ALL that afternoon we travelled on along the magnificent roadway,which headed steadily in a northwesterly direction.Infadoos and Scragga walked with us,but their followers marched about one hundred paces ahead.
"Infadoos,"I said at length,"who made this road?""It was made,my lord,of old time,none knew how or when,not even the wise woman,Gagool,who has lived for generations.We are not old enough to remember its making.None can make such roads now,but the king lets no grass grow upon it.""And whose are the writings on the walls of the caves through which we have passed on the road?"I asked,referring to the Egyptian-like Sculptures we had seen.
"My lord,the hands that made the road wrote the wonderful writings.
We know not who wrote.them."
"When did the Kukuana race come into this country?""My lord,the race came down here like the breath of a storm ten thousand thousand moons ago,from the great lands which lie there beyond,"and he pointed to the north."They could travel no farther,so say the old voices of our fathers that have come down to us,the children,and so says Gagool,the wise woman,the smeller-out of witches;because of the great mountains which ring in the land,"and he pointed to the snow-clad peaks."The country,too,was good,so they settled here and grew strong and powerful,and now our numbers are like the sea sand,and when Twala the king calls up his regiments their plumes cover the plain as far as the eye of man can reach.""And if the land is walled in with mountains,who is there for the regiments to fight with?""Nay,my lord,the country is open there,"and again he pointed towards the north,"and now and again warriors sweep down upon us in clouds from a land we know not,and we slay them.It is the third part of the life of a man since there was a war.Many thousands died in it,but we destroyed those who came to eat us up.So,since then there has been no war.""Your warriors must grow weary of resting on their spears.""My lord,there was one war,just after we destroyed the people that came down upon us,but it was a civil war -dog eat dog.""How was that?"
"My lord,the king,my half-brother,had a brother born at the same birth and of the same woman.It is not our custom,my lord,to let twins live;the weakest must always die.But the mother of the king hid away the weakest child,which was born the last,for her heart yearned over it,and the child is Twala the king.I am his younger brother born of another wife.""My lord,Kafa,our father,died when we came to manhood,and my brother Imotu was made king in his place,and for a space reigned and had a son by his favorite wife.When the babe was three years old,just after the great war,during which no man could sow or reap,a famine came upon the land,and the people murmured because of the famine,and looked round like a starved lion for something to rend.Then it was that Gagool,the wise and terrible woman,who does not die,proclaimed to the people,saying,`The king Imotu is no king.'And at the time Imotu was sick with a wound,and lay in his hut not able to move.
"Then Gagool went into a hut and led out Twala,my half-brother,and the twin brother of the king,whom she had hidden since he was born among the caves and rocks,and,stripping the `moocha'(waist-cloth)off his loins,showed the people of the Kukuanas the mark of the sacred snake coiled round his waist,wherewith the eldest son of the king is marked at birth,and cried out loud,`Behold,your king,whom I have saved for you even to this day!'And the people,being mad with hunger and altogether.
bereft of reason and the knowledge of truth.cried out,`The king!The king!'but I knew that it was not so,for Imotu,my brother,was the elder of the twins,and was the lawful king.And just as the tumult was at its height Imotu the king,though he was very sick,came crawling from his hut holding his wife by the hand,and followed by his little son Ignosi (the lightning).
"'What is this noise?'he asked;`Why cry ye The king!The king!'
