She
supposed victim, who writhed upon the ground in the red light of
the bonfire.
Presently, however, this pleasing piece was interrupted. Suddenly
there was a slight commotion, and a large powerful woman, whom I
had noted as one of the most vigorous of the dancers, came, made
mad and drunken with unholy excitement, bounding and staggering
towards us, shrieking out as she came:—
“I want a Black Goat, I must have a Black Goat, bring me a Black
Goat!” and down she fell upon the rocky floor foaming and
writhing, and shrieking for a Black Goat, about as hideous a
spectacle as can well be conceived.
Instantly most of the dancers came up and got round her, though
some still continued their capers in the background.
“She has got a Devil,” called out one of them. “Run and get a
black goat. There, Devil, keep quiet! keep quiet! You shall have
the goat presently. They have gone to fetch it, Devil.”
“I want a Black Goat, I must have a Black Goat!” shrieked the
foaming rolling creature again.
“All right, Devil, the goat will be here presently; keep quiet,
there’s a good Devil!”
And so on till the goat, taken from a neighbouring kraal, did at
last arrive, being dragged bleating on to the scene by its horns.
“Is it a Black One, is it a Black One?” shrieked the possessed.
“Yes, yes, Devil, as black as night;” then aside, “keep it behind
thee, don’t let the Devil see that it has got a white spot on its
rump and another on its belly. In one minute, Devil. There, cut
his throat quick. Where is the saucer?”
“The Goat! the Goat! the Goat! Give me the blood of my black
goat! I must have it, don’t you see I must have it? Oh! oh! oh!
give me the blood of the goat.”
At this moment a terrified _bah!_ announced that the poor goat
had been sacrificed, and the next minute a woman ran up with a
saucer full of blood. This the possessed creature, who was then
raving and foaming her wildest, seized and _drank_, and was
instantly recovered, and without a trace of hysteria, or fits, or
being possessed, or whatever dreadful thing it was she was
suffering from. She stretched her arms, smiled faintly, and
walked quietly back to the dancers, who presently withdrew in a
double line as they had come, leaving the space between us and
the bonfire deserted.
I thought that the entertainment was now over, and, feeling
rather queer, was about to ask _She_ if we could rise, when
suddenly what at first I took to be a baboon came hopping round
the fire, and was instantly met upon the other side by a lion, or
rather a human being dressed in a lion’s skin. Then came a goat,
then a man wrapped in an ox’s hide, with the horns wobbling about
in a ludicrous way. After him followed a blesbok, then an impala,
then a koodoo, then more goats, and many other animals, including
a girl sewn up in the shining scaly hide of a boa-constrictor,
several yards of which trailed along the ground behind her. When
all the beasts had collected they began to dance about in a
lumbering, unnatural fashion, and to imitate the sounds produced
by the respective animals they represented, till the whole air
was alive with roars and bleating and the hissing of snakes. This
went on for a long time, till, getting tired of the pantomime, I
asked Ayesha if there would be any objection to Leo and myself
walking round to inspect the human torches, and, as she had
nothing to say against it, we started, striking round to the
left. After looking at one or two of the flaming bodies, we were
about to return, thoroughly disgusted with the grotesque
weirdness of the spectacle, when our attention was attracted by
one of the dancers, a particularly active leopard, that had
separated itself from its fellow-beasts, and was whisking about
in our immediate neighbourhood, but gradually drawing into a spot
where the shadow was darkest, equidistant between two of the
flaming mummies. Drawn by curiosity, we followed it, when
suddenly it darted past us into the shadows beyond, and as it did
so erected itself and whispered, “Come,” in a voice that we both
recognised as that of Ustane. Without waiting to consult me Leo
turned and followed her into the outer darkness, and I, feeling
sick enough at heart, went after them. The leopard crawled on for
about fifty paces—a sufficient distance to be quite beyond the
light of the fire and torches—and then Leo came up with it, or,
rather, with Ustane.
“Oh, my lord,” I heard her whisper, “so I have found thee!
Listen. I am in peril of my life from ‘_She-who-must-be-obeyed_.’
Surely the Baboon has told thee how she drove me from thee? I
love thee, my lord, and thou art mine according to the custom of
the country. I saved thy life! My Lion, wilt thou cast me off
now?”
“Of course not,” ejaculated Leo; “I have been wondering whither
thou hadst gone. Let us go and explain matters to the Queen.”
“Nay, nay, she would slay us. Thou knowest not her power—the
Baboon there, he knoweth, for he saw. Nay, there is but one way:
if thou wilt cleave to me, thou must flee with me across the
marshes even now, and then perchance we may escape.”
