amine will follow the sickness, and then it will only need
that the Zulus should follow the famine to make an end of us once and
for all."

"It seems that your tribe must have sinned deeply and brought down upon
itself the curse of the spirits of its ancestors," said Sigwe, when
they had done their melancholy tale, "that so many misfortunes should
overtake you. Tell me now, who by right is ruler of the Umpondwana?"

"We do not know, chief," they answered, "or rather, we cannot tell if
our ruler is alive or dead, and if she is dead then none are left of the
true blood. She was a small woman, but very pretty and full of wisdom as
a mealie-cob with grains of corn, for in all this country there was no
doctoress or diviner like to her. Her name was Sihamba Ngenyanga, the
Wanderer-by-Moonlight, which name was given her when she was little,
because of her habit of walking in the dark alone, and she was the only
child of our late chief's _inkosikaas_, a princess of the Swazis, the
father of that lord, Koraanu, who lies dead of the small-pox. But when
this chief died and Sihamba was called upon to rule our tribe, quarrels
arose between her and the _indunas_ of the tribe, for she was a very
headstrong woman.

"We, the _indunas_, wished her to marry, but for her own reasons she
would not marry; also we wished to swear allegiance to Chaka, but she
was against it, saying that as well might a lamb swear allegiance to a
wolf as the Umpondwana to the Zulus. The end of it was that in a temper
she took a bowl of water, and before us all washed her hands of us, and
that same night she vanished away we know not where, though rumours have
reached us that she went south. From the day of her departure, however,
things have gone ill with us; the Zulus with whom we made peace threaten
us continually; her half-brother, Koraanu, the slave-born, was not a
good chief, and now he is dead of the sickness. So our heart is heavy
and our head is in the dust, and when we saw your impi we thought that
Dingaan, who now rules over the Zulus, had sent it to eat us up and to
take the cattle that still remain to us.

"But you say that you come in peace, so tell us, chief, what it is you
desire, and I trust that it may be little, for here we have nothing to
give, unless," he added with meaning, "it be the small-pox, although we
are ready to fight to the death for what is left to us, our liberty and
our cattle; and, chief, even a larger army than yours might