DANCING FOR HIS THRONE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 23

DANCING FOR HIS THRONE.

A king dancing to save bis throne, dancing all through a blazing African day until sunset, knowing that if he stopped before the sun touched the horizon he would be dethroned. This is the test to which some African tribes submit their rulers when they are showing signs of inefficiency, according to Lady Dorothy Mills, who describes the ordeal of one king in her new book. The Golden Land ” (Duckworth, 15s). Id this particular tribe the king was a man about 60, enormously fat, dressed in his robes of state —great cumbersome draperies of embroidered wool and cob ton—balancing on his head a load that did not weigh less than 801 b. “He shuffled round in the dust, the perspiration pouring' from his wrinkled face down muscular black arms, and legs. * ? on ?v Pom-pom, pom, pom-pom-pom.’ His leathery splay-feet, that bled from the cuts of many sharp little stones, never ceased in their monotonous stamping, though his top-heavy body swayed a little, and there was a glassy, strained look in his roiling eye-balls, and his breath came in uneven,, painful gasps. . Round him in a ring, gloating over his growing exhaustion with the air of wolves waiting to attack, his subjects crouched on their haunches in the dust. But he was game! Will power alone and pride of kingship—and hatred, maybe, of his would-be successor, who watched from afar . with ill-concealed anxiety—supported him on that blazing after** noon through that interminable dance.

" Aa , 7 returne d later on I saw the end of the little drama. The red ball ot the setting sun touched the edge of the horizon, dipped suddenly, and disappeared. The king,_ with grey, distorted race, was still dancing! “There was a feeble shout from his tew adherents as he threw up his hands and fell forward and was borne by them to the seclusion of his mud palace. There was a sound of angry murmuring, and many downcast faces among the rest of the crowd as it trickled disappointedly home.

rl “ The general election was over! The Government remained in power! ’’ , , not . f° r Lady Dorothy heard by chance, that the old king had died from the bite of a snake and that his cousm reigned in his stead, and snake-bite may mean anything in Africa when a man, king or commoner, is unpopular.