“I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the soldier who guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how its gate is fashioned.”

“Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief.”

“Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance I shall soon be dead.  It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the battle, Macumazahn.  He who would sleep safe and of whom, when he dies, folk will say ‘He has eaten’ (i.e., he has lived out his life), must do more than this.  He must guard his tongue and even his thoughts! he must listen to the stirring of rats in the thatch and look for snakes in the grass; he must trust few, and least of all those who sleep upon his bosom.  But those who have the Lion’s blood in them or who are prone to charge like a buffalo, often neglect these matters and therefore in the end they fall into a pit.”

“Yes,” I answered, “especially those who have the lion’s blood in them, whether that lion be man or beast.”

This I said because of the rumours I had heard that this Slaughterer was in truth the son of Chaka.  Therefore not knowing whether or no he were playing on the word “lion,” which was Chaka’s title, I wished to draw him, especially as I saw in his face a great likeness to Chaka’s brother Dingaan, whom, it was whispered, this same Umslopogaas had slain.  As it happened I failed, for after a pause he said,

“Why do you come to visit me, Macumazahn, who have never done so before?”

“I do not come to visit you, Umslopogaas.  That was not my intention.  You brought me, or rather the flooded rivers and you together brought me, for I was on my way to Natal and could not cross the drifts.”

“Yet I think you have a message for me, White Man, for not long ago a certain wandering witch-doctor who came here told me to expect you and that you had words to say to me.”

“Did he, Umslopogaas?  Well, it is true that I have a message, though it is one that I did not mean to deliver.”

“Yet being here, perchance you will deliver it, Macumazahn, for those who have messages and will not speak them, sometimes come to trouble.”

“Yes, being here, I will deliver it, seeing that so it seems to be fated.  Tell me, do you chance to know a certain Small One who is great, a certain Old One whose brain is young, a doctor who is called Opener-of-Roads?”

“I have heard of him, as have my forefathers for generations.”

“Indeed, and if it pleases you to tell me, Umslopogaas, what might be the names of those forefathers of yours, who have heard of this doctor for generations?  They must have been short-lived men and as such I should like to know of them.”

“That you cannot,” replied Umslopogaas shortly, “since they are hlonipa (i.e. not to be spoken) in this land.”

“Indeed,” I said again.  “I thought that rule applied only to the names of kings, but of course I am but an ignorant white man who may well be mistaken on such matters of your Zulu customs.”