Classic Poem

Only one wife, Inkoos? Ha, it is strange.
But Kusawa has known it; he also had one.

Makumbo Rashumba went trading for cattle
To the kraal of Mudzingwa;
And I, too, went with him.

Mudzingwa the Bastard —
The blood of Wazulu
Was hot in his veins, and we traded with money;
For Makumbo, my father, had been to the mines.

To the kraal of Mudzingwa,
Four days from Matshanga,
We came, and we slept, and we talked with Mudzingwa;
On the morrow we talk'd; but I wearied of barter
And left the old men with their beer at the fig tree.

I left the old men,
And I went to the river;
And there in the river the maidens were bathing,
For hot was the day, and the rains were approaching.

I laugh'd to myself,
And I stalk'd the young damsels;
With shield and with assegai, laughing I stalk'd them
Through reed-beds and rushes,
By boulder and ant-heap,
Until I had come to the edge of the pool.

Ha! Ha! They were frighten'd —
The maidens were frighten'd,
And fled from the shield and the spear of Kusawa,
And fled from his shout and the toss of his feathers;
But one of the maidens sat down by the pool-edge,
Too frighten'd to fly —
On the sand by the margin —
The sand that was hot with the sun of the morning,
And buried her face in her hands — and Kusawa
Said, " Damsel, you fear not the spears of Matshanga?"

But Dapuwa said nothing —
Said nothing, too frighten'd
To speak or to look;
And her shoulders were shining —
Were shining with water;
With water that dripp'd to the sand in the sunshine.

Her skin was aglow
Like the copper of bangles;
Her hair was agleam with the wet of the river,
And sparkled and shone as the sun fell upon it;
And lo! I was moved with a love for this damsel.
And lo, I was mad!

For I went to Rashumba
That night, and I said: " O my father, this morning
I came on the best of the maids of Mudzingwa —
The best and the only of all that Kusawa
Has seen and desired of daughters of Wanu."

On the morrow, Rashumba
Said: " Which is she, boy?"
And I show'd him Dapuwa
The child of Mudzingwa —
Dapuwa the best of the children of Wanu.

Makumbo Rashumba then shouted with laughter,
" Bah, boy, she's a baby!" he said; " Be you careful,
The food of Mudzingwa is poison'd; the baby
Is thin and unform'd; let us back to Matshanga
And we will discover a damsel of substance."

And thus we returned;
But the rains were not over
When two of the cattle that came from Mudzingwa
Were dead of disease; and Makumbo Rashumba
Was wroth at their loss.
And Makumbo Rashumba went down to the Sabi
To Tshakayengeni, the chief on the river.

They held an indaba —
Much talk and much drinking;
Two moons did they talk, till the plumes of an impi
Were gather'd together; and Tshakayengeni,
The chief with one eye, and Makumbo Rashumba,
The greatest of fighters, and Wariwangani,
The half-bred Maswina, commanded the impi;
And North did we go, till we came, in the darkness,
Three days from Matshanga — for swiftly we travell'd —
To the hills and the kraal of Mudzingwa the Bastard.

At night did we come;
And I fear'd, in the darkness,
Dapuwa might die by the spears of Matshanga;
Might die, and the heart of Kusawa die with her:
For Kusawa was sick for the arms of Dapuwa;
And the love of Dapuwa was more to Kusawa
Than drinking or dancing, or looting or hunting —
Was more than the lives of a thousand Maswina —
Was more than the life of himself, or Rashumba —
Of Tshakayengeni, or Wariwangani —
For Afa it was who had poison'd the cattle,
Those cows of Rashumba
That died of disease.

And Afa it was
Who had whisper'd, " My father,
Mudzingwa, the Bastard, is wealthy in muti —
Mudzingwa with magic
Has poison'd the cows."

But now, in the darkness, the soldiers were gather'd
Surrounding the huts, and alust for the slaughter,
With coals hid in bark, and dry grass and dead branches
To lighten their slaying and heighten the terror;
And I at the hut of Dapuwa was waiting —
Till Tshakayengeni cried, " Shlanza!" And sudden
The grass was ablaze, and the roofs of Mudzingwa
Aflare in the darkness.

Inkoos, it is good — it is good to be fighting!
With blood on the kerries and blood on the assegais —
Sobs of the stabb'd and the cries of the wounded —
With shouting of Shlanza and roaring of fires
The souls of the slaughter'd with songs of Matshanga
Go white to the sky in the columns of smoke.

On the morrow they told me
That Wariwangani,
The half-bred Maswina, was slain by Mudzingwa;

For he was a man whom the blood of the Slitears
Had tutor'd in war; but Makumbo Rashumba
Came seeking Mudzingwa
Who stood by his hut in a circle of corpses;
And found him, and smote him, and cast on the fire
The corpse of Mudzingwa, for killing the cows.

But I had not seen it,
Nor aught of the fighting;
For I had gone into the hut of Dapuwa.
And there I had found her with two of her sisters,
And out to the night I had taken the maiden —
To the night and the woods on the slope of the ridges.

Dapuwa was mine;
She was fairest of maidens,
And softest was she of the children of Wanu;
And warm — she was warm — and the winds of the night time
Were naught to Kusawa, who slept in her arms;
The darkness was naught when the eyes of Dapuwa
Were close to my eyes — but the morning was with us
Too soon, and we went to the kraal of Mudzingwa —

To the ash that was once call'd the kraal of Mudzingwa —
And saw the stiff dead as they smiled in the sunshine,
And pass'd to the river and greeted the impi,
And camp'd for six days, and return'd to Matshanga.

Only one wife, Inkoos?
Ha, it is strange.
But Kusawa has known it; he also had one.
He also had one;
But that one was too few, and the spirit of Afa
Forgot the dead past when Dapuwa was younger.

Dapuwa is good in the gardens and labours,
The mealies and millet grow well at her hand;
Her beer is the best that is boil'd in Matshanga;
Her pots are well-wrought, and her herbs are rich-flavour'd;
Her children are strong, and her temper is good. But —
The hut of Kusawa she graces no longer!