Smith and the Pharaohs, and other Tales

  At least this happened for one night. On the following day, however, apleasant-looking woman named Ivana, whom they knew to be of goodrepute, though of doubtful religion, as sometimes she came to churchand sometimes she did not, appeared and offered her services as"night-dog"--that is what she called it--to Tabitha, saying that she didnot mind sleeping on a height. Since it was inconvenient to have no oneabout the place from dark to dawn, and Dorcas did not approve of Tabithabeing left to sleep alone, the woman, whose character was guaranteedby the Chief Kosa and the elders of the church, was taken on at anindefinite wage. To the matter of pecuniary reward, indeed, she seemedto be entirely indifferent.

  For the rest she rolled herself in blankets, native fashion, and sleptacross Tabitha's door, keeping so good a watch that once when her fatherwished to enter the room to fetch something after the child was sleep,she would not allow even him to do so. When he tried to force a way pasther, suddenly Ivana became so threatening that he thought she was aboutto spring at him. After this he wanted to dismiss her, but Dorcas saidit only showed that she was faithful, and that she had better be leftwhere she was, especially as there was no one to take her place.

  So things went on till the day of full moon. On that night Ivanaappeared to be much agitated, and insisted that Tabitha should go to bedearlier than was usual. Also after she was asleep Dorcas noticed thatIvana walked continually to and fro in front of the door of the child'sroom and up and down the veranda on to which its windows opened, droningsome strange song and waving a wand.

  However, at the appointed hour, having said their prayers, Dorcas andher husband went to bed.

  "I wonder if there is anything strange about this place," remarkedDorcas. "It is so very odd that no native will stop here at night exceptthat half-wild Ivana."

  "Oh! I don't know," replied Thomas with a yawn, real or feigned. "Thesepeople get all sorts of ideas into their silly heads. Do stop twistingabout and go to sleep."

  At last Dorcas did go to sleep, only to wake up again suddenly and withgreat completeness just as the church clock below struck three,the sound of which she supposed must have roused her. The brilliantmoonlight flooded the room, and as for some reason she felt creepy anddisturbed, Dorcas tried to occupy her mind by reflecting how comfortableit looked with its new, imported furnishings, very different from thathorrible hut in which they had lived so long.

  Then her thoughts drifted to more general matters. She was heartilytired of Sisa-Land, and wished earnestly that her husband could geta change of station, which the Bishop had hinted to her would not beimpossible--somewhere nearer to civilisation. Alas! he was so obstinatethat she feared nothing would move him, at any rate until he hadconverted "Menzi's herd," who were also obstinate, and remained asheathen as ever. Indeed why, with their ample means, should they becondemned to perpetual exile in these barbarous places? Was there notplenty of work to be done at home, where they might make friends andlive decently?

  Putting herself and her own wishes aside, this existence was not fair toTabitha, who, as she saw, watching her with a mother's eye, was becomingimpregnated with the native atmosphere. She who ought to be at aChristian school now talked more Zulu than she did English, and wasbeginning to look at things from the Zulu point of view and to use theiridioms and metaphors even when speaking her own tongue. She had becomea kind of little chieftainess among these folk, also, Christian andheathen alike. Indeed, now most of them spoke of her as the Maiden_Inkosikazi_, or Chieftainess, and accepted her slightest wish or orderas law, which was by no means the case where Dorcas herself and evenThomas were concerned.

  In fact, one or twice they had been driven to make a request throughthe child, notably upon an important occasion that had to do with thetransport-riding of their furniture, to avoid its being left for acouple of months on the farther side of a flooded river. The detailsdo not matter, but what happened was that when Tabitha intervenedthat which had been declared to be impossible proved possible, and thefurniture arrived with wonderful celerity. Moreover, Tabitha made norequest; as Dorcas knew, though she hid it from Thomas, she sent for theheadmen, and when they were seated on the ground before her after theirfashion, Menzi among them, issued an order, saying:

  "What! Are my parents and I to live like dogs without a kennel or cattlethat lack a winter kraal, because you are idle? Inspan the wagons andfetch the things or I shall be angry. _Hamba_--Go!"

