"Eh! The bowstring hath been costly but the arrows! Aie! Aie! What would'st thou?"

"The rich man payeth in his kind. Four tusks of fine grain."

"Eh! Eh!"

"Maybe there are others whose hands are not withered."

"Others than the Son of the Snake?" demanded MYalu quickly.

"Who knows? There are more fools than chickens," muttered the old man.

MYalu stared disconsolately at the distant bananas. Perhaps, he reflected, it would be cheaper to pay the price the girl's uncle demanded, yet-- MYalu had bought other wives whose unimpa.s.sioned charms had quickly staled. His soul, as he put it, had indeed been tempted into a trap by Bak.u.ma; for he wished only that she should desire him as he desired her.

Yet was he angry. Love seemed to be a costly business. Marufa tapped out snuff and sniffed delicately with the air of a connoisseur devoting himself to the pleasure of the moment. Replacing the cork of twisted leaves he stirred as if to rise.

"Canst thou procure then the nail and the hairs that are asked by the spirits?" inquired MYalu sulkily.

"All things are possible to the son of MTungo," a.s.serted Marufa. "Four tusks, and these things are found; but of fine grain, for the others were old and coa.r.s.e."

"Ehh! How wilt thou procure these things?" demanded MYalu sceptically.

"The ways of the wise are not the ways of fools."

"The tusks are thine," said MYalu reluctantly, "if thou wilt tell me how thou wilt procure them."

"Thy words are like unto the vomit of a dog," muttered the old man.

"But how? My heart is not bound in clay."

"Tch!" clicked Marufa contemptuously. "Every fool must needs see the spoor of the G.o.d which he cannot read. I have spoken." MYalu regarded the old wizard incredulously. "Tch! Send the four tusks as we have agreed and so shall it be. Begone!"

Slowly MYalu rose, made his greeting, and departed more impressed than ever that the old man was a mighty magician.

During the hour when the soul is small and dwells timidly around the feet Marufa dozed in the cool of his hut; but later when it spread boldly out was he squatted once more in his favourite seat at the entrance to the compound, taking snuff and contemplating. The shadows grew from violet to blue; the small hens pecked for worms with avidity and the goats scratched with vigour in the cool. Patiently Marufa sat. At length that for which he had waited with a sound though primitive knowledge of psychology, came to pa.s.s. Bak.u.ma appeared, apprehensive, but with yet an abandon which sang her happiness. Beside Marufa she sat so as to avoid the shadow of one foot protruding beyond that of the fence.

"O great and mighty magician," she began eagerly, after the formal greetings. "Indeed all that thou hast said hath come to pa.s.s. Thy charm is infallible."

"Ugh!" grunted Marufa unconcernedly.

"All that my heart desireth hath already begun to be. I thank thee."

"Ugh!"

"O mighty son of MTungo, what must I now do?"

"Thou knowest," mumbled Marufa, fumbling for the snuff case.

"Aie! Aie! but I have no fat goat!" cried Bak.u.ma, who had hoped fatuously that the wizard would have forgotten. "I, a girl of the hut thatch, how should I have a goat?" Marufa tapped snuff as if no romance were in the making. Bak.u.ma's bright eyes, sharpened by the proximity of the promise of her love, watched the old man keenly. "Listen, O great and mighty son of MTungo, to whom all things are known, who canst accomplish all that thou desireth, Bayakala, my cousin, hath a goat, but it is old and skinny.

Perhaps--"

"In the nostrils of the spirits," a.s.serted Marufa instantly, "all odours are the same except that of the fat goat whom they love."

"Aie! then am I undone, for no fat goat have I!" wailed Bak.u.ma. "Know I not one who hath a goat who would smile on me, a girl of the hut thatch."

"Ugh!"

Bak.u.ma regarded him imploringly, but Marufa's gaze was fixed upon the wall as if his mind were turned to matters of more importance.

"O mighty wizard, what must I do?" implored Bak.u.ma desperately.

"Ugh!"

After a prolonged contemplation, said Marufa: "If thou canst get no goat, then is there another path by which thou mayest accomplish thy end."

"Eh!"

"But it is very difficult."

"By my cord, will I do all that thou canst bid me to do!" swore Bak.u.ma in anxious haste.

"Ugh! This path is more certain of success for the will of the spirits are oftentimes chary of their favours."

"O mighty one!" breathed Bak.u.ma, as he paused tantalisingly.

"But the matter is exceedingly difficult-and dangerous."

"If the flower hath no sun hath it ever lived?"

"As even thou shouldst know," mumbled Marufa, more casually than ever, "he who possesses a part of the soul may do magic thereon."

"Aye! Aye!"

"Bring me then of the nail parings one, of his hairs one, and of his spittle. Then may I do magic thereon which he cannot resist."

"O mighty magician!" gasped Bak.u.ma, appalled at the difficulty and the danger of the task.

"That path is sure. There is no other."

"Eh! ... But if they of thy craft should know then am I doomed!"

"There is no other."

Torn between her love and the dread of the penalty incurred by the sacrilege of the theft of the parts of one who might any day be King-G.o.d, Bak.u.ma stared distraught.

"Were not my words white? Hath not the love charm thou hast already had done even as I did say?"

"O mighty one!"

"But that is only as the goat to the leopard. The trap must be dug-or the scent of the bait will be blown."