Books: Nada the Lily

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"Thou art long-winded," said the king, "what more?"

"This, my father, that I may bid farewell to my son; he is a little
child, so high, O King," and he held his hand above his knee.

"Thy first boon is granted," said the king, slipping the kaross from
his shoulders and showing the great breast beneath. "For the second it
shall be granted also, for I will not willingly divide the father and
the son. Bring the boy here; thou shalt bid him farewell, then thou
shalt slay him with thine own hand ere thou thyself art slain; it will
be good sport to see."

Now the man turned grey beneath the blackness of his skin, and
trembled a little as he murmured, "The king's will is the will of his
servant; let the child be brought."

But I looked at Chaka and saw that the tears were running down his
face, and that he only spoke thus to try the captain who loved him to
the last.

"Let the man go," said the king, "him and those with him."

So they went glad at heart, and praising the king.

I have told you this, my father, though it has not to do with my
story, because then, and then only, did I ever see Chaka show mercy to
one whom he had doomed to die.

As the captain and his people left the gate of the kraal, it was
spoken in the ear of the king that a man sought audience with him. He
was admitted crawling on his knees. I looked and saw that this was
that Masilo whom Chaka had charged with a message to him who was named
Bulalio, or the Slaughterer, and who ruled over the People of the Axe.
It was Masilo indeed, but he was no longer fat, for much travel had
made him thin; moreover, on his back were the marks of rods, as yet
scarcely healed over.

"Who art thou?" said Chaka.

"I am Masilo, of the People of the Axe, to whom command was given to
run with a message to Bulalio the Slaughterer, their chief, and to
return on the thirtieth day. Behold, O King, I have returned, though
in a sorry plight!"

"It seems so!" said the king, laughing aloud. "I remember now: speak
on, Masilo the Thin, who wast Masilo the Fat; what of this
Slaughterer? Does he come with his people to lay the axe Groan-Maker
in my hands?"

"Nay, O King, he comes not. He met me with scorn, and with scorn he
drove me from his kraal. Moreover, as I went I was seized by the
servants of Zinita, she whom I wooed, but who is now the wife of the
Slaughterer, and laid on my face upon the ground and beaten cruelly
while Zinita numbered the strokes."

"Hah!" said the king. "And what were the words of this puppy?"

"These were his words, O King: 'Bulalio the Slaughterer, who sits
beneath the shadow of the Witch Mountain, to Bulalio the Slaughterer
who sits in the kraal Duguza--To thee I pay no tribute; if thou
wouldst have the axe Groan-Maker, come to the Ghost Mountain and take
it. This I promise thee: thou shalt look on a face thou knowest, for
there is one there who would be avenged for the blood of a certain
Mopo.'"

Now, while Masilo told this tale I had seen two things--first, that a
little piece of stick was thrust through the straw of the fence, and,
secondly, that the regiment of the Bees was swarming on the slope
opposite to the kraal in obedience to the summons I had sent them in
the name of Umhlangana. The stick told me that the princes were hidden
behind the fence waiting the signal, and the coming of the regiment
that it was time to do the deed.

When Masilo had spoken Chaka sprang up in fury. His eyes rolled, his
face worked, foam flew from his lips, for such words as these had
never offended his ears since he was king, and Masilo knew him little,
else he had not dared to utter them.

For a while he gasped, shaking his small spear, for at first he could
not speak. At length he found words:--

"The dog," he hissed, "the dog who dares thus to spit in my face!
Hearken all! As with my last breath I command that this Slaughterer be
torn limb from limb, he and all his tribe! And thou, thou darest to
bring me this talk from a skunk of the mountains. And thou, too, Mopo,
thy name is named in it. Well, of thee presently. Ho! Umxamama, my
servant, slay me this slave of a messenger, beat out his brains with
thy stick. Swift! swift!"

Now, the old chief Umxamama sprang up to do the king's bidding, but he
was feeble with age, and the end of it was that Masilo, being mad with
fear, killed Umxamama, not Umxamama Masilo. Then Inguazonca, brother
of Unandi, Mother of the Heavens, fell upon Masilo and ended him, but
was hurt himself in so doing. Now I looked at Chaka, who stood shaking
the little red spear, and thought swiftly, for the hour had come.

"Help!" I cried, "one is slaying the King!"

As I spoke the reed fence burst asunder, and through it plunged the
princes Umhlangana and Dingaan, as bulls plunge through a brake.

Then I pointed to Chaka with my withered hand, saying, "Behold your
king!"

