The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-10-10

tfoRDleS Wouid nave oeen done Wltn
these many days.
So lay and thought with heart full
Of gratitude, and as l did SO saw old
Indaba-zimbi sitting by the fire and go
ing through some mysterious perform
ance with bones, which he produced
from his bag, and ashes mixed with
water. spoke to him and asked him
what he was about He replied that he
was tracing out the route that we should
follow. felt inclined to answer s'bosh,
but remembering the very remarkable
instances which he had given of his
prowess in occult matters, I held my
tongue, and taking little Tota into my
arms, worn out with toll and danger and
emotion, went to sleep.
woke Just as the dawn was begin
ming to flame across the sky in sheets OF
primrose and of gold, or rather it was
little Tota who woke me by kissing me
as she lay between sleep and waking,
and calling me papa" 1t wrung my
heart to hear her. I got up, washed
and dressed the child as best I could,
and then we breakfasted as we had
supped, on biltong and biscuit. Tota
asked for milk, but I had none to give
her. Then we caught the horses, and
saddled mine.
Swell, Indaba-zimbi," ! said, NOW
what path do your bones point to?"
Straight north" he said. ''The jour
ney will be hard, but in four days we
shall come to the kraal of white man,
an Englishman, not Boer. His kraal
is in beautiful place, and there is a
great peak behind it where there are
many baboons."
/ looked at him. "This is all non
sense, Indaba-zimbi," said. whoever
heard of an Englishman building a
house in these wilds, and how do you
know any thing about it? / think that
we had better strike east towards Port
Natal"
"As you like, Macumazahn," he an
swered, "but 1t will take US three
months journey to get to Port Natal, if
We ever get there, and the child will
die on the road. Say, Macumazahn,
have my words come true, heretofore, or
have they not? Did l not tell you not
to hunt the elephants on horseback?
Did not tell you to take one wagon
with you instead of two, as it is better
to lose one than two?"
"You told me all these things" an
swered.
And so tell you now to ride north,
Macumazshn, for there you will find
great happiness-yes, and great sorrow.
But no man should run away from hap
piness because of sorrow. As you will,
as you Will"
Again looked at him. In his divina-
tons l did not believe, but yet came
to the conclusion that he was speaking
what he knew to be the truth. 1t struck
me as possible that he might have heard
of some white man living like hermit
in the wilds, but preferring to keep up
his prophetic character would not say
so.
Every we'll, Indaba-zimbi," said,
''let US ride north"
Shortly after we started the river we
had followed hitherto turned off in a
westerly direction, so We left Il. All
that day we rode across rolling uplands,
and about an hour before sunset halted
at little stream which ran down from
q range Of hills in front Of US. By this
time was heartily tired of the biltong,
so, taking my elephant rifie-for had
nothing else Il left Tota with Indaba-
zimbi, and started to see If could shoot
something. Oddly enough we had seen
no game all the day, nor did we see any
on the subsequent days. For some mys-
terious reason they had temporarily left
the district crossed the little stream
let in order to enter the belt of
thorns which grew upon the hill
side beyond, for there 1 hoped to
find a buck. As 1 did so 1 was
rather disturbed to see the spoor of
two lions in the soft, sandy edge of a
pool. Breathing the hope that they
might not still be in the neighborhood,
went on into the belt of scattered
thorns. For a long while hunted
about without seeing any thing except
one dinker buck, which bounded off
with a crash from the other side of a
stone without giving me chance. At
length, just as it grew dusk, spied
Petite buck, graceful little creature,
scarcely bigger than a large hare, stand