“‘Who has taken her, Sitele? Gungana is dead.’
“‘There is a greater than Gungana.’
“‘Kalipe?’ I cried, my thoughts flying to the King’s favourite war-chief. ‘Is it Kalipe?’
“‘There is a greater than Kalipe.’
“‘Ha! the King!’
“‘She is in the Isigodhlo,’ said the child, fixing her eyes in fear upon my face. And well she might, for I forgot all control, and my eyes blazed furiously as I gripped my assegai and poured forth words which had any man heard, I should have seen not another sun to set. For I was mad. Not only had the King been making a mock of me all this time, but now he had put forth his hand and taken her upon whom my heart was set. I was young then, Nkose, and therefore a fool, and did not reason as I should have done that there were other girls among the Amandebili as good as Nangeza.
“‘Hau! Do we not all lie beneath the foot of the Elephant, and his tread is light!’ I said, remembering myself. ‘Farewell, Sitele. The Great Great One has chosen well.’
“And I walked away.
“But although I thus spoke before the child, I was full of rage in my heart, and pondered over plans of deadly vengeance, wherein, of course, I was a fool, as an angry man ever is. And he who ponders vengeance against kings may well ponder also on the land of shadows and perpetual sleep, for into it must he soon assuredly fall.
“As this was borne in upon my mind, I threw off my recklessness, and went among my fellows and laughed and feasted. The Tyay’igama dance had been held before my return, so I missed that opportunity of making my deeds known in the sight of all men. Yet what mattered it, since the King still turned a deaf ear to my prayer, whatever brave acts I might perform? And no more war expeditions were then sent forth, our time being passed in hunting game and exploring the country far and wide.