All that he did cannot be described, because it is indescribable. The
Witch of Endor repeated no formula, but she raised the dead; and so did
Hokosa the wizard. But he buried his face in the grey dust of the grave,
he blew with his lips into the dust, he clutched at the dust with his
hands, and when he raised his face again, lo! it was grey like the
dust. Now began the marvel; for, though the woman before him remained a
corpse, from the lips of that corpse a voice issued, and its sound
was horrible, for the accent and tone of it were masculine, and the
instrument through which it spoke--Noma's throat--was feminine. Yet it
could be recognised as the voice of Umsuka the dead king.

"Why have you summoned me from my rest, Hokosa?" muttered the voice from
the lips of the huddled corpse.

"Because I would learn the future, Spirit of the king," answered the
wizard boldly, but saluting as he spoke. "You are dead, and to your
sight all the Gates are opened. By the power that I have, I command you
to show me what you see therein concerning myself, and to point out to
me the path that I should follow to attain my ends and the ends of her
in whose breast you dwell."

At once the answer came, always in the same horrible voice:--

"Hearken to your fate for this world, Hokosa the wizard. You shall
triumph over your rival, the white man, the messenger; and by your hand
he shall perish, passing to his appointed place where you must meet
again. By that to which you cling you shall be betrayed, ah! you shall
lose that which you love and follow after that which you do not desire.
In the grave of error you shall find truth, from the deeps of sin you
shall pluck righteousness. When these words fall upon your ears again,
then, Wizard, take them for a sign and let your heart be turned. That
which you deem accursed shall lift you up on high. High shall you be
set above the nation and its king, and from age to age the voice of the
people shall praise you. Yet in the end comes judgment; and there shall
the sin and the atonement strive together, and in that hour, Wizard, you
shall----"

Thus the voice spoke, strongly at first, but growing ever more feeble as
the sparks of life departed from the body of the woman, till at length
it ceased altogether.

"What shall chance to me in that hour?" Hokosa asked eagerly, placing
his ears against Noma's lips.

No answer came; and the wizard knew that if he would drag his wife back
from the door o