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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1930-02-13, Page 6Some Ju -Ju 1VMen 1 Have Known I By Richard St. Barbe Baker, from a • taii< given over the British Broad- casting Company. Among ,Some of my most memor- 'able'experiences during my service as Forest Officer in tropical Africa 'have 'been my nreetiuge with mens - hers of that mysterious order, 01 lnys- tics known to the European as "Juju', men, whose gifts and :opinions Play eo important a part in the daily life of mlllious of Africans palms in the very same manner that I had to employ hi order to roach the banns:: The last pian to leave the' firm ground collected the e mboo$,1 passed them along to the noxi, ':sell that by the time that all the inhabit:, 'ants of the village' had passed dve),. the swamp there was no bridge left behind p0on which their pursuers could cross. The enemy, lett icuee lug; the dangore of tho'bottomless swamp, rushed in, and; were• sucked under. In tete way they all disappeared. This These are known by many different is the tradition, and it is an llhstorical -names in Africa. For instance, in that fact that the people •of Agenebottie Highlands of . Kenya the •Aietiielue •were never conquered -by the Fulani. Man is sometimes known as the Mttn- When 1 first saw the lake and was do Mugo. Lu the parts special clans told that it was sacred; Tasked, 'Why are credited with supernatural pew- . is it sacred?' and the Ju -Ju man re - ors: Such es' the Eithaga Clan, nclo-. plied,, 'Because It' contains the sacred; named Mune or 'Those who bewitch croecdile,' and When I said, 'Why 10 ,People'. Tae stronghold of trio Eith• the croeoile sacred?' he replied; 'Be-' ago, is Karuris country; on tete east cause the lake, is. sacred ' `At any coast of N Mount 7.ndarua,'called'tAus rate the lake upon whose banks these by the inhabitants of the surrounding :refugees from. Agenebodie found re country -because-. of ,its resemblance, fuge 'contained a crocodile which the when viewed from certain directions, neighboring tribesmen still worship, to an elephant's head. and to whom they bring offerings. Just ae in the medical profession The eleeitt keeper of the crocodile act - there; are physicians and surgeons ed 'as intermediary between the poo• who specialize in their particular pee and their deity, and when au of - branch of service, eo among Ju -hl Tering had been made would stand on men Cheer are vhrheties in spocializa- the •banie•of the lake and call to its' tion, such as the. Ambura and -Akiura, 'secret]' occupant to. "come ani. eat. ' the Rain -makers and the Wizards, •Wilen I visited the 'sacred' lake I audit is only fair to Point out at this took with, me as 'guide the present . stage that.there are niany misuuder- custodian of the crocodile, and upon staudiugs'ampng Europeans as..to the reaching the brink of- the water I re- tie:diens of those processions, and quested him to call his charge for my claimsare made for'them •by others inspection. Looking out across the than the praetithoners themselves water he exclaimed 'in aloud voice, 'which often firing them: into disrepute "Isamore; Isamore, Isamore jeje•' which is not always Duet. The Rahn- and eat,me and eat come je bringers profess to be able to make gain under certain conditions, but the important. point is that, the rain clouds: must bo forming, and that it .is -the right` season for rain, This is all they claim. ; Ifinanjul, Chief' of the Klkuyo tribe, was one of the 'first important 'Afri- can chiefs versed in the rrt of Juju that 1 met during my traveli..Ile was then a man aged about forty-five years, tall and always dignified in his bearing. Although he could not. speak a word of English, yet he had a very in wad line perception, and his Intuition so keen that he often responded to the unspoken thought. His genius no goat for him to eat so he no be was turned •to good account in deal- iit•to come.' This Ju-ju man, like all ing with the demands of the daily of his kind, was undeieatable. • life of his tribe. He seemed to cora- • It was while I was instructing a bine In himself both •the arts of a gang :of 'laborers in sylviculturai clever' detective and the sagacity •of a judge. In. my personal experience 'of tribal cases that came before him in. the 'course of the happenings of evory day, I rarely 'found him to be was •Por .the thief wrong It enough to know that when Kinanjjui was en• gaged on the case confession of guilt was inevitable. In his and neighboring tribes wore other Juju encu who contributed