Part 26 (1/2)
”You speak ill-omened words, Macuenerally excellent at this hour Well, if Maood After all,”
he added with an outburst of petulance, ”why do you scold irl when you ht have done so, there would have been none of this trouble”
”Perhaps not,” I answered; ”only then I am sure I should have been dead to-day, as I think that all who have to do with her will be ere long
And now, U , Saduko returned and was told the news by Nandie, whom I had carefully avoided On this occasion, however, I was forced to be present, as the person to whoe It was a very painful experience, of which I do not remember all the details For a while after he learned the truth Saduko sat still as a stone, staring in front of him, with a face that seemed to have become suddenly old Then he turned upon U arranged the matter in order to advance his own fortunes at the price of his daughter's dishonour Next, without listening to his ex-father-in-law's voluble explanations, he rose and said that he was going away to kill Umbelazi, the evil-doer who had robbed him of the wife he loved, with the connivance of all three of us, and by a sweep of his hand he indicated Umbezi, the Princess Nandie and myself
This was more than I could stand, so I, too, rose and asked hi in the irritation of the moment that if I had wished to rob hiht I could have done so long ago--a reered him a little
Then Nandie rose also, and spoke in her quiet voice
”Saduko, my husband,” she said, ”I, a Princess of the Zulu House, married you who are not of royal blood because I loved you, and although Panda the King and Umbelazi the Prince wished it, for no other reason whatsoever Well, I have been faithful to you through some trials, even when you set theof a wizard--if, indeed, as I have reason to suspect, she was not herself the wizard--before h that wizard had killed our son, lived in her hut rather than in ht so much has deserted you for your friend and my brother, the Prince Umbelazi--Umbelazi who is called the Handsooes with him, as it may or may not, will succeed to Panda, es that I, your Inkosikazi and the King's daughter, treated her as a servant, which is a lie I kept her in her place, no more, who, if she could have had her will, would have ousted me from mine, perhaps by death, for the wives of wizards learn their arts On this pretext she has left you; but that is not her real reason She has left you because the Prince, my brother, whom she has befooled with her tricks and beauty, as she has befooled others, or tried to”--and she glanced at reat, asShe does not love him any more than she loved you, but she does love the place that may be his, and therefore hers--she ould be the first doe of the herd My husband, I think that you are well rid of Mameena, for I think also that if she had stayed with us there would have been more deaths in our House; perhaps mine, which would not matter, and perhaps yours, which would matter much All this I say to you, not from jealousy of one who is fairer than I, but because it is the truth Therefore my counsel to you is to let this business pass over and keep silent Above all, seek not to avenge yourself upon Ueance to dith him in his own hut I have spoken”
That this reat effect upon Saduko I could see, but at the time the only answer he made to it was:
”Let the na of my ears
Mameena is dead”
So her name was heard no more in the Houses of Saduko and of Umbezi, and when it was necessary for any reason to refer to her, she was given a new name, a composite Zulu word, ”O-we-Zulu”, I think it hich is ”Storm-child” shortly translated, for ”Zulu” means a storm as well as the sky
I do not think that Saduko spoke of her to ain until towards the climax of this history, and certainly I did not mention her to hied reat success, which had caused the Zulus to naerdeeply, but who shutters his thoughts lest soh the s of his eyes Moreover, he paid a visit to Zikali the Little and Wise, as I found out by accident; but what advice that cunning old dwarf gave to him I did not find out--then
The only other event which happened in connection with this elopeht by one of the princes, a brother of Umbelazi, as of his party As I know, for I heard it delivered, it was a very hue when the relative positions of the two men are considered--that of one who knew that he had done wrong, and, if not repentant, was heartily ashamed of himself
”Saduko,” it said, ”I have stolen a cow of yours, and I hope you will forgive me, since that cow did not love the pasture in your kraal, but in rows fat and is content Moreover, in return I will give you ive to you who are my friend and trusted councillor Send me word, O Saduko, that this hich I have built between us is broken down, since ere long you and I e Saduko's ansas:
”O Prince, you are troubled about a very little thing That cohich you have taken was of no worth toand lowing at the gates of the kraal, disturbing those ould sleep inside with her noise? Had you asked her of iven her to you freely I thank you for your offer, but I need no more cows, especially if, like this one, they have no calves
As for a wall between us, there is none, for how can two men who, if the battle is to be won, ht if divided by a wall? O Son of the King, I aht of the battle and the victory, and I have forgotten all about the barren cow that ran away after you, the great bull of the herd Only do not be surprised if one day you find that this cow has a sharp horn”
CHAPTER XII PANDA'S PRAYER
About six weeks later, in the u when the quarrel between the princes caiments was actually allowed to enter the town--that is, as a regiment--the place was full of people, all of the the dayti , as some of these soldiers--about a thousand of the to the Ukubaza kraal, a fight occurred between them, which led to the final outbreak
As it happened, at that tiiments stationed at this kraal I think that they were the Imkulutshana and the Hlaba, one of which favoured Cetewayo and the other Uiether in parallel lines, two of their captains got into dispute on the eternal subject of the succession to the throne From words they came to blows, and the end of it was that he who favoured Umbelazi killed him who favoured Ceteith his kerry Thereon the co a shout of ”Usutu,” which became the war-cry of Cetewayo's party, fell upon the others, and a dreadful combat ensued Fortunately the soldiers were only arreat; but as it was, after an indecisive engagement, about fifty men were killed and many one out to shoot a few birds for the pot--pauw, or bustard, I think they were--was returning across this very plain to my old encampment in the kloof where Masapo had been executed, and so ran into the fight just as it was beginning I saw the captain killed and the subsequent engage where to go or what to do, for I was quite alone, I pulled up my horse behind a tree and waited till I could escape the horrors about me; for I can assure anyone who ht to see a thousand ed in fierce and deadly combat In truth, the fact that they had no spears, and could only batter each other to death with their heavy kerries, ed
Everywhereat each other's heads, until at last some bloent home and one of them threw out his arms and lay still, either dead or senseless Well, there I sat watching all this shocking business fro pony, which stood like a stone, till presently I beca atas they came: