Subsequently my wife, this woman's half-sister, was taken ill with dysentery.I also was taken ill with dysentery, but I still live to tell this story before you, O King, and your judges, though I know not for how long I live.My wife died yesterday, and I buried her this morning.I accuse the woman of having murdered her, either by witchcraft or by means of a medicine which she sprinkled on the food, or by both.I have spoken.""Have you anything to say?" asked the king of the prisoner."Are you guilty of the crime whereof this man who was your husband charges you, or does he lie?"Then the woman answered in a low and broken voice:--"I am guilty, King.Listen to my story:" and she told it all as she told it to Hokosa."I am guilty," she added, "and may the Great Man in the sky, of Whom the Messenger has taught us, forgive me.My sister's blood is upon my hands, and for aught I know the blood of my husband yonder will also be on my hands.I seek no mercy; indeed, it is better that I should die; but I would say this in self-defence, that I did not think to kill my sister.I believed that I was giving to her a potion which would cause her husband to hate her and no more."Here she looked round and her eyes met those of Hokosa.
"Who told you that this was so?" asked one of the judges.
"A witch-doctor," she answered, "from whom I bought the medicine in the old days, long ago, when Umsuka was king."Hokosa gasped.Why should this woman have spared him?
No further question was asked of her, and the judges consulted together.At length the king spoke.
