men back into the
sea. We two will rule over the land of my ancestors, the kingdom of
the first Muene-Motapa. Through your mouth we will treat with the
English, the Arabs, and all the world as equals. I will not kill you,
because you will be my mind. Besides, I love you."

At a wave of his hand, behind the veils of smoke the women of the royal
household rose and departed, their symmetrically scarred torsoes
shining with oil, so that they resembled statues of polished bronze.
They were slender, graceful, informed with the gentleness of those
reared in the shadow of royalty, showing profiles that suggested the
faces chiseled on Semitic monuments. Fringes of bark cloth hung down
from their yellow girdles to their knees; over their breasts dangled
strings of pearls and amber beads from Bazaruto; each wore on the
middle of her forehead a charm intended to make her fortunate in
marriage. They left behind them an odor of cheap German perfumes,
which Mohammedan traders had brought to the edge of these forests.

When they had passed beyond earshot--for the mention of sacred things
was not to be thought of while women sat within hearing--the king
continued:

"What more can I do to show you that I love you, Bangana? I have
initiated you into the mysteries of my people. You know the ceremonies
of the dead, of those who become of age. I have shown you where the
fire is kept from which, once a year, all the fires in my kingdom are
rekindled. I have told you which mountains and streams are holy. I
have admitted you even into the secret of my own divinity. Nay, I have
done still more. I have let you see my people dance for the Lady of
the Moon."

There was a silence.

Lawrence Teck remained as before, his bearded face bowed down; but a
slight tremor of horror passed through his shoulders under the
sun-blackened skin.

The Dances of the Moon! Yes, he had seen them, one time when he was
weak from fever and despair. All the frightfulness of Africa had then
been made manifest to him at last, as if the very soul of destruction
had condensed itself out of the vapors, venoms and invisible menaces of
these primeval forests, to assume, for one night, a horde of nearly
human shapes. But he shuddered not at his memory of that spectacle,
but at its effect on him--an effect that he had denied with a
passionate, clanking gesture of his chained arms, yet that had remained
in the depths of his brain like a serpent, which had al