第76章

To describe it is quite impossible, but, though there was a good deal of tossing of legs and double-shuffling, it seemed to our untutored minds to be more of a play than a dance, and, as usual with this dreadful people, whose minds seem to have taken their color from the caves in which they live, and whose jokes and amusements are drawn from the inexhaustible stores of preserved mortality with which they share their homes, the subject appeared to be a most ghastly one.I know that it represented an attempted murder first of all, and then the burial alive of the victim and his struggling from the grave; each act of the abominable drama, which was carried on in perfect silence, being rounded off and finished with a furious and most revolting dance round the supposed victim, who writhed upon the ground in the red light of the bonfire.

Presently, however, this pleasing piece was interrupted.Suddenly there was a slight commotion, and a large, powerful woman, whom I had noticed as one of the most vigorous of the dancers, came, made mad and drunken with unholy excitement, bounding and staggering towards us, shrieking out as she came:

"I want a black goat, I must have a black goat, bring me a black goat!" and down she fell upon the rocky floor foaming and writhing and shrieking for a black goat, about as hideous a spectacle as can well be conceived.

Instantly most of the dancers came up and got round her, though some still continued their capers in the background.

"She has got a Devil," called out one of them."Run and get a black goat.There, Devil, keep quiet! keep quiet! You shall have the goat presently.They have gone to fetch it, Devil.""I want a black goat, I must have a black goat!"shrieked the foaming, rolling creature again.

"All right, Devil, the goat will be here presently;keep quiet, there's a good Devil!"

And so on till the goat, taken from a neighboring kraal, did at last arrive, being dragged bleating on to the scene by its horns.

"Is it a black one, is it a black one?" shrieked the possessed.

"Yes, yes, Devil, as black as night;" then aside, "keep it behind thee, don't let the Devil see that it has got a white spot on its rump and another on its belly.In one minute, Devil.There, cut his throat quick.Where is the saucer?""The goat! the goat! the goat! Give me the blood of my black goat! I must have it, don't you see I must have it? Oh! oh! oh! give me the blood of the goat."At this moment a terrified _i_ bah! _i_ announced that the poor goat had been sacrificed, and the next minute a woman ran up with a saucer full of the blood.This the possessed creature, who was then raving and foaming her wildest, seized and drank, and was instantly recovered, and without a trace of hysteria, or fits, or being possessed, or whatever dreadful thing it was she was suffering from.She stretched her arms, smiled faintly, and walked quietly back to the dancers, who presently withdrew in a double line as they had come, leaving the space between us and the bonfire deserted.