most brazen sky to melt in tears. His services had been called in by
neighbouring tribes, with the result, it was rumoured, that those tribes
had been rewarded with partial showers. Also with great ceremony he had
gone through his rites for the benefit of the heathen section of the
Sisa people. Behold! by some curious accident on the following day
a thunderstorm had come up, and with it a short deluge of rain which
sufficed to make it certain that the crops in those fields on which it
fell would keep alive, at any rate for a while.

But mark what happened. As is not uncommon in the case of thunder
showers, this rain fell upon the lands which the heathen cultivated on
one side of the koppie, whereas those that belonged to the Christian
section upon the other side received not a single drop. The unjust were
bedewed, the just were left dry as bones. All that they received was the
lightning, which killed an old man, one of the best Christians in the
place. The limits of the torrent might have been marked off with a line.
When it had passed, to the heathen right stood pools of water; to the
Christian left there was nothing but blowing dust.

Now these Christians, weak-kneed some of them, began to murmur,
especially those who, having passed through a similar experience in
their youth, remembered what starvation meant in that country. Religion,
they reflected, was all very well, but without mealies they could
not live, and without Kaffir corn there would be no beer. Indeed,
metaphorically, before long they passed from murmurs to shouting,
and their shouts said this: Menzi must be invited to celebrate a
rain-service in his own fashion for the benefit of the entire tribe.

Thomas argued in vain. He grew angry; he called them names which
doubtless they deserved; he said that they were spiritual outcasts. By
this time, being frantic, his flock did not care what he said. Either
Menzi must come, they explained, or they would turn heathen. The Great
One in the sky could work as well through Menzi as through him, Tombool
or anybody else. Menzi _must_ come.

Thomas threatened to excommunicate them all, a menace which did not
amount to much as they were already excommunicating themselves, and when
they remained obstinate, told them that he would have nothing to do with
this rain-making business, which was unholy and repugnant to him. He
told them, moreover, that he was certain that their wickedness would
bring some judgment upon them