their part to the welters of Heir peo- ple. For instance, the Eithaga who %dealt with the Spirit of the Forest: this order became one of the recog- nized' guardians of sacred groves when the surrounding forests were destroyed, To then we owe the pre- servation of frequent patches of trees which are seen on the hilto00 in what would otherwise be a baro country. When demarcating a forest reserve in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria I made the acquaintance of the Croco- dile Catcher, of Gill Gill. I Learnt that at ono time his father was an important,Iu-ju man in the service of the Oba of Bonin, but had been ban- ished fro !utile presence of the king for making bad magic. I•Io was hence - fortis doomed to catch crocodiles alive for the use of the Oba for Ju-ju 'ceremonies in. the Cltq of Benin. The. 'son had inherited his father's .profes- sion, and ,in the depth of the forest was condemned to expiate the sins of his parent by plying this mysterious and dangerous trade. When my in- terpreter, Igabon, informed me of this man's occupation,. I asked him, `Do you really catch crocodiles? How • lid' then do you do;it?' Ile l ep e , 'Truly, blaster,etacodiles be fools', and then went on to explain that in the dry season when the creeks were low, he dug a narrow channel up from the bank, at the: end of which he con- strected a' cage to receive a live goat, which acted as bait for the crocodile. He would then wait near by for his prey. The crocodile, tempted by the presence of the live goat, left the water and worked his way along the narrow ditch•up to the cage, but was' unable to reach the goat, as it was' protected by: pilee of wood driven In- to the earth. The defeated crocodile then attempted to retreat aiul finding himself unable to turn round in the narrow trench, and the backs too steel to scalp, was trapped. 'Croco- diles be fools; they be no fit to walk back', said the crocodile catcher. I have since been told that it is a physl- cal impossibility for a crocodile to walk backwards in. a narrow trench; and this .no doubt accounts for the 'ease' with which the crocodile catcher eah bind up his victim. Creepers' are cut trona tlse forest; a noose is drawn tightly over his jaws, while his tail is, drawn in towards his head. Sus- pended from two strong staves 'by other ropes, the crocodile is carried to Benin by stages, and is deposited in a pond within the Palace grounds to await his fate at the next Ju-ju ceremonies.. Crocodiles are not - caught for purposes of exterrnihation or for food, nor are they valued by the natives far their seen, but they are 'regarded by some tribes ae. human impersonating living individ- pals. For this reason they have been used to replace voluntary human sac- riflce during recent years. When c gaged in creating a new forest reserve neer the banks of the Niger,I heard of a s tri ed lake which woe guarded hn lute devotee. It was cut oil from ihh u lour ding country by a circular mune extending in the. narrowest tart , r lea of approxi - ninthly two tui i This so-called sacred thee, l toe; nett, wasthe centre of an ancien t di Iir fel wion the people of Agenebeele were fleeing before their Fulani invaders from the north they took refuge on the banks of` this lake. They skillfully' crossed the swamp on' bambode •cut from ADVENTURES - ,,Ip 0. JaOCbSSOB ADAMSON S (Come eo , t and eat quick!) I watched my o i ��0 guide, intently calling for my benefit, Science g and urged him to call louder and yet again, but as far as I, mild see notb- l Mankind ankindFrom War the crocodile was booking an ing happened. He assured dpointed methat 1 — to a distant speck on the water, America's Most Renowned. which might havo been anything. At- Scientist Says, It Will Also . r he had been caning a long time Keep the Race from I said to him, 'Why does not the croc- odile coin? He thereupon turned to Starvation me quite solemnly and said some- .. thing like this, which was translated Dr. James Laver, in London Chronicle by my interpreter into the colloquial A prediction that science wilt save no be in - his crocodile re pigeon English, Tthe world from war and its foto tool. He savvy too much. You got habitants from starvation, was made by Dr. Robert. A. Milliken, world - famed physicist, who, it will be re- membered, is a farmer Nobel Prize winner, in his presidential address before the American Association` for the Advancement of Science. Only a operations, deep in the forest, that a 'huge Gaboon viper appeared and, short cabled account was sent to this showed fight. A unanimous cry wont) country and we quote, therefore, tha qui. for one of their-number, re00ee, and speech as it appears in the New York quickly came to their rescue and I Times, alone, whtle forked stick in hand, faced the dangerous reptile, while the Speaking ou ihe enalleg dipsins 01 their distance. science, kept tl Ins au p to ue u a d cs i 'rite gang ae it outstanding anal ue the ou tst g by to It was obvious to mo at once that lte.