The White Shield Part 13

"_Hau_!" I cried, with a very dissatisfied shake of the head. "That which is distant is ever that which is uncertain." For this proposition startled me. It reminded me too much of past foolishness. Once before I had sacrificed my chances as a warrior, had deserted my people, and had thrown away my life with both hands, all for the sake of a girl, and had found the position so little to my liking that I had willingly exchanged it for certain death. I had not found the death I expected, but life and great honour; yet that was a marvel, and such marvels do not occur twice within the experience of any one man. Now, I desired Lalusini greatly, but I desired her as a favourite wife of the King's _induna_--not as the mate of a disgraced runaway. Wherefore her proposal found but little favour in my eyes; and, indeed, I thought she had made it only to try me.

Then we talked of other things, of Tauane and the nation we had destroyed; but of her powers as a sorceress she would tell me nothing, or how she had come among that people. And I sat and listened to her talk, for I was young in those days, and the sound of her voice was to my ears as the rippling of water in a sun-dried land. I know not how it is among you white people, _Nkose_, but among ourselves, when we are yet young, we are ever as fools in such matters; when we are older--ah, then it is different.

While we talked, her eye fell upon my broad spear--the King's a.s.segai-- and, reaching for it, she examined it knowingly.

"Worthy to be wielded by Tshaka himself," she muttered. "A splendid spear! A royal weapon," examining the haft, which was dark-red then, although it is now black with age. "Truly a royal weapon!"

"And a royal weapon it is," I answered, "for I had it from Umzilikazi's own hand."

"Ha! And how was that?" she asked eagerly. But I looked knowing and laughed.

"Nothing for nothing, Lalusini," I said. "Tell me thine own tale; then thou shalt have that of the King's a.s.segai. And I promise thee that it is a stirring one."

But she would not. Nevertheless, I told her my own tale, or a part of it. At the mention of Nangeza she looked up quickly. "How many wives have you, Untuswa?" she asked.

"Only three. But my _inkosikazi_ is more trouble than any thirty ordinary women, for she wants to be chief over me, too."

Lalusini laughed.

"And that is Nangeza for whom you deserted your nation and incurred death under its most terrible form?" she said.

I answered that it was.

"And you want me to go and be second to your _inkosikazi_, Untuswa!"

"Not so, for you would ever be my favourite wife."

"Until you found some other Mystery Queen hidden in a mountain cave,"

she said, mocking me. But I took snuff and answered nothing, for a man who undertakes to answer everything a woman says is like one who begins to swim across a flooded river: he knows where he goes in, but cannot tell where he may get out, or if ever--at least, so it is among ourselves; I know not if it is the same among white people.

"And the King?" she said. "How many wives has he?"

"That question is hard to answer. A great many does he possess, yet he cares not for any of them, neither does he love women over-much. A woman, he says, is like the grains of the _umbona_ [maize], which is tender and nice when young, but soon grows hard and tooth-breaking, and needs much pounding to turn it once more into any use at all. Thus has the King often spoken when we have been talking together."

How Lalusini laughed, and it was good to hear her laugh, even as to hear her talk.

"_Yau_!" she cried. "I do not think I will enter the _isiG.o.dhlo_ of Umzilikazi."

"But what if no choice is allowed you?"

"But there will be. There is that by which Umzilikazi dare not wed me."

Now I cried out in wonder, yet was my mind relieved.

"There is," she went on. "And--I am greater than your King, son of Ntelani."

"Then must you be of the root of Senzangakona himself, for there is but one who is greater than our King, and that is Dingane, who now sits in the seat of Tshaka."

[Senzangakona was father of Tshaka, the founder of the Zulu military dynasty.]

This I said jestingly, and then, seeing that the shadows were getting long, I rose and, going to the entrance of the place, I dragged in the carca.s.s of a buck I had slain on my way; for, besides what game I could bring her, Lalusini had no food but dry corn. Of water she had abundance, for a little clear spring trickled down the rock at the further end of the place, losing itself in a dark cleft; but only at night could she make a fire, for then alone there was no risk of the smoke betraying her, and the light--of a small fire, at any rate--was quite hidden from without.

"_Au_! it must be lonely here at night," I said, looking upward at the great gloomy rock-roof. "Do you not hear the ghosts up above, wailing among the dry bones wherein they dwelt when alive?"

"I fear not such things, Untuswa. What I fear more is that yonder stone may not be heavy enough to keep out a lion I have heard upon the mountain the last two nights. He was snapping and growling among the bones, and I feared he might try to force his way in here."

I examined the hole, which was only large enough to admit the body of a man creeping on his hands and knees. This hole Lalusini used to stop at night by rolling a stone against its mouth, yet the stone did not fill up the entire hole, but only enough to render it too small for the pa.s.sage of any large body.

"It is safe," I said, testing the weight. "Nothing large enough to be harmful could force an entrance, yet I must try and slay that lion. And now, Lalusini, I must return, for it will be dark by the time I arrive, and our people like not those who wander overmuch in the night-time."

