MARGARITA-MARIA did not often leave her own village
of Matongu. One reason was that she could not trust Bugomi to behave
himself for long without her. True, he had improved of late, for he
attended regularly the catechism classes held by Father Christopher,
and the old missionary had a way of putting things that made even Bugomi
think. But he was still only at the beginning, and he had been heard
to say that catechism was all very well, but there was a lot to be said
for banana beer.
It was very queer, Margarita-Maria used to say, how Bugomi always knew
when someone was making banana beer, he seemed to smell it from a great
distance, and it was always then that he pretended he had some important
business to do with a friend of his. But when he said this, his wife
would look him straight in the eye and ask what the business was, and
then Bugomi would roll his great white eyes and say: "It is not
the business of women-folk." To which Margarita-Maria would answer
grimly: "If it is not the business of women-folk, then it is a
bad business. "
In a village not very far away, however, called Bikonda, there lived
a sister of Margarita-Maria called Njunaki, and one day Njunaki sent
a message saying that she had a pain, a bad pain, and that she wanted
to see her sister. So Margarita-Maria went to see Mama Teresina, and
said to her, "Mama Teresina, my sister Njunaki has a bad pain inside
her, and I must go to Bikonda, but Bugomi is not yet a good man, he
is still more than half bad, so I shall take Johnny with me, and Mulaya
will keep two eyes on Bugomi and cook his manioc and his bananas for
him if he is good. But if he is not good then Mulaya will not cook for
him and Bugomi will grow thin and die.”
Mama Teresina agreed that this was a good plan, and added that she would
also ask Father George to keep two eyes on Bugomi, and that Margarita-Maria
must take great care of her little boy, because it was not good for
little boys with God in their souls to go to places like Bikonda. "However,"
she added, "he must have a very good Guardian Angel to take care
of him, so I am not afraid. "
Wopsy happened to be listening just then, and he felt very pleased and
kissed Mama Teresina on the top of her white veil so that she felt very
happy. And MargaritaMaria packed some things in a piece of bark-cloth
and set off with Shiny-John through the forest.
Bugomi had indeed offered to accompany them to protect them from danger
but Margarita-Maria had laughed very loudly and told him to stay at
home and do some work which, she said, was much better for him. Just
to be on the safe side, however, she went with Shiny-John to the church
on the hill and asked Our Lord in the tabernacle to take care of them
both. And Wopsy, kneeling so happily, too, before the tabernacle, knew
that Our Lord was telling him to look after them, and he felt both proud
and pleased.
The path to Bikonda was very narrow, as were all the paths made by the black men, being made for people who walked not one beside the
other, but behind each other. On either side the great trees of the
forest rose as high as church steeples as if they were fighting each
other to get to the sun. From their high branches great creepers hung
down and trailed over the ground. Now and then Shiny-John saw little
monkeys climbing up and down them and it seemed to him that they sometimes
chattered to him as they rested for an instant. He would have loved
to stay and watch them, but Margarita-Maria hurried on with her rosary
in her hand. She knew that the great forest was the home of other animals,
larger and fiercer than the little monkeys.
Wopsy flew ahead for some distance on either side of the path looking
for anything that might be a danger. Now and then he did see something
that moved quietly through the undergrowth, in and out the thick tangle
of creepers, but he had a way of dealing with such things.  Now
it was a crafty looking snake slipping along and making a hissing sound,
but Wopsy patted it on the head, for he wasn't a bit afraid even, of
the most wicked snakes, and made it go to sleep until Margarita- Maria
and Shiny were a long way ahead.
Another time he came across leopard with Iots of spots on its back prowling
about and looking very hungry. Wopsy stood in front of it and without
knowing why, the leopard stopped, then turned round and hastened away
in the other direction with its tail between its legs.After a time John
began to hang behind so MargaritaMaria asked him if he were tired. John,
who was a brave boy, answered that he wasn't tired, certainly not, but
his legs were. So Margarita-Maria picked him up and carried him on her
back as she had done so often when he was much smaller. Very soon he
was fast asleep.
When he woke again they had come through the great forest and there
before them was the village of Bikonda. It was very like Matongu, with
groups of little huts here and there, each in the middle of a banana
plantation. Margarita-Maria hastened at once to a hut at one end of
the village. It was shaped rather like a funnel upside down with a hole
in the side for a door, and there were hundreds of banana trees all
round it. It was here that Njunaki lived with her husband, Kibi, and
her five children. None of the people in this village were baptised,
but some of them had asked Father George to send a catechist.
Wopsy felt strange at first, being so far from the little church at
Matongu, with the tabernacle and the fight before it, and he felt rather
sad to be surrounded by so many black souls. But he told himself Father
George would change all that very soon, and he went to talk things over
with some of the other Guardian Angels.
"You seem to be managing things rather well at Matongu," said
one of the angels. "We have a terrible time here. There are devils
all over the place, they always seem to be popping up, and the black
people here are very fond of devils. They actually think some of the
devils are the spirits of their grandmothers, and naturally they don't
like to be disrespectful so they listen to them."
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"I know," replied Wopsy, nodding his head. "It used to
be like that at Matongu, but thank goodness there aren't so many about
now. I haven't seen the Mid-Day devil for a long time, and the Business
has only been once lately, because he thought I was away in Heaven!"
"Well, they're just like mosquitoes here!" said the other
Guardian. "You find them all over the place. As for the Mid-Day
devil, there's hardly a day that doesn't put in an appearance. One day
I chased him the way to a concentration camp for devils in Egypt, and
do you know, he was back the very next morning!”
"Never mind," said Wopsy, "when I get back I’ll
tell Father George to hurry up and send a catechist, and who knows,
perhaps one day you will have a Father George too and a little church
and all the devils will go away."
