United States or Bhutan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Umbelazi and I departed also through the gateway of the fence, leaving Saduko and the Princess Nandie alone together, for there were no attendants present. What happened between them I am sure I do not know, but I gather that, in one way or another, Saduko made himself sufficiently agreeable to the princess to persuade her to take him to husband.
But all I said was: "By the Heavens above I am sorry for you, Saduko! How many enemies you must have made! What a long way there will be for you to fall one night!" a remark at which the quiet Nandie broke into a low laugh that I think pleased her husband even less than my sarcasm. "Well," I went on, "I see that you have got a baby, which is much better than all these titles.
I told her that she could leave him for another man, or wait till her Spirit moved him from her path; but I never put evil into her heart, seeing that it was there already. "Then she and no other, having first made Saduko love her more than ever, murdered the child of Nandie, his Inkosikazi; and so brought about the death of Masapo and crept into Saduko's arms.
Now, here at your feast, when you reviewed the people of the Zulus, O King, after you had given me the lady Nandie as wife, Mameena and I met again and loved each other more than we had ever done before.
So we fell to conversing on the condition of Zululand and the dangers that lay ahead for all who were connected with the royal House a state of affairs which troubled Nandie much, for she was a clear-headed woman, and one who feared the future. "Ah!
Now, I began to wish that I were out of that hut, for really a little of this uncanny business went a long way. Indeed, I suggested going, but Nandie would not allow it. "Stay with me till the end," she muttered. So I had to stay, wondering what Saduko heard Umbelazi whispering to Mameena, and on which side of me he saw her standing. He began to wander in his mind.
"Oh, to bid you farewell for a little while, Macumazahn. Also to tell you that Panda, or rather Cetewayo, for now Panda is but his Voice, since the Head must go where the Feet carry it, has spared Saduko at the prayer of Nandie and banished him from the land, giving him his cattle and any people who care to go with him to wherever he may choose to live from henceforth.
Only, he looked at his daughter, Nandie, who rose and said: "Have I leave to call a witness on this matter of the poison, my Father?" Panda nodded, whereon Nandie said to one of the councillors: "Be pleased to summon my woman, Nahana, who waits without."
Whilst I was talking to her of that sad matter, also of the political state of the country, as to which I think she wished to say something to me, Mameena entered the hut, without waiting to be asked, and sat down, whereon Nandie became suddenly silent. This, however, did not trouble Mameena, who talked away about anything and everything, completely ignoring the head-wife.
The eternal wranglings between your brethren, Cetewayo and Umbelazi, have worn me out." Now Nandie looked about her in her open, honest fashion, her gaze resting first on Saduko, then on Umbelazi, and lastly upon me. "My Father," she said at length, in her soft, steady voice, "tell me, I beseech you, who proposes this marriage?
Word Of The Day