  Thereon they rose and went without argument, only lifting theirright hands above their heads and murmuring, "_Ikosikaas! Umame!_(Chieftainess! Mother!) we hear you." Yes, they called Tabitha "Mother!"

  It was all very wrong, thought Dorcas, but she supposed, being a piouslittle person, that she must bear her burden and trust to Providence tofree her from it, and she closed her eyes to wipe away a tear.

  When Dorcas opened them again something very strange seemed to havehappened. She felt wide awake, and yet knew that she must be dreamingbecause the room had disappeared. There was nothing in sight except thebare rock upon which the house stood. For instance, she could see thegorge behind as it used to be before they made it into a garden, for sherecognised some of the very trees that they had cut down. Moreover,from one of the caves at the end of it issued a procession, a horribleprocession of fierce-looking, savage warriors, with spears andknobkerries, who between them half dragged, half carried a young womanand an elderly man.

  They advanced. They passed within a few feet of her, and observingthe condition of the woman and the man, she saw that these must be ledbecause for a certain reason they could not see where to go,--oh! nevermind what she saw.

  The procession reached the edge of the rock where the railing was, onlynow the railing had gone like the house. Then for the first time Dorcasheard, for hitherto all had seemed to happen in silence.

  "Die, _Umtakati!_ Die, you wizard, as the King commands, and feed theriver-dwellers," said a deep voice.

  There followed a struggle, a horrible twisting of shapes, and theelderly man vanished over the cliff, while a moment later from belowcame the noise of a great splash.

  Next the girl was haled forward, and the words of doom were repeated.She seemed to break from her murderers and stagger to the edge of theprecipice, crying out:

  "O Father, I come!"

  Then, with one blood-curdling shriek, she vanished also, and againthere followed the sound of a great splash that slowly echoed itself tosilence.

  All had passed away, leaving Dorcas paralysed with terror, and wet withits dew, so that her night-gear clung to her body. The room was justas it had been, filled with the soft moonlight and looking verycomfortable.

  "Thomas!" gasped his wife, "wake up."

  "I _am_ awake," he answered in his deep voice, which shook a little. "Ihave had a bad dream."

  "What did you dream? Did you see two people thrown from the cliff?"

  "Something of that sort."

  "Oh! Thomas, Thomas, I have been in hell. This place is haunted. Don'ttalk to me of dreams. Tabitha will have seen and heard too. She will bedriven mad. Come to her."

  "I think not," answered Thomas.

  Still he came.

  At the door of Tabitha's room they found the woman Ivana, wide-eyed,solemn, silent.

  "Have you seen or heard anything, Ivana?" asked Thomas.

  "Yes, Teacher," she answered, "I have seen what I expected to see andheard what I expected to hear on this night of full moon, but I amguarded and do not fear."

  "The child! The child!" said Dorcas.

  "The _Inkosikazi_ Imba sleeps. Disturb her not."

  Taking no heed, they thrust past her into the room. There on her littlewhite bed lay Tabitha fast asleep, and looking like an angel in hersleep, for a sweet smile played about her mouth, and while they watchedshe laughed in her dreams. Then they looked at each other and went backto their own chamber to spend the rest of the night as may be imagined.

  Next morning when they emerged, very shaken and upset, the first personthey met was Ivana, who was waiting for them with the
ir coffee.

  "I have a message for you, Teacher and Lady. Never mind who sends it, Ihave a message for you to which you will do well to give heed. Sleep nomore in this house on the night of full moon, though all other nightswill be good for you. Only the little Chieftainess Imba ought to sleepin this house on the night of full moon."

  So indeed it proved to be. No suburban villa could have been morecommonplace and less disturbed than was their dwelling for twenty-sevennights of every month, but on the twenty-eighth they found a change ofair desirable. Once it is true the stalwart Thomas, like Ajax, defiedthe lightning, or rather other things that come from above--or frombelow. But before morning he appeared at the hut beneath the koppieannouncing that he had come to see how they were getting on, and shakingas though he had a bout of fever.

