Well, I did him an injustice, for presently he turned and said, with
something of an effort: "Macumazahn, half of all these belong to you, and truly you have earned
them, for it was your cunning and good counsel that gained us the
victory. Now we will choose them beast by beast."
So I chose a fine ox, then Saduko chose one; and so it went on till I
had eight of my number driven out. As the eighth was taken I turned to
Saduko and said: "There, that will do. These oxen I must have to replace those in my
teams which died on the trek, but I want no more."
"Wow!" said Saduko, and all those who stood with him, while one of them
added--I think it was old Tshoza: "He refuses six hundred cattle which are fairly his! He must be mad!"
"No friends," I answered, "I am not mad, but neither am I bad. I
accompanied Saduko on this raid because he is dear to me and stood by
me once in the hour of danger. But I do not love killing men with whom I
have no quarrel, and I will not take the price of blood."
"Wow!" said old Tshoza again, for Saduko seemed too astonished to speak,
"he is a spirit, not a man. He is holy!"
"Not a bit of it," I answered. "If you think that, ask Mameena"--a dark
saying which they did not understand. "Now, listen. I will not take
those cattle because I do not think as you Kafirs think. But as they are
mine, according to your law, I am going to dispose of them. I give ten
head to each of my hunters, and fifteen head to the relations of him
who was killed. The rest I give to Tshoza and to the other men of
the Amangwane who fought with us, to be divided among them in such
proportions as they may agree, I being the judge in the event of any
quarrel arising."
Now these men raised a great cry of "Inkoosi!" and, running up, old
Tshoza seized my hand and kissed it.
"Your heart is big," he cried; "you drop fatness! Although you are
so small, the spirit of a king lives in you, and the wisdom of the
heavens."
Thus he praised me, while all the others joined in, till the din was
awful. Saduko thanked me also in his magnificent manner. Yet I do not
think that he was altogether pleased, although my great gift relieved
him from the necessity of sharing up the spoil with his companions.
The truth was, or so I believe, that he understood that henceforth the
Amangwane would love me better than they loved him. This, indeed, proved
to be the case, for I am sure that there was no man among all those wild
fellows who would not have served me to the death, and to this day my
name is a power among them and their descendants. Also it has grown into
something of a proverb among all those Kafirs who know the story.
They talk of any great act of liberality in an idiom as "a gift of
Macumazana," and in the same way of one who makes any remarkable
renunciation, as "a wearer of Macumazana's blanket," or as "he who has
stolen Macumazana's shadow."