The Young Yagers: A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa

So quick was the act, that he scarce knew how it had been accomplished. He saw the head, with its open jaws extended, dart towards him; he sprang to one side, but felt the cold scaly body against his limbs as if pulling him towards the tree; and the moment after, he was swept close up to the trunk, and pressed tightly against it!

He had just time to perceive that the folds of the serpent were around his limbs, and also around the trunk of the tree, – just time to feel that they were gradually tightening upon him – when the head, with its extended jaws and terrible teeth, came right opposite his face, and the eyes of the monster gleamed right into his!

A horrid spectacle it was – a horrid situation he was in; but Groot Willem was not the boy to lose either courage or presence of mind; and, finding his arms still free, he clutched forward and seized the reptile by the throat. To hold its head was just as much as he was able with both hands and with all his strength; but he held with the grasp of despair. Fortunate it was for him that the tail of the python was secured by the rheim, and it was thus held fast at both ends! Had it been otherwise – had either head or tail been free, so that it could have used its power of constriction – in a few seconds more, Groot Willem would have been crushed as he had seen the little antelope. But now that both tail and head were fixed – the one by the cord and the other in the strong grasp of the hunter – the serpent was unable to exert its terrible power; and its folds remained loose around the limbs of its intended victim!

It writhed its neck, and wriggled its body, and changed the spiral rings from one part to another, – but all in vain. It could do him no harm!

How long this terrible struggle might have lasted would have depended upon how long the strength of the two could have held out. Groot Willem could not free himself from the folds of his antagonist, as both his legs were bound to the tree; and had he dropped the head of the python for a moment, he knew it would crush him to death. The snake, on the other hand, could not free itself, as it was held fast at both extremities. What was to be the result? Which would be the conqueror?

The serpent must have conquered in the end; though it might not have been able to free itself, as its tail was fastened to the tree. But Groot Willem was not able to strangle it, with all the compression he was exercising upon its throat, and his strength would have yielded in time. Most certainly would he have fallen a victim, but for a plan that he at length adopted to set himself free.

During all the continuance of the fight between him and the serpent, he had not attempted to use his knife. He had not thought of such a weapon against such an enemy. Not dreaming that he would be brought into close quarters, he had almost forgotten that he carried a knife. By good fortune he had one, and it was in his belt. Even though one or two folds of the snake were around his breast, he could see the handle of the knife above them; and making a sudden grasp, he laid hold of it, and drew it forth.

The blade chanced to be almost as keen as a razor; and although the serpent now succeeded in twisting its head partially free, before it could tighten its folds, the sharp edge of the knife had half severed its body in twain!

A second gash was made in another part, and then a third and still deeper one; and the resolute hunter had the gratification to see the spiral rounds that threatened his destruction fall off and drop heavily to his feet!

In a short while the python lay dead upon the ground; and Groot Willem, although he felt that he had secured a great triumph, left the spot with some regret that he had spoiled the skin!

Chapter Fifty One.

The Honey-Guide and Honey-Eater

Groot Willem’s adventure was acknowledged by all to be the most wonderful that had occurred to any of them – even surpassing that of Hendrik with the rhinoceros – and for a good while it continued to be the subject of camp conversation.

During the expedition, every one of the party had either performed some grand feat or fallen in with a remarkable adventure, except Arend. It was not that Arend had less courage or less capacity than the rest; but, partly, because he felt no inclination to put himself in the way of hunting adventures, and partly that the chances had not favoured him. One adventure he had fallen in with – literally fallen in with. He had tumbled, horse and all, into a pit-trap set by some savages for capturing the rhinoceros! Fortunately, the sharp spike, usually placed at the bottom of these holes, had been removed – else either Arend or the horse would have fared worse than they did. Many a laugh had the six young yägers at Arend’s solitary adventure. I say six, for Arend always good-naturedly joined in it himself. Arend was not the man for adventures in the great wilderness. Had it been in the great city instead, no doubt his fine face and handsome figure would have helped him to many a one in the flirtation line – had he been inclined that way. But neither did Arend care about that. He had but one ruling thought – so Groot Willem alleged – and that was to get home to the Graaf Reinet; and Groot usually added the reason, by giving a wink, and a word or two about “cherry cheeks and blue eyes.”

Arend, however, was not destined to see home without one other adventure, in which all the rest had share, and which proved not only the last they met with during that expedition, but was near being the last of their lives!

They had changed their camp from the flowery plain to another equally flowery, though the plants that blossomed around were of a very different character. There were geraniums and marigolds in this plain, as there had been in the other; but here euphorbias of different species predominated, with cacti and other succulent plants.

