"And you want me to go and be second to your _inkosikazi_, Untuswa!"
"Not so, for you would ever be my favourite wife."
"Until you found some other Mystery Queen hidden in a mountain cave,"
she said, mocking me. But I took snuff and answered nothing, for a man
who undertakes to answer everything a woman says is like one who begins
to swim across a flooded river: he knows where he goes in, but cannot
tell where he may get out, or if ever--at least, so it is among
ourselves; I know not if it is the same among white people.
"And the King?" she said. "How many wives has he?"
"That question is hard to answer. A great many does he possess, yet he
cares not for any of them, neither does he love women over-much. A
woman, he says, is like the grains of the _umbona_ [maize], which is
tender and nice when young, but soon grows hard and tooth-breaking, and
needs much pounding to turn it once more into any use at all. Thus has
the King often spoken when we have been talking together."
How Lalusini laughed, and it was good to hear her laugh, even as to hear
her talk.
"_Yau_!" she cried. "I do not think I will enter the _isigodhlo_ of
Umzilikazi."
"But what if no choice is allowed you?"
"But there will be. There is that by which Umzilikazi dare not wed me."
Now I cried out in wonder, yet was my mind relieved.
"There is," she went on. "And--I am greater than your King, son of
Ntelani."
"Then must you be of the root of Senzangakona himself, for there is but
one who is greater than our King, and that is Dingane, who now sits in
the seat of Tshaka."
[Senzangakona was father of Tshaka, the founder of the Zulu military
dynasty.]
This I said jestingly, and then, seeing that the shadows were getting
long, I rose and, going to the entrance of the place, I dragged in the
carcass of a buck I had slain on my way; for, besides what game I could
bring her, Lalusini had no food but dry corn. Of water she had
abundance, for a little clear spring trickled down the rock at the
further end of the place, losing itself in a dark cleft; but only at
night could she make a fire, for then alone there was no risk of the
smoke betraying her, and the light--of a small fire, at any rate--was
quite hidden from without.
"_Au_! it must be lonely here at night," I said, looking upward at the
great gloomy rock-roof. "Do you not hear the ghosts up above, wailing
among the dry bones wherein they dwelt when alive?"
"I fear not such things, Untuswa. What I fear more is that yonder stone
may not be heavy enough to keep out a lion I have heard upon the
mountain the last two nights. He was snapping and growling among the
bones, and I feared he might try to force his way in here."
I examined the hole, which was only large enough to admit the body of a
man creeping on his hands and knees. This hole Lalusini used to stop at
night by rolling a stone against its mouth, yet the stone did not fill
up the entire hole, but only enough to render it too small for the
passage of any large body.
"It is safe," I said, testing the weight. "Nothing large enough to be
harmful could force an entrance, yet I must try and slay that lion. And
now, Lalusini, I must return, for it will be dark by the time I arrive,
and our people like not those who wander overmuch in the night-time."
We took an affectionate leave of each other, yet Lalusini would not at
that time tell me anything of her own tale, and I made my way back to
the top of the mountain. And all the way homeward my mind was full of
her whom I had left, and I pondered much and oft about the greatness she
had hinted at, and how such was in store for myself, too, as though she
were the chieftainess of some mighty nation--and mighty indeed must it
have been were it greater than our own, as she had said it was. But
most of all I pondered as to how I should ever be able to bring her in
among ourselves so that the King's suspicions should not take the right
road.
Thus thinking, and alternately singing to myself, I got over the ground
at a swift pace, yet by the time I entered the hut of my chief wife it
was quite dark. Nangeza was seated within alone. As I entered she
looked up with a frown upon her face; and, indeed, a frown was more
often to be found there than a smile in those days.
"Welcome, great hunter," she said mockingly. "And, where is the game?"
"I have none," I answered shortly, for I was in no humour to be worried
by this woman's evil temper.
"None?" she echoed. "Yet there are blood spots about thee, Untuswa."
There were. In dragging the buck down through the hole into Lalusini's
hiding-place I had become smeared with blood, and this I had forgotten
to wash away.
"I slew but two small bucks," I said. "One I ate in the middle of the
day. The other I gave to old Masuka."
"Didst thou take it to him in the _isigodhlo_, Untuswa? For there has
the old Mosutu been since the sun was at its highest, and is there
still. Yet I saw thee from far off over the plain, and certainly thou
hast not been to the _isigodhlo_, which is far beyond this house," she
answered; and her tones were jeering, and her eyes shone with evil fire,
as those of a snake.
"Enough!" I cried. "Enough of this!" And, bending down to the side of
the hut, I took up a stick, and advanced towards her; for I was furious.
"I have never beaten thee, Nangeza, but hadst thou belonged to any
other man, I think by this time not a whole bone would remain within
thee. Now, of thine evil temper have I had more than enough; also of
thy tongue."
She retreated back as far as she could to the side of the hut--her eyes
flashing, her lips drawn back from her gums, like those of a wild beast.
But it was time to put a stop to this, or soon the second fighting
commander of the King's army would be under the command of a woman.
"Beware, Untuswa!" she snarled. "Beware! I made thee! Yea, I! And I
will unmake thee!"
"_Whau_! if any one made me, it was not thou, but the King, and old
Masuka, perhaps." And then, as I saw her looking around for a weapon,
I--well, I gave her no opportunity of either finding one or losing one;
and, I think, _Nkose_, my _inkosikazi_ went to sleep that night feeling
as though she had been rolled down the rocky side of a very high
mountain; while I went to the huts of my two other wives, and we spent a
great part of that night in singing, and jests, and laughter. But the
fault lay with Nangeza's evil and inquisitive temper; and, more still,
with her attempts to rule me, as though I were the woman and she the
_induna_ of the King. Wherefore, from the intolerable weariness which
she had put upon me, I sought the company of my other wives, that they
might cheer and amuse me, which, indeed, they were very glad to do.
Now, on the morrow, Nangeza went and complained to the King as to the
punishment I had given her; but she might have spared herself the
trouble, for Umzilikazi only mocked her, telling her that she was
fortunate indeed in having to deal with me, and that warriors were not
to be ruled by women, but the other way round. Then he bade them drive
her from his presence. And afterwards he would often laugh with me
about this matter; but from that day Nangeza hated me with a surpassing
hatred, and set herself to work to bring about my ruin and downfall by
some method or other, even though it should cost her her life.