1955-05-04 — Page 4

Page

Y

Did it

happen ?

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, MAY

THE DEMON

WITH THE LONG

FINGER-NAIL

Another in this series

of FACT OR FICTION tales

·OU" would not have monsoon in these little dhowa, knowing

manned

by

Arabs

thought Eliot nothing of charts and radios. It Pringle to be

A also had a thriving trade in gume ranger of red muggled ivory, got by poachers nown. He was short, stocky without llences and exported

without

paying duty And so and benign: about 40; he Game Department had sent strong as งด ox; quiet one of its aces to clean up the -mannered, a bachelor, with place if he could.

tiny, patient yet creative just outside

neighbour was a rich Indian

-by Elspeth Huxley

Barr and brought up in Kenys, Mrs. Elspeth Huxley new lives and fartus in Wiltshire. She has won fame as a writer of novels, travel books and biography, sa meritic and as an expert on Fast Africa, which she frequently visits. Her bumband, Gervas Huxley, is vice-chairman of the International Te Market Expansion Board. They have one son.

two hobbies-photography, Another quest had taken me which you would expect, to Lamu and I was glad to ac-

wus "convinced that, and tapestry-work, which cept Ellot Pringle's hospitality. became so wicked that God was and he you would not. It suited his He inhabited an old Arab house angry and destroyed it in a somehow or other they were to search- the town. His single night. A great storm carry ivory. He had a

warrant but leftw that no man covered : with sand.“

would be allowed to enter the mind, and he was very neat-, Ahmed, and behind his house

Ellot laughed. "I don't think women's quarters, search-warrant fingered.

rose the smooth, grey minaret of

Не search-warrant. Df Lamu's 28 mosques, that changed people's habits."

imam (the preacher)

thought they wouldn't be able I volunteered. to refuse me. great reputation for

and

of course. supernatural

one

Now he was fretted by whose

had a his Holiness his inability to lay hands on any evidence about powers. the

ivory-smuggling he'd "The stuff comes in," said

iamu.

Haunted

ہیں

no

The dhows were carrying piles "If you were to walk across of mangrove poles, sacks of. bee sent to investigate in. Ellot, and it goes out-between

these sand-dunes," Ahmed went durra, woven mats and assorted the little port of Lamu, on whiles it's here in

on, "you would come upon many human beings. Eliot and his Damn Where? the East African coast.

1, ivory's big bones They are all that is left askaris practically pulled them is an old, old Arao and solid, it's not like cocaine of an army from the island of apart, incurring the murderous Lamu

a handful of diamonds." He Pate that came to conquer us. looks of a very murderous crew town, founded more than thousand years ago, standing on stitched away at his tapestry as No one goes there now; it is of Arabs. its mangrove-tringed island in he spoke.

"Do you believe that? I the warm Indian sea like some

"I have never

world.

abreast

Ahmed had dropped in, as he did quite often: the two men, so different. were friends. Ahmed

haunted."

asked.

been to see.

Then my turn came. In mid- deck stood a ramshackle sort of hut, made of planks and mats: I went inside; no

☆ THE old man

came closer

... he smiled and stretched out his hand toith the cala. bash of water

1955.

We seemed alone at the waste

That night, we set out again end of the world. I subbed my by boat, this time in darkness, feet on something and leant just before monrise. Eliot had down to pull out

a whitened borrowed a motor-boat from the

Commissioner,

Who skull. The empty sockets stared District

at me mutely beyond came too, with a policeman and up

We protest, beyond despair,

some askaris. We moored the behind อ bluff and came then to a garden of bones. boat

towards Bleached white as chalk they scrambled through bush

the sand dunes, making an no ventilation. It great army that had invaded the awful, racks, I thought but

lay there, sole remnants of a windows. smelt of rancid oil, rotten eggs island and never returned.

quiet as we could. It keeping as was rough going. I tried to lead them, as best I could, towards and tar.

the demon-haunted garden of benes.

forgotten fragment of another The streets, flanked by high, Arah houses bull of sand was small and dark and keen-There is a special demon there the women's quarters. and coral, are so narrow that

walk can Heavy black Feils, cavelor an women, the men in long white

waist robes and embroidered coats, are satin-mannered, idle. handsome

voluptuous: ardent Moslems, too.

and

adorned with rings. He had a of great sweetness, and smile wore a turban, and small beard "You can't be sure it comes to Lamu." he suggested:

to

I fled

NATHANIEL GUBBINS

A

S it would be impos "Joinis of meat" were the cooked limbs of dead animals sible to frighten my and eaten with great relish by

