Rain Makers

The Witch Doctor was perplexed. He had sacrificed all the available cockerels; used up all the magic bones; exhausted all the ritual dances and dirges; supplicated all the ancestral gods in vain ... still no rain.

A local student who had been abroad studying in England, was regaling the villagers with his accounts of strange local customs. To one of these stories the Witch Doctor listened intently.

One weekend, said the student, I went down to a beautiful village in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside. There was a church and nearby the sun shone brightly on a vivid green field. Two men in white coats came out on to the field each carrying three pieces of straight wood. They went to the centre of the field, gazed solemnly at each other, then placed the three sticks upright in the ground. Each bent down and gazed at the other for a few minutes (probably some prayer or invocation) and then placed two small sticks horizontally on top of the three standing sticks. Suddenly one of them raised his hand in the air and a group of men all dressed in white, came out on to the field. They too gathered together in a circle (for prayer) and then scattered to various parts of the field. Each was wearing a cap with a visor to protect them from the rays of the sun. Then came two other men - also dressed in white - with special white garments around their legs, and each carried a quite large stick. Each took up his place in front of the three sticks in the ground, patted the ground for several minutes, spoke to each other and then returned to their places. And the son shone brighter than ever.

Suddenly one of the men from the first white group, took off one of his white garments and handed it to the man who was standing behind the sticks, then (feeling a little cooler) picked up a red ball, ran some distance away and then, in sudden fury came running back and threw the red ball at one of the men with the large stick and .... the rain came down in torrents.

The Witch Doctor smiled. And so cricket came to Africa.


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