ng "pointed at" him, and
thereby he obtained permission to _tunga_. Yet his admiration for the
female captives we had taken from the Bakoni was destined to bring him
some disappointment; for the King exacted that, being young, he should
choose his bride from among the girls of our own nation. For so jealous
was Umzilikazi on behalf of keeping the old Zulu blood pure and strong,
that, as yet, he would hardly ever allow a young man to take to wife
captives or girls of an inferior race. And when the _Tyay'igama_ dance
was ended there was a great slaughter of cattle--the blue cattle of the
Bakoni--and the night was spent in feasting and singing. And in the
morning we moved on further away still from this place of death. And
behind us, where the abodes of the destroyed race had been--although the
houses had long since burnt out--yet above the smouldering cattle-kraals
the grey smoke still went wreathing up; and, high overhead in the blue
heavens, their pinions dazzling white in the sun, like flakes of driving
snow, floated clouds of vultures. For in those days the march of our
conquering and destroying nation might ever be followed and marked out
by two things: a cloud of smoke and a cloud of vultures.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

"YOU--AN INDUNA?"

Many days went by before I was able to return and visit Lalusini in her
strange hiding-place, and herein I found that it was not always an
advantage to be great. For Untuswa the _induna_ was a man of such
consequence that, did any one meet him wandering abroad, heads would be
turned to see whither he was going, whereas Untuswa the _umfane_ and
unringed might go where he would and nobody would be at the trouble to
so much as wonder concerning his business. Howbeit, I was ever known as
a great hunter, and keen in the pursuit of game; wherefore, on this
ground alone, I found opportunities of wandering afar.

I climbed the mountain of death, and there, indeed, so plenteous had
food been that there were not enough vultures and crows and jackals to
devour it all; for more than half the dead bodies were untouched, and
lay, shrivelled and withered, just where they had been slain. For it is
our custom, _Nkose_, to rip the bodies of those who fall beneath our
spears, in order that they should dry up and spread no disease; and,
remembering how we "ate up" whole nations in those days, the custom was
a wise one. Carefully I took my way across the flat summit, stepping in
and out betwee