Books: Nada the Lily

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"Perhaps it is worth trying and perhaps it is not, my uncle," answered
Umslopogaas. "One thing I know: I had rather see Nada at my gates to-
night than hear all the chiefs in the land crying 'Hail, O King!'"

"You will live to think otherwise, Umslopogaas; and now spies must be
set at the kraal Umgugundhlovu to give us warning of the mind of the
king, lest he should send an impi suddenly to eat you up. Perhaps his
hands may be too full for that ere long, for those white Amaboona will
answer his assegais with bullets. And one more word: let nothing be
said of this matter of your birth, least of all to Zinita your wife,
or to any other woman."

"Fear not, uncle," he answered; "I know how to be silent."

Now after awhile Umslopogaas left me and went to the hut of Zinita,
his Inkosikasi, where she lay wrapped in her blankets, and, as it
seemed, asleep.

"Greeting, my husband," she said slowly, like one who wakens. "I have
dreamed a strange dream of you. I dreamed that you were called a king,
and that all the regiments of the Zulus filed past giving you the
royal salute, Bayete."

Umslopogaas looked at her wondering, for he did not know if she had
learned something or if this was an omen. "Such dreams are dangerous,"
he said, "and he who dreams them does well to lock them fast till they
be forgotten."

"Or fulfilled," said Zinita, and again Umslopogaas looked at her
wondering.

Now after this night I began my work, for I established spies at the
kraal of Dingaan, and from them I learned all that passed with the
king.

At first he gave orders that an impi should be summoned to eat up the
People of the Axe, but afterwards came tidings that the Boers, to the
number of five hundred mounted men, were marching on the kraal
Umgugundhlovu. So Dingaan had no impi to spare to send to the Ghost
Mountain, and we who were beneath its shadow dwelt there in peace.

This time for Boers were beaten, for Bogoza, the spy, led them into an
ambush; still few were killed, and they did but draw back that they
might jump the further, and Dingaan knew this. At this time also the
English white men of Natal, the people of George, who attacked Dingaan
by the Lower Tugela, were slain by our soldiers, and those with them.

Also, by the help of certain witch-doctors, I filled the land with
rumours, prophecies, and dark sayings, and I worked cunningly on the
minds of many chiefs that were known to me, sending them messages
hardly to be understood, such as should prepare their thoughts for the
coming of one who should be declared to them. They listened, but the
task was long, for the men dwelt far apart, and some of them were away
with the regiments.

So the time went by, till many days had passed since we reached the
Ghost Mountain. Umslopogaas had no more words with Zinita, but she
always watched him, and he went heavily. For he awaited Nada, and Nada
did not come.

But at length Nada came.

CHAPTER XXX

THE COMING OF NADA

One night--it was a night of full moon--I sat alone with Umslopogaas
in my hut, and we spoke of the matter of our plots; then, when we had
finished that talk, we spoke of Nada the Lily.

"Alas! my uncle," said Umslopogaas sadly, "we shall never look more on
Nada; she is surely dead or in bonds, otherwise she had been here long
ago. I have sought far and wide, and can hear no tidings and find
nothing."

"All that is hidden is not lost," I answered, yet I myself believed
that there was an end of Nada.

Then we were silent awhile, and presently, in the silence, a dog
barked. We rose, and crept out of the hut to see what it might be that
stirred, for the night drew on, and it was needful to be wary, since a
dog might bark at the stirring of a leaf, or perhaps it might be the
distant footfall of an impi that it heard.

We had not far to look, for standing gazing at the huts, like one who
is afraid to call, was a tall slim man, holding an assegai in one hand
and a little shield in the other. We could not see the face of the
man, because the light was behind him, and a ragged blanket hung about
his shoulders. Also, he was footsore, for he rested on one leg. Now we
were peering round the hut, and its shadow hid us, so that the man saw
nothing. For awhile he stood still, then he spoke to himself, and his
voice was strangely soft.

"Here are many huts," said the voice, "now how may I know which is the
house of my brother? Perhaps if I call I shall bring soldiers to me,
and be forced to play the man before them, and I am weary of that.
Well, I will lie here under the fence till morning; it is a softer bed
than some I have found, and I am word out with travel--sleep I must,"
and the figure sighed and turned so that the light of the moon fell
full upon its face.

