"The buffalo may call the wolves to his aid to drive the leopard from his cave," rejoined Vooda, developing the allegory further; "but why will you not give up the wrong-doer to the magistrate?"
"Why must I give up my friend to be choked with a rope?" said Sololo, excitedly. "He has not slain a white man, but one of my own people. Government must leave him to be punished according to the law of the native. If one of my tribe slays a white man, I will deliver up the slayer."
"But you know what the Government is, my Chief—it is over all of us.
Even Indabeni himself has to do as it tells him."
"Indabeni is not a Pondo, neither am I Indabeni," said Sololo, appealing, with a look, to the audience.
"Yebo, Yebo, Ewe—E-hea," shouted all the men.
"I did not ask Government for its laws," continued the Chief. "'U-Sessellodes' [The native attempt at pronouncing the name of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Premier of the Cape Colony.] came here and said in a loud voice that we all belonged to him. We were surprised, and could not think or speak. Besides, who listens to the bleating of a goat when an angry bull bellows? Now we have thought and spoken together, and we can also fight; I will never give up my friend to be choked with a rope."
"E-hea," shouted the audience.
"My Chief," said Vooda, "your words are like milk flowing from a great black cow ten days after she has calved, but there is one thing you have not seen, but which I have seen and trembled at."
"What is this thing that frightens a man who is the father of children?"
"The magic (umtagati) of U-Sessellodes, which he has taught to
Indabeni—the terrible magic wherewith he overthrew Lo Bengula and the
Matabele."