r a Zulu, was impulsive and lacking in the
ordinary native patience, asked,

"Did you make a journey this evening, Macumazahn, and if so, what did
you see?"

"Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogaas?" I inquired by way of
answer, "and if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut
your eyes in the House of the White One yonder, doubtless because you
were weary of talk which you did not understand."

"Aye, Macumazahn, as you suppose I grew weary of that talk which flowed
from the lips of the White Witch like the music that comes from a little
stream babbling over stones when the sun is hot, and being weary, I fell
asleep and dreamed. What I dreamed does not much matter. It is enough
to say that I felt as though I were thrown through the air like a stone
cast from his sling by a boy who is set upon a stage to scare the birds
out of a mealie garden. Further than any stone I went, aye, further
than a shooting star, till I reached a wonderful place. It does not much
matter what it was like either, and indeed I am already beginning to
forget, but there I met everyone I have ever known. I met the Lion of
the Zulus, the Black One, the Earth-Shaker, he who had a 'sister' named
Baleka, which sister," here he dropped his voice and looked about him
suspiciously, "bore a child, which child was fostered by one Mopo,
that Mopo who afterwards slew the Black one with the Princes. Now,
Macumazahn, I had a score to settle with this Black One, aye, even
though our blood be much of the same colour, I had a score to settle
with him, because of the slaying of this sister of his, Baleka, together
with the Langeni tribe.[*] So I walked up to him and took him by the
head-ring and spat in his face and bade him find a spear and shield, and
meet me as man to man. Yes, I did this."

[*] For the history of Baleka, the mother of Umslopogaas,
and Mopo, see the book called "Nada the Lily."--Editor.

"And what happened then, Umslopogaas?" I said, when he paused in his
narrative.

"Macumazahn, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his
head-ring and the skull beneath, and to shut upon itself while he went
on talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognised, yes, one Faku,
whom in the days of Dingaan, the Black One's brother, I myself slew upon
the Ghost-Mountain.

"Yes, Macumazahn, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him
and of the fight that I and my blood-brother and the wolves made, the