Safari spirit

Nobela rode in astride a cackling hyena, eyes red in the flickering firelight, sinuous arms and bony fingers writhing snakes at her own hoarse incantations. Her torso glistened with muti – a concoction made from various ingredients, in this case lion fat for power and vulture brains for prophecy – and the gall bladder of a goat was twisted in her hair. Two thousand Zulu warriors cowered in the shadows like pups.

The had been summoned to root out and slaughter the doer of witchcraft; the omens had signified evil afoot. A hammerhead heron had flown over the chief’s village, a porcupine then wandered in, and a crow alighted on his fence uttering human words. Obviously, an evil spell had been