Page:The land of fetish.pdf/141

 like a man. After a few mouthfuls he unearthed from the bottom of the dish a curious-looking object. A cold shudder convulsed his frame, and he looked closely. He could distinguish what seemed like five fingers and the palm of a hand, and, seized with a violent nervous contraction of the diaphragm, he leaped from the table and leaned out of a window. After a little he looked back into the room with brimming eyes, a haggard brow, and a mind full of the tales of the cannibal propensities of the natives of Bonny. He approached the old chief with tottering limbs, and one hand pressed upon the abdominal region, and inquired:—

"What's in that dish?"

"Me no sabe—no eat him dish yet."

"You old scoundrel, it's 'long pig':" and again he rushed with exceeding swiftness to look at the prospect out of the window.

When he had recovered, he took his hat and stick sorrowfully, and staggered down the steps. Just as he was stepping into the boat, one of Oko Jumbo's slaves came running up with the identical black dish that had been the cause of all this woe. The enraged legislator brandished his stick and said:—

"What do you want? What do you mean by bringing that here?"