The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (22 page)

The Indians murmured and grunted with astonishment. At first they were
all for falling on their knees and worshiping the fire. Then they wanted
to pick it up with their bare hands and play with it. We had to teach
them how it was to be used; and they were quite fascinated when we laid
our fish across it on sticks and cooked it. They sniffed the air with
relish as, for the first time in history, the smell of fried fish passed
through the village of Popsipetel.

Then we got them to bring us piles and stacks of dry wood; and we made
an enormous bonfire in the middle of the main street. Round this, when
they felt its warmth, the whole tribe gathered and smiled and wondered.
It was a striking sight, one of the pictures from our voyages that I
most frequently remember: that roaring jolly blaze beneath the black
night sky, and all about it a vast ring of Indians, the firelight
gleaming on bronze cheeks, white teeth and flashing eyes—a whole town
trying to get warm, giggling and pushing like school-children.

In a little, when we had got them more used to the handling of fire,
the Doctor showed them how it could be taken into their houses if a hole
were only made in the roof to let the smoke out. And before we turned
in after that long, long, tiring day, we had fires going in every hut in
the village.

The poor people were so glad to get really warm again that we thought
they'd never go to bed. Well on into the early hours of the morning
the little town fairly buzzed with a great low murmur: the Popsipetels
sitting up talking of their wonderful pale-faced visitor and this
strange good thing he had brought with him—FIRE!

VERY early in our experience of Popsipetel kindness we saw that if we
were to get anything done at all, we would almost always have to do it
secretly. The Doctor was so popular and loved by all that as soon as he
showed his face at his door in the morning crowds of admirers, waiting
patiently outside, flocked about him and followed him wherever he went.
After his fire-making feat, this childlike people expected him, I think,
to be continually doing magic; and they were determined not to miss a
trick.

It was only with great difficulty that we escaped from the crowd the
first morning and set out with Long Arrow to explore the island at our
leisure.

In the interior we found that not only the plants and trees were
suffering from the cold: the animal life was in even worse straits.
Everywhere shivering birds were to be seen, their feathers all fluffed
out, gathering together for flight to summer lands. And many lay dead
upon the ground. Going down to the shore, we watched land-crabs in large
numbers taking to the sea to find some better home. While away to the
Southeast we could see many icebergs floating—a sign that we were now
not far from the terrible region of the Antarctic.

As we were looking out to sea, we noticed our friends the porpoises
jumping through the waves. The Doctor hailed them and they came inshore.

He asked them how far we were from the South Polar Continent.

About a hundred miles, they told him. And then they asked why he wanted
to know.

"Because this floating island we are on," said he, "is drifting
southward all the time in a current. It's an island that ordinarily
belongs somewhere in the tropic zone—real sultry weather, sunstrokes
and all that. If it doesn't stop going southward pretty soon everything
on it is going to perish."

"Well," said the porpoises, "then the thing to do is to get it back into
a warmer climate, isn't it?"

"Yes, but how?" said the Doctor. "We can't ROW it back."

"No," said they, "but whales could push it—if you only got enough of
them."

"What a splendid idea!—Whales, the very thing!" said the Doctor. "Do
you think you could get me some?"

"Why, certainly," said the porpoises, "we passed one herd of them out
there, sporting about among the icebergs. We'll ask them to come over.
And if they aren't enough, we'll try and hunt up some more. Better have
plenty."

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "You are very kind—By the way, do you
happen to know how this island came to be a floating island? At least
half of it, I notice, is made of stone. It is very odd that it floats at
all, isn't it?"

"It is unusual," they said. "But the explanation is quite simple.
It used to be a mountainous part of South America—an overhanging
part—sort of an awkward corner, you might say. Way back in the glacial
days, thousands of years ago, it broke off from the mainland; and by
some curious accident the inside of it, which is hollow, got filled with
air as it fell into the ocean. You can only see less than half of
the island: the bigger half is under water. And in the middle of it,
underneath, is a huge rock air-chamber, running right up inside the
mountains. And that's what keeps it floating."

"What a pecurious phenometer!" said Bumpo.

"It is indeed," said the Doctor. "I must make a note of that." And out
came the everlasting note-book.

The porpoises went bounding off towards the icebergs. And not long
after, we saw the sea heaving and frothing as a big herd of whales came
towards us at full speed.

They certainly were enormous creatures; and there must have been a good
two hundred of them.

"Here they are," said the porpoises, poking their heads out of the
water.

"Good!" said the Doctor. "Now just explain to them, will you please?
that this is a very serious matter for all the living creatures in this
land. And ask them if they will be so good as to go down to the far
end of the island, put their noses against it and push it back near the
coast of Southern Brazil."

The porpoises evidently succeeded in persuading the whales to do as
the Doctor asked; for presently we saw them thrashing through the seas,
going off towards the south end of the island.

Then we lay down upon the beach and waited.

After about an hour the Doctor got up and threw a stick into the water.
For a while this floated motionless. But soon we saw it begin to move
gently down the coast.

"Ah!" said the Doctor, "see that?—The island is going North at last.
Thank goodness!"

Faster and faster we left the stick behind; and smaller and dimmer grew
the icebergs on the skyline.

The Doctor took out his watch, threw more sticks into the water and made
a rapid calculation.

"Humph!—Fourteen and a half knots an hour," he murmured—"A very nice
speed. It should take us about five days to get back near Brazil. Well,
that's that—Quite a load off my mind. I declare I feel warmer already.
Let's go and get something to eat."

ON our way back to the village the Doctor began discussing natural
history with Long Arrow. But their most interesting talk, mainly about
plants, had hardly begun when an Indian runner came dashing up to us
with a message.

