Books: Pinocchio in Africa
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Cherubini >> Pinocchio in Africa
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19. The Caravan
HE saw nothing but rocks and sand; rocks that shone like mirrors,
and sand that burned like fire. He walked on very sadly, without
knowing where. Presently he found himself upon a hill, from which he
could see a vast plain crossed by a wide highway. A long line of people
and camels were on the march, but how strange they looked! They were
going along with heads down and feet up. At first the marionette was
filled with a strong desire to laugh; then he became frightened and
rubbed his eyes, doubting what they told him.
"Am I dreaming?" he said to himself.
The line continued its march, and he distinctly heard the people
laugh and joke as they all sat upside down on the backs of the inverted
camels.
"I was not prepared for this! What a strange way of traveling they
have in Africa! Maybe I too am walking on my head!" and he touched
himself to make sure that his head was in its proper place.
Meanwhile the caravan passed on, and Pinocchio stood still, his eyes
fixed upon the camels as they disappeared at the turning of the road.
The only thing left for him to do was to follow them.
"Either on my head or on my feet I shall surely arrive somewhere! I
do not believe that all those people will walk on air forever. Sometime
or other they will stop to eat. I shall be there to help them."
As he spoke the marionette started forward, walking rapidly in the
hot sun.
20. The Baby Pulls His Nose
IN half an hour he had caught up with the topsy-turvy caravan. It
had stopped at a large well, which was filled with clear, cool water.
The people were laughing and talking as if they were at home. They were
all as happy as they could be.
Pinocchio could not understand it. Had these people really stood on
their heads? What had happened to them? There was something wrong. He
had certainly seen them traveling in that strange fashion. However, a
marionette who is hungry and thirsty does not worry long about things
he cannot explain. He was there, and the people were eating and
drinking.
"What a fool I am! If their heads were upside down, they could
neither eat nor drink. Surely they will not refuse me a little water,
and perhaps as they are familiar with Africa, I may discover in talking
with them where the mines of gold and precious stones are to be found."
So saying, Pinocchio moved toward an old man who was sitting with a
pipe in his mouth. He had finished his meal and was enjoying a smoke.
The marionette took off his hat and said, "Pardon me, sir; what time is
it?"
The old man's answer came in a volume of smoke.
"Ask the sun, my boy. He will tell you."
"Thank you!" said Pinocchio, a little taken aback by this reception,
and he moved on toward a woman with a baby on her shoulders.
"Madam, will you please tell me if I am on the right road to - "
"The world is wide," broke in the woman.
"And long too," thought the marionette. "How polite these Africans
are!"
Of course, the marionette was a stupid fellow. He was a little
ashamed to beg for food, and had only asked these questions so that the
people might notice him and perhaps offer him food and water. An
ordinary boy would have asked for what he wanted, but the blockhead was
too proud.
He was about to go on when the baby began to wave its arms, and to
shout, "I want it! I want it!"
Can you guess what it wanted? Pinocchio's nose! The child reached
out its hands, and cried and kicked in trying to get hold of it.
The whole caravan looked toward the spot. A group of children
gathered about them. Even the camels lifted their heads to see what was
the matter. The mother was distressed because the child's screams and
kicks continued. She asked Pinocchio to let it touch his nose. His
pride was hurt, but thinking it best to humor the child, he went closer
and allowed his nose to be touched and squeezed and pulled until the
baby was perfectly happy and satisfied. The good woman laughed, and
thanked Pinocchio by offering him some bread and milk.
Pinocchio buried his face in the milk and ate the bread. There was
no doubt of his hunger. The others offered him fruit and cake. He was
pleased. Africa, after all, was a country where one could live. His
hunger satisfied, he did what marionettes usually do, talked about
himself. In a short time all the people knew who he was and why he had
come to Africa. The old man with the pipe asked him, "Who told you that
here in Africa there is so much gold?"
"Who told me? He who knows told me!"
"But are you sure that he did not wish to deceive you?"
"Deceive me?" replied the marionette, "My dear sire, to deceive me
one must have a good - " and he touched his forehead with his
forefinger as much as to say that within lay a great brain. "Before
leaving home I studied so much that the teacher feared I should ruin my
health."
"Very well," replied the old man, "let us travel together, for we
also area in search of gold and precious stones."
