Chapter 12
Cruel Carnality
Some of the mules had been spared, enough to form two gun-teams, and the guns found in the Abyssinian camp were dragged off after the victorious army. It was their shot that opened the breach in the walls of Gondar. The assault was short, sharp and decisive. The Abyssinians fought obstinately, but without discipline, whereas the Dervishes, despite the impetuosity of their attack, still retained that closeness of formation, elbow to elbow, which is indispensable to vigorous and effective unity of action. Very soon the garrison were massacred to a man, after which the Dervishes, posting a guard at every issue, ransacked the town, killing with bayonet or lance all the Makadas,-or male Christians. The Guebertas, or Musulmans, on the other hand were spared, and were brought in, their hands tied behind them, to headquarters to be eventually sold as slaves.
Then the sack began. The Dervishes found warehouses containing large stores of coffee, wax and honey. But they thought little of these supplies, for how could they carry them away with them? What they wanted was gold and silver, whether coined or in ingots. They attacked the Churches, and the crosses surmounting their roofs and towers were hurled down. In some cases the Priest was bound to the cross, and pitched into space along with it from the summit of the edifice. They set fire to the cathedral, and to make it burn better, threw into the flames the thatched roofs they had torn from the neighbouring huts. Cakes of honey were also used to feed the fire, the wax as it burned spreading an odor like that of altar tapers through the sacred building.
The Dervishes were still watching the flames, their hands behind their backs, when a mighty roar sent a shudder through their ranks. Turning round, they were struck with amazement to see a horde of lions invade the Cathedral square. In the days of the great Negus, the animals had been suffered to wander at will about the Palace; but since King Theodore's death, a keeper had been appointed to look after them and they had been confined to a lion-pit. Inoffensive and docile to the man who fed them, they were still fierce and untamed to others. No woman's hand had ever degraded them, and they kept their spirit intact. Their keeper, a Makada, a Christian, mortally wounded, had managed to drag himself as far as the lion-pit, and rousing them to fury with word and gesture, had set them on the Dervishes. There were eighteen of them in all,-eleven lions with great black manes, seven slim, lithe lionesses.
Reaching the square, they gave a roar, then crouched and began lashing the ground with their tufted tails. Suddenly and all together they gave a spring, and eighteen negroes fell, skulls crushed and breasts torn open. Nor would they leave their prey, but worried the dead bodies, holding them between their great paws, now biting off a head or an arm with their powerful teeth, now pounding their muzzles into a gaping belly and drawing them out again all dripping with blood. But by this time the soldiers had recovered from their surprise, and closed their ranks as if in face of the enemy. The muskets gave voice in a simultaneous volley, and the lions fell dead, their huge, tawny carcasses stretched motionless on the dead men.
All this butchery however had wearied the muscles and over-stimulated the nerves of the Dervishes. The lust of slaughter was succeeded by a craving for sensual pleasures; nostrils that were still quivering with the sickly odor of death, now began to sniff after another and a different scent. For the moment Abu-Anga hardly thought of Grace. What he wanted was a virgin to deflower, a little girl just barely marriageable, a child with bright complexion and tender flesh. He craved more blood,-the savage pleasure that is born of blood, the warm dew, the rupture of all barriers before the triumphant assault of love, the breaking down of opposing walls under the vigorous, determined pressure, in a word the victory of the male, amid cries and tears and the agonized supplications of the victim! He seized by the hand an Abyssinian girl, a child with clear-cut features and a graceful figure, twelve years old at the outside. She had small, well-turned shoulders; little round bosom; narrow, but prominent buttocks, while the arms were slender; the thighs long and thin. He enclosed the weak little fist in his powerful hand, at which the girl threw herself back in futile resistance, her delicate face convulsed with terror. With a vigorous kick he burst in the door of a hut, and lifting the child in his arms, threw her on an angareb, and fastened the door from inside. A sound of screams was heard, a long, heart-rending cry of pain...
Others however, Emirs and Mukkudums, were not so particular, and took no sort of trouble to seek retirement but just had the woman they desired in the open street. The soldier would swagger up with a coarse laugh, a foul word between his teeth. The girl would run away, to be caught almost immediately; after which the negro would fall upon her, aim a savage blow at any part that came convenient, shoulder, arm or bosom. The woman would yell and measure her length on the ground, still screaming, while the soldier laughed and swore. Then, using a dead body as a bolster, the fellow would set roughly and brutally about his work. Louder and louder would grow her cries, soon stifled under fierce kisses. But a low moaning still went on, and a nervous shuddering, a quiver that ran from the soles of her feet to her head. The legs would kick like a frog's, and the whole body shiver and shake, every nerve writhing with pain and poignant, agonizing pleasure. When at last the men let them go, all without exception in their haste to fly, sprung up quickly, and dashed straight before them, never attaining any great speed. Soon they would stagger, or stumble over a dead body, or with a shriek of horror slip in a pool of blood, only to spring up again and off once more, pursued with jeers and shouts of ribald laughter. One soldier hurled a stone after a young girl he had just had, as she was running away. The aim was good, and she rolled over with a fractured skull.