"That would be lovely! " said the Guardian with a sigh, "but
I suppose we shall have to wait a long time, they don't seem to be sending
many missionaries out of Europe just now. They will keep on having wars
and making it difficult, they're even worse at fighting than our black
men, and they can't blame the devils for it either! What a crowd! "
"But there are lots of good people," replied Wopsy, who was
always a cheerful little angel and never depressed. "I know some
of them, and I know a boy who might come out here and be a missionary
one day! "
All the Guardians cheered up when they heard this, and they praised
God together for a bit, to make up for all the black people of Bikonda
who never thought of it, then they went off to look after their charges
and hunt for devils.
Wopsy made up his mind that he would have to take Special care of Shiny-John
in this village with so many devils about. The little boy was playing
with a new friend, one of Njunaki's children, and seemed quite safe.
After a bit, however, they got tired of playing and had a fight to liven
things up a bit. Margarita-Maria came out and, not knowing who began
it, boxed the ears of both of them to be on the safe side and they stopped
being friends for a bit. Shiny-John thought it would be rather fun to
go for a little walk by himself, and although Wopsy whispered in his
ear that perhaps it wasn't quite the right thing to do he set off all
the same.
The plantation was surrounded by a hedge of shrubs, but John soon found
an opening that led out into the great wide world of freedom. All around
could be seen other banana plantations and other huts, with wisps of
smoke curling up from the fires; smoke that smelt to those who were
near of stewing bananas and mixed vegetabIes, including such queer things
as sweet potatoes.
Shiny looked all round, paying no attention at all to Wopsy who was
looking as cross as it is possible for an angel to look. Then it occurred
to him that there might be interesting things to see behind some of
the other hedges. He could see another opening from where he stood;
and he trotted off towards it.
There in the middle of the banana trees, no higher than a tall man,
he saw an untidy-looking hut, and seated before it, listening to the
bubbling in a stew-pot, sat an interesting looking man. He was old,
for his black face was puckered and wrinkled, and he smoked from a long
thin pipe quite a foot long. From his shoulders an ancient and very
grubby-looking leopard skin was hanging, and round his neck there were
strings of beads and cowrie shells. Altogether he looked most exciting,
and Shiny-John trotted up to him and stood before him, considering him
attentively with his head on one side.
The old man said nothing at first but just smoked away, rather like
the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. But, of course, this didn't
occur to John, who had never heard of Alice. Then the old man took his
pipe from his mouth and said, "Ho! " which might have meant
anything. He put the pipe back and smoked again for a bit, then once
more be spoke, this time in rather a dreamy sort of way; and this was
what he said: "When I was your age and the trees of the forest
were twigs, small boys minded their own business and sat by their own
fires." Then he looked at John attentively and added in a thoughtful
sort of way, "There was a time when I should have cooked and eaten
a small boy like you, and then come home for a meal! "
Shiny did not seem worried by this piece of information, for he simply
replied, "You must be a very old, old man, and I think you must
have been very wicked."
The old man bent over to the pot and picked out a banana that was almost
cooked. This he handed to John, who seized it greedily and sat down
to enjoy it. Then the old man continued as if talking to himself.
"Those were the good old days. There were no Bwana white men then.
Ah, King Karagwe was a great King! And he never had a more faithful
chief executioner than old Kamanzi. The man of blood they used to call
me, and it was a good name. Every morning before breakfast the King
used to line up the people of the court, and he would say, 'Kamanzi,
this one you will kill this moming because I do not like the look in
his eye, and this one you will kill this afternoon because his necklace
is round the wrong way, and this one you will fry for supper this evening
because it is my wish.' And if anyone sneezed, he would say, 'Kamanzi,
take him away and cut off his head.' And sometimes after a battle we
would make a great fire and we would bum all the prisoners, and we would
dance round the fire and shout 'Ho! Ho! Ho!' "
While he was talking thus Kamanzi's eyes grew large and fierce, and
when he had finished he stood up and began to dance round the fire in
a horrible crouching sort of way. Then he shouted to John, "Dance!
dance I" and John, with a look of fear in his eyes began to walk
round the fire, too.
Goodness knows what would have happened if it hadn't been for Wopsy.
Quite possibly John would have been popped into the stew with the bananas
in no time and there would have been no more stories to tell about him.
But while the old man was talking Wopsy had flown as fast as he could
to Margarita-Maria and she listened to what he said. That was why just
as John began to walk round the fire, Margarita-Maria appeared on the
scene. In her hand she held a heavy wooden spoon and with this she made
straight for Kamanzi. When he saw her coming he began to dance even
more quickly and awkwardly, but Margarita-Maria went after him and began
to whack him with the spoon, crying at the same time: "Kamanzi,
you old villain, so you would teach my John your horrible dances, would
you? Then dance for that, and that!"
At each whack the old man gave a little jump, until he suddenly sat
down on the ground and then Margarita-Maria stopped. Shiny-John in the
meantime was sitting on the ground with big tears rolling down his cheeks,
for he suspected that it would soon be his turn to feel that wooden
spoon.
He was right, too, for his mother tucked him under her arm and gave
him a good whacking all the way home, and even Wopsy approved for it
is good for small boys to be whacked sometimes.
After that, Shiny-John never strayed far from the hut of Njunald, and
he was quite glad when after a few days Margarita-Maria. took him back
safely to Matongu. Even Bugomi was glad to see them; for he said Mulaya
couldn't cook bananas half so well as Margarita-Maria, which pleased
her very much.
Wopsy was glad to be home, too, but he didn't forget his promise to
speak to Father George. |
