A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian,
for his ‘Quellen’. As I have, however,
judging from certain experiences in the past, some
reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge
my indebtedness to Mr Thomson’s admirable history
of travel ’Through Masai Land’ for much
information as to the habits and customs of the tribes
inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and the
country where they live; also to my brother, John G.
Haggard, RN, HBM’s consul at Madagascar, and
formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished
by him of the mode of life and war of those engaging
people the Masai; also to my sister-in-law, Mrs John
Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p. 183 into rhyme
for me; also to an extract in a review from some book
of travel of which I cannot recollect the name, to
which I owe the idea of the great crabs in the valley
of the subterranean river. {Endnote 23} But if I remember
right, the crabs in the book when irritated projected
their eyes quite out of their heads. I regret
that I was not able to ‘plagiarize’ this
effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and doubtless
do, behave thus in real life, in romance they ‘will
not do so.’
There is an underground river in ‘Peter Wilkins’,
but at the time of writing the foregoing pages I had
not read that quaint but entertaining work.
It has been pointed out to me that there exists a
similarity between the scene of Umslopogaas frightening
Alphonse with his axe and a scene in Far from the
Madding Crowd. I regret this coincidence, and
believe that the talented author of that work will
not be inclined to accuse me of literary immorality
on its account.
Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain’s little
Frenchman appears to belong to the same class of beings
as those English ladies whose long yellow teeth and
feet of enormous size excite our hearty amusement
in the pages of the illustrated Gallic press.
The Writer of ‘Allan Quatermain’
Endnote 1
Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made
of a species of black gum twisted in with the hair,
and polished a brilliant black, when he has reached
a certain dignity and age, or is the husband of a
sufficient number of wives. Till he is in a position
to wear a ring he is looked on as a boy, though he
may be thirty-five years of age, or even more. —
A. Q.
Endnote 2
One of the fleetest of the African antelopes. —
A. Q.
Endnote 3
Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach
of a dead foe. They have a superstition that,
if this is not done, as the body of their enemy swells
up so will the bodies of those who killed him swell
up. — A. Q.
Endnote 4
Copyrights
Allan Quatermain from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
