The White Shield

I returned to Kwa'zingwenya with the head and paws of the great lion I had slain, and those who beheld it envied, crying, "What a hunter is Untuswa! In the chase, as in war, his...

On the morrow, ere yet the sun was up, heralds went running throughout Ekupumuleni, crying aloud that none might venture away from the kraal on pain of death. Others, again ran...

You will remember, _Nkose_, how we of the Royal House of Dingiswayo, of the tribe of Umtetwa, with the Amandebeli, went out from the land of Zulu to found a new nation, and how...

It was our custom, _Nkose_, when a man was smelt out as _umtagati_, that his whole family and kraal should be eaten up too; but Umzilikazi, who loved not killing for its own sak...

With gloom around our hearts, and mightily discouraged, we lay and rested, and soon there came down to us a runner from Mgwali's outpost to tell that an immense _impi_ was advan...

Strong as we felt in the might of our name and nation, we were too well skilled in the game of war to allow ourselves to be lulled into a blind security. Day after day, night af...

We waited no longer, Mgwali and I. We leaped from our shelter, waving our shields and shouting the King's war-cry. We had to dash through the glowing ring of ashes which still s...

During this while, since we had "eaten up" the Bakoni, we had been living in hastily run up huts. Many, indeed, had not even these, but lived and slept in the open. But now the...

Never before, _Nkose_--not even in the days when I was young, and for my swiftness and endurance was chosen by Umzilikazi as his chief runner-- did I cover the ground as I did t...

The regiments, organised and armed, and decorated for war, filed through the great entrance of the kraal Kwa'zingwenya, and formed up in a vast half-circle upon the plain outsid...

We passed out of the _isigodhlo_ by a secret way; known to and used by the King alone. The night was not a dark one, for the stars were shining bright and clear, and a waning mo...

The morrow came, but with it no answer to the King's "word." The day was spent by the Bakoni in sending forth scouting parties to look for the rumoured enemy, but these returned...

We had halted some days at a convenient place to hunt. The King was in high good humour, for the land with each day's progress fell off in no wise from the report I had made upo...

Now, in the days which followed upon the revelation of Lalusini's birth and parentage, and the prospects and possibilities at which she more than hinted, the mind of the King se...

While the young men were thus amusing themselves, _Nkose_, I ran my gaze over the faces of the prisoners whom we had spared, and as I did so it fell upon a countenance which mad...

Many days went by before I was able to return and visit Lalusini in her strange hiding-place, and herein I found that it was not always an advantage to be great. For Untuswa the...

They were fully armed, these men. Each carried the large war-shield and broad assegai. Further, they were plumed and otherwise adorned as warriors upon a hostile expedition. In...

We were not far from Kwa'zingwenya, _Nkose_, when this meeting took place, and as we came in among the people on the outskirts of the great kraal the excitement was intense. All...

As the King thus spoke, _Nkose_, I felt safe again, for old Masuka might not arrive before I had finished interpreting, and when that time had come I felt sure that the moments...

Now, as time went by, this white _isanusi_ still continued to dwell in our midst in great contentment, for the King ordered that his treatment should be of the best; and, indeed...

There she stood--she on whom my thoughts had dwelt day and night--she for whom I had sought so carefully and yet so fruitlessly--she whom I had never expected to behold again. T...

Now, _Nkose_, I am about to tell of the strange and momentous events that next befell; for upon reaching my home that night, which you will remember was at some little distance...

"Praise on now, ye _izimbonga_, shout aloud, my children," said the King, "for we are rid of a most pestilent witch, even though Untuswa has lost his _inkosikazi_. Well, what ma...

"Yet the order must have seemed passing strange. _Whau_! but these bore their part as cubs of the lion indeed," went on the King, his snuff-spoon arrested in mid-air, as he roll...

Now, time went by, and of Lalusini I saw nothing, nor could I find opportunity of speaking with her alone. I was greatly troubled in mind, too; for I thought the King desired he...

The spoils which were taken from the wagons of the Amabuna pleased the King greatly. The wagons themselves were useless to us, because none among us understood how to make the o...