Phyllis of Philistia [39]
match on the brink of the ocean when the whole tribe prostrated themselves around me, promising to continue worshiping me if I would only stay my hand. Well, what could I do? I weakly yielded and spared the multitudinous sea from being the medium of what would in all likelihood have been the greatest conflagration on record. From that moment, I'm happy to say, they worshiped me as their supreme deity, and I'm bound to say that I behaved as such; I was certainly the most superior class of god they had ever had, and they gave me a testimonial to this effect in case I might ever be looking out for a new situation."
"That was how you managed to get such a collection of birds, including my meteor-bird," said Ella. "But Phyllis of Philistia is shocked at the bare recital of such a tale of idolatry. Are you not, Phyllis?"
"I think I am a little shocked," said Phyllis. She did not say that her first thought just then was that the feather fan was not, after all, the price of blood: it was something much worse. "It was an encouragement of idolatry, was it not, Mr. Courtland?"
"Scarcely," said he. "On the contrary, it was an honest attempt to lead them from their idols to something higher and better."
"You are something higher and better," suggested Ella.
"Quite so; I am a little lower than the angels, but a good deal higher than the awful image which they worshiped before I turned up," said he. "The whole tribe admitted in the most honorable manner that I was by far the best god they had ever had; they had not an unlucky day so long as they worshiped me, and I retained my Winchester and a full supply of cartridges."
"The testimony was flattering," said Ella. "But still Phyllis is shocked."
"I am," said Phyllis. "I believe in God. Mr. Courtland believes in a Principle."
"Anyhow, I led some thousands of savages from idolatry and cannibalism to something higher, and that's a better record than most gods of my acquaintance can show. Everything must be done gradually to be done permanently. Nothing could be more absurd than the /modus operandi/ of your missionary. Most of them have got rid of their Christianity to make way for their theology. They endeavor to inculcate upon the natives the most subtle points of their theological system, immediately after they have preached against the wickedness of economy in the matter of clothing."
"A large missionary work might be done among husbands at home," said Ella. "But what about the dynamite, that is the charge which still hands over you--a charge of dynamite?"
"That was my worst hour," said Courtland. "I had gone up the Fly River in my steam launch to a point never previously reached by a European. I was fortunate enough to get some specimens that had never been seen before, and I was returning to the coast. My engineer and I were captured when ashore one night getting fuel for our furnace. They took us into the forest a long way, binding our hands with the fiber of one of the creepers, and I had no trouble whatever gathering that it was their intention to make a feast of us--a sort of high tea, it was to be, for they began brewing the herbs which I knew they used only when they were cannibalizing. We were courteously permitted to watch these preparations, for it was rightly assumed that they would be in some degree interesting to us. We were, indeed, greatly interested in all we saw, but much more so when, toward evening, a number of the natives arrived on the scene carrying with them some of the stores which they had found aboard the steam launch. They broke open with a stone hatchet some tins of preserved meat, and seemed to enjoy the contents greatly. The biscuits they didn't care for much, and the cakes of soap which they began to eat could not honestly be said to be an entire success as comestibles. But while we watched them at these /hors d'oeuvres/ to the banquet at which we were expected to take a prominent part, a straggler came up with some reserve supplies; I saw them; tins of dynamite--we carried dynamite for blowing up the snags that obstructed the
"That was how you managed to get such a collection of birds, including my meteor-bird," said Ella. "But Phyllis of Philistia is shocked at the bare recital of such a tale of idolatry. Are you not, Phyllis?"
"I think I am a little shocked," said Phyllis. She did not say that her first thought just then was that the feather fan was not, after all, the price of blood: it was something much worse. "It was an encouragement of idolatry, was it not, Mr. Courtland?"
"Scarcely," said he. "On the contrary, it was an honest attempt to lead them from their idols to something higher and better."
"You are something higher and better," suggested Ella.
"Quite so; I am a little lower than the angels, but a good deal higher than the awful image which they worshiped before I turned up," said he. "The whole tribe admitted in the most honorable manner that I was by far the best god they had ever had; they had not an unlucky day so long as they worshiped me, and I retained my Winchester and a full supply of cartridges."
"The testimony was flattering," said Ella. "But still Phyllis is shocked."
"I am," said Phyllis. "I believe in God. Mr. Courtland believes in a Principle."
"Anyhow, I led some thousands of savages from idolatry and cannibalism to something higher, and that's a better record than most gods of my acquaintance can show. Everything must be done gradually to be done permanently. Nothing could be more absurd than the /modus operandi/ of your missionary. Most of them have got rid of their Christianity to make way for their theology. They endeavor to inculcate upon the natives the most subtle points of their theological system, immediately after they have preached against the wickedness of economy in the matter of clothing."
"A large missionary work might be done among husbands at home," said Ella. "But what about the dynamite, that is the charge which still hands over you--a charge of dynamite?"
"That was my worst hour," said Courtland. "I had gone up the Fly River in my steam launch to a point never previously reached by a European. I was fortunate enough to get some specimens that had never been seen before, and I was returning to the coast. My engineer and I were captured when ashore one night getting fuel for our furnace. They took us into the forest a long way, binding our hands with the fiber of one of the creepers, and I had no trouble whatever gathering that it was their intention to make a feast of us--a sort of high tea, it was to be, for they began brewing the herbs which I knew they used only when they were cannibalizing. We were courteously permitted to watch these preparations, for it was rightly assumed that they would be in some degree interesting to us. We were, indeed, greatly interested in all we saw, but much more so when, toward evening, a number of the natives arrived on the scene carrying with them some of the stores which they had found aboard the steam launch. They broke open with a stone hatchet some tins of preserved meat, and seemed to enjoy the contents greatly. The biscuits they didn't care for much, and the cakes of soap which they began to eat could not honestly be said to be an entire success as comestibles. But while we watched them at these /hors d'oeuvres/ to the banquet at which we were expected to take a prominent part, a straggler came up with some reserve supplies; I saw them; tins of dynamite--we carried dynamite for blowing up the snags that obstructed the