The Induna's Wife

There was that about the look of your oxen just now, _Nkose_--shadowed like black ghosts against the mist--that brought back to my old mind a strange and wonderful time. And the...

The silence was broken by a long, muttering roll of thunder. Masses of dark cloud were lying low down on the further sky, but overhead the sun darted his beams upon us in all th...

You will see, _Nkose_, that my times now were stormy and troublesome, and indeed I have ever observed that as it is with nations and people so it is with individuals. There come...

Through the whole of the following day, and the night after, we travelled; and on the next morning, before the son had arisen, we came upon a large kraal. The land lay enshroude...

For long I stood there thinking. I looked at the ground, all red and splashed with blood. I looked at the distorted body of the dead slave and the great gaping wound which had l...

I was not dead, _Nkose_; or, indeed, how should I be here telling you my story? Or, if I were--well, at any rate, the magic which had been powerful enough to draw me through the...

The news of what had been done had already spread fast and far, and before I reached Maqandi's kraal a great crowd of the iron-workers had assembled. These increased more and mo...

For several days I went about as usual, to the eyes of men showing no difference in my converse and behaviour. At first all would watch me furtively, as though to observe what e...

The great kraal, Kwa'zingwenya, slept. All was dark and still as we drew near it, Jambula and I. We could make out dimly in the starlight the immense circle of domed huts within...

"Greeting, my father," he exclaimed, when we had stared at each other for a moment in silence. "_Au_! but it is well that none of those who come on behind me were in my place now."

I was now left alone, and having lain hidden a few days--for that _impi_, though it made good search all around my hiding-place, failed to find me--I began to travel southward a...

I had no reason, so far, to complain of my treatment at the hands of the King, for I was supplied abundantly with all I required, either by the orders of Dingane, or by the gene...

The cloud which had rolled down upon the land of Zulu from the slopes of Kwahlamba was destined to be no mere summer cloud, _Nkose_, but was charged with thunders, black and thr...

No great time went by before those Amabuna returned, having sent word that they were bringing the cattle and horses taken from Sikonyela. There were about three-score and ten, a...

As we sat there, we _izinduna_, watching the place of slaughter where those evil-doers had found death, we heard the volume of a mighty war-song approaching. Those within Nkunku...

Dingane was very angry when we returned to Nkunkundhlovu, and, indeed at first, it looked as though some would pay for our repulse with their lives. But that was no time for sac...

Then, having gained my huts, I gave orders that I was to be left alone, and sat down to take snuff and to think. For here was a wonderful thing. She whom I had thought dead was...

At first I liked it not, for strange _tagati_ beings are about in the darkness--half-man, half-beast--who rend those that wander alone at night. But even of such I felt no fear...

"Yet I have fought with several before this day, O Unknown," I retorted, with a swift movement, throwing up my shield in defence, at the same time backing towards the rock, so t...

Notwithstanding that I, and I alone, had brought to him his bitterest enemy to be dealt with, Sifadu's manner towards me became, as time went on, more and more one of suspicion...

"And these," went on the King, bending his stern gaze upon my following. "A warrior-like band indeed, and it seems a pity to slay such, yet must they all die."

The time had been well chosen for the return of the Bapongqolo to the heart of the nation, for now the Amabuna were advancing upon us, and with them Nongalaza at the head of a s...

The whisper was soft, so, too, was the touch, yet I sprang to my feet, grasping my spear. But at the same moment my grasp on it relaxed, for before me stood Lalusini.

"_Bayete, Nkulu-nkulu_! Father! we thy children have found thee at last! Lo! long have we wandered weeping, but now we are comforted. Come forth and show us the brightness of th...

We buried the King with great ceremony and the sacrifice of beasts; and the whole army sat around in deep silence, the silence of grief and mourning for that the nation was now...