The Gospel Man

But the prophesy said that the good things, like all godsend, demanded an act of sacrifice: the ancestors will have to be appeased through the killing of all domestic animals; burning of all their possessions, including stored grain; cutting and torching of all trees and bamboos in the vicinity of their villages; and destruction of all their matchlocks, swords, and spears.

Those who put their entire faith in Lani’s visions were almost evenly matched in numbers by those who went by the dissenting advice of their old witch doctor. Lani's followers stood waiting in silent expectation for many days on the highest hill. When it started dawning upon them that nothing was likely to happen, or not at least immediately, the reasons for the setback were debated among the elderly.

But before the causes could be reasoned out logically and peacefully, Lani'a followers rose in a brutal reprisal against those who had supposedly obstructed the millennium from arriving through their dogged recalcitrance in deference to the old witch doctor. Half the Fuhgnais were killed in the process over the next week. The other half - wounded, exhausted, and starving - surrendered to the British on any conditions the new masters were pleased to incorporate into the treaty in return for rice from the government stocks to save them from starvation.

Sengai, who had now been installed as the new Chief after his brother had been killed while trying to restore order during the blood-letting of the previous week, signed for the tribe. Rejoicings and a round of feasts followed when the rice from the British stores arrived the week after. And while the half-starved and maimed members of the tribe danced clumsily to the beat of hesitant drums, Sengai, the new Chief, broke into a suave minuet, thus teaching the lower orders by his example the civilising grace and refinement of the Gospel man.