ly I hope that we should take them
better than did the Abati.

Their swagger, their self-confidence, their talk about the "rocky walls
of Mur," evaporated in an hour. Now it was only of the disciplined and
terrible regiments of the Fung, among whom every man was trained to war,
and of what would happen to them, the civilized and domesticated Abati,
a peace-loving people who rightly enough, as they declared, had refused
all martial burdens, should these regiments suddenly appear in their
midst. They cried out that they were betrayed--they clamoured for the
blood of certain of the Councillors. That carpet knight, Joshua, lost
popularity for a while, while Maqueda, who was known always to have been
in favour of conscription and perfect readiness to repel attack, gained
what he had lost.

Leaving their farms, they crowded together into the towns and villages,
where they made what in South Africa are called laagers. Religion, which
practically had been dead among them, for they retained but few traces
of the Jewish faith if, indeed, they had ever really practised it,
became the craze of the hour. Priests were at a premium; sheep and
cattle were sacrificed; it was even said that, after the fashion of
their foes the Fung, some human beings shared the same fate. At any
rate the Almighty was importuned hourly to destroy the hated Fung and
to protect His people--the Abati--from the results of their own base
selfishness and cowardly neglect.

Well, the world has seen such exhibitions before to-day, and will
doubtless see more of them in the instance of greater peoples who allow
luxury and pleasure-seeking to sap their strength and manhood.

The upshot of it all was that the Abati became obsessed with the
saying of the Fung scouts to the shepherds, which, after all, was but
a repetition of that of their envoys delivered to the Council a little
while before: that they should hasten to destroy the idol Harmac, lest
he should move himself to Mur. How an idol of such proportions, or even
its head, could move at all they did not stop to inquire. It was obvious
to them, however, that if he was destroyed there would be nothing to
move and, further, that we Gentiles were the only persons who could
possibly effect such destruction. So we also became popular for a little
while. Everybody was pleasant and flattered us--everybody, even Joshua,
bowed when we approached, and took a most lively interest in the
progress of our work, which many