My father, it was the face of Nada, my daughter, whom I had not seen
for so many years, yet across the years I knew it at once; yes, though
the bud had become a flower I knew it. The face was weary and worn,
but ah! it was beautiful, never before nor since have I seen such
beauty, for there was this about the loveliness of my daughter, the
Lily: it seemed to flow from within--yes, as light will flow through
the thin rind of a gourd, and in that she differed from the other
women of our people, who, when they are fair are fair with the flesh
alone.

Now my heart went out to Nada as she stood in the moonlight, one
forsaken, not having where to lay her head, Nada, who alone was left
alive of all my children. I motioned to Umslopogaas to hide himself in
the shadow, and stepped forward.

"Ho!" I said roughly, "who are you, wanderer, and what do you here?"

Now Nada started like a frightened bird, but quickly gathered up her
thoughts, and turned upon me in a lordly way.

"Who are you that ask me?" she said, feigning a man's voice.

"One who can use a stick upon thieves and night-prowlers, boy. Come,
show your business or be moving. You are not of this people; surely
that moocha is of a Swazi make, and here we do not love Swazis."

"Were you not old, I would beat you for your insolence," said Nada,
striving to look brave and all the while searching a way to escape.
"Also, I have no stick, only a spear, and that is for warriors, not
for an old umfagozan like you." Ay, my father, I lived to hear my
daughter name me an umfagozan--a low fellow!

Now making pretence to be angry, I leaped at her with my kerrie up,
and, forgetting her courage, she dropped her spear, and uttered a
little scream. But she still held the shield before her face. I seized
her by the arm, and struck a blow upon the shield with my kerrie--it
would scarcely have crushed a fly, but this brave warrior trembled
sorely.

"Where now is your valour, you who name my umfagozan?" I said: "you
who cry like a maid and whose arm is soft as a maid's."

She made no answer, but hugged her tattered blanket round her, and
shifting my grip from her arm, I seized it and rent it, showing her
breast and shoulder; then I let her go, laughing, and said:--

"Lo! here is the warrior that would beat an old umfagozan for his
insolence, a warrior well shaped for war! Now, my pretty maid who
wander at night in the garment of a man, what tale have you to tell?
Swift with it, lest I drag you to the chief as his prize! The old man
seeks a new wife, they tell me?"

Now when Nada saw that I had discovered her she threw down the shield
after the spear, as a thing that was of no more use, and hung her head
sullenly. But when I spoke of dragging her to the chief then she flung
herself upon the ground, and clasped my knees, for since I called him
old, she thought that this chief could not be Umslopogaas.

"Oh, my father," said the Lily, "oh, my father, have pity on me! Yes,
yes! I am a girl, a maid--no wife--and you who are old, you, perchance
have daughters such as I, and in their name I ask for pity. My father,
I have journeyed far, I have endured many things, to find my way to a
kraal where my brother rules, and now it seems I have come to the
wrong kraal. Forgive me that I spoke to you so, my father; it was but
a woman's feint, and I was hard pressed to hide my sex, for my father,
you know it is ill to be a lonely girl among strange men."

Now I said nothing in answer, for this reason only: that when I heard
Nada call me father, not knowing me, and saw her clasp my knees and
pray to me in my daughter's name, I, who was childless save for her,
went nigh to weeping. But she thought that I did not answer her
because I was angry, and about to drag her to this unknown chief, and
implored me the more even with tears.

"My father," she said, "do not this wicked thing by me. Let me go and
show me the path that I shall ask: you who are old, you know that I am
too fair to be dragged before this chief of yours. Hearken! All I knew
are dead, I am alone except for this brother I seek. Oh! if you betray
me may such a fate fall upon your own daughter also! May she also know
the day of slavery, and the love that she wills not!" and she ceased,
sobbing.

Now I turned my head and spoke towards the hut, "Chief," I said, "your
Ehlose is kind to you to-night, for he has given you a maid fair as
the Lily of the Halakazi"--here Nada glanced up wildly. "Come, then,
and take the girl."

Now Nada turned to snatch up the assegai from the ground, but whether
to kill me, or the chief she feared so much, or herself, I do not
know, and as she turned, in her woe she called upon the name of
Umslopogaas. She found the assegai, and straightened herself again.
And lo! there before her stood a tall chief leaning on an axe; but the
old man who threatened her was gone--not very far, in truth, but round
the corner of the hut.

Now Nada the Lily looked, then rubbed her eyes, and looked again.

"Surely I dream?" she said at last. "But now I spoke to an old man,
and in his place there stands before me the shape of one whom I desire
to see."

"I thought, Maiden, that the voice of a certain Nada called upon one
Umslopogaas," said he who leaned upon the axe.

