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THE NEW AFRICA 
of his usual blustering manner, he came warily into the hut, 
backed by Mashabie and other chiefs, keeping a good look-out 
at the open door of Stremboom’s hut to see that the retreat 
was not cut off. We were much surprised at this behaviour, 
and when I rose to offer the king a seat, as usual, he refused 
to take it, and squatted down on a mat, saying the floor was 
quite good enough for him. He came to ask more about the 
wonderful medicine that, although it looked so much like water, 
had power to take people’s lives for a little while. Would they 
die if plenty was applied ? Yes. He now understood how poor 
and weak he was. What was all the mummery in the country 
that never brought rain when it was wanted, or stayed the power 
of a flood when it came, compared to this wonderful ‘ muti ’— 
medicine. Had it other powers than the one he had seen it 
used for? He believed anything of it, and he and his poor 
ignorant chiefs had sat in judgment on us when we came, and 
even wanted to kill us, and we had shown no fear. No! because 
we had the ‘muti’ about us, and could just go ‘pheeu,’ and put 
them all to sleep and cut their throats, or make them into 
animals, just- as we liked. That was why we were so quiet. 
That mighty medicine that you could give a man, and he would 
not even feel the cut from a knife that is always so painful! 
Hau ! Tchle ! Hay! Yes; they were but poor blacks, etc. etc. 
He went on for a long time in this strain, and then came to 
the gist of his intentions, which he called on Mashabie, as an 
older man who had influence, to explain. 
The long and short of it was: Would I not remain with the 
tribe to help them in their illnesses, and they would make me 
a great chief ? A whole stretch of country should be mine, and 
they would give me slaves, cattle, and wives to make me happy. 
I tried to explain with all my might and reason to the king 
that there was no occult power in my ‘ muti,’ and that it was 
what all white men used to alleviate the pain of the wounded. 
But they had made up their minds to believe what they liked, 
and took all our arguments for mockery. Of course, I could not 
accept the king’s offer to stay and become a Baros, but while 
