Tell me now, who by right is ruler of the Umpondwana ?" "We do not know, chief," they answered, "or rather, we cannot tell if our ruler is alive or dead, and if she is dead then none are left of the true blood.

She was a small woman, but very pretty and full of wisdom as a mealie-cob with grains of corn, for in all this country there was no doctoress or diviner like to her.

Her name was Sihamba Ngenyanga, the Wanderer-by-Moonlight, which name was given her when she was little, because of her habit of walking in the dark alone, and she was the only child of our late chief's _inkosikaas_, a princess of the Swazis, the father of that lord, Koraanu, who lies dead of the small-pox.

But when this chief died and Sihamba was called upon to rule our tribe, quarrels arose between her and the _indunas_ of the tribe, for she was a very headstrong woman.
"We, the _indunas_, wished her to marry, but for her own reasons she would not marry; also we wished to swear allegiance to Chaka, but she was against it, saying that as well might a lamb swear allegiance to a wolf as the Umpondwana to the Zulus.

The end of it was that in a temper she took a bowl of water, and before us all washed her hands of us, and that same night she vanished away we know not where, though rumours have reached us that she went south.