my wife, and Nada, my daughter, and Umslopogaas,
the son of Chaka, who was thought to be my son, walked at my side. Now,
as I imagined, all were dead and I walked alone; doubtless I also should
soon be dead. Well, people lived few days and evil in those times, and
what did it matter? At the least I had wreaked vengeance on Chaka and
satisfied my heart.

At length I came one night to that lonely spot where we had camped in
the evil hour when Umslopogaas was borne away by the lioness, and once
more I looked upon the cave whence he had dragged the cub, and upon the
awful face of the stone Witch who sits aloft upon the Ghost Mountain
forever and forever. I could sleep little that night, because of the
sorrow at my heart, but sat awake looking, in the brightness of the
moon, upon the grey face of the stone Witch, and on the depths of the
forest that grew about her knees, wondering the while if the bones of
Umslopogaas lay broken in that forest. Now as I journeyed, many tales
had been told to me of this Ghost Mountain, which all swore was haunted,
so said some, by men in the shape of wolves; and so said some, by the
Esemkofu--that is, by men who have died and who have been brought back
again by magic. They have no tongues, the Esemkofu, for had they
tongues they would cry aloud to mortals the awful secrets of the dead,
therefore, they can but utter a wailing like that of a babe. Surely one
may hear them in the forests at night as they wail "Ai!--ah! Ai--ah!"
among the silent trees!

You laugh, my father, but I did not laugh as I thought of these tales;
for, if men have spirits, where do the spirits go when the body is dead?
They must go somewhere, and would it be strange that they should return
to look upon the lands where they were born? Yet I never thought much
of such matters, though I am a doctor, and know something of the ways
of the Amatongo, the people of the ghosts. To speak truth, my father,
I have had so much to do with the loosing of the spirits of men that I
never troubled myself overmuch with them after they were loosed; there
will be time to do this when I myself am of their number.

So I sat and gazed on the mountain and the forest that grew over it like
hair on the head of a woman, and as I gazed I heard a sound that came
from far away, out of the heart of the forest as it seemed. At first
it was faint and far off, a distant thing like the cry of children in
a kraal across a valley; then it grew louder, but