United States or Argentina ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I bent to the earth before him, and went to do his bidding with a heavy heart, for was not Baleka my sister? and would not her child be of my own blood? Still, it must be so, for Chaka's whisper was as the shout of other kings, and, if we dared to disobey, then our lives and the lives of all in our kraals would answer for it.
"I bring the medicines, men of the king!" I said to the guards. "Pass in," they answered. I passed through the gates and into the hut of Baleka. Unandi was alone in the hut with my sister. "The child is born," said the mother of the king. "Look at him, Mopo, son of Makedama!" I looked. He was a great child with large black eyes like the eyes of Chaka the king; and Unandi, too, looked at me.
Then I told him all the story from the hour of his birth onwards, and when I spoke of the words of his mother, Baleka, after I had told my dream to her, and of the manner of her death by the command of Chaka, and of the great fashion in which she had died, then, I say, Umslopogaas wept, who, I think, seldom wept before or after.
"He plots against my throne, woman? The lizard plots against the cliff on which it suns itself? Then let him plot; and as for Mopo, I will catch him yet!" "Yes, O King! but that is not all the tale. This man has another name he is named Umslopogaas, son of Mopo. But he is no son of Mopo: he is son to the Black One who is dead, the mighty king who was thy brother, by Baleka, sister to Mopo.
Red was the earth with their blood, and red they looked in the red light of the setting sun. It was as though all the land had been smeared with the bloody hand of the Great Spirit, of the Umkulunkulu. Baleka saw it and began to cry; she was weary, poor girl, and we had found little to eat, only grass and green corn.
Still, we had nowhere to turn, so I said that we would walk along till something happened. Now we grew faint with hunger and weariness, and Baleka said that we had better sit down and die, for then there would be no more trouble. So we sat down by a spring. But I did not wish to die yet, thought Baleka was right, and it would have been well to do so.
It was a little matter that we wagered on as to whether the people of the Langeni tribe thine own tribe, Baleka, my sister would fill yonder place, U'Donga-lu-ka-Tatiyana. When they heard of the bet, my sister, the people of the Langeni hurled themselves into the rift by thousands, being eager to put the matter to the proof.
Now for the first time I spoke to Baleka: "Woman," I said, "and thou also, Mother of the Heavens, I have done your wish, but know that before all is finished this deed shall bring about the death of many. Be secret as the grave, for the grave yawns for you both." I went again, bearing the mat containing the dead child in my right hand.
Now I remembered how this Chaka promised that he would make me great, and that I should grow fat in his shadow; and I thought to myself that I would arise and go to him. Perhaps he would kill me; well, what did it matter? Certainly I should be killed if I stayed here. Yes, I would go. But now my heart pulled another way. There was but one whom I loved in the world it was my sister Baleka.
You stabbed him with a little spear, and he fell down and grew small again; he fell down and cursed you. But you cried in his ear a name the name of Baleka, your sister and he died. Let us go home, Mopo, let us go home; the darkness falls." So we rose and went home. But I held my peace, for I was afraid, very much afraid.
Word Of The Day