Upon hearing these words for the first time that night Zikali seemed to grow disturbed.

“What do my ears hear?” he exclaimed excitedly.  “Am I the Umkulukulu, the Great-Great (i.e., God) himself, that it should be asked of me to draw the Princess of Heaven from beyond the stars, she who comes and goes like the wind, but like the wind cannot be commanded?  Do they hear that if she will not come to my beckoning, then the great Zulu people must put a yoke upon their shoulders and be as slaves?  Surely the King must have been listening to the doctrines of those English teachers who wear a white ribbon tied about their necks, and tell us of a god who suffered himself to be nailed to a cross of wood, rather than make war upon his foes, one whom they call the Prince of Peace.  Times have changed indeed since the days of the Black One.  Yes, generals have become like women; the captains of the impis are set to milk the cows.  Well, what have I to do with all this?  What does it matter to me who am so very old that only my head remains above the level of the earth, the rest of me being buried in the grave, who am not even a Zulu to boot, but a Dwandwe, one of the despised Dwandwe whom the Zulus mocked and conquered?

“Hearken to me, Spirits of the House of Senzangacona”—­here he addressed about a dozen of Cetewayo’s ancestors by name, going back for many generations.  “Hearken to me, O Princess of Heaven, appointed by the Great-Great to be the guardian of the Zulu race.  It is asked that you should appear, should it be your wish to signify to these your children that they must stand upon their feet and resist the white men who already gather upon their borders.  And should it be your wish that they should lay down their spears and go home to sleep with their wives and hoe the gardens while the white men count the cattle and set each to his work upon the roads, then that you should not appear.  Do what you will, O Spirits of the House of Senzangacona, do what you will, O Princess of Heaven.  What does it matter to the Thing-that-never-should-have-been-born, who soon will be as though he never had been born, whether the House of Senzangacona and the Zulu people stand or fall?

“I, the old doctor, was summoned here to give counsel.  I gave counsel, but it passed over the heads of these wise ones like a shadow of which none took note.  I was asked to prophesy of what would chance if war came.  I called the dead from their graves; they came in voices, and one of them put on the flesh again and spoke from the lips of flesh.  The white man to whom she spoke denied her who had been his love, and the wise ones said that she was a cheat, yes, a doll that I had dressed up to deceive them.  This spirit that had put on flesh, told of what would chance in the war, if war there were, and what would chance to the King, but they mock at the prophecy and now they demand a sign.  Come then, Nomkubulwana, and give them the sign if you will and let there be war.  Or stay away and give them no sign if you will, and let there be peace.  It is nought to me, nought to the Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born.”