 Chapter 23 of She and Allan. Reading by Lars Rolander. She and Allan by H. Ryder Haggard. Chapter 23. What Omslopogas saw. Like one who dreams I pass down the archer hall, where stood the silent guards as statues might, and out through the archway. Here I post for a moment partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings of the night, and partly because I thought that I heard someone approaching me through the gloom, and in such a place where I might have many enemies, it was well to be prepared. As a chance, however, my imaginary assailant was only Hans, who emerged from some place where he had been hiding, a very disturbed and frightened Hans. Oh, Bas, he said in a low and shaky whisper, I am glad to see you again, and standing on your feet, not being carried with them sticking straight in front of you as I expected. Why, I asked. Oh, Bas, because of the things that happened in that place where the tall prow with her head tied up as though she had toothache sits like a spider in a web. Well, what happened, Hans? I asked as we walked forward. This, Bas, the doctor has talked and talked that you and Omslopogas, and as she talked your faces began to look as though you had drunk half a flask too much of the best gin. Such as I wish I had some of here tonight, at once wise and foolish and full and empty, Bas. Then you both rolled over and lay there quite dead, and whilst I was wondering what I should do and how I should get out your bodies to bury them, the doctors came down off her platform and bent first over you and next over Omslopogas, whispering into the airs of both of you. Then she took off a snake that looked as though it were made of gold with green eyes, which she wears about her middle beneath the long dish cloth, Bas, and held it to your lips and next to those of Omslopogas. Well, and what then, Hans? After that all sorts of things came about, Bas, and I felt as though the whole house were travelling through the air, Bas, twice as fast as a bullet does from a rifle. Suddenly too the room became filled with fire so hot that it scorched me and so bright that it made my eyes water, although they can look at the sun without winking. And Bas, the fire was full of spooks which walked round. Yes, I saw some of them standing on your head and stomach, Bas, also on that of Omslopogas. Whilst others went and talked to the white doctors as quietly as though they had met her in the marketplace and wanted to sell her eggs or butter. Then, Bas, suddenly I saw your reverend father, the predicate, who looked as though he were red hot as doubtless he is in the place of fires. I thought he came up to me, Bas, and said, get out of this, Hans. This is no place for a good hotentot like you. Hans, for here only the very best Christians can bear the heat for long. That finished me, Bas. I just answered that I handed you, the Bas, Alan, his son over to his care, hoping that he would see that you did not burn in that oven whatever happened to Omslopogas. Then I shoved my eyes and mouth and held my nose and wriggled beneath those curtains as the snake does, Bas, and ran down the hall and across the crawlyard and through the archway out into the night where I have been sitting cooling myself ever since, waiting for you to be carried away, Bas. And now you have come alive and with not even your hair burned off, which shows how wonderful must be the great medicine of Sikali. Bas, since nothing else could have saved you in that fire, no, not even your reverent father, the predicant. Hans, I said when he had finished, you are a very wonderful fellow for you can get drunk on nothing at all. Please remember, Hans, that you have been drunk tonight. Yes, very drunk indeed. And never dare to repeat anything that you thought you saw while you were drunk. Yes, Bas. I understand that I was drunk and already have forgotten everything, but, Bas, there is still a bottle full of brandy and if I could have just one more thought, I should forget so much better. By now we had reached our camp and here I found Umslopogas sitting in the doorway and staring at the sky. Good evening to you, Umslopogas, I said in my most unconcerned manner and waited. Good evening, watcher by night, who I thought was lost in the night, since in the end the night is stronger than any of its watchers. At this cryptic remark I looked bewildered but said nothing. At length, Umslopogas, whose nature for a soul was impulsive and lacking in the ordinary native patients, asked, Did you make a journey this evening, Macamasan? And if so, what did you see? Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogas? I inquired by way of answer. And if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut your eyes in the house of the white one Yonder, doubtless because you were wary of talk which you did not understand. I, Macamasan, as you suppose, I grew wary of that talk which flowed from the lips of the white which, like the music that comes from a little stream, babbling over stones, when the sun is hot and being wary, I fell asleep and dreamt what I dreamt does not much matter. It is enough to say that I felt as though I were thrown through the air like a stone cast from a sling by a boy who is set upon the stage to scare the birds out of a mealy garden. Further than any stone I went, I, further than a shooting star, till I reached a wonderful place. It does not much matter what it was like either, and indeed I'm already beginning to forget. But there I met everyone I have ever known. I met the lion of the Sulus, the black one, the earth shaker, he who had a sister named Balika, which sister, here he dropped his voice and looked about him suspiciously, bore a child, which child was fostered by one Mopu, that Mopu who afterwards slew the black one with the princess. Now, Magumasan, I had a score to settle with this black one. I, even though our blood be much of the same color, I had a score to settle with him because of the slaying of the sister of his Balika, together with the Langheni tribe. For the history of Balika, the mother of Umslopogas and Mopu, see the book called Nada the Lily, editor. So I walked up to him and took him by the head ring and spat in his face and made him find a spear and shield and meet me as man to man. Yes, I did this. And what happened then, Umslopogas, I said, when he paused in his narrative. Magumasan, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his head ring and the skull beneath and to shut upon itself while he went on talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognized. Yes, one Faku, whom in the days of Dingaan, the black one's brother, I myself slew upon the ghost mountain. Yes, Magumasan, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him and of the fight that I and my blood brother and the walls made. There, on the knees of the old witch who sits aloft on the ghost mountain, waiting for the world to die, where I could understand their talk, though mine went by them like the wind. Magumasan, they passed away and there came others. Dingaan among them, I, Dingaan, who also knows something of the witch mountain, seeing that they're more poor and I hurled him to death. With him also I would have had words, but it was the same story. Only presently he caught sight of the black one, yes, of Chaka whom he slew, stabbing him with the little red asagai and turned and