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

462 THINKING BLACK
splendid shelter all such afford to a poor fisherman in a
dug-out when struck by a white squall. To avoid sudden
swamping he darts his canoe, nozzle first, into the soft
pulpy island, and away they sail together, island and
canoe, the fisherman as dry as a kiln in his cool shelter of
rank floating grass. "Life-belt Island" we named one
such, for it saved a sailor's life. Here is a native who
believes that God could not love His Son, since He gave
Him up to die. His reason is that his grandfather was
the famous Mwalumuna, who taught what true paternal
love was. When far out on Mweru his canoe foundered.
Letting his wife sink, he battled on and on for hours in the
rough water, with his five-year-old son now on his back
and now on his breast. Sunset saw them safe on Kilwa
Island among the Arabs, who laugh at the idea of such
risk of life. Their proverb runs, ** If the water come like
a deluge, place thy son under thy feet "—a reference this
to the Arab tradition that when Noah's rebel sons felt the
flood gaining on their mouths to choke them they put their
sons under their feet.
The hippo is a great factor in fisher-life, and poor
young Duvivier was killed ofi" Mulonde River by a
wild one not far from our door. The majority of Mweru
hippos have been galled ofi" and on by the harpoons of
the fishermen, and the only safe shot is from the land.
Duvivier had given his animal a first shot and was
hoping to draw upon it decisively when the maddened
brute charged from beneath, so that probably the brave
young fellow was engulfed in its mouth, for I could