The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-02-24

hold, for the slime in these canebrakes
was as thick as tar and black al old
bilge-water.
"One day he was soothing his ex-
element by beating me with a heavy
bamboo, till my back and arms were
covered with blood. Close by were a
whole gang Of the tribe squatted I'M
der a palm tree, smoking bubbles
bubbles made out of nut shells, look
ing on and laughing at the torture I
was undergoing; but in the midst of
their sport we heard a roar that made
u hearts tremble, and all ready to
scamper off.
There was a mighty crashing and
swaying of the wild canes in the ad-
jacent brake, and then a great, square
headed and tawny-haired lion, as large
as a good-sized pony, and with a tuft
like a swab at the end of his switching
tail, came plunging forward, with eyes
flashing and red mouth OPEN.
"Souse as a sheet anchor goes into
and in the time l take to turn this
quid, Master Rodney, that trouble
some parsonage was borne off into the
jungle, a bruised mass of bones and
blood, dangling in his jaws.
"The whole thing passed like a flash
of lightning!
A first the niggers were about to
pursue the lion, but upon reflection
they thought it less dangerous to fall
upon me and kill me outright, saying
that my stupid cries had brought the
wild animal upon them. Then an old
with age, who was coiled up in the
root of a tree, where he generally
berthed himself, and who was consid-
cred a wise man, came forward and de-
manded their attention. He had been
a brave fellow in his time, for he
wore a row Of human teeth at his neck,
all strung on a lanyard, with a bit of
an old quart bottle which he had
found upon the beach, and wore as a
great incidence or order of the gar
ter, perhaps. He saved me by saying
in their outlandish gibberish that l
was evidently under the protection of
the great fetish, in honor of whom |
should be made like themselves and
handsomely tattooed.
81 might as we'll have hallooed to
the wind in a tearing pampero, CT a
stiff reef-topsail breeze, Master Rod
ney, as have attempted to oppose this
piece of Congo kindness. In a minute
I was hove down under the nasty,
black paws of five-and-forty bowling
and jabbering niggers, all smearlng
m with palm-oil out of ~calabashes and
old gallipots, and they persisted in
rubbing it into me till all my skin was
nearly peeled off.
I "Then the old fetishman, who lived
in the root Of the tree, after making
three summersets and uttering six
bowls, ornamented all my face, hands
and arms in this fashion, using a kind
of knife, which he dipped from time
to time in some black stuff that he
carried on a %cocoanut shell. In ten
minutes I was all over serpents and
circles, stripes, pothooks and hang
ers!
cit went to my heart to have my
beauty spoiled, but I was far past MAX
ing any opposition, and so I have had
to go through life in all weathers, with
a face like the clowns in a panto-
mime.
"They made me so like a niger
that they scarcely knew me from II
Of themselves. This so favored my es-
cape that I soon found an opportunity
of giving the Mussolongos the slip in
the night, and made a shift, after
many a br~eak-heart adventure, to
reach a British settlement.
Ito be cOntinued.)