Part 22 (2/2)

”But it was you who ordered it to do so, icians Now, hark! Yesterday I promised you safety, that no spear should pierce your hearts and no knife come near your throats, and drank the cup of peace with you But you have broken the pact, working us er holds, since there are ain! This is ic you have taken away the life of one ofthe ive back the life to hiive back the toe to him who seems to be hurt, as you well can do, then you shall join those whom you have slain in the land of death, hoill not tell you”

Nohen I heard this a it better to keep upof their talk, I preserved an immovable countenance and left Mart to answer

This, to his credit be it recorded, he did with his custo the dead back to life? Not even the Child itself, at any rate in this world, for there is no way”

”Then, Prophet of the Child, you had better find a way, or, I repeat, I send you to join the his eyes

”What did reat Prophet, pro, if you harreat curses should fall upon your people? Learn now that if so s shall swiftly come to pass I, Mart, who am also a Prophet of the Child, have said it”

Now Siht all was over He waved his spear and danced about in front of us, till the silver chains clanked upon his breast He vituperated the Child and its worshi+ppers, who, he declared, had worked evil on the Black Kendah for generations

He appealed to his God Jana to avenge these evils, ”to pierce the Child with his tusks, to tear it with his trunk, and to trample it with his feet,” all of which the wounded diviner ably seconded through his horrid ainst the wall of the house with an air of studied nonchalance led with mild interest, at least that is what Iat the heavens Whilst I ondering what exact portion of my frame was destined to becoave it up Turning to his followers, he bade the a hole in the corner of our little enclosure and set the dead man in it, ”with his head out so that he may breathe,” an order which they promptly executed

Then he issued a co that if the departed was not alive and healthy on the third ain, he and his company stalked off, except those men ere occupied with the interment

Soon this was finished also There sat the deceased buried to the neck with his face looking towards the house, a ht

Presently, however, matters were i a large earthenware pot and several smaller pots full of food and water The latter they set round the head, I suppose for the sustenance of the body beneath, and then placed the big vessel inverted over all, ”to keep the sun off our sleeping brother,” as I heard one say to the other

This pot looked innocent enough when all was done, like one of those that gardeners in England put over forced rhubarb, no ination, I think that on the whole I should have preferred the object underneath naked and unadorned For instance, I have forgotten to say that the heads of those of the White Kendah who had fallen in the fight had been set up on poles in front of Simba's house They were unpleasant to contemplate, but to my mind not so unpleasant as that pot

As a ainst injury from the sun to the late diviner proved unnecessary, since by soe chance from that moment the sun ceased to shi+ne Quite suddenly clouds arose which gradually covered the whole sky and the weather began to turn very cold, unprecedentedly so, Mart informed me, for the time of year, which, it will be remembered, in this country was the season just before harvest

Obviously the Black Kendah thought so also, since from our seats on the roof, whither we had retreated to be as far as possible fro at the sky and talking to each other

The day passed without any further event, except the arrival of our ht came, earlier than usual because of the clouds, and we fell asleep, or rather into a series of dozes Once I thought that I heard so in the huts behind us, but as it was followed by silence I took no ht broke very slowly, for now the clouds were denser than ever shi+vering with the cold, Mart and I made a visit to the ca into their hutto our horror that only two of them remained, seated stonily upon the floor We asked where the third was They replied they did not know In the ht, they said, ed hi to be said or done, we returned to breakfast filled with horrid fears

Nothing happened that day except that some priests arrived, lifted the earthenware pot, exaue, who by now had beco spectacle, reed rew thicker and thicker, and the air more and more chilly, till, had we been in any northern latitude, I should have said that snoas pending From our perch on the roof-top I observed the population of Sierness; also that the people ere going out to work in the fields wore mats over their shoulders

Oncethe cold, we spent wrapped in rugs, on the roof of the house It had occurred to us that kidnapping would be less easy there, as we could ht at the head of the stairway, or, if the worst came to the worst, dive from the parapet and break our necks We kept watch turn and turn about Duringon in the hut behind us; scuffling and a stifled cry which turned hted in the centre of the market-place where the sheep had been sacrificed, and by the flare of it I could see peopleBut what they did I could not see, which was perhaps as well

Nextive no clear account of what had happened to his companion

The poor fellow implored us to take him away to our house, as he feared to be left alone with ”the black devils” We tried to do so, but aruards appeared mysteriously and thrust him back into his own hut

This day was an exact repetition of the others The same inspection of the deceased and renewal of his food; the saitated conferences in the market-place

For the third time darkness fell upon us in that horrible place Once ht neither of us slept

We were too cold, too physically miserable, and too filled withwith i down upon the earth The ht shone now in one quarter of the horizon, now in another There was no wind, but the air h the end of the world were near as, I reflected, probably ht be the case so far as ere concerned Never, perhaps, have I felt so spiritually terrified as I was during the dreadful inaction of that night Even if I had known that I was going to be executed at dawn, I think that by coht-hearted But the worst part of the business was that I knew nothing I was like aprecipices, quite unable to guess when onies of death at every step

About ain we heard that scuffle and stifled cry in the hut behind us

”He's gone,” I whispered to Mart, wiping the cold sweat from my brow