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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20491.txt b/20491.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b95034 --- /dev/null +++ b/20491.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4845 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kafir Stories, by William Charles Scully + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Kafir Stories + Seven Short Stories + +Author: William Charles Scully + +Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20491] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KAFIR STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Klingman + + + + + +KAFIR STORIES +SEVEN SHORT STORIES + +BY + +WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY + +AUTHOR OF + +"POEMS," ETC., ETC. + +LONDON + +T. FISHER UNWIN + +1895 + +COPYRIGHT BY T. FISHER UNWIN +for Great Britain and the United States of America. + +TO + +KATE FREILIGRATH KROEKER + +AND + +J. H. MEIRING BECK +THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED. + + + +"So geographers, in Afric maps, +With savage pictures fill their gaps, +And o'er uninhabitable downs +Place elephants for want of towns." + +SWIFT. + +Glossary + +Allemagtig, almighty + +Boomslang, an innocuous colubrine snake + +*Donga, a gully with steep sides + +Drift, the ford of a river + +*E-hea, exactly so + +*Ewe, yes + +Hamel, a wether sheep + +*Icanti, a fabulous serpent, the mere appearance of which is supposed +to cause death + +*Impandulu, the lightning bird. The Kafirs believe the lightning to be +a bird + +*Impi, an army or any military force on the war path + +*Induna, a Zulu councilor or general + +Kapater, a wether goat + +Kerrie, a stick such as is almost invariably carried by a Kafir + +Kloof, a gorge or valley + +Kaffirboom, a large arboreal aloe + +Kopje, an abrupt hillock + +Kraal, (1) an enclosure for stock; a fold or pen. (2) a native hut, or +collection of huts + +Krantz, a cliff + +*Lobola, the payment of cattle by a man to the father of the girl he +wants to marry + +*Mawo, an exclamation of surprise + +Mealies, maize + +Op togt, on a trading trip + +Ou Pa, grandfather + +Outspan, to unyoke a team + +Raak, hit + +Reim, a leather thong + +Reimje, diminutive of foregoing + +Schulpad, a tortoise + +Sjambok: a heavy whip made of rhinocerous hide + +Stoep, a space about two yards, in width along the front or side of a +house. Usually covered by a verandah in the case of South African +houses + +Taaibosch, "tough bush," a shrub. Rhus lucida + +*Tikoloshe, a water spirit who is supposed, when people are drowned, to +have pulled them under water by the feet + +"Ukushwama, the feast of first fruits;--celebrated by the Bacas and +some other Bantu tribes + +*Umtagati, magic;--witchcraft + +Veldt. unenclosed and uncultivated land. The open country + +Veldschoens, home-made boots such as those in general use amongst South +African Boers + +Voor-huis, the dining and sitting-room in a Dutch house + +*Yebo, yes + +*Kafir terms are marked by an asterisk. + + + +Contents + + +CHAP. + +I. THE EUMENIDES IN KAFIRLAND + +II. THE FUNDAMENTAL AXIOM + +III. KELLSON'S NEMESIS + +IV. THE QUEST OF THE COPPER + +V. GHAMBA + +VI. UKUSHWAMA + +VII. UMTAGATI + + + +THE EUMENIDES IN KAFIRLAND. + +"Fate leadeth through the garden shews +The trees of Knowledge, Death, and Life; +On this, the wholesome apple grows,-- +On that, fair fruit with poison rife. +Yet sometimes apples deadly be. +Whilst poison-fruits may nourish thee." + +SHAGBAG'S Advice to Beginners. + +I. + +THIS is how it all happened. They met at the canteen on Monday morning +at eight o'clock--Jim Gubo, the policeman, and Kalaza, who had just +been released from the convict station where, for five long years, he +had been expiating a particularly cruel assault with violence upon a +woman. 'Ntsoba, the fat Fingo barman, leant lazily over the counter, +but as the regular customers for the morning "nip" had all departed, +and no one else had yet come, he went outside and sat in the sunshine, +smoking his oily pipe with thorough enjoyment. He did not in the least +mind leaving Jim Gubo in the canteen, because Jim and he had long since +come to an understanding, and this with the full approval of the +proprietor. Jim was, so to say, free of the house, and got his daily +number of tots of poisonous "dop" brandy measured out in the thick +glass tumbler, the massive exterior of which was quite out of +proportion to the comparatively limited interior space. These tots +(and an occasional bottle) were Jim's reward for not exercising too +severe a supervision over the canteen, and for always happening to be +round the corner when a row took place. Moreover, the till, besides +being as yet nearly empty, was well out of reach; the counter was high +and broad, and the shelving, sparsely filled with filthy looking black +bottles, was fixed well back, so as to be out of the way of the +whirling kerries which were often in evidence, especially on Saturday +afternoons. The great brown, poisonous looking hogsheads--suggestive +of those very much swollen and unpleasant looking fecund female insects +which are to be found in the nethermost chamber of the city of the +termites, and which lay thousands of eggs daily--had safety taps, of +which 'Ntsoba's master kept the keys. + +Jim Gubo and Kalaza talked about many things--of life at the convict +station, for Kalaza was the nephew of Jim's father's second wife, and +Jim consequently knew all about his companion; of the decadence of the +times, in which it was so difficult for a poor man to live without +working; of the strictness with which the locations were managed; of +how the inspectors inquired inconveniently as to strangers therein +sojourning, and chiefly about the decline in Jim's particular line of +business. + +"Son of my father," said Jim, "times are very bad indeed. There is +little or no stock-stealing going on. The farmers come to the office +and report losses of sheep; we are sent to hunt for the thieves, but +instead of catching them, we find that the sheep have simply strayed +into some other farmer's flock. Will you believe it; for two months we +have not run in a single thief?" + +"Mawo," replied Kalaza, "how very discouraging." + +"Yes, and Government thinks we are not doing our duty, and my officer +says we are no good." + +"But can you not make them steal, or make the magistrate think they +do?" rejoined Kalaza, after a pause. + +"Wait a bit, that is what I am coming to," said Jim, in a low tone. +"There is one man whom I know to be a thief, but though I have tried +to, over and over again, I cannot catch him." + +"Who is that?" + +"Maliwe, the son of Zangalele, the Kafir whose brother Tambiso gave +evidence against you when you were tried by the judge." + +Here the beady eyes of Kalaza gave a kind of snap, and he leant forward +with an appearance of increased interest. + +"Tell me about Maliwe," he said. + +"Maliwe," replied Jim, "is the shepherd of Gert Botha, whose farm is +near the Gangili Hill, where the two rivers join." + +Kalaza pondered for a few seconds, and then asked: + +"But what makes you think he steals?" + +"Well, you know what a Kafir is. Maliwe lives alongside the sheep, in +a hut on the mountain--all alone. The kraal is far from the homestead. +Gert Botha never gives his servants enough to eat, and Maliwe must +often be hungry. There you have it--a man hungry night after night, and +close to him a kraal fall of fat sheep. You know!" + +"Does Maliwe ever go to beer-drinks?" + +"Not often, for being a Kafir, the Fingoes would most likely beat him +to death. No, he lives quietly and to himself. He has been in Botha's +service since just after he was circumcised, three years ago. He gets +a cow every year as wages, and each cow as he receives it is given to +old Dalisile, who lives on another part of Botha's farm, and whose +daughter Maliwe is paying lobola for. They say he means to earn two +more cows and then to marry the girl. But I fear he is hopeless." + +Kalaza again pondered, his beady eyes twinkling incessantly. + +"Do you ever employ detectives now?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes," said Jim lightly, "we do so now and then. But he that is +hired must prove that duty has been done before he gets paid." + +"How so?" + +"By making some one guilty, and causing him to be sentenced by the +magistrate. When he has done this, the detective gets fifteen +shillings. Well, I must go to the camp. Have a drink?" + +'Ntsoba came lazily in at Jim's call, and handed him a tot. This Jim +took into his mouth. He rolled it round his gums, he wagged his tongue +in it. He let it flow far back into his throat, and then brought it +forward again. Kalaza came and stood before him, and opened his mouth +wide. Into this, Jim deliberately, and with an aim so sure that not a +drop was lost, squirted about half the tot. Kalaza thereupon wagged +his tongue, rolled the liquor round ins gums, and then swallowed it +slowly. + +At the door of the canteen they parted. + +"Good-bye, son of my father," said Kalaza. + +"Yes, my friend," replied Jim, and walked away slowly towards the +police camp. + +Kalaza shouldered his stick and went off quickly in the direction of +the native location. + + II. + +Maliwe drove home his flock at sunset, and penned them safely in the +kraal, which was constructed of heavy thorn bushes. The old kapater +goat, which acted as bellwether of the flock, strode proudly into the +enclosure, well ahead of the others, and took his station on a rock +which rose up in the middle. On this he lay down, chewing his cud and +surveying the sheep which lay thickly around him. Maliwe then closed +the gate, tied it securely with a reim, and pulled several large bushes +against it. He then walked on to his little hut, situated only a few +yards distant. He had carried in from the veldt a small number of dry +sticks, and he now placed a few of the smallest of these in a little +heap on the raised stone which served as fireplace. He then drew out +his tinder-box from the leather bag which he always carried. This bag +was simply the skin of a kid, the head of which had been cut off, and +the body drawn out through the aperture at the neck thus made. He +struck a spark with his flint, and when the tinder glowed, he shook out +a little of it on to some dry grass, which soon blazed up, and which he +then placed under the twigs. In a few minutes he had a cheerful fire, +and then he untied his little three-legged pot from where it hung from +one of the wattles of the roof. This pot was half full of mealies +already cooked, and which he simply meant to warm for his supper. The +remainder of his week's ration of meat (the skinny ribs of a goat that +had died of debility down near his master's homestead) was also hanging +from the roof, but with a sigh he determined to reserve that delicacy +for the morrow, remembering that two days would elapse before a fresh +supply was due. His dog, Sibi--a starved looking mongrel greyhound--lay +at his feet and gazed up with expectant eyes, waiting for the handful +of tough mealies which would be flung to him when his master had +finished supper. + +It was a clear starlit night in Spring. Supper over, Maliwe sat on the +ground just outside the floor of the hut, and thought of Nalai, the +daughter of old Dalisile, for whom he was paying lobola. In a month +more, another year's service would be completed, and another cow would +be his. This he meant to take as he had taken the two already earned, +and deliver to his prospective father-in-law. His mother had promised +him the calf of her only cow as soon as it should be weaned, and then +he hoped that old Dalisile, skinflint as he was, would deliver the +girl, trusting him for payment of the fifth and last beast in course of +time. In two or, at the outside, three months this calf would be +weaned. It was a red bull with white face and feet--he knew every mark, +and one might almost say every hair on the animal, having looked at it +so often. It was a remarkably fine calf, but Maliwe thought it took a +strangely long time in growing up. He lit his pipe, and dreamt dreams. +Soon he would be no longer alone in his hut. He loved the girl Nalai, +and she seemed to love him, so the future was bright. She was tall and +straight, still unbent by that toil which is the portion of the female +Kafir. Her teeth gleamed very white, and her breast swelled each year +more temptingly over the edge other red blanket. As boy and girl they +had grown up together, and long before she was of a marriageable age, +he had determined eventually to marry her. So he went away and worked +for three long years; his strong, self-contained nature needing nothing +but this one fixed idea to steady it. Maliwe was not what is known as a +"School Kafir." He was quite uncivilised in every respect, and was +utterly heathen. He could speak no word of any language except his +own, and he believed implicitly in "Tikoloshe" and the "Lightning +Bird." + +His pipe finished, Maliwe arose and fetched a musical instrument from +the hut. This consisted of a stick about three feet long, bent into a +bow by a string made of twisted sinews. About eight inches from one end +was fixed a small dry gourd, with a hole large enough, to admit a five +shilling piece cut out of the side furthest from the point of +attachment. Music is made on such an instrument by holding it so that +that part of the gourd where the aperture is, is pressed against the +naked breast, and then twanging on the string with a small stick. About +four notes can be extracted by a skilful player. The result is not +cheerful, and to the civilised ear the strains of a Jew's harp are +preferable. But the twanging eased the burthen of longing which Maliwe +bore, and no lute-player in passionate Andalusia ever poured out his +love in melody with more genuine feeling than did this savage on his +"U-hade." + +Maliwe had waited through these long years--and how long are not the +years under such circumstances?--with a kind of contented impatience, +and as time went by, the impatience waxed and the contentment waned. +With the premonition of genuine love he had seen the budding woman of +today in the child of three years ago. He had worked and waited. His +reward was now near, and anticipation was sweet. In imagination he saw +the little brown babies with the weasel-tooth necklets, tumbling about +the hut and toddling up the path to meet him when he drove home his +nock in the evening, whilst Nalai stood at the door looking with pride +on their progeny. + +Sibi, the dog, gave a low growl, and then rushed along the footpath +barking furiously. A man emerged from the darkness, keeping the dog at +bay with his kerrie. Maliwe, seeing nothing suspicious about the +stranger, called off the dog, which retired still growling into the +hut. The man approached. + +"Greeting, Maliwe," he cried. "Do you not know me?" + +"Greeting," replied Maliwe, "but I do not know you. Where are you +thinking of?" [A native idiom. It means "Where are you going to?"] + +"Hear him," cried the visitor. "He does not know me. He does not know +Kalaza, the only Fingo his father Zangalele ever made a friend of. He +does not know the man who used to cut sticks for him when he was a +little boy." + +"Sit down, Kalaza," replied Maliwe, "I meant no offence. I do not +remember you, but if you were my father's friend, you are mine." + +So they went into the hut, and they refreshed the fire, and they +talked, and they put some dry mealies to roast with fat in the +three-legged pot, and they talked of Maliwe's relations, of old Dalisile, +and of his daughter Nalai whom Maliwe was going to marry. + +Kalaza said that he lived in Kwala's location beyond the Keiskamma, +that he was a very rich man with a large herd of cattle, and that he +was now seeking two cows lately received as lobola for one of his +daughters from a man in the Albany district, and which were supposed to +have strayed homewards. He also said, that although a Fingo, he always +preferred the society of Kafirs, and that for this reason he had come +to spend the night with Maliwe instead of with the Fingoes in the +village location. + +By and by the mealies began to "pop" in the pot, so guest and host +began to chew them. "It is sad to be old and have such bad teeth," said +Kalaza, as he paused in his chewing. "Have you not got a little meat?" + +Maliwe stood up, and reaching to the roof of the hut, handed down the +emaciated ribs of the goat. Kalaza took the meat, turned it over +critically, and handed it back. + +"That is the meat of an old, tough goat," he said, "I could no more +chew that than the mealies." + +"I am very sorry," replied Maliwe, "but I have none other." + +At this Kalaza sighed, said he was an old man, and he supposed times +had changed since he was young, but in his day no old man would be so +treated by the son of his best friend. Maliwe remained silent for some +time, and then said politely that he was a servant, and had to be +content with what food his master gave him. Breaking up some tobacco in +his hand, he reached it over to Kalaza, asking if he cared, to smoke. +Kalaza refused the offer, saying that since becoming old he had been +unable to enjoy tobacco on an empty stomach. He then sighed heavily, +and sat looking at the fire until the silence became oppressive. + +By and by Maliwe asked if he would not go to sleep, and then Kalaza +began to wax indignant. + +"You call yourself a man," he said, "and you let your father's best +friend die of hunger. Did I not know you had been circumcised, I should +think you were still a boy." + +"Friend of my father," replied Maliwe, "I have given you all I have. Do +you want to eat my dog?" + +"Given me all you have? What are those animals that I hear bleating +outside?" + +"My master's sheep." + +"Your master's sheep? Ho! ho! When hungry men are about, sheep have +no master. Would your father have let me die rather than take a hamel +from the flock of a rich, lazy boer, who never counts his sheep. Many a +sheep your father and I have lifted in the old days. We never wanted +meat. If my son were to let your father hunger, I would break his +head." + +In the foregoing remarks the tempter had accidentally hit upon a fact. +Gert Botha, after a three years' experience of Maliwe's honesty and +carefulness, very seldom took the trouble to count his sheep. + +"Friend of my father," said Maliwe, "I have never yet taken what +belonged to another. If you say my father stole, it may be so--but such +must have happened when he was young. He is now dead. When I was a lad +he told me he would kill me if I stole." + +"Just as you say, when he was young," rejoined Kalaza. "And are you, +then, old? I wonder does old Dalisile know what a coward he is giving +his daughter to. In the good old days he would have sent you to show +that you could steal like a man--a young man--before you got your wife. +But it does not matter, I shall not die tonight, although I am old." + +All this time Maliwe sat looking fixedly at the speaker, who, after a +pause, continued: + +"My son Tentu wants a wife. I will go to Dalisile tomorrow and see +whether seven fat oxen will not tempt him to return your three skinny +cows, and send his daughter to my kraal across to Keiskamma, I have +heard of Nalai, and I think she will suit Tentu; at my kraal she will +never want milk." + +Here again chance favoured the tempter. The one dread of Maliwe's life +was the rivalry of a rich suitor. + +Maliwe bent his head over his knees, and remained in this posture for a +few minutes. He then stood up suddenly and strode out of the hut. Just +afterwards a sound as of sheep rushing about might have been heard +coming from the direction of the kraal. Kalaza heard it, and smiled. A +few minutes elapsed, and then Maliwe returned, carrying a young sheep +with its throat cut on his shoulder. This he flung down on to the +ground before Kalaza, saying: + +"Friend of my father, here is meat. Eat!" + +Maliwe then seized his stick, called Sibi the dog, and left the hut. +Kalaza skinned the sheep, and eat about a third of the meat, selecting +the choicest parts. He then buried the remainder of the carcase, with +the skin, in the loose, dry dung at the side of the kraal. Having done +this he walked off quickly in the direction of the village. + +After leaving the hut, Maliwe climbed a rocky ridge, which rose steeply +for about a hundred yards at the back of the kraal. On the comb of the +ridge stood an immense boulder, and Maliwe spent the rest of the night +sitting to lee-ward of this, Sibi, the dog, curled up at his feet, +growling at intervals, and every now and then looking in the direction +of the hut, which was, like the kraal, out of sight, with cars cocked +and nostrils dilated. + + III. + + Just before dawn, Maliwe suddenly fell into the deep sleep of nervous +exhaustion. His knees were drawn up, and his head, bent forward, rested +on them sideways, He was still asleep when the sun arose and warmed +his chilled limbs. He was wakened suddenly by the loud barking of the +dog, so he bounded to his feet and ran round the boulder, to a spot +from whence he could see the hut and the kraal. Some people on +horseback had just reached the hut, and one dismounted and looked in. +He recognized them all. There was his master, Gert Botha, on his old +grey mare; there was the European sergeant, of the Cape Police; there +was private Jim Gubo of the same force, and there was Kalaza, the +"friend of his father" and his guest of the previous night. + +As he stood looking, some one called out, "There he is!" The wretched +man then realised his situation. His first impulse was to fly--all the +savage in him prompting towards an escape into the bush, which lay +temptingly near. He sprang back and ran--fleet as a bush-buck towards +the cover. But after running a few yards he stopped dead still, and +then, turning round, walked slowly back over the ridge in the direction +of the hut. As he crossed the comb, he was met by the sergeant and Jim +Gubo, breathless from running up the steep hill. By them he was +promptly hand-cuffed, and then led down to where his master was +standing, between the hut and the kraal. The old goat was walking up +and down inside the kraal gate, tinkling his bell and wondering why he +and his flock had not been let out at the usual time. Kalaza pointed +out to Gert Botha the blood stains which were to be seen plentifully +distributed over the floor and poles of the hut, and then walked round +the kraal. When he reached a certain spot he paused, and began probing +in the loose dung with his stick. He then called out to Jim Gubo, who +joined him, and the skin and other remains of the slaughtered animal +were soon brought to light. + +Maliwe, when confronted with his master, looked him straight in the +face. Gert Botha lifted the heavy sjambok which he usually carried, and +struck the prisoner heavily over the bare head and face. A thick, grey +wheal immediately followed the blow, but Maliwe did not even wince. +"Jou verdomde parmantig schepsel," cried the irate Boer. "Ik neuk jou +uit jou hartnakigheid." (You infernal, insolent fellow, I will have you +out of your stiff-neckedness.) Botha would have struck him again, had +not the sergeant interfered. + +So Maliwe was marched, carrying the corpus delicti, in to the gaol. +Within an hour after his arrival, the magistrate sentenced him to +receive twenty-live lashes with a cat o' nine tails on the bare back, +and to pay a fine of five pounds, being five times the value of the +slaughtered sheep according to Gert Botha's computation. In levying the +fine, the two cows which he had given as lobola were seized--much +against the will of old Dalisile. Out of the proceeds, Gert Botha was +paid the value of the sheep, and Kalaza received fifteen shillings, +which he, in company with Jim Gubo, spent the same day at the canteen. + +Sibi, the dog, hung about the gaol howling, until he was driven away +with stones. He then returned to his master's hut, and howled there all +the afternoon and through the night. Next morning, Gert Botha's son +Andries shot him. + +Maliwe received his twenty-five lashes, and was discharged from prison, +after his back had, under the superintendence of the District Surgeon, +been well washed with brine, to prevent evil results. Neither under the +flogging nor the pickling did Maliwe exhibit the slightest sign of the +torture which he suffered. + +On the same evening Maliwe went to a certain tree, just at the back of +old Dalisile's huts, and gave a long, low whistle, which was the +established signal between himself and Nalai. Unfortunately, however, +Nalai did not hear him, but her two big brothers, Kawana and Joli, did. +Old Dalisile, anticipating Maliwe's visit, had kept Nalai out of the +way, and put his two sons to watch. These fell upon Maliwe and smote +him so hard with their kerries, that he lay for a long time senseless +on the ground. When he regained consciousness, he limped quietly away. + +He has not since been heard of in the neighbourhood. + + THE FUNDAMENTAL AXIOM. + + The wild ass of the desert knows, +By inborn knowledge, friends from foes. +The tame ass of the village browses +Contentedly between the houses. +He has no foes, he has no friends, +He toils and eats until he ends. + +But this time, Fate, on grim jokes bent, +A wild ass to the village sent. +Oh, what a tempest shook the village, +'Twas worse than flood, or fire, or pillage! + +Now if an ass I needs must be, +The desert's joys and pains for me. + +Broodigrass. + +I. + +It was evening. In the old mission house the frugal supper was over, +and the missionary, his wife, the two lady-teachers, the eleven native +female boarders and the native probationer, all knelt down to prayers. +The eleven boarders and the probationer had come in at the sound of the +bell, the eldest boarder leading, and the probationer bringing up the +rear. + +A few seconds later, the old black housemaid and cook combined strode +heavily in and knelt down just inside the door. Prayers over, Miss +Elizabeth Blake, the senior lady teacher, sat down to the harmonium and +played the first few bars of a hymn. Then the little congregation stood +up and sang. They kept good time, and their singing was fairly in tune, +but the voices of some of the native girls were very harsh and shrill, +and somewhat spoilt the general effect. The probationer, Samuel Gozani, +led the singing from his place close to the instrumentalist. The choir +stood facing the right-hand end of the harmonium, and the leader stood +just on Miss Blake's left hand, and to see the choir he had to look +over her head. The hymn happened to be Luther's "Ein feste Burg ist +unser Gott"; it was sung in English, but the Reverend Gottlieb Schultz, +the missionary, forgetting the English words, drifted into the original +German at the second verse, rather to the detriment of the performance. +Miss Blake sang out her clear, simple soprano tones, very rich in the +low notes. She was a handsome girl, rather stout, with blue eyes and +dull yellow hair. Her face was somewhat pale from overwork and want of +fresh air. Altogether, she had a strongly Teutonic look, and was, in +fact, almost an exact counterpart of what her German mother had been at +her age. Of her Irish father she showed absolutely no trace in either +appearance or character. + +Whilst the hymn was being sung, the probationer's earnest eyes rested +as often on the yellow-haired girl at the harmonium as on his +particular charge, the dusky choir. The eleven girls stood in a +crescent, some modest and demure enough, but others looking bold, their +wanton, roving eyes and generously developed figures being much in +evidence. The youngest girl might have been twelve years of age, and +the eldest twenty. The latter, a girl named Martha Kawa, was of a much +lighter colour than any of her schoolmates, but her physiognomy was of +the usual Kafir type. Her father was an Englishman, and her mother a +Gaika Kafir; she had passed her childhood in a native hut, and when, +five years previously, she was sent to the mission, she was in a +condition of absolute savagery. In the mission school her Aryan blood +told; she kept easily ahead of the other girls, and took all the best +prizes. + +The hymn over, the girls curtsied "good-night" to the missionary and +his wife, and went to the dormitory escorted by the junior teacher. +This room was the very picture of neatness. The whitewashed walls were +decorated with Biblical pictures and illuminated texts, and the beds, +with blue counterpanes and snow-white linen, were without crease or +wrinkle. On each bed, near the foot, the occupier's shawl was folded, +and the manner of folding varied considerably. Small prizes were given +for the best folding designs, and considerable individuality was shown +in the competition. Several of the designs were marvels of ingenuity, +and indicated a true artistic faculty. + +In a few moments, eleven dusky heads were reposing on eleven snowy +pillows. + +II. + +The Reverend Gottlieb Schultz was far more intellectual and cultivated +than the average of his class. Sent to labour in the Lord's Vineyard in +reclaiming the heathen