I would ask him,
but he won't set his Snake to work for me. So you must ask him, Baas,
and perhaps he will forget that you laughed at his magic and that he
swore you would never see it again."
"Oh! blind one," I answered, "how do I know that Mavovo's story about
Dogeetah was not all nonsense?"
Hans stared at me amazed.
"Mavovo's story nonsense! Mavovo's Snake a liar! Oh! Baas, that is
what comes of being too much a Christian. Now, thanks to your father
the Predikant, I am a Christian too, but not so much that I have
forgotten how to know good magic from bad. Mavovo's Snake a liar, and
after he whom we buried yonder was the first of the hunters whom the
feathers named to him at Durban!" and he began to chuckle in intense
amusement, then added, "Well, Baas, there it is. You must either ask
Mavovo, and very nicely, or we shall all be killed. /I/ don't mind
much, for I should rather like to begin again a little younger
somewhere else, but just think what a noise Sammy will make!" and
turning he crept out as he had crept in.
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