That evil spirit spread until it influenced people like Mfokazana, and all of them plotted to kill Chaka, no matter in how cruel a manner, perhaps at some feast where he might be present. Senzangakhona’s senior wives, in their turn, alleged that the women of Ncube’s village had insulted them with their songs, and they urged Senzangakhona to intervene on their behalf. While matters were in that state, a messenger from Dingiswayo came to Senzangakhona and said: “Dingiswayo greets you. He wishes to know why you have not brought before him the young man whose birth you reported to his father, Jobe, so that he should see him and know him. He says that he is very thankful for the wild beast you sent him, and urges you to send Chaka to him so that he may also bring back with him the young bullock with which he wishes to thank you.”
This message from Dingiswayo blunted the anger of the wives and of the men of Ncube’s village. They all realised that if Chaka should die, Dingiswayo would demand him from them. Chaka himself also heard about Dingiswayo’s message, but for his part waited expectantly for word from his father, but his father remained silent till this very day that is shining above. In those days Chaka still trusted his father a great deal, and he was sure the day would come when he would straighten out his affairs for him. Little did he know that the sun would never rise to light that day. The affairs of his life eventually moulded themselves and took their own course, while his father maintained his silence. Indeed it was evident that, instead of working for Chaka’s welfare, he was fanning the brushfire so that it should burn him.
CHAPTER 4
Chaka Is Visited by the King of the Deep Pool
IT WAS once again Chaka’s day for rising early and going to the water, and indeed he went at the earliest light of dawn. His mother, being conscious of the evil spirit among the people, went with him. There was not a soul who knew that there was a time when Chaka went to the river early in the morning. When they arrived at the river, the Mfolozi-Mhlophe, his mother hid near where her son was going to bathe. The reader should remember that it is not shameful in Bokone for a mother to see her son naked and bathing, because people hardly wear anything in Bokone.
Chaka washed himself. It happened that, as he was about to finish, the tuft of hair on his head shivered and shook, and the skin under it felt warm and it rippled very quickly; and just as suddenly as it began, everything was quiet again, dead still. It was very early in the morning, long, long before the sun was due, and he was bathing in an ugly place, where it was most fearsome. High up from the place where he stood was a tremendous waterfall, and at the bottom of that waterfall, right by him, was an enormous pool, a frightening stretch of water, dark green in colour and very deep. In this pool the water was pitch-dark, intensely black. On the opposite bank, directly across from where he was, but inside the water, was a yawning cave, a dark black tunnel which stretched beyond one’s vision, flooded by the water and sloping downward. It was not possible to see where that immense pool ended because, a little way down from where it began, the water was covered by a very dense growth of reeds which grew on both of the inner sides of the river; and on the opposite bank, a forest covered the flank of an adjoining hill, and came to brush against the river’s edge. That forest was also dense, a veritable thicket where tree rubbed against tree in close embrace. This was an ugly place which instilled fear into one even in the daytime, where no one could ever dream of bathing alone, a place fit to be inhabited only by the tikoloshe, an evil genie. Chaka bathed alone in this place simply because he was Chaka.
Chaka once again splashed himself vigorously with the water, and at once the water of that wide river billowed and then levelled off. Then it swelled higher and higher till he was sure it was going to cover him, and he walked towards the bank. No sooner was he there than a warm wind began to blow with amazing force. The reeds on the banks of the river swayed violently to and fro, and shook in a mad frenzy; and just as suddenly as they began, they quickly stopped moving and were dead still, and they stood erect just as if no wind had ever blown. The water subsided and the wind died down. In the centre of that wide dark green pool the water began to ripple gently, and it was evident that there was something enormous moving under it.
Nandi saw all these things, and she was so frightened that she was trembling, and she almost went to Chaka, but was held back by the strict injunction: “You are never to go to him unless he calls you.” And now she was crying within her heart for Chaka to call her. While Chaka was looking over there in the deep where the water was rippling, he saw the huge head of an enormous snake suddenly break the surface and appear right there next to him. Its ears were very long like those of a hare, but in shape they resembled those of a fieldmouse; its eyes were large, green orbs, and it was more fearsome than we can say. It rose out of the water to the height of its shoulders and came towards Chaka. Chaka, a man always ready for action, felt his body shudder when he saw that it was without doubt coming directly towards him. His first thought was to reach out for his stick and spear so that he could defend himself, but then he remembered the question he had been asked twice by his doctor: “Tell me, have you ever seen anything at the river while you were bathing?” Then he stopped, and he surmised that it was being attracted towards him by the charms in his body, and that that was why he had been continually asked that question. And now he stood with his body tense and stiff, and he stared straight into its eyes, and oh, how fearful it was! And when it came close to him, it stuck out two long tongues and stretched them towards Chaka as if it wanted to pull him with them into its mouth, which was so wide that he could enter it with ease. Chaka, when he saw those tongues coming towards him, was frightened, truly frightened and he trembled, and it was the first time that he experienced that kind of fright, the fright of someone with cowardice in his heart. He was so frightened that he almost turned tail and fled, but then he remembered the strict injunction: “You must on no account run away, no matter what may appear.”
Stricken by fright, Chaka shut his eyes so that, if that snake intended to kill him, it should kill him with his eyes closed, avoiding looking in its face. Slowly he raised his hand and grabbed the tuft of hair which he had been told to hold tight if he was very frightened; at the same time he whistled gently in order to call his mother. Nandi, at that time, had also covered her face, afraid to see her son being swallowed by such a large water monster. But when she heard the whistle, she uncovered her face and she was all the more frightened when she saw how close it was to Chaka, and so instead of going to him, she lay flat on the ground, and she watched from a distance, trembling so much, meanwhile, that there was not even time to cry aloud or to shed tears.
When eventually Chaka opened his eyes, when he realised that it had not touched him, he saw that snake, its eyes still gazing straight into his, but already about to disappear in the water and with its tongues already withdrawn. It was clear that it was returning back into the water, moving backwards, so that if Chaka had taken long to open his eyes, he would have found that it had already disappeared. When he opened his eyes, he looked directly into the pupils of its eyes, and it too looked at him in a like manner. They stared at each other, the snake in its own abode and the man come there to provoke it. They stared at each other in that manner with Chaka’s hand refusing to leave the tuft of hair where the strong medicine was.
At last the snake came out of the water again, and it did so without making any noise, without splashing the water, but simply gliding out, so that the only indication that it was coming out was the fact that it was once again getting closer to him. He stared at it till it reached the point where it had been when he shut his eyes. It stuck out its tongues and wrapped them around his neck, and they crossed at the back of his head and came to join again in front. Then, supporting its weight on him, it drew itself out and coiled itself around his entire body, and it unwound its tongues and started licking him from the head right down to the soles of his feet. When it finished, it raised its head to the level of his face and it looked at him at close range, and its hot, stinking breath engulfed him. Once again it licked him thoroughly all over his face, and then it returned into the