various symptoms ; ulcers of course galore ; a man with a bit
of a broken spear head in an abscess in the thigh; one which
I believe a professional enthusiast would call a “ lovely case ” of
filaria, the entire white of one eye being full of the active little
worms and a ridge of surplus population migrating across the
bridge of the nose into the other eye, under the skin, looking
like the bridge of a pair of spectacles. It was past eleven before
I had anything like done, and my men had long been sound
asleep, but the chief had conscientiously sat up and seen the
thing through. He then went and fetched some rolls of bark
cloth to put on my plank, and I gave him a handsome cloth I
happened to have with me, a couple of knives, and some heads
o f tobacco and wished him good-night; blockading my bark
door, and picking my way over my sleeping Ajumba into an
inner apartment which I also blockaded, hoping I had done
with Egaja for some hours. No such thing. A t 1.45 the whole
town was roused by the frantic yells of a woman. I judged
there was one of my beauties of Fans mixed up in it, and there
was, and after paying damages, got back again by 2.30 A.M.,
and off to sleep again instantly. A t four sharp, whole town of
Egaja plunged into emotion, and worse shindy. I suggested
to the Ajumba they should go o u t; but no, they didn’t care
a row of pins if one of our Fans did get killed, so I went,
recognising Kiva’s voice in high expostulation. Kiva, it
seems, a long time ago had a transaction in re a tooth of ivory
with a man who, unfortunately, happened to be in this town
to-night, and Kiva owed the said man a coat.1
. Kiva, it seems, has been spending the whole evening
demonstrating to his creditor that, had he only known they
were to meet, he would have brought the coat with him— a
particularly beautiful coat— and the reason he has not paid it
before is that he has mislaid the creditor’s address. The
creditor says he has called repeatedly at Kiva’s village, that
notorious M’fetta, and Kiva has never been at home; and
moreover that Kiva’s wife (one of them) stole a yellow dog
of great value from his (the creditor’s) canoe. Kiva says,
women will be women, and he had gone off to sleep thinking
1 .An European coat or its equivalent value is one of the constant
quantities in an ivory bundle.
the affair had blown over and the bill renewed for the time
being. The creditor had not goneio sleep ; but sat up thinking
the affair over and remembered many cases, all cited in
full, of how Kiva had failed to meet his debts; also Kiva’s
brother on the • mother’s side and uncle ditto; and so has
decided to foreclose forthwith on the debtor’s estate, and as
the estate is represented by and consists of Kiva’s person, to
take and seize upon it and eat it.
It is always highly interesting to observe the germ of any
of our own institutions existing in the culture of a lower race.
Nevertheless it is trying to be hauled out of one’s sleep
in the middle of the night, and plunged into this study.
Evidently this was a trace of an early form of the Bankruptcy
Court; the court which clears a man of his debt, being
here represented by the knife and the cooking p o t; the whitewashing,
as I believe it is termed with us, also shows, only it
is not the debtor who is whitewashed, but the creditors doing
themselves over with white clay to celebrate the removal of
their enemy from his sphere of meretricious activity. This
inversion may arise from the fact that whitewashing a debtor
who was about to be cooked would be unwise, as the stuff
would boil off the bits and spoil the gravy. There is always
some fragment of sound sense underlying African institutions.
Kiva was, when I got out, tied up, talking nineteen to the
dozen; and so was every one else ; and a lady was working
up white clay in a pot.
I dare say I ought to have rushed at him and cut his bonds,
and killed people in a general way with a revolver, and then
flown with my band to the bush; only my band evidently
had no flying in them, being tucked up in the hut pretending
to be asleep, and uninterested in the affair; and although I
could have abandoned the band without a pang just then, I
could not so light-heartedly fly alone with Kiva to the bush
and leave my fishes ; so I shouted Azuna to the Bankruptcy
Court, and got a Fan who spoke trade English to come and
interpret for m e ; and from him I learnt the above stated
outline of the proceedings up to the time. Regarding the
original iniquity of Kiva, my other Fans held the opinion that
the old Scotch lady had regarding certain passages in the