"The hair of a rutting leopardess, the liver of a forest rat, the tongue
of a Baroto bird--these must I have to mix with thy blood to be drunk by
thy man when the moon is full."

"Ehh! Ehh!"

"Such is the magic that no young man can resist."

"Ehh-h!"

"But these things are difficult to obtain."

"Aie! Aie!" wailed Bakuma, clasping her hands in despair.

"Difficult to obtain."

"Aie-e!"

"On the night of the half-moon will I take upon me the leopard form."

"Ehh!"

"I will talk with the spirits."

"Ehh! Ehh!"

"But they must be propitiated with the blood of a fat goat."

"Aie! Aie! But I have no fat goat."

"If there be no fat goat then will the spirits be wroth with me."

"Aie-e-e!"

Bakuma sat staring in dismal perplexity.

"No fat goat have I, a girl of the hut thatch! Aie! Aie!"

Marufa fumbled within the loin-cloth and thrust a tiny package along the
ground.

"See and know the power of my magic." Bakuma greedily snatched up the
amulet. "Begone!" he whispered, jerking the parcel of beads behind him.
"MYalu approaches."

"Ehh!"

Bakuma rose and fled with the grace of a startled antelope as appeared a
tall, strongly built man, having a low-browed face, across which was a
deep scar. Behind MYalu came two young slaves bearing a small elephant
tusk. Opposite to Marufa the slaves stopped. Their master, careful that
his shadow fell well away from the figure of the magician--for the shadow
is one of the souls, so woe unto him who shall leave his soul in the hands
of an enemy!--squatted gravely.

"Greeting, son of MTungo!"

"Greeting, son of MBusa!" returned Marufa.

Gravely they spat into each other's palm, the sign of amity as they who
exchange bonds of good behaviour inasmuch, as is well known, magic can be
worked upon that which has been a part of the body as upon the body
itself. Then solemnly they rubbed the spittle upon their respective
chests.

"The spirit of the snake nourisheth not the life of the banana."

"Nay, for nigh unto two moons hath there been no blood of the snake,"
returned the old man perfunctorily, as he lifted his eyes from a swift
appraisement of the tusk to his favourite mud wall.

"Nay, the crops sprout not. Maybe the Dweller in the Place of the Snake
hath been visited by one from the forest."

"Aye, but old blood runs not as swiftly as young blood."

"Nay," replied MYalu, in answer to the reference to himself, "but the
girdle is not yet tied by another."