The Mungana is guardian of the dead," she
explained, "and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place of
the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who
were before him."
"Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?"
"The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes," she replied
haughtily. "Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also
the house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when you
please."
"Who built this place?" asked Alan as she led him through more dark and
tortuous passages. "It is very great."
"My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded
to the water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that
was how those white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their
queens. Now they are small and live only by the might and fame of Big
and Little Bonsa, not half filling the rich land which is theirs. But,"
she added reflectively and looking at him, "I think also that this is
because in the past fools have been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas.
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