Pinocchio's heart beat fast with hope. At last there was some one to
help him in his search. He could scarcely control himself enough to
say: "Willingly, most willingly! I have no objections. Suit
yourselves."
21. Pinocchio Travels With The Caravan
THE camels, refreshed by the large amount of water they had taken,
stood up, proud of their loads. Even the donkey brayed. Yes, there was
a donkey! And this fact displeased Pinocchio. He had for a long time
felt a great dislike for these animals. In fact, he had once been a
donkey, and his dislike was a natural one.
The donkey did not carry any load, and for that reason the
marionette was asked to ride on its back. He hesitated. It was stupid
to ride a donkey, and he would have preferred to walk, but he did not
like to seem rude to the good people, and up he mounted.
They traveled all day along the narrow road which gradually wound
around the slope of a mountain. The old man rode by the side of
Pinocchio, asking him many questions about the studies he had taken up
to prepare himself for this trip to Africa.
The marionette talked a great deal, and as might have been expected,
made many blunders. He began to think that his companions were very
simple, and that in Africa one could tell any kind of lie without being
discovered. He even went so far as to assure the old man that he knew
the very spot where they could find gold and diamonds, and ended by
saying that within a week they should all be men of great wealth.
"You must walk straight ahead," the saucy marionette was saying,
"then to the right, and you will arrive at the bottom of a valley,
through which flows a beautiful brook of yellow water. By the side of
this brook is a tree, and beneath the tree there is gold in plenty."
The old man was amazed to hear the tales he told. Pinocchio himself
felt ashamed of all these lies. He was afraid his nose would grow as it
had done one day at home. But no, it was still its natural size!
"Well!" he thought, "if it has not grown longer this time, it will
never grow again, no matter how many lies I tell."
22. He Is Offered For Sale
THEY went on until they met a second caravan resting at a well.
Every one admired Pinocchio, and the old man who had him in charge
treated him as if he were his own son.
Pinocchio was greatly pleased. Yet to tell the truth he was worried.
Suppose they discovered that he had lied, and that he knew nothing
about Africa, or the gold, or the diamonds! What would happen then?
The old man was talking to three or four men of the new caravan.
Pinocchio did not like their faces. Now and then they looked toward the
marionette with open eyes of astonishment.
Pinocchio pricked up his ears to listen to the good things the old
man was saying about him. He felt highly flattered on hearing himself
praised for his character, his intelligence, and his ability to eat and
drink.
Then the men lowered their voices, and the marionette only now and
then caught some stray words.
"How much do you want?"
"Come!" replied the good old man, "between us there should not be so
much talk. I cannot give him to you unless you give me twenty yards of
English calico, thirty yards of iron wire, and four strings of glass
beads."
"It is too much. It is too much," replied one.
"They are bargaining for the donkey," said Pinocchio, and he felt
sorry for the poor beast.
"I am sorry for you," he went on, addressing the donkey, "because
you have made me quite comfortable. Now I must give you up and walk."
"It is too much. It is too much," the men were saying.
"Yes, yes, all you say is very true," spoke one in a high voice,
"but, after all, he is made of wood."
"Of wood? Who is made of wood? The donkey?" thought Pinocchio,
looking at the animal, which stood still, its ears erect as if it also
were listening.
"Here!" put in one of the men, "the bargain is made if you will give
him up for an elephant's tooth; if not, let us talk no more of it."
The old man was silent. He looked at the marionette, and then with a
sigh which came from his heart he said: "You drive a hard bargain! Add
at least the horn of a rhinoceros and let us be done with it."
"Put in the horn!" replied the man, and they shook hands. "You have
done well, my friends," the old man said. "That fellow there," - and
this time pointed directly at Pinocchio, "that fellow there has some
great ideas in his head. He knows a thing or two! He says he knows the
exact spot where one may find gold and diamonds."
Pinocchio was thunderstruck! It was he and not the donkey that had
been sold.
"Dogs!" he cried, "farewell. I go from you forever." And away he
leaped as fast as the north wind. They did not even try to follow him.
Who could have caught him
23. The Bird In The Forest
AFTER two hours of hard running, Pinocchio, still angry at the
treatment he had received, came to a forest. "It's better to be a bird
in the bushes than a bird in a cage!" he thought.
