“Au, Chia’gnosi!” the old chap exclaimed, as the impi halted and saluted, with great heartiness; “so thou art ready. It is well; for the Great, Great One is in an evil temper, and his face is black toward thee because thou hast spoiled the festival: therefore it will be good for thee to withdraw thyself from before his eyes as soon as possible. Which way go ye—forward or backward?”
“I go forward, Mapela,” I replied. “I came to this country in the hope of obtaining gold, and gold I must have; therefore I am going forward to the country of the Bandokolo, where, so your king tells me, gold is to be obtained in great abundance.”
“Wao! ma mè! the Bandokolo!” exclaimed the old fellow in great astonishment. “Know ye aught of the Bandokolo, or where they are to be found?” he demanded.
“Nay,” answered I; “I know nothing of them, save that their country lies far to the north, and that they have much gold.”
“That is true,” returned Mapela. “Then, let us start, for delay is dangerous; and if we linger, the Great, Great One may change his mind and not suffer thee to go at all. Yonder is the way, up that valley. Give the word, Chia’gnosi. And, as we go, we can talk together; and if what I can tell thee should cause thee to change thy mind, we can take the road back on the other side of the mountains when we have passed through the valley.”
He paused and left me for a moment while the wagon was getting into motion and the impi was forming up round it; then, when we were fairly under way, he came to my side again, and remarked:
“Au, Chia’gnosi! thine arrival at Gwanda was well timed; for many are still alive who, but for thee, would have lain dead in the great square before the setting of yonder sun. Did not I say that my snake told me thou wouldst save many lives? And thou hast done so; and mark thou this, Chia’gnosi, though to-day the king’s face be black against thee, the people know what thou hast done; and henceforth thy name will be hlonipa among the Mashona.” (Hlonipa means “unmentionable”. To make a man’s name hlonipa is the highest honour that the Kafirs can render the bearer; for it indicates that the name is regarded as too sacred, too highly venerated, to be spoken. Thus I subsequently learned that after my departure from the country the Mashona never mentioned Chia’gnosi (Smiter with Lightning), but, when they referred to me, spoke of “Him who slew with thunderbolts”, or in some other more or less roundabout fashion evaded any direct use of the word lightning.)
“Well,” I replied, “to be quite candid with you, Mapela, I believe it is a very good thing for the Mashona that Machenga is dead; and I am not sorry that he compelled me to kill him. Also I am glad that the king has promised to abolish the system of ‘smelling out’, for in the first place I do not in the least believe in it, and, in the next, it is perfectly evident that an unscrupulous scoundrel like Machenga would only be too likely to use it for his own vile purposes. And now let us talk about something else. Tell me, for instance, what you know about the Bandokolo, and whereabout their country is situated.”
“Their country lies yonder,” answered Mapela, pointing a little to the west of north; “and it is a long way off. Thou wilt have to cross the Great River (Zambezi), and then travel through the wilderness for the space of a moon and a half, or, maybe, two moons, before thou wilt reach it. For myself, I have never been beyond the Great River; but many moons ago there came into Mashonaland a stranger who said that he had been one of a band accompanying a white man from afar, who, after much weary wandering, had arrived in the Bandokolo country, and had there died—how I know not. And when the white man died the Bandokolo took his followers and made slaves of them, treating them so cruelly that at last the man who told me these things resolved to escape. And after waiting many moons for an opportunity it came, and he succeeded. But when he arrived in Mashonaland he was so weak and ill with fever and starvation that, after lingering for a short time, he died.
“But before he died he told me many wonderful things about the Bandokolo. He said that they were little people, about so tall (indicating with his hand a stature of about four feet eight or nine inches). Also, that instead of being black, as I am, they are almost white; that they live in great houses dug out of the rocks of the hillside; that the men wear clothes made of small plates of gold, and carry spears, shields, and great knives made of gold; that they adorn themselves with shining stones which they dig out of the ground; and that they are all ’mkulu ’mtagati (great wizards).”