XIV. UMBEZI AND THE BLOOD-ROYAL
XV. MAMEENA CLAIMS THE KISS
XVI. MAMEENA--MAMEENA--MAMEENA!




CHAPTER I



ALLAN QUATERMAIN HEARS OF MAMEENA


We white people think that we know everything. For instance, we think
that we understand human nature. And so we do, as human nature appears
to us, with all its trappings and accessories seen dimly through the
glass of our conventions, leaving out those aspects of it which we have
forgotten or do not think it polite to mention. But I, Allan
Quatermain, reflecting upon these matters in my ignorant and uneducated
fashion, have always held that no one really understands human nature
who has not studied it in the rough. Well, that is the aspect of it
with which I have been best acquainted.

For most of the years of my life I have handled the raw material, the
virgin ore, not the finished ornament that is smelted out of it--if,
indeed, it is finished yet, which I greatly doubt. I dare say that a
time may come when the perfected generations--if Civilisation, as we
understand it, really has a future and any such should be allowed to
enjoy their hour on the World--will look back to us as crude,