the jackals, and I will not die till I have spoken.
I smelt him out this morning when I was alive; now that I am as one
already dead, I smell him out again. He shall bewitch thee with blood
indeed, Chaka--he and Unandi, thy mother, and Baleka, thy wife. Think of
my words when the assegai reddens before thee for the last time, king!
Farewell!" And she uttered a great cry and rolled upon the ground dead.

"The witch lies hard and dies hard," said the king carelessly, and
turned upon his heel. But those words of dead Nobela remained fixed in
his memory, or so much of them as had been spoken of Unandi and Baleka.
There they remained like seeds in the earth, there they grew to bring
forth fruit in their season.

And thus ended the great Ingomboco of Chaka, the greatest Ingomboco that
ever was held in Zululand.

CHAPTER IX. THE LOSS OF UMSLOPOGAAS

Now, after the smelling out of the witch-doctors, Chaka caused a watch
to be kept upon his mother Unandi, and his wife Baleka, my sister, and
report was brought to him by those who watched, that the two women came
to my huts by stealth, and there kissed and nursed a boy--one of
my children. Then Chaka remembered the prophecy of Nobela, the dead
Isanusi, and his heart grew dark with doubt. But to me he said nothing
of the matter, for then, as always, his eyes looked over my head. He did
not fear me or believe that I plotted against him, I who was his dog.
Still, he did this, though whether by chance or design I do not know: he
bade me go on a journey to a distant tribe that lived near the borders
of the Amaswazi, there to take count of certain of the king's cattle
which were in the charge of that tribe, and to bring him account of
the tale of their increase. So I bowed before the king, and said that
I would run like a dog to do his bidding, and he gave me men to go with
me.

Then I returned to my huts to bid farewell to my wives and children,
and there I found that my wife, Anadi, the mother of Moosa, my son, had
fallen sick with a wandering sickness, for strange things came into her
mind, and what came into her mind that she said, being, as I did not
doubt, bewitched by some enemy of my house.

Still, I must go upon the king's business, and I told this to my wife
Macropha, the mother of Nada, and, as it was thought, of Umslopogaas,
the son of Chaka. But when I spoke to Macropha of the matter she burst
into tears and clung to me. I asked her why she wept thus, and she
an