Above their heads towered the tree Euphorbia, (E. grandidens), while at their feet the melon-shaped variety peeped forth from the ground. There too, were several poisonous species; among others the Euphorbia antiquorum growing side by side with the deadly belladonna lily, (Amaryllis belladonna). The young yägers seemed to have arrived upon a spot of earth that was almost wholly occupied with poison-yielding plants!

And yet it was a lovely scene. The flowers looked as fresh and as fair as elsewhere, and their fragrance scented the air around. Birds disported themselves among the branches of the trees; and bees hummed and whirred over the blossoms, imparting cheerfulness to the wild scene, and calling up ideas of home that were, at the moment, agreeable to the tired travellers. They had just formed camp, and were sitting quietly down, when their attention was drawn to a bird that had perched itself upon a low bush at no great distance from the wagons. It was not the beauty of this bird that attracted them, for its plumage was not beautiful, being of an ashy-brown colour upon the back, and grey below. It was not its size, which was that of an ordinary finch; nor its song, which was no better than a monotonous chatter of the syllables “Kwi-kwi-kwi-kit.” It was none of these things that caused the young yägers to give their attention to the bird, but its peculiar character – already well known to all of them. The little bird which sat upon the bush, starting from branch to branch, jerking about its tail, and uttering the “kwi-kwi-kit,” was no other than the celebrated “honey-guide.”

They all knew it; for they had met with it several times during the expedition, and Hans had told them its history. They all knew of its curious habits; how it will guide a man to the nest of the wild bee, by fluttering before him from bush to bush and rock to rock until it reaches the spot; how it will wait until the hive has been robbed of its honey-treasure; and then alight by the despoiled nest to feed upon the larvae of the bees, or the fragments of honeycomb that may have been left! They all knew this of the honey-guide, because they had followed one before now, and proved the truth of this wonderful instinct, which has been doubted by many travellers as well as naturalists.

Those points of its natural history they did not know of Hans had told them of long before. He had told them how the bird had been classed among the cuckoos, under the title Cuculus indicator– because it shares with the true cuckoos the singular habit of depositing its eggs in the nest of another bird; how other naturalists have formed a genus for itself – the genus indicator, of which several species are known; how the bird feeds mostly upon honey and the larvae of bees; and how nature has given it a protection against the stings of the old ones in the thickness of its skin: but Swartboy declared, in relation to this matter, that the thick skin did not always save it; as he had often found the honey-guide lying dead by the nests of the bees, and evidently killed by their stings!

All these points in the natural history of the honey-bird were known to the young yägers; therefore the little chatterer, that had lit upon the adjacent bush, was no stranger to them.

And they were all right glad to see it, for a certain reason – because they wanted some honey, and particularly at that very time, as their sugar had run out, and they had nothing to sweeten their coffee with – a privation to several of the party.

All leaped to their feet, therefore, with the determination to follow the “honey-guide,” go where it would.

They laid hold of their arms; and, what was still stranger, saddled and mounted their horses, intending to follow the guide on horseback!

You will wonder at this. But when you hear that the honey-guide often takes the hunter six or seven miles through the woods – and that not unfrequently it guides him to the lair of a lion, or the haunt of a black rhinoceros, instead of to the nest of a bee – you will understand why the young yägers took these precautions.

Just as they were about starting out, a very odd-looking animal “hove in sight.” It had something of the appearance of a badger – being low set on its legs, plantigrade in its hind-feet, and with a snout and tail very like those of that animal. Its colour, too, and pelage, was not unlike that of the common badger – a sombre grey above and black below, divided by a light stripe running down each side from the ears to the root of the tail. In size it was superior to the badger, and nearly equalling in this respect the American glutton, or “wolverene,” which it also resembled. It had the general appearance of all the animals of the badger family – which, though few in genera and species, is represented by one or two in nearly every part of the globe. The animal which our yägers saw, or its species, to speak more properly, was the representative of that family in South Africa. It was the “ratel,” or “honey-eater,” (Mellivora capensis).

Now this quadruped was almost as well known to our party as the bird. They knew that its habits were equally singular; that, like the “indicator,” it possessed a “sweet tooth;” and spent most, if not all of its time, in searching for the nests of bees and robbing them of their honey – provided the said nests were in the ground, where it could tear them up with its strong terrier-claws. On the other hand, when the nest chanced to be in a tree, they knew the ratel could not reach it – this animal not being a tree-climber. On such occasions he usually leaves the mark of his claws upon the lower bark, and this often guides the Hottentot hunter to a nest stored with honey. All these things the yägers had learnt from Swartboy and Congo; and from Hans a few other facts – such as that the ratel is found throughout all Africa – that it is formed by naturalists into a genus of itself, like so many other anomalous creatures of that continent – that its skin is so thick the bees cannot pierce it with their stings, so that it devours their honeycombs without fear of the buzzing insects – that on account of its disagreeable odour it is sometimes known as the “stinking badger.”

