"I would talk with thee."

"Aye."

Again she glanced around furtively.

"I would talk in thine ear, O my father."

"The knots of my hair are tied."

"I thank thee. There's a fluttering bird in my breast."

"And a snake around thy heart, O my daughter."

"Aie-e!"

"The grandson of the snake hath tied thy girdle."

"Ehh!"

The girl clasped her breast in surprised terror.

"How dost thou know?"

"All things are known to the son of MTungo," declared Marufa solemnly, still regarding the opposite wall. "Thou desirest a love charm.... What hast thou?"

Tremulously Bak.u.ma put down the green package on the ground, darting terrified glances to right and left. Slowly the skinny hand of the wizard gently tore open the leaves; very impressively the eyes slanted down to appraise the stock of blue and white beads.

"The spirit of Tarum hath a big belly," he announced tonelessly.

"O wise one, intercede for me," pleaded Bak.u.ma, "for more have I none, I, Bak.u.ma, daughter of Bakala, a girl of the hut thatch."

"The true love charm, infallible and powerful, is difficult to obtain, O Bak.u.ma. The young huntress aims at big game."

"Ehh! But I have no more, great one!"

"The hair of a rutting leopardess, the liver of a forest rat, the tongue of a Baroto bird-these must I have to mix with thy blood to be drunk by thy man when the moon is full."

"Ehh! Ehh!"

"Such is the magic that no young man can resist."

"Ehh-h!"

"But these things are difficult to obtain."

"Aie! Aie!" wailed Bak.u.ma, clasping her hands in despair.

"Difficult to obtain."

"Aie-e!"

"On the night of the half-moon will I take upon me the leopard form."

"Ehh!"

"I will talk with the spirits."

"Ehh! Ehh!"

"But they must be propitiated with the blood of a fat goat."

"Aie! Aie! But I have no fat goat."

"If there be no fat goat then will the spirits be wroth with me."

"Aie-e-e!"

Bak.u.ma sat staring in dismal perplexity.

"No fat goat have I, a girl of the hut thatch! Aie! Aie!"

Marufa fumbled within the loin-cloth and thrust a tiny package along the ground.

"See and know the power of my magic." Bak.u.ma greedily s.n.a.t.c.hed up the amulet. "Begone!" he whispered, jerking the parcel of beads behind him.

"MYalu approaches."

"Ehh!"

Bak.u.ma rose and fled with the grace of a startled antelope as appeared a tall, strongly built man, having a low-browed face, across which was a deep scar. Behind MYalu came two young slaves bearing a small elephant tusk. Opposite to Marufa the slaves stopped. Their master, careful that his shadow fell well away from the figure of the magician-for the shadow is one of the souls, so woe unto him who shall leave his soul in the hands of an enemy!-squatted gravely.

"Greeting, son of MTungo!"

"Greeting, son of MBusa!" returned Marufa.

Gravely they spat into each other's palm, the sign of amity as they who exchange bonds of good behaviour inasmuch, as is well known, magic can be worked upon that which has been a part of the body as upon the body itself. Then solemnly they rubbed the spittle upon their respective chests.

"The spirit of the snake nourisheth not the life of the banana."

"Nay, for nigh unto two moons hath there been no blood of the snake,"

returned the old man perfunctorily, as he lifted his eyes from a swift apprais.e.m.e.nt of the tusk to his favourite mud wall.

"Nay, the crops sprout not. Maybe the Dweller in the Place of the Snake hath been visited by one from the forest."

"Aye, but old blood runs not as swiftly as young blood."

"Nay," replied MYalu, in answer to the reference to himself, "but the girdle is not yet tied by another."

"When the first twig of the nest is laid," remarked Marufa, indolently eyeing the tusk, "it is difficult to entice the hen to another tree."