Strong as we felt in the might of our name and nation, we were too well
skilled in the game of war to allow ourselves to be lulled into a blind
security. Day after day, night after night, we kept a sharp look-out,
expecting the forces of the Bakoni and their allies to fall upon us in
overwhelming numbers. But they did not; which went to show that
something of the terror of our name had travelled to the Chief of the
Blue Cattle; nor, indeed, did I doubt but that messengers would follow
shortly after us with gifts, and desiring to _konza_ to Umzilikazi, even
as had done all other nations within our reach.
At length we drew near to Ekupumuleni, and our hearts were light, for
the thoughts of all of us were full of the richness of the country which
lay awaiting our possession; and as we returned to the home of our
wandering nation, the dryness of the land struck us as quite cheerless--
not that it was so really, but only by comparison with the green,
well-watered region we had just left.
Having sent messengers on to announce our arrival, we entered the great
kraal, singing lustily the praises of the King. Umzilikazi was seated
in his wonted place, at the upper end of the great open circle, and as
we flung our weapons to the ground and, tossing our right hands aloft,
roared the _Bayete_, I could see that pleased expression I knew so well
steal over his face.
"Greeting, son of Ntelani," he said, as bending low, I drew near. "Seat
thyself, and tell me what thou hast seen and done."
This I did, and the Great Great One took snuff and listened. Then he
ordered those women and boys whom he had taken as bearers to be brought
before him.
Crouching low to the earth they came, those poor slaves, their eyes
starting from their heads in fear. They had never seen anything like
this--the splendour of our huge kraal and its shapeliness and strength;
so different to their own town, which, though far larger, was utterly
without shape or design--the stature and strength, and fierce bearing of
our warriors, who had mustered in crowds to witness our return, and
above all, the proud majesty of our King, and the roaring volume of
praises which went up from every throat to hail his appearance. They
bent low to the very earth, trembling with fear.
"It is good, it is good," said the King, eyeing them between pinches of
snuff. "These are right well-made specimens, albeit somewhat light of
skin. I ordered thee to take no captives, Untuswa, yet the _impi_
needed bearers for its goods, and thou hast chosen the pick and flower
of the girls. Ah! ah! Untuswa; thou hast ever an eye for all that is
best in that way."
"_Yeh-bo Nkulu 'nkulu_!" I cried, delighted that I had pleased the
King.
"I will choose the best, Untuswa. After that thou canst take the two
that will suit thee; the remainder I will otherwise dispose of."
Then the King dismissed us, ordering cattle to be slain for us to feast
on, and we departed from his presence uttering shouts of _bonga_.
When I gained my hut I found Nangeza, my principal wife, awaiting me
with ill-concealed impatience.
"Welcome, Untuswa," she said. "And so upon the news you bring it
depends whether we move onward or no?"
"Who am I, to seek to interpret the mind of the King?" I answered
darkly, for Nangeza was ever trying to wring out of me what went on in
the secret councils of the _izinduna_, and even in my private
conferences with the Great Great One himself. This was all very well
while I was unringed and a thoughtless boy, but now things were
different. The less women had to say to such matters the better; but
although I could see this now, Nangeza never could be brought to do so.
She would show an evil temper at such times, and hint that she had been
the making of me--that I had been ready enough to take counsel of her in
times past, but that now I was somebody I thought I could do without
her. Then she would bid me beware, saying that, even as she had made
me, it might still be within her power to unmake me. Now of this sort
of talk, _Nkose_, I began to have more than enough. Nangeza might be
the _inkosikazi_--she deserved that--but she should not be the chief,
too.
[Inkosikazi means Chieftainess. The principal wife of a man of rank.]
She was now a tall, fine, commanding woman, and as fearless and ready of
wit as she had been when a girl, yet with the lapse of time she had
become too commanding--had developed an expression of hardness which
does not become a woman. She had slaves to wait on her, and had little
or no hard work to do herself. Moreover, by this time, I had two other
wives, those two girls whom I had promised to _lobola_ for when they had
surprised me and Nangeza together; and I had kept my word. They were
soft-hearted, merry, laughing girls, who never dreamed that the second
fighting _induna_ of the King's army ought to take his commands from
women; wherefore it not unfrequently befell that I preferred their huts
to that of Nangeza, my _inkosikazi_.
[Note: It is customary for each wife of a Zulu of rank to have a hut to
herself.]
A woman of Nangeza's disposition could not be other than a jealous
woman. She hated my other two wives. She had borne me one child, a
daughter, whereas the other two had each borne me a son, and she feared
lest I should name one of these as my successor, and as chief son, thus
conferring precedence over any she might hereafter bear me. You white
people, _Nkose_, think that we Zulus keep our women in the lowest
subjection. Well, we do not allow them to rule us, yet now and again we
find one who tries hard to do so, and gives a great amount of trouble
before we can convince her that it is not to be done; and Nangeza was
one of these. And of her I was even then beginning to have more than
enough.
