all that awful storm, when the Kaffirs would not stir
from the waggon, went alone down to the river guided
by the lightnings, but of course returned half dead,
having found nothing. By dawn he was back there
again, for love and fear would not let him rest a
minute. Yet he will never tell you anything of
that, lest you should think that his faith in Providence
was shaken. I know that he is strange—it
is no use hiding it, but if I were to thwart him he
would go quite mad, and then I should never forgive
myself, who took him for better and for worse, just
as he is, and not as I should like him to be.
So, Rachel, be as happy as you can, and make the best
of things, as I try to do, for your life is all before
you, whereas mine lies behind me, and yonder,”
and she pointed towards the place where the infant
was buried. “Hush! here he comes. Now,
help me with the packing, for we are to trek to the
ford this afternoon.”
ISHMAEL
It may he doubted whether any well-born young English
lady ever had a stranger bringing-up than that which
fell to the lot of Rachel Dove. To begin with,
she had absolutely no associates, male or female, of
her own age and station, for at that period in its
history such people did not exist in the country where
she dwelt. Practically her only companions were
her father, a religious enthusiast, and her mother,
a half broken-hearted woman, who never for a single
hour could forget the children she had lost, and whose
constitutional mysticism increased upon her continually
until at times it seemed as though she had added some
new quality to her normal human nature.
Then there were the natives, amongst whom from the
beginning Rachel was a sort of queen. In those
first days of settlement they had never seen anybody
in the least like her, no one so beautiful—for
she grew up beautiful—so fearless, or so
kind. The tale of that adventure of hers as a
child upon the island in the midst of the flooded torrent
spread all through the country with many fabulous
additions. Thus the Kaffirs said that she was
a “Heaven-herd,” that is, a magical person
who can ward off or direct the lightnings, which she
was supposed to have done upon this night; also that
she could walk upon the waters, for otherwise how did
she escape the flood? And, lastly, that the wild
beasts were her servants, for had not the driver Tom
and the natives seen the spoor of great lions right
at the mouth of the cave where she and her companion
sheltered, and had they not heard that she called
these lions into the cave to protect her and him from
the other creatures? Therefore, as has been said,
they gave her a name, a very long name that meant
Chieftainess, or Lady of Heaven, Inkosazana-y-Zoola;
for Zulu or Zoola, which we know as the title of that
people, means Heaven, and Udade-y-Silwana, or
Sister of wild beasts. As these appellations
proved too lengthy for general use, even among the
Bantu races, who have plenty of time for talking, ultimately
it was shortened to Zoola alone, so that throughout
that part of South-Eastern Africa Rachel came to enjoy
the lofty title of “Heaven,” the first
girl, probably, who was ever so called.
