u know I have a white man's way of knowing all their magic, and
being a brother in blood to our Lord Tibbetti, Moon-in-the-Eye."

"This we know, Bosambo," said Iberi, looking askance at the size of
Bosambo's retinue, "and my stomach is proud that you bring so vast an
army of high men to us, for I see that you have brought rich food for
them."

He saw nothing of the sort, but he wanted things made plain at the
beginning.

"Lord Iberi," said Bosambo, loftily, "I bring no food, for that would
have been shameful, and men would have said: 'Iberi is a mean man who
starves the guests of his house.' But only one half of my wise people
shall sit in your huts, Iberi, and the other half will rest with T'lingi
of the Akasava, and feed according to law. And behold, chiefs and
headmen, I am a very just man not to be turned this way or that by the
giving of gifts or by kindness shown to my people. Yet my heart is so
human and so filled with tenderness for my people, that I ask you not to
feed them too richly or give them presents of beauty, lest my noble mind
be influenced."

Whereupon his forces were divided, and each chief ransacked his land for
delicacies to feed them.

It was a long palaver--too long for the chiefs.

Was the island Akasava or Isisi? Old men of either nation testified with
oaths and swearings of death and other high matters that it was both.

From dawn to sunset Bosambo sat in the thatched palaver house, and on
either side of him was a brass pot into which he tossed from time to
time a grain of corn.

And every grain stood for a successful argument in favour of one or the
other of the contestants--the pot to the right being for the Akasava,
and that to the left for the Isisi.

And the night was given up to festivity, to the dancing of girls and the
telling of stories and other noble exercises.

On the tenth day Iberi met T'lingi secretly.

"T'lingi," said Iberi, "it seems to me that this island is not worth the
keeping if we have to feast this thief Bosambo and search our lands for
his pleasure."

"Lord Iberi," agreed his rival, "that is also in my mind--let us go to
this robber of our food and say the palaver shall finish to-morrow, for
I do not care whether the island is yours or mine if we can send Bosambo
back to his land."

"You speak my mind," said Iberi, and on the morrow they were blunt to
the point of rudeness.

Whereupon Bosambo delivered judgment.

"Many stories have been told," said