Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1910 — RULING A SAVAGE TRIBE. [ARTICLE]

RULING A SAVAGE TRIBE.

The author of "Heroes of Modern ■Crusades," the Rev. Edward Gilliat, M. A;, at one time master of Harrow School, says in his most interesting book that he had a few years ago the privilege of meeting the king of the Quiah country, Tetty Agamasong, at Harrow. The Quiah king had been educated at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, and was able to lecture to the Harrovians in good English, n his lecture he told a quaint story which brings one nearer to the weird lives of the Quiahs, a small agricultural and trading trlde of inoffensive character on the west coast of Africa. “In my country,” said the king, “we have nb prisons; therefore if a culprit is brought to me I must chop off something—an ear or two, a hand or a foot—and he goes home a sadder and a wiser man. Just before 1 left for England a chief came to my hut, bringing a prisoner. " What has he done, friend?’ I ask--od - ■: r .:'j ' ■ ■ . " ‘He is a dangerous wMteh, O King; he can turn himself into an alligator.’ “ Pooh! nonsense! I don’t beueve that old-fashioned stuff.’ ; “ ’Oh; but we saw him do it, down ov the big river.’ ■ : ‘lndeed! Well, tell ate all about it. You saw .him yburse£f? r ~

“‘I did. We were hunting by the banks of' the river with our rifles when all at once we saw a big alligator lyina on a rock in the river. The witch man was lying asleep in a hammock som( fifty yards, away. O the dangerous creature he is! “ ‘Well, king, do not laugh with yout eyes like that, for I am speaking the truth. I put up my rifle to shoot the alligator, but to our great fear, as soon as I fired, this fellow rolled out of his hammock and fell on the ground, and rubbed his back, and swore he was hurt. “Now, O king, if this witch had not been inside the alligator, how could he have been hurt when I fired?” “Gentlemen,” concluded the king, “I see you are laughing with your eyes; but it Is very difficult'to rule over a people untaught and given over to superstition. “What did I do? WTiy, if I had left him free they would have killed him as soon as I had gone on my*ship/, so I saved his life by chopping off his left ear.”