What would I do if he saw the child? What if the child awoke and
cried? I would snatch the assegai from his hand and stab him! Yes, I
would kill the king and then kill myself! Now the mat was unrolled.
Inside were the brown leaves and roots of medicine; beneath them was
the senseless bade wrapped in dead moss.
"Ugly stuff," said the king, taking snuff. "Now see, Mopo, what a good
aim I have! This for thy medicine!" And he lifted his assegai to throw
it through the bundle. But as he threw, my snake put it into the
king's heart to sneeze, and thus it came to pass that the assegai only
pierced the outer leaves of the medicine, and did not touch the child.
"May the heavens bless the king!" I said, according to custom.
"Thanks to thee, Mopo, it is a good omen," he answered. "And now,
begone! Take my advice: kill thy children, as I kill mine, lest they
live to worry thee. The whelps of lions are best drowned."
I did up the bundle fast--fast, though my hands trembled. Oh! what if
the child should wake and cry. It was done; I rose and saluted the
king. Then I doubled myself up and passed from before him. Scarcely
was I outside the gates of the Intunkulu when the infant began to
squeak in the bundle. If it had been one minute before!
"What," said a soldier, as I passed, "have you got a puppy hidden
under your moocha,[1] Mopo?"
[1] Girdle composed of skin and tails of oxen.
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