“What would you have of me, Son of Senzangakona?” he asked.  “Many years have passed since last we met.  Why do you drag me from my hut, I who have visited the kraal of the King of the Zulus but twice since the ‘Black One’ [Chaka] sat upon the throne—­once when the Boers were killed by him who went before you, and once when I was brought forth to see all who were left of my race, shoots of the royal Dwandwe stock, slain before my eyes.  Do you bear me hither that I may follow them into the darkness, O Child of Senzangakona?  If so I am ready; only then I have words to say that it may not please you to hear.”

His deep, rumbling voice echoed into silence, while the great audience waited for the King’s answer.  I could see that they were all afraid of this man, yes, even Panda was afraid, for he shifted uneasily upon his stool.  At length he spoke, saying: 

“Not so, O Zikali.  Who would wish to do hurt to the wisest and most ancient man in all the land, to him who touches the far past with one hand and the present with the other, to him who was old before our grandfathers began to be?  Nay, you are safe, you on whom not even the ‘Black One’ dared to lay a finger, although you were his enemy and he hated you.  As for the reason why you have been brought here, tell it to us, O Zikali.  Who are we that we should instruct you in the ways of wisdom?”

When the dwarf heard this he broke into one of his great laughs.

“So at last the House of Senzangakona acknowledges that I have wisdom.  Then before all is done they will think me wise indeed.”

He laughed again in his ill-omened fashion and went on hurriedly, as though he feared that he should be called upon to explain his words: 

“Where is the fee?  Where is the fee?  Is the King so poor that he expects an old Dwandwe doctor to divine for nothing, just as though he were working for a private friend?”

Panda made a motion with his hand, and ten fine heifers were driven into the circle from some place where they had been kept in waiting.

“Sorry beasts!” said Zikali contemptuously, “compared to those we used to breed before the time of Senzangakona”—­a remark which caused a loud “Wow!” of astonishment to be uttered by the multitude that heard it.  “Still, such as they are, let them be taken to my kraal, with a bull, for I have none.”

The cattle were driven away, and the ancient dwarf squatted himself down and stared at the ground, looking like a great black toad.  For a long while—­quite ten minutes, I should think—­he stared thus, till I, for one, watching him intently, began to feel as though I were mesmerised.

At length he looked up, tossing back his grey locks, and said: 

“I see many things in the dust.  Oh, yes, it is alive, it is alive, and tells me many things.  Show that you are alive, O Dust.  Look!”