As I learned afterwards, the cause of their destruction, as in later
days it was the cause of the slaying of the Halakazi, was the beauty
of Nada and nothing else, for the fame of her loveliness had gone
about the land, and the old chief of the Halakazi had commanded that
the girl should be sent to his kraal to live there, that her beauty
might shine upon his place like the sun, and that, if so she willed,
she should choose a husband from the great men of the Halakazi. But
the headmen of the kraal refused, for none who had looked on her would
suffer their eyes to lose sight of Nada the Lily, though there was
this fate about the maid that none strove to wed her against her will.
Many, indeed, asked her in marriage, both there and among the Halakazi
people, but ever she shook her head and said, "Nay, I would wed no
man," and it was enough.
For it was the saying among men, that it was better that she should
remain unmarried, and all should look on her, than that she should
pass from their sight into the house of a husband; since they held
that her beauty was given to be a joy to all, like the beauty of the
dawn and of the evening. Yet this beauty of Nada's was a dreadful
thing, and the mother of much death, as shall be told; and because of
her beauty and the great love she bore, she, the Lily herself, must
wither, and the cup of my sorrows must be filled to overflowing, and
the heart of Umslopogaas the Slaughterer, son of Chaka the king, must
become desolate as the black plain when fire has swept it.
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