ndee roughs, pale, but calm and unafraid. The more angry and
excited and threatening they grew the cooler she became. Perhaps it was
her wonderful courage which did not fail her even when the swords were
flashing about her head, perhaps it was the strange light that shone in
her face that awed and quietened them, but the confusion died down and
ceased. Then the chiefs agreed for her sake not to kill the man, but
they put heavy chains upon his arms and legs, and starved and flogged
him until he was a mass of bleeding flesh. Ma felt she had not done
much, but it was a beginning.

People at a distance heard of her, and one day messengers came from a
township many miles away to ask her to visit their chief, who was
believed to be dying.

"And what will happen if he dies?" asked Ma.

"All his wives and slaves will be killed," was the prompt reply.

"Then I will come at once," she said.

"Ma," put in Chief Edem, "you must not go. They are cruel people and may
do you hurt. Then see the rain; all the rivers will be flowing and you
cannot cross."

But Ma thought of the women who might be murdered, and she went. The
rain poured down, and as she fought her way for eight hours through the
forest her clothes became soaked and torn, and she threw most of them
off and left them. As she trudged with bare head and bare feet through
the villages on the way, she looked very ragged and forlorn, and the
people gazed at her in wonder. When she reached the township she found
the men armed and ready to begin the slaughter, and the women sad and
afraid. Although she was wet and cold and feverish she went straight to
the hut of the sick chief and nursed him, and gradually brought him back
to health, so that there was no more thought of sacrifice and blood.

[Illustration: CHIEF EDEM.]

Her next trouble was in her own yard. Edem, her chief, was kind to her,
but he was also under the power of the old bad ideas and believed in the
witch-doctors, cunning fellows who pretended to know the cause of
sickness and how to cure it. Falling ill he called in one of these
medicine-men, who declared that an enemy had placed a number of things
in his body, and made believe to take them out. When Ma came Edem held
them up--cartridges, powder, teeth, bones, eggshells, and seeds--and
said, "Ma, a dreadful battle has been going on during the night. See
what wicked persons have done to me." Her heart sank: she knew what
would follow.

Sure enough, a numbe