tial torches!"

Bakuma gazed at him perplexedly with big eyes.

"Already Moonspirit begins the incantation of mighty magic," explained
Mungongo solemnly.

"Eh!" murmured Bakuma expectantly.

Birnier smoked and pondered. The walls of the forest were growing closer
in the beginning of twilight. The soul of fear, reflected Birnier, dwells
in the unknown. Reveal the god in the machine and the mystery dies. To
Bakuma he said:

"Listen, O Bakuma, I would speak heavy words to thee. When thou puttest
the seed of the gourd into the ground then within half a moon there
appears the plant of the gourd; is it not so?"

"Truly," answered Bakuma disinterestedly.

"Is that then magic?"

"Eh!" commented Bakuma, as in astonishment. "Nay, how could that be? Does
not the soul of the plant grow even as a child grows?"

"Good. Turn thine eyes to me." Bakuma watched the operation of striking
and lighting a match with indifference. "Then is this fire which I make
done by magic?"

"Truly."

"And thou, Mungongo, what thinkest thou?"

"Moonspirit tickles the souls of my feet!"

"H'm." Birnier repressed a smile. "Thou knowest that my words are white?"

"Truly."

"Then I tell thee that this is not done by magic."

"Ehh! Ehh!" chorused the twain.

"This thing on the end of this thing which you call a magic fire twig is
made of--of--is made of several kinds of--of earth found in the--earth, and
when--and when----" He sought frantically for native words which were not,
"the two are brought together--as one strikes a spear----" Birnier hesitated,
finding himself as perplexed as a psychologist endeavouring to explain the
abstract working of consciousness in concrete words. "When one strikes a
spear upon a rock there is an eye of fire, is it not so?"

Mungongo's eyes dimly reflected a growing horror. Bakuma stared.

"The magic of Bakahenzie," murmured Mungongo.

"Already is his soul bewitched," muttered Bakuma.

"Is it not so?" persisted Birnier.

"Aye," admitted Mungongo, moving uneasily and speaking as if humouring a
dangerous lunatic. "It is the eye of the angry spirit of the rock."

Birnier saw his danger and made another effort.

"Even so. Also thou knowest that thou canst make fire by the rubbing
together of two sticks. Is that then magic also?"

"Truly," continued Mungongo in the same tone. "Can the spirits of the
souls of the twigs be summoned without the incantations by the Keeper of
Fires?"

"O my God!" groaned