For when I rose strong and well in the morning, I could never know but that at night I should sleep stiff and red.

Many were the doctors whom Chaka slew; doctored they never so well, they were killed at last.

For a day would surely come when the king felt ill in his body or heavy in his mind, and then to the assegai or the torment with the wizard who had doctored him! Yet I escaped, because of the power of my medicine, and also because of that oath which Chaka had sworn to me as a child.

So it came about that where the king went there I went with him.

I slept near his hut, I sat behind him at council, in the battle I was ever at his side.
Ah! the battle! the battle! In those days we knew how to fight, my father! In those days the vultures would follow our impis by thousands, the hyenas would steal along our path in packs, and none went empty away.