Chapter Seven.
The Fate of the Sentinel.
“When I told Nangeza that we had seen but the beginning of the night’s doings, Nkose, I spoke no more than the truth. The sentinel whom we had overpowered was found towards morning just as we had left him—tied and gagged; yet not, for he had managed to roll over and over until he came near enough to another outpost, who was about to fling a spear through him, thinking it an enemy approaching in the darkness. Better, indeed, if he had.
“Now, if there was one thing upon which Umzilikazi was strict, one rule the punishment of violating which, in the very smallest degree, was certain and merciless, that, was military discipline. By such discipline the great King Tshaka had become great, and with him the Zulu people; and it Umzilikazi, the founder and first King of a new nation, was resolved to maintain at its highest. So when heralds went round at an early hour crying aloud that all must assemble before the King—indunas and fighting men, women and children, boys and old men who were past bearing arms; not one of whatever estate was to be absent on pain of death—when the people heard this, I say, many feared, but none were surprised. All thought there was to be a great ‘smelling out’ of abatagati, and, indeed, it ended in such. Only I and Nangeza knew the principal reason of the assembly, and secretly we feared.
“Whau! it was a sight, that muster! The warriors, crouching behind their shields, formed two immense half-circles, and behind them the women and children, the cloud of fear lying heavy upon their faces. The izinduna sat in a group a little distance from the King’s hut.
“It happened that I was appointed shield-bearer to the King, and this went far to remove my fears, for had any suspicion attached to me, I should not have been the man told off to stand behind the Great Great One on such an occasion as this. As Umzilikazi came forth, I walking before him with the great white shield held aloft, two izimbonga ran before us in a crouching attitude shouting aloud the names of the Great Great One; and the rattle of assegai hafts was as the quiver of the forest trees in a gale as the great half-circles of warriors bent low, echoing in a mighty rolling voice the words of the izimbonga.
“‘Ho, Yisobantu! Indhlovu ’nkulu! Ho, Inyoka ’mninimandhla! Ho, Inkunzi ’mnyama! Ho, ’Nkulu-’nkulu.’”
(O Father of the People! Great Elephant! O All-powerful Serpent! O Black Bull! O Great One!)