already
begun to work.

Marufa, as all successful men, had a strain of luck. Before the shadows
had crept a hand's breadth came MYalu, indignant and exasperated. The
three tusks had been paid and the footprint obtained; but he had
discovered that it was no easy matter to procure the other ingredients
which he suspected the wizard had known well and intended as a means to
extract more ivory. After the ceremonious greetings he protested that the
task given was almost impossible to execute. Marufa remained imperturbably
interested in his wall.

"But as thou knowest," insisted MYalu, "the hair and the toe-nail and the
spittle of the Son of the Snake are more than difficult to obtain. Does a
man so carelessly render himself unto his enemies, and he the Son of the
Snake? None save one of his household could purloin a single hair. Even
this morning was his hair shaved and the remnants, as thou knowest well,
deposited in the temple with him who was his father."

"The hair, the toe-nail, and the spittle," mumbled the old man, "must I
have for such mighty magic."

"Ehh!" snorted MYalu, "with a man of the clay, but with one who is half
divine, the Son of the Snake! Ehh!"

"The bow is useless without the arrows," mumbled the old man.

"Tsch. 'Tis a mighty hunter that hath not the arrows for his bow," sneered
MYalu.

"Verily," retorted Marufa disinterestedly, "and still more a mighty man
who cannot do his own hunting!"

"No warrior hath been purified more frequently than I," boasted MYalu,
referring to the ceremony incumbent upon those who have taken life to
appease the ghosts of the slain.

"The spirits obey not the crowing of a cockerel," reminded Marufa.

"Tsch!" For a while both sat silent, MYalu gloomily watching a hen.

"Aie! Aie!" he lamented at last, "what is there that I may do, for indeed
she hath caught my soul in a trap. Aie! Aie!"

"If the hunter cannot make arrows, he may buy them," remarked Marufa, who
had been patiently waiting for this state of mind.

"Eh! The bowstring hath been costly but the arrows! Aie! Aie! What
would'st thou?"

"The rich man payeth in his kind. Four tusks of fine grain."

"Eh! Eh!"

"Maybe there are others whose hands are not withered."

"Others than the Son of the Snake?" demanded MYalu quickly.

"Who knows? There are more fools than chickens," muttered the old man.

MYalu stared disconsolately at the distant bananas. Perhaps, he reflected,
it would be cheaper to pay t