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not done enough damage! The plague had not left enough stinking bodies! They decided to make more! Elders were killed in their beds and families fought against their own clans, so that corpseswere everywhere. The young men were emboldened, and held secret councils. Jaga’s enemies could not get at him because he was guarded night and day; so they killed his brothers. Madness! Jaga never hungered for revenge nor plotted its fulfillment with such driving energy! But it came to nothing. Within three days of his brothers’ murders the death-tokens appeared, and by the time five days had passed, Jaga and most of his guard were breathed down by the spirit. You saw their corpses just now.
    â€œThe ill spirit has finished its work. I do not know why it left me alive to look on nothing but the dead. My family and my people all have perished. I wish I could die too.” Tears were making their way down Hurnoa’s shrunken cheeks.
    â€œFilthy hag, you will get your wish!” Dael exclaimed, and he might have killed her with his spear if Zan had not intervened.
    â€œDael! No! This unlucky woman was once kind to me, and may have saved my life.”
    â€œShe is a wasp and she dies! Terrible old woman! Why should we keep her alive?”
    Zan could see that it was useless to reason with his brother. Rydl came to Zan’s side to second him, and Chul interposed his bulk. It was the first of many coming confrontations. Meanwhile, the old woman looked directly at Dael and smiled, stretching her palms forward in supplication, as one who welcomes a friend or begs a favor.
    Dael, prevented from his purpose, was coldly furious. “I gave you that one”—he pointed at Rydl—“because he is dear to you, although I don’t know why.” He smiled an ugly, insinuating smile. “But this one is mine.”
    â€œWhat is wrong with you, Dael?” Zan asked. “Do you enjoy killing?” Zan was immediately sorry to have asked that question—because he knew the answer.
    Pax, in a tone more gentle than she usually addressed to Dael asked: “Have you lost your mind, Dael?” And she too was sorry to have inquired.
    Dael lowered his spear and turned on his heel. “We will see,” he muttered, and he walked away.
    The confrontation was over. Dael had backed down. Chul, relieved, built a bonfire, and Zan gave some thought to what he wanted to do. He had known many of the dead, and even had pleasant memories of some. Hurnoa and other women had been kind to him, and some few had looked on him with pity as well as mockery when they considered him a speechless fool. Now all were corpses.
    Thal, Zan’s great father, had taught him to respect the dead. “Their angry spirits will haunt your life and turn it sour, but that is not why you should do them justice. Do it because you would wish it done to you.” Justice required that the many bodies should be respectfully disposed of.
    Zan had an idea. What would be reverence for Zan would be annihilation for Dael, he thought. Dael longed to destroy, and this could be an opportunity to satisfy his thirst and finally quiet him down. “Dael,” he called.“Here is our fire. Let us purge the demon and destroy the wasp men’s nests.”
    Dael leapt eagerly to the task, beginning with Jaga’s putrid house and the other ground structures. The furious blaze drove them back, and as they watched the conflagration from a safe distance, Dael almost danced with glee. Dael loved fire, and delighted in seeing the wasp dwellings burn. The smell of rottenness was now replaced by the acrid stench of burning corpses as crackling fire and rolling smoke erupted from the dens.
    The nests suspended in the trees above presented a problem, being deliberately built to be inaccessible; but Dael was not to be deterred. Placing a burning rod between his teeth, he climbed one of the supporting trees and inched out along a heavy limb. Rydl