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

BLACK MAN = BLACK MANNERS 461
descry a curious procession of Sindbad-the- Sailor floating
islets, " Bob-abouts " (
Visera) their name. Really clotted
masses of papyrus, duck-weed, and Phragmites, these have
been swept down by the Luapula current, the rug and tug
of the eddies tearing them from the parent bank of the
river. So launched in the first instance on their long
voyage by the swirling Luapula, this same current pilots
them far down-Lake, their destination being any of the
capes jutting out to debar farther advance. Funny fact
though it looks, it is really these floating islands that have
crowded Kilwa in mid-Lake with leopards, and the islanders
tell the tale quite circumstantially. There came a dark
day when, like a pirate flying the black flag, one such
floating island grounded on the South shore of Kilwa with
a young male leopard aboard, a poor quadruped Adam
this, without an Eve. One year passed and yet another,
and lo, a charming lady-leopard came across, cabin
passenger, if you please, in the cosy depths of another
floating island. At this point in the fisher narrative the
naked old " Admiral " of canoes sticks his hands into
imaginary pockets and drops his jaw. Need he add the
sequel? Both at the mating age, that quadruped Eve
really robbed them of their Eden, for are there not now as
many leopards as negroes on the island ? The theory that
these leopards swam across such an expanse of Lake is
absurd, albeit a leopard is the best swimmer of all African
Carnivora. The snug depths of these floating islands are
shady and seductive enough to account for such curious
cabin passengers. But better far than all this is the