“For Heaven’s sake, Leo,” I began, but she broke in—
“Nay, listen not to him. Swift—be swift—death is in the air we
breathe. Even now, mayhap, _She_ heareth us,” and without more
ado she proceeded to back her arguments by throwing herself into
his arms. As she did so the leopard’s head slipped from her hair,
and I saw the three white finger-marks upon it, gleaming faintly
in the starlight. Once more realising the desperate nature of the
position, I was about to interpose, for I knew that Leo was not
too strong-minded where women were concerned, when—oh! horror!—I
heard a little silvery laugh behind me. I turned round, and there
was _She_ herself, and with her Billali and two male mutes. I
gasped and nearly sank to the ground, for I knew that such a
situation must result in some dreadful tragedy, of which it
seemed exceedingly probable to me that I should be the first
victim. As for Ustane, she untwined her arms and covered her eyes
with her hands, while Leo, not knowing the full terror of the
position, merely covered up, and looked as foolish as a man
caught in such a trap would naturally do.
XX.
TRIUMPH
Then followed a moment of the most painful silence that I ever
endured. It was broken by Ayesha, who addressed herself to Leo.
“Nay, now, my lord and guest,” she said in her softest tones,
which yet had the ring of steel about them, “look not so bashful.
Surely the sight was a pretty one—the leopard and the lion!”
“Oh, hang it all!” said Leo in English.
“And thou, Ustane,” she went on, “surely I should have passed
thee by, had not the light fallen on the white across thy hair,”
and she pointed to the bright edge of the rising moon which was
now appearing above the horizon. “Well! well! the dance is
done—see, the tapers have burnt down, and all things end in
silence and in ashes. So thou thoughtest it a fit time for love,
Ustane, my servant—and I, dreaming not that I could be disobeyed,
thought thee already far away.”
“Play not with me,” moaned the wretched woman; “slay me, and let
there be an end.”
“Nay, why? It is not well to go so swift from the hot lips of
love down to the cold mouth of the grave,” and she made a motion
to the mutes, who instantly stepped up and caught the girl by
either arm. With an oath Leo sprang upon the nearest, and hurled
him to the ground, and then stood over him with his face set, and
his fist ready.
Again Ayesha laughed. “It was well thrown, my guest; thou hast a
strong arm for one who so late was sick. But now out of thy
courtesy I pray thee let that man live and do my bidding. He
shall not harm the girl; the night air grows chill, and I would
welcome her in mine own place. Surely she whom thou dost favour
shall be favoured of me also.”
I took Leo by the arm, and pulled him from the prostrate mute,
and he, half bewildered, obeyed the pressure. Then we all set out
for the cave across the plateau, where a pile of white human
ashes was all that remained of the fire that had lit the dancing,
for the dancers had vanished.
In due course we gained Ayesha’s boudoir—all too soon, it seemed
to me, having a sad presage of what was to come lying heavy on my
heart.
Ayesha seated herself upon her cushions, and, having dismissed
Job and Billali, by signs bade the mutes tend the lamps and
retire—all save one girl, who was her favourite personal
attendant. We three remained standing, the unfortunate Ustane a
little to the left of the rest of us.
“Now, oh Holly,” Ayesha began, “how came it that thou who didst
hear my words bidding this evil-doer”—and she pointed to
Ustane—“to go hence—thou at whose prayer I did weakly spare her
life—how came it, I say, that thou wast a sharer in what I saw
to-night? Answer, and for thine own sake, I say, speak all the
truth, for I am not minded to hear lies upon this matter!”
“It was by accident, oh Queen,” I answered. “I knew naught of
it.”
“I do believe thee, oh Holly,” she answered coldly, “and well it
is for thee that I do—then does the whole guilt rest upon her.”
“I do not find any guilt therein,” broke in Leo. “She is not
another man’s wife, and it appears that she has married me
according to the custom of this awful place, so who is the worse?
Any way, madam,” he went on, “whatever she has done I have done
too, so if she is to be punished let me be punished also; and I
tell thee,” he went on, working himself up into a fury, “that if
thou biddest one of those deaf and dumb villains to touch her
again I will tear him to pieces!” And he looked as though he
meant it.
Ayesha listened in icy silence, and made no remark. When he had
finished, however, she addressed Ustane.
“Hast thou aught to say, woman? Thou silly straw, thou feather,
who didst think to float towards thy passion’s petty ends, even
against the great wind of my will! Tell me, for I fain would
understand. Why didst thou this thing?”
And then I think I saw the most tremendous exhibition of moral
courage and intrepidity that it is possible to conceive. For the
poor doomed girl, knowing what she had to expect at the hands of
her terrible Queen, knowing, too, from bitter experience, how
great was her adversary’s power, yet gathered herself together,
and out of the very depths of her despair drew materials to defy
her.
“I did it, oh _She_,” she answered, drawing herself up to the
full of her stately height, and throwing back the panther skin
from her head, “because my love is stronger than the grave. I did
it because my life without this man whom my heart chose would be
but a living death. Therefore did I risk my life, and, now that I