Part 12 (1/2)
”Saoland, he who hid in the mealie-pit when the slavers burned Beza-Town and came out half cooked like a fowl from the oven The Baas Jacob stopped at Saht bits of paper like this, of which he had plenty, you would be brought before the ht some, Baas, but not many for he had only a little money, and the Baas Jacob paid him for all he ate and drank with other bits of paper Then Sammy ca me that your reverend father, the Predikant, had left you in e till one of us dies, whether you ell or ill and whether you got better or got worse--just like a white wife, Baas So I sold the farm and the cattle to a friend of the Baas Jacob's, at a very low price, Baas, and that is all the story”
I heard and, to tell the honest truth, alht of the sacrifice which this poor old Hottentot had ue utterly overwhel myself, ”tell ave you before he died, I ht Hassan and his slavers in their own trap?”
Hans, who had suddenly found so that interested him extremely out at sea, perhaps because he did not wish to witness rief, turned round slowly and answered:
”Mavovo naht-in-Darkness, and by that nah some of them call me Lord-of-the-Fire”
”Then Mavovo naht in the darkness of my heart I whom you think wise am but a fool, Hans, who has been tricked by a _vernuker_, a common cheat, and he has tricked you and Sammy as well But as he has shown me that man can be very vile, you have shown ainst the other, my spirit that was in the dust rises up once ht-in-Darkness, although if I had ten thousand pounds I could never pay you back--since what you have given old in the world and all the land and all the cattle--yet with honour and with love I will try to pay you,” and I held out ainst his wrinkled old forehead, then answered:
”Talk no more of that, Baas, for it iven eddrunk and other things--yes, even when once I stole soh it is true I kneas bad powder, not fit for you to use? Did I thank you then overmuch? Why therefore should you thank , not really to help you but because, as you know, I love ga, and was told that this bit of paper would soon be worth ave for it If it had proved so, should I have given you that er farm and more cattle”
”Hans,” I said sternly, ”if you lie so hard, you will certainly go to hell, as the Predikant, my father, often told you”
”Not if I lie for you, Baas, or if I do it doesn'tkloof written of in the Book, especially as there I should meet the Baas Jacob, as I veryto pursue this soht, I inquired of him why he felt happy
”Oh! Baas,” he answered with a twinkle in his little black eyes, ”can't you guess why? Now you have very little money left and I have none at all Therefore it is plain that we lad of that, Baas, for I acows, especially as I aold where there isn't any and singing sad songs in that house ofyonder like you did this afternoon Oh! the Great Father in the skies knehat He was about when He sent the Baas Jacob our way He beat us for our good, Baas, as He does always if we could only understand”
I reflected to myself that I had not often heard the doctrine of the Church better or more concisely put, but I only said:
”That is true, Hans, and I thank you for the lesson, the second you have taught o to, Hans? Reested some places; indeed he seemed to have co no coth he finished and squatted there beforeup at atively with his head on one side, for all the world like a dilapidated and inquisitive bird
”Hans,” I said, ”do you remember a story I told you when you cao, about a tribe called the Kendah in whose country there is said to be a great cemetery of elephants which travel there to die from all the land about? A country that lies soo used to dwell?”
”Yes, Baas”
”And you said, I think, that you had never heard of such a people”
”No, Baas, I never said anything at all I have heard a good deal about them”
”Then why did you not tell nantly
”What was the good, Baas? You were hunting gold then, not ivory Why should Iabout beautiful things which were far beyond the reach of either of us, far as that sky?”
”Don't ask fool's questions but tell me what you know, Hans Tell me at once”
”This, Baas: When ere up at Beza-Town after we caorilla-God, and the Baas Stephen your friend lay sick, and there was nothing else to do, I talked with everyone I could find worth talking to, and they were not many, Baas But there was one very old woman as not of the Mazitu race and whose husband and children were all dead, but whom the people in the town looked up to and feared because she ise and made o to see her She was quite blind, Baas, and fond of talking with me--which shoise she was I told her all about the Pongo gorilla-God, of which already she knew so compared with a certain God that she had seen in her youth, seven tens of years ago, when she becaeable I asked her for that story, and she spoke it thus:
”Far away to the north and east live a people called the Kendah, who are ruled over by a sultan They are a very great people and inhabit a most fertile country But all round their country the land is desolate and ame, for the reason that they will suffer none to dwell there That is why nobody knows anything about them: he that comes across the wilderness into that land is killed and never returns to tell of it
”She told me also that she was born of this people, but fled because their sultan wished to place her in his house of wo while she wandered southwards, living on roots and berries, till she came to desert land and at last, worn out, lay down to die Then she was found by so ostrich feathers for war-pluht her back to their country, where one of the words to them because she feared that if she told the truth the Gods who guard its secrets would be avenged on her, though nohen she was near to death she dreaded theh the waters of death That is all she said about her journey because she had forgotten the rest”
”Bother her journey, Hans What did she say about her God and the Kendah people?”