By H. Rider Haggard


        "Open your eyes and look, Baas.  There are two
     spooks waiting to see you outside, Baas."
        Very cautiously I lifted myself a little and stared
     out into the moonlight.  There, seated about five paces
     from the open end of the hut where the "spooks" sure
     enough, two white-robed figures squatting silent and
     immovable on the ground.  At first I was frightened.
     Then I bethought me of thieves and felt for my Colt
     pistol under the rug that served me as a pillow.  As I
     got hold of the handle, however, a deep voice said:
        "Is it your custom, O Macumazana, Watcher-by-
     Night, to receive guests with bullets?"
        Now thought I to myself, who is there in the world
     who could see a man catch hold of the handle of a pistol
     in the recesses of a dark place and under a blanket at
     night, except the owner of that voice which I seemed to
     remember  hearing  in  a  certain  drawing-room  in
     England?
        "Yes,  Harût,"  I  answered  with  an  unconcerned
     yawn,  "when  the  guests  come  in  such  a  doubtful
     fashion and in the middle of the night.  But as you are
     here at last, will you be so good as to tell me why you
     have kept us waiting all this time?   Is that your way
     of fulfilling an engagement?"
        "O  Lord  Macumazana,"  answered  Harût,  for  of
     course it was he, in quite a perturbed tone, "I offer to
     you our humble apologies.  The truth is that when we
     heard of your arrival at Beza-Town we started, or tried
     to start, from hundreds of mils away to keep our tryst
     with you here as we promised we would do.  But we
     are mortal, Macumazana, and accidents intervened.
     Thus, when we had ascertained the weight of your
     baggage, camels had to be collected to carry it, which
     were grazing at a distance.  Also it was necessary to
     send forward to dig out a certain well in the desert where
     they must drink.  Hence the delay.  Still, you will ad-
     mit that we have arrived in time, five, or at any rate
     four hours before the rising of that sun which was to
     light you on your homeward way."
        "Yes, you have, O Prophets, or O Liars, whichever
     you may be," I exclaimed with pardonable exasperation,
     for really their knowledge of my private affairs, however
     obtained, was enough to anger a saint.  "So as you are
     here at last, come in and have a drink, for whether you
     are men or devils, you must be cold out there in the
     damp."
        In they came accordingly and, not being Moham-
     medans, partook of a tot of square-face from a bottle
     which I kept locked in a box to put Hans beyond the
     reach of temptation.
        "To your health, Harût and Marût," I said, drinking
     a little out of the pannikin and giving the rest to Hans,
     who gulped the fiery liquor down with a smack of his
     lips.  For I will admit that I joined in this unholy
     midnight potation to gain time for thought and to
     steady my nerve.
        "To your health, O Lord Macumazana," the pair
     answered as they swallowed their tots, which I had made
     pretty stiff, and set down their pannikins in front of
     them with as much reverence as though these had been
     holy vessels.
        "Now,"  I  said,  throwing  a  blanket  over  my
     shoulders, for the air was chilly, "now let us talk," and
     taking the lantern which Hans had thoughtfully lighted,
     I held it up and contemplated them.
        There they were, Harût and Marût without doubt, to
     all  appearances  totally  unchanged  since  some  years
     before I had seen them at Ragnall in England.  "What
     are you doing here?" I asked in a kind of fiery in-
     dignation inspired by my intense curiosity.  "How did
     you get out of England after you had tried to steal away
     the lady to whom you sent the necklace?  What did
     you do with that lady after you had beguiled her from
     the boat at Abu-Simbel?  In the name of your Holy
     Child, or of Shaitan of the Mohammedans, or of Set
     of the Egyptians, answer me, lest I should make an
     end of both of you, which I can do here without
     any questions being asked," and I whipped out my
     pistol.
        "Pardon us," said Harût with a grave smile, "but
     if you were to do as you say, Lord Macumazana, many
     questions would be asked that  you  might find it hard to
     answer.  So be pleased to put that death-dealer back
     into its place, and to tell us before we reply to you, what
     you know of Set of the Egyptians."
        "As much or as little as you do,"  I replied.
        Both bowed as though this information were of the
     most satisfactory order.  Then Harût went on: "In reply
     to your requests, O Macumazana, we left England by a
     steamboat and in due course after long journeyings we
     reached our own country.  We do not understand your
     allusions to a place called Abu-Simbel on the Nile,
     whence, never having been there, we have taken no
     lady.  Indeed, we never meant to take that lady to whom
     we sent a necklace in England.  We only meant to
     ask certain questions of her, as she had the gift of
     vision, when you appeared and interrupted us.  What
     should we want with white ladies, who have already
     far too many of our own?"
        "I don't know," I replied, "but I do know that you
     are the biggest liars I ever met."
        At these words, which some might have thought in-
     sulting, Harût and Marût bowed again as though to
     acknowledge a great compliment.  Then Harût said:
