Part 36 (1/2)
”It is about Nombe,” I answered, and told him all the story, which did not seem to surprise hi some snuff, ”how hard it is to dam up the stream of nature This child, Noe way, not because she was of ht make an experiment with her Women, as you who are wise and have seen h, because they are weaker in body, men have the upper hand of them and think themselves their masters, a state they are forced to accept because they must live and cannot defend theai is keener than a hoe; they are s that shape out fate for people and for nations; they are more faithful and more patient, and by instinct if not by reason, , or at least the best of theed Yet this is the hole in their shi+eld When they love they becoht to naught, and for this reason they cannot be trusted With men, as you know, this is otherwise They, too, love, by Nature's law, but always behind there is soh often they do not understand what that may be To be powerful, therefore, a woman must be one who does not love too much If she cannot love at all, then she is hated and has no power, but she ht that I had found such a woman; she was named Mameena, whom all men worshi+pped and who played with all men, as I played with her But as the end of it? Just as things were going very well she learned to love too e notions, ould have thwarted , and therefore I had to kill her, for which I was sorry”
Here he paused to take so reat nostrils, but as I said nothing, went on-
”Now after Maht me that I would rear up a woman who could still love but should never love a man and therefore never become mad or foolish, because I believed that it was onlyher heart from woman, would take her wits also This child, Noht, so I did Never ic perhaps, by watering her pride and row tall perhaps, or by all three At least it was done, and this I know of Nombe, she will never care for any man except as a woman may care for a brother
”But now see what happens She, the wise, the instructed, the ood, and learns to love her, not as maids and mothers love, but as one loves the Spirit that she worshi+ps Yes, yes, to her she is a Goddess to be worshi+pped, one whoth, to bon before, s, and at the end to follow into death So it coht toon the air while it searches for its prey, has become even madder than other women It is a disappointment to me, Macumazahn”
”It may be a disappoint But to us it is a danger Tell me, will you command Nombe to cease from her folly?”
”Will I forbid theto strike? As she is, she is Her heart is filled with black jealousy of Mauriti and of you, as a butcher's gourd is filled with blood, for she is not one who desires that her Goddess should have other worshi+ppers; she would keep her for herself alone”
”Then in this way or in that the gourd must be emptied, Zikali, lest we should be forced to drink from it and that black blood should poison us”
”How, unless it be broken, Macuo mad, and accompany her she cannot, for her Spirit dwells here,” and he tapped his own breast ”It would pull her back again and she would becoreat trouble to me, for then that Spirit of hers would not suffer s in search of what it had lost, and its returnings empty-handed Well, have no fear, for at the worst the bowl can be broken and the blood poured upon the earth, as I have broken finer bowls than this before; had I all the bits of theh, Macumazahn!” and he held out his hand on a level with his head, a gesture that made my back creep ”I will tell her this and it may keep her quiet for a while Of poison you need not be afraid, since unlike mine, her Spirit hates it Poison is not one of its weapons as it is with mine But of spells, beware, for her Spirit has some which are very powerful”
Now I ju-
”I do not believe in Noainst theuard, and if you do believe, then it is for you to find out how to guard, Macumazahn Oh! I could tell you the story of a white teacher who did not believe and would not guard-but never mind, never mind Good-bye, Macumazahn, I will speak with Nombe Ask her for a lock of her hair to wear upon your heart after she has enchanted it The charainst spells O-ho-Oho-o! What fools we are, white and black together! That is what Cetewayo is thinking to-day”
After this Noreeable That is to say she was very polite, her smile was more fixed and her eyes more unfathomable than ever Evidently Zikali had spoken to her and she had listened Yet to tell the truth rew deeper day by day I recognized that there was a great gulf between her and the normal, that she was a creature fashi+oned by Zikali who had trained her as a gardener trains a tree, nay, who had done rowth of exotic and unnatural spiritualism on to her priraft or grafts bore strange flowers and fruit, unholy flowers and poisonous fruit Therefore she was not to blame-sometimes I wonder whether in this curious world, could one see their past and their future, anybody is to blaerous
Some talks I had with her only increased my apprehensions, for I found that in a way she had no conscience Life, she told me, was but a dream, and all its laws as evolved by man were but illusions The real life was elsewhere There was the distant lake on which the flower of our true existence floated Without this unseen lake of supernatural water the flower could not float; indeed there would be no flower Moreover, the flower did not matter; sometimes it would have this shape and colour, sorow and blooly or to be beautiful, to sht chance, and ultieneral water of Life
I pointed out to her that all flowers had roots which grew in soil Looking at an orchid-like plant that crept along the bough of a tree, she answered that this was not true as soht be, the soil, or the moisture in the air, was distilled from thousands of other flower lives that had flourished in their day and been forgotten It did not matter when they died or how ht live Yet each flower had its own spirit which always had been and alould be
I asked her of the end and the object of that spirit She answered darkly that she did not know and if she did, would not say, but that these were very dreadful
Such were sourative assertions which I only record to indicate their uncoot to add that she declared that every flower or life had a twin flower or life, which in each successive growth it was bound to find and blooain and that ultimately these tould become one, and as one flourish eternally Of all of which I understood and understand little, except that she had grasped the elements of some truth which she could not express in clear and definite language
One day I was seated in Zikali's hut whither by permission I had come to ask the latest nehen suddenly Noave you leave to enter here, and what is your business?” he asked angrily
”Hory with your servant Necessity gave ers approach”
”Who are they that dare to enter the Black Kloof unannounced?”
”Cetewayo the King is one of them, the others I do not know, but they are ate; before a man can count two hundred they will be here”