aid the King. `Begin, old man. We wait.'

"Masuka stared in front of him for a few moments, his lips moving.
Suddenly he gave a convulsive start and fell over motionless. Time went
by, yet no sign of life did he show. At last the King, tired of
waiting, rose and went over to look at the apparently lifeless body.

"`He is as cold as a stone,' he said.

"`I think he is really dead, Great Great One!' I whispered, for, as the
King's shield-bearer, I alone had accompanied him from his place. `See
he does not even breathe.'

"`He is not dead, Untuswa,' answered the King. `_Whau_! I have seen
this trick before, but never better done. Yet he must show us something
more than this if he is to keep his life. See; place snuff in his
nostrils.'

"I hastened to obey, and as I bent over the set, rigid face, a glance
into the wide-open but apparently sightless eyes all but unnerved me.
Lustreless and filmy, there yet seemed such a demon-like power lying
beneath their black depths. It made me feel as though I were looking
into a dark and terrible pit, with some monster of unimaginable
hideousness and cruelty lurking at the bottom. The hand which held the
snuff spoon shook, and I could hardly carry out the King's command.

"But with his nostrils well filled with snuff--and, indeed, there must
have been a good deal in his throat, for my unsteady hand had spilt
some--the old Mosutu never sneezed, never choked. He was not emitting
the very faintest breath.

"`He is dead!' said Umzilikazi at last. `Remove him.'

"Now, for a long time we had been watching, and so, when the King's word
was given, there were not wanting those who were eager to drag the
wizard's body away out of the camp as soon as possible. There was a
rush forward, but no sooner had the thong been placed around the ankles,
than those who held it leaped high in the air with a cry of alarm. For
the dead wizard had uttered a most thunderous sneeze. Another and
another broke from his chest as he sat up, and, looking around, set to
work coolly to loosen the thong from his ankles.

"`Thy snuff is strong, Untuswa,' said the King, bursting out laughing.
`Well, old man, that was well done; I have never seen it better done.
Still, I have seen it done before.'

"`Can these do it better, lord, son of Matyobane?' asked Masuka,
pointing to our own magicians.

"`Not so well. Now, Masuka, let this be the new feat, and, by my
head-ring, if it is not new, nothing