"Did I not tell you, Macumazahn, that when two bucks met they would

fight?" whispered Mameena suavely into my ear.

"Yes, Mameena, you did--or rather I told you. But you did not tell me

what the doe would do."

"The doe, Macumazahn, will crouch in her form and see what happens--as

is the fashion of does," and again she laughed softly.

"Why not do your own hunting, Masapo?" asked Saduko. "Come, now, I

will promise you good sport. Outside this kraal there are other hyenas

waiting who call me chief--a hundred or two of them--assembled for a

certain purpose by the royal leave of King Panda, whose House, as we all

know, you hate. Come, leave that beef and beer and begin your hunting of

hyenas, O Masapo."

Now Masapo sat silent, for he saw that he who thought to snare a baboon

had caught a tiger.

"You do not speak, O Chief of the little Amansomi," went on Saduko, who

was beside himself with rage and jealousy. "You will not leave your beef

and beer to hunt the hyenas who are captained by an umfokazana! Well,

then, the umfokazana will speak," and, stepping up to Masapo, with the

spear he carried poised in his right hand, Saduko grasped his rival's

short beard with his left.

"Listen, Chief," he said. "You and I are enemies. You seek the woman I

seek, and, mayhap, being rich, you will buy her. But if so, I tell you

that I will kill you and all your House, you sneaking, half-bred dog!"

With these fierce words he spat in his face and tumbled him backwards.

Then, before anyone could stop him, for Umbezi, and even Masapo's

headmen, seemed paralysed with surprise, he stalked through the kraal

gate, saying as he passed me: "Inkoosi, I have words for you when you are at liberty."

"You shall pay for this," roared Umbezi after him, turning almost green

with rage, for Masapo still lay upon his broad back, speechless, "you

who dare to insult my guest in my own house."

"Somebody must pay," cried back Saduko from the gate, "but who it is

only the unborn moons will see."

"Mameena," I said as I followed him, "you have set fire to the grass,

and men will be burned in it."

"I meant to, Macumazahn," she answered calmly. "Did I not tell you

that there was a flame in me, and it will break out sometimes? But,

Macumazahn, it is you who have set fire to the grass, not I. Remember

that when half Zululand is in ashes. Farewell, O Macumazana, till we

meet again, and," she added softly, "whoever else must burn, may the

spirits have you in their keeping."

At the gate, remembering my manners, I turned to bid that company a

polite farewell. By now Masapo had gained his feet, and was roaring out

like a bull: "Kill him! Kill the hyena! Umbezi, will you sit still and see me, your

guest--me, Masapo--struck and insulted under the shadow of your own hut?

Go forth and kill him, I say!"




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