Tradition seems to carry the arrival of the people still further back. It is safe to say it is one of the oldest tribes in Zululand and was already long _in situ_ when the migration of the great Xosa family to Cape Colony took place in the seventeenth century. Although Tshaka attacked and defeated many tribes, he was unable to conquer that over which Mvakela, grandfather of Sigananda, presided. Later, however, he succeeded in putting Mvakela to death. This man took refuge in the Manzipambana section of the forests. It proved so detrimental to his health that he was obliged to leave and expose himself, thus affording the enemy an opportunity of which advantage was swiftly taken. It so happened that Mvakela had married a sister of Nandi, Tshaka's mother. Mvakela's son, Zokufa (father of Sigananda), was thus Tshaka's first cousin. This connection with the royal house of Zululand plays a most important part in regard to the Rebellion. It shows the character of the blood relationship between Dinuzulu and Sigananda. Zokufa was allowed to become Chief. The tribe continued, as in former ages, to practice the art of iron-smelting, and the manufacture of hoes, axes, knives and assegais of every shape and size. Owing to special aptitude in these respects, the people were largely patronized by the King who, from time to time, called for supplies of the articles manufactured. The national army depended to no small extent on the assegais made by the tribe, which came to fill much the same kind of place in the body politic that Woolwich arsenal does in England. Large quantities of the domestic articles referred to were, moreover, bartered to the general public far and near. When the white man arrived in 1824, and, in the years that followed, introduced hoes, axes and knives, the demand for more serviceable wares soon caused this once famous handicraft to die out. But, although the Zulus were content to use European hoes (which were lighter and cheaper), and axes and knives (which were harder and sharper), they never lost faith in their own smiths for the making of assegais and other implements of war. To this day the assegai forged in Birmingham has been unable to supersede that of the ordinary Native blacksmith who, in these days, is not above using European pig-iron, instead of smelting his own with those quaint old bellows of his from the ironstone so frequently to be met with. Sigananda himself was an excellent smith, his reputation for barbed, large stabbing, as well as throwing, assegais being by no means confined to members of his own tribe.