You did not come through that gate to quote to me the wisdom of your holy book.

What is it, _Baba_?
Be quick, for my Snake is getting very tired.

He wishes to go back to his hole in the world beneath." "Well, then," I answered in rather a shamefaced fashion, for Mavovo had an uncanny way of seeing into one's secret motives, "I should like to know, if you can tell me, which you can't, what has become of the white man with the long beard whom you black people call Dogeetah?
He should have been here to go on this journey with us; indeed, he was to be our guide and we cannot find him.

Where is he and why is he not here ?" "Have you anything about you that belonged to Dogeetah, Macumazana ?" "No," I answered; "that is, yes," and from my pocket I produced the stump of pencil that Brother John had given me, which, being economical, I had saved up ever since.

Mavovo took it, and after considering it carefully as he had done in the case of the feathers, swept up a pile of ashes with his horny hand from the edge of the largest of the little fires, that indeed which had represented myself.