Aie! Aie! I send you the revenge which is white!
Aie! Aie! I send you the One who is bidden!
Aie! Aie! Let that One arise who is I!
Aie! Aie! The mighty One who will blot out the curse!
Aie! Aie! I have spoken, I, the Father of Men!
Aie! Aie! I, Tarum; the soul of your Ancestors!”
A faint whirr as of wings was drowned in the automatic grunt of acceptance squeezed from all the warriors and the wizards by the sacred chant, except those of the inner circle. In dread sat the warriors of the terrible magic of their doctors which they had once doubted. But the minds of Bakahenzie, Yabolo, and the other two master craftsmen were stunned. The [pg 210] phenomenon of the glowing hand had they never seen before, but they recollected the stones of Mungongo. Even was Sakamata, sophisticated to the wonders of Eyes-in-the-hands, impressed and bewildered. Dormant awe for the Unmentionable One was awakened in every one of them. Zalu Zako felt that his doom was upon him; that the Unmentionable One was about to call him to his duty, which invoked fear for the sacrilege he had committed in entertaining such radical thoughts in the immediate past. But in Bakahenzie was a streak of suspicion; how was it that Marufa was thus chosen as the divine messenger? Yet perhaps the veritable god was, or gods were, speaking! Doubt held him silent.
“O my brethren, would ye that we seek the voice of the Unmentionable One?” cried Marufa.
“Ough! Ough!” grunted the wizards.
Marufa stalked slowly to the nearest fire, muttering a spell. From his loin cloth he took the three digital bones of an enemy and proceeded to discover the whereabouts by geomancy. And behold! the fingers pointed in one direction which all could see. Oblivious to the tight indifference of Bakahenzie the old man rose and began to gyrate, mumbling incantations, towards a thicket of grass on the fringe of the undergrowth, holding aloft the magic bones in the glowing hand. Anxiously the assembly watched the skinny figure, half bent, glide out from the glow of the fires into the blue shadows. A small log collapsed, throwing a red gleam upon the form poised upright before the clump of grass as Marufa cried out: