John Buchan

The Runagates Club John Buchan

We carry with us the wonders we seek without us; there is all Africa and her prodigies in us. Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici. We were talking about the persistence of race qualities-how you might bury a strain for generations under fresh graftings but the aboriginal sap would some day stir. The obvious instance was the Jew, and Pugh had also something to say about the surprises of a tincture of hill blood in the Behari. Peckwether, the historian, was inclined to doubt. The old stock, he held, could disappear absolutely as if by a chemical change, and the end be as remote from the beginnings as-to use his phrase-a ripe Gorgonzola from a bucket of new milk."I don't believe you're ever quite safe," said Sandy Arbuthnot."You mean that an eminent banker may get up one morning with a strong wish to cut himself shaving in honour of Baal?""Maybe. But the tradition is more likely to be negative. There are some things that for no particular reason he won't like, some things that specially frighten him. Take my own case. I haven't a scrap of real superstition in me, but I hate crossing a river at night. I fancy a lot of my blackguard ancestors got scuppered at moonlight fords. I believe we're all stuffed full of atavistic fears, and you can't tell how or when a man will crack till you know his breeding.""I think that's about the truth of it," said Hannay, and after the discussion had rambled on for a while he told us this tale.