ations they have stamped flat there
shall _they_ be. Dust--all dust! Gasitye sees it."

"Ha! And shall I see it too, my father?"

"Thou shalt see it, Untuswa. Thou, too, shalt see it."

Now, when I heard the name of Gasitye, I knew it as the name of a great
seer and prophet who dwelt alone among the mountains, and who was held
in wide repute among all tribes and peoples, near and far. His own
tribe nobody knew exactly, but it was supposed that his age was three
times that of the oldest man known. Even Umzilikazi himself had more
than once sent secretly to consult him, with gifts; for the rest, nobody
cared to interfere with him, for even the most powerful of kings does
not desire the enmity of a great and dreaded sorcerer, whose magic,
moreover, is real, and not as that of the tribal _izanusi_--a cheat to
encompass the death of men. And now I had encountered this world-famed
wizard; had beheld him alone in the heart of the rock, whose face he had
the power to open and shut at will.

"Help me to slay the ghost-bull, my father," I entreated again.

"And when thou hast slain it--what then?"

"Then it shall be well with me and mine."

"Well with thee and thine? Will it then--with thee and thine! Ha, ha!"
repeated the voice within the cliff, in the same tone of mockery as
before. "Go now and slay it, Untuswa, thou valiant one. Go!"

I waited some little time, but no further answer could I obtain, though
I spoke both loud and softly. Then I turned away.

As I did so a strange feeling came over me, a feeling as of the
faintness caused by starvation. The fumes of the wizard fire had worn
off in the clear open air, and I felt as though I could spend the rest
of my life eating, so hungry was I. So, losing no time, I started back
to where I had left Jambula.

Then upon my mind came the recollection of the death-yell I had heard
when within the vault. Ha! I must proceed with care. I glanced
upward. The sun was well up when I entered the rock; now it was at its
highest overhead. I had not been as long in that vault of fear as it
seemed.

Now there struck upon my nostrils a most horrible stench as of death and
putrefaction. What did it mean? I had passed this spot this very
morning and the air was pure and clear. Death might have taken place--
but putrefaction?--_au_, there was not time for that. Yet this was a
place of witchcraft, where everything was possible. And, thus thinking,
I came right up