Bones of the River - Edgar Wallace [70]
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There was a man who lived in the country behind Bolibi, who was very wealthy. He ate dog every day of his life, and his wives occupied seventeen different huts. Therefore they called him “Jomo-Nsambo,” which means “ten and seven.” His plantations of corn and manico covered the land in patches, and in these his wives worked constantly. He was a just man and used the chicotte with great discernment, never beating even a woman unless she had committed a foolish act.
One day he went hunting with his young men, for, although he was neither chief by choice nor Government-appointed capita, he exercised a lordship even over chiefs, by reason of his wealth, and crooked his finger for all the following he needed.
Whilst he was in the forest, his tenth wife, N’kama, received a lover near the Pool of the Skies, which is a dry pan in the summer and a marsh in the rainy season, and for this reason is so called.
The lover was a tall young man and a greatly popular man with women. Yet because he loved the tenth wife of Jomo-Nsambo, he was faithful to her for one season. His name was Lolango, which in the Bomongo language is “The Desired.”
“Woman, I have slept seven nights in this forest waiting for you,” he said, “and it is very good to touch you. For two moons I have wanted you, as you know, for was I not a guest in your husband’s hut, and did I not say exciting things to you when he slept? But you have been as cold as a dead fish, though I have sent you wonderful words by the woman Msaro who is your servant.”
“Lord,” she said meekly, “I could not believe that the Desired would desire. And all the stories Msaro told me I thought were foolish. Now I am here.”
He made love to her in his fashion. The woman was wonderful to him, and he did not wish to leave her, but because there was a secret likambo, or council, in the forest by the Kasai River, and that was a two days’ journey, he must be parted from her.
“Let me go with you, Lolango,” she said, “for I think Msaro hates me, and will speak to my husband when he returns.”
But this, in terror of death, Lolango would not do.
“Woman,” he said, in a hushed voice, “this likambo is ‘Ta ’.” And he made a whistling noise to express the awfulness of the occasion, and opened his eyes wide.
The woman heard the forbidden word without displaying any emotion.
“Then I will give you magic to protect you,” she said, and he waited two hours whilst she returned to her village and brought back a bag which was filled with little red berries such as are not seen in this country.
“These I bought from a white trader,” she said, “and in each lies a very powerful devil called ‘The Looker-Behind.’ And when you come to the great forest by the Kasai, which, as all men know, is full of ghosts, you shall drop a red berry every time your feet say bonkama.[6] And the red devil shall come out and no ghost shall follow after you.”
He shivered, but eyed the handful of berries in his palm with friendliness.
“There are ghosts of great size and ugliness in the forest,” he agreed. “Now, I love you for this magic, N’kama, and I will bring back to you a wonderful cloth such as the Jesus women wear to hide their skins.”
So he went away, and she looked after him and spat on the ground. Then she bathed her body in the river and walked with swaying hips toward her hut. She had done her part and had no regrets, save for the bag of beautiful red berries. She would gladly have made a necklace of these. But better he took them than that she should tramp two days with him, she thought.
On the outskirts of the village a man met her. He had the Arab features and the Arab litheness of body, but he wore his cloth native fashion.
“N’kama,” he said, “where is the man?”
“He has gone, master: also, he has taken the red seeds.”
“Tell me, N’kama,