“That looks like fighting, does it not, Macumazahn?” he replied.

“Yes, Goza, yet it may be but play.”

“Quite so, Macumazahn.  It may be fighting or it may be but play.  Am I a prophet that I should be able to say which it is?  Of that there is but one man in Zululand who knows the truth.  It is he for whom the new huts are being built up yonder.”

“You think he really knows, Goza?”

“No, Macumazahn, I do not think, I am sure.  He is the greatest of all wizards, as he was when my father held on to his mother’s apron.  He pulls the strings and the Great-ones of the country dance.  If he wishes war, there will be war.  If he wishes peace, there will be peace.”

“And which does he wish, Goza?”

“I thought perhaps you could tell me that, Macumazahn, who, he says, are such an old friend of his; also why he chooses to sojourn in a dark hole among the dead instead of in the sunshine among the living, here at Ulundi.”

“Well, I cannot, Goza, since the Opener of Roads does not open his heart to me but keeps his secrets to himself.  For the rest, those who talk with the dead may prefer to dwell among the dead.”

“Now as always you speak truth, Macumazahn,” said Goza, looking at me in a way which suggested to me that he believed I spoke anything but the truth.

Indeed I am convinced he thought that I was in the council of Zikali and acquainted with his plans.  Also I am sure he knew that I had not come to Zululand alone, the incident of the blankets, which I had promised to him a bribe to keep silence, showed it, and suspected that my companions were parties to some plot together with myself.  And yet at the time I could not be quite sure, and therefore dared not ask anything concerning them lest thus I should reveal their existence and bring them to death.

As a matter of fact I need not have been anxious on this point, since if Goza, who I may state, was a kind of secret service officer as well as a head messenger, knew, as I think probable, he had been commanded by Zikali to hold his tongue under penalty of a curse.  Perhaps the same was true of the soldiers who had come with him to take me to Ulundi.  The hint of Zikali was as powerful as the word of the king, since they, like thousands of others, believed that whereas Cetewayo could kill them, Zikali, like Satan, could blast their spirits as well as their bodies.  But how was I to guess all these things at that time?

During the next two days nothing happened, though I heard that there had been one if not two meetings of the Council at the King’s House during which the position of affairs was discussed.  Cetewayo I did not see, although twice he sent messengers to me bringing gifts of food, who were charged to inquire whether I was well and happy and if any had offered me hurt or insult.  To these I answered that I was well and unmolested but not happy, who grew lonesome, being but a solitary white man among so many thousands of the Zulus.