I
THE WHITE MAN’S GRAVE 15
The Coast—The Old Coaster—His
obsession—Angom—Loneliness—Gaboon—The seasons—Ice that
burned—A _peculiar_ climate—The mosquito—Quinine—Frightened
into fever—A matter of coffins.
II
“THE WISE ONES” 29
From palm-oil to trousers—Mpongwe and Fang—Making a
king—Caste—Domestic slavery—Ndinga, a human leopard—A Gaboon
belle—Native courtesy—A fight—A war-custom—The cause of the
tide—A dying confession—A case of witchcraft—Curing the sick—A
secret society.
III
A DYING TRIBE 42
Women who cannot marry—The slave-trade—The
rum-traffic—Elida—Augustus—Trade and polygamy—Too proud to
speak—Destruction of authority—Customs not irrational—The
dowry—The foreign governments—The whipping-post—A fatal
defect.
IV
A LIVING REMNANT 56
A difficult work—The Jesuits—Iguwi—Single blessedness—A chicken
breakfast—Buttons—A remarkable illustration—A
service—Fluency—Toko Truman—Izuri—Ntyango—Sara—Lucina—Uncle
Remus—_The Tortoise and his Creditors_—_The Wag_—A battle in
canoes—A captive father—A graveyard.
V
AFRICAN MUSIC 72
A taste for comic opera—An organ and an organist—The origin of
music—Musical instruments—The sense of melody—A decomposed
tune—Unfamiliar scales—Mourning—Rhythm—Extremely musical—Three
songs.
VI
PESTS 85
_The Ten Plagues_—Killing flies—The driver ant—Other ants—The
jigger—The sandfly—The mosquito—The centipede—The
cockroach—The white ant—Divers other pests—Internal
parasites—Rats—Snakes.
VII
THE “CANNIBAL” FANG 110
A discriminating palate—Not the worst cannibals—Appearance—The
Negro face and the Greek face—Legs—The wheel—Dress—An
overdressed woman—Food—Cannibalism—An affair of honour—Native
art—Curiosity—Turning them into monkeys.
VIII
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 125
The native resourceful—Unambitious—Trade—Communism—Boiling the
Bible—A quarrel—Marriage—The dowry—A case of torture—The
head-wife—The tongue a woman’s weapon—Polygamy—_Ogula and her
Ngalo_—_Tragedy_—Dancing—The story-teller—An interesting liar.
IX
FUNERAL CUSTOMS 145
A talking corpse—A world of magic—Sympathy and expectoration—The
dirge—Premature burial—A funeral incident—Death
customs—Conventional mourning—An incident of the
_grass-field_—A horrible burial custom—Two death scenes, a
contrast.
X
THE “DOROTHY” 158
A godsend—A gasoline palaver—Canoeing—The rapids—A pilot—A
sudden stop—Passengers—The mangrove swamp—A wheelman and a
bottle—Pirates—Towing a town—Nkogo—Ndutuma—Ndong Bisia—A
saucepan and a ball of twine.
XI
SCHOOLBOYS 179
Lolo—Unwashed—Washed—A flying bucket—A little friend—The blessed
Melchisedec—A parting—_Ko-ko-ko-ko_—The centre of a fight—The
poetry of soap—A threat of suicide—The eloquence of sounding
brass—A “rotten road”—Savages as soldiers—Ngema’s
father—Across our bow—A tornado.
XII
A SCHOOL 198
Mendam, the _big brother_—Clothing—A day’s program—Cutting
grass—A python—Rations—A collapse—The dormitory—The
dispensary—The jigger-palaver—Not stupid—A head that got
hit—Singing—Interruptions—A picnic—Games—War-dances—Stories—_A
Tug-of-War_—_A Race_—_The Leopard and the Antelope_—An
evangelistic force.
XIII
THE MENTAL DEGRADATION OF FETISHISM 219
The horseshoe—The charm—The fetish—The relic—The fetish-doctor—A
psychological consequence—The African idea of
nature—Incredible beliefs—Confession of a chief’s son—Two
babes—The idea of God—The mental atmosphere—Making the
rainbow—A problem—First lessons—Why the river is crooked—An
old woman’s illustration.
XIV
THE MORAL DEGRADATION OF FETISHISM 233
A lost child—Worship of snakes—Demoralizing factors—A chief’s
fetish—Ingredients—Human sacrifice—A royal death—Wives and
witchcraft—Concluding a war—Destiny—Man’s nature—New
conceptions—A revolt from cannibalism—Heaps of
skulls—Deliverance.
XV
FETISHISM AND THE CROSS 246
A precocious boy—Killed his friend—Essentially moral—Cure for
lying—The ordeal—A trial and death—The sense of
guilt—Expiatory rites—The new ideal—The
atonement—Self-sacrifice and self-assertion—Ndong Koni builds
a church—Onjoga cuts grass—Makuba’s rheumatism—What is a
missionary?—Onjoga’s wife—Children at play.
XVI
MISSIONS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 264
The _noble savage_—Story of a feud—Society and the
individual—Progressive and
unprogressive—Interdependence—Conquest of
nature—Education—Authority of custom—Work—Trustworthiness—A
civilizing experiment—A communion service—Equality of woman—A
salutation—Attitude towards nature—A thirst for
knowledge—Service—Legitimacy in government—The home—_Thy
kingdom come_.
XVII
THE CRITICS 286
The missionary blamed for everything—Bewildering
inconsistency—Professor Starr—Misfits—Criticism
unjust—Unbelief—Antipathy towards the
native—Cruelty—Vice—Lowering of ideals—Missions sociologically
sound—The let alone policy too late—Miss Kingsley.
XVIII
SAINTS AMONG SAVAGES 310
The best apologetic—Mb’Obam—Sara—A matrimonial bureau—Angona—A
pot-palaver—A narrow escape—Amvama—A clean knife—A bet—Proving
himself—A dowry palaver—Opposing a chief—Robert Boardman—Son
of a “prince”—Blindness—Incident of a pipe—His love of
music—His wife—A near-elopement—Walking in the light.