"Ay, I called: but where is the old man who treated me so scurvily?
Nay, what does it matter?--where he is, there let him stop. At least,
you are Umslopogaas, my brother, or should be by your greatness and
the axe. To the man I cannot altogether swear in this light; but to
the axe I can swear, for once it passed so very near my eyes."

Thus she spoke on, gaining time, and all the while she watched
Umslopogaas till she was sure that it was he and no other. Then she
ceased talking, and, flinging herself on him, she kissed him.

"Now I trust that Zinita sleeps sound," murmured Umslopogaas, for
suddenly he remembered that Nada was no sister of his, as she thought.

Nevertheless, he took her by the hand and said, "Enter, sister. Of all
maidens in the world you are the most welcome here, for know I
believed you dead."

But I, Mopo, ran into the hut before her, and when she entered she
found me sitting by the fire.

"Now, here, my brother," said Nada, pointing at me with her finger,
"here is that old umfagozan, that low fellow, who, unless I dream, but
a very little while ago brought shame upon me--ay, my brother, he
struck me, a maid, with his kerrie, and that only because I said that
I would stab him for his insolence, and he did worse: he swore that he
would drag me to some old chief of his to be a gift to him, and this
he was about to do, had you not come. Will you suffer these things to
go unpunished, my brother?"

Now Umslopogaas smiled grimly, and I answered:--

"What was it that you called me just now, Nada, when you prayed me to
protect you? Father, was it not?" and I turned my face towards the
blaze of the fire, so that the full light fell upon it.

"Yes, I called you father, old man. It is not strange, for a homeless
wanderer must find fathers where she can--and yet! no, it cannot be--
so changed--and that white hand? And yet, oh! who are you? Once there
was a man named Mopo, and he had a little daughter, and she was called
Nada--Oh! my father, my father, I know you now!"

"Ay, Nada, and I knew you from the first; through all your man's
wrappings I knew you after these many years."

So the Lily fell upon my neck and sobbed there, and I remember that I
also wept.

Now when she had sobbed her fill of joy, Umslopogaas brought Nada the
Lily mass to eat and mealie porridge. She ate the curdled milk, but
the porridge she would not eat, saying that she was too weary.

Then she told us all the tale of her wanderings since she had fled
away from the side of Umslopogaas at the stronghold of the Halakazi,
and it was long, so long that I will not repeat it, for it is a story
by itself. This I will say only: that Nada was captured by robbers,
and for awhile passed herself off among them as a youth. But, in the
end, they found her out and would have given her as a wife to their
chief, only she persuaded them to kill the chief and make her their
ruler. They did this because of that medicine of the eyes which Nada
had only among women, for as she ruled the Halakazi so she ruled the
robbers. But, at the last, they all loved her, and she gave it out
that she would wed the strongest. Then some of them fell to fighting,
and while they killed each other--for it came about that Nada brought
death upon the robbers as on all others--she escaped, for she said
that she did not wish to look upon their struggle but would await the
upshot in a place apart.

After that she had many further adventures, but at length she met an
old woman who guided her on her way to the Ghost Mountain. And who
this old woman was none could discover, but Galazi swore afterwards
that she was the Stone Witch of the mountain, who put on the shape of
an aged woman to guide Nada to Umslopogaas, to be the sorrow and the
joy of the People of the Axe. I do not know, my father, yet it seems
to me that the old witch would scarcely have put off her stone for so
small a matter.

Now, when Nada had made an end of her tale, Umslopogaas told his, of
how things had gone with Dingaan. When he told her how he had given
the body of the girl to the king, saying that it was the Lily's stalk,
she said it had been well done; and when he spoke of the slaying of
the traitor she clapped her hands, though Nada, whose heart was
gentle, did not love to hear of deeds of death. At last he finished,
and she was somewhat sad, and said it seemed that her fate followed
her, and that now the People of the Axe were in danger at the hands of
Dingaan because of her.

"Ah! my brother," she cried, taking Umslopogaas by the hand, "it were
better I should die than that I should bring evil upon you also."

"That would not mend matters, Nada," he answered. "For whether you be
dead or alive, the hate of Dingaan. Also, Nada, know this: I am not
your brother."

When the Lily heard these words she uttered a little cry, and, letting
fall the hand of Umslopogaas, clasped mine, shrinking up against me.

"What is this tale, father?" she asked. "He who was my twin, he with
whom I have been bred up, says that he has deceived me these many
years, that he is not my brother; who, then, is he, father?"

