Swallow: A Tale of the Great TrekHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Swallow: A Tale of the Great Trek
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Historical fiction; South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 -- Fiction; Transvaal (South Africa) -- Fiction
Now at this I grew angry, for it is not pleasant to a woman to hear
that a man whom all know to be but a child compared to her can see
things in water which she is not able to see, even though the things
are born only of the false magic of a witch-doctoress. Still, as at
that moment I chanced to hear Jan seeking me, for he wondered where I
had gone, I called to him and set out the matter, expecting that he
would be very angry and dismiss Sihamba, breaking up her magic bowl.
But all the while that I talked to him the little woman sat, her chin
resting upon her hand, looking into his face, and I think that she had
some power over him. At the least, he was not at all angry, although he
said that I must not mention the business to the _predicant_, who was
well known to be a prejudiced man. Then he asked Sihamba to show him
the wonders of the bowl. Replying that she would if she might, and
always keeping her eyes fixed upon his face, she bade him kneel down
and look into the water in such fashion that he did not shut the
moonlight off from it, and to tell us what he saw.
So he knelt and looked, whispering presently that on the midmost piece
of glass there appeared the image of Suzanne, and on the others
respectively those of Ralph, Jan himself, me his wife, and Sihamba. I
asked him what they were doing, but he could give me no clear answer,
so I suppose that they were printed there like the heads on postage
stamps, if indeed they existed anywhere except in Jan’s brain, into
which Sihamba had conjured them.
“What do you see more?” asked Sihamba.
“I see a shadow in the water,” he answered, “a dark shadow, and—it is
like the head of Swart Piet cut out of black paper—it spreads till it
almost hides all the faces on the bits of glass. Almost, I say, but not
quite, for things are passing beneath the shadow which I cannot
distinguish. Now it shrinks quite small, and lies only over your
likeness, Sihamba, which shows through it red—yes, and all the water
round it is red, and now there is nothing left;” and Jan rose pale with
fright, and wiped his brow with a coloured pocket-handkerchief,
muttering “Allemachter! this is magic indeed.”
“Let me look,” I said, and I looked for a long while and saw nothing
except the five bits of glass. So I told Jan outright that he was a
fool whom any conjurer could play with, but he waited until I had done
and then asked Sihamba what the vision meant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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