The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-12-04
rod and bade .Telega good-Dy. a. sea
hraaza waa hlnWino so that tha SailOra

sTOd anu DaQe IeleRa BoOQ-Dy. n. 5ee
breeze was blowing so that the sailors
could put sail on the boat, and when
morning came she was we'll up the
river. I was told how long they hid
themselves from Portuguese marauders
and then, at length which I could have
well spared, I 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 the fourth
day after he parted from his Bristol
friends, he came out on the hillside,
where first saw the village. 1t was
year to day since the wedding process
sion had been interrupted SO wretched-
ly. he knew that, and he knew what
depended on the passage Of year. By
ali 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
might be betrothed again. Telega did
not believe that there would be any!
careful astronomy in this affair. Hej
knew very we'll that when twelve moons;
we're over every man in, the village
would think he had right to the pret-
test girl and the most lovely in the viii
lage. Here was his reason for refusing
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 I have said, he was not an hour too
carly.
,A@As approached the village no one
met him. He was afeared, it was so
STILL" This was Philips phrase to me,
in interpreting. He hurried all the
faster. He passed 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
cat does, and this merry group did nos
see him. But he seems to have seen his
advantage. He passed them on the in
slant, he went twenty PAGES further, he
hid himself under heavy tuft. OF banana
plants, and he had not to wait long. The
bride came, wretehed 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 we're at her husbanda
funeral. She flung away a bunch OF
flowers which the new bridegroom's
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. -4
A large stone to-day marks the corner
where Telega, gun in hand, srrang 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 a mysterious minute or two came
out from their lair to learn what had
hindered the procession.
At this point the story, which 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 level, and, in
very classical language Of Mandara,
told bridegroom No. 2 that il he did not
keep a civil tongue in his head, he
would blow his brains out. Nay, more,
I am afraid that Elder Cotton's seed
had sprouted SO i'll that Telega would
have done what he said, had there been
occasion. o,-...
But there was no occasion. The
game was played through. There were
elders in the Village who had as much,
10 do with It's affairs as In that otha
village OF mud walls and thatched roofs
called Boston, where John Cotton and
John Wilson and Thomas Dudley and
John Winthrop did the thinking for the
IAst, and told them what was right ant
what was wrong. Nay, the evident
public opinion Of the procession was IN
favor OF the handsome young traveller,
who had been in Europe, not to say
America, and had brought home its
latest fashions. There were bride
maidens, as you saw, and they whis.
pered: "'Twere better by far to have
matched our fair cousin to her old
sweetheart" And so, after some flour.
ishing OF clubs and knives. much scold-
Ing, swearing, threatening and other
debating, three or four elders, much
like those I have described, I think,
stilled all voices and bade the tom-toms
and the baujos begin again.
I doubt If it were the march in Mid
summer Nights Dream" but ii answer
ed every purpose OF that midsummer
monday as we'll. Bridegroom No. 2
eulked off. But all his men joined in
the procession, and afterward, I fancy,
partook Of the banquet. And, though
his cabin was not occupied for day or
two, sufficiently good cabin was found
for all purposes Of Telega and his bride.
This happy conclusion to story 80
sad was brought when the general court
in the bay voted to send the "Ginny
black man" home. But I should never
have heard it but for King Charles
shilling"