Books: Nada the Lily

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When the people heard this they thought that Umslopogaas mocked
Zinita, and yet in his anger he spoke truth when he said first that he
was born of the "heavens above," for so we Zulus name the king, and so
the witch-doctor Indabazimbi named Chaka on the day of the great
smelling out. But they did not take it in this sense. They held that
he spoke truly when he gave it out that he was born of Indabazimbi the
Witch-doctor, who had fled the land, whither I do not know.

Then Nada turned to Zinita and spoke to her in a sweet and gentle
voice: "If I am not sister to Bulalio, yet I shall soon be sister to
you who are the Chief's Inkosikaas, Zinita. Shall that not satisfy
you, and will you not greet me kindly and with a kiss of peace, who
have come from far to be your sister, Zinita?" and Nada held out her
hands towards her, though whether she did this from the heart or
because she would put herself in the right before the people I do not
know. But Zinita scowled, and jerked at her necklace of beads,
breaking the string on which they were threaded, so that the beads
rolled upon the black earthen floor this way and that.

"Keep your kisses for our lord, girl," Zinita said roughly. "As my
beads are scattered so shall you scatter this People of the Axe."

Now Nada turned away with a little sigh, and the people murmured, for
they thought that Zinita had treated her badly. Then she stretched out
her hand again, and gave the lily in it to Umslopogaas, saying:--

"Here is a token of our betrothal, Lord, for never a head of cattle
have my father and I to send--we who are outcasts; and, indeed, the
bridegroom must pay the cattle. May I bring you peace and love, my
Lord!"

Umslopogaas took the flower, and looked somewhat foolish with it--he
who was wont to carry the axe, and not a flower; and so that talk was
ended.

Now as it chanced, this was that day of the year when, according to
ancient custom, the Holder of the Axe must challenge all and sundry to
come up against him to fight in single combat for Groan-Maker and the
chieftainship of the people. Therefore, when the talk was done,
Umslopogaas rose and went through the challenge, not thinking that any
would answer him, since for some years none had dared to stand before
his might. Yet three men stepped forward, and of these two were
captains, and men whom the Slaughterer loved. With all the people, he
looked at them astonished.

"How is this?" he said in a low voice to that captain who was nearest
and who would do battle with him.

For answer the man pointed to the Lily, who stood by. Then Umslopogaas
understood that because of the medicine of Nada's beauty all men
desired to win her, and, since he who could win the axe would take her
also, he must look to fight with many. Well, fight he must or be
shamed.

Of the fray there is little to tell. Umslopogaas killed first one man
and then the other, and swiftly, for, growing fearful, the third did
not come up against him.

"Ah!" said Galazi, who watched, "what did I tell you, Mopo? The curse
begins to work. Death walks ever with that daughter of yours, old
man."

"I fear so," I answered, "and yet the maiden is fair and good and
sweet."

"That will not mend matters," said Galazi.

Now on that day Umslopogaas took Nada the Lily to wife, and for awhile
there was peace and quiet. But this evil thing came upon Umslopogaas,
that, from the day when he wedded Nada, he hated even to look upon
Zinita, and not at her alone, but on all his other wives also. Galazi
said it was because Nada had bewitched him, but I know well that the
only witcheries she used were the medicine of her eyes, her beauty,
and her love. Still, it came to pass that henceforward, and until she
had long been dead, the Slaughterer loved her, and her alone, and that
is a strange sickness to come upon a man.

As may be guessed, my father, Zinita and the other women took this
ill. They waited awhile, indeed, thinking that it would wear away,
then they began to murmur, both to their husband and in the ears of
other people, till at length there were two parties in the town, the
party of Zinita and the party of Nada.

The party of Zinita was made up of women and of certain men who loved
and feared their wives, but that of Nada was the greatest, and it was
all of men, with Umslopogaas at the head of them, and from this
division came much bitterness abroad, and quarrelling in the huts. Yet
neither the Lily nor Umslopogaas heeded it greatly, nor indeed,
anything, so lost and well content were they in each other's love.

Now on a certain morning, after they had been married three full
moons, Nada came from her husband's hut when the sun was already high,
and went down through the rock gully to the river to bathe. On the
right of the path to the river lay the mealie-fields of the chief, and
in them laboured Zinita and the other women of Umslopogaas, weeding
the mealie-plants. They looked up and saw Nada pass, then worked on
sullenly. After awhile they saw her come again fresh from the bath,
very fair to see, and having flowers twined among her hair, and as she
walked she sang a song of love. Now Zinita cast down her hoe.

