during illness--and that gifts would be received. His wives and friends
and slaves brought rum, rods, clothes, goats, and fowls, and there
ensued a week of drinking, dancing, and fighting, worse than Mary had
yet seen.

In the midst of it all she moved, helpless and lonely, and somewhat
sad, yet not without faith in a better time,




IX. SORCERY IN THE PATH

A more extraordinary instance of superstition occurred soon after. A
chief in the vicinity, noted far and wide for his ferocity, intimated
that he was coming to Ekenge on a visit. It meant trouble for the
women, and she prayed earnestly that he might be deterred from his
purpose. But he duly appeared, and throwing all her anxiety upon God,
she faced him calm and unafraid. Days and nights of wild licence
followed, accompanied by an outcrop of disputes, most of which were
brought to her to settle.

One morning she found the guest drunk to excess, but determined to
return at once to his village. His freemen and slaves were beyond
control, and soon the place was in an uproar: swords were drawn, guns
were fired, the excitement reached fever heat. With a courage that
seemed reckless she hustled them into order and hurried them off and
accompanied them for the protection of the villages through which they
must pass. She was able to prevent more drink being supplied to them,
and all went well until, at one point on the bush track, they came upon