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

230
THINKING BLACK
demanded by his status? Are not his most trusty
Kalamas all equally suspect ? A Kalama is a chamber-
lain, but the very watchmen are the thieves, and the
Arabs are right when they say of these traitors, that
Mushidi had given " the cat the duty of keeping the key
of the pigeon-house " ! Exasperated as he is, it is just
here Bluebeard yawns and resigns all pretensions to deal-
ing judicially and fairly with his victims. Baulked in
a systematic scheme of spying, he has resorted to
** dreaming" his victim, ignoring the fact that even in
upside-down Africa dreams go by the contrary. Did he
not himself tell me the other day that having dreamed a
banquet, there must be a famine ? Poor Mushidi ! This
endless round of harem marriages is a bad, black business
for the country. Killing his wronged victim as he does,
he only comes off second best. For at least the doomed
slave has relief from his bondsman's groan in a sharp,
short death, but how can Mushidi escape the thraldom of his
own heart ? He has brute power enough to kill them in
heaps, but how much more horrible if Mushidi had the
power to compel them to live. From what I am learning
these days, seemingly the true definition of *' tyrant" is a
man who finds his happiness in the unhappiness of others.
Little does the merciless old brute guess that judgment
has a rod in pickle for himself even now. He forgets that
to refuse to forgive is to cut down the bridge you yourself
must one day cross. His is the old thick-headed idea
that it is possible by digging far enough into the human
body with a spear to arrive at the real living man. But