kka, only grow in Kendah-land. You think all nonsense? Well, you see.
Give me match please."

Then while we watched he placed some tobacco, at least it looked like
tobacco, in a little wooden bowl that he also produced from his basket.
Next he said something to his companion, Marut, who drew a flute from
his robe made out of a thick reed, and began to play on it a wild and
melancholy music, the sound of which seemed to affect my backbone as
standing on a great height often does. Presently too Harut broke into a
low song whereof I could not understand a word, that rose and fell with
the music of the flute. Now he struck a match, which seemed incongruous
in the midst of this semi-magical ceremony, and taking a pinch of the
tobacco, lit it and dropped it among the rest. A pale, blue smoke arose
from the bowl and with it a very sweet odour not unlike that of the
tuberoses gardeners grow in hot-houses, but more searching.

"Now you breath smoke, Macumazana," he said, "and tell us what you
see. Oh! no fear, that not hurt you. Just like cigarette. Look," and he
inhaled some of the vapour and blew it out through his nostrils, after
which his face seemed to change to me, though what the change was I
could not define.

I hesitated till Scroope said:

"Come, Allan, don't shirk this Central African adventure. I'll try if
you like."

"No," said Harut brusquely, "_you_ no good."

Then curiosity and perhaps the fear of being laughed at overcame me. I
took the bowl and held it under my nose, while Harut threw over my head
the antimacassar which he had used in the mango trick, to keep in the
fumes I suppose.

At first these fumes were unpleasant, but just as I was about to drop
the bowl they seemed to become agreeable and to penetrate to the inmost
recesses of my being. The general affect of them was not unlike that of
the laughing gas which dentists give, with this difference, that whereas
the gas produces insensibility, these fumes seemed to set the mind
on fire and to burn away all limitations of time and distance. Things
shifted before me. It was as though I were no longer in that room but
travelling with inconceivable rapidity.

Suddenly I appeared to stop before a curtain of mist. The mist rolled
up in front of me and I saw a wild and wonderful scene. There lay a lake
surrounded by dense African forest. The sky above was still red with the
last lights of sunset and in it floated the full moon. On the eastern
side of the