So it was
ordained, my father, and so it befell, seeing that thus all men, white
and black, seek that which is beautiful, and when at last they find
it, then it passes swiftly away, or, perchance, it is their death. For
great joy and great beauty are winged, nor will they sojourn long upon
the earth. They come down like eagles out of the sky, and into the sky
they return again swiftly.
Thus then it came about, my father, that I, Mopo, believing my
daughter Nada to be dead, little guessed that it was she who was named
the Lily in the kraals of the Halakazi, and whom Dingaan the king
desired for a wife.
Now after I had thwarted him in this matter of the sending of an impi
to pluck the Lily from the gardens of the Halakazi, Dingaan learned to
hate me. Also I was in his secrets, and with me he had killed his
brother Chaka and his brother Umhlangana, and it was I who held him
back from the slaying of his brother Panda also; and, therefore, he
hated me, as is the fashion of small-hearted men with those who have
lifted them up. Yet he did not dare to do away with me, for my voice
was loud in the land, and when I spoke the people listened. Therefore,
in the end, he cast about for some way to be rid of me for a while,
till he should grow strong enough to kill me.
"Mopo," said the king to me one day as I sat before him in council
with others of the indunas and generals, "mindest thou of the last
words of the Great Elephant, who is dead?" This he said meaning Chaka
his brother, only he did not name him, for now the name of Chaka was
blonipa in the land, as is the custom with the names of dead kings--
that is, my father, it was not lawful that it should pass the lips.
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