Satu expressed the hope that he would receive such splendid fines every day.
Tonzeka then informed his visitors that there was a white man staying in his town, and promised to take his friend Satu to see him.
“I wonder if it is the same one whom we drove out of our town?” queried Satu.
“Why did you drive him away?” asked Tonzeka, with a note of surprise in his voice. “Surely he had done no harm to either you or your people?”
In an apologetic tone Satu admitted that he had not done them any harm, for they did not give him an opportunity, as they would not allow him to enter the town. “But Old Plaited-Beard told us such horrible things against the white men that if I had not been there my people would have killed this one. What is he doing in your town?”
To him Tonzeka replied: "This white man comes to see us very often, and tells us about God, and about His Son Jesus Christ, Who, so the white man says, came to die for us on a cross. I don’t understand all his palavers; but he washes the sores of old and young, rich and poor, head men and slaves, puts good medicine on them, ties them up with his own white fingers, and the sores are quickly healed. We understand that! You know my mother was very ill, and we tried one nganga after another, but they failed to cure her, although they ‘ate’ up a lot of money. Then this white man came on one of his visits, and in two or three days she was fully restored to health by the white man’s medicines."
“Yes,” remarked Satu, “perhaps he gave her the sickness by his witchcraft, and therefore could easily cure her. These white men are exceedingly cunning.”
“I know what you mean,” replied Tonzeka. “That is what our ngangas do to make money out of us. The ngangas by means of their charms and fetishes cause our diseases, and they receive fees for doing so; by their fetishes they curse us or try to cure us, and again they receive fees, and thus they become rich by our complaints. This white man did not charge for the medicine, and what is more he gave my mother some of his own food to make her strong.”
“I did not quite mean that,” said Satu, “but these white men are here to buy up the dead bodies of our relatives, which they store in their houses, and on the first good chance they send them away in their ships to Mputu to become their slaves. They have wonderful magic for restoring the spirits to the bodies.” And as he spoke a look of alarm and hate came into his eyes, for he called to mind his fear that his own brother and various other relatives were, as he was speaking, toiling in farms and forests for their dreaded white masters.
With an air of superior knowledge Tonzeka said to his honoured visitor: "There was a time when I also firmly believed what you have just stated; but I and many of my people have been to this white man’s station. He received us very kindly and showed us over his house; and truly, we saw no shelves[[31]] there, and no places where he could keep dead bodies. When we had an opportunity we entered his stores, medicine-house, boys’ quarters, and nowhere did we find a place where he could stow away dead bodies. After two or three visits we came to the conclusion that these falsehoods had been started by our ngangas to protect their own interests."