Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

RED SUNSETS 295
him in the polite old way of sending him ofif to kill
or be killed in war. Even his own princes he treats
in the same " go -to -shear -and -be -shorn " way, the
recent case of his son Chamunda being notorious. Too
enamoured of his father's own wife, Mushidi at once
ordered him up to the North to fight Chona ; and after
a year's hard struggle the poor prince came back, broken
in two bones, a cripple for life.
And this, remember, is the regular treatment meted
out to any black son of Zeruiah who is too strong for
him. With the ladies, however, it is drastically different,
and even a dame of high status is coolly executed in
the capital as an advertisement in harem discipline.
Who will ever forget the great death of Queen Matayu ?
Here was a lady of lineage, brought in from the Far
East by the Arabs as an offset to the Maria de Fonseca
marriage of the Portuguese, the two Oceans bidding for
Mushidi's commerce with the debasing bribe of rival
queens. Poor Mushidi, he has had to pay for it in
blood, this Eastern marriage ; for does not the native
proverb say, "Eat the bait, and you are on the hook"?
Certainly, this Arab bait was seductive ; but as the
days passed the news began to spread round the capital
that the " Eastern Lady " {Mukodi Wa Kavanga) was
a Jezebel of no ordinary sort. Death after death by
poisoning was brought to her door, the climax being an
attempt on her own son. " Oh
will soon settle that "
!
" said Mushidi, " we
; and forthwith he convened a
council of elders, who doomed her to die. So there and