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?”