useful. Then Twemlow was sent, with an escort of chiefs, to the land of

the Houlas, as a medicine-man, to win Queen Mabonga for the great King

Golo. But she--so strange is the perversity of women--beholding this man

of a pearly tint, as fair as the moon, and as soft as a river--for he

took many months to get properly tanned--with one long gaze of amazement

yielded to him what he sought for another. A dwarf and a whipster he

might be among the great darkies around her--for he had only six feet

and one inch of stature, and forty-two inches round the chest--but, to

her fine taste, tone and quality more than covered defect of quantity.

The sight of male members of her race had never moved her, because she

had heard of their wickedness; but the gaze of this white man, so tender

and so innocent, set her on a long course of wondering about herself.

Then she drew back, and passed into the private hut behind, where no one

was allowed to disturb her. For she never had felt like this before, and

she wanted nobody to notice it.

But the Houla maidens, with the deepest interest in matters that came

home to them outside their understanding, held council with their

mothers, and these imparted to the angelic stranger, as plainly as

modesty permitted, the distressing results of his whiteness, and

implored him to depart, before further harm was done. Twemlow perceived

that he had tumbled into a difficult position, and the only way out of

it was to make off. Giving pledges to return in two moons at the latest,

he made his salaam to the sensitive young Queen, whose dignity was

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