AUTHOR'S NOTE
Of the three stories that comprise this volume[*] one "The Wizard" a tale of victorious faith first appeared some years ago as a Christmas Annual. Another "Elissa" is an attempt difficult enough owing to the scantiness of the material left to us by time to recreate the life of the ancient Phoenician Zimbabwe whose ruins still stand in Rhodesia and with the addition of the necessary love story to suggest circumstances such as might have brought about or accompanied its fall at the hands of the surrounding savage tribes. The third "Black Heart and White Heart" is a story of the courtship trials and final union of a pair of Zulu lovers in the time of King Cetywayo.