Dagon Shwe Nya - Swallow

(1)

It would be ridiculous if I, a mere old woman, "Suzanne Naw," were to write a book. I can only sign my name. In fact, I will not write this book myself. My daughter-in-law, "Suzanne" (the name given to me in keeping with tradition), will simply follow my instructions with a small machine about the size of a pumpkin that she brought from Durban that makes a ticking sound when she presses it with her hand, and that seems to have already typed the letters.

When we fled from the British in 1816, my husband, "Jan Botama," was the strongest man in the caravan, but now his white hair was matted and disheveled. His big arms were weak and weak. I saw him kill two Dulu who had forced their way into our caravan at the Battle of "Bechakow," by grabbing them by the necks and butting heads together until they were dead.

Now I myself am suffering from arthritis, and my wife and I are old and infirm, and we will soon be going to the path of death by the will of God. But I thank God that in our youth we have been saved from the spears of savages, from the dangers of hunger, from the dangers of wild animals, and have lived to this day. So I had hoped to have told you all this before God called me. And there is another reason. The father of my daughter “Susan Kenzie,” who is now writing this down with a typewriter, and my son-in-law and her grandfather (my adopted son) have been killed in the great battle of Lu, which was fought with the English, so that only one of my blood remains.

Furthermore, I hereby order that the Englishman “Raf (F) Kinzie” may know the truth about how our daughter Susannie was mysteriously found, how she was lost, and how she was searched for, and that the descendants of my adopted son “Raf (F) Kinzie” may know.

I will now tell you how I discovered “Ra (Fa) Kinzi” many years ago.

I must say from the outset that my husband, Jan Botma, is descended from a prominent Boer family, and before they moved to the Transkei, their relatives lived mostly in the Grafton area of ​​the old colony. The reason they moved is not a trivial matter. I want you to listen and decide.

Frederick was arrested by the British government for abusing his slaves. Frederick, who did not want to be touched by the blacks, fought back to the death. After a group of his relatives swore an oath at his grave to avenge him, about 50 people rose up in rebellion. Frederick's brother was killed and others were captured. At that time, the English governor, Sanmarsat, hanged five of them, including my husband's father and uncle. When the four ropes broke during the hanging, "Jean" ran to his father. But the blacks chased him away. His father, who was hanging on the ropes, said to him, "Forget me not, my son," and Jan never forgot those words.

After this incident, the "Botama" family moved to Transkei, and my parents, "Naw", were also there. In Transkei, the hunter Botama and my father were neighbors. My "father" was a member of the Huguenots who had to flee for religious reasons, and I was of French blood, so the women in our family were especially beautiful. Of these, my daughter, Susan, about whom I am now writing, is the most beloved.

I myself, like other Bowa girls, was not stout, nor slow of speech, but agile when standing. Under the brown hair, the brown eyes, the full red lips, were the things that attracted the young men of that region.

Among the young men, I favored "Jean," now a poor old man. At that time, he was a handsome man whom every young woman wanted to see. My father, who was proud of his French blood, did not consider us a match. But in the end, because of Jean's ability, he gave in and agreed, and we used to meet and talk while lighting long candles. So we were finally married, and about a year later, we had a daughter, and we named her "Suzanne," so that the family name would continue after our death. However, the people of the land called her "Little Swallow" in the cradle. I was sick when she was born, and after that I did not have any more children.

• Among the Bodhai people, there is a custom when young men visit their lovers. If the girl likes the man, she lights long candles and welcomes him. If she doesn't like him, she lights shorter ones.

The Transkei region where we live is not far from the sea, and if you look up from the mountains behind you, you can see white waves crashing against the rocks. Ships that fall into these white caves are shattered and destroyed.

When Susanna was seven years old, one winter evening, the strong southeast wind that had been blowing for four days had subsided. After doing my household chores, I took Susanna to the top of the mountain. My husband Jan soon followed me, and when I asked him about it, he told me that he had heard from the Kafar people living on the coast that they had also seen a three-masted ship about the first of the month, and that the ship had been driven ashore by a storm, and that flames had been seen shooting from the deck.

"This is what the Kafirs want to tell you, sir."

"Yes, I don't know, but the news travels faster than a good horse. And this is a place where ships have been wrecked before. Hey, girl, put down the gun, you're not going to shoot your mother. Didn't your father tell you never to hold a gun?" Jan said, walking towards Susannie, who was holding her gun. At that time, we were living among the savages, so every man was used to carrying a weapon.

