n who darest to speak
thus to me, Mopo," he said. "Dost thou not know that it is sacrilege to
touch an Isanusi?"

"I speak that which is in the king's mind," I answered. "Hearken, O
king! It is indeed sacrilege to touch a true Isanusi, but what if the
Isanusi be a liar? What if he smell out falsely, bringing those to death
who are innocent of evil? Is it then sacrilege to bring him to that end
which he has given to many another? Say, O king!"

"Good words!" answered Chaka. "Now tell me, son of Makedama, how may
this matter be put to proof?"

Then I leaned forward, whispering into the ear of the Black One, and he
nodded heavily.

Thus I spoke then, because I, too, saw the evil of the Isanusis, I who
knew their secrets. Also, I feared for my own life and for the lives of
all those who were dear to me. For they hated me as one instructed in
their magic, one who had the seeing eye and the hearing ear.

One morning thereafter a new thing came to pass in the royal kraal, for
the king himself ran out, crying aloud to all people to come and see the
evil that had been worked upon him by a wizard. They came together and
saw this. On the door-posts of the gateway of the Intunkulu, the house
of the king, were great smears of blood. The knees of men strong in the
battle trembled when they saw it; women wailed aloud as they wail over
the dead; they wailed because of the horror of the omen.

"Who has done this thing?" cried Chaka in a terrible voice. "Who has
dared to bewitch the king and to strike blood upon his house?"

There was no answer, and Chaka spoke again. "This is no little matter,"
he said, "to be washed away with the blood of one or two and be
forgotten. The man who wrought it shall not die alone or travel with a
few to the world of spirits. All his tribe shall go with him, down to
the baby in his hut and cattle in his kraal! Let messengers go out east
and west, and north and south, and summon the witch-doctors from every
quarter! Let them summon the captains from every regiment and the
headmen from every kraal! On the tenth day from now the circle of the
Ingomboco must be set, and there shall be such a smelling out of wizards
and of witches as has not been known in Zululand!"

So the messengers went out to do the bidding of the king, taking the
names of those who should be summoned from the lips of the indunas,
and day by day people flocked up to the gates of the royal kraal, and,
creeping on their knees before t