nged indeed since the days of the Black One. Yes,
generals have become like women; the captains of the impis are
set to milk the cows. Well, what have I to do with all this?
What does it matter to me who am so very old that only my head
remains above the level of the earth, the rest of me being buried
in the grave, who am not even a Zulu to boot, but a Dwandwe, one
of the despised Dwandwe whom the Zulus mocked and conquered?

"Hearken to me, Spirits of the House of Senzangacona"--here he
addressed about a dozen of Cetewayo's ancestors by name, going
back for many generations. "Hearken to me, O Princess of Heaven,
appointed by the Great-Great to be the guardian of the Zulu race.
It is asked that you should appear, should it be your wish to
signify to these your children that they must stand upon their
feet and resist the white men who already gather upon their
borders. And should it be your wish that they should lay down
their spears and go home to sleep with their wives and hoe the
gardens while the white men count the cattle and set each to his
work upon the roads, then that you should not appear. Do what
you will, O Spirits of the House of Senzangacona, do what you
will, O Princess of Heaven. What does it matter to the
Thing-that-never-should-have-been-born, who soon will be as
though he never had been born, whether the House of Senzangacona
and the Zulu people stand or fall?

"I, the old doctor, was summoned here to give counsel. I gave
counsel, but it passed over the heads of these wise ones like a
shadow of which none took note. I was asked to prophesy of what
would chance if war came. I called the dead from their graves;
they came in voices, and one of them put on the flesh again and
spoke from the lips of flesh. The white man to whom she spoke
denied her who had been his love, and the wise ones said that she
was a cheat, yes, a doll that I had dressed up to deceive them.
This spirit that had put on flesh, told of what would chance in
the war, if war there were, and what would chance to the King,
but they mock at the prophecy and now they demand a sign. Come
then, Nomkubulwana, and give them the sign if you will and let
there be war. Or stay away and give them no sign if you will,
and let there be peace. It is nought to me, nought to the
Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born."

Thus he rambled on, as it occurred to me who watched and
listened, talking against time. For I observed that while he