But just at present what they wanted was something else, something funny, to amuse them without being too fatiguing. So they laid hold of the older women, matrons of twenty-five and upwards, who shuddering and speechless with fear, had looked on at these scenes of violence. They began by making signs to them to strip. If a woman did not obey at once, she was stunned by a torrent of blows, and her clothing torn off in ribbons. Then they began pricking them in the legs with the points of their bayonets, and lances, and whistling an air for them to dance to. Next, sprinkling a few grains of gunpowder over the hair of the privates, they would set it afire. Presently they would drive the bayonets in further and turn the lances in the wounds; with the pike-staves and the butts of their guns they stirred up the entrails and dug out bleeding morsels and green scraps of intestine.
Meantime a cavalry man was still only at the first course. He had set his heart on a big girl of fifteen, and had seized her in his arms. But tall and slender, she seemed to be made of steel, at once strong and supple, and succeeded in slipping from his hold. She dashed away, the soldier after her. She had the best of the race, running with short, but rapid strides, and dodging cleverly. Already the negro was out of breath and almost hopeless of catching her, when he saw a horse pass by. With one bound he was in the saddle. The girl tripped and fell to her knees, and before she could regain her feet, the horseman had hauled her up and laid her across his saddle. No sooner had he secured her thus than he pitched her roughly to the ground again, and unfastening his belt, fell to whipping her savagely with it. She never uttered a cry, though big tears streamed down her cheeks. When he had finished beating her, he kissed her on the mouth, and she returned his kiss; humble and submissive, she seemed glad and happy to yield herself to his wishes!
But he was soon done with her, and ran off to join his comrades again, who were now intent on another game. They had tied some women up to trees, and using them as targets at twenty paces, shied at them with cactus balls. Every time the thorny mass tore the flesh, or stuck on to breast or bosom, there were shouts of merriment. But the mirth was inextinguishable, if a player, more skilful than the rest, succeeded in plugging a woman between the legs.
Grace, kept in the background, trembling from head to foot at these horrors, her hands clasped in an attitude of prayer but unable to articulate a word. So intense were her feelings of pity and terror, she did not dare make any appeal to the ruffians' compassion. She experienced at once an exaltation and a weak nervous trembling,-and above all else an eager craving; she longed to fly for refuge to the arms of Abu-Anga. There she stood with quivering nostrils and parted lips. The camel-men thought she was laughing at the spectacle, but were astonished to see her suddenly stagger, while deadly pale, she restrained with both hands the wild beating of her heart.
But soon the Dervishes judged the time was come for thinking of more serious matters. The first question was to pen up the prisoners, women and children, that were to be carried away into slavery. A zariba was hastily constructed, in which they were shut up, fettered and chained together in files. Next the booty had to be further added to, and concealed hoards discovered,-all the money the
Priests and Notables of the city had found means to hide on the first approach of the Dervishes.
They had already tried what they could do with the Bishop. Two men, at Abu-Anga's order, thrashed him with heavy kourbashes. After a while the General signed to the soldiers to desist, and proceeded to question the aged Prelate, who answered he had no treasure beyond the sacred vessels, and these the Dervishes bad already looted in the Cathedral. He was then untied, and laid full length on the ground, his feet in front of a brazier, towards which they gradually moved him nearer and nearer. First the flesh smoked, then it began to shrivel up, till soon there was nothing left but two stumps burned to the bone. Abu-Anga gave up the attempt and left the victim alone, but a mukkudum took his place, and in order to avenge Abyssinian soldiers who had been mocked by the Mussulmans, he had the Bishop of Gondar circumcised. The operator used his sabre for the purpose, while the men standing round, uttered loud shouts of triumph, crying. "Bismillahi! Bismillahi!"
Now the Bishop was at his last gasp, a stream of blood flowing from the open wound. He was dying. But the Priests of his Chapter were still left, as well as the chief men of the city, those who lived in houses of stone. Emirs deputed for the purpose questioned them mildly, lavishing promises and constraining their voices to caressing accents. But the prisoners remained dumb, with a far off look in their eyes. For a while the Emirs preserved a forced calm; but still meeting the same contemptuous silence, they broke out in imprecations and threats. Then they ordered the bastinado; but though the blood flowed in streams, the torture was ineffectual, not an Abyssinian uttered so much as a cry. Not one yielded to the Emirs' appeals, when at their command the executioner redoubled his efforts.
