Around the circle of the fence to avoid the eyes of the audience ran Mungongo to the temporary Place of Fires. Feeling as if he were once more playing in an amateur dramatic club, Birnier stalked with portentous dignity from the hut, past the idol, and took his seat upon the enchanted place. Without the palisade and within another squatted in correct order the lines of wizards and chiefs, Zalu Zako retaining, rather by prestige of his former holiness and indecision as to what his status really was, his position at their head.
Upon his haunches before a large calabash upon a fire Bakahenzie finished the mumbling of incantations over the sacred ingredients, and leaping to his feet began a wild dance to the throb of the drums and the diaphragmatic chorus of the assembled cult.… Swifter and swifter spun the chief witch-doctor. The glow of the fire tinted his whirling bronze body with flecks of green and red as he gyrated in and out of the shadows. Suddenly he threw a handful of herbs upon the fire which was immediately enveloped in a cloud of smoke, [pg 241] into which with a screech Bakahenzie disappeared.… The drums and grunting ceased. Then in the swirling column of blue appeared his figure holding something in his hands. To the wild outburst of drums and groans he sprang towards the King-God elect and anointed his breast and shoulders with a pungent compound, and leaped away into another dance, while Mungongo plied the two fire sticks. When the spark was blown upon the dry tinder and the first flame flickered Bakahenzie dropped flat before the gate as from the wizards went up the great shout:
“The fire is lighted!”
And from the mass of warriors and folk confined to their huts behind the outer palisade the phrase was echoed in a mighty wail, startling monkeys and parrots into as wild an acclamation of the new King-God.
Bakahenzie, rising to his haunches, began a chant in honour of the new King, a chant based upon the song composed by Marufa and repeated on the phonograph, but developing even stranger merits and attributes. Until the first glimmer of dawn through the forest roof squatted Birnier, as motionless as etiquette demanded, listening to the strange psalm of praise with avid interest and observation.
Suddenly, amid a furious clamour of the drums, Bakahenzie, Marufa, and one other of the inner cult of the five who had not deserted, led the body of the doctors in a rush into the sacred enclosure, seized upon the startled King and hustled him to the base of the idol where, yielding to the whispered instructions of Marufa, he took the idol once more upon his shoulders and guided by Bakahenzie, walked out of the gate and [pg 242] through the village to the yelling and screaming of the wizards, some of whom, according to precedent, ran about screeching and rattling hut doors, pulling thatches and howling ferociously in search of any sacrilegious peeper.
As he tramped on with his load Marufa yelled in his ear that he must carry the Burden of the World no matter what happened to him, for if he let the idol fall then would he be killed upon the spot to save the sky from falling too. Wondering what this meant and where he was going, the cut of thongs upon his legs surprised him into a halt. Immediately a terrific cry went up:
“The Bearer of the World stumbles! Aie! Aieeeeeeeee!”
Despite the furious flogging the intellectual interest in this strange conception distracted his mind from the pain of the blows; also his bare back was protected by the idol and his leggings and trousers deadened the lashes. A moment more he hesitated. But he was unarmed and had voluntarily taken on the adventure, so he would see it through. As he broke into a shuffling run, for the idol fortunately was lighter than the previous one and he was a more powerful man than Kawa Kendi, another howl of joy and relief echoed throughout the village.
So along the old forest trail he travelled as fast as he could, assisted slightly by wizards’ hands as he crawled over clumps of undergrowth. The intensity of the whipping had decreased as soon as they were out of the village but throughout an occasional vicious whack testified to the presence of some devout doctor. Thus it was that the white King-God came [pg 243] to his throne and sat in state upon his bed to smile at the reflections of a melancholic philosopher.