Page:SheAndAllan.pdf/202

190  is better that we should perish thus than upon the altar of sacrifice wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu.

So say we all, exclaimed the rest of the company when he had finished.

The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward blood and that of thy companions, said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she paused and turning to me, added, O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I have spread my feathers for so long?

I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as though they would go.

Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of most African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.

The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali's Great Medicine.

Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a spirit-haunted shape of power that spoke both of the spirit and the body of man and yet of more than man, was so vague that it might mean anything or nothing. And yet—

I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted should be produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu to the death. She did so and with one voice they replied,

Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom also our legend tells.

Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of Zikali as far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,

Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend tells, O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?

The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire that burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared again; and as he did, so did the others bending over him.

Dog! would you singe my beard? I cried in affected rage, and seizing the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.

But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely to assert my authority. Still for a few moments