“Remember your people in the place to which you have gone.”
“Do not forget that we are your children.”
After the building up of the excavation was finished, the grave was filled in with earth, and then bushes and twigs were strewn on it so as to conceal as far as possible all signs of its existence. After this, Dogolwana and his companions separated, and returned to the “great place,” each by a different course.
Just before day broke, a bright flame suddenly leaped to the sky—the chief’s hut had been set alight in several places at once. Soon a mass of flame-shot smoke climbed into the still morning air, in the form of a massive fiery column with an immense black capital.
When day broke, old Dogolwana and his companions could be seen just completing the filling in of the other grave, which had been dug on the ridge at the back of the “great place.” Over it they piled heavy stones, and afterwards they dragged bushes up and built a surrounding kraal-fence. Within the enclosure thus formed cattle would be folded for about two years. A small hut was built in the immediate vicinity, and here the watchers of the grave took up their abode. According to native custom these are authorised to beat and rob any stranger coming near the grave. The persons of the watchers are sacred, and they are not subject to actions at law, nor can they be put to death for any crime during the period of their watching. The kraal surrounding the grave is an inviolable sanctuary even for the worst criminals, and the cattle folded there may never be killed, nor can their progeny be in any way disposed of until the very last one of the original cattle has died.
The Killing of Kèlè
In due course, Songoza was duly declared chief of the Amagamedse. In an address to the assembled people, the Magistrate highly extolled the old chief, and exhorted his successor to follow Umsoala’s example. Songoza was reticent; he stood with the other sons of the late chief around him, and listened quietly to the Magistrate’s words. The assembly dispersed in silence. It was evident that the memory of the dead man was not held in esteem. As a matter of fact he had of late years rendered himself unpopular by leaning towards civilised methods and ideas, and discouraging the grosser forms of superstition. Songoza was known to be reactionary, but as the tribe would have acknowledged no one else, Government was constrained to recognise him as his late father’s successor.
Two days afterwards, a messenger came hurrying in from old Dogolwana to report that Songoza had swooped down and driven off the herd of black cattle belonging to little Gqomisa. The Magistrate thereupon sent for Songoza, who, after considerable pressure, consented to return them, so they were restored, under police supervision, to old Dogolwana.
The country of the Amagamedse was a border territory, and just over its bounds lay the country of the Unonclaba, an independent native state. A few months after the death of Umsoala, Songoza began to profess great friendship for Kèlè, the son of old Dogolwana. There took place no function at Songoza’s “great place” (each chief, on his accession, chooses a “great place” for himself) to which Kèlè was not specially invited, and several of the chief’s cattle were assigned to him to milk, according to the custom known as “’Nquoma.”
Songoza arranged to add to his harem a girl of the Unondaba tribe, the daughter of a petty chief who dwelt about ten miles from the border, and when the first instalment of the “lobola” cattle were sent, Kèlè was one of those selected to take charge of and deliver them. Three men besides Kèlè were sent, namely, Pandule, Sogogo, and Rali.