““Umnandi would willingly have given up her beauty and stately mien and forgotten her skill in cookery, in return for the birth of a baby boy as a present for her husband and his people. She would gladly have gone through fire and water if the end of it was to nurse a royal child of her own. She took counsel with famous herbalists from Basutholand, Swaziland, Bechuanaland and Bapediland; she went through painful and disgusting ordeals on their advice, just for the hope of becoming a mother; but these wizards accomplished nothing beyond filling her heart with a succession of hopes, each of which in turn proved worthless. [80]””
