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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Hecatomb, 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: The White Hecatomb
+       And other Stories
+
+Author: William Charles Scully
+
+Illustrator: A.W. Standen
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2011 [EBook #36419]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE HECATOMB ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The White Hecatomb
+And other stories
+By William Charles Scully
+Published by Methuen and Co, London.
+This edition dated 1897.
+
+The White Hecatomb, by William Charles Scully.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE WHITE HECATOMB, BY WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+THE WHITE HECATOMB.
+
+  "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the
+  whirlwind."--_Hosea_ VIII, 7.
+
+"Ehea, Inkosi am.  I know by the smell of it that this snuff is of the
+same kind as that which my grandson brought from you the other day.
+Well, I am thankful that before I die I taste in my nose what really
+_is_ snuff.  But to think that I should have had to wait all these years
+for it;--and now to be unable to see its colour!  There, I have kissed
+your hand, and that is all I can do to show my gratitude.
+
+"That one like you--one who can have as much as he likes of such snuff--
+should want to come here and talk to an old woman such as I, is
+wonderful.  You cannot be old, to judge by your voice.  Is it not
+perhaps the young women you want to talk to?  But give them none of that
+snuff,--they are impudent children of no experience, and would not value
+it.  Well, if it be myself that you want to talk to, my tongue is alive
+although my eyes are dead.
+
+"When was I born, did you say?  That I can hardly tell you.  I think
+that none but myself are now living who saw that day.  My father's clan
+dwelt far from here, beyond the Tugela river.  He was just a common man
+of the Amangwane tribe, and he stood close, until the day of his death,
+to the great fighting chief Matiwane.  In the days of my childhood I saw
+nothing but fighting and wandering about.  I do not remember when we
+first began to wander, but I think my mother was wandering when she bore
+me.  Tshaka had fallen upon us, the Amangwane, and we, in turn, fell
+upon the Amahlubi, whom we followed, fighting, across the Quathlamba
+Mountains into a land of wide plains, high mountains, and great rivers.
+
+"When still a little girl I have often sat on a hill with the women and
+the other children, and looked down upon the fighting.  When the
+villages of the Bathlokua were burnt the sun and the whole sky were
+hidden by smoke.
+
+"Matiwane was one who loved blood.  He drank the gall of every chief
+that was slain, to make him fierce.  When he fled back to the Zulu
+country, Dingaan filled his mouth with the liver of an ox, and told the
+captive Hlubis to beat him with sticks on the belly until he died.  But
+that was long afterwards,--after much blood had flowed.  Blood, blood;--
+the light died in my eyes many years ago, yet whenever I think of the
+days when I was a child, I seem to see a great redness glowing through
+the darkness.
+
+"When Tshaka fell upon us for the third time, he drove us back among the
+steep mountains of the Lesuto, and here we said we would henceforth
+dwell.  After Tshakas `impi' had departed, Matiwane sent back parties to
+gather some millet from the ruined fields, for our crops were nearly
+ripe when we were driven forth.  Then our men took to hunting, and we
+lived on what they killed; but there was much sickness among us, because
+there was no grain for the children to eat, the little grain we had
+being kept for seed.  When the children cried with hunger they were told
+to wait until the millet grew, for that then their hunger would be
+satisfied.
+
+"The spring rains fell early, and on every mountain-ledge we broke the
+ground and planted the millet.  It grew as millet has never grown before
+or since, in spite of the steepness of the ground, and we used to go and
+sit among the high thick stalks, and fondle them, and think that in a
+few weeks more we should be feasting upon the food we loved so much and
+had been without for such a long time.
+
+"Just as the grain commenced forming, small flights of locusts began to
+arrive from the westward.  We stood around the millet patches with
+boughs of trees, and drove away the locusts that attempted to alight.
+One day we saw a brown cloud arising in the west, and this grew and
+spread over the mountain-tops until it covered the whole land.  Then the
+cloud descended upon our fields, and we saw that it was a great flight
+of locusts.
+
+"Men, women, and children then fought as they had never fought in the
+worst days of battle against the spears of Tshaka, but it was all in
+vain.  Next day the millet-fields were bare, and the men wailed like
+women.
