I Do Not Think If The Whole Of
Mr. Pitman's School Of Shorthand Had Been There To Take Them Down
The Thing Could Possibly Have Been Done In Word-Writing.
If the
late Richard Wagner, however, had been present he could have scored
the performance for a full orchestra; and with all its weird grunts
and roars, and pistol-like finger clicks, and its elongated words
and thigh slaps, it would have been a masterpiece.
I got my friend the chief on my side; but he explained he had no
jurisdiction, as neither of the men belonged to his town; and I
explained to him, that as the proceedings were taking place in his
town he had a right of jurisdiction ipso facto. The Fan could not
translate this phrase, so we gave it the chief raw; and he seemed to
relish it, and he and I then cut into the affair together, I looking
at him with admiration and approval when he was saying his say, and
after his "Azuna" had produced a patch of silence he could move his
tongue in, and he similarly regarding me during my speech for the
defence. We neither, I expect, understood each other, and we had
trouble with our client, who would keep pleading "Not guilty," which
was absurd. Anyhow we produced our effect, my success arising from
my concluding my speech with the announcement that I would give the
creditor a book on Hatton and Cookson for the coat, and I would
deduct it from Kiva's pay.
But, said the Court: "We look your mouth and it be sweet mouth, but
with Hatton and Cookson we can have no trade." This was a blow to
me. Hatton and Cookson was my big Ju Ju, and it was to their sub-
factory on the Rembwe that I was bound. On inquiry I elicited
another cheerful little fact which was they could not deal with
Hatton and Cookson because there was "blood war on the path that
way." The Court said they would take a book on Holty, but with
Holty i.e. Mr. John Holt, I had no deposit of money, and I did not
feel justified in issuing cheques on him, knowing also he could not
feel amiable towards wandering scientists, after what he had
recently gone through with one. Not that I doubt for one minute but
that his representatives would have honoured my book; for the
generosity and helpfulness of West African traders is unbounded and
long-suffering. But I did not like to encroach on it, all the more
so from a feeling that I might never get through to refund the
money. So at last I paid the equivalent value of the coat out of my
own trade-stuff; and the affair was regarded by all parties as
satisfactorily closed by the time the gray dawn was coming up over
the forest wall. I went in again and slept in snatches until I got
my tea about seven, and then turned out to hurry my band out of
Egaja.
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