that I saw her sprinkle on the mat.

"After she had run away with the Prince who is dead, however, I did tell
the lady Nandie. Moreover, the lady Nandie, in my presence, searched
in the straw of the doorway of the hut and found there, wrapped in soft
hide, certain medicines such as the Nyangas sell, wherewith those who
consult them can bewitch their enemies, or cause those whom they desire
to love them or to hate their wives or husbands. That is all I know of
the story, O King."

"Do my ears hear a true tale, Nandie?" asked Panda. "Or is this woman a
liar like others?"

"I think not, my Father; see, here is the muti [medicine] which Nahana
and I found hid in the doorway of the hut that I have kept unopened till
this day."

And she laid on the ground a little leather bag, very neatly sewn with
sinews, and fastened round its neck with a fibre string.

Panda directed one of the councillors to open the bag, which the man
did unwillingly enough, since evidently he feared its evil influence,
pouring out its contents on to the back of a hide shield, which was
then carried round so that we might all look at them. These, so far as
I could see, consisted of some withered roots, a small piece of human
thigh bone, such as might have come from the skeleton of an infant, that
had a little stopper of wood in its orifice, and what I took to be the
fang of a snake.

Panda looked at them and shrank away, saying:

"Come hither, Zikali the Old, you who are skilled in magic, and tell us
what is this medicine."

Then Zikali rose from the corner where he had been sitting so silently,
and waddled heavily across the open space to where the shield lay in
front of the King. As he passed Mameena, she bent down over the dwarf
and began to whisper to him swiftly; but he placed his hands upon his
big head, covering up his ears, as I suppose, that he might not hear her
words.

"What have I to do with this matter, O King?" he asked.

"Much, it seems, O Opener-of-Roads," said Panda sternly, "seeing that
you were the doctor who smelt out Masapo, and that it was in your kraal
that yonder woman hid herself while her lover, the Prince, my son, who
is dead, went down to the battle, and that she was brought thence with
you. Tell us, now, the nature of this muti, and, being wise, as you are,
be careful to tell us truly, lest it should be said, O Zikali, that you
are not a Nyanga only, but an umtakati as well. For then," he added with
meaning, and