o the hut.

"Already hath he drunken of her blood," he mumbled. "Ya, Inkombana! take
the tusk!"

When Marufa emerged, a head-dress of the tail feathers of the green
parrot, professional uniform and potent specific against evil spirits,
fluffed gently as he slowly stalked towards the council house. From the
other side of a hut walked MYalu as if he had come from a different
direction. In the open gate of the royal enclosure sat a muscular young
man upon his haunches, tending the royal fire, which fed hungrily upon
small faggots. Beyond him across the yellow glare upon the cleared ground
beneath a thatched awning, stood an idol of wood, whose lopsided mouth
snarled beneath a bridgeless nose; narrow slits for eyes squinted; baby
arms stuck down beside triangular breasts above a melon belly having a
protuberant navel like a small cucumber--the incarnation of the Snake-god,
Usakuma.

Without the palisade of the sacred ground was a taller one, barring the
doings of the council of witch-doctors and chiefs from the lay public, who
were confined to their own huts under the penalty of a hideous death, or
an enormous fine, as the witch-doctors should decide.

To the rear of the idol, cross-legged against the wall of the entrance to
the conical hut, were the musicians beating a monotonous rhythm upon big
and small drums and twanging a primitive lyre of five strings. Just as
Marufa and MYalu took their respective places without among the wizards
and the chiefs, a young goat skipped into the open and stared
inquisitively at the Keeper of the Fires. As the man waved the animal back
from the sacred ground, the goat lowered its head and threatened to
charge, suddenly recollected its mate lying in the shade a few feet away,
and began to bleat absent-mindedly.

Gravely and silently sat the assembly: continuously throbbed the drums.
The sun beat diagonally. As a lizard darted like a flash of a prism from
the grass palisade, the band ceased. A man emerged from behind the idol.
Although the grey woolly tufts upon his chin, the sacred snake skin around
his waist above the cat skin loin-cloth, the jingle of the ivory bangles
on arms and ankles, and his stature, imparted an air of barbaric royalty,
King MFunya MPopo advanced with the manner of a pariah dog ordered to his
master's side.

As the King approached, the Keeper of the Fires hastily threw on a handful
of faggots and bowed his head. In the centre of the opening of the
enclosure t