The Globe-republican., 1892-10-28

'WMa>zH :$St"
@rELEGA, GUN IN HAND. sPRANi OUT"
shipmasters. He had chosen q God.
fearing man, who would have kept his
promise though he had promised to hit
loss." was told, in delightful detail
how he was kept below until the ship
was fairly at her anchorage of the
mouths of the river. Then 1 was tOlG
how, on q dark night in July, he was
called and how the English captain bade
him gOod-by. He was put upon boat
with good store of hard bread and q
bit of dried beef and, what he priced
more, what We might call a carbine, 9
pouch with match and bullets and a flint
and steel. The captain fell on his
knees on the deck and prayed to his
God and babe Telega good-by. A sea
breeze was blowing so that the sailors
could put sail on the boat, and when
morning came she was well up the
river. I was told how long they hid
themselves from Portuguese marauders
and then, at length which could have
we'll spared, was told where at last he
was landed on the northern bank, not
an hour too early, as it proved.
In what followed in this long story,
the reason appeared for his pressing
haste. On the morning of tho fourth
day after he parted from his Bristol
friends, he came out on the hillside,
where 1 first saw the village. It was a
year to a day since the wedding process
sion had been interrupted sU wretched-
ly. He knew that, and he knew what
depended on the passage Of q year. By
all the customs of his tribe, his sweet
heart, his almost wife, was widow for
that year. But it was for that year
only. When the year was ended she
not believe that there would be any
knew very we'll that when twelve moons
were over every man in the village
would think he had a right to the pref
tiest girl and the most lovely in the viii
lage. Here was his reason for refusing g
to wait with the English captain till he
should have gone to Fernando PO, and
still he should have come up the river
to trade for ivory.
As have said, he was not an hour too
early.
AS he approached the village no enc
met him. He was afeared, it was so
still" This was Philips phrase to me,
in interpreting. He hurried all the
faster. He passed a close grove Of
pepper trees to see in it the pretended
ambush of bridegroom and his men in
full dress waiting for the brides pro-
ceSSiOn.
Telega had been stealing along as a
cat does, and this merry group did not
see him. But he seems to have seen his
advantage. He passed them on the in
stant, he went twenty PAGES further, he
hid himself under heavy tuft OF banana
plants, and he had not to wait long. The
bride came, wretched enough for all her
bridal toggery. She had insisted on
wearing two or three sea gull feathers,
which were tokens Of deepest mourning.
She wept as if she were at her husband s
funeral. She flung away a bunch of
flowers which the new bridegrOom's 8
mother gave to her. None the less was
this a bridal procession. Banjos and
tomtoms and the whole village behind
and before made this certain.
A large stone to-day marks the corner
where Telega, gun in hand, 81 rang out
like tiger, and, in literal fact, seized
his bride. Pluto was not less expected
in Emma. The girl screamed now to
some purpose, and in a minute was
sobbing with her head upon his shOul-
der. The banjos and the tomtoms were
silent. And bridegroom number two,
with his handsome cOhOrt OF best
man" - hearing nothing after they
should have heard music and song
after q mysterious minute or two came
out from. their lair to learn what had
hindered the procession.
At this point the story, which l heard
two or three times at least-Once as
We went up the river, twice as We came
down-varies in its forms. Who can
wonder, after nearly $50 years? But
there can be no doubt that when
Telega caught his bride with his left
arm, and when she sobbed upon his
shoulder, his right hand held the
matchbox, and he blew the match to be
sure that it was live coal. And when
that braggart, groom No. 2. came up,
bowling and storming, Telega turned
over his bride to one of her women,
dropped the gun to a level, and, in
very classical language Of Mandara,
told bridegroom No. 2 that, if he did not
keep q civil tongue In his head, he
would blow his brains out. Nay, more,
l am afraid that Elder Cott0n's seed
had sprouted so ill that Telega would
have done what be said, had there been
occasion.
But there was no occasion. The
game was played through. There were
elders IA the village who had - much