and be as fruitful as thee!"
"Ough! Ough!"

"Go forth, male spirit, with my ghost in thy hand!
Go forth, female soul, with my ghost in thy breast!
Rise high up to heaven and mount on the black back
Of the bird of the wet wind: poke your hands in his eyes!"
"Ough! Ough!"

Save for the distant wailing, there was the silence of those waiting for a
miracle. In the sky, at the back of the idol, was the paling of dawn.
Suddenly, as if exasperated by the non-obedience of the elements, Kawa
Kendi sprang to his feet, with the magic wand in his right hand, turned
and stared apparently into the face of the idol. For a full two minutes he
stood as if carven, while the doctors and the chiefs moaned dismally.
Around him like a pall still hovered the smoke of the magic fire. From the
village a cock's challenge was answered from point to point. Then shooting
out his right hand, Kawa Kendi made gestures as if hooking something
invisible and began to scream furiously:

"Thus do I, the One-not-to-be-mentioned,
Drag forth from the belly of heaven
The disobedient One, the lazy One!
The insolent One who sinneth in sleep!
The black-snouted One whose udders are choked!
The womanly One whose nipples are dry!
The sluttish One who refuseth her milk!
The gorbellied One whose voice is a wind!
Come forth, lest I give thee sorrow and pain!
And make thee to weep the bitterest tears!
Come forth, lest I tear out thy black bosom!
Tear out thy guts for a feast unto Tarum!
Come forth, lest I throw off the yoke of the burden
Of the Earth and the Sky upon thy sweating black belly!"

In a slight puff of wind, the smoke, lace-edged with the dawn light,
swayed, seeming to twine about the figure of the King as he stood with the
wand outheld, as if firmly hooked in the guts of the recalcitrant
elements.

Against the rose of the dawn appeared a dark line which increased as the
magicians and chiefs moaned and groaned in sympathy with the furious
efforts of the rainmaker, who threatened and pulled with the magic crook,
so that everybody could see that he was indeed dragging the reluctant
clouds from over the end of the earth. As the dark mass swelled the more
he wrestled and screamed abuse at the dilatory spirit of the rain.

And behold, within half an hour, great black spirits sailed across the
scarlet sunrise and wept exceeding bitterly; while from the village went
up a great shout o