witch-doctors stood with outstretched arms, the world
of men was as though it had been frozen into sleep.

"Hold!" he said. "Stand aside, son of Makedama, who art named an
evildoer! Stand aside, thou, Nobela, and those with thee who have named
him evildoer! What? Shall I be satisfied with the life of one dog? Smell
on, ye vultures, company by company, smell on! For the day the labour,
at night the feast!"

I rose, astonished, and stood on one side. The witch-doctresses also
stood on one side, wonderstruck, since no such smelling out as this had
been seen in the land. For till this hour, when a man was swept with the
gnu's tail of the Isanusi that was the instant of his death. Why, then,
men asked in their hearts, was the death delayed? The witch-doctors
asked it also, and looked to the king for light, as men look to a
thunder-cloud for the flash. But from the Black One there came no word.

So we stood on one side, and a second party of the Isanusi women began
their rites. As the others had done, so they did, and yet they worked
otherwise, for this is the fashion of the Isanusis, that no two of them
smell out in the same way. And this party swept the faces of certain of
the king's councillors, naming them guilty of the witch-work.

"Stand ye on one side!" said the king to those who had been smelt out;
"and ye who have hunted out their wickedness, stand ye with those who
named Mopo, son of Makedama. It well may be that all are guilty."

So these stood on one side also, and a third party took up the tale.
And they named certain of the great generals, and were in turn bidden to
stand on one side together with those whom they had named.

So it went on through all the day. Company by company the women doomed
their victims, till there were no more left in their number, and were
commanded to stand aside together with those whom they had doomed. Then
the male Isanusis began, and I could see well that by this time their
hearts were fearful, for they smelt a snare. Yet the king's bidding must
be done, and though their magic failed them here, victims must be found.
So they smelt out this man and that man till we were a great company of
the doomed, who sat in silence on the ground looking at each other with
sad eyes and watching the sun, which we deemed our last, climb slowly
down the sky. And ever as the day waned those who were left untried of
the witch-doctors grew madder and more fierce. They leaped into the air,
they grou