“His kraal was not far off. He had come out to hunt hares by rolling rocks down the mountain-side to drive them from the bushes in which they were hiding, and then following their tracks through the snow.
“We reached the kraal, and I was there fed and kindly treated. The name of the young man was Masubana, and the kraal belonged to his father. Masubana was his father’s ‘great son.’
“Two years afterwards I married Masubana. He died long ago—shortly before I lost my sight. For many years I was poor and miserable; then my eldest son Ramalèbè, who had joined Lèbènya’s clan, brought me down here to Matatièlè to dwell with him. He also is dead, but his children give me enough food, and a blanket now and then.
“Come again, my father, and I will try and think of some more of what happened in the old days. That snuff seems to make me young again. See that you give none of it to foolish people of no experience, who perhaps would not value it at its true worth. Let me once more kiss your hand.”
Note.—The foregoing relates to the defeat of the Amangwanè horde by Colonel Somerset at Imbulumpini on August 27, 1828, and its subsequent annihilation in the pursuit by the Amagcalèka and Abatembu impis under Hintza and ’Ngub’incuka respectively. Three bodies of fugitives escaped from the field of battle, only to meet a worse fate than that of being killed in the fight. One party, the largest, was driven nearly to the source of the Orange river, and there burnt alive in a valley full of long grass, in which they had taken refuge. Another made its way to the north-east, and was cut to pieces by the Amabaca under Ncapay, at the base of the Intsiza Mountain, in what is now East Griqualand. The third perished in the manner described in the tale. The horde must have numbered considerably over a hundred thousand souls. It was completely wiped out of existence.