hirst for her mouth!
Let her be drunken
To bear his sweet weight!
That the crops will be full!
That the cattle grow fat
Wives will throw men!
Spears will slice foes!"

He sank suddenly upon his haunches. The drums ceased. A slave appeared
bearing a pure white kid. Kingata Mata took the animal and held it before
Kawa Kendi, who muttered a long incantation over it and cut the throat
with a spear head. Then to Marufa was the bleeding carcass carried and
while still alive he slit open the belly, smeared the liquid over his
chest and right arm, and tore out the guts. The corpse was removed.
Marufa, working only with the enchanted arm, turned the entrails over and
about, peering closely.

There was silence. The shadows grew in depth. From the village came an
occasional bleat and the voice of a distant girl chanting.

After a prolonged and studious search, Marufa caught up and wrapt round
his neck an intestine. As he rose, the group of witch-doctors broke out
into a mighty groaning. Marufa speeded across the small clearing and
kneeled before Kawa Kendi. Through the bloody necklet he whispered two
syllables: "kuma."

The groaning ceased as suddenly as it had commenced. Kawa Kendi cried out
in a loud voice:

"The bride is found!"

Instantly the drums began a furious beat. A mighty shout rose from all
assembled and they fell to the chest and belly grunting: "Eh! Ahh! {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Eh!
Ahh! {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}" as Bakahenzie and Marufa began to dance the dance of thanksgiving.

Ba_kuma_ had been doomed to be the victim for the Feast of the Harvest
Festival, to be sacrificed in the orgy as the Bride of the Spirit of the
Banana, because Marufa had discovered by divination that two syllables of
her name were those of the secret name which only the King-God knew, of
the Unmentionable One, the Usa_kuma_.

CHAPTER 9

Before the green tent strutted a sentry as pompously as if he were on duty
before the Kommandant's bungalow. Inside, sprawling in a camp chair, was
the corporal, in blue striped pyjamas, smoking a cigarette. Upon the floor
crouched one of his women with a safety razor stuck in her woolly thatch,
opening a can of beef. On the camp table were a bottle of brandy which had
had its neck knocked off, a shaving mirror and an open tin of cigarettes.
Squatting on the bed was another woman in field boots, cleaning up a can
of salmon with one finger. The