Chapter V: At the Mission

Father Ravennes crossed the courtyard of his Mission with great strides. In front of the chapel he stopped. It was a rectangular building with a mud roof surmounted by a simple black cross; from each side of the building, like windows, three bays stood out covered with great screens of woven rattan. A single door gave access to it, massive and reënforced by crossbeams roughly squared, closed by two staples through which passed the hasp of a heavy padlock.

Before the chapel, suspended to a wooden bracket, a gong hung with its wooden striker. Seizing the hammer the priest with swift violent blows made the bronze resound. The sonorous vibrations swelled out through the air and filled the whole court, penetrating to the interior of the narrow huts perched on their bases of piles against the stockade of pointed bamboo.

Disturbed in their morning hour of quiet a dozen or so of blackbirds flew out and scattered with sharp cries. The fowls that were pecking about ran off in fright, flapping their wings. From the house of the priest next the chapel a native dog, lean and surly, charged out and began running round and round in front of the gong, barking madly.

"Quiet, Jang!" cried the priest.

He had restored the striker to the bracket, and was watching his flock who, hurriedly emerging from their huts, had come to group themselves in front of him.

There were some thirty, all told; a miserable crowd composed principally of women and children. And according to the order of their arrival, after a respectful salaam, they sat back on their heels holding their children by the hand. Behind them, standing up, a few men showed their hollowed faces turned towards the priest, and their naked bodies in which the bones seemed almost ready to come through the brown and dirty skin.

Father Ravennes looked at them steadily. But they turned away their eyes, submitting to his inspection with an appearance of annoyance and constraint which he noted.

When he saw them all ranged before him, he stretched his hand toward the mountain of which the blue slopes showed faintly far away towards the north.

"What did you go to do over there last night?" he demanded.

There was a deep silence. Motionless, their faces as expressionless as masks, the men hung their heads.

Father Ravennes leaned forward.

"Why did you go there?" he questioned again.

He seemed this time to address himself to the women and his voice became imperious. But they remained silent, simply clasping their children tighter to them.

The missionary, drawing back, made a few steps to the rear.

"Very well," he said roughly, "since you have nothing to say...."

A voice interrupted him:

"We went for a walk in the forest, Father, it was a hot night...."

The priest advanced towards the one who had just spoken and stared him out of countenance.

"It was a hot night ..." he repeated.

The other, small and puny, with an air of insincerity, turned his eyes away.

"Yes, very hot and we couldn't sleep, and...."

Father Ravennes drew himself up to his full height. He loomed large, bony and strong, dominating them all with his powerful carriage. He caught the man by the arm and forced him to turn his face to him.

"Why are you lying?" he demanded.

The other stammered:

"But I am not lying, Father, I...."

The missionary passionately cut him short:

"Be silent. I tell you that you are lying. You are all lying."

Two of his flock at his side made a gesture of protest which he saw.

"Yes, true," said he, "I am unjust: you were not in it, you two, and I am very glad.... But these others?..."

He flung away violently the man he had been holding.

"Away with you!" said he.

Then turning towards the still silent group of his converts he flung at them:

"What you refuse to tell me I am going to tell you. You went to the _Bo-Jaou_.[6] How many times have I told you and told you, that a Christian cannot believe in sorcery. When I think that you have been here for more than a year, and that in spite of all, all that I have told you, you continue to take part in the mummeries of this ... it's enough to drive me mad! A saint himself would lose patience with you, and I am not a saint."

[Footnote 6: Sorceress; _Bia-bo-Jaou_: Queen of the sorceresses, the high priestess.]

A clear voice interrupted him:

"Oh! Father Ravennes, I am afraid that we have arrived at the wrong time. We have come to ask you for lunch. Can we come in?"

The missionary swiftly turned his head. On the other side of the palisade behind the entrance gate he saw Wanda and Pierre.

"Certainly," said he, "come in, and welcome! It is true that I am sinning terribly at this moment, but God will not call me to account for it; it is for the good of the Faith! Just look at them!"

With a circular gesture he pointed out the group of converts. The sleeve of his tunic swept the air around him. On his great chest the silver cross suspended by its rosary jumped. He repeated passionately:

"Look at them! They came to me pitiful, wretched and suffering: I took them in. For more than a year every day I have preached the Gospel to them, and all of them--men and women--have begged me to teach them the truths of our holy religion. One by one, I have cared for them, cured them, and little by little came to love them as my children, and then I baptized them. Look at that one, Ngui...."

With his forefinger he pointed at one of the men.

"Scarcely a fortnight ago, when the time came for him to receive baptism, and I put to him the questions set down in the ritual: '_Do you believe in God? Do you renounce Satan?_' instead of answering me as I had taught him: '_I renounce him_,' this fellow, forgetting his instructions in an enthusiasm which filled my priest's heart with joy, cried out, '_Yes, yes, I renounce him with all my heart and for ever!_' And yet in spite of that, last night it was he who was at their head and guided them when they were on their way to take part in the ceremonies of Bo-Jaou!"

He walked towards the frightened group, and catching at random a woman with a child hanging on to the edge of her tunic, he shook her roughly:

"For I followed you, do you hear? And when you ran away, seeing a shadow which you did not wait to recognise, I saw you, and I know enough of it all to be able to describe to you all your underhand doings. Indeed I will describe them to you."

