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Updated: June 15, 2025
"Ill shalt thou sleep from this night forth, Chaka, till thou comest to a land where no sleep is. I have spoken." Chaka saw and heard, and of a sudden he quailed, growing afraid in his heart, and turned his head away. "Mopo, my brother," said Baleka, "let us speak together for the last time; it is the king's word." So I drew apart with Baleka, my sister, and a spear was in my hand.
The darkness was coming on fast as the strange procession passed up the channel to thread the intricate passages among the clustering islands. In a few minutes the canoe would be almost hidden from sight; but the very last thing Mr. Hume wanted was to keep company. "Baleka!" he cried. "Quicker! I have your heads in one line. One bullet would stretch you all dead. Quicker!" he roared.
So I thought as I sat through the watches of the night, ay! and drew out the bitter drug and laid it on my tongue. But as I did so I remembered my daughter Nada, who was left to me, though she sojourned in a far country, and my wife Macropha and my sister Baleka, who still lived, so said the soldiers, though how it came about that the king had not killed her I did not know then.
At the least, the arm rose at her side, and was ringed with such bracelets as Baleka wore, and it beckoned from her side, though her cold face changed not at all. Thrice the arm rose, thrice it stood awhile in air, thrice it beckoned with crooked finger, as though it summoned something from the depths of the shadow, and from the multitudes of the dead.
Take these men, smear them with honey, and pin them over ant-heaps; by to-morrow's sun they will know their own minds. But first kill these two hunted jackals," and he pointed to Baleka and myself. "They seem tired and doubtless they long for sleep." Then for the first time I spoke, for the soldiers drew near to slay us. "O Chaka," I cried, "I am Mopo, and this is my sister Baleka."
Now when the soldiers on the other bank saw that we had crossed, they shouted threats at us, then ran away down the bank. "Arise, Baleka!" I said: "they have gone to see a ford." "Ah, let me die!" she answered. But I forced her to rise, and after awhile she got her breath again, and we walked on as fast as we could up the long rise.
But my right arm yet remained to me, my father, and, ah! I used it. "It seems that Nobela, the doctress, who is dead, lied when she prophesied evil on me from thee, Mopo," said Chaka again. "It seems that thou art innocent of this offence, and that Baleka, thy sister, is innocent, and that the song which the Mother of the Heavens sang through the singing flames was no true song.
Above us the waters ran angrily, breaking into swirls of white where they passed over sunken rocks; below was a rapid, in which none might live; between the two a deep pool, where the water was quiet but the stream strong. "Ah! my brother, what shall we do?" gasped Baleka. "There is this to choose," I answered; "perish on the spears of our people or try the river."
"Perhaps it were well if he had been so slain, Baleka," said Unandi; "then had many another man lived to look upon the sun who is now dead." "At the least, as an infant he was good and gentle, and thou mightest love him, Mother of the Zulu." "Never, Baleka! As a babe he bit my breast and tore my hair; as the man is so was the babe." "Yet may his child be otherwise, Mother of the Heavens!
About a hundred paces from me Baleka was staggering along with her arms out like one who has drunk too much beer. By the time I caught her she was some forty paces from the gate of the kraal. But then her strength left her altogether. Yes! there she fell senseless, and I stood by her.
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