� knew his work and, with the laborers,l against scientific research, and to I watched him successfully battliug each of them, on behalf of science, with the viper. It was soon over and pleaded not guilty, He denied that the poison sae was extracted and re' 1 schonco is materialistic. tained by the sualte-catcher to bo To the charge that science has used in the preparation of an auti-1 multiplied tate toots of destruction, dote for another day. At my request that she has made war more, deadly, on returning to camp the skin was more horible and less heroic than it stretched on the wa11 of a mud -hut `used to be, Dtiflo Iilliken repliedsthat nose it is a different picture that un- folds itself.' read history,: the machine age has actually freed, educated and 'inspired mankind, not enslaved it. Routine labor plays a part In all our lives, and an attractive part, too, if le is' not overdone and if there is leisure' for aomething'else. ''Even the few 'routine '.men who feed the machines in Mr. Ford's fac- tory actory, are less routinized • andhave shorter hours by far than the dumb agricultural . drudge who hoed pota' toes for twelve hours a day, through all the histbry . of the world before appeared: ared.' P the machineageP "'Looked at -in the large, I do net think there can be the slightest Dues- ld his nor e { one P tion. that the y ho has of maintaining is the future a suitable balance between population and food supply is found in science.' 'I "'That, in the last analysis, is man- kind's greatest problem. Its solution alone, and there are the best 'reasons for believing that in tate bong run it can be solved, is sufficient to warrant the fullest stimulation of both the biological and the physical sciences that can its any way be brought about. • "Sub -Atomic" Forces Denied Canadians a It By Ph ;lie, Ottawa, : Cremate -.Tliotig') :Cana• diaus may not be ordinarily known as; a noticeably talkative 000110, the tact is they use the 'telephone more than the people of any other country. i1 recently issued official report dis• closes that in 1928 the number of telephone conversations in Canaan, totalled 2,292,000,000 of which 06,1772 000 were long distance calls: This works out at 1,717 local and 2? long distance calls per telephone In the Dominion or 241 'phone conversations per head of population, compared. with( 221 • in 1927. In the, United States the latest available, figures show. :225 telephone • conversations per year per capita. New Realaad holds third place with .179 per capita.1 At the end of 1928 there were 1,- 834,534 ;834,584 telephones in Canada, about 14 for every 100 of the population in the country equal to .approximately one. 'phone' for every seven persons- Only the United, States with 15.8 phones per 100 of population exceeds Canada in phone density In the pro wince, of British Columbia' there is a telephone for every five persons o^' Te.• cl ing �agldre enero ty MARION pnow el FIE 'le0 (Author of The Courtesy Book)' Sorno children do' not have to be taught to b'o generp011 Jphey arc. ais impartial in giving'58 suns111ne itself!, But many children are, if not actual -1 ly stingy, inclined to be selfish. In a family where there are several chil- dren, it will pfteu; 'be noticed that either generosity or stinglnees is a marked trait in each child, The "only" _ 'child le often little to blame if he grows up selfish, for lie hasu't the opportunity for sharing that one of several children in a tam- per has, and his parents` often uneon- eciously encourage him to be selfish But unfortunately, adults may also, teach children, blessed with brothers, and sisters, to be selfish, both by ex- ample sample and by speech. The "holding ou" habitis easy to learn, It grows, and it hard to break! The mother who hoards, unnecessarily, in her household, the father whose garage is a junk pile from which he won't . spare a -scrap or the atult who can't bear to pick a flower in her garden because "they look so much prettier growing", all teach children to be the 208 per 1.00 of population. Onto - follows closely with 18.3 per 000 per- opposite of generous. ens and