United States or Germany ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Did I not tell you that he would live?" After this I remember little more, except some confused dreams, till I found myself lying in a great hut, which I discovered subsequently was Umbezi's own, the same, indeed, wherein I had doctored the ear of that wife of his who was called "Worn-out-old-Cow."
This was about half a mile from my place of outspan, for as soon as I was sufficiently recovered I had begun to sleep in my wagon, leaving the big hut to the "Worn-out-Old-Cow." There was no particular reason why I should be irritated, since time in those days was of no great account in Zululand, and it did not much matter to me whether I trekked in the morning or the afternoon.
I should not be in the least surprised if she had done so last night. I have no control over Mameena." Before Saduko could answer, a shrill, rasping voice broke upon our ears, which after some search I saw proceeded from an ugly and ancient female seated in the shadow, in whom I recognised the lady who was known by the pleasing name of "Worn-out-Old-Cow." "He lies!" screeched the voice. "He lies.
"You mean that you leave me in Mameena's keeping," I began, but already he was crawling through the hole in the hut. Well, Mameena kept me very comfortably. She was always in evidence, yet not too much so. Heedless of her malice and abuse, she headed off the "Worn-out-old-Cow," whom she knew I detested, from my presence.
So I went to see the Worn-out-Old-Cow not because I had any particular interest in her, for, to tell the truth, she was a very disagreeable and antique person, the cast-off wife of some chief whom at an unknown date in the past the astute Umbezi had married from motives of policy but because I hoped to hear more of Miss Mameena, in whom I had become interested.
"Do you mean her whom your father calls the 'Worn-out-old-Cow, and whose ear he shot off?" "Yes, it must be she from the description," she answered with a little shake of laughter, "though I never heard him give her that name." "Or if you did, you have forgotten it," I said dryly. "Well, I think not, thank you. Why trouble her, when you will do quite as well?
"No, no, Macumazahn; I wish she were, for then I should have the most beautiful wife in the land. She is my daughter, though not that of the Worn-out-Old-Cow; her mother died when she was born, on the night of the Great Storm.
Word Of The Day