Come back and sit down, Macumazahn. I did not say so. Am I the only ruler of magic in Africa, which I am told is a big country?
I came back and sat down, for my curiosity, a great failing with me, was excited.
Thank you, Zikali,
I said, but I will have no dealings with more of your witch-doctors.
No, no, because you are afraid of them; quite without reason, Macumazahn, seeing that they are all cheats except myself. I am the last child of wisdom, the rest are stuffed with lies, as Chaka found out when he killed every one of them whom he could catch. But perhaps there might be a white doctor who would have rule over white spirits.
If you mean missionaries—
I began hastily.
No, Macumazahn, I do not mean your praying men who are cast in one mould and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say, not thinking for themselves.
Some of them think, Zikali.
Yes, and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings, and speaks through a mask carved by his father's fathers. I am a priest like that which is why all my fellowship have hated me.
If so, you have paid back their hate, Zikali, but cease to cast round the lion like a timid hound, and tell me what you mean. Of whom do you speak?
That is the trouble, Macumazahn. I do not know. This lion, or rather lioness, lies hid in the caves of a very distant mountain and I have never seen her—in the flesh.
Then how can you talk of what you have never seen?
In the same way, Macumazahn, that your priests talk of what they have never seen, because they, or a few of them, have knowledge of it. I will tell you a secret. All seers who live at the same time, if they are great, commune with each other because they are akin and their spirits meet in sleep or dreams. Therefore I know of a mistress of our craft, a very lioness among jackals, who for thousands of years has lain sleeping in the northern caves and, humble though I am, she knows of me.
Quite so,
I said, yawning, but perhaps, Zikali, you will come to the point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she exists will she help me?