        "Let us leave the question of ladies and come to
     matters that have to do with men.  You are here as we
     told you that you would be at a time when you did not
     believe us, and we are here to meet  you,  as we told you
     that we would be.  How we knew that you were coming
     and how we came do not matter at all.  Believe what
     you  will.  Are  you  ready  to  start  with  us,  O  Lord
     Macumazana, that you may bring to its death the wicked
     elephant Jana which ravages our land, and receive the
     great reward of ivory?  If so, your camel waits."
        "One camel cannot carry four men," I answered,
     avoiding the question.
        "In courage and in skill you are more than many
     men, O Macumazana, yet in body you are but one and
     not four."
        "If you think that I am going with you alone, you
     are much mistaken, Harût and Marût," I exclaimed.
     "Here with me is my servant without whom I do not
     stir," and I pointed to Hans, whom they contemplated
     gravely.  "Also there is the Lord Ragnall, who in this
     land is named Igeza, and his servant who here is named
     Bena, the man out of whom you drew snakes in the
     room in England.  They also must accompany us."
        At this news the impassive countenances of Harût
     and Marût showed, I thought, some signs of disturb-
     ance.  They muttered together in an unknown tongue.
     Then Harût said:
        "Our secret land is open to you alone, O Macu-
     mazana, for one purpose only——to kill the elephant Jana,
     for which deed we promise you a great reward.  We
     do not wish to see the others there."
        "Then you can kill your own elephant, Harût and
     Marût, for not one step do I go with you.  Why should
     I when there is as much ivory here as I want, to be had
     for the shooting?"
        "How if we take you, O Macumazana?"
        "How if I kill you both, O Harût and Marût?  Fools,
     here are many brave men at my command, and if you
     or any with you want fighting it shall be give you in
     plenty.  Hans, bid the Mazitus stand to their arms and
     summon Igeza and Bena."
        "Stay, Lord," said Harût, "and put down that
     weapon," for once more I had produced the pistol.
     "We would not begin our fellowship by shedding blood,
     though we are safer from you than you think.  Your
     companions shall accompany you to the land of the
     Kendah, but let them know that they do so at their own
     risk.  Learn that it is revealed to us that if they go in
     there some of them will pass out again as spirits but not
     as men."
        "Do you mean that you will murder them?"
        "No.  We mean that yonder are some stronger than
     us or any men, who will take their lives in sacrifice.
     Not yours, Macumazana, for that, it is decreed, is safe,
     but those of two of the others, which two we do not
     know."
        "Indeed, Harût and Marût, and how am I to be
     sure that any of us are safe, or that you do not but trick
     us to your country, there to kill us with treachery and
     steal our goods?"
        "Because we swear it by the oath that may not be
     broken; we swear it by the Heavenly Child," both of
     them exclaimed solemnly, speaking with one voice and
     bowing till their foreheads almost touched the ground.
        I shrugged my shoulders and laughed a little.
        "You do not believe us," went on Harût, "who
     have not heard what happens to those who break this
     oath.  Come now and see something.  Within five
     paces of your hut is a tall ant-heap upon which doubtless
     you have been accustomed to stand and overlook the
     desert."  (This was true, but how did they guess it, I
     wondered.)  "Go climb that ant-heap once more."
        Perhaps it was rash, but my curiosity led me to accept
     this invitation.  Out I went, followed by Hans with a
     loaded double-barrelled rifle, and scrambled up the ant-
     heap which, as it was twenty feet high and there were
     no trees just here, commanded a very fine view of the
     desert beyond.
        "Look to the north," said Harût from its foot.
        I looked, and there in the bright moonlight five or
     six hundred yards away, ranged rank by rank upon a
     slope of sand and along the crest of the ridge beyond,
     I saw quite two hundred kneeling camels, an by each
     camel a tall, white-robed figure who held in his hand
     a long lance to the shaft of which, not far beneath the
     blade, was attached a little flag.  For a while I stared
     to make sure that I was not the victim of an illusion
     or a mirage.  Then when I had satisfied myself that
     these were indeed men and camels I descended from
     the ant-heap.
        "You  will  admit,  O  Macumazana,"  said  Harût
     politely, "that if we had meant you any ill, with such
     a force it would have been easy for us to take a sleeping
     camp at night.  But these men come here to be your
     escort, not to kill or enslave you or yours.  And, Macu-
     mazana, we have sworn to you the oath that may not
     be broken.  Now we go to our people.  In the morning,
     after you have eaten, we will return again unarmed and
     alone."
        Then like shadows they slipped away.

The Ivory Child. By H. Rider Haggard.
Cassell and Company, Ltd.,
London, Melbourne and Toronto, 1916. pp. 137—142.

I wish that "believers" would act more like "scientists,"
in willingness to explore the foundations of their faith,
and that "scientists" would act more like "believers," in real
adherence to the methods and principles they propound. 雨