(Suzanne pouts and puts the gun back down) "I don't shoot deer and elk, Dad."

"Shooting frogs, right? The job you said is good, that's good, my child. But it's not a girl's job. You'd be better off being a boy instead of a girl."

"It's impossible, Dad. And I don't have any brothers or sisters like other children. Why don't I have a little brother?"

"If you try hard, you'll find it," I replied casually.

The next morning at breakfast the black man who had been keeping Suzanne came to us and told us that the child was missing, and we were about to leave. The story goes that they had gone to the beach to collect shells, and that Suzanne had been left to collect them with her bag as she pleased. After about an hour of searching under a rock, she found the child, but she could not find him, and that the footprints had disappeared on the gravelly ground above where they had followed the tracks. Jan was a stranger. He could not waste any time, so he took some of the frogs and set out to search for his daughter.

I was watching from the front porch when I saw Jan returning alone as the sun was setting, and my whole body was shaking.

(Jan said in a dry voice) “The child is missing, my dear. We have searched everywhere, but we can’t find her. Now… I’ll try to prepare some food for you to put in your saddlebags. I’m afraid the child will starve.”

"Don't worry about her hunger, the girl who cooks told me, 'This morning before Susannie left, she packed a bottle of milk, some dried beef, and some cake in her bag.'"

"It's strange, isn't she thinking about going on a trip?"

"Being a child is like playing with your imagination, Gen."

Then, while I was loading my saddlebags with food, Jan hurriedly prepared dinner, said goodbye to me, and rode off on a new horse.

I sat on the porch all night, my body wet with dew, my throat shivering, waiting for them, and praying softly. Perhaps the savages who hated the white man had stolen my daughter away in the forest. Or perhaps wild animals had carried her away. At last dawn came and Jan returned, and I realized what had happened. "Is my daughter dead?" I asked, sobbing. "I don't know yet, my dear , they haven't even found her yet. Give me some brandy and another horse. When the sun comes up, we'll find her again. When the tide goes out, we'll find her among the rocks," he said, and with a sigh he went into the house with me.

While we were praying inside the house to see our daughter again, we heard the babysitter's shrill scream and went outside to look.

Not even 30 yards from our house, there was a small mountain, and the sun was shining brightly on it. There, Susanne, her clothes wet and her hair disheveled, was surprised to see a little girl, a little older and taller than her, leaning on her shoulder. We both screamed with joy and ran to her daughter. I pulled her into my arms, hugged her, and kissed her, but the little girl, who seemed to be injured, fell to the ground.

(Jan sighs) "What the hell does this mean?"

(Suzanne with a proud expression) “What does that mean? I went to find my little brother, whom my mother said I would find in the ocean. But I didn’t understand what he said. He didn’t understand what I said. Come on, little brother, come on, this is our home. This is where my father and mother live.”

Then, to our astonishment, they took the children into the house and had them stripped of their wet clothes. The child's clothes, though worn and worn , were sewn from the finest linen, and were marked with the letters ' RM '. Furthermore, his feet were so swollen that they seemed to have to be cut off, and he was starving, and his body was nothing but skin and bones.

We washed her hands and covered her with blankets and fed her a spoonful of soup. The little girl cried out, “Mama, Mama,” and then fell asleep. = The night we were talking about the sea, Susan had a dream in which she saw a little girl praying to God in a ravine about an hour’s ride from our farm. Susan had once gone there with me to drink lotus flowers. Susan was a very small child for her age, and when she woke up in the morning, she would ask the maid for food and pretend to pick up a shell.

Whether the dream was a dream of his own making or a dream of God is for the reader to ponder. The ravine was farther away than he had thought, and on the side of the mountain - there were similar ravines - and he was still dizzy. Meanwhile, he saw large deer running near him, and large monkeys jumping from one rock to another. Finally, he reached the ravine he had seen in his dream, and after searching for a while along the stream, he came to a place near some thorn bushes. As he was wandering around, he saw a little girl with curly golden hair on a large stone mat, praying as he had seen in his dream. Susan ran to the child and greeted him, but neither of them understood what he was saying. When she gave him the little milk left in the bottle and the cakes, the child ate them without stopping.

