One of them shut the door, leaving Savage on this side of it as though they meant him to be present.

Then they walked towards us, each of them carrying an ornamental basket made apparently of split reeds, that contained doubtless their conjuring outfit and probably the snake which Savage had found in his pocket.

To my surprise they came straight to me, and, having set down the baskets, lifted their hands above their heads, as a person about to dive might do, and bowed till the points of their fingers touched the floor.

Next they spoke, not in Arabic as I had expected that they would, but in Bantu, which of course I understood perfectly well.
"I, Harut, head priest and doctor of the White Kendah People, greet you, O Macumazana," said the elder man.
"I, Marut, a priest and doctor of the People of the White Kendah, greet you, O Watcher-by-night, whom we have travelled far to find," said the younger man.

Then together, "We both greet you, O Lord, who seem small but are great, O Chief with a troubled past and with a mighty future, O Beloved of Mameena who has 'gone down' but still speaks from beneath, Mameena who was and is of our company." At this point it was my turn to shiver and become pale, as any may guess who may have chanced to read the history of Mameena, and the turn of Miss Holmes to watch _me_ with animated interest.
"O Slayer of evil men and beasts!" they went on, in their rich-voiced, monotonous chant, "who, as our magic tells us, are destined to deliver our land from the terrible scourge, we greet you, we bow before you, we acknowledge you as our lord and brother, to whom we vow safety among us and in the desert, to whom we promise a great reward." Again they bowed, once, twice, thrice; then stood silent before me with folded arms.
"What on earth are they saying ?" asked Scroope.