"'Nay, Macumazahn' (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man
who 'gets up by night,' or who 'is always awake'), 'I know not where he
is.'

"But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
Hottentot.

"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'go down to the water and bring me of those
green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.'

"'Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the
water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*]
told it me.'

[*] _Isanusi_, witch-finder.

"Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.

"'Must I go myself, thou fool?' I said, sternly.

"'Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.'

"And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
watercresses, of which I ate greedily.

"'Art thou not hungry?' I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat