Part 22 (1/2)
”Thank you,” I replied, feeling that it would be useless to show any suspicion of his story ”Noill you be so good as to tell me who and what is the God, or the elephant Jana, whoht me here to kill? Is the elephant a God, or is the God an elephant? In either case what has it to do with the Child?”
”Lord, Jana a us Kendah represents the evil in the world, as the Child represents the good Jana is he whom the Mohammedans call Shaitan and the Christians call Satan, and our forefathers, the old Egyptians, called Set”
”Ah!” thought I to ot it Horus the Divine Child, and Set the evil ly”
”Always,” went on Mart, ”there has been war between the Child and Jana, that is, between Good and Evil, and we know that in the end one of them must conquer the other”
”The whole world has known that fro,” I interrupted ”But who and what is this Jana?”
”A the Black Kendah, Lord, Jana is an elephant, or at any rate his symbol is an elephant, a very terrible beast to which sacrifices are made, that kills all who do not worshi+p him if he chances to meet them
He lives farther on in the forest yonder, and the Black Kendah make use of him in war, for the devil in him obeys their priests”
”Indeed, and is this elephant always the saenerations it has been the same, for it is known by its size and by the fact that one of its tusks is twisted doards”
”Well,” I re, since elephants certainly live for at least two hundred years, and perhaps ues' they acquire every kind of wicked and unnatural habit, as to which I could tell you lots of stories Have you seen this elephant?”
”No, Macumazana,” he answered with a shi+ver ”If I had seen it should I have been alive to-day? Yet I fear I aain he shi+vered, looking at estive manner
At this moment our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of two Black Kendahs who brought us our breakfast of porridge and a boiled fowl, and stood there while we ate it For my part I was not sorry, as I had learned all I wanted to know of the theological opinions and practice of the land, and had come to the conclusion that the terrible devil-God of the Black Kendah was ue elephant of unusual size and ferocity, which under other circureatest pleasure to try to shoot
When we had finished eating, that is soon, for neither of our appetites was good thatcompound and visited the caround looking very depressed indeed When I asked the,” except that they were men about to die and life was pleasant Also they had wives and children who tried to cheer them up to the best of my ability, which I fear I did without conviction, for in reed with their view of the case, we returned to the guest-house and mounted the stair which led to the flat roof Hencethat soress in the centre of the market-place At that distance we could not lasses had been stolen with the pistol and knife, probably because they were supposed to be lethal weapons or instruh altar had been erected, on which a fire burned Behind it the king, Simba, was seated on a stool with various councillors about him
In front of the altar was a stout wooden table, on which lay what looked like the body of a goat or a sheep A fantastically dressed ed in inspecting the inside of this aniathered, unsatisfactory results, for presently he raised his arms and uttered a loud wail Then the creature's viscera were removed from it and thrown upon the fire, while the rest of the carcass was carried off
I asked Mart what he thought they were doing He replied dejectedly:
”Consulting their Oracle; perhaps as to whether we should live or die, Macue, feathered attire approached the king, carrying some small object in his hand I wondered what it could be, till the sound of a report reached , holding the other with both his hands at the knee and howling loudly
”Ah!” I said, ”that pistol was full cocked, and the bullet got hi, whereon a man picked up the pistol and threw it into the fire, round which the others gathered to watch it burn
”You wait,” I said to Mart, and as I spoke the words the inevitable happened
Off went the other barrel of the pistol, which hopped out of the fire with the recoil like a living thing But as it happened one of the assistant priests was standing in front of the ain, for the heavy bullet struck him somewhere in the body and killed him Now there was consternation
Everyone ran away, leaving the dead round Siht up the rear, skipping along upon one leg
Having observed these events, which filled ain as there was nothing more to see, also because it occurred totheir discoes About ten uest-house was thrown open, and through it ca on a stretcher the body of the priest whom the bullet had killed, which they laid down in front of our door Then followed the king with an aruard, and after him the befeathered diviner with his foot bound up, who supported hiues This man, I now perceived, wore a hideous mask, from which projected two tusks in imitation of those of an elephant Also there were others, ascalled to us to colance at hie, or both
”Look upon your work,first to the dead priest, then to the diviner's wounded foot
”It is no work of ours, King Siic weapon of the white lord and ed itself upon you”
”It is true,” said Simba, ”that the tube has killed one of those who took it away from you and wounded the other” (here was luck indeed)