第92章

But, human nature being fundamentally the same all the world over, it was natural enough--and, indeed, the wonder is how I escaped so long--that one or other of the tribal medicine-men should get jealous of my power and seek to overthrow me.Now, the medicine-man belonging to the tribe in my mountain home presently found himself (or fancied himself) under a cloud,--the reason, of course, being that my display of wonders far transcended anything which he himself could do.So my rival commenced an insidious campaign against me, trying to explain away every wonderful thing that Idid, and assuring the blacks that if I were a spirit at all it was certainly a spirit of evil.He never once lost an opportunity of throwing discredit and ridicule upon me and my powers; and at length I discerned symptoms in the tribe which rendered it imperatively necessary that I should take immediate and drastic steps to overthrow my enemy, who, by the way, had commenced trying to duplicate every one of my tricks or feats.I gave the matter some little thought, and one day, whilst out on one of my solitary rambles, I came across a curious natural feature of the landscape, which suggested to me a novel and, I venture to say, remarkable solution of a very serious situation.

I suddenly found myself on the brink of a peculiar basin-like depression, which, from its obvious dampness and profusion of bush and cover, I at once recognised as the ideal abode of innumerable snakes.I marked the spot in my mind, and returned home, pondering the details of the dramatic victory I hoped to win.Day by day Ireturned to this depression and caught numerous black and carpet snakes.From each of these dangerous and poisonous reptiles Iremoved the poison fangs only; and then, after scoring it with a cross by means of my stiletto, I let it go, knowing that it would never leave a spot so ideal--from a snake's point of view.Ioperated on a great number of the deadly reptiles in this way, but, of course there remained many who were not so treated; whilst several of my queer patients died outright under the operation.

Needless to say, I might have met my own death in this extraordinary business had I not been assisted by my devoted wife.

When we had finished our work, there was absolutely nothing in the appearance of the place to indicate that it was any different from its state when I first cast my eyes upon it.

Then, all being ready, I chose a specially dramatic moment at a corroboree to challenge my rival in a war song, this challenge being substantially as follows: "You tell the people that you are as great as I--the all-powerful white spirit-man.Well, now, Ioffer you a formal challenge to perform the feat which I shall perform on a certain day and at a certain spot." The day was the very next day, and the spot, the scene of my strange surgical operations upon the snakes.The effect of my challenge was magical.

The jealous medicine-man, boldly and openly challenged before the whole tribe, had no time to make up an evasive reply, and he accepted then and there.Urgent messages were despatched, by the fun-loving blacks, to all the tribes, so that we were pretty sure of a large and attentive audience.It was about midday when the ridge round the depression was crowded with expectant blacks, every one of whom dearly loved a contest, or competition, of whatever kind.I lost no time--for in love or war shilly-shallying is unknown among the blacks--but boldly leaped down into the hollow armed only with a reed whistle, which I had made for myself solely with the view of enticing the snakes from their holes.I cast a triumphant glance at my impassive rival, who, up to this moment, had not the faintest idea what the proposed ordeal was.Icommenced to play as lively a tune as the limited number of notes in the whistle would allow, and before I had been playing many minutes the snakes came gliding out, swinging their heads backwards and forwards and from side to side as though they were under a spell.Selecting a huge black snake, who bore unobtrusively my safety mark, I pounced down upon him and presented my bare arm.

After teasing the reptile two or three times I allowed him to strike his teeth deep into my flesh, and immediately the blood began to run.I also permitted several other fangless snakes to bite me until my arms and legs, breast and back, were covered with blood.Personally, I did not feel much the worse, as the bites were mere punctures, and I knew the selected reptiles to be quite innocuous.Several "unmarked" snakes, however, manifested an eager desire to join in the fun, and I had some difficulty in escaping their deadly attentions.I had to wave them aside with a stick.

All this time the blacks above me were yelling with excitement, and I am under the impression that several were lamenting my madness, whilst others were turning angrily upon my rival, and accusing him of having brought about my death.At a favourable moment I rushed up the ridge of the hollow and stood before the horrified medicine-man, who, in response to my triumphant demand to go and do likewise, returned a feeble and tremulous negative.Even he, Ithink, was now sincerely convinced that I possessed superhuman powers; but it would have been awkward had he come along when I was laboriously and surreptitiously extracting the poison fangs from the snakes, and placing my "hall mark" upon them.

His refusal cost him his prestige, and he was forthwith driven from the tribe as a fraud, whilst my fame rose higher than ever.The blacks now wished me to take over the office of medicine-man, but Ideclined to do so, and nominated instead a youth I had trained for the position.It may be necessary here to remark that the blacks, under no circumstances, kill a medicine-man.My defeated rival was a man of very considerable power, and I knew quite well that if Idid not get the best of him he would have ME driven out of the tribe and perhaps speared.