Now, from beneath the shelter of his kaross, each Prince drew out a
short stabbing spear, and plunged it into the body of Chaka the king.
Umhlangana smote him on the left shoulder, Dingaan struck him in the
right side. Chaka dropped the little spear handled with the red wood
and looked round, and so royally that the princes, his brothers, grew
afraid and shrank away from him.

Twice he looked on each; then he spoke, saying: "What! do you slay me,
my brothers--dogs of mine own house, whom I have fed? Do you slay me,
thinking to possess the land and to rule it? I tell you it shall not
be for long. I hear a sound of running feet--the feet of a great white
people. They shall stamp you flat, children of my father! They shall
rule the land that I have won, and you and your people shall be their
slaves!"

Thus Chaka spoke while the blood ran down him to the ground, and again
he looked on them royally, like a buck at gaze.

"Make an end, O ye who would be kings!" I cried; but their hearts had
turned to water and they could not. Then I, Mopo, sprang forward and
picked from the ground that little assegai handled with the royal wood
--the same assegai with which Chaka had murdered Unandi, his mother,
and Moosa, my son, and lifted it on high, and while I lifted it, my
father, once more, as when I was young, a red veil seemed to wave
before my eyes.

"Wherefore wouldst thou kill me, Mopo?" said the king.

"For the sake of Baleka, my sister, to whom I swore the deed, and of
all my kin," I cried, and plunged the spear through him. He sank down
upon the tanned ox-hide, and lay there dying. Once more he spoke, and
once only, saying: "Would now that I had hearkened to the voice of
Nobela, who warned me against thee, thou dog!"

Then he was silent for ever. But I knelt over him and called in his
ear the names of all those of my blood who had died at his hands--the
names of Makedama, my father, of my mother, of Anadi my wife, of Moosa
my son, and all my other wives and children, and of Baleka my sister.
His eyes and ears were open, and I think, my father, that he saw and
understood; I think also that the hate upon my face as I shook my
withered hand before him was more fearful to him that the pain of
death. At the least, he turned his head aside, shut his eyes, and
groaned. Presently they opened again, and he was dead.

Thus then, my father, did Chaka the King, the greatest man who has
ever lived in Zululand, and the most evil, pass by my hand to those
kraals of the Inkosazana where no sleep is. In blood he died as he had
lived in blood, for the climber at last falls with the tree, and in
the end the swimmer is borne away by the stream. Now he trod that path
which had been beaten flat for him by the feet of people whom he had
slaughtered, many as the blades of grass upon a mountain-side; but it
is a lie to say, as some do, that he died a coward, praying for mercy.
Chaka died, as he had lived, a brave man. Ou! my father, I know it,
for these eyes saw it and this hand let out his life.

Now he was dead and the regiment of the Bees drew near, nor could I
know how they would take this matter, for, though the Prince
Umhlangana was their general, yet all the soldiers loved the king,
because he had no equal in battle, and when he gave he gave with an
open hand. I looked round; the princes stood like men amazed; the girl
had fled; the chief Umxamama was dead at the hands of dead Masilo; and
the old chief Inguazonca, who had killed Masilo, stood by, hurt and
wondering; there were no others in the kraal.

"Awake, ye kings," I cried to the brothers, "the impi is at the gates!
Swift, now stab that man!"--and I pointed to the old chief--"and leave
the matter to my wit."

Then Dingaan roused himself, and springing upon Inguazonca, the
brother of Unandi, smote him a great blow with his spear, so that he
sank down dead without a word. Then again the princes stood silent and
amazed.

"This one will tell no tales," I cried, pointing at the fallen chief.

Now a rumour of the slaying had got abroad among the women, who had
heard cries and seen the flashing of spears above the fence, and from
the women it had come to the regiment of the Bees, who advanced to the
gates of the kraal singing. Then of a sudden they ceased their singing
and rushed towards the hut in front of which we stood.

Then I ran to meet them, uttering cries of woe, holding in my hand the
little assegai of the king red with the king's blood, and spoke with
the captain's in the gate, saying:--

"Lament, ye captains and ye soldiers, weep and lament, for your father
is no more! He who nursed you is no more! The king is dead! now earth
and heaven will come together, for the king is dead!"

"How so, Mopo?" cried the leader of the Bees. "How is our father
dead?"

