e.

Now after I had thwarted him in this matter of the sending of an impi to
pluck the Lily from the gardens of the Halakazi, Dingaan learned to hate
me. Also I was in his secrets, and with me he had killed his brother
Chaka and his brother Umhlangana, and it was I who held him back from
the slaying of his brother Panda also; and, therefore, he hated me, as
is the fashion of small-hearted men with those who have lifted them up.
Yet he did not dare to do away with me, for my voice was loud in the
land, and when I spoke the people listened. Therefore, in the end, he
cast about for some way to be rid of me for a while, till he should grow
strong enough to kill me.

"Mopo," said the king to me one day as I sat before him in council with
others of the indunas and generals, "mindest thou of the last words
of the Great Elephant, who is dead?" This he said meaning Chaka his
brother, only he did not name him, for now the name of Chaka was blonipa
in the land, as is the custom with the names of dead kings--that is, my
father, it was not lawful that it should pass the lips.

"I remember the words, O King," I answered. "They were ominous words,
for this was their burden: that you and your house should not sit long
in the throne of kings, but that the white men should take away your
royalty and divide your territories. Such was the prophecy of the Lion
of the Zulu, why speak of it? Once before I heard him prophecy, and his
words were fulfilled. May the omen be an egg without meat; may it never
become fledged; may that bird never perch upon your roof, O King!"

Now Dingaan trembled with fear, for the words of Chaka were in his mind
by night and by day; then he grew angry and bit his lip, saying:--

"Thou fool, Mopo! canst thou not hear a raven croak at the gates of a
kraal but thou must needs go tell those who dwell within that he waits
to pick their eyes? Such criers of ill to come may well find ill at
hand, Mopo." He ceased, looked on me threateningly awhile, and went on:
"I did not speak of those words rolling by chance from a tongue half
loosed by death, but of others that told of a certain Bulalio, of a
Slaughterer who rules the People of the Axe and dwells beneath the
shadow of the Ghost Mountain far away to the north yonder. Surely I
heard them all as I sat beneath the shade of the reed-fence before ever
I came to save him who was my brother from the spear of Masilo, the
murderer, whose spear stole away the life of a king?