of South Africa, immediately after his +ordination as a minister of the German Evangelical Church, at the age +of twenty-four, he had spent thirty-five years at his task. His wife +Amalia, selected for him by the Missionary Society, was sent out under +invoice five years after his arrival. She had thus been his helpmeet, +and a faithful one, for thirty years. Although childless, she was of a +placid and contented disposition; so much so that her smile became +rather wearisome from its very continuousness. + +The good old missionary had outlived many illusions, and of the few +still remaining, the larger proportion related to the Fatherland he had +left so long ago and which he never more would see. His passionate +loyalty to the Hohenzollerns was, long after the events now recorded +had happened, the cause of his removing a resplendent portrait of +Bismarck from a prominent place in the dining-room; and hiding it +ignominiously behind a book-shelf, where it remained until 1893, when +the reconciliation between Emperor William and the ex-chancellor took +place. Then the portrait was again brought forth, and hung next to that +of Count Caprivi which had supplanted it. + +On his top bookshelf, triumphant over a dreary jungle of theological +literature, might have been found the works of Goethe, Schiller, +Lessing and Freiligrath, and in a secret receptacle behind his little +drug cabinet reposed a complete edition of Heine. He was very well read +in English theological literature. He thought Luther the greatest of +all theologians, but his favourite reading was Tauler. He had an +emotional understanding of, and sympathy with, the "Friends of God." + +And what illusions had he not outlived! Had he not seen the natives, +for whose benefit his blameless and strenuous life had been +ungrudgingly spent, sinking lower and lower, exchanging the virtues of +barbarism for the vices of civilisation? Had he not seen the chosen +lambs of his flock sink back into the savagery that surrounded them, +lured by those tribal rites which bear a fundamental resemblance to the +ritual of the worship of the Cyprian Venus? Had he not seen the land +covered with plague-spots in the shape of canteens from which poisonous +liquor was set flowing far and wide, ruining the natives, body and +soul? All this and more he had seen; all this and more he had prayed +and struggled against through the weary years. He still prayed, but he +had almost ceased from struggling. + +One illusion he still retained. This was the firm belief that the +average barbarian was fully the equal of the average civilised man--an +illusion so common amongst the missionary fraternity early in this +century, that this equality was almost, if not quite, a fundamental +axiom in all missionary reasoning. In Mr. Schultz's case, this illusion +had paled from time to time in the face of striking experiences, but it +was too deeply ingrained in his character ever to disappear. Experience +after experience faded out of his memory, but the fundamental axiom +remained. These experiences he, so to say, preached away, for whenever +he found the fundamental axiom waxing dim, he polished it up with a +liberal administration of theological logic, abstruse reasoning, and +illustrations from standard authorities. + +Samuel Gozani, the probationer, was in several respects a remarkable +character. Son of a native headman of the Gealeka tribe, which +considers itself as forming, as it were, the Kafir aristocracy; he had, +fourteen years previously, been placed at the mission school. For six +years he was as backward in acquirement as he was unsatisfactory and +troublesome in conduct. But a change came. A native revivalist visited +the mission, and, behold--a shaking! Amongst the dry bones that moved, +none showed so much energy as Samuel. His whole life changed, and he at +once declared his intention of entering the ministry. He took to +theological study with the greatest avidity, and for several years was +looked upon as the coming man of the mission. Suddenly he again +changed; his moral conduct remained free from reproach, but his faculty +for serious study appeared to have left him. He brooded deeply, taught +the junior pupils in an irregular and, on the whole, very perfunctory +manner, and seemed to be consumed by a deep and abiding sadness. It was +afterwards noticed that this change dated from about a year after Miss +Blake had taken up her residence at the mission. + +Samuel possessed A rich, full baritone voice, and he seemed to regain +his old vigour and enthusiasm only on those occasions when he sang in +the choir. There his voice rang out clear above the others as he led; +his eye flashed, and his countenance lit up. He was a tall and strongly +built man, with a face unlike the usual Kafir type. His lips were thin, +his nose narrow and prominent, and his eyes large and somewhat +protruding. In point of physiognomy, he somewhat resembled a North +American Indian. + +III. + +It was on a warm night in late Spring that Miss Elizabeth Blake sat +under the verandah which ran along the whole front of the mission +house. A slight thunderstorm had just passed, and another was following +on its trail. Summer lightnings were gleaming through the soft haze, +and distant thunders muttered from time to time. Brown, furry beetles +dashed themselves violently against the windows of the dining-room, +where a lamp still burned, and the pneumoras wailed their melancholy +love-songs from the willow trees along the water-furrow. The junior +teacher was seeing her charges to bed, for prayers were just over, and +Miss Blake was enjoying a few moments' rest in the mild air before +taking up her task of preparing the next day's work. The missionary and +his wife were away, visiting at the next-neighbouring mission, and were +not expected back until the following afternoon. + +Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, Miss Blake looked round, +and saw Samuel Gozani approaching. He came slowly up the steps, and +stood silently before her, leaning against one of the verandah poles. + +"Good evening, Samuel," she said. + +"Good evening, Miss Elizabeth; you do not often take a rest." + +"I seldom have time." + +Samuel remained silent, and the girl regarded him intently. She had +long noticed his demeanour, and had often wondered as to what was on +his mind. + +"Samuel," she said, sympathetically, "why have you been so strange of +late? Is anything the matter with you?" + +Samuel cleared his throat as if to speak, shifted his feet, but said +nothing. + +"Do you not know," she continued, "that your class is going backward, +that you often forget to set the lessons, and that half the time you +are teaching you appear as if you do not know what you are doing? Tell +me, is there anything on your mind? Have you done anything you are +sorry for?" + +Samuel again cleared his throat, shifted his feet, and with an evident +effort replied: + +"I have not committed any sin, but I know my work is done badly. My +heart is so heavy that I can hardly bear the weight." + +"What is this heaviness?" + +Samuel did not reply, but after a pause asked this question: + +"Miss Elizabeth, do you believe that all men, white and black, are +equal?" + +The girl paused for a moment. In her heart of hearts she knew she did +not think so, but the fundamental axiom weighed heavily on her, the +well-worn arguments of the missionary arose and threatened her, +pointing with skinny fingers at the abyss which lay in the road of the +opposite view, so she muffled her answer up carefully in a platitude, +and handed it to her hearer, trusting that the muffler would somewhat +conceal its nakedness. + +"Of course," she said, "the bad are not equal to the good; but if God +holds that otherwise all men are equal, it would be wrong of any one to +think differently." + +"But white people never really think that we blacks are equal to them," +said Samuel, speaking in a strained tone, "no matter what they say." + +Miss Blake felt unable to reply, so after a short pause Samuel +continued: + +"When a black man walks in the ways of the whites, he becomes a +stranger to his own kind, and he has really no friends. The white man +says 'Come here to us,' and when the black man comes as near as he can, +there is still a gulf that he cannot pass. I am a lonely man, Miss +Elizabeth; I have left my own people, and there is no one that I can +call a friend. Even you only tolerate me because you think it pleasing +to God that you should do so; but you would never be my friend or let +me be yours." + +"There you are wrong, Samuel," replied the girl, moved by a sense of +great pity; "I have the warmest friendship and regard for you, and I +like you as well as if you were white." + +Samuel then did an unusual thing--he held out his hand to the girl, who +took it and pressed it cordially. + +"Good night. Miss Elizabeth," he said. "I will do my duty better, and +try to be worthy of your friendship. You have lightened my heart." + +Miss Blake went in to the empty class-room and arranged the morrow's +work. She was filled with a vague sense of uneasiness, and she felt +that in her conversation with Samuel she had not been quite ingenuous; +especially in her closing remark. + +Samuel went to his room, and, as was his wont, read several chapters of +the Bible before going to bed. On this occasion his choice fell upon +the Song of Solomon. This he read right through. He began it again, and +read until he reached the words, "I am black but comely." He went to +sleep with these words on his lips, and with a strange dream at his +heart. + + IV. + +The mission was perplexed by another change in Samuel. He bought a new +suit of clothes; he parted his hair on the left side, teasing it up +into two high, unequal ridges; he became redolent of cheap scent; he +applied himself anew to his studies, with feverish activity, and he +pulled his disorderly class together so effectively, that when the +school inspector again came to the mission, that official dealt out +almost unstinted praise instead of the censure which was usually +Samuel's well-deserved portion. + +Moreover, Samuel notified his intention of qualifying forthwith for his +next step towards the ministry. In the choir, his voice rang out with +an almost birdlike rapture that astonished all hearers. + +It was then noticed that Martha Kawa began to lose her place at the top +of the class. It should be mentioned that all the boarders, as well as +the senior day pupils, were taught by Miss Blake, and that Samuel +taught the second class. The very small pupils were instructed by the +second lady-teacher. Martha grew thin and ill-tempered. On several +occasions she was very impertinent to Miss Blake. In church, or when +singing after evening prayers, she hardly ever took her eyes from +Samuel. This was, of course, remarked by the other girls, but a +chaffing allusion to the fact was met by such a burst of fury, that the +experiment was not repeated. + +Samuel hardly ever spoke to Miss Blake; in fact he appeared to avoid +her. His usual taciturnity was unchanged, but it did not convey the +idea of moroseness. His general demeanour was as that of one in a +dream, but in Miss Blake's presence he became alert, with almost an +expectant look; and he gave, generally, the idea of being under the +influence of strong, but suppressed excitement. + +Miss Blake was very fond of flowers, and on the hills around the +mission, watsonias, purple orchids, and other flowers grew; whilst on +the edges of the kloofs, sweet-scented clematis trailed. Samuel got +into the habit of gathering flowers--generally on Saturday afternoons, +when he was free from duty. After one of his rambles, a bouquet would +generally be sent to each of the teachers and to Mrs. Schultz, but it +was noticed that the choicest selection always reached the senior +teacher. + +The Reverend Robley Wilson, a young Wesleyan minister who had been +ordained three years previously, became a more or less constant visitor +at the mission. He was in charge of a station about thirty miles +distant. A tall, spare man, with dark eyes and hair, he had the +reputation of being extremely shrewd. Belonging to the more modern +school, the fundamental axiom did not weigh heavily upon him; in fact +it was hardly a burthen at all, but rather a cloak that could be donned +or doffed as occasion demanded. + +Mr. Wilson's attentions to the senior teacher became somewhat marked. +Strange to say, this fact appeared to be quite unnoticed by Samuel, who +still pursued his course of feverish study, and became more and more +abstracted in his manner. The unhappy man was consumed by a passionate +love. It was for Miss Blake that he was striving to qualify as a +minister; it was of her that he thought all day and dreamt all night. +Into his wild and elemental nature, in which hereditary savagery was +simply covered by a thin veneer of civilisation, this strong love for a +woman of an alien race had struck its roots deep down, and absorbed all +into itself. But instead of the savage element being transmuted into +gentleness, his love absorbed into itself the savage, and thus became +savage in its character. This resultant was a highly explosive psychic +compound. He never spoke to another being of what his mind was full of, +and the repression which he had to exercise at all natural vents caused +tidal waves of passion to roll back on his soul, fraught with +destruction to himself and to others. + +Martha Kawa was as passionately attached to Samuel, as he was to Miss +Blake. In Martha, the Aryan element manifested itself mainly in force +of character, and ability; for in her tastes and desires, as in her +physiognomy, she followed her mother's race. Whilst Samuel was +secretive by nature, she was rendered so by force of circumstances; she +had hardly any opportunities of communicating with the man she loved, +and on the rare occasions when she diffidently attempted to gain his +confidence and friendship, she was met by a cold and impenetrable +indifference, She was not on terms of intimacy with any of the other +pupils, the fact of her being partly of another race preventing +anything of the kind. + +It will be seen that the moral and social atmosphere of the mission was +heavily charged with tragic potentialities. + +V. + +In course of time, Miss Blake went away to spend her Christmas holidays +at a distant town, her native place. The Reverend Robley Wilson took a +holiday shortly afterwards, and followed her. He asked her to be a +helpmeet unto him, and she agreed. Whatever love existed between them +was mainly on his side. She came back to the mission engaged, but by +agreement the fact was to be kept secret for a time, even from the +Missionary and his wife. + +During the holidays, Samuel had continued his course of feverish study. +His face had become thin and drawn, and his eyes looked unnaturally +bright and prominent. Martha was more ill-tempered and sulky than ever, +and repeated disobedience had led to talk of her expulsion. During the +holidays she had volunteered to stay at the mission rather than go back +to her mother's kraal. She was allowed to stay on condition that she +did the house-work, helping the old domestic, who was far from well. +She thus had many opportunities of cultivating Samuel's acquaintance, +and it was not long before her suspicions as to his passion for Miss +Blake were fully confirmed. Samuel allowed her to talk to him, but he +said very little in reply. + +About a week after Miss Blake's return, Mr. Wilson managed to get an +invitation to preach at the mission on the following Sunday. He +arrived on Friday, and then, for the first time, Samuel began to +suspect the true state of affairs. On Saturday evening Miss Blake and +her lover were sitting together in a little summer-house in the garden, +Samuel had watched them enter and then, stealthily as a cat, had crept +up to the trellis, and taken a position where he could hear every word +spoken. What he heard left no room for any doubt as to the true state +of affairs. At first he felt as if stunned by the shock, the very force +of the blow precluding suffering for the time being. The mention of his +own name brought him to himself, and every word of the conversation +that followed burned itself into his brain. + +"What a strange character that Samuel Gozani is," said Mr. Wilson; "I +have sometimes thought him slightly mad." + +"So have I," replied the girl, and she then gave a rapid sketch of +Samuel's career at the mission. + +"Has it never struck you that he may have presumed to fall in love with +you?" + +"I do not like to speak about such a thing, but it has; and for some +time back I have hardly been able to bear his presence. I shudder +whenever he comes near me." + +"I think it is such a mistake to let these fellows think they can be on +an equality with us," said Mr. Wilson, after a pause; "it always leads +to unpleasantness. The idea of his presuming even to think of you in +that way." + +"I often recall his asking me such a strange question one night last +year. He asked if I thought all men, black and white, were equal, It +was not so much the question, as his manner of putting it, that struck +me as being strange." + +"And what did you say in reply?" + +"Oh, I said that before God all men were equal. He then asked whether I +thought one who was white could ever look on a black man as really his +equal. I did not like to say what I truly thought, and felt, so I made +an evasive answer." + +"I know old Schultz and his school teach a lot of nonsense on that +point," said Mr. Wilson, scornfully, "although none of them truly +believe what they say. The equality idea is quite an exploded one, and +the black savage, superficially civilised, is no more the equal of the +European, than a Basuto pony is equal to a thoroughbred horse. But I +hope you will keep that fellow in his place!" + +"Yes, of course I will. But I pity him nevertheless." + +"Do you? I cannot say that I do. But after all, he is not so much to +blame as is the system which filled his head with nonsense. These old +missionaries have done a lot of harm in giving the natives false +notions as to equality, and making them generally conceited." + +Samuel had heard enough. He crept away as noiselessly as he came. + +Next day the Rev. Robley Wilson preached one of his very best sermons. +His preaching was ex tempore, and full of vigour. He discoursed of +righteousness, of temperance, and of judgment to come on the +unrighteous and the intemperate. He waxed more and more didactic. He +called upon his hearers to thank the Lord that such men as he, the +Reverend Robley Wilson, had thought fit to devote their lives to the +service of the children of Ham, instead of shining in metropolitan +pulpits and pouring vials of saving grace over the heads of the elect +of the children of Shem. He dwelt on the inconveniences of mission life +in South Africa, and drew a moving picture of the contrast between +such, and existence in a civilised, European city--comforted by the +appliances of Science and cheered by the achievements of Art. He again +called upon the children of Ham to thank their common Maker for the +blessings bestowed on them by the children of Shem, and he wound up +with a prayer so audaciously comprehensive, that had all thereby asked +for been granted, the members of the congregation, and all their +friends and relations--to say nothing of the whole human race which was +included in a general clause--would have had nothing more to hope for, +and must have succumbed to sheer repletion. It was a rousing sermon, +but it contained not a single reference to the fundamental axiom. + +Whilst the blessings conferred upon the natives by the Europeans were +being enumerated, Miss Blake (quite involuntarily) thought of the +canteens in the village close at hand, coming from which, drunken men +and women often staggered past; the mission, and during the fascinating +description of life in a European city, she could not help recalling +certain accounts she had recently read of the experiences of +venturesome persons who explored regions called slums, said to exist to +a considerable extent in most large British cities. But it was a +rousing sermon; and well delivered. + +Samuel led the choir, and his voice had, if possible, a more exultant +and triumphant ring than usual. + +At evening service, the old missionary preached--or rather read his +sermon. His was a much humbler effort than that of his locum tenens of +the forenoon, but it left a more salutary and peaceful impression. None +of the ideas were original, the illustrations were commonplace, and +what passed for argument was rather threadbare. The fundamental axiom +was there, but was not aggressively flaunted: it was rather implied +than expressed. But in spite of all this, the hearers, or most of them, +were the better of the discourse, for the simple loving kindness and +faith of the old man permeated the congregation as a gentle and +soothing influence. + +It was noticed that Samuel withdrew quietly from the church just at the +close of the last hymn, and before the final prayer and blessing. When +the junior teacher assembled the girls a few minutes later, in the +dormitory, Martha Kawa was missing. + +The Reverend Robley Wilson and Miss Blake lingered in the church for a +few minutes after the congregation had left, and strolled together +across the grass plot to the Mission House. At the door, Mr. Wilson +excused himself, and walked down through the shrubbery towards the +visitors's house--a little one-roomed building, set apart for guests. +He meant just to leave his Bible and hymnbook on the table, brush his +hair, and then rejoin Miss Blake and the others in the dining-room, +where supper awaited them. He softly whistled the tune of a hymn as he +went along the path, thinking how very inconvenient it was that he had +to return home on the following day. It had been agreed that the +engagement was to be announced that evening to the kind old missionary +and his wife. He also thought of the inevitable opposition to a short +engagement, as he knew how difficult it would be to find a suitable +successor to Miss Blake. He had just begun to compare the sermon he had +just been listening to with his own of the morning--much to the +disadvantage of the former, through which he could perceive the +fundamental axiom protruding like a cloven foot, when he suddenly +ceased thinking for ever, for a blow from the heavy knob of a strong +stick crushed his skull in on his brain like an egg-shell, and he sank, +a limp mass, to the ground. + +Then Samuel Gozani, for it was his arm that had struck the blow, sprang +from the footpath into the thickest part of the shrubbery, and there +came into violent physical contact with Martha Kawa, who had been a +witness of his murderous deed. + +They waited in the dining-room, expecting the arrival of the guest, and +wondering at his long absence. Suddenly a loud shriek was heard coming +from the direction of the shrubbery, and the missionary left the +dining-room and walked quickly down the passage to the front door, +which Stood wide open. There he met Martha Kawa, whose demeanour showed +signs of the most frantic terror. Her face was of a dull, ash colour; +her mouth hung open and her eyes were dilated. She gasped for breath, +pointed towards the visitors' house, and then sank senseless to the +ground. The missionary returned to the dining-room, seized a candle, +and walked quickly down the shrubbery path, the flame of the candle +hardly flickering in the breathless night air. There was the body, a +huddled mass, lying on its face, with the arms stretched out at right +angles, and the palms of the bands turned upwards. A trickle of blood +ran down the slope for a few inches, and then formed a pool. The poor +old man stood for a few moments transfixed with horror, and then +staggered back to the house. + +Shortly afterwards the shrubbery was full of blanched faces, rendered +doubly ghastly by the faint glimmer of the lanterns and candles. Samuel +was there, taciturn as usual, and the most self-possessed person +present. He came direct from his room when the alarm was given. Miss +Blake was led by Mrs. Schultz into the house. Then hands, tremulous +with terror and pity, lifted tenderly what had so recently been a human +being brimming with youthful, healthy life, and exalted with +anticipation of the crown of happy love, and laid it on the little +white bed. Later, when the officials came to view the body, they opened +the door softly and shrinkingly, and the drip, drip, drip on the clay +floor sounded on their tense brains like strokes from the hammer of +doom. + +When Martha Kawa had sufficiently recovered to be capable of answering +questions, she told a strange story. She had heard, so she said, a +voice raised as though in anger, but had been unable to distinguish the +words, and just afterwards a dull thud. She then walked quickly towards +where these sounds had come from, and was just able to distinguish two +men running away. This was all that could be elicited from her. + +Suspicion at once fell upon Samuel. In his room was found a large +knobbed stick, such as might have caused the wound, with the knob still +damp, apparently from recent washing. Foot-marks corresponding with +his were found in suspicious localities in the shrubbery. He was +arrested and tried for the crime, but was acquitted on the evidence of +Martha Kawa. When, shortly after the trial, Samuel and Martha +disappeared simultaneously, every one felt that Samuel was surely +guilty, and that his acquittal, which was irrevocable, had involved a +terrible miscarriage of justice. + +Miss Blake left the mission and returned to her family. Mr. Schultz +shortly afterwards retired from active work, and went to live in one of +the larger colonial towns. He drew a small pension which, with the +interest upon the scanty savings of his charitable life, was sufficient +for his moderate needs. He still holds by the fundamental axiom. + +VI. + +About three years after the tragedy just related, a native man and +woman lived together in a lonely hut close to the mouth of the Bashee +river, They were clad in the savage garb common to the uncivilised +natives. The woman was of a much lighter complexion than the man, and +she carried, slung on her back, an emaciated child with a badly +deformed spine. On her face and body were many scars, most of them +healed up, but some still raw, and evidently of recent infliction. +Samuel Gozani and Martha Kawa had wandered far since leaving the +mission. They had gone together to the kraal of the headman, Samuel's +father, in Gealekaland, but Samuel's violent temper had led to his +being driven away. His father gave him a few goats, and his other +relations told him to depart and return no more. So he and Martha built +a hut far from other men, and cultivated a small field of maize, +millet, and pumpkins. Samuel's temper grew worse under the stress of +his solitary life, and Martha suffered much from his ill-treatment. +Shortly after an act of particularly brutal violence on his part she +was confined, and the poor little baby, a boy, was found to be +hopelessly deformed. According to native custom, such a child would +have been destroyed, but when Samuel suggested this, the mother blazed +out into such wrath that he did not refer to the subject again. It soon +became apparent that Samuel--sometimes, at least--was insane. He +seemed hardly ever to sleep, and he remained days without speaking, One +day, on entering the hut, he savagely kicked the child, which was lying +on a mat just inside the door, to one side. The poor little thing set +up a thin, piteous squeal, which, when the mother heard it, roused her +to a pitch of tiger-like fury. She rushed at Samuel and flung him +backwards out of the door. Incensed to madness, he sprang at her, +dashed her down on the floor, and held her with his hands at her +throat, and his knees pressing violently on her stomach. He held her +thus for some seconds, then sprang up, rushed out of the hut, and +disappeared into the bush. + +The wretched woman lay senseless for some time, and when she regained +consciousness she felt that she had sustained some serious internal +injury. It was early in the forenoon when the deed was done, and in the +afternoon her body began to swell, and she suffered violent pain. She +had, as a matter of fact, sustained a severe internal rupture. She +managed to crawl over to where the child lay, still wailing, and she +gave it the breast to still it. Then she began to suffer from violent +thirst, but there was neither water nor milk in the hut. Owing to +Samuel's bad reputation no one ever came to his dwelling, and thus +Martha had no chance of succour before his return, which she now longed +for. The sun went down, and she lay in agony, watching the dying +daylight. She lay through the long, slow hours of the night, unable co +move, and with the poor little child tugging at her in vain, and +fitfully wailing from hunger and cold, for the fire had long since gone +out. When morning broke she became delirious; later on she became +unconscious, and remained so all day. When Samuel returned at sundown, +driving home the little flock of goats, she appeared to be at the last +gasp. He was, to do him justice, much shocked at what he saw. Samuel at +once ran down to the river and fetched some water, a little of which, +poured down Martha's parched throat, restored her to consciousness. He +lit a fire and sat down near her, giving her a sip of water now and +then. He even wrapped the child up in a tanned calf skin, and then went +out and caught a she-goat, which he flung to the ground, and tied by +its extended legs to two poles of the hut, which were about six feet +apart. He then placed the chilled and starving child where it could +suck one of the teats. The goat struggled and withheld its milk, but +Samuel held it down and kneaded the udder until the draught came, and +the child drank long and deeply. + +When the mother saw this, she smiled faintly, and just afterwards she +fell quietly asleep. The child also slept, so Samuel released the goat +and returned to his seat. + +The fire flickered up and showed by fits and starts the inside of the +hut. There lay the dying woman, her deathlike face drawn and haggard +from her long agony, breathing very shortly, the beginning of the death +rattle being audible. There lay the child, half covered by the skin, +its lips parted in the ghastly semblance of a smile which was due to +the indigestion caused by a heavy meal of unusual food, and there sat +Samuel with wide open eyes, looking down into the fire without seeing +it. + +Outside the stars glittered down through the cool June air upon the +lovely valley, rich in forest and flanked by gently-swelling, grassy +hills. The tinkling murmur of the river which, after rainless months, +had shrunk to the dimensions of a streamlet, except in the long, deep +reaches, stole up from where it ran, crystal clear, over a low, rocky +bar. + +Suddenly Martha opened her eyes and spoke in a thin, far-away voice-- + +"Samuel." + +He started, and, moving to where she lay, bent over her. + +"Samuel," she said, "I am dying--now! now!" (She spoke English, a +thing neither of them had done since they had left the mission.) +"Perhaps it is true--what they used to teach us--perhaps Jesus did die +for us.