-hills, some three feet in height--great
numbers of which were to be found at the distance of a mile or two from
the village--his neck, wrists, and ankles firmly secured by thongs of
rhinoceros hide, so that it would be impossible to move even an inch to
the right or left. He was to be left in this position half an hour or
so after nightfall, about which time the ants, which had remained in a
state of torpor all day, were wont to come out of their nests in such
multitudes as to blacken the whole of the ground round one of their
hills. They would be sure to fasten at once on any animal substance
near them, and so great was their voracity, that in the course of three
or four hours, the largest carcasses would be stripped of every particle
of skin or flesh, and be left a bare and whitened skeleton.

This, Kobo informed them, was to be the form of death chosen for the
missionary. Some of the councillors had suggested death by poison, or a
blow from a heavy club; but Maomo, he gave them to understand--Maomo,
supported by himself--had insisted that the Bad Spirits would not be
appeased, unless the White Enemy died by a death of the greatest agony.
As for the others, they would probably be pricked with a lance-head,
steeped in the juice of the euphorbia, or the venom of the poison grub.
But that would not be finally decided until the following day; only,
anyhow, they were quite sure to undergo death in some painful and
lingering shape.

The only drawback to these tidings, he further apprised them, was, that
the execution of the missionary's sentence would necessarily be deferred
to the following day. A great feast was to take place at sundown on the
flesh of the elephants killed that morning, and the chief could not be
induced to put that off, even to gratify the anger he had conceived
against the White Prophet. Maomo had made the attempt, but in vain.
Nor would he leave the execution of the sentence to the rainmaker, so
that the missionary's death was to be put off till sunset on the
following day: but, then, Kobo added, most probably the fate of the
others would be determined, and all four would be executed together.

Having delivered himself of this outpouring of malice, and once more
carefully examined the rhinoceros thongs, to make assurance doubly sure,
Kobo relieved them of his presence; and soon afterwards the whole party,
overcome by the intense weariness which anxiety and suffering of mind
occasion, sank into