e will be dead
indeed."

So I went, leaving the women wondering, for it is not our custom to
save both when twins are born; but I ran swiftly to the gates of the
Emposeni.

"I bring the medicines, men of the king!" I said to the guards.

"Pass in," they answered.

I passed through the gates and into the hut of Baleka. Unandi was alone
in the hut with my sister.

"The child is born," said the mother of the king. "Look at him, Mopo,
son of Makedama!"

I looked. He was a great child with large black eyes like the eyes
of Chaka the king; and Unandi, too, looked at me. "Where is it?" she
whispered.

I loosed the mat and drew the dead child from the medicines, glancing
round fearfully as I did so.

"Give me the living babe," I whispered back.

They gave it to me and I took of a drug that I knew and rubbed it on the
tongue of the child. Now this drug has the power to make the tongue it
touches dumb for awhile. Then I wrapped up the child in my medicines
and again bound the mat about the bundle. But round the throat of the
still-born babe I tied a string of fibre as though I had strangled it,
and wrapped it loosely in a piece of matting.

Now for the first time I spoke to Baleka: "Woman," I said, "and thou
also, Mother of the Heavens, I have done your wish, but know that before
all is finished this deed shall bring about the death of many. Be secret
as the grave, for the grave yawns for you both."

I went again, bearing the mat containing the dead child in my right
hand. But the bundle of medicines that held the living one I fastened
across my shoulders. I passed out of the Emposeni, and, as I went, I
held up the bundle in my right hand to the guards, showing them that
which was in it, but saying nothing.

"It is good," they said, nodding.

But now ill-fortune found me, for just outside the Emposeni I met three
of the king's messengers.

"Greeting, son of Makedama!" they said. "The king summons you to the
Intunkulu"--that is the royal house, my father.

"Good!" I answered. "I will come now; but first I would run to my own
place to see how it goes with Macropha, my wife. Here is that which the
king seeks," and I showed them the dead child. "Take it to him if you
will."

"That is not the king's command, Mopo," they answered. "His word is that
you should stand before him at once."

Now my heart turned to water in my breast. Kings have many ears. Could
he have heard? And how dared I go before the Lion bearin