thirst that can never be assuaged. They want thing they see, and even that is never enough for them. They take the very earth, but that is not enough, so they tear it open like a man tearing a child from the mother's womb. They take the rivers, and that is not enough, so they build walls across them and turn them into lakes. They ride after the elephant herds and shoot them down, not just one or two, not just the big bulls, but all of them, the breeding cows and the calves with ivory no longer than your finger. Everything they see they take; and they see everything, for they are always moving and searching and looking.'
'Lobengula must eat them up,'Bazo said. 'He must eat them up as Mzilikazi his father would have eaten them.'
'Hau!'Kamuza smiled his thin twisted smile. 'Such wisdom from my brother. He recalls how Mzilikazi ate the white men on the banks of the Gariep, and lost a land. Listen to Bazo, my children. He counsels the King Lobengula to throw the war spear and loose his impis as Cetewayo the King of Zulu did at the Hill of the Little Hand. How many Englishmen did Cetewayo slay? There was no counting, for their red jackets lay one upon the other like the snows of the Dragon Mountains when the sunset turns them to fire, and their blood fed the land so that the grass still grows greener and thicker and sweeter upon the slopes of the Little Hand to this day. Oh a fine killing, my children, a great and beautiful stabbing , and afterwards Cetewayo paid for it with the spear of his kingship. He paid for it with his royal herds, he paid for it with the liver and heart of his young men, with the grassy hills of Zululand. For after the avengers had made the great slaughter at Ulundi they took it all, and they placed chains of iron upon Cetewayo's wrists and ankles and they chained his indunas and his war captains and led them away. Now Bazo, the wise, would have you know what a good bargain King Cetewayo made, and he urges Lobengula to make the same bargain with these white men.'
Bazo's expression remained grave and dignified while Kamuza chided and mocked him but he twisted the snuff-horn between his fingers and once he glanced to the dark corner of the thatched hut where the long war shields and the broad assegai were stacked.
But when Kamuza finished, Bazo shook his head. 'No one here dares counsel the king; we are his dogs only.
No one here doubts the might and resolve of the white men, we who live each day with their strange and wonderful ways. All we ask is this: what is the king's word?
Tell us what Lobengula wishes, for to hear is to obey.'
Kamusa nodded. 'Hear then the king's voice, for the king has travelled with all his senior indunas, Babiaan and Somabula and Gandang, all the indunas of the house of Kurnalo, they have gone into the hills of 'Matopos to the place of the Umlimo A superstitious tremor shook the group, a little shiver as though the name of the wizard of the Matopos had crawled upon their skins like the sickle-winged tsetse fly.
'The Umlimo has given the oracle,' Kamuza told them, and then was silent, the pause theatrical, to pique their attention, to dramatize the effect of his next words.
'On the first day the Umlimo repeated the ancient prophecy, the words that have come down from the time of Monomatapa. On the first day the Umlimo spoke thus: 'The. stone falcons will fly afar. There shall be no peace in the kingdoms of the Marnbos or the Monornatapas until they return. For the white eagle will war with the black bull until the stone falcons return to roost.
They had all of them heard the prophecy before, but now it had a new and sinister impact.
'The king has pondered the ancient prophecy, and he says thus: 'The white birds are gathering. Eagle and vulture, all of them white, they roost already upon the roof of my kraal.'
' rwhat is the meaning of the stone falcons?' one of his listeners asked.
'The stone falcons are the bird gods that the ancient ones left at the burial place of the old kings, Zimbabwe.'
'How will stone birds fly?'
'One has flown already,'Bazo answered this time. 'One of the stone falcons stands close by us now. It stands under the roof of Bakela, the Fist. It was he who took the falcon, and carried it away.'
'When the other birds fly, then war will sweep over Matabeleland,' Kamuza -affirmed. 'But listen now to the oracle of the Umlimo.' And their questions were stilled.
'On the second day the Umlimo prophesied thus: 'When the midnight sky turns to noon, and the stars shine on the hills, then the fist will hold the blade to the throat of the black bull.'
'This was the prophecy of the second day.'
Again they were silent as they pondered the words then, mystified, they looked to Kamuza for the meaning of the prophecy.
'Lobengula, the Black Elephant, alone understands the meaning of the prophecy of the second day. Is he not versed in the mysteries of the wizards? Did he not pass his childhood in the caves and secret places of the wizards? Thus says Lobengula. 'This is not yet the time to explain the words of the Umlimo to my children, for they are momentous words indeed, and there will be a time for the nation to understand.' Bazo nodded and passed his snuff-horn. Kamuza took it and drew the red powder up into his nostrils with two sharp inhalations of breath and, watching him, Bazo did not dare to voice his own suspicion that perhaps Lobengula, the mighty thunder of the skies, was as mystified by the prophecy of the second day as was the little group around the fire.
'Was this all the oracle?' Bazo asked instead, and Kamuza shook his head.
'On the third day the Umlimo prophesied for the last time: 'Sting the mamba with his own venom, pull down the lion with his own claws, deceive the clever chacma baboon with his own trickery.'
'This was the prophecy of the third and final day.'
'Does the king intend that we, his humble cattle, should know the meaning of the prophecy of the third day?'
'Thus spoke Lobengula: 'We the Matabele cannot prevail until we arm ourselves as our adversary is armed, until we gather to ourselves the strength that is found only in the yellow coins and shining stones.
For it is these things which have made the white man strong.,',' Nobody interrupted the silence that followed, for they all sensed that there was more to come.
'Thus the king summoned me to the royal kraal and bid me carry his word to all the Matabele who live beyond
