bol in which God dwells, and that it can save us in this world and
the next, for we hold that man is an immortal spirit. We believe also
that through its Oracle--a priestess who is called Guardian of the
Child--it can declare the future and bring blessings or curses upon men,
especially upon our enemies. When the Oracle dies we are helpless
since the Child has no 'mouth' and our enemies prevail against us. This
happened a long while ago, and the last Oracle having declared before
her death that her successor was to be found in England, my uncle and I
travelled thither disguised as conjurers and made search for many years.
We thought that we had found the new Oracle in the lady who married the
Lord Igeza, because of that mark of the new moon upon her neck. After
our return to Africa, however, for as I have spoken of this matter I may
as well tell you all," here he stared me full in the eyes and spoke in
a clear metallic voice which somehow no longer convinced me, "we found
that we had made a mistake, for the real Oracle, a mere girl, was
discovered among our own people, and has now been for two years
installed in her office. Without doubt the last Guardian of the Child
was wandering in her mind when she told us that story before her death
as to a woman in England, a country of which she had heard through
Arabs. That is all."

"Thank you," I replied, feeling that it would be useless to show any
suspicion of his story. "Now will you be so good as to tell me who and
what is the god, or the elephant Jana, whom you have brought me here to
kill? Is the elephant a god, or is the god an elephant? In either case
what has it to do with the Child?"

"Lord, Jana among us Kendah represents the evil in the world, as the
Child represents the good. Jana is he whom the Mohammedans call Shaitan
and the Christians call Satan, and our forefathers, the old Egyptians,
called Set."

"Ah!" thought I to myself, "now we have got it. Horus the Divine Child,
and Set the evil monster, with whom it strives everlastingly."

"Always," went on Marut, "there has been war between the Child and Jana,
that is, between Good and Evil, and we know that in the end one of them
must conquer the other."

"The whole world has known that from the beginning," I interrupted. "But
who and what is this Jana?"

"Among the Black Kendah, Lord, Jana is an elephant, or at any rate his
symbol is an elephant, a very terrible beast to which sacrifices are
made, that kill