No road – ought to travel from bush to bush to the deads’ town
The very day that we left that town, we travelled up to forty miles inside the bush, and when it was 6.50 p.m. in the evening, we reached a very thick bush; this bush was very thick so that a snake could not pass through it without hurt.
So we stopped there, because we could not see well again, it was dark. We slept in that bush, but when it was about two o’clock in the night, there we saw a creature, either he was a spirit or other harmful creature, we could not say, he was coming towards us, he was white as if painted with white paint, he was white from foot to the topmost of his body, but he had no head or feet and hands like human-beings and he got one large eye on his topmost. He was long about ¼ of a mile and his diameter was about six feet, he resembled a white pillar. At the same time that I saw him coming towards us, I thought what I could do to stop him, then I remembered a charm which was given me by my father before he died. The use of the charm was this: – If I meet a spirit or other harmful creature at night and if I used it, it would turn me into a great fire and smoke, so that the harmful creatures would be unable to reach the fire. Then I used the charm and it burnt the white creature, but before he could burn into ashes there we saw about ninety of the same kind as this long white creature, all of them were coming to us (fire) and when they reached the fire (us) the whole of them surrounded it and bent or curved towards the fire; after that the whole of them were crying: – “cold! cold! cold” etc., but as they surrounded the fire, they did not want to leave there, although they could not do anything to that fire (us). They were only warming themselves from the fire and they were exceedingly satisfied with the fire and to stay with it as long as it could remain there for them. Of course I thought that as we had turned into the fire, we would be safe, but not at all. When I thought over that how we would leave these white creatures, I remembered that if we began to move, perhaps these white creatures would go away, because since 1 o’clock a.m., of that night till 10 o’clock a.m. they were still warming themselves from the fire and did not attempt to go where they came from or to go and eat. Of course I could not say definitely whether they were eating creatures or not.
But do not think that as we had turned into the fire we should not feel hungry, for we were feeling hungry too much though we were fire, and if we turned to persons at once, these white creatures would get a chance to kill us or harm us.
Then we began to move, but as we were moving on, these white creatures were also moving with the fire until we left the thick bush, but when we had left there and when we reached a big field, then they went back to their thick bush. But although we did not know it these long white creatures were bound not to trespass on another’s bush, and they did not enter into that field at all although they were satisfied with the fire, and the creatures of that field must not enter into their bush either. That was how we got away from the long white creatures.
As we had freed from the white creatures then we started our journey in that field. This field had no trees or palm-trees, only long wild grasses grew there, all resembled corn-plants, the edges of its leaves were as sharp as razor blades and hairy. Then we travelled in that field till 5 o’clock in the evening, after that, we began to look for a suitable place to sleep till morning.
But as we were looking for such place, there we saw a TERMITES’ HOUSE which resembled an umbrella and it was 5 feet high and cream in colour. Then we put our loads under it; after that we rested there for a few minutes, then we thought of making fire there with which to cook our food as we were hungry. But as dried sticks were not near that place then we stood up and went further to gather the sticks for the fire, but as we went further there we met an image which knelt down. It was a female in form and it was also cream in colour. After we had collected the sticks, we came back to the termites’ house, then we made the fire, cooked our food and ate it; when it was about 8 o’clock in the night, we slept at the foot of the termites’ house, but we could not fall asleep, because of fear, and when it was about 11 o’clock of that night we began to hear as if we were in the middle of a market, then we listened to it very well and before we rose up our heads, we were in the centre of a market. Not knowing that it was the owner of the market, that we put our loads on, making fire and also slept under him, but we thought that it was only a termites’ house, but no.
Then we started to pack our loads at once to leave the place, perhaps we might be safe, but as we were packing our loads, that field’s creatures had surrounded us and caught us like a policeman, so we followed them, and also the termites’ house (the owner of the market) under who we slept followed us too, as he was following us, he was jumping, because he had no foot, but a very small head like a one-month-old baby’s head, and when we reached the place where the female image knelt down, she stood up and followed us too.
But after we had travelled about twenty minutes, we reached their king’s palace, although he was not in when we reached there at that moment.
The palace was almost covered with refuse, it resembled an old ruined house, it was very rough. When these field creatures saw that the king was not at home, they waited for half an hour before he came, but when we (my wife and I) saw him, he himself was refuse, because he was almost covered with both dried and undried leaves and we could not see his feet and face etc. He entered the palace and at once came and sat down on the refuse. After that his people presented us to him and lodged complaint that we trespassed their town. When they had told him that, he asked them what were these two dulls, but his people said that they could not describe them at all, because they had not seen these kind of creatures before. As my wife and I did not talk a single word by that time, they thought that we were unable to talk, then their king gave one of them a sharp stick to stab us, perhaps we might talk or feel pain; he did as their king told him to do. So as he mercilessly stabbed us with that stick, we felt pain and talked out, but at the same time that the whole of them heard our voice, they laughed at us if bombs explode, and we knew ‘Laugh’ personally on that night, because as every one of them stopped laughing at us, ‘Laugh’ did not stop for two hours. As ‘Laugh’ was laughing at us on that night, my wife and myself forgot our pains and laughed with him, because he was laughing with curious voices that we never heard before in our life. We did not know the time that we fell into his laugh, but we were only laughing at ‘Laugh’s’ laugh and nobody who heard him when laughing would not laugh, so if somebody continue to laugh with ‘Laugh’ himself, he or she would die or faint at once for long laughing, because laugh was his profession and he was feeding on it. Then they began to beg ‘Laugh’ to stop, but he could not. Not knowing that these field creatures had never seen human-beings before, after a while, their king told them to take us to their ‘gods of war’. But when I heard that from him, I was very glad, because I myself was ‘Father of gods’. These field creatures pushed us to their ‘gods of war’ as their king said, but they did not go near the ‘god’ because nobody would and return alive. After they had pushed us to him and gone back to the market and as the ‘god’ could talk and I myself was ‘Father of gods’ also and I had known the secrets of all ‘gods’, so I talked to this god with a kind of voice, then he did not harm us, instead he led us out of that field. As their king was talking, a hot steam was rushing out of his nose and mouth as a big boiler and he was breathing at five minutes interval. That was how we left the field creatures and their field.