+
+"Then the men sharpened their spears once more, and we set our faces to
+the southward.  We covered the face of the land like the locusts we were
+fleeing from, and the tribes fled before us like game before a troop of
+wild dogs.  When we crossed the great river (the Orange) we turned to
+the eastward, and over-ran the country of the Abatembu, who never stood
+to fight us on a single occasion.  Then we turned to the northward, and
+wandered on, secure in our great numbers, and driving herds of spoil.
+At length we crossed the Umtata river and took possession of the
+mountain range between that and the Inxu river.  Here, we said, we will
+make a home, and now we will cease from wandering about like wild
+animals.  We had spoiled the Abatembu of grain, so we broke the ground
+and again sowed millet, of which we gathered a good harvest.  We built
+huts, and we thought that at length we should have rest.  I was then a
+young girl, hardly old enough to marry.
+
+"One day, in the winter-time, we saw great armies coming up against us
+from several directions, but we were not afraid, for Matiwane had many
+spears, and his men feared not to die in war.  One small body of men
+clad in bright red garments came towards us, moving together as one man.
+When they came close, they stretched themselves out like a snake, and
+then they seemed to place tubes like black reeds to their mouths,
+through which they blew white smoke.  Then our men began to fall dead,
+and our hearts were turned to water at this dreadful thing, the like of
+which we had never before seen.  With the smoke came a fearful noise
+like thunder, and we thought that the children of the sky had come down
+in wrath to destroy us.  Soon we heard a louder thunder, and then balls
+of iron fell out of the sky on us, and smashed our men into bloody heaps
+where they stood thickest.  The Abatembu and the Amagcaleka now moved up
+from behind the men in red, and fell upon us with the spear.
+
+"Then took place a great slaughter, and those of us who escaped from it
+were few.  Women and children were sought in their hiding-places and
+killed with the spear, whilst the old and sick were burned quick in the
+huts.  My father was slain early in the day, and my mother and I fled
+with some others back towards the Quathlamba Mountains, meaning to
+reach, if possible, the country of the Lesuto, and place ourselves under
+Moshesh, the chief of the Basuto.
+
+"We fled up the valley of the Inxu river, driving a few cattle before
+us.  It was in the middle of winter, and at night the cold seemed to
+burn like fierce fire.  We were pursued by the Abatembu, but they could
+not overtake our cattle, and having no food, were obliged to turn back.
+When we reached the mountains the feet of our cattle were so sore that
+we had to slaughter every beast, and then we went on, carrying the meat.
+
+"No rain had fallen since our flight began, but as we ascended the
+mountains the cold became more and more fierce.  Fuel was scarce, and
+every morning many lay dead around the fireplaces.
+
+"Just before we reached the top of the mountain range the weather became
+warmer, and black clouds came rolling up.  As night fell the wind became
+suddenly again cold, and then snow began to fall.
+
+"That night saw the end of all but me.  We crowded together in three
+lots for the sake of warmth,--all our clothing had been thrown away in
+the flight, so we were quite naked.  The women and children crouched in
+the middle, and the men placed themselves around and held up their
+shields to try and keep off the snow.  One ring of men sat on the ground
+and held their shields straight up, others sloped their shields
+outwards, whilst a few held theirs up with outstretched arms, the whole
+thus taking the shape of a hut.
+
+"We huddled together as close as we could, but the wind carried the snow
+in between the shields in fine powder.  The chattering of teeth sounded
+for a little while louder than the wind, and ever and anon cries of
+`Moi-ba-bo' [A native exclamation expressive of anguish or distress]
+arose.  Then the men in the group next to the one in which I was turned
+their spears against each other in their pain, and those of them who
+still lived scattered and died among the rocks.
+
+"After a time the men of the outer ring died where they sat, and the
+last thing I remember is that a shield sank down on me; then I fell
+asleep.  My legs and my body to the breast were covered by the people
+lying around me, and I was leaning forward against a man who was quite
+dead, although there was a little warmth still left in his body.  Before
+I slept I ceased to feel pain, and became quite comfortable.
