Read Online The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure by Jake von Alpen - Free Book Online Page A

heard somebody say a KhoiKhoi man can outrun a
horse.”
    “Yes, you can, but only if you have the whole day. A horse does
not have endurance but it is fast. It catches up with you very quickly and the
man on top shoots further than your arrows can travel.”
    “So the ways of the Dutch are better than ours?”
     “No. The thing that happened was not better. You can see
that from the tribes that started going to the Dutch instead of coming to us to
settle wars. The Dutch wanted cattle and farms in exchange for helping. Once
they got what they wanted they never left. They stayed and pushed the tribes
away from the land where their forefathers grazed their livestock for as long
as anyone could remember. We only wanted the misshapen babies but they don’t
want our assistance anymore.”
    “How can people be so dumb?” asked Hadah, shaking his head.
    “Aitsi-!uma said the same thing to them, but they did not
listen. Once the lust for war was in a man he listens only to his anger. That
was the downfall of our people. Some of our people saw what was happening but
they were too few. People were too quick to admire the men who spoke of war.
Those who thought differently were told that they talk like women. It did not
help that Aitsi-!uma was a woman.”
    “If you are a man you are a warrior,” said Hadah with
conviction.
    “That is the way you protect your cattle and your family,”
said the master. “But we should have been wiser. Do you know the story of Kro!toa?”
    “No,” said Hadah.
    “Aitsi-!uma told me this story since she knew this young
girl quite well. The girl knew this mountain and she often wandered around on
her own up here. Her people, the Gorachouqua , came here in summer, to
the cool side where there is always water and grazing. The other place which is
like this in summer is all the way over at Sea Mountain. She knew that place
too. It is strange how the tribes could agree to use the same water and grazing
sometimes when they had no other option.”
    “Well, what happened?” asked Hadah, since the old man had
stopped talking.
    “This girl was the daughter of the king of the Gorachouqua .
Now the king of the Goringhaiqua fell in love with her, since she was
beautiful. But - instead of doing the right thing and asking her father and pay
the price in cattle, he abducted the young woman to his home and married her.”
    “Why did he not ask the father?”
    “Because he was too proud. The two tribes were fighting on
and off and he could not get himself to go and ask for anything from the father,
who was his enemy. Anyway, so there was another war because of what he had
done. While they were fighting, the woman ran away from her husband. Instead of
going back to her father, however, she ran to a cave high up on the side of Sea
Mountain, where there is a strong fountain. There she grieved for her people
until she died. While dying she called on the power of the spirit who lives in
our mountain. As I said, she wandered around alone on this mountain and somehow
she had learnt some of its secrets. Maybe, if she was not abducted, she was
going to become Aitsi-!uma’s successor instead of me.”
    “What had she done?” asked Hadah.
    “She cursed all men who love to make war. The way Aitsi-!uma
told the story, her tears fell into the stream that flows into the lake at the
foot of the mountain. Now, every man who drinks of that lake is in danger. If
he has a warlike attitude, he will fall into it and drown.”
    “Have there been drownings indeed?”
    “Yes, many of our nation have fallen in and drowned. It
happens all the time.”
    “But not Dutch?”
    “Oh yes, some Dutch men have also mysteriously been drawn to
the lake, where they fell in and drowned as well.”

 
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    “You want to know about my castle?” asked Grant.
    “Yes, I grew up in a castle, so naturally I am interested in
yours.”
    “OK, well maybe what you call a castle is not what I call a
castle. How many