d there in front of the hut he sat with his new
wife. She saw you coming, but pretending not to see, she threw her arms
about his neck, kissing and fondling him before your eyes, till you
could bear it no longer, and revealed yourself, upbraiding them. Then
your rival taunted you and stirred up the man with bitter words, till at
length he took a stick and beat you from the door, and there is a mark
of it upon your shoulder."

"It is true, it is too true!" she groaned.

"Yes, it is true. And now, what do you wish from me?"

"Master, I wish a medicine to make my husband hate my rival and to draw
his heart back to me."

"That must be a strong medicine," said Hokosa, "which will turn a man
from one who is young and beautiful to one who is past her youth and
ugly."

"I am as I am," answered the poor woman, with a touch of natural
dignity, "but at least I have loved him and worked for him for fifteen
long years."

"And that is why he would now be rid of you, for who cumbers his kraal
with old cattle?"

"And yet at times they are the best, Master. Wrinkles and smooth skin
seem strange upon one pillow," she added, glancing at Noma, who came
from the hut carrying a bowl of milk in her hand.

"If you seek counsel," said Hokosa quickly, "why do you not go to the
white man, that Messenger in whom you believe, and ask him for a potion
to turn your husband's heart?"

"Master, I have been to him, and he is very good to me, for when I was
driven out he gave me work to do and food. But he told me that he had no
medicine for such cases, and that the Great Man in the sky alone could
soften the breast of my husband and cause my sister to cease from her
wickedness. Last night I went to see whether He would do it, and you
know what befell me there."

"That befell you which befalls all fools who put their trust in words
alone. What will you pay me, woman, if I give you the medicine which you
seek?"

"Alas, master, I am poor. I have nothing to offer you, for when I would
not stay in my husband's kraal to be a servant to his new wife, he took
the cow and the five goats that belonged to me, as, I being childless,
according to our ancient law he had the right to do."

"You are bold who come to ask a doctor to minister to you, bearing no
fee in your hand," said Hokosa. "Yet, because I have pity on you, I will
be content with very little. Give me that basket of fruit, for my wife
has been sick and loves its taste."

"I cannot do t