purposes. He
desired to consult the distant Oracle, if such a person existed, as to
great schemes of his own, and therefore, to attain his end, made use
of my secret longings which I had been so foolish as to reveal to him,
quite careless of what happened to me in the process. [A bit narrow and
uncharitable, this view. It seems to me that Zikali is taking a big risk
in giving him the Great Medicine.--JB]

Well, I was in for the business and must follow it to the finish
whatever that might be. After all it was very interesting and if
there were anything in what Zikali said (if there were not I could not
conceive what object he had in sending me on such a wild-goose chase
through this home of geese and ducks), it might become more interesting
still. For being pretty well fever-proof I did not think I should die
in that morass, as of course nine white men out of ten would have done,
and, beyond it lay the huge mountain which day by day grew larger and
clearer.

Nor did Hans, who, with a childlike trust, pinned his faith to the Great
Medicine. This, he remarked, was the worst veld through which he had
ever travelled, but as the Great Medicine would never consent to be
buried in that stinking mud, he had no doubt that we should come safely
through it some time. I replied that this wonderful medicine of his had
not saved one of our companions who had now made a grave in the same
mud.

"No, Baas," he said, "but those Zulus have nothing to do with the
Medicine which was given to you, and to me who accompanied you when we
saw the Opener-of-Roads. Therefore perhaps they will all die, except
Umslopogaas, whom you were told to take with you. If so, what does
it matter, since there are plenty of Zulus, although there be but one
Macumazahn or one Hans? Also the Baas may remember that he began by
offending a snake and therefore it is quite natural that this snake's
brother should have bitten the Zulu."

"If you are right, he should have bitten me, Hans."

"Yes, Baas, and so no doubt he would have done had you not been
protected by the Great Medicine, and me too had not my grandfather been
a snake-charmer, to say nothing of the smell of the Medicine being on me
as well. The snakes know those that they should bite, Baas."

"So do the mosquitoes," I answered, grabbing a handful of them. "The
Great Medicine has no effect upon them."

"Oh! yes, Baas, it has, since though it pleases them to bite, the bites
do us no harm, or at leas