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Updated: June 11, 2025
"Nay, my lords, he is the king, and if he were killed Scragga would reign in his place, and the heart of Scragga is blacker than the heart of Twala his father. If Scragga were king his yoke upon our neck would be heavier than the yoke of Twala. If Imotu had never been slain, or if Ignosi his son had lived, it might have been otherwise; but they are both dead."
When the last companies had advanced some five hundred yards, Ignosi put himself at the head of the Buffaloes, which regiment was drawn up in a similar three-fold formation, and gave the word to march, and off we went, I, needless to say, uttering the most heartfelt prayers that I might emerge from that entertainment with a whole skin.
The king! but I knew that it was not so, for Imotu my brother was the elder of the twins, and our lawful king. Then just as the tumult was at its height Imotu the king, though he was very sick, crawled from his hut holding his wife by the hand, and followed by his little son Ignosi that is, by interpretation, the Lightning. "'What is this noise? he asked. 'Why cry ye The king! The king!
"Nay, Ignosi, we want none of these things," I answered; "we would seek our own place." "Now do I learn," said Ignosi bitterly, and with flashing eyes, "that ye love the bright stones more than me, your friend. Ye have the stones; now ye would go to Natal and across the moving black water and sell them, and be rich, as it is the desire of a white man's heart to be.
"Come hither," he called, to a very old Induna or councillor, who was sitting with others in a circle round the king, but out of ear-shot. The ancient man rose, approached, saluted, and seated himself. "Thou art aged," said Ignosi. "Ay, my lord the king! Thy father's father and I were born on the same day." "Tell me, when thou wast little, didst thou know Gagaoola the witch doctress?"
The last word is in Ignosi the king, for it is a king's right to speak of war; but let us hear thy voice, O Macumazahn, who watchest by night, and the voice too of him of the transparent eye." "What sayest thou, Ignosi," I asked.
"Ah, these are men, indeed; they will conquer again," called out Ignosi, who was grinding his teeth with excitement at my side. "See, it is done!" Suddenly, like puffs of smoke from the mouth of a cannon, the attacking regiment broke away in flying groups, their white head-dresses streaming behind them in the wind, and left their opponents victors, indeed, but, alas! no more a regiment.
"Incubu, what sayest thou, shall we end what we began to-day, or shall I call thee coward, white even to the liver?" "Nay," interposed Ignosi hastily; "thou shalt not fight with Incubu." "Not if he is afraid," said Twala. Unfortunately Sir Henry understood this remark, and the blood flamed up into his cheeks. "I will fight him," he said; "he shall see if I am afraid."
The officer in command of this regiment saluted Ignosi as king, and informed him that Twala's army had taken refuge in the town, whither Twala himself had also escaped, but he thought that they were thoroughly demoralised, and would surrender.
Then the son Ignosi became a wanderer again, and journeyed into a land of wonders, where white people live, and for many more years he learned the wisdom of the white people." "It is a pretty story," said Infadoos incredulously.
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