d you yourselves shall go free, everyone of you;
more, although I will take this stronghold of yours to live in myself, I
will give back to you the half of the cattle. Now, answer.'

"Lady, when he had finished speaking we consulted together and answered
Bull-Head thus: 'We cannot give over to you our chieftainess and her
white sister, for it is better to die than that such dishonour should
lie upon our names. But if you will let us go, you can take them from
among our number as we pass before you, for that will be no fault of
ours, or if they do not choose to accompany us, after we have gone by
you can ascend the mountain and take them.'

"To this Bull-Head assented, saying, 'Set the Lady Swallow in her chair
upon the cliff edge and Sihamba at her side so that my eyes seeing them
may know that they are safe, and you shall go.' So it was agreed between
us that to-morrow at the dawn he will open the wall and let us down to
the river to drink, after which we may pass whither we will."

Now when Sihamba heard these shameful words her rage was so great that
for a while she could not even speak. At length she found her tongue and
gasped out:

"Oh! father of cowards, do you dare to sing such a song in my ears? Why
do not you, who are many, storm the pass and take the water?"

"Lady," answered the old man coldly, "we dare because we must, for
honour cannot live before the assegai of thirst. You talk to us of
storming the pass; we cannot storm it, for ten men can hold that place
against a hundred; also our arms are weak and we are weary of war.
Listen; on the one hand are the lives of thousands, with them your
own and that of the White Swallow, and on the other this dishonour. We
choose the dishonour, since if you and the Swallow do not desire to fall
into the hands of Bull-Head, you can still do what you must have done
had we chosen honour. Lady, you can die, knowing that by your death you
have saved the lives of the multitude over whom you rule.

"Listen again, lady, we did not seek you, it was you who came back to us
after the death of the chief, your brother. We accepted you and you
have ruled us justly for these two years, but you wish to make of us
a fighting people who are and who desire to remain a people of peace.
Moreover, you promised that the white chieftainess, your companion,
would bring us prosperity and good, whereas to us she has been a bird of
ill-omen, for since she came here on her account there has bee