The Sign of Four: Superstition

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Sign of Four
Rating: Gen
Warning: Cannabalism
Summary: Small corrects Holmes' reference.
Author's Note: The members of the only pygmy tribe with which I have had personal contact (not of the Andamans) are much more likely to be victims, than perpetrators of cannabalism.

“Little Tonga’s body should be send home, Mister Holmes.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Unlikely. Your book’s wrong. Tonga’s people don’t eat strangers. But those jackals from the mainland hunt his kind like beasts, carve ‘em up, and swallow their flesh. Say it makes ‘em invincible. They’ve fished him out of the Thames and made a feast of him by now.”

Comments

[debriswoman]

Quite chilling...intrigued by the author's note.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah bit of a contrast to the happy couple theme, but I struggled to come up with something this week.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Poor Tonga. He didn't deserve that.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Not at all. Very sad.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I too am rather intrigued that you've met members of a pygmy tribe.

I've actually been thinking about Tonga's body - would it have been washed up eventually? And what would have happened to it then? I did think maybe his body would have ended up on display somewhere in Britain as a curiosity - perhaps there would be more dignity in remaining in the Thames, even though it wasn't a proper burial.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, your idea is more probable unfortunately. It was a long time ago, a very brief encounter in sub-Saharan Africa. And they were naturally very wary of contact with outsiders.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Poor Tonga. Victim of Victorian projection (guess who the real savages were during colonial times) and racism as well as their pistols.

There's a reason I kept Tonga alive and well and splicing rigging on a pirate ship along with Small in my "Crimson" stories.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I'm not denying the possibility that that particular tribe does participate in cannibalism, but it did also strike me as likely that they would also be victims of it. Anytime you have a group of people that are extreme outliers in some respect (like his with height) I think there is an opportunity for superstition to attach.

And of course Doyle loved his bit of sensationalism. So he would've been all over cannibals.