"Pass to the house of the white man, my rival. Are you with him?"

"I am with him."

"What does he?"

"He lies in slumber on his bed, and in his slumber he mutters the name
of a woman, and tells her that he loves her, but that duty is more than
love. Oh! call me back I cannot stay; a Presence guards him, and thrusts
me thence."

"Return," said Hokosa starting. "Pass through the earth beneath you and
tell me what you see."

"I see the body of the king; but were it not for his royal ornaments
none would know him now."

"Return," said Hokosa, "and let the eyes of your spirit be open. Look
around you and tell me what you see."

"I see the shadows of the dead," she answered; "they stand about you,
gazing at you with angry eyes; but when they come near you, something
drives them back, and I cannot understand what it is they say."

"Is the ghost of Umsuka among them?"

"It is among them."

"Bid him prophesy the future to me."

"I have bidden him, but he does not answer. If you would hear him
speak, it must be through the lips of my body; and first my body must be
emptied of my ghost, that his may find a place therein."

"Say, can his spirit be compelled?"

"It can be compelled, or that part of it which still hover near this
spot, if you dare to speak the words you know. But first its house
must be made ready. Then the words must be spoken, and all must be done
before a man can count three hundred; for should the blood begin to clot
about my heart, it will be still for ever."

"Hearken," said Hokosa. "When the medicine that I shall give does its
work, and the spirit is loosened from your body, let it not go afar, no,
whatever tempts or threatens it, and suffer not that the death-cord be
severed, lest flesh and ghost be parted for ever."

"I hear, and I obey. Be swift, for I grow weary."

Then Hokosa took from his pouch two medicines: one a paste in a box, the
other a fluid in a gourd. Taking of the paste he knelt upon the grave
before the entranced woman and swiftly smeared it upon the mucous
membrane of the mouth and throat. Also he thrust pellets of it into the
ears, the nostrils, and the corners of the eyes.

The effect was almost instantaneous. A change came over the girl's
lovely face, the last awful change of death. Her cheeks fell in, her
chin dropped, her eyes opened, and her flesh quivered convulsively. The
wizard saw it all by the bright moonlight. Then he took up his part in
this unholy drama.