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

FARTHEST, BUT SHUT, IN 175
phrase : " It is written " ? Is this what Job means when
he cries : " Oh that mine enemy had written a book !
Certainly the African has nothing in writing, hence flows
this flood of falsehood. Hence, too, that proverb of
theirs, " When the rabbit was promised beans he pro-
duced a basket," the idea being that a verbal promise is only
valid when it is uttered, and not later. Art thou promised
beans ? Then produce thy basket and carry them ofi*.
Exasperated at this lack of definite data, they (and
wouldn't you ?) have many a funny expedient to fix
facts in the mind. When I saw the Prince Chamunda
he was almost buried in a great coil of knotted cord : his
perpetual calendar this, of the passing days. Run on the
decimal system, every tenth knot is double, and as he
gazed on the increasing heap a sorry sigh escaped him.
Thinking me sadly lacking in scholastic culture, this man
laughed at my month of four weeks : he made it one
week = ten days, therefore thirty days = three weeks. If
a month, says he, how can you divide it by four ? But
this pioneer in time-tables was soon wiped out, for finally
the town rose against him and shrieked that this
" numbering of the days " was witchcraft : was he not
merely counting out the days of his neighbours unto
burial ? Thus they strangled reform—a badly needed one
too, for quite an aged man will tell you blandly that he
is ten years of age. Is this calculation correct after all ?
Does he mean that, sleeping away three-quarters of his life
as he does, it is fair only to count the meagre margin that
remains of non-slept time ? Days they can count, but as
" ?