I could utter no word.

"`Look again, son of Ntelani,' said old Masuka. `What dost thou see?'

"`Ha! I see rocks, the black mouth of a pit! Ha! I can see into it;
my sight pierces its depths. It is peopled with living creatures,
shadowy, shapeless, hideous; far, far down I see them. Ha! they mouth,
they gnash their teeth; yet I cannot see their shapes. They seem to
draw me down to them. I am going, sinking, falling. _Au_! I will look
no more! _Umtagati_, release me, or I kill thee!'

"I found I had gripped the old man by the shoulder, and was nearly
crushing the bones in my powerful grasp. My eyes were protruding from
my head, and I was streaming with perspiration over the horror of the
sight. And well indeed may such wizardry turn men's minds. The whole
spell of the old man's magic was upon me, and it seemed as if I were
bound hand and foot.

"`Have you beheld enough, warrior of the Amazulu who knows not fear, who
dares all things?' he said, dropping out the words slowly and as the
cuts of assegais. `Yet behold one thing more.'

"His tone stung me, brought me back to myself. Again I looked. A man
stood among men, and an assegai was descending to his chest. There was
a crowd of faces in the background, but who held the assegai I knew not.
Then I looked at the man.

"`It is my brother, Sekweni!' I cried. `Ha! I will have no more of
this! It is _tagati_ indeed.'

"`Thy brother Sekweni!' laughed the old man in a harsh, rattling
voice--`thy brother Sekweni! Forget not that, Untuswa, forget not that,
when the time comes.' And again he broke into that weird, mirthless
laugh which was enough to curdle a man's blood.

"So strong upon me was the effect of his magic, that on leaving Masuka's
hut I seemed to shrink from the eyes of all whom I met. It seemed that
all must proclaim me aloud as _Umtagati_, and I walked in fear. How I
hated the old Mosutu for the spell he had put upon me! I would have
slain him if I had dared. I would have caused him to be smelt out; but
that I dared still less. Indeed, it is probable that I myself would pay
the penalty, and not he. I had looked into strange and terrifying
mysteries, and was ever consumed by a longing to look once more into
them, and this together with a horror of and repugnance to doing so."

CHAPTER NINE.

THE KRAAL, EKUPUMULENI.

"Many moons had now waxed and waned, and at length we began to feel
secure from all pursuit and danger at t