he chief medicine-man. Then he flung himself, all
bleeding from the spears, among the press of savages who started from
every lentisk bush and tuft of tall flowering heath. They gave back when
four of their chief braves had fallen, and Why-Why lacked strength and
will to pursue them. He turned and drew Verva's body beneath the rocky
wall, and then he faced his enemies. He threw down shield and club and
raised his hands. A light seemed to shine about his face, and his first
word had a strange tone that caught the ear and chilled the heart of all
who heard him. "Listen," he said, "for these are the last words of Why-
Why. He came like the water, and like the wind he goes, he knew not
whence, and he knows not whither. He does not curse you, for you are
that which you are. But the day will come" (and here Why-Why's voice
grew louder and his eyes burned), "the day will come when you will no
longer be the slave of things like that dead dog," and here he pointed to
the shapeless face of the slain medicine-man. "The day will come, when a
man shall speak unto his sister in loving kindness, and none shall do him
wrong. The day will come when a woman shall unpunished see the face and
name the name of her husband. As the summers go by you will not bow down
to the hyaenas, and the bears, and worship the adder and the viper. You
will not cut and bruise the bodies of your young men, or cruelly strike
and seize away women in the darkness. Yes, and the time will be when a
man may love a woman of the same family name as himself"--but here the
outraged religion of the tribesmen could endure no longer to listen to
these wild and blasphemous words. A shower of spears flew out, and Why-
Why fell across the body of Verva. His own was "like a marsh full of
reeds," said the poet of the tribe, in a song which described these
events, "so thick the spears stood in it."

* * * * *

When he was dead, the tribe knew what they had lost in Why-Why. They
bore his body, with that of Verva, to the cave; there they laid the
lovers--Why-Why crowned with a crown of sea-shells, and with a piece of a
rare magical substance (iron) at his side. {208} Then the tribesmen
withdrew from that now holy ground, and built them houses, and forswore
the follies of the medicine-men, as Why-Why had prophesied. Many
thousands of years later the cave was opened when the railway to Genoa
was constructed, and the bones of Why-Why, with the crown, and the
fra