a sign I also sat myself down upon a stool that
had been set for me, while Goza, whose nose was still bleeding,
squatted at my side.

"Your manners are not so good as they were once, Macumazahn,"
said Cetewayo presently, "or perhaps you have been so long away
from the royal kraal that you have forgotten its customs."

I stared at him, wondering what he could mean, whereon he added
with a laugh--

"What is that in your pocket? Is it not a loaded pistol, and do
you not remember that it is death to appear before the king
armed? Now I might kill you and have no blame, although you are
my guest, for who knows that you are not sent by the English
Queen to shoot me?"

"I ask the King's pardon," I said humbly enough. "I did not
think about the pistol. Let your servants take it away."

"Perhaps it is safer in your pocket, where I saw you place it in
the cattle-kraal, Macumazahn, than in their hands, which do not
know how to hold such things. Moreover, I know that you are not
one who stabs in the dark, even when our peoples growl round each
other like two dogs about to fight, and if you were, in this
place your life would have to pay for mine. There is beer by
your side; drink and fear nothing. Did you see the Opener of
Roads, Goza, and if so, what is his answer to my message?"

"O King, I saw him," answered Goza. "The Father of the doctors,
the friend and master of the Spirits, says he has heard the
King's word, yes, that he heard it as it passed the King's lips,
and that although he is very old, he will travel to Ulundi and be
present at the Great Council of the nation which is to be
summoned on the eighth day from this, that of the full moon. Yet
he makes a prayer of the King. It is that a place may be
prepared for him, for his people and for his servants who carry
him, away from this town of Ulundi, where he may sojourn quite
alone, a decree of death being pronounced against any who attempt
to break in upon his privacy, either where he dwells or upon his
journey. These are his very words, O King:

"'I, who am the most ancient man in Zululand, dwell with the
spirits of my fathers, who will not suffer strangers to come nigh
them and who, if they are offended, will bring great woes upon
the land. Moreover, I have sworn that while there is a king in
Zululand and I draw the breath of life, never again will I set
foot in a royal kraal, because when last I did so at the slaying
of the witch, Mameena, the king