give
battle to the armies of other chiefs, but although I was eager to
see her I did not look upon my new wife that night. No, I sent out
messengers and gathered together all my army and all the people young
and old, yonder in the plain of assembly. Then when they were mustered
from far and near, I commanded that Batwa, the sister of Sikonyana,
should be produced in the face of the people that her loveliness might
shine upon me and upon them as the sun shines equally upon us all.

"Lady Swallow, the moment came, and this old woman was brought out;
yes, she strutted before us proudly, this one-eyed hag, this cat of the
mountains. For her I had sent an impi, for her I had paid a thousand
head of cattle, half of them pure black and half pure white----" and
Sigwe ceased, gasping with rage.

Now at this story Suzanne, who had not smiled for days, laughed aloud,
while even Sihamba the wise looked down studying the earth. But there
was one who did not laugh, and it was the one-eyed woman. No, she sprang
up and screamed aloud:

"Dog of a red Kaffir, who are you that dare to talk thus of a princess
of the blood of the Endwandwe, a princess whom Chaka, the great king,
wished to take to wife? You asked for Batwa in marriage, Batwa, the
sister to Sikonyana, and I am Batwa the sister of Sikonyana."

"Then, hag, there must be two Batwas," shouted Sigwe in answer.

"Two Batwas!" she screamed. "Fool and beast, there are _four_! In our
race all the women of the royal blood are named Batwa, and I am the
eldest and the wisest and the best of them, for I am older than my
brother Sikonyana by twenty years, I, who have had three husbands and
outlived them all; whereas the chit of whom you talk, a thing with a
waist like a reed and an eye like a sick buck, is his junior by ten
years, being a child of our father's last wife."

"It may be so," answered Sigwe, "for aught I know, every woman of your
accursed tribe is named Batwa, but this I say, that every soon there
will be few Batwas left to look upon the sun, for to-morrow I march
against them and I will stamp the house of Batwa flat, and you I will
hang to the roof-tree of the hut of the chief your brother; yes, I keep
you alive that I may hang you there, so until then you have nothing to
fear from me."

"Is it is, is it so, indeed?" shrieked the virago; "then I am safe, for,
little red Kaffir, I shall live to see you and your cowards beaten out
of the country of the Endwandwe with w