Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-18

which they pretend to concoct themselves
out of snakes liver or the gizzard Of
bird. Don't lay too much stress on Bam-
buks fright. He is a chicken-hearted
fellow at the best If there is really any
likelihood OF native disturbance l shall
send him with you and Miss Dane down
the river
Il shall not go without you. dear" said
Nor I-unless both of you come" an.
swered Evelyn.
Hume laughed. constrainedly.
You will both obey orders. I hope" he
said. but he did not urge the matter
further at the moment.
They were eating their evening meal
when the distant tapping of drum
caught their ears. II was not the rhyth-
miCa beating OF tom-tom by some mu-
sically inclined bushman. 1t much more
closely reSembled the dot-and-dash code
of the Morse alphabet. OF that variant of
1t which Private Thomas Atkins, in a
spasm of genius. chrstened UNITY -iddy."
Heard in the stiffness of the forest with
not breath of air stirring the leaves of
the talest trees. and even the tawny
river murmuring in so low note that
1t was naudible from the mission house
this irregular drum-beating had a de-
pressing. almost a sinister effect. 1t
Jared on the nerves. 1t suggested the
unseen. and therefore the terrible At
all costs they must find out what 1T signi-
fed.
Bambuk was summoned He was even
more distraught than during the fetish
performance of two hours earlier
Dem Oku drum play custom tune he
explained. Dem custom mean
DO you savvy what they are saying?'
broke in Hume, sharply. He did not
imagine that his wife had discussed the
habits of native potentates with her
youthful helper. and even she herself did
not know the full extent of the excuses.
the sheer lust of bloodshed. hidden under
Misunderstanding word.
"Savvy plenty. Dem drum made of
monkey skin-phaps other kind OF skin
an dem ju-ju man say: Come. come!
Make sharp dem knife! Come, Load dem
gun! Come. den. come! Dem ribber
| Criver) run red with blood" Den dey nail
some men to tree an make dance"
| The missionary did not check his as
sistant's recital. 1t was best that the
women should at least understand the
peril in, which they were placed The
! compound held not more than fifty able
sessed were native weapons. Humes in
| fuence depended wholly his skill in
| treating the ailments of the people and
! his patience in teaching their children not
| only the rudiments of English but the
| simpler forms of handicraft. His expert
| ence as an African missioner was not of
| long standing, but from the outset he had
consistently refused to own any firearm
more deadly than shotgun. Hitherto
| he had regarded the Upper Benue region
as a settled and fairly prosperous one.
His cherished day-dream was that before
he died he might see the pioneer settle
| ment at kadana transmitted into well
equipped college and training school.
| whence Christianity and science might
spread their light throughout that part of
Africa. 1t shocked him now to think that
all his work might be submerged under
| wave of fanaticism. yet he chung to the
hope that the warlike preparations of the
men of Oku might mean nothing more
serious than tribal quarrel. This had
happened once before and he stepped in
as arbitrator. By liberal distribution
of presents, including the whole of the
mission stock of wine and brandy, he sent
away both parties highly gratifed with
both his award and his method of ar
irving at 1t.
There are war drums beating in more
than one place." said Evelyn, who was
listening In silence to the spasmodic tap
tap, tap-tap-tap. tap. that voiced the dirge
translated by Bambuk.
"Ah, you have hit my unspoken
thought" cried Hume. Come. now,
Bambuk, are you not enlarging your
story somewhat? Two chiefs make war
palaver; isn't that the explanations"
Dem Oku drum" repeated the native;
all Oku drum. Dey call for custom to-
night"
"What exactly is custom, Charles?"
said Mrs. Hume.
unfortunately, it means in this in
stance an offering of human sacrifice"
CTo be continued tomorrowD