I was now left alone, and having lain hidden a few days--for that
_impi_, though it made good search all around my hiding-place, failed to
find me--I began to travel southward again. And as I travelled I
thought how once before I had fled from our people nationless and an
outcast, all for the sake of a woman, as I told you in that former tale
when I won the King's Assegai; and now a second time I thus fled--a
second time a woman had been the cause of my undoing; and yet it might
be otherwise, for I was not an old man then, and who may tell what time
holds in store?
And now, _Nkose_, I must leap over a great deal that happened during my
flight, for if I were to dwell upon everything, and all I went through,
and the peoples I fell in among--how some entertained me friendly and
well, and how from others--being but one man and alone--I had to fly as
fast and as far as from Umzilikazi's hunting dogs; how too, from others
again, who, seeming friendly, yet plotted against me the direst
treachery, from which I escaped as by a flash of time--all this, I say,
were I to dwell upon, I should never get to my story, which being bound
up with the fate of mighty nations and peoples, is the tale, _Nkose_,
which you would desire to hear rather than the escapes and wanderings of
one man.
Two moons had reached their full, and had died again, and by then it
seemed to me that once more I was coming among my own people, for I
heard our tongue spoken in all its fulness; and the kraals were even as
our kraals, with the ringed fence and domed huts, and the women at work
in the corn lands wore their hair gathered up in the _impiti_, or
reddened cone, even as our women wear it. Now I judged it time to enter
in among them; and one day, feeling hungry, I stopped at a small kraal--
one of several--and gave greeting. None but women were there at the
time, but presently from the other kraals men came hurrying, all armed.
These were young and unringed, and seeing before them a _kehla_, and a
man of my warrior aspect, their bearing, which had seemed somewhat
hostile, became respectful, and they gave me greeting deferentially; and
presently the women brought me _tywala_ and ears of green corn roasted,
for they might not open the milk-sacks, the heads of the houses being
absent.
Now, desiring information, I found a way of asking as to the head of
this group of kraals, whereat I saw surprise and some suspicion in their
faces as they exchanged glances, for taking me for an induna of high
import, they could little understand my ignorance on that point. They
answered that it was the country of Nomapela, who was absent on an
expedition into the territory of the Amaswazi, wherein he was acting as
the chastising right arm of the King; but that, from day to day, they
had been expecting his return.
"Then I will await the return of Nomapela, my children," I answered.
"We hear you, father," they said. And then I was shown to a hut and
provided with entertainment, yet I knew that these young men were all
suspicious of me, for I myself had come from the direction of the Swazi
country, and might well be one of that people.
But not long had I to wait, for presently runners came in, and soon
afterwards, great dust clouds, arising from the valley in the hills
through which I myself had come, announced the arrival of the _impi_.
But before it, streaming out through the defile, like a torrent when the
rain is falling among the hills, came a great herd of cattle. _Whau_!
it was a goodly sight to see the beasts as they poured onwards, the
crashing of horns, as great bulls would now and then turn to fight each
other as they ran; the lowing of cows, with calves racing at their
sides, the gleam of the sun on the black and red and white and spotted
hides, the forest of horns and the rolling eyes, and the trampling, and
the dust-clouds, and the dark, leaping figures of the young men who,
with shouts, and flourishing their shields, kept the herd from straying
too far on either side. And then the _impi_, a full regiment strong,
marching behind, the glitter of spear-points and the flash of shields as
they advanced in column, singing a song of war--_Whau_! that was a
goodly sight, and my eyes kindled as, with head thrown back, I watched
it, feeling as though I were indeed among my own people once more,
instead of among the children of Dingane, that mighty Elephant whose
tread shaketh the earth at his great kraal Nkunkundhlovu.
["Nkunkundhlovu" means "the rumble of the Elephant."] And from that
great place I knew I could not now be many days distant.
As I watched, the _impi_ halted, squatting on the plain a little
distance off. Several men detached themselves from it and came to the
kraal, foremost among them being Nomapela, the chief. He gave me
greeting, and bade me sit with them, while bowls of _tywala_ were handed
round, and food. But these men also were gazing at me curiously,
knowing not what to make of me, for they seemed to divine I was not one
of themselves, and also that I was a man of standing and authority.
This they could readily see, for the habit of commanding men will soon
stamp upon the very countenance of him who exercises it a look of
command; and the face of the man who practically commanded the whole of
Umzilikazi's army was likely to bear that stamp. So they knew not what
to think, and could not ask direct.
"Do you fare our way, brother?" said Nomapela presently, while we ate
together.
"I seek speech with the King," I answered, "and would fain travel in
your company, ye who return conquerors."
These half-dozen men were all ringed and chiefs. Nomapela I knew by
name as an induna of Dingane, and now I thought more than one of the
others were known to me by sight. One indeed seemed to think the same
as regards myself, for him had I seen eyeing me from time to time, as
though he were trying to recollect me. Then, as he turned, displaying a
certain scar upon his shoulder, I remembered him well--remembered the
scar, too. It was a broad scar, as though the point of his shoulder had
been sliced nearly off, and that then the weapon, turning, had buried
itself in a deep straight cut. Indeed, I ought to remember it, for it
was I who had inflicted it, and that with the very spear I held in my
hand.
Often during our march did I find this chief looking thus at me. At
last he said quietly:
"The way from the North is far, brother, is it not?"