elief
that unless he were first addressed, Zikali would have sat all
night without opening his lips. Possibly Cetewayo would have
done the same if the impatience of public opinion had allowed
him. At any was rate it was he who gave way.

"Makosi, master of many Spirits, on behalf of the Council and the
People of the Zulus I, the King, greet you here in the place that
you have chosen," said Cetewayo.

Zikali made no answer.

The silence went on as before, till at length, after a pause and
some whispering, Cetewayo repeated his salutation, adding--

"Has age made you deaf, O Opener of Roads, that you cannot hear
the voice of the King?"

Then at last Zikali answered in his low voice that yet seemed to
fill all the kloof--

"Nay, Child of Senzangacona, age has not made me deaf, but my
spirit in these latter days floats far from my body. It is like
a bladder filled with air that a child holds by a string, and
before I can speak I must draw it from the heavens to earth
again. What did you say about the place that I have chosen?
Well, what better place could I choose, seeing that it was here
in this very Vale of Bones that I met the first king of the
Zulus, Chaka the Wild Beast, who was your uncle? Why then should
I not choose it to meet the last king of the Zulus?"

Now I, listening, knew at once that this saying might be
understood in two ways, namely that Cetewayo was the reigning
king, or that he was the last king who would ever reign. But the
Council interpreted it in the latter and worse sense, for I saw a
quiver of fear go through them.

"Why should I not choose it," went on Zikali, "seeing also that
this place is holy to me? Here it was, O Son of Panda, that
Chaka brought my children to be killed and forced me, sitting
where you sit, to watch their deaths. There on the rock above me
they were killed, four of them, three sons and a daughter, and
the slayers--they came to an evil end, those slayers, as did
Chaka--laughed and cast them down from the rock before me. Yes,
and Chaka laughed, and I too laughed, for had not the king the
right to kill my children and to steal their mothers, and was I
not glad that they should be taken from the world and gathered
to that of Spirits whence they always talk to me, yes, even now?
That is why I did not hear you at first, King, because they were
talking to me."

He paused, turning one ear upwards, then continued in a new and
tender voice, "What is it you say t