t wait."

But Lalusini, for reply, only returned a swift, silent glance. Then
once more she burst into song, again in the Bakoni tongue. Her head was
thrown back, and she seemed to be gazing at some momentous object
invisible to us. She seemed to lose herself, to utterly forget our
presence, as her voice rose wild and sweet and clear. Yes, indeed,
there was a mystery in her song, and it seemed to me that the words had
a very certain meaning; also that, all the while standing facing me as
she was, her glance betimes met mine quickly, as in a flash, and with a
purpose. It was, I felt, in her mind that I should mark her words and
weigh them well. Thus they ran:--

"The Lion sinks
To the serpent's fang;
The eagle drops
To the bowstring's twang.

"Great is small;
Little is great;
Great ones fall
When the mean deal fate.

"The serpent's coil
Hides the fangs of death;
_A coil of blue_
Veils the serpent's breath.

"See the White Bull's pride
O'er the Black Bull wave;
_Now, the White Bull's hide
May the Black Bull save_."

_Whau, Nkose_! Then was amazement my master--I its slave! The "coil of
blue!" Such a blue-beaded girdle was that of Nangeza's skirt, beside
which she wore little else when summoned before the King. Upon this my
eyes fixed themselves, only, however, to follow once more the meaning
glance of Lalusini. And the King sat wondering, yet not understanding
the _muti_ song. And above his head, waving softly to and fro in the
hand of its bearer, rose aloft the royal white shield. It was as the
buzzing of bees within my ears that I heard the voice of the Great Great
ONE.

"I have a mind to end this _indaba_," he was saying. "Thou, Nangeza,
hast a pestilent tongue and an evil heart; wherefore my servant Untuswa
must seek a new wife, for _thy place among us shall be empty_. Take her
hence. The alligators are hungry."

"So, too, is Death, thou fool who art King!" yelled Nangeza. I saw her
hand swift at her girdle. Something flashed through the air. It
struck--struck hard and quivering--into the great white shield, which,
quick as the movement, as the flash itself, I had snatched from the
shield-bearer, and whirled down so as to cover the person of the King.
It was one of those short, javelin-shaped arrows, such as were used by
the mountain tribes, and sometimes among the Bakoni. And the point
thereof was green and sticky wi