Part 24 (1/2)
”Listen, dog,” went on the king in the same cold voice ”What Goza says is true, for I saw and heard it all withYou dared to try to kill the king's guest to who's doorposts with his blood, thereby defiling his house and showing him to the white people as a murderer of one of them whom he had promised to protect Macumazahn, do you say how he shall die, and I will have it done”
”I do not wish him to die,” I answered, ”I think that he and those with hi”
”Aye, Macuo See noe are in the centre of the cattle-kraal, and to the eastern gate is as far as to the isiGodhlo Let this th and run to the eastern gate, as he would have 's house, and let his companions, those ould have hunted Macuate he can go on to the Government in Natal and tell them of the cruelty of the Zulus Only then, let those who hunted hiht before me for trial and perhaps we shall see how they can run”
Now the poor wretch caught hold ofed hi measured the distance allowed hiround Presently at a word off he sped like an arrow, and after hiht hi like a hare, or so the shouts of laughter froi ate his own sto in native fashi+on that the biter had been bit or the engineer hoist with his petard ”It is long since there has been a war in the land, and soai save to skin an ox or cut the head froh Now they will be quieter, and while you stay here you may here you will in safety, Macu the matter from his mind, as hite people dis stroll, he talked for a few i, who ran up to make some report to hifor a little while outside the gate in the surrounding fence, a body-servant ordered us to enter, which we did to find the king seated on the shady side of his big hut quite alone At a sign I also sat myself down upon a stool that had been set for , squatted at ood as they were once, Macumazahn,” said Cetewayo presently, ”or perhaps you have been so long away frootten its custo what he could h-
”What is that in your pocket? Is it not a loaded pistol, and do you not re arh you are lish Queen to shoot h ”I did not think about the pistol Let your servants take it away”
”Perhaps it is safer in your pocket, where I saw you place it in the cattle-kraal, Macumazahn, than in their hands, which do not kno to hold such things Moreover, I know that you are not one who stabs in the dark, even when our peoples growl round each other like two dogs about to fight, and if you were, in this place your life would have to pay forDid you see the Opener of Roads, Goza, and if so, what is his answer to , I saw him,” answered Goza ”The Father of the doctors, the friend and 's word, yes, that he heard it as it passed the King's lips, and that although he is very old, he will travel to Ulundi and be present at the Great Council of the nation which is to be suhth day from this, that of the fullIt is that a place may be prepared for him, for his people and for his servants who carry him, away from this town of Ulundi, where hepronounced against any who attempt to break in upon his privacy, either where he dwells or upon his journey These are his very words, O King:
”'I, who am the most ancient man in Zululand, dith the spirits of h thereat woes upon the land Moreover, I have sworn that while there is a king in Zululand and I draw the breath of life, never again will I set foot in a royal kraal, because when last I did so at the slaying of the witch, Maht it well to utter threats against me, and never more will I, the Opener of Roads, be threatened by aand his Council seek to drink of the water ofIf this cannot be, let ht from other doctors, since mine shall remain as a lareatly disturbed Ceteho feared Zikali, as indeed did all the land
”What does the old wizard rily ”He lives alone like a bat in a cave and for years has been seen of none Yet as a bat flies forth at night, ranging far and wide in search of prey, so does his spirit seeh Zululand Everywhere I hear the same word It is-'What says the Opener of Roads?' It is-'How can aught be done unless the Opener of Roads has declared that it shall be done, he as here before the Black One (Chaka) was born, he who it is said was the friend of Inkosi Urandfathers could ree and is almost a spirit, if indeed he be not a spirit?' I ask you, Macumazahn, who are his friend, what does he mean, and why should I not kill hi,” I answered, ”in the days of your uncle Dingaan, when Dingaan slew the Boers ere his guests, and thus began the war between the White and the Black, I, as a lad, heard the laughter of Zikali for the first tiundhlovu, I who rode with Retief and escaped the slaughter, but his face I did not see Many years later, in the days of Panda your father, I saw his face and therefore you name me his friend Yet this friend who drew , has now caused , but against h slain by the first brawler he meets in the cattle kraal?”
”Yet you were not slain, Macumazahn, and perhaps you do not know all the story of that brawler,” replied Cetewayo alh the rest of what I had said he ignored ”But still you are Zikali's friend, for between you and him there is a rope which enabled him to draw you to Zululand, which rope I have heard called by a woman's name Therefore by the spirit of that woe you, tell me-what does this old wizard mean, and why should I not kill him and be rid of one who haunts ht and, as I sometimes think, is an umtakati, an evil-doer, ould work ill to me and all my House, yes, and to all ?” I answered with indignation, though in fact I could guess well enough ”As for killing hi kill whom he will? Yet I remember that once I heard you father askthat he was minded to find out whether or no he were mortal like otherthat when the Opener of Roads ca of Zululand, as there was none when first he set foot upon his road Now I have spoken, who as”
”I remember it also, Macumazahn, as present at the time,” he replied heavily ”My father feared this Zikali and his father feared him, and I have heard that the Black One hi, feared him also And I, too, fear hireat matter without his counsel, lest he should bewitch ”
He paused, then turning to Goza, asked, ”Did the Opener of Roads tell you where he wished to dhen he co,” answered Goza, ”yonder in the hills, not further away than an aged man can walk in the half of an hour, is a place called the Valley of Bones, because there in the days of those ent before the King, and even in the King's day, many evildoers have been led to die Zikali would dwell in this Valley of Bones, and there and nowhere else would ht but after sunset when the , ”the place is ill-omened and, they say, haunted, one that no man dares to approach after the fall of darkness for fear lest the ghosts of the dead should leap upon hi”
”Such were the words of the Opener of Roads, O King,” replied Goza ”There and nowhere else will he , and there he demands that three huts should be built to shelter his needful If this be not granted to hiive counsel to the nation”
”So be it then,” said Cetewayo ”Sendthat what he desires shall be done Let o out that under pain of death none spy upon him while he journeys hither or returns Let the huts be built forthwith, and when it is known that he is co, let food in plenty be placed in the taken to the mouth of the valley Bid hi by ave the royal salute, and retreated backwards fro us alone I also rose to depart, but Cetewayo motioned to me to be seated
”Macumazahn,” he said, ”the Great Queen's man who has come to Natal (Sir Bartle Frere) threatenswoht back to Zululand and killed by Mehlokazulu, being the wives of his father, Sirayo, which was done without e Also thite ela River by so?” I asked
”No The Queen's man says I kill my people without trial, which is a lie told hiirls have been killed also who refused to iven and ran aith other men Also that wizards are smelt out and slain, which happens but rarely now; all of this contrary to the pro upon my father's death, and some other such small matters”