Now the fire began to burn fiercely, and the regiment filed in and
took its place in ranks. By the time that all had come, the pyre was
everywhere a sheet of raging flame, and, though we sat a hundred paces
from it, its heat was great when the wind turned our way.
"Now, Doctor of Prayers, is thy hot place hotter than yonder fire?"
said the king.
He answered that he did not know, but the fire was certainly hot.
"Then I will show thee how I will come out of it if ever I go to lie
in such a fire--ay, though it be ten times as big and fierce. Ho! my
children!" he cried to the soldiers, and, springing up, "You see
yonder fire. Run swiftly and stamp it flat with your feet. Where there
was fire let there be blackness and ashes."
Now the White Man lifted his hands and prayed Dingaan not to do this
thing that should be the death of many, but the king bade him be
silent. Then he turned his eyes upward and prayed to his gods. For a
moment also the soldiers looked on each other in doubt, for the fire
raged furiously, and spouts of flame shot high toward the heaven, and
above it and about it the hot air danced. But their captain called to
them loudly: "Great is the king! Hear the words of the king, who
honours you! Yesterday we ate up the Amaboona--it was nothing, they
were unarmed. There is a foe more worthy of our valour.
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