MOPO TELLS HIS TALE
Now afterwards, as we went upon our road, Umslopogaas told me all there
was to tell of the slaying of the Halakazi and of the finding of Nada.
When I heard that Nada, my daughter, still lived, I wept for joy,
though like Umslopogaas I was torn by doubt and fear, for it is far for
an unaided maid to travel from Swaziland to the Ghost Mountain. Yet all
this while I said nothing to Umslopogaas of the truth as to his birth,
because on the journey there were many around us, and the very trees
have ears, and the same wind to which we whispered might whisper to the
king. Still I knew that the hour had come now when I must speak, for it
was in my mind to bring it about that Umslopogaas should be proclaimed
the son of Chaka, and be made king of the Zulus in the place of
Dingaan, his uncle. Yet all these things had gone cross for us, because
it was fated so, my father. Had I known that Umslopogaas still lived
when I slew Chaka, then I think that I could have brought it about that
he should be king. Or had things fallen out as I planned, and the Lily
maid been brought to Dingaan, and Umslopogaas grew great in his sight,
then, perhaps, I could have brought it about. But all things had gone
wrong. The Lily was none other than Nada; and how could Umslopogaas
give Nada, whom he thought his sister, and who was my daughter, to
Dingaan against her will? Also, because of Nada, Dingaan and
Umslopogaas were now at bitter enmity, and for this same cause I was
disgraced and a fugitive, and my counsels would no longer be heard in
the ear of the king.
So everything must be begun afresh: and as I walked with the impi
towards the Ghost Mountain, I thought much and often of the manner in
which this might be done. But as yet I said nothing.
Now at last we were beneath the Ghost Mountain, and looked upon the
face of the old Witch who sits there aloft forever waiting for the
world to die; and that same night we came to the kraal of the People of
the Axe, and entered it with a great singing. But Galazi did not enter
at that time; he was away to the mountain to call his flock of wolves,
and as we passed its foot we heard the welcome that the wolves howled
in greeting to him.
Now as we drew near the kraal, all the women and children came out to
meet us, headed by Zinita, the head wife of Umslopogaas. They came
joyfully, but when they found how many were wanting who a moon before
had gone thence to fight, their joy was turned to mourning, and the
voice of their weeping went up to heaven.
Umslopogaas greeted Zinita kindly; and yet I thought that there was
something lacking. At first she spoke to him softly, but when she
learned all that had come to pass, her words were not soft, for she
reviled me and sang a loud song at Umslopogaas.
“See now, Slaughterer,” she said, “see now what has come about because
you listened to this aged fool!”—that was I, my father—“this fool who
calls himself ‘Mouth’! Ay, a mouth he is, a mouth out of which proceed
folly and lies! What did he counsel you to do?—to go up against these
Halakazi and win a girl for Dingaan! And what have you done?—you have
fallen upon the Halakazi, and doubtless have killed many innocent
people with that great axe of yours, also you have left nearly half of
the soldiers of the Axe to whiten in the Swazi caves, and in exchange
have brought back certain cattle of a small breed, and girls and
children whom we must nourish!
“Nor does the matter end here. You went, it seems, to win a girl whom
Dingaan desired, yet when you find that girl you let her go, because,
indeed, you say she was your sister and would not wed Dingaan.
Forsooth, is not the king good enough for this sister of yours? Now
what is the end of the tale? You try to play tricks on the king,
because of your sister, and are found out. Then you kill a man before
Dingaan and escape, bringing this fool of an aged Mouth with you, that
he may teach you his own folly. So you have lost half of your men, and
you have gained the king for a foe who shall bring about the death of
all of us, and a fool for a councillor. _Wow!_ Slaughterer, keep to
your trade and let others find you wit.”
Thus she spoke without ceasing, and there was some truth in her words.
Zinita had a bitter tongue. I sat silent till she had finished, and
Umslopogaas also remained silent, though his anger was great, because
there was no crack in her talk through which a man might thrust a word.
“Peace, woman!” I said at length, “do not speak ill of those who are
wise and who had seen much before you were born.”
“Speak no ill of him who is my father,” growled Umslopogaas. “Ay!
though you do not know it, this Mouth whom you revile is Mopo, my
father.”
“Then there is a man among the People of the Axe who has a fool for a
father. Of all tidings this is the worst.”
“There is a man among the People of the Axe who has a jade and a scold
for a wife,” said Umslopogaas, springing up. “Begone, Zinita!—and know
this, that if I hear you snarl such words of him who is my father, you
shall go further than your own hut, for I will put you away and drive
you from my kraal. I have suffered you too long.”
