Hearken. There
has been war between us for generations. It began so long ago that
only the Motombo knows of its beginning which he has from the gods.
Once the Pongo people owned all this land and only had their sacred
places beyond the water. Then your forefathers came and fell on them,
killing many, enslaving many and taking their women to wife. Now, say
the Motombo and the Kalubi, in the place of war let there be peace;
where there is but barren sand, there let corn and flowers grow; let
the darkness, wherein men lose their way and die, be changed to
pleasant light in which they can sit in the sun holding each other's
hands."
"Hear, hear!" I muttered, quite moved by this eloquence. But Bausi was
not at all moved; indeed, he seemed to view these poetic proposals
with the darkest suspicion.
"Give up killing our people or capturing them to be sacrificed to your
White Devil, and then in a year or two we may listen to your words
that are smeared with honey," he said. "As it is, we think that they
are but a trap to catch flies.
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