The next day I decided to take my usual pre-breakfast 'stroll', as I used to call it, into the majambi, or jungle, to see if I could catch sight of the very rare 'Chukawati Bati' or Bird of Purgatory, which 'Trusty' as we all called our faithful native ghabi or guide had reported seeing the previous latbani (evening) while we were looking for Harry's leg.
I had only been 'strolling' along the majambi (jungle) ortobam
(path) for a few minutes when I became aware of a large and rather fierce
fritbangowonkabmaki, or lion, which was standing partially hidden
in the pteee, or clearing. I had strayed so close to him, absorbed as I
was in my ornithological questi (quest) that when the splendid old
thing opened its massive goti (jaws) to roar, revealing as fine
a womba, or set, of teeth as I have seen in an adult male, each one as
bewapsiptoof (sharp) as a Welshman's head, I could, without so much
as leaning forward, have taken his magnificent uvula in my left hand. Taking
advantage of my good luck, I did so, tweaked it hard, an old English colonial
officer's granwi, or trick. The lion was rather bemused by my ploy,
and so I was able to get in a couple of good straight lefts, keeping my
guard well up, to his upper palate and follow them with a cracking good
right cross, moving my weight into the punch (as old 'Buffy' Spalding had
taught me so many years ago, prior to the needle match against Uppington
when 'Spindly' Crabber got up off the floor six times so pluckily only
just to fail to win the draw which would have halved the batwel or match),
right into my opponent's mane. Then dancing back a couple of paces, I weaved
about causing fritbangowonkabmaki to miss wildly with his crude
haymakers while I notched up a few useful points with my left strati, or
hand, and I soon found that by this simple strategy of keeping him from
getting,in close, where his mighty jaws could have done a lot of nagasaki,
or damage, I could pick him off pretty much at leisure, In fact it was
only after some twenti (20) minutes, by which time I was well in
rogambi (front), that, after a particularly nifty sidestep, I happened
to glance around the clearing only to discover that our contest was now
being watched by a circle of some fifteen odd of fritbangowonkabwaki’s
chums, some of whom were already beginning to edge forward, manes bristling
and teeth akimbo, towards our good selves.
It was the work of a moment to divine from their magnificent expressions
that they were taking a decidedly partisan attitude to our match, and that
they would have few qualms about joining in on my opponent's side if necessary;
and so, judging that, if they did, they would eventually subdue me by sheer
weight of numbers, I took the better part of valour, and feinting away
from another of fritbangowonkabwaki's wild rushes, I got in a parting short
jab to the base of his tail (not a blow I was proud of although it put
him down for several minutes, but which I felt was excused by the exigencies
of the situation, due, after all, to the unsporting behaviour of his colleagues
in the first place) before springing upwards towards a lowly hanging branch
of an enormous bwinda tree (a species related distantly to our own Elm
(elm), but easily distinguishable by its broad unevenly veined leaf with
its characteristic cheetah's paw shape, and the peculiar purple-ochre colour
of the outer leaves of its gimbi, or buds), some fifteen feet above my
head. I had leapt not a moment too soon, for, although I had gained a firm
grasp upon the handy branch, two of fritbangowonkabwaki's pals,
leaping with me, had each seized one of my trusty boots in their jaws whilst
a third had succeeded in firmly embedding his fangs (teeth) in the seat
of my pants, albeit not in my sit-upon itself but in the surrounding material
thereof. What a strange sight I must have made, hanging unshaven from the
branch with three enormous lions attached to me! It was not, indeed, without
difficulty that I pulled myself up until I could take the branch in my
mouth, thus freeing my hands for the more important work of detaching the
determined trio, whose bites, however, proved to be so woki, or vice-like,
that I eventually decided, not without regret, that it was only by actually
abandoning the relevant apparel that I could free myself of their attentions.
Unlacing a jungle boot while hanging by one's teeth from a tree with
three angry lions attached is not as easy as it might seem, when the lions
concerned companions beneath, but eventually it was done, and right boot
and lion plummeted back into the clearing, followed rapidly by their opposite
numbers, With the vastly reduced load the shorts were a formality and in
a trice I was seated comfortably on the branch looking down at the enraged
horde beneath, who by now, incidentally, must have numbered well over a
hundred. I must say they were making a truly memorable din (shindy).
However, I was feeling distinctly peckish by now, and so doffing my sola
topi rather humorously in their direction I turned for home and breakfast,
hoping fritbangowonkabwaki and company would lose interest in me
if I stuck to the trees for the first couple of miles. Another old trick,
or granwi.
Imagine my surprise, when I discovered sitting next to me on the branch,
blocking my path, one of the largest yumbotos (Congolese gorillas)
I have ever set eyes on, and I've seen a few in my time, including one
old female at Chukambara, or New Bolton, who, in fit of pique (rage)
brought on by being struck by lightning, tore an anvil in half much to
everyone's surprise. It is said that his extraordinary strength, allied
to his almost legendary short temper, makes yumboto the most feared creature
in the whole of Africa, although many claim they will never attack a man
unless he comes within three miles of them. Well, this fellow was certainly
a magnificent specimen, with forearms as thick as a poti's nangatwami,
or sitpu, and judging from the malevolent expression upon his face
bad tempered to a fault. I handed him my topi, as a gesture of friendship,
but he merely started poking holes in the crown of it with his index finger
while looking at me in what seemed to be a deliberately significant way.
With the lions below, this chap barring my way, and no other branch within
leaping distance, I decided there was nothing for it but to sit tight and
hope that something would turn up, but before I could put this plan into
operation yumboto started edging towards me, and reaching for my head.
