Chapter I: Front Matter

The People Of The Mist

by H. Rider Haggard

First Published 1894.

DEDICATION

I DEDICATE THIS EFFORT OF “PRIMEVAL AND TROGLODYTE IMAGINATION" THIS RECORD OF BAREFACED AND FLAGRANT ADVENTURE

TO MY GODSONS

IN THE HOPE THAT THEREIN THEY MAY FIND SOME STORE OF HEALTHY AMUSEMENT. _Ditchingham_, 1894.

Contents

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I. THE SINS OF THE FATHER ARE VISITED ON THE CHILDREN II. THE SINS OF THE FATHER ARE VISITED ON THE CHILDREN III. AFTER SEVEN YEARS IV. THE LAST VIGIL V. OTTER GIVES COUNSEL VI. THE TALE OF SOA VII. LEONARD SWEARS ON THE BLOOD OF ACA VIII. THE START IX. THE YELLOW DEVIL’S NEST X. LEONARD MAKES A PLAN XI. THAT HERO OTTER XII. A CHOICE LOT XIII. A MIDNIGHT MARRIAGE XIV. VENGEANCE XV. DISILLUSION XVI. MISUNDERSTANDINGS XVII. THE DEATH OF MAVOOM XVIII. SOA SHOWS HER TEETH XIX. THE END OF THE JOURNEY XX. THE COMING OF ACA XXI. THE FOLLY OF OTTER XXII. THE TEMPLE OF JÂL XXIII. HOW JUANNA CONQUERED NAM XXIV. OLFAN TELLS OF THE RUBIES XXV. THE SACRIFICE AFTER THE NEW ORDER XXVI. THE LAST OF THE SETTLEMENT MEN XXVII. ATHER AND DAUGHTER XXVIII. JUANNA PREVARICATES XXIX. THE TRIAL OF THE GODS XXX. FRANCISCO’S EXPIATION XXXI. THE WHITE DAWN XXXII. HOW OTTER FOUGHT THE WATER DWELLER XXXIII. TRAPPED XXXIV. NAM’S LAST ARGUMENT XXXV. BE NOBLE OR BE BASE XXXVI. HOW OTTER CAME BACK XXXVII. “I AM REPAID, QUEEN” XXXVIII. THE TRIUMPH OF NAM XXXIX. THE PASSING OF THE BRIDGE XL. OTTER’S FAREWELL

ENVOI THE END OF THE ADVENTURE

AUTHOR’S NOTE

On several previous occasions it has happened to this writer of romance to be justified of his romances by facts of startling similarity, subsequently brought to light and to his knowledge. In this tale occurs an instance of the sort, a “double-barrelled” instance indeed, that to him seems sufficiently curious to be worthy of telling. The People of the Mist of his adventure story worship a sacred crocodile to which they make sacrifice, but in the original draft of the book this crocodile was a snake—_monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens_. A friend of the writer, an African explorer of great experience who read that draft, suggested that the snake was altogether too unprecedented and impossible. Accordingly, also at his suggestion, a crocodile was substituted. Scarcely was this change effected, however, when Mr. R. T. Coryndon, the slayer of almost the last white rhinoceros, published in the _African Review_ of February 17, 1894, an account of a huge and terrific serpent said to exist in the Dichwi district of Mashonaland, that in many particulars resembled the snake of the story, whose prototype, by the way, really lives and is adored as a divinity by certain natives in the remote province of Chiapas in Mexico. Still, the tale being in type, the alteration was suffered to stand. But now, if the _Zoutpansberg Review_ may be believed, the author can take credit for his crocodile also, since that paper states that in the course of the recent campaign against Malaboch, a chief living in the north of the Transvaal, his fetish or god was captured, and that god, a crocodile fashioned in wood, to which offerings were made. Further, this journal says that among these people (as with the ancient Egyptians), the worship of the crocodile is a recognised cult. Also it congratulates the present writer on his intimate acquaintance with the more secret manifestations of African folklore and beast worship. He must disclaim the compliment in this instance as, when engaged in inventing the ‘People of the Mist,’ he was totally ignorant that any of the Bantu tribes reverenced either snake or crocodile divinities. But the coincidence is strange, and once more shows, if further examples of the fact are needed, how impotent are the efforts of imagination to vie with hidden truths—even with the hidden truths of this small and trodden world.

_September_ 20, 1894.

THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST