!"

The throb of the drums grew faster. Bakahenzie leaped from the crowd.
Immediately in front of the King he began to dance and to scream:

"Is the Burden too great for the Guard of the Name?
Aie! Aie!
Hath the Bearer, too, fumbled the weight of the World?
Aie! Aie!
Is His spirit bewitched by the soul of a girl?
Aie! Aie!
Hath His magical power been slain by the sin?
Aie! Aie!
Hath a prophet made words in the act of a goat?
Aie! Aie!
Does a saviour in hairs thirst the blood of a King?
Aie! Aie!
Shall we hearken, O Chiefs, to the wish of the One?
Aie! Aie!
Or be shrivelled and die in the drought of His wrath?
Aie! Aie!"

Kawa Kendi, a man in early middle age, powerful and lithe-limbed, sat as
motionless as the King, his father, staring, as did all, with the fixed
stare of the anagogic.

Abruptly the drums ceased. Again came a hot silence as Bakahenzie paused
in front of MFunya MPopo. Then with a piercing yell, the witch-doctor spun
on his toes. The drums broke into an hysterical rhythm. Bakahenzie leaped
high in the air; whirled around and around screaming hoarsely; leaped and
spun continually.

The chiefs and doctors began to grunt; continued in crescendo until the
whole body throbbed and grunted to the rhythm of the drums. Yet immobile
sat MFunya MPopo.

Suddenly Bakahenzie changed the erratic course of his wild dance. He
whirled and screamed in front of the King and fell headlong, as if in a
fit, with eyes injected and foam upon the black tufts of beard. Bakahenzie
clutched his belly and began to howl like a hyena at the moon. The drums
stopped. Howl and writhe did Bakahenzie as if a thousand fiends were
tearing out his entrails.

He lay rigid. The air seemed to quiver. The lines of every man's limbs,
except the King's, were drawn in tension. Then from the prostrate body of
the witch-doctor, whose legs and arms were twisted as in agony, whose
dribbling mouth was closed like a vise, came a ventriloquous falsetto:

"Aie-e! Aie-e! I am the spirit of Kintu!
Aie-e! Aie-e! I am he who first was!
Aie-e! Aie-e! I am the banana from whom I was made!
Aie-e! Aie-e! The Keeper of the Name hath betrayed me!
Aie-e! Aie-e! The Bride of me is defiled!
Aie-e! Aie-e! Let him arise who is pure!
Aie-e! Aie-e! Let him arise who is bidden!
Aie-e! Aie-e! Le