Although the walk in the forest was refreshing, he began, as usual,
to be hungry. The place was very beautiful, but beauty could not
satisfy a marionette's appetite. He looked here and there in the hope
that he might see trees loaded with the fruit about which the elephant
man had spoken. He saw nothing but branches and leaves, leaves and
branches. On he walked. Both the forest and his hunger seemed without
end.
Fortunately Pinocchio was very strong. Being made of wood, he could
endure a great many hardships. He was sure that his good Fairy would
come to help him, so he kept on bravely. He had walked a long way
before he saw a large tree, bearing fruit that resembled oranges.
"At last!" he cried aloud. The birds flew away at the sound.
Pinocchio climbed over the rocks and up the tree as fast as he could.
"I will eat enough to last for a week!" he said, as he thought of
the orange peel his father Geppetto had given him for supper.
He picked the largest of the fruit and put it into his mouth. It was
as hard as ivory. He pulled out his penknife, with which he used to
sharpen his pencil at school. With great difficulty he cut the fruit in
two, to find within only a soft, bitter pulp. Then he tried another and
another. All were like the first one, and he gave up trying because he
was at length convinced that none of the fruit was fit to eat.
Tired and unhappy, with bowed head and dangling arms, he pushed on
slowly, stumbling over rocks, and becoming entangled again and again in
the briers. He thought sadly of the disappointments he had met with in
Africa.
"It is settled. I am to die of hunger. Where are the delicious
fruits and the precious stones? Should I not do better to go home and
leave the gold and silver to those who want them?"
As he went along, thinking over these things, he noticed ahead of
him a bird about the size of a canary, which looked at him as if it
longed to console him in his misery.It went on before Pinocchio, flying
from one branch to another, stopping when the marionette stopped, and
moving every time the marionette moved. Pinocchio said to himself:
"Does his dear little bird wish to be eaten? I'll pluck its feathers,
stick a twig through it, put it in the sun, and in half an hour it will
be cooked and ready to eat."
While the hungry marionette was giving himself up to this thought,
the bird began to sing,"Pinocchio, my dear,
If you would honey eat,
Come closer to me here,
And you will find a treat."Imagine Pinocchio's surprise! He
approached the little songster and looked up. Sure enough, there on a
branch of a great tree was a beehive.
One would think that Pinocchio would at least stop to thank the
bird, but not he! Up the tree he went like a squirrel, while the bees
buzzed about him angrily. The marionette laughed.
"Sting away! sting away, brave bees! I am a marionette and made of
wood. You may sting me as much as you please." He thrust his hand into
the hive and drew out a handful of sweet honey.
"This time at least I shall not die of hunger."
24. His Adventure With A Lion
THE marionette was on the point of filling his mouth a second time,
when he heard a frightful roar directly under his feet. The shock
almost tumbled him down headfirst. Had he fallen, how unfortunate it
would have been! He would have gone straight into the deep mouth of an
African lion which was ready to devour him at one gulp.
"Oh, mercy!" cried the marionette. And the lion gave another
dreadful roar which seemed to say: "Mercy indeed! I have you now, you
little thief."
"Dear lion," pleaded Pinocchio, "have pity on a poor orphan lad who
is nearly starving!"
The lion roared still louder. "Who has given you permission to take
what belongs to another without having earned it by useful and honest
work? In this world he who does not work must starve."
"You are right, my dear lion, you are right. I am ready to pay to
the last cent for all the honey I eat, but please don't seem so angry
or I shall die of fear."
Then the lion stopped roaring, and sitting down upon the ground, he
looked at the marionette as if to say: "Well, what are you going to do
about it? Are you coming down or not?"
"Listen, my dear lion," answered Pinocchio; "so long as you stay
there, I shall not come down. If you want me to go away and leave the
honey, remove yourself a hundred miles or so, and then I will obey
you."
The lion did not move.
For almost an hour Pinocchio sat glued to the tree, not daring to
eat the honey or to come down to the waiting lion. The hot rays of the
sun beat upon him. He felt that he must die, for hunger, fear, and heat
seemed ready to destroy him.
"Surely there must be away out of this," he thought. "That lion must
have in him some spark of kindness. He has made up his mind to keep me
company, and perhaps it is my duty to thank him."
