had
deserted--for the sake of a girl. Then my good spirit, as well as my
evil one, cried out upon me for the chief of all fools. I had deserted
my nation; I had renounced bearing arms in its behalf; I had become a
wanderer and an outcast--never more to behold the face of my people,
never more to converse with their tongue. I might have lived to become
head _induna_, head fighting chief of our armies; and all this I had
thrown away--for the sake of a girl.

"Then my heart would grow heavy and bitter as I went forth to hunt,
leaving Nangeza in order that I might be alone with my heaviness. There
were times when my heart so weighed me down that I was minded to return
and pay forfeit with my life, rather than drag it on in ignominy and
exile; for now my eyes were opened, and I saw clearly that the man who
should throw away his career as a warrior, and such dazzling chances as
mine were--for the sake of a girl--is such a fool that he deserves not
to live at all.

"Now, of all this, I said nothing to Nangeza; yet I could see that she
divined in great measure my thoughts; nor was she pleased thereat--nor,
indeed, did she more than slightly share them. For to a woman it
matters not overmuch where she is, being devoid of mind; but to
us--_au_! we may become fools, but we know it, _Nkose_; whereas the more
a woman acts like a fool, the more will she cry aloud her wisdom.

"The nights became gloomy and wet and cold, and at times we would see
gigantic spectres of men stalking aloft in the mists which overwreathed
the cliff-brows; and strange wailing cries would go forth upon the
night, as though the ghosts of those who had been slain and devoured by
the _Izimu_ and such _abatagati_ were wandering abroad; and we would
cower over our fire and still more wish we were back at Ekupumuleni, for
we seemed to have got into the drear strongholds of wizardry, which
would only end where the limits of the world fall off into dark space.
But Nangeza would speak words of encouragement, how any day we might
suddenly find ourselves looking down upon a fair and beauteous land
beyond this region of gloom, even as we had done when we passed the
Kwahlamba mountains to build up a new nation.

"One morning we were journeying, I with my shield and weapons in hand,
Nangeza bearing the skin coverings and baskets we had made, for we had
brought scarcely anything with us in our flight--thus were we
journeying, when suddenly upon the mountain-side w