King Kwoffi Karri Kari, Whom We Fought With
In 1874, Used To Make A Big Day For His Suhman, Which Was Kept In A
Box Covered With Gold Plates, And He Sacrificed A Human Victim To It
Every Tuesday, With General Festivities And Dances In Its Honour.
I should remark that Sasabonsum is married.
His wife, or more
properly speaking his female form, is called Shamantin. She is far
less malignant than the male form. Her name comes from Srahman -
ghost or spirit; the termination "tin" is an abbreviation of
sintstin - tall. She is of immense height, and white; perhaps this
idea is derived from the white stem of the silk-cotton trees wherein
she invariably abides. Her method of dealing with the solitary
wayfarer is no doubt inconvenient to him, but it is kinder than her
husband's ways, for she does not kill and eat him, as Sasabonsum
does, but merely detains him some months while she teaches him all
about the forest: what herbs are good to eat, or to cure disease;
where the game come to drink, and what they say to each other, and
so forth. I often wish I knew this lady, for the grim, grand
African forests are like a great library, in which, so far, I can do
little more than look at the pictures, although I am now busily
learning the alphabet of their language, so that I may some day read
what these pictures mean.
Do not go away with the idea, I beg, that goddesses as a general
rule, are better than gods.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 475 of 705
Words from 131230 to 131492
of 194943