So a council of war was held. It so happened that quite near the town, between two hills, in a depression of the ground there was a marsh, where bamboos flourished, straight, stiff and sharp,-a forest of natural lances. In the hot mud of the swamp the bamboos grew with extraordinary rapidity. At dawn you could barely see the young shoot, level with the earth; by evening it would be up to a child's waist. Thither they carried the prisoners, stripped of all clothing. Meantime the soldiers had nailed a number of laths together in the form of crosses. These served as trestles or supports,-a cross under each armpit, and another under the bend of the knees. Thus each victim hung in the air, perched above a bamboo, the ground for some space all round having been cleared. There were thirty or so of them altogether, ranged in a row, each man tied to his props with head hanging down. On the borders of the marsh the Dervishes stood grinning, promising themselves a treat presently.
In less than an hour the bamboos were touching the skin, the tender tip pressing in with a gentle, gentle tickling. The Abyssinians who had not stirred till then, now raised their heads and a look of anguish convulsed their features. Now the bamboo pushed its way in, producing a sensation at first almost pleasurable, like a gentle caress, but growing rougher and rougher, more and more unbearable. By this time every prisoners sat up straight, his head thrown stiffly back. Eyes dilated and flashing, nostrils quivering, they appreciated all the voluptuous agony of the atrocious torture. Meantime the Dervishes were laughing and exchanging obscene pleasantries amongst themselves; but their delight reached its height when they saw Aisha, the gigantic negress, preparing for action. Turning up the sleeves of her djibbeh and displaying her enormous arms, she walked into the marsh, stepping high with her sturdy legs, as she splashed through the mire. She went systematically along the line, inflicting on each victim in succession a short, rough and mortal caresses Clenching their teeth, the Abyssinians died without a cry. A shudder trembled along the body, the head fell back upon the shoulder, and all was over.
Eventually the Dervishes had to be satisfied with the booty already in their possession, which was considerable. All the precious stuffs, the coined money, the Maria Theresa dollars, and the like, were brought in to Abu-Anga for him to make the final division. A fifth was reserved for the Beit-el-Maal, the Kalifs treasury, the rest distributed among the different battalions, each man receiving his share, according to his rank, valour and exploits. This arranged, the troops enjoyed a well earned rest.
Grace had now an opportunity of seeing Abu-Anga; but he recieved her with indifference, reserving his caresses for the little Abyssinian girls he had selected to reinforce his harem. Indeed there was no lack of women; after a large number of the prettiest had been set aside for the Khalif, enough were still left both to supply every soldier and to fill to overflowing the slave-market at Omdurman.
Meantime at that place great anxiety prevailed. Even Abdullahi could not conceal his uneasiness, knowing as he did how brave the Abyssinians were and what powerful forces they had at their disposal. Had Abu-Anga met with the same fate as Yunis? Had his troops been cut to pieces? Since the month he had crossed the Nile, not a word of news! And the Dervishes recalled a prophecy of the late Malidi, that it would be well for them to refrain from attacking the Abyssinians, unless first challenged by them. The Khalif spent the day at the Mosque in prayer. His anxiety was making an old man of him; though barely forty-nine, his beard was grown quite white.
Abu-Anga had his suspicions of these alarms. So the roads being open, he dispatched messengers bearing presents for the Khalif-two of the prettiest of the Abyssinian girls, adorable little creatures of twelve, with delicate features and finely moulded shapes, and a dozen heads of vanquished enemies, amongst them that of the Bishop of Gondar, to further increase the pile of heads in the pit of the Beit-el-Maal. The enthusiasm was prodigious, and indeed such news, a victory followed by a whole series of triumphs, the capture and pillage of Gondar, the destruction of the time-honoured Cathedral, the symbol of Christianity in Africa, the blow struck at the very heart of the Abyssinian power, all this was surely enough to account for the frantic joy of the Dervish populace.
Presently, when his troops were rested, Abu-Anga took the road on his way back to Omdurman. His army drove before it the vast horde of slaves, men, woman and children, chained together in a long line, and urged forward with great whips whose long lashes curled round a whole group at once. When any fell out from weariness and exhaustion, the kourbash would often succeed in giving them a short lease of fresh life, and they would get to their feet again and struggle on a while longer. If on the other hand they remained insensible to the blows, and still lay stretched on the sand, sullen and motionless, the Dervishes would cut off their ears, to carry them to Omdurman as a proof of death. When the army arrived at that place, there was a full camel's load of these, amongst which the ears of the Ras Adal's wife and those of the Princess his daughter, both having died between Galabat and Abu-Haraz, where the desert was strewn thick with corpses.
The guns of Omdurman thundered a welcome, and the people went out in their thousands to meet the conquering hero. Abdullahi paid Abu-Anga the greatest honours, and criers went abroad through all the city, proclaiming in street and market-place, that henceforth, such was the Khalif's good pleasure, Abu-Anga was to be surnamed "Sidi Hamdan," that is to say The Lord of Victory.