Chapter 12
The village of Yagonyana, the son of Zahilazaan, was situated some five days’ march to the north-west of Kawa Kendi’s, in open cattle country near the fringe of the forest. Here were gathered nearly every witch-doctor and warrior of the tribe. Most of the women, children, and slaves had been sent still farther to the west, driving the cattle before them.
Bakahenzie, Zalu Zako, Marufa, and all those warriors who had escaped from the massacre by zu Pfeiffer were distinguished from their brethren by circles of yellow earth around each left eye, and each right breast and arm was smeared with red, which is part of the ceremony of magic purification for those who have slain, lest, as is well known, the ghost of the dead wreak their wrath upon their slayers.
The affairs of the tribe were in a parlous state. The netting of the tabu had been tangled by the death of the King-God, Kawa Kendi, and the unprecedented act of the overthrow of the idol. Kawa Kendi’s body, which had not been recovered so that the doctors could release his unhappy soul, might be used to make more magic against the tribe.
For three weeks there had been much discussion among the doctors, the chiefs, and the people. Opinions were at variance; no two men could agree. [pg 136] Lesser wizards, who before had been content with the perquisites of the smaller offices, were now made drunken by the insecurity of Bakahenzie’s position. Each of the doctors, seeing a chance to prove his superior merit and win Bakahenzie’s post as chief doctor, had busily made magic to destroy the usurper, and each and every one provided a different reason for the failure thereof. Every day came news of the doings of the white god with eyes upon his hands, of shootings and floggings, of the burning of the village including the idol, the temple, and the sacred tombs of MFunya MPopo, of MKoffo, of MZrakombinyana, and other kings before them.
The council of the craft could not even decide whether Zalu Zako was to be King-God or not. Bakahenzie, whose interest lay in supporting the dynasty of the present royal family, maintained that he should be anointed forthwith. But with the downfall of the idol and his own impotence to make successful magic, Bakahenzie’s prestige had been badly shaken; no longer dared he issue dicta autocratically. As ever, political ambition tore patriotism to shreds.
Marufa, former close ally of Bakahenzie, but lacking his active principle, continued to mutter incantations most impressively by himself, waiting cautiously to see which side of the river the arrow fell. Bakahenzie became seriously alarmed at the growth of Yabolo’s faction and the indifference of Marufa. He knew well that submission would entail the loss of his post as well as his worldly goods; and he was aware that all men knew that his most potent and strenuous magic had failed as utterly as that of the youngest novice [pg 137] in the craft. His only chance to retrieve a portion of his lost reputation was to invent a more plausible excuse for failure than any other doctor had done. He did.
Although he did not know that Bakuma had broken the magic circle of her own volition, he had the shrewd imagination to suggest that she had either fled with the other women during the attack or that, even if she had stayed, the askaris would have taken her from the hut. Therefore did he demand an assembly of the craft and chiefs. One of the reasons, if not the reason, of Bakahenzie’s success, as of other witch-doctors before, such as Savonarola, had been a faculty, inspired by, or derived from, hysterical epilepsy, of working himself up at will into a state of convulsion without actual loss of consciousness and the spectacular exhibition of foam, which no other sorcerer had been able to simulate so successfully. Therefore Bakahenzie invoked the great Tarum (apotheosis of ancestors’ spirits) who, through the convulsed body, did proclaim that the disaster had been caused by the breaking of the magic circle by one whose name was accursed; and that only could the magic of Bakahenzie be made potent, and the consequent overthrow of the Eyes-in-the-hands be assured, by the sacrifice of the victim to her destiny as the Bride of the Banana.
Marufa, appreciating the shrewdness of this move, immediately abandoned his incantations to reassume his allegiance to the cause of Bakahenzie. The prophecy was hailed by nearly every one as a most timely excuse for the failure of magic in general. The miraculous recall of the Unmentionable One now seemed so easy of accomplishment through the [pg 138] person of Bakuma that many of those who had sided with Yabolo deserted him, foreseeing the renewed ascendancy of Bakahenzie and fearing his wrath.