Swallow: A Tale of the Great Trek by H. Rider Haggard

  When the mists had vanished and the air was warm with the sun, the armyof Sigwe marched from the pass heading for the great mountain. As theydrew near they saw that the Umpondwana were much terrified at the sightof them, for from all the kraals, of which there were many on the slopesof the mountain, they ran hither and thither like ants about a brokennest, carrying their goods and children upon their shoulders, anddriving herds of cattle in towards the central stronghold. Noting this,Sigwe halted and sent heralds forward to say that he came in peace andnot in war, and he desired to speak with their chief. In less than twohours the heralds returned, bringing with them some of the headmen ofthe Umpondwana, who stared round with frightened eyes, for they did notbelieve that any general would come upon a message of peace with so manyregiments. When the _indaba_ was set Sigwe told them his name andtribe, of both of which they had heard, and then, before speaking of hisbusiness, asked which of them was the chief of the Umpondwana.

  "Alas!" answered an old man, "we are in sore trouble here, and wander inthe darkness, for our chief, who was named Koraanu, died two days agoof the small-pox which has raged among us for many months, leaving nochildren behind him, for the sickness killed them also. Moreover, we aresuffering from a great drought, for as you may see, the veldt is stillbrown, and there is no green upon the cornfields, and if rain does notfall soon famine will follow the sickness, and then it will only needthat the Zulus should follow the famine to make an end of us once andfor all."

  "It seems that your tribe must have sinned deeply and brought down uponitself the curse of the spirits of its ancestors," said Sigwe, whenthey had done their melancholy tale, "that so many misfortunes shouldovertake you. Tell me now, who by right is ruler of the Umpondwana?"

  "We do not know, chief," they answered, "or rather, we cannot tell ifour ruler is alive or dead, and if she is dead then none are left of thetrue blood. She was a small woman, but very pretty and full of wisdom asa mealie-cob with grains of corn, for in all this country there was nodoctoress or diviner like to her. Her name was Sihamba Ngenyanga, theWanderer-by-Moonlight, which name was given her when she was little,because of her habit of walking in the dark alone, and she was the onlychild of our late chief's _inkosikaas_, a princess of the Swazis, thefather of that lord, Koraanu, who lies dead of the small-pox. But whenthis chief died and Sihamba was called upon to rule our tribe, quarrelsarose between her and the _indunas_ of the tribe, for she was a veryheadstrong woman.

  "We, the _indunas_, wished her to marry, but for her own reasons shewould not marry; also we wished to swear allegiance to Chaka, but shewas against it, saying that as well might a lamb swear allegiance to awolf as the Umpondwana to the Zulus. The end of it was that in a tempershe took a bowl of water, and before us all washed her hands of us, andthat same night she vanished away we know not where, though rumours havereached us that she went south. From the day of her departure, however,things have gone ill with us; the Zulus with whom we made peace threatenus continually; her half-brother, Koraanu, the slave-born, was not agood chief, and now he is dead of the sickness. So our heart is heavyand our head is in the dust, and when we saw your impi we thought thatDingaan, who now rules over the Zulus, had sent it to eat us up and totake the cattle that still remain to us.

  "But you say that you come in peace, so tell us, chief, what it is youdesire, and I trust that it may be little, for here we have nothing togive, unless," he added with meaning, "it be the small-pox, although weare ready to fight to the death for what is left to us, our liberty andour cattle; and, chief, even a larger army than yours might fail to takethat stronghold which has but one gate."

  When the councillor had finished speaking, Sigwe called aloud:

  "Lady Sihamba, I pray you come hither, and with you the lady Swallow,your companion."

  Then Sihamba, who was prepared for this event, for her hair was freshlydressed and powdered with blue mica, wearing her little cape of fur andthe necklace of large blue beads, stepped from the screen of bush behindwhich she had hidden. With her, and holding her hand, came Suzanne,who covered the raggedness of her clothes beneath a splendid karossof leopards' skins that Sigwe had given her, down which her dark hairflowed almost to her knee. A strange pair they made, the tall Suzanne inthe first bloom of her white beauty which had suffered nothing in theirjourneying, and the small, quick-eyed, delicate-featured Kaffir woman.

  "Who are these?" asked Sigwe of the council.

  The old man looked at them and answered:

  "Of the white lady we can say nothing except that she is very beautiful;but, unless our eyes deceive us, she whom she holds by the hand isSihamba Ngenyanga, who was our chieftainess, and who left us because shewas angry."

  "She is Sihamba and no one else," said Sigwe. "Sihamba come back to ruleyou in the hour of need, and with her own tongue she shall tell you herstory and the story of the White Swallow who holds her by the hand."

  So Sihamba began, and for an hour or more she spoke to them, for whenshe chose this little woman had the gift of words, telling them allabout herself, and telling them also the story of the Swallow, and ofhow she had brought good luck to the army of Sigwe, and how she wasdestined to bring good luck wherever she made her home. At the end ofher speech she said:

  "Now, my people, although I have wandered from you, yet my eyes, whichare far-seeing, have not been blind to your griefs, and in the hour ofyour need I return to you, bringing with me the White Swallow to sojournamong you for a while. Receive us if you will and be prosperous, orreject us and be destroyed; to us it matters nothing, it is for you tochoose. But if we come, we come not as servants but as princes whoseword cannot be questioned, and should you accept us and deal ill with usin any way, then your fate is sure. Ask the chief Sigwe here whether orno the flight of the Swallow is fortunate, and whether or no there iswisdom in the mouth of Sihamba, who is not ashamed to serve her."

  Then Sigwe told them of all the good fortune that had come to himthrough Suzanne, and of how wise had been the words of Sihamba, and toldthem, moreover, that if they dealt ill by either of them he would returnfrom his own country and stamp them flat.