“You must not say that under my roof,” cried Agellius, feeling he must not let his brother’s charge pass without a protest. “Many are my sins, but unbelief is not one of them.”

Juba tossed his head. “I think I can see through a stone slab as well as any one,” he said. “It is as I have said; but you’re too proud to confess it. It’s part of your hypocrisy.”

“Well,” said Agellius coldly, “let’s have done. It’s getting late, Juba; you’ll be missed at home. Jucundus will be inquiring for you, and some of those revelling friends of yours may do you a mischief by the way. Why, my good fellow,” he continued, in surprise, “you have no leggings. The scorpions will catch hold of you to a certainty in the dark. Come, let me tie some straw wisps about you.”

“No fear of scorpions for me,” answered Juba; “I have some real good amulets for the occasion, which even boola-kog and uffah will respect.”

Saying this, he passed out of the room as unceremoniously as he had entered it, and took the direction of the city, talking to himself, and singing snatches of wild airs as he went along, throwing back and shaking his head, and now and then uttering a sharp internal laugh. Disdaining to follow the ordinary path, he dived down into the thick and wet grass, and scrambled through the ravine, which the public road crossed before it ascended the hill. Meanwhile he accompanied his quickened pace with a louder strain, and it ran as follows:—

“The little black Moor is the mate for me,

When the night is dark, and the earth is free,

Under the limbs of the broad yew-tree.

“’Twas Father Cham that planted that yew,

And he fed it fat with the bloody dew

Of a score of brats, as his lineage grew.

“Footing and flaunting it, all in the night,

Each lock flings fire, each heel strikes light;

No lamps need they, whose breath is bright.”

Here he was interrupted by a sudden growl, which sounded almost under his feet, and some wild animal was seen to slink away. Juba showed no surprise; he had taken out a small metal idol, and whispering some words to it, had presented it to the animal. He clambered up the bank, gained the city gate, and made his way for his uncle’s dwelling, which was near the temple of Astarte.

CHAPTER V.
JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER.