subdued click and commenced a high-pitched voice in
the dialect:

"Aie! Aie! I am the spirit of Kintu!
Aie! Aie! I am he who first was!
Aie! Aie! I am the Banana from whom I was made!"

Whites of eyes glimmered like butterflies in starlight. Nothing was
visible. The voice appeared to rise from every direction. The new miracle
petrified the limbs of all.

"Aie! Aie! My soul is defiled and my children enslaved!
Aie! Aie! My face hath been scratched by an alien claw!
Aie! Aie! I send you the revenge which is white!
Aie! Aie! I send you the One who is bidden!
Aie! Aie! Let that One arise who is I!
Aie! Aie! The mighty One who will blot out the curse!
Aie! Aie! I have spoken, I, the Father of Men!
Aie! Aie! I, Tarum; the soul of your Ancestors!"

A faint whirr as of wings was drowned in the automatic grunt of acceptance
squeezed from all the warriors and the wizards by the sacred chant, except
those of the inner circle. In dread sat the warriors of the terrible magic
of their doctors which they had once doubted. But the minds of Bakahenzie,
Yabolo, and the other two master craftsmen were stunned. The phenomenon of
the glowing hand had they never seen before, but they recollected the
stones of Mungongo. Even was Sakamata, sophisticated to the wonders of
Eyes-in-the-hands, impressed and bewildered. Dormant awe for the
Unmentionable One was awakened in every one of them. Zalu Zako felt that
his doom was upon him; that the Unmentionable One was about to call him to
his duty, which invoked fear for the sacrilege he had committed in
entertaining such radical thoughts in the immediate past. But in
Bakahenzie was a streak of suspicion; how was it that Marufa was thus
chosen as the divine messenger? Yet perhaps the veritable god was, or gods
were, speaking! Doubt held him silent.

"O my brethren, would ye that we seek the voice of the Unmentionable One?"
cried Marufa.

"Ough! Ough!" grunted the wizards.

Marufa stalked slowly to the nearest fire, muttering a spell. From his
loin cloth he took the three digital bones of an enemy and proceeded to
discover the whereabouts by geomancy. And behold! the fingers pointed in
one direction which all could see. Oblivious to the tight indifference of
Bakahenzie the old man rose and began to gyrate, mumbling incantations,
towards a thicket of grass on the fringe of the undergrowth, holding aloft
the magic bones in the glowing hand. Anxiously the assembly watched t