Various - "The American Missionary Volume 50, No. 4, April 1896"

Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve - "'Three Score Years and Ten'"

James Gillespie Blaine - "Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2)"

Kate Dickinson Sweetser - "Ten American Girls From History"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Ghost Kings

H >> H. Rider Haggard >> The Ghost Kings




"I can hide nought from thee; it is so," said Dingaan.

"Is that still in thy mind, O King?" asked Rachel again, beginning to play
with the little wand.

"Not so, not so," he answered hurriedly. "Hadst thou not come the girl
would have died, as she deserved to do according to our law. But thou hast
come and claimed her, O Holder of the Spirit of Nomkubulwana, and she sits
in thy shadow and is clothed with thy garment. Take her then, for
henceforth she is holy, as thou art holy."

Rachel heard, and without any change of countenance waved her hand to show
that this question was finished. Then she asked suddenly:

"What is this great matter whereof thou wouldst speak with me, O King?"

"Surely thy wisdom has told thee, White One," he answered uneasily.

"Perchance, yet I would have it from thy lips, and now."

Now Dingaan consulted a little with his council.

"White One," he said presently, "the thing is grave, and we need guidance.
Therefore, as the circle of the witch-doctors have declared must be done,
we ask it of thee who art named with the name of the Spirit of our people
and hast of her wisdom. Thou knowest, White One, of the fights in past
years between the white people of Natal and the Zulus, in which many were
slain on either side. But now, when we are at peace with the English, we
hear of another white people, the Amaboona" (_i.e._ the Dutch Boers), "who
are marching towards us from the Cape, and have already fought with
Moselikatze--the traitor who was once my captain--and killed thousands of
his men. These Amaboona threaten us also, and say aloud that they will eat
us up, for they are brave and armed with the white man's weapons that spit
out lightning. Now, White One, what shall we do? Shall I send out my impis
and fall on them while they are unprepared, and make an end of them, as
seems wisest, and is the wish of my indunas? Or, shall I sit at home and
watch, trying to be at peace with them, and only strike back if they
strike at me? Answer not lightly, O Zoola, for much may hang upon thy
words. Remember also that he whose name may not be spoken, the Lion who
ruled before me and is gone, with his last breath uttered a certain
prophecy concerning the white people and this land."

"Let me hear that prophecy, O King."

"Come forth," said Dingaan pointing to a councillor who sat in the circle,
"come forth, thou who knowest, and tell the tale in the ears of this White
One."

A figure rose, a draped figure whose face was hidden in a hood of blanket.
It came forward, and as it came it drew the blanket tighter about it.
Rachel, watching all things, saw, or thought she saw, that one of its
hands was white as though it had been burned with fire. Surely she had
seen such a hand before.

"Speak," she said.

"Name me by my name and tell me who I am and I will obey thee," answered
the man.

Then she was sure, for she remembered the voice. She looked at him
indifferently and asked:

"By what name shall I name you, O Slayer of a King? Will you be called
Mopo or Umbopa, who have borne them both?"

Now Dingaan stared, and the shrouded form before her started as though in
surprise.

"Why do you seek to mock me?" she went on. "Can a blanket of bark hide
that face of yours from these eyes of mine which saw it a while ago at
Ramah, when you came thither to judge of me, O Mouth of the King?"

Now the man let the blanket slip from his head and looked at her.

"It seems that it cannot," he answered. "Then I told thee that I had
dreamed of the Spirit of our people, and that thou, White One, wast like
to her of whom I had dreamed. Canst thou tell me what was the fashion of
that dream of mine?"

Now Rachel understood that notwithstanding his words at Ramah, this man
still doubted her, and was set up to prove her, and all that Noie had told
her about him and the secret history of the Zulus came back into her mind.

"Surely Mopo or Umbopa," she replied, "you dreamed three dreams, not one.
Is it of the last you speak?--that dream at the kraal Duguza, when the
Inkosazana rode past you on a storm clothed in lightning, and shaking in
her hand a spear of fire?"

"Yes, I speak of it," he replied in an awed voice, "but if thou art but a
woman as thou hast said, how knowest thou these things?"

"Perchance I am both woman and spirit, and perchance the past tells them
to me," Rachel answered; "but the past has many voices, and now that I
dwell in the flesh I cannot hear them all. Let me search you out. Let me
read your heart," and she bent forward and fixed her eyes upon him,
holding him with her eyes.

