m, gently stroking it; as many as could get near, put their
arms under her body; those who could not, crowded around the bearers. On
a spot where the grass grew thicker and softer they laid her down, and
there all the Little Ones gathered sobbing.

Outside the crowd stood the elephants, and I near them, gazing at my
Lona over the many little heads between. Those next me caught sight of
the princess, and stared trembling. Odu was the first to speak.

"I have seen that woman before!" he whispered to his next neighbour.
"It was she who fought the white leopardess, the night they woke us with
their yelling!"

"Silly!" returned his companion. "That was a wild beast, with spots!"

"Look at her eyes!" insisted Odu. "I know she is a bad giantess, but she
is a wild beast all the same. I know she is the spotted one!"

The other took a step nearer; Odu drew him back with a sharp pull.

"Don't look at her!" he cried, shrinking away, yet fascinated by the
hate-filled longing in her eyes. "She would eat you up in a moment! It
was HER shadow! She is the wicked princess!"

"That cannot be! they said she was beautiful!"

"Indeed it is the princess!" I interposed. "Wickedness has made her
ugly!"

She heard, and what a look was hers!

"It was very wrong of me to run away!" said Odu thoughtfully.

"What made you run away?" I asked. "I expected to find you where I left
you!"

He did not reply at once.

"I don't know what made me run," answered another. "I was frightened!"

"It was a man that came down the hill from the palace," said a third.

"How did he frighten you?"

"I don't know."

"He wasn't a man," said Odu; "he was a shadow; he had no thick to him!"

"Tell me more about him."

"He came down the hill very black, walking like a bad giant, but spread
flat. He was nothing but blackness. We were frightened the moment we saw
him, but we did not run away; we stood and watched him. He came on as if
he would walk over us. But before he reached us, he began to spread and
spread, and grew bigger end bigger, till at last he was so big that he
went out of our sight, and we saw him no more, and then he was upon us!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"He was all black through between us, and we could not see one another;
and then he was inside us."

"How did you know he was inside you?"

"He did me quite different. I felt like bad. I was not Odu any more--not
the Odu I knew. I wanted to tear Sozo to pieces--not really, but