d this has been my fortune: that none have sought to constrain
me to marriage. Now I have my reward, for he whom I lost is found again,
and to him alone I give my love. Yet, Umslopogaas, beware! Little luck
has come to those who have loved me in the past; no, not even to those
who have but sought to look on me."

"I will bear the risk, Nada," the Slaughterer answered, and gathering
her to his great breast he kissed her.

Presently she slipped from his arms and bade him begone, for she was
weary and would rest.

So he went.

CHAPTER XXXI. THE WAR OF THE WOMEN

Now on the morrow at daybreak, leaving his wolves, Galazi came down from
the Ghost Mountain and passed through the gates of the kraal.

In front of my hut he saw Nada the Lily and saluted her, for each
remembered the other. Then he walked on to the place of assembly and
spoke to me.

"So the Star of Death has risen on the People of the Axe, Mopo," he
said. "Was it because of her coming that my grey people howled so
strangely last night? I cannot tell, but I know this, the Star shone
first on me this morning, and that is my doom. Well, she is fair enough
to be the doom of many, Mopo," and he laughed and passed on, swinging
the Watcher. But his words troubled me, though they were foolish; for I
could not but remember that wherever the beauty of Nada had pleased the
sight of men, there men had been given to death.

Then I went to lead Nada to the place of assembly and found her awaiting
me. She was dressed now in some woman's garments that I had brought her;
her curling hair fell upon her shoulders; on her wrist and neck and knee
were bracelets of ivory, and in her hand she bore a lily bloom which she
had gathered as she went to bathe in the river. Perhaps she did this, my
father, because she wished here, as elsewhere, to be known as the Lily,
and it is the Zulu fashion to name people from some such trifle. But
who can know a woman's reason, or whether a thing is by chance alone, my
father? Also she had begged me of a cape I had; it was cunningly made by
Basutus, of the whitest feathers of the ostrich; this she put about her
shoulders, and it hung down to her middle. It had been a custom with
Nada from childhood not to go about as do other girls, naked except for
their girdles, for she would always find some rag or skin to lie upon
her breast. Perhaps it was because her skin was fairer than that of
other women, or perhaps because she knew that she who hid