"Is this to be borne, my sisters?" she said.

"No," answered another, "it is not to be borne. What shall we do--
shall we fall upon her and kill her now?"

"It would be more just to kill Bulalio, our lord," answered Zinita.
"Nada is but a woman, and, after the fashion of us women, takes all
that she can gather. But he is a man and a chief, and should know
wisdom and justice."

"She has bewitched him with her beauty. Let us kill her," said the
other women.

"Nay," answered Zinita, "I will speak with her," and she went and
stood in the path along which the Lily walked singing, her arms folded
across her breast.

Now Nada saw her and, ceasing her song, stretched out her hand to
welcome her, saying, "Greeting, sister." But Zinita did not take it.
"It is not fitting, sister," she said, "that my hand, stained with
toil, should defile yours, fresh with the scent of flowers. But I am
charged with a message, on my own behalf and the behalf of the other
wives of our Lord Bulalio; the weeds grow thick in yonder corn, and we
women are few; now that your love days are over, will not you come and
help us? If you brought no hoe from your Swazi home, surely we will
buy you one."

Now Nada saw what was meant, and the blood poured to her head. Yet she
answered calmly:--

"I would willingly do this, my sister, though I have never laboured in
the fields, for wherever I have dwelt the men have kept me back from
all work, save such as the weaving of flowers or the stringing of
beads. But there is this against it--Umslopogaas, my husband, charged
me that I should not toil with my hands, and I may not disobey my
husband."

"Our husband charged you so, Nada? Nay, then it is strange. See, now,
I am his head wife, his Inkosikaas--it was I who taught him how to win
the axe. Yet he has laid no command on me that I should not labour in
the fields after the fashion of women, I who have borne him children;
nor, indeed, has he laid such a command upon any of our sisters, his
other wives. Can it then be that Bulalio loves you better than us,
Nada?"

Now the Lily was in a trap, and she knew it. So she grew bold.

"One must be most loved, Zinita," she said, "as one must be most fair.
You have had your hour, leave me mine; perhaps it will be short.
Moreover this: Umslopogaas and I loved each other much long years
before you or any of his wives saw him, and we love each other to the
end. There is no more to say."

"Nay, Nada, there is still something to say; there is this to say:
Choose one of two things. Go and leave us to be happy with our lord,
or stay and bring death on all."

Now Nada thought awhile, and answered: "Did I believe that my love
would bring death on him I love, it might well chance that I would go
and leave him, though to do so would be to die. But, Zinita, I do not
believe it. Death chiefly loves the weak, and if he falls it will be
on the Flower, not on the Slayer of Men," and she slipped past Zinita
and went on, singing no more.

Zinita watched her till she was over the ridge, and her face grew evil
as she watched. Then she returned to the women.

"The Lily flouts us all, my sisters," she said. "Now listen: my
counsel is that we declare a feast of women to be held at the new moon
in a secret place far away. All the women and the children shall come
to it except Nada, who will not leave her lover, and if there be any
man whom a woman loves, perhaps, my sisters, that man would do well to
go on a journey about the time of the new moon, for evil things may
happen at the town of the People of the Axe while we are away
celebrating our feast."

"What, then, shall befall, my sister?" asked one.

"Nay, how can I tell?" she answered. "I only know that we are minded
to be rid of Nada, and thus to be avenged on a man who has scorned our
love--ay, and on those men who follow after the beauty of Nada. Is it
not so, my sisters?"

"It is so," they answered.

"Then be silent on the matter, and let us give out our feast."

Now Nada told Umslopogaas of those words which she had bandied with
Zinita, and the Slaughterer was troubled. Yet, because of his
foolishness and of the medicine of Nada's eyes, he would not turn from
his way, and was ever at her side, thinking of little else except of
her. Thus, when Zinita came to him, and asked leave to declare a feast
of women that should be held far away, he consented, and gladly, for,
above all things, he desired to be free from Zinita and her angry
looks for awhile; nor did he suspect a plot. Only he told her that
Nada should not go to the feast; and in a breath both Zinita and Nada
answered that is word was their will, as indeed it was, in this
matter.

Now I, Mopo, saw the glamour that had fallen upon my fosterling, and
spoke of it with Galazi, saying that a means must be found to wake
him. Then I took Galazi fully into my mind, and told him all that he
did not know of Umslopogaas, and that was little. Also, I told him of
my plans to bring the Slaughterer to the throne, and of what I had
done to that end, and of what I proposed to do, and this was to go in
person on a journey to certain of the great chiefs and win them over.

