husk, even the smoky yellow eyes dull and uncaring.
He came to Zimbao, the great walled city of the middle kingdom, and the men of Opet were dead. The city like his own body was untenanted, empty and deserted.
Manatassi wrapped himself in a fur kaross and lay down beside the watch fire, and in the morning his body was stiff and cold.
They buried him outside the walls, and then they quarrelled and fought, for Manatassi had named no successor. Each war captain named himself, and the army of Manatassi split into a hundred tribes.
In time Manatassi and the city of Opet faded from the memory of men.
When Xhai the bushman was an old man and he knew he was dying, he came back to Opet. The lake had vanished, its shores were twenty miles from the red cliffs and the waters were brackish and shallow and sunwarmed.
Xhai walked over the spot on which the temple of Baal had stood without recognizing it, until he saw the cleft in the red rock leading to the cavern of Astarte.
He camped beside the pool, building a small fire and sitting over it mumbling to himself in the manner of old men. When his memories paraded before him they were magnified and magnificent, and he sought to capture and fix them.
He picked up his belt on which were strung the little horn pots of pigment, each plugged with a piece of wood, and he went to the wall at the rear of the cavern.
He made the outline of the figure in charcoal upon the smoothest place of the wall. He worked slowly and carefully, with great love.
Then he mixed his pigment and began to paint the proud god-like figure with its white face, red-gold beard and majestic vaunting manhood, and as he worked it seemed as though ghost voices whispered deep in the rock, down in the vault of the kings.
‘Huy, I am cold. Favour me, old friend. Give me the hand of friendship that the oracle foresaw.’
‘I cannot, Lannon. I cannot do it.’
‘I am cold and in pain, Huy. If you love me, you will do it.’
‘I love you.’
‘Fly for me, Bird of the Sun.’
As the old man worked, the wind whispered and sighed along the cliffs, and the sigh was that which a man might make when he has lost his love and his land, has denied his gods and has given mercy to his friend. He might sigh like that as he takes the sword still dulled with his friend’s blood and sets the hilt firmly in a niche of the stone floor and places the point up under his ribs, and falls forward on it.
THE RAND DAILY MAIL
27th May
Death of Multi-Millionaire Financier
Louren Sturvesant Dies of Mystery Disease
BOTSWANA, SATURDAY. The well-known millionaire financier and sportsman, Mr Louren Sturvesant of Kleine Schuur, Sandown, Johannesburg, died here yesterday after a brief illness.
Mr Sturvesant was visiting the site of the recently discovered ancient Carthaginian city in Botswana. The leader of the expedition, Dr Benjamin Kazin, has also contracted the disease which is believed to be infectious.
Dr Kazin has been flown to Johannesburg where a hospital spokesman stated that his condition was critical.
THE FINANCIAL GAZETTE
28th May
Stop
Anglo-Sturvesant Crashes 97 Points
Panic on Exchange
HOLLARD STR. MONDAY. Following reports of the death of Mr Louren Sturvesant, Chairman of Anglo- Sturvesant, quoted prices of the Sturvesant Group of Companies fell sharply on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange today.
THE STAR
3rd June
Famous Archaeologist Regains
Consciousness
JOHANNESBURG, FRIDAY. After ten days in coma, Dr Benjamin Kazin today regained consciousness, according to a hospital spokesman.
Dr Kazin is the Director of the Institute of Anthropology and African Prehistory, and the discoverer of the ancient Carthaginian city of Opet. He was suffering from a rare fungus infection contracted while working on the site of his recent find.
Today Dr Kazin was visited by his assistant, Dr Sally Benator, who said afterwards that Dr Kazin was ‘very much better but still terribly upset by the death of Mr Sturvesant’.
THE STAR
6th September
Well-known Archaeologists Marry
CAPE TOWN, FRIDAY. The discoverer of the city of Opet, Dr Benjamin Kazin, was married to his long-time assistant, Dr Sally Benator, in a brief civil ceremony here today. The bride said that she planned a working
