They travel until they reach the edge of a desert. There they leave the oxen in the care of a nearby inhabitant, as the ox carts will be of no use in the sand. They enter the desert traveling by foot. Despite carefully rationing their water, the party nearly dies of thirst before they eventually make it to the oasis which is shown on their dubious map. The party eventually make it to the base of the mountains referred to as, er, Sheba's Breasts (referring to the Queen of Sheba who is linked with King Solomon in many legends, and is also recorded as having visited him the Biblical account of I Kings 10:1-13). Sheba- or Saba, depending on the source- was an ancient Arabian kingdom which compassed parts of Yemen and Ethiopia. They make the gruelling climb up one of the peaks; it becomes progressively colder and more dangerous as they ascend the mountain. They finally take refuge in a cave where they find the frozen body of Jose Silvestra, the explorer who had originally drawn the Quatermain's map back in the 1700's. They spend the night there in the relative shelter of the cave, but in the morning find that one of their hired men has frozen to death. They put his body next to Silvestra's and continue their journey, desperate to leave the deadly cold of the mountain heights. As they descend on the other side, they find themselves in a lush and fertile valley which is called Kukuanaland, as they soon discover.
Quatermain and the rest of his party head off on their quest to find Sir Henry's brother and the riches- real or imagined- of King Solomon's Mines. Almost immediately though, they are sidetracked by an elephant hunt which takes a sudden bad turn: a wounded elephant charges at some of the men. Captain Good trips and falls while running to get out of its way (he's wearing improper footwear); one of the hired men bravely diverts the maddened animal, saving Good, but is himself killed much to everyone's great regret. It seems an ill-fated start to their adventure. They travel until they reach the edge of a desert. There they leave the oxen in the care of a nearby inhabitant, as the ox carts will be of no use in the sand. They enter the desert traveling by foot. Despite carefully rationing their water, the party nearly dies of thirst before they eventually make it to the oasis which is shown on their dubious map. The party eventually make it to the base of the mountains referred to as, er, Sheba's Breasts (referring to the Queen of Sheba who is linked with King Solomon in many legends, and is also recorded as having visited him the Biblical account of I Kings 10:1-13). Sheba- or Saba, depending on the source- was an ancient Arabian kingdom which compassed parts of Yemen and Ethiopia. They make the gruelling climb up one of the peaks; it becomes progressively colder and more dangerous as they ascend the mountain. They finally take refuge in a cave where they find the frozen body of Jose Silvestra, the explorer who had originally drawn the Quatermain's map back in the 1700's. They spend the night there in the relative shelter of the cave, but in the morning find that one of their hired men has frozen to death. They put his body next to Silvestra's and continue their journey, desperate to leave the deadly cold of the mountain heights. As they descend on the other side, they find themselves in a lush and fertile valley which is called Kukuanaland, as they soon discover. The group is just recuperating from their terrible journey when they are confronted by a bunch of Kukuana warriors who are intent on killing them. The warriors are given pause, however, when they take Captain Good for a sorcerer of some sort: caught while performing his ablutions, he's not wearing trousers, has only one side of his face shaved, and has his false teeth in hand. Never having seen the like, the warriors recoil fearfully from the man with his white legs, half-beard, and removable teeth. Quatermain and Sir Henry capitalize on this fear, killing a small deer with one of their guns, a weapon the Kukuanas have never seen before. To them it seems as though they killed the animal just by pointing at it. They tell the warriors that they are white men from the stars and, to maintain credibility, have to constantly perform "miracles" to impress the natives. They also inform Good that he's going to have to stay as he is- pantless and half-bearded- to keep up the fiction that he is a sorcerer. The warriors take all of them to their king, Twala, who is a ruthless tyrant. He gained power when he murdered his brother, the former king, and had his brother's wife and young son Ignosi driven out into the desert where they're presumed to have died. The Kukuanas know King Twala's the worst, but no one challenges his rule for a couple of reasons, only one being his control of the Kukuana army... plenty of them would be willing to go against him if another leader presented himself. The real problem is that Twala enjoys the support of self-styled witch Gagool, a ghastly old hag who conducts frequent ceremonies during which, through her "magic", she identifies men who are traitors to King Twala. These unfortunates are subsequently killed by the king's loyal soldiers. Coincidentally, these always tend to be influential men who might have the power to set themselves up as rivals for leadership. This gets rid of these men as threats to Twala's power, and also acts as a deterrent for others who might entertain ideas about deposing the king. Twala and Gagool put on one of these ceremonies while Quatermain and the others are involuntary guests and insist that they attend. They watch in horror and disgust as Gagool dances about and points to several men, who are then brutally murdered right in front of their eyes. Then, shockingly, the hag dances up to Umbopa, the African who had insisted on hiring on to their crew. She points evilly at him, and soldiers spring forward to carry out his execution but Quatermain, who had noticed her eying Umbopa earlier, suspected she was going to pull something of the sort and now intervenes. Through threats and intimidation, they prevent the murder of Umbopa, much to the rage of Gagool and Twala. The reason for Gagool's targeting of Umbopa is soon revealed: he is in actual fact Ignosi, the son of the previous king- and Twala's nephew- whom everyone thought was dead. He insisted on coming on the search for Sir Henry's brother because he knew they would have to pass through the land of his people, where he was determined to challenge his uncle for the kingship of the Kukuanas. Many of the tribesmen, fed up with Twala's bloody rule, are ready to join forces with Umbopa/Ignosi to defeat the king. Quatermain, Sir Henry, and Captain Good decide that they are duty bound to help Umbopa; despite having ulterior motives, he has been with them through thick and thin throughout their dangerous journey and they feel they owe him the same. Besides, they all hate Twala and that old toad Gagool. So, their search for King Solomon's Mines temporarily on hold, the three men find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with Ignosi and his new allies, preparing to wage war against King Twala and his army. (To Be Continued...)
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