By that time, the sun had completely set, and the children, who dared not go out in the dark, were sitting on a large stone mat, hugging each other tightly for warmth. They were terrified when they saw the big yellow eyes staring at them from the darkness and heard the loud roars. Finally, when the moon rose, they saw three animals not far from them in the moonlight. However, they were seen to escape without causing any harm to them.

It was then learned that Susannah had tried to bring the child, who was suffering from a leg injury, home after holding her hand and helping her to her feet.

That's why it seems that the investigators didn't find anyone in the ravine where the children were hiding.

When the children fell asleep, Jan said, "What are we going to do with this little boy you brought, woman?"

"What should we do, Jan, we just have to raise the child that God gave us."

“He has an English degree, I hate English.” “Whether it’s English or Dutch, you’re welcome, Myo Kaung Swe.”

"But what if his people come looking for him?"

"So we'll just watch and talk. I don't think I'll come, but we'll all die in the sea."

After that, Jan never spoke about it again. In fact, since he had no son, it seemed that he had wanted to adopt the child from the very beginning.

So while the child was sleeping, Jan rode off on a horse to the farm of a man named Hirawan Boring, who lived near us. He was the richest man among our ancestors, and his grandmother was said to be a chief among the red-skinned Kaphas. But that blood was more evident in his only son, Swapyat, than in himself, and the wickedness of that boy will be seen and read about in my story shortly.

After his wife's death, he had hired a young Dutchman as an English tutor for his son, and Jan's visit seemed to be to get him to translate. The tutor soon arrived with Jan, and when he woke up and asked him, we learn the following.

His name was “Rab(P)Kindi” (I think it was “Rab(P)Makazi” in my mind.) They set out from India with his parents and others, and when they reached this coast, the ship was in a storm for two days, and when they came to a rocky place, the ship was blown by the wind and broken into pieces, and only one boat with six sailors and women survived, in which Rab(P) and his mother were. His father was a valuable man, so the captain asked him to go with him, but he refused, and kissed his son and wife, and with the others he bravely went to the sinking of the ship. When they were near the shore, the ship capsized and some of the people were drowned, but Rab(P) and his mother safely reached the shore, and one of them, after looking at the “compass”, hoped to reach the white people. They came to the South, and then the men of their tribe were attacked and killed by the natives, and the women and children were not treated, and the others died one by one on the way, either from wild animals or from hunger. When the mother and son were left alone, they met a woman and gave her food and water, and they continued their journey south. When their food and water ran out, the next morning they found their mother dead, cold and dead. Then they ran away in fear and walked for a whole day, and finally, unable to bear it anymore, they knelt on a large stone mat and prayed as the elders had taught them, and shortly after they found Susanny, and they wept pitifully. When we heard this story, we all could not hold back our tears.

Later, by gathering information from the frogs, we learned that this incident was not only true, but that one of our frogs, who was searching for Susan, had actually found and buried the body of the father's mother. According to the man, the woman seemed to be from the upper class and could not have been more than 30 years old. Of the two rings found on the woman's body, one bore a small red Bible, with the inscription in English, "A gift from Agnes (Sir) Rennie Gordon to Florida," and a little hair of the woman's, which the father faithfully brought to me. The hair is still kept in a box in the carriage house under my bed, marked and sealed, while the rest, according to the will of his grandfather, is now in the possession of Zanni Kinsey. We also found the little girl, when she was stripped of all her clothes, with a gold chain and a gold locket, which her mother had given her the night before she died. In the locket were three figures painted on ivory, the right hand a handsome man in uniform and the left a handsome woman in the middle of her bed. The father told me that the picture of the child was his. The locket and the pictures were also obtained by my mother, Susan.

Not long ago, my husband took some people to the grave of a woman who had died in poverty, and after carefully surrounding it with stones, they performed a ritual of laying a cenotaph with a monk.

The British government sent a warship to the place mentioned above to investigate the shipwreck that caused so many deaths. But no one came to us. And yet, the story gradually faded away.

The little boy, Rappa, would often startle and cry, telling stories of the shipwreck, the death of his parents, and the wild animals they had encountered in the forest, such as the Kaffirs and the tigers. At that time, the only person who could calm Rappa's heart was Susanna, who would comfort him by singing and singing until he fell asleep.

After a few years, such sorrows gradually disappeared. What remained for Rapha was his love for Susanne. These two children, who were so in love with each other that they could not be separated, were indeed siblings. Playmates Playmates