We took an affectionate leave of each other, yet Lalusini would not at that time tell me anything of her own tale, and I made my way back to the top of the mountain. And all the way homeward my mind was full of her whom I had left, and I pondered much and oft about the greatness she had hinted at, and how such was in store for myself, too, as though she were the chieftainess of some mighty nation--and mighty indeed must it have been were it greater than our own, as she had said it was. But most of all I pondered as to how I should ever be able to bring her in among ourselves so that the King's suspicions should not take the right road.

Thus thinking, and alternately singing to myself, I got over the ground at a swift pace, yet by the time I entered the hut of my chief wife it was quite dark. Nangeza was seated within alone. As I entered she looked up with a frown upon her face; and, indeed, a frown was more often to be found there than a smile in those days.

"Welcome, great hunter," she said mockingly. "And, where is the game?"

"I have none," I answered shortly, for I was in no humour to be worried by this woman's evil temper.

"None?" she echoed. "Yet there are blood spots about thee, Untuswa."

There were. In dragging the buck down through the hole into Lalusini's hiding-place I had become smeared with blood, and this I had forgotten to wash away.

"I slew but two small bucks," I said. "One I ate in the middle of the day. The other I gave to old Masuka."

"Didst thou take it to him in the _isiG.o.dhlo_, Untuswa? For there has the old Mosutu been since the sun was at its highest, and is there still. Yet I saw thee from far off over the plain, and certainly thou hast not been to the _isiG.o.dhlo_, which is far beyond this house," she answered; and her tones were jeering, and her eyes shone with evil fire, as those of a snake.

"Enough!" I cried. "Enough of this!" And, bending down to the side of the hut, I took up a stick, and advanced towards her; for I was furious.

"I have never beaten thee, Nangeza, but hadst thou belonged to any other man, I think by this time not a whole bone would remain within thee. Now, of thine evil temper have I had more than enough; also of thy tongue."

She retreated back as far as she could to the side of the hut--her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, her lips drawn back from her gums, like those of a wild beast.

But it was time to put a stop to this, or soon the second fighting commander of the King's army would be under the command of a woman.

"Beware, Untuswa!" she snarled. "Beware! I made thee! Yea, I! And I will unmake thee!"

"_Whau_! if any one made me, it was not thou, but the King, and old Masuka, perhaps." And then, as I saw her looking around for a weapon, I--well, I gave her no opportunity of either finding one or losing one; and, I think, _Nkose_, my _inkosikazi_ went to sleep that night feeling as though she had been rolled down the rocky side of a very high mountain; while I went to the huts of my two other wives, and we spent a great part of that night in singing, and jests, and laughter. But the fault lay with Nangeza's evil and inquisitive temper; and, more still, with her attempts to rule me, as though I were the woman and she the _induna_ of the King. Wherefore, from the intolerable weariness which she had put upon me, I sought the company of my other wives, that they might cheer and amuse me, which, indeed, they were very glad to do.

Now, on the morrow, Nangeza went and complained to the King as to the punishment I had given her; but she might have spared herself the trouble, for Umzilikazi only mocked her, telling her that she was fortunate indeed in having to deal with me, and that warriors were not to be ruled by women, but the other way round. Then he bade them drive her from his presence. And afterwards he would often laugh with me about this matter; but from that day Nangeza hated me with a surpa.s.sing hatred, and set herself to work to bring about my ruin and downfall by some method or other, even though it should cost her her life.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"THE PLACE OF THE ALLIGATORS."

During this while, since we had "eaten up" the Bakoni, we had been living in hastily run up huts. Many, indeed, had not even these, but lived and slept in the open. But now the King gave orders that we should remove a day's march further, and there build a large kraal.

The site of this was a pleasant open plain, well gra.s.sed, and sprinkled with mimosa and other bush, and watered by a good-sized river.

The slaves and women were set to work; also the young regiments; the great circles were marked out, and in a few days there stood a n.o.ble kraal, built on the Zulu plan; the great open s.p.a.ce ringed in by a double thorn-fence as high as a man's head, between which stood the rows of round-topped huts, and the _isiG.o.dhlo_, or royal enclosure, at the upper end, part.i.tioned off by a fence of fine woven gra.s.s. This kraal was of greater size than Ekupumuleni, and the surroundings far pleasanter, for there was abundance of gra.s.s, well watered by streams which never ran dry; and the rolling plains and dark forest belts were swarming with game. The river, too, was plentiful with sea-cows and alligators, which last the King would not allow any man to kill; so that they soon increased in numbers and boldness to an alarming extent; indeed, from this it was that our new kraal took its name, for it was called Kwa'zingwenya, "the Place of Alligators." And when it was completed there was great dancing and singing, and the slaughter of cattle and general feasting, for here we intended to make our home, at any rate for a long time to come.