e country is open there towards the north, and now and
again warriors sweep down upon us in clouds from a land we know not,
and we slay them. It is the third part of the life of a man since there
was a war. Many thousands died in it, but we destroyed those who came
to eat us up. So since then there has been no war."

"Your warriors must grow weary of resting on their spears, Infadoos."

"My lord, there was one war, just after we destroyed the people that
came down upon us, but it was a civil war; dog ate dog."

"How was that?"

"My lord the king, my half-brother, had a brother born at the same
birth, and of the same woman. It is not our custom, my lord, to suffer
twins to live; the weaker must always die. But the mother of the king
hid away the feebler child, which was born the last, for her heart
yearned over it, and that child is Twala the king. I am his younger
brother, born of another wife."

"Well?"

"My lord, Kafa, our father, died when we came to manhood, and my
brother Imotu was made king in his place, and for a space reigned and
had a son by his favourite wife. When the babe was three years old,
just after the great war, during which no man could sow or reap, a
famine came upon the land, and the people murmured because of the
famine, and looked round like a starved lion for something to rend.
Then it was that Gagool, the wise and terrible woman, who does not die,
made a proclamation to the people, saying, 'The king Imotu is no king.'
And at the time Imotu was sick with a wound, and lay in his kraal not
able to move.

"Then Gagool went into a hut and led out Twala, my half-brother, and
twin brother to the king, whom she had hidden among the caves and rocks
since he was born, and stripping the '_moocha_' (waist-cloth) off his
loins, showed the people of the Kukuanas the mark of the sacred snake
coiled round his middle, wherewith the eldest son of the king is marked
at birth, and cried out loud, 'Behold your king whom I have saved for
you even to this day!'

"Now the people being mad with hunger, and altogether bereft of reason
and the knowledge of truth, cried out--'_The king! The king!_' but I
knew that it was not so, for Imotu my brother was the elder of the
twins, and our lawful king. Then just as the tumult was at its height
Imotu the king, though he was very sick, crawled from his hut holding
his wife by the hand, and followed by his little son Ignosi--that is,
by interpretation, the Lightning.