fled, because in that land I think he still fears Chaka, Magumasan, or so the dream told. I went on and met others, men I had fought in my day, most of them, among them was Chikisa, he who ruled the people of the axe before me, whom I slew with his own axe. I lifted the axe and made me ready to fight again, but not one of them took any note of me. There they walked about or sat drinking beer or taking snuff, but never a sup of the beer or a pinch of the snuff did they offer me. No, not even those among them whom I chance to have killed. So I left them and walked on, seeking for Mopo, my foster father, and a certain man, my blood brother, by whose side I hunted with the wolves, yes, for them and for another. Well, and did you find them? I asked. Mopo, I found not, which makes me think, Magumasan, that as once you hinted to me, he whom I thought long dead, perhaps still lingers on the earth, but the others I did find. And he ceased brooding. Now I knew enough of Umslupoga's history to be aware that he had loved this man and woman of whom he spoke more than any others on the earth. The blood brother whose name he would not utter, by which he did not mean that he was his brother in blood, but one with whom he had made a pact of eternal friendship by the interchange of blood or some such ceremony, according to report, had dwelt with him on the Witch Mountain, where legend told, though this I could scarcely believe, that they had hunted with a pack of hyenas. There it said also they fought a great fight with a band sent out by Dingaan the king under the command of that Faco whom Umslupoga's had mentioned, in which fight the blood brother, wielder of the famous club known as the Watcher of the Forge, got his death after doing mighty deeds. There also, as I had heard, Nada the lily whose beauty was still famous in the land died under circumstances strange as they were sad. Naturally, remembering my own experiences or rather what seemed to be my experiences, for already I had made up my mind that they were but a dream. I was most anxious to learn whether these two who had been so dear to this fierce Zulu had recognized him. Well, and what did they say to you, Umslupoga's, I asked. Magumasan, they said nothing at all. Hargan, there stood this pair, or sometimes they moved to and fro. My brother, an even greater man than he used to be with a wolf's skin dirt about him and the club. Watcher of the Forge, which he alone could wield upon his shoulder. And Nada, grown lovelier even than she was of old. So lovely, Magumasan, that my heart rose into my throat when I saw her and stopped my breath. Yes, Magumasan, there they stood or walked about arm in arm as lovers might and looked into each other's eyes and talked of how they had known each other on the earth, for I could understand their words or thoughts and how it was good to be addressed together where they were. You see, they were old friends, Umslupoga's, I said. Yes, Magumasan, very old friends as I thought, so much so that they had never had a word to say of me who also was the old friend of both of them. I, my brother, whose name I'm sworn not to speak, the woman-hater who bowed he loved nothing say me and the wolves could smile into the face of Nada, the lily. Nada, the bride of my youth, yet never a word of me while she could smile back and tell him how great a warrior he had been and never a word of me whose deeds she was want to praise, who saved her in the Halakasi's caves and from Dingan. No, never a word of me, although I stood there staring at them. I suppose they did not see you, Umslupoga's. That is so, Magumasan. I am sure that they did not see me, for if they had, they would not have been so much at ease, but I saw them, and as they would not take heed when I shouted, I ran up calling to my brother to defend himself with his club. Then, as he still took no note, I lifted the axe in Kosikas, making its circle in the light and smote with all my strength. And what happened, Umslupoga's? Only this, Magumasan, that the axe went straight through my brother from the crown of his head to the groin, cutting him in two, and he just went on talking. Indeed, he did more. For stooping down, he gathered a white lily bloom, which grew there and gave it to Nada, who smelt at it, smiled and thanked him, and then thrust it into her girdle, still thanking him all the while. Yes, she did this, for I saw it with my eyes, Magumasan. Here the Sulu's voice broke, and I think that he wept, for in the faint light I saw him draw his long hand across his eyes, whereon I took the opportunity to turn my back and light a pipe. Magumasan, he went on presently. It seems that madness took hold of me for a long while, for I shouted and raved at them, thinking that words and rage might hurt where good steel could not, and as I did so, they faded away and disappeared, still smiling and talking. Nada, smelling at the lily which, having a long stalk, rose up above her breast. After this, I rushed away and suddenly met that savage king, Risu, whom I slew a few days gone. At him I went with the axe, wondering whether he would put up a better fight this second time. And did he, Umslopogas? Nah, but I think he felt me, for he turned and fled, and when I tried to follow, I could not see him. So I ran on, and presently who should I find but Baleka? Baleka, Chaka's sister, who repeated not Magumasan, was my mother, and Magumasan, she saw me. Yes, though I was but little when last she looked on me, who now am great and grim, she saw and knew me, for she floated up to me and smiled at me, and seemed to press her lips upon my forehead, though I could feel no kiss and to draw the soreness out of my heart. Then she, too, was gone, and of a sudden I fell down through space, having, I suppose, stepped into some deep hole or perhaps a well. The next thing I knew was that I awoke in the house of the white witch and saw you sleeping at my side, and the witch leaning back upon her bed and smiling at me through the thin blanket with which she covers herself up, for I could see the laughter in her eyes. Now I grew mad with her because of the things that I had seen in the place of dreams, and it came into my heart that it would be well to kill her that the world might be rid of her and her evil magic which can show lies to men. So, being distraught, I sprang up and lifted the axe and stepped towards her, whereon she rose and stood before me, laughing out loud. Then she said something in the tongue I cannot understand and pointed with her finger and lo, the next moment it was as if giants had seized me and were whirling me away. Till presently I found myself breathless but unharmed beyond the arch and what does it all mean, Magumasan? Very little as I think, Umslopovas, except that this queen has powers to which those of Sikali are as nothing and can cause visions to float before the eyes of men. For know that such things as you saw, I saw, and in them those whom I have loved also seem to take no thought of me but only to be concerned with each other. Moreover, when I awoke and told this to the queen who is called Shiyokumans, she laughed at me as she did at you and said that it was a good lesson for my pride who in that pride had believed that the dead only thought of the living. But I think that the lesson came from her who wished to humble us, Umslopovas, and that it was her mind that