Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-09-24
CHAPTER vi.
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.

THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
Notwithstanding all that we had gone
through, perhaps, indeed, on account
of it-for l was thoroughly worn out
slept that night as soundly as poor
Gobo, round whose crushed body the
hyenas would now be prowling.
Risinr refreshed at dawn, we went
on our way toward Nala's krNal, which
we reached at nightfall.
1t is built on open ground after the
Zulu fashion, ring fence and with
beehive huts.
The cattle kraal is behind, and lit
tie to the left.
Indeed, both from their habits and
their talk, 1t was easy to see that these
Butiana belong to that section of the
Banu people which since TChaka's
time has .een known as the Zulu race.
We did not see the chief Nala that
night.
His daughter Maiwa went on to his
private huts as soon as we arrived, and
very shortly afterward one of his head.
Hcu Cduue W us, ohCVp oho
some mealles and milk with him.
The chief sent us greeting, he said,
and would see us on the morrow.
Meanwhile he was ordered to bring
Us to a place Of resting, where we and
our goods should be safe and undis-
turbed.
Accordingly, he led the way to some
very good huts just outside Nala's
private inclosure and here we slept
comfortably.
On the morrow, about 8 o'clock, the
headman came again, and said that
Nala requested that I would visit him.
Accordingly, followed him into the
private inclosure, and was introduced
to the chief-a fine looking man Of
about fifty, with very deicately shaped
hands and feet, and rather nervous
mouth.
The chief was seated on a tanned OK
hide outside his hut.
But his side was his daughter Malwa,
and round him, squatted on their
launches, were some twenty headmen
or Indunas, whose number was con.
tinually added to by fresh arrivals.
These men sauted me as entered,
and the chief rose and took my hand,
ordering a stool to be brought for me
to sit on.
When this was done, he with much
eloquence and native courtesy, thanked
me for protecting his daughter in the
painful and dangerous circumstances
in which she found herself placed, and
also complimented me very highly up
on what he was pleased to call the
bravery with which had defended the
pass in the rocks. g..
answered in appropriate terms, say
ing that it was to Maiwa herself that
thanks were due, for had 1t. not been
for her warning and knowledge of the
country we should not have been here
to-day. while as to the defense Of the
pass. l was fighting for my life. and
that put heart into one.
These courtesies concluded, Nala
called upon his daughter Malwa to tell
her tale to the headmen, and this she
did most simply and effectively.
She reminded them that she had
gone as an unwilling bride to Wambe;
that no cattle had been paid for her,
because Wambe had threatened war II
she was not sent as free gift.
Since she had entered the kraal of
Wambe her days had been days Of
heaviness, and her nights nights of
weeping.
She had been beaten, she had been
neglected, and made to do the work of
low-born wife-she, chiefs daugh-
ter.
She had borne a child and this was
the story Of the child.
Then, amid a dead silence she told
them the awful tale which she had al
ready narrated to me.
When she had finished. her hearers
gave loud ejaculation.
our they said-"ou! Malwa, daugh-
ter of Nala"
"Ay," she went on, with flashing
eyes-"ay; 1t is true.
my mouth is as full of truth as a
flower of honey; and for tears, my eyes
are like the dew upon the grass at
dawn.
ut is true: l saw the child die.
Here Is the proof of 1t, councillors,
and she drew forth the little dead hand
and held 1t before them.
Our they said again--"ou! It Is the
dead hand"
"Yes," she continued, ut is the dead
hand OF my dead child. and l bear II
with me that may never forget, never
fer one short hour. that live that