A Legend of the Dead

Chapter Three

23 A Legend of the Dead: Sequel to The Crown of Thorns Chapter Three The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat. (Proverbia Communica, 801) When a cow gives birth to something rare, it is helped in the suckling by it owner. (Ngumbu Njururi: Proverb From Gikuyu) T HE DAY after the three Paramount Chiefs left Tetseale, Captain Abongo arrived from Small Monje. He was Company Commander who had been sent to quell the uprising. He was bringing with him three members of the outrageous Council of Elders which had carried out the brutal murders. They were Ngobefuo, Ndenwontio and Ntongntong. Four more were still in hiding, while three had already been killed by the enraged soldiers before they received the second order to bring them alive. When the soldiers had just arrived at Small Monje with the instructions to “bring back peace there at any cost” still vibrating in their veins, they began an immediate hunt for the man called Ngobefuo who was said to be the leader of the rebellion. Before the Governor’s second orders reached them three old men had been tortured in the process of tracking down Ngobefuo. The soldiers did not know what Ngobefuo actually looked like. Luckily for Ngobefuo they had only set eyes on him after being told not to kill him. The Governor had earlier on received information that the three Elders were being brought. “Is Ngobefuo amongst them?” he had inquired in fury. He had been told that he was. So as soon as the three men were brought into his office he closed the filed he had been poring over and studied the old men critically. 24 Linus T. Asong In the forefront was a diminutive and decrepit old man. He was hardly up to a metre and one half in height, and with a much wrinkled body which showed at the exposed portions of his dress. He wore only a small coat with sleeves cut off at the shoulders and a loin cloth, black with dirt at the seams, which descended just below his knees. There was not a single hair on his head and though it was hard to guess his precise age, he was definitely very old. His brows were very thick and his jaws shrunken as though the flesh had been carved out with a knife. He had no teeth. His eyes, as tiny as those of a bat, seemed to glitter under his hooded brows like a diamond in the dark. His slightly protruding nose rose abruptly over his small mouth with the lips turned inwards with age. His tiny feet were now bare, but he had come dressed in an over-sized pair of discarded army boots which Captain Abongo had compelled him to leave outside the office of the Governor. They are all new to this environment. But of the three the little old man seemed the most composed, and as soon as he stepped in he fixed an unblinking eye on the Governor. His left hand, as skinny as tanned leather, seemed stuck to a pipe which he fingered ceaselessly in the breast pocket of his sleeveless coat. The man next to him was much taller. He was certainly over a metre and one half. He might even have been a metre and three quarters. He too was of an indeterminate age. But he was certainly as sold as the little man. Strangely enough, for all his age he had lost very little hair from his head. But his hair was grey, whitish grey. He had fairly bulging eyes below heavy greyish brows. He looked restless and uncomfortable. He would lift his eyes to the Governor, to the walls, and towards the others, even turning round, before looking steadily at the carpet in front of him. He stood, continuously and perhaps unconsciously shaking his left knee without moving his feet from where they seemed to be planted. He wore a dirty threadbare down-reaching velvet gown with a lacerated embroidery running from the neck to the bottom line. The third man was literally a monster, the prototype of a Cyclops. He towered about two metres and had a large head, the shape of an upturned water melon, and with hair as scanty as a poorly burnt bush with elephant grass. He had only one eye which would have suited his figure better if it had been placed exactly on the space [18.219.22.169] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 09...