Incwala
Finally, the regiments, the rank and file of the nation[clarification needed] play a major part in the public ceremonies and are quartered in barracks in the capital for the duration of the Incwala.
The duty of organizing the whole ceremony, seeing that it is held on the correct date, preparing the utensils, providing the requisite ingredients, and informing the nation devolves on the governors of the royal villages, and the mobilizing for each scene of the drama belongs to the regimental officials.
In the earliest stage, the Bemanti set out with sacred vessels to the sea, a little south of Maputo in neighbouring Mozambique, and another group, to the rivers Lusutfu, Komanzi, and Mbuluzi.
When the Bemanti meet any Swazi on the journey they pillage (kuhlamahlama) the country-side and take any beer they find in the huts.
To the Swazi who live in outlying districts, their visit is a sign that the Incwala is close at hand, and chiefs often give money and see that the Bemanti receive large bowls of beer since they are eager to help 'support the work of kings '.
Special beer for them to seize has been brewed in the Queen Mother's enclosure and in the harem (sigodlo), and they carry it out to the leaders.
The regiments present wear semi-Incwala dress, the graceful cloaks of cattle-tails hang from the shoulders to the waist, flowing tails are tied to the right arms, white feathers and magnificent black plumes shine in their hair, their loin coverings are of leopard skin.
The costume resembles war dress, but at the Incwala men may only carry plain sticks (imizaca, umzaca singular) instead of spears and clubs (although these are occasionally concealed behind their shields).
It grows and is fetched from the same spot (the Egundvwini royal kraal near the Bulunga Mountains) and large quantities are chopped for the ceremony.
On this day the King appears in all his splendor, and the ambivalent attitude of love and hate felt by his brothers and by his non-related subjects to him and to each other is dramatized.
By now he is sufficiently strong to bite (luma) the most powerful of the new seasons crops and after that his people can perform their own ' first fruits ' ritual.
Warriors and women enter the cattle byre and sing and dance only the imigubho as all incwala songs are now closed.
No matter how heavy the storm, the people do not seek shelter, till, drenched to the bone, they finally round off the performance with the incaba kancofula.
Early the next morning the warriors collect in the cattle byre, sing ordinary march songs, and leave for the Queen Mother's biggest maize garden.
And everywhere, before the people eat of their food, the conservative headmen collect the members of their homesteads and ritually partake of the crops of the new season; those chiefs who were sufficiently important not to attend the king's Incwala have a more elaborate rite than the commoners about them.
King Sobhuza II wrote that warriors dance and sing at the Incwala and they feel they are one together, so they don't fight.
