Part 21 (1/2)

Such was his appearance when he was thrust before Dingaan, seething with rage which he could scarcely suppress, even in that presence.

”Did you visit the Inkosazana to-day, White Man?” asked the King blandly, while the indunas stared at him with grim amus.e.m.e.nt.

Then Ishmael broke out into a recital of his wrongs, demanding that the captains who had beaten him, a white man, and a great person, should be killed.

”Silence,” said Dingaan at length. ”The question, Night-prowler, is whether you should not be killed, you dog who dared to insult the Inkosazana by offering yourself to her as a husband. Had she commanded you to be speared, she would have done well, and if you trouble me with your shoutings, I will send you to sleep with the jackals to-night without waiting for her word.”

Now, seeing his danger, Ishmael was silent, and the King went on:

”Did you discover, as I bade you, why it is that the Inkosazana desires to leave us?”

”Yes, King. It is because she would return to her own people, the old prayer-doctor and his wife.”

”They are not her people!” exclaimed Dingaan. ”We know that she came to them out of the storm, and that they are but the foster-parents chosen for her by the Heavens. You were the first to tell us that story, and how she caused the lightning to burn up my soldier yonder at Ramah. We are her people and no others. Can the Inkosazana have a father and a mother?”

”I don't know,” answered Ishmael, ”but she is a woman and I never knew a woman who was without them. At least I am sure that she looks upon them as her father and mother, obeying them in all things, and that she will never leave them while they live, unless they command her to do so.”

Dingaan stared at him with his pig-like eyes, repeating after him--”while they live, unless they command her to do so.” Then he asked:

”If the Inkosazana desires to go, who is there that dares to stay her, and if she puts out her magic, who is there that has the power? If a hand is lifted against her, will she not lay a curse on us and bring destruction upon us?”

”I don't know,” answered Ishmael again, ”but if she goes back among the white folk and is angry, I think that she will bring the Boers upon you.”

Now Dingaan's face grew very troubled, and bidding Ishmael stand back awhile, he consulted with his council. Then he said:

”Listen to me, White Man. It would be a very evil thing if the Inkosazana were to leave us, for with her would go the Spirit of our people, and their good luck, so say the witch-doctors with one voice, and I believe them. Further, it is our desire that she should remain with us a while.

This day the Council of the Diviners has spoken, saying that the words of the Inkosazana which she uttered here are too hard for them, and that other doctors of a people who live far away, must be sent for and brought face to face with her. Therefore here at Umgugundhlovo she should abide until they come.”

”Indeed,” answered Ishmael indifferently.

In the doctors who dwell far away, and the council of the Diviners he had no belief. But understanding the natives as he did he guessed correctly enough that the latter found themselves in a cleft stick. Worked on by their superst.i.tions, which he had first awakened for his own ends, they had accepted Rachel as something more than human, as the incarnation of the Spirit of their people. This Mopo, who was said to have killed Chaka by command of that Spirit, had acknowledged her to be, and therefore they did not dare to declare that her words spoken as an oracle were empty words. But neither did they dare to interpret the saying that she meant that no attack must be made upon the Boers and should be obeyed.

To do this would be to fly in the face of the martial aspirations of the nation and the secret wishes of the King, and perhaps if war ultimately broke out, would cost them their lives. So it came about that they announced that they could not understand her sayings, and had decided to thrust off the responsibility on to the shoulders of some other diviners, though who these men might be Ishmael neither knew nor took the trouble to ask.

”But,” went on the King, ”who can force the dove to build in a tree that does not please it, seeing that it has wings and can fly away? Yet if its own tree, that in which it was reared from the nest, could be brought to it, it might be pleased to abide there. Do you understand, White Man?”

”No,” answered Ishmael, though in fact he understood well enough that the King was playing upon Rachel's English name of Dove, and that he meant that her home might be moved into Zululand. ”No, the Inkosazana is not a bird, and who can carry trees about?”

”Have the spear-shafts knocked the wit out of you, Ibubesi,” asked Dingaan, impatiently, ”or are you drunk with beer? Learn then my meaning.

The Inkosazana will not stay because her home is yonder, therefore it must be brought here and she will stay. At first I gave orders that if this old white teacher and his wife tried to accompany her, they should be killed.

Now I eat up those words. They must come to Zululand.”

”How will you persuade them to be such fools?” asked Ishmael.

”How did I persuade the Inkosazana herself to come? Was it not to seek one whom she loved?”

”They will think that you have killed her, and wish to kill them also.”

”No, because you will go in command of an impi and show them otherwise.”