“Chieftainess,” he said, “Bull-Head made us this offer and in these words:  ’You people of the Umpondwana, you are dying of thirst and I know it; yes, though the Zulus have gone and but few of us are left here, yet you cannot force the narrow way against us, so that I have only to sit here for a few days longer and you will be dead of thirst, everyone of you, you and your cattle together.  But I do not wish that you should die, for with you I have no quarrel; also if you die one will perish among you whom I desire to keep alive.  Therefore I make you this offer.  Hand over to me your ruler, Sihamba Ngenyanga, and with her the white woman named Swallow, and you yourselves shall go free, everyone of you; more, although I will take this stronghold of yours to live in myself, I will give back to you the half of the cattle.  Now, answer.’

“Lady, when he had finished speaking we consulted together and answered Bull-Head thus:  ’We cannot give over to you our chieftainess and her white sister, for it is better to die than that such dishonour should lie upon our names.  But if you will let us go, you can take them from among our number as we pass before you, for that will be no fault of ours, or if they do not choose to accompany us, after we have gone by you can ascend the mountain and take them.’

“To this Bull-Head assented, saying, ’Set the Lady Swallow in her chair upon the cliff edge and Sihamba at her side so that my eyes seeing them may know that they are safe, and you shall go.’  So it was agreed between us that to-morrow at the dawn he will open the wall and let us down to the river to drink, after which we may pass whither we will.”

Now when Sihamba heard these shameful words her rage was so great that for a while she could not even speak.  At length she found her tongue and gasped out: 

“Oh! father of cowards, do you dare to sing such a song in my ears?  Why do not you, who are many, storm the pass and take the water?”

“Lady,” answered the old man coldly, “we dare because we must, for honour cannot live before the assegai of thirst.  You talk to us of storming the pass; we cannot storm it, for ten men can hold that place against a hundred; also our arms are weak and we are weary of war.  Listen; on the one hand are the lives of thousands, with them your own and that of the White Swallow, and on the other this dishonour.  We choose the dishonour, since if you and the Swallow do not desire to fall into the hands of Bull-Head, you can still do what you must have done had we chosen honour.  Lady, you can die, knowing that by your death you have saved the lives of the multitude over whom you rule.