him no more than a tap upon the horns with a dancing stick would hurt a bull-buffalo.
Oh! Baas, perhaps you missed him, who because you hit things sometimes, think that you do so always.
Having waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which of course I did not, he went on by way of letting me down easily, Or perhaps he wore very good armour under his beard, for I saw some of those Amahagger who pulled his hair off and cut him to pieces, go away with what looked like little bits of brass. Also the Great Medicine meant that he should be killed by Umslopogaas and not by you, since otherwise Umslopogaas would have been sad for the rest of his life, whereas now he will walk about the world as proud as a cock with two tails and crow all night as well as all day. Then, Baas, when Rezu broke the square and the Amahagger began to run, without doubt it was the Great Medicine which changed their hearts and made them brave again, so that they charged at the right moment when they saw it going forward on your breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the cannibals.
Indeed! I thought that the Lady who dwells yonder had something to do with that business. Did you see her, Hans?
Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted the cloth from over her head and when the people of Rezu saw how ugly was the face beneath, it did frighten them a little. But doubtless the Great Medicine put that thought into her also, for, Baas, what could a silly woman do in such a case? Did you ever know of any woman who was of any use in a battle, or for anything else except to nurse babies, and this one does not even do that, no doubt because, being so hideous under that sheet, no man can be found to marry her.
Now I looked up by chance and in the light of the lamps saw Ayesha standing in the room, which she had entered through the open doorway, within six feet of Hans' back indeed.
Be sure Baas,
he went on, that this bundle of rags is nothing but a common old cheat who frightens people by pretending to be a spook, as, if she dared to say that it was she who made those stinking Amahagger charge, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would tell her to her face.
Now I was too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it was fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch,