"He is your cousin, Nada."

"Ah," she answered, "I am glad. It would have grieved me had he whom I
loved been shown to be but a stranger in whom I have no part," and she
smiled a little in the eyes and at the corners of her mouth. "But tell
me this tale also."

So I told her the tale of the birth of Umslopogaas, for I trusted her.

"Ah," she said, when I had finished, "ah! you come of a bad stock,
Umslopogaas, though it is a kingly one. I shall love you little
henceforth, child of the hyena man."

"Then that is bad news," said Umslopogaas, "for know, Nada, I desire
now that you should love me more than ever--that you should be my wife
and love me as your husband!"

Now the Lily's face grew sad and sweet, and all the hidden mockery
went out of her talk--for Nada loved to mock.

"Did you not speak to me on that night in the Halakazi caves,
Umslopogaas, of one Zinita, who is your wife, and Inkosikaas of the
People of the Axe?"

Then the brow of Umslopogaas darkened: "What of Zinita?" he said. "It
is true she is my chieftainess; is it not allowed a man to take more
than one wife?"

"So I trust," answered Nada, smiling, "else men would go unwed for
long, for few maids would marry them who then must labour alone all
their days. But, Umslopogaas, if there are twenty wives, yet one must
be first. Now this has come about hitherto: that wherever I have been
it has been thrust upon me to be first, and perhaps it might be thus
once more--what then, Umslopogaas?"

"Let the fruit ripen before you pluck it, Nada," he answered. "If you
love me and will wed me, it is enough."

"I pray that it may not be more than enough," she said, stretching out
her hand to him. "Listen, Umslopogaas: ask my father here what were
the words I spoke to him many years ago, before I was a woman, when,
with my mother, Macropha, I left him to go among the Swazi people. It
was after you had been borne away by the lion, Umslopogaas, I told my
father that I would marry no man all my life, because I loved only
you, who were dead. My father reproached me, saying that I must not
speak thus of my brother, but it was my heart which spoke, and it
spoke truly; for see, Umslopogaas, you are no brother to me! I have
kept that vow. How many men have sort me in wedlock since I became a
woman, Umslopogaas? I tell you that they are as the leaves upon a
tree. Yet I have given myself to none, and this has been my fortune:
that none have sought to constrain me to marriage. Now I have my
reward, for he whom I lost is found again, and to him alone I give my
love. Yet, Umslopogaas, beware! Little luck has come to those who have
loved me in the past; no, not even to those who have but sought to
look on me."

"I will bear the risk, Nada," the Slaughterer answered, and gathering
her to his great breast he kissed her.

Presently she slipped from his arms and bade him begone, for she was
weary and would rest.

So he went.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE WAR OF THE WOMEN

Now on the morrow at daybreak, leaving his wolves, Galazi came down
from the Ghost Mountain and passed through the gates of the kraal.

In front of my hut he saw Nada the Lily and saluted her, for each
remembered the other. Then he walked on to the place of assembly and
spoke to me.

"So the Star of Death has risen on the People of the Axe, Mopo," he
said. "Was it because of her coming that my grey people howled so
strangely last night? I cannot tell, but I know this, the Star shone
first on me this morning, and that is my doom. Well, she is fair
enough to be the doom of many, Mopo," and he laughed and passed on,
swinging the Watcher. But his words troubled me, though they were
foolish; for I could not but remember that wherever the beauty of Nada
had pleased the sight of men, there men had been given to death.

Then I went to lead Nada to the place of assembly and found her
awaiting me. She was dressed now in some woman's garments that I had
brought her; her curling hair fell upon her shoulders; on her wrist
and neck and knee were bracelets of ivory, and in her hand she bore a
lily bloom which she had gathered as she went to bathe in the river.
Perhaps she did this, my father, because she wished here, as
elsewhere, to be known as the Lily, and it is the Zulu fashion to name
people from some such trifle. But who can know a woman's reason, or
whether a thing is by chance alone, my father? Also she had begged me
of a cape I had; it was cunningly made by Basutus, of the whitest
feathers of the ostrich; this she put about her shoulders, and it hung
down to her middle. It had been a custom with Nada from childhood not
to go about as do other girls, naked except for their girdles, for she
would always find some rag or skin to lie upon her breast. Perhaps it
was because her skin was fairer than that of other women, or perhaps
because she knew that she who hides her beauty often seems the
loveliest, or because there was truth in the tale of her white blood
and the fashion came to her with the blood. I do not know, my father;
at the least she did so.

