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Updated: June 28, 2025
"Dem make for one-time good shot, sah!" whispered Bela Moshi, calmly setting the backsight of his rifle. "Blow Bosh-bosh him head-bone inside out an' him not know anyting." "Go steady, Bela Moshi," cautioned the subaltern. "Pass the word for the men to fire one volley over their heads but not before I give orders and then rush them with the bayonet. We want them alive, remember."
Môshi has said, "There is the third finger. If a man's third or nameless finger be bent, so that he cannot straighten it, although his bent finger may cause him no pain, still if he hears of some one who can cure it, he will think nothing of undertaking a long journey from Shin to So to consult him upon this deformed finger; for he knows it is to be hateful to have a finger unlike those of other men.
This master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him regard life as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded a display of the virtue of loyalty. "The doctrines of Koshi and Moshi" (Confucius and Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, the gospel and the quintessence of all wordly wisdom to the Japanese gentleman; they became the basis of his education and the ideal which inspired his conceptions of duty and honor; but, crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was his desire to be loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial, fraternal and various other relations, but the greatest of all these was loyalty. Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with reformers, alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is over-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of hara-kiri. Even today, no man more quickly wins the popular regard during his life or more surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the suicide, though he may have committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or enlightened peace, most appalling is the list of assassinations beginning with the murder in Ki[=o]to of Yokoi Héishiro, who was slain for recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last cabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every case the murderers considered themselves consecrated men and ministers of Heaven's righteous vengeance. For centuries, and until constitutional times, the government of Japan was "despotism tempered by assassination." The old-fashioned way of moving a vote of censure upon the king's ministers was to take off their heads. Now, however, election by ballot has been substituted for this, and two million swords have become bric-
And yet even in such trifles as these do men show how they try to obtain what is great, and show their dislike of what is small. How can men be conscious of shame for a deformed finger, and count it as no misfortune that their hearts are crooked? That is how they abandon the substance for the shadow. Môshi severely censures the disregard of the true order of things.
Wending their way down a bare kloof were about two hundred armed blacks and three men in European garb riding in the centre of the column. "MacGreg him dar, sah!" exclaimed Bela Moshi. "Nonsense!" replied Wilmshurst, yet in his heart he was not at all sure but that the Haussa was right. "MacGreg him make palaver with Bosh-bosh," declared the sergeant.
Regardless of the risk of being potted at by other enemy riflemen Bela Moshi, Tari Barl, and Spot Cash crept forward, taking advantage of every available bit of cover. In twenty minutes the Haussas returned, reporting in characteristically native terms that the German's head had been literally riddled with the burst of bullets from the Maxim.
Having completed his present duties Wilmshurst made his way to the hut where Bela Moshi had been taken after his wound had been dressed. The building, consisting of bamboo walls and palm-leaf thatch, had been converted into a hospital and made bullet proof by piling up earth against the sides to a height of about six feet.
Almost overthrowing the Rhodesian Bela Moshi regained his feet, swung the trophy over his shoulder and resumed his pace. The returning party were only just in time. Already a formidable number of Askaris had broken through the stubbornly-defended palisade, and by sheer weight were forcing their opponents back.
"Find me a man who can ride well," he said. A broad grin overspread the Haussa non-com.'s face. "No go for look, sah," he replied. "Me know one time quick. Good man; him ride like de wind." "Then bring him here," continued Wilmshurst. "Him here, sah me, Bela Moshi."
What he meant was that a rhinoceros had cut across the bush path not so very long ago, as the freshly trampled grass showed. "All right," replied Wilmshurst. "Warn the men to be on the alert. We don't want casualties." Bela Moshi hurried to the head of the column, for the Haussas were in single file, owing to the narrowness of the bush-path.
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