H. Rider Haggard

“ But perchance, Hokosa, there are some in this town who may use them as messengers to the prince”—and he looked at him keenly.
“I think not, King,” said Hokosa. “None but a fool would make use of women to carry secret words or tidings. Their tongues are too long and their memories too bad, or too uncertain.”
“Yet I have heard, Hokosa, that you have made use of women in many a strange work. ”

“ When Hokosa reached his kraal he found Noma sitting beneath a fruit tree that grew in it, idly employed in stringing beads, for the work of the household she left to his other wife, Zinti, an old and homely woman who thought more of the brewing of the beer and the boiling of the porridge than of religions or politics or of the will of kings. ”

“ She saw you coming, but pretending not to see, she threw her arms about his neck, kissing and fondling him before your eyes, till you could bear it no longer, and revealed yourself, upbraiding them. Then your rival taunted you and stirred up the man with bitter words, till at length he took a stick and beat you from the door, and there is a mark of it upon your shoulder. ”

“ For my case, it is——”
“No need to set it out,” broke in Hokosa, waving his hand. “I see it written on your face; your husband has put you away and loves another woman, your own half-sister whom you brought up from a child.” ”

“ King, I am your servant,” and giving him the royal salute, Hokosa rose and left his presence.
“At the least there goes a man,” said Nodwengo, as he watched him depart.
“Of whom do you speak, King?” asked Owen, who at that moment entered the royal house.
“Of him whom you must have touched in the door-way, Messenger, Hokosa the wizard,” answered the king, and he told him of what had passed between them. “I said,” he added, “that he was a man, and so he is ”