She and Allan | Page 6

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?"
"I will answer your question backwards, Macumazahn. I think that she
will help you if you help her, in what way I do not know, because
although witch-doctors sometimes work without pay, as I am doing
now, Macumazahn, witch-doctoresses never do. As for her name, the
only one that she has among our company is 'Queen,' because she is the
first of all of them and the most beauteous among women. For the rest I
can tell you nothing, except that she has always been and I suppose, in
this shape or in that, will always be while the world lasts, because she
has found the secret of life unending."
"You mean that she is immortal, Zikali," I answered with a smile.
"I do not say that, Macumazahn, because my little mind cannot shape
the thought of immortality. But when I was a babe, which is far ago,
she had lived so long that scarce would she knew the difference
between then and now, and already in her breast was all wisdom
gathered. I know it, because although, as I have said, we have never
seen each other, at times we walk together in our sleep, for thus she
shares her loneliness, and I think, though this may be but a dream, that
last night she told me to send you on to her to seek an answer to certain
questions which you would put to me to-day. Also to me she seemed to
desire that you should do her a service; I know not what service."
Now I grew angry and asked,
"Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If
there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called /Queen/ lives
and how I am to come to her."
The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me
and with its blade raked our ashes from the fire that always burnt in

front of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random
fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white man whom
he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also of other
matters, none of which interested me much at the time. These ashes he
patted down flat and then on them drew a map with the point of his
spear,