For here I should say that as though by common consent the battle had been stayed; we no longer attacked and the enemy no longer ran.  They, or whose who were left of them, stood still as though they felt that the real and ultimate issue of the fight depended upon the forthcoming duel between these two champions, though of that issue they had little doubt since, as I learned afterwards, they believed their king to be invulnerable.

For quite a while Rezu went on staring.  Then he said aloud as if he were thinking to himself.

“It is like, very like.  The horn haft is the same; the pointed gouge is the same; the blade shaped like the young moon is the same.  Almost could I think that before me shook the ancient holy axe.  Nay, the gods have taken that back long ago and this is but a trick of the witch, Lulala of the Caves.”

Thus he spoke, but still for a moment hesitated.

“Umslopogaas,” I said in the deep silence that followed, “hear me.”

“I hear you,” he answered without turning his head or moving his arms.  “What counsel, Watcher-by-Night?”

“This, Slaughterer.  Strike not at that man’s face and breast, for there I think he is protected by witchcraft or by armour.  Get behind him and strike at his back.  Do you understand?”

“Nay, Macumazahn, I understand not.  Yet I will do your bidding because you are wiser than I and utter no empty words.  Now be still.”

Then Umslopogaas threw the axe into the air and caught it as it fell, and as he did so began to chant his own praises Zulu fashion.

“Oho!” he said, “I am the child of the Lion, the Black-maned Lion, whose claws never loosened of their prey.  I am the Wolf-king, he who hunted with the wolves upon the Witch-mountain with my brother, Bearer of the Club named Watcher-of-the-Fords, I am he who slew him called the Unconquered, Chief of the People of the Axe, he who bore the ancient Axe before me; I am he who smote the Halakazi tribe in their caves and won me Nada the Lily to wife.  I am he who took to the King Dingaan a gift that he loved little, and afterward with Mopo, my foster-sire, hurled this Dingaan down to death.  I am the Royal One, named Bulalio the Slaughterer, named Woodpecker, named Umhlopekazi the Captain, before whom never yet man has stood in fair and open fight.  Now, thou Wizard Rezu, now thou Giant, now thou Ghost-man, come on against me and before the sun has risen by a hand’s breadth, all those who watch shall see which of us is better at the game of war.  Come on, then!  Come on, for I say that my blood boils over and my feet grow cold.  Come on, thou grinning dog, thou monster grown fat with eating the flesh of men, thou hook-beaked vulture, thou old, grey-whiskered wolf!”

Thus he changed in his fierce, boastful way, while his two remaining Zulus clapped their hands and sentence by sentence echoed his words, and Goroko, the witch-doctor, muttered incantations behind him.