aid. Still, I have
sent for Mwezi, and doubtless he will explain the matter. See, he comes;
slowly, for he is very old. Does the father not remember him at all?'

"He pointed down the path that led up to us from the town, into which
had come a small crowd of natives who were eagerly following three or
four figures, jostling each other to get a better view. It soon became
plain that a young man led the way, and that after him came three of
whom I guessed the central person to be Mwezi. I think he was the oldest
native I have ever seen, bent, shrivelled, and stiff-jointed, but with
keen dark eyes which, a little later, fixed themselves inquiringly on my
face and then clouded with acute disappointment. On either side his sons
helped him with a hand beneath his arm-pits, and he himself walked by
means of a great stick. The crowd of hangers-on stopped respectfully
below, but these four climbed up to the dais. A stool was brought for
the old man, but at first he would not sit. He stood there, staring at
me and shaking his head. 'It is not he,' he said, 'it is not he. Yet he
is like, very like. But it is not he.'

"I was still perplexed at all this, but by this time a little amused.
Nevertheless I hid that, for the old fellow was so plainly disappointed.

"'Come, father,' I said. 'I am very sorry, but will you not explain?
Perhaps it is a brother of mine whom you have seen. Seat yourself and
tell me about it.'

"He did not seem at once to comprehend, but when his sons had persuaded
him to sit, he made a peremptory motion with his stick towards the old
councillor who had spoken before. This individual glanced at the
chief for permission, and having received it, told me this story at
considerable length.

"He said that, very many years before, in the time of the late king, the
village had been one day thrown into a state of great excitement by the
advent of a stranger. This had been Mwezi, at the time a man of middle
age. He had come from the south and west--from Central Africa, that
is--and he had said that he was seeking a white man whom it had been
shown him he should find in that village. Pressed for details, he
announced that he had come from a town far away by a wide river where
there were great falls over whose rocks the water thundered night and
day in a perpetual cloud of spray. One night he had awakened in his hut,
and had seen a white man standing before him dressed in a black robe, a
string of beads, and carryin