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"And then?" I asked coax

ingly.

who had killed my mother. I had gradually become feebler saw him clearly-a tall man and feebler and now stopped he was, with long flowing white altogether. I waited for some clothes, and I marked him well. time in silence. "We rushed at the Waarabu, and a big fight ensued. Many were killed, for our were deadly, but at last we had to fall back. Threequarters of our young men were killed, and the remainder sorely hurt; but still the man lived whom I had sworn to kill. The few of our men who were left made off into the bush to seek refuge in the stronghold of Malingalili, but I stayed behind. I told them to tell the Sultan to send help to our village so that we could rescue our women, for the warriors of Malingalili were many.

"Slowly I dragged myself back to the village and found the Waarabu had beaten my father's men. They were singing and shouting in the village square and their porters were already looting our houses in search of food. I crept warily amongst the houses, and the first thing I saw was the body of my father hanging from the great baobab tree that stood inside the square. I was afraid then, Bwana, but soon the spirit of my father possessed me, for was I not Sultan Isau in his stead -and even a sultan can only die once. But first I had to kill the Mwarabu who had killed my mother."

The voice of the old man, which at times had risen strongly as he lived again the stirring episodes of his youth,

VOL. CCXVIII.-NO. MCCCXVIII.

There was no reply, and striking a match to light a cigarette, I looked down upon the silent figure on the bed. The old man's eyes were closed and his breathing regular, though feeble. The excitement of his story had worn him out— and he was asleep! Silently I stepped from the room and made my way thoughtfully to my camp.

I had intended moving off the next morning, but my capitao came in after dinner and we went into the question of food. It appeared that we hadn't enough to carry us home, so giving orders to have some prepared in the village, I made arrangements to stay until it was ready.

I was up very early next morning, and, led by a headman of the Sultan's, I went out to shoot the villagers a buck by way of repaying their hospitality. I was fortunate enough to get a buffalo, and as it turned out to be quite fat, they were delighted. On the way back to the village the headman told me that they thought the Sultan was very near his end. They had no idea of his age, but putting two and two together I reckoned he must be well over eighty, and there are very few natives who attain anything like that age, the average being

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about forty-five I should think -if that. He also informed me that the Sultan Isau had fortythree wives, which I thought more than enough even for a lion such as he had been!

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I afterwards discovered that every young girl, as she arrived at marriageable age, was automatically given to the Sultan, but I also discovered-viâ Selimani-that all these young women had their special beaux in the village! Far from being in the nature of intrigues, these affairs were considered right and proper and had the double approval of custom and public opinion. I asked him what was the idea of giving these girls to the old Sultan at all in that case, and Selimani said it was good for a Sultan to have "plenty wives "-it added to his dignity!

In the early evening I again strolled over to the Sultan's house, with Selimani, in his best clothes, one pace in rear of me to add to my dignity! As I drew near I noticed about half the forty odd wives busy rethatching the roof of a large building at the back of the premises-the harem, I supposed. They watched me across the square and grinned amicably as I stopped underneath. One very old woman was directing operations from the ground, and Selimani (who appeared to know each one by her name) whispered to me that she was the Sultan's chief wife. She was decorated lavishly with brass bangles and wore quite a lot of clothes compared to the

ladies on the roof, who only escaped the charge of absolute nakedness by the affectation of a piece of "4 by 2" in front and a few strings of beads round their waists.

Standing well on his dignity, Selimani approached the old woman, and in the high falsetto voice which he kept for such occasions, announced my arrival at the abode of the Sultan Isau. With due solemnity she preceded me to the big house, and I entered once again into the darkness of the interior. The old Sultan was very pleased to see me, and straightway asked if his people were doing everything for me as it should be done. I thanked him, and told him they were, and he then thanked me for my present of the buffalo, which he had given to his family. Remembering the forty odd wives and their possible progeny, I expressed my regret that I had not shot three !

Gradually I worked back to the story he had been telling me the previous evening.

"But I told the white man that yesterday," he interrupted querulously.

"Truly," I answered, smiling to myself in the darkness," but the mind of the white man has many things to consider, and he would hear this tale again. It is a good tale, O Sultan ! Now, tell me again what happened when you found yourself Sultan in your father's place?'

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The old man groped back and forth in his memory, and

it was some time before I they made camp I crept up through the bushes until I could see them eating their evening meal.

could lead him back to the place where he had left off yesterday, but he got away at last.

"The Waarabu lay five days and nights in our village tending their wounded and burying their dead. All day long I lay outside in the bush, and at night I crept back into the village to see if I could kill the man who had killed my mother, but I never found him alone. All this time I was surprised that Malingalili had not sent help to us, but I dared not leave the village to go and find out why, lest I should miss the Mwarabu. "Eventually, on the sixth day, they moved off. First went a strong party of Waarabu, and then the slaves they had captured before they came to our village. Then came more Waarabu, followed by our own women and a few young men. These were all weeping and wailing bitterly as they were dragged along from their homes, but I could do nothing for them. A big party of Waarabu brought up the rear, and these set fire to the village before they left it. My heart was sick, white man, as I saw my father's house fall in in a shower of sparks and flames, but nevertheless I gathered some food from the storehouses hidden in the bush which the Waarabu had not discovered, and filling my case with arrows, I followed the slavers down the trail. Many days I followed them, and each night when

"Many days I followed, white man, and many nights I waited, until at last I got my reward.

