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Each passage was about fifty feet wide and quite straight. But the space between the bridge end and the arena, and the arena itself, had to be kept free from trespassers by fifty swaggering ruffians armed to the teeth. Every man of the thousands there had a knife in evidence, but the arena guards had magazine rifles well as Khyber tulwars. Nobody else wore firearms openly.
"He had as fine a gold watch in his pocket as you ever saw, while his firearms and saddle were beauties. He was a dandy all right, and a fine-looking man, over six feet tall, with swarthy complexion and hair like a raven's wing. He was too nice a man for the company he was in.
To begin with, he ordered of Bompard two large boxes bound with brass, and an inscription to be on them: I TARTARIN, OF TARASCON I I Firearms, &c. The binding in brass and the lettering took much time. He also ordered at Tastavin's a showy album, in which to keep a diary and his impressions of travel; for a man cannot help having an idea or two strike him even when he is busy lion-hunting.
Dances, songs, and stories are duly intermingled; also racing, wrestling, and leaping; and finally, the solemnity is closed with exercises in sharp-shooting, and the discharge of firearms in the air.
While Adèle was guiding the missionary to his cottage, he was sitting in his kitchen, which also served for a general reception room, burnishing up an old Dutch fowling-piece. The apartment was furnished with cooking utensils, and coarse wooden furniture; the walls hung around with fishing tackle, moose-horns, skins of wild animals and a variety of firearms.
"'John was in danger, and we strained at our paddles to get to his assistance, but as the bear was a very large one, and as we had no other firearms we should have been but poor helps to John in the hug of a wounded bear. The bear was at the other side of the brush heap, John heard the dry branches cracking, and he dodged into a hollow under a bush.
The universal weapons of the country are sword and spear, and no man travels far from home without these and his oblong wooden shield. Some of the peoples are expert in the use of the blowpipe and poisoned dart. The blow-pipe and the recently introduced firearms are the only missile weapons; the bow is unknown save as a plaything for children, and possibly in a few localities in the extreme north.
Firearms too were open to objection, and would scarcely assist my mother's slumbers; so for some time we were at a loss for a remedy. I went in at once, purchased it, and took it home in triumph; it would be noiseless, and would reduce the local average of cats without scandal, one or two examples, and feline fashion would soon migrate to a more secluded spot.
We therefore, having seen to our firearms, remained where we were, with our backs to the wood, so that we might present as formidable an appearance as possible should the newcomers venture to attack us.
Leaving Saint Augustine's Bay, the frigate and corvette sailed across the Mozambique Channel, and came to an anchor off the mouth of the Angoxa. During the passage, every possible preparation was made for the intended expedition; the firearms were looked to, cutlasses sharpened; the surgeons packed up their instruments, bandages, and medicines.
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