He did not slacken his pace, but kept steadily on, and
suddenly the Little Missioner joined him in a voice that rang out like
the blare of a bugle. To David's ears there was something familiar in
that song as it rose wildly on the morning air.
"Pa sho ke non ze koon,
Ta ba nin ga,
Ah no go suh nuh guk,
Na quash kuh mon;
Na guh mo yah nin koo,
Pa sho ke non ze koon,
Pa sho ke non ze koon,
Ta ba nin go."
"What is it?" he asked, when Father Roland dropped back to his side,
smiling and breathing deeply. "It sounds like a Chinese puzzle, and yet
..."
The Missioner laughed. Mukoki had ended a second verse.
"Twenty years ago, when I first knew Mukoki, he would chant nothing but
Indian legends to the beat of a tom-tom," he explained. "Since I've had
him he has developed a passion for 'mission singing'--for hymns. That
was 'Nearer, my God, to Thee.'"
Mukoki, gathering wind, had begun again.
"That's his favourite," explained Father Roland. "At times, when he is
alone, he will chant it by the hour. He is delighted when I join in with
him. It's 'From Greenland's Icy Mountains.'"
"Ke wa de noong a yah jig,
Kuh ya 'gewh wah bun oong,
E gewh an duh nuh ke jig,
E we de ke zhah tag,
Kuh ya puh duh ke woo waud
Palm e nuh sah wunzh eeg,
Ke nun doo me goo nah nig
Che shuh wa ne mung wah.
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