+
+"I awoke feeling sharp pangs all over me.  I could not move, as I was
+held fast by the bodies among which I was lying, and the shield above me
+was pressing downward with a great weight.  All was quite dark, and I
+could hear no sound.
+
+"I struggled hard, and gradually began to loosen myself.  Suddenly I
+felt something slip away from the shield above me, and then I moved the
+shield away easily to one side, and as I did this something seemed to
+strike me on the eyes, a great light flashed all around me, and then I
+could see nothing, although I could breathe free air.  It was this, the
+European doctor said, which, years afterwards, caused me to lose my
+eyesight altogether.
+
+"You can understand what had happened:--The sun was shining brightly,
+there was no cloud in the sky, but the whole world was white,--white,--
+white;--no one, before or since, ever saw such a whiteness.  I had lain
+so long under the shield in the darkness, that the sunlight and the snow
+burnt into my eyes like lightning.
+
+"I rubbed my eyes gently, and gradually I began to see.  I was still
+held fast by the dead people lying around me, but I kept struggling, and
+gradually I freed myself.  Then I first recollected where I was and saw
+what had happened.  I cried aloud and tried to remove the snow from the
+mound out of which I had dragged myself, but I was too stiff to do much,
+and I kept getting dizzy and tumbling down on the snow.
+
+"Not far off was a rocky bluff, against which the sun was shining
+warmly.  I crept to a ledge and sat down on some dry grass, from which I
+shook off the snow; soon, then, I began to get warmer.  After a while I
+went back and moved the snow away from one side of the heap.  First I
+reached a shield, and after some trouble I was able to pull this aside.
+Under it I found dead limbs and bodies.  I kept removing the snow until
+I uncovered my mother's face.  I touched it, and found it stiff and
+colder than the snow.  Then I cried aloud and went away.
+
+"I then picked up a shield, the stick of which was protruding from the
+snow, and went forth to seek for the dwellings of men.  As I departed I
+passed another mound of snow, out of which I could see the ends of the
+shield-sticks protruding.  The snow was beginning to melt, and I could
+see the limbs of those who had scattered among the rocks, appearing here
+and there.
+
+"I stumbled along over the snow without seeing anything but a dreadful
+whiteness, that made the water stream from my eyes.  I suffered terribly
+from pains all over me, especially in my feet, and I wished for death.
+Every now and then the wind blew so cold that it seemed to cut me like a
+spear all over my naked body.  I tried at first to keep it off with the
+shield, but found that on account of my eyes I was obliged to hold the
+shield up over my head so as to prevent the bright sunlight from falling
+on my face.
+
+"I wandered on and on until the sun began to fall, and then the thought
+came to me to find a place in one of the valleys to die in,--for I did
+not want to die on the white, lonely top of the mountain.  I had seen no
+signs of men or cattle, and I had given up all hope.  I no longer wished
+to live.  Looking down a long slope I saw that in a deep valley beyond
+it the snow had disappeared, so I thought to try and get down there, out
+of the horrible whiteness which froze my body and burnt my eyes like
+fire, and there lie down and die at once.
+
+"I reached the edge of the valley, which had steep sides, and soon I
+found a footpath which led down sideways.  This I followed to the foot
+of a steep, narrow cliff, where I sat down and rested.  Then I heard a
+noise as of a stone rolling down the mountain-side, coming from the
+other side of the flank of the cliff, so I stood up and went quickly
+forward.  Just then I heard another noise, and a large stone hurtled
+past me, and crashed into a patch of scrub just below.  Out of this
+several hares leaped, and then ran away over the snow in different
+directions.  Then I heard a shout from near the top of the cliff, so I
+looked up and saw a man bounding down the steep slope.
+
+"The man was young, hardly more than a boy.  He was armed with an
+assegai and several light throwing-clubs, and he carried two dead hares
+slung over his shoulder.  He ran to where I was standing and accosted
+me, asking who I was and where I had come from.  I began to weep, and
+told him everything I could remember.
+
+"`What,' said he, `are you one of the "Fetcani," who have been slaying
+our people?  I think I must kill you, because many of my friends have
+died under the spears of Matiwane.'
