Evidently it was a kind of sacrament.
Ragnall lifted himself a little upon his hands and knees, and I saw that his eyes glowed and his face was very pale.
"What are you going to do ?" I asked.
"Demand that those people give me back my wife, whom they have stolen.
Don't try to stop me, Quatermain, I mean what I say." "But, but," I stammered, "they never will and we are but three unarmed men." Hans lifted up his little yellow face between us.
"Baas," he hissed, "I have a thought.

The Lord Baas wishes to get the lady dressed like a bird as to her head and like one for burial as to her body, who is, he says, his wife.

But for us to take her from among so many is impossible.

Now what did that old witch-doctor Harut declare just now?
He declared, speaking for his fetish, that by our help alone the White Kendah can resist the hosts of the Black Kendah and that no harm must be done to us if the White Kendah would continue to live.

So it seems, Baas, that we have something to sell which the White Kendah must buy, namely our help against the Black Kendah, for if we will not fight for them, they believe that they cannot conquer their enemies and kill the devil Jana.