e and produced a piece of ivory of the size
of a large chessman, that had a hole in it, through which ran a plaited
cord of the stiff hairs from an elephant's tail. On this article, which
was of a rusty brown colour, he breathed, then having whispered to it
for a while, handed it to me.

I took the talisman, for such I guessed it to be, idly enough, held it
to the light to examine it, and started back so violently that almost
I let it fall. I do not quite know why I started, but I think it was
because some influence seemed to leap from it to me. Zikali started also
and cried out,

"Have a care, Macumazahn. Am I young that I can bear bring dashed to the
ground?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, still staring at the thing which I
perceived to be a most wonderfully fashioned likeness of the old dwarf
himself as he appeared before me crouched upon the ground. There were
the deepset eyes, the great head, the toad-like shape, the long hair,
all.

"It is a clever carving, is it not, Macumazahn? I am skilled in that
art, you know, and therefore can judge of carving."

"Yes, I know," I answered, bethinking me of another statuette of his
which he had given to me on the morrow of the death of her from whom it
was modelled. "But what of the thing?"

"Macumazahn, it has come down to me through the ages. As you may
have heard, all great doctors when they die pass on their wisdom and
something of their knowledge to another doctor of spirits who is still
living on the earth, that nothing may be lost, or as little as possible.
Also I have learned that to such likenesses as these may be given the
strength of him or her from whom they were shaped."

Now I bethought me of the old Egyptians and their _Ka_ statues of which
I had read, and that these statues, magically charmed and set in the
tombs of the departed, were supposed to be inhabited everlastingly by
the Doubles of the dead endued with more power even than ever these
possessed in life. But of this I said nothing to Zikali, thinking that
it would take too much explanation, though I wondered very much how he
had come by the same idea.

"When that ivory is hung over your heart, Macumazahn, where you must
always wear it, learn that with it goes the strength of Zikali; the
thought that would have been his thought and the wisdom that is his
wisdom, will be your companions, as much as though he walked at your
side and could instruct you in every peril. Moreover north and south and