Decide, O father; say which of the two of us is to sit at the head of your kraal after you have gone over to the Spirits and are but an ancestor to be worshipped." Now, Panda looked much disturbed, as was not wonderful, since, rushing out from the fence behind which they had been listening, Umqumbazi, Cetewayo's mother, whispered into one of his ears, while Umbelazi's mother whispered into the other.

What advice each of them gave I do not know, although obviously it was not the same advice, since the poor man rolled his eyes first at one and then at the other, and finally put his hands over his ears that he might hear no more.
"Choose, choose, O King!" shouted the audience.

"Who is to succeed you, Cetewayo or Umbelazi ?" Watching Panda, I saw that he fell into a kind of agony; his fat sides heaved, and, although the day was cold, sweat ran from his brow.
"What would the white men do in such a case ?" he said to me in a hoarse, low voice, whereon I answered, looking at the ground and speaking so that few could hear me: "I think, O King, that a white man would do nothing.

He would say that others might settle the matter after he was dead." "Would that I could say so, too," muttered Panda; "but it is not possible." Then followed a long pause, during which all were silent, for every man there felt that the hour was big with doom.

At length Panda rose with difficulty, because of his unwieldy weight, and uttered these fateful words, that were none the less ominous because of the homely idiom in which they were couched: _"When two young bulls quarrel they must fight it out."_ Instantly in one tremendous roar volleyed forth the royal salute of "Bayete", a signal of the acceptance of the King's word--the word that meant civil war and the death of many thousands.
Then Panda turned and, so feebly that I thought he would fall, walked through the gateway behind him, followed by the rival queens.