Umslopogaas ran backwards, lifting up the Groan-Maker, when certain councillors of the people flung themselves in between them, crying, "Hold!" "Is not this your law, ye councillors," said Umslopogaas, "that, having conquered the chief of the People of the Axe, I myself am chief ?" "That is our law indeed, stranger," answered an aged councillor, "but this also is our law: that now you must do battle, one by one, with all who come against you.

So it was in my father's time, when the grandfather of him who now lies dead won the axe, and so it must be again to-day." "I have nothing to say against the rule," said Umslopogaas.

"Now who is there who will come up against me to do battle for the axe Groan-Maker and the chieftainship of the People of the Axe ?" Then all the ten sons of Jikiza stepped forward as one man, for their hearts were made with wrath because of the death of their father and because the chieftainship had gone from their race, so that in truth they cared little if they lived or died.

But there were none besides these, for all men feared to stand before Umslopogaas and the Groan-Maker.
Umslopogaas counted them.

"There are ten, by the head of Chaka!" he cried.