"
"It is hospitality turned upside down," I answered feebly. "In our
country we entertain a stranger, and give him food to eat. Here ye eat
him, and are entertained."
"It is a custom," he answered, with a shrug. "Myself I think it an evil
one; but then," he added by an afterthought, "I do not like the taste
of strangers, especially after they have wandered through the swamps and
lived on wild-fowl. When _She-who-must-be-obeyed_ sent orders that ye
were to be saved alive she said naught of the black man, therefore,
being hyaenas, these men lusted after his flesh, and the woman it was,
whom thou didst rightly slay, who put it into their evil hearts to
hot-pot him. Well, they will have their reward. Better for them would it
be if they had never seen the light than that they should stand before
_She_ in her terrible anger. Happy are those of them who died by your
hands."
"Ah," he went on, "it was a gallant fight that ye fought. Knowest thou
that, long-armed old baboon that thou art, thou hast crushed in the ribs
of those two who are laid out there as though they were but as the shell
on an egg? And the young one, the lion, it was a beautiful stand that
he made--one against so many--three did he slay outright, and that one
there"--and he pointed to a body that was still moving a little--"will
die anon, for his head is cracked across, and others of those who are
bound are hurt.
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