NATIVE SUPERSTITION 
235 
on the ground went through various antics, whistling shrilly all 
the time; then suddenly, with a leap and' bound, appeared 
before us with the pipe in his hand, pointing to the head 
messenger, our pet aversion and Indala’s chief abettor in robbing 
us, as the delinquent. The accused scowled in a very foolish 
manner, and there was silence in the crowd for a time. Pro¬ 
bably the Mambarri man had observed where the thief had 
concealed the pipe, and by re-stealing and hiding it had seized 
the opportunity to mystify the natives, and impress them by 
a demonstration of his powers. The result of all this day’s 
dealings was that the king promised firmly that to-morrow we 
were to cross. 
Towards evening his messenger came carrying a bar of lead 
we had previously given the king, with the request that I per¬ 
sonally should divide it in two halves lengthwise, a strange 
request that I ordered Franz to carry out; but the messenger 
very excitedly insisted that I should do it with my own hands, 
a matter easily accomplished by splitting it over the sharp edge 
of an axe. With this the messenger retired satisfied. Our boys 
explained this circumstance by saying that this was a native 
method of testing if there was a possible part of the bar of lead 
that would kill the man who had to split it in half. Should the 
operation not succeed, well, then, the bullets made from that 
bar would be of deadly effect on his person, and the natives 
would be safe in making an attack. 
On such trumpery circumstances as this, one may say, often 
hangs the fate of a human life amongst these savages; the 
actual part of the killing troubles their consciences but little, 
so long as the deed is fraught with no danger to themselves. 
This night we were on the particular qui vive. Our boys 
were all of one opinion with us that things had reached a 
climax, whether for good* or evil we knew not, but felt that there 
was some meaning in the manner the king had said the words, 
‘ To-morrow you shall cross for certain.’ 
Fortunately it was glorious moonlight, and we took watch 
by turns, but beyond a small canoe paddling over to our side, 
