There was a great bowl of palm-wine, mixed in the royal fashion, that is, stiffened with human blood. We all did drink of this, as the first step of the rite, and we drank freely of it throughout.
Also was there the wicker vat that contained human grease. I removed my ornaments and my loin-cloth, and Calandola nodded to two of his man-witches, who begreased me thoroughly with this stuff, leaving no inch of my nakedness unoiled. All the others in the group also submitted themselves to this greasing. At the first I found the reek of it loathsome, and the slipperiness disagreeable, but after some short time I ceased to notice it.
Now the Imbe-Jaqqa turned to me and said, “Swear to me, by wind and sky and the bones of the great mother, that what occurs here will remain forever secret. And if you violate this oath, your body will crumble and you will be eaten upon forever by ants, but you will remain eternally alive while they do eat. Swear upon this!”
And he did put into my hand a talisman, that was carved from some ebon-black wood of great weight, and was in the form of a yard and a pair of ballocks. This I gripped by the middle of the yard, and he said, “Do you swear?”
“I so swear,” I replied. “By wind and sky and the bones of the great mother, that I will divulge to no man what occurs in this house today.”
So did I swear. Yet am I telling all, in setting down these words. And if I am to be eaten forever by ants, so be it, but I have sworn unto myself a higher oath, to be true in all that I relate of my adventurings. I think that oath does take precedence above my oath to Imbe Calandola. And I shall tell you all.
Having sworn, I was given to drink a cup that contained some bitter fluid, a potion made from certain dried roots and leaves, I know not which. Swallowing this stuff was not easy. Before long I grew flushed and mine eyes refused to serve me properly, but showed me everything in double or triple. And I felt a great strange uprushing with my brain, as though I had become a copious waterfall that rose heavenward, and poured and poured into the sky. And my hearing grew more sensitive, so that the drums and fifes outside grew swollen and immense, and I could detect also the little harsh chittering sounds of insects, and—so I thought—the whispering noise made by the growing of the grass. And flaming colors streamed in the air, a wild blazing torrent of red and green and purple banners that had no substance, but only hue.
As I sat muddled and dazzled by these things, all the others began to dance most threateningly about me and about Imbe Calandola, who sat by my side. They waved their arms and shook their fists and lifted their feet as though to kick me, but they never once touched me, and only kept churning round and round me. This part lasted some long time.
Then I drank again, a cooling draught out of a new cup of high burnish, that had the figure of a male member rising from it on the one handle, and the shape of the female parts on the other, with long lips extended. When I had had my drink of it, Calandola took it from me, and drank also. This beverage we had had, he told me, was a kind of strong wine into which the dried powder of the sex parts of a dead witch had been sprinkled. What, you recoil? Aye, so do I, now. But I tell you I did not find it strange just then, or in any way displeasing.
Now everyone danced once more, and I with them, hard put to keep my legs from tangling; but they gripped me by my wrists and drew me along as we pranced around the circle, faster and faster, to louder and louder music. They sang all the while, in a language I did not know, which I took to be some holy kind of Latin that these people spoke in their rites.
At the end of the dance we fell down exhausted to the ground. The man-witches lit a fire, and threw powders on it to make colors rise like ghostly phantoms in the air, and for a long while there was a chanting in a low mumbled way. Their voices never left the same one or two tones, as they said again Yumbe yumbe nimbe hongon, or words much like that. By the ten thousandth repeating of it I was saying it along with them, Yumbe yumbe nimbe hongon, and they did smile and encourage me to do that by gestures of their hands. And then they stood, still doing the Yumbe, and lifted me to my feet, and rocked me back and forth a bit, and led me into an inner room of the same house.
It was entered through a broad arch that was draped with red and raw entrails, that I thought quite calmly were probably human ones. But they were only the intestines of a sheep. Beyond, decorated with the shining bluish leaves of a sacred bush, were the sexual organs of that sheep, which was female, and other parts of the sheep attached. And kneeling beside the sheep were two of the wives of Calandola, naked except for the abundance of beads they wore. I thought I could see even beyond the sheep, and it was an open shadowy place, a great blue space stretching far to the horizon and over the sea; but perhaps I dreamed that.
I was by now very uncertain on my feet. Calandola came behind me, supporting me by his arms under mine, and holding me up as easily as though I were a babe. He walked me to the center of the room and put me down kneeling before the sheep, and stayed crouched just behind me.
I smelled many smells. There was the odor of a dry hillside overgrown with rare herbs, and the charred musky perfume of seared flesh, and the sweet heavy scent of oils of Araby. There was a wine-smell; there was a meat-smell; there was a woman-smell. All these fragrances went to the roots of my soul, and tugged at them, and hauled me loose of my moorings.
The two women held bowls, one of blood and one of milk. With these they proceeded to lave me, first my arms and my legs, and then most lovingly my private parts, doing it so cunningly with their wetted fingers that most swiftly my yard did rise. The potions I had drunk were at their height in me now, so that I scarce knew whether I waked or dreamed, and did not care.
“Forward, and enter the gate,” murmured Calandola, and tipped me toward the mounted parts of the sheep, so that my member did penetrate the swollen hole of the dead beast. I rocked back and forth in it, while the Imbe-Jaqqa sang a low song that was much like a long groan, into my ear. But also he whispered, “Be of great care not to spill your seed just yet,” and so I strived to withhold it, though I was in great excitement from all the wine and potions and throbbing music and the hands of the women upon me. As I coupled with that dead sheep’s cunt, other Jaqqas did place rings of sheepskin about my wrists and ankles, and about those of Calandola.
I thought for sure the Devil would appear in that room, out of the smoke and haze. I thought also that he would have my soul from me, and I was lost forever, damned by my willing entry into these diabolical rites. Yet did I take those fears most lightly. If I was become a slave of the Devil, so be it. If I was now enrolled in the company of witches, so be it. Prudence had fled from me. I was a Jaqqa of the Jaqqas in all truth, at that moment. I do confess before God and His Son that I felt no shame in what I did, though I suppose it was because I was so mazy with their strong potions. But peradventure it was not that, but only that I had lived so long in the Devil’s jungles, far from the realm of the good Jesus. In such places even a saint could turn by easy passages into a witch, and I had never been a saint.
There was more. I have sworn to tell all.
They withdrew me gently from the sheep before I had spilled my seed, and a ram was brought into the room and slain with a great sword. The blood of this animal then they poured over me and over Imbe Calandola. The male member of the ram was cut loose, and it was thrust some several times into the hole of the female sheep, and taken from it, and roasted upon a sharp stick; and the meat was divided into morsels, and each of us did eat a morsel of it. And the blood of the ram and the ewe were mixed together, and pounded fruits and grains were put into it, and of this porridge we all ate, except for the two women. When we had done with it, the remainder was poured into the laps of the women, and Calandola and I came forward and knelt, and licked it all from their thighs and bellies and from their private parts. And then the women were sent from the room. I had supposed that we would couple with them, but I was wrong in that.