Long Arrow listened gravely to the breathless, babbled words, then
turned to the Doctor and said in eagle tongue,

"Great White Man, an evil thing has befallen the Popsipetels. Our
neighbors to the southward, the thievish Bag-jagderags, who for so long
have cast envious eyes on our stores of ripe corn, have gone upon the
war-path; and even now are advancing to attack us."

"Evil news indeed," said the Doctor. "Yet let us not judge harshly.
Perhaps it is that they are desperate for food, having their own crops
frost-killed before harvest. For are they not even nearer the cold South
than you?"

"Make no excuses for any man of the tribe of the Bag-jagderags," said
Long Arrow shaking his head. "They are an idle shiftless race. They do
but see a chance to get corn without the labor of husbandry. If it were
not that they are a much bigger tribe and hope to defeat their neighbor
by sheer force of numbers, they would not have dared to make open war
upon the brave Popsipetels."

When we reached the village we found it in a great state of excitement.
Everywhere men were seen putting their bows in order, sharpening spears,
grinding battle-axes and making arrows by the hundred. Women were
raising a high fence of bamboo poles all round the village. Scouts and
messengers kept coming and going, bringing news of the movements of the
enemy. While high up in the trees and hills about the village we could
see look-outs watching the mountains to the southward.

Long Arrow brought another Indian, short but enormously broad, and
introduced him to the Doctor as Big Teeth, the chief warrior of the
Popsipetels.

The Doctor volunteered to go and see the enemy and try to argue the
matter out peacefully with them instead of fighting; for war, he said,
was at best a stupid wasteful business. But the two shook their heads.
Such a plan was hopeless, they said. In the last war when they had sent
a messenger to do peaceful arguing, the enemy had merely hit him with an
ax.

While the Doctor was asking Big Teeth how he meant to defend the village
against attack, a cry of alarm was raised by the look-outs.

"They're coming!—The Bag-jagderags-swarming down the mountains in
thousands!"

"Well," said the Doctor, "it's all in the day's work, I suppose. I don't
believe in war; but if the village is attacked we must help defend it."

And he picked up a club from the ground and tried the heft of it against
a stone.

"This," he said, "seems like a pretty good tool to me." And he walked to
the bamboo fence and took his place among the other waiting fighters.

Then we all got hold of some kind of weapon with which to help our
friends, the gallant Popsipetels: I borrowed a bow and a quiver full of
arrows; Jip was content to rely upon his old, but still strong teeth;
Chee-Chee took a bag of rocks and climbed a palm where he could throw
them down upon the enemies' heads; and Bumpo marched after the Doctor
to the fence armed with a young tree in one hand and a door-post in the
other.

When the enemy drew near enough to be seen from where we stood we all
gasped with astonishment. The hillsides were actually covered with
them—thousands upon thousands. They made our small army within the
village look like a mere handful.

"Saints alive!" muttered Polynesia, "our little lot will stand no chance
against that swarm. This will never do. I'm going off to get some help."
Where she was going and what kind of help she meant to get, I had no
idea. She just disappeared from my side. But Jip, who had heard her,
poked his nose between the bamboo bars of the fence to get a better view
of the enemy and said,

"Likely enough she's gone after the Black Parrots. Let's hope she
finds them in time. Just look at those ugly ruffians climbing down the
rocks—millions of 'em! This fight's going to keep us all hopping."

And Jip was right. Before a quarter of an hour had gone by our
village was completely surrounded by one huge mob of yelling, raging
Bag-jagderags.

I now come again to a part in the story of our voyages where things
happened so quickly, one upon the other, that looking backwards I see
the picture only in a confused kind of way. I know that if it had not
been for the Terrible Three—as they came afterwards to be fondly called
in Popsipetel history—Long Arrow, Bumpo and the Doctor, the war would
have been soon over and the whole island would have belonged to the
worthless Bag-jagderags. But the Englishman, the African and the Indian
were a regiment in themselves; and between them they made that village a
dangerous place for any man to try to enter.

The bamboo fencing which had been hastily set up around the town was not
a very strong affair; and right from the start it gave way in one place
after another as the enemy thronged and crowded against it. Then the
Doctor, Long Arrow and Bumpo would hurry to the weak spot, a terrific
hand-to-hand fight would take place and the enemy be thrown out. But
almost instantly a cry of alarm would come from some other part of the
village-wall; and the Three would have to rush off and do the same thing
all over again.

The Popsipetels were themselves no mean fighters; but the strength and
weight of those three men of different lands and colors, standing close
together, swinging their enormous war-clubs, was really a sight for the
wonder and admiration of any one,

Many weeks later when I was passing an Indian camp-fire at night I
heard this song being sung. It has since become one of the traditional
folksongs of the Popsipetels.

Oh hear ye the Song of the Terrible Three
And the fight that they fought by the edge of the sea.
Down from the mountains, the rocks and the crags,
Swarming like wasps, came the Bag-jagderags.

Surrounding our village, our walls they broke down.
Oh, sad was the plight of our men and our town!
But Heaven determined our land to set free
And sent us the help of the Terrible Three.
One was a Black—he was dark as the night;
One was a Red-skin, a mountain of height;
But the chief was a White Man, round like a bee;
And all in a row stood the Terrible Three.

Shoulder to shoulder, they hammered and hit.
Like demons of fury they kicked and they bit.
Like a wall of destruction they stood in a row,
Flattening enemies, six at a blow.

Oh, strong was the Red-skin fierce was the Black.
Bag-jagderags trembled and tried to turn back.
But 'twas of the White Man they shouted, "Beware!
He throws men in handfuls, straight up in the air!"

Long shall they frighten bad children at night
With tales of the Red and the Black and the White.
And long shall we sing of the Terrible Three
And the fight that they fought by the edge of the sea.