  Dorcas asked him no questions (afterwards she gathered that he hadbeen favoured with quite a new and very varied midnight programme); butTabitha smiled in her slow way. For Tabitha knew all about this businessas she knew everything that passed in Sisa-Land. Moreover, she laughedat them a little, and said that _she_ was not afraid to sleep in themission-house on the night of full moon.

  What is more, she did so, which was naughty of her, for on one suchoccasion she slipped back to the house when her parents were asleep,followed only by her "night-dog," the watchful Ivana, and returnedat dawn just as they had discovered that she was missing, singing andlaughing and jumping from stone to stone with the agility of her own petgoat.

  "I slept beautifully," she cried, "and dreamed I was in heaven allnight."

  Thomas was furious and rated her till she wept. Then suddenly Ivanabecame furious too and rated him.

  Should he be wrath with the Little Chieftainess Imba, she asked him,because the _Isitunzis_, the spirits of the dead, loved her as dideverything else? Did they not understand that the Floweret was unlikethem, one adored of dead and living, one to be cherished even in herdreams, one whom "Heaven Above," together with those who had "gonebelow," built round with a wall of spells?--and more of such talk,which Thomas thought so horrible and blasphemous that he fled before itstorrent.

  But when he came back calmer he said no more to Tabitha about herescapade.

  It was a long while afterwards, at the beginning of the great drought,that another terrible thing happened. On a certain calm and beautifulday Tabitha, who still grew and flourished, had taken some of theChristian children to a spot on the farther side of the koppie, wherestood an old fortification originally built for purposes of defence.Here, among the ancient walls, with the assistance of the natives, shehad made a kind of summer-house as children love to do, and in thishouse, like some learned eastern pundit in a cell, a very pretty punditcrowned with a wreath of flowers, she sat upon the ground and instructedthe infant mind of Sisa-Land.

  She was supposed to be telling them Bible stories to prepare themfor their Sunday School examination, which, indeed, she did withembellishments and in their own poetic and metaphorical fashion. Theparticular tale upon which she was engaged, by a strange coincidence,was that from the Acts which narrates how St. Paul was bitten by a viperupon the Island of Melita, and how he shook it off into the fire andtook no hurt.

  "He must have been like Menzi," said Ivana, who was present, whereonTabitha's other attendant, who was also with her as it was daytime,started an argument, for being a Christian she was no friend to Menzi,whom she called a "dirty old witch-doctor."

  Tabitha, who was used to these disputations, listened smiling, and whileshe listened amused herself by trying to thrust a stone into a hole inthe side of her summer-house, which was formed by one of the originalwalls of the old kraal.

  Presently she uttered a scream, and snatched her arm out of the hole. Toit, or rather to her hand, was hanging a great hooded snake of the cobravariety such as the Boers call _ringhals_. She shook it off, and thereptile, after sitting up, spitting, hissing and expanding its hood,glided back into the wall. Tabitha sat still, staring at her laceratedfinger, which Ivana seized and sucked.

  Then, bidding one of the oldest of the children to take her placeand continue sucking, Ivana ran to a high rock a few yards away whichoverlooked Menzi's kraal, that lay upon a plain at a distance of about aquarter of a mile, and called out in the low, ringing voice that Kaffirscan command, which carries to an enormous distance.

  "Awake, O Menzi! Come, O Doctor, and bring with you your _Dawa_. Thelittle Chieftainess is bitten in the finger by a hooded snake. TheFloweret withers! Imba dies!"

  Almost instantly there was a disturbance in the kraal and Menziappeared, following by a man carrying a bag. He cried back in the samestrange voice:

  "I hear. I come. Tie string or grass round the lady Imba's finger belowthe bite. Tie it hard till she screams with pain."

  Meanwhile the Christian nurse had rushed off over the crest of thekoppie to fetch Thomas and Dorcas, or either of them. As it chanced shemet them both walking to join Tabitha in her bower, and thus it cameabout that they reached the place at the same moment as did old Menzibounding up the rocks like a _klipspringer_ buck, or a mountain sheep.Hearing him, Thomas turned in the narrow gateway of the kraal and askedwildly:

  "What has happened, Witch-doctor?"

