“Tell them that I am a greater sorcerer than this man is and that I know many wonderful sorceries.
“Tell them I will sell this man a sorcery that will make him king of his tribe, you bet, if he will give us the secret of the path.
“Tell him to behold me and see!”
The two Koiroros, already much impressed with the lordly tones and gestures of the Marquis, watched narrowly as he took a packet of cigarette papers out of his pocket, looked solemnly towards the rising sun, held up one paper to its rays and then bent his head over it, muttering to himself.... I asked him afterwards what he had been saying that sounded so impressive, and he confessed that it was merely the French for “Twice one is two, twice two is four,” etc.
217
I cannot describe the extraordinary appearance he made there on the mountain-top in the scarlet dawn, with the cannibals looking on while he performed his incantations
When he had finished his muttering—the Koiroros now drawing back a little in obvious fear—he lit a match and burned the paper, waving his hands over it as it burned. I can not describe the extraordinary appearance he made, there on the mountain-top in the scarlet dawn, with the naked, feathered cannibals looking on while he performed his incantations—his dirty, huge, bedraggled figure carrying a dignity all its own.
At the end of these mummeries, he cast the ashes of the paper to the winds, raised a terrifying shout, and taking hold of his (false) front teeth, pulled them down to the level of the lower lip and let them go again with a snap.
The two Koiroros turned tail and fled into the bush, actually leaving their spears and clubs behind them in their panic. A long way off we could hear them howling with fright. The Marquis and I had to call for quite a long time to get them to return. When they did come back, the sorcerer seemed to have recovered his nerve in some degree, but he still looked uneasily towards the Marquis, whom he now appeared to recognize as a superior in his own line.