第100章

Sometimes they would deliberately coil themselves up in the trough itself, and so prevent the birds from approaching.I always knew when something of this kind had happened, because of the frightful screeching and general uproar set up by the indignant birds--that is to say, such as had the power to screech left.I would hurry to the spot and drag out the cause of the trouble with a forked stick.

I never killed him, because there were already enough of his kind dead on every side.The very trees and grass died; and in this originated another almost equally terrible peril--the bush fires, of which more hereafter.Talking about snakes, one day I had a narrow escape from one of these ungrateful reptiles.A number of baby snakes had swarmed into the trough, and I was in the very act of angrily removing them when I heard a shout of horror from Yamba.

I swung round, instinctively leaping sideways as I did so, and there, rearing itself high in the air, was an enormous snake, fully twenty feet long.Yamba, without a moment's hesitation, aimed a tremendous blow at it and smashed its head.

The drought was productive of all kinds of curious and remarkable incidents.The emus came in great flocks to the drinking-trough, and some of them were so far gone that they fell dead only a few yards from the fount of life.I picked up a great number of these huge birds, and made their skins into useful bed coverings, rugs, and even articles of clothing.When this terrible visitation was at its height Yamba made a curious suggestion to me.Addressing me gravely one night she said, "You have often told me of the Great Spirit whom your people worship; He can do all things and grant all prayers.Can you not appeal to Him now to send us water?" It was a little bit awkward for me, but as I had often chatted to my wife about the Deity, and told her of His omnipotence and His great goodness to mankind, I was more or less obliged to adopt this suggestion.Accordingly she and I knelt down together one night in our dwelling, and offered up an earnest prayer to God that He would send water to the afflicted country.Next morning that which seemed to me a miracle had been wrought.Incredible though it may appear, all the creeks, which until the previous night had been mere dry watercourses for an untold number of months, were rippling and running with the much-needed water, and we were saved all further anxiety, at any rate for the time.There may be, however, some scientific explanation of this extraordinary occurrence.

No sooner had we recovered from the delight caused by this phenomenally sudden change than the rain came--such rain! and the tremendous tropical downpour lasted for several weeks.The country soon reverted to something like its normal appearance.

The bush fires were extinguished, and even my lagoon came into existence again.

Talking about bush fires, we often saw them raging madly and sublimely in the mountains.They would burn for weeks at a stretch, and devastate hundreds of miles of country.For ourselves, we always prepared for such emergencies by "ringing" our dwelling --that is to say, laying bare a certain stretch of country in a perfect circle around us.Often we were almost choked by the intense heat which the wind occasionally wafted to us, and which, combined with the blazing sun and scarcity of water, rendered life positively intolerable.

I now wish to say a few words about Bruno--a few last sorrowful words--because at this period he was growing feeble, and, indeed, had never been the same since the death of Gibson.Still, I was constantly making use of his sagacity to impress the blacks.My usual custom was to hide some article (such as my tomahawk), near the house in Bruno's presence, and then start off on a tramp accompanied by the blacks.