f the Halakazi to seek
for Dingaan. Ou! the story is known now; one told it up at the kraal
Umgugundhlovu who shall tell it no more. She prayed me to save her from
Dingaan, and so I did, and all would have gone well had it not been for
a certain traitor who is done with, for I took another to Dingaan. Look
on her now, my friends, and say if I did not well to win her--the Lily
flower, such as there is no other in the world, to be the joy of the
People of the Axe and a wife to me."

With one accord the headmen answered: "Indeed you did well,
Slaughterer," for the glamour of Nada was upon them and they would
cherish her as others had cherished her. Only Galazi the Wolf shook his
head. But he said nothing, for words do not avail against fate. Now as
I found afterwards, since Zinita, the head wife of Umslopogaas, had
learned of what stock he was, she had known that Nada was no sister to
him. Yet when she heard him declare that he was about to take the Lily
to wife she turned upon him, saying:--

"How can this be, Lord?"

"Why do you ask, Zinita?" he answered. "Is it not allowed to a man to
take another wife if he will?"

"Surely, Lord," she said; "but men do not wed their sisters, and I have
heard that it was because this Nada was your sister that you saved her
from Dingaan, and brought the wrath of Dingaan upon the People of the
Axe, the wrath that shall destroy them."

"So I thought then, Zinita," he answered; "now I know otherwise. Nada is
daughter to Mopo yonder indeed, but he is no father to me, though he
has been named so, nor was the mother of Nada my mother. That is so,
Councillors."

Then Zinita looked at me and muttered, "O fool of a Mouth, not for
nothing did I fear evil at your hands."

I heard the words and took no note, and she spoke again to Umslopogaas,
saying: "Here is a mystery, O Lord Bulalio. Will it then please you to
declare to us who is your father?"

"I have no father," he answered, waxing wroth; "the heavens above are
my father. I am born of Blood and Fire, and she, the Lily, is born of
Beauty to be my mate. Now, woman, be silent." He thought awhile,
and added, "Nay, if you will know, my father was Indabazimbi the
Witch-finder, the smeller-out of the king, the son of Arpi." This
Umslopogaas said at a hazard, since, having denied me, he must declare
a father, and dared not name the Black One who was gone. But in
after years the saying was taken up in the land, and it was told that
Umslopoga