d!"

"To the back of his head!"

"And may he walk on his heels upward!"

"Ha! on his heels upward!"

Not only Stas but Kali bit his lips in order not to burst out laughing.
In the meantime adjurations were repeated, more and more horrible, and
the wheel kept spinning so quickly that the eyes could not keep pace
with its whirl. This continued until the old negro entirely lost his
strength and breath.

Then he squatted on the ground, and for some time nodded his head in
both directions in silence. After a while, however, he rose and taking
a knife, cut with it the skin at Kali's shoulder and smearing a piece
of kid's liver with his blood, shoved it into M'Rua's mouth; the other
piece smeared in the king's blood he shoved into Kali's mouth. Both
swallowed so quickly that their wind-pipes began to play, and their
eyes bulged out; after which they grabbed hold of hands in sign of
loyal and everlasting friendship.

The warriors on the other hand began to shout with glee:

"Both swallowed; neither spat it out; therefore they are sincere and
there is no treachery between them."

And Stas in his soul thanked Kali that he had acted as his proxy at
this ceremony, for he felt that at the swallowing of "a piece" of M'Rua
he undoubtedly would have given proof of insincerity and treachery.

From that moment, however, the little travelers were not threatened on
the part of the savages with deceit or any unexpected attacks; on the
contrary they were treated with a hospitality and an esteem almost
god-like. This esteem increased when Stas, after making an observation
on a barometer, a great heritage from Linde, predicted rain, and when
rain fell that very same day quite copiously, as though the massica*
[*The spring rainy season, which had just passed.] desired to shake off
the rest of its supplies upon the earth, the negroes were convinced
that this downpour was the gift of the "Good Mzimu" and their gratitude
to Nell was unbounded. Stas joked with her about this, saying that
since she had become a negro divinity he would proceed alone on his
further journey and leave her in M'Rua's village, where the negroes
would erect for her a chapel of ivory, and would bring beans and
bananas to her.

But Nell had no uncertainty, and, standing on her little toes,
whispered in his ear, according to her custom, only four words: "You
won't leave me!" After which she began to leap from joy, saying that
since the negroes were so kind, the w