"So, so! For that folly alone I deserve to die, for she who would
reign"--and her beautiful eyes flashed royally--"must have a tiger's
heart, not that of a woman. Well, because I was too kind I must die;
and, after all is said, it is well to die, who go hence awaited by
thousands upon thousands that I have sent before me, and who shall be
greeted presently by your son, Indhlovu-ene-Sihlonti, and his warriors,
greeted as the Inkosazana of Death, with red, lifted spears and with the
royal salute!
"Now, I have spoken. Walk your little road, O King and Prince and
Councillors, till you reach the gulf into which I sink, that yawns for
all of you. O King, when you meet me again at the bottom of that gulf,
what a tale you will have to tell me, you who are but the shadow of a
king, you whose heart henceforth must be eaten out by a worm that is
called Love-of-the-Lost. O Prince and Conqueror Cetewayo, what a tale
you will have to tell me when I greet you at the bottom of that gulf,
you who will bring your nation to a wreck and at last die as I must
die--only the servant of others and by the will of others. Nay, ask me
not how. Ask old Zikali, my master, who saw the beginning of your House
and will see its end. Oh, yes, as you say, I am a witch, and I know, I
know! Come, I am spent. You men weary me, as men have always done, being
but fools whom it is so easy to make drunk, and who when drunk are so
unpleasing. Piff! I am tired of you sober and cunning, and I am tired of
you drunken and brutal, you who, after all, are but beasts of the field
to whom Mvelingangi, the Creator, has given heads which can think, but
which always think wrong.
"Now, King, before you unchain your dogs upon me, I ask one moment.
I said that I hated all men, yet, as you know, no woman can tell the
truth--quite. There is a man whom I do not hate, whom I never hated,
whom I think I love because he would not love me. He sits there," and to
my utter dismay, and the intense interest of that company, she pointed
at me, Allan Quatermain!
"Well, once by my 'magic,' of which you have heard so much, I got the
better of this man against his will and judgment, and, because of that
soft heart of mine, I let him go; yes, I let the rare fish go when he
was on my hook. It is well that I should have let him go, since, had I
kept him, a fine story would have been spoiled and I should have become
nothing but a white hunter's servant, to be thrust away behind the door
when the white Inkosikazi came to eat his meat--I, Mameena, who never
loved to stand out of sight behind a door. Well, when he was at my feet
and I spared him, he made me a promise, a very small promise, which yet
I think he will keep now when we part for a little while. Macumazahn,
did you not promise to kiss me once more upon the lips whenever and
wherever I should ask you?"