son of MTungo, what must I now do?"

"Thou knowest," mumbled Marufa, fumbling for the snuff case.

"Aie! Aie! but I have no fat goat!" cried Bakuma, who had hoped fatuously
that the wizard would have forgotten. "I, a girl of the hut thatch, how
should I have a goat?" Marufa tapped snuff as if no romance were in the
making. Bakuma's bright eyes, sharpened by the proximity of the promise of
her love, watched the old man keenly. "Listen, O great and mighty son of
MTungo, to whom all things are known, who canst accomplish all that thou
desireth, Bayakala, my cousin, hath a goat, but it is old and skinny.
Perhaps----"

"In the nostrils of the spirits," asserted Marufa instantly, "all odours
are the same except that of the fat goat whom they love."

"Aie! then am I undone, for no fat goat have I!" wailed Bakuma. "Know I
not one who hath a goat who would smile on me, a girl of the hut thatch."

"Ugh!"

Bakuma regarded him imploringly, but Marufa's gaze was fixed upon the wall
as if his mind were turned to matters of more importance.

"O mighty wizard, what must I do?" implored Bakuma desperately.

"Ugh!"

After a prolonged contemplation, said Marufa: "If thou canst get no goat,
then is there another path by which thou mayest accomplish thy end."

"Eh!"

"But it is very difficult."

"By my cord, will I do all that thou canst bid me to do!" swore Bakuma in
anxious haste.

"Ugh! This path is more certain of success for the will of the spirits are
oftentimes chary of their favours."

"O mighty one!" breathed Bakuma, as he paused tantalisingly.

"But the matter is exceedingly difficult--and dangerous."

"If the flower hath no sun hath it ever lived?"

"As even thou shouldst know," mumbled Marufa, more casually than ever, "he
who possesses a part of the soul may do magic thereon."

"Aye! Aye!"

"Bring me then of the nail parings one, of his hairs one, and of his
spittle. Then may I do magic thereon which he cannot resist."

"O mighty magician!" gasped Bakuma, appalled at the difficulty and the
danger of the task.

"That path is sure. There is no other."

"Eh! {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} But if they of thy craft should know then am I doomed!"

"There is no other."

Torn between her love and the dread of the penalty incurred by the
sacrilege of the theft of the parts of one who might any day be King-God,
Bakuma stared distraught.

"Were not my words white? Hath not the love charm thou hast already had
done