44

the

poor little readers.. our savage forefathers, and more than the "price" meant the number of pieces of paper they Governments" of the Big coins or

for these gruesome Three have been frightening exchanged

feasts. them with their boasts It is interesting to observe about bigger and better that in

corresponden.co H-bombs and guided mis columns the value of meat as a siles we will assume that diet was doubted even then. One writer pointed out that those the world blew up yester who could afford the least of it day, leaving a few survivors lived the longest. He was re

to Government pere and a bundle-of-last week's stories, whose longevity was ar

embarrassment to newspapers.

admin- Istration hoping to reduce

We will further assume atletly he missed the op-

that a remote descendant of

two of the survivors has portimity of suggesting that the found the newspapers and Government would save money has written a critical review in the long run if they increased

the the pensions so that the old of what ordinary people people could buy more meat and were doing just before the cease to be an embarrassment at

an earlier age. day of doom.

to a letter in, an- Here is the review;

Accorespondence column yet

other

another worry in those days was the high taxation on tobacco and cigarettes.

MOR a long time it has been of vestes were little cylinders

more

Alled with a dried leaf tobacco which men and smcked T belleved that the masses women lighted and were not aware of their ime through their mouths. pending fate during the years Although cigarettes were bad of the middle 20th century, but for their health and gave them recent research has shown that

hat hideous coughs the unhappy official

statements, broadcasts, people found them soothing for and neu

newspaper clear

reports made the their nerves already shaken by

the second world war. but pericus position clear to almost

anybody

an imbecile,

When the Government found Therefore their induference to the

that the

of the popula- majority the situation and their astonish-ion could not do without these ing behaviour in the face of al- comforts cigarettes were savage- most total extinction can only ly taxed in order to raise more be explained by a stubborn re money to manufacture fusal to believe the worst.

terrible weapons of destruction For instance, the following and make the people's nerves old man, a kind old man, who offer the

time the chief this About item appeared in a newspaper even worse, less than a week before the end. comes forward

world were "Housewives .01. Liberal, statesmen of the traveller a calabash of water, For it is very hot on those sands.

threatening The women were swathed in

either making have high hopes Kansas, U.S. You take it and drink. The old yards of black cloth, their faces,

uttering veiled or that they will beat their rivals speeches man is his left hand. His

threats by giving details of their Qiney. Buckinghamshire, thre

It was aŞ- little

of fingernail is Jong and even, completely covered.

thought of the monsoon, the and it slits sharp as razor

England, in tomorrow's pancake new armaments. and the heat,

sea-sickness, your throat."

do not think the nounted that the British Army Each woman had shuddered.

was to have atomie weapons and huddled in was going to my glish women have anybody to "And have you ever known her wooden box of possessions.

beat Mrs Binnie Dick, last that Britain could make her own that happen?" Eliot asked.

hydrogen bombs, up till then ex- mamfactured by Ahmed smiled. "I know với but there was certainly no ivory, rest a little Arst," It grew hotter slaves, but I suppose they were

and hatter and I was thirsty not, strictly speaking: they were year's champion." Eliot came away discouraged, as a dry sponge.

people from the outer islands

clusively

Lamu is full of mosques.

They mulled it over for some Europeans are sceptical-unless

satisfied. Soon

the Arabs' under very much Looking round at Hussein, I Through finely carved woeden time and then turned to a tople it is a matter of carrying mascots but still not

thumb. They were carrying the doors you glimpse antique silver in which I. personally, was more r

or spring saucers flying in the after five the dhows moved off

across the down the narrow channel, while saw that he was standing stiff as thum

sand-dunes where a pillar, staring past me across ivory lamps of great beauty, woven

Ahmed had whetted my the crews beat their drums and mats, and cool, silent simplicity. interested: the folk lore of Lamu sky."

and its ruined palaces and

It had been roughly buried. curiosity There is even sup the sand-dunes "and

I resolved to splore played on their guitars, as was the dunes. His face bore a look from the garden of bones, wh

It was a stirring of horror, his lips were pulled. There was no need to go deep, mosques.

risk the the custom

and trade conducted in dhows, hot posed to be a whole city buried

demon with the long finger

sight but it didn't please Eliot back in a grin of anguish

Then I saw coming to for very is white. Like skeletons. fear. Oncient Arab sailing craft

I had to postpone my

wards us and about a hundred Then they were loading. it into built here, all by hand lateen- under the sand:

Eliot had heard that rigged. Mangrove poles are al- There is a legend," Ahmed however,

yards away a tall, thin bearded the dhows. most its only export Food told me, "like your Bible story of several dhows were to set sail

man. He held out a calabash of must reach it through reef and Sodom and Gomorrah. Lamu next day for the Persian Gulf,

water in his right hand.

We both stood transfixed.

Don't be an said to myself:

Smuggled Ivory

Lamu lives, precariously,

4/11

on

That's about the only thing I am sure of this is the shipping point. There must be some man behind it all-a dhow owner perhaps.

