The palaver before King Nippe and his head men is whether or not war should be carried to the Gebbo people in the adjoining country. When old King Forke ruled the Gebboes, his name was everywhere spoken with fear and awe, so fierce and terrible were his raids. But King Forke is dead; and Nagbe, his son, rules. Of King Nagbe nothing is known except that he seeks to increase the power exerted by his father in the affairs of his neighbors, and that he possesses the old king's invincible war-medicine. King Nippe and some of the head men wish to humble the young upstart, and the arguments of the majority of the head men against war are not heeded. With impatience King Nippe dismisses the council, crying, "Enough! Enough! I'll hear no more. War I will make, and that settles it. What! Must I, who have fought Leopard himself, now be afraid of his skin?"