was now as
hot as molten lead, was pushed over, and around the foot; and then the
cinders were raked on top, and over that another huge fire was kindled.

The same process was gone through with the other three feet, and all
four were to be left in the "oven" until the fires should be burned
down, when they would be found sufficiently baked.

Swartboy would then rake off the cinders, take out the feet with a sharp
wooden spit, beat them well to get rid of the dust, scrape the sand
clear, then pare off the outside skin, when they would be ready either
to be eaten or would keep for a long time.

Swartboy would do all this as soon as the four huge bonfires should burn
down.

But that would not be before the morning; so all of them, fatigued by
the extraordinary exertions of the day, finished their suppers of
broiled trunk, and went to rest under the protecting shadow of the
nwana.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE HIDEOUS HYENA.

Fatigued as they were, they would soon have fallen asleep. But they
were not permitted to do so. As they lay with closed eyes in that
half-dreamy state that precedes sleep, they were suddenly startled by
strange voices near the camp.

These voices were uttered in peals of loud laughter; and no one,
unacquainted with them, would have pronounced them to be anything else
than the voices of human beings. They exactly resembled the strong
treble produced by the laugh of a maniac negro. It seemed as if some
Bedlam of negroes had been let loose, and were approaching the spot.

I say approaching, because each moment the sounds grew clearer and
louder; and it was evident that whatever gave utterance to them was
coming nearer to the camp.

That there was more than one creature was evident--ay, and it was
equally evident that there was more than one _kind_ of creature; for so
varied were the voices, it would have puzzled a ventriloquist to have
given imitations of them all. There was howling, and whining, and
grunting, and growling, and low melancholy moaning as of some one in
pain, and hissing, and chattering, and short sharp intonations, as if it
were the barking of dogs, and then a moment or two of deep silence, and
again that chorus of human-like laughter, that in point of horror and
hideous suggestions surpassed all the other sounds.

You will suppose that such a wild concert must have put the camp in a
state of great alarm. Not a bit of it. Nobody was frightened the
least--not even inn