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Updated: June 25, 2025
Then we dined, and for the rest of that afternoon slept, for all of us, including Brother John, needed rest badly. In the evening Babemba came, and we three white men saw him alone. "Tell us about the Pongo and this white devil they worship," I said. "Macumazana," he answered, "fifty years have gone by since I was in that land and I see things that happened to me there as through a mist.
The Zulu hunters were already outside the fence, seated on the ground, chatting and taking snuff. I wondered if this was because they really believed in Mavovo's confounded Snake, or from bravado, inspired by the innate courage of their race. When they saw me they sprang to their feet and, lifting their right hands, gave me a loud and hearty salute of "Inkoosi! Baba! Inkoosi! Macumazana!"
Nor was this altogether wonderful, for on entering the place I found Scowl trimming up "the Old Cow's" ear with a pair of blunt nail-scissors. "O Macumazana," said Umbezi in a hoarse whisper, "might it not perhaps be as well to leave her alone? If she bled to death, at any rate she would be quieter." "Are you a man or a hyena?"
"O Macumazana," he answered, "that dog Masapo has bewitched my boy, and unless you can save him he dies." "Nonsense," I said, "why do you utter wind? If the babe is sick, it is from some natural cause." "Wait till you see it," he replied. Well, I went into the big hut, and there found Nandie and some other women, also a native doctor or two.
It is clear that you have a good deal to learn in Pongo-land." "Yes, my lord Macumazana, and so perhaps have you," he replied dryly, having by this time recovered his nerve and sarcastic powers. Then after telling Mavovo, who appeared mysteriously at the sound of the shot I think he was stalking us in case of accidents to fetch men to cut up the rhinoceros, Komba and I proceeded on our walk.
Therefore, I say, 'Wait till the buffalo shall either charge or run. But the word is with you, Macumazana, wise Watcher-by-Night, not with me, your hunter. Speak, you who are old in war, and I will obey." "You argue well," I answered; "also another reason comes to my mind. Those Arab brutes may get behind the slaves, of whom we should butcher a lot without hurting them.
"Yes," answered Marût, "and very soon we shall follow him, Macumazana." I wished that his face were visible so that I could see if he still smiled when he uttered those words. An hour or so later the usual fire appeared in the marketplace, round which the usual figures flitted dimly. The sight of them fascinated me, although I did not want to look, fearing what I might see.
As I got hold of the handle, however, a deep voice said: "Is it your custom, O Macumazana, Watcher-by-Night, to receive guests with bullets?"
Presently we stood outside the house amidst the moaning trees, and very cold it was there. "What does all this mean, O men of Africa?" I asked. "Answer the question yourself when you stand face to face with the great elephant Jana that has in it an evil spirit, O Macumazana," replied Harût. "Nay, listen.
"And quite enough too," I said. "Now answer me. How far was the town from the place where you were captured in Mazitu-land?" "A whole day's journey in the canoe, Macumazana. I was captured in the morning early and we reached the harbour in the evening at a place where many canoes were tied up, perhaps fifty of them, some of which would hold forty men."
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