"Ah! now I see and I hear," she said presently. "Had you not a sister,
Mopo, a certain Baleka, who afterwards entered the house of the Black One
and bore a son and died in the Tatiyana Cleft? Shall I tell you how she
died?"

"Tell it not! Tell it not!" exclaimed the old man quaveringly.

"So be it. There is no need. Yet ere she died you made a promise to this
Baleka, and that promise you kept at the kraal Duguza, you and the prince
Umhlangana, and another prince whose name I forget," and she looked at
Dingaan, who put his hand before his face. "You kept that promise with an
assegai--let me look, let me look into your heart--yes, with a little
assegai handled with the royal red wood, an assegai that had drunk much
blood."

Now a low moan broke from the lips of Dingaan, and those who sat with
them, while Umbopa shivered as though with cold.

"Have mercy, I pray thee," he gasped. "Forgive me if at times since we met
at Ramah I thought thee but a white maiden, beautiful and bold, as thou
didst declare thyself to be. Now I see thou hast the spirit, or else how
didst thou know these things?"

Noie heard and smiled in the shadow, but Rachel stood silent.

"I was bidden to tell thee of the last words of the Black One," went on
Umbopa hurriedly; "but what need is there to tell thee anything who
knowest all? They were that he heard the sound of the running of the feet
of a great white people which shall stamp out the children of the Zulus."

"Nay," answered Rachel, "I think they were; _'Where-fore wouldst thou kill
me, Mopo?'"_

Again Dingaan moaned, for he had heard these very words spoken. Umbopa
turned and stared at him, and he stared at Umbopa.

"Come hither," said Rachel, beckoning to the old man.

He obeyed, and she threw the corner of her cloak over his head, and
whispered into his ear. He listened to her whisperings, then with a cry
broke from her and fled away out of the council of the King.

When he had gone there was silence, though Dingaan looked a question with
his eyes.

"Ask it not," she said, "ask it not of me, or of him. I think this Mopo
here had his secrets in the past. I think that once he sat in a hut at
night and bargained with certain Great Ones, a prince who lives, and a
prince who died. Come hither, come hither, thou son of Senzangacona, come
from the fields of Death and tell me what was that bargain which thou
madest with Mopo, thou and another?" and once again Rachel beckoned, this
time upwards in the air.

Now the face of Dingaan went grey, even in the moonlight it went grey
beneath the blackness of his skin, for there rose before his mind a vision
of a hut and of Mopo and of Umhlangana, the prince his brother whom he had
slain, and of himself, seated in the darkness, their heads together
beneath a blanket whispering of the murder of a king.

"Thou knowest all," he gasped, "thou art Nomkubulwana and no other. Spare
us, Spirit who canst summon our dead sins from the grave of time, and make
them walk alive before us."

"Nay, nay," she answered, mockingly, "surely I am but a woman, daughter of
a Teacher who lives yonder over the Tugela, a white maiden who eats and
sleeps and drinks as other maidens do. Take notice, King, and you his
captains, that I am no spirit, nothing but a woman who chances to bear a
high name, and to have some wisdom. Only," she added with meaning, "if any
harm should come to me, if I should die, then I think that I should become
a spirit, a terrible spirit, and that ill would it go with that people
against whom my blood was laid."

"Oh!" said the King, who still shook with fear, "we know, we know. Mock us
not, I pray. Thou art the Spirit who hast chosen to wear the robe of
woman, as flame hides itself in flint, and woe be to the hand that strikes
the fire from this stone. White One, give us now that wisdom whereof thou
speakest. Shall I fall upon the Boers or shall I let them be?"

Rachel looked upwards, studying the stars.

"She takes counsel with the Heavens, she who is their daughter," muttered
one of the indunas in a low voice.

As he spoke it chanced that a bright meteor travelling from the south-west
swept across the sky to burst and vanish over the kraal of Umgugundhlovo.

"It is a messenger to her," said one. "I saw the fire shine upon her hair
and vanish in her breast."

"Nay," answered another, "it is the _Ehlose_, the guardian ghost of the
Amazulu that appears and dies."

"Not so," broke in a third, "that light shows the Amaboona travelling from
the south-west to be eaten up in the blackness of our impis."

"Such a star runs ever before the death of king. It fell the night ere the
Black One died," murmured a fourth as though he spoke to himself.

Only Dingaan, taking no heed of them, said, addressing Rachel:

"Read thou the omen."