I backed warily away towards the end of the branch, which served only to
infuriate him further; the reason for which I soon discovered, when I bumped
into a second gorilla, who had obviously been sitting between me and the
end of the branch throughout, and who was equally obviously my pursuers
mate (wife). In a flash it became clear to me that he had interpreted my
sudden arrival between them as an attempt to infringe their relationship,
and my subsequent retreat from him as the first step in my campaign to
win her favours. What an amusing notion! Time was running short, however,
and so I formulated a ruse. If I could persuade the jealous husband to
rush the last few inches towards me, it was possible that the branch would
snap under our combined weight and activity and that I would then use the
split second before we fell to employ him as a kind of vaulting horse,
executing the simple half somersault 'Buffy' Spalding had taught me all
those years ago, to gain the branch beyond him and above the point where
it would probably break. I could then return to breakfast unhindered, as
my erstwhile companions would be forced to continue their quarrel with
fritbangowonkabwaki and his chums beneath, So I turned to yumboto's mate,
slapped her bottom in a lewd sort of way, and planted a kiss full on her
lips. This produced the required rush from yumboto, the branch snapped
and everything went according to plan.
As I made my way back to camp through the trees some otwanibokotwikatanafryingpanibwanabotomafekazami
(five) minutes later I noticed to my surprise on the majambi, or
stakawi, or chittamba, or jungle path below me not
only the sixty or seventy lions who had been following me since I'd
left the vicinity of the clearing, but also, hurrying along in the middle
of this group, and peering constantly up at me, none other than yumboto's
mate! From this I was able to glean that far from scrapping among themselves
as I had hoped, fritbangowonkabwaki's pals and my gorillas had joined forces
and were now pursuing me, as it were, hand in glove. At that moment I heard
a sound behind me and, turning, I spotted, swinging through the trees towards
me, yumboto and thirty or forty of the more agile lions. As luck would
have it, I was at that moment within half a mile of the Wananga River and
so I set off at full speed in its direction, reasoning that if I could
find a convenient creeper straddling its surging waters I could reach the
far bank, thus making further pursuit more difficult.
I had a head start and managed by brachiating, to hold my lead all
the way to the river, where, to my delight, I spotted a solitary creeper
suspended from a tree just upstream, across the cascading torrent, to the
forest the other side. Ideal! Once I had crossed, I could destroy the only
method of doing so, and complete my 'stroll' on foot. It was the work of
a moment to gain the tree whence my creeper hung and soon I was well on
my way towards the far bank, admiring the magnificent view of the raging
Wananga directly beneath. Indeed I was not halfway across before I began
to realise that my 'creeper' was not all it might be, and looking towards
the far end of it I was astonished to see, staring back at me from a wak-wak
tree, the unmistakable square head, yellow-green criss-cross markings and
fearful fangs of an anaconda! I will admit I was astounded! An anaconda
in Africa! How it could ever have found its way there from the banks of
the Amazon, let alone why it should have been asleep in this strange position,
I shall never know but as I soon confirmed from the characteristic
heptagonal scales and the suffused neutral colouring I was grasping an
anaconda it was, and one that clearly took exception to being demoted to
viaduct. So with one mighty flick of its rippling body, I was sent spinning
where I had to dodge a passing eagle, high, high up into the air, before
being able to plunge downwards into the waiting maelstrom (river).
I had already surmised that my new surroundings would pose a different
problem, for the Wananga is notorious both for the quantity of its hippopotamus
and crocodile, and also for the degree of rancour with which these two
species regard the human race, and sure enough, on surfacing, I saw the
huge shapes of the former setting off towards me from their station upstream,
while several thousand of the latter bore down on me from the other direction;
so I struck out for the shore with a fast crawl and must have gone some
fifty yards before I came up for my first breath, quite against old Algy
Bartlett's sound advice to breathe regularly and look where you're going
no matter what stage the race is at, which I forgot so disastrously in
the three cornered match against Oundle and Haileybury when, after being
almost ten yards up after eight lengths, I got so tangled up in the ropes
separating the lanes that in the end I had to be content with fourth place
and a solitary point. Anyway I paid for ignoring Algy's guidance because,
when I surfaced only some ten feet from the shore, with the crocs and hippos
hot on my heels, I found myself to my disappointment, confronted by a line
of gorillas and lions at the water's edge, yumboto and fritbangowonkabwaki
well to the fore. In the excitement I had struck out for the wrong bank!
What a pickle to put myself in! Still I had to make the best of a bad job,
so I swam straight at the nearest crocodile, waited until he opened his
enormous jaws and then quick as a flash spurted forward and, snatching
a full lungful of air, hurled myself into his mouth, pulling the jaws shut
after me, and scrambled down his throat, while he was still surprised,
to the relative safety of his stomach, where I stayed, holding my breath,
until I guessed the coast was clear. Then gambling all on a quick getaway,
I worked my way back up his thorax and started insistently tickling the
back of his throat. I did not have long to wait, for the jaws opened suddenly
and I was hurled out into the light of day by the force of the mightiest
cough I have ever experienced at such close quarters, right onto the bank
of the river, believe it or not about 10 (ten) yards from the point
where the rest of the fellows were just tucking into their devilled kidneys.
I must say they were pretty amused to see me appear from a nearby crocodile
without my shorts, but I took their jesting in good part and rejoined them
to salvage what I could from the pan of kidneys.
It may seem that I have rather padded out a commonplace enough tale,
but the real reason that I have recounted my adventure in perhaps rather
unnecessary detail is that exactly the same thing happened to my wife the
very next day.