After About Half An Hour I Heard A Row In The Street, And Looking
Out, - For I Recognised His Grace's
Voice taking a solo part followed
by choruses, - I found him in legal difficulties about a murder case.
An alibi
Was proved for the time being; that is to say the
prosecution could not bring up witnesses because of the elephant
hunt; and I went in for another doze, and the town at last grew
quiet. Waking up again I noticed the smell in the hut was violent,
from being shut up I suppose, and it had an unmistakably organic
origin. Knocking the ash end off the smouldering bush-light that
lay burning on the floor, I investigated, and tracked it to those
bags, so I took down the biggest one, and carefully noted exactly
how the tie-tie had been put round its mouth; for these things are
important and often mean a lot. I then shook its contents out in my
hat, for fear of losing anything of value. They were a human hand,
three big toes, four eyes, two ears, and other portions of the human
frame. The hand was fresh, the others only so so, and shrivelled.
Replacing them I tied the bag up, and hung it up again. I
subsequently learnt that although the Fans will eat their fellow
friendly tribesfolk, yet they like to keep a little something
belonging to them as a memento. This touching trait in their
character I learnt from Wiki; and, though it's to their credit,
under the circumstances, still it's an unpleasant practice when they
hang the remains in the bedroom you occupy, particularly if the
bereavement in your host's family has been recent.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 277 of 705
Words from 76740 to 77024
of 194943
