Adventure Magazine Cover — page 97: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Kos, the Witch-Doctor he had kept peace with the near-by tribes and had prospered with his own tribe at the same time. Greatness knows no limita- tions; and in this instance a really great man had passed away, and in a dim way the warriors were conscious of this. I V4) IN THE early dawn of the next day fg ) the dead king’s body was removed ™ trom his kraal and the torch applied to the hut, as is the custom, in order that his spirit should not bother the people around. His immediate household, wives, sons and daughters, sat around in a great circle rocking to and fro and chanting in a droning and moaning tone, “U sisza U file.” ANGLO- EGYPTIAN : Suvuoan ae s OAT GLILAGE TN SOMEWHERE NEAR THE SMALL CIRCLE IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA IS THE KRAAL OF KOS THE WITCH-DOCTOR (The king is dead) over and over again un- til the sun was mid-morning high, when a great funeral processiom was formed. The king’s body was bundled up like a sack of potatoes and was carried away by half a dozen stalwart princes who had journeyed overnight from different parts of the coun- try when the message of the drums had been received. The sango was choked with people and watriors who had come from afar to pay homage to the dead king. The surrounding country was dotted everywhere with small OI bands of mourners as they made their way to the kraal. The silence was stupendous, and made one feel as if a great calamity had overtaken the whole world. As the stalwart warrior-princes swung through the gate voices of lamentation were heard— “Naku ya naku ya ah! Ametuna nkosi yetul” (There it goes, there it goes! Oh, pity our king, our king!) The king’s large family followed behind the pall-bearers, and then the chamber- lains, princes of the blood, councilors, ma- pakait, indunas and a whole throng of war- riors; and so up by a hillside by some rocks. There, where a hole deep but not too deep had been dug, the king was laid to rest in a squatting position facing the east. His pipe and spears, sticks and shield, were put in with him and earth rubble was thrown over him. His first wife could hardly contain her- self and had to be carried away by the other wives on the order of the new king, who as soon as the earth had covered his father made his formal address at the side of the freshly covered grave: Ndi yt nkos ngo ku. Thlanga letu liza. Ku kula kunye.” (Iam the king now. Our tribe from now on will be great. All to- gether—Songela!) | “But,” continued Songela, the new king, “first it must be found out who bewitched the king, your father. The witch-doctors are here; let them by their magic smell out the witch who killed my father and yours, right now.” The princes, councilors, mapakati, ii- dumnas and others looked at each other with admiration in their eyes, nodded their heads and said the umfan (boy) was like his father, ‘wise; yes, very wise.” There were hundreds of witch-doctors present, but only two who were masters of their craft. These lesser ones immediately threw their stones on the ground and picked them up and examined them. The thou- sands of natives gathered there paid them perfunctory attention. Kos meanwhile had been gathering wood and had laid out about eight piles of it in a form like this: * * * K * Then from his fur bag that he had brought | along with him he brought out a round stone with a shallow hole in its center, put CORMICLOO SS (C@