383 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN. CHAPTER XII. ROYAL OBSEQUIES. On the followîng mornîng the tovvn of Kazonndé prcscnted an aspect of unwonted désolation. Awe-struck at the event of the previous evenîng, the natives had all shut themselves up in thcir huts. That a monarch who was to be assumed as of divine origin should perish with one of his ministcrs by so horrible a dcath was a thing wholly unparallcled in thcir expérience. Some of the elder part of the community rcmcmbcred havfng takcn part in certain cannibal préparations, and wcre aware that the crémation of a human body is no casy mattcr, yct hcre was a case in which two men had bccn all but uttcriy consumed without any extraneous application. Hère was a mystery that baffled all their compréhension. Old Alvez had also retired to the scclusion of his own résidence ; having been warned by Negoro that hc would probiibly be hcld responsible for the occurrence, he deemed ît prudent to keep in retiremcnt. Mcanwhilc Negoro industriously circulatcd the report that the king's death had bccn brought about by supernatural means rescrved by the great Manitoo solcly for his elect, and that it was sacrcd fire that had procccdcd from his body. The superstitions natives rcadily reccivcd this version of the affair, and at once procccdcd to honour Moeno Loonga with funeral rites worthy of one thus conspicuously clevated to the rank of the gods. The ceremony (which entailed an expenditure of human blood incredible exccpt that it 25 authenticated by Cameron and othcr African travellcrs)
