So is the spirit the element within the body,
as the element of fire exists in the stick, the element being superior
to the substance."
Commoro - "Ha! Can you explain what we frequently see at night when lost
in the wilderness? I have myself been lost, and wandering in the dark I
have seen a distant fire; upon approaching the fire has vanished, and I
have been unable to trace the cause, nor could I find the spot."
"Have you no idea of the existence of spirits superior to either man or
beast? Have you no fear of evil except from bodily causes?"
Commoro. - "I am afraid of elephants and other animals when in the
jungle at night; but of nothing else."
"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. These terrible blows to my expedition were most
satisfactory to the Latookas, who ate the donkeys and other animals the
moment they died. It was a race between the natives and the vultures as
to who should be first to profit by my losses.
Not only were the animals sick, but my wife was laid up with a violent
attack of gastric fever, and I was also suffering from daily attacks of
ague. The small- pox broke out among the Turks. Several people died,
and, to make matters worse, they insisted upon inoculating themselves
and all their slaves; thus the whole camp was reeking with this horrible
disease.
Fortunately my camp was separate and to windward. I strictly forbade my
men to inoculate themselves, and no case of the disease occurred among
my people; but it spread throughout the country. Small-pox is a scourge
among the tribes of Central Africa, and it occasionally sweeps through
the country and decimates the population.
I had a long examination of Wani, the guide and interpreter, respecting
the country of Magungo. Loggo, the Bari interpreter, always described
Magungo as being on a large river, and I concluded that it must be the
Asua; but upon cross-examination I found he used the word "Bahr" (in
Arabic signifying river or sea) instead of "Birbe (lake). This important
error being discovered gave a new feature to the geography of this part.
According to his description, Magungo was situated on a lake so large
that no one knew its limits. Its breadth was such that, if one journeyed
two days east and the same distance west, there was no land visible on
either quarter, while to the south its direction was utterly unknown.
Large vessels arrived at Magungo from distant arid unknown parts,
bringing cowrie-shells and beads in exchange for ivory. Upon these
vessels white men had been seen. All the cowrie-shells used in Latooka
and the neighboring countries were supplied by these vessels, but none
had arrived for the last two years.
I concluded the lake was no other than the N'yanza, which, if the
position of Mangungo were correct, extended much farther north than
Speke had supposed.