“I go,” said Zinita. “Oh! I am well served! I made you chief, and now
you threaten to put me away.”
“My own hands made me chief,” said Umslopogaas, and, springing up, he
thrust her from the hut.
“It is a poor thing to be wedded to such a woman, my father,” he said
presently.
“Yes, a poor thing, Umslopogaas, yet these are the burdens that men
must bear. Learn wisdom from it, Umslopogaas, and have as little to do
with women as may be; at the least, do not love them overmuch, so shall
you find the more peace.” Thus I spoke, smiling, and would that he had
listened to my counsel, for it is the love of women which has brought
ruin on Umslopogaas!
All this was many years ago, and but lately I have heard that
Umslopogaas is fled into the North, and become a wanderer to his death
because of the matter of a woman who had betrayed him, making it seem
that he had murdered one Loustra, who was his blood brother, just as
Galazi had been. I do not know how it came about, but he who was so
fierce and strong had that weakness like his uncle Dingaan, and it has
destroyed him at the last, and for this cause I shall behold him no
more.
Now, my father, for awhile we were silent and alone in the hut, and as
we sat I thought I heard a rat stir in the thatch.
Then I spoke. “Umslopogaas, at length the hour has come that I should
whisper something into your ear, a word which I have held secret ever
since you were born.”
“Speak on, my father,” he said, wondering.
I crept to the door of the hut and looked out. The night was dark and I
could see none about, and could hear no one move, yet, being cautious,
I walked round the hut. Ah, my father, when you have a secret to tell,
be not so easily deceived. It is not enough to look forth and to peer
round. Dig beneath the floor, and search the roof also; then, having
done all this, go elsewhere and tell your tale. The woman was right: I
was but a fool, for all my wisdom and my white hairs. Had I not been a
fool I would have smoked out that rat in the thatch before ever I
opened my lips. For the rat was Zinita, my father—Zinita, who had
climbed the hut, and now lay there in the dark, her ear upon the
smoke-hole, listening to every word that passed. It was a wicked thing
to do, and, moreover, the worst of omens, but there is little honour
among women when they learn that which others wish to hide away from
them, nor, indeed, do they then weight omens.
So having searched and found nothing, I spoke to Umslopogaas, my
fosterling, not knowing that death in a woman’s shape lay on the hut
above us. “Hearken,” I said, “you are no son of mine, Umslopogaas,
though you have called me father from a babe. You spring from a loftier
stock, Slaughterer.”
“Yet I was well pleased with my fathering, old man,” said Umslopogaas.
“The breed is good enough for me. Say, then, whose son am I?”
Now I bent forward and whispered to him, yet, alas! not low enough.
“You are the son of the Black One who is dead, yea, sprung from the
blood of Chaka and of Baleka, my sister.”
“I still have some kinship with you then, Mopo, and that I am glad of.
_Wow!_ who would have guessed that I was the son of the _Silwana_, of
that hyena man? Perhaps it is for this reason that, like Galazi, I love
the company of the wolves, though no love grows in my heart for my
father or any of his house.”
“You have little cause to love him, Umslopogaas, for he murdered your
mother, Baleka, and would have slain you also. But you are the son of
Chaka and of no other man.”
“Well, his eyes must be keen indeed, my uncle, who can pick his own
father out of a crowd. And yet I once heard this tale before, though I
had long forgotten it.”
“From whom did you hear it, Umslopogaas? An hour since, it was known to
one alone, the others are dead who knew it. Now it is known to two”—ah!
my father, I did not guess of the third;—“from whom, then, did you hear
it?”
“It was from the dead; at least, Galazi the Wolf heard it from the dead
One who sat in the cave on Ghost Mountain, for the dead One told him
that a man would come to be his brother who should be named Umslopogaas
Bulalio, son of Chaka, and Galazi repeated it to me, but I had long
forgotten it.”
“It seems that there is wisdom among the dead,” I answered, “for lo!
to-day you are named Umslopogaas Bulalio, and to-day I declare you the
son of Chaka. But listen to my tale.”
Then I told him all the story from the hour of his birth onwards, and
when I spoke of the words of his mother, Baleka, after I had told my
dream to her, and of the manner of her death by the command of Chaka,
and of the great fashion in which she had died, then, I say,
Umslopogaas wept, who, I think, seldom wept before or after. But as my
tale drew it its end I saw that he listened ill, as a man listens who
has a weightier matter pressing on his heart, and before it was well
done he broke in:—
“So, Mopo, my uncle, if I am the son of Chaka and Baleka, Nada the Lily
is no sister to me.”
