One of the women told me about the plan--not with
any intent to warn me of danger, but prompted merely by feminine
curiosity as to whether or not I would bleed if stuck with a dagger.
She could not wait, it seemed, for the orderly procedure of the
ordeal--she wanted to know at once, and when I caught her trying
to slip a knife into my side and questioned her she explained the
whole thing with the utmost naivete. The warriors already had
commenced drinking--it would have been futile to make any sort of
appeal either to their intellects or their superstitions. There
was but one alternative to death and that was flight. I told the
woman that I was very much outraged and offended at this reflection
upon my godhood and that as a mark of my disfavor I should abandon
them to their fate.
"'I shall return to heaven at once!' I exclaimed.
"She wanted to hang around and see me go, but I told her that her
eyes would be blasted by the fire surrounding my departure and
that she must leave at once and not return to the spot for at least
an hour. I also impressed upon her the fact that should any other
approach this part of the village within that time not only they,
but she as well, would burst into flames and be consumed.
"She was very much impressed and lost no time in leaving, calling
back as she departed that if I were indeed gone in an hour she and
all the village would know that I was no less than Jad-ben-Otho
himself, and so they must thank me, for I can assure you that I was
gone in much less than an hour, nor have I ventured close to the
neighborhood of the city of Bu-lur since," and he fell to laughing
in harsh, cackling notes that sent a shiver through the woman's
frame.
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