Galazi listened, and said that it was well or ill, as the chance might
be. For his part, he believed that the daughter would pull down faster
than I, the father, could build up, and he pointed to Nada, who walked
past us, following Umslopogaas.

Yet I determined to go, and that was on the day before Zinita won
leave to celebrate the feast of women. So I sought Umslopogaas and
told him, and he listened indifferently, for he would be going after
Nada, and wearied of my talk of policy. I bade him farewell and left
him; to Nada also I bade farewell. She kissed me, yet the name of her
husband was mingled with her good-bye.

"Now madness has come upon these two," I said to myself. "Well, it
will wear off, they will be changed before I come again."

I guessed little, my father, how changed they would be.

CHAPTER XXXII

ZINITA COMES TO THE KING

Dingaan the king sat upon a day in the kraal Umgugundhlovu, waiting
till his impis should return from the Income that is now named the
Blood River. He had sent them thither to destroy the laager of the
Boers, and thence, as he thought, they would presently return with
victory. Idly he sat in the kraal, watching the vultures wheel above
the Hill of Slaughter, and round him stood a regiment.

"My birds are hungry," he said to a councillor.

"Doubtless there shall soon be meat to feed them, O King!" the
councillor answered.

As he spoke one came near, saying that a woman sought leave to speak
to the king upon some great matter.

"Let her come," he answered; "I am sick for tidings, perhaps she can
tell of the impi."

Presently the woman was led in. She was tall and fair, and she held
two children by the hand.

"What is thine errand?" asked Dingaan.

"Justice, O King," she answered.

"Ask for blood, it shall be easier to find."

"I ask blood, O King."

"The blood of whom?"

"The blood of Bulalio the Slaughterer, Chief of the People of the Axe,
the blood of Nada the Lily, and of all those who cling to her."

Now Dingaan sprang up and swore an oath by the head of the Black One
who was gone.

"What?" he cried, "does the Lily, then, live as the soldier thought?"

"She lives, O King. She is wife to the Slaughterer, and because of her
witchcraft he has put me, his first wife, away against all law and
honour. Therefore I ask vengeance on the witch and vengeance also on
him who was my husband."

"Thou art a good wife," said the king. "May my watching spirit save me
from such a one. Hearken! I would gladly grant thy desire, for I, too,
hate this Slaughterer, and I, too, would crush this Lily. Yet, woman,
thou comest in a bad hour. Here I have but one regiment, and I think
that the Slaughterer may take some killing. Wait till my impis return
from wiping out the white Amaboona, and it shall be as thou dost
desire. Whose are those children?"

"They are my children and the children of Bulalio, who was my
husband."

"The children of him whom thou wouldst cause to be slain."

"Yea, King."

"Surely, woman, thou art as good a mother as wife!" said Dingaan. "Now
I have spoken--begone!"

But the heart of Zinita was hungry for vengeance, vengeance swift and
terrible, on the Lily, who lay in her place, and on her husband, who
had thrust her aside for the Lily's sake. She did not desire to wait--
no, not even for an hour.

"Hearken, O King!" she cried, "the tale is not yet all told. This man,
Bulalio, plots against thy throne with Mopo, son of Makedama, who was
thy councillor."

"He plots against my throne, woman? The lizard plots against the cliff
on which it suns itself? Then let him plot; and as for Mopo, I will
catch him yet!"

"Yes, O King! but that is not all the tale. This man has another name
--he is named Umslopogaas, son of Mopo. But he is no son of Mopo: he
is son to the Black One who is dead, the mighty king who was thy
brother, by Baleka, sister to Mopo. Yes, I know it from the lips of
Mopo. I know all the tale. He is heir to thy throne by blood, O King,
and thou sittest in his place."

For a little while Dingaan sat astounded. Then he commanded Zinita to
draw near and tell him that tale.

Now behind the stool on which he sat stood two councillors, nobles
whom Dingaan loved, and these alone had heard the last words of
Zinita. He bade these nobles stand in front of him, out of earshot and
away from every other man. Then Zinita drew near, and told Dingaan the
tale of the birth of Umslopogaas and all that followed, and, by many a
token and many a deed of Chaka's which he remembered, Dingaan the king
knew that it was a true story.