shaped these visions which we saw. I think so too, Magumasan, but how she knew of all the matters of your life and mine I do not know unless perhaps Sikali told them to her, speaking in the night watches as wizards can. Ne, Umslopovas, I believe that by her magic she drew out stories out of our own hearts and then set them forth to us afresh, putting her own color on them. Also it may be that she drew something from Hans and from Goroko and the other Sulos with you and thus paid us the fee that she had promised for our service, but in Langsik-Oksan and Barenkaus, not in good cattle, Umslopovas, he nodded and said, though at the time I seem to go mad and thought I know what women are false and men must follow where they lead them, never will I believe that my brother, the woman-hater, and Nada are lovers in the land below and have there forgotten me, the comrade of one of them and the husband of the other. Moreover, I hold, Magumasan, that you and I have met with a just reward for our folly. We have sought to look through the bottom of the graves at things which the great, great in heaven above did not mean that men should see and now that we have seen we are unhappier than we were, since such streams burn themselves upon the heart as a red-hot iron burns the hide of an ox so that the hare will never grow again where it has been and the hide is marred. To you, watcher by night, I say, content yourself with your watching and whatever it may bring to you in fame and wealth and to myself I say, holder of the axe, content yourself with the axe and what it may bring to you in fair fight and glory and to both of us I say, let the dead sleep unawakened until we go to join them which surely will be soon enough. Good words, Umslopogas, but they should have been spoken ear ever we set out on this journey. Not so, Makmasan, since that journey we were fated to make to say one who lies gender, the lady's sad eyes and, as they tell me, is well again. Also, Sikali willed it and who can resist the will of the opener of roads. So it is made and we have seen many strange things and won some glory and come to know how deep is the pool of our own foolishness who thought that we could search out the secrets of death and there have only found those of a witch's mind and venom reflected as in water and now, having discovered all these things, I wish to be gone from this haunted land. When do we march, Makmasan? Tomorrow morning I believe if the lady's sad eyes and the others are well enough as she who commands says they will be. Good, then I would sleep who am more weary than I was after I had killed Risu in the battle on the mountain. Yes, I answered, since it is harder to fight ghosts than men and dreams, if they be bad, are more dreadful than deeds. Good night, Umslopogas. He went and I too went to see how it fared with Enis. I found that she was fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which Asha seemed to have plunged her. Now it was absolutely natural and looking at her lying there upon the bed I thought how young and healthy was her appearance. The women in charge of her also told me that she had awakened at the hour appointed by Shiyu commands, as it seemed, quite well and very hungry although she appeared to be puzzled by her surroundings. After she had eaten, they added that she had sung a song which was probably a hymn and prayed upon her niece making signs upon her breast and then gone quietly to bed. My anxiety relieved as regards Enis I returned to my own quarters not feeling inclined for slumber, however instead of turning in I sat at the doorway contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the countless fireflies that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning gold. Also the great owls and other fowl that haunt the dark. These had come out in numbers from their hiding places among the ruins and sailed to and fro like white-winged spirits now seen and now lost in the gloom. While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary nature of my experiences during the past few days. Had any man ever known the like I wondered what could they mean and what could this marvelous woman Asha be? Was she perhaps a personification of nature itself as indeed to some extent all women are? Was she human at all or was she some spirit symbolizing a departed people faith and civilization and haunting the ruins where once she reigned as queen? No, the idea was ridiculous since such beings do not exist though it was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of common humanity as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than are given to any other woman. Of one thing I was certain however that the shades I had seemed to visit had their being in the circle of her own imagination and intelligence. There Omslopogas was right. We had seen no debt we had only seen pictures and images that she drew and fashioned. Why did she do this? I wondered. Perhaps to pretend to powers which she did not possess perhaps out of Cher Elphish mischief or perhaps as she asserted just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own sight. Well, if so, she had succeeded for never did I feel so crushed and humiliated as at that moment. I had seemed to descend or ascend into Hardus and there had only seen things that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds. Then on a waking I had been bewitched yes, fresh from those visions of the most dear dead I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic of this woman's loveliness and charm and made a fool of myself only to be brought back to my senses by her triumphant mockery. Oh, I was humbled indeed and yet the odd thing is that I could not feel angry with her and what is more that perhaps from vanity I believed in her profession of friendship towards myself. Well, the upshot of it was that like Omslopogas more than anything else in the world did I decide to depart from this haunted core and to bury all its recollections in such activities as fortune might bring to me and yet and yet it was well to have seen it and to have plucked the flower of such marvelous experience nor as I knew even then could I ever enter the memory of Asha otherwise the perfect in all loveliness and the half divine in power. When I awoke the next morning the sun was well up and I had taken a swim in the old bath and dressed myself I went to see how it fared with Enos I found her sitting at the door of her house looking extremely well and with a radiant face she was engaged in making a chain of some small and beautiful blue flowers of the Eres tribe of which quantities grew about that she threaded together upon stalks of dry grass chain which was just finished she threw over her head so that it hung down upon her white robe for now she was dressed like an Arab woman though without the veil I watched her unseen for a little while then came forward and spoke to her she started at the sight of me and rose as though to run away then apparently reassured by my appearance selected a particularly fine flower and offered it to me I sought once that she did not know me in the least and thought that she had never seen me before in short that her mind had gone exactly as Asha had said that it would do by way of making conversation I asked her if she felt well she replied oh yes she had never felt better and I added that he has