Now tell me,
Opener of Roads, how did it pass from your keeping into that of
the spirit Nomkubulwana?"
At this question I distinctly saw a shiver shake the frame of
Zikali who realized too late the terrible mistake he had made.
Yet as only the great can do, he retrieved and even triumphed
over his error.
"Oho-ho!" he laughed, "who am I that I can tell how such things
happen? Do you not know, O King, that the Spirits leave what
they will and take what they will, whether it be but a blade of
grass, or the life of a man"--here he looked at Cetewayo--"or
even of a people? Sometimes they take the shadow and sometimes
the substance, since spirit or matter, all is theirs. As for the
little assegai, I lost it years ago. I remember that the last
time I saw it was in the hands of a woman named Mameena to whom I
showed it as a strange and bloody thing. After her death I found
that it was gone, so doubtless she took it with her to the
Under-world and there gave it to the Queen Nomkubulwana, with
whom you may remember this Mameena returned from that Under-world
yonder in the Bones."
"It may be so," said Cetewayo sullenly, "yet it was no spirit
iron that cut my thigh, but what do I know of the ways of
Spirits? Wizard, I would speak with you in your hut alone where
no ear can hear us."
"My hut is the King's," answered Zikali, "yet let the King
remember that those Spirits of which he does not know the ways,
can always hear, yes, even the thoughts of men, and on them do
judgment.
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