you know everything. But you don't! You are always
staring at the clouds and can't see the things that lie at your feet.
You hardly believe me now, do you, Macumazahn? Well, I will show you.
Have you anything on you that the Star has touched or worn?"

I thought for a moment, and said that I had a lock of her hair in my
pocket-book. He told me to give it him. I did so. Going to the fire, he
lit the lock of hair in the flame, and let it burn to ashes, which he
caught in his left hand. These ashes he mixed up in a paste with the
juice of one of the leaves of the plant I have spoken of.

"Now, Macumazahn, shut your eyes," he said.

I did so, and he rubbed his paste on to my eyelids. At first it burnt
me, then my head swam strangely. Presently this effect passed off, and
my brain was perfectly clear again, but I could not feel the ground with
my feet. Indaba-zimbi led me to the side of the stream. Beneath us was a
pool of beautifully clear water.

"Look into the pool, Macumazahn," said Indaba-zimbi, and his voice
sounded hollow and far away in my ears.

I looked. The water grew dark; it cleared, and in it was a picture.
I saw a cave with a fire burning in it. Against the wall of the cave
rested Stella. Her dress was torn almost off her, she looked dreadfully
pale and weary, and her eyelids were red as though with weeping. But she
slept, and I could almost think that I saw her lips shape my name in her
sleep. Close to her, her head upon Stella's breast, was little Tota;
she had a skin thrown over her to keep out the night cold. The child was
awake, and appeared to be moaning with fear. By the fire, and in such a
position that the light fell full upon her face, and engaged in cooking
something in a rough pot shaped from wood, sat the Baboon-woman,
Hendrika. She was clothed in baboon skins, and her face had been
rubbed with some dark stain, which was, however, wearing off it. In
the intervals of her cooking she would turn on Stella her wild eyes,
in which glared visible madness, with an expression of tenderness that
amounted to worship. Then she would stare at the child and gnash her
teeth as though with hate. Clearly she was jealous of it. Round the
entrance arch of the cave peeped and peered the heads of many baboons.
Presently Hendrika made a sign to one of them; apparently she did not
speak, or rather grunt, in order not to wake Stella. The brute hopped
forward, and she gave it a second rude wooden pot which was lying