Miniature

Masterpieces

for Milady..

ROLEX

Superbly elegant-Precisely accurate Rolex offer a miniature-watch of superb elegance, yet with a movement Large enough to be a marvel of accuracy truly the best obtamable!

"This place bad'

"Innocent as

bables,"

ho

muttered. "We even dredged the bilge. And yet and yet.

Was

3

Hussein stood stock still. "We must go back," he said.

We will "Soon," I agreed.

The

We caught them red-handed. "women" I had seen

the dhows cabins race.

Holy man

and

many

The next day it was reported that Mrs Dick won the 415-yard race in Amin. 5.1secs, in a snow- storm.

America and Russia.

Four days before zero hour a new aircraft-carrier, the Ark believed to be armed Royal, "Tomorrow" refers to Shrove with aircraft capable of de- Tuesday, the day before Ash

bombs of great de- livering Wednesday. This was the be

structive power, was launched. ginning of Lent, which was a A priest known as the Chaplain period of fasting observed by of the Forces, blessed the ship. the few who clung to their re Frayers were said and hymns ligious customs in a cynical and unbelieving community.

The pancakes, made of eggs, in milk, arid-four, were fried.

and were pang or skillets

in

sung.

in ships

We didn't see again the demon originaty intended as a feast DUT not many people were Idiot, this is just an old Arab offering water; spirits don't with the calabash of water; he before the Lenten fast, but B concerned with such mat-

the sunshine, they are only walked by day, I suppose. why the pancakes were tossed ters. During the I could do no more to help walk in

cold, grin But my eyes I'm still But quite convinced him, and started early next day midnight things.

the alt and caught again in winter of 1955 thousands were the pan to explore the sand dunes cover dropped to his left hand. It was that he was not an apparition

as housewives, living looking forward to their sum- There was something about him thousands of

miles apart raced ing the wicked ancient city. My concealed in his robe.

Sea trips were mer holidays. sole

Eliot's

Incredibly

Sup each other over a measured dis sinister. But I companion

advertised, plans were made and The old man came closer; his bright,

and. that he

and.. tance will never be exp Eliot was

accommodation explained. Hussein,

pose servant,

was a cleverly

oved guard. sophisticated lad who wore his face looked fatherly, benign; he

One can only assume that the hotels and stretched out his

Although we turboosh at

caught the showe

shows 20th-century housewives

That week the mayor of Mar- try- a rakish angle and smiled

and had been to a Government hand with the calabash of water.

their crews

other through the snow under land, said. he was leading” an, school. A boat took us to the It was too much; abjectly sur- thousand pounds worth of ivory, in pancakes and racing each gate, a seaside town in Eng- north end of the island and we rendering. I turned and fied. stepped ashore into a tangle of Hussein had preceded me. Some Elot couldn't find the organiser the threat of a world in flames expedition to the Romney Mars of the whole thing. So he got were even madder than first- shes to find a frog to represent the holy man at the mosque century Nere, who Addled his bush and grass, through which way off gasping for breath,

his country in a frog-jumping

in The old man lay on this unknown individual while Rome was burning. championship to be held South turned to look. old pecred

grey

had disappeared.

Не Africa the following May. special curse reserved for rob- sarcophagi

At last we reached the belt of bors and renegades. quite

wanted to discover a frog that "A Moslem cemetery," ex bush, the cemetery and the sea soon, and quite suddenly, Ahmed

could beat Leaping Lena, ace plained Hussein.

It was delphinium-blue, spark- left Lamu with his affairs in

frog of South Africa, which had ling, infinitely reassuring. Wa

recorded a jump of 231t. sat together on a tombstone, m

TEWSPAPERS of the sume

animal Keller N

Breland, an fateful week were full of" trainer of Arkansas, U.S.

was panting and watched four white

photographs of the new spring training goats to dance, chickens sails out at sta.

fashions for women worn by to play baseball and poker (one models and admired by specta a ball game, the other a card tors who seemed unaware that

7

stone

"But who's buried here?" "The people of the city under the sand." He paused, and did, not seem at all anxious to continue.

"

"Why do you come here?" he added. "This place is bad."

"What's bad about it?"

"Shitani," he said, using the Swahili word for spirits,, devils. "If you are a good Moslem you will have nothing to fear." He still looked unhappy..

"The dhows that went out yes turday," Hussein explained,

•Demon' garden

And then, on our way back in "the boat (rather shamefaced), the whole thing came to me, the I chased Elliot whole picture. all over Lamu until I found him, and poured out what I sus- pected knew really and my We toiled on for about an

plan, At first incredulous, he hour, getting hotter and hotter. said: The sun drenched the sky,

ourselves, the parched grass that "Well, we'll give it a try. Go soon petered out into sand which home and rest, and leave me to gave way before our aching feet. make the arrangements."

