But another question.

Why do you tell me all this, O Zikali, seeing that were I but to repeat it to a talking-bird you would be smelt out and a single moon would not die before you do ?" "Oh! I should be smelt out and killed before one moon dies, should I?
Then I wonder that this has not happened during all the moons that are gone.

Well, I tell the story to you, Macumazahn, who have had so much to do with the tale of the Zulus since the days of Dingaan, because I wish that someone should know it and perhaps write it down when everything is finished.

Because, too, I have just been reading your spirit and see that it is still a white spirit, and that you will not whisper it to a 'talking-bird.'" Now I leant forward and looked at him.
"What is the end at which you aim, O Zikali ?" I asked.

"You are not one who beats the air with a stick; on whom do you wish the stick to fall at last ?" "On whom ?" he answered in a new voice, a low, hissing voice.