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In his hand he carried a bag made by cutting the skin of a wild cat around the neck, and then tearing it off the body as one skins an eel. As Shasha advanced quivering towards Vooda in short, abrupt springs, all the things hanging about him clashed and rattled together.
I can, by my magic medicines, find out the wicked ones who do these things. I can make men invulnerable in battle with my medicines, and I can cause the enemies of my Chief to run like a bush-buck pursued by dogs." The speech ended, Shasha again bowed down, quivering and contorting, beat the ground with his hands and the soles of his feet and then sprang aside into the darkness.
He then asked Shasha to approach, warning him to be very careful, as the serpents might be dangerous. After the experience with the potassium, such a warning to Shasha was quite a work of supererogation. He came forward with hesitating steps, and stood behind Vooda, watching. Vooda had a small quantity of lycopodium powder in his left hand.
Shasha suddenly drew himself straight up, and chanted in a sing-song voice, rattling his charms at every period: "I am the ruler of the baboons and the master of the owls. I talk to the wild cat in the hush. I make sickness do my bidding on men and cattle. I drive it away when I like. I can bring blight to the crops, and stop the milk of cows.
Shasha did exactly what Vooda anticipated he looked carefully at the shred of metal, and lifted it to his mouth, meaning to test it with his teeth. When, however, the potassium touched the saliva, it blazed up, and the unhappy war-doctor spat it out with a fearful yell. His lips and tongue were severely burnt.
"You have, no doubt, brought the water with you in a bottle," said Shasha, the war-doctor, with a sneer in his voice. He was evidently thinking of paraffin. "No, O most potent controller of baboons," said Vooda, "I will, on the contrary, ask you to get me some water for the purpose, in a vessel of your own choice."
"What is this thing that frightens a man who is the father of children?" "We, also, have our magic," said Sololo, glancing at Shasha, the war-doctor. Shasha came forward in a half-crouching attitude, and approached Vooda, who appeared to be very much impressed. The war-doctor's appearance was startling enough. He was an elderly man of hideous aspect. On his head he wore a high cap of baboon skin.
Now, if a bullet such as this be shot into a river, the water blazes up and consumes the land." "Give it to me that I may examine it," said Shasha. Vooda handed a small paring of the potassium to the war-doctor, saying; "Be very careful, O you-whom-the-owls-obey-in-the-dark, because it is dangerous stuff."
At daylight next morning Vooda left the police camp, but it was late in the afternoon when he reached the kraal of Sololo. He found a. number of strangers there, including Shasha, the "inyanga," or war doctor. The men, all of whom were armed, were sitting on the ground in a half-circle. Before them stood a number of large earthen pots of beer.
Shasha went to one of the huts and returned with a small earthen pot full of water, which he placed on the ground near the fire. Vooda look the lump of potassium which he had cut into the form of a large conical bullet, from his pocket, and advanced to where the chief was sitting.
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