s were completely swallowed up. And then all cried
aloud in praise of the mercy of the King, who had thus shortened the
just suffering of those traitors by the swift death of suffocation,
while rendering them such a noble tomb as the ashes of a royal dwelling.

Such then was the end of Ekupumuleni, the Place of Rest; and again as we
resumed our journeyings, again as we swept northward upon our
devastating way, our path might have been read by the line of the
vultures in the heavens, by the track of wild beasts through the brake
and the grass, running side by side with us, well knowing who should
supply them with plentiful and easy prey.

Now none knew why the King should have been minded to spare my father,
Ntelani, for that the latter had been spared all now knew. Yet he was
cut off from all fellowship with his equals, and was forced to accompany
our march, sullen and sad, unarmed, and in the midst of a guard
consisting only of slaves. Some thought it was because he was the
father of him who wielded the King's Assegai; others that he was
reserved for an even worse fate; but all wondered he did not take his
own life rather than live on thus--he an _induna_ of high degree, now
forced to herd with Amaholi and the lowest of the people.

The little blue-eyed child whom I had taken from among the Amabuna had
by now quite lost all fear of us, and would laugh and play as merry as
the merriest of our children. My two younger wives cared for her
greatly; indeed, I think they loved her more than they did their own
children. But Nangeza, my _inkosikazi_, looked upon this little one
with a scowling brow. It would draw ill upon us, she used to declare,
to bring into our midst a child of such a race. However, beyond frowns
and growlings even she dare not go; for the child had been given into my
charge by the King, and to harm it meant death; nor was Nangeza tired of
life just then. This little one, too, feared nothing, not even the King
himself; and often, when Umzilikazi was moving abroad, and all were
bowing down before him with words of _bonga_, she would dart away from
those who would have restrained her, and run out all alone, and,
standing before the Great Great One, throw up her tiny hand in the air,
and cry aloud the _Bayete_, her blue eyes laughing up into the King's
face. And he would talk softly to her, and presently send round a
couple of white calves or two or three goats for her to play with. And
we named he