"The moon was not quite at the full as I lay one night behind a big bush within easy bowshot of the Waarabu, who sat eating and talking. Long they talked, and I was thinking of creeping away when my heart gave a sudden jump. I saw the man I wanted rise from the ground, and accompanied by another Mwarabu, who was talking excitedly, walk slowly in my direction. White man, I reached for my horn. Taking the sharpest arrow, I dipped its head deeply into the poison, and fitting it to the string of my bow, I waited. My heart laughed inside me, for he came so near that I knew I could not miss, and, pronouncing my father's name, I loosed the string. Straight flew that arrow, and it struck the man straight through the stomach as I had intended, for know you, white man, that a poisoned arrow in the stomach makes a very painful death," and the old gentleman chortled wickedly at this bit.

"The Mwarabu shrieked like a woman, and all the others came running across to where he stood with the feather of my arrow sticking out of his stomach; but I laughed out loudly, and after shooting as many arrows into them as I could, I ran off into the bush.

They fired plenty of shots after me, but they could not hit me, and all that night and all the next day I travelled fast back along the trail. At night, since I dared not build a fire to scare away the wild beasts, I built myself a little shelter up a high tree, and slept there.

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"By this time I had rebuilt our villages, and we had plenty of food in the corn-bins, and in the years that followed many At many people came to live under my protection, for my company was great in those days. Together with my friend, the new Sultan Malingalili, I raided far and wide, and many slaves we took. Once I came almost as far north as this," and he paused reminiscently.

After many days I reached our blackened village, and only stopping to take some more food from the hidden storehouses, I set off for the village of Malingalili. After five days I arrived there, and was surprised to see their village burnt down too. I went through and looked at the trail on the other side, and I knew instantly that the Waarabu had been here, and so I came to understand how it was that our women had been captured at the back of the village when the Waarabu had all been in the front. A party had evidently raided this outlying village of Malingalili first of all, and had come down afterwards to encircle ours, and so caught

our women.

"Well, I went on to Malingalili's main village, and there I was welcomed as became my new dignity, and there I found the remnants of my own people. The old Sultan was very sick, and that explained why they had not sent help to us, for nothing could be done in those days, white man, while a Sultan lay sick. That same rainy season the Sultan died, and his son, who was my friend, became Sultan in his stead.

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"But how did you come to settle here?" I asked. "The guns," he replied. "It was always the guns. We raided and we fought. At first it was for slaves, but afterwards it was always for guns. Nothing mattered but guns, and to him who got the guns came power and great wealth. Eventually the Portuguese came. For years we had defied them and they had left us alone, but in the end they brought many white men, and each white man carried a gun. Malingalili, after a feeble resistance, gave in, but I-I fled across here. 'If the lion is to be captive,' I thought, it is best to be captive in a strange country.' So I moved my people, and we came here and became tillers of the soillike slaves !

"No white man troubled me, and no one visited me, and I grew old in loneliness and much shame, but I have heard rumours lately of great fighting away to the sunset, and I

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"White man," he said, "I hear you have many gunsstrong ones."

"It is so," I replied, and waited for the usual request; but the old man said never a word, and presently I realised that the Sultan's pride was greater than the old man's curiosity.

"I will send them over for the Sultan to see," I promised, and his simple "I thank you, white man," had something really royal in it.

headman and a few village notables were grouped together in the background. The Sultan was sitting in a high, somewhat ornate chair, and by the arm of it rested my 450 Express. He removed a thin hand from the barrels as he gave me greeting, and motioned me to another chair alongside, which I then noticed was my own deck-chair; and as I sat down I perceived Selimani, in full dress, taking up his position behind me. I gathered that this was an attempt at an official ceremony of greeting, and so held my peace.

"Enda!" 1 barked the old man suddenly, as one of the onlookers came a little nearer than he thought proper, and not only the offender but the entire retinue moved hastily several paces away. The old man looked at me, and I thought I observed a twinkle in his eye.

"The lion can roar even yet, O white man!" he said slyly.

I concurred, and afterwards we spoke of many things, but I noticed that all the while his thin hand caressed the steel barrels of my 450. A sudden thought struck me, and I sent Selimani back to my In the bright sunlight of tent for a cartridge. I showed the next morning I sent my this to this to the old man, and elephant rifle over, and later demonstrated how it fitted into on strolled across myself. I the rifle, and, watching him, was surprised to see the Sultan I could see the struggle going

propped up outside his house. His chief wife squatted at the end of the verandah, and the

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on inside him. I decided to cut it short.

"Go!"

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