ore because we are helpless, do not think that the Child is
helpless. Jana must have been asleep, O King, or you would have set your
trap better."

I thought that this coolly insolent speech would have produced some
outburst, but in fact it seemed to have an opposite effect. Making no
reply to it, Simba said almost humbly:

"I come to drink the cup of peace with you and the white lord, O
Prophet. Afterwards we can talk. Give me water, slave."

Then a man filled the great ivory cup with water from the skin he
carried. Simba took it and having sprinkled a little upon the ground,
I suppose as an offering, drank from the cup, doubtless to show that it
was not poisoned. Watching carefully, I made sure that he swallowed what
he drank by studying the motions of his throat. Then he handed the cup
with a bow to Marut, who with a still deeper bow passed it to me. Being
absolutely parched I absorbed about a pint of it, and feeling a new man,
passed the horn to Marut, who swallowed the rest. Then it was filled
again for our three White Kendah, the King first tasting the water as
before, after which Marut and I had a second pull.

When at length our thirst was satisfied, horses were brought to us,
serviceable and docile little beasts with sheepskins for saddles and
loops of hide for stirrups. On these we mounted and for the next three
hours rode across the plain, surrounded by a strong escort and with an
armed Black Kendah running on each side of our horses and holding in his
hand a thong attached to the ring of the bridle, no doubt to prevent any
attempt to escape.

Our road ran past but not through some villages whence we saw many women
and children staring at us, and through beautiful crops of mealies and
other sorts of grain that in this country were now just ripening. The
luxuriant appearance of these crops suggested that the rains must have
been plentiful and the season all that could be desired. From some of
the villages by the track arose a miserable sound of wailing. Evidently
their inhabitants had already heard that certain of their menkind had
fallen in that morning's fight.

At the end of the third hour we began to enter the great forest which
I had seen when first we looked down on Kendahland. It was filled with
splendid trees, most of them quite strange to me, but perhaps because of
the denseness of their overshadowing crowns there was comparatively
no undergrowth. The general effect of the place was very gloomy,