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Child of Storm

H >> H. Rider Haggard >> Child of Storm




"Surely, O King," she said, "that matter was settled long ago, when the
Ndwande, Zikali, the great Nyanga, smelt out Masapo the wizard, he who
was my husband, and brought him to his death for this crime. Must I
then be tried for it again?"

"Not so, woman," answered Panda. "All that Zikali smelt out was the
poison that wrought the crime, and as some of that poison was found upon
Masapo, he was killed as a wizard. Yet it may be that it was not he who
used the poison."

"Then surely the King should have thought of that before he died,"
murmured Mameena. "But I forget: It is known that Masapo was always
hostile to the House of Senzangakona."

To this remark Panda made no answer, perhaps because it was
unanswerable, even in a land where it was customary to kill the supposed
wizard first and inquire as to his actual guilt afterwards, or not at
all. Or perhaps he thought it politic to ignore the suggestion that he
had been inspired by personal enmity. 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."

The man went, and presently returned with an elderly female who, it
appeared, had been Nandie's nurse, and, never having married, owing to
some physical defect, had always remained in her service, a person well
known and much respected in her humble walk of life.

"Nahana," said Nandie, "you are brought here that you may repeat to the
King and his council a tale which you told to me as to the coming of a
certain woman into my hut before the death of my first-born son, and
what she did there. Say first, is this woman present here?"

"Aye, Inkosazana," answered Nahana, "yonder she sits. Who could mistake
her?" and she pointed to Mameena, who was listening to every word
intently, as a dog listens at the mouth of an ant-bear hole when the
beast is stirring beneath.

"Then what of the woman and her deeds?" asked Panda.

"Only this, O King. Two nights before the child that is dead was taken
ill, I saw Mameena creep into the hut of the lady Nandie, I who was
asleep alone in a corner of the big hut out of reach of the light of the
fire. At the time the lady Nandie was away from the hut with her son.
Knowing the woman for Mameena, the wife of Masapo, who was on friendly
terms with the Inkosazana, whom I supposed she had come to visit, I did
not declare myself; nor did I take any particular note when I saw her
sprinkle a little mat upon which the babe, Saduko's son, was wont to be
laid, with some medicine, because I had heard her promise to the
Inkosazana a powder which she said would drive away insects. Only, when
I saw her throw some of this powder into the vessel of warm water that
stood by the fire, to be used for the washing of the child, and place
something, muttering certain words that I could not catch, in the straw
of the doorway, I thought it strange, and was about to question her when
she left the hut. As it happened, O King, but a little while
afterwards, before one could count ten tens indeed, a messenger came to
the hut to tell me that my old mother lay dying at her kraal four days'
journey from Nodwengu, and prayed to see me before she died. Then I
forgot all about Mameena and the powder, and, running out to seek the
Princess Nandie, I craved her leave to go with the messenger to my
mother's kraal, which she granted to me, saying that I need not return
until my mother was buried.

"So I went. But, oh! my mother took long to die. Whole moons passed
before I shut her eyes, and all this while she would not let me go; nor,
indeed, did I wish to leave her whom I loved. At length it was over,
and then came the days of mourning, and after those some more days of
rest, and after them again the days of the division of the cattle, so
that in the end six moons or more had gone by before I returned to the
service of the Princess Nandie, and found that Mameena was now the
second wife of the lord Saduko. Also I found that the child of the lady
Nandie was dead, and that Masapo, the first husband of Mameena, had been
smelt out and killed as the murderer of the child. But as all these
things were over and done with, and as Mameena was very kind to me,
giving me gifts and sparing me tasks, and as I saw that Saduko my lord
loved her much, it never came into my head to say anything of the matter
of the powder that I saw her sprinkle on the mat.

"After she had run away with the Prince who is dead, however, I did tell
the lady Nandie. Moreover, the lady Nandie, in my presence, searched in
the straw of the doorway of the hut and found there, wrapped in soft
hide, certain medicines such as the Nyangas sell, wherewith those who
consult them can bewitch their enemies, or cause those whom they desire
to love them or to hate their wives or husbands. That is all I know of
the story, O King."

"Do my ears hear a true tale, Nandie?" asked Panda. "Or is this woman a
liar like others?"

"I think not, my Father; see, here is the muti [medicine] which Nahana
and I found hid in the doorway of the hut that I have kept unopened till
this day."

