How long Nanea slept she did not know, but at length she was awakened by a sound as of guttural human voices talking in a language that she could not understand.  Rising to her knees she peered out of the hole in the tree.  It was night, but the stars shone brilliantly, and their light fell upon an open circle of ground close by the edge of the river.  In this circle there burned a great fire, and at a little distance from the fire were gathered eight or ten horrible-looking beings, who appeared to be rejoicing over something that lay upon the ground.  They were small in stature, men and women together, but no children, and all of them were nearly naked.  Their hair was long and thin, growing down almost to the eyes, their jaws and teeth protruded and the girth of their black bodies was out of all proportion to their height.  In their hands they held sticks with sharp stones lashed on to them, or rude hatchet-like knives of the same material.

Now Nanea’s heart shrank within her, and she nearly fainted with fear, for she knew that she was in the haunted forest, and without a doubt these were the Esemkofu, the evil ghosts that dwelt therein.  Yes, that was what they were, and yet she could not take her eyes off them—­the sight of them held her with a horrible fascination.  But if they were ghosts, why did they sing and dance like men?  Why did they wave those sharp stones aloft, and quarrel and strike each other?  And why did they make a fire as men do when they wish to cook food?  More, what was it that they rejoiced over, that long dark thing which lay so quiet upon the ground?  It did not look like a head of game, and it could scarcely be a crocodile, yet clearly it was food of some sort, for they were sharpening the stone knives in order to cut it up.

While she wondered thus, one of the dreadful-looking little creatures advanced to the fire, and taking from it a burning bough, held it over the thing that lay upon the ground, to give light to a companion who was about to do something to it with the stone knife.  Next instant Nanea drew back her head from the hole, a stifled shriek upon her lips.  She saw what it was now—­it was the body of a man.  Yes, and these were no ghosts; they were cannibals of whom when she was little, her mother had told her tales to keep her from wandering away from home.

But who was the man they were about to eat?  It could not be one of themselves, for his stature was much greater.  Oh! now she knew; it must be Nahoon, who had been killed up yonder, and whose dead body the waters had brought down to the haunted forest as they had brought her alive.  Yes, it must be Nahoon, and she would be forced to see her husband devoured before her eyes.  The thought of it overwhelmed her.  That he should die by order of the king was natural, but that he should be buried thus!  Yet what could she do to prevent it?  Well, if it cost her her life, it should be prevented.  At the worst they could only kill and eat her also, and now that Nahoon and her father were gone, being untroubled by any religious or spiritual hopes and fears, she was not greatly concerned to keep her own breath in her.