“She is no more; she is dead.”

“So, O king! then is an ancient curse taken from the land.”

“Go!”

“Koom! I go, Black Puppy, who tore out the old dog’s throat. Koom!”

“Ye see, my brothers,” said Ignosi, “this was a strange woman, and I rejoice that she is dead.  She would have let you die in the dark place, and mayhap afterwards she had found a way to slay me, as she found a way to slay my father, and set up Twala, whom her black heart loved, in his place.  Now go on with the tale; surely there never was its like!”

After I had narrated all the story of our escape, as we had agreed between ourselves that I should, I took the opportunity to address Ignosi as to our departure from Kukuanaland.

“And now, Ignosi,” I said, “the time has come for us to bid thee farewell, and start to see our own land once more.  Behold, Ignosi, thou camest with us a servant, and now we leave thee a mighty king.  If thou art grateful to us, remember to do even as thou didst promise:  to rule justly, to respect the law, and to put none to death without a cause.  So shalt thou prosper.  To-morrow, at break of day, Ignosi, thou wilt give us an escort who shall lead us across the mountains.  Is it not so, O king?”

Ignosi covered his face with his hands for a while before answering.

“My heart is sore,” he said at last; “your words split my heart in twain.  What have I done to you, Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, that ye should leave me desolate?  Ye who stood by me in rebellion and in battle, will ye leave me in the day of peace and victory?  What will ye —­wives?  Choose from among the maidens!  A place to live in?  Behold, the land is yours as far as ye can see.  The white man’s houses?  Ye shall teach my people how to build them.  Cattle for beef and milk?  Every married man shall bring you an ox or a cow.  Wild game to hunt?  Does not the elephant walk through my forests, and the river-horse sleep in the reeds?  Would ye make war?  My Impis wait your word.  If there is anything more which I can give, that will I give you.”

“Nay, Ignosi, we want none of these things,” I answered; “we would seek our own place.”

“Now do I learn,” said Ignosi bitterly, and with flashing eyes, “that ye love the bright stones more than me, your friend.  Ye have the stones; now ye would go to Natal and across the moving black water and sell them, and be rich, as it is the desire of a white man’s heart to be.  Cursed for your sake be the white stones, and cursed he who seeks them.  Death shall it be to him who sets foot in the place of Death to find them.  I have spoken.  White men, ye can go.”

I laid my hand upon his arm.  “Ignosi,” I said, “tell us, when thou didst wander in Zululand, and among the white people of Natal, did not thine heart turn to the land thy mother told thee of, thy native place, where thou didst see the light, and play when thou wast little, the land where thy place was?”