en-monkeys and its awful conclusion,
and asked him to tell me what he could about both the beasts and the
trees. He could not tell me much about either, but what he did tell was
grim enough; for, with regard to the monkeys, he informed me that they
were well known as the most ferocious beasts to be found in Bandokolo,
and that a certain number were captured by means of pitfalls, in which
they were permitted to remain until they were all but dead from
starvation, when they were removed to Masakisale (the capital city), and
carefully tended until they were restored to a condition of normal
health and strength. Then they were used to test the guilt or otherwise
of persons charged with offences of exceptional enormity; the test being
made by setting the accused to fight with one or more of the brutes,
when, if he conquered, it was presumed that he was innocent.

I naturally enquired whether anyone had ever thus succeeded in
demonstrating his innocence, and was not surprised to be answered in the
negative. Then I asked why, if Bimbane really knew all things, it was
necessary to subject a suspect to such a test in order to determine his
guilt or innocence, to which Pousa replied that, of course, the test was
quite unnecessary, for the queen could always tell whether or not a man
was guilty, and to sentence a prisoner to such an ordeal was equivalent
to pronouncing him guilty and ordering his execution; but the form of
trial was retained since it was one of the institutions of the country
which had existed from time immemorial.

As to the tree, into the foliage of which the victorious monkey had
flung his antagonist, I was told that it, like the monkeys, was
indigenous to Bandokolo, and that one of its most gruesome peculiarities
was the ghoulish avidity with which it enveloped any unfortunate
individual or animal in its tentacle-like leaves and forthwith proceeded
to absorb its victim into itself. These trees, Pousa added, were
sometimes employed instead of the monkeys as a means for the disposal of
criminals. "A truly charming country and people," thought I,
"apparently abounding in the most delightful characteristics!"

About half an hour before sunset we reached the foot of the mountains
toward which we had been trekking all through the afternoon, and
outspanned on the veld at the entrance to a pass which had revealed
itself about an hour earlier.

The scenery in this pass, when we entered it on the following morni