Now Dingaan was king and mustered many
regiments about him, for I had held him back from war, as in the case
of the raid that he wished to make upon the Swazis. The chance had
gone by, but it would come again, and till it came I must say nothing.
I would do this rather, I would bring Dingaan and Umslopogaas
together, that Umslopogaas might become known in the land as a great
chief and the first of warriors. Then I would cause him to be advanced
to be an induna, and a general ready to lead the impis of the king,
for he who leads the impis is already half a king.
So I held my peace upon this matter, but till the dawn was grey
Umslopogaas and I sat together and talked, each telling the tale of
those years that had gone since he was borne from me in the lion's
mouth. I told him how all my wives and children had been killed, how I
had been put to the torment, and showed him my white and withered
hand. I told him also of the death of Baleka, my sister, and of all my
people of the Langeni, and of how I had revenged my wrongs upon Chaka,
and made Dingaan to be king in his place, and was now the first man in
the land under the king, though the king feared me much and loved me
little. But I did not tell him that Baleka, my sister, was his own
mother.
When I had done my tale, Umslopogaas told me his: how Galazi had
rescued him from the lioness; how he became one of the Wolf-Brethren;
how he had conquered Jikiza and the sons of Jikiza, and become chief
of the People of the Axe, and taken Zinita to wife, and grown great in
the land.
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