affect an issue that must be decided with cold steel
and other mortal weapons, the position of the White Kendah was serious
indeed. As I think I have said, in all they did not number more than
about two thousand men between the ages of twenty and fifty-five, or,
including lads between fourteen and twenty and old men still able-bodied
between fifty-five and seventy, say two thousand seven hundred capable
of some sort of martial service. To these might be added something under
two thousand women, since among this dwindling folk, oddly enough, from
causes that I never ascertained, the males out-numbered the females,
which accounted for their marriage customs that were, by comparison with
those of most African peoples, monogamous. At any rate only the
rich among them had more than one wife, while the poor or otherwise
ineligible often had none at all, since inter-marriage with other races
and above all with the Black Kendah dwelling beyond the river was so
strictly taboo that it was punishable with death or expulsion.

Against this little band the Black Kendah could bring up twenty thousand
men, besides boys and aged persons who with the women would probably
be left to defend their own country, that is, not less than ten to one.
Moreover, all of these enemies would be fighting with the courage of
despair, since quite three-fourths of their crops with many of their
cattle and sheep had been destroyed by the terrific hail-burst that
I have described. Therefore, since no other corn was available in the
surrounding land, where they dwelt alone encircled by deserts, either
they must capture that of the White Kendah, or suffer terribly from
starvation until a year later when another harvest ripened.

The only points I could see in favour of the People of the Child
were that they would fight on the vantage ground of their mountain
stronghold, a formidable position if properly defended. Also they would
have the benefit of the skill and knowledge of Ragnall and myself.
Lastly, the enemy must face our rifles. Neither the White nor the
Black Kendah, I should say, possessed any guns, except a few antiquated
flintlock weapons that the former had captured from some nomadic tribe
and kept as curiosities. Why this was the case I do not know, since
undoubtedly at times the White Kendah traded in camels and corn with
Arabs who wandered as far as the Sudan, or Egypt, nomadic tribes to whom
even then firearms were known, although perhaps rare