Judge you."
"I will not judge. Let Heaven-above judge. Lady, give me a hair from your
head."
Rachel plucked out the hair and handed it, a shining thread of gold, to
Noie who drew one from her own dark tresses, and laid them side by side.
"See," she said, "they are of the same length. Now, without the wind blows
gently; come then to the door of the tent, and I will throw these two
hairs into the wind. If that which is black floats first to the ground,
then I stay, if that which is golden, then I go to seek my hair. Is it
agreed?"
"It is agreed."
So the two girls went to the entrance of the tent, and Noie with a swift
motion tossed up the hairs. As it happened one of those little eddies of
wind which are common in South Africa, caught them, causing them to rise
almost perpendicularly into the air. At a certain height, about forty
feet, the supporting wind seemed to fail, that is so far as the hair from
Noie's head was concerned, for there it floated high above them like a
black thread in the sunlight, and gently by slow degrees came to the earth
just at their feet. But the hair from Rachel's head, being caught by the
fringe of the whirlwind, was borne upwards and onwards very swiftly, until
at length it vanished from their sight.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123