of Gopani-Kufa
was turning grey with age, there came white men to that country. Up the
Zambesi they came, and they fought long and fiercely with Gopani-Kufa;
but, because of the power of the Magic Mirror, he beat them, and they
fled to the sea-coast. Chief among them was one Rei, a man of much
cunning, who sought to discover whence sprang Gopani-Kufa's power. So
one day he called to him a trusty servant named Butou, and said: 'Go you
to the town and find out for me what is the secret of its greatness.'

And Butou, dressing himself in rags, set out, and when he came to
Gopani-Kufa's town he asked for the chief; and the people took him
into the presence of Gopani-Kufa. When the white man saw him he humbled
himself, and said: 'O Chief! take pity on me, for I have no home! When
Rei marched against you I alone stood apart, for I knew that all the
strength of the Zambesi lay in your hands, and because I would not fight
against you he turned me forth into the forest to starve!'

And Gopani-Kufa believed the white man's story, and he took him in and
feasted him, and gave him a house.

In this way the end came. For the heart of Shasasa, the daughter of
Gopani-Kufa, went forth to Butou the traitor, and from her he learnt the
secret of the Magic Mirror. One night, when all the town slept, he felt
beneath her pillow and, finding the Mirror, he stole it and fled back
with it to Rei, the chief of the white men.

So it befell that, one day, as Gopani-Kufa was gazing up at the river
from a window of the palace he again saw the war-canoes of the white
men; and at the sight his spirit misgave him.

'Shasasa! my daughter!' he cried wildly, 'go fetch me the mirror, for
the white men are at hand.'

'Woe is me, my father!' she sobbed. 'The Mirror is gone! For I loved
Butou the traitor, and he has stolen Sipao from me!'

Then Gopani-Kufa calmed himself, and drew out Zengi-mizi from its rush
basket.

'O spirit of my father!' he said, 'what now shall I do?'

'O Gopani-Kufa!' hummed the wasp, 'there is nothing now that can be
done, for the words of the antelope which you slew are being fulfilled.'

'Alas! I am an old man--I had forgotten!' cried the chief. 'The words
of the antelope were true words--my reward shall be my undoing--they are
being fulfilled!'

Then the white men fell upon the people of Gopani-Kufa and slew them
together with the chief and his daughter Shasasa; and since then all the
power of the Earth has rested in th