, saying that they had news to communicate. On being
questioned, these peasants averred that while they were herding their
goats upon the western cliffs many miles away, suddenly on the top of
the hills appeared a body of fifteen Fung, who bound and blindfolded
them, telling them in mocking language to take a message to the Council
and to the white men.

This was the message: That they had better make haste to destroy the
god Harmac, since otherwise his head would move to Mur according to the
prophecy, and that when it did so, the Fung would follow as they knew
how to do. Then they set the two men on a rock where they could be
seen, and on the following morning were in fact found by some of their
fellows, those who accompanied them to the Court and corroborated this
story.

Of course the matter was duly investigated, but as I know, for I went
with the search party, when we got to the place no trace of the Fung
could be found, except one of their spears, of which the handle had been
driven into the earth and the blade pointed toward Mur, evidently
in threat or defiance. No other token of them remained, for, as it
happened, a heavy rain had fallen and obliterated their footprints,
which in any case must have been faint on this rocky ground.

Notwithstanding the most diligent search by skilled men, their mode of
approach and retreat remained a mystery, as, indeed, it does to this
day. The only places where it was supposed to be possible to scale
the precipice of Mur were watched continually, so that they could have
climbed up by none of these. The inference was, therefore, that the Fung
had discovered some unknown path, and, if fifteen men could climb that
path, why not fifteen thousand!

Only, where was this path? In vain were great rewards in land and
honours offered to him who should discover it, for although such
discoveries were continually reported, on investigation these were
found to be inventions or mares' nests. Nothing but a bird could have
travelled by such roads.

Then at last we saw the Abati thoroughly frightened, for, with
additions, the story soon passed from mouth to mouth till the whole
people talked of nothing else. It was as though we English learned that
a huge foreign army had suddenly landed on our shores and, having cut
the wires and seized the railways, was marching upon London. The effect
of such tidings upon a nation that always believed invasion to be
impossible may easily be imagined, on