And she laid on the ground a little leather bag, very neatly sewn with
sinews, and fastened round its neck with a fibre string.

Panda directed one of the councillors to open the bag, which the man did
unwillingly enough, since evidently he feared its evil influence,
pouring out its contents on to the back of a hide shield, which was then
carried round so that we might all look at them. These, so far as I
could see, consisted of some withered roots, a small piece of human
thigh bone, such as might have come from the skeleton of an infant, that
had a little stopper of wood in its orifice, and what I took to be the
fang of a snake.

Panda looked at them and shrank away, saying:

"Come hither, Zikali the Old, you who are skilled in magic, and tell us
what is this medicine."

Then Zikali rose from the corner where he had been sitting so silently,
and waddled heavily across the open space to where the shield lay in
front of the King. As he passed Mameena, she bent down over the dwarf
and began to whisper to him swiftly; but he placed his hands upon his
big head, covering up his ears, as I suppose, that he might not hear her
words.

"What have I to do with this matter, O King?" he asked.

"Much, it seems, O Opener-of-Roads," said Panda sternly, "seeing that
you were the doctor who smelt out Masapo, and that it was in your kraal
that yonder woman hid herself while her lover, the Prince, my son, who
is dead, went down to the battle, and that she was brought thence with
you. Tell us, now, the nature of this muti, and, being wise, as you
are, be careful to tell us truly, lest it should be said, O Zikali, that
you are not a Nyanga only, but an umtakati as well. For then," he added
with meaning, and choosing his words carefully, "perchance, O Zikali, I
might be tempted to make trial of whether or no it is true that you
cannot be killed like other men, especially as I have heard of late that
your heart is evil towards me and my House."

For a moment Zikali hesitated--I think to give his quick brain time to
work, for he saw his great danger. Then he laughed in his dreadful
fashion and said:

"Oho! the King thinks that the otter is in the trap," and he glanced at
the fence of the isi-gohlo and at the fierce executioners, who stood
watching him sternly. "Well, many times before has this otter seemed to
be in a trap, yes, ere your father saw light, O Son of Senzangakona, and
after it also. Yet here he stands living. Make no trial, O King, of
whether or no I be mortal, lest if Death should come to such a one as I,
he should take many others with him also. Have you not heard the saying
that when the Opener-of-Roads comes to the end of his road there will be
no more a King of the Zulus, as when he began his road there was no King
of the Zulus, since the days of his manhood are the days of _all_ the
Zulu kings?"

Thus he spoke, glaring at Panda and at Cetewayo, who shrank before his
gaze.

"Remember," he went on, "that the Black One who is 'gone down' long ago,
the Wild Beast who fathered the Zulu herd, threatened him whom he named
the 'Thing-that-should-not-have-been-born,' aye, and slew those whom he
loved, and afterwards was slain by others, who also are 'gone down,' and
that you alone, O Panda, did not threaten him, and that you alone, O
Panda, have not been slain. Now, if you would make trial of whether I
die as other men die, bid your dogs fall on, for Zikali is ready," and
he folded his arms and waited.

Indeed, all of us waited breathlessly, for we understood that the
terrible dwarf was matching himself against Panda and Cetewayo and
defying them both. Presently it became obvious that he had won the
game, since Panda only said:

"Why should I slay one whom I have befriended in the past, and why do
you speak such heavy words of death in my ears, O, Zikali the Wise,
which of late have heard so much of death?" He sighed, adding: "Be
pleased now, to tell us of this medicine, or, if you will not, go, and I
will send for other Nyangas."

"Why should I not tell you, when you ask me softly and without threats,
O King? See"--and Zikali took up some of the twisted roots--"these are
the roots of a certain poisonous herb that blooms at night on the tops
of mountains, and woe be to the ox that eats thereof. They have been
boiled in gall and blood, and ill will befall the hut in which they are
hidden by one who can speak the words of power. This is the bone of a
babe that has never lived to cut its teeth--I think of a babe that was
left to die alone in the bush because it was hated, or because none
would father it. Such a bone has strength to work ill against other
babes; moreover, it is filled with a charmed medicine. Look!" and,
pulling out the plug of wood, he scattered some grey powder from the
bone, then stopped it up again. "This," he added, picking up the fang,
"is the tooth of a deadly serpent, that, after it has been doctored, is
used by women to change the heart of a man from another to herself. I
have spoken."

