the contorted skeletal arms
seemed to wave a macabre salutation as they passed. The indunas
were bathed in sweat, despite the cool gloom, and their
expressions were awed and sickly.
Tanase and the child followed the twisting pathway with
unerring familiarity, and came out at last above a deep natural
amphitheatre. A single ray of sunlight burned down from a narrow
crack in the domed cavern roof. On the floor of the amphitheatre
was an open fireplace, and a tendril of pale blue smoke twisted
slowly upwards towards the opening high above. Tanase and the
child led them down the rock steps to the smooth sandy floor of
the amphitheatre, and at her gesture the four indunas sank down
gratefully and squatted facing the smouldering fire.
Tanase released the child’s hand, and sat a little to
one side and behind the men. The child crossed to the far wall
and took a handful of herbs from one of the big round clay pots
that stood there. She threw the handful upon the fire and
immediately a great yellow cloud of acrid smoke billowed upwards,
and as it slowly cleared, the indunas started and exclaimed with
superstitious dread.
A grotesque figure faced them from across the flames. It was
an albino, with silver-white leprous skin. It was a woman, for
the great pale breasts were massively pendulous, the nipples a
painful boiled pink colour. She was stark naked and her dense
public bush was white as frost-struck winter grass, and above it
her belly hung in loose balconies of fat. Her forehead was low
and sloped backwards, her mouth was wide and thin so that she
appeared toadlike. Across her broad and flattened nose and her
pale cheeks, the unpigmented skin had erupted in a tender raw
rash. Her thickened forearms were folded across her belly and her
thighs, splotched with large ginger-coloured freckles, were
wide-spread as she knelt on a mat of zebra skin and regarded the
men before her fixedly.
‘I see you, oh Chosen One,’ Somabula greeted her.
Despite an enormous effort of will, his voice trembled.
The Umlimo made no response, and Somabula rocked back on his
heels and was silent. The girl-child was busy amongst the pots,
and now she came forward and knelt beside the gross albino,
proffering the clay pipe she had prepared.
The Umlimo took the long reed stem between her thin silvery
lips, and the girl lifted a live coal from the fire with her bare
hands and placed it on the vegetable ball in the bowl of the
pipe. It began to glow and splutter and the Umlimo drew a slow
lungful and then let the aromatic smoke trickle out of her simian
nostrils. Immediately the heavy sweetish odour of insanghu carried to the waiting men.
The oracle was induced in different ways. Before Tanase had
lost the power, it had descended spontaneously upon her, throwing
her into convulsive fits, while the spirit voices struggled to
escape from her throat. However, this grotesque successor had to
resort to the wild hemp pipe. The seeds and flowers of the Cannabis sativa plant, crushed in the green and moulded
into sun-dried balls, were her key to the spirit world.
She smoked quietly, a dozen short inhalations without allowing
the smoke to escape, holding it in until her pale face seemed to
swell and the pink pupils of her eyes glazed over. Then she
expelled the smoke with an explosive exhalation, and started
again. The indunas watched her with such fascination that they
did not at first notice the soft scratching sound on the cavern
floor. It was Bazo who at last started and grunted with shock,
and involuntarily grasped his father’s forearm. Gandang
exclaimed and began to rise in horror and alarm, but
Tanase’s voice arrested him.
‘Do not move. It is dangerous,’ she whispered
urgently, and Gandang sank back and froze into stillness.
From the dark recesses in the back of the cavern a
lobster-like creature scuttled across the pale sandy floor
towards where the Umlimo squatted. The firelight glinted on
seemed to wave a macabre salutation as they passed. The indunas
were bathed in sweat, despite the cool gloom, and their
expressions were awed and sickly.
Tanase and the child followed the twisting pathway with
unerring familiarity, and came out at last above a deep natural
amphitheatre. A single ray of sunlight burned down from a narrow
crack in the domed cavern roof. On the floor of the amphitheatre
was an open fireplace, and a tendril of pale blue smoke twisted
slowly upwards towards the opening high above. Tanase and the
child led them down the rock steps to the smooth sandy floor of
the amphitheatre, and at her gesture the four indunas sank down
gratefully and squatted facing the smouldering fire.
Tanase released the child’s hand, and sat a little to
one side and behind the men. The child crossed to the far wall
and took a handful of herbs from one of the big round clay pots
that stood there. She threw the handful upon the fire and
immediately a great yellow cloud of acrid smoke billowed upwards,
and as it slowly cleared, the indunas started and exclaimed with
superstitious dread.
A grotesque figure faced them from across the flames. It was
an albino, with silver-white leprous skin. It was a woman, for
the great pale breasts were massively pendulous, the nipples a
painful boiled pink colour. She was stark naked and her dense
public bush was white as frost-struck winter grass, and above it
her belly hung in loose balconies of fat. Her forehead was low
and sloped backwards, her mouth was wide and thin so that she
appeared toadlike. Across her broad and flattened nose and her
pale cheeks, the unpigmented skin had erupted in a tender raw
rash. Her thickened forearms were folded across her belly and her
thighs, splotched with large ginger-coloured freckles, were
wide-spread as she knelt on a mat of zebra skin and regarded the
men before her fixedly.
‘I see you, oh Chosen One,’ Somabula greeted her.
Despite an enormous effort of will, his voice trembled.
The Umlimo made no response, and Somabula rocked back on his
heels and was silent. The girl-child was busy amongst the pots,
and now she came forward and knelt beside the gross albino,
proffering the clay pipe she had prepared.
The Umlimo took the long reed stem between her thin silvery
lips, and the girl lifted a live coal from the fire with her bare
hands and placed it on the vegetable ball in the bowl of the
pipe. It began to glow and splutter and the Umlimo drew a slow
lungful and then let the aromatic smoke trickle out of her simian
nostrils. Immediately the heavy sweetish odour of insanghu carried to the waiting men.
The oracle was induced in different ways. Before Tanase had
lost the power, it had descended spontaneously upon her, throwing
her into convulsive fits, while the spirit voices struggled to
escape from her throat. However, this grotesque successor had to
resort to the wild hemp pipe. The seeds and flowers of the Cannabis sativa plant, crushed in the green and moulded
into sun-dried balls, were her key to the spirit world.
She smoked quietly, a dozen short inhalations without allowing
the smoke to escape, holding it in until her pale face seemed to
swell and the pink pupils of her eyes glazed over. Then she
expelled the smoke with an explosive exhalation, and started
again. The indunas watched her with such fascination that they
did not at first notice the soft scratching sound on the cavern
floor. It was Bazo who at last started and grunted with shock,
and involuntarily grasped his father’s forearm. Gandang
exclaimed and began to rise in horror and alarm, but
Tanase’s voice arrested him.
‘Do not move. It is dangerous,’ she whispered
urgently, and Gandang sank back and froze into stillness.
From the dark recesses in the back of the cavern a
lobster-like creature scuttled across the pale sandy floor
towards where the Umlimo squatted. The firelight glinted on
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