Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-27

Of not staying in Africa more than two years;
he had stayed more than five.
I'm part because Africa Is 30 vast and the
facilities for travel so limited. Mainly be-
cause they made king of me, - answered Her
bert.
"a king?"
''Yes, for nearly four years was king of the
Mousas-very much against my will"
The Mousas. Who are thew"
"a man-eating nation north of the great
.'Cannibals
"God bless me. Herbert, I hope you did
not! exclaimed my father, with look Of
mock horror.
NO. lar. Murton. 1 did not carry ont NV
principle OF doing in Rome as the Romans do
to tue extent of eating human flesh, said Her
bert grayely, and. az / thought, n little resent
fully, as if he had taken my fathers chatting
remark seriously. "On the contrary / did my
best to wean my subjects from their hideous
dietary, and in a great measure succeeded.
These Mousas present several marked charac-
teristics which differentiate them as well from
the Kafirs OF the south as from the negroes of
the coast. Their cranial development--"
This was too much for my aunt.
Excuse me for interrupting you. Dr. Her.
bert" she said but am not the least inter-
ested IN cranial development, and Myra and
are just dying to know how you became king
of the cannibals."
Il beg your pardon, Mrs. Barton. WAS
forgetting that everybody IS not SO interested
IN ethnology as your brother and myself Well
became king OF the MouSas IN this way. Dur
ing my wanderinSs l went into their country
with my porters and escort. to the number of
about a score. We met with a friendly recep-
ton. aud after staying some weeks were on the
point OF continuing our journey. when they
treacherously fell upon us by night and killed
the greater part of my followers. was the
first white man the Mousas had SEEN They
thought was great warrior and would bring
them luck; and as they were going to make
war on u neighboring tribe thcy wanted nv
help. l was offered my life on condition Of
becoming the kings blood brother and his
second in command. 1 accepted the offer.
The campaign was highly successful. but the
king lost his life, and the Mousas chose me
king i'll his stead. 1t was not desirable post
for several reasons. But refusal would most
certainly have entailed my death-probably by
torture-at the hands of the new king, who
would have regarded me as a dangcrou, rival,
/ accepted the honor and became supreme
ruler OF Mousaland, much against my will;
for my subjects, though in most things obe-
dent and submissive, would rather have
killed me than let me so, and KEPT so close
a watch on my movements that only got
away at last by stratagem and stealth. aud
oven then with great difficulty"
That explains why you were so much
longer away than you expected" observed nv
father.
'.Yes; also my long silence could not even
get a letter conveyed 70 the coast, L! vas q
strange. horrible experience"
Why it WIS u horrible experience he did not
say, though my aunt hinted a strong desire to
know; and then DR.. Norbert grew penslve and
distract, which being ascribed by my father to
fatigue he recommended him to retire and
shortly afterward We all separated for the
nlghr.
l listened to Harbert's story as Dssdemona
listened to the strange. evcntfui story of
Othello and with the same result. Neverthe-
less. being fully aware of the folly of stalking
my happiness on the chance of winning a man
who might prefer another or whom l might
fail to please. L struggled hard to overcome my
lnfatuatlon. II We had not been thrown 50
much together l should perhaps have sue
ceeded. But ft was not to be. We were thrown
together day after day, and soon / saw with ioy
that my love was returned Be
fore Herbert had been month our guest he
asked me 70 be his wife. need not say what
answer | gave him.
We experienced none of the difficulties by
which lovers are often beset. NY father
was delighted He said there was no man liv-
ing to whom he would SO gladly give me as
George Herbert; and so soon as our engage
ment was made known we were overwhelmed
with congratulations.
Strangely enough. the only discordant note
was struck by my Aunt Lavinia.
nave sctH sOUle time now IL would De,
and hope you will be happy with the man of
your choice, my dear" she said .Ho Is very
nice and cle"er, and all that. All the same /
wish he had not stayed so long in Africa and be-
come king of those cannibais"
why, aunt?"
GLOW do you know what he was doing all the
time! II you cannot touch pitch without being
defiled man cannot live four years among
without being the worse for it, I
should say. And have not cannibais always a
great many wives!
/ laughed heartily at this sally Of my aunt's,
and repeated it to George. thinking it would
lmuse him as much it had amused me- To
my surprise, however, he took it quite Sc
riously. His face 3arkenod and he looked
almost angry.
"Iour aunt talks nonsense" he said II am
sorry ever mentioned Mousaland. have
already told you that my stay there was a most
painful experience. SO painful that would
gladly forget it, and want you to help me to
do so by never referring to it again. Will you,
darling?"
L said '.yes," OF course and kept nv word.
my curiosity was reused and 1
often asked myself what could be the mystery
which Georges words concealed, what the ex-
perience he was ANXIOUS to- forget. But |
loved him too well to distrust him, and though
had cause for curiosity had none for suspi-
cion-yet.