he did not know that Bakuma had broken the magic circle of her
own volition, he had the shrewd imagination to suggest that she had either
fled with the other women during the attack or that, even if she had
stayed, the askaris would have taken her from the hut. Therefore did he
demand an assembly of the craft and chiefs. One of the reasons, if not the
reason, of Bakahenzie's success, as of other witch-doctors before, such as
Savonarola, had been a faculty, inspired by, or derived from, hysterical
epilepsy, of working himself up at will into a state of convulsion without
actual loss of consciousness and the spectacular exhibition of foam, which
no other sorcerer had been able to simulate so successfully. Therefore
Bakahenzie invoked the great Tarum (apotheosis of ancestors' spirits) who,
through the convulsed body, did proclaim that the disaster had been caused
by the breaking of the magic circle by one whose name was accursed; and
that only could the magic of Bakahenzie be made potent, and the consequent
overthrow of the Eyes-in-the-hands be assured, by the sacrifice of the
victim to her destiny as the Bride of the Banana.

Marufa, appreciating the shrewdness of this move, immediately abandoned
his incantations to reassume his allegiance to the cause of Bakahenzie.
The prophecy was hailed by nearly every one as a most timely excuse for
the failure of magic in general. The miraculous recall of the
Unmentionable One now seemed so easy of accomplishment through the person
of Bakuma that many of those who had sided with Yabolo deserted him,
foreseeing the renewed ascendancy of Bakahenzie and fearing his wrath.

Yabolo, however, made an attempt to recover the lost adherents by
protesting that the Moon of the Harvest Festival had not yet come, and
that therefore victory could not be obtained until two more moons had
waned. But MYalu saw that by submitting to the new god he might be able to
have removed the tabu upon Bakuma--all things were possible to one who had
overthrown the Unmentionable One--and thus obtain her by the price of
submission; also he might possibly recover his wealth of ivory abandoned
after the massacre. Therefore did he with his people go over to the Yabolo
faction.

Uproar and confusion ensued. Bakahenzie recovered from his trance with
unprecedented rapidity and even did not require to be told what the spirit
of Tarum had said through his lips. The tribe was split into fiercer
factions than ever. They ar