Part 20 (1/2)
They looked, and behold the shadowy fabric began to totter, then it seemed to collapse, and last of all doent the spire and vanished in the s, O people?” said Menzi, ”for standing behind this sh it I am invisible to you”
This was true, since they could only perceive the tips of his outstretched fingers appearing upon each side of the smoke-fan
”Yes,” they answered, ”we have seen a church fall down and vanish”
”That was ht,” said Menzi; ”have I not told you that was the thought ic, and you are a fiend!” shouted Thoh it is true that I have gifts which you clever White people do not understand,” answered Menzi
By degrees the sround were the ten or twelve crooked pieces of ebony that they had seen consumed, now to all appearance quite untouched by the fla with perspiration, and in a swoon or sleeping
”Coo, but at thishappened
Menzi, it will be re-haired variety of goat peculiar to these parts This little creature had already grown attached to its oats have It had followed her that ed itself in devouring herbs that grew ast the tumbled stones of the old kraal
Suddenly Menzi recovered fro up, directed his attendants to return theconsus that contained his an to break up amidst a babel of excited talk
Tabitha looked round for her goat, and perceiving it at a little distance, ran to fetch it, since the creature, being engaged in eating so to its taste, would not co it aith the result that its fore-feet, obstinately set upon the wall, overturned a large stone, revealing a great puff adder that was sleeping there
The reptile thus disturbed instantly struck backwards after the fashi+on of its species, so that its fangs, justTabitha's hands, sank deep into the kid's neck She screareat disturbance A native ran forward and pinned down the puff-adder with his walking-stick of which the top was forked The kid i and bleating Tabitha began to weep, calling out, ”My goat is killed,” between her sobs
Menzi, distinguishi+ng her voice amid the tumult, asked as the matter Someone told hiht to hi her dying pet with herno heed of these events, which perhaps he was too disturbed to notice
”Save oat, O Menzi!” implored Tabitha
The old witch-doctor looked at the anied along the ground in the fork of the stick
”It will be hard, Little Flower,” he said, ”seeing that the goat is bitten in the neck and this snake is very poisonous Still for your sake I will try, although I fear that it ood s and from it selected a certain packet wrapped in a dried leaf, out of which he shook so the kid, which seemed to be almost dead, he made an incision in its throat over the wound, and into it rubbed some of this powder Next he spat uponthe kid'san invocation or spell
”Noe round, where it lay to all appearance dead
”Is that powder any good?” asked Dorcas rather aiood, Lady; a ic -snake that puffs out its head, this one is the most deadly in our country Yet I do not fear it Look!”
Leaning forward, he seized the puff-adder, and drawing it from beneath the fork, suffered it to strike him upon the breast, after which he deliberately killed it with a stone Then he took sorey powder and rubbed it into the punctures; also put more of it into his mouth, which he sed
”Oh!” exclaimed Dorcas, ”he will die,” and some of the Christian Kaffirs echoed her remark
But Menzi did not die at all On the contrary, after shi+vering a few tihter than before, like a jaded business man who has drunk a cocktail
”No, Wife of Tombool,” he said, ”I shall not die; every year I doctor ic medicine that is called _Dawa_, after which all the snakes in Sisa-Land--remember that they are many, Little Flower--ic or is it the medicine that protects you?” asked Dorcas
”Both, Lady The ic words, and the ic words are of no use without the medicine Therefore alone in all the land I can cure snake bites, who have both oat, Little Flower Look at your goat!”