essage, men of the Amandabele."

"I hear you. Hearken now to the word of Lobengula."

Then the envoy began to speak, using the pronoun I as though it were the
Matabele king himself who spoke to his vassal, the Makalanga chief: "I
sent to you last year, you slave, who dare to call yourself Mambo of the
Makalanga, demanding a tribute of cattle and women, and warning you that
if they did not come, I would take them. They did not come, but that
time I spared you. Now I send again. Hand over to my messengers fifty
cows and fifty oxen, with herds to drive them, and twelve maidens to
be approved by them, or I wipe you out, who have troubled the earth too
long, and that before another moon has waned.

"Those are the words of Lobengula," he concluded, and taking the horn
snuff-box from the slit in his ear, helped himself, then insolently
passed it to the Molimo.

So great was the old chief's rage that, forgetting his self-control, he
struck the box from the hand of his tormentor to the ground, where the
snuff lay spilled.

"Just so shall the blood of your people be spilled through your rash
foolishness," said the messenger calmly, as he picked up the box, and as
much of the snuff as he could save.

"Hearken," said the Molimo, in a thin, trembling voice. "Your king
demands cattle, knowing that all the cattle are gone, that scarce a cow
is left to give drink to a motherless babe. He asks for maidens also,
but if he took those he seeks we should have none left for our young men
to marry. And why is this so? It is because the vulture, Lobengula, has
picked us to the bone; yes, while we are yet alive he has torn the flesh
from us. Year by year his soldiers have stolen and killed, till at last
nothing is left of us. And now he seeks what we have not got to give, in
order that he may force a quarrel upon us and murder us. There is nought
left for us to give Lobengula. You have your answer."

"Indeed!" replied the envoy with a sneer. "How comes it, then, that
yonder I see a waggon laden with goods, and oxen in the yokes? Yes,"
he repeated with meaning, "with goods whereof we have known the like
at Buluwayo; for Lobengula also sometimes buys guns from white men, O!
little Makalanga. Come now, give us the waggon with its load and the
oxen and the horses, and though it be but a small gift, we will take it
away and ask nothing more this year."

"How can I give you the property of my guests, the white men?" asked the
Molimo. "Get yo