+
+[The word "fetcani" means "enemies."  It was specially applied to the
+horde of Matiwane, which was at enmity with all other tribes.]
+
+"At this I told him that I did not mind whether he killed me or not, as
+I was already dying of cold and hunger.  Then he examined me more
+closely, and after a short time he began to laugh.
+
+"`Come along,' he said, `I will not kill you to-day.  Perhaps you will
+grow fat and pretty, and I may by and by take you as my wife.  I can at
+any time kill you if I want to.'
+
+"His kraal was not far off.  He had come out to hunt hares by rolling
+rocks down the mountain-side to drive them from the bushes in which they
+were hiding, and then following their tracks through the snow.
+
+"We reached the kraal, and I was there fed and kindly treated.  The name
+of the young man was Masubana, and the kraal belonged to his father.
+Masubana was his father's `great son.'
+
+"Two years afterwards I married Masubana.  He died long ago--shortly
+before I lost my sight.  For many years I was poor and miserable; then
+my eldest son Ramalebe, who had joined Lebenya's clan, brought me down
+here to Matatiele to dwell with him.  He also is dead, but his children
+give me enough food, and a blanket now and then.
+
+"Come again, my father, and I will try and think of some more of what
+happened in the old days.  That snuff seems to make me young again.  See
+that you give none of it to foolish people of no experience, who perhaps
+would not value it at its true worth.  Let me once more kiss your hand."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Note.--The foregoing relates to the defeat of the Amangwane horde by
+Colonel Somerset at Imbulumpini on August 27, 1828, and its subsequent
+annihilation in the pursuit by the Amagcaleka and Abatembu impis under
+Hintza and 'Ngub'incuka respectively.  Three bodies of fugitives escaped
+from the field of battle, only to meet a worse fate than that of being
+killed in the fight.  One party, the largest, was driven nearly to the
+source of the Orange river, and there burnt alive in a valley full of
+long grass, in which they had taken refuge.  Another made its way to the
+north-east, and was cut to pieces by the Amabaca under Ncapay, at the
+base of the Intsiza Mountain, in what is now East Griqualand.  The third
+perished in the manner described in the tale.  The horde must have
+numbered considerably over a hundred thousand souls.  It was completely
+wiped out of existence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE VENGEANCE OF DOGOLWANA.
+
+  "The dark places of the earth are full
+  Of the habitations of cruelty."
+  _Psalm_ lxxiv.
+
+  "Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit."
+  _Ezekiel_ XXXII, 23.
+
+_The Death of the Chief_.
+
+The old chief of the Amagamedse tribe lay dying in his hut.  It was a
+warm summer's evening, with a sense of moisture on the almost silent
+breeze, which was borne from the other side of the valley, over which a
+slight thunder-storm had passed.
+
+Umsoala, the chief, lay on a mat under which some dry grass had been
+spread to ease his loosened bones.  He was partially propped against the
+body of old Dogolwana, his faithful and tried attendant.  Dogolwana sat
+with his left arm around his beloved master's waist.  He had bravely
+sustained for a long time a painfully strained position.
+
+Sitting silently on the ground, against the circular wall of the hut,
+were a number of old men and a few women, all clad in blankets, their
+knees drawn up to their chins.  Between the centre-pole and the dying
+man sat a young woman, who held a little boy of about five years of age
+in her arms.  On a log of wood, near the dying man's feet, sat the
+Magistrate of the district and the District Surgeon.  They had been
+hurriedly sent for on the previous day when the paralytic stroke, which
+was putting a sudden period to the old chief's existence, had fallen.
+
+The dying chief was a man of enormous build.  He was covered by a
+blanket to the middle, but his trunk and arms, gaunt and wrinkled with
+age, were bare.  His chest did not heave, as he was breathing from the
+diaphragm.  His face was grey and shrunken, and but for the eyes, which
+were bright and lively, one might have almost thought him already dead.
+
+After his lips had been moistened with water brought by the young woman
+in a cleft calabash, the chief spoke, his voice at first broken and
+trembling, but gaining steadiness and volume under the stimulus of
+excitement as he proceeded:
+
+"I am dying alone... alone... for a man is alone when his children
+desert him.  Where are my sons?  Have they not been sent for?"
