r. Jerry lapped it so fanatically that not for half a minute
did he become aware that the boy had squeezed into it many hot seeds of
ripe red peppers. The circle shrieked with glee, and what Jerry's thirst
had been before was as nothing compared with this new thirst to which had
been added the stinging agony of pepper.

Next in event, and a most important event it was to prove, came Nalasu.
Nalasu was an old man of three-score years, and he was blind, walking
with a large staff with which he prodded his path. In his free hand he
carried a small pig by its tied legs.

"They say the white master's dog is to be eaten," he said in the Somo
speech. "Where is the white master's dog? Show him to me."

Agno, who had just arrived, stood beside him as he bent over Jerry and
examined him with his fingers. Nor did Jerry offer to snarl or bite,
although the blind man's hands came within reach of his teeth more than
once. For Jerry sensed no enmity in the fingers that passed so softly
over him. Next, Nalasu felt over the pig, and several times, as if
calculating, alternated between Jerry and the pig.

Nalasu stood up and voiced judgment:

"The pig is as small as the dog. They are of a size, but the pig has
more meat on it for the eating. Take the pig and I shall take the dog."

"Nay," said Agno. "The white master's dog has broken the taboo. It must
be eaten. Take any other dog and leave the pig. Take a big dog."

"I will have the white master's dog," Nalasu persisted. "Only the white
master's dog and no other."

The matter was at a deadlock when Bashti chanced upon the scene and stood
listening.

"Take the dog, Nalasu," he said finally. "It is a good pig, and I shall
myself eat it."

"But he has broken the taboo, your great taboo of the laying-yard, and
must go to the eating," Agno interposed quickly.

Too quickly, Bashti thought, while a vague suspicion arose in his mind of
he knew not what.

"The taboo must be paid in blood and cooking," Agno continued.

"Very well," said Bashti. "I shall eat the small pig. Let its throat be
cut and its body know the fire."

"I but speak the law of the taboo. Life must pay for the breaking."

"There is another law," Bashti grinned. "Long has it been since ever
Somo built these walls that life may buy life."

"But of life of man and life of woman," Agno qualified.

"I know the law," Bashti held steadily on. "Somo made the law. Never
has it been said that ani