Saskatchewan is third with Contrast, with these, the mother who encourages Johnnie to collect -n isnme and - 18.2 per 100, The telephone wire mlleage in Can- ada totals 3,982,867 and the aggre• gate income for all telephone systems) in 1028 was $61,791,333, an average of $46.30 p'er telephone or about 21/2 cents per, call including both local and long distance calls. Telephones in Canada literally cover the length and breadth of the expansive country. Most of the farm homes in every pro- wiece have telephone connection local- ly radius beyond. onne ly and t. - The fact that the telephone is a Canadian invention may account, in some way, for its great popularity in the Dominion. It was invented by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell andde- monstrated" successfully for the first time on August 10 1876, over a line that ran from Brantford to Paris. Ontario. -- The Vole - s of Our its formes, our advertising. and even our education.' "Regarding these as 'transient ace companiments of the stupendous rate ot- change, that modern. science and its applications have forced on mod- ern lite; Mid 'believing that what. he termed thee'present spirit of revolt as in part an inevitable reflex of the, rapid changes taking'place in our timed because of the rapid growth of science, Dr. Milliken said he was `not greatly disturbed by this: "'The actual method by which scieuce makes its changes is becom- ing said. toot] understood,' ing betterd, "The demand for the .aner popu- lar books upon it Is continually in- creasing. The remedy is, in part at least, in underatandiug it better.' '"'As soon s the public learns, as it is slowly learning, that science, uni- versally recognized as the; basis of our civitizaztion,• knows no such thing as change for the sake'of change; as soon as the public learns that the Method of scienoe is not to discard the past, but always to build upon it; ince as soon as it discovers that iu science truuth once discovered always remains truth; in 1 word, that evolution, growth, not revolution, is its method, it will, I hope, begin to banish its craze for the sensational, for the new (regardless of the true, and thereby atone for one of the sins into which the very rapid growth of science may and dried for my collection. evory scientists Ip some of the tribes this art of l times as many new, Peaceful and con- as be tdmitted made by .. hendlt1g Poisonous slakes can be structhve uses as it finds destructive themselves, t teas made. by cis Mil• acquired by those who become neo, ones." 111ta11 to be without foundation.' btioit.' physes iu the profession, but this Eno "'Science regards it as her chief snake•catceer belonged to a tribe in basically tie sa to does which snake -catching was hereditary, and he had been instructed by his father. Ile knew his job well, and I found that his healing art was ,in constant demand. Crude and prune- tive as was his forest laboratory, mar- vellous were the means by which he administered his' many serums. For just as the modern physician devel- ops an antidote for each disease, so this snake -catcher dispenses the anti- dotes for each kind of poison. It is weil 'known amongst Africans that the means of obtaining the antidote for each snake's poison is from an- other snake of the same species. The knowledge extends farther, and many for ceremonial purposes used u a snakes harmless. But no one aro rendered save the initiated knows the secrets of this Juju. "The charge that science Is 'giving children matches to play with' by pre- paring to tap 'enormous stores of subatomic energy which weak, ignor- I leave tempted it'. ant, confused, sometimes visions man has not the moral gttaiitles to control. newspapers in hes- ow neighborhood to salvage for charity or, better still, the.pareuts who from the child's babyhood by suggestion and example make nim eager to share his seat, his playthings, his candy, with brother or sister or even the forlorn little child it the laundress playing at the back door. "Not what .ye git'e, but,, what ye share." Children are like putty at the begin. -. ning, and those first impulses, educat- ed ducated in the right way, may become the cornerstone of generosity. • When a little girl sees Mother share her "company" dessert with a neighbor, remember thee at Christ- mas who can't "exchange gifts", lend her magazines and books, and gave willingly to various benevolences in- stead 'of n-stead'of spending all leer spare' change on rtifies for herself, the child learns the real. joy of generosity. The spiritual doesn't need to be