"He is dead by the hand of a wicked wanderer named Masilo, who, when
he was doomed to die by the king, snatched this assegai from the
king's hand and stabbed him; and afterwards, before he could be cut
down himself by us three, the princes and myself, he killed the chiefs
Inguazonca and Umxamama also. Draw near and look on him who was the
king; it is the command of Dingaan and Umhlangana, the kings, that you
draw near and look on him who was the king, that his death at the hand
of Masilo may be told through all the land."

"You are better at making of kings, Mopo, than at the saving of one
who was your king from the stroke of a wanderer," said the leader of
the Bees, looking at me doubtfully.

But his words passed unheeded, for some of the captains went forward
to look on the Great One who was dead, and some, together with most of
the soldiers, ran this way and that, crying in their fear that now the
heaven and earth would come together, and the race of man would cease
to be, because Chaka, the king, was dead.

Now, my father, how shall I, whose days are few, tell you of all the
matters that happened after the dead of Chaka? Were I to speak of them
all they would fill many books of the white men, and, perhaps, some of
them are written down there. For this reason it is, that I may be
brief, I have only spoken of a few of those events which befell in the
reign of Chaka; for my tale is not of the reign of Chaka, but of the
lives of a handful of people who lived in those days, and of whom I
and Umslopogaas alone are left alive--if, indeed, Umslopogaas, the son
of Chaka, is still living on the earth. Therefore, in a few words I
will pass over all that came about after the fall of Chaka and till I
was sent down by Dingaan, the king, to summon him to surrender to the
king who was called the Slaughterer and who ruled the People of the
Axe. Ah! would that I had known for certain that this was none other
than Umslopogaas, for then had Dingaan gone the way that Chaka went
and which Umhlangana followed, and Umslopogaas ruled the people of the
Zulus as their king. But, alas! my wisdom failed me. I paid no heed to
the voice of my heart which told me that this was Umslopogaas who sent
the message to Chaka threatening vengeance for one Mopo, and I knew
nothing till too late; surely, I thought, the man spoke of some other
Mopo. For thus, my father, does destiny make fools of us men. We think
that we can shape our fate, but it is fate that shapes us, and nothing
befalls except fate will it. All things are a great pattern, my
father, drawn by the hand of the Umkulunkulu upon the cup whence he
drinks the water of his wisdom; and our lives, and what we do, and
what we do not do, are but a little bit of the pattern, which is so
big that only the eyes of Him who is above, the Umkulunkulu, can see
it all. Even Chaka, the slayer of men, and all those he slew, are but
as a tiny grain of dust in the greatness of that pattern. How, then,
can we be wise, my father, who are but the tools of wisdom? how can be
build who are but pebbles in a wall? how can we give life who are
babes in the womb of fate? or how can we slay who are but spears in
the hands of the slayer?

This came about, my father. Matters were made straight in the land
after the death of Chaka. At first people said that Masilo, the
stranger, had stabbed the king; then it was known that Mopo, the wise
man, the doctor and the body-servant of the king, had slain the king,
and that the two great bulls, his brothers Umhlangana and Dingaan,
children of Senzangacona, had also lifted spears against him. But he
was dead, and earth and heaven had not come together, so what did it
matter? Moreover, the two new kings promised to deal gently with the
people, and to lighten the heavy yoke of Chaka, and men in a bad case
are always ready to home for a better. So it came about that the only
enemies the princes found were each other and Engwade, the son of
Unandi, Chaka's half-brother. But I, Mopo, who was now the first man
in the land after the kings, ceasing to be a doctor and becoming a
general, went up against Engwade with the regiment of the Bees and the
regiment of the Slayers and smote him in his kraals. It was a hard
fight, but in the end I destroyed him and all his people: Engwade
killed eight men with his own hand before I slew him. Then I came back
to the kraal with the few that were left alive of the two regiments.

After that the two kings quarrelled more and more, and I weighed them
both in my balance, for I would know which was the most favourable to
me. In the end I found that both feared me, but that Umhlangana would
certainly put me to death if he gained the upper hand, whereas this
was not yet in the mind of Dingaan. So I pressed down the balance of
Umhlangana and raised that of Dingaan, sending the fears of Umhlangana
to sleep till I could cause his hut to be surrounded. Then Umhlangana
followed upon the road of Chaka his brother, the road of the assegai;
and Dingaan ruled alone for awhile. Such are the things that befall
princes of this earth, my father. See, I am but a little man, and my
lot is humble at the last, yet I have brought about the death of three
of them, and of these two died by my hand.

