Adventure Magazine Cover — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

Kos, the Witch-Doctor companions, out of curiosity, went out to see what the matter was and were very much amused to find him strutting up and down before the herd, chest puffed up and arms waving, urging and pleading with them in @ very oratorical manner, whilst his bovine audience chewed its cud placidly and lowed for water. He passed from the small-boy tank to the big-boy rank by sheer virility. He was never known to fight with sticks, but al- ways hit every one with his closed fist, with the thumb showing between his first and second finger. Every few days he would kill several snakes, and, cutting their heads off, would skilfully take out their poison sacs and swallow them one after the other—being careful that they did not touch his teeth and break—after which he claimed if he hit any one a big ago ngona would rise up, which in English means a bump; and in most cases his predictions were painfully fulfilled, as the appearance of his victims fully attested and proved. Later he took to mixing herbs which were very potent and very effective. There was the mystery of the dry cows in the morning. Night after night a watch was kept, but the midnight milker was never seen or caught until Kos was called into consultation. After the consultation Kos went out to where the herd was graz- ing and asked to be shown which of the cat- tle had been robbed of their milk. These were pointed out to him. He requested that they be driven out for his inspection, and it was done so. He walked around each and every one of them; they numbered about thirty. After this mspection he went away and was not seen for several days. When he came back to the kraal he ordered that a dozen lots of fires be built ready to be set alight, some inside the kraal and others out- side; also between each fire he ordered that a stake be driven into the ground. The community laughed; but the firewood was brought up and fashioned ready for the torch and the stakes were driven into the ground even as he ordered. ~~ Kos took with him half a dozen stalwart abafan (boys); and at sundown he and the abafam returned, each carrying a sontete or secretary-bird. The community tittered when they saw the birds. Kos took no no- tice, but had two of the birds tied with a 95 thong rope by a leg to a stake inside the kraal. The other four were treated in the same way outside the kraal between the unlit fires. Kos dismissed the abafon and laid a trail of fat very thickly from one lot of wood to the other, making an invisible chain that joined them all. He went inside the kraal and into the abafans’ hut and had his meal whilst his comrades asked him was he going to fly that night. Kos’ only answer was si- lence as he ate on. The usual arguments and discussion went: on among the abafan until they became tired and went to sieep. At midnight the kraal woke up suddenly to the sounds of cracking and burning wood. The immediate vicinity was a blazing red inferno. Outside of the kraal a streak of flame ran a short distance, stopped, then shot out again and ran and stopped and ran on again until it circled the whole kraal Tt was Kos’ trail of fat joining fire-lot to fire-lot. Each fire caught aflame and grew ablaze until the whole kraal was lighted by a wall of fire which lit up the whole space around like daylight. The cattle in the st bayi (cattle corral) were restive. Kos dashed in the gate from lighting the trail of the fires outside and ran like a mad thing to the first secretary- bird, which seemed very excited. He un- tied it. ~The bird stalked majestically toward the stockade that enclosed the cattle. Kos straightened up, and in a voice. that was heard above the furnace like roars of the fires he spoke: “You dogs who laughed at me, you know nothing. Look there at the bottom of the stockade. There are the things that have been stealing the milk from your children so you could not make amsz. Look, I say.” Those on that side looked and saw oozing out of the foundation and between the-pa!- ings three huge pythons with their hard cold eyes shining, their forked tongues dart- ing in and out of their mouths. The snakes saw their enemy, the secretary-bird, tow- ering above them. With accelerated speed they pulled out their thick, rope-like bodies faster from between the palings. *The sontete leaped into the air and landed hard on one of the reptiles’ heads, tearing out an eye and splitting the head m twain. There was a shout from the other side as a dozen or more reptiles oozed through the palings. * Vouched for by author, COMICOOOLK (C@