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Updated: June 2, 2025
"Are you afraid to go?" asked Rachel of Noie. "Not I," answered the girl, with a laugh. "I trust to the King's word and to your might." "Depart then," said Rachel, "and come back as swiftly as you may. Tamboosa shall lead you." So Noie went.
It is I who have the power." "Yes, because as I said, you are tagati, but there are others " As these words passed his lips someone slipped by him. Starting back, he saw that it was Noie, draped in her usual white robe, for nothing would induce her to wear European clothes.
Evidently they were all of them deaf mutes, for they made signs to Nya, who answered them with other signs, the purport of which seemed to sadden and disturb them greatly. "They have seen the fall of my tree in their bowls," explained Nya to Noie, "and ask me if it is a true vision. I tell them that I am come here to die and that is why they are sad.
Oh! if only she could find him, then she would be glad enough to go wherever it was that he had gone. Now Noie was awake at her side, and they talked together. "We must have dreamt dreams, Noie," she said. "Perhaps the Mother mingled some drug with our food." "I do not know, Zoola," answered Noie; "but, if so, I want no more of those dreams which bode no good to me.
Rachel, watching, saw the man's swarthy face turn pale as he hearkened, then he lifted his hand as though to strike her, let it fall again, and muttering curses in English and in Zulu, turned and walked, or rather staggered away. "What did you tell him, Noie?" asked Rachel. "Never mind, Zoola," she answered. "Perhaps the truth; perhaps what came into my mind. At any rate I frightened him away. Ah!
At length the gate opened and through it appeared Noie herself, clad in a garb of spotless white, and somewhat travel-worn, but beautiful as ever. She was escorted by four gigantic men who were naked except for their moochas, but wore copper ornaments on their wrists and ankles, and great rings of copper in their ears.
Rachel, who was camped at a little distance with Noie, in a reed tent that the guard had made for her, which they folded up and carried as they did the umbrellas, heard the sound of this lamentation, and came out followed by Noie. For a space she stood contemplating their misery with a troubled air, then asked Noie why these people seemed so starved and why they wept.
"Yes, Zoola," answered Noie, shuddering, "for it is true. My father told me of it, and of what happened once to some wild men who broke into the sanctuary, and shot arrows at the Tree. No, no, I will not tell the story; it is dreadful." "Yet it must be foolishness, Noie, for how can a tree have power over the lives of men?" "I do not know, but it has, it has!
Now when Noie translated these words to her, the face of the old queen was filled with horror, and as her face was, so was Noie's face. "White Maiden," she gasped, "speak not such wickedness lest the very thought of it should bring the curse upon us all. He who destroyed that tree would bring ruin upon this people.
Then Eddo screamed aloud, one wild savage shriek, and still holding Noie in his arms hurled himself from the wall, to fall crushed upon its foundation stones sixty feet beneath. Thus perished Noie, who, for love's sake, gave her life to save Rachel, as once Rachel had saved her.
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