musicians stepped inside the inner circle and seated
themselves to the right and left of the fetish. A pause of perhaps a
couple of minutes ensued, and then horns, drums, and harmonicon suddenly
burst out with a loud confused fantasia, each man apparently doing his
utmost to drown the noise of the others. Louder and louder blared the
horns; the drummers pounded upon their long narrow drums until it seemed
as though at every stroke the drum-heads must inevitably be beaten in;
whilst the harmonicon-man hammered away at his instrument with a vigour
and rapidity which must have been truly gratifying to his friends.

In the midst of this wild hullabaloo a blood-curdling yell rang out upon
the still night air, and from the open door of the temple or fetish-
house there bounded into the inner circle a most extraordinary figure,
clad from head to heel in monkey skins, his head adorned with a coronet
of beads and feathers, a bead necklace round his neck, a living snake
encircling his waist as a girdle, and bearing in his hand a red and
black wand about four feet long.

Upon the appearance of this individual the uproar suddenly ceased, then
the _maestro_ who presided at the harmonicon struck up a low
accompaniment, and the last comer burst into a subdued monotonous chant,
pointing and gesticulating from time to time with his wand.

I watched the proceedings with a great deal of interest, and was
beginning to wonder what would happen next, when Smellie turned to me
and quietly asked:

"Mr Hawkesley, do you ever say your prayers?"

"Sir?" I ejaculated in unutterable surprise at so impertinent a
question, as it seemed to me.

"I asked whether you ever said your prayers: I ought to have said,
rather, do you ever pray? There is often a very great difference
between the two acts," he returned quietly.

"Well--ah--yes--that is--certainly, sir, I do," stammered I.

"Then," said Smellie, "let me recommend you to pray _now_--to pray with
all the earnestness and sincerity of which you are capable. Make your
peace with God, if you have not already done so, whilst you have the
opportunity, for, unless I am very greatly mistaken, _it is our doom to
die to-night_."

I was so shocked, so completely knocked off my balance, by this
unlooked-for communication, that, for the moment I lost all power of
speech, my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth, and I could only stare
at my fellow-prisoner in horrified incredulity.

"My poor bo