United States or Pitcairn Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Tota was taking care of the little boy, but little Imba was sitting silent beside the stove. Mamma had gone away. Torfi Torfason patched up the door, patched up the walls, all that day, and carried in wood. In the evening, the little girls bring him porridge, bread, and a slice of meat. The little boy frets and cries.
"There, Imba, there, Little Flower, even that is too much, because you see the old cheat might guess something from your words. Yes, he might guess that it is something of value that you have lost, such as a bracelet of gold, or the thing that ticks, on which you white people read the time. Nay, be silent and do not let your face move lest I should read it.
Yet I have not been altogether a cheat, O Imba, though sometimes I used tricks like other doctors, for I have a strength of my own which your white people will never understand, because they are too young to understand. It only comes to the old folk who have been since the beginning of the world, and remain as they were at the beginning.
Also I have another thought. When it is known that I became a Christian at the last then, if you bid them, Little Flower, the 'heathen-herd' will follow where the bull Menzi went before them. Here Menzi's breath failed, but recovering it, he continued: "Hearken! O Imba! I give my people into your hand; now let your hand bend the twig as you would have it grow.
My Spirit must have deceived me. Think of something else, Teacher, and tell the lady, and the child Imba, and Kosa, and another, what it is you are thinking of. Go aside and tell them where I cannot hear." Thomas did so in some way he felt compelled to do so. "I am going to think of the church as I propose it shall be when finished according to the plans I have made," he said hoarsely.
Imba, little Flower, sleep softly while others lie awake and tremble." Then he turned and departed swiftly. "Dear me!" said the Bishop. "A strange man, a very strange man. I don't know quite what to make of him." "I do," answered Thomas, "he is a black-hearted villain who is in league with the devil."
The little Chieftainess is bitten in the finger by a hooded snake. The Floweret withers! Imba dies!" Almost instantly there was a disturbance in the kraal and Menzi appeared, following by a man carrying a bag. He cried back in the same strange voice: "I hear. I come. Tie string or grass round the lady Imba's finger below the bite. Tie it hard till she screams with pain."
Say to those of my House and to my people that henceforth the Maiden Imba is their lady and their mother." Again he paused a little, then went on: "Now I charge my Spirit to watch over you, Little Flower, till you die and we come to talk over these matters otherwhere, and my Spirit as it departs tells me that it will watch well, and that you will be a very happy woman, Little Flower."
To Tabitha they gave a prettier name, calling her Imba or Little Flower. At first Dorcas was quite pleased with her title, which sounded nice, but when she came to learn what it meant it was otherwise. "How can you expect me, Thomas, to live among a people who call me 'a mild cow'?" she asked indignantly. "Never mind, my dear," he answered.
Make them Christian if you will, or leave them heathen if you will; I care nothing. They are yours to drive upon whatever path you choose to set their feet, yours, O Imba, not Tombool's. Also, I, who lack heirs, give you my cattle, all of them. Ivana, make known my words, and with them the curse of Menzi, the King's child, the Umazisi, the Seer, on any who dare to disobey.
Word Of The Day