--Samuel--I love you--and you have killed me--but if I find-- +Jesus--I will ask--him--to let you come!" + +She gasped, and stopped speaking, and just then the child woke up and +wailed. This seemed to electrify her. + +"Oh, God! the child!" she screamed. "Give him to me!" + +Samuel arose, gently lifted the wailing baby, and laid it on her left +side, between her arm and her body, with its head on her shoulder. + +"Samuel--Samuel," she gasped, "I lied--to save--you. It is--your-- +child. We have been--bad--but Jesus--will forgive. He will--forgive--us +both--if you--take care----" + +Here her breath failed, and she struggled painfully to speak, her eyes +becoming dim and bright by turns. She tried to lift her right hand, but +could not, so she turned it on its back and beckoned with the +forefinger. Samuel gently laid his hand in hers, and she slowly +grasped his fingers. She lay still like this for a time; hardly +breathing, and with that strange, fitful gleam coming back at longer +intervals to her dimming eyes. Suddenly her eyes flashed almost +fiercely, and, with what must have been a terrible effort, she drew his +hand across her body until it rested on the child's head. She held it +there until she died. + +In the morning Samuel again caught the she-goat, carried it into the +hut, laid it down, and bound its legs as he had previously done. But +the child would not drink. About midday the poor little thing began to +scream violently, and at sundown it died in strong convulsions, Samuel +holding it tenderly in his arms. + +At midnight Samuel buried the two bodies together in a shallow grave, +over which he piled a quantity of heavy stones to keep off the jackals. +He then went to the little kraal where the goats were kept, and pulled +away the bush which served as a gate, thus leaving the entrance open. +He then divested himself of every article of clothing and ornament, and +placed them in the hut. The fire had gone out, but, after raking about +deep down in the pile of ashes, he found a few embers still alight. +These he placed carefully on a bent wisp of dry grass which he pulled +out of the roof, and which blazed up in a few seconds. He then set fire +to the hut in several places, and went outside. In a few minutes the +hut, being built of wattles and grass, all now as dry as tinder, blazed +up. Samuel stood and watched the fire until the last flame flickered +out. He then turned his back on the heap of glowing embers, and walked +away in the direction of the river. + +There is a deep pool in the river a few hundred yards from the spot +where Samuel's hut used to stand, and at one side of it the bank rises +precipitously for about twenty feet. Upon this bank stood Samuel +Gozani, naked as he was born, and he lifted up his voice and spake: + +"The white men told me about a God that died for all men, and that +rewards the good and punishes the wicked, but the white man lied about +other things, so I cannot believe him. My father told me about +Tikoloshe, who lives in the water, and pulls people down by the feet +into the darkness. I never knew my father to lie; I want to reach the +darkness, so I will go to Tikoloshe." + +He sprang into the pool, and Tikoloshe pulled him down by the feet into +the darkness. + + KELLSON'S NEMESIS. + +"Take Sin's empty goblet, fling it +Hurtling from some sheer cliff's height, +Winds will bear it up and wing it +Back to thee in devious flight. +Smash it against the rocks--before thee +Laming fragments strew thy path. +Swamp it deep--the waves restore thee +What thou gav'st them, brimmed with wrath." + +SHAGBAG'S Soliloquy on the Boomerang. + +Night had fallen, although the red glow had not yet quite faded out of +the west, when John Jukes Kellson, the newly appointed Civil +Commissioner and Resident Magistrate of Marsonton, drove down the hill +into the village in which he would henceforth reside and exercise his +official functions. The cart drawn by four horses, which conveyed him, +had been hired at a town over ninety miles away, and Kellson had driven +that distance in two broiling hot days. As the cart went slowly down +the hill, the moon was rising over the eastern mountains, and a +breathless stillness reigned, broken only by the rumble of the vehicle. +How familiar it all was; he knew every curve of the road and every +ant-heap; every bush looming in the twilight seemed like an old +acquaintance. Nineteen years had passed since Kellson had last seen the +village. A clerk in the local public offices, he had left it on +promotion, and now he was returning as chief Government functionary. +How strange it seemed. + +The cart reached the hotel and stopped before the front door. It was +Sunday night. Having a constitutional distaste for public functions of +all kinds, outside the established official routine, Kellson had +purposely left the inhabitants of the village and district in the dark +as to the date of his intended arrival, so as to avoid the agonies of a +public reception, involving an address and a reply, both couched in the +irritating platitudinous phraseology deemed indispensable on such +occasions. + +He entered the hotel at which he had formerly boarded and lodged for +several years as a bachelor. The faces he saw were all strange, but the +building was just the same. It was evident that neither the doors, the +windows, nor the verandah had been renewed since he had seen the place +last. The same atmosphere of mustiness permeated the premises; the +ill-laid flags forming the floor of the stoep still with lifted edges lay +in wait for unaccustomed feet. He knew those flags, and the old habit +of stepping high when he walked on them returned. He even remembered, +as he walked along, the places where it was safe to tread and those to +be avoided. + +The servant showed him to his room, the same he had occupied twenty +years ago. Twenty years; good God! what a long time. He was then +twenty-six years old--and now. How many things had happened in those +years. The servant lit the candle, and Kellson looked round the room. +Yes; just as he had expected; there was the same furniture. The +wall-paper was different, that was all. He passed his hand over the foot of +the iron bedstead and drew out one of the slides of the old, rickety +chest of drawers. How many people had slept in that bed since that +morning when he had here packed his portmanteau before carrying it out +to the post-cart. + +He went to supper, and recognised familiar objects at every turn. These +recognitions hurt him so much that he could hardly keep from crying +out. He feared to lift his eyes lest he should see some old +acquaintance in the shape of a fly-blown picture grinning at him. The +proprietor of the hotel and his family were all absent at church, and +for this small mercy Kellson was devoutly thankful. Supper over, he +strolled out into the silent village street. He could not, however, +endure the sensations which he experienced, so he hurried back to his +room. The transfiguring moonlight had conjured up the ghost of his +youth, and it mocked and gibed at him cruelly. + +Kellson was a bad sleeper, but he went to bed early so as to rest his +weary limbs. He lit his pipe, and then tried to read, but the mists of +nineteen years gathered between his eyes and the page, so he blew out +the candle and lay still with his eyes wide open and no thought of +sleep. The whole weight of the past seemed to press on and crush him, +whilst the stress of the present prevented his dropping the load and +resting. Moreover, numbers of those wretched cur dogs that swarm in +most South African villages were now barking in all directions, the +full moon and the warm night drawing out more than the usual +contingent. + +Kellson's official residence was on a hill just beyond the other end of +the village, and he determined, without waiting for the arrival of the +waggons with his effects, to buy next day enough furniture for one +small bedroom which he would occupy, still taking his meals at the +hotel. He would thus be away from the horrible dogs. He meant to board +at the hotel until the arrival of his wife. His wife t why must he +think of her with such bitterness? Why must he look forward to her +return from her trip to Europe with uneasiness and dissatisfaction? It +was the old story--incompatibility of temper, or rather of temperament. +He had married at the age of thirty-eight, nine years ago. His wife was +now twenty-eight. She was one of those women who can be got at only +through their feelings--never through their reason. In her a passionate +longing for motherhood had absorbed every other wish. She had money of +her own and had gone to spend a year in Europe. When she left, Kellson +experienced a deep sense of relief; a whole year's freedom seemed +endless at the beginning, but now two-thirds of the time had gone by +swiftly, and in about four months she would be back. How he dreaded her +return and the recommencement of the old discordant life. Kellson was, +no doubt, in some respects a difficult man to live with, but he +nevertheless would have made a reasonable, sympathetic woman moderately +happy. His habit was to act reasonably according to his lights in all +his daily relations, both official and domestic. His wife was an +extremely emotional person, who could be persuaded to do a thing, or +leave it undone, as the case might be, by arguments based upon +conventionalism or generosity, but never by those drawn from justice or +reasonableness. Kellson had at first set himself the task of showing +her the saving graces of reasonableness, but he soon gave the attempt +up in disgust. But things would have come all right between them had +there only been a child. + +Kellson had not been a successful man. At the beginning, his career +promised well. Fifteen years previously he had been ahead of most men +of his own term of service, but now others--some of them considerably +his juniors--had forged past him. He had noticed all his life that he +seldom carried any important enterprise to a successful conclusion. Up +to a certain point, he usually achieved rapid success, but then +difficulties unseen before arose one after the other, and failure, or +else only success very much qualified, resulted. He had often +endeavoured to find out the reason of this, but had not been able to do +so. He came to the conclusion that there was some weak strand in the +fibre of his character, but where this lay, or how to strengthen it, he +was unable to discover or devise. + +His transfer to Marsonton, although it involved no curtailment of +salary, was really a reduction in point of status. At his last station +he had taken a. stand upon a matter in which the prejudices of a large +and influential class had been against him. The Government considered +he had been injudicious, and transferred him. He did not much mind; all +that troubled him, was the nuisance involved in packing up and moving +his books and furniture. His conscience was quite clear; he had done +what he thought: to be his duty. Yet he was honest enough to admit that +however right the abstract principle was, its application in the +particular circumstances involved may have been injudicious. His ideal +of official responsibility was a very high one, and during the whole +twenty-seven years of his service he had never done a shady thing; +neither had he ever allowed fear of the consequences to deter him from +pursuing what he considered to be the right course. + +All things come to an end, and so did that Sunday night which Kellson +spent at the hotel. In the early morning he took a brighter view of +things. After breakfast he went up to the Public Offices, and, to the +astonishment of the clerks, introduced himself as their new chief. He +had not mentioned who he was at the hotel, and consequently no one knew +of his arrival. It being Monday, there was a heavy roll of cases for +trial, and when the one attorney and the two agents saw Kellson take +the bench, they were much chagrined at having been done out of the +pleasure of presenting the usual florid address. + +Of the criminal cases to be heard, only one was of any importance, +namely that of a young coloured man charged with burglary. His name was +John Erlank. He had evidently more of European than of any other blood +in his veins; his hair was straight and black, and his complexion light +yellow. But the most striking thing about him was the beauty of his +eyes. They were black, large and deep. Although clearly showing signs +of vice and dissipation, there was something prepossessing in his +appearance; a kind of natural refinement was visible through his +evident degradation and in spite of his obviously cringing manner. +Kellson could not imagine whose face it was that the prisoner's +suggested. Although little more than a lad, Erlank had a bad record. +From early youth upwards he had been a criminal, and several +convictions for different crimes were now formally proved against him. +He had in this particular instance been committed to take his trial +before the circuit judge by the previous magistrate, before whom he had +fully admitted his guilt, but the Attorney General had now remitted the +case hack to the magistrate's court for disposal under the "Extended +Jurisdiction Act." Guilt being fully admitted by the prisoner, all +Kellson had to do as magistrate was to read over the depositions and +pass sentence. He considered the case to be one in which severity was +due, so after telling the man he was one on whom exhortation or advice +would be thrown away, he passed the highest sentence allowed by law, +that is two years' imprisonment with hard labour and a flogging of +thirty-six lashes. It was characteristic of Kellson that the prisoner's +prepossessing appearance had the involuntary effect of making the +sentence more severe, or rather, perhaps, of making the magistrate more +stern in his estimate of the criminality. + +At about four o'clock, Kellson had disposed of all the cases, and was +thus free for the rest of the afternoon, so he left the office and +walked up towards his official residence. He had asked the Chief +Constable to see to the fitting up of his room, and he now went to look +over the premises. For a long time he was unable to dismiss the face of +the prisoner Erlank from his memory, it seemed to be almost as familiar +to him as the houses of the street along which he was walking. + +The village had hardly changed since he had last seen it. It is one of +those places that do not grow because they happen not to be on any one +of the great highways to the North. One or two old fogeys came up and +greeted Kellson in the street--men he had known well in the old days, +now so changed as to be almost unrecognisable. He passed the little +room which had been used in the old days as a public library and +reading-room. It was now shut up, and almost in ruins. He thought of +how he used to run over from the office and flirt with the librarian, a +very pretty girl, long since married. He passed another house and +caught his breath short. It was that in which she had lived--the girl +he had loved in his youth, and who had loved him. He had left her in a +state of uncertainty as to his intentions, and after keeping up a warm +correspondence for some time, they had gradually become estranged, the +estrangement commencing on his side. Why had he acted like this, he +asked himself bitterly. He had dreaded something or another, he could +not quite define what it was. He remembered how she, who had been as +Steel to others, was like wax in his hands. He remembered----Ah, God +what a lot he remembered. + +He arrived at the residency after walking up the hill. The exercise +made him puff. In the old days he used to run up steeper gradients, now +it sometimes distressed him to walk on level ground. + +The gate and the fence were new, but the verandah, the door and the +windows, as in the case of the hotel, were the same he had known in the +old days. He opened the door and walked in, his footsteps sounding +hollow in the empty house. + +Kellson stood in the passage. He had left the front door wide open so +as to admit the light. The air of the empty house seemed dense with the +essence of the past. He went into every room, pausing for a few seconds +in each, and then entering the next on tip-toe. He stood in the +dining-room, before the fireplace. He had sat where he now stood on so many +evenings of winter days whose suns had set with his youth. The barren +hearth was full of ghostly flames which struck a chill into his heart. +There was the room opening to the left, which Mabel and Vi, the little +twin daughters of his former chief, used to occupy. He seemed to hear +the laughter of the children echoing from some far-off paradise of the +past, before the portal of which a stern-browed Fate stood to prevent +his entering. The shutters of the dining-room window had been thrown +open. A memory-ghost prompted him to unfold one of them. On its inner +surface, painted over, he found the heads of the tacks with which he +had nailed the programme of the farewell dance given in honour of his +promotion by his chief. Where were the dancers? Gone like the music to +which their feet had kept time. + +His bed had been placed in the room formerly occupied by the children. +This pleased him; the ghosts of Mabel and Vi were more bearable than +the other ghosts. He looked in to see that all he required had been +provided, and then he walked over the premises outside, old +recollections smiting him like whips at every turn. He went into the +stable and touched the ring to which "Bob," an old pony, the joint +property of the two little girls, used to be tied. The tennis-ground +was over-grown with grass--his predecessor's family evidently had not +cared about tennis. He recognised most of the trees in the garden. The +old vine at the side of the house was green and full of unripe grapes. +It was the only thing that had a cheerful look. + +Kellson returned to the hotel, and found that several of the +inhabitants of the village had called and left cards. After supper, he +walked up again to the residency, and found the Chief Constable there, +he having come to see whether the arrangements made were satisfactory. +Kellson was much relieved to find he had company. He had dreaded +entering the house alone in the dark. There was an old rustic seat +under the verandah, and on this Kellson and the Chief Constable sat and +talked for half an hour. Then the latter said "Good night" and left. + +Kellson remained sitting on the rustic seat, feeling in a better frame +of mind. The Moon rose over the big mountain in front of the house and +distant about five miles. The soft moonlight made the landscape +wonderfully beautiful. The whole mountain was draped in snow-while, +clinging mist, except the very summit, over which the Moon was hanging. +The peacefulness of the hour stole into his heart, and his brain calmed +down. The mountain suggested to him the past, and the pure, white mist +shrouding it seemed like vapour risen from the merciful waters of +Lethe. The Moon suggested hope, vague and undefined, lint still hope. +With the swing as of a pendulum his consciousness swept back from the +dark night of despondency and bathed its wings in light. Then his +soothed spirit felt the need of sleep, so he entered the house and +began to prepare for bed. + +The waggon-road from the village scarped around the slope at the back +of the house, and he heard the clatter of a waggon passing along it. +The noise irritated him sorely--he could not tell why. Soon it ceased, +and he wondered why the waggon should have stopped where it did. A few +minutes afterwards he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, so he +paused in his undressing, wondering irritably who was coming to disturb +him. Then he heard a light tap at the front door. + +Taking a candle, he went to the door and opened it. He saw before him a +woman. She was coloured, but of mixed race, the European element +evidently preponderating. She was elderly--certainly over forty years +of age--very thin; and she stooped somewhat. Her face was drawn and +haggard, but her eyes were still beautiful--black, large, and deep. She +was decently but poorly dressed. + +"Good evening, sir," she said, speaking Dutch. + +"Good evening," replied Kellson. "What do you want?" + +"I beg your pardon. Sir, coming at this time to trouble you. I only +came because I am in great grief. But do you not know me?" + +"No," said Kellson, after scanning her features carefully; "I do not +remember you. What is your name?" + +"I am Rachel, sir." + +"Rachel," he said, sharply; "not Rachel Arends?" + +"Yes, Sir, I was Rachel Arends, but I married Martin Erlank, the +blacksmith of Ratel Hoek, just after you left, long ago." + +Kellson turned sick at heart. Here was a reminder of a thing he had +fain forgotten, come to drive away the peace he had just acquired. Here +was the ghost of a sin of long ago, which had put on flesh and blood +and come back to haunt him. It was horrible. He looked at the woman-- +she returned his gaze timidly for a moment, and then humbly drooped her +head. Her manner and attitude suggested woe and utter humility. Then a +wave of kindness and pity swept through him. Here was a fellow-creature +with whom he had tasted the sweets of sin, long ago. Her youth, and all +of her that he remembered, had been left behind by the hurrying years. +Only one thing was clear, she was in trouble and she wanted his help. +He would succour her if he could. + +"Come in," he said to her kindly; and she followed him into the empty +dining-room. He closed the shutters, and placed the candle on the +window-sill. Then he fetched the only two chairs out of his bedroom. He +placed one for her, and sat in the other himself. + +"Now, Rachel," he said in a kind voice, "what can I do for you?" + +Rachel tried to speak, but sobs choked her. Kellson sat and watched +her, trying to imagine the course of the change in her appearance +through the nineteen years. Where had her beauty gone to--the clear +yellow of her cheeks, through which the red seemed to burn, making them +look like ripe nectarines. Where was her graciously curved bosom? Ah! +"Where are the snows of yester-year?" + +"Oh, Sir," she said at length, "I have come to you about my son whom +you punished today." + +Kellson now for the first time remembered that the surname she had +given him was the same as that of the prisoner whom he had so severely +sentenced. He could now decipher the suggestion in the eyes, which had +so puzzled him. + +"Was that your son?" he asked. + +"Yes, Sir. I know he is bad, and it is his conduct that has made an old +woman of me. But I thought you might do something for him. I do not +mind about the two years' imprisonment--that may do him good--but the +thirty-six lashes." + +"Oh, Sir, his skin has always been so tender, ever since he was a +little baby. It is quite white and soft under his shirt. For the love +of God, do not flog him. I did not know he was to be tried to-day, or I +would have come before. When I heard you were coming I felt sure he +would have had mercy." + +"My poor woman," said Kellson, his heart pierced by Rachel's agony, +"what can I do? I have no power to alter the sentence. He had been +convicted so often before that I felt bound to punish him severely." + +"I know. I know he deserves it, but for the love of God, take off the +lashes. Oh, Sir, you cannot flog him. Bad as he is, I love him best of +all my children, and all the others are good." + +"What can I do?" said Kellson, deeply distressed. "The sentence is +passed. I have no power to change it." + +"Oh, Sir, do you not understand--must I tell you? I thought you would +have known." + +"What do you mean?" + +Rachel again burst into violent weeping, and swayed to and fro in her +chair. For some time she could not speak, Kellson sat and looked at +her, a vague feeling of uneasiness stirring in him. At length she +became calmer, and sat still--her hands pressed to her face. She stood +up, looked fixedly at Kellson for a moment, and then fell un her knees +before him. + +"Save him, save him from the flogging," she said hoarsely, "he is your +son." + +Kellson sprang to his feet and looked down at the kneeling woman; his +eyes stony with horror, and his face white and rigid. He knew in a +flash that what she said was true. The face that the prisoner's +reminded him of, and that he could not localise, was his own. Several +peculiarities in the prisoner's appearance now struck him. It was quite +clear--as sure as death and as obvious as his sin. He had sentenced +his own son. + +For a. while there was no change in the position of either the man or +the woman. Then the woman swayed forward, and laid her face on the +man's feet. + +"Save him, save him," she gasped. + +Kellson stooped, lifted her from the ground, and placed her in the +chair. He was struck by her extreme lightness. + +"Rachel," he said, "I never knew of this. What can I say to you now +but, 'God help us both--or all three of us.' I can give you no hope, +but come and see me to-morrow morning at the Office." + +This seemed to comfort her. She stood up, faltered a "Good night," and +went out of the house with feeble steps. + +Kellson sat down in his chair and thought. His brain was quite calm, +and his mind was clear, He heard the rumble of the waggon, and the +voice of the boy shouting to the bullocks as he drove the team. He +stood up, and mechanically seized his hat and stick. He wondered where +the keys of the Office were kept. He would go down to the Office, find +the record, and strike the lashes out of the sentence. No--the sentence +must stand. The one stainless record which his conscience held up to +him, was that of his public life. He had never yet done a deed in his +official capacity of which he was ashamed. He must not, at the close of +his career, be guilty of a dishonourable action. The prisoner richly +deserved his sentence. Let him undergo it. + +"At the close of his career." Yes, for Kellson felt that he could no +longer live. His limit of endurance had been reached. Life had for some +years past been a sore burthen, and now he could carry it no longer. +Had he not longed for a child--for a son? Did he not know that such +would have made his wife a happy woman and him a contented man? To +live, to know of that degraded thing, for whose existence he was +responsible, being there at the convict station amongst the other human +animals, and becoming lower and more degraded every day. To look +forward through two long years of misery and apprehension to the return +of--his son. His son--a strange yearning towards the vicious creature +he had carelessly glanced at that morning, took possession of him. He +started up again, and seized his hat. He would go down, even though it +were nearly midnight, and get the gaoler to admit him to the prisoner's +cell. He made a few steps towards the door, and then stopped. No, +better not. Reality would blast the delicate glamour-bloom with which +his imagination had