He paused and a loud "Ow" of wonder and admiration rose from his audience. Myself I nearly joined in it, for I thought this one of the cleverest bits of statecraft that ever I had heard of or seen. The old wizard had taken no responsibility and given no answer to the demand for advice. All this he had thrust on to the shoulders of a dead man, and that man one whose name was magical to every Zulu, the king whose memory they adored, the great General who had gorged them with victory and power.
Speaking as Chaka, after a long period of peace, he urged them once more to lift their spears and know the joys of triumph, thereby ****** themselves the greatest nation in Southern Africa.
From the moment I heard this cunning appeal, I know what the end would be; all the rest was but of minor and semi-personal interest. I knew also for the first time how truly great was Zikali and wondered what he might have become had Fortune set him in different circumstances among a civilized people.
Now he was speaking again, and quickly before the impression died away.
"Such is the word of Chaka spoken by me who was his secret councillor, the Councillor who was seldom seen, and never heard.
Does not Sigananda yonder know the voice which amongst all those present echoes in his ears alone?"
"I know it," cried the old chief. Then with his eyes starting almost from his head, Sigananda leapt up and raising his hand, gave the royal salute, the Bayete, to the spirit of Chaka, as though the dead king stood before him.
I think that most of those there thought that it did stand before him, for some of them also gave the Bayete and even Cetewayo raised his arm.
Sigananda squatted down again and Zikali went on.
"You have heard. This captain of the Lion knows his voice. So, that is done with. Now you ask of me something else--that I who am a doctor, the oldest of all the doctors and, it is thought--I know not--the wisest, should be able to answer. You ask of me--How shall this war prosper, if it is made--and what shall chance to the King during and after the war, and lastly you ask of me a sign. What I tell to you is true, is it not so?"
"It is true," answered the Council.
"Asking is easy," continued Zikali in a grumbling voice, "but answering is another matter. How can I answer without preparation, without the needful medicines also that I have not with me, who did not know what would be sought of me, who thought that my opinion was desired and no more? Go away now and return on the sixth night and I will tell you what I can do."
"Not so," cried the king. "We refuse to go, for the matter is immediate. Speak at once, Opener of Roads, lest it should be said in the land that after all you are but an ancient cheat, a stick that snaps in two when it is leant on."
"Ancient cheat! I remember that is what Macumazahn yonder once told me I am, though afterwards--Perhaps he was right, for who in his heart knows whether or not he be a cheat, a cheat who deceives himself and through himself others. A stick that snaps in two when it is leant on! Some have thought me so and some have thought otherwise. Well, you would have answers which I know not how to give, being without medicine and in face of those who are quite ignorant and therefore cannot lend me their thoughts, as it sometimes happens that men do when workers of evil are sought out in the common fashion. For then, as you may have guessed, it is the evil-doer who himself tells the doctor of his crime, though he may not know that he is telling it. Yet there is another stone that I alone can throw, another plan that I alone can practise, and that not always. But of this I would not make use since it is terrible and might frighten you or even send you back to your huts raving so that your wives, yes, and the very dogs fled, from you."
He stopped and for the first time did something to his fire, for I saw his hands going backwards and forwards, as though he warmed them at the flames.
At length an awed voice, I think it was that of Dabulamanzi, asked--"What is this plan, Inyanga? Let us hear that we may judge."
"The plan of calling one from the dead and hearkening to the voice of the dead. Is it your desire that I should draw water from this fount of wisdom, O King and Councillors?"
