e up the number. But Chaka never
knew this. When all were brought together, a great pit was dug and the
bones were set out in order in the pit and buried; but not alone, for
round them were placed twelve maidens of the servants of Unandi, and
these maidens were covered over with the earth, and left to die in the
pit by the bones of Unandi, their mistress. Moreover, all those who were
present at the burial were made into a regiment and commanded that they
should dwell by the grave for the space of a year. They were many, my
father, but I was not one of them. Also Chaka gave orders that no crops
should be sown that year, that the milk of the cows should be spilled
upon the ground, and that no woman should give birth to a child for a
full year, and that if any should dare to bear children, then that they
should be slain and their husbands with them. And for a space of some
months these things were done, my father, and great sorrow came upon the
land.

Then for a little while there was quiet, and Chaka went about heavily,
and he wept often, and we who waited on him wept also as we walked, till
at length it came about by use that we could weep without ceasing for
many hours. No angry woman can weep as we wept in those days; it was an
art, my father, for the teaching of which I received many cattle, for
woe to him who had no tears in those days. Then it was also that Chaka
sent out the captain and fifty soldiers to search for Umslopogaas, for,
though he said nothing more to me of this matter, he did not believe all
the tale that I had told him of the death of Umslopogaas in the jaws of
a lion and the tale of those who were with me. How that company fared at
the hands of Umslopogaas and of Galazi the Wolf, and at the fangs of
the people black and grey, I have told you, my father. None of them ever
came back again. In after days it was reported to the king that these
soldiers were missing, never having returned, but he only laughed,
saying that the lion which ate Umslopogaas, son of Mopo, was a fierce
one, and had eaten them also.

At last came the night of the new moon, that dreadful night to be
followed by a more dreadful morrow. I sat in the kraal of Chaka, and he
put his arm about my neck and groaned and wept for his mother, whom he
had murdered, and I groaned also, but I did not weep, because it was
dark, and on the morrow I must weep much in the sight of king and men.
Therefore, I spared my tears, lest they should fail m