clothed for the moment that sordid form. It was the +beauty of the eyes that haunted him. He knew that these imaginings were +false. In another moment they were gone. What--after two years to meet +that horrible cringing creature with the angel's eyes, in the street, +and know him as his son--his son that he had asked God for in the days +when he used to pray. Better a hundred deaths. + +Suicide. Why not? Suicide was said to be disgraceful. Why? Other +nations, more civilised in some respects than ours, had held it to be +honourable. Not if one has responsibilities. His wife--well--he +shrewdly suspected that she would be glad of her freedom. He had no +child----Oh, God! Yes he had. + +Disgrace to his wife and to his other relations. Ah! here came in the +beauty of his plan. Suicide would never be suspected. + +Kellson went into the bedroom and opened his portmanteau. From the +pocket of the partition he took a little bottle of chloral hydrate, a +drug which he was in the habit of using when insomnia pressed heavily +upon him, as it periodically did. The chloral was in five-grain +tabloids. His usual dose was three tabloids or fifteen grains. He now +counted twenty tabloids into a tumbler, which he half filled with +water. + +The front door was still open, and Kellson, remembering this, went to +shut it. The moon had now soared high above the mountain, and a +spectacle, wonderfully and wildly beautiful, was revealed. Kellson +walked into the garden and gazed on it. The mist, no longer smooth and +clinging, but drawn and curled into fantastic wreaths, was rising +slowly into the windless sky. The tired-out man took one lingering +look, and then walked quickly into the house. He locked the front door +and went into the bedroom. + +He undressed quietly and got into bed, after laying his clothes tidily +on one of the chairs. The chloral had not yet quite melted, so he took +his tooth-brush and stirred the contents of the tumbler with the +handle. In a few moments the last tabloid had dissolved. + +Kellson blew the candle out and took a sip of the chloral mixture. It +was so strong that it made him cough. He lit the candle and added more +water. It then struck him that the room might smell close when the +people entered it on the morrow, so he got up and opened the window +wide. He then returned to bed, drank off the contents of the tumbler, +and lay down. + +For one wild moment terror at the lowering face of Death took +possession of his soul. It was as though he could sec the awful +features taking form out of the darkness. The dread destroyer that he +had with daring hand roused unseasonably from his lair, seemed to fill +the room--the house--the sky--and call him forth in tones of thunder to +the black and freezing void. Light! Light! + +He started up in bed and began to grope for the matchbox. But this +passed away. The face of Death grew mild, and then seemed to smile. He +lay down on his side, his face turned from the open window, composed +himself into a comfortable attitude, and fell softly into the deepest +of all sleeps. + + THE QUEST OF THE COPPER. + + "A beast with horns that rend and gore +My army rushes through the world; +The white plumes flutter in the fore, +Like mists before a tempest whirled; +The roaring sea when storms are strong +Is not so fierce, the lion's wrath +Is tame when swells the battle-song +That frights the clouds above my path! + +"My beaten shields to thunder thrill, +My spears like lightning flash between, +Till raining blood their brightness kill, +Or dim to lurid red their sheen! +At morn and eve the splendid shine of burning clouds +I hail with joy-- +The sky thus gives its son the sign +To rise up mighty, and destroy!" + +Zulu Pictures. Tshaka. + +I. + +TSHAKA, king of the Zulus, sat in state in his Royal Kraal one morning +in the month of March, 1816. His throne was a log of white ironwood +standing on its end, from the upper portion of which the stumps of +three thick branches expanded, thus giving it the rough semblance of an +arm-chair. The ends of the stumps were rounded and polished. The +throne was standing upon the skin of a large, black-maned lion, and the +king's feet were resting upon the mane. A number of indunas, +councilors, and officers stood around the king in respectful attitudes, +or moved about quietly, and silently. + +Tshaka's mother, Mnande, sat on the ground some distance away, her ear +strained to catch every word chat fell from her son's lips. A few yards +behind her five young girls crouched on their knees and elbows, each +with an earthen pot of beer, or a skin of curdled milk before her. As +each new-comer arrived within a certain distance of the throne, he +flung his spear and shield to the ground, and then came forward. When +he reached within about twenty paces of Tshaka, he held his right hand +high over his head and called out "Bayete," which is the Zulu royal +salute. He then advanced and prostrated himself before the King's feet. + +Tshaka was a man of magnificent build. He sat perfectly naked except +for a bunch of leopard tails slung from his waist, and a few charms +fastened to a thin cord around his neck. + +Kondwana, commander of the 'Nyatele regiment, an induna of the Abambo +tribe, was called before the king. He approached, under the customary +obeisance, and then stood up. + +"You will take," said Tshaka, "what remains of the 'Nyatele regiment (a +regiment that had suffered very severely in a recent campaign from +fever in the coast swamps above St. Lucia Bay, as well as from +slaughter by the spear), and go to the country beyond the mountains of +the Amaswazi, where the green and yellow stones from which the red +metal (copper) is smelted, are dug out of the ground. You will bring +back so much of these stones as will cover, when heaped up, the skins +of three large oxen. You will return before the Summer rains have +fallen. Go." + +Kondwana was a distinguished man. He had, years previously, fought +against Tshaka, but since his tribe, the Abambo, had made submission, +and had been incorporated into the Zulu nation, he had served his new +master with faithfulness and zeal. But one of the awkward conditions of +savagery is this, that whenever a subordinate shows any extraordinary +capacity, and consequently attains to a position of influence, his +master is apt to regard him with jealousy and fear, and will therefore +often destroy him ruthlessly on the first shadow of a pretext. In +jealousy and mistrust of capable subordinates, the average savage +potentate resembles Louis the Fourteenth of France, of pious memory, +who could never bear to have a really capable man near his throne in a +position of trust. Kondwana happened to be under the ban of Tshaka's +suspicion, which, once roused, was never allayed. This is the +explanation of his having been sent with his splendid regiment on a +useless expedition through the deadly fever country just to the south +of Delagoa Bay, between the Lebomba Mountains and the sea, and of his +now having to go with the effective remnant of his veterans on a quest +for copper to a hypothetical spot only vaguely rumoured of. + +Amongst the spoil of a recent and very distant northern raid were a few +copper bangles, and the prisoners from whom these were taken said that +the metal had been smelted from green and yellow stones dug out of a +mountain far to the north. In a native forge at one of the villages +sacked, a few stones of the kind described had been found, and these +were brought to Tshaka. No other information on the subject was to be +had, yet Kondwana at once prepared to start upon his quest, knowing +that if he failed to carry out the king's order to the very letter, his +life would inevitably pay the forfeit. + +Kondwana was a tall and very powerful man, jet black, but with a +pleasing expression of countenance when not moved to wrath. He was as +brave as a lion, and perfectly loyal to the king. + +Tshaka possessed the faculty of inspiring loyalty to a high degree, but +he was unaware of this. Being of a highly suspicious nature, he +sacrificed to his groundless apprehensions numbers of his most loyal +and devoted adherents. + +Kondwana returned to his kraal after being shown specimens of the +mineral which he had to seek. These were a few small lumps of shining +stone--some being blue in colour and some yellow. In others both +colours were present. When freshly broken, the blue specimens were +beautifully iridescent, and showed tints such as are seen in the +peacock's tail. Upon arriving at the headquarter military kraal next +morning, he mustered his regiment, and found it to be about four +hundred and fifty strong (effective). There were several hundred more +at the kraal, but they were still suffering from fever. The men were +all veterans, and thus wore head-rings, circular bands about seven +inches in diameter, of a black substance composed principally of gum. +These bands being about an inch thick, were fixed to the hair around +the crown of the head, and thus afforded a very effective protection +against blows. + +The expedition started. A number of the men carried strong iron picks +for the purpose of digging out the ore. They took a small herd of +cattle for immediate use as food, but they depended upon proximate +spoil for future sustenance. After crossing the Pongola river, the +party made a detour inland so as to avoid a collision with the +Amaswazi, with whom Kondwana did not want, just then, to fight. This +took them through some very mountainous country, where they suffered +grievously from cold. Some of the men in whose blood germs of fever +still remained, began to sicken, and were mercifully put to death. But +as it advanced through the mountains the little party had some very +enjoyable fighting and looting, the Mantatee tribelets offering no more +resistance than afforded pleasant exercise. The loot was ample, and the +soldiers simply feasted on meat. At night they often warmed themselves +before the burning huts. They obtained from the vanquished Mantatees +many soft, warm skins, for the mountain tribes, living under a +comparatively cold climate, had become very expert in tanning. These +skins were carried for them by the good-looking young women of the +kraals which were "eaten up," for the lives of such, when their +services were required, were generally spared. + +It was only the veterans of the Zulu army that wore head-rings, but +there was one man with Kondwana's contingent whose head was ringless. +This was Senzanga, the son of Kondwana's elder brother Kwasta. Senzanga +had been spared by a fortunate accident when his father's kraal and its +inhabitants had been destroyed a few months previously by Tshaka's +order. Being fleet of foot, he had escaped to the bush, and he had +ever since had a precarious existence as a fugitive, being fed by some +women at the risk of their lives. Hearing through them of an expedition +under the command of his uncle, he went, on ahead, and at the Pongola +appeared and asked for Kondwana's protection, as well as for leave to +accompany the expedition. Kondwana knew that he ran a serious risk in +not killing Senzanga at once, but after consulting with his officers, +he decided on venturing to spare the young man's life, meaning to +deliver him as a prisoner to Tshaka on the return of the expedition, +and then pray that he might be pardoned for the fault he had not +committed, and which had been so heavily punished. + +After getting well past the Amaswazi country, the expedition left the +mountains, and traveled through the low, wooded plains that lie between +the Drakensberg on the north-west, and the Lebomba hills on the +south-east. In this region no men dwell: except the wretched "Balala," naked +and weaponless fugitives from the Tonga and other tribes, whose +villages had been destroyed in war, and who had escaped to lead a life +in the desert compared with which death by the spear would have been +merciful. + +The existence of the dreaded tsetse fly, whose bite is fatal to any +domestic animal, accounted for the lack of human inhabitants. The +cattle which Kondwana's men brought with them began to droop, and soon +could proceed no further. After being bitten by the tsetse, animals +gradually waste away, and sometimes live on for months, becoming more +and more emaciated. If, however, rain happens to fall, they die off +very quickly. The men set to work and killed all the remaining cattle. +They ate what they could of the meat, loaded themselves and the captive +women with as much of the remainder as could be carried, and then +traveled as swiftly as they could in a north-easterly direction, +towards the Limpopo river. Once across the Limpopo, they knew they +could easily reach the Makalaka country, where, doubtless, loot +abounded. They knew all about this from the Balala, whom they from time +to time captured and questioned. None of these could, however, give any +information as to where the copper ore had come from. + +In the meantime, game was plentiful, although somewhat difficult to +capture. Their most successful mode of hunting was this;--about a +hundred men would lie in ambush in some place where, judging from the +footmarks, wild animals were in the habit of passing. These men would +take cover wherever they could, breaking off branches of trees for +purposes of concealment where growing reeds, shrubs or grass did not +suffice. They would lie or crouch about five yards from each other, in +three lines about ten yards apart. + +The remainder of the contingent would then divide into two parties, one +of which would extend to the right and the other to the left, in open +order, each party forming a long chain gradually stretching out. The +leaders, after going out a certain distance, would curve inward towards +each other until they met. A large area would thus be enclosed. As soon +as the chains joined, by the leaders meeting, the grass was set alight, +and immediately afterward smoke arose at numerous points around the +enclosed space, whilst the men all rushed inwards towards the ambush. +The terrified game, seeing themselves almost surrounded by a ring of +fire, rushed madly to what seemed to them the only place at which they +could possibly escape. When the herd reached the ambush, the men sprang +to their feet, and dashed at it with their spears; the skirmishers, or +as many as had been able to close in on the heels of the game, rushing +in at the same time. It was their practice to avoid interfering with +buffalo or other dangerous game so far as possible, but pallah, +hartebeeste, koodoo, waterbuck and other antelopes were slain in the +manner described, sometimes in great numbers. Then plenty would reign +for a season. + +These game-drives were fraught with considerable danger, and on several +occasions some of the men in ambush were trampled to death or seriously +hurt. + +Every night the lions roared around their encampment, attracted by the +smell of the meat, but repelled by the fires around which the men +slept. It was found that so long as game was plentiful the lions did +not come close enough to give any serious trouble--they could always he +heard growling, but they made no attack--but in passing through regions +where game was scarce, the lions, grown bold from hunger, would prowl +round and round the camp, silently, and with deeply lurid eyes. One +morning, just before dawn, a lioness dashed into the camp, seized a +sleeping man by the shoulder, and began dragging him off. But in a +moment the marauder was surrounded by spears, and then a desperate +struggle took place. The night was dark, and the watch fires were +nearly dead. Some of the men seized firebrands, which they held aloft +so as to enable their comrades to see. The lioness died hard. The first +frantic dash she made broke the ring for an instant, and she got two +men down under her, one with a broken neck, and the other with a +dislocated hip, whilst a third, who was dashed backwards by a blow from +her paw, had his skull fractured and his shoulder broken. But Senzanga +sprang on the lioness from behind, and by a lucky stroke plunged his +spear into her spine just over the loins. The spear stuck fast between +two of the vertebrae, and the animal gave a roar so tremendous, that it +completely deafened for the moment those nearest to her. But she was +now helpless, and so was easily dispatched. Day soon broke. The man +with the dislocated hip was killed, the lioness was skinned and her +meat eaten, and the expedition moved on, the men singing what is known +as "the war-song of the lion," in full chorus. + +The Limpopo river was reached one evening after a hot, waterless march +of over forty miles. The summer floods had subsided, and the lovely, +forest-fringed stream, with crystal-clear currents swirling and eddying +amongst the rocks, lay before them, full three hundred yards in width. +The meat was nearly finished, the little remaining being putrid from +the heat, but Kondwana rested his men for a couple of days amongst the +shady trees on the bank. They knew that the Makalaka cattle were not +far off, and a couple of days' hunger was, to Zulu soldiers, not very +much of a hardship. On the morning of the third day after reaching the +river, the expedition crossed. The crossing was not easy work, as many +of the swirling channels were deep and rapid; moreover, on almost every +rock crocodiles basked. But the men linked arms, four abreast, and +dashed into the water singing their regimental war-song, and in spite +of all difficulties reached the opposite bank without the loss of a +man. + +II. + +A somewhat awkward circumstance was this;--a number of the men had lost +their spears, and the loss of his weapon by a Zulu soldier was a crime +admitting of no palliation or pardon. The Zulu soldier carried only one +spear--a frightful weapon, with a broad blade and a short, thick +handle. The use of this weapon (ikempe) had been introduced by Tshaka, +who substituted it for the light throwing assegai (umkonto). Although +quite discarded in war, the assegai was still used in the chase, and +the men and boys were encouraged to keep up the practice of assegai +throwing. Many of Kondwana's men had brought assegais with them; for +the expedition not being a purely military one, discipline was not kept +up so strictly as otherwise it would have been. + +It was found, however, in hunting, that the light assegai was not +effective in bringing down game. When used in stabbing, the weight was +not sufficiently great, nor was the blade large enough to inflict a +fatal wound; when hurled, the weapon was often lost through the animal +escaping with it sticking fast, and being seen no more. + +On some occasions the droves of game were so dense that no difficulty +was experienced in killing animals by stabbing them at close quarters, +but often such could not be done, only a few being driven into the +ambush. Then the men had to choose between growing hunger and the risk +of losing their spears through the wounded animals escaping, spears and +all. As a matter of fact this had often happened, so much so, that by +the time the expedition reached the Limpopo, nearly a fourth of the men +were either weaponless, or else were armed only with light assegais. + +After crossing the Limpopo, the expedition trended slightly to the +westward, towards the hilly country where, according to the Balala, +many of the cattle of the Makalakas were to be found. On the afternoon +of the second day after crossing, troops of cattle and afterwards +scattered villages were sighted. The alarm had evidently been given, +for it could soon be seen that the cattle were being hurriedly driven +off, and when the first village was reached, it was found to be +deserted, However, by probing with their spears in the dung of the +cattle kraal, the men easily found the flat stones covering the mouths +of the underground corn-pits, and in these a fair supply of millet was +found. So the men lit fires and cooked the grain. It was dark before +they had finished eating, and then they built up the fires, piling on +heavy logs which were lying near. Certain faint, twinkling lights were +visible on a hillside very far off, and in the direction in which they +had seen the cattle being driven in the afternoon, and towards these +Kondwana led his men silently, and at a swinging trot. + +About an hour before dawn the vanguard suddenly stopped, and the rest +of the force formed up slowly in wings, as had been directed. The +barking of dogs was heard some distance ahead. The Zulus were now in a +comparatively open Country. A grassy expanse between two shallow, +forest-filled valleys sloped up gently in front. Kondwana sent scouts +ahead. These soon returned with the report that they had found a +number of armed men sleeping around some huts close to a kraal which +was filled with cattle. The dogs barked incessantly, out as much on +account of the Makalaka strangers at the kraal as the Zulus. As a +matter of fact, after the alarm was given late in the afternoon, as +many of the Makalakas as could be communicated with had assembled here. +Scouts had reported in the evening that the strangers were looting the +corn from the pits, and only a couple of hours before Kondwana called a +halt in the darkness, the fires that the Zulus had lighted were still +to be seen burning brightly. Moreover, Kondwana had been very careful +in preventing the huts being burnt, lest the Makalakas should infer +that his force was moving on. By abstaining from burning the huts he +completely deceived the Makalakas, who could not conceive it possible +that a hostile force would pass a hut without setting it alight, so +they slept in fancied security, little deeming what was in store for +them. + +Kondwana divided his force into three, each division numbering nearly a +hundred men. These took up positions at equidistant points, lines +connecting which would have formed an equilateral triangle, the little +cluster of huts surrounded by the sleeping Makalakas being in the +centre. The dogs, tired of barking at the different parties of +Makalakas which had arrived during the night, did not make so much of a +disturbance as might have been expected under the circumstances. The +three divisions formed themselves into double lines, and then advanced +slowly inwards until, at a signal from Kondwana, they yelled out the +war cry and rushed forward. In a few minutes all was over. The +unfortunate Makalakas were an easy prey; they hardly attempted to +resist, but rushed from one side to the other, vainly attempting to +escape from the ring of spears. By sheer weight of numbers, they at +length broke through on the one side, and then about half of them +escaped to the forest. They left over two hundred bodies on the field. +The Zulus did not lose a man. + +Some women and children rushed out of the huts. Most of them were +slain, but some few were taken prisoners. Morning soon broke, and +showed the dead lying in every direction, and the ground strewn with +weapons which had been cast away in the rout. A few copper ornaments +were found upon some of the women, who, upon being questioned, pointed +to the north and said that the metal had been brought from there long +ago. + +The kraal was found to be full of cattle, some of which were at once +slaughtered and eaten. Shortly after sunrise, a party of about a +hundred Makalakas approached to within a short distance of the huts. +When they caught sight of the dead bodies they turned and fled, body +pursued by the Zulus for a short distance. None were, however, caught. +Kondwana had again given the strictest orders that no huts were to be +burnt, so as to avoid spreading the alarm to a distance, for as long a +time as possible. + +Next morning, large bodies of Makalakas appeared on the surrounding +hills, but they were evidently afraid to come near. About midday three +men approached to within hailing distance, and asked that three of the +Zulus might come out for the purpose of parleying. So Kondwana and two +of his men went out, and when they arrived within about a hundred yards +of the others, stuck their spears into the ground and called out to the +Makalakas to do the same, which they did. The two parties then met, and +began to discuss matters. + +The Makalaka spokesman inquired of Kondwana who he and the men were, +and why they were making war on the Makalaka nation. Kondwana replied +to the effect that he and his men were Zulus sent by Tshaka to obtain +copper; that they did not want to make war, and had only done so +because they found armed men assembled to oppose them. + +It could at once be seen that the mere name of Tshaka made a +considerable impression. The spokesman replied that the Makalakas did +not want to fight with the Zulus, that the copper ore was found in the +country of the Balotsi, to the northward, and that a party which the +Makalaka chief had sent in the previous year for the purpose of +fetching a supply of the ore, had never returned. + +It was finally agreed that Kondwana's explanation should be +communicated to the Makalaka Chief, and then the two parties separated, +after arranging to meet again on the following day. + +Next morning the three Makalakas returned, and the spokesman told +Kondwana that guides would be provided by the Chief to lead the +expedition to the place in the Balotsi country where the ore had been +found, and that food for the use of the Zulus on the journey would be +provided. All this was due to the fact that the terror of Tshaka's name +had penetrated even thus far. Moreover, up to this, none of the +Makalakas had come near enough to the main body of the Zulus to be able +to see in what force the latter were, and those who had escaped from +the slaughter of two nights previous, had greatly exaggerated the +number of the assailants. + +So on the following day, the Zulus started for the Balotsi country, +under the guidance of five old Makalakas, who were stated to have +accompanied a copper-seeking expedition many years back. A large herd +of cattle, a few of which were pack oxen, had been sent down by the +Chief. They loaded the pack oxen with their picks, and with the +remainder of the millet which they found in the grain pits at the +captured kraal. + +The men who had lost their weapons re-armed themselves with the best of +those of the slaughtered Makalakas. Such were, however, but poor +substitutes for the terrible broad-bladed, thick-handled spears which +had been lost, yet they were better than nothing. + +The guides led Kondwana and his men through a part of the country which +was very thinly populated, so they saw hardly any human beings and no +cattle--nor were any signs of cultivation visible. They passed far to +the eastward of the populated areas. One day two strange men joined the +guides, and after traveling for a short time with the expedition, +disappeared. This roused the suspicions of Kondwana, but the guides, +although questioned apart from each other, each declared that the +strangers were only casual travelers. As a matter of fact, these men +were messengers laden with the doom of Kondwana and every man in his +force. + +This is what had happened. Until the Zulus started from the captured +kraal, the Makalakas were under the impression that they had to deal +with a full Zulu regiment, numbering probably two thousand men, but +when the expedition moved off, and its numerical weakness thus became +apparent, the Makalaka Chief at once determined on its destruction. So +messengers were at once dispatched in every direction to collect the +Makalaka forces, and the two "casual travelers" had been sent to tell +the guides to desert two days after crossing the mountain range +separating the Makalaka from the Balotsi territory, and, if possible, +to take the cattle with them. + +Weak as the Zulus were in point of numbers, the Makalakas did not yet +dare to attack them. + +The gigantic forms, the red shields and the gleaming, broad-bladed +spears of Kondwana's small band, and the terrible evidence of prowess +as shown in the night attack, had inspired great dread. Moreover, the +Makalaka Chief determined on making sure that not a single man should +escape to tell the tale to Tshaka. So as the Zulus marched on, a large +army, collected from all available quarters, followed on their track at +a respectful distance. Fleet runners had been sent on ahead to +endeavour to arouse the Balotsi, and thus the Makalaka Chief trusted to +being able to crush his foes as though between the jaws of a vice. The +guides had been told to delay the march as much as possible by avoiding +the direct route wherever such could be done without creating +suspicion. + +Kondwana and his men reached the mountain range which is a continuation +of the great Quathlamba or Drakensberg chain, and saw great frowning +precipices rise over steep slopes covered with dense forest. One long +winding valley, overhung by precipitous cliffs, cleft the range, and +through this the guides led them. At the head of the valley the range +was slightly depressed, and a saddle was thus formed between two high +peaks. Elevated tablelands, gently sloping to the north-west, and +intersected by narrow, shallow valleys, stretched away from the level +of the saddle. Each valley carried