gone on a long journey and will not be back for weeks and weeks an idea came to me and I answered yes Enes but I am a friend of his and he has sent me to take you to a place where I hope that we shall find him only it is far away so you also must make a long journey she clapped her hands and answered well that will be nice I do so love travelling especially to find daddy who I expect will have many proper clothes with him not these which although they are very comfortable and pretty seem different to what I used to wear you look very nice too and I am sure that we shall be great friends which I am glad of for I have been rather lonely since my mother went to live with the saints in heaven daddy is so busy and so often away that I do not see much of him upon my word I could have wept when I heard her prattle on thus it is so terrible unnatural almost dreadful indeed to listen to a full grown woman who talks in the accents and expresses the thoughts of a child however under all the circumstances I recognize that her calamity was merciful and remembering that Asha had prophesied the recovery of her mind as well as its loss and how great seemed to be her powers in these directions I took such comfort as I could leaving her I went to see the two sulus who had been wounded and found to my joy that they were now quite well and fit to travel for here too Asha's prophecy had proved good the other men also were completely rested and anxious to be gone like umslipogas and myself while I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Bilali who with the sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we should be ready to start as he had received orders to see to all the necessary arrangements I replied within an hour and he departed in a hurry but little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of litters and their bearers also with a bodyguard of 25 picked men all of whom we recognized as brave fellows who have fought well in the battle these men and the bearers owned Bilali harangued telling them that they were to guide, carry and escort us to the other side of the great swamp or further if we needed it and that it was the word of Shiyu commands that if so much as the smallest harm came to any one of us even by accident they should die every man of them by the hot pot whatever that might be for I was not sure of the significance of this horror for this see the book called She editor then he asked them if they understood they replied with fervour that they understood perfectly and would lead and guard us though we were their own mothers as a matter of fact they did and I think would have done so independently of Asha's command since they looked upon Umslapogas and myself almost as gods and thought that we could destroy them all if we wished as we had destroyed Rezu and his host I asked Bilali if he were not coming with us to which he replied no as Shiyu commands had returned to her own place and he must follow her at once I asked him again where her own place might be to which he answered vaguely that it was everywhere and he stared first at the heavens and then at the earth as though she inhabited most of them adding that generally it was in the caves though what he meant by that I did not know then he said that he was very glad to have met us and that the sight of Umslapogas killing Rezu was a spectacle that he would remember with pleasure all his life also he asked me for a present I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little German silver case with which he was delighted thus I parted with old Bilali of whom I shall always think with a certain affection I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslapogas thinking I suppose that he might take a last opportunity to fulfill his threats and introduce him to his terrible acts End of chapter 23 of She and Allan by H. Ryder Haggard read by Los Rolander Chapter 24 of She and Allan this is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Los Rolander She and Allan by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 24 Umslapogas wears the great medicine a little while later we started some of us in letters including the wounded Sulus who I insisted should be carried for a day or two and some on foot Enus I caused to be born immediately in front of myself so that I could keep an eye upon her moreover I put her in the special charge of hands to whom fortunately she took a great fancy at once perhaps because she remembered subconsciously that she knew him and that he had been kind to her although when they met after her long sleep as in my own case she did not recognize him in the least soon however they were again the fastest of friends so much that within a day or two the little hotentot practically filled the place of a maid to her attending to her everyone and looking after her exactly as a nurse does after a child with the result that it was quite touching to see how she came to depend upon him her monkey as she called him and how fond he grew of her once indeed there was trouble since hearing a noise I came up to find hands bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the Sulus who stupely or perhaps rudely had knocked against the litter of Enis and nearly turned it over for the rest the lady sad eyes as they called her had for the time became lady glad eyes since she was merry as the day was long laughing and singing and playing just as a healthy happy child should do only once did I see her wretched and weep it was when a kitten which she had insisted on bringing with her sprang out of the litter and vanished into some bush where it could not be found even when she was soon consoled and dried her tears when hands explained to her in a mixture of bad English and worse Portuguese that it had only run away because it wished to get back to its mother which it loved and that it was cruel to separate it from its mother we made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over the crest of the cliff or volcano that encircles the great plain of core and descending rapidly to a shelter spot on the outer slope where our camp was to be set for the night not very far from this place as I think I have mentioned stood and I suppose still stands a very curious pinnacle of rock which doubtless being of some harder sort had remained when hundreds of thousands or millions of years before the surrounding lava had been washed or had corroded away this rock pillar was perhaps 50 feet high and as smooth as though it had been worked by man indeed I remembered having remarked to Hans or umslupogas I forget which when we passed it on our inward journey that there was a column which no monkey could climb as we went by it for the second time the sun had already disappeared behind the western cliff but a fierce ray from its sinking orb struck upon a storm cloud that hung over us and thence was reflected in a glow of angry light of which the focus or center seemed to fall upon the summit of this strange and obelisk like pinnacle of rock at the moment I was out on my litter and walking with umslupogas at the end of the line to make sure that no one struggled in the oncoming darkness when we had passed the column by some 40 or 50 yards something caused umslupogas to turn and look back he uttered an exclamation which made me follow his example with the result that I saw a very wonderful thing for