The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12
MULLAH'S WIRELESS
INCREDIBLY RAPID
Africans Have An Elaborate
Signal Code to Trans
nit News

Much astonishment has been caused by
the statement of Mr.. Harcourt, the coll
onial secretary, in the House of Com
mons, that he could not give details of
movements of troops in Somaliland be-
cause the news would reach the Mullah
with incredible rapidity.'
He might have gone further, and an
nounced that already the fact that the
Mullah has cut up the Camel company
and slaughtered tribes under British ''pro-
lection" has probably passed throughout
the Soudan and across Central AFRICA,
has been discussed in Nigerlan villages
which are a months march from the
nearest rail-head, and has even reached
the natives of the Gold Coast and Rho
desia--to the great detriment of British
prestige and the peril of of officials VINO
rule vast countries solely by the power
of the British name, says writer by
the London Express.
1t is undoubtedly the fact that If the
news were published and telegraphed to
Alden it would reach the Mullah within
a few hours. This suggests 'black
magic; some undiscovered sixth sense
or some secret of telepathy after the
fashion of the Zancigs, who baffled audi
ences at the Alhambra few years ago.
but the real explanation is much more
simple. The natives of Africa from the
Cape to Cairo and from the Niger to the
Nile. perfected long ages ago a system
of telegraphy which is only less efficient
than that in use between sLondon and
Paris and which is less liable to be in
terrupted.
This system, in use by "savages" for
hundreds, if not thousands. of years, is
L. . rt.A Soy n nligtr.a
system by which theSnews of Trafalgar
reached London. as the electric telegraph
Is on the semaphore. Astonishing stories
have been recorded from time to time,
and have perplexed the civilized world
The fact that Sir Redvers Butler had
been defeated at Colenso was known by
natives 60 miles away within two hours
and ever more striking results have been
achieved. The following are instances:
At 9 a. m. "a Kaffir was attacked by
bull Both Kaffir and the bull were dead
by 10 a. IN. At noon the same day farm
er living AZ miles away wrote in letter
to the employer of the Kaffir: My kaf-
frs are saying your herd boy stabbed
your red Devon bull with long knife
and that both are dead" The letter was
dispatched by mounted messenger at $780,
A Kaffir who had pleaded guilty at a
preliminary hearing, was acquitted IN
johannesburg of charge Of manslaugh-
ter, the jury returning their verdict at
3:15 .. m. At o'clock the principal wit
ness was knocked down by a cab and
taken to the prison hospital At 5. p. m.
a Kaffir woman on farm IS miles dis
tant across -roadless country announced
that the Kaffir had been acquitted and
that the principal witness had been taken
to prison.
To put forward telepathy as the expla-
nation of the mystery is to decorate our
| H. xx1c .<xwr,<,t ,.,x. 60.
name and imagine that it Is then ex-
planned Another suggestion is that the
native shout frqm hilltop to hilltop. This
is done in few cases over short dis
tances but there are thousands of miles
of country where there are no hills Mr..
Rider Haggard writing about case that
occurred during the Zuia war, says:
The theory that intelligence is conveyed
with extraordinary rapidity by men CALI
ing from height to height would appear
to be falsified by the fact that In this
instance it must have come across the
great plain Of the high veldt
Drumbeat Signals
The simple explanation Is that an elab-
crate code of signals has been evolved by
the natives. These signals may be con-
veyed in the daytime by fires on hill
tops the fires being covered at intervals
so that the smoke supplies "dots and
'dashes." as in the Morse code, but, this
is an unsatisfactory method which is sell
dom available. The real "telegraphy
takes place at night, and the medium is
the drum.
All through the hours of darkness Afri-
ca reverberates with the deep beat Of the
drum. The drum talks to the next vii
lage as plainly. as the mouth can utter
words. telling of village affairs, of the
designs of enemies. of Mullah tramplng
on the British flag. The news is passed to
the next village in a moment, and replies
are sent.
The drum is the newspaper of Darkest
Africa, circulating home and foreign In