+
+Old Dogolwana replied in a low tone:
+
+"Yes, my chief and father."
+
+"My sons, for whose sakes I have striven, leave me lonely at the hour of
+my death.  There is Songoza, my `Great Son,' whom I have asked the
+Government to recognise as chief in my place.  I made him rich and now
+he is poor.  I filled his kraal with cattle, and he has filled his huts
+with women until to-day his kraal stands empty.  There is Gonyolo,
+eldest son of my right hand.  I gave him the cattle of his house last
+year and told him to keep his mother in comfort till she died.  One by
+one the cattle are driven to the village and sold for brandy.  They tell
+me his mother has to go to a neighbouring kraal to beg for a drink of
+milk.  When I went to visit Bawela a few months ago, I found him drunk
+with beer.  He and his friends mocked me to my face.  The bones of
+cattle were strewn around the huts, and a fat cow had just been
+slaughtered.  And Philip, that I sent to school and kept there until he
+had learned nearly as much as a Magistrate--does he not ride around
+amongst the people telling them not to listen to my words?  Nomtsheke--
+Zoduba and the others--all children, though men in years.  And now I am
+near my death, and none but this poor little Gqomisa is near me.  Come
+here, boy."
+
+The mother half arose and pushed forward the little boy, who shrank back
+at first; then crouching down on his face and knees at his father's
+side, he began to cry.
+
+Old Dogolwana seemed to divine what the old chief wanted.  He lifted the
+powerless arm from the elbow, and let the hand rest on the back of the
+crouching child.
+
+After another sip of water, Umsoala recommenced speaking.  He now
+addressed the Magistrate:
+
+"You have always been a father to me and to my people, and your coming
+now makes my heart lighter.  We have known each other for many years,
+and the knowledge has brought trust.  This little boy Gqomisa is my
+youngest child.  There sits his mother Notemba, the daughter of
+Dogolwana.  I wish to tell you, so that all may know, that the herd of
+black cattle here at my `great place' belongs to Gqomisa, and is left in
+charge of his mother, old Dogolwana, and Dogolwana's son Kele.  I have
+paid out their shares of cattle to Songoza and to all my other sons, and
+if they should try to take what belongs to this boy, I want the strength
+of the Government to shield him from wrong.  Will you promise to protect
+him?"
+
+"I will protect him," replied the Magistrate.
+
+"He is such a little child.  It is true he has Dogolwana, and Kele who
+is the bravest and strongest man of my tribe, to protect him, but his
+enemies will be many.  I ask the Government, in its strength, to stand
+on his side.  I took the side of the Government when the Tshobeni raised
+the war-cry in the great rebellion, and the Governor himself told me
+that I dammed the flood of war, and that my services would never be
+forgotten.  I only ask that the Government may now keep my little boy
+from harm."
+
+"I will be his father," said the Magistrate.
+
+The Magistrate and the District Surgeon had far to ride, so they arose
+to take their leave of the dying chief.  He was past all possibility of
+recovery, and had only a few more hours to live.  The Magistrate bent
+down and spoke in a voice broken by emotion, holding the time Umsoala's
+cold and lifeless hand.
+
+"I leave you now because I must return to my duties.  We will never meet
+again unless it be in that land beyond the grave.  We have worked
+together all these years, and my heart is heavy at parting with you, my
+old friend.  I only hope that your son Songoza will follow in the ways
+of his father."
+
+"My son, my son.  Why is he not here to hearken to my last words?  Be a
+father to Songoza.  Advise him.  He is young and headstrong--perhaps the
+years may bring him wisdom.  Bear with him for the sake of my people, to
+whom I have tried to be a father."
+
+"I will bear with a lot for your sake," said the Magistrate.  "Now
+good-bye, old friend.  I know you are brave, and that you fear nothing
+for yourself.  You will be all right--wherever you go to.  I will try
+and influence Songoza for good, and I will protect your little son
+Gqomisa.  Good-bye... old friend..."
+
+_The Sepulture_.
+
+The old chief died next morning just as the day was breaking.
