the language I read in this glance
was--"Caution!"

She was attired in the short, apron-like girdle of the Bakoni,
ornamented with rich bead-work, and a light mantle of dressed fawn-skin
similarly adorned hung from one shoulder. As when I saw her first, she
wore upon her arms and neck bands of solid gold, after the manner of the
richer of the Bakoni, and her hair was gathered up from the scalp into a
high cone as the Zulu women wear it.

"Who art thou, my sister?" said the King, not choosing to show the
astonishment which even he felt.

"I am of the Bakoni, Great Great One. I am called Lalusini," she
answered in purest Zulu.

"Of the Bakoni? Lalusini? _Hau_! That is no name ever brought forth
of the twisted tongues of those chattering dogs. It is a full ripe Zulu
name, born of the race of the Heavens," returned the King. "Say now,
Lalusini. What wert thou among the Bakoni dogs whom we have stamped
flat? A prisoner?"

"Yea and nay, Black Black One. I was the Queen of their _muti_."

"Ha! Yet another magician! It seems that all the magicians in the
world find their way, or are brought here: first old Masuka, then the
white man--now this one," said Umzilikazi. "Ha, Untuswa--thou
magician-finder! How is it thou didst not find this one--thou who didst
find the rest?"

I only made murmur, for I guessed that the King was mocking me. And the
moment was in truth a trial as he went on--

"Say now, Queen of the Bakoni _muti_. How didst thou escape death or
capture when my children stamped flat thy people?"

"By the name thou spakest just now, Black Elephant--Queen of the Bakoni
_muti_, Now of what use is _muti_ if it fails in the day of necessity?"

"Thy story I will yet hear," answered the King. "Now say, Lalusini,
knowest thou Untuswa?"

"Untuswa? I seem to have heard that name. Surely it was that of the
King's messenger, who with only one young man, and he unringed, did hold
the Bakoni in defiance like a lion at bay."

"And thou hast not beheld him since that day?"

"I think not, Great Great One--and that day only from afar did I behold
him. Nay I saw him once at the council, and then nearer. He was a tall
man, who carried a very large spear."

"Look around, my sister, and tell me if he is here to-day," said the
King.

Lalusini looked first among such groups of warriors as were mustered
around. Then she stepped over to the assemblage of _izinduna_ among
whom I sat, and looked long and e