Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

98 THINKING BLACK
designation of these creatures? These pests are legion,
and what with our own creeping pace of travel by day,
coupled with these other creeping things by night, I
dreamed two nights in succession a curious jumble of
a dream—a vision this of a large roomy railway station
placarded all over with monster advertisements, *' Keating's
Powder." The railway, one opines, stood for a rebuke to
our caravan's creeping pace, and "Keating's" was—well,
for the other creepers.
But " he jests at scars who never felt a wound," and I
would hereby emphasise the fact that a tent is next to
necessary for the inclemencies of the rainy season travel.
Even as early as the 9th of July surprise rains caught me
in a forest with not a yard of canvas for cover and not one
straw of grass for a thatch. The annual grass fires only
the other day had roared through the land, licking up
every stock of long grass suitable for hut-thatching
all, all swept off the face of the country, only green
leaves remaining, under which we crouch for shelter.
Down pours that ruthless rain, until the most promising
of fires soon goes clean out,—first red, then yellow, then
the bleak little blue flames, your firewood finally ceasing
to smoke. What next ?—muse on your miseries ? Why, of
course, sing :
"It ain't no use to grumble or complain,
Tis just as cheap and easy to rejoice;
When God sorts out the weather and sends rain.
Why ! rain's my choice."
However, even an African cannot sing for eight hours,