, and
there, in the centre of his cattle shed, sat the dead Sgalam concealed
from all eyes. The men with the hoes threw them aside, and commenced a
strange slow dance round the grave; then, pausing, with wild yells, the
savages threw themselves on the captives, and in a moment they were on
the ground struggling vainly for their lives, with a hundred bright
blades gleaming in the sunshine around them. Their tribe imperilled by
the white man's foolish curiosity, one of their best warriors and most
noted chiefs killed by them,--for they firmly believed it,--the two
delinquents were about to moisten with their blood the grave of the
Amatonga brave. The moment was a critical one, when suddenly the wily
Umhleswa appeared among them, his Spanish gun in his hand, the ostrich
plume in his hair, and the panther skin round his waist. His glittering
eyes ran over the group, as with a few deep guttural words, he bore back
the crowd of savages.

"Would you kill the innocent, and spare the guilty?" he shouted, waving
his hand toward the white men, who now rose covered with sand, but
unhurt. "The Amatonga have a custom; would you break that custom, and
defile the grave of our brother with the blood of the innocent? Let the
far-seeing Koomalayoo be consulted; let the sorcerer of the tribe speak
out, and let those who have done this deed die."

"To Koomalayoo, to Koomalayoo," yelled the Amatonga, and the
well-planned purpose of the wily savage was accomplished. Moving along
among the huts, the groups of excited savages, their numbers ever
increasing, bore with them the dirt-begrimed white men, and the
frightened Luji. An ox was driven out of an enclosure and placed at the
head of the procession, the whole moving on slowly under one of the
conical hills, and taking its way towards the neighbouring forest.
Bound with palmyra rope, and the baboon firmly tied in its usual
position on his shoulders, Luji's face seemed the very picture of abject
terror, while the ape, fairly cowed, jibbered and moaned.

The missionary as usual looked calm, resigned, and confident, but a
heavy scowl sat on the soldier's face. The escort kept on their way,
shouting, screaming, and clattering their spears against their shields.
About half a mile outside the Amatonga kraal, under a grove of trees,
stood a solitary hut. Near it rose a mass of rocks, and the plain
around was thick brush. This was the dwelling of Koomalayoo, the
dreaded sorcerer of the