wledge himself
an accessory. No, he would brazen it out, for after all his word was as
good as hers. With the prisoner came an accuser, her husband, who seemed
sick, and he it was who opened the case against her.

"This woman," he said, "was my wife. I divorced her for barrenness, as
I have a right to do according to our ancient law, and I took another
woman to wife, her half-sister. This woman was jealous; she plagued me
continually, and insulted her sister, so that I was forced to drive her
away. After that she came to my house, and though they said nothing
of it at the time, she was seen by two servants of mine to sprinkle
something in the bowl wherein our food was cooking. Subsequently my
wife, this woman's half-sister, was taken ill with dysentery. I also
was taken ill with dysentery, but I still live to tell this story before
you, O King, and your judges, though I know not for how long I live. My
wife died yesterday, and I buried her this morning. I accuse the woman
of having murdered her, either by witchcraft or by means of a medicine
which she sprinkled on the food, or by both. I have spoken."

"Have you anything to say?" asked the king of the prisoner. "Are you
guilty of the crime whereof this man who was your husband charges you,
or does he lie?"

Then the woman answered in a low and broken voice:--

"I am guilty, King. Listen to my story:" and she told it all as she told
it to Hokosa. "I am guilty," she added, "and may the Great Man in the
sky, of Whom the Messenger has taught us, forgive me. My sister's blood
is upon my hands, and for aught I know the blood of my husband yonder
will also be on my hands. I seek no mercy; indeed, it is better that I
should die; but I would say this in self-defence, that I did not think
to kill my sister. I believed that I was giving to her a potion which
would cause her husband to hate her and no more."

Here she looked round and her eyes met those of Hokosa.

"Who told you that this was so?" asked one of the judges.

"A witch-doctor," she answered, "from whom I bought the medicine in the
old days, long ago, when Umsuka was king."

Hokosa gasped. Why should this woman have spared him?

No further question was asked of her, and the judges consulted together.
At length the king spoke.

"Woman," he said, "you are condemned to die. You will be taken to the
Doom Tree, and there be hanged. Out of those who are assembled to try
you, two, the Messenger and myself, have give