"Nay," she replied upon the swift impulse of the moment, "I read it not.
Interpret it as ye will. Here is my answer to thy question, King. _Those
who lift the spear shall perish by the spear."_

At this saying the captains murmured a little, for they, who desired war,
understood that she counselled peace between them and the Boers, though
others thought that she meant that the Boers would perish. Dingaan also
looked downcast. Watching their faces, Rachel was sure that not even her
hand could hold them back from their desire. That war must come. Again she
spoke:

"The star travels whither it is thrown by the hand of the Umkulunkulu, the
Master of men; the spear finds the heart to which it is appointed. Read
you the omen as you will. I have spoken, but ye will not understand. That
which shall be, shall be."

She bent her head, and turned her ear towards the ground as though to
hearken.

"What was that tale of the last words of the Great Lion who is gone?" she
went on. "Ask it of Mopo, ask it of Dingaan the King. It seems to me that
I also hear the feet of a people travelling over plain and mountain, and
the rivers behind them run red with blood. Are they black feet or white
feet? Read ye the omen as ye will. I have spoken for the first time and
the last; trouble me no more with this matter of the white men and your
war," and turning, Rachel glided from the court, followed by Noie with
bowed head.



CHAPTER XI

ISHMAEL VISITS THE INKOSAZANA


When at last they were in the hut and the door-board had been safely
closed, Rachel took Noie in her arms and kissed her. But Noie did not kiss
her back; she only pressed her hand against her forehead.

"Why do you not kiss me, Noie?" asked Rachel.

"How can I kiss you, Inkosazana," replied the girl humbly, "I who am but
the dog at your feet, the dog whom twice it has pleased you to save from
death."

"Inkosazana!" exclaimed Rachel. "I weary of that name. I am but a woman
like yourself, and I hate this part which I must play."

"Yet it is a high part, and you play it very well. While I listened to
you to-night, Zoola, twice and thrice I wondered if you are not something
more than you deem yourself to be. That beautiful body of yours is but a
cup like those of other women, but say, who fills the cup with the wine of
wisdom? Why do kings and councillors fear you, and why do you fear
nothing? Why did dead Seyapi talk to me of you in dreams? What strange
chance gave you that name of yours and made you holy in these men's eyes?
What power teaches you the truth and gives you wit and strength to speak
it? Why are you different from the rest of maidens, white or black?"

"I do not know, Noie. Something tells me what to do and say. Also, I
understand these Zulus, and you have taught me much. You told me all the
hidden tale of yonder Mopo a year gone by, or more, as you have told me
many of the darkest secrets of this people that you had from your father,
who knew them all. At the pinch I remembered it, no more, and played upon
them by my knowledge."

"What was it you said to Mopo under your cloak, Lady?"

Rachel smiled as she answered:

"I only asked him if it were not in his mind, having killed one king, to
kill another also, and that spear went home."

"Ah!" exclaimed Noie in admiration, "at least I never told you that."

"No; I read it in his eyes; for a moment all his heart was open to
me--yes, and the heart of Dingaan also. He fears Mopo, and Mopo hates him,
and one day hate and fear will come together."

"Ah!" said Noie again, "you know much."

"Yes," answered Rachel with sudden passion, "more than I wish to know.
Noie, you are right, I am not altogether as others are; there is a power
in my blood. I see and hear what should not be seen and heard; at times
fears fill me, or joys lift me up, and I think that I draw hear to another
world than ours. No; it is folly. I am over-wrought. Who would not be that
must endure so much and be set upon this throne, a goddess among
barbarians with life and death upon my lips? Oh! when the King asked me
his riddle I knew not what to answer, who feared lest ten thousand lives
might pay the price of a girl's incautious words. Then that meteor broke;
there have been several this night, but none noted them till I looked
upwards, and you know the rest. Let them guess its meaning, which they
cannot, for it has none."

"Why did you not speak more plainly, Zoola?"

"Oh! because I dared not. Who am I to meddle with such matters, who came
here but to save you? I warned them not to make war upon the Boers; what
more could I do? Moreover, it is useless, for fight they must and will and
pay the price. Of that I am sure. I feel it here," and she pressed her
hand upon her heart. "Yes, and other nearer things! Oh! Noie, I would that
I were back at home. Say, can we start to-morrow at the dawn?"

Noie shook her head.

"I do not think that they will let you go; they will keep you to be their
great doctoress. You should not have come. I sent you word--what did my
life matter?"

"Keep me," answered Rachel, stamping her foot. "They dare not; here at
least I am the Inkosazana, and I will be obeyed."