Letting go of the woman he thumped the shoulder of a man who stood near him.

"It was you," he said, "who opened the gate for them. It was eleven o'clock, and while they slid out you stayed on watch to see if I noticed anything. You were quite satisfied, weren't you? At that time I am always asleep. But the good God arranged it so that on that very afternoon I overheard one of you saying, 'The sign is cut upon the sacred banyan tree. It will be tonight!' I became suspicious. Aroused to full watchfulness I watched you from behind my blinds, and when you had gone out, with Ngui at the head and you at the end of the line, I set out on your track.

"You ran across the plain. The night was dark, only lighted up a little here and there by a ray of moonlight from between the clouds. You went towards the mountain. I saw you take the canoes on the bank of the river and cross it, go round the fort and disappear in the forest. As you had taken away all the canoes, I followed you by swimming. That took time. When I reached the other side of the river you had disappeared. Before me rose the first outpost of the Pou-Kas. I was unarmed! But nevertheless, after a short prayer, I set out towards a vague light which appeared and disappeared in the distance between the trees. After a walk of half an hour, on reaching a clearing I saw you, you, Nmur, you, Dok, all of you ... all of you, ranged around the jar of the libations and watching Jieng who was dancing before a brazier and howling while she gashed her face, her arms and her breast with sword-cuts!"

Pierre de Lursac came forward excitedly.

"Jieng, the famous sorceress of whom you spoke to us. Have you seen her?..."

Father Ravennes, turning round to him, broke into his speech.

"Chut!" said he. "Let me finish with these people."

And with a sudden turn he faced the converts and continued:

"Yes, you were all there and when you saw a shadow--mine--in front of you, you all ran away, Jieng at your head, scattering among the shadows of the forest. But by the abandoned fire I found this, which I brought back with me."

As he spoke, going to one of the windows of the chapel, he raised the screen and picked up a Moï sword. The thick blade, short and tapering to a point, shone spotted here and there with reddish stains. He held it a moment above his head high in the air, then flinging it with all his force into the middle of the court he cried:

"There is the sword which was used in the ceremonies. Now, will you still deny it?"

And he stood silent, trembling with emotion, drawn to his full height and facing the group of his converts who turned towards him faces full of woe and distress.

Standing at his side even Wanda and Pierre shuddered. The same emotion moved them both. They looked wonderingly at this man who lived there, lost in the depths of the Lao-ese forest, sustained only by his ideal of a priest's duty, and they gave him the tribute of their admiration, thinking of all that he had abandoned, of all that he had not hesitated to leave behind him--fatherland, parents, friends--to try and gain for his faith a few strays of this primitive and uncivilized race.

But already gaining control of himself the priest turned again to his converts.

"And now," said he in a deep voice, "listen to me: I came here from Pho-Rang,[7] my country, to live among you. You were slaves and I have made you free men and women. Your souls were wandering in the darkness, and I have tried to save those ignorant souls, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ; but you have remained blind; you have not wanted to believe; you have had for me double hearts and double minds. To my love you have answered only with hypocrisy, lies and daily deceits...."

[Footnote 7: France.]

He made a gesture which seemed to sweep them all away from him.

"I am tired," said he, "of struggling for you against yourselves... Go away from here. Return to your villages. I send you off.... Go.... Go...."

A silence of surprised horror weighed upon them. Then a woman's cry rang out, taken up and echoed by the voices of the others:

"Father, O Father! ... keep us here!..."

The women had risen to their feet; they ran up, trying to fling themselves at the feet of the priest.

"Not that.... O Father.... Not that. We can't go back to the mountain! Spare us!"

Fear shook them all, an incomprehensible and unexpected fear.

In his turn a man broke out into supplication:

"Pardon us, Father.... It is true ... we did go there, but we didn't know, we didn't think that that would make you angry ... forgive us!"

The missionary gazed at them thoughtfully. Kneeling at his feet, their hands stretched out toward him, a mask of very terror distorting their features, they groaned and trembled; and although this sudden terror seemed to him as yet another mystery, the priest felt a great pity sweep over him. His glance strayed about him.

From a pale metallic sky the sun was beating fiercely down. It filled the entire court, like a huge cup, with dazzling heat and light: above it the air throbbed and palpitated. The blackbirds, who had been frightened for a minute, had now returned to their familiar roosting-places and were hopping about among the bamboo stakes of the palisade, squawking and whistling, intoxicated with the glare.

In the centre of the court the great black cross which dominated the chapel threw its shadow, and its wide-spread arms traced on the yellow soil the Christian symbol of pardon and redemption.

Father Ravennes raised his hand.

"Very well," said he slowly, "but this is the second time that I have pardoned you, and by the holy Cross, whose servant I am, I swear to you that if I catch you a third time I shall be inexorable."

A voice promised:

"We will obey...."

And a confusion of cries immediately arose:

"We will never go to the forest any more! We swear it, Father! We all swear it! Believe us! Oh, believe us!"

The missionary nodded. His strong face, drawn with fatigue, grew soft.

"It is well," said he, "go now and resume your regular life."