.

ZINITA COMES TO THE KING.
Dingaan the king sat upon a day in the kraal Umgugundhlovu, waiting till his impis should return from the Income that is now named the Blood River.

He had sent them thither to destroy the laager of the Boers, and thence, as he thought, they would presently return with victory.

Idly he sat in the kraal, watching the vultures wheel above the Hill of Slaughter, and round him stood a regiment.
"My birds are hungry," he said to a councillor.
"Doubtless there shall soon be meat to feed them, O King!" the councillor answered.
As he spoke one came near, saying that a woman sought leave to speak to the king upon some great matter.
"Let her come," he answered; "I am sick for tidings, perhaps she can tell of the impi." Presently the woman was led in.

She was tall and fair, and she held two children by the hand.
"What is thine errand ?" asked Dingaan.
"Justice, O King," she answered.
"Ask for blood, it shall be easier to find." "I ask blood, O King." "The blood of whom ?" "The blood of Bulalio the Slaughterer, Chief of the People of the Axe, the blood of Nada the Lily, and of all those who cling to her." Now Dingaan sprang up and swore an oath by the head of the Black One who was gone.
"What ?" he cried, "does the Lily, then, live as the soldier thought ?" "She lives, O King.