voiced. , It will be felt. But how carefully must the oppo- her rid vod. The mot e teaching be a site teat who says, "Go and barrow that maga- From the depths of the sea there sine back •from Mrs. Brown. She's- eometh a sigh had it all day; that's long enough! I Prom the mountains cometh a moan, want it myself this evening," is tn- From the forests of France a frantic aware. doubtless, that she is grafting cry, an unlovely bit from her own char - Front the sky a shriek, a groan. neer entoherchltd's! By this 'act "For what did we die?" these voices site is likely to Impede even the child's ask, 1 material success in lhf+. "'Why saerified life's emprise? i As unselfishness is a fundamental b .ski f enerosit y it cite be impressed on and direct to useful ends; a charge, '' loslves and fertilizers aro me and even explo- sives find a dozen peaceful uses one warlike oue,' he said. 'Public thinking is misled by the fact that a horror makes better news 111011 a always to constrain men to repla wheat crop. One man blown pain - than emotional acting by reflec• toasty to atonic date more news space tive, il a informed, rational acting, The tion a thousand men dying by inches great world explosions, including the' World War, have been mental, not. physical. She would ask.you then to withhold your judgment until all the available+evidence is in.' "'Now the new evidence born of new scientific students is to the ef- I feet that it is highly improbable that there is any appreciable amount of • energy far man e a the peaceful arts: to tap anyway; in other words, that "'In my judgment, war is now in � henceforth men who are living in fear fi by 'dent• hiee s chieflyt1i fishedmon I in abolished, boyamong @ as ofb me b • ass g t so process los this relentless advance 11 science,00atits tats may some day touch elf the fuse most powerful enemy. It has existed ,and blow this comfortable earth of in spite of religion, and in spite of ours to star -dust, may go home ant philosophy, and in shite of social;henceforth sleep in peace with the function to doter men from over- hasty conclusions, though she not always succeed even with her de- votees; her influence, nevertheless, is from disease.' Peaceful Arts Exceed Warlike 4"Steel does indeed make bayonets, but it also makes plowshares and railroads ani automobiles and sewing machines and threshers and a Molts - and other things whose uses consti- tute the strongest este lig diverter of human energies from the destruc- k av ailable•ani atomic g tivei Dead Must we forever behind aeath •• m• Be mocked b;r"'faisehood and lies? "Will never to its come the rest of Peace? Must Time's fruition be dust? Will the day never conte when her- 0ors shall cease, And swordseand spears shall rust? Oh, ye who still hold life's emprise, And guide humanity's trend, Regard our meanings and our sighs, So strife and war shall enrl" —Oliver Hezzelwootl. tiers:'—Fannie Hirst. The Limit o g children that staring does not always', refer to material things. They can. easily understand that to share a friend, to show others a pleasant walls or a beautiful sunset is often a most . It is worth hgw'hile tohtful nt hep of t 1 em y to out- tivate it. "To be rich enough to be able to afford to be shabby is to be deprived o4 the power to yearn for line fem. Produces Bread and Butter WInuipeg: Not only do the farms in the three prairie provinces—Mani. roma,-Saskatchewan and Alberta pro• duce about 90 per cent. of the wheat grown In Canada, but they now pro- vide a bultstantial -mount of butter to spread on the bread made from the 1 wheat, or for other edible purposes. Last year these three provinces pro• dueed a total of 81,977,109 pounds of butter, a big increase over the produc- tion in 1928. This was enough. to provide every man, woman and child in Canada with over eight pounds. FIfteen years ago the prairie pro- vinces were importing many carloads annually to meet the home demand, now they export hundreds of carloads every year. The province of Sas- katehewan headed the list In butter output in 1929 with a total of 31,280,- 000 pounds of creamery and dairy butter; Alberta arta was next with 2e -000 pounds and Manitoba third with 23,672,109 pounds• Canadians ent more butter than the people of any other country, the annual per capita consumption being about 80 pounds, Ontario's Gold Production Toronto, Ont.