"
Now the Councillors stared at each other, for none knew what sign
to ask. At length old Sigananda said--
"O King, it is well known that the Black One who went before you
had a certain little assegai handled with the royal red wood,
which drank the blood of many. It was with this assegai that
Mopo his servant, who vanished from the land after the death of
Dingaan, let out the life of the Black One at the kraal Duguza,
but what became of it afterwards none have heard for certain.
Some say that it was buried with the Black One, some that Mopo
stole it. Others that Dingaan and Umhlagana burned it. Still a
saying rose like a wind in the land that when that spear shall
fall from heaven at the feet of the king who reigns in the place
of the Black One, then the Zulus shall make their last great war
and win a victory of which all the world shall hear. Now let the
Opener of Roads give us this sign of the falling of the Black
One's spear and I shall be content."
"Would you know the spear if it fell?" asked Cetewayo.
"I should know it, O King, who have often held it in my hand.
The end of the haft is gnawed, for when he was angry the Black
One used to bite it. Also a thumb's length from the blade is a
black mark made with hot iron. Once the Black One made a bet
with one of his captains that at a distance of ten paces he would
throw the spear deeper into the body of a chief whom he wished to
kill, than the captain could.
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