For is she not the head lady of the Amasomi?
There is nothing wrong with her--nothing at all, except that as yet she has no child; also that--," and he paused.
"That what ?" I asked.
"That she hates the very sight of her husband, Masapo, and says that she would rather be married to a baboon--yes, to a baboon--than to him, which gives him offence, after he has paid so many cattle for her.
But what of this, Macumazahn?
There is always a grain missing upon the finest head of corn.

Nothing is _quite_ perfect in the world, Macumazahn, and if Mameena does not chance to love her husband--" and he shrugged his shoulders and drank some "squareface." "Of course it does not matter in the least, Umbezi, except to Mameena and her husband, who no doubt will settle down in time, now that Saduko is married to a princess of the Zulu House." "I hope so, Macumazahn, but, to tell the truth, I wish you had brought more guns, for I live amongst a terrible lot of people.

Masapo, who is furious with Mameena because she will have none of him, and therefore with me, as though I could control Mameena; Mameena, who is mad with Masapo, and therefore with me, because I gave her in marriage to him; Saduko, who foams at the mouth at the name of Masapo, because he has married Mameena, whom, it is said, he still loves, and therefore at me, because I am her father and did my best to settle her in the world.

Oh, give me some more of that fire-water, Macumazahn, for it makes me forget all these things, and especially that my guardian spirit made me the father of Mameena, with whom you would not run away when you might have done so.

Oh, Macumazahn, why did you not run away with Mameena, and turn her into a quiet white woman who ties herself up in sacks, sings songs to the 'Great-Great' in the sky--[that is, hymns to the Power above us]--and never thinks of any man who is not her husband ?" "Because if I had done so, Umbezi, I should have ceased to be a quiet white man.