Zulu (African people) -- Fiction; Zululand (South Africa) -- History -- Fiction
Then one of them drew a little package wrapped in leaves from his robe,
and motioned to Noie that she should give it to Rachel. Noie obeyed,
and the man said:
“Let us see if she has vision. Tell us, thou White One, what lies
within the leaves.”
Rachel, who had been sitting like a person in a dream, took the packet,
and, without looking at it, answered:
“Many other leaves, and within the last of them a hair from this head
of mine. I see it, but three knots have been tied therein. They are
three great troubles.”
“Open,” said the dwarf to Noie, who cut the fibre binding the packet,
and unfolded many layers of leaves. Within the last leaf was a golden
hair, and in it were tied three knots.
Noie laid the hair upon the head of Rachel—it was hers. Then she showed
it to the King and his Council, who stared at the knots not knowing
what to say, and after they had looked at it, refolded it in the leaves
and returned the packet to the dwarf.
Now the dwarf who had read the picture in his bowl turned to him who
sat nearest and asked:
“What seest thou, Priest?”
The man stared at the limpid water and answered:
“I see this place at night. I see yonder King and his Councillors
talking to a white man with evil eyes and the face of a hawk, who has
been wounded on the head and foot. I read their lips. They bargain
together; it is of the bringing of an old prophet and his wife hither
by force. I see the prophet and his wife in a house, and with them
Zulus. By the command of the white man with the evil eyes the Zulus
kill the prophet whose head is bald, and his wife dies upon the bed.
Before they kill the prophet he slays one of the Zulus with smoke that
comes from an iron tube.”
When he heard all this Dingaan groaned, but the dwarf who had spoken,
taking no heed of him, said to the third dwarf:
“What seest thou, Priest?” to which that dwarf answered:
“I see the White One yonder standing on a hut, but her Spirit has fled
from her, it has fled from her to haunt the Trees. In her hand is a
spear, and below is the white man with the evil eyes, held by Zulus. I
read her words: she says that there is blood,” and he shivered as he
said the word, “yes, blood between her Spirit and the people of the
Zulus. She prophesies evil to them. I see the ill; I see many burnt in
a great fire. I see many drowned in an angry river. I see the demons of
sickness lay hold of many. I see her Spirit call up the locusts from
the coast land. I see it bring disaster on their arms; I see it scatter
plague among their cattle; I see a dim shape that it summons striding
towards this land. It travels fast over a winter veld, and the head of
it is the head of a skull, and the name of it is Famine.”
As he ended his words the three dwarfs bent forward, and with one
movement seized their bowls and emptied them on to the ground, saying:
“Earth, Earth, drink, drink and bear record of these visions!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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