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

THUS FAR AND NO FARTHER 267
when, in lieu of any known name to print over this spot in
Africa, they put down the eloquent prophecy : Hie
sunt
Leones. Who told them of this Lion Bureau ? The
two mild-mannered chiefs who to-day vouched for these
strange doings seemed greatly pained when I hinted that
this sort of thing could not be accepted without a certain
amount of intellectual jugglery. They repelled my
insinuations with real Luban scorn, and to convince me,
one of them flew off like a rocket extolling the Lion
King's occult powers : proof after proofs he brought
into his oration ; grand words to express poor ideas, a
racehorse drawing a donkey-cart. Yet very sure am I,
Herodotus would have filled pages with just such trash.
What does it all mean ? Is not all the world under
one's waistcoat? Well, deducting adequate discount
only leaves a little balance—but much in that little.
For all Africa believes in the transmigration of a living
man into a living lion, believes that lions lend their
bodies to human beings for the inhuman purpose of
grabbing their fellow^s. This Kavoto knows, and this
he capitalises. Hence this opening of a Lion Shop
Transmigration Specialist, wonders while you wait. Pay
your money and pick your victim, for does not the name
Kavoto mean, the Lurker-to-kill ? Even far-off white
men, white dabblers in the black art, have been reported
to pay eagerly for the death of a victim ;
Arabs, of course,
being regular customers. Worse and higher still, it is
said—well, never mind what is said.
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