Then the marionette raised his hand to ask permission to speak. It
would have been better had he kept still.
At this gesture the lion uttered a roar so loud that it shook the
whole forest. He began to lash the ground with his tail, sending up a
cloud of dust that nearly choked the marionette, and repeating all the
while in lion language, "If you move hand or foot, you will die!"
Pinocchio sat still. Another hour passed in silence. Pinocchio still
suffered from the heat and from hunger. Both honey and shade were
within easy reach, and he could enjoy neither.
"What an obstinate beast!" he muttered. "How stupid he is to wait
there! There is enough room in the forest for us both."
But the lion did not move, and Pinocchio's suffering was great. He
was sure now that he was going to die, and he looked sadly at those
wooden legs which had carried him through so many adventures. There was
the shade, but he could not reach it. There was the honey that must not
be touched.
"Eat! eat!" said the honey. "Come! come!" said the shade.
Fortunately a new character now arrived on the scene. A magnificent
giraffe came along through the bushes, eating the tender shoots as it
approached the spot.Pinocchio saw the giraffe and recognized it at once
from a picture of one he had seen in school. The lion saw it also. What
should he do? Continue to watch the marionette, or attack and carry off
the giraffe? He decided to take the giraffe. As the animal raised its
head to bite off the leaves from a tall acacia, the lion leaped at its
throat and killed it. Seizing the body in his powerful jaws, the lion
disappeared through the forest, and Pinocchio was left behind to have
his fill of honey. He ate as he had never eaten before.
When he could eat no longer he came down from the tree, but how
strange he felt! His eyes were dim, and his head began to swim, while
his legs went here and there in every direction. He could not even talk
clearly.
"African honey plays jokes upon those who eat too much of it!" he
seemed to hear some one say. He turned to see who it was that had
spoken to him, but no one was there. The next moment he fell heavily to
the ground as if he had been knocked down with a club.
"That is what happens to greedy boys!" continued the voice of the
little bird who had shown him the honey, but Pinocchio lay fast
asleep.
25. Pinocchio Is Brought Before The King
PINOCCHIO had slept for hours when he was aroused by strange sounds.
Were these the voices of human beings.
"Yah! Yah! Hoi! Hoi! Uff! Uff!"
What could it possibly be? The marionette opened an eye, but quickly
shut it again when he saw a number of coal-black faces turned toward
him.
"What do these ugly people want of me?" he asked himself, as he lay
there perfectly still.
When Pinocchio next opened his eyes he saw to his great surprise
that the men had formed a circle about him. At their chief's command
they began to dance. It was all so funny that Pinocchio could hardly
keep from laughing. Then the chief made a sign, at which the savages
advanced toward the marionette, took him up by his arms and legs, and
started away with him.
"This is not so bad," thought the marionette.
After a time his bearers laid him gently upon the ground and
commenced to examine him. Pinocchio decided to make believe he was
dead.
For that reason he kept his eyes shut tightly and lay still.
Suddenly there was a great noise. He was startled. Opening one eye,
he saw approaching a chief followed by a crowd of attendants. Judging
from the manner in which the new arrivals were received, they were
persons of high rank. At their approach the savages knelt down, raised
their hands high in the air, and bent their foreheads to the ground.
A man stepped out from the ranks and came toward Pinocchio. He
examined the marionette from head to foot, while all the others looked
on in silence.
When the examination was over the marionette hoped to be left in
peace, but another approached him and went through the same
performance. Then came a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on.
Pinocchio was somewhat tired of this. As the last one came up he
muttered, "Now I shall see what they are going to do with me."
The man who had first examined Pinocchio now approached him again,
and calling the bearers, said, in a tongue which, curiously enough, the
marionette understood, "Turn the little animal over!"
Upon hearing himself called an animal, Pinocchio was seized with a
mad desire to give his tormentor a kick, but he thought better of it.
The bearers advanced, took the marionette by the shoulders, and
rolled him over.
"Easy! easy! this bed is not too soft," Pinocchio said to himself.
A second examination followed, and then another command, "Roll him
over again!"
"What do you take me for, a top?" muttered the marionette in a burst
of rage. But he pricked up his ears when the man who had been rolling
him over turned to another and said, "Your majesty!"
