houting below and enemies attacked us; a woman rushed out
of a hut and gave me a spear and a shield, the latter made of wood with
white spots on it, and pointed to the path of duty which ran down the
hill. I followed in company with others, though without enthusiasm, and
presently met a roaring giant of a man at the bottom. I stuck my spear
into him and he stuck his into me, through the stomach, which hurt me
most abominably. After this I retired up the hill where the woman pulled
the spear out and gave it to another man. I remember no more.

Then followed a whole maze of visions, but really I cannot disentangle
them. Nor is it worth while doing so since after all they were only of
the nature of an overture, jumbled incidents of former lives, real or
imaginary, or so I suppose, having to do, all of them, with elementary
things, such as hunger and wounds and women and death.

At length these broken fragments of the past were swept away out of my
consciousness and I found myself face to face with something connected
and tangible, not too remote or unfamiliar for understanding. It was the
beginning of the real story.

I, please remember always that I knew it was I, Allan, and no one else,
that is, the same personality or whatever it may be which makes each
man different from any other man, saw myself in a chariot drawn by two
horses with arched necks and driven by a charioteer who sat on a little
seat in front. It was a highly ornamented, springless vehicle of wood
and gilded, something like a packing-case with a pole, or as we
should call it in South Africa, a disselboom, to which the horses were
harnessed. In this cart I stood arrayed in flowing robes fastened round
my middle by a studded belt, with strips of coloured cloth wound round
my legs and sandals on my feet. To my mind the general effect of the
attire was distinctly feminine and I did not like it at all.

I was glad to observe, however, that the I of those days was anything
but feminine. Indeed I could never have believed that once I was so
good-looking, even over two thousand years ago. I was not very tall but
extremely stalwart, burly almost, with an arm that as I could observe,
since it projected from the sleeve of my lady's gown, would have done no
discredit to a prize-fighter, and a chest like a bull.

The face also I admired very much. The brow was broad; the black eyes
were full and proud-looking, the features somewhat massive but well-cut
and hig