kraal, and all saw that he was dead, smitten to death by
that mighty axe Groan-Maker, which he and his fathers had held for many
years.

A great shout went up from the crowd of watchers when they knew that
Jikiza the Unconquered was killed at last, and there were many who
hailed Umslopogaas, naming him Chief and Lord of the People of the Axe.
But the sons of Jikiza to the number of ten, great men and brave, rushed
on Umslopogaas to kill him. Umslopogaas ran backwards, lifting up the
Groan-Maker, when certain councillors of the people flung themselves in
between them, crying, "Hold!"

"Is not this your law, ye councillors," said Umslopogaas, "that, having
conquered the chief of the People of the Axe, I myself am chief?"

"That is our law indeed, stranger," answered an aged councillor, "but
this also is our law: that now you must do battle, one by one, with
all who come against you. So it was in my father's time, when the
grandfather of him who now lies dead won the axe, and so it must be
again to-day."

"I have nothing to say against the rule," said Umslopogaas. "Now who is
there who will come up against me to do battle for the axe Groan-Maker
and the chieftainship of the People of the Axe?"

Then all the ten sons of Jikiza stepped forward as one man, for their
hearts were made with wrath because of the death of their father and
because the chieftainship had gone from their race, so that in truth
they cared little if they lived or died. But there were none besides
these, for all men feared to stand before Umslopogaas and the
Groan-Maker.

Umslopogaas counted them. "There are ten, by the head of Chaka!" he
cried. "Now if I must fight all these one by one, no time will be left
to me this day to talk of the matter of Masilo and of the maid Zinita.
Hearken! What say you, sons of Jikiza the Conquered? If I find one other
to stand beside me in the fray, and all of you come on at once against
us twain, ten against two, to slay us or be slain, will that be to your
minds?"

The brethren consulted together, and held that so they should be in
better case than if they went up one by one.

"So be it," they said, and the councillors assented.

Now, as he fled round and round, Umslopogaas had seen the face of
Galazi, his brother, in the throng, and knew that he hungered to share
the fight. So he called aloud that he whom he should choose, and who
would stand back to back with him in the fray, if victory were theirs,
should