Undo the mat and let me look at it." "Now, my father, I tell you that the marrow melted in my bones with terror, for if I undid the mat I feared he must see the child and then--" "It is tagati, it is bewitched, O king.

It is not wise to look on medicine." "Open!" he answered angrily.

"What?
may I not look at that which I am forced to swallow--I, who am the first of doctors ?" "Death is the king's medicine," I answered, lifting the bundle, and laying it as far from him in the shadow of the fence as I dared.

Then I bent over it, slowly undoing the rimpis with which it was tied, while the sweat of terror ran down by face blinding me like tears.

What would I do if he saw the child?
What if the child awoke and cried?
I would snatch the assegai from his hand and stab him! Yes, I would kill the king and then kill myself! Now the mat was unrolled.