ot hate Lousta. I am almost sure that he
will come with you, so do not stop to ask questions about him."

"Is there anyone else?" I inquired.

Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with
his toe, then replied with a yawn,

"You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake
who knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to lie
hidden. I should take him too, if I were you."

"You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans,
clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my
father before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there
to be any others?"

"No, I think you three will be enough, with a guard of soldiers from the
People of the Axe, for you will meet with fighting and a ghost or two.
Umslopogaas has always one at his elbow named Nada, and perhaps you have
several. For instance, there was a certain Mameena whom I always seem to
feel about me when you are near, Macumazahn.

"Why, the wind is rising again, which is odd on so still an evening.
Listen to how it wails, yes, and stirs your hair, though mine hangs
straight enough. But why do I talk of ghosts, seeing that you travel to
seek other ghosts, white ghosts, beyond my ken, who can only deal with
those who were black?

"Good-night, Macumazahn, good-night. When you return from visiting the
white Queen, that Great One beneath those feet I, Zikali, who am also
great in my way, am but a grain of dust, come and tell me her answer to
my question.

"Meanwhile, be careful always to wear that pretty little image which I
have given you, as a young lover sometimes wears a lock of hair cut from
the head of some fool-girl that he thinks is fond of him. It will bring
you safety and luck, Macumazahn, which, for the most part, is more than
the lock of hair does to the lover. Oh! it is a strange world, full of
jest to those who can see the strings that work it. I am one of them,
and perhaps, Macumazahn, you are another, or will be before all is
done--or begun.

"Good-night, and good fortune to you on your journeyings, and,
Macumazahn, although you are so fond of women, be careful not to fall in
love with that white Queen, because it would make others jealous; I mean
some who you have lost sight of for a while, also I think that being
under a curse of her own, she is not one whom you can put into your
sack. _Oho! Oho-ho!_ Slave, bring me my blanket, it grow