een on
the other face.

Now came a single hoarse voice near me intoning words in a chant; and
then in response broke out the deep roar of a multitude of voices!
Higher and higher it rose until the air vibrated with its thunder, then
again it would die away, fainter and fainter till it was nothing but as
the sighing of wind through dead men's bones.

Again and again chant and response broke forth, and now too I could
distinguish much of its meaning, for the tongue was that of Inyati.

A song of supplication it seemed to me, a song for the Snake's wrath to
be appeased to accept the sacrifice offered it, and to send rain upon
their dried up fields.

Now it died utterly away, and sweat broke from me in agony as I waited
for I knew not what. I tried to make up my mind to die calmly, to
resign myself to the inevitable; but my period of liberty and my new-
found strength had brought back the old love of life that had burned
strong in me before my captivity, and my whole being cried out
passionately against this awful end.

Still there was silence, silence for a seeming eternity of waiting for
the sharp sting of death . . . and then another voice lifted as though
in invocation. Solemn, loud, clear and sonorous, the measured accents
rang forth, from close beside me; a voice of unearthly beauty chanting
a rhythmic sentence or two, repeated again and again. No hoarse voice
of a man this, but of a woman . . . a priestess . . . calling down the
fires of Baal to consume the sacrifice.

And, as if in response, came now the peal of heavy thunder.

I had been in terror of the knife before, but had lain silent and with
closed eyes awaiting the end, but as the terrible significance of the
song of invocation reached me, a hoarse cry of horror broke from my
parched throat, and I again tried in vain to struggle free. For now my
staring eyes confirmed the terrible thought that had come to me. The
sun would soon be exactly overhead, and when it was, its rays would
strike exactly through the huge diamond that crowned the Snake, and the
intolerable rays, thus concentrated as though by a mighty burning
glass, would fall full upon my eyes, torturing and searing me to the
semblance of what I had seen on the dead priest.

Screaming and writhing in an agony of apprehension, I lay helpless,
whilst the sun sped on, until its rim had almost reached the diamond.
But now came peal after peal of terrific thunder, and vivid lightning
that made eve