—Tete value of gold Produced from mines in the province of Ontario in 1029 amounted to $32,- 383,160, an increase of $894,345 over the 1928 production. The mines from which gold ie produced la Ontario' are located in the PoretiPine' sad 'Kirk- land Lake districts of Northern On- tario, on the lines of. the Temiskam• Mg and' Northern Ontario Railway.. • Northern 1t ern Ontario rkoisai. so t Travelling at 120.m.p.h., Kaye Don,, srng,principally ly11h1m cop- at o -at Brooklands, England, killed a cat.per, nickeleobI also a etc l The force of the impact at this speed productive agriculy Beltt asa country. its bent the steering track rod, whkah is famous CbaelBatly suited to farming. Baked Potatoes I ethics, and le spite of the Golden I consciousness that the Creator las To make your baked Potatoes more Rule, stole Lie days of the cavo man t put some foolproof elements into His because in accordance with the eve- andiwork, rind that man is powerless dry and fluffy, rim the tuxes et a fork lute 'them 'betore you put them into the oven. This will let out the stearal and make Is Moro delicious baked no- tate. It will also prevent the potato front bursting. 'When taking baked potatoes from the oven, give each a little squeeze to burst the shell. This also lets the stearal escape and 'prevents a soggy potato. • • UNFAVORABLE VIEWS We must not indulge in tmfas orahle views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad' men believe that they than others, and we lutional•y philosophy of modern' science and simply because it has had l to do itr'ally titanic physical derange 1 anyway. survival value.' Regrets "Craze for the New" "`It will disappear like the dino- "Dr, Mhlittan admitted that' there is, slur when, and only when, the condi- ever, 'one regrettable tendency in 'vivat now , it aur is e given i no tions which have modern life for which science value have ire disappearing and those, probably to some extent at least, re - primarily because of changes in the spo sibbleer to the craze for the new World situation being modern brought aboutscience.'regardless of the true, to the demand by the growth of mail st ice that for "To the charge and routiu zed la gardiessgoffconsequencesE to the pre- change, re - sic has deadened a n,;�Pfa sent -day widespread worship of the bizarre, to the cheap extravagance and sensationalism that surround us on Query side, as evidenced by our newspapers, our magazines, our now -1 e. our art in many of an inch and a quarter iu diameter. of Taut e• An Hour of Classical Static Rosecoe W. Ball General Superintendent of the West- ern T ele- National ' n .ata ern Lines, Canadian as chief e appointment graphs, whos of the newiyformed commercial de- partment of the telegraph company has been aunouaced by W. G. Barber, Geueeat Manager of the Canadian National Telegraphs. Mr. Ball will have Jurisdiction throughout the sys- tem in regard to commercial affairs. His Headquarters will be at Toronto. bot and taken away the Joy o mauship,' Dr. Millikan replied Science Has Freed Man "'A superficial glance at Mr- Ford's for might seem to justify 4t, but CHARACTER A strenuous and systematic effort to give the whole character a certain tura and blas which appears, on the whole, desirable to the person who. gives it,—Sir Jas. F. Stephen. For finished cruelty of speech No ancient phrase can match 1t, ' As when a lad with fiendish joy Says to a homebound truant boy, ; "(Cid, you're going to catch t mow_. "Whatever exists, exists 1n God$1 and nothing can exist nor be comely. are no worse d to in ash the good that they are good ao y els, our rima, — vain.. to the man who can see beyond his • MUTT AND' JEFF— By BUD F tS ile T RFERI GRtuITN EUC Y STATION lel 1NieS2FCF21N ANNERtCAs WE pRti'EST• AC,AI1'4 sr 1'r1C I" ' ilo WW1 1Sg III"s> "Vo'hen one loses a leather grip it'd a case of hide and. seek." FRESH •THOUG.iTS- Each epoch must be fertilized anew by some fresh movement of thought, if it is to have the highest measure of intellectual life.—Edward Howard Griggs. 'Tho temptation to go to the devil increases with age." A. Lawrence Lowell. III reirlatile`e you BROADCAST AN OPERA OF '1 AIhrO11ORMSoT13ESDAY-`ioU FeATUIZeti A tAgow,c.IclE RACE.. tNEDNESDAY 'OUP sTATtON WRoADCAST A tiOhc'SG GALLOPING. ON A TIN ROOF. AND F7 tbA`i Nati MD A Teti* 501.0 Mt A CoNCICETe Aftl/IING MA,CHIh1ow. woT pit1 `IMTo To 110?, 1WI.1AT'S eut2oNG) N4wi GENTS? S1ylcic Ta ofeCHlSIfeAS, CLASSICAL MO;SIC ONLY oil W 'LLRevolce r `ietJ1 rj 1t l:tCENSE c, Wi'L STici� Ta ar 1-90.10 eveRNfio i'(, You wilt. Neto _ LISTEN -ro 'MG SwEe'i;oi31hD-1.11fe= bwSb'- IF Tile ONLY oeCNESTRA :::'c3T'h'h1Sq a 4F DVSS IRIS 11111111 wova.P: f;se q Q2 • 9i c oft h In 1 '"t dew• of 4R M)CASTli 6 �✓i� STATION. ' " EY Cc�sccz�`'. 0 %Ne AIS.°, Ct. •