gued and screamed and cursed. Bakahenzie had
lost the hold over them; for as the god, of which he was the sponsor, was
dead, his credit had gone too. He dared no longer to remove a troublesome
brother or chief by magic. His only hope was to restore the god: so to
that end he declared that Zalu Zako must be anointed King-God. Uproar
arose once more. But Bakahenzie's purpose had been served; he had diverted
their attention from the subject of submission.

From time to time came terrified runners with horrific stories of the
burning of villages, of massacre and rapine. Bakahenzie, determined not to
yield, secretly dispatched a slave to Eyes-in-the-hands with an arrow
which is a sign of war; Yabolo, whose mind ran in the same tracts, sent a
banana which is a sign of peace. In the meantime factions grew and
multiplied. One chief counselled his followers to take their cattle and
women and seek to conquer another tribe to the south-west; another wished
to go west. But each and every follower began to bargain with his chief
for disproportionate rewards for service. Two chiefs and five hundred men
started to the south-west, but they returned because they had met in their
path the skeleton of a slain elephant, which is, as everybody knows, a
sure sign of disaster.

Bakahenzie sent runners far and wide to discover Bakuma. As she could not
be found he concluded that she had been killed or taken as a slave and
urged the warriors to fight. Zalu Zako immediately desired the anointing
to be delayed in order that he should not be debarred from fighting.
Bakahenzie, none too sure of his authority, was compelled to acquiesce.
Marufa, observing that the arrow was still in the air, took to his
non-committal incantations again. Bakahenzie strove to keep the warriors
and chiefs occupied by dissension until the result of his challenge to
battle should mature. Yabolo, equally perturbed for his influence, did
exactly the same with the banana in view.

Yabolo and MYalu contemplated going in to make submission, but the former
wished to negotiate through Sakamata for the best terms, although he tried
to persuade MYalu to go; but MYalu was suspicious and would not do so
without Yabolo. But at the hour of the monkey one morning came a terrified
goatherd crying news that cut the tangled threads of their intrigues as a
sword cuts a goat's throat. The white god, Eyes-in-the-hands, was within
an arrow's flight of the village of Yagonyana.

Consternati