its stream of water, running between +low banks covered with a thick growth of reeds. It was now May, and the +cold at night on these high plains was very severe. Fuel was scarce, +and the Zulus consequently suffered very much. They had now for some +days been passing through a totally uninhabited country. Game was very +plentiful, but impossible to capture in the open. + +They pressed forward along an old disused foot-path, or rather a number +of such, running parallel. As a matter of fact they were on the route +which had been traversed lay the Makalaka expedition sent for copper +ore in the previous year, and which had not returned nor been heard of. + +On the morning of the third day after crossing the saddle, it was found +that the guides and the cattle had disappeared during the night. +Kondwana found that, overcome by fatigue, the two sentries had fallen +asleep at their post, so he speared them with his own hand. He then +called the men together, and they deliberated as to what course they +should pursue. With one accord it was decided to go forward. + +Taking up the track of the cattle, parties were sent out to endeavour +to recover them, and between twenty and thirty head, which had become +foot-sore and were thus unable to proceed, were brought back in the +afternoon. These were at once killed, and the expedition moved on next +morning, the men carrying the meat. + +The men were now very footsore, in spite of the sandals which they had +from time to time made out of the skins of the slaughtered cattle. They +were gaunt and haggard from nearly three months of hardship and +exposure. Their faces were sunk and their limbs emaciated. Yet no +thought of returning before the object of the expedition should have +been accomplished occurred to them. + +Three days after that on which they had discovered the desertion of the +guides, they began to pass human skeletons lying on the path, the bones +scattered about and broken, evidently through the agency of beasts of +prey. All those that had contained marrow had been cracked, apparently +by the jaws of hyenas. Late in the afternoon they reached a spot where +about forty or fifty disjointed skeletons were lying indiscriminately. +Kondwana noticed scattered about, a quantity of mineral similar to the +specimens shown to him at Tshaka's when he received his instructions. +"Ah ha!" said he, "this accounts for their not having returned." + +The unfortunate copper-carriers had evidently been surprised, +surrounded, and killed to a man--probably by the Balotsi. The Zulus, +delighted at obtaining evidence of the bare existence of the thing they +were seeking, walked about, picking up fragments of the ore, which they +put into their skin wallets. It was evident that the greater part of +the ore had been removed, yet every man of the expedition was able to +secure a piece which he looked upon as a kind of amulet to bring him +good fortune. There was a little fuel obtainable where they camped for +the night, and the weary, haggard men went to sleep feeling in better +spirits than for a long time past. + +Just at daybreak next morning the sentries gave the alarm, and the +Zulus sprang to their feet to find themselves surrounded by foes. A +large Balotsi impi had been sent to intercept them. + +The attack began at once, and for a time the struggle was fierce. But +at close quarters one Zulu was a match for ten Balotsi, so the +assailants were soon glad to retire, leaving nearly a hundred dead +behind them. The Zulus lost about five or six men. It was broad +daylight when the Balotsi drew off, and the Zulus could see their +enemies massed round them in every direction, and outnumbering them +excessively. Both parties paused for a time, each watching the other. +The sun rose up over the mountains, the sky was clear as a dewdrop, and +a bracing breeze swept down the valley, making music through the +quivering reeds. Herds of eland, hartebeests, gnu, and other game, +stood on the slopes afar off, and looked down on the dark masses of men +standing still in grim silence after their desperate struggle. + +Then Kondwana gave the order to retreat. There was no other course +possible. Hardly any food was left, and the Balotsi were in such force +as to render it impossible to cope with them successfully. + +So the Zulus began to retire along the course by which they had +advanced, and thus their travail entered into its final stage of long +agony. + + III + +Back towards the saddle at the top of the pass through the mountain +range marched Kondwana and the Zulus, the Balotsi force accompanying +them at a respectful distance on each side. The Balotsi had had a +severe lesson, and were not anxious to come again to close quarters. +They found, moreover, that throwing the assegai was not of much avail +on account of the large shields which the Zulus carried. Besides, the +Zulus made a practice of picking up the assegais falling near or +amongst them, and returning these, often with deadly effect, for, being +physically much stronger than the Balotsi, their effective range with +the assegai was correspondingly greater. + +The Zulus stalked on in grim silence, the Balotsi shouting at them in +an unknown tongue. At this stage the Balotsi had no intention of +attacking. + +They knew, what the Zulus did not know, that the Makalaka impi was +waiting just on the other side of the saddle. They, the Balotsi, would +just keep the Zulus in view, and then assist in their annihilation +after the Makalakas had tamed them somewhat. So the Balotsi gave way +consistently whenever the weary and footsore Zulus showed a disposition +to charge. + +The Zulus had thus little save hunger to fear so long as they were in +the open country. They marched on, breaking into a trot whenever their +course led downhill, during the whole of the day on which their retreat +began. Each man still had a small supply of meat left, and portions of +this they ate raw as they proceeded. At dusk the foremost of the +Balotsi were some distance behind, and after marching for about two +hours longer the weary fugitives lay down and rested. Sentries, which +were relieved after very short watches, kept guard all night. Before +daylight next morning they again started, and the previous day's +average of speed was kept up until sundown, when they reached the +saddle. They had seen nothing of the Balotsi all day. In fact the +latter were a fair day's march behind. + +Kondwana halted his men on the north-western side of the saddle, and +then went forward with another man for the purpose of reconnoitering. +When he looked down the valley, what he saw caused even his brave heart +to sink. About a mile from him was massed the advance division of the +Makalaka army, and as far as he could see beyond, the smoke was arising +from numberless fires. + +Kondwana returned to his men, and then the situation was discussed. The +majority were in favour of making a dash down the valley and cutting a +road through their foes. But the young man Senzanga made a suggestion +which soon met with general approval. + +All had seen that the Makalaka guides had not led them by a direct +route from the captured kraal to the pass, but had made a considerable +detour to the eastward. The object of this was now apparent. Senzanga's +suggestion was to the effect that they should avoid the pass, striking +boldly through the mountains to the south-west, trusting to being able +to force their way through the forest on the coast side of the range. +They could then make direct for some point on the Limpopo, higher up +than where they had crossed. By going straight, they could reach the +river by a much shorter journey than the previous one. Senzanga's plan +was adopted, so after a cheerless rest of a few hours they started, +working slowly up a long spur to the westward of the high peak flanking +the saddle on the right-hand side. + +As a matter of fact, the Zulus, by their extraordinarily rapid march, +had reached the saddle exactly twenty-four hours before their arrival +was thought possible by the Makalakas. The fact that the Zulus had +begun to retreat had been signaled back by means of fires along the +mountain tops, but they were not expected to be seen for another two +days. When the Balotsi next day reached the saddle, expecting to find +that the Zulus had been already slaughtered, they found, to their +astonishment, that nothing had been seen of the fugitives. But the +mystery was soon solved--the trail was found leading up the spur, and +the intention of the Zulus became immediately clear to the Makalaka +Chief, It was now his turn to be seriously alarmed, for if these men +should succeed in reaching Zululand, an impi of Tshaka's terrible +destroyers would soon be on its way to wreak vengeance. Therefore, at +any cost, the fugitives must be intercepted and destroyed to a man. So +the Makalakas hastened down the pass, after instructing the Balotsi to +keep on the trail of the Zulus over the mountains, harass their rear, +and notify their whereabouts by lighting fires on the nearest hills +surrounding them every night. But this was a service for which the +Balotsi had no stomach. They were a long way from home, and were almost +without food; they had tasted of the Zulu spear, and it was bitter. So +after making a pretence of obeying, they turned round and hurried +homeward as fast as they could. + +Kondwana and his force found the mountain range to be less formidable +than they had anticipated, but nevertheless their sufferings were +awful. Food, they now had none, and hunger gnawed at them with +incessant and increasing violence. Their feet were so sore that every +step over the rough, stony ground caused torture. Every now and then +men dropped, unable to proceed further, and were at once speared by +their companions. + +On the evening of the day after they had struck into the mountains, the +Zulus reached the forest-belt on the coast slope, and in front of them, +distant about two days' easy march, could be seen the shining, +wood-fringed reaches of the Limpopo, beyond which lay their only chance of +salvation. But between them and the Limpopo was the Makalaka army. + +That night the Zulus lay close to the upper margin of the forest, +keeping neither watch nor ward. When the darkness set in, they could +see below them the watch-fires of their foes, and they were thus able +to tell approximately where the Makalakas were in greatest force. + +It now became quite apparent to Kondwana that there was still a slender +chance of escape if the men could only hold on a little longer without +food. The left wing of the Makalaka army was slightly to the left of +the Zulus, and if the latter could only manage to trend off a little +more to the right, and find a passage through the forest, they might be +able to creep past the Makalakas and even reach the river before being +overtaken. As a matter of fact, the Makalaka Chief had again +underestimated the marching capacity of the Zulus, and had not come far +enough along the foot of the mountain range to the south-west, to +intercept them. + +Kondwana expounded his view of the situation to the men, who were +almost in despair, and then called for volunteers to cross a valley and +ascend a spur to the left, and there kindle fires. This spur was almost +in front of the main division of the Makalaka army. Ten men volunteered +for this service, and returned late in the night, after having +performed it effectively. + +Towards morning the Zulus again moved on, bearing down cautiously +through the forest to their right. The Makalakas thought that +Kondwana's fires were signals from the Balotsi to indicate that the +fugitives were in the forest below the spur. They never supposed that +the Zulus would indicate their whereabouts by lighting fires. So when +daylight came, the Zulus had succeeded in outflanking their foes, and +were making, as fast as starvation and their lacerated feet would let +them, for the river. + +Towards noon, a herd of cattle was seen. This was at once taken +possession of, and soon a number of the beasts were slaughtered. The +starving men tore the raw, smoking flesh, and drank the blood greedily. +They then cut up the hides and bound pieces around their feel. After +this, and a short rest, they felt like new beings. Hope took the place +of the blank despair which had overwhelmed them a few hours previously. +Another effort and they would reach the river beyond which lay safety. +So they started again, driving the remainder of the herd of cattle +before them, and each man carrying a small quantity of meat. Their +number was now reduced to but a little over two hundred. + +But they were not to escape from the toils. Their trail had been +discovered, and the pick of the Makalaka impi was now overhauling them +fast. Yet they had another short respite. It seemed indeed as if Fate +were playing with them. They traveled on through the night, and in the +darkness the pursuers lost their trail. + +The Makalakas thought that the Zulus would make for the river at its +nearest point, losing sight of the fact that the latter were strangers, +blindly groping in unfamiliar surroundings; so when morning broke, the +pursuers found that the trail was lost. They soon, however, ascertained +that they were proceeding by a course parallel to that taken by the +fugitives, and about a mile to the right of the latter. In spite of all +they had under-gone, the Zulus were still keeping the lead slightly, +but their limit of endurance had almost been reached. They were now +making down a long, gentle slope towards the river, which was only +about four miles distant. They had abandoned the cattle, and their +formation was lost; in fact, they were just a disorganised mob of +staggering men. The Makalakas were now gaining on them rapidly. The +foremost of the pursuers did not make direct for the Zulus, but for a +point lying between the latter and the river, so as to intercept them. + +When Kondwana saw that they were cut off, he called out his men to +halt, so they formed up and then lay down on the ground to rest. On +came the main body of the Makalaka impi, and soon the haggard little +band of Zulus was surrounded by foes outnumbering them by more than ten +to one. At a signal from Kondwana, his men sprang to their feet, and +forming themselves into a ring, faced the enemy on all sides. Under the +stimulus of attack they almost ceased to feel fatigue. They knew they +had now to die, and they burned with fierce resentment against the foes +that had so pitilessly tormented them. + +Kondwana gave the order that they were still to make for the river--now +only a few hundred yards distant, keeping, as far as possible, their +circular formation. The circle was formed two deep, the men of the +outer ring sloping their shields outwards and those on the inner ring +sloping their shields inwards, so as to ward off the assegais passing +over the opposite edges of the circle. The Makalakas came on, making a +horrible noise in which a buzzing sound seemed to mingle with a rumble +formed in the throat. In the meantime reinforcements to the Makalakas +came pouring in, and massing principally between the Zulus and the +river, for the Chief had impressed on all the necessity for not +allowing a single Zulu to escape. + +The slaughter began with a discharge of assegais from all sides at +once, the Zulus crouched down, covering as much as possible of their +bodies with the shield. A few men fell, but the gaps were at once +filled by the circle shortening in. For some time the Zulus only +resisted passively, the circle slowly moving on towards the +forest-fringe of the river, and consequently the Makalakas became bolder, +and closed in nearer and nearer to the doomed circle. But the Zulus did not +mean to die quietly. All at once they stopped in their slow, silent +progress, and the Makalakas moved in closer, thinking that the time for +finishing them off had arrived. Then the war-cry rang out, and with one +splendid dash the Zulus were amongst the densest mass of their foes. +Nothing could withstand the fury of their onslaught and the Makalakas +tell under their spears like corn to the sickle. + +The sun was just sinking. The Zulus had broken almost completely +through the thickest portion of the ring formed by their foes. Only a +few yards before them was the dense river-forest, offering sanctuary. +But escape was not to be. + +Having been unable to re-form after the charge, they were practically +defenceless against a tremendous attach on their rear led by the +Makalaka Chief in person, whilst hundreds of assegais were hurled in +with deadly effect from both sides. About twenty bleeding men managed +to reach the forest, but their pursuers leached it at the same time, +and one by one the Zulus died in desperate hand to hand encounters +amidst the twilight of the trees. + +As night fell, the Makalakas drew off under the impression that the +last Zulu was dead. Their own loss had been heavy. In the final charge +they had been cut down by wholesale. But the Chief now felt safe from +the avenging wrath of Tshaka. + +Three of the Zulus were, however, still alive. Kondwana the induna, +Senzanga--the man without a head-ring, and one other, had fallen into +an old elephant-pit, the surface of which was completely covered over +with brushwood. Dry leaves and twigs had accumulated at the bottom, and +thus the shock of their fall had been lessened. Wounded and bleeding, +they lay in the pit until the howling of the hyaenas told them that the +Makalakas had withdrawn from the field of battle. + +Of the four hundred veterans who had, but a few months previously, +departed on the quest of the copper, only these three remained. All the +splendid valour displayed, all the incomparable devotion and endurance +manifested, had been wasted--poured out like their blood on the sand-- +sacrificed to the senseless suspicions of a brutal, irresponsible +tyrant. + +Nor was any living creature one whit the gainer--save the hyaenas. + + IV. + + Tshaka, King of the Zulus, sat in his royal kraal one morning in +November, 1816. His Majesty was in a bad temper. Umziligazi and his +clan, the Amandabele, rather than stay and all be killed on account of +a misunderstanding over some loot, had arisen and fled across the +Drakensberg to such a distance, that pursuit--for the present, at all +events--was out of the question. Other things, worries from which the +most despotic a ad irresponsible monarchs are not free, were also +annoying him. Consequently those to whom he had lately been granting +audience had had a bad time of it. In fact the executioners were busy +every day. + +One of the chief indunas ventured to communicate the fact that a very +old and strange-looking man, who did not appear to be quite right in +his wits, together with a. slightly younger, though equally weird-looking +companion, craved an audience with the king. + +Tshaka shared to the fullest extent those superstitions which form such +a salient characteristic of all the Bantu tribes. Now, all savages +believe that persons whose wits are affected are wizards, whom it is +good policy to propitiate, and whom he may be dangerous to offend. +Therefore the king signified that the strangers might approach. + +Two men were then led before Tshaka. They were both fearfully emaciated +and gaunt, and were scarred from head to foot. The elder man could not +walk alone, bur leant upon the shoulder of the younger as he hobbled +along, using the remains of a broken spear, the blade of which was worn +down to a knob, and the shattered handle of which was bound together +with little thongs--as a walking stick. This man (the elder) had the +appearance of great age. His form was bent, and the little hair which +he still retained was quite white. His battered head-ring, being +attached only by one side, shook as if it would fall off on account of +the motion caused by his walking. He appeared to be nearly blind. At +the entrance to the Royal Kraal he had been ordered, according to +established rule, to give up his spear, but he resisted so +energetically that they allowed him to retain it--and, after all, it +could hardly be called a weapon. He carried a small skin wallet slung +to his waist. + +The younger man looked old with the oldness that comes not of time but +of suffering. His very flesh seemed to have disappeared, and his eyes +had sunk deep into his head. + +Kondwana, and Senzanga had travailed heavily since we left them on the +night after the slaughter, in the elephant-pit on the northern bank of +the Limpopo. After resting in the pit for a short time, the three +survivors crept out and tried to cross the river. Kondwana and Senzanga +succeeded after grievous pains, but the other man, who was desperately +wounded, was swept away in one of the swirls and drowned. + +For months that seemed to them like long-drawn years, Kondwana and his +companion crept slowly southward, subsisting on whatever they could +pick up in the way of food. Gum, exuding from the acacias, wild fruits, +birds' eggs, young, nestling birds and honey, formed their principal +fare. "Incinci," the honey-bird, was their best friend and purveyor, +and often led them to where the bees had stored their treasure in +hollow trees, and holes in the donga-banks. + +The wild beasts of the desert gazed at them without dread. Great +troops of elephants went trumpeting past, taking no more notice of them +than of the monkeys in the trees. Lions, hyaenas, and jackals came up +and sniffed at them where they lay at night, and then passed on seeking +daintier food. + +They reached the land of the Amaswazi, and superstitious dread caused +them to be assisted with food and shelter. They came to their own +country and wandered on, unrecognised by those who had known them well +less than nine months previously. And now they crouched to the ground +at Tshaka's feet. + +When they, with difficulty, arose after the obeisance, a change seemed +to have come over Kondwana's face. The presence of the King, and the +sound of his voice seemed to act as a stimulant upon the old man's +torpid mind. In fact, they brought the farther past into stronger +relief than the more recent, and then reality dawned up through the +mists of fantasy that had clouded his brain for so long. His eye +brightened. He remembered the past. He knew clearly where he was, and +why he was there. + +Gazing fixedly at the King, Kondwana let the broken spear fall to the +ground, and then with his shaking right hand began fumbling at the skin +wallet. After some little delay, he succeeded in opening this, and then +he drew from it a lump of bright copper ore, about the size of a hen's +egg. This he silently held out to Tshaka. + +The King took the lump and examined it, and then looked sharply at the +giver's face for a few seconds. Then in a tone of irritated surprise, +he asked: + +"Are you Kondwana?" + +"Yes, my King." + +"Where are your soldiers, and where are the stones you were sent to +fetch?" + +"The soldiers are dead, my King. Only this one and I are living. We +were overcome by the Makalakas and the Balotsi. We slew them in crowds, +but they were too many for us, and we had no food. I have brought the +stone to show that I tried to do your bidding." + +When Tshaka recognised Kondwana, his superstitious fears at once +vanished. Here was no wizard potent for evil, but his own man +Kondwana, the induna, whom he hated and had sent away so as to be rid +of him. Besides, Kondwana stood there self-convicted of the deadly sin +which admitted of no pardon; he had returned unsuccessful from an +expedition; he had been defeated. Moreover, Tshaka was in a bad temper +owing to the causes we have specified. + +So he signed to one of his ever-ready executioners and said: + +"Take them away and kill them." + +The executioners approached, but Kondwana drew himself up with +ineffable dignity, signed to them with his hand to pause, and spake in +a firm voice. + +"O King, for my own death I thank you, for why should I longer live? +But this man is still young, and has done no evil deed. Let him wash +his spear once in the blood of your enemies, and die at the tip of your +battle-horn." + +Tshaka, thoroughly enraged, was a fearsome sight. Like Peter the Great, +his features worked and twitched horribly. Those who beheld him thus, +felt that they were before the very face of Death, embodied and +visible. + +All in his presence, except the two doomed men, crouched to the ground +and hid their faces in their hands. Even his mother, 'Mnande, more +privileged than others, and often bolder in interfering in his +counsels, bent down where she was sitting until her forehead touched +the ground. + +He glared speechlessly at Kondwana and Senzanga, who, having gone far +beyond the limit of experience where Fear dwells, looked back quietly +at his face. When he at length found his voice, it came in the +semblance of a gasping roar: + +"Take them away--Dogs." + +Like men released from a spell, the executioners sprang on Kondwana and +Senzanga and dragged them away, two men seizing each of them--one by +each arm. Kondwana was unable to walk, so was dragged along the ground +towards the place of execution, which was at the back of the Royal +Kraal. When they had got out of the King's sight, even the executioners +were moved to pity, so they lifted him on to the shoulders, and thus +carried him to the shambles. + +When Kondwana reached the place of execution, Senzanga was already +dead, his neck broken by his head having been twisted round from the +back, the usual mode of dispatch. They set Kondwana down on the +ground, and then one of the executioners seized his head and twisted +it; but it seemed as if on account of the tendons being so relaxed from +emaciation, the spine would not dislocate, although twisted beyond the +usual dislocation point, so the executioner sprang up, and seizing a +club, crushed the skull in with one blow. + +So Kondwana, even at the very last, tasted more than his proper share +of the bitterness of death. + + GHAMBA. + +"That darksome cave they enter, where they find +That cursed man, low sitting on the ground, +Musing full sadly in his sullein mind." + +FAERIE QUEENE. + +I + +WHEN Corporal Francis Dollond and Trooper James Franks of the Natal +Mounted Police, overstayed their ten days' leave of absence from the +camp on the Upper Tugela, in the early part of 1883, everybody was much +surprised; they being two of the best conducted and most methodical men +in the force. But the weeks and then the months went by without +anything whatever being heard of them, so they were officially recorded +as deserters. Nevertheless, none of their comrades really believed that +these men had deserted; each one felt there was something mysterious +about the circumstance of their disappearance. They had applied for +leave for the alleged purpose of visiting Pietermaritzburg. They +started on foot, stating their intention of walking to Estcourt, hiring +horses from natives there, and proceeding on horseback. They had +evidently never reached Estcourt, as nothing could be heard of them at +that village. They were both young men--colonists by birth. Dollond had +an especially youthful appearance. Franks was older. He had joined the +force later in life. He and Dollond, who had only very recently before +his disappearance been promoted, were chums. + +Some months later in the same year, when Troopers George Langley and +Hiram Whitson also applied for ten days' leave of absence--likewise to +proceed to Pietermaritzburg--the leave was granted; but the officer in +charge of the detachment laughingly remarked that he hoped they were +not going to follow Dollond and Franks. + +Now, neither Langley nor Whitson had the remotest idea of visiting +Pietermaritzburg. It is necessary, of course, for the reader to know +where they did intend going to, and how the intention arose; but before +doing this we must deal with some antecedent circumstances. + +Langley was certainly the most boyish-looking man in the force. He had +a perfectly smooth face, ruddy complexion, and fair hair. He was of +middle height, and was rather inclined to stoutness. He was so fond of +talking that his comrades nicknamed him "magpie." A colonist by birth, +he could speak the Kafir language like a native. + +Whitson was a sallow-faced, spare-built man of short stature, with dark +brown beard and hair, and piercing black eyes. His age was about +forty. He had a wiry and terrier-like appearance. A "down-East" Yankey, +he had spent some years in Mexico, and then drifted to South Africa +during the war-period which, it will be remembered, lasted from 1877 to +1882. He had served in the Zulu war as a noncommissioned officer in +one of the irregular cavalry corps, with some credit. The fact of his +being a man of extremely few words was enough to account for the +friendship which existed between him and the garrulous Langley. Whitson +was known to be a dead shot with the revolver. + +This is how they came to apply for leave. One day Langley was strolling +about just outside the lines looking for somebody to talk to, when he +noticed an apparently very old native man sitting on an ant-heap, and +regarding him somewhat intently. This old native had been several times +seen