United States or Micronesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Now, if your words are true, set Fahni free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he will die." "Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing," she answered, smiling, "though it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war upon us. Well, let him, let him." Then she clapped her hands and summoned priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of Bonsa-Town.
Then noting how white and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep, saying between her sobs: "Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not as Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman that I may be with you.
"That is your place, Vernoon," she said gently, contemplating him with her soft and heavy eyes, "for it was prepared for the white man with whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have been many Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one," and she touched a corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, "only left me last year.
Know, Vernoon, that I will see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again together and can never more be separated."
I fear that the white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him up because of his sacrilege." "When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but doubtless he is immortal." "Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his stomach if he has one cannot hurt him.
I knew you would come even before I had seen your face, I knew you would come," she went on passionately, "and that is why I was yours already. But what would befall after you came, that I neither knew, nor know, because I will not seek, who could learn it all." He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes. "You do not believe me, Vernoon.
Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana was doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits who dwelt there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it all he would go quite mad and kill himself. "Does this happen to all Munganas?" inquired Alan. "Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is otherwise.
"We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?" "Never," said Alan; "it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little Bonsa on his head." "That is news indeed," she replied mockingly.
"I have told you, Lady, that blood is orunda to me. I must not witness it." "I know, be not afraid," she answered. "Sacrifice there must be, since it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not see the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please you."
As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart, he heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side the Asika, of whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had beaten Jeekie: "What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?" she asked suspiciously.
Word Of The Day