When at length she had done, he summoned the captain of the regiment
that stood around: he was a great man named Faku, and he also summoned
certain men who do the king's bidding. To the captain of the impi he
spoke sharply, saying:--

"Take three companies and guides, and come by night to the town of the
People of the Axe, that is by Ghost Mountain, and burn it, and slay
all the wizards who sleep therein. Most of all, slay the Chief of the
People, who is named Bulalio the Slaughterer or Umslopogaas. Kill him
by torture if you may, but kill him and bring his head to me. Take
that wife of his, who is known as Nada the Lily, alive if ye can, and
bring her to me, for I would cause her to be slain here. Bring the
cattle also. Now go, and go swiftly, this hour. If ye return having
failed in one jot of my command, ye die, every one of you--ye die, and
slowly. Begone!"

The captain saluted, and, running to his regiment, issued a command.
Three full companies leapt forward at his word, and ran after him
through the gates of the kraal Umgugundhlovu, heading for the Ghost
Mountain.

Then Dingaan called to those who do the king's bidding, and, pointing
to the two nobles, his councillors, who had heard the words of Zinita,
commanded that they should be killed.

The nobles heard, and, having saluted the king, covered their faces,
knowing that they must die because they had learned too much. So they
were killed. Now it was one of these councillors who had said that
doubtless meat would soon be found to feed the king's birds.

Then the king commanded those who do his bidding that they should take
the children of Zinita and make away with them.

But when Zinita heard this she cried aloud, for she loved her
children. Then Dingaan mocked her.

"What?" he said, "art thou a fool as well as wicked? Thou sayest that
thy husband, whom thou hast given to death, is born of one who is
dead, and is heir to my throne. Thou sayest also that these children
are born of him; therefore, when he is dead, they will be heirs to my
throne. Am I then mad that I should suffer them to live? Woman, thou
hast fallen into thine own trap. Take them away!"

Now Zinita tasted of the cup which she had brewed for other lips, and
grew distraught in her misery, and wrung her hands, crying that she
repented her of the evil and would warn Umslopogaas and the Lily of
that which awaited them. And she turned to run towards the gates. But
the king laughed and nodded, and they brought her back, and presently
she was dead also.

Thus, then, my father, prospered the wickedness of Zinita, the head
wife of Umslopogaas, my fosterling.

Now these were the last slayings that were wrought at the kraal
Umgugundhlovu, for just as Dingaan had made an end of them and once
more grew weary, he lifted his eyes and saw the hillsides black with
men, who by their dress were of his own impi--men whom he had sent out
against the Boers.

And yet where was the proud array, where the plumes and shields, where
the song of victory? Here, indeed, were soldiers, but they walked in
groups like women and hung their heads like chidden children.

Then he learned the truth. The impi had been defeated by the banks of
the Income; thousands had perished at the laager, mowed down by the
guns of the Boers, thousands more had been drowned in the Income, till
the waters were red and the bodies of the slain pushed each other
under, and those who still lived walked upon them.

Dingaan heard, and was seized with fear, for it was said that the
Amaboona followed fast on the track of the conquered.

That day he fled to the bush on the Black Umfolozi river, and that
night the sky was crimson with the burning of the kraal Umgugundhlovu,
where the Elephant should trumpet no more, and the vultures were
scared from the Hill of Slaughter by the roaring of the flames.

* * * * *

Galazi sat on the lap of the stone Witch, gazing towards the wide
plains below, that were yet white with the moon, though the night grew
towards the morning. Greysnout whined at his side, and Deathgrip
thrust his muzzle into his hand; but Galazi took no heed, for he was
brooding on the fall of Umslopogaas from the man that he had been to
the level of a woman's slave, and on the breaking up of the People of
the Axe, because of the coming of Nada. For all the women and the
children were gone to this Feast of Women, and would not return for
long, and it seemed to Galazi that many of the men had slipped away
also, as though they smelt some danger from afar.

"Ah, Deathgrip," said Galazi aloud to the wild brute at his side,
"changed is the Wolf King my brother, all changed because of a woman's
kiss. Now he hunts no more, no more shall Groan-Maker be aloft; it is
a woman's kiss he craves, not the touch of your rough tongue, it is a
woman's hand he holds, not the smooth haft of horn, he, who of all
men, was the fiercest and the first; for this last shame has overtaken
him. Surely Chaka was a great king though an evil, and he showed his
greatness when he forbade marriage to the warriors, marriage that
makes the heart soft and turns blood to water."