  "This has happened, White-man," answered Menzi, "the Floweret has beenbitten by a hooded snake and is about to die. Look at her," and hepointed to Tabitha, who notwithstanding the venom sucking and the grasstied round her blackened finger, sat huddled-up, shivering and halfcomatose.

  "Let me pass, White-man, that I may save her if I can," he went on.

  "Get back," said Thomas, "I will have none of your black magic practisedon my daughter. If she is to live God will save her."

  "What medicines have you, White-man?" asked Menzi.

  "None, at least not here. Faith is my medicine."

  Dorcas looked at Tabitha. She was turning blue and her teeth werechattering.

  "Let the man do his best," she said to Thomas. "There is no other hope."

  "He shan't touch her," replied her husband obstinately.

  Then Dorcas fired up, meek-natured though she was and accustomed thoughshe was to obey her husband's will.

  "I say that he shall," she cried. "I know what he can do. Don't youremember the goat? I will not see my child die as a sacrifice to yourpride."

  "I have made up my mind," answered Thomas. "If she dies it is sodecreed, and the spells and filth of a heathen cannot save her."

  Dorcas tried to thrust him aside with her feeble strength, but big andburly, he stood in the path like a rock, blocking the way, with thestone entrance walls of the little pleasure-house on either side of him.

  Suddenly the old Zulu, Menzi, became rather terrible; he drew himselfup; he seemed to swell in size; his thin face grew set and fierce.

  "Out of the path, White-man!" he said, "or by Chaka's head I will killyou," and from somewhere he produced a long, thin-bladed knife of nativeiron fixed on a buck's horn.

  "Kill on, Wizard," shouted Thomas. "Kill if you can."

  "Listen," said Dorcas. "If our daughter dies because of you, then I havedone with you. We part for ever. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, I understand," he answered heavily. "So be it."

  Tabitha behind them made some convulsive noise. Thomas turned and lookedat her; she was slowly sinking down upon her side. His face changed. Allthe rage and obstinacy went out of it.

  "My child! Oh, my child!" he cried, "I cannot bear this. Love isstronger than all. When I come up for judgment, may it be rememberedthat love is stronger than all!"

  Then he stepped out of the gateway, and sat down upon a stone hiding hiseyes with his hand.

  Menzi threw down the knife and leapt in, followed by his servant whobore his medicines, and the woman Ivana. He did his office; he utteredhis spells and invocations, he rubbed _Dawa_ into the wound, and prisingopen the child's clenched teeth, thrust more of it, a great deal more,down her throat, while all three of them rubbed her cold limbs.

  About half an hour afterwards he came
out of the place followed byIvana, who carried Tabitha in her strong arms; Tabitha was very weak,but smiling, and with the colour returning to her cheeks. Of Thomas hetook no notice, but to Dorcas he said:

  "Lady, I give you back your daughter. She is saved. Let her drink milkand sleep."

  Then Thomas, whose judgment and charity were shaken for a while, spoke,saying:

  "As a man and a father I thank you, Witch-doctor, but know that as apriest I swear that I will never have more to do with you, who, I amsure, by your arts, can command these reptiles to work your will andhave planned all this to shame me. No, not even if you lay dying would Icome to visit you."

  Thus stormed Thomas in his wrath and humiliation, believing that he hadbeen the victim of a plot and not knowing that he would live bitterly toregret his words.

  "I see that you hate me, Teacher," said Menzi, "and though here I do notfind the gentleness you preach, I do not wonder; it is quitenatural. Were I you I should do the same. But you are Little Flower'sfather--strange that she should have grown from such a seed--and thoughwe fight, for that reason I cannot hate you. Be not disturbed. Perhapsit was the sucking of the wound and the grass tied round her fingerwhich saved her, not my spells and medicine. No, no, I cannot hate you,although we fight for mastery, and you pelt me with vile words, sayingthat I charmed a deadly _immamba_ to bite Little Flower whom I love,that I might cure her and make a mock of you. Yet I do hate that snakewhich bit the maiden Imba of its own wickedness, the hooded _immamba_that you believe to be my familiar, and it shall die. Man," here heturned to his servant, "and you, Ivana and the others, pull down thatwall."