"Then you believe in nothing - neither in a good nor evil spirit! And
you believe that when you die it will be the end of body and spirit;
that you are like other animals; and that there is no distinction
between man and beast; both disappear, and end at death?"
Commoro. - "Of course they do."
"Do you see no difference in good and bad actions?"
Commoro. - "Yes, there are good and bad in men and beasts."
"Do you think that a good man and a bad must share the same fate, and
alike die, and end?"
Commoro. - "Yes; what else can they do? How can they help dying? Good and
bad all die."
"Their bodies perish, but their spirits remain; the good in happiness,
the bad in misery. If you leave no belief in a future state, WHY SHOULD
A MAN BE GOOD? Why should he not be bad, if he can prosper by
wickedness?"
Commoro. - "Most people are bad; if they are strong they take from the
weak. The good people are all weak; they are good because they are not
strong enough to be bad."
Some corn had been taken out of a sack for the horses, and a few grains
lying scattered on the ground, I tried the beautiful metaphor of St.
Paul as an example of a future state. Making a small hole with my finger
in the ground, I placed a grain within it: "That," I said, "represents
you when you die." Covering it with earth, I continued, "That grain will
decay, but from it will rise the plant that will produce a reappearance
of the original form."
Commoro. - "Exactly so; that I understand. But the original grain does
NOT rise again; it rots like the dead man, and is ended. The fruit
produced is not the same grain that we buried, but the PRODUCTION of
that grain. So it is with man. I die, and decay, and am ended; but my
children grow up like the fruit of the grain. Some men have no children,
and some grains perish without fruit; then all are ended."
I was obliged to change the subject of conversation. In this wild naked
savage there was not even a superstition upon which to found a religious
feeling; there was a belief in matter, and to his understanding
everything was MATERIAL. It was extraordinary to find so much clearness
of perception combined with such complete obtuseness to anything ideal.
CHAPTER XVII
Disease in the camp - Forward under difficulties - Our cup of misery
overflows - A rain-maker in a dilemma - Fever again - Ibrahim's
quandary - Firing the prairie.
Sickness now rapidly spread among my animals. Five donkeys died within a
few days, and the rest looked poor. Two of my camels died suddenly,
having eaten the poison-bush. Within a few days of this disaster my good
old hunter and companion of all my former sports in the Base country,
Tetel, died.
