Yet they did not run, because of their great wonder, only they walked backward before me, clinging each to each and saying nothing.

I too came on silently, till at length I reached the kraal, and before its gates sat the old woman basking in the sun of the afternoon.

Presently she looked up and cried:-- "'What ails you, people of my house, that you walk backwards like men bewitched, and who is that tall and deathly man who comes toward you ?' "But still they drew on backward, saying no word, the little children clinging to the women, the women clinging to the men, till they had passed the old wife and ranged themselves behind her like a regiment of soldiers.

Then they halted against the fence of the kraal.

But I came on to the old woman, and lifted him who sat upon my shoulders, and placed him on the ground before her, saying, 'Woman, here is your son; I have snatched him with much toil from the jaws of the ghosts--and they are many up yonder--all save one foot, which I could not find.