them, nor are their garments scorched."

I went to look and found that it was perfectly true; to all outward
appearance the eleven were quite unmarked and unharmed. Except for their
frightened air, they might have died a natural death in their sleep.

"Does lightning always scorch?" I asked Goroko.

"Always, Macumazahn," he answered, "that is, if he who has been struck
is killed, as these are, and not only stunned. Moreover, most of yonder
dead wear knives which should have melted or shattered with the sheaths
burnt off them. Yet those knives are as though they had just left the
smith's hammer and the whet-stone," and he drew some of them to show me.

Again it was quite true and here I may remark that my experience tallied
with that of Goroko, since I have never seen anyone killed by lightning
on whom or on whose clothing there was not some trace of its passage.

"_Ow!_" said Umslopogaas, "this is witchcraft, not Heaven-wrath. The
place is enchanted. Let us get away lest we be smitten also who have not
earned doom like those traitors."

"No need to fear," said Hans, "since with us is the Great Medicine of
Zikali which can tie up the lightning as an old woman does a bundle of
sticks."

Still I observed that for all his confidence, Hans himself was the
first to depart and with considerable speed. So we went back to our camp
without more conversation, since the Zulus were scared and I confess
that myself I could not understand the matter, though no doubt it
admitted of some quite simple explanation.

However that might be, this Kor was a queer place with its legends, its
sullen Amahagger and its mysterious queen, to whom at times, in spite of
my inner conviction to the contrary, I was still inclined to attribute
powers beyond those that are common even among very beautiful and able
women.

This reflection reminded me that she had promised us a further
exhibition of those powers and within an hour or two. Remembering this
I began to regret that I had ever asked for any such manifestations, for
who knew what these might or might not involve?

So much did I regret it that I determined, unless Ayesha sent for us, as
she had said she would do, I would conveniently forget the appointment.
Luckily Umslopogaas seemed to be of the same way of thinking; at any
rate he went off to eat his evening meal without alluding to it at all.
So I made up my mind that I would not bring the matter to his notice and
having ascertained