"Tell me,"I asked Infadoos,"are we in danger?""I know not,my lords -I trust not;but do not seem afraid.If ye live through the night all may go well.The soldiers murmur against the king."All this while we had been advancing steadily towards.the centre of the open space,in the midst of which were placed some stools.As we proceeded we perceived another small party coming from the direction of the royal hut.
"'It is the king,Twala,and Scragga his son,and Gagool the old,and see,with them are those who slay,"and he pointed to a little group of about a dozen gigantic and savage-looking men,armed with spears in one hand and heavy kerries in the other.
The king seated himself upon the centre stool,Gagool crouched at his feet,and the others stood behind.
"Greeting,white lords,"he cried,as we came up;"be seated,waste not the precious time --the night is all too short for the deeds that must be done.Ye come in a good hour,and shall see a glorious show.
Look round white lords;look round,"and he rolled his one wicked eye from regiment to regiment."Can the stars show ye such a sight as this?See how they shake in their wickedness,all those who have evil in their hearts and fear the judgment of `Heaven above.'""Begin!begin!"cried out Gagool,in her thin,piercing voice;"the hyenas are hungry,they howl for food.Begin!begin!"Then for a moment there was intense stillness,made horrible by a presage of what was to come.
The king lifted his spear,and suddenly twenty thousand feet were raised,as though they belonged to one man,and brought down with a stamp upon the earth.This was repeated three times,causing the solid ground to shake and tremble.Then from a far point of the circle a solitary voice began a wailing song,of which the refrain ran something as follows:
"What is the lot of man born of woman?"
Back came the answer rolling out from every throat in that vast company:
"Death!"
Gradually,however,the song was taken up by company after company,till the whole armed multitude were singing it,and I could no longer follow the words,except in so far as they appeared to represent various phases of human passions,fears,and joys.Now it seemed to be a love-song,now a majestic swelling war-chant,and.last of all a death-dirge,ending suddenly in one heartbreaking wail that went echoing and rolling away in a volume of bloodcurdling sound.Again the silence fell upon the place,and again it was broken by the king lifting up his hand.Instantly there was a pattering of feet,and from out of the masses of the warriors strange and awful figures came running towards us.As they drew near we saw that they were those of women,most of them aged,for their white hair,ornamented with small bladders taken from fish,streamed out behind them.Their faces were painted in stripes of white and yellow;down their backs hung snakeskins,and round their waists rattled circlets of human bones,while each held in her shrivelled hand a small forked wand.In all there were ten of them.When they arrived in front of us they halted,and one of them,pointing with her wand towards the crouching figure of Gagool,cried out:
"Mother,old mother,we are here."
"Good!good!good !"piped out that aged iniquity."Are your eyes keen,Isanusis"(witch doctresses),"ye seers in dark places?""Mother,they are keen?"
"Good!good!good!Are your ears open,Isanusis,ye who hear words that come not from the tongue?""Mother,they are open."
"Good!good!good!Are your senses awake,Isanusis -can ye smell blood,can ye purge the land of the wicked ones who compass evil against the king and against their neighbors?Are ye ready to do the justice of `Heaven above,'ye whom I have taught,who have eaten of the bread of,my wisdom and drunk of the water.of my magic?""Mother,we can."
"Then go!Tarry not,ye vultures;see the slayers"-pointing to the ominous group of executioners behind --"make sharp their spears;the white men from afar are hungry to see.Go."With a wild yell the weird party broke away in every direction,like fragments from the shell,and,the dry bones round their waists rattling as they ran,made direct for various points of the dense human circle.
We could not watch them all,so fixed our eyes upon the Isanusi nearest us.When she came with a few paces of the warriors,she halted and began to dance wildly,turning round and round with an almost incredible rapidity,and shrieking out sentences such as "I smell him,the evil-doer!""He is near,he who poisoned his mother!""I hear the thoughts of him who thought evil of the king!"Quicker and quicker she danced,till she lashed herself into such a frenzy of excitement that the foam flew in flecks from her gnashing jaws,her eyes seemed to start from her head,and her flesh to quiver visibly.
Suddenly she stopped dead,and stiffened all over,like a pointer dog when he scents game,and then with-outstretched wand began to creep stealthily towards the soldiers before her.It seemed to us that as she came their stoicism gave way,and that they shrank from her.As for ourselves,we followed her movements with a horrible fascination.Presently,still creeping and crouching like a dog,she was before them.Then she stopped and pointed,and then again crept on a pace or two.
Suddenly the end came.With a shriek she sprang in and touched a tall warrior with the forked wand.Instantly two of his comrades,those standing immediately next to him,seized the doomed man,each by one arm,and advanced with him towards the,king.
He did not resist,but we saw that he dragged his limbs as though they were paralyzed,and his fingers,from which the spear had fallen,were limp as those of a man newly dead.
As he came,two of the villainous executioners stepped forward to meet him.Presently they met,and the executioners turned round towards the king as though for orders.
"Kill!"said the king.
"Kill!"squeaked Gagool.
"Kill!"re-echoed Scragga,with a hollow chuckle.
Almost before the words were uttered,the horrible deed was done.