from the thatch of the hut, she took a knife and added a notch to
the many that appeared upon it, looking at Nahoon the while with a
half-questioning, half-warning gaze.

"Yes, yes, it is a place of death," she muttered. "Up yonder the quick
die day by day and down there"--and she pointed along the course of the
river beyond the pool to where the forest began some two hundred yards
from her hut--"the ghosts of them have their home. Listen!"

As she spoke, a sound reached their ears that seemed to swell from
the dim skirts of the forests, a peculiar and unholy sound which it
is impossible to define more accurately than by saying that it seemed
beastlike, and almost inarticulate.

"Listen," repeated the Bee, "they are merry yonder."

"Who?" asked Hadden; "the baboons?"

"No, _Inkoos_, the _Amatongo_--the ghosts that welcome her who has just
become of their number."

"Ghosts," said Hadden roughly, for he was angry at his own tremors, "I
should like to see those ghosts. Do you think that I have never heard
a troop of monkeys in the bush before, mother? Come, Nahoon, let us be
going while there is light to climb the cliff. Farewell."

"Farewell _Inkoos_, and doubt not that your wish will be fulfilled. Go
in peace _Inkoos_--to sleep in peace."