ad, as men must die, and hear
the voice of Zikali and the mourning of the women of his house.
It is finished. Farewell, King Cetewayo, I pass to tell Panda,
your father, how it fares with you. When last we parted did I
not prophesy to you that we should meet again at the bottom of a
gulf? Was it this gulf, think you, or another? One day you
shall learn. Farewell, or fare ill, as it may happen!"

Once more the smoke spread out like a fan. When it thinned and
drew together again, the Shape was gone.

Now I thought that the Zulus would be so impressed by this very
queer exhibition, that they would seek no more supernatural
guidance, but make up their minds for war at once. This,
however, was just what they did not do. As it happened, among
the assembled chiefs, was one who himself had a great repute as a
witch-doctor, and therefore burned with jealousy of Zikali who
appeared to be able to do things that he had never even
attempted. This man leapt up and declared that all which they
had seemed to hear and see was but cunning trickery, carried out
after long preparation by Zikali and his confederates. The
voices, he said, came from persons placed in certain spots, or
sometimes were produced by Zikali himself. As for the vision, it
was not that of a spirit but of a real woman, in proof of which
he called attention to certain anatomical details of the figure.
Finally, with much sense, he pointed out that the Council would
be mad to come to any decision upon such evidence, or to give
faith to prophecies, whereof the truth or falsity could only be
known in the future.

Now a fierce debate broke out, the war party maintaining that the
manifestations were genuine, the peace party that they were a
fraud. In the end, as neither side would give way and as Zikali,
when appealed to, sat silent as a stone, refusing any
explanation, the king said--

"Must we sit here talking, talking, till daylight? There is but
one man who can know the truth, that is Macumazahn. Let him deny
it as he will, he was the lover of this Mameena while she was
alive, for with my own eyes I saw him kiss her before she killed
herself. It is certain, therefore, that he knows if the woman we
seemed to see was Mameena or another, since there are things
which a man never forgets. I propose, therefore, that we should
question him and form our own judgment of his answer."

This advice, which seemed to promise a road out of a blind ally,
met wit