+Immediately after his death the women and most of the men left the hut
+and dispersed silently.  No one was allowed to enter the hut in which
+the body lay, and all inquiries were answered with the statement, "The
+chief is very near death," or "Our father is about to draw his last
+breath."  As day wore on a round pit, three feet in diameter and about
+six feet deep, was dug on a ridge which overhung the "great place."
+Every one then knew that the chief was no more, but custom forbade the
+fact of his death to be acknowledged.
+
+At the same time another excavation was being secretly dug deep in the
+heart of a large forest in an adjoining valley.  This was the real
+grave.  Among the more important Bantu clans the last resting-place of
+the chief is always kept a profound secret.  The object of this is to
+prevent an enemy obtaining the bones and, by their means, working magic
+against the tribe.
+
+In the middle of the night, the dead body, with the legs flexed and the
+knees bound up to the chin, was borne out of the hut by Dogolwana and
+three other old men.  It was carried by means of two poles between which
+it was slung after the manner of a sedan chair.  Avoiding the footpaths,
+they hurried the dead chief up the side of the mountain, and then
+plunged into the forest, stumbling over rocks and dead trees in their
+course.  The hoarse bark of the bush-bucks challenging each other echoed
+across the ravine, the jackals yelled at the stars from the grassy
+hill-tops, and the brown owls moaned from the tall yellow-wood trees.
+Every now and then unseen forest creatures would rustle through the
+undergrowth, or a frightened loorie flutter away, breaking its bright
+plumage against the branches in the darkness.  In the broken fringe of
+cliff over the river-way a leopard made a dash at a troop of sleeping
+baboons which, having heard the alarm-call of the sentinel, darted away
+and escaped with hoarse roarings.
+
+When the bearers paused to rest, as they frequently did, the forest
+seemed full of awful whisperings.  It contained the graves of the dead
+chief's ancestors--secret places known to no living man.  It seemed to
+the bearers as if the spirits of the dead were abroad in the rustling
+darkness, mustering to welcome a long-waited-for companion--a son and
+subject made peer by the patent of death.
+
+They found the open grave.  A pit had been sunk, and a large,
+dome-shaped excavation made in its side.  Dogolwana had already been
+chosen for the awful but honourable task of entering this chamber after
+the body had been placed there, and finally disposing of the latter for
+its long rest.  The Kafirs have the most intense horror of a dead body,
+and the man who enters the grave-chamber with a dead chief becomes a
+chief himself immediately upon emerging--so highly is the dead esteemed.
+
+The body of Umsoala was placed on a mat, in a sitting posture, facing
+the "great place," where the herd of black cattle that he had loved so
+well were kraaled every night.  The left hand had been bound across the
+breast, with the open palm inwards.  The right hand and arm had been
+allowed to stiffen in a flexed position, and in the hand a spear was
+placed, the handle resting on the ground and the blade pointing upwards.
+At his side were an earthen pot, a calabash, and a wooden pillow.
+
+The face of the lateral excavation was then filled up with stones, the
+builders saying the while in low tones: "Watch over us."
+
+"Remember your people in the place to which you have gone."
+
+"Do not forget that we are your children."
+
+After the building up of the excavation was finished, the grave was
+filled in with earth, and then bushes and twigs were strewn on it so as
+to conceal as far as possible all signs of its existence.  After this,
+Dogolwana and his companions separated, and returned to the "great
+place," each by a different course.
+
+Just before day broke, a bright flame suddenly leaped to the sky--the
+chief's hut had been set alight in several places at once.  Soon a mass
+of flame-shot smoke climbed into the still morning air, in the form of a
+massive fiery column with an immense black capital.
+
+When day broke, old Dogolwana and his companions could be seen just
+completing the filling in of the other grave, which had been dug on the
+ridge at the back of the "great place."  Over it they piled heavy
+stones, and afterwards they dragged bushes up and built a surrounding
+kraal-fence.  Within the enclosure thus formed cattle would be folded
+for about two years.  A small hut was built in the immediate vicinity,
+and here the watchers of the grave took up their abode.  According to
+native custom these are authorised to beat and rob any stranger coming
+near the grave.  The persons of the watchers are sacred, and they are
+not subject to actions at law, nor can they be put to death for any
+crime during the period of their watching.  The kraal surrounding the
+grave is an inviolable sanctuary even for the worst criminals, and the
+cattle folded there may never be killed, nor can their progeny be in any
+way disposed of until the very last one of the original cattle has died.
