Going Down Big Rapids Is Always, Everywhere, More Dangerous Than
Coming Up, Because When You Are Coming Up And A
Whirlpool or eddy
does jam you on rocks, the current helps you off - certainly only
with a view to dashing
Your brains out and smashing your canoe on
another set of rocks it's got ready below; but for the time being it
helps, and when off, you take charge and convert its plan into an
incompleted fragment; whereas in going down the current is against
your backing off. M'bo had a series of prophetic visions as to what
would happen to us on our way down, founded on reminiscence and
tradition. I tried to comfort him by pointing out that, were any
one of his prophecies fulfilled, it would spare our friends and
relations all funeral expenses; and, unless they went and wasted
their money on a memorial window, that ought to be a comfort to our
well-regulated minds. M'bo did not see this, but was too good a
Christian to be troubled by the disagreeable conviction that was in
the minds of other members of my crew, namely, that our souls,
unliberated by funeral rites from this world, would have to hover
for ever over the Ogowe near the scene of our catastrophe. I own
this idea was an unpleasant one - fancy having to pass the day in
those caves with the bats, and then come out and wander all night in
the cold mists! However, like a good many likely-looking
prophecies, those of M'bo did not quite come off, and a miss is as
good as a mile.
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