Генри Хаггард - Nada the Lily

Umslopogaas? Yes, he went back to the People of the Axe and ruled them, but they were never so strong again as they had been before they smote the Halakazi in their caves, and Dingaan ate them up. Panda let him be and liked him well, for Panda did not know that the Slaughterer was son to Chaka his brother, and Umslopogaas let that dog lie, for when Nada died he lost his desire to be great. Yet he became captain of the Nkomabakosi regiment, and fought in many battles, doing mighty deeds, and stood by Umbulazi, son of Panda, in the great fray on the Tugela, when Cetywayo slew his brother Umbulazi.

After that also he plotted against Cetywayo, whom he hated, and had it not been for a certain white man, a hunter named Macumazahn, Umslopogaas would have been killed. But the white man saved him by his wit. Yes, and at times he came to visit me, for he still loved me as of old; but now he has fled north, and I shall hear his voice no more. Nay, I do not know all the tale; there was a woman in it. Women were ever the bane of Umslopogaas, my fostering. I forget the story of that woman, for I remember only these things that happened long ago, before I grew very old.

Look on this right hand of mine, my father! I cannot see it now; and yet I, Mopo, son of Makedama, seem to see it as once I saw, red with the blood of two kings. Look on—

Suddenly the old man ceased, his head fell forward upon his withered breast. When the White Man to whom he told this story lifted it and looked at him, he was dead!

"I thank my father Sompseu for his message. I am glad that he has sent it, because the Dutch have tired me out, and I intended to fight them once and once only, and to drive them over the Vaal. Kabana, you see my impis are gathered. It was to fight the Dutch I called them together; now I send them back to their homes." —Message from Cetywayo to Sir. T. Shepstone, April, 1877.

Titles of praise.

Bayete, Father, Chief of Chiefs! Lion! Elephant that is not turned! You who nursed us from of old! You who overshadowed all peoples and took charge of them, And ended by mastering the Boers with your single strength! Help of the fatherless when in trouble! Salutation to you, Father! Bayete, O Sompseu!

I grieve to state that I must now say the late Mr. F. B. Fynney.

The Zulu Napoleon, one of the greatest geniuses and most wicked men who ever lived. He was killed in the year 1828, having slaughtered more than a million human beings.—ED.

This would have made him nearly a hundred years old, an age rarely attained by a native. The writer remembers talking to an aged Zulu woman, however, who told him that she was married when Chaka was king.—ED.

Guardian spirit.—ED.

The Kafir witch–doctors use the knuckle–bones of animals in their magic rites, throwing them something as we throw dice.—ED.

Among the Zulus it is a very bad omen for a dog to climb the roof of a hut. The saying conveyed a threat to be appreciated by every Zulu.—ED.

About 30,000 men.—ED.

Girdle composed of skin and tails of oxen.–ED.

This beautiful wood is known in Natal as "red ivory."—ED.

A Zulu title for the king.—ED.

A variety of sugar–cane.—ED.

The Zulu are buried sitting.

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