Indeed!" thought Pinocchio, "we are not dealing with ordinary
persons! We are beginning to know great people. Let me hear what he has
to say about me to his black majesty," and the marionette listened with
the deepest attention.
"Your majesty, my knowledge of the noble art of cooking assures me
that this creature" - and he gave Pinocchio a kick - "is an animal of
an extinct race. It has been turned into wood, carried by the water to
the beach, and then brought here by the wind."
"Not so bad for a cook," thought Pinocchio. He felt half inclined to
strike out and hit the nose of the wise savage, who had again knelt
down to examine him.
"Your majesty," continued the cook, "this little animal is dead,
because if it were not dead - "
"It would be alive," Pinocchio muttered. "What a beast! How stupid!"
"Because if it were not dead, it would not be so hard. To conclude,
had it not been made of wood, I could have cooked it for your majesty's
dinner."
Pinocchio said to himself: "Listen to this black rascal! Eaten
alive! What kind of country have I fallen into? What vulgar people!
It's lucky for me that I am made of wood!"
His majesty then commanded that as the animal was not good to eat it
should be buried.
Immediately three or four of the men began to dig a hole, while the
unfortunate marionette, half dead with fright, tried to form some plan
of escape. The time passed. The hole was dug, and the poor fellow could
not think of any plan. Run away! But how? And if they found out that he
was alive would he not be cooked and eaten? The marionette did not know
what to do.
In the meantime two men had raised him from the ground and stood
ready to throw him into the hole. Then in spite of himself, the
marionette began to shout at the top of his lungs: "Stop! Stop! I will
not be buried alive! Help! Help! My good Fatina! - Fatina! - my Fatina!
Help!"At the first shout the two men who were holding him let him fall
to the ground and started off in a great fright. All the others
followed their example.
"What funny people!" said Pinocchio. "If I had known that they would
all run away like this, I should not have been so uneasy. However, I
really do not know why I have come here. If I only knew where to find
diamonds and gold, it would not be so hard. I might return home to my
father, for who knows how much he is suffering because I am not there!"
At that moment he would have given up the whole trip, but he was too
stupid to keep an idea in his head for more than a few seconds. Another
thought flashed across his mind, and he forgot his poor father.
"If these people run away, it means that they are afraid, and if
they are afraid, it means that they have no courage. Now then, I, being
very brave, may in a short time come to rule over everything in Africa.
Perhaps - who knows! - I may become a king or an emperor!"
Pinocchio, you lazy dreamer, are you never going to learn wisdom?
Only a blockhead like you could be so foolish. A wooden emperor,
indeed!
26. The Monkeys Stone The Marionette
FILLED with these hopes and forgetting his fright, Pinocchio set
boldly forth without the least alarm at the difficulties of the
journey. He was going merrily along, dreaming of all the great things
he would do as emperor of Africa, when at a turn in the road there came
flying after him a volley of stones. Had any struck him he would have
been killed. Astonished and frightened at this strange turn of affairs,
he glanced around, but saw no one. He looked up at the trees, and then
from right to left, but nobody was in sight.
"This is pleasant!" exclaimed the marionette. "Have those pebbles
fallen from the sky?" And he started to go on his way.
He had taken only a few steps, when a second discharge drove him to
the shelter of a large tree. Thence he looked carefully in the
direction from which the stones continued to come. To his surprise he
discovered among the bushes and twigs a large number of monkeys.
"Well! What is this?" cried the marionette. "Those rogues must not
be allowed to play such mean tricks. I had better be on my guard."
He picked up a stout stick lying on the ground near by. To his
amazement, the monkeys threw away the stones and began to pick up
sticks likewise.
"I hope I shall get through this safely!" thought Pinocchio. He
raised his stick and threatened the whole army of monkeys.
The monkeys, as if obeying his command, raised their sticks and held
them erect, imitating exactly the action of the marionette. Then
Pinocchio lowered his stick, and the monkeys lowered theirs. Again
Pinocchio lifted his stick as high as he could, and the monkeys raised
theirs, holding them stiffly like soldiers on drill.
"Arms rest!" cried Pinocchio.
All the monkeys, imitating the marionette, lowered their sticks in
perfect order, just as soldiers do at the officer's command.
"That's a good idea," thought Pinocchio, "I might become the leader
of the monkeys, and within a month conquer all Africa." And he laughed
at the joke.
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