’Martin took his seat astride of an African tom-tom or drum; and I noticed at the time that Jean Marie’s naked foot hung down from the cross-beam almost directly over Martin’s head.

’Martin now began to chant a monotonous African song, accompanying with the tom-tom.

’Gradually he began to quicken the measure; quicker went the words; quicker beat the drum; and suddenly one of the women sprang into the open space in front of the Fetish.  Round and round she went, keeping admirable time with the music.

’Quicker still went the drum.  And now the whole of the woman’s body seemed electrified by it; and, as if catching the infection, a man now joined her in the mad dance.  Couple after couple entered the arena, and a true sorcerers’ sabbath began; while light after light was extinguished, till at last but one remained; by whose dim ray I could just perceive the faint outlines of the remaining persons.

’At this moment, from some cause or other, Jean Marie burst into a loud laugh.

’Instantly the drum stopped; and I distinctly saw Martin raise his right hand, and, as it appeared to me, seize Jean Marie’s naked foot between his finger and thumb.

’As he did so, Jean Marie, with a terrible scream, which I shall never forget, fell to the ground in strong convulsions.

’We succeeded in getting him outside.  But he never spoke again; and died two hours afterwards, his body having swollen up like that of a drowned man.

’In those days there were no inquests; and but little interest was created by the affair.  Martin himself soon after died.’

But enough of these abominations, of which I am forced to omit the worst.

That day—­to go on with my own story—­I left the rest of the party to go down to the court-house, while I stayed at the camp, sorry to lose so curious a scene, but too tired to face a crowded tropic court, and an atmosphere of perspiration and perjury.

Moreover, that had befallen me which might never befall me again—­I had a chance of being alone in the forests; and into them I would wander, and meditate on them in silence.

So, when all had departed, I lounged awhile in the rocking-chair, watching two Negroes astride on the roof of a shed, on which they were nailing shingles.  Their heads were bare; the sun was intense; the roof on which they sat must have been of the temperature of an average frying-pan on an English fire:  but the good fellows worked on, steadily and carefully, though not fast, chattering and singing, evidently enjoying the very act of living, and fattening in the genial heat.  Lucky dogs:  who had probably never known hunger, certainly never known cold; never known, possibly, a single animal want which they could not satisfy.  I could not but compare their lot with that of an average English artisan.  Ah, well:  there is no use in fruitless comparisons; and it is no reason that one should grudge the Negro what he has, because others, who deserve it certainly as much as he, have it not.  After all, the ancestors of these Negroes have been, for centuries past, so hard-worked, ill-fed, ill-used too—­sometimes worse than ill-used—­that it is hard if the descendants may not have a holiday, and take the world easy for a generation or two.