But it is not so, for in learning so much that is new, you have forgotten more that is old.

When the Snake that is in you, Macumazana, dwelt in a black savage like me a thousand thousand years ago, you could have done and did what I do.

But now you can only mock and say, 'Mavovo the brave in battle, the great hunter, the loyal man, becomes a liar when he blows the burnt feather, or reads what the wind writes upon the charmed ashes.'" "I do not say that you are a liar, Mavovo, I say that you are deceived by your own imaginings.

It is not possible that man can know what is hidden from man." "Is it indeed so, O Macumazana, Watcher by Night?
Am I, Mavovo, the pupil of Zikali, the Opener of Roads, the greatest of wizards, indeed deceived by my own imaginings?
And has man no other eyes but those in his head, that he cannot see what is hidden from man?
Well, you say so and all we black people know that you are very clever, and why should I, a poor Zulu, be able to see what you cannot see?
Yet when to-morrow one sends you a message from the ship in which we are to sail, begging you to come fast because there is trouble on the ship, then bethink you of your words and my words, and whether or no man can see what is hidden from man in the blackness of the future.

Oh! that rifle of yours is mine already, though you will not give it to me now, you who think that I am a cheat.