"Observe," Said The Doctor In His Impressive Way,
"These Were Distinctly Prayers, Appeals For Mercy, Agonising
Protests, But There Was
No praise, no love, no thanks, no confession
of sin." I said, considering the underlying idea, I did not see
How
that could be, thinking of the thing as they did, and the Doctor and
I had one of our little disagreements. I shall always feel grateful
to him for his great toleration of me, but I am sure this arose from
his feeling that I saw there was an underlying idea in the minds of
the people he loved well enough to lay down his life for in the hope
of benefiting and ennobling them, and that I did not, as many do,
set them down as idiotic brutes, glorying in an aimless cruelty that
would be a disgrace to a devil.
Regarding the cabalistic words and phrases, things which had long
given me great trouble to get any comprehension of, the Doctor gave
me great help. He says some of these phrases and words are coined
by the person himself, others are archaisms handed down from
ancestors and believed to possess an efficacy, though their actual
meaning is forgotten. He says they are used at any time as defence
from evil, when a person is startled, sneezes, or stumbles. Among
these I think I ought to class that peculiar form of friendly
farewell or greeting which the Doctor poetically calls a "blown
blessing" and the natives Ibata. I thought the three times it was
given to me that it was just spitting on the hand.
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