It was fourteen days after the passing away of the Prince Umhlangana
that the great army came back in a sorry plight from the marshes of
the Limpopo, for half of them were left dead of fever and the might of
the foe, and the rest were starving. It was well for them who yet
lived that Chaka was no more, else they had joined their brethren who
were dead on the way; since never before for many years had a Zulu
impi returned unvictorious and without a single head of cattle. Thus
it came about that they were glad enough to welcome a king who spared
their lives, and thenceforth, till his fate found him, Dingaan reigned
unquestioned.

Now, Dingaan wa a prince of the blood of Chaka indeed; for, like
Chaka, he was great in presence and cruel at heart, but he had not the
might and the mind of Chaka. Moreover, he was treacherous and a liar,
and these Chaka was not. Also, he loved women much, and spent with
them the time that he should have given to matters of the State. Yet
he reigned awhile in the land. I must tell this also; that Dingaan
would have killed Panda, his half-brother, so that the house of
Senzangacona, his father, might be swept out clean. Now Panda was a
man of gentle heart, who did not love war, and therefore it was
thought that he was half-witted; and, because I loved Panda, when the
question of his slaying came on, I and the chief Mapita spoke against
it, and pleaded for him, saying that there was nothing to be feared at
his hands who was a fool. So in the end Dingaan gave way, saying,
"Well, you ask me to spare this dog, and I will spare him, but one day
he will bite me."

So Panda was made governor of the king's cattle. Yet in the end the
words of Dingaan came true, for it was the grip of Panda's teeth that
pulled him from the throne; only, if Panda was the dog that bit, I,
Mopo, was the man who set him on the hunt.

CHAPTER XXII

MOPO GOES TO SEEK THE SLAUGHTERER

Now Dingaan, deserting the kraal Duguza, moved back to Zululand, and
built a great kraal by the Mahlabatine, which he named "Umgugundhlovu"
--that is, "the rumbling of the elephant." Also, he caused all the
fairest girls in the land to be sought out as his wives, and though
many were found yet he craved for more. And at this time a rumour came
to the ears of the King Dingaan that there lived in Swaziland among
the Halakazi tribe a girl of the most wonderful beauty, who was named
the Lily, and whose skin was whiter than are the skins of our people,
and he desired greatly to have this girl to wife. So Dingaan sent an
embassy to the chief of the Halakazi, demanding that the girl should
be given to him. At the end of a month the embassy returned again, and
told the king that they had found nothing but hard words at the kraal
of the Halakazi, and had been driven thence with scorn and blows.

This was the message of the chief of the Halakazi to Dingaan, king of
the Zulus: That the maid who was named the Lily, was, indeed, the
wonder of the earth, and as yet unwed; for she had found no man upon
whom she looked with favour, and she was held in such love by this
people that it was not their wish to force any husband on her.
Moreover, the chief said that he and his people defied Dingaan and the
Zulus, as their fathers had defied Chaka before him, and spat upon his
name, and that no maid of theirs should go to be the wife of a Zulu
dog.

Then the chief of the Halakazi caused the maid who was named the Lily
to be led before the messengers of Dingaan, and they found her
wonderfully fair, for so they said: she was tall as a reed, and her
grace was the grace of a reed that is shaken in the wind. Moreover,
her hair curled, and hung upon her shoulders, her eyes were large and
brown, and soft as a buck's, her colour was the colour of rich cream,
her smile was like a ripple on the waters, and when she spoke her
voice was low and sweeter than the sound of an instrument of music.
They said also that the girl wished to speak with them, but the chief
forbade it, and caused her to be led thence with all honour.

Now, when Dingaan heard this message he grew mad as a lion in a net,
for he desired this maid above everything, and yet he who had all
things could not win the maid. This was his command, that a great impi
should be gathered and sent to Swaziland against the Halakazi tribe,
to destroy them and seize the maid. But when the matter came on to be
discussed with the indunas in the presence of the king, at the
Amapakati or council, I, as chief of the indunas, spoke against it,
saying that the tribe of the Halakazi were great and strong, and that
war with them would mean war with the Swazis also; moreover, they had
their dwelling in caves which were had to win. Also, I said, that this
was no time to send impis to seek a single girl, for few years had
gone by since the Black One fell; and foes were many, and the soldiers
of the land had waxed few with slaughter, half of them having perished
in the marshes of the Limpopo. Now, time must be given them to grow up
again, for to-day they were as a little child, or like a man wasted
with hunger. Maids were many, let the king take them and satisfy his
heart, but let him make no war for this one.

