“Then, halting before the King, we shouted the Bayéte, and falling back, left a space for those who were to perform in the dance.
“They came out one by one, each, as he paused to take breath after recounting his deeds, being greeted by a roar of applause from the throats of the surrounding warriors. Then my turn came.
“I know not how it was, Nkose, unless it were the thoughtless rashness of youth, which has caused me to do many foolish and fatal things, but which has also carried me unscathed through their fearful consequences; but when I found myself thus, with a free hand, I forgot all prudence and diplomacy.
“Bounding forward in all my bravery of war, in my jackals’ tails and cowhair, with a great plume of cranes’ feathers streaming from my head, rapping my great shield against my knees, I leaped high in the air about ten times, each time spinning completely round before touching ground again. The roaring ‘Ha! ha!’ with which the whole multitude greeted this display completely intoxicated me. I felt as mad, as drunk, as though I had partaken of the white man’s tywala. With my eyes blazing from my head, I cried aloud the whole story of our attack upon the kraal. Not a word said I of having been Gungana’s left hand, of having carried out the plan which Gungana sent me to carry out. No, of this not a word; instead, I poured forth the whole naked truth—how that Masipele, the head induna, being killed, the impi was on the point of suffering defeat, when I conceived the idea of braving certain death by myself entering the kraal, which the rest were unable to enter, and myself setting it on fire, thus forcing the Basutu into the open and saving the day. I shouted out the number and description of the enemies who had fallen by my hand, and went through the exact performance of how they had met me and how I had slain them; but all the time never a word about Gungana and his generalship. I told no more, no less than the truth, with all my boasting; but, Nkose, he who does this is frequently no more and no less than a very great fool—at least, so it is among ourselves; I know not how it may be among you white people.
“Well, I was carried away by my conceit; partly because, when I leaped in the air, I could see in the background, above and beyond the surrounding regiments, the face and form of my love, Nangeza. She was standing among the women, watching, listening in a perfect ecstasy of admiration and excitement. This was what nerved me to go through a Tyay’igama performance such as, surely, could never have been seen before. I extolled myself and my own deeds as though I were the only man alone in the whole world. The roaring shouts of the warriors rent the night in a frenzy of enthusiasm. The King, I could see, looked upon me approvingly, and I heard him mutter to my father, Ntelani, that he had bred a right good lion-cub indeed. I was drunk with my success. Then, when I had told all my story, as I was the last, the King gave orders for the beef feast to begin and the Tyay’igama dance was at an end.
“The huge joints were hissing and sputtering upon the fires, giving forth a most delicious odour to our hungry nostrils, and as we squatted around waiting until they should be sufficiently cooked, we talked over the events of the day, and congratulated ourselves on having escaped from the rule of Tshaka. For to us younger men there was something intoxicating in this journeying in search of a new land, fighting our way as we went, stamping out tribe after tribe which lay in our path. And Umzilikazi, had he not a free and an open hand? He never stinted his warriors, and after such a battle as that of to-day there was beef and tywala enough and to spare. Yes, it was good to konza to Umzilikazi. Moreover, he rarely caused any of his subjects to be killed; unlike Tshaka, who was wont to keep the slayers pretty busy. Had but another regiment or two joined us, we might have been strong enough to overturn the House of Senzangakona, to have slain Tshaka, and set up Umzilikazi as King in Zululand. Then we need never have started in search of a new country. On such matters, Nkose, did the tongues of us young men wag when among ourselves.
“After the feast, while I was returning to my place in the camp—for we had no huts at that time, moving as we were from day to day—someone came behind me in the darkness, and a man’s voice said:
“‘You are as great in the Tyay’igama dance as in battle, son of Ntelani. And I think you are greater with your tongue than in either.’ I knew the voice as that of Gungana, but its tone—ah! I liked not that.
“‘It is as you say, O my father,’ I answered. ‘But I am a child—and children sometimes talk too much.’