n of the Child till about
midday.

Glad enough were we to reach it, since all three of us were tired out
with our terrible night journey and the anxious emotions that we had
undergone. Indeed, after we had eaten we lay down and I rejoiced to
see that, notwithstanding the state of mental excitement into which the
discovery of his wife had plunged him, Ragnall was the first of us to
fall asleep.

About five o'clock we were awakened by a messenger from Harut,
who requested our attendance on important business at a kind of
meeting-house which stood at a little distance on an open place where
the White Kendah bartered produce. Here we found Harut and about twenty
of the headmen seated in the shade of a thatched roof, while behind
them, at a respectful distance, stood quite a hundred of the White
Kendah. Most of these, however, were women and children, for as I have
said the greater part of the male population was absent from the town
because of the commencement of the harvest.

We were conducted to chairs, or rather stools of honour, and when we two
had seated ourselves, Hans taking his stand behind us, Harut rose and
informed us that an embassy had arrived from the Black Kendah which was
about to be admitted.

Presently they came, five of them, great, truculent-looking fellows of
a surprising blackness, unarmed, for they had not been allowed to bring
their weapons in to the town, but adorned with the usual silver chains
across their breasts to show their rank, and other savage finery. In the
man who was their leader I recognized one of those messengers who had
accosted us when first we entered their territory on our way from the
south, before that fight in which I was taken prisoner. Stepping forward
and addressing himself to Harut, he said:

"A while ago, O Prophet of the Child, I, the messenger of the god Jana,
speaking through the mouth of Simba the King, gave to you and your
brother Marut a certain warning to which you did not listen. Now Jana
has Marut, and again I come to warn you, Harut."

"If I remember right," interrupted Harut blandly, "I think that on that
occasion two of you delivered the message and that the Child marked one
of you upon the brow. If Jana has my brother, say, where is yours?"

"We warned you," went on the messenger, "and you cursed us in the name
of the Child."

"Yes," interrupted Harut again, "we cursed you with three curses. The
first was the curse of Heaven by storm or drought, whic