history of the early Jews— that it was a long time ago, and
habelings it was no true.
Fortunately for the reader it is impossible for me to give
in full detail the proceedings of the Court. I do not think if
the whole of Mr. Pitman’s school of shorthand had been
there to take them down the thing could possibly have been
done in word-writing. If the late Richard Wagner, however,
had been present he could have scored the performance for a
full orchestra; and with all its weird grunts and roars, and
pistol-like finger clicks, and its elongated words and thigh
slaps, it would have been a masterpiece.
I got my friend the chief on my side : but he explained he
had no jurisdiction, as neither of the men belonged to his
town ; and I explained to him, that as the proceedings were
taking place in his town he had a right of jurisdiction ipso
facto. The Fan could not translate this phrase, so we gave
it the chief raw, and he seemed to relish it, and he and I
then cut into the affair together, I looking at him with
admiration. and approval when he was saying his say, and
after his “ Azuna ” had produced a patch- of silence he could
move his tongue in, and he similarly regarding me during my
speech for the defence. We neither, I expect, understood
each other, and we had trouble with our client, who would
keep pleading “ Not guilty,” which was absurd. Anyhow we
produced our effect, my success arising from my concluding
my speech with the announcement that I would give the
creditor a book on Hatton and Cookson for the coat, and I
would deduct it from Kiva’s pay.
But, said the Court: “ We look your mouth and it be sweet
mouth, but with Hatton and Cookson we can have no trade.”
This was a blow to me. Hatton and Cookson was my big
Ju Ju, and it was to their sub-factory on the Rembwe that I
was bound. On inquiry I elicited another cheerful little fact,
which was they could not deal with Hatton and Cookson,
because there was “ blood war on the path that way.” The
Court said they would take a book on Holty, but with Holty,
i.e. Mr. John Holt, I had no deposit of money, and I did not
feel justified in issuing cheques on him, knowing also he could
not feel amiable towards wandering scientists, after what he had
recently gone through with one. Not that I doubt for one
minute but that his representatives would have honoured my
book ; for the generosity and helpfulness,¡of West African
traders is unbounded and long-suffering. But I did not like to
encroach on it, all the more so from a feeling that I might
never get through to refund the money. So at last I paid the
equivalent value of the coat out of my own trade-stuff ; and
the affair was regarded by all parties as satisfactorily closed
hy f-he time the gray dawn was coming up over the forest
wall. I went in again and slept in snatches until I got my
tea about seven, and then turned out to hurry my band out of
Egaja. This I did not succeed in doing until past ten. One
row succeeded another with my men ; but I was determined to
get them out of that town as quickly as possible, for I had
heard so much from perfectly reliable and experienced people
regarding the treacherousness of the Fan. I feared too that
more cases still would be brought up against Kiva, from the
résumé of his criminal career I had had last night, and I knew it
was very doubtful whether my other three Fans were any better
than he. There was his grace’s little murder affair only
languishing for want of evidence owing to the witnesses for
the prosecution being out elephant-hunting not very far away ;
and Wiki was pleading an alibi, and a twin brother, in a bad
wife palaver in this town. I really hope for the sake of
Fan morals at large, that I did engage the three worst villains
in M fetta, and. that M’fetta is the worst town in all Fan land,
inconvenient as this arrangement was to me personally!
Anyhow, I felt sure my Pappenheimers would take a lot of beating
for good solid crime, among any tribe anywhere. Moreover,
the Ajumba wanted meat, and the Fans, they said,
offered them human.. I saw no human meat at Egaja, but
the Ajumba seem to think the Fans eat nothing else, which is
a silly prejudice of theirs, because the Fans do. Ì think in
this case the Ajumba thought a lot of smoked flesh offered
was human. It may have been ; it was in neat pieces; and
again, as the Captain of the late ss. Sparrow would say “ it
mayn’t.” But the Ajumba have a horror of cannibalism, and
I honestly believe never practise it, even for fetish affairs
which is a rare thing in a West African tribe where sacrificial