Nada the Lily | Page 5

these kings undoubtedly put their soldiers to many tests of equal
severity. Umbopo, or Mopo, as he is named in this tale, actually lived.
After he had stabbed Chaka, he rose to great eminence. Then he
disappears from the scene, but it is not accurately known whether he
also went "the way of the assegai," or perhaps, as is here suggested,
came to live near Stanger under the name of Zweete. The fate of the

two lovers at the mouth of the cave is a true Zulu tale, which has been
considerably varied to suit the purposes of this romance. The late Mr.
Leslie, who died in 1874, tells it in his book "Among the Zulus and
Amatongas." "I heard a story the other day," he says, "which, if the
power of writing fiction were possessed by me, I might have worked up
into a first-class sensational novel." It is the story that has been woven
into the plot of this book. To him also the writer is indebted for the
artifice by which Umslopogaas obtained admission to the Swazi
stronghold; it was told to Mr. Leslie by the Zulu who performed the
feat and thereby won a wife. Also the writer's thanks are due to his
friends, Mr. F. B. Fynney,[1] late Zulu border agent, for much
information given to him in bygone years by word of mouth, and more
recently through his pamphlet "Zululand and the Zulus," and to Mr.
John Bird, formerly treasurer to the Government of Natal, whose
compilation, "The Annals of Natal," is invaluable to all who would
study the early history of that colony and of Zululand.
As for the wilder and more romantic incidents of this story, such as the
hunting of Umslopogaas and Galazi with the wolves, or rather with the
hyaenas,--for there are no true wolves in Zululand,--the author can only
say that they seem to him of a sort that might well have been
mythically connected with the names of those heroes. Similar beliefs
and traditions are common in the records of primitive peoples. The club
"Watcher of the Fords," or, to give its Zulu name, U-nothlola-
mazibuko, is an historical weapon, chronicled by Bishop Callaway. It
was once owned by a certain Undhlebekazizwa. He was an arbitrary
person, for "no matter what was discussed in our village, he would
bring it to a conclusion with a stick." But he made a good end; for when
the Zulu soldiers attacked him, he killed no less than twenty of them
with the Watcher, and the spears stuck in him "as thick as reeds in a
morass." This man's strength was so great that he could kill a leopard
"like a fly," with his hands only, much as Umslopogaas slew the traitor
in this story.
Perhaps it may be allowable to add a few words about the Zulu
mysticism, magic, and superstition, to which there is some allusion in
this romance. It has been little if at all exaggerated. Thus the writer well

remembers hearing a legend how the Guardian Spirit of the Ama-Zulu
was seen riding down the storm. Here is what Mr. Fynney says of her
in the pamphlet to which reference has been made: "The natives have a
spirit which they call Nomkubulwana, or the Inkosazana-ye-Zulu (the
Princess of Heaven). She is said to be robed in white, and to take the
form of a young maiden, in fact an angel. She is said to appear to some
chosen person, to whom she imparts some revelation; but, whatever
that revelation may be, it is kept a profound secret from outsiders. I
remember that, just before the Zulu war, Nomkubulwana appeared,
revealing something or other which had a great effect throughout the
land, and I know that the Zulus were quite impressed that some
calamity was about to befall them. One of the ominous signs was that
fire is said to have descended from heaven, and ignited the grass over
the graves of the former kings of Zululand. . . . On another occasion
Nomkubulwana appeared to some one in Zululand, the result of that
visit being, that the native women buried their young children up to
their heads in sand, deserting them for the time being, going away
weeping, but returning at nightfall to unearth the little ones again."
For this divine personage there is, therefore, authority, and the same
may be said of most of the supernatural matters spoken of in these
pages. The exact spiritual position held in the Zulu mind by the
Umkulunkulu,--the Old--Old,--the Great--Great,--the Lord of
Heavens,-- is a more vexed question, and for its proper consideration
the reader must be referred to Bishop Callaway's work, the "Religious
System of the Amazulu." Briefly, Umkulunkulu's character seems to
vary from the idea of an ancestral spirit, or the