guest the Pig had scorned, they would have followed the ancient custom
of the land, and eaten the fat black stranger who came hither with these
thy guests the Baboon and the Lion who is sick, thinking that no word
had come from thee about the Black one. But when the Baboon and the Lion
saw what they would do, they slew the woman, and slew also their servant
to save him from the horror of the pot. Then those evil ones, ay, those
children of the Wicked One who lives in the Pit, they went mad with the
lust of blood, and flew at the throats of the Lion and the Baboon and
the Pig. But gallantly they fought. Oh _Hiya_! they fought like very
men, and slew many, and held their own, and then I came and saved them,
and the evildoers have I sent on hither to Kôr to be judged of thy
greatness, oh _She_! and here they are."

"Ay, old man, I know it, and to-morrow will I sit in the great hall and
do justice upon them, fear not. And for thee, I forgive thee, though
hardly. See that thou dost keep thine household better. Go."

Billali rose upon his knees with astonishing alacrity, bowed his head
thrice, and his white beard sweeping the ground, crawled down the
apartment as he had crawled up it, till he finally vanished through the
curtains, leaving me, not a little to my alarm, alone with this terrible
but most fascinating person.



XIII

AYESHA UNVEILS

"There," said _She_, "he has gone, the white-bearded old fool! Ah, how