Vernoon, five centuries have gone by since an Asika was really wed to a foreign man who wore a green turban and called himself a son of the Prophet, a man with a hooked nose and flashing eyes, who reviled our gods until they slew him, even though he was the beloved of their priestess.

She who went before me also would have married that white man whose face was like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather Little Bonsa fled with him.

So she passed away unwed, and in her place I came." "How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your mother ?" asked Alan.
"What is that to you, white man ?" she replied haughtily.

"I am here, as my spirit has been here from the first.

Oh! I see you think I lie to you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the beginning have been the husbands of the Asika," and rising from her chair she took him by the hand.
They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to great gates guarded by old priests armed with spears.