in the vicinity of the camp, but he never seemed to speak to any +one, and he looked so harmless that the police did not even trouble to +ask him for the written pass which all natives are obliged by law to +carry when they move about the country. The old man saluted Langley and +asked in his own language for a pipeful of tobacco. Langley always +carried some loose leaves broken up in his pocket, so he at once pulled +some of these out and half filled the claw-like hand outstretched to +receive them. The old native was voluble in thanks. There was a large +ant-heap close to the one on which he had been sitting, and on which he +reseated himself whilst filling his pipe. Against this Langley leant +and took a good look at his companion. The man had a most extraordinary +face. His lower jaw and cheek-bones were largely developed, but Langley +hardly noticed this, so struck was he with the strange formation of the +upper jaw. That portion of the superior maxillary bone which lies +between the sockets of the eye-teeth protruded, with the sockets, to a +remarkable degree, and instead of being curved, appeared to be quite +straight. The incisor teeth were very large and white, but it was the +development of the eye-teeth that was most startling. These, besides +being very massive, were produced below the level of the incisors to a +depth of nearly a quarter of an inch. They distinctly suggested to +Langley the tusks of a baboon. + +As is very unusual with natives, the man was perfectly bald. His back +was bent, and his limbs were somewhat shrunken, but he did not appear +in the least degree decrepit. His eyelids were very red, and his eyes, +though dim, had a deep and intent look. Ugly as was the man--or perhaps +by virtue of his ugliness--he exercised a strange fascination over +Langley. + +The old man, whose name turned out to be Ghamba, proved himself a +talker after Langley's own heart. They discussed all sorts of things. +Ghamba startled his hearer by his breadth of experience and his +shrewdness. He said he was a "Hlubi" Kafir from Qumbu in the territory +of Griqualand East, but that he had for some time past been living in +Basutoland, which is situated just behind the frowning wall of the +Drakensberg, to the south-west of where they were speaking, and not +twenty miles distant. + +They talked until it was time for Langley to return to camp. He was so +pleased at the entertainment afforded by Ghamba, that all the tobacco +he had with him found its way into the claw-like hand of that strange-looking +man of many experiences and quaint ideas. So Langley asked him +to come to the ant-heap again on the following day, and have another +talk at the same hour. This, Ghamba, with a wide and prolonged exposure +of his teeth, readily agreed to do. + +Langley was extremely voluble to Whitson that night over his new +acquaintance. Whitson listened with his usual impassiveness, and then +asked Langley how it was that "an old loafing nigger," as he expressed +it, had impressed him so remarkably. Langley replied that he did not +quite know, but he thought the effect was largely due to the man's +teeth. But all the same he was "a very entertaining old buffer." + +Next afternoon, Langley was so impatient to resume conversation with +his new friend, that he repaired to the ant-heap quite half-an-hour +before the appointed time. He had not, however, long to wait, as Ghamba +soon appeared emerging from a donga a couple of hundred yards away. + +Langley was more impressed than ever. Ghamba told him all about the +Basutos, amongst whom he had lived; about the old days in Natal, before +even the Dutch occupation, when Tshaka's impis wiped whole tribes out +of existence; of the recent wars in Zululand and the Cape Colony, and +as to the probability of future disturbances. Charmed as was Langley by +the old man's conversation, he felt that on this occasion there was a +little too much of it, that Ghamba was not nearly so good a listener as +he had been on the previous day, so when the latter at length put a +question to him, thus affording an opportunity for the exercise of his +own pent-up loquacity, Langley felt elated, more especially as several +inquiries were grouped together in the one asking, Ghamba asked whether +anything had been heard of Umhlonhlo; whether the capture of that +fugitive rebel was considered likely, and whether it was true that a +reward of 1500 pounds had been offered by the Government for his +capture, dead or alive. + +Umhlonhlo, it will be remembered, was the Pondomise chief who rebelled +in 1880, treacherously murdered Mr. Hope, the magistrate of Qumbu, and +his two companions, and who has since been an outlaw with a price on +his head. + +Langley replied to the effect that it was quite true such a reward had +been offered; that nothing as yet had been ascertained as to +Umhlonhlo's whereabouts, but that the Government believed him to be in +Pondoland; that he was sure to be captured eventually; that he, +Langley, only wished he knew where Umhlonhlo was, so as to have the +chance of making five hundred pounds with which to buy a certain nice +little farm he knew of; and that should he ever succeed in obtaining +the reward and consequently taking his discharge and purchasing the +farm, he would be jolly glad if old Ghamba would come and live with +him. This is only some of what he said; when Langley's tongue got into +motion, he seemed to have some difficulty in stopping it. + +However, he paused at last, and then Ghamba, looking very intently at +him, said; + +"Look here, can you keep a secret?" + +Here was a mystery. + +"Rather," said Langley. + +"Will you swear by the name of God that you will not reveal what I tell +you?" + +Langley swore. + +Ghamba drew near until his teeth were within a few inches of Langley's +cheek, and said in a whisper; + +"I know where Umhlonhlo is." + +Langley started, and said in an awed voice; + +"Where is he? + +"Wait a bit," said Ghamba, "perhaps I will tell you, and perhaps I +won't. I like you, you have given me tobacco, and you are not too proud +to come and talk to a poor old man. Now, you say you would like to make +five hundred pounds and buy a farm?" + +"Rather." + +"And that you would let me go and live on the farm with you and end my +days in peace?" + +"I would, gladly." + +"Well then, if I lake you to where Umhlonhlo is, and you kill him and +get the money, will you give me twenty-five pounds, and let me keep a +few goats, and grow a few mealies on your land?" + +"I should think I would. But how could one man take or kill Umhlonhlo? +They say he is well armed and that he has a lot of followers with him." + +"Umhlonhlo," said Ghamba, glancing anxiously round as if he feared the +very ant-heap were listening, "is hiding in a cave in the mountains, +not three days' walk from here. He has not got a single man with him, +because he fears being given up. He is really in hiding from his own +followers now. My sister is one of his wives, and that is how I know +all about it. I passed the cave where he lives, four nights ago, and +saw him sitting by the fire. He has only a few women with him." + +"And how do you think I should take him?" + +"Take him? you should kill him. I will guide you to the cave by night, +and then you can shoot him as he sits by the fire." + +Langley, although no coward, was not particularly brave. He did not +much relish the idea of alone tackling the redoubtable Umhlonhlo, a +savage of muscle, who was reported to be always armed to the teeth. +Moreover, he had no gun, and was but an indifferent shot with a +revolver. So he thought over the matter for a few moments and then +said: + +"Look here, Ghamba. I do not care to tackle this job alone, but if I +can take another man with me, I am on." + +"Then you will only get half of the five hundred pounds, and will not +be able to buy the farm. You need not be afraid; you can shoot him +without his seeing you." + +"No," said Langley after a pause. "I will not go alone, but if you will +let me take another man with me, it can be managed. It will make no +difference to you; you will get your twenty-five pounds." + +"And how about my going to live on the farm with you?" + +"Well, I could not buy the farm for two hundred and fifty pounds. Come, +we will give you fifty pounds instead of twenty-five." + +Ghamba thought for a while and then said; + +"Very well, I consent. But there need be only one other man, and you +will write down on a piece of paper that you will give me the fifty +pounds. When can we start?" + +"I must speak to the other man, and then we wilt apply for leave. We +had better start soon, or else Umhlonhlo may have gone to some other +place of hiding." + +"Yes, we must lose no time." + +"All right, meet me here tomorrow and I will bring my friend. We will +then settle all about it." + +"You must not mention this matter to any one else, and you must make +your friend promise to keep the secret." + +"Oh, that's all right," said Langley; "meet me here to-morrow just +after dinner." + +Langley went back to camp, Ghamba looking after his retreating figure +with a smile that revealed his teeth in a very striking manner. Langley +was intensely excited, and exacted (quite unnecessarily) the most +solemn promises from Whitson not to divulge the great secret which he +confided to him. Whitson agreed at once to join in the enterprise, +which was one after his own heart. + +Next day the three met at the big ant-heap, and Whitson was very much +impressed by Ghamba's teeth. He told Langley afterwards that they +reminded him of a picture of the Devil which he had seen in a copy of +the "Pilgrim's Progress." The old man's story appeared, however, +consistent enough, in spite of his peculiar dentition. + +So after a short conversation Langley and Whitson returned to camp, +having made an appointment to meet Ghamba again on the following +morning at sunrise, so as to finally arrange as to time of starting, +&c. They went at once to the officer in charge of the detachment and +applied for ten days' leave of absence for the purpose of proceeding to +Pietermaritzburg, which was at once granted. + +Next morning they met Ghamba again, and agreed to start on their +expedition that evening. He explained that they must do all their +traveling by night, and lie by during the day, because it would never +do for him, Ghamba, to run the risk of being recognised by persons whom +they might meet. For the sake of his Hlubi relations who were living +amongst the Pondomise at Qumbu, it was absolutely necessary that he +should not appear in the transaction at all. Were it ever to be even +suspected that he had betrayed the Chief, not alone would he be +certainly killed, but all his relations would be shunned by the other +natives. He was an old man, so for him, personally, nothing mattered +very much, but a man is bound to consider the interests of his family. +Traveling only by night, and lying still and hidden during the day, +were therefore absolutely necessary stipulations, and Langley and +Whitson agreed to them as intelligible and reasonable. All being +settled, the latter started for the Camp, Ghamba baring his teeth +excessively as they walked away. + + II. + + At dusk on the evening of the same day, Langley and Whitson met Ghamba +once more at the large ant-heap, and the three at once proceeded on +their course. The only arms taken were revolvers of the Government +regulation pattern (breech loading, central-fire). They carried +provisions calculated to last eight days, but took no blankets on +account of having to travel at night. When Ghamba volunteered to +relieve them of a considerable share of their respective loads, Langley +and Whitson were filled with grateful surprise. + +The plan was as follows: + +Whitson was to shoot Umhlonhlo, and then remain in the cave whilst +Langley returned to the Camp to report what had been done, and cause +persons who could identify the body to be sent for. They seem to have +had no scruples as to the deed they meant to do; certainly Umhlonhlo +deserved no more mercy than a beast of prey, nor does it seem to have +struck them that possibly they might shoot the wrong man. But there was +an air of conviction about the manner in which Ghamba showed his teeth +when asked whether he was positive as to the identity of the man in the +cave, that would have dissipated the doubts of most men. Besides this, +he drew out the written undertaking which they had delivered to him, +and said, with a profoundly business-like look: + +"Do I not want the money? Should I take all this trouble if I did not +know what I were doing?" + +They walked all night, only resting once or twice for a few minutes. It +was found that Ghamba; in spite of his age, was an extremely good +walker; and when they halted at daylight, Langley was so done up that +he could not have held out for another half-hour. Whitson, the wiry, +had not yet felt the least fatigue. + +This march had taken them to the very foot of the great Drakensberg +range, and they rested in a valley between two of its main spurs. Here +they remained all day, comfortably located in a sheltered nook, where +there was plenty of dry grass. Their resting place was encircled by +immense rocks. Although the surrounding country was desolate to a +degree, and neither a human being nor an animal was to be seen, Ghamba +would not hear of their lighting a fire nor leaving the spot where they +rested. The weather was clear, and neither too warm nor too cold. They +slept at intervals during the day, and at evening felt quite recovered +from their fatigue. At nightfall they again started, their course +leading steeply up the gorge in which they had rested. Although the +pathway became more and more indistinct, Ghamba appeared never to be at +a loss. Langley several times shuddered, when they passed by the very +edge of some immense precipice, or clambered along some steep mountain +side, where a false step would have meant destruction. He began to show +signs of fatigue soon after midnight, so at Ghamba's suggestion a +considerable portion of his load was transferred to the shoulders of +Whitson, who seemed to be as tireless as Ghamba himself. + +At daybreak they halted in the depths of another tremendous gorge with +precipitous sides. The scenery in this particular area of the +Drakensberg range, the neighbourhood of the Mont aux Sources, is +indescribably grand and impressive, and is quite unlike anything else +in South Africa. Enormous and fantastically-shaped mountains are here +huddled together indiscriminately, and between them wind and double +deep gloomy gorges, along the bottoms of which mighty boulders are +thickly strewn. On dizzy ledge and steep slope dense thickets of wild +bamboo grow, and a few stunted trees fill some of the less deep clefts, +wherever the sunshine can penetrate. Splendid as is the scenery, its +gloom, its stillness, its naked crags and peaks, its dark depths that +seem to cleave to the very vitals of the earth, become so oppressive, +that after a few days spent amongst them, the traveler is filled with +repulsion and almost horror. Few living things have their home here. +You might meet an occasional "klipspringer" (an antelope in habits and +appearance somewhat like the chamois), a wandering troop of baboons, +and now and then a herd of eland in the more grassy areas. There are +said to be a few Bushmen still haunting the caves, but they are seldom +or never seen. + +In the afternoon, the sun shone into the gorge in which the travelers +were resting, and for a few hours the heat was very oppressive. Whitson +examined his revolver, removing the cartridges and replacing them by +others. He then lay down to sleep, asking Langley to remain awake and +keep a lookout. He had a vague feeling of un-easiness which he could +not overcome. Langley promised to keep awake, but he was too tired to +do so. He sat with his back against a rock, and after some futile +efforts to keep his eyes open, fell fast asleep. By and by Ghamba woke +him gently, and, pointing to Whitson, whose revolver lay in the leather +case close to his hand, whispered; + +"Did he not tell you to keep awake?" + +Langley was grateful for this evidence of consideration, but he could +not quite make out how Ghamba had been able to understand what Whitson +had said. However, when the latter awoke, Langley said nothing to him +about having disobeyed instructions. + +Ghamba said that about two hours' walk would now bring them to +Umhlonhlo's cave, so they started off briskly at dusk. Their course now +led for some distance along a mountain ledge covered with wild bamboo, +through which the pathway wound. Then they crossed a sleep saddle +between two enormous peaks, after which they plunged into another deep +and winding gorge. This they followed until they reached a part where +it was so narrow that the sides seemed almost to touch over their +heads. Beyond, the cliffs fell apart, and then apparently curved +towards each other again, thus forming an immense amphitheatre. At the +entrance to this Ghamba stopped, and said in a whisper that they were +now close to the cave. + +They now held a consultation, in terms of which it was decided that +Ghamba should go forward and reconnoiter. So Whitson and Langley sat +down close together and waited, conversing in low tones. + +Whitson felt very uneasy, but Langley tried to argue him out of his +fears. The more Whitson saw of Ghamba, the more he disliked and +distrusted him and his teeth. The instinct which detects danger in the +absence of any apparent evidence of its existence is a faculty +developed in some men by an adventurous life. This faculty Whitson +possessed in a high degree. + +"Did you keep awake all the time I slept this afternoon?" he asked. + +Langley feared Whitson, and felt inclined to lie, but something +impelled him, almost against his will, to speak the truth now. + +"No," he replied, "I slept for a few minutes." + +Whitson drew his revolver and opened the breech. + +"By God!" he said, "the cartridges are gone." + +Langley took his weapon out of the leather case and opened it. He found +the cartridges were there right enough. + +"Have you any spare cartridges?" asked Whitson. + +Whitson had already loaded his revolver with the five cartridges which +he had removed in the afternoon, but he again took these out and +replaced them in his waistcoat pocket, and then he re-loaded with some +which Langley passed over to him with a trembling hand. + +"Look here," he said in a hoarse whisper, "we are in a trap of some +kind. When that old scoundrel comes back, do not let him know that we +have found out anything. We will walk on with him for a short distance, +at all events, and then be guided by circumstances. Stand by when you +see me collar him, and slip a sack over his head." + +"Can we not go back now?" said Langley. + +"Certainly not; we would never find our way at night. I guess we must +see this circus out. If you have to shoot, aim low." + +In a few minutes Ghamba returned. + +"Come on," he said. "He is sitting at the fire in front of the cave. I +have just seen him." + +"Where is the cave," asked Whitson, "is it far from here?" + +"We will reach it very soon; you can see the light of the fire from a +few paces ahead." + +They walked on for about fifty yards and there, sure enough, over a +rocky slope to their left, and at the foot of a crag about three +hundred yards away, could be seen the bright and fitful glow from a +fire which was hidden from their view by a low ridge of piled-up rocks. + +Whitson stood still and questioned Ghamba: + +"Now tell me," he asked through Langley as interpreter, "how are we to +approach?" + +"The pathway leads up on the left side," replied Ghamba; "we will walk +close up to the crag where there is a narrow passage between it and +that big black rock which you see against the light. You two can lead, +and I will tie close behind. I have just seen him. He is sitting at the +fire, eating, and only the women are with him." + +The last words were hardly out of the speaker's mouth before Whitson +had seized him by the throat with a vice-like grasp. + +"Seize his hands and hold them," he hissed to Langley. + +Ghamba struggled desperately, but could not release himself. Whitson +compressed his throat until he became unconscious, and then gagged him +with a pocket-handkerchief. Ghamba's hands were then tied tightly +behind his back with another pocket-handkerchief, and his feet were +firmly secured with a belt. An empty sack (from which they had removed +their provisions) was then drawn over his head and shoulders, and +secured round the waist. + +"Come on now, quickly," whispered Whitson, and he and Langley started +off in the direction of the fire, after first taking off their boots. + +They did not approach by the course which Ghamba had indicated, but +made their way quietly up the slope straight against the face of the +crag. They reached the heap of rocks, and crept in amongst them by +means of another narrow passage, close to the inner end of which the +fire was, and this is what they saw through the twigs of a scrubby bush +which effectually concealed them. + +A large cave opened into the side of the mountain, and just before the +mouth was an open space about twenty yards in diameter, surrounded on +all sides except that of the mountain itself by a wall of loosely-piled +rocks, through which passages led out in different directions. Just in +front of the cave burned a bright fire, around which crouched four most +hideous and filthy-looking old bags, and against which were propped +several large earthenware pots of native make, full of water. Standing +behind rocks, one at each side of the inner entrance to the passage, +which was evidently that communicating with the pathway indicated by +Ghamba as the one they were to approach by, were two powerful-looking +men, stark-naked, and as black as ebony, their skins shining in the +light of the fire. Each man held a coiled thong in his hands, after the +manner of a sailor about to heave a line. Whilst they were looking, a +woman somewhat younger in appearance than any of those who sat by the +fire, came out of the cave carrying a strong club about three feet +long. She crouched down close to the man standing on the left-hand side +of the passage, who, as well as his companion, stood as still as a +marble statue, and in an expectant attitude. + +Whitson and Langley, with their revolvers drawn, suddenly stepped out +of their concealment, and walked towards the fire. This evidently +disconcerted the men with the thongs, who apparently did not expect +their intended prey to approach by any course except the passage near +which they were standing; but after a slight pause of hesitancy, the +thongs were whirling in the air, and descending, lasso-fashion, upon +the shoulders of the intruders. The noose caught Langley over his arms, +which were instantly drawn close against his body as the throng +tightened, so he was thus rendered completely powerless; but Whitson +sprang, quick as lightning, to one side, and escaped. Three shots from +his revolver rang out in as many seconds, and the two men and the +woman--who was in the act of lifting her club to brain Langley--lay +rolling on the ground, each with a bullet through the head. + +The four old hags at the fire began to mow and scream, and got up and +hobbled into the cave. Whitson drew his knife, and cut the thong with +which Langley was vainly struggling, and then the two men, pale as +death, looked silently at each other with starting eyes. + +Whitson re-loaded his revolver, and then made a sort of torch out of +dry reeds; a pile of which lay close at hand. He then, leaving Langley +to guard the cave, carefully examined all the passages and spaces +between the rocks, but he could mid no trace of any one. The two men +thereupon entered the cave, Whitson holding the torch high over his +head. They found that it ran straight in or about fifteen paces, and +then curved sharply to the left. + +It was about four paces in width, and about eight feet high--the roof +being roughly arched. The walls and roof were covered with thick, +black, greasy soot; and an indescribably horrible stench, which +increased the further they advanced, made them almost vomit. They found +that where the cave curved to the left, it ended in a circular chamber +about eight paces in diameter, and at one side of this crouched the +four old hags, huddled together, and mowing and chattering horribly. + +Across a cleft about two feet wide, in the right-hand wall of the cave, +a stick was fixed transversely, and hanging to this were some lumps of +half-dried and smoked flesh. Whitson went up close and examined these +carefully. He drew back with a shudder, and his face changed from pale +to ashen grey. + +He and Langley then went outside and stood for a while in the fresh +air. They could endure, just then, no more of the foetid atmosphere +inside. After a short time, they gathered up some dry twigs and reeds, +and set several little heaps alight at different spots inside. This had +the effect of making the atmosphere more bearable in the course of a +few minutes. They then made a larger fire in the middle of the cave, +and proceeded to examine it more closely. + +They found several old iron picks, such as are used by natives in +cultivating their fields, some very filthy skins, a number of +earthenware pots, a few knives, and an axe; but nothing more. + +The floor of the cave was of clay, and at one spot it appeared to have +been recently disturbed. Here Langley began to dig with a pick, which, +just below the surface, struck against some hard substance. This, when +uncovered, proved to be a bone. He threw it to one aide and dug deeper, +uncovering move bones, some old, and others comparatively fresh, but +emitting a horrible smell. He stooped and picked one up, but dropped it +immediately, as if it burnt him. It was the lower jawbone of a human +being. + +"Great God!" he gasped. "What is the meaning of this?" + +"It means," said Whitson, "that we are in a nest of bloody cannibals." + +Langley dropped like a stone, in a dead taint; so Whitson dragged him +outside, and leaving him to recover in the open air, returned to the +cave, He then seized the pick and began digging, unearthing some new +horror at every stroke. A glittering object caught his eye; he picked +this up and found it to be the steel buckle of a woman's belt. He +glanced towards the cleft in the rock where the lumps of flesh were +hanging, and caught his breath short. Going outside he made another +torch which he lit, and then he returned and carefully examined, the +loosened surface. Another glittering object caught his eye. This, when +examined proved to be an old silver watch, the appearance of which +seemed familiar. He forced open the case, and saw, roughly scratched on +the inside, the letter D. He now recognised it; he remembered having +once fixed a glass in this very watch for Dolland, about a month before +the latter's disappearance. Continuing his search "Whitson found the +iron heel-plate of a boot, and a small bunch of keys. + +Whitson drew his revolver, and picking up the torch went into the +terminal chamber. Four shots fired in quick succession reverberated +immediately afterwards through the cavern. + +Whitson then went outside to Langley, whom he found sitting down near +the fire, looking, if possible, more ghastly than before. The presence +of Whitson seemed, however, to act on him as a kind of tonic, and he +soon pulled himself together sufficiently to assist in piling a +quantity of fuel upon the already sinking fire, which soon blazed +brightly, lighting up the mouth of the cavern and the space in front of +it. One of the bodies of the men who had been shot was lying on its +side, with the face towards the fire. Whitson examined the mouth, +pushing back the upper lip with a piece of stick. He found that the +shape of the mouth and the development of the teeth were the same as +Ghamba's. The other bodies were lying on their faces, so he did not +trouble to examine them. + +Whitson then told Langley to follow him, and the two walked down the +footpath towards where they had left Ghamba, Him they found lying +motionless in the position in which he had been left about an hour +previously. They removed the sack and the gag and untied his feet, +first taking the precaution to fasten the belt by one end of his bound +hands, Whitson holding the other. They then signed to him to proceed +towards the cave, and this he silently did without making any +resistance. He looked calmly at the three dead bodies, but said not a +word. Langley held him, whilst Whitson again tied his feet together +with the belt, and then they placed him with his back against a rock, +facing the fire which was still blazing brightly. + +His lips were drawn back in a ghastly, mirthless grin, and the tusks +were revealed from point to insertion, Langley questioned Ghamba, but +he would not speak. After several attempts to force him to answer had +been vainly made, Whitson said-- + +"Now tell him that if he speaks and tells the whole truth, he will only +be shot, but if he does not speak, he will be burnt alive." + +This was interpreted, but the threat had no apparent effect. So +Whitson seized Ghamba and dragged him to the fire, where he flung him +down on the very edge of the glowing embers. + +"Now," said Whitson, holding him down with his foot, so that he got +severely scorched, "for the last time, will you speak?" + +"Take me away from the fire, and I will speak," said Ghamba, in +English. + +So they lifted him, and set him again with his back to the rock. + +"Now," said Whitson, "go ahead, and no nonsense." + +"If I tell the whole truth," said Ghamba, still speaking English, and +with a fair accent, "will you swear not to burn me, but to shoot me, so +that I shall die at once?" + +"I will," said Whitson. + +"You too must swear," said Ghamba, looking at Langley. + +"Yes, I swear." + +"Very well," said Ghamba, "I will tell you everything, but you must +both remember what you have sworn to." + +"Yes, all right," said Whitson. Ghamba then looked at Langley, who +repeated the words. + +"I will tell you," said Ghamba, "all I can remember, and you can ask +questions, which I shall answer truly. You have heard of Umdava, who +used to eat men in Natal long ago, after the wars of Tshaka--well, he +was my uncle. After Umdava had been killed and his people scattered, my +father, with a few followers, came to live amongst these mountains. But +we found that after having eaten human flesh we could enjoy no other +food, so we caught people and ate them. These two men lying dead are my +sons, and that woman is my daughter. My four wives were here to-night. +They are very old women. Have you not seen them?" he asked, looking at +Whitson. + +"They are in there; I shot them," said Whitson, pointing to the cave. + +"I had other children," continued Ghamba, quite unmoved, "but we ate +them when food was scarce." + +"Have you always lived, all these years, on human flesh?" asked +Whitson. + +"No, not always; but whenever we could obtain it we did so. There is +other food in these mountains. Honey, ants' eggs, roots, and fruit; +besides game, which is, however, not very easy to catch. But we have +often all had to go away and work when times have been bad. Besides, I +have a herd of cattle at a Basuto kraal, and I have been in the habit +of taking some of these now and then, and exchanging them for corn, +which the women then went to fetch. But we have always tried to get +people to eat, because we could enjoy no other kind of food. Sometimes +we got them easily; and when we were very fortunate we used to dry part +of the meat by hanging it up and lighting a fire underneath, with green +wood, so as to make plenty of smoke." + +"Have you killed many white people?" asked Whitson. + +"Yes, a good number; but not, of course, as many as black. Lately we +have always tried to catch whites, because when you have eaten while +flesh for some time, the flesh of a native no longer satisfies you." + +"Why not?" + +"The flavour is not so strong." + +"Did you induce the other two policemen to come up by means of the +story about Umhlonhlo?" + +"Yes, they came up just as you did, and my sons caught them with the +thongs. Umhlonhlo has brought us plenty of food." + +"Were you able to take the cartridges out of their revolvers as you did +out of mine?" + +"No, I had no opportunity; but it was not necessary, because my sons +were so expert at throwing the thongs that they could always catch +people over the arms, and thus render them unable to shoot." + +"How did they manage to become so expert?" + +"By continued practice, I used to walk up the path over and over again, +and let them throw the thong over me. Then the woman was always there +with the club, so that if one of the thongs missed, she was ready to +strike. I, also, was usually ready to help in case of necessity." + +"Why did you think it necessary to take the cartridges out of my +revolver?" + +"Because I feared you from the first, and were it not that he," baring +his teeth, and glancing at Langley, who shuddered, "looked so nice, and +that we wanted fresh meat so badly, I would not have risked bringing +you. But it would have been all right if I had only let your revolver +alone." + +"You say Umhlonhlo has brought you plenty of food; did you ever get any +one besides ourselves and the other two policemen to come up here by +telling them that story?" + +"Yes, two others--one a man who was searching for gold on the Free +State side of the mountains, and the other a trader whom I met at +Maseru. But these each came alone." + +"I see the buckle of a woman's belt in there! Whom did that belong to? +You surely never got a white woman up here?" + +"Yes, we did," said Ghamba, with a horrible half smile which bared the +gums high above the sockets of his tusks. "She was a young girl who +strayed from a waggon passing over the mountain by the Ladysmith road, +only a day's walk from here. I pretended to show her the shortest way +to her waggon, and thus brought her as far as she could walk in this +direction. I then killed her, and came up here and fetched my sons. We +carried her up in the night. She was very young and plump, and I have +never eaten anything that I enjoyed so much." (Whitson turned cold with +horror. He remembered the girl's mysterious disappearance, and the +fruitless searches undertaken in consequence.) "His flesh" (glancing +again at Langley) "looks something like hers did, and I am sure it +would taste just as nice. There was still a little of her left when I +went away last week. If you will go in there and look where the rock is +split on the right-hand side, you will----" But he did not finish the +sentence, for a bullet from Whitson's revolver crashed through his +brain, and he tumbled forward on his face into the fire. + +It was only after tremendous difficulty that Whitson and Langley +succeeded in escaping from the mountains. However, on the evening of +the third day after their adventure in the cave, they came in sight of +the police camp, Whitson sat down on a stone, and motioned his +companion to do the same. + +"See here, Sonny," he said, "I want to have a short talk with you. I am +a bit cross with you as the cause of my having been sucked in by that +damned, murdering old walrus. You ought to know the inhabitants of this +country better than a simple stranger like me, and so I took your lead. +Now, another thing, you nearly bust us both by your blasted foolishness +in going to sleep that day; but let that pass, because perhaps it would +have been worse if we had not been put on our guard; not but that it +would take a damned smart cannibal to eat Hiram Whitson. But this is +what I am coming to: you my boy are a darned sight too fond of hearing +your own tongue clack. Now, lake a warning from me, and don't let a +word of what has happened since we left Camp--for Pietermaritzburg-- +pass your lips. I did all the shooting, and I'm not a bit ashamed of +it; but, by the eternal God, if you open your lips to a soul, I'll +shoot you like a dog or a cannibal. Remember that, Sonny, and say it +quietly over to yourself the first time you fee that you want to blab. +Now shake hands." + +This was probably the longest speech that Whitson had ever made. + +About two years after the events narrated, Whitson took his discharge +and returned to America. He left behind him a sealed packet addressed +to his Commanding Officer, and which was not to be delivered for twelve +months after his departure. + +Owing, however, to a strange combination of fortuitous circumstances, +this packet never reached its proper destination; its wrapper, bearing +the address, having been scorched off in a fire which took place in the +house where it was left. + +NOTE. + +Many people have heard or read of the cannibals of Natal, who turned +large tracts of country into a shambles in the early part of this +century, after Tshaka's impis had swept off all the cattle, and then +kept the miserable people continually on the move, so that they were +unable to cultivate. One Umdava originated the practice of eating human +flesh. Gathering together the fragments of four scattered tribes, he +trained them to hunt human beings as others hunted game. This gang was +a greater scourge to the country surrounding the present site of +Pietermaritzburg than even Tshaka's murdering hordes. It was broken up +in or about the year 1824 when the Europeans first came to the country, +and the remnants of many scattered tribes returned and settled under +their protection. + +All this is history with which most people in South Africa are +familiar, but many do not know that some of the cannibals fled to +Basutoland where, amongst almost inaccessible mountains, they carried +on their horrible practices for many years. + +It is a well-known fact that when men once surrender themselves to any +unnatural and brutal vice, the gratification of the abnormal instinct +thus acquired becomes the most imperative need of their nature. The +Falkland Islands case, as bearing specially upon the foregoing +narrative, may be mentioned. Some convicts escaped from the Falkland +Islands convict station, and succeeded in reaching the coast of +Patagonia. They then endeavoured to make their way to Monte Video, but, +having to keep along the shore so as to avoid the natives who would +have killed them had they ventured inland, were easily intercepted by +the Government cutter which was always dispatched in cases of the kind +to head off fugitives upon their only possible course. Of the party, +only one man was found alive. In their dreadful need the men had cast +lots as to who should be killed and eaten by the others, and this went +on until only the one man remained. His sufferings had been so horrible +that he was let off any further punishment, and simply brought back to +the Island to complete the term of his sentence. Some months after, +this man induced another to escape with him in a boat, and when the +boat was overtaken it was found he had killed his companion for the +purpose of eating the latter's flesh. This was apparent from the fact +that the supply of food which the fugitives had taken with them was not +exhausted. + + UKUSHWAMA. + +"No ghosts, they say. +What is a ghost?-- +Nay, what are thoughts and stars and winds? +They cannot tell--they show at most +Those formal swathes the pedant binds +Across clear eyes, the while he plugs +The apertures of liberal lugs." + +SHAGBAG on Dogmatism. + +I. + +I had been for two days endeavouring to frame a workable quarantine +scheme in respect of an outbreak of lung sickness amongst the natives' +cattle in several of those deep valleys which cleave the Xomlenzi range +from the Northern bank of the Tina River, and it was late in afternoon +when I reached the kraal of my friend Numjala, Headman over a section +of the Baca tribe of Kafirs. The mounted policeman who had accompanied +me let his tired horse fall in a particularly bad drift, thus laming +the animal, and had had to remain behind in consequence. Thus I was +alone, but this circumstance did not trouble me, because my horse was +fresh, and I knew the country well. + +Numjala is a roan of parts; he must be well over sixty years of age, +but his eye is bright and his wit is keen. He is well off, for a +native, and very hospitable. + +The moon being new, her pale crescent sank quickly after the sun, but +the sky was perfectly clear and the stars more than ordinarily bright. +To reach home I had about twelve miles to ride, that is, by taking a +short cut along footpaths; along the main road the distance was nearer +twenty. + +Numjala was very anxious that I should spend the night at his kraal, +and offered, would I agree to remain, to kill a juicy looking kid and +roast it for supper. I had, however, promised my wife to return by +midnight, and I feared she might be uneasy were I not to do so; I +therefore declined the invitation. + +"Does your horse lead well?" asked Numjala. + +"Not particularly," I replied; "why do you ask?" + +"You say you are going by the footpath past the Ghoda bush?" + +"Yes." + +"Unless your horse leads well, you will never get him past the Ghoda +to-night, this being the night of the New Moon. You will certainly +never ride him past." + +The Ghoda bush is a narrow strip of forest running down the side of a +steep mountain which forms one side of a valley, the other side being +formed of a perpendicular cliff, at the foot of which a stream brawls. +The strip of forest does not quite reach the stream, a grassy glade, +about twenty-five yards in width, lying between. Over this glade the +footpath leads. The Ghoda is about a mile from Numjala's kraal, and +just beyond it is the drift over the stream. + +"What has the Moon to do with it?" I asked. + +"That is a hard question. I only know that no horse can be ridden past +the Ghoda after sundown when the Moon is new." + +"Look here, Numjala," I said reprovingly, "a man of your intelligence +ought to be ashamed of even pretending to believe such a thing. Why +this is worse than what you told me about the grass not growing at the +spot where Ncapayi and his men were killed by the Pondos." + +"Is it?" + +(Ncapayi, Great Chief of the Baca tribe, with many hundreds of his +followers, was killed in 1845 in a battle fought with the Pondos on the +Northern bank of the Umzimvubo river, between what is now Mount Frere +and the sea.) + +"Yes, and nearly as bad as your account of the snow falling on Tshaka's +impi and killing hundreds of his soldiers, whilst it fell nowhere else +in the neighbourhood." + +"Why should not that be true?" + +Fearing that it would be useless to attempt demonstrating to Numjala +that, logically, no one is bound to prove a negative, I evaded his +question, and said: + +"You told me the other day that you believed in witchcraft. Surely you +did not mean that?" + +"Why not? Did not your great Prophet--every one of whose sayings all +you white people believe so thoroughly and follow so carefully"--it +will be seen that Numjala can be sarcastic--"believe in evil spirits, +and even drive them forth? Is it not this that the witch-doctor claims +to do? Did not the Prophet of the Wesleyans believe in witchcraft? Now, +if you believe the words of your Prophets about some things, why not +about others?" + +I was surprised at these words, knowing Numjala to be a heathen, and I +suppose I must have shown this, for he added: + +"I have talked with the missionaries, or rather they have talked to me. +Besides, my brother's son is an evangelist, and he has told me a lot +about what is taught in the schools." + +"But, surely, Numjala, your experience must have taught you that +witchcraft is all humbug (imfeketu), and that before the English rule, +the witch-doctor was simply the instrument of the chief for suppressing +people who became too rich or too powerful." + +"The witch-doctor may often be a humbug (kohlisi), and yet it is +possible that there may be such a thing as witchcraft. A missionary, to +whom I pointed out that some who preached the gospel had been since +proved evil men, once said much the same thing to me about religion. I +am an old man, and I have learnt many things, and one is this: He who +always says of the thing he does not understand, 'This cannot be,' is +in danger of being put to shame." + +"Well, Numjala, tell me the story about the Ghoda bush, for I am sure +there is a story." + +"I will tell it if you stay here to-night." + +"But I must go home." + +"Well then, I will make a bargain with you. You have already passed the +Ghoda, and therefore you know the footpath leading to the drift." + +"Yes, I know it well. I traveled it only the day before yesterday." + +"Very well. You will take the pathway tonight, and if you can ride your +horse past the Ghoda, well and good--you will go home to your wife. If +not, you will return and sleep here. The kid will be roasted, and you +shall hear the story. Do you agree?" + +"Certainly I do." + +"Just one thing:--remember that you are to ride past. It is possible, +although I think it unlikely, that you might reach the drift if you +blind-folded the horse and led him." + +"I quite understand. Good-bye." + +"I will not say 'Good-bye.' You will return and hear the story." + +As I rode away laughing, I heard Numjala calling out to his son +Tantiso, telling him to catch a certain kid, kill it, and prepare it +for immediate roasting. My course led down the hillside, and then along +the level bottom of the valley on the left-hand side of which is the +Ghoda Bush. The stream was on my right, and the pathway on which I was +riding ran parallel with it, distant about twenty yards. + +As I drew near the Ghoda I felt somewhat creepy. My horse was a steady +old stager, not at all given to shying. He went along at a quick amble, +and as I neared the fateful spot, I freshened up my courage with the +thought that in a few moments I would have crossed the drift, and then +the Ghoda and its ghost would be well behind me. My horse was stepping +out briskly and without showing the least sign of suspicion, when all +at once he gave a loud snort and wheeled sharply to the right, +completely unseating me, However, I did not fall off, as I managed to +clutch hold of his mane. As I swung back into the saddle, I saw that we +had narrowly escaped falling down the sleep bank into the stream. + +To save my self-respect, I made another attempt to pass, but more or +less the same thing happened, except that I kept my seat, and managed +to avoid going so near the bank, I then left the horse to himself, and +he ambled back to Numjala's kraal. When I dismounted he was wet with +perspiration, and trembling violently. I will not say how I felt, but +my sensations were not comfortable. + +Numjala evinced no surprise, nor did he attempt to triumph over me in +any way. Neither did he (then, or ever) ask me what had happened. He +took my return, quite as a matter of course. + +We sat down to supper. The kid was excellent, and the foaming koumis +from the big calabash equal to champagne. After supper I spread my rug +at one side of the fireplace--Numjala unrolled his mat at the other. We +lay down and smoked our pipes in silence for some time, and then +Numjala told me the following story. + + II. + +It is many years since I first came to live on this spot. I was then a +poor man, although the 'great son' of my father, who was a chief of +some importance. He died with Ncapayi in the battle on the Umzimvubo, +and shortly afterwards all our cattle were swept off, I had then only +two wives, and the eldest child by the first wife was a girl whom I +called Nomalie. Many daughters have been borne to me since, and my +kraal is full of their 'lobola' cattle, but the only girl of the lot +that I was ever really fond of was Nomalie--perhaps because she was my +first child. + +"She grew up--tall and straight, with well-formed limbs. I remember +that from her birth she had a soft look in her face, and her eyes were +very large. She was rather light in colour. It was said that her +mother's grandfather was a white man. Her mother's family came from the +Amavangwane country, which is on the sea-coast, and I have been told +that long ago a white man came out of the sea and took a woman of the +tribe as his wife. One of this man's daughters was the mother of my +wife, who was Nomalie's mother. It was strange that my wife showed no +trace whatever of white descent, whilst Nomalie most certainly did, +both in colour and feature. + +"As soon as ever Nomalie reached a marriageable age, many men wanted to +marry her, but when the suitors came to 'metja' (woo) she would have +nothing to do with them. I soon found out the reason of this; she had +grown fond of a young man named Xolilizwe, a son of the right-hand +house of one of Ncapayi's counselors who, like me, had lost all his +wealth. Xolilizwe dwelt with his uncle Kwababana--a very old man--over +the hill at the back of the cliff facing the Ghoda. He was a few years +older than Nomalie, and he often used to stay for weeks at a time here +at my kraal. Xolilizwe was all that a young man should be, except that +he was poor, and his uncle, old Kwababana, could give him nothing. + +"Xolilizwe was brave and strong, and I had gladly given him Nomalie, +but you know what we Kafirs are; no man will give his daughter to one +who cannot pay 'ikazi' (dowry). Besides, no girl would want to marry +such a man--no matter how much she liked him--for she would always be +known as the woman for whom no dowry had been paid, and this would be a +reproach to her and all her relations. + +"Nomalie was very young, and I was so fond of her that I did not want +to force her to marry against her will. But seeing how matters stood, I +told Xolilizwe that he had better keep away. Shortly after this he +disappeared from the neighbourhood. + +"In the days I speak of, Lukwazi was the most important man in these +parts. Although inferior to me in rank, he was very rich, and Makaula, +Ncapayi's successor, had made him Chief over the people in this +neighbourhood; consequently I was under him. Nearly all my father's +people having been killed, the few who remained were placed under +Lukwazi, his kraal was the one on the top of the second ridge beyond +the Ghoda. No one liked Lukwazi, though many feared him on account of +his cunning, and his wealth gave him power. He was a very big man, of a +wrathful temper, and they said that though he loved the smell of other +men's blood, he feared to smell his own. At the time I speak of he was +an elderly man, and had (I think) twelve wives and many children. + +"Well, one day Lukwazi called here in passing, and saw Nomalie. About a +week afterwards two of his messengers came and said that he wanted her +as his wife. I was both glad and sorry. Glad, because I was poor and +wanted cattle, and when it is a question of lobola, a chief gives more +than an ordinary man; but sorry because I disliked Lukwazi, and felt +uneasy at giving him my favourite daughter. Of course I could not +refuse, I being Lukwazi's man. + +"Nomalie cried bitterly, and at first declared that she would never go +to him, but I told her that she must, and that I would, if necessary, +make her do so. I could not afford to fall out with Lukwazi, my Chief, +and a powerful, revengeful man. Besides, the girl had to marry some +one, and I naturally wanted her to marry him who would pay the most +cattle. After a while she ceased to object, but she went about looking +so sad that I never liked to see her. She used to come near me, and +look into my face, and this made me feel so sorrowful that I tried to +avoid her as much as possible. Just before they took her away I was so +distressed at the sight of her misery that I could have even then put a +stop to the marriage only that I was afraid to make an enemy of +Lukwazi. + +"At length they came to fetch her, and I shall never forget the look +she gave me over her shoulder whilst being led away. Then I comforted +myself with the thought that when she came back after the fifth day, +driving the ox for the marriage feast, she would not look so miserable. + +"In the middle of the second night after Nomalie had gone I was +sleeping in my hut, and I heard some one trying to open the door. I +asked, 'Who is there?' and a voice (Nomalie's) replied, 'It is I, your +child.' I removed the door-pole, and Nomalie entered. I said, 'My +child, what is this thing?' but she did not speak. I threw some twigs +on the embers, and when they blazed up, what I saw made me burn with +wrath. The girl was naked, and her body and limbs were covered with +wheals and scars where the women had beaten her because she would not +allow Lukwazi to approach her. + +"She sat down next to the fire and looked at me in silence until I +could endure it no longer, so working up a semblance of anger to hide +my pity, I said roughly, 'Why have you brought disgrace on your house, +by leaving your husband? I shall send you back to-morrow!' Instead of +replying, she stood up, and taking my large spear from where it was +sticking in the roof, she handed it to me. She then knelt down, and +placing a hand upon each of her breasts, she drew them apart, and +looked into my face. I knew she meant this to indicate that she wished +me to drive the spear into her, rather than to send her back. To see if +she were in earnest, I lifted the spear as if to strike, still keeping +up the semblance of anger--but she just closed her eyes, smiled, and +leant slightly towards me, I then saw she was in earnest, so I flung +down the spear and said in a kinder voice that she should remain, and +that Lukwazi might keep his cattle. When I had said this, she flung +herself to the ground on her face, and wept as though she would die. + +"Next day, Lukwazi's messengers came for Nomalie, but I told them they +could not have her. Afterwards Lukwazi himself came with ten men armed, +and said he would take his wife by force. I stood in front of the door +of the hut, leaving Nomalie alone inside, and told Lukwazi that the +girl refused to return to him, and that after the way she had been +ill-treated, I should not force her to do so, Lukwazi said that the girl +was now his wife, that he had married her with my consent, that he had +now come to fetch her, and that he meant to have her. Just then I felt +something put into my hand from behind, and when I closed my fingers on +it I found this thing to be the handle of my big, broad-bladed spear. +Then I heard the wicker door of the hut being closed, and the cross-bar +being slipt into its place. + +"Now when I realised what Nomalie had done thus silently, and other own +accord, my heart filled with pride in my daughter, and I began to +answer Lukwazi more boldly. I told him that I knew I had the law on my +side--the girl had returned showing marks of ill-treatment, and I was +therefore justified in keeping her--at all events until an inquiry had +been held. Lukwazi said that, law or no law, he was going to take the +girl away then and there, so I told him that I would slay with my spear +the first man who tried to enter the hut. At this, Lukwazi and his +followers became very wrathful, and I think they would have attacked me +had it not been for what my daughter then did. + +"Over the loud voices of the men we heard hers calling Lukwazi by name, +and then all ceased speaking for the moment, Lukwazi replied to her, +saying, 'What is it, my wife?'" + +"The door of the hut is fast barred, and you cannot break it down so +quickly but that I may set the hut in flames in several places before +you enter. I will die in the fire rather than go with you." + +"On hearing this, they all looked at one another, and shortly +afterwards they moved off, Lukwazi still looking wrathful, and +muttering fierce threats against me and my house. + +"About a month afterwards Xolilizwe returned. He brought eight head of +cattle which he had stolen from the Fingoes. He came here and asked me +to give him Nomalie as his wife, offering the cattle he had stolen as +an installment of the dowry, the balance of which he would pay later +on, when able to do so. I consented, as I wanted to make up to the girl +for any previous hardness, so she went as the wife of Xolilizwe to the +kraal of his uncle, old Kwababana. There was not much of a marriage +feast, for I still feared the anger of Lukwazi, and did not want to +annoy him further. I warned Xolilizwe to be careful, as I felt sure +Lukwazi would try and be revenged on some of us--and most probably on +him through the witchdoctor. In fact I strongly advised him to take +Nomalie away quietly, and go and dwell with our people on the +Umzimkulu. + +"It was early in summer when Nomalie went to dwell with Xolilizwe as +his wife, and about three months before the feast of the first-fruits +(Ukushwama). You know something about what then happens. Each chief +sends away by night, and has a pumpkin, a mealie-cob, and a stick of +'imfe' (sweet-reed) stolen from the territory of some chief belonging +to another tribe. These are mixed with medicines by the witch-doctor, +and partaken of by the Chief and his family, in the calf-kraal before +dawn on the morning of the day of the new moon. You have no doubt also +heard that when a chief confers the honours of chieftainship upon his +'great son,' who is to succeed him, a special Shwama is held, and that +on such an occasion the stolen first-fruits have to be mixed, by the +witch-doctor in the skull of a man who has been killed for the purpose. +Many Europeans refuse to believe that this kind of thing still happens; +nevertheless it does, and it will happen in spite of all the Government +may do, so long as the Baca tribe is in existence. Even a Christian +chief would require Ukushwama to be performed in respect of his son, or +otherwise--as he well knows--the son would never be recognised as +legitimately a chief. + +"Now the skull used at Ukushwama must be that of a man of a certain +rank, and is supposed to be that of an old man; but this is not +absolutely indispensable. I have told you that Lukwazi, although a +chief, was of low birth. Now, amongst the people in this neighbourhood +were very few whose rank was even equal to his own, and therefore when +it became known that at the next feast of first-fruits, his son +Bobazayo was to take the great Shwama, people began to wonder whose +skull would be required. + +"I thought over the matter