Birnier commanded Mungongo to bring forth the instrument and reproduced for Bakahenzie’s benefit the oration of the previous night. Bakahenzie listened solemnly, grunted acquiescence, and again made his request. Birnier refused abruptly. Again Bakahenzie grunted acceptance which caused Birnier to speculate upon what move the wily doctor had in mind. However, after the usual starting of false trails, he announced that the consecration of the idol would take place that day and began to instruct the new god in his divine duties. That there was something [pg 294] unusual in the form, either exaggerated or curtailed, Birnier gathered from Bakahenzie’s method of expounding the rites; and the solution came in the announcement, just before leaving, that as soon as the Son-of-the-Earthquake had been “eaten up,” that he, Bakahenzie, would summon the craft and the people to the Harvest Festival.
The form of the statement again drew Birnier’s attention to the fact that Bakahenzie was assuming the reins of power far too fast for his satisfaction; that unless he contrived to put on the curb he would never attain the goal of a beneficent agent nor be able to satisfy his professional curiosity.
However, when he had gone, Birnier began anew to question Mungongo regarding the reputed ceremonies of the festival, but beyond the fact that it was an occasion allied to the Christian-Pagan festival of a kind of thanksgiving for the harvest and sacrifice to the god which involved the ceremony of the marriage of the Bride of the Banana, Mungongo knew nothing.
In the afternoon Birnier was required to preside at the consecrating of the ground and the setting up of the idol. But all he had to do was to squat silently in front of the new temple and before Bakahenzie and the group of the cult, while the concourse of the other wizards and the few chiefs that were not away grunted a belly chorus upon the levee without. The ceremony was disappointing as ceremonies go, for beyond the stewing in the great calabash of a magic concoction with which to anoint the hole for the feet of the idol, the doorposts of the temple and the House of Fires, to the accompaniment of the usual chanting and [pg 295] drumming, it was ended by a dance, with Bakahenzie as the premier danseur.
After his evening meal of boiled chicken, goat flesh and milk, Birnier squatted in the doorway of his new quarters smoking. He had no lights as his store of carbide was finished. Before leaving for the forest to carve the Incarnation of the new Unmentionable One, he had had the forethought to despatch a messenger to a certain village on the great lake to intercept his carriers with goods and the mail for which he had sent after escaping from the noble son of Banyala; he had already informed Bakahenzie of the coming of a fresh stock of magic and impressed upon him that great precaution must be taken to ensure that it came directly to him, lest contact with strangers should offend the spirits. Bakahenzie had assented in his usual non-committal manner, a manner that was beginning to get upon Birnier’s nerves.
As he smoked, staring up at the great moon over the sinister head of the idol framed in the green light, he observed that the day after the next would be the full moon, the Harvest Moon, the time of the yearly festival. Then, by a coincidence which sometimes seems to have a telepathic basis as explanation, he heard a curious soft sound from apparently behind the hut. Mungongo, squatting near his Sacred Fires in the immobile manner of the native, heard the sound too. Again a sibilant whisper, almost like the hiss of a snake, brought a “Clk” of astonishment to Mungongo’s lips. He rose swiftly and disappeared behind the hut. Another muffled exclamation of astonishment aroused Birnier’s curiosity. [pg 296] He followed, to find Mungongo leaning over the palisade as if speaking to some one.
“Ehh!” murmured a familiar voice. “’Tis Moonspirit!”
With a grunt of horror Mungongo turned upon Birnier and began to push him away, gasping: “She is accursed! If the evil of her eyes rest upon thee thou art sick unto death!”
“The devil take you!” muttered Birnier, angry at the touch of force; then recollecting that the tabu forbade alien eyes to gaze on his sacred body upon which the world depended, he realized that Mungongo was trying to save him. He held him off by the arms, saying: “Be quiet, thou fool! Hath not my magic shown thee that I am above all magic?”
Mungongo appeared to consider that there was some truth in the statement and at any rate it gave him something to think about. He stood passively but as if momentarily expecting Birnier, magic or no, to melt before his eyes. Bending over the fence Birnier saw the slender form of Bakuma crouched against the earth.