Still she could never get over her loathing of the place which she
believed to be ill-omened, perhaps because of its gloomy aspect, coupled
with the name of the river and the uses to which it had been put, after
all not so very long ago. Naturally, also, this distaste was accentuated
by the unlucky circumstances of their arrival.
Tabitha, too, was really happy, since she loved this wild free life, and
having been brought up amongst Kaffirs and talking their language almost
as well as she did her own, soon she made many friends.
Perhaps it was a sense that the information would not be well received
by her father that prevented her from mentioning that the greatest of
those friends was the old witch-doctor, Menzi, whom she often met when
she was rambling about the place. Or it may have been pure accident,
since Thomas was too busy to bother about such trifles, while her
mother, who of course knew, kept her own counsel. The truth is that
though he was a heathen witch-doctor, Dorcas liked old Menzi better than
any other native in the district, because she said, quite truly, that he
was a gentleman, however sinful and hard-hearted he might be. Moreover,
with a woman's perception she felt that if only he were a friend, at a
pinch he might be worth all the others put together, while if he were an
enemy, conversely the same applied.
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