myself, and I found that the only three men +about here whose skulls would do, were Kwababana--Xolilizwe's uncle-- +Xolilizwe, and myself. I at once made up my mind that Kwababana would +be the man, because he was very old, and besides his rank was highest, +his father having been the brother of Madikane. + +"A short time before the feast, which begins with the new moon in the +month which you call February, I went away to the 'great place' +(residence of the paramount Chief of the tribe) intending to return in +time for the opening ceremony. + +"When I returned on the second-last day of the old moon, I was quite +surprised to hear that Kwababana was quite well. + +"As no one had heard of a killing, there was much speculation going on +as to where a skull had been obtained; it being usual to kill for this +purpose nearly a month before the feast--although this, again, is not a +necessary condition. + +"Well, we all assembled at Lukwazi's kraal on the last night of the old +moon. I had not seen Xolilizwe since my return, and I was surprised at +not finding him at Lukwazi's. Just before daylight the Shwama was +administered to Bobazayo in the calf-kraal, and then to the members of +his family. Upon two points I kept wondering: one was in connection +with the skull--whose was it, and where had the witch-doctor obtained +it? The other was the absence of Xolilizwe--where was he, and what +excuse would he give for not being present when the great son of the +Chief took the Shwama? + +"We drank beer, and danced, and made merry all the forenoon. I saw a +man near me who must have passed Kwababana's kraal in coming to the +feast, and I asked him if he had seen anything of Xolilizwe. He told me +he had heard that Xolilizwe was away following the spoor of old +Kwababana's only milking cow, which had been stolen three days +previously, and had not returned. + +"Just after the sun had begun to fall, I saw my daughter Nomalie +approaching. She walked in amongst the people and straight up to me +without saying a word. I shall never forget her face--it was like the +face of one that had been dead for several days--all except the eyes, +which were full of fire. I knew at once that Xolilizwe was dead. + +"She took my hand and silently drew me after her, and thus we walked +down the footpath to the drift on the other side of the Ghoda, which +you meant to have passed to-night. We crossed the stream, and she led +me to the edge of the bush and pointed to something lying just inside +the outer fringe of brushwood. I looked, and saw the headless body of +Xolilizwe. + +"I recognised the body at once. No other man that I knew hart such +limbs as he. My unhappy daughter's husband had been slain by the thrust +of a spear from behind through the left shoulder-blade. I tried to +comfort Nomalie, and to get her to speak, but not a word passed her +lips. After a while, she motioned me impatiently to leave her, so I +went away, meaning to return later. I noticed a digging pick, and a +stone nearly as large as my head, with a string of twisted bark tied +around it, lying close to the body. I knew now in whose skull the +first-fruits had been mixed. + +"It was still early in the afternoon, so I went home. The day was hot, +and I had drunk much beer, so I lay down and slept. I woke just at +sundown, and went quickly down to the Ghoda, expecting to find my +daughter there. But she was not to be found, neither was the body where +I had seen it lying. Just afterwards, however, I found a heap of stones +that appeared to have been just before piled over a mound of freshly +turned earth. The pick was stuck into the soft ground next to it, so I +inferred that Nomalie had buried the body of her husband and gone home. + +"I went up to Kwababana's kraal, but Nomalie was not there. Old +Kwababana was healthy in body for so old a man, but he was very +childish, and just then the loss of his cow had quite upset him. He +could tell me nothing about Nomalie, and when I told him that Xolilizwe +was dead, he thought I meant the cow, and began to cry out. When I at +last was able to make him understand that it was Xolilizwe I had said +was dead, and not the cow, he appeared to be quite comforted, I then +went back to my own kraal, but Nomalie was not there, nor had she been +seen or heard of. So I ceased searching, thinking that she would be +sure to return, sooner or later. + +"Three days after, a little boy told me that something strange was +lying in the pool just above the Ghoda drift. I went down at once to +see what it was. The pool is quite shallow, it would hardly drown a man +if he were to sit down in it. There I found my daughter's body, with +the stone which I had seen lying near Xolilizwe's headless trunk tied +to the neck by the string of twisted bark. It was a pity. She would +have been the mother of men. + +"I dug a hole where she had left the pick stuck in the ground, for I +now understood she had meant the placing of the pick thus as a sign +that she wished me to bury her next to Xolilizwe. Tomorrow, when you +are going home, get off your horse and walk into the Ghoda bush at its +lower extremity. You will see a large 'umgwenya' (kafir plum) tree just +inside on your left, and underneath it two piles of stones. These are +the graves. But my story is not yet finished. + +"Lukwazi never saw another Shwama. The corn-yield that year was very +plentiful, and in the early part of the winter beer flowed like water +at every kraal. Lukwazi rode about with his followers from beer-drink +to beer-drink, and he was drunk most of his days. On the evening of the +fourth new moon after the feast of the first-fruits, Lukwazi and his +men rode past here at full gallop. It was not yet dark. The sun had +gone down and the moon was just disappearing. The party had been +drinking beer for two days at the huts of Vudubele, the last kraal that +you passed on your way here this afternoon, and all were mad drunk. +They galloped down the valley, Lukwazi leading on a stout little grey +stallion. He was beating his horse and yelling, and one blow made the +horse swerve out of the path. There was an old ant-bear hole hidden in +the grass, into which the horse trod, and falling, rolled over on its +rider. Lukwazi lay quite still. His neck was broken. + +"Since then, no horse will ever pass the Ghoda bush between sunset and +sunrise when the Moon is new." + +Next morning I dismounted at the Ghoda, and walked into the forest. I +found the large umgwenya tree without any difficulty, and underneath it +were the two piles of stones close together. They were much overgrown +with ferns and creepers. A large bush-buck leaped up and crashed +through the undergrowth. His doe followed immediately afterwards, +passing so close that I could see the dew-drops glistening on her red, +dappled flank. + + UMTAGATI. + +"The great witch-doctor has come, and all +Sit trembling with cold and fear +As they list to the words from his lips that fall,-- +The words all shrink to hear. +Lo! look at the seer as he whirls and leaps +The awestruck circle within, +Where each one shudders, and silence keeps +As he thinks of the untold sin. + +"On his head is a cap of dark brown hair,-- +The skin of a bear-baboon, +And the tigers' teeth on his throat, else bare, +Jangle a horrible tune; +The serpents' skins and the jackals' tails, +Hang full around his hips, +And a living snake from his girdle trails, +And around each bare limb slips." + +The Witch-Doctor. + +I. + +THE motive and controlling factors of great issues are not always +recognised by those most interested, neither does honour nor yet reward +always fall to those who best deserve or earn them. In proof of the +foregoing propositions the following narrative is adduced. + +Teddy's full name was Edmund Mortimer Morton. He was a Government +official holding the appointment of clerk to the Resident Magistrate of +Mount Loch, which district, as everybody knows, is situated in the +territory of Bantuland East, and just on the border of Pondoland. + +Vooda was a native Police Constable attached to the Mount Loch +establishment. + +Teddy's age was twenty-six, but he looked several years younger. He +was a pleasant-looking little chap, about five feet four inches in +height, slightly built, with blue eyes, yellow hair and an incipient +moustache upon which he bestowed a great deal of attention. His hobby +was popular chemistry. This he indulged in, greatly to the +entertainment of his friends and the detriment of his hands, which were +generally discoloured in a manner that defied soap. He lived in a +little hut just outside the village. This hut consisted of one room, +and was shaped like a round pagoda. It had a pointed roof and +projecting eaves made of Tambookie grass. The walls were of sod-work, +plastered over and white-washed. Here Teddy dwelt--taking his meals +elsewhere--and experimented in parlour-magic to his heart's content. + +Vooda was a constable. He was a short, stout man, with a deep, although +not wide knowledge of human nature; not wide only for lack of +experience. He had dwelt all his life amongst the natives surrounding +Mount Loch, and he could read them like so many books of Standard I. He +could, moreover, tell by looking at a witness in court, whether that +witness were speaking truth or lying, and the magistrate recognised and +utilised this faculty. Vooda and Teddy were great friends, Vooda taking +a lively and intelligent interest in Teddy's experiments. + +Every one knows that in the early part of 1894, Pondoland, the last +independent native State south of Natal, was annexed to Cape Colony. +Much to the general surprise, the annexation was effected peacefully, +but for some months afterwards the greatest care had to be exercised in +dealing with the Pondos. The people generally were glad of the change +from the harsh, arbitrary, and irresponsible rule of the native chiefs +to the settled and equitable conditions of civilised government; but +the chiefs gave trouble. They naturally would not, without struggling +and agitating, submit to the loss of power and prestige which they +sustained, and they bitterly resented being no longer permitted to "eat +up" those who annoyed them. Now, the instincts of clannishness and +loyalty are so strong amongst the Kafirs, that even against what they +well know to be their own vital interests, they will follow the most +cruel and rapacious tyrant, so long as he is their hereditary tribal +chieftain, into rebellion. + +Now, the Kwesa clan of Pondos dwelt just on the boundary of Mount Loch, +and within thirty miles of the Magistracy. The head of this clan, a +chief named Sololo, had not objected to the annexation, and was +consequently looked upon as well-affected towards the Government. But +within a few months after the annexation, a serious difficulty arose +between the authorities and this man. One of his followers quarrelled +with another, and after the time-honoured local custom, assuaged his +feelings by means of a spear-thrust, which had a fatal result. The +murdered man was one whom Sololo disliked, whereas, on the other hand, +the murderer was one whom the chief delighted to honour. Consequently, +when the magistrate demanded the surrender of the culprit for the +purpose of dealing with him according to law, Sololo refused delivery, +and couched his refusal in an extremely insolent and rebellious +message. + +Cajolements, remonstrances, and threats were of no avail; Sololo +remained obstinate. His tone, however, somewhat changed; he sent +polite, but evasive and unsatisfactory replies to all messages on the +subject. The Chief Magistrate was at his wits' end. Of course the law +had to be vindicated, but were an armed force to be sent against +Sololo, the odds were ten to one that within twenty-four hours signal +fires would be blazing on every hill, and the war-cry sounding from one +end of Pondoland to the other. The Chief Magistrate's native name was +"Indabeni," which means "The one of counsel." He was a man of vast +experience in respect of the natives, and moreover, he did not belong +to that highly moral, but sometimes inconvenient class of officials who +are known as "the hide-bound"; that is to say, his ideas ranged beyond +the length of the longest piece of red tape in his office, and he knew +for a certainty that things existed which could not conveniently be +wrapped up in foolscap paper. He was, moreover, one who trusted much to +the effect of his own considerable personal influence, and he believed +in utilising the talents of such of his subordinates as possessed +faculties similar to his own in this respect. + +Indabeni had taken Vooda's measure accurately. He knew the Constable to +have a persuasive tongue, to be honest, loyal, and discreet, and, above +all, to possess that nameless and almost indescribable quality of +imparting trustfulness in those with whom he came in contact. + +One afternoon a telegram marked "confidential" came from Indabeni to +the Resident Magistrate of Mount Loch. The purport of the message was +that Vooda should go to Sololo and talk quietly to him, endeavouring by +means of persuasion to effect a compliance with the reasonable demands +of Government. Teddy, being in the fullest confidence of his Chief, +was present when instructions were accordingly given to Vooda, who was +directed to start early next morning for the kraal of the Chief of the +Kwesas, in Pondoland. + +When the offices were closed for the day, Teddy went home to his hut, +and it was noticed by one who met him on the road that his manner was +very preoccupied, and his walk unusually slow. Shortly afterwards he +was seen to stroll over to the police camp, and go straight to Vooda's +hut. + +At eight o'clock that evening Vooda visited Teddy's dwelling, and a +long and serious conversation ensued. This was varied by a series of +experiments of a nature so striking that even Vooda was startled. At +about ten o'clock a stranger passing noticed strange flashes lighting +up the back of the hut behind the reed fence. Shortly before eleven +Vooda returned to camp, carrying a small satchel which contained a +packet of lycopodium powder, a piece of potassium about as large as a +walnut, and a number of whitish lumps about an inch in diameter, such +as are known amongst practitioners of parlour magic variously as +"serpents' eggs" or "Pharaoh's serpents." + +At daylight next morning Vooda left the police camp, but it was late in +the afternoon when he reached the kraal of Sololo. He found a. number +of strangers there, including Shasha, the "inyanga," or war doctor. The +men, all of whom were armed, were sitting on the ground in a half-circle. +Before them stood a number of large earthen pots of beer. +Vooda, being an old friend of the Chief, was invited to sit down and +drink, so, after removing the saddle from his horse, he joined the +party. He soon saw, however, that his presence had imported an element +of restraint. He was careful as yet not to allude to the business upon +which he had come. Later on others began to arrive, some carrying guns, +some spears, and some assegais. It was plain that an important +discussion was on hand, and that Vooda's presence was unwelcome. The +beer was not in sufficient quantities to cause intoxication, but +nevertheless all were somewhat mellow when the sun went down. + +Shortly afterwards Sololo asked the visitor point blank "Where he was +thinking of." This was an unusual thing to do under the circumstances, +such a question to a visitor being held amongst natives to be +discourteous and suggestive of inhospitality. + +Vooda replied to the effect that he had an important matter to discuss +with the Chief, and asked Sololo to grant him a private interview. + +Now Sololo, having had experience of Vooda's persuasive tongue and +knack of casuistry, did not wish to argue the point--knowing, as he did +full well, the object of Vooda's visit--and at once made up his mind +that he would not see the glib-tongued constable alone. + +"Son of my father," he said, "what you have to say, let it be said +before these my councilors and friends." + +Vooda saw there was no chance of a private discussion, and determined +therefore to play his game boldly and in public. The dusk of evening +was just setting in, and some women had kindled a bright fire. + +"My Chief," he said, "I come with the words of Indabeni, who has chosen +me because he knows I am your younger brother" (figurative). + +"Indabeni is a great man," said Sololo; "he has eyes all round his +head. His words are good to hear--speak them, son of my father." + +"Indabeni's heart is heavy, my Chief, because you, the leopard, are +placing yourself in the path of the buffalo, which is the Government. +Men have told Indabeni that you refuse to deliver to the Magistrate one +who has done wrong." + +"The leopard may stand on one side and tear the flank of the buffalo as +he passes. He may then hide in the caves of the rocks where the buffalo +cannot follow," said Sololo, sententiously. + +"The buffalo may call the wolves to his aid to drive the leopard from +his cave," rejoined Vooda, developing the allegory further; "but why +will you not give up the wrong-doer to the magistrate?" + +"Why must I give up my friend to be choked with a rope?" said Sololo, +excitedly. "He has not slain a white man, but one of my own people. +Government must leave him to be punished according to the law of the +native. If one of my tribe slays a white man, I will deliver up the +slayer." + +"But you know what the Government is, my Chief--it is over all of us. +Even Indabeni himself has to do as it tells him." + +"Indabeni is not a Pondo, neither am I Indabeni," said Sololo, +appealing, with a look, to the audience. + +"Yebo, Yebo, Ewe--E-hea," shouted all the men. + +"I did not ask Government for its laws," continued the Chief. +"'U-Sessellodes' [The native attempt at pronouncing the name of Mr. Cecil +Rhodes, Premier of the Cape Colony.] came here and said in a loud voice +that we all belonged to him. We were surprised, and could not think or +speak. Besides, who listens to the bleating of a goat when an angry +bull bellows? Now we have thought and spoken together, and we can also +fight; I will never give up my friend to be choked with a rope." + +"E-hea," shouted the audience. + +"My Chief," said Vooda, "your words are like milk flowing from a great +black cow ten days after she has calved, but there is one thing you +have not seen, but which I have seen and trembled at." + +"What is this thing that frightens a man who is the father of +children?" + +"The magic (umtagati) of U-Sessellodes, which he has taught to +Indabeni--the terrible magic wherewith he overthrew Lo Bengula and the +Matabele." + +"We, also, have our magic," said Sololo, glancing at Shasha, the +war-doctor. + +Shasha came forward in a half-crouching attitude, and approached Vooda, +who appeared to be very much impressed. The war-doctor's appearance was +startling enough. He was an elderly man of hideous aspect. On his head +he wore a high cap of baboon skin. Slung around his neck, waist, +elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles were all sorts of extraordinary +things--cowrie and tortoise-shells, teeth and claws of various beasts +of prey, strips of skin from all kinds of animals, inflated gall +bladders, bones, and pieces of wood. In his hand he carried a bag made +by cutting the skin of a wild cat around the neck, and then tearing it +off the body as one skins an eel. Out of this he drew a long, living, +green snake (inusbwa, the boom-slang), which he hung over his shoulder, +where it began to coil about, darting out its forked tongue. + +As Shasha advanced quivering towards Vooda in short, abrupt springs, +all the things hanging about him clashed and rattled together. He bent +down and beat the ground with the palms of his hands and the soles of +his feet, making the while a low rumbling in his throat, the apple of +which worked up and down. His eyes glared and his nostrils dilated. +The snake hissed, and wound itself round his neck and limbs. The whole +audience appeared to be struck with superstitious dread. + +Shasha suddenly drew himself straight up, and chanted in a sing-song +voice, rattling his charms at every period: + +"I am the ruler of the baboons and the master of the owls. I talk to +the wild cat in the hush. I call Tikoloshe (a water spirit) out of the +river in the night-time and ask him questions. I make sickness do my +bidding on men and cattle. I drive it away when I like. I can bring +blight to the crops, and stop the milk of cows. I can, by my magic +medicines, find out the wicked ones who do these things. I alone can +look upon Icanti (a fabulous serpent) and not die. I know the mountain +where Impandulu (the Lightning Bird) builds its nest. I can make men +invulnerable in battle with my medicines, and I can cause the enemies +of my Chief to run like a bush-buck pursued by dogs." + +The speech ended, Shasha again bowed down, quivering and contorting, +beat the ground with his hands and the soles of his feet and then +sprang aside into the darkness. + +Sololo looked at Vooda as though he would say, "What do you think of +that; is he not a most terribly potent war-doctor?" All the other men +looked extremely terrified. + +Dead silence reigned for a few moments, and then Vooda spoke: + +"O Chief, the magic of your war-doctor is indeed dreadful to behold, +but, believe me, the magic of U-Sessellodes and Indabeni is stronger, +and I can prove it." + +This caused a murmur of incredulity and indignation. The magic +paraphernalia of the war-doctor rattled ominously in the gloom. + +"U-Sessellodes," continued Vooda, "has found the Lightning Bird sitting +upon its nest, and plucked its feathers; he has discovered how to make +water burn, and he has robbed the cave of Icanti of its eggs, which he +can strew over the land to hatch in the sun, and produce snakes that +will kill all who see them. These secrets he has taught to Indabeni, +and Indabeni has taught them to me so that I might warn you, and having +warned, prove the truth of my words." + +At this a loud "ho, ho," accompanied by a rattling noise, was heard +from the war-doctor. Sololo laughed sarcastically. Several of the +audience did the same. Then Sololo said: + +"Are we children, to believe these things?" + +"My Chief," said Vooda, impressively, "you are not a child, neither is +Indabeni; as you know,--nor is the potent war-doctor, nor are any of +these great men (madoda roakulu) that I see around me. For that +matter, neither am I a child. I have said that I can prove my words, +and I say so again." + +"Prove them, then," said Sololo. + +"Three things will I do to show the magic of U-Sessellodes, which he +has taught to Indabeni--I will show you a feather of the Lightning +Bird, I will make water burn like dry wood, and I will produce some of +the eggs of Icanti and make them, when touched with fire, hatch into +young serpents before your eyes." + +There was not a breath of wind. Vooda seized a small firebrand, and +stepped a few yards away from the fire. He held the firebrand in his +left hand, and put his right into one of the pockets of his tunic. +This pocket contained a quantity of loose lycopodium powder. He filled +his hand with this, waved it over his head several times, and then +projected the handful of powder high into the air with a sweeping +throw. Then he slowly lifted the firebrand, and as the cloud of powder +descended, it ignited with a silent, blinding flash. A loud "Mawo" from +the spectators greeted the success of the experiment. + +The war-doctor gave a harsh laugh and shouted that there was no magic +in the business, and that the Lightning Bird's plumage was still intact +so far as Vooda was concerned; he, the war-doctor, knew how the thing +was done, and would presently explain. Sololo and the others murmured +amongst themselves. + +"Now," said Vooda, "I will make water burn with a bright flame like dry +wood." + +"You have, no doubt, brought the water with you in a bottle," said +Shasha, the war-doctor, with a sneer in his voice. He was evidently +thinking of paraffin. + +"No, O most potent controller of baboons," said Vooda, "I will, on the +contrary, ask you to get me some water for the purpose, in a vessel of +your own choice." + +Shasha went to one of the huts and returned with a small earthen pot +full of water, which he placed on the ground near the fire. + +Vooda look the lump of potassium which he had cut into the form of a +large conical bullet, from his pocket, and advanced to where the chief +was sitting. He beckoned to the war-doctor to approach, and then, said: + +"This, O chief, and O discourser-with-the-wild-cat, is a new and +wonderful kind of lead which U-Sessellodes has dug out of a hole in the +ground far deeper than any other hole that was ever made. You will +observe that my knife is sharp, and therefore I cut the lead easily. +You may see how the metal shines when newly cut. Now, if a bullet such +as this be shot into a river, the water blazes up and consumes the +land." + +"Give it to me that I may examine it," said Shasha. + +Vooda handed a small paring of the potassium to the war-doctor, saying; + +"Be very careful, O you-whom-the-owls-obey-in-the-dark, because it is +dangerous stuff." + +Shasha did exactly what Vooda anticipated--he looked carefully at the +shred of metal, and lifted it to his mouth, meaning to test it with his +teeth. When, however, the potassium touched the saliva, it blazed up, +and the unhappy war-doctor spat it out with a fearful yell. His lips +and tongue were severely burnt. Sololo and the men, who had seen the +flame issuing from Shasha's mouth, were terror-stricken. + +Vooda now cut the lump of potassium into several pieces, and these he +dropped into the pot of water. The lumps began to flame brilliantly, +dancing on the top of the water and gyrating across and around. All +the spectators were horribly frightened, and shrank back, their +eyeballs starting, and their lips wide apart. + +"Now," said Vooda, who felt that he had practically won the game, "I +will produce the eggs of Icanti, the terrible serpent, and make them +hatch out live snakes. Were I to do this without having other greater +magic ready wherewith to overcome them, the snakes would kill us all. +The only magic stronger than that of Icanti is the magic of the +Lightning Bird, so I will drop a feather plucked by U-Sessellodes from +the tail of Impandulu upon the snakes as they come out of the eggs, and +that will cause them to turn into dust." + +Vooda took five large Pharaoh's serpent-eggs out of his pocket and +placed them on a flat stone about a yard from the fire. He then asked +Shasha to approach, warning him to be very careful, as the serpents +might be dangerous. After the experience with the potassium, such a +warning to Shasha was quite a work of supererogation. He came forward +with hesitating steps, and stood behind Vooda, watching. + +Vooda had a small quantity of lycopodium powder in his left hand. With +his right he seized a blazing firebrand, and with this he touched each +of the eggs in turn. At once five horrible looking snakes began +uncoiling, blue flame surrounding the spot at which each emerged from +its egg. Vooda then shouted loudly, calling on the name of Impandulu, +and making mystic passes over the coiling horror with his fire-brand. +Stretching forth his left hand, he liberated a small cloud of +lycopodium powder, which ignited with a brilliant flash. At this, all +the spectators leaped to their feet, wildly yelling, and, with the +exception of Sololo, who stood still--although the picture of terror-- +disappeared into the surrounding darkness. For some seconds after the +sound of the last footfall had died away, the rattle of Shasha's +charms, as he fled, could be heard. + +Vooda approached Sololo: + +"My Chief, what word am I to carry to Indabeni?" + +"Tell Indabeni that the wrong-doer will be given up to the Magistrate +to choke with a rope. Yet you need not tell him, because the man will +be in the Magistrate's hand before your voice can reach Indabeni's +ear." + +And so he was. + +Thus was a war averted, and yet neither Vooda nor Teddy Morton ever +received any reward for their distinguished services. + + THE END + +The Gresham Press Unwin Brothers Chilworth and London + +SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS + +PUBLISHED BY + +MR. T. FISHER UNWIN. + +The Autonym Library. + +Paper, 1s/6d; cloth, 2s/-. + +1. THE UPPER BERTH. By F. MARION CRAWFORO. Second Edition. + +2. MAD SIR UCHTRED OF THE HILLS. By S. R. CROCKETT: Third Edition + +3. BY REEF AND PALM. By LOUIS BECKE. Preface by the EARL Of PEMBROKE, +and Ed. + +4. THE PLAYACTRESS, By S. R. CROCKETT. Third Edition + +5. A BACHELOR MAID. By MRS. BURTON HARRISON. + +6. MISERRIMA. By G. W. T. OMOND + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kafir Stories, by William Charles Scully + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KAFIR STORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 20491.txt or 20491.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/9/20491/ + +Produced by Charles Klingman + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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