I Should Have Mentioned, By The Way, That
Musa Had Now Made Up His Mind Not To Go Further Than
The borders
of Usui with me, lest I should be "torn to pieces," and he would
be "held responsible on
The coast." Musa's men, however, whom he
selected for this business, were then engaged making Mussulmans
of all the Arab slave boys, and said they would not go until they
had finished, although I offered to pay the "doctor's bill," or
allowance they expected to get. The ceremony, at the same time
that it helps to extend their religion, as christening does ours,
also stamps the converts with a mark effective enough to prevent
desertion; because, after it has been performed, their own tribe
would not receive them again. At last, when they did go, Musa,
who was suffering from a sharp illness, to prove to me that he
was bent on leaving Kaze the same time as myself, began eating
what he called his training pills - small dried buds of roses with
alternate bits of sugar-candy. Ten of these buds, he said, eaten
dry, were sufficient for ordinary cases, and he gave a very
formidable description of the effect likely to follow the use of
the same number boiled in rice-water or milk.
Fearful stories of losses and distress came constantly in from
Ugogo by small bodies of men, who stole their way through the
jungles. To-day a tremendous commotion took place in Musa's tembe
amongst all the women, as one had been delivered of still-born
twins.
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