"I Do Not Choose to Drink"

Like U.S. Presidents before F.D.R., the rain queens who rule over the Lovedu tribesmen in Africa's northern Transvaal are expected voluntarily to limit their own terms of office. When a rain queen's powers are on the wane (at the age of 60 or thereabouts), tradition calls for her to retire into the hills and quaff a poison compounded of crocodile entrails. This was the way it was in the days of Mujaji I and in the days of Mujaji II (the light-skinned queen who served as a model for H. Rider Haggard's all-powerful She) who dutifully killed herself in 1894.

But Mujaji III, described by the late Jan Christian Smuts as "handsome and intelligent," refuses to relinquish her throne, even at the age of 80. For several months now, the lands of the Lovedu have been parched with drought, which tribesmen regard as a direct result of the queen's defiance of tradition. But despite many a strong hint from her subjects, the rain queen has announced, "I will not drink the poison cup. Such things are no longer done."

By last week, revolution seemed imminent in the dry air. The government in Pretoria dispatched one Professor Frederick Tomlinson, chairman of a commission on native life, into the hills to protect the old queen. But as the professor approached the mountains around Devil's Valley, a torrential rain poured from the skies. He waited 48 hours for the downpour to stop, then abandoned the mission. Tnbesmen, deciding that perhaps the old queen has what it takes after all were heard to mutter: "Mujaji has put up a ram curtain to stop the white man." The queen seemed safe once more--at least while it rained.

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