180 MA YOLO. Chap. IX. 



village. (Here tliey cried out, ' It is your own 

 village ; you. are our king,' Mayolo leading the 

 chorus.) If I wanted to get angry with you, I could 

 not find a single cause for it. (At this Mayolo 

 stiffened himself up and looked around, quite proud.) 

 A few days after my arrival you, Mayolo, fell ill. 

 You have a good head ; you know that I did not 

 make you ill. I was very sorry to see you ill, for I 

 have a heart like yourself. How could I like to see 

 Mayolo, my only friend, ill ? (Here Mayolo smiled, 

 and looked prouder than ever.) I love you, and I 

 love your people for your sake. (Shouts of ' ^Ye are 

 all your friends.') I am not an evil Spirit ; I do not 

 delight in making people ill ; I do not bring the 

 plague, for it was in your country before I came. 

 (Loud shouts of ' Rovano ! ' — it is so.) My own 

 people have also been ill ; how could I make them 

 ill ? Macondai, my beloved boy, who has been with 

 me from a little child, has been more ill than any 

 other of my men ; how could I wish to make him ill ? 

 I sit by spreading death and disease before me that 

 I can go into the interior ? If you wanted to go 

 amongst other tribes, would you spread illness before 

 you ? So it is with me ; to go into the interior I 

 must make friends. The plague goes where it likes 

 and asks nobody. The people are afraid of me ; they 

 do not see that I bring them fine things : beads, 

 looking-glasses, cloth, and I'ed caps for their heads. 

 These are things that I wish to leave with the people 

 wherever I go. 



" Xow, Mayolo, you are getting better. You have 

 a saying among yourselves that a man does not stand 