·SOME LIFT.

disorder and did not re- After that the ivory languished. Or, smuggling. rather, switched elsewhere. Eliot was in Kismayu when I last heard.

WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED

DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?

YES

NO

Put your licé la the space_above and kow this panel by you wxtf) tommerow *** when the server will be given mother story in this horien bi...

NIGEL BALCHIN

Did yesterday's story.The Card Sold Cocktails, by · Lrie : Kinkale

ctually happen? The answer 1 NG,

LAWYERS TANGLE OVER

HITLER'S FORTUNE

From COLIN LAWSON Berlin..property was seized and the pro TITLER is the central ceeds used to help concentration camp victims and people who

Higure in a legal battle at abroad leaving their posses- now going on in West Ber- sions behind.

lin.

- For when he died in

lion) Now the ownership

of that fortune is being dis- puted.

GROTESQUE

"He did, however, See Eva Braun's body.!!

Was

they would never see the spring..) and pigs to do household ·

Rich

such

as straightening up women of the period an untidy room.

He said that were going to look "slinky" and pigs which were eaten in large wear what was known as the numbers, either boiled, roasted, "I" line to replace the "A" line, pickled, smoked, or in the form though in view of what hap- of sausages (minced pig in little pened the "H" line would have skins), were almost as intelligent been more appropriate,

as human beings. The

more they were newspapers were also full of reports of a scate on the

than intelligent.

American Stock Exchange. To enlighten- housewives, who, according to ed people Ikke us who have an item, were so spoiled with never used money and have domestic gadgets that they were read about it in history incapable of doing ordinary backs as useless pieces of paper, our work such as cleaning up

Stock Exchange is hard to the parlour."

the

explain.

But the main idea was that business promoters asked the public for pleces of paper in return for shares in their enter

"

*

prises promising to pay pieces DERHAPS the strangest be-

back of paper

haviour reported only three in the formTL dividends. If there was con- days before zero hour concerned fidence in the enterprises shares a game of marbles usually would increase in value and the played by little children. owners could sell them at a pro- When a woman prominent in fit, one of the few methods at London. society Esked a Mr the time

of acquiring pieces of George Burbage, of Tinsley paper without paying Income

Green, Sussex, England, de- to The tax.

scribed as secretary to On the other hand, if con- British Marbles Board of Con- fidence in the enterprises was trek, to teach her to play lost either through Government-

this

strate it on television he replied. from Mein Kampf and other value of the shares dropped and that marbles took many years. Hitler left millions in royalties intervention or panic selling the game 90, that she could demon- It is now too late to declare books. He also owned a big share the public lost millions of pieces to learn and that women were

barred from official games. his concrete air-raid shelter legally that Hitler was a Nazi of a huge Nazi publishing fun in of paper.

He also said that he In fact, the Stock Exchange

regarded just ten years ago, the dic- for all de-Nazifying has finished East Berlin. In his will be left

and the whole

monetary the proposition of showing the 39 an insult tator had property valued at and no new cases can be started. all this to the Nazi Party,

system was nothing but a vast game on television 500 million marks (£40 mil-

But after the war, the Farty confidence trick, and for us, to the Marbles Board of Control dissolved and the will looking back from our trouble and demanded an apology.

free pronounced worthless.

society it is difficult to understand why our wretched Said a lawyer: "Thus you havé

What will happen to the for- ancestors living in perpetual the grotesque situation of small Hitler's death has never been Nazis who have been punished tube? Lawyers say that because fear and spiritual darkness, themselves so registered officially in Berlin, To by heavy times and confiscation Hitler has not been irgally could concern

of paper TWO days before the zero registrar

hour confidence was restored only of property, while Hitler's pro- declared a Nazi, relatives could much about pieces

·

which would all disappear in a get the money.. "missing"

perty cannot be touched --

Lew days.

on the Stock. Exchange. Shares increased in value. More piecest has been found who His sister Id Wolff, who

of paper were acquired and Under early Allied Occupation

people

concerned. In tazee m laws German courts examined can swear he saw4Hider's dead lives my Bavaria, and the parents

lers were happy for the next 24 casis of legally dead Nazis, in body. A member of his staff of Eva Braun, whom Hiller

hours. But Government inter- cluding Goebbels, Goering and satt he carried a body from the married it before his deaths,

air raid shelter. He was told have already put in claims for NOTHER matter that was vention put an end to all this, Ribbentrop...

it was Hitler's, but He did not the estate. So, too, has Heinrich A troubling people at the time and their last day, was spent in Where

they were formally see it for it was covered with a Homach, Hitler's photographer was the price of various joints gloom and depression.

and Eva Braun's uncle)

of ment

(World Copyright.)" declared major offenders, their blanket..

the

-he