After this we presented our gifts, which now were eagerly accepted.  Then I took up my parable and explained to Bausi that so far from stopping in Beza Town for the rest of our lives, we were anxious to press forward at once to Pongo-land.  The king’s face fell, as did those of his councillors.

“Listen, O lord Macumazana, and all of you,” he said.  “These Pongo are horrible wizards, a great and powerful people who live by themselves amidst the swamps and mix with none.  If the Pongo catch Mazitu or folk of any other tribe, either they kill them or take them as prisoners to their own land where they enslave them, or sometimes sacrifice them to the devils they worship.”

“That is so,” broke in Babemba, “for when I was a lad I was a slave to the Pongo and doomed to be sacrificed to the White Devil.  It was in escaping from them that I lost this eye.”

Needless to say, I made a note of this remark, though I did not think the moment opportune to follow the matter up.  If Babemba has once been to Pongo-land, I reflected to myself, Babemba can go again or show us the way there.

“And if we catch any of the Pongo,” went on Bausi, “as sometimes we do when they come to hunt for slaves, we kill them.  Ever since the Mazitu have been in this place there has been hate and war between them and the Pongo, and if I could wipe out those evil ones, then I should die happily.”

“That you will never do, O King, while the White Devil lives,” said Babemba.  “Have you not heard the Pongo prophecy, that while the White Devil lives and the Holy Flower blooms, they will live.  But when the White Devil dies and the Holy Flower ceases to bloom, then their women will become barren and their end will be upon them.”

“Well, I suppose that this White Devil will die some day,” I said.

“Not so, Macumazana.  It will never die of itself.  Like its wicked Priest, it has been there from the beginning and will always be there unless it is killed.  But who is there that can kill the White Devil?”

I thought to myself that I would not mind trying, but again I did not pursue the point.

“My brother Dogeetah and lords,” exclaimed Bausi, “it is not possible that you should visit these wizards except at the head of an army.  But how can I send an army with you, seeing that the Mazitu are a land people and have no canoes in which to cross the great lake, and no trees whereof to make them?”

We answered that we did not know but would think the matter over, as we had come from our own place for this purpose and meant to carry it out.

Then the audience came to an end, and we returned to our huts, leaving Dogeetah to converse with his “brother Bausi” on matters connected with the latter’s health.  As I passed Babemba I told him that I should like to see him alone, and he said that he would visit me that evening after supper.  The rest of the day passed quietly, for we had asked that people might be kept away from our encampment.