“And did you speak to her father?”

“Yes, I spoke to him, but in an evil moment, for he had but just killed the cattle to furnish Panda’s shields.  He answered me very roughly.  He said:  ’You see these dead beasts which I and my people must slay for the king, or fall under his displeasure?  Well, bring me five times their number, and we will talk of your marriage with my daughter, who is a maid in some request.’

“I answered that I understood and would try my best, whereon he became more gentle, for Umbezi has a kindly heart.

“‘My son,’ he said, ’I like you well, and since I saw you save Macumazahn, my friend, from that mad wild beast of a buffalo I like you better than before.  Yet you know my case.  I have an old name and am called the chief of a tribe, and many live on me.  But I am poor, and this daughter of mine is worth much.  Such a woman few men have bred.  Well, I must make the best of her.  My son-in-law must be one who will prop up my old age, one to whom, in my need or trouble, I could always go as to a dry log,* to break off some of its bark to make a fire to comfort me, not one who treads me into the mire as the buffalo did to Macumazahn.  Now I have spoken, and I do not love such talk.  Come back with the cattle, and I will listen to you, but meanwhile understand that I am not bound to you or to anyone; I shall take what my spirit sends me, which, if I may judge the future by the past, will not be much.  One word more:  Do not linger about this kraal too long, lest it should be said that you are the accepted suitor of Mameena.  Go hence and do a man’s work, and return with a man’s reward, or not at all.’”

[*—­In Zululand a son-in-law is known as “isigodo so mkwenyana”, the “son-in-law log,” for the reason stated in the text.—­EDITOR.]

“Well, Saduko, that spear has an edge on it, has it not?” I answered.  “And now, what is your plan?”

“My plan is, Macumazahn,” he said, rising from his seat, “to go hence and gather those who are friendly to me because I am my father’s son and still the chief of the Amangwane, or those who are left of them, although I have no kraal and no hoof of kine.  Then, within a moon, I hope, I shall return here to find you strong again and once more a man, and we will start out against Bangu, as I have whispered to you, with the leave of a High One, who has said that, if I can take any cattle, I may keep them for my pains.”

“I don’t know about that, Saduko.  I never promised you that I would make war upon Bangu—­with or without the king’s leave.”

“No, you never promised, but Zikali the Dwarf, the Wise Little One, said that you would—­and does Zikali lie?  Ask yourself, who will remember a certain saying of his about a buffalo with a cleft horn, a pool and a dry river-bed.  Farewell, O my father Macumazahn; I walk with the dawn, and I leave Mameena in your keeping.”

“You mean that you leave me in Mameena’s keeping,” I began, but already he was crawling through the hole in the hut.