Part 5 (1/2)
”On who voice ”Why, on these proud Zulus, this little family of men who call themselves the 'People of Heaven,' and s other tribes as the great tree-snake ss kids and small bucks, and when it is fat with the is inside of me' I am a Ndwande, one of those peoples whoers-on who talk with an accent, nothing but bush swine Therefore I would see the swine tusk the hunter Or, if that may not be, I would see the black hunter laid low by the rhinoceros, the white rhinoceros of your race, Macumazahn, yes, even if it sets its foot upon the Ndwande boar as well There, I have told you, and this is the reason that I live so long, for I will not die until these things have come to pass, as coakona's son, say when the little red assegai, the assegai hich he slew his mother, aye and others, some of ere near to me, was in his liver? What did he say to Mbopa and the princes? Did he not say that he heard the feet of a great white people running, of a people who should sta-who-should-not-have-been-born,' live on until that day comes, and when it comes I think that you and I, Macumazahn, shall not be far apart, and that is why I have opened out e of the future There, I speak no s that are to be, who perchance have already said too et them if you will, for I shall remind you of theed the Ndwandes and others whom it pleases the Zulus to treat as dirt”
Now, this strangewhite hair which, after the fashi+on of wizards, he wore plaited into thin ropes, till it hung like a veil about hiain through this veil of hair, saying:
”You are wondering, Macureat events that are to be I answer that he reat part, but still a part, and it is for this purpose that I saved hiaan's h, since I cannot lie, I warned him that he would do well to leave spears alone and follow after wisdou, who now has quarrelled with Panda, and a woman will co about war between the sons of Panda, and fro the ruin of the Zulus, for he ill be an evil king to thehtier race And so 'The-thing-that-should-not-have-been-born' and the Ndwandes and the Quabies and Tho Zulus to naed Yes, yes, s, and they are true”
”And what of Saduko, ?”
”Saduko, your friend and , will take his appointed road, Macumazahn, as I shall and you will Whatit is that which he has chosen? He will take his road and he will play the part which the Great-Great has prepared for him Seek not to know more Why should you, since Tio to rest, Macumazahn, as I must who aain, ill talk further Meanwhile, re but an old Kafir cheat who pretends to a knowledge that belongs to no man Remember it especially, Macumazahn, when you meet a buffalo with a split horn in the pool of a dried-up river, and afterwards, when a woman named Mameena makes a certain offer to you, which you ht with the white heart and the strange destiny, good night to you, and try not to think too hardly of the old Kafir cheat who just now is called 'Opener-of-Roads' My servant waits without to lead you to your hut, and if you wish to be back at Uhtfall to-morrow, you will do well to start ere sunrise, since, as you found in coood walker, and you do not like to be left behind, Macuo, but as I went some impulse seeain
”Macumazahn,” he said, ”I would add a word When you were quite a lad you came into this country with Retief, did you not?”
”Yes,” I answered slowly, for this matter of the massacre of Retief is one of which I have seldoh I have [] Even my friends Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good have heard little of the part I played in that tragedy ”But what do you know of that business, Zikali?”
[--Published under the title of ”Marie”--EDITOR]
”All that there is to know, I think, Macuaan killed those Boers on ana”
”You cold-blooded old an, but he interrupted me at once
”Why do you throw evil names at me, Macumazahn, as I threw the stone of your fate at you just now? Why aht about the death of some white men that chanced to be your friends, who had come here to cheat us black folk of our country?”
”Was it for _this_ reason that you brought about their deaths, Zikali?”
I asked, staring hi tohis eyes, those strange eyes that could look at the sun without blinking, fall before akona?
And when Retief and his co of their blood mean war to the end between the Zulus and the White Men? Did it not aan and of thousands of his people, which is but a beginning of deaths? Now do you understand?”
”I understand that you are a very wicked nation
”At least _you_ should not say so, Macu of truth in it
”Why not?”
”Because I saved your life on that day You escaped alone of the White Men, did you not? And you never could understand why, could you?”
”No, I could not, Zikali I put it down to what you would call 'the spirits'”
”Well, I will tell you Those spirits of yours wore hed ”I saw you with the Boers, and saw, too, that you were of another people--the people of the English Youat the Great Place, although I kept out of the way and we did not meet, or at least you never knew that we met, for you were--asleep Also I pitied your youth, for, although you do not believe it, I had a little bit of heart left in those days Also I knew that we should coain in the after years, as you see we have done to-day and shall often do until the end So I told Dingaan that whoever died you e'
[ie the English] to avenge you, and your ghost would enter into him and pour out a curse upon him He believed athered about his head that one more or less made no matter So you see you were spared, Macumazahn, and afterwards you helped to pour out a curse upon Dingaan without becohost, which is the reason why Panda likes you so well to-day, Panda, the eneaan, his brother You remember the woo with you afterwards, Macumazahn, with you and the Boerlove in those days?”
”Neverup, for the old wizard's talk had stirred sad and bitter memories in my heart ”That time is dead, Zikali”