assembled. Maomo was in the middle of them, apparently engaged in
making some address of a warning or threatening character to his
hearers, which had the effect of exciting and terrifying them. As the
lads approached nearer, they saw that the people were gathered round
some object stretched on the ground; to which the prophet continually
pointed during the pauses of his speech. Presently they perceived that
the object was an ox, dying in great suffering from some malady. The
poor brute's limbs were swollen to a huge size, froth was issuing from
its mouth and nostrils, the eyes rolled dim and bloodshot, and every now
and then its whole frame was shaken by violent convulsions. As the
chief, who was only a few paces behind the two boys, came on the scene,
Maomo burst forth into a torrent of declamation, having reserved his
energies, it appeared, for Chuma's more especial hearing.

"See you here," he exclaimed; "the pestilence has smitten the oxen, this
poor beast will die, and no one can heal it; what has happened to one
will happen to all. There will not be an ox left alive in the village
in two or three days more. And who has caused it? The White Prophet.
He prays to the wicked Spirits, and they hear him and send the
pestilence! Every day, for many weeks past, he and the young prophet
have been praying to the Spirits to punish the Bechuanas, because they
will not worship his bad gods. Why does not Chuma forbid him? Why does
he not punish him? Does not Chuma care that our cattle die? Chuma's
own cattle will die also."

The Bechuana chief had halted, as he reached the spot where the ox was
lying, and was now standing over it with a face of evident perplexity
and dismay. There was no mistaking the symptoms of the malady, which,
some years previously, had nearly caused a famine in the village, by the
number of horned cattle which it had swept off. Nor was there any known
remedy for the disease. Its appearance in the village might well cause
the utmost alarm. It was almost impossible to account for the
visitation. It had been generally attributed in former years to drought
and deficient pasturage; but those causes could not be assigned now, as
there had been abundance both of water and sweet grass for many weeks
past. He did not suspect the truth--that Maomo had paid a secret visit
to a distant tribe where the disease was raging, and brought back with
him some of the virus, with which he had inoculated some