"Listen,O king!Listen,O people!Listen,O mountains and plains and rivers,home of the Kukuana race!Listen,O skies and sun,O rain and storm and mist!Listen,all things that live and must die!Listen,all dead things that must live again -again to die!Listen,the spirit of life is in me,and I prophesy.I prophesy!I prophesy!"The words died away in a faint wall,and terror seemed to seize upon the hearts of all who heard them,including ourselves.The old woman was very terrible.
"Blood!blood!blood!rivers of blood;blood everywhere.
I see it,I smell it,I taste it -it is salt;it runs red upon the ground,it rains down from the skies.
"Footsteps!footsteps!footsteps!the tread of the white man coming from afar.It shakes the earth;the earth trembles before her master.
"Blood is good,the red blood is bright;there is no smell like the smell of new-shed blood.The lions shall lap it and roar,the vultures shall wash their wings in it and shriek in joy.
"I am old!I am old!I have seen much blood;but I shall see more ere I die,and be merry.How old am I,think ye?Your fathers knew me,and their fathers hew me,and their fathers'fathers.I have seen the white man,and how his desires.I am old,but the mountains are older than I.
Who made the great road,tell me?Who wrote in pictures on the rocks,tell me?Who reared up the three silent ones yonder,who gaze across the pit,tell me?"(And she pointed towards the three precipitous mountains we had noticed on the previous night.)"Ye know not,but I know.It was a white people who were before ye were,who shall be when ye.are not,who shall eat ye up and destroy ye.Yea!yea!yea!
"And what came they for,the white ones,the terrible ones,the skilled in magic and all learning,the strong,the unswerving?What is that bright stone upon thy forehead,O king?Whose hands made the iron garments upon thy breast,O king?Ye know not,but I know.I the old one,I the wise one,I the Isanusi!"(witch doctress.)Then she turned her bald,vulture head towards us.
"What seek ye,white men of the stars?Ah,yes,of the stars!
Do ye seek a lost one?Ye shall not find him here.He is not here.Never for ages upon ages has a white foot pressed this land;never but once,and he left it but to die.Ye come for bright stones;I know it -I know it;ye shall find them when the blood is dry;but shall ye return whence ye came,or shall ye stop with me?Ha!ha!ha!
"And thou -thou with the dark skin and the proud beating"(pointing her skinny finger at Umbopa),"who art thou ,and what seekest thou ?Not stones that shine;not yellow metal that gleams;that thou leavest to `white men from the stars.'Methinks I know thee;methinks I can smell the smell of the blood in thy veins.Strip off the girdle -"Here the features of this extraordinary creature became convulsed,and she fell to the ground foaming in an epileptic fit and was carried off into the hut.
The king rose up trembling,and waved his hand.Instantly the regiments began to file off,and in ten minutes,save for ourselves,the king,and a few attendants,the great space was left clear.
"White people,"he said,"it passes in my mind to kill ye.Gagool has spoken strange words.What say ye?"I laughed."Be careful,O king,we are not easy to slay.Thou hast seen the fate of the ox;wouldst thou be as the ox?"The king frowned."It is not well to threaten a king.""We threaten not,we speak what is true.Try to kill us,O king,and learn."The great man put his hand to his forehead.
"Go in peace,"he said,at length."To-night is the great dance.
Ye shall see it.Fear not that I shall set a snare for ye.To-morrow Ishall think."
"It is well,O king,"I answered,unconcernedly,and then,accompanied by Infadoos,we rose and went back to our kraal.