"Begin! begin!" "Let the Umkandhlu regiment come forward!" he shouted a third time, and as he spoke the black shields of the Umkandhlu leaped from the ranks of the impi.
"Go, my children!" cried Chaka.

"There is the foe.

Go and return no more!" "We hear you, father!" they answered with one voice, and moved down the slope like a countless herd of game with horns of steel.
Now they crossed the stream, and now Zwide awoke.

A murmur went through his companies; lines of light played above his spears.
Ou! they are coming! Ou! they have met! Hearken to the thunder of the shields! Hearken to the song of battle! To and fro they swing.

The Umkandhlu gives way--it flies! They pour back across the stream--half of them; the rest are dead.