“Ornery ole windbag,” Chow muttered.
Tom had a hunch that the tribal wizard’s attitude was partly caused by spite. More than likely he was jealous of the “young white juju man” and might later on stir up the giant tribesmen against Tom’s construction crews.
Suddenly Tom had an idea. “All right,” he told the witch doctor. “We’ll see who has the strongest juju. Call up your strongest spirits against me. Then I will show you my power.”
Akomo gasped in dismay. Even the witch doctor seemed taken aback by Tom’s brash challenge. Then he bared his yellowish-white teeth in a frightening grin.
“Kail” the witch doctor exclaimed. “Now white man see power of jungle spirit!”
He strode back into his hut. An uneasy silence fell over the village. Presently the witch doctor emerged again. He was wearing a hood of woven sisal fiber, painted with grotesque designs, that completely covered his head and shoulders. The hood was topped with a tall headdress of monkey
A DUEL OF MAGIC 73
fur. In one hand he held a gourd; in the other, a carved, double-headed ax.
A murmur of fear and awe arose from the tribesmen. Signaling the drummer for a tom-tom beat, the witch doctor began to dance.
Akomo was trembling. “He hides his face to become an evil spirit,” the guide explained. “The medicine gourd is Uoshu’s, and the ax is the sign of Sho-sho-go, the thunder god.”
As the witch doctor danced, he began to chant and wail. His voice rose to a hideous shriek as he hopped about.
“That caterwaulin’ alone could scare the wits out o’ any critter,” Chow remarked.