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."




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