And he turned to go.

"Stay!" said the King. "Who set these foul charms in the doorway of
Saduko's hut?"

"How can I tell, O King, unless I make preparation and cast the bones
and smell out the evil-doer? You have heard the story of the woman
Nahana. Accept it or reject it as your heart tells you."

"If that story be true, O Zikali, how comes it that you yourself smelt
out, not Mameena, the wife of Masapo, but Masapo, her husband, himself,
and caused him to be slain because of the poisoning of the child of
Nandie?"

"You err, O King. I, Zikali, smelt out the House of Masapo. Then I
smelt out the poison, searching for it first in the hair of Mameena, and
finding it in the kaross of Masapo. I never smelt out that it was
Masapo who gave the poison. That was the judgment of you and of your
Council, O King. Nay, I knew well that there was more in the matter,
and had you paid me another fee and bade me to continue to use my
wisdom, without doubt I should have found this magic stuff hidden in the
hut, and mayhap have learned the name of the hider. But I was weary,
who am very old; and what was it to me if you chose to kill Masapo or
chose to let him go? Masapo, who, being your secret enemy, was a man
who deserved to die--if not for this matter, then for others."

Now, all this while I had been watching Mameena, who sat, in the Zulu
fashion, listening to this deadly evidence, a slight smile upon her
face, and without attempting any interruption or comment. Only I saw
that while Zikali was examining the medicine, her eyes were seeking the
eyes of Saduko, who remained in his place, also silent, and, to all
appearance, the least interested of anyone present. He tried to avoid
her glance, turning his head uneasily; but at length her eyes caught his
and held them. Then his heart began to beat quickly, his breast heaved,
and on his face there grew a look of dreamy content, even of happiness.
From that moment forward, till the end of the scene, Saduko never took
his eyes off this strange woman, though I think that, with the exception
of the dwarf, Zikali, who saw everything, and of myself, who am trained
to observation, none noted this curious by-play of the drama.

The King began to speak. "Mameena," he said, "you have heard. Have you
aught to say? For if not it would seem that you are a witch and a
murderess, and one who must die."

"Yea, a little word, O King," she answered quietly. "Nahana speaks
truth. It is true that I entered the hut of Nandie and set the medicine
there. I say it because by nature I am not one who hides the truth or
would attempt to throw discredit even upon a humble serving-woman," and
she glanced at Nahana.

"Then from between your own teeth it is finished," said Panda.

"Not altogether, O King. I have said that I set the medicine in the
hut. I have not said, and I will not say, how and why I set it there.
That tale I call upon Saduko yonder to tell to you, he who was my
husband, that I left for Umbelazi, and who, being a man, must therefore
hate me. By the words he says I will abide. If he declares that I am
guilty, then I am guilty, and prepared to pay the price of guilt. But
if he declares that I am innocent, then, O King and O Prince Cetewayo,
without fear I trust myself to your justness. Now speak, O Saduko;
speak the whole truth, whatever it may be, if that is the King's will."

"It is my will," said Panda.

"And mine also," added Cetewayo, who, I could see, like everyone else,
was much interested in this matter.

Saduko rose to his feet, the same Saduko that I had always known, and
yet so changed. All the life and fire had gone from him; his pride in
himself was no more; none could have known him for that ambitious,
confident man who, in his day of power, the Zulus named the
"Self-Eater." He was a mere mask of the old Saduko, informed by some
new, some alien, spirit. With dull, lack-lustre eyes fixed always upon
the lovely eyes of Mameena, in slow and hesitating tones he began his
tale.

