Part 19 (2/2)
”Will they not? They are asleep even now,” caht They are scattered We can take theiven”
”When 'the word' is given! Ah! ah! When the word is given” And the old man chuckled darkly
”What iven too late? Or worse still-- too soon? _Ou_!”
”That will not be, ed, even as these blades And the whites are scattered--scattered They lie in our hands”
”Let the out,”
returned Maleht to do with it, I who am old I can but make you the weapons, it is for yourselves to wield them And most of you have never learned the art You were born too late”
A laugh went up at this The old assegai-reatest veneration His wisdo bloods, fed up of late on conspiracy, and yearning to prove themselves worthy of their warrior ancestors, mere wisdoais,” repeated the old man ”I am too old to wield the, to the strokes of the ha--
”Nantsi 'ndaba-- Indaba yemkonto!
Ji-jji! Ji-jji!”
[”That is the talk The talk of the assegais” ”Ji-jji” is the stabbing hiss]
”These whites, they are not so powerful as we are told,” said one of the group ”I have been aold, the gold that is turned into round money thatforhis listeners
”Their wooes forth we shall take their woe”
But the old assegai---
”Nantsi 'ndaba-- Indaba yee, except for the worse,” said another ”Their woh went up fro ”Sons of my father, I would not pay half a calf in _lobola_ for one white woman I have ever seen”
”Half a calf! _Au_! What of Izibu?” This, it will be remembered, was Verna Halse's name
”Izibu?” returned the first speaker ”She is for one greater than we”
A gurgle of bass laughter ran through the group
”There are others at Ezulwini,” went on the one who had worked at the Rand ”Also at Malireat to obtain wives we have paid no _lobola_ for White wives! Ha! That will be a change indeed”
”You have got to get theai-ana, when I was young, wives were plentiful even without paying _lobola_ That king had an open hand, and after an i the Amaswazi, or the Basutu, he would distribute the captive woais in those days, I wielded theana send ais like ais could procure But that is now all a thing of bygone years It is dead, dead and buried We are the white s to-day, and always shall be”