there on the point of the pillar like Saint Simeon Stilitis on his famous column glowing in the sunset rays as though she were on fire stood Asha herself it was a strange and in a way a glorious sight for poised thus between earth and heaven she looked like some glowing angel rather than a woman standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness since the shadows save for the faintest outline had swallowed up the column that supported her moreover in the intense rich light that was focused on her we could see every detail of her form and face for she was unveiled and even her large and tender eyes which gazed upwards emptily at the moment they seemed very tender yes and the little gold studs that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake girdle she wore about her waist we stared and stared till I said inconsequently learn umslupogas what a liar is that old Bilali who told me that she who commands had departed from court her own place perhaps this rock edge is her own place if she be there at all makumasan if she be there I answered angrily for my nerves were at once thrilled and torn speak not empty words umslupogas for where else can she be when we see her with our eyes who am I that I should know the ways of witches who like the winds are able to go and come as they will can a woman run up a wall of rock like a lizard makumasan doubtless and I began some explanation which I have gotten when a passing cloud or I know not what cut off the light so that both the pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible a minute later it returned for a little while and there was the point of the needle shaped rock but it was empty as say for the birds that rested on it it had been since the beginning of the world then umslupogas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence this was the last that I saw the glorious Asha if indeed I did see her and not her ghost yet it is true that for all the first part of the journey till we were through the great swamp in fact from time to time I was conscious or imagined that I was conscious of her presence moreover once others saw her or someone who might have been her it happened thus we were in the center of the great swamp and the train guides who were leading came to a place where the path forked and were uncertain which road to take finally they fixed on the right hand path and were preparing to follow it together with those who bore the litter of enus by the side of which Hans was walking as usual at this moment as Hans told me the guides went down upon their faces and he saw standing in front of them a white veiled form who pointed to the left hand path and then seemed to be lost in the mist without a word the guides rose and followed this left hand path Hans stopped the litter till I came up when he told me what had happened while enus also began to chatter in her childish fashion about a white lady I had the curiosity to walk a little way along the right hand path which they were about to take only a few yards further on I found myself sinking in a floating quagmire from which I extricated myself with much difficulty but just in time for as I discovered afterwards by probing with a pole the water beneath the matted reeds was deep that night I questioned the guides upon the subject but without result for they pretended to have seen nothing and not to understand what I meant of neither of these incidents have I any explanation to offer except that once contracted it is as difficult to be rid of the habit of hallucinations as of any other it is not necessary that I should give all the details of our long homeward journey so I will only say that having dismissed our bears and escorts when we reached higher ground beyond the horrible swamp keeping one litter for Enus in which the Sulus carried her when she was tied we accomplished it in complete safety and having crossed the Sambisi at last one evening reached the house called Stratmir here we found the wagon and oxen quite safe and were welcomed rapturously by my Sulus driver and the Forloper who had made up their minds that we were dead and were thinking of trekking homewards here also Tomaso greeted us though I think that like the Sulus he was astonished at our safe return and indeed not over pleased to see us I told him that Captain Robertson had been killed in a fight in which we had rescued his daughter from the cannibals who had carried her off information which I cautioned him to keep to himself but nothing else that I could help also I warned the Sulus through Umslopogas and Goroco that no mention was to be made of our adventures either then or afterwards since if these were done the curse of the white queen would fall on them and bring them to disaster and death I added that the name of this queen and everything that was connected with her or her doings must be locked up in their own hearts it must be like the name of dead kings not to be spoken nor indeed did they ever speak it or tell the story of our search because they were too much afraid both of Arsha whom they believed to be the greatest of all witches and of the acts of their captain Umslopogas Ines went to bed that night without seeming to recognize her old home to all appearance just a mindless child as she had been ever since she woke from her trance at Kor Next morning however Hans came to tell me that she was changed and that she wished to speak with me I went wondering to find her in the sitting room dressed in European clothes which she had taken from where she kept them and once more a reasoning woman Mr. Quatermain she said I suppose that I must have been ill for the last thing I remember is going to sleep on the night after you started for the hippopotamus hunt Where is my father? Did any harm come to him while he was hunting? Alas I answered lying boldly for I feared lest the truth should take away her mind again It did I was trampled upon by a hippopotamus bull which charged him and killed and we were obliged to bury him where he died She bowed her head for a while and muttered some prayer for his soul then looked at me keenly and said I do not think you are telling me everything Mr. Quatermain but something seems to say that this is because it is not well that I should learn everything No, I answered You have been ill and out of your mind for quite a long while Something gave you a shock I think that you learned of your father's death which you have now forgotten and were overcome with an use Please trust to me and believe that if I keep anything back from you it is because I think it best to do so for the present I trust and believe, she answered Now please leave me but tell me first where are those women and their children After your father died they went away I replied lying once more She looked at me again but made no comment Then I left her How much enus ever learnt of the true story of her adventures I do not know to this hour though my opinion is that it was but little To begin with everyone including Tomasso was threatened with a direst consequences if he said a word to her on the subject Moreover, in her way she was a wise woman one who knew when it was best not to ask questions She was aware that she had suffered from a fit of aberration or madness and that during this time her father had died and certain peculiar things had happened There she was content to