off, and that when they are married it should be at the dorp yonder, not
here."

Now when I heard this my anger overflowed like water in a boiling pot.
"What!" I cried, "when all is settled and the _predicant_ has ridden for
two days to do the thing, is the marriage to be put off because forsooth
this little black idiot declares that she sees things on bits of glass
in a bowl, and because you, Jan, who ought to know better, take the lie
from her lips and make it your own? I say that I am mistress here and
that I will not allow it. If we are to be made fools of in this fashion
by the peepings and mutterings of Kaffir witch-doctors we had better
give up and die at once to go and live among the dead, whose business it
is to peep and mutter. Our business is to dwell in the world and to face
its troubles and dangers until such time as it pleases God to call us
out of the world, paying no heed to omens and magic and such like sin
and folly. Let that come which will come, and let us meet it like men
and women, giving glory to the Almighty for the ill as well as for the
good, since both ill and good come from His hands and are part of His
plan. For my part I trust to Him who made us and who watches us, and I
fear not Swart Piet, and therefore chance what may the marriage shall go
on."

"Good words," said Jan, "such as my heart approves of;" but he still
mopped his head with the coloured pocket-handkerchief and looked
troubled as he added, "I pray you, wife, say nothing of this to anybody,
and above all to the predicant, or he will put me out of the church as a
wizard."

"Yes, yes," said Sihamba, "good words, but the Sight is still the Sight
for those who have the power to see. Not that I wished you to see,