re the woman called _Queen_ lives
and how I am to come to her."

The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me and
with its blade raked our ashes from the fire that always burnt in front
of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random
fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white man whom
he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also of other
matters, none of which interested me much at the time. These ashes
he patted down flat and then on them drew a map with the point of his
spear, making grooves for streams, certain marks for bush and forest,
wavy lines for water and swamps and little heaps for hills.

When he had finished it all he bade me come round the fire and study the
picture across which by an after-thought he drew a wandering furrow with
the edge of the assegai to represent a river, and gathered the ashes in
a lump at the northern end to signify a large mountain.

"Look at it well, Macumazahn," he said, "and forget nothing, since if
you make this journey and forget, you die. Nay, no need to copy it in
that book of yours, for see, I will stamp it on your mind."

Then suddenly he gathered up the warm ashes in a double handful and
threw them into my face, muttering something as he did so and adding
aloud,

"There, now you will remember."

"Certainly I shall," I answered, coughing, "and I beg that you will not
play such a joke upon me again."

As a matter of fact, whatever may have been the reason, I never forgot
any detail of that extremely intricate map.

"That big river must be the Zambesi," I stuttered, "and even then the
mountain of your Queen, if it be her mountain, is far away, and how can
I come there alone?"

"I don't know, Macumazahn, though perhaps you might do so in company. At
least I believe that in the old days people used to travel to the place,
since I have heard a great city stood there once which was the heart of
a mighty empire."

Now I pricked up my ears, for though I believed nothing of Zikali's
story of a wonderful Queen, I was always intensely interested in past
civilisations and their relics. Also I knew that the old wizard's
knowledge was extensive and peculiar, however he came by it, and I did
not think that he would lie to me in this matter. Indeed to tell the
truth, then and there I made up my mind that if it were in any way
possible, I would attempt this journey.

"How did people travel to the ci