"So I went. But, oh! my mother took long to die. Whole moons passed

before I shut her eyes, and all this while she would not let me go; nor,

indeed, did I wish to leave her whom I loved. At length it was over, and

then came the days of mourning, and after those some more days of rest,

and after them again the days of the division of the cattle, so that in

the end six moons or more had gone by before I returned to the service

of the Princess Nandie, and found that Mameena was now the second wife

of the lord Saduko. Also I found that the child of the lady Nandie was

dead, and that Masapo, the first husband of Mameena, had been smelt out

and killed as the murderer of the child. But as all these things were

over and done with, and as Mameena was very kind to me, giving me gifts

and sparing me tasks, and as I saw that Saduko my lord loved her much,

it never came into my head to say anything of the matter of the powder

that I saw her sprinkle on the mat.

"After she had run away with the Prince who is dead, however, I did tell

the lady Nandie. Moreover, the lady Nandie, in my presence, searched

in the straw of the doorway of the hut and found there, wrapped in soft

hide, certain medicines such as the Nyangas sell, wherewith those who

consult them can bewitch their enemies, or cause those whom they desire

to love them or to hate their wives or husbands. That is all I know of

the story, O King."

"Do my ears hear a true tale, Nandie?" asked Panda. "Or is this woman a

liar like others?"

"I think not, my Father; see, here is the muti [medicine] which Nahana

and I found hid in the doorway of the hut that I have kept unopened till

this day."

And she laid on the ground a little leather bag, very neatly sewn with

sinews, and fastened round its neck with a fibre string.

Panda directed one of the councillors to open the bag, which the man

did unwillingly enough, since evidently he feared its evil influence,

pouring out its contents on to the back of a hide shield, which was

then carried round so that we might all look at them. These, so far as

I could see, consisted of some withered roots, a small piece of human

thigh bone, such as might have come from the skeleton of an infant, that

had a little stopper of wood in its orifice, and what I took to be the

fang of a snake.

Panda looked at them and shrank away, saying: "Come hither, Zikali the Old, you who are skilled in magic, and tell us

what is this medicine."




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