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By this time, being frantic, his flock did not care what he said. Either Menzi must come, they explained, or they would turn heathen. The Great One in the sky could work as well through Menzi as through him, Tombool or anybody else. Menzi must come.
He shut his eyes and lay still a while. Then he opened them again and said: "O Imba, tell your father, the Teacher Tombool, from me that he does not understand us black people, whom he thinks so common, as you understand us, Little Flower, and that he would be wise to go to minister to white ones."
"That was my thought," said Menzi; "have I not told you that was the thought my Spirit gave me?" "This is black magic, and you are a fiend!" shouted Thomas, and was silent. "Not so, Tombool, though it is true that I have gifts which you clever White people do not understand," answered Menzi.
Menzi rose and saluted with his habitual courtesy, first the Bishop, then the others, as usual reserving his sweetest smile for Tabitha. "Great Priest," he said at once, "I understand that the Teacher Tombool intends to build his house upon this place."
They caught and blazed up fiercely, making an extraordinarily large flame considering the small amount of the kindling. The ebony-like sticks also began to blaze. Menzi grew excited. "My Spirit, come to me; my Spirit, come to me!" he cried. "O my Spirit, show this White Teacher Tombool that I am not a cheat!"
Menzi sighed as though in disappointment, and having helped himself to a little, re-stoppered the horn and thrust it back into the lobe of his ear. Next he said, speaking in a gentle and refined voice: "Greeting, Teacher, who, the messengers tell us, are called Tombool in your own language and in ours Inkunzi. A good name, for in truth you look like a bull.
When he found this out, Thomas flatly declined any such unchristian title, with the result that, anxious to oblige, they christened him "Tombool," and as "Tombool" thenceforward he was known. This was to his face, but behind his back they called him Inkunzi, which means bull, and in order to keep up the idea, designated poor Dorcas Isidanda, that being interpreted signified a gentle-natured cow.
"No, Wife of Tombool," he said, "I shall not die; every year I doctor myself with this magic medicine that is called Dawa, after which all the snakes in Sisa-Land remember that they are many, Little Flower may bite me if they like." "Is it your magic or is it the medicine that protects you?" asked Dorcas. "Both, Lady.
Recovering himself, however, he said: "I perceive, Teacher Tombool, that like myself you are a witch-doctor and a prophet. At present I do not know which of us will live the longer, but I will consult my Spirits and tell you afterwards." "Pray do not trouble to do so on my account, for I do not believe in your Spirits." "Of course you do not, Teacher.
Thomas went down and addressed them in the midst of a sullen silence, calling them wicked and repeating his belief that they would bring a judgment on their own heads, they who were worshipping Baal and making offerings to his priest. After he had talked himself hoarse, Menzi said mildly that if the Teacher Tombool had finished he would get to business.
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