Get you gone!" The warriors stared and murmured, for by those words, wittingly or unwittingly, their general had confessed his faith, and that day they made ribald songs about him in the camp.

But on the morrow when they learned how that the man whom the prince spared had been seized by a lion and taken away as he sat at night with his companions in the bivouac, his mouth full of boasting of his own courage in offering insult to the prince and the new faith, then they looked at each other askance and said little more of the matter.

Doubtless it was chance, and yet this Spirit Whom the Messenger preached was one of Whom it seemed wisest not to speak lightly.
But still the trouble grew, for by now the witch-doctors, with Hokosa at the head of them, were frightened for their place and power, and fomented it both openly and in secret.

Of the women they asked what would become of them when men were allowed to take but one wife?
Of the heads of kraals, how they would grow wealthy when their daughters ceased to be worth cattle?
Of the councillors and generals, how the land could be protected from its foes when they were commanded to lay down the spear?
Of the soldiers, whose only trade was war, how it would please them to till the fields like girls?
Dismay took hold of the nation, and although they were much loved, there was open talk of killing or driving away the king and Nodwengo who favoured the white man, and of setting up Hafela in their place.
At length the crisis came, and in this fashion.

The Amasuka, like many other African tribes, had a strange veneration for certain varieties of snakes which they declared to be possessed by the spirits of their ancestors.