“‘Shushungani—Shushungani! It was Shushungani!’
“A wild shriek burst from the owner of the name, who was standing among the royal women.
“‘He lies! he lies!’ she screamed in her terror. ‘The stranger isanusi lies!’
“‘Peace, woman!’ thundered the King. ‘Proceed, Masuka.’
“Again followed a number of names, one at last being fixed upon as before. She, too, was of the royal household, though not of the King’s wives, and was called Pangúlwe. With her the naming ceased, and for long the old man lay in death-like silence, nor would the King suffer a word or a sound to be uttered. Then suddenly Masuka returned to life, and, sitting up, looked wonderingly around, as a man waking from a dream who finds himself in a strange place.
“To us there was something especially terrible about this method of ‘smelling-out,’ the old man’s spirit seeming to leave his body thus and to talk with those of the unseen air—so different to the hideous clangour and wild dancing wherewith our own izanusi were wont to proceed—and resulting as it did in the naming of two of the royal women, our awe and wonder was without bounds.
“At a sign from the King the two named were brought forward. Shushungani was a tall, straight woman, very black, and with a sullen countenance and evil eyes. The other, Fangulwe, was young and rather pretty. On the faces of both was a dreadful look of terror over their coming fate.
“‘Is the King bewitched himself,’ cried the former wildly, ‘that this dog of a stranger dares lift his tongue against the royal House?’
“‘It seems that tongues are often lifted within the royal House, Shushungani, and that too much. Even the royal House is not always free from abatagati,’ replied the King, with a sneer. ‘Hambani gahle!’ (‘Go in peace,’ the Zulu form of farewell to anybody leaving.) ‘A peaceful night awaits you both. Take them hence. Stay, though. They are of the Royal House. Let them die the death of the spear!’
“The despairing shrieks of the two women whom the executioners had seized to drag forth to the place of death were completely drowned in the great chorus of bonga that arose by reason of this act of mercy on the part of the King. For he had ordered them the nobler death of the assegai instead of having their brains clubbed out with knobsticks, as the usual method was.