Noie made no answer; only she said:

"Ishmael is here. I have seen him. He wished to have me killed at once
because he is afraid of me. But when he was sure that you were coming,
Dingaan would not break his word which he had sent to you."

Rachel's face fell.

"Ishmael!" she exclaimed in dismay, then recovered herself and added:
"Well, I am not afraid of Ishmael, for here his life is in my hand. Oh! I
am worn out; I cannot talk of the man to-night. I must sleep, Noie, I must
sleep. Come, lie at my side and let us sleep."

"Nay," answered the girl; "my place is at the door. But drink this milk
and lay you down without fear, for I will watch."

Rachel obeyed, and Noie sat by her, holding her hand, till presently her
eyes shut and she slept. But Noie did not sleep. All that night she sat
there watching and listening, till at length the dawn came and she lay
down also by the door and rested.

The sun was high in the heavens when Rachel woke.

"Good morrow to you, Zoola," said the sweet voice of Noie. "You have slept
well. Now you must rise, bathe yourself and eat, for already messengers
from the King have been to the outer gate, saying that they wait to escort
you to a better house that has been made ready for you."

"I hoped that they waited to escort me out of Zululand," answered Rachel.

"I asked them of that, Zoola, but they declared it must not be, as the
council of the doctors had been summoned to consider your sayings, and two
days will pass before it can meet. Also they declare that your horse is
sick and not fit to travel, meaning that they will not let you go."

"But I have the right to go, Noie."

"The bird has the right to fly, but what if it is in a cage, Zoola?"

"I am queen here, Noie; the bars will burst at my word."

"It may be so, Zoola, but what if the bird should find that it has no nest
to fly to?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rachel, paling.

"Only that it seems best that you should not anger these Zulus, Lady, lest
it should come into their minds to destroy your nest, thinking that so you
might come to love this cage. No, no, I have heard nothing, but I guess
their thoughts. You need rest; bide here, where you are safe, a day or
two, and let us see what happens."

"Speak plainly, Noie. I do not understand your parable of birds and
cages."

"Zoola, I obey. I think that if you say you will go, none, not the King
himself, would dare to stay you, though you would have to go on foot, for
then that horse would die. But an impi would go with you, or before you,
and woe betide those who held you from returning to Zululand! Do you
understand me now?"

"Yes," answered Rachel. "You mean!--oh! I cannot speak it. I will remain
here a few days."

So she rose and bathed herself and was dressed by Noie, and ate of the
food that had been brought to the door of the hut. Then she went out, and
in the little courtyard found a litter waiting that was hung round with
grass mats.

"The King's word is that you should enter the litter," said Noie.

She did so, whereon Noie clapped her hands and girls in bead dresses ran
in, and having prostrated themselves before the litter, lifted it up and
carried it away, Noie walking at its side.

Rachel, peeping between the mats, saw that she was borne out of the town,
surrounded, but at a distance, by a guard of hundreds of armed men.
Presently they began to ascend a hill, whereon grew many trees, and after
climbing it for a while, reached a large kraal with huts between the outer
and inner fence, and in its centre a great space of park-like land through
which ran a stream.

Here, by the banks of the stream, stood a large new hut, and behind at a
little distance two or three other huts. In front of this great hut the
litter was set down by, the bearers, who at once went away. Then at Noie's
bidding Rachel came out of it and looked at the place which had been given
her in which to dwell.

It was a beautiful spot, away from the dust and the noises of the Great
Kraal, and so placed upon a shoulder of the hillside that the soldiers who
guarded this House of the Inkosazana, as it was called, could not be seen
or heard. Yet Rachel looked at it with distaste, feeling that it was that
cage of which Noie had spoken,

A cage it proved indeed, a solitary cage, for here Rachel abode in regal
seclusion and in state that could only be called awful. No man might
approach her house unbidden, and the maidens who waited upon her did so
with downcast eyes, never speaking, and falling on to their knees if
addressed. On the first day of her imprisonment, for it was nothing less,
an unhappy Zulu, through ignorance or folly, slipped through the outer
guard and came near to the inner fence. Rachel, who was seated above,
heard some shouts of rage and horror, and saw soldiers running towards
him, and in another minute a body being carried away upon a shield. He had
died for his sacrilege.