Now Galazi ceased, and gazed idly towards the kraal of the People of
the Axe, and as he looked his eyes caught a gleam of light that seemed
to travel in and out of the edge of the shadow of Ghost Mountain as a
woman's needle travels through a skin, now seen and now lost in the
skin.

He started and watched. Ah! there the light came out from the shadow.
Now, by Chaka's head, it was the light of spears!

One moment more Galazi watched. It was a little impi, perhaps they
numbered two hundred men, running silently, but not to battle, for
they wore no plumes. Yet they went out to kill, for they ran in
companies, and each man carried assegais and a shield.

Now Galazi had heard tell of such impis that hunt by night, and he
knew well that these were the king's dogs, and their game was men, a
big kraal of sleeping men, otherwise there had been fewer dogs. Is a
whole pack sent out to catch an antelope on its form? Galazi wondered
whom they sought. Ah! now they turned to the ford, and he knew. It was
his brother Umslopogaas and Nada the Lily and the People of the Axe.
These were the king's dogs, and Zinita had let them slip. For this
reason she had called a feast of women, and taken the children with
her; for this reason so many had been summoned from the kraal by one
means or another: it was that they might escape the slaughter.

Galazi bounded to his feet. For one moment he thought. Might not these
hunters be hunted? Could he not destroy them by the jaws of the wolves
as once before they had destroyed a certain impi of the king's? Ay, if
he had seen them but one hour before, then scarcely a man of them
should have lived to reach the stream, for he would have waylaid them
with his wolves. But now it might not be; the soldiers neared the
ford, and Galazi knew well that his grey people would not hunt on the
further plain, though for this he had heard one reason only, that
which was given him by the lips of the dead in a dream.

What, then, might be done? One thing alone: warn Umslopogaas. Yet how?
For him who could swim a rushing river, there was, indeed, a swifter
way to the place of the People of the Axe--a way that was to the path
of the impi as is the bow-string to the strung bow. And yet they had
travelled well-nigh half the length of the bow. Still, he might do it,
he whose feet were the swiftest in the land, except those of
Umslopogaas. At the least, he would try. Mayhap, the impi would tarry
to drink at the ford.

So Galazi thought in his heart, and his thought was swift as the
light. Then with a bound he was away down the mountain side. From
boulder to boulder he leapt like a buck, he crashed through the brake
like a bull, he skimmed the level like a swallow. The mountain was
travelled now; there in front of him lay the yellow river foaming in
its flood, so he had swum it before when he went to see the dead. Ah!
a good leap far out into the torrent; it was strong, but he breasted
it. He was through, he stood upon the bank shaking the water from him
like a dog, and now he was away up the narrow gorge of stones to the
long slope, running low as his wolves ran.

Before him lay the town--one side shone silver with the sinking moon,
one was grey with the breaking dawn. Ah! they were there, he saw them
moving through the grass by the eastern gate; he saw the long lines of
slayers creep to the left and the right.

How could he pass them before the circle of death was drawn? Six
spear-throws to run, and they had but such a little way! The mealie-
plants were tall, and at a spot they almost touched the fence. Up the
path! Could Umslopogaas, his brother, move more fast, he wondered,
than the Wolf who sped to save him? He was there, hidden by the mealie
stalks, and there, along the fence to the right and to the left, the
slayers crept!

"Wow! What was that?" said one soldier of the king to another man as
they joined their guard completing the death circle. "Wow! something
great and black crashed through the fence before me."

"I heard it, brother," answered the other man. "I heard it, but I saw
nothing. It must have been a dog: no man could leap so high."

"More like a wolf," said the first; "at the least, let us pray that it
was not an Esedowan[1] who will put us into the hole in its back. Is
your fire ready, brother? Wow! these wizards shall wake warm; the
signal should be soon."

[1] A fabulous animal, reported by the Zulus to carry off human beings
in a hole in its back.

Then arose the sound of a great voice crying, "Awake, ye sleepers, the
foe is at your gates!"

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE END OF THE PEOPLE, BLACK AND GREY

Galazi rushed through the town crying aloud, and behind him rose a
stir of men. All slept and no sentinels were set, for Umslopogaas was
so lost in his love for Lily that he forgot his wisdom, and thought no
more of war or death or of the hate of Dingaan. Presently the Wolf
came to the large new hut which Umslopogaas had caused to be built for
Nada the Lily, and entered it, for there he knew that he should find
his brother Bulalio. On the far side of the hut the two lay sleeping,
and the head of Umslopogaas rested on the Lily's breast, and by his
side gleamed the great axe Groan-Maker.

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