But perhaps you did not listen, or did
not hear, for I spoke softly and not as now, on my knees,
solemnly. For I must tell you, O mother, that after you died the
priest at Voa told me repeatedly that when I prayed, whether to
you or to any of the saints, or to the Mother of Heaven, I must
speak as he had taught me if I wished to be heard and understood.
And that was most strange, since you had taught me differently;
but you were living then, at Voa, and now that you are in heaven,
perhaps you know better. Therefore listen to me now, O mother,
and let nothing I say escape you.
"When this white man had been for some days with us, a strange
thing happened to me, which made me different, so that I was no
longer Rima, although Rima still--so strange was this thing; and
I often went to the pool to look at myself and see the change in
me, but nothing different could I see. In the first place it
came from his eyes passing into mine, and filling me just as the
lightning fills a cloud at sunset: afterwards it was no longer
from his eyes only, but it came into me whenever I saw him, even
at a distance, when I heard his voice, and most of all when he
touched me with his hand.
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