“Nay, Umslopogaas, she is only your cousin.”
“Over near of blood,” he said; “yet that shall not stand between us,”
and his face grew glad.
I looked at him in question.
“You grow dull, my uncle. This is my meaning: that I will marry Nada if
she still lives, for it comes upon me now that I have never loved any
woman as I love Nada the Lily,” and while he spoke, I heard the rat
stir in the thatch of the hut.
“Wed her if you will, Umslopogaas,” I answered, “yet I think that one
Zinita, your _Inkosikasi_, will find words to say in the matter.”
“Zinita is my head wife indeed, but shall she hold me back from taking
other wives, after the lawful custom of our people?” he asked angrily,
and his anger showed that he feared the wrath of Zinita.
“The custom is lawful and good,” I said, “but it has bred trouble at
times. Zinita can have little to say if she continues in her place and
you still love her as of old. But enough of her. Nada is not yet at
your gates, and perhaps she will never find them. See, Umslopogaas, it
is my desire that you should rule in Zululand by right of blood, and,
though things point otherwise, yet I think a way can be found to bring
it about.”
“How so?” he asked.
“Thus: Many of the great chiefs who are friends to me hate Dingaan and
fear him, and did they know that a son of Chaka lived, and that son the
Slaughterer, he well might climb to the throne upon their shoulders.
Also the soldiers love the name of Chaka, though he dealt cruelly with
them, because at least he was brave and generous. But they do not love
Dingaan, for his burdens are the burdens of Chaka but his gifts are the
gifts of Dingaan; therefore they would welcome Chaka’s son if once they
knew him for certain. But it is here that the necklet chafes, for there
is but my word to prove it. Yet I will try.”
“Perhaps it is worth trying and perhaps it is not, my uncle,” answered
Umslopogaas. “One thing I know: I had rather see Nada at my gates
to-night than hear all the chiefs in the land crying ‘Hail, O King!’”
“You will live to think otherwise, Umslopogaas; and now spies must be
set at the kraal Umgugundhlovu to give us warning of the mind of the
king, lest he should send an impi suddenly to eat you up. Perhaps his
hands may be too full for that ere long, for those white Amaboona will
answer his assegais with bullets. And one more word: let nothing be
said of this matter of your birth, least of all to Zinita your wife, or
to any other woman.”
“Fear not, uncle,” he answered; “I know how to be silent.”
Now after awhile Umslopogaas left me and went to the hut of Zinita, his
_Inkosikasi_, where she lay wrapped in her blankets, and, as it seemed,
asleep.
“Greeting, my husband,” she said slowly, like one who wakens. “I have
dreamed a strange dream of you. I dreamed that you were called a king,
and that all the regiments of the Zulus filed past giving you the royal
salute, _Bayéte_.”
Umslopogaas looked at her wondering, for he did not know if she had
learned something or if this was an omen. “Such dreams are dangerous,”
he said, “and he who dreams them does well to lock them fast till they
be forgotten.”
“Or fulfilled,” said Zinita, and again Umslopogaas looked at her
wondering.
Now after this night I began my work, for I established spies at the
kraal of Dingaan, and from them I learned all that passed with the
king.
At first he gave orders that an impi should be summoned to eat up the
People of the Axe, but afterwards came tidings that the Boers, to the
number of five hundred mounted men, were marching on the kraal
Umgugundhlovu. So Dingaan had no impi to spare to send to the Ghost
Mountain, and we who were beneath its shadow dwelt there in peace.
This time the Boers were beaten, for Bogoza, the spy, led them into an
ambush; still few were killed, and they did but draw back that they
might jump the further, and Dingaan knew this. At this time also the
English white men of Natal, the people of George, who attacked Dingaan
by the Lower Tugela, were slain by our soldiers, and those with them.
Also, by the help of certain witch-doctors, I filled the land with
rumours, prophecies, and dark sayings, and I worked cunningly on the
minds of many chiefs that were known to me, sending them messages
hardly to be understood, such as should prepare their thoughts for the
coming of one who should be declared to them. They listened, but the
task was long, for the men dwelt far apart, and some of them were away
with the regiments.
So the time went by, till many days had passed since we reached the
Ghost Mountain. Umslopogaas had no more words with Zinita, but she
always watched him, and he went heavily. For he awaited Nada, and Nada
did not come.
But at length Nada came.