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I cried. "How dare you to speak thus from a lying heart? Do you wish to draw down a curse upon our roof? Would you make us all food for the king's spear? Say such words again, and you shall sit within the circle the Ingomboco shall know you for a witch!" So I stormed on, threatening to bring her to death, till at length she grew fearful, and fell at my feet praying for mercy and forgiveness.
Then I remembered the words which the king and I had whispered together of the cause for which this Ingomboco was set, and hope crept back to me like the first gleam of the dawn upon a stormy night. Still I did not hope overmuch, for it well might happen that the king had but set a trap to catch me. Now they were quite near and halted. "Have we dreamed falsely, sisters?" asked Nobela, the aged.
One noble only he caused to be killed, because he carried in his hand a stick of the royal red wood, which Chaka himself had given him in bygone years. This beautiful wood is known in Natal as "red ivory." On the last night before the forming of the Ingomboco, the witch-doctors, male and female, entered the kraal.
On that very day there had been an Ingomboco, and five of the bravest captains of the army had been smelt out by the Abangoma, the witch-finders, together with many others. All had been destroyed, and men had been sent to kill the wives and children of the dead. Now Chaka was very angry at this slaying, and opened his heart to me.
Ah! my father, those were evil days to live in when Chaka ruled, and death met us at every turn! Then no man might call his life his own, or that of his wife or child, or anything. All were the king's, and what war spared that the witch-doctors took. The morning dawned heavily, and before it was well light the heralds were out summoning all to the king's Ingomboco.
Let messengers go out east and west, and north and south, and summon the witch-doctors from every quarter! Let them summon the captains from every regiment and the headmen from every kraal! On the tenth day from now the circle of the Ingomboco must be set, and there shall be such a smelling out of wizards and of witches as has not been known in Zululand!"
There they remained like seeds in the earth, there they grew to bring forth fruit in their season. And thus ended the great Ingomboco of Chaka, the greatest Ingomboco that ever was held in Zululand.
The doomed slew the doomers, while from the circle of the Ingomboco a great roar of laughter went up, for men rejoiced because the burden of the witch-doctors had fallen from them. At last it was done, and we drew back from the heap of the dead. Nothing was heard there now no more cries or prayers or curses. The witch-finders travelled the path on which they had set the feet of many.
But few people were killed at these feast, though there was a great Ingomboco, or witch-hunt, and many were smelt out by the witch-doctors as working magic against the king. Now things had come to this pass in Zululand that the whole people cowered before the witch-doctors.