CHAPTER FIVE.
THE SLAVE GANGS Our fathers praised the old accustomed things, The privilege of chiefs, the village wall Within whose circling dark Monumme* sings O' nights of belly-full and ease and all They taught us we should prize and praise (Only of dearth and pestilence should be our fears;) And now behind us are the green, regretted days.
The water in the desert is our tears.
Then ye, who at the waters drink Of Freedom, oh with Pity think On us, who face the desert brink Your fathers entered willingly.
Our fathers mocked the might of the Unseen, Teaching that only what we saw and felt Was good to fight about--what aye had been, Old-fashioned foods that their forefathers smelt, Old stars each night illuming the old sky, The warm rain softening ere women till the ground, The soft winds singing, only ask not why! And now our weeping is the desert sound.
Oh ye, who gorge the daily good, Unquestioned heirs of all ye would, Spare not too timidly the blood Your fathers shed so willingly.
Our fathers taught us that the village good was best.
Later we learned the red, new tribal creed That our place was the sun--night owned the rest Unless their treasure profited our greed! But now we gather nothing where our fathers sowed, For harvest grim the vultures wait in rows As, urged by greedier than us with gun and goad, Yoked two by two the slave safari goes.
Oh ye, who from true judgment shrink, Nor gentleness with courage link, Be thoughtful when the cup ye drink Your fathers spilled so willingly.
-- -------- * Monumme (Kiswahili)--Lit.

male-man in his prime.
-- -------- The guard procured his trays at last, delivered them at a run, returned in a hurry and swallowed his own meal at a side-table.

Then, with his mouth full, he reported for orders to the railway official, who was still checking figures.

The room was beginning to grow empty.
Coutlass and his Greek friend and the Goanese sat almost alone at the far end of the other table, finishing their pudding.

I had not noticed until then that the guard was a singularly little man.