e unclean which entailed
the curtailment of her liberty again, and she dreaded that possibly the
charm might grow stale. The greatest need for speed was MYalu's suit. As
her father was dead she belonged to his brother. Already MYalu had offered
four tusks of ivory and three oxen for her. Her uncle was lazy, mean, and
greedy. Fortunately he thought that by waiting he could get double that
amount. Yet MYalu might decide to pay the price demanded. Once Zalu Zako
had selected her as his bride, her uncle dared not accept any other man's
offer, no matter how wealthy he might be; besides, the old man would not
wish to refuse a relationship with the heir to the king-godhood.

Again her cousin was sick. The diagnosis of Yabolo, the wizard, was that
her soul had wandered in sleep down to the river and had been swallowed by
a fish. Yabolo had caught the fish and lured the soul into a tree, but now
he demanded such a big price to restore the errant soul to the girl that
her father, Bakuma's uncle, would not pay it, so she would surely die;
then they would all have to be exorcised, which inferred a further loss of
relative freedom for another four days. Indeed with all these actual and
possible delays it seemed to Bakuma that some one had made much magic
against her. Unless she knew who he or she was, how could she employ the
same means to annul the terrible effects? And more, how could she obtain
the wherewithal to pay the fees of the best doctors? Life was very
complicated to the daughter of Bakala.

Up on the hill of MFunya MPopo had the magicians been busy all the
afternoon after the "putting out of the fire." Zalu Zako and the chiefs
also were barred from the sacred enclosure; for being mere laymen they
could not hope to withstand the evil spirits of the dead. Even Bakahenzie
and the inner circle of the cult were compelled to employ the most potent
methods of protection to preserve them from being bewitched or slain
outright.

After Bakahenzie, Marufa, Yabolo and two other master magicians had
released the souls of the dead King by making incisions in the body with a
sacred spear to the thrumming of the drums, the mighty groaning of the
other wizards, and the persistent wailing of the dead man's wives, the
corpse was borne by twelve doomed slaves to the temple and there interred
with the gouts of blood shed by the prophetic goat, the nail parings and
hair clippings of his lifetime, and his personal effects.

Upon the hill of