nd Bausi became me. In other words, I was as much chief of the
Mazitu as he was, and shall remain so all my life."

"That might be useful," I said, reflectively, "but go on."

"I learned that on the western boundary of the Mazitu territory were
great swamps; that beyond these swamps was a lake called Kirua, and
beyond that a large and fertile land supposed to be an island, with
a mountain in its centre. This land is known as Pongo, and so are the
people who live there."

"That is a native name for the gorilla, isn't it?" I asked. "At least so
a fellow who had been on the West Coast told me."

"Indeed, then that's strange, as you will see. Now these Pongo are
supposed to be great magicians, and the god they worship is said to be
a gorilla, which, if you are right, accounts for their name. Or rather,"
he went on, "they have two gods. The other is that flower you see there.
Whether the flower with the monkey's head on it was the first god and
suggested the worship of the beast itself, or _vice versa_, I don't
know. Indeed I know very little, just what I was told by the Mazitu and
a man who called himself a Pongo chief, no more."

"What did they say?"

"The Mazitu said that the Pongo people are devils who came by the secret
channels through the reeds in canoes and stole their children and women,
whom they sacrificed to their gods. Sometimes, too, they made raids upon
them at night, 'howling like hyenas.' The men they killed and the women
and children they took away. The Mazitu want to attack them but cannot
do so, because they are not water people and have no canoes, and
therefore are unable to reach the island, if it is an island. Also they
told me about the wonderful flower which grows in the place where the
ape-god lives, and is worshipped like the god. They had the story of it
from some of their people who had been enslaved and escaped."

"Did you try to get to the island?" I asked.

"Yes, Allan. That is, I went to the edge of the reeds which lie at the
end of a long slope of plain, where the lake begins. Here I stopped for
some time catching butterflies and collecting plants. One night when I
was camped there by myself, for none of my men would remain so near the
Pongo country after sunset, I woke up with a sense that I was no longer
alone. I crept out of my tent and by the light of the moon, which was
setting, for dawn drew near, I saw a man who leant upon the handle of a
very wide-bladed spear which was talle