Now I took Nada by the hand and led her through the morning air to the
place of assembly, and ah! she was sweeter than the air and fairer
than the dawn.

There were many people in the place of assembly, for it was the day of
the monthly meeting of the council of the headmen, and there also were
all the women of the kraal, and at their head stood Zinita. Now it had
got about that the girl whom the Slaughterer went to seek in the caves
of the Halakazi had come to the kraal of the People of the Axe, and
all eyes watched for her.

"Wow!" said the men as she passed smiling, looking neither to the
right nor to the left, yet seeing all--"Wow! but this flower is fair!
Little wonder that the Halakazi died for her!"

The women looked also, but they said nothing of the beauty of Nada;
they scarcely seemed to see it.

"That is she for whose sake so many of our people lie unburied," said
one.

"Where, then, does she find her fine clothes?" quoth another, "she who
came here last night a footsore wanderer?"

"Feathers are not enough for her: look! she must bear flowers also.
Surely they are fitter to her hands than the handle of a hoe," said a
third.

"Now I think that the chief of the People of the Axe will find one to
worship above the axe, and that some will be left mourning," put in a
fourth, glancing at Zinita and the other women of the household of the
Slaughterer.

Thus they spoke, throwing words like assegais, and Nada heard them
all, and knew their meaning, but she never ceased from smiling. Only
Zinita said nothing, but stood looking at Nada from beneath her bent
brows, while by one hand she held the little daughter of Umslopogaas,
her child, and with the other played with the beads about her neck.
Presently, we passed her, and Nada, knowing well who this must be,
turned her eyes full upon the angry eyes of Zinita, and held them
there awhile. Now what there was in the glance of Nada I cannot say,
but I know that Zinita, who was afraid of few things, found something
to fear in it. At the least, it was she who turned her head away, and
the Lily passed on smiling, and greeted Umslopogaas with a little nod.

"Hail, Nada!" said the Slaughterer. Then he turned to his headmen and
spoke: "This is she whom we went to the caves of the Halakazi to seek
for Dingaan. Ou! the story is known now; one told it up at the kraal
Umgugundhlovu who shall tell it no more. She prayed me to save her
from Dingaan, and so I did, and all would have gone well had it not
been for a certain traitor who is done with, for I took another to
Dingaan. Look on her now, my friends, and say if I did not well to win
her--the Lily flower, such as there is no other in the world, to be
the joy of the People of the Axe and a wife to me."

With one accord the headmen answered: "Indeed you did well,
Slaughterer," for the glamour of Nada was upon them and they would
cherish her as others had cherished her. Only Galazi the Wolf shook
his head. But he said nothing, for words do not avail against fate.
Now as I found afterwards, since Zinita, the head wife of Umslopogaas,
had learned of what stock he was, she had known that Nada was no
sister to him. Yet when she heard him declare that he was about to
take the Lily to wife she turned upon him, saying:--

"How can this be, Lord?"

"Why do you ask, Zinita?" he answered. "Is it not allowed to a man to
take another wife if he will?"

"Surely, Lord," she said; "but men do not wed their sisters, and I
have heard that it was because this Nada was your sister that you
saved her from Dingaan, and brought the wrath of Dingaan upon the
People of the Axe, the wrath that shall destroy them."

"So I thought then, Zinita," he answered; "now I know otherwise. Nada
is daughter to Mopo yonder indeed, but he is no father to me, though
he has been named so, nor was the mother of Nada my mother. That is
so, Councillors."

Then Zinita looked at me and muttered, "O fool of a Mouth, not for
nothing did I fear evil at your hands."

I heard the words and took no note, and she spoke again to Umslopogaas,
saying: "Here is a mystery, O Lord Bulalio. Will it then please you to
declare to us who is your father?"

"I have no father," he answered, waxing wroth; "the heavens above are
my father. I am born of Blood and Fire, and she, the Lily, is born of
Beauty to be my mate. Now, woman, be silent." He thought awhile, and
added, "Nay, if you will know, my father was Indabazimbi the Witch-
finder, the smeller-out of the king, the son of Arpi." This
Umslopogaas said at a hazard, since, having denied me, he must declare
a father, and dared not name the Black One who was gone. But in after
years the saying was taken up in the land, and it was told that
Umslopogaas was the son of Indabazimbi the Witch-finder, who had long
ago fled the land; nor did he deny it. For when all this game had been
played out he would not have it known that he was the son of Chaka, he
who no longer sought to be a king, lest he should bring down the wrath
of Panda upon him.

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