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Read Ebook: Arkansas Governors and United States Senators by Ferguson John L John Lewis
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Ebook has 88 lines and 11398 words, and 2 pages
BUSY WASHING 128
RESTING AFTER WASHING 128
SCENES IN CATARACT REGION 166
A WITCH-DOCTOR 166
NATIVE ROPE BRIDGE 202
NATIVE BRIDGE 202
WHITE TRADER AND NATIVE TRADERS AND THEIR PRODUCE 236
CLOTH WEAVING 258
BLACKSMITHS 258
CATS' CRADLES 284
A PROTECTIVE FETISH 284
DEACONS OF WATHEN CHURCH 304
TEACHERS WORKING UNDER THE WATHEN CHURCH 304
A CHRISTIAN WEDDING 312
CHURCH COLLECTION AT WATHEN 312
A NATIVE MARKET 332
BAPTISMAL SERVICE, CHRISTMAS 1905 332
PART I Life on the Congo AS DESCRIBED BY A BRASS ROD
LIFE ON THE CONGO
I am packed in a box--Sent to Congoland--My journey on the ocean steamer--Curious names of the Kroo boys--Landed at Banana--Thrown on the deck of a river steamer.
I am much older than you think, for it is more than twenty-five years ago since I was born in a great factory in one of your English towns. The years that have passed since my birthday have been filled with joy and sorrow, rest and toil; but in looking back over them I think they have contained more sorrow and toil than rest and joy.
When I was born I was very tall--nearly thirty inches high; but instead of growing taller I have become shorter, being only eleven inches long now, for my enemies have cut off one little piece after another to melt down for brass ornaments. Folk think more of finery than of honesty. I must not, however, anticipate my sorrows, for they came all too soon.
Footnote 2:
See note 1, p. 341.
Soon after I was born I was put with many other brass rods into a dark box, and nailed in very tightly; for I heard one of the workmen say that I was to take a very long journey over sea and land. There was fortunately a hole in my box, and looking I saw that we were first put on a train, and then carried into the hold of a big ship. Soon after we were all packed carefully and tightly in the hold, the steamer began to move, and we could hear the creaking of the rigging and the rattling of the racing engines, and feel the pitching and rolling of the great steamer itself.
I felt very glad when the pitching and rolling stopped, and the cover was taken from the hold, and the beautiful sunshine came streaming in, making the rats scurry off with their young to dark corners and cracks.
Just then we heard the bang of a cannon and the shrill scream of a whistle; and, wondering what was going to happen next, we heard the babble of many voices, and the patter of naked feet along the deck; and a voice shouted; "There, our gang is complete. We don't want any more, and the sooner you others get over the side into your canoes, the better for your health."
I heard an old palm-oil barrel who had taken this journey many times remark to a new one: "We are now off the Kroo Coast, West Africa, and have taken on Kroo boys to work the cargo and keep the decks clean. That bang of the cannon was to call them, and the whistle was to hurry them."
Footnote 3:
See note 2, p. 342.
I do not know how many Kroo boys we engaged; but they were very noisy, and gave us many a sleepless night. At four o'clock in the morning, while we were at sea, they began to rub the decks with stones and scrape the ironwork with knives, talking incessantly all the time; but when we were in port it was worse, for they not only worked the winches right over our heads from early morn till late at night, but they came down into the hold, turned us over and pitched us about so that if I had not had a good wooden box round me I should have been badly bent and bruised. Some of my friends were smashed to pieces, and some bales I knew received deep gashes in their sides, and others I never saw again.
It was a sad journey, full of partings, for those Kroo boys never came into our hold without tying up some of my friends, and we saw them for a moment hoisted into the air, and over the side they went, into what?--I knew later, but not then.
What curious names those Kroo boys had! Some of them still linger in my memory, such as: Peasoup, Teacup, Bottle-of-Beer, Brass-pan, Top-hat, Kettle, Arm-chair, Pen-and-ink, Kiss-me-quick, Flower-vase, Napoleon-Buonaparte, and Duke-of-Wellington. I learned afterwards that the reason why they had these names was that their white masters, not being able to pronounce their proper country names when they first engaged them, gave them any name that happened to come into their heads at the moment, and such names stuck to them all the days of their service on the coast. It was amusing to hear these names called, or, when one was asked his name, to hear him answer: "Me, massa, me be Bottle-of-Beer."
Footnote 4:
See note 3, p. 342.
The Kroo boys good-humouredly retaliated by giving their masters names that picturesquely described any peculiarities they observed in them. One they called Big-nose, another Skinny-legs, another Long-legs, and a fourth Bald-head. There was more appropriateness in the names they gave their masters than the names they received from them.
About seven weeks after we started my box was tied with others, hoisted into the air, and thrown over the side of the ship into a big boat, and we were rowed ashore and landed at Banana. As we were going a Kroo boy spied me through my peephole, and tried hard to drag me out of my comfortable resting-place; but I clung tightly to the others, and thus successfully resisted his attempts to steal me. I soon found myself in a large store filled with huge piles of boxes, bales, and crates, and long rows of large bottles filled with rum and other fiery waters.
After a few days a white man came into our store, and, sorting out a large number of cases, bales and bottles, sent them away on the heads and shoulders of Kroo boys. For two days they were carrying out loads as quickly as they could, and just as I was thinking that I should not be disturbed a 35-1939. Resumed practice of law in Camden, Arkansas. United States senator since 1943.
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