-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. To me, it was the feeling that the flat piece of wood
would fly off and hit me. You always duck when you hear a whizzing.
Still, the priests or medicine men trade on the head-ducking tendency.
So, somehow, in the course of time, it gets so that those that listen
have to bow down. Oh, yes! You say it's ridiculous and fanciful and all
that sort of thing. I know. I have heard others say the same. It's only
a noise and nothing to be scared of. But then, when you come to think of
it, most men are scared of noise. They're like animals in that respect.
What is a curse but a noise? Yet most men are secretly afraid of
curses. They're uneasy under them. Yet they know it's only noise. Then
look at thunderings from the pulpit. Look at excommunications. Look at
denunciations. All noises to be sure. But there's the threat of force
behind some of them. The blow may come and again it may not.

"As I said, every one bowed down and of course so did I, on general
principles. Somerfield didn't and the old buck whirled that bull-roarer
over him ever so long, and the red-eyed hag cursed and spat at him, but
he never budged. That sort of conduct is damned foolishness according to
my notion. But