is utter failure, suddenly, with an
exclamation unmistakably indicative of rage and chagrin, dropped the
point of his wand, to raise it again instantly and direct it toward my
breast.

But the cool intrepidity which I had just witnessed was contagious; in
my sublime admiration of it my soul soared far above and beyond the
reach of so debasing a feeling as fear, and in my turn I met the cruel
sinister gaze of the crafty savage with one as calm as Smellie's own.

For perhaps a full minute--it may have been more, it may have been less;
it is difficult to estimate the lapse of time under such trying
circumstances--the fetish-man did his best to disconcert me; then,
baffled once more, with a furious and threatening gesture he passed on
to the next prisoner.

"We are reprieved for the time being," said Smellie, as the
gesticulating witch-doctor and his myrmidons passed on, "but only to
become the victims of a more refined and protracted torture at last.
Having failed to exhibit any signs of fear in the first instance we are
spared to witness the cumulative sufferings of those who are to precede
us, in order that by the sight of their exquisite torments our courage
may be quelled by the anticipation of our own. I imagine, from what I
have read of the customs of this people, that we are about to witness
and become participants in a ceremony undertaken to avert or remove some
great calamity--a ceremony involving the sacrifice of many victims, each
of whom is put to death with more refined barbarity than that dealt out
to the victim preceding him. Ah! see there--a worthy victim has at last
been found with which to begin the sacrifice."

I looked in the direction his eyes indicated, and, sure enough, the
light but fatal stroke with the wand was just in the act of being struck
upon the naked breast of one of the negro prisoners. As the blow fell a
loud shriek of despair rang out from the lips of the wretched man; the
fetish-man's four assistants sprang upon their prey, his bonds were cut,
and in another moment he was dragged, struggling desperately and
shrieking with mortal fear, into the inner circle and up to the broad
tree-stump which supported the fetish or idol.

In the meantime the fire had been bountifully replenished with wood and
now blazed up fiercely. By its ruddy light I saw the fetish-man retire
to the interior of the temple or fetish-house, to appear immediately
afterwards with a rude stone hammer in one hand