Now she sullenly acquiesced in my reticence, for I would not unfold one
word of the King's counsels. But she gave me a very dark look and
turned away muttering. Yet during my absence events of the gravest
moment had been transpiring.
In the evening Umzilikazi sent for me. I found him alone in his hut,
and as I sat opposite him it seemed as though I were once more the
_inceku_ and shield-bearer, and that the dread ordeal which had
terminated in the winning of my head-ring and the King's Assegai had
been all a dream.
"What think you, Untuswa?" said the King at first. "Is it for good or
for ill that we leave Ekupumuleni, `The Place of Rest,' and depart for
this new land?"
"It is for good, Great Great One. The land is better one than this.
There is more room in it for a new nation to become mighty and rich."
"Yet there are some who would remain here, some who shake a doleful head
over the prospect of going farther."
"Those who shake their heads against the will of the King may happen to
shake them off, O Elephant."
"Ha! Thou sayest well, son of Ntelani. They may happen to shake them
off--ah! ah! they may."
Now Umzilikazi spoke in that soft and pleasant voice of his, and I
thought that trouble was gathering for somebody. Then as his keen eyes,
half-closed, were fixed upon mine, piercing through and through my
brain, I did not sit at ease, for I had been absent many moons, and
certain powerful enemies of mine had not. Then he went on, still
speaking in that soft and terrible voice.
"There are those who have reason to love Ekupumuleni, for it is not too
far from the land of their birth. Good. Ekupumuleni shall indeed be
their resting-place--their resting-place forever."
Now I knew that ill awaited somebody, and strangely, too, at that
moment, I remembered Nangeza's dark looks and words. Yet how could the
shadow of coming ill affect me? I aspired to be nothing but a fighting
leader! My mind was the mind of the King. I cared nothing for
intriguing or plotting. I only asked to lead my shields against the
enemies of the King. The occupation I favoured most was that of
fighting.
Then Umzilikazi went on to talk about this new land, and of the chief
and people who owned the blue cattle.
"There will be spoil for all, for all who deserve it," he said; "and
these slaves you have brought back please me well. _Whau_, Untuswa!
How is it that a man like you, and a fighting captain, has but three
wives--only three?" he asked, laughing at me.
"I care not for such, Great Great One. I desire only to wield the
King's Assegai in battle," I said.
"That is well. In a few days we shall see. Go now, Untuswa."
I saluted and left the King. As I passed the gate of the _isigodhlo_,
or royal enclosure, which gate was only wide enough to admit one man at
a time, I met my father, Ntelani, entering. Not a word had the King let
fall on the matter of my father, and this meeting, which was a surprise
to both of us, seemed an evil omen; for now that I wore the head-ring,
and had become great, and commanded the King's troops, my father was
more jealous than ever, and hated me more. We exchanged greetings, and
then in the darkness I made my way to old Masuka's hut.
I pushed the wicker door open and crept in. The old witch-doctor was
awake, and, seated by his fire, looked more like a big black spider than
a man, such a skin-and-bone old skeleton had he become.
"I have seen you, Untuswa," he said, looking up.
"Greeting, father," I replied.
"_Au_!" he said, handing me snuff. "And have you brought back cow and
calf from the land of the Blue Cattle, Untuswa? The cow, whose milk
keeps the life in my old frame, is dead--a lion killed her."
"No cattle did I bring from the land of the Bakoni, father, though it
will not be a long time before we go and take all of it," I replied;
"but there is a red cow in milk among my herd. Tomorrow she and her
calf shall be driven in among your beasts, my father."
The old man looked pleased. He loved cattle, and although by now he was
one of the wealthiest among us, yet he never lost an opportunity of
adding to his herds; but if any man gave him a cow he did not ask for
more; unlike our own _izanusi_, who were wont to go on asking and asking
until they had obtained ten or twelve beasts. Now I, each time that I
was enriched by increase in my herd, or took spoil from an enemy, never
failed to send a head or two to old Masuka; but from me our own
_izanusi_ got nothing--wherefore they hated me. But the old Mosutu had
been the means of saving my life and making me great; wherefore I
grudged him not such gifts from time to time.
When the King had caused Isilwana, the head _isanusi_, to be killed, for
failing to cure a man who was wounded by the poisoned arrows of the
mountain tribes, he had desired to put Masuka in his place; but the old
man begged permission to refuse, saying that his _muti_ [Medicine, or
charm] would be of no avail if worked with others. So Umzilikazi, not
sorry to set up a rivalry between the witch-doctors, had allowed him to
go his own way; and since the rain-making, the old Mosutu had stood
higher in the King's favour than ever.