Thus I spoke boldly in the face of the king, as none had dared to
speak before Chaka; and courage passed from me to the hearts of the
other indunas and generals, and they echoed my words, for they knew
that, of all follies, to begin a new war with the Swazi people would
be the greatest.

Dingaan listened, and his brow grew dark, yet he was not so firmly
seated on the throne that he dared put away our words, for still there
were many in the land who loved the memory of Chaka, and remembered
that Dingaan had murdered him and Umhlangana also. For now that Chaka
was dead, people forgot how evilly he had dealt with them, and
remembered only that he was a great man, who had made the Zulu people
out of nothing, as a smith fashions a bright spear from a lump of
iron. Also, though they had changed masters, yet their burden was not
lessened, for, as Chaka slew, so Dingaan slew also, and as Chaka
oppressed, so did Dingaan oppress. Therefore Dingaan yielded to the
voice of his indunas and no impi was sent against the Halakazi to seek
the maid that was named the Lily. But still he hankered for her in his
heart, and from that hour he hated me because I had crossed his will
and robbed him of his desire.

Now, my father, there is this to be told: though I did not know it
then, the maid who was named the Lily was no other than my daughter
Nada. The thought, indeed, came into my mind, that none but Nada could
be so fair. Yet I knew for certain that Nada and her mother Macropha
were dead, for he who brought me the news of their death had seen
their bodies locked in each other's arms, killed, as it were, by the
same spear. Yet, as it chanced, he was wrong; for though Macropha
indeed was killed, it was another maid who lay in blood beside her;
for the people whither I had sent Macropha and Nada were tributary to
the Halakazi tribe, and that chief of the Halakazi who sat in the
place of Galazi the Wolf had quarrelled with them, and fallen on them
by night and eaten them up.

As I learned afterwards, the cause of their destruction, as in later
days it was the cause of the slaying of the Halakazi, was the beauty
of Nada and nothing else, for the fame of her loveliness had gone
about the land, and the old chief of the Halakazi had commanded that
the girl should be sent to his kraal to live there, that her beauty
might shine upon his place like the sun, and that, if so she willed,
she should choose a husband from the great men of the Halakazi. But
the headmen of the kraal refused, for none who had looked on her would
suffer their eyes to lose sight of Nada the Lily, though there was
this fate about the maid that none strove to wed her against her will.
Many, indeed, asked her in marriage, both there and among the Halakazi
people, but ever she shook her head and said, "Nay, I would wed no
man," and it was enough.

For it was the saying among men, that it was better that she should
remain unmarried, and all should look on her, than that she should
pass from their sight into the house of a husband; since they held
that her beauty was given to be a joy to all, like the beauty of the
dawn and of the evening. Yet this beauty of Nada's was a dreadful
thing, and the mother of much death, as shall be told; and because of
her beauty and the great love she bore, she, the Lily herself, must
wither, and the cup of my sorrows must be filled to overflowing, and
the heart of Umslopogaas the Slaughterer, son of Chaka the king, must
become desolate as the black plain when fire has swept it. So it was
ordained, my father, and so it befell, seeing that thus all men, white
and black, seek that which is beautiful, and when at last they find
it, then it passes swiftly away, or, perchance, it is their death. For
great joy and great beauty are winged, nor will they sojourn long upon
the earth. They come down like eagles out of the sky, and into the sky
they return again swiftly.

Thus then it came about, my father, that I, Mopo, believing my
daughter Nada to be dead, little guessed that it was she who was named
the Lily in the kraals of the Halakazi, and whom Dingaan the king
desired for a wife.

Now after I had thwarted him in this matter of the sending of an impi
to pluck the Lily from the gardens of the Halakazi, Dingaan learned to
hate me. Also I was in his secrets, and with me he had killed his
brother Chaka and his brother Umhlangana, and it was I who held him
back from the slaying of his brother Panda also; and, therefore, he
hated me, as is the fashion of small-hearted men with those who have
lifted them up. Yet he did not dare to do away with me, for my voice
was loud in the land, and when I spoke the people listened. Therefore,
in the end, he cast about for some way to be rid of me for a while,
till he should grow strong enough to kill me.

"Mopo," said the king to me one day as I sat before him in council
with others of the indunas and generals, "mindest thou of the last
words of the Great Elephant, who is dead?" This he said meaning Chaka
his brother, only he did not name him, for now the name of Chaka was
blonipa in the land, as is the custom with the names of dead kings--
that is, my father, it was not lawful that it should pass the lips.

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