'Damn-fool superstition,' he muttered to me time
and again. But of course he was a bit nervous, and so was I. Being in
the minority is awkward. The human brain simply isn't strong enough to
encounter organized opposition. It wears. You spend too much energy
being on the defensive.
"After a time, when the song was done, the old hag seemed pretty well
played out. Then she passed the piece of wood I told you of to a big
buck, and he started to whirling it round and round. He was a skillful
chap at the trick, and in a little had it whirling and screaming. Then
presently some of the birds fell to noise making just as you will hear
canaries sing when some one whistles, or women talk when a piano
commences to play. I saw something of the same down in Torres Straits.
They call it the Twanyirika there. In the Malay Peninsula they use
something of the kind to scare the elephants out of the plantations.
They've got it on the Gold Coast as well. It's called the Oro there.
Really it's all over the world. I've seen Scotch herd boys use something
like it to scare the cattle, and Mexican sheep herders in Texas to make
the sheep run together when they scatter too far. Of course there's
really nothing to be scared of, but when it comes near you, you feel
inclined to duck.
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