"It is true, O Lion," he said, "that Mameena spread the poison upon my
child's mat. It is true that she set the deadly charms in the doorway
of Nandie's hut. These things she did, not knowing what she did, and it
was I who instructed her to do them. This is the case. From the
beginning I have always loved Mameena as I have loved no other woman and
as no other woman was ever loved. But while I was away with Macumazahn,
who sits yonder, to destroy Bangu, chief of the Amakoba, he who had
killed my father, Umbezi, the father of Mameena, he whom the Prince
Cetewayo gave to the vultures the other day because he had lied as to
the death of Umbelazi, he, I say, forced Mameena, against her will, to
marry Masapo the Boar, who afterwards was executed for wizardry. 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. But, being an
upright woman, Mameena thrust me away from her, saying:

"'I have a husband, who, if he is not dear to me, still is my husband,
and while he lives to him I will be true.' Then, O King, I took counsel
with the evil in my heart, and made a plot in myself to be rid of the
Boar, Masapo, so that when he was dead I might marry Mameena. This was
the plot that I made--that my son and Princess Nandie's should be
poisoned, and that Masapo should seem to poison him, so that he might be
killed as a wizard and I marry Mameena."

Now, at this astounding statement, which was something beyond the
experience of the most cunning and cruel savage present there, a gasp of
astonishment went up from the audience; even old Zikali lifted his head
and stared. Nandie, too, shaken out of her usual calm, rose as though
to speak; then, looking first at Saduko and next at Mameena, sat herself
down again and waited. But Saduko went on again in the same cold,
measured voice:

"I gave Mameena a powder which I had bought for two heifers from a great
doctor who lived beyond the Tugela, but who is now dead, which powder I
told her was desired by Nandie, my Inkosikazi, to destroy the little
beetles than ran about the hut, and directed her where she was to spread
it. Also, I gave her the bag of medicine, telling her to thrust it into
the doorway of the hut, that it might bring a blessing upon my House.
These things she did ignorantly to please me, not knowing that the
powder was poison, not knowing that the medicine was bewitched. So my
child died, as I wished it to die, and, indeed, I myself fell sick
because by accident I touched the powder.

"Afterwards Masapo was smelt out as a wizard by old Zikali, I having
caused a bag of the poison to be sewn in his kaross in order to deceive
Zikali, and killed by your order, O King, and Mameena was given to me as
a wife, also by your order, O King, which was what I desired. Later on,
as I have told you, I wearied of her, and wishing to please the Prince
who has wandered away, I commanded her to yield herself to him, which
Mameena did out of her love for me and to advance my fortunes, she who
is blameless in all things."

Saduko finished speaking and sat down again, as an automaton might do
when a wire is pulled, his lack-lustre eyes still fixed upon Mameena's
face.

"You have heard, O King," said Mameena. "Now pass judgment, knowing
that, if it be your will, I am ready to die for Saduko's sake."

But Panda sprang up in a rage.

_"Take him away!"_ he said, pointing to Saduko. "Take away that dog who
is not fit to live, a dog who eats his own child that thereby he may
cause another to be slain unjustly and steal his wife."

The executioners leapt forward, and, having something to say, for I
could bear this business no longer, I began to rise to my feet. Before
I gained them, however, Zikali was speaking.

"O King," he said, "it seems that you have killed one man unjustly on
this matter, namely, Masapo. Would you do the same by another?" and he
pointed to Saduko.

"What do you mean?" asked Panda angrily. "Have you not heard this low
fellow, whom I made great, giving him the rule over tribes and my
daughter in marriage, confess with his own lips that he murdered his
child, the child of my blood, in order that he might eat a fruit which
grew by the roadside for all men to nibble at?" and he glared at
Mameena.

"Aye, Child of Senzangakona," answered Zikali, "I heard Saduko say this
with his own lips, but the voice that spoke from the lips was not the
voice of Saduko, as, were you a skilled Nyanga like me, you would have
known as well as I do, and as well as does the white man,
Watcher-by-Night, who is a reader of hearts.

"Hearken now, O King, and you great ones around the King, and I will
tell you a story. Matiwane, the father of Saduko, was my friend, as he
was yours, O King, and when Bangu slew him and his people, by leave of
the Wild Beast [Chaka], I saved the child, his son, aye, and brought him
up in my own House, having learned to love him. Then, when he became a
man, I, the Opener-of-Roads, showed him two roads, down either of which
he might choose to walk--the Road of Wisdom and the Road of War and
Women: the white road that runs through peace to knowledge, and the red
road that runs through blood to death.

"But already there stood one upon this red road who beckoned him, she
who sits yonder, and he followed after her, as I knew he would. From
the beginning she was false to him, taking a richer man for her husband.
Then, when Saduko grew great, she grew sorry, and came to ask my
counsel as to how she might be rid of Masapo, whom she swore she hated.
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. Here she slept a
while, till a new shadow fell upon her, that of the
'Elephant-with-the-tuft-of-hair,' who will walk the woods no more. Him
she beguiled that she might grow great the quicker, and left the house
of Saduko, taking his heart with her, she who was destined to be the
doom of men.

