The king bade him be seated and spoke to him saying:--
"The other day, O White Man, thou toldest me of a place of fire
whither those go after death who have done wickedly in life. Tell me
now of thy wisdom, do my fathers lie in that place?"
"How can I know, King," answered the prayer-doctor, "who may not judge
of the deeds of men? This I say only: that those who murder and rob
and oppress the innocent and bear false witness shall lie in that
place of fire."
"It seems that my fathers have done all these things, and if they are
in this place I would go there also, for I am minded to be with my
fathers at the last. Yet I think that I should find a way to escape if
ever I came there."
"How, King?"
Now Dingaan had set this trap for the prayer-doctor. In the centre of
that open space where he had caused the Boers to be fallen upon he had
built up a great pyre of wood--brushwood beneath, and on top of the
brushwood logs, and even whole trees. Perhaps, my father, there were
sixty full wagonloads of dry wood piled together there in the centre
of the place.
"Thou shalt see with thine eyes, White Man," he answered, and bidding
attendants set fire to the pile all round, he summoned that regiment
of young men which was left in the kraal. Maybe there were a thousand
and half a thousand of them--not more--the same that had slain the
Boers.
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