For awhile Chaka said nothing, and so long as the doctors smelt out those only whom he wished to get rid of--and they were many--he was well pleased.

But when they began to work for their own ends, and to do those to death whom he did not desire to kill, he grew angry.

Yet the custom of the land was that he whom the witch-doctor touched must die, he and all his house; therefore the king was in a cleft stick, for he scarcely dared to save even those whom he loved.

One night I came to doctor him, for he was sick in his mind.

On that very day there had been an Ingomboco, and five of the bravest captains of the army had been smelt out by the Abangoma, the witch-finders, together with many others.