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"And I give you leave to become a kehla a wearer of the head-ring although, as you have said, you are still but a boy, and with it a place upon my Council." "Bayéte! As the King pleases," said Saduko, still apparently unmoved by the honours that were being heaped upon him. "And, Son of Matiwane," went on Panda, "you are still unmarried, are you not?"
Then a spokesman stepped forward, one of the few grey-haired men among them, for most of these Amangwane were of the age of Saduko, or even younger. "O Watcher-by-Night," he said, "I am Tshoza, the brother of Matiwane, Saduko's father, the only one of his brothers that escaped the slaughter on the night of the Great Killing. Is it not so?" "It is so," exclaimed the serried ranks behind him.
"Neither, Macumazahn, for these are my own cattle. Listen, now, and I will tell you a story. You have heard of Matiwane, the chief of the Amangwane?" "Yes," I answered. "His tribe lived near the head of the Umzinyati, did they not? Then they were beaten by the Boers or the English, and Matiwane came under the Zulus.
Live on, Son of Matiwane, that you may avenge Matiwane." "A nice tale," I said. "But what happened afterwards?" "Zikali took me away and nurtured me at his kraal in the Black Kloof, where he lived alone save for his servants, for in that kraal he would suffer no woman to set foot, Macumazahn.
It seemed to penetrate all through me, and that accursed stone in my throat grew as large as an apple and felt as though someone were poking it upwards with a stick. Next he threw the white pebble into the right-hand fire, that which was opposite to me, saying: "Enter, Macumazahn, and look," and the black pebble he threw into the left-hand fire saying: "Enter, Son of Matiwane, and look.
The next thing I remember was that the fires, which had died away almost to nothing, were burning very brightly again, I suppose because someone had put fuel on them, and Zikali was speaking. "Come here, O Macumazana and O Son of Matiwane," he said, "and I will repeat to you what your spirits have been telling me."
Afterwards, Bangu, we will divide the cattle, for Matiwane is strong and clever, and you shall not risk your life for nothing." Saduko paused and looked down at the ground, brooding heavily. "Macumazahn, it was done," he said presently.
But the old Amangwane, Tshoza, brother of the dead Matiwane, said: "No, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, is wise. Why should we waste our strength on stone walls, of which none know the number or can find the gates in the darkness, and thereby leave our skulls to be set up as ornaments on the fences of the accursed Amakoba?
"Tshoza, Inkoosi," answered the man. "Tshoza! Tshoza!" I said, for the name seemed familiar to me. "Who is Tshoza?" He came from Zululand some years ago with Saduko the Mad." Then, of course, I remembered at once, and my mind flew back to the night when old Tshoza, the brother of Matiwane, Saduko's father, had cut out the cattle of the Bangu and we had fought the battle in the pass. "Oh!"
Indeed, in my youth, before the Zulus were a people, they named me Opener of Doors; and now, looking through one of those doors, I see something about you, O Son of Matiwane. "'What do you see, my father? I asked. "'I see two roads, Saduko: the Road of Medicine, that is the spirit road, and the Road of Spears, that is the blood road.
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