So he ordered one of the slaves to fetch her, and presently the little woman came, and having saluted him, sat herself down on the floor of the sitting room after the Kaffir fashion.

She was a strange little creature to see in her fur kaross and bead broidered girdle, but for a native she was very clean and pretty, with her wise woman's face set upon a body that had it been less rounded might almost have been that of a child.

Also she had adorned herself with great care, not in the cast-off clothes of white people but after her own manner, for her wavy hair which stood out from her head was powdered over with that sparkling blue dust which the Kaffir women use, and round her neck she wore a single string of large blue beads.
At first Jan spoke to her crossly, saying: "You have brought trouble and disgrace upon my house, Sihamba, and I wish you to begone from it." "It is true," she answered, "but not of my own will did I bring the trouble, O Father of Swallow," for so she always called Jan.

Indeed, for Sihamba, Suzanne was the centre of all things, and thus in her mouth the three of us has no other names than "Father" or "Mother" or "Lover" of Swallow.
"That may be so," answered Jan, "but, doubtless, Black Piet, who hates you, will follow you here, and then we shall be called upon to defend you, and there will be more trouble." "It is not I whom Black Piet will follow," she replied, "for he has stolen all I have, and as my life is safe there is nothing more to get from me," and she looked at Suzanne.
"What do you mean, Sihamba?
Speak plain words," said Jan.
"I mean," she answered, "that it is not I who am now in danger, but my mistress, the Swallow, for he who has kissed her once will wish to kiss her again." Now at this Ralph cursed the name of Swart Piet aloud, and Jan answered, "It is a bullet from my _roer_ that he shall kiss if he tries it, that I swear." "I hope it may be so," said Sihamba; "yet, Father of Swallow, I pray you send me not away from her who bought me at a great price, and to whom my life belongs.

Look; I cost you but little to keep, and that little I can earn by doctoring your horses and cattle, in which art I have some skill, as you know well.