there was no limit to the gentle, self-deprecating
plausibility with which he alluded to himself. Elvesdon, for one, had
been completely taken in by him, and was, in fact, rather partial to
him. More than one missionary had taken him in hand; with conspicuous
success from the point of view of the missionary. But he never attended
their services or meetings. He was too old, he said. Still he was glad
to have heard such a good `word.' He would welcome death now, because
he was longing to see all the beautiful things which the _Abafundisi_
had told him were coming after.

The witch-doctor's trade is forbidden by the laws of the Colony, but it
is carried on for all that. The good old custom of `smelling out' has
of course disappeared, but what may not be done impressively and in the
light of day can be done just as effectively without making any fuss.
Someone obnoxious dies or disappears, there are plenty of ways of
accounting for his absence. He has gone away to the mines to earn
money, or he has trodden on a nail, and contracted tetanus, or his cows
gave diseased milk--and so forth. For old Zisiso was a past master on
the subject of both external and internal poisons.

It may readily be imagined in what respectful dread he was held among
the tribes. Even influential chiefs, such as these here assembled,
dared not incur his ill-will, otherwise it is probable that he would
have met with a violent and mysterious death long before; besides they
never knew when they might not be glad to turn his services to their own
account. Even the educated, semi-civilised natives dared not for their
lives have done anything to arouse his hostility.

The new Ethiopian movement was to Zisiso utterly laughable, and such
exponents of it as the Rev Job Magwegwe too contemptible for words.
But he was too polite to make public his views. A considerable section
of the people had thrown themselves into it, and the movement seemed
spreading. As an _isanusi_ all his instincts were to make a study of it
lest haply he might turn it to account.

Old Zisiso's professional instincts were not in themselves ignoble, in
that they were not dictated by lust of gain, or cupidity, beyond a
certain ingrained acquisitiveness common to all savages. Thanks to his
wide and mysterious powers, to which allusion has been made, he was
already rich in possessions beyond his needs, for he was too old to
_lobola_ for more wives. No, it was sheer pride in