leave the business and she never again spoke to me upon the subject Of this I was very glad and how on earth could I have explained to her about Asha's prophecies as to her lapse into childishness and subsequent return to a normal state when she reached her home seeing that I did not understand them myself Once indeed she did inquire what had become of Jani to which I answered that she had died during her sickness It was another lie at any rate by implication but I hold that there are occasions when it is righteous to lie at least these particular falsehoods have never travelled my conscience Here I may as well finish the story of Enus that is as far as I can As I have shown that she was always a woman of melancholy and religious temperament qualities that seemed to grow upon her after her return to health Certainly the religion did for continually she was engaged in prayer a development with which her editing may have had something to do since after he became a reformed character and grew unsettled in his mind her father followed the same route On our return to civilization as it chanced one of the first persons with whom she came in contact was a very earnest and excellent old priest of her own faith The end of this intimacy was much what might have been expected Very soon Enus determined to renounce the world which I think never had any great attractions for her and entered a sisterhood of an extremely strict order in Natal where, added to her many merits her considerable possessions made her very welcome indeed Once in after years I saw her again when she expected before long to become the mother superior of her convent I found her very cheerful and she told me that her happiness was complete and then she did not ask me the true story of what had happened to her during that period when her mind was a blank She said that she knew something had happened but that as she no longer felt any curiosity about earthly things she did not wish to know the details Again I rejoiced for how could I tell the true tale and expect to be believed even by the most confiding and simple mind in none to return to more immediate events When we had been at Stratmer for a day or two and I thought that her mind was clear enough to judge of affairs I told Enus that I must journey on to Natal and asked her what she wished to do Without a moment's hesitation she replied that she decided to come with me as now that her father was dead nothing would induce her to continue to live at Stratmer without friends or indeed the consolations of religion Then she showed me a secret hiding place cunningly devised in a sort of cellar under the sitting room floor where her father was accustomed to keep the spirits of which he consumed so great a quantity In this hole beneath some bricks we discovered a large sum in gold stored away which Robertson had always told his daughter she would find there in the event of anything happening to him With the money were his will and securities also certain mementos of his youth and some love letters together with a prayer book that his mother had given him These valuables of which no one knew the existence except herself we removed and then made our preparations for departure They were simple such articles of value as we could carry were packed into the wagon and the best of the cattle we drew with us The place with the store and the rest of the stock were handed over to Tomaso on a half-profit agreement under arrangement that he should remit the shares of Ines twice a year to a bank on the coast where her father had an account whether or not he ever did this I am unable to say but as no one wished to stop at Stratmer I could conceive no better plan because purchasers of property in that district did not exist As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Ines whether she was sorry to leave the place No, she replied with energy My life here has been a hell and I never wish to see it again Now it was after this on the northern borders of Suleyland that Sicali's great medicine as Hans called it really played its chief part for without it I think that we should have been killed every one of us I do not propose to set out the business in detail it is too long an intricate sufficient to say therefore that it had to do with the plots of Umslopogas against Setivio which had been betrayed by his wife Monasi and her lover Lusta both of whom I have mentioned earlier in this record The result was that a watch for him was kept on all the frontiers because it was guessed that sooner or later he would return to Suleyland also it had become known that he was travelling in my company so it came about that when my approach was reported by spies a company was gathered under the command of a man connected with a royal house and by it we were surrounded before attacking however this captain sent men to me with a message that with me the king had no quarrel although I was travelling in doubtful company and that if I would deliver over to him Umslopogas chief for the people of the axe and his followers I may go wither I wished unharmed taking my goods with me otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed every one of us since it was not decided that any witnesses should be left of what happened to Umslopogas having delivered this ultimatum and declined any argument as to its terms the messengers retired saying that they would return for my answer within half an hour when they were out of hearing Umslopogas who had listened to their words in grim silence turned and spoke in such fashion as might have been expected of him Makumasa he said now I come to the end of an unlucky journey though may have it is not so evil as it seems since I who went out to seek the dead but to be filled by John the White which with the meat of mocking shadows am about to find the dead in the only way in which they can be found namely by becoming of their number it seems that this is the case with all of us Umslopogas not so Makumasa that child of the king will give you safe conduct it is I and mine whose blood he seeks as he has the right to do since it is true that I would have raised rebellion against the king I who wearied of my petty lot and you that by blood his place was mine in this quarrel you have no share though you whose heart is as white as your skin are not minded to desert me moreover even if you wish to fight there is one in the wagon yonder whose life is not yours to give the lady's sad eyes is as a child in your arms and her you must bear to safety now this argument was so unanswerable that I did not know what to say so I only asked what he meant to do as escape was impossible seeing that we were surrounded on every side make a glorious end Makumasa he said with a smile I will go out with those who cling to me that is with all who remain on my men since my fate must be theirs and stand back to back on yonder mound and their way till these dogs of the king come up against us watch a while Makumasa and see how umslupogas bearer of the axe and the warriors of the axe can fight and die now I was silent for I knew not what to say there we all stood silent while minute by minute I watched the shadow creeping forwards to a woodsome mark that the head messenger had made with a spare upon the ground for he had said that when he touched that mark he would return for his answer in this rather