here,
say no more, I beseech you. If you were going to die, I wished to die,
too, who, if you had left it, should only have wandered through the
world without a heart. That is why I jumped into the pool, not because I
am brave."

When I heard this my own eyes grew moist. Oh, it is the fashion to abuse
natives, but from whom do we meet with more fidelity and love than from
these poor wild Kafirs that so many of us talk of as black dirt which
chances to be fashioned to the shape of man?

"As for myself, Inkoosi," added Saduko, "I only did my duty. How could
I have held up my head again if the bull had killed you while I walked
away alive? Why, the very girls would have mocked at me. But, oh, his
skin was tough. I thought that assegai would never get through it."

Observe the difference between these two men's characters. The one,
although no hero in daily life, imperils himself from sheer, dog-like
fidelity to a master who had given him many hard words and sometimes
a flogging in punishment for drunkenness, and the other to gratify his
pride, also perhaps because my death would have interfered with his
plans and ambitions in which I had a part to play. No, that is a hard
saying; still, there is no doubt that Saduko always first took his own
interests into consideration, and how what he did would reflect upon
his prospects and repute, or influence the attainment of his desires. I
think this was so even when Mameena was concerned--at any rate, in the
beginning--although certainly he always loved her with a single-hearted
passion that is very rare among Zulus.

Presently Scowl left the hut to prepare me some broth, whereon Saduko at
once turned the talk to this subject of Mameena.

He understood that I had seen her. Did I not think her very beautiful?

"Yes, very beautiful," I answered; "indeed, the most beautiful Zulu
woman I have ever seen."

And very clever--almost as clever as a white?

"Yes, and very clever--much cleverer than most whites."

And--anything else?

"Yes; very dangerous, and one who could turn like the wind and blow hot
and blow cold."

"Ah!" he said, thought a while, then added: "Well, what do I care how
she blows to others, so long as she blows hot to me."

"Well, Saduko, and does she blow hot for you?"

"Not altogether, Macumazahn." Another pause. "I think she blows rather
like the wind before a great storm."

"That is a biting wind, Saduko, and when we feel it we know that the
storm wi