For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon--laughter.Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug--push it a little--weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast.Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons.Do you ever use that one? No; you leave it lying rusting.As a race, do you ever use it at all? No; you lack sense and the courage."We were traveling at the time and stopped at a little city in India and looked on while a juggler did his tricks before a group of natives.They were wonderful, but I knew Satan could beat that game, and I begged him to show off a little, and he said he would.He changed himself into a native in turban and breech-cloth, and very considerately conferred on me a temporary knowledge of the language.
The juggler exhibited a seed, covered it with earth in a small flower-pot, then put a rag over the pot; after a minute the rag began to rise;in ten minutes it had risen a foot; then the rag was removed and a little tree was exposed, with leaves upon it and ripe fruit.We ate the fruit, and it was good.But Satan said:
"Why do you cover the pot? Can't you grow the tree in the sunlight?""No," said the juggler; "no one can do that.""You are only an apprentice; you don't know your trade.Give me the seed.I will show you." He took the seed and said, "What shall I raise from it?""It is a cherry seed; of course you will raise a cherry.""Oh no; that is a trifle; any novice can do that.Shall I raise an orange-tree from it?""Oh yes!" and the juggler laughed.
"And shall I make it bear other fruits as well as oranges?""If God wills!" and they all laughed.
Satan put the seed in the ground, put a handful of dust on it, and said, "Rise!"A tiny stem shot up and began to grow, and grew so fast that in five minutes it was a great tree, and we were sitting in the shade of it.
There was a murmur of wonder, then all looked up and saw a strange and pretty sight, for the branches were heavy with fruits of many kinds and colors--oranges, grapes, bananas, peaches, cherries, apricots, and so on.
Baskets were brought, and the unlading of the tree began; and the people crowded around Satan and kissed his hand, and praised him, calling him the prince of jugglers.The news went about the town, and everybody came running to see the wonder--and they remembered to bring baskets, too.
But the tree was equal to the occasion; it put out new fruits as fast as any were removed; baskets were filled by the score and by the hundred, but always the supply remained undiminished.At last a foreigner in white linen and sun-helmet arrived, and exclaimed, angrily:
"Away from here! Clear out, you dogs; the tree is on my lands and is my property."The natives put down their baskets and made humble obeisance.Satan made humble obeisance, too, with his fingers to his forehead, in the native way, and said:
"Please let them have their pleasure for an hour, sir--only that, and no longer.Afterward you may forbid them; and you will still have more fruit than you and the state together can consume in a year."This made the foreigner very angry, and he cried out, "Who are you, you vagabond, to tell your betters what they may do and what they mayn't!"and he struck Satan with his cane and followed this error with a kick.
The fruits rotted on the branches, and the leaves withered and fell.The foreigner gazed at the bare limbs with the look of one who is surprised, and not gratified.Satan said:
"Take good care of the tree, for its health and yours are bound together.
It will never bear again, but if you tend it well it will live long.
Water its roots once in each hour every night--and do it yourself; it must not be done by proxy, and to do it in daylight will not answer.If you fail only once in any night, the tree will die, and you likewise.Do not go home to your own country any more--you would not reach there; make no business or pleasure engagements which require you to go outside your gate at night--you cannot afford the risk; do not rent or sell this place--it would be injudicious."The foreigner was proud and wouldn't beg, but I thought he looked as if he would like to.While he stood gazing at Satan we vanished away and landed in Ceylon.
I was sorry for that man; sorry Satan hadn't been his customary self and killed him or made him a lunatic.It would have been a mercy.Satan overheard the thought, and said:
"I would have done it but for his wife, who has not offended me.She is coming to him presently from their native land, Portugal.She is well, but has not long to live, and has been yearning to see him and persuade him to go back with her next year.She will die without knowing he can't leave that place.""He won't tell her?"
"He? He will not trust that secret with any one; he will reflect that it could be revealed in sleep, in the hearing of some Portuguese guest's servant some time or other.""Did none of those natives understand what you said to him?""None of them understood, but he will always be afraid that some of them did.That fear will be torture to him, for he has been a harsh master to them.In his dreams he will imagine them chopping his tree down.That will make his days uncomfortable--I have already arranged for his nights."It grieved me, though not sharply, to see him take such a malicious satisfaction in his plans for this foreigner.