isililo

Updated: May 27, 2025

I dozed off, only to be awakened by a sound of wailing. Then I knew that the king was dead, for this was the Isililo, the cry of mourning. I wondered whether the murderers for that he was poisoned I had no doubt were among those who wailed. Towards dawn the storm rolled off and the night grew serene and clear, for a waning moon was shining in the sky.

Henry Rider Haggard - Finished

Thirdly, that she was a witch, who had enmeshed Umbelazi in the web of her sorceries and thereby caused him to aspire to the succession to the throne, to which he had no right, and made the isililo, or cry of mourning for the dead, to be heard in every kraal in Zululand. "With three such pitfalls in her narrow path, Mameena will have to walk carefully if she would escape them all," I said.

Henry Rider Haggard - Child of Storm