+
+_The Killing of Kele_.
+
+In due course, Songoza was duly declared chief of the Amagamedse.  In an
+address to the assembled people, the Magistrate highly extolled the old
+chief, and exhorted his successor to follow Umsoala's example.  Songoza
+was reticent; he stood with the other sons of the late chief around him,
+and listened quietly to the Magistrate's words.  The assembly dispersed
+in silence.  It was evident that the memory of the dead man was not held
+in esteem.  As a matter of fact he had of late years rendered himself
+unpopular by leaning towards civilised methods and ideas, and
+discouraging the grosser forms of superstition.  Songoza was known to be
+reactionary, but as the tribe would have acknowledged no one else,
+Government was constrained to recognise him as his late father's
+successor.
+
+Two days afterwards, a messenger came hurrying in from old Dogolwana to
+report that Songoza had swooped down and driven off the herd of black
+cattle belonging to little Gqomisa.  The Magistrate thereupon sent for
+Songoza, who, after considerable pressure, consented to return them, so
+they were restored, under police supervision, to old Dogolwana.
+
+The country of the Amagamedse was a border territory, and just over its
+bounds lay the country of the Unonclaba, an independent native state.  A
+few months after the death of Umsoala, Songoza began to profess great
+friendship for Kele, the son of old Dogolwana.  There took place no
+function at Songoza's "great place" (each chief, on his accession,
+chooses a "great place" for himself) to which Kele was not specially
+invited, and several of the chief's cattle were assigned to him to milk,
+according to the custom known as "'Nquoma."
+
+Songoza arranged to add to his harem a girl of the Unondaba tribe, the
+daughter of a petty chief who dwelt about ten miles from the border, and
+when the first instalment of the "lobola" cattle were sent, Kele was one
+of those selected to take charge of and deliver them.  Three men besides
+Kele were sent, namely, Pandule, Sogogo, and Rali.
+
+Just about this time Songoza's mother, Manolie, became ill.  She lay on
+a mat and coughed.  On the fourth day of her illness her pains became
+very great, and she kept pressing her hand to her right side and saying
+that there was fire within her body.  After this she wandered in her
+mind for several days.  At intervals she partially regained her senses,
+and then she kept calling to the chief, her son, to find out who had
+bewitched her.  So Songoza sent men with an ox to Hloba, a renowned
+witch-doctor, who lived at Xabakaza, with a message asking him to "smell
+out" the person who had bewitched Manolie.
+
+Kele, with his three companions, started with the "lobola" cattle on the
+day after the messengers went to Hloba.  They crossed the border, and
+slept at a kraal about five miles from the dwelling of the bride-elect.
+Here a goat was killed for them, and they feasted late into the night.
+Next morning they arose, lit a fire, and began cooking the remainder of
+the goat's flesh in a pot.
+
+They were sitting round the fire talking, when a man was seen
+approaching.  This turned out to be Xosa, one of Songoza's Indunas.  His
+arrival occasioned some surprise, and in response to an inquiry, he
+stated that he was carrying a message from Songoza to the bride's
+father.  Just then, having caught Pandule's eye, he made a quick
+movement with his lips, and dropped his gaze.  After this, Rali stood up
+and walked a short distance away to collect some fire-wood.  Xosa
+followed him, and said in a whisper:
+
+"Manolie is dead, and Kele has been `smelt out;' Songoza has sent me to
+tell you and the others to kill him."
+
+Rali, having in mind Kele's great strength and courage, replied:
+
+"Son of my father, how can we do it?  He has his shield, spear, and
+club, and some of us will surely die.  Why did not the chief send a
+larger party?"
+
+"I do not know," replied Xosa, "but the order is that he is to be killed
+at once before he returns over the border to within reach of the hand of
+the Government."
