Under the Zulu regime, no king would have dreamt of issuing so vague and mysterious an order. Had he wished anything to be done, he would have communicated his instructions to his _indunas_, who would have transmitted them by recognized messengers to the Chiefs, these to the headmen who, in their turn, would have advised the heads of families immediately under their respective supervision. Everything would have taken place openly, speedily, definitely. The precise meaning of the royal intentions would have become known from the outset to every soul. In 1905, however, something had to be done against, and under the very eyes and nose of, a power to whom Dinuzulu and all his former followers were, and had for long been, subject. Hence the necessity for issue of an anonymous type of order, and, as no Native of Natal or Zululand had ever had experience of such message, it followed that communication with Dinuzulu was necessary to ascertain if he had issued it, and, if so, what his plans were. In the district of Weenen, inhabited by two of the largest tribes in Natal or Zululand, viz. those of Silwana and Ngqambuzana,[80] the Magistrate was successful in tracing the rumours to a definite source. They had been disseminated there by three Natives, who, under the rôle of messengers from Dinuzulu, had also traversed Newcastle, Dundee and Klip River divisions. They visited the kraals of Chiefs and others along their route. "They led the Natives," says the Magistrate, "to believe that war would shortly be declared by Dinuzulu, and those who failed to carry out his instructions as to the killing of pigs and destruction of utensils of European manufacture, and a reversion in general to their primitive mode of living, would be swept away by him. Reference was also made to a Basuto woman who had risen from the dead and was in communication with Dinuzulu. They alleged that 500 emissaries of Dinuzulu were canvassing South Africa." One of the 'messengers' "alleged that he and nine others had been dispatched by the Paramount Chief of [Basutoland] to Dinuzulu, from whom they now bore instructions which were similar in effect to those circulated by the other two men."[81] The Magistrate was unable to find that any of the three 'messengers' had been in communication with Dinuzulu. After trial and conviction, they were severely punished for spreading the false rumours.