Once a day ambassadors came to her from the King to ask of her health, and
if she had orders to give, but now even these, men were not allowed to
look upon her. They were led in by the women, each of them with a piece of
bark cloth over his head, and from beneath this cloth they addressed her
as though she were in truth divine. On the first day she bade them tell
the King that her mission being ended, it was her desire to depart to her
own home beyond the river. They heard her words in silence, then asked if
she had anything to add. She replied--yes, it was her will that they
should cease to wear veils in her presence, also that no more men should
be killed upon her account as had happened that morning. They said that
they would convey the order at once, as several were under sentence of
death who had argued as to whether she were really the Inkosazana, So she
sent them away instantly, fearing lest they should be too late, and they
were led off backwards bowing and giving the royal salute. Afterwards she
rejoiced to hear that her commands had arrived just in time, and that the
blood of these poor people was not upon her head.

Next day the messengers returned at the same hour, unveiled as she
desired, bearing the answer of the King and his council. It was to the
effect that the Inkosazana had no need to ask permission to come or to go.
Her Spirit, they knew, was mighty and could wander where it willed; all
the impis of the Zulus could not hold her Sprint. But--and here came the
sting of this clever answer--it was necessary, until her sayings had been
considered, that the body in which that Spirit abode should remain with
them a while. Therefore the King and his counsellors and the whole nation
of the Zulus prayed her to be satisfied with the sending of her Spirit
across the Tugela, leaving her body to dwell a space in the House of the
Inkosazana.

Rachel looked at them in despair, for what was she to reply to such
reasoning as this? Before she could make up her mind, their spokesman said
that a white man, Ibubesi, who said that he had often spoken with her,
asked leave to visit her in her house.

Now Rachel thought a while. Ishmael was the last person in the whole world
whom she wished to see. After the interview when they parted, and all that
had happened since, it could not be otherwise. She remembered the threats
he had uttered then, and to her father afterwards, the brutal and
revolting threats. Some of these had been directed against Noie, and
subsequently Noie was kidnapped by the Zulus. That those directed at
herself had not been fulfilled was, she felt sure, due to a lack of
opportunity alone.

Little wonder, then, that she feared and hated the man. Still he was of
white blood, and perhaps for this reason had authority among the Zulus,
who, as she knew, often consulted him. Moreover, notwithstanding his
vapourings, like the Zulus whose superstitions he had contracted, he
looked upon herself with something akin to fear. If she saw him she had no
cause to dread anything that he could do to her, at any rate in this
country where she was supreme, whereas on the other hand she might obtain
information from him which would be very useful, or make use of him to
enable her to escape from Zululand. On the whole, then, it seemed wisest
to grant him an interview, especially as she gathered from the fact that
the question was raised by Dingaan's indunas, that for some reason of his
own, the King hoped that she would do so.

Still she hesitated, loathing and despising him as she did.

"You have heard," she said in English to Noie, who stood behind her. "Now
what shall I say?"

"Say--come," answered Noie in the same tongue.

"Read his black heart and find out truth; he no can keep it from you.
Say--come with soldiers. If he behave bad, tell them kill him. They obey
you. No mind me. I not afraid of that wild beast now."

Then Rachel said to the indunas:

"I hear the King's word, and understand that he wishes me to receive this
Ibubesi. Yet I know that man, as I know all men, white and black. He is an
evil man, and it is not my pleasure to speak with him alone. Let him come
with a guard of six captains, and let the captains be armed with spears,
so that if I give the word there may be an end of this Ibubesi."

Then the messengers saluted and departed as before.

On the morrow at about the same hour a praiser, or herald, arrived
outside the inner fence of the kraal, and after he had shouted out
Rachel's titles, attributes, beauties and supernatural powers for at least
ten minutes, never repeating himself, announced that the indunas of the
King were without accompanied by the white man, Ibubesi, awaiting her
permission to enter. She gave it through Noie; and, the horn wand in her
hand, seated herself upon a carved stool in front of the great hut.
Presently an altercation arose upon the further side of the reed fence in
which she recognised Ishmael's strident voice, mingled with the deeper
tones of the Zulus, who seemed to be insisting upon something.

"They command him to take off his headdress," said Noie, "and threaten to
beat him if he will not."

"Go, tell them to admit him as he is, that I may see his face, and learn
if he be the white man whom I knew, or another," answered Rachel, and she
went.

Then the gate was opened and the messengers were led in by women. After
these came six captains, carrying broad spears, as she had commanded, and
last of all Ishmael himself. Rachel's whole nature shrank at the sight of
his dark, handsome features. She loathed the man now as always; her
instinct warned her of danger at his hands. Also she remembered his
threats when last they met and she rejected him, and what had passed
between him and her father on the following day. But of all this she
showed nothing, remaining seated in silence with calm, set face.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.