.) that flows from west to east, where there are giant waterfalls and a permanent rainbow plays in the high columns of spray, there are endless blue grass plains. Along the fringes of these grassy plains, along the seacoast, in the west and in the east, there are mighty trees whose leaves seem to be made from polished metal and glitter in the sun like a million mirrors.
The grass and leaves in the south, said the old man, are not green but grey, pale blue and dove-coloured, which makes the country look strange and cold. It is true, too, that the farther you go to the south the colder becomes the climate. The period of the rains, he added, which coincides with our dry season, is unbearably cold for northern people.
The old man told Pandion about an extraordinary silver tree that is found in the mountain gorges far to the south. The tree grows to a height of thirty cubits, has thin bark with transverse wrinkles, many branches covered with leaves shine like silver and are as soft as down; the tree, he said, is possessed of a magic beauty that charms all who see it.
Barren stony mountains, he continued, rose up like gigantic purple towers with vertical walls, at the foot of which crouched twisted trees, covered with large bunches of bright red flowers.
On the barren parts of the plain and the stony slopes of the hills ugly, twisted bushes and low trees grew.
(Various kinds of aloe-trees from the Liliaceae family, also dragon-trees.)
Their fleshy leaves, filled with poisonous sap, were attached like outspread fingers to the ends of twin branches that shot straight up into the air. Other trees had the same sort of leaves, reddish in colour, growing in the form of a cap curving downwards at the end of a curved stem, four cubits high, on which there were no branches.
Near the rivers and on the fringe of the forests, there were the ruins of ancient buildings made of huge dressed stones, apparently the work of a powerful and highly skilled people. “Today,” said the old chief, “there is nobody living in the vicinity of these ruins except the dangerous wild dogs that howl there in the moonlight. Nomad herdsmen and poor hunters wander the plains. Still farther to the south there are people with light grey skins, who have huge herds of cattle, but the expedition of the Elephant People did not go so far.” (Tribes of the Hottentot type were much more widespread in times of antiquity than at present. There is some reason to believe them related to the ancient Egyptians.)
Pandion and Kidogo listened avidly to the old chief’s stories. His tale of the blue plains seemed like fancy interwoven with fact, but still the old man’s voice sounded convincing; he frequently stared into the distance, his eyes flashing with excitement, and it seemed to Pandion that pictures of the past, retained in his memory, were passing before the old man’s eyes.
Suddenly the chief broke off.
“You’ve stopped working,” he said, “and I’ll have to sit before you for many more days!”
Pandion hurried although it did not seem as though haste were essential; he felt that the old chief’s bust was more successful than anything he had ever done before. He had acquired his skill gradually and imperceptibly, despite all he had gone through; his tremendous experience and his observations in Aigyptos stood him in good stead.
On the third day Pandion compared his bust with the face of the chief several times.
“It’s ready,” he said with a profound sigh.
“Have you finished?” asked the chief and, seeing that Pandion nodded in confirmation, got up and went over to his portrait.
Kidogo looked in admiration at Pandion’s work, scarcely able to restrain words of approval.
The clay, despite its uniform colour, had taken on all typical features of that stern, wise and imperious face, with its firm, protruding jaws, its wide, sloping forehead, heavy lips and thick nose with distended nostrils.
The old man turned to the house and called out softly.
His call was answered by one of his wives, a young woman, with a large number of tiny plaits cut short like a fringe on her forehead. She gave the chief a mirror of polished silver, obviously northern work, that had got into the centre of Africa by some unknown ways.
The chief held the mirror at arm’s length against the cheek of the statue and began to compare his reflection with Pandion’s work.
Pandion and Kidogo awaited the old man’s judgement. The chief was silent for a long time, and then he put down the mirror and said:
“Great is the power of man’s ability… You, stranger, possess this ability more than anybody in our country. You have made me better than I am — that means that you think well of me. I’ll pay you in your own coin. What reward do you want?”
Kidogo gave Pandion a push, but the young Hellene answered the chief with words that seemed to come from his very heart.
“Everything I own you see before you. I have nothing but the spear that was given to me…” Pandion stammered and continued jerkily: “I need nothing here in a strange land. I have my own country; it is far away but still it is my greatest treasure. Help me get back home.”
The elephant trainer placed his hand on the Hellene’s shoulder with a paternal gesture.