“The plan of calling one from the dead and hearkening to the voice of the dead. Is it your desire that I should draw water from this fount of wisdom, O King and Councillors?”
CHAPTER XVI.
WAR
Now men began to whisper together and Goza groaned at my side.
“Rather would I look down a live lion’s throat than see the dead,” he murmured. But I, who was anxious to learn how far Zikali would carry his tricks, contemptuously told him to be silent.
Presently the king called me to him and said—
“Macumazahn, you white men are reported to know all things. Tell me now, is it possible for the dead to appear?”
“I am not sure,” I answered doubtfully; “some say that it is and some say that it is not possible.”
“Well,” said the king. “Have you ever seen one you knew in life after death?”
“No,” I replied, “that is—yes. That is—I do not know. When you will tell me, King, where waking ends and sleep begins, then I will answer.”
“Macumazahn,” he exclaimed, “just now I announced that you were no liar, who perceive that after all you are a liar, for how can you both have seen, and not seen, the dead? Indeed I remember that you lied long ago, when you gave it out that the witch Mameena was not your lover, and afterwards showed that she was by kissing her before all men, for who kisses a woman who is not his lover, or his mother? Return, since you will not tell me the truth.”