dreadful silence I heard a dry little cough which I knew came from the throat of hands and to be his method of indicating that he had a remark to make what is it? I asked with irritation for it was annoying to see him seated there on the ground fanning himself with the remains of a hat and staring vacantly at the sky nothing Bars or rather only this Bars those hyenas of Sulus are even more afraid of the great medicine than were the cannibals up north since the maker of it is nearer to them Bars you remember Bars they knelt to it as it were when we were going out of Sululand well what of it now that we are going into Sululand I inquired sharply do you want me to show it to them? no Bars what is the use seeing that they are ready to let you pass also the lady's sad eyes and me and the cattle with a driver and four looper which is better still and all the other goods so what have you to gain by showing them the medicine but perhaps if it were on the neck of Omsloporgas and he showed it to them and brought it to their minds that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Cicalis great medicine or ought that is his die within three moons in this way or in that well Bars who knows and again he carved dryly and stared up at the sky I translated what Hans had said in Dutch Omsloporgas who remarked indifferently this little yellow man is well named light in darkness at least the plan can be tried if it fails there is always time to die so thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so for the first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so long and Omsloporgas put it over his head and hid it beneath his blanket a little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain himself came with them as he said to greet me for I knew him slightly and once we had dealt together about some cattle after a friendly chat he turned to the matter Omsloporgas explained the case at some length I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a very awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearer of the Great Medicine of Sicali itself when the captain heard this his eyes almost started out of his head the Great Medicine of the Orpner of Rhodes he exclaimed oh now I understand why this chief of the people of the Axis unconquerable such a wizard that no one is able to kill him yes I replied and you remember do you not that he who offends the Great Medicine or offers violence to him who wears it dies horribly within three moons he and his household and all those with him I have heard it he said with a sickly smile and now you're about to learn whether the tale is true I added cheerfully then he asked to see Omsloporgas alone I did not overhear their conversation but the end of it was that Omsloporgas came and said in a loud voice that no one could miss a single word that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me his friend to be involved in any trouble together with his men he had agreed to accompany this king's captain to the royal crown where he had been guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had been brought against him he added that the king's captain had sworn upon the Great Medicine of the opener of Rhodes to give him safe conduct and attempt no mischief against him which as was well known throughout the land was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished to continue to look upon the sun I asked the captain if these things were so also speaking in a loud voice he replied yes since his orders were to take Omsloporgas alive if he might he was only to kill him if he would not come afterwards while pretending to give him certain articles out of the wagon I had a few private words with Omsloporgas who told me that the arrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with his people be sure of this Makumasan he said that if I do not escape neither will that captain since I walk at his side and keep my axe and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that thick head of his and make friends with a grain inside Makumasan he added we have made a strange journey together and seen such things as I did not think the world had to show also I have fought and killed Reisu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone was worth all the trouble of the journey now it has come to an end as everything must and we part but as I believe not for always I do not think that I shall die on this journey with a captain though I do think that others will die at the end of it he added grimly a saying which at the time I did not understand it comes into my heart Makumasan that in John the land of witches and wizards the spirit of prophecy got caught in my mocha and crept into my bowels now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the after years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last as I believe that the white witch said or perhaps the spirit lives in Sikalis medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in words I cannot say but I pray that it is a true spirit since although you are white and I am black and you are small and I am big and you are gentle and cunning whereas I am fierce and as open as the blade of my own axe yet I love you as well Makumasan as though we were born of the same mother and had been brought up in the same crawl now that captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk so far well I will return the great medicine to Sikali if I live and if I die he must send one of the ghosts that serve him to fetch it from among my bones far well to you also jello man he went on to hands who had appeared hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome well are you named light in darkness and glad am I to have met you who have learnt from you how a snake moves and strikes and how a jackal thinks and avoids the snare yes far well for the spirit within me does not tell me that you and I shall meet again then he lifted the great axe and gave me a formal salute naming me chief and father great chief and father from old Baba Kosi umkol Kosi pagate thereby acknowledging my superiority over him a thing that he had never done before and as he did so did Goroko and the other Sulus adding to their salute many titles of praise in another minute he had gone with the king's captain to side I noted he clung lovingly his long thin fingers playing about the horn handle of the axe that was named in Kosikas and grown maker I'm glad we have seen the last of him and his axe pass remarked hands spitting reflectively it is very well to sleep in the same hut with a tame lion sometimes but after you have done so for many moons you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pulling the blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws yes I am very glad that this half-tamed lion is gone since sometimes I have thought that I should be obliged to poison it he might sleep in peace you know he called me a snake boss and poison is a snake's only spear shall I tell the boys to inspan the auction bars I think the further we get from that king's captain and his men the more comfortably shall we travel especially now they no longer have the great medicine to protect us you suggested giving it to him Hans I said yes boss I had rather that Umslo Pogas went away with the great medicine then that you kept the great medicine and he stopped with us here never