were streaming, seemed as though
they were going to start from his head. Presently he fell over on his
side, and lay senseless. I was terribly alarmed, and my first impulse
was to run to his assistance, but fortunately I remembered his caution,
and sat quiet.

Indaba-zimbi lay on the ground like a person quite dead. His limbs had
all the utter relaxation of death. But as I watched I saw them begin
to stiffen, exactly as though _rigor mortis_ had set in. Then, to my
astonishment, I perceived them once more relax, and this time there
appeared upon his chest the stain of decomposition. It spread and
spread; in three minutes the man, to all appearance, was a livid corpse.

I sat amazed watching this uncanny sight, and wondering if any further
natural process was about to be enacted. Perhaps Indaba-zimbi was
going to fall to dust before my eyes. As I watched I observed that
the discoloration was beginning to fade. First it vanished from the
extremities, then from the larger limbs, and lastly from the trunk.
Then in turn came the third stage of relaxation, the second stage of
stiffness or _rigor_, and the first stage of after-death collapse. When
all these had rapidly succeeded each other, Indaba-zimbi quietly woke
up.

I was too astonished to speak; I simply looked at him with my mouth
open.

"Well, Macumazahn," he said, putting his head on one side like a bird,
and nodding his white lock in a comical fashion, "it is all right; I
have seen her."

"Seen who?" I said.

"The Star, your wife, and the little maid. They are much frightened, but
unharmed. The Babyan-frau watches them. She is mad, but the baboons obey
her, and do not hurt them. The Star was sleeping from weariness, so I
whispered in her ear and told her not to be frightened, for you would
soon rescue her, and that meanwhile she must seem to be pleased to have
Hendrika near her."

"You whispered in her ear?" I said. "How could you whisper in her ear?"

"Bah! Macumazahn. How could I seem to die and go rotten before your
eyes? You don't know, do you? Well, I will tell you one thing. I had to
die to pass the doors of space, as you call them. I had to draw all the
healthy strength and life from my body in order to gather power to speak
with the Star. It was a dangerous business, Macumazahn, for if I had let
things go a little further they must have stopped so, and there would
have been an end of Indaba-zimbi. Ah, you white men, you know so much
that you think