She read my thoughts and answered with a laugh:
"Yes, it is damp; but you know I am very strong and damp will not hurt me. For the rest you need not be afraid, Mr. Quatermain. I did not lose my mind. It was taken from me by some power and sent to live elsewhere. Now it has been given back and I do not think it will be taken again in that way.""Of course it won't," I exclaimed confidently. "Whoever dreamed of such a thing?""/You/ did," she answered, looking me in the eyes. "Now before we go Iwant to say one more thing. Har?t and the head priestess have made me a present. They have given me a box full of that herb they called tobacco, but of which I have discovered the real name is Taduki. It is the same that they burned in the bowl when you and I saw visions at Ragnall Castle, which visions, Mr. Quatermain, by another of your coincidences, have since been translated into facts.""I know. We saw you breathe that smoke again as priestess when you uttered the prophecy as Oracle of the Child at the Feast of the First-fruits. But what are you going to do with this stuff, Lady Ragnall? Ithink you have had enough of visions just at present.""So do I, though to tell you the truth I like them. I am going to keep it and do nothing--as yet. Still, I want you always to remember one thing--don't laugh at me"--here again she looked me in the eyes--"that there is a time coming, some way off I think, when I and you--no one else, Mr. Quatermain--will breathe that smoke again together and see strange things.""No, no!" I replied, "I have given up tobacco of the Kendah variety;it is too strong for me."
"Yes, yes!" she said, "for something that is stronger than the Kendah tobacco will make you do it--when I wish.""Did Har?t tell you that, Lady Ragnall?"
"I don't know," she answered confusedly. "I think the Ivory Child told me; it used to talk to me often. You know that Child isn't really destroyed. Like my reason that seemed to be lost, it has only gone backwards or forwards where you and I shall see it again. You and Iand no others--unless it be the little yellow man. I repeat that I do not know when that will be. Perhaps it is written in those rolls of papyrus, which they have given me also, because they said they belonged to me who am 'the first priestess and the last.' They told me, however, or perhaps," she added, passing her hand across her forehead, "it was the Child who told me, that I was not to attempt to read them or have them read, until after a great change in my life.
What the change will be I do not know."
"And had better not inquire, Lady Ragnall, since in this world most changes are for the worse.""I agree, and shall not inquire. Now I have spoken to you like this because I felt that I must do so. Also I want to thank you for all you have done for me and George. Probably we shall not talk in such a way again; as I am situated the opportunity will be lacking, even if the wish is present. So once more I thank you from my heart. Until we meet again--I mean really meet--good-bye," and she held her right hand to me in such a fashion that I knew she meant me to kiss it.
This I did very reverently and we walked back to the temple almost in silence.
That month of rest, or rather the last three weeks of it, since for the first few days after the battle I was quite prostrate, I occupied in various ways, amongst others in a journey with Har?t to Simba Town.
This we made after our spies had assured us that the Black Kendah were really gone somewhere to the south-west, in which direction fertile and unoccupied lands were said to exist about three hundred miles away. It was with very strange feelings that I retraced our road and looked once more upon that wind-bent tree still scored with the marks of Jana's huge tusk, in the boughs of which Hans and I had taken refuge from the monster's fury. Crossing the river, quite low now, Itravelled up the slope down which we raced for our lives and came to the melancholy lake and the cemetery of dead elephants.
Here all was unchanged. There was the little mount worn by his feet, on which Jana was wont to stand. There were the rocks behind which Ihad tried to hide, and near to them some crushed human bones which Iknew to be those of the unfortunate Mar?t. These we buried with due reverence on the spot where he had fallen, I meanwhile thanking God that my own bones were not being interred at their side, as but for Hans would have been the case--if they were ever interred at all. All about lay the skeletons of dead elephants, and from among these we collected as much of the best ivory as we could carry, namely about fifty camel loads. Of course there was much more, but a great deal of the stuff had been exposed for so long to sun and weather that it was almost worthless.
Having sent this ivory back to the Town of the Child, which was being rebuilt after a fashion, we went on to Simba Town through the forest, dispatching pickets ahead of us to search and make sure that it was empty. Empty it was indeed; never did I see such a place of desolation.