travel with a traitor boss at any rate in the land of the king whom he wishes to kill kings are very selfish people boss and do not like being killed especially by someone who wants to sit upon their stool and to take the royal salute no one gives the royal salute to a dead king boss however great he was before he died and no one thinks the worst of a king who was a traitor before he became a king End of Chapter 24 of She and Alan by H. Ryder Haggard read by Lars Rolander Chapter 25 of She and Alan This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Lars Rolander She and Alan by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 25 Alan delivers the message once more I sat in the black cloof face to face with old Sicali so you have got back safely Makumasan he said well I told you you would did I not as for what happened to you upon the journey let it be for now that I am old long stories tire me and I dare say that there is nothing wonderful about this one where is the charm I lent you give it back now that it has served its turn I have not got it Sicali I passed it on to Mslupogas of the axe to save his life from the king's men oh yes so you did I had forgotten here it is and opening his robe of fur he showed me the hideous little talisman hanging about his neck then added would you like a copy of it Makumasan to keep as a memory if so I will call one for you no I answered I should not has Mslupogas been here yes he has been and gone again which is one of the reasons why I do not wish to hear your tale a second time where to the town of the people of the axe no Makumasan he came thence or so I understood but thither he will return no more why not Sicali because after his fashion he made trouble there and left some dead behind him one looster I believe whom he had appointed to sit on his stool as chief while he was away and a woman called Monasi who was his wife or Looster's wife or the wife of both of them I forget which it is said that having heard stories of her and the ears of jealousy are long Makumasan he cut off this woman's head with a sweep of the axe and made Looster fight him till he fell which the fool did almost before he had lifted his sheet it served him right who should have made sure that Mslupogas was dead before he wrapped himself in his blanket and took the woman to cook his porridge where has the axe bearer gone I asked without surprise for this news did not astonish me I neither know nor care Makumasan to become a wanderer I suppose he will tell you the tale when you meet him again in the after days as I understand he thinks that you will do for the tale of this meeting see the book called Alan Quatermain editor Harkin, I have done with this lion's wealth who is Chaka over again but without Chaka's wit yes, he's just a fighting man with a long reach a sure eye and the trick of handling an axe and such are of little use to me who know too many of them thrice have I tried to make him till my garden but each time he's broken the hoe although the wage I promised him was a royal caross and nothing less so enough of Mslupogas woodpecker almost I wish that you had not lent him the charm for then the king's men would have made an end of him who knows too much and like some silly boaster may shout out the truth when his axe is aloft and is full of the bear of battle for in battle he will live and in battle he will die Makumasan, as perhaps you may see one day the fate of your friends does not travel you over much opener of roads I said with Sarkas not at all Makumasan, because I have none the only friends of the old are those whom they can turn to their own ends and if these fail them they find others I understand Sikali and know now what to expect from you he laughed in a strange way and answered hi, and it is good that you must expect good in the future as in the past for you Makumasan who are brave in your own fashion without being a fool like Mslupogas and although you know it not like some master smith forge my asagais out of the red ore I give you tempering them in the blood of men and yet keep your mind innocent and your hands clean friends like you are useful to such as I, Makumasan and must be well paid in those wares that please them the old wizard brooded for a space while I reflected upon his amazing cynicism which interested me in a way for the extreme of unmorality is as fascinating to study as the extreme of virtue and often more so then jerking up his great head he asked suddenly what message had the white queen for me she said that you troubled her too much at night in dreams Sikali ah, but if I cease to do so ever she decides to know the reason why for I hear her asking me in the voices of the wind or in the twittering of bats after all she is a woman Makumasan and it must be dull sitting alone from year to year with not to stay her appetite save the ashes of the past and dreams of the future so dull that I wonder having once meshed you in her web how she found the heart to let you go before she had sucked out your life and spirit I suppose that having made a mock of you and drained you dry she was content to throw your side like an empty gourd perhaps had she kept you at her side you would have been a stone in her path in days to come perhaps Makumasan she waits for other travelers and would welcome them or one of them alone say nothing of a certain watcher by night who has served her turn and banished into the night but what other message had the white queen for the poor old savage witch doctor whose talk wears her so much in her haunted sleep then I told him of the picture that Asha had shown me in the water the picture of a king dying in a hut and of two who watched his end Sikali listened intently to every word then broke into a peel of his unholy laughter oh ho ho ho he laughed so all goes well though the road belongs since whatever this white one may have shown you in the fire of heaven's abou she could show you nothing but the truth in the water of the earth below for that is the law of our company of seers you have worked well for me Makumasan and you've had your fee the fee of the vision of the dead which you desired above all mortal things aye I answered indignantly a fee of bitter fruits whereof the juice burns and twists the mouth and the stone still stick fast within the gizzard I tell you Sikali that she stuffed my heart with lies I daresay Makumasan I daresay but they were very pretty lies were they not and after all I'm sure that there was wisdom in them as you will discover when you have thought them over for a score of years lies lies all is lies beyond the lie stands truth as the white witch stands behind her veil you drew the veil Makumasan and saw that beneath which brought you to your knees why it is a parable wander on through the valley of lies till at last it takes a turn and glittering in the sunshine glittering like gold you perceive the mountain of everlasting truth sought of all men but found by few lies lies all is lies yet beyond I tell you butchers and eternal stands the truth Makumasan oh oh oh oh oh fare you well watcher by night fare you well seeker after truth after the night comes dawn and after death comes what Makumasan well you will learn one day for always the veil is lifted at last as the white witch should you yonder Makumasan End of the Bukushi and Alan by H. Ryder Haggard Read by Lars Rolander