"That is well, my son," he replied, "but delay not to send the cow with
morning light, for by nightfall it may be that she will never be sent."
"_Hau_!" I cried. "What mean you, my father?"
"You are brave, Untuswa, and I have made you great. It is a pity that
such should die young."
"What mean you, my father?" I cried again, seeing a deadly meaning in
his words.
He gazed at me for a moment, then bending forward spoke low in the
Sesutu tongue, which by this time he had taught me; and as I listened my
horror became greater and greater, for it seemed as though a wide and
black pit of darkness yawned at my feet, and I must either spring over
it or into it. Verily, the enemies at work within a man's kraal are
more to be feared than any outside. I must warn the King this very
night. Yet, was it too late?
"Even now I hear steps which seek thee, son of Ntelani," he ended. "Yet
go to meet them. I know not if thou wilt return."
Obedient to the old man's injunction, I rose, and now I, too, heard
steps in the silence of the night. With a heavy foreboding of trouble,
I crept through the door of the hut, and stood upright.
"The King desires speech of thee, son of Ntelani," said a voice, as a
man came in sight. I recognised him as one of the _izinceku_ or
household attendants, and I thought there was something of malice and
mischief in his tone. But I lost no time in gaining the _isigodhlo_.
Now, the royal house was of great size, nearly twice that of the largest
of any other. I approached, singing in a low voice the King's praises,
to give notice that I was coming; then, disarming, I entered. The Great
Great One was alone. A fire burning in the centre lighted up the
interior brightly, and in its blaze I could see upon the royal
countenance a look I did not like. But still less did I like what
immediately followed.
"Thou dog and whelp of a dog!" hissed the King, as, with the rapidity of
lightning, he dropped aside his skin robe and hurled a casting assegai
at me. It grazed my head with a vicious "zip!" and buried itself in the
side of the house, where it stuck quivering.
I did not move. Not a word did I speak, yet I felt that death and
myself were closely shoulder to shoulder once more.
"Well, dog! Hast thou no word to say?" went on Umzilikazi, his hand
gripping another casting spear.
"Yes, I have a `word,' Great Great One. My life is ever in the hand of
the King. But now I know of no reason why it should be taken," I
answered boldly.
"No reason? _Au_! Can a nation serve two Kings, Untuswa, my dog?" he
mocked.
"Now have the dreams of the Elephant been bad--now have the ears of the
Great Great One been filled with dark and false things. Moreover, I
know well that it was not really in thy mind to slay me, Father; else
had yon spear been buried in something very different to the grass wall
of the house," I ended, with my usual boldness, which was so great as
sometimes to astonish myself nearly as much as it did those who
witnessed it. But it was in the minds of men that I should never now be
slain by order of the Great Great One, because I held the King's
Assegai. Yet upon this I did not put overmuch trust.
"You have a ready tongue, Untuswa, and a ready wit," said Umzilikazi, no
longer wrathfully. "The word is true, and well said, for I could hardly
miss a man at that distance, even though there are some who think it is
time to find a new King."
These last words were spoken low. I had heard enough from old Masuka
not to require to ask their meaning. Yet I spoke in surprise and
disgust, at the thought that such a thing should be possible.
"What is your thought on the matter, Untuswa?" said the King softly,
eyeing me with his head on one side.
"_Au_! that is not a question to ask of me, Great Great One; for was I
not on my way hither to point out those who think thus?" I said.
He started eagerly.
"Can you do this, Untuswa? Can you point them out?"
"I can, Great Great One. Shall I silently call together the slayers?
The pool beyond Ncwelo's kraal is not far, and the moon will not take
long to sink now. In the morning its water shall be red."
"Ha! The pool beyond Ncwelo's?" muttered the King. "Wait. Call not
together the slayers, for I will see these evil-doers with my own eyes,
will hear their treachery with my own ears. You and I will go forth
together, Untuswa; then on the morrow they shall behold their last
sunrise."
"How many men shall I bring for safeguard, Father?" I said. "Ten,
perhaps, or more?"
"No men shalt thou bring, Untuswa. Thou and I will go forth together
and witness the doings of these wizards, these _abatagati_, who meet at
night."
I looked anxious, for this was a serious adventure. The risks were
enormous. Of the exact number of conspirators we were in ignorance, but
we, being only two, would be sure to find ourselves at a great
disadvantage in the event of discovery. Again, if any harm befell the
King, should not I be held responsible for it? So I said--
"May I not go alone and bring back word, Black Elephant?"