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LLL m——————a“ Lavguing Boy 299 unhappy among them. Even so was he. He was rejoining his people in the presence of the gods. Ah, if she could have been here! The singing grew louder, the triumphant songs. Now he could make out the words. They were completing the magic of the tufted wands. He drew rein a few yards from one of the camp-fires, tasting again the sense of his isolation. Then he dismounted. Only a few people remained outside the circle, but he found a hospitable pot of broth, some chunks of mutton still in it, bread to dip, and coffee. ‘Where do you come from, Grandfather?’ the woman asked. ‘From Chiziai.’ ‘Where are you going?’ ‘To this dance.’ ‘That is a good saddle-blanket; who made it?’ ‘My wife, she weaves well.’ ‘Is she here?’ ‘No, she stayed behind.’ ITI The brush fence enclosed an oval some forty feet across, in the centre of which blazed the bon- fire, higher than a tall man. All around the edge sat people, several hundreds of them; they were

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