old chief. Then with his eyes starting
almost from his head, Sigananda leapt up and raising his hand,
gave the royal salute, the Bayete, to the spirit of Chaka, as
though the dead king stood before him.

I think that most of those there thought that it did stand before
him, for some of them also gave the Bayete and even Cetewayo
raised his arm.

Sigananda squatted down again and Zikali went on.

"You have heard. This captain of the Lion knows his voice. So,
that is done with. Now you ask of me something else--that I who
am a doctor, the oldest of all the doctors and, it is thought--I
know not--the wisest, should be able to answer. You ask of
me--How shall this war prosper, if it is made--and what shall
chance to the King during and after the war, and lastly you ask
of me a sign. What I tell to you is true, is it not so?"

"It is true," answered the Council.

"Asking is easy," continued Zikali in a grumbling voice, "but
answering is another matter. How can I answer without
preparation, without the needful medicines also that I have not
with me, who did not know what would be sought of me, who thought
that my opinion was desired and no more? Go away now and return
on the sixth night and I will tell you what I can do."

"Not so," cried the king. "We refuse to go, for the matter is
immediate. Speak at once, Opener of Roads, lest it should be
said in the land that after all you are but an ancient cheat, a
stick that snaps in two when it is leant on."

"Ancient cheat! I remember that is what Macumazahn yonder once
told me I am, though afterwards--Perhaps he was right, for who in
his heart knows whether or not he be a cheat, a cheat who
deceives himself and through himself others. A stick that snaps
in two when it is leant on! Some have thought me so and some
have thought otherwise. Well, you would have answers which I
know not how to give, being without medicine and in face of those
who are quite ignorant and therefore cannot lend me their
thoughts, as it sometimes happens that men do when workers of
evil are sought out in the common fashion. For then, as you may
have guessed, it is the evil-doer who himself tells the doctor of
his crime, though he may not know that he is telling it. Yet
there is another stone that I alone can throw, another plan that
I alone can practise, and that not always. But of this I would
not make use since it is terrible and might frighten you or even
send you back to your