Other facts with which all were acquainted were, that the ratel is accustomed to follow the “honey-guide;” and that the bird frequently conducts the quadruped to the hive – very much in the same way as it acts when followed by a man. It is said, however, on such occasions to fly lower, and to take shorter flights, lest the badger might lose sight of it! So says Monsieur Verreaux!

Now it was plain to the party that the ratel was at that moment in pursuit of his profession, and in full pursuit of the indicator. The interference, however, of the mounted yägers caused him to turn round, and make off in another direction; and the impatient “guide,” having now gone ahead, was followed by a-much larger “tail.”

On went the little creature from tree to tree, uttering its “kwi-kwi-kit,” and evidently pleased at its new “following.” On rode the young yägers directly in the wake of their guide.

Fortunately they had not far to go. The more frequently repeated twittering of the bird, and the increased excitement which the little creature exhibited, told the hunters they were near the nest of the bees; and in a few minutes after the bird perched upon a particular tree, and would fly no farther. In this tree was the hive!

They could have told that from the fact that near its roots the bark was scratched and torn off by the claws of some animal – the claws of a ratel, of course – and the amount of scratching showed, that more than one of these honey-eating quadrupeds had been guided to this place of sweets to meet with bitter disappointment!

A pair of axes, with Swartboy and Congo to handle them, were now brought from the camp; the tree soon fell under their strokes: the bees were smoked out; and the honeycombs – a fragment or two being left as a reward for the services of the “guide” – were carried off to camp.

The store proved one of the largest? and the six yägers, as well as their dark-skinned attendants, that evening enjoyed a “surfeit of sweets.”

Chapter Fifty Two.

Conclusion

And a surfeit of sweets it proved. Better for them had they never found that bees’ nest, or had left its contents to the bird and the badger.

In less than an hour from the time they had eaten the honey, the whole camp was in a state of the greatest alarm. Every one of the party was suffering from a parched throat, a burning breast, and a loathing at the stomach. The bees had been busy among the blossoms of the belladonna and the flowers of the euphorbia, and their honey was poison!

It would be difficult to depict the consternation that was felt in the camp. They had all eaten of the poisoned honey – yägers, drivers, and all. They had all eaten plentifully of it – for there chanced to be plenty – and the absence of a vegetable diet for some days past had sharpened their appetite for the honey. Not one of them that was not ill – too ill either to give help or consolation to the others.

Every one believed he was poisoned, and acted accordingly. Hans of all preserved most presence of mind. He used all his skill in administering such antidotes as he could think of. Purgatives and emetics – such as they had in their chests – were freely administered; and no doubt to these might be attributed the saving of their lives.

Their lives were saved – the crisis passed without proving fatal to any of them – but for days their illness continued; for days the young yägers might be seen wandering about the camp, or sitting listlessly around the camp-fire reduced to the thinness of skeletons, and looking like the ghosts of their former selves!

So great a shock had their health received, that they thought no more of continuing their expedition; they only waited for strength enough to enable them to set out on their return homeward. Arend’s desire would now be fulfilled – he would soon look upon the lovely Trüey, and listen to the cheerful music of her voice. Hendrik – ardent hunter though he was – was equally desirous to get back, and lay his spoils at the feet of the blushing Wilhelmina. Klaas and Jan longed for puddings and sugar-plums; and Hans, who had now made a very extensive collection of the flora of the country, was also willing to return.

Only one – the great tireless loose-boned giant, Groot Willem – would still have persevered, and climbed over the mountains that separated them from the land of elephants, buffaloes, and camelopards. Groot Willem would still have gone on, had it been possible for the others to have accompanied him. But it was not possible, and the big hunter-boy was obliged to turn back with his companions. It was with a heavy heart that he did so – for he had for many years entertained an ardent longing to try his roer upon the huge thick-skinned quadrupeds that now roamed far beyond the frontier of the settlements. Perhaps he faced homeward with the less regret, that he had hopes of making, at no distant day, another expedition to the haunts of the mighty elephant upon the banks of the lovely Limpopo.

This hope consoled Groot Willem, as he mounted his huge horse, and rode after the wagons that were already inspanned and treking down the valley.

Day by day, as the young yägers travelled homewards, they grew stronger and stronger; and when they had reached the Graaf Reinet, the effects of the poisoned honey had entirely disappeared – so that all six arrived home “safe and sound.”

I need not tell you that a warm welcome awaited them in the paternal mansions of Van Wyk and Von Bloom. I need not tell how lovely looked Trüey, and how sweetly blushed Wilhelmina; nor need I describe the splendid “vrolykeid” that was given – at which all the rich boors of the country were present to celebrate the return of:

“The Young Yägers.”

The End