of Maqandi-ka-Mahlu--a man of our race,
and a chief--and who, having been "smelt out" by our witch doctors, the
King had spared--yet had banished in disgrace to rule over these
iron-workers in the region of ghosts and of gloom.

Their tale now was this: The stuff which they dug from the bowels of the
earth to make the metal for our spears and axes was mostly procured in a
long, deep, gloomy valley, running right up into the heart of the
mountains. Here they bored holes and caves for digging the stuff. But,
for some time past, they had not been able to go there--for the place
had become a haunt of _tagati_. A terrible ghost had taken up its abode
in the caves, and did a man wander but the shortest space of time from
his fellows, that man was never again seen.

He was seen, though, but not alive. His body was found weltering in
blood, and ripped, not as with a spear, but as though by the horn of a
fierce and furious bull. This had befallen several times, and had duly
been reported to the King--who would know everything--but Umzilikazi
only laughed, saying that he cared nothing that the spirits of evil
chose to devour, from time to time, such miserable prey as these slaves.
There were plenty more of them, and if the wizard animals, who dwelt in
the mountains, wanted to slay such, why, let them.

But now, the tale which these men told was serious. They could no more
go to that place for the terror which haunted it. They had tried
keeping together, so that none might fall a prey to the evil monster--
and, for some while, none had. But there came a day when travelling
thus, in a body close together, through the gloom of the forest, a
sudden and frightful roaring, as of the advance of a herd of savage
bulls, burst upon them. Some fell, half dead with fear; others, crying
out that they could see fearful shapes, with gigantic horns and flaming
eyes, moving among the trees, rushed blindly in all directions. Of
thirty men who had entered that dreadful valley, ten only came forth,
nor of these could any be persuaded to return and see what had happened
to the remaining score. But the seer, Gasitye, who knew no terror of
things of the other world, had ventured in. Twenty bodies had he seen--
lying scattered--no two together--no, not anywhere two together--and all
had died the Red Death.

"And was this by day or by night?" said the King, who had been listening
with great attention to this tale.

"By day, O Ruler of th