"You wish to consult a white witch-doctoress, Macumazahn, who according
to Zikali lives far to the north, as to the dead. Now I too, though
perchance you will not think it of a black man, desire to learn of the
dead; yes, of a certain wife of my youth who was sister and friend as
well as wife, whom too I loved better than all the world. Also I desire
to learn of a brother of mine whose name I never speak, who ruled the
wolves with me and who died at my side on yonder Witch-Mountain, having
made him a mat of men to lie on in a great and glorious fight. For of
him as of the woman I think all day and dream all night, and I would
know if they still live anywhere and I may look to see them again when
I have died as a warrior should and as I hope to do. Do you understand,
Watcher-by-Night?"

I answered that I understood very well, as his case seemed to be like my
own.

"It may happen," went on Umslopogaas, "that all this talk of the dead
who are supposed to live after they are dead, is but as the sound of
wind whispering in the reeds at night, that comes from nowhere and goes
nowhere and means nothing. But at least ours will be a great journey in
which we shall find adventure and fighting, since it is well known in
the land that wherever Macumazahn goes there is plenty of both. Also it
seems well for reasons that have been spoken of between us, as Zikali
says, that I should leave the country of the Zulus for a while, who
desire to die a man's death at the last and not to be trapped like a
jackal in a pit. Lastly I think that we shall agree well together though
my temper is rough at times, and that neither of us will desert the
other in trouble, though of that little yellow dog of yours I am not so
sure."