ughter the while. And as he came to again,
Sifadu appeared.

"Welcome, Tola," he cried. "Welcome! We have long awaited thee. Ha,
and a right warm welcome shall be thine, ah, ah! a right warm welcome."

And thrusting his face close to that of the witch doctor he gnashed his
teeth in a grin of such hardly-to-be-restrained fury that I thought he
would have seized the other with his churning jaws like a beast.

"Welcome, Tola," he went on. "A warm welcome to thee, in the name of
all my house whom thou didst eat up. _Whau_! There were my two young
wives. How nicely their tender limbs shrivelled and burned as they died
the death of the hot stones as witches, smelt out by thee Tola--by thee,
Tola--thou prince of smellers out!" and with the two repetitions he
sliced off the witch doctor's ears with the keen blade of his broad
assegai. A frightful howl escaped the sufferer.

"Then there was my mother and another of my father's wives; they were
lashed to death with switches to make them confess--by thy orders.
Tola. _Haul_ Does this feel good--and this--and this?" And he lashed
the prisoner's naked body with a green hide thong until the air rang
with screams.

"Then there was my father, Kona. He was eaten by black ants--at thy
word, Tola--by black ants. It took nearly a day for him to die in that
torment, raving and roaring as a madman. And now I think this shall be
thine own end. _Whau_! The black ants--the good black ants--the fierce
black ants--the hungry black ants. They shall be fed--they shall be
fed."

Now, _Nkose_, looking at Sifadu, I thought he came very near being a
madman at that moment, so intense was his hate and fury, so difficult
the restraint he put upon himself not to hack the vile witch doctor into
pieces there and then with his own hand. He foamed at the month, he
ground his teeth, his very eyeballs seemed about to roll from their
sockets. But the face of Tola, ah! never did I see such terror upon
that of any living man. The crowd, looking on, roared like lions,
stifling Sifadu's voice. They called to him the death of relatives--of
fathers, of brothers, of wives, all of whose deaths lay at the doors of
the _izanusi_. They wished that this one had a hundred lives that they
might take a hundred days in killing him. There were several nests of
black ants at no distance. Then somebody cried out that there was a
particularly large one under a certain tree.

"Under a tree!" cried Sifa