fter her leapt and ran the mad woman. Umslopogaas heard
her cry. He turned and rushed back over the brow of the hill, and, lo!
there before him was the murderess. Already she had grasped Nada by the
hair, already her spear was lifted to pierce her. Umslopogaas had no
spear, he had nothing but a little stick without a knob; yet with it he
rushed at the mad woman and struck her so smartly on the arm that she
let go of the girl and turned on him with a yell. Then, lifting her
spear, she struck at him, but he leapt aside. Again she struck; but he
sprang into the air, and the spear passed beneath him. A third time the
woman struck, and, though he fell to earth to avoid the blow, yet the
assegai pierced his shoulder. But the weight of his body as he fell
twisted it from her hand, and before she could grasp him he was up, and
beyond her reach, the spear still fast in his shoulder.

Then the woman turned, screaming with rage and madness, and ran at Nada
to kill her with her hands. But Umslopogaas set his teeth, and, drawing
the spear from his wound, charged her, shouting. She lifted a great
stone and hurled it at him--so hard that it flew into fragments against
another stone which it struck; yet he charged on, and smote at her so
truly that he drove the spear through her, and she fell down dead. After
that Nada bound up his wound, which was deep, and with much pain he
reached the king's kraal and told me this story.

Now there were some who cried that the boy must be put to death, because
he had killed one possessed with a spirit. But I said no, he should not
be touched. He had killed the woman in defence of his own life and the
life of his sister; and every one had a right to slay in self-defence,
except as against the king or those who did the king's bidding.
Moreover, I said, if the woman had a spirit, it was an evil one, for no
good spirit would ask the lives of children, but rather those of cattle,
for it is against our custom to sacrifice human beings to the Amatonga
even in war, though the Basuta dogs do so. Still, the tumult grew, for
the witch-doctors were set upon the boy's death, saying that evil would
come of it if he was allowed to live, having killed one inspired, and at
last the matter came to the ears of the king. Then Chaka summoned me and
the boy before him, and he also summoned the witch-doctors.

First, the witch-doctors set out their case, demanding the death of
Umslopogaas. Chaka asked them what would hap