I buried her by her father's side, and the weeping of the people who hadloved her went up to heaven. Even Indaba-zimbi wept, but I could weep nomore.
On the second night from her burial I could not sleep. I rose, dressedmyself, and went out into the night. The moon was shining brightly,and by its rays I shaped my course towards the graveyard. I drew nearsilently, and as I came I thought that I heard a sound of moaning on thefurther side of the wall. I looked over it. Crouched by Stella's grave,and tearing at its sods with her hands, as though she would unearth thatwhich lay within, was _Hendrika_. Her face was wild and haggard, herform was so emaciated that when the pelts she wore slipped aside, theshoulder-blades seemed to project almost through her skin. Suddenly shelooked up and saw me. Laughing a dreadful maniac laugh, she put her handto her girdle and drew her great knife from it. I thought that she wasabout to attack me, and prepared to defend myself as I best could, for Iwas unarmed. But she made no effort to do so. Lifting the knife on high,for a moment she held it glittering in the moonlight, then plunged itinto her own breast, and fell headlong to the ground.
I sprang over the wall and ran to her. She was not yet dead. Presentlyshe opened her eyes, and I saw that the madness had gone out of them.
"Macumazahn," she said, speaking in English and in an thick difficultvoice like one who half forgot and half remembered--"Macumazahn, Iremember now. I have been mad. Is she really dead, Macumazahn?"
"Yes," I said, "she is dead, and you killed her."
"I killed her!" the dying woman faltered, "and I loved her. Yes, yes, Iknow now. I became a brute again and dragged her to the brutes, and nowonce more I am a woman, and she is dead, and I killed her--because Iloved her so. I killed her who saved me from the brutes. I am not deadyet, Macumazahn. Take me and torture me to death, slowly, very slowly.It was jealousy of you that drove me mad, and I have killed her, and nowshe never can forgive me."
"Ask forgiveness from above," I said, for Hendrika had been a Christian,and the torment of her remorse touched me.
"I ask no forgiveness," she said. "May God torture me for ever, becauseI killed her; may I become a brute for ever till she comes to find meand forgives me! I only want her forgiveness." And wailing in an anguishof the heart so strong that her bodily suffering seemed to be forgotten,Hendrika, the Baboon-woman, died.
I went back to the kraals, and, waking Indaba-zimbi, told him what hadhappened, asking him to send some one to watch the body, as I proposedto give it burial. But next morning it was gone, and I found that thenatives, hearing of the event, had taken the corpse and thrown it to thevultures with every mark of hate. Such, then, was the end of Hendrika.
Allan's Wife Page 16
