"Greeting, son Saduko!" he said in a deep, rumbling voice. "Why are you
back here so soon, and why do you bring this flea of a white man with
you?"
Now this was more than I could bear, so without waiting for my
companion's answer I broke in: "You give me a poor name, O Zikali. What would you think of me if I
called you a beetle of a wizard?"
"I should think you clever," he answered after reflection, "for after
all I must look something like a beetle with a white head. But why
should you mind being compared to a flea? A flea works by night and so
do you, Macumazahn; a flea is active and so are you; a flea is very hard
to catch and kill and so are you; and lastly a flea drinks its fill of
that which it desires, the blood of man and beast, and so you have done,
do, and will, Macumazahn," and he broke into a great laugh that rolled
and echoed about the rocky roof above.
Once, long years before, I had heard that laugh, when I was a prisoner
in Dingaan's kraal, after the massacre of Retief and his company, and I
recognised it again.
While I was searching for some answer in the same vein, and not finding
it, though I thought of plenty afterwards, ceasing of a sudden from his
unseemly mirth, he went on: "Do not let us waste time in jests, for it is a precious thing, and
there is but little of it left for any one of us. Your business, son
Saduko?"
"Baba!" (that is the Zulu for father), said Saduko, "this white Inkoosi,
for, as you know well enough, he is a chief by nature, a man of a great
heart and doubtless of high blood [this, I believe, is true, for I have
been told that my ancestors were more or less distinguished,
although, if this is so, their talents did not lie in the direction of
money-making], has offered to take me upon a shooting expedition and to
give me a good gun with two mouths in payment of my services. But I told
him I could not engage in any fresh venture without your leave, and--he
is come to see whether you will grant it, my father."
"Indeed," answered the dwarf, nodding his great head. "This clever white
man has taken the trouble of a long walk in the sun to come here to
ask me whether he may be allowed the privilege of presenting you with a
weapon of great value in return for a service that any man of your years
in Zululand would love to give for nothing in such company?
"Son Saduko, because my eye-holes are hollow, do you think it your part
to try to fill them up with dust? Nay, the white man has come because
he desires to see him who is named Opener-of-Roads, of whom he heard a
great deal when he was but a lad, and to judge whether in truth he has
wisdom, or is but a common cheat. And you have come to learn whether or
no your friendship with him will be fortunate; whether or no he will aid
you in a certain enterprise that you have in your mind."