“Ugly stuff,” said the king, taking snuff. “Now see, Mopo, what a good aim I have! This for thy medicine!” And he lifted his assegai to throw it through the bundle. But as he threw, my snake put it into the king’s heart to sneeze, and thus it came to pass that the assegai only pierced the outer leaves of the medicine, and did not touch the child.
“May the heavens bless the king!” I said, according to custom.
“Thanks to thee, Mopo, it is a good omen,” he answered. “And now, begone! Take my advice: kill thy children, as I kill mine, lest they live to worry thee. The whelps of lions are best drowned.”
I did up the bundle fast—fast, though my hands trembled. Oh! what if the child should wake and cry. It was done; I rose and saluted the king. Then I doubled myself up and passed from before him. Scarcely was I outside the gates of the Intunkulu when the infant began to squeak in the bundle. If it had been one minute before!
“What,” said a soldier, as I passed, “have you got a puppy hidden under your moocha,[[1]] Mopo?”
[1] Girdle composed of skin and tails of oxen.-ED.
I made no answer, but hurried on till I came to my huts. I entered; there were my two wives alone.
“I have recovered the child, women,” I said, as I undid the bundle.
Anadi took him and looked at him.
“The boy seems bigger than he was,” she said.