"Oh," our man replied, with wonderful facility for fraudful speech, "their faces change with the birth of each moon, when the moon is getting full their colour is dark like our own. They are different from us, as they came from above originally."
"Ah, true, it must be so," responded the astonished native, as he brought his hand up to his mouth from politeness, to cover the mouth that expanded with surprise.
The more we understand the language of these natives, the more we are struck with the identity of a common origin. How could such as these people have ever heard of such a thing as wit. I heard one native say to a Zanzibari who had met more than his match when he burst out so impatiently at one who had staggered against him,
"Such a fool as thou wast surely never seen elsewhere?"
To which the native replied, with a benevolent smile,
1888.
April 12.
Bessé. "Ay, it is my lord, who is the sole possessor of wisdom."
"Ah, but you are wickedness itself" (personified).
"I must not deny it, for all goodness is with thee."
It is a common reply among a certain class of white folks when one is accused of being naughty, to reply to the accuser that he is a gentleman, but it must be admitted that the African reply is not inferior in politeness.
A little east of Bessé we lost the native track, and were obliged to strike across country, steering straight for Undussuma Peak which now began to lift itself into view, over the swells of grass-land that spread in great waves towards its foot. The sun was fearfully hot, and as the march was mainly through tall grass, we were greatly fatigued. In the afternoon we reached a wooded hollow near a pellucid cool stream, which had its birthplace somewhere among the slopes of Undussuma Range now distant about five miles.