I rose, I praised the king with a loud voice, and I went from the
Intunkulu, the house of the king. I walked slowly through the gates,
but when I was without the gates the anguish that took me because of my
burnt hand was more than I could bear. I ran to and fro groaning till
I came to the hut of one whom I knew. There I found fat, and having
plunged my hand in the fat, I wrapped it round with a skin and passed
out again, for I could not stay still. I went to and fro, till at length
I reached the spot where my huts had been. The outer fence of the huts
still stood; the fire had not caught it. I passed through the fence;
there within were the ashes of the burnt huts--they lay ankle-deep. I
walked in among the ashes; my feet struck upon things that were sharp.
The moon was bright, and I looked; they were the blackened bones of my
wives and children. I flung myself down in the ashes in bitterness of
heart; I covered myself over with the ashes of my kraal and with the
bones of my wives and children. Yes, my father, there I lay, and on me
were the ashes, and among the ashes were the bones. Thus, then, did I
lie for the last time in my kraal, and was sheltered from the frost of
the night by the dust of those to whom I had given life. Such were the
things that befell us in the days of Chaka, my father; yes, not to me
alone, but to many another also.

I lay among the ashes and groaned with the pain of my burn, and groaned
also from the desolation of my heart. Why had I not tasted the poison,
there in the hut of Chaka, and before the eyes of Chaka? Why did I not
taste it now and make an end? Nay, I had endured the agony; I would not
give him this last triumph over me. Now, having passed the fire, once
more I should be great in the land, and I would become great. Yes, I
would bear my sorrows, and become great, that in a day to be I might
wreak vengeance on the king. Ah! my father, there, as I rolled among the
ashes, I prayed to the Amatongo, to the ghosts of my ancestors. I prayed
to my Ehlose, to the spirit that watches me--ay, and I even dared to
pray to the Umkulunkulu, the great soul of the world, who moves through
the heavens and the earth unseen and unheard. And thus I prayed, that I
might yet live to kill Chaka as he had killed those who were dear to me.
And while I prayed I slept, or, if I did not sleep, the light of thought
went out of me, and I became as one dead. Then there came a vision to
me, a vision that was sent