"Now, into Saduko's breast, where his heart had been, entered an evil
spirit of jealousy and of revenge, and in the battle of Endondakusuka
that spirit rode him as a white man rides a horse. As he had arranged
to do with the Prince Cetewayo yonder--nay, deny it not, O Prince, for
I know all; did you not make a bargain together, on the third night
before the battle, among the bushes, and start apart when the buck leapt
out between you?" (Here Cetewayo, who had been about to speak, threw the
corner of his kaross over his face.) "As he had arranged to do, I say,
he went over with his regiments from the Isigqosa to the Usutu, and so
brought about the fall of Umbelazi and the death of many thousands.
Yes, and this he did for one reason only--because yonder woman had left
him for the Prince, and he cared more for her than for all the world
could give him, for her who had filled him with madness as a bowl is
filled with milk. And now, O King, you have heard this man tell you a
story, you have heard him shout out that he is viler than any man in all
the land; that he murdered his own child, the child he loved so well, to
win this witch; that afterwards he gave her to his friend and lord to
buy more of his favour, and that lastly he deserted that lord because he
thought that there was another lord from whom he could buy more favour.
Is it not so, O King?"

"It is so," answered Panda, "and therefore must Saduko be thrown out to
the jackals."

"Wait a while, O King. I say that Saduko has spoken not with his own
voice, but with the voice of Mameena. I say that she is the greatest
witch in all the land, and that she has drugged him with the medicine of
her eyes, so that he knows not what he says, even as she drugged the
Prince who is dead."

"Then prove it, or he dies!" exclaimed the King.

Now the dwarf went to Panda and whispered in his ear, whereon Panda
whispered in turn into the ears of two of his councillors. These men,
who were unarmed, rose and made as though to leave the isi-gohlo. But
as they passed Mameena one of them suddenly threw his arms about her,
pinioning her arms, the other tearing off the kaross he wore--for the
weather was cold--flung it over her head and knotted it behind her so
that she was hidden except for her ankles and feet. Then, although she
did not move or struggle, they caught hold of her and stood still.

Now Zikali hobbled to Saduko and bade him rise, which he did. Then he
looked at him for a long while and made certain movements with his hands
before his face, after which Saduko uttered a great sigh and stared
about him.

"Saduko," said Zikali, "I pray you tell me, your foster-father, whether
it is true, as men say, that you sold your wife, Mameena, to the Prince
Umbelazi in order that his favour might fall on you like heavy rain?"

"Wow! Zikali," said Saduko, with a start of rage, "If were you as others
are I would kill you, you toad, who dare to spit slander on my name.
She ran away with the Prince, having beguiled him with the magic of her
beauty."

"Strike me not, Saduko," went on Zikali, "or at least wait to strike
until you have answered one more question. Is it true, as men say, that
in the battle of Endondakusuka you went over to the Usutu with your
regiments because you thought that Indhlovu-ene-Sihlonti would be
beaten, and wished to be on the side of him who won?"

"What, Toad! More slander?" cried Saduko. "I went over for one reason
only--to be revenged upon the Prince because he had taken from me her
who was more to me than life or honour. Aye, and when I went over
Umbelazi was winning; it was because I went that he lost and died, as I
meant that he should die, though now," he added sadly, "I would that I
had not brought him to ruin and the dust, who think that, like myself,
he was but wet clay in a woman's fingers.

"O King," he added, turning to Panda, "kill me, I pray you, who am not
worthy to live, since to him whose hand is red with the blood of his
friend, death alone is left, who, while he breathes, must share his
sleep with ghosts that watch him with their angry eyes."

Then Nandie sprang up and said:

"Nay, Father, listen not to him who is mad, and therefore holy.* What
he has done, he has done, who, as he has said, was but a tool in
another's hand. As for our babe, I know well that he would have died
sooner than harm it, for he loved it much, and when it was taken away,
for three whole days and nights he wept and would touch no food. Give
this poor man to me, my Father--to me, his wife, who loves him--and let
us go hence to some other land, where perchance we may forget."

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