Casca 17: The Warrior by Sadler Barry

Author:Sadler, Barry [Sadler, Barry]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The games had lasted all day and much of the night, and included every test of strength, agility, skill, and courage that the mind of man could conceive using trees and mountains and coral reefs and underwater caves, pounding surf, calm lagoon waters, sharks and stingrays.

The drums called the whole village to the square, and the first event started then and there.

At one corner stood the great pole of the ruined temple, surrounded by its ruins and carved gods. At a signal from Semele every young man in the village raced for the pole, elbowing, pushing each other out of the way, tripping each other up, fighting to be first to get to the pole. One man might knock down half a dozen others, but would only just begin his climb when he would be dragged down and another would take his place, only to be dragged down in his turn.

Then there were three or four men on the pole, each trying to drag down the man above him and kick away those below him. One made it halfway up, to be seized from below by two others, so that all three crashed heavily to the ground.

Eventually one man did make it to the top, but fell when he attempted to stand erect. And at last there was one man standing on the forty-foot pole, kicking away the arms that tried to clutch at his legs and bring him crashing to the ground.

The drum sounded, and everybody cheered the one who had earned the right to be enslaved.

Another proved his worth by ducking, weaving, running around the square without being hit by any of the stones, sticks, fruit, and coconuts thrown by the villagers. The several contestants knocked unconscious were laid out alongside the groaning wrecks from the pole-climbing contest.

A little later in the morning Semele's son qualified for the trip to Australia by capturing a small shark with his bare hands. The feat was accomplished by diving onto the shark from a canoe, grasping it about the body, and hurling it into the boat. None of the other contestants managed to catch one, and miraculously none lost an arm or a leg to the several enraged sharks that they were after.

Spearing a stingray and maneuvering it in its death throes to the shore by riding on its back, got another the right to end his life cutting sugarcane under the lash.

One of Mbolo's sons qualified by diving on the reef, staying down longer than anybody else, and coming up with the biggest basket of lobsters.

The biggest rock that could be found was rolled to the edge of the square. A contestant carried it until he collapsed in exhaustion. The next contestant carried it back to and beyond his starting point. Another managed to carry it farther, then another a little farther, until another slave was finally chosen.

The best wrestlers and runners and swimmers were selected. Men slapped each other's faces until one or the other collapsed. Some walked

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