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

"OWN UP AND PAY UP" 123
road but the gullet? Out yonder on the Atlantic seashore
you have the mouth open to receive supplies. Now
you white men (literally, **you big devils") are going
far into the stomach of Africa, but linking mouth and
* peptics' {Chifu) is this long gullet-way which must not
be blocked—block the gullet-trail and you will starve, for
the mouth is cut off from the stomach." Thus we sur-
rendered at discretion, swallowed the afifronts in a
deplorably double sense, kept our mouths shut, and our
long line of supplies open. For what again saith the
proverb ?
*' If, exasperated one, you are tied up in
ropes, the more you tug, the tighter the knots become."
N.B.—In Africa a Missionary is like steel, no use if he
loses his temper. By every trick and device, the Devil
tries to lure from you your song, and the only safe man is
the Psalmist sort : My heart is fixed, I'll sing— i.e. I am
going in for singing as a habit of life in Africa. "The
happiness of duty " is a blessed old belief, no doubt, but
far, far better in Africa to reverse the motto and make it
run, " The duty of happiness." " Chance sparks kindle
chance tinder," runs the proverb, so beware
(Later. )
Mere "Bible and walking-stick" campaign as ours is,
no wonder the natives call us " The Softies." But again
and again it is Mr. Softie who gets them out of a hole.
For example, let me here record as legitimate history an
olive-branch victory farther East that opened the Luban
road. We are twisting along the trail, a great band of
Mweru-bound emigrants numbering nearly three hundred