+
+"What plan do you think will be best?" asked Rali.  "A blow from a club
+would not be safe, for his hair is thick and his head-ring is heavy and
+strong."
+
+"Nevertheless, the club is the best," replied Xosa; "one can stand
+behind him as he leans over the fire, and strike him just over and in
+front of the ear below the head-ring, where the bone is thin."
+
+Then they walked back to the fire with the wood, meaning to tell Pandule
+and Sogogo as soon as an opportunity should offer.
+
+Just afterwards Kele stood up and walked away, leaving his weapons
+behind.  Then Pandule and Sogogo were told.  They were much astonished;
+all knew that Kele was innocent.  They discussed the best mode of
+killing him.  Pandule was very much against using the club, for fear of
+an unskilful blow.  Sogogo was a strong man and an expert fighter.  So
+it was finally decided that the spear should be the weapon, clubs
+(amabunguza) being kept in readiness in case they should be required.
+Xosa refused to help in the killing by using any weapon.  He was not a
+strong man, and he said that the chief had only told him to convey a
+message to the others.
+
+After a short time Kele returned, and again took his seat by the fire,
+sitting on his heels.  Sogogo stood up, yawned, stretched himself, and
+took up his spear, which he pretended to sharpen on a stone.  Pandule
+and Rali also stood up.  They took their clubs and began comparing them,
+pretending to dispute as to the respective weights and workmanship.
+Xosa then moved from where he was, and sat opposite Kele.  These two
+were now sitting with the fire and the pot of meat between them.
+
+Then Pandule remarked that the meat must now be sufficiently cooked.
+Sogogo continued: "You, Kele and Xosa, lift the pot from the fire so
+that we can eat, and then proceed on our journey."
+
+Rali added:
+
+"Do not try and lift it by yourself, Xosa, for you are not strong
+enough."
+
+Xosa thereupon seized the pot by the rim on one side with both hands,
+and Kele bent forward and did likewise.  Then Sogogo, who stood ready,
+with his right hand towards Kele's back, plunged the spear into Kele's
+left side just below the arm-pit.  Kele gave a roar and sprang up, but
+Rali and Pandule struck him at the same time on the head and neck with
+their clubs.  He fell dead across the fire.
+
+They then took the body and dragged it for a short distance down the
+hill to a point where there were some large rocks.  After this they
+returned to the fire, and found Xosa busy cleaning the meat which, on
+account of the overturning of the pot, was full of ashes.
+
+Songoza sent a present of two oxen to the chief of the Unondaba with an
+apology for having soiled the earth of his territory with the blood of a
+wizard, and excusing himself on the ground that the unreasonableness of
+the laws imposed by the white man prevented him from administering
+justice in his own country.  The Unondaba chief sent a message in reply,
+to the effect that he fully approved of his brother's action, and
+sympathised in the inconvenience caused by the vexatious restrictions
+imposed by European government.  He added that the Unondaba territory
+was always at Songoza's disposal for similar operations.
+
+Old Dogolwana and his wife were nearly mad with grief at Kele's death.
+It was the thought of their responsibility in respect of little Gqomisa
+that brought them to a condition of outward reasonableness.  Kele's
+widow and her little baby son came to dwell with the old people, and a
+deadly revenge was sworn against the murderers of Kele.
+
+_The Plot_.
+
+After Kele's death old Dogolwana redoubled his care of little Gqomisa.
+He and Notemba hardly ever let the child out of their sight.  Every
+night the little one's mat was unrolled between that of his protector
+and the wall of the hut.  Three of Dogolwana's grandsons--lads between
+twelve and sixteen years of age--looked after the cattle.  Another
+widowed daughter-in-law, with the widow of Kele, cultivated the
+maize-field.
+
+Dogolwana was obliged to dissemble his hatred of Songoza, who, however,
+disclaimed all complicity in the killing of Kele, and often visited the
+late chief's "great place."  No native, even under the Government, could
+afford to defy the paramount chief.  Dogolwana brooded over his intended
+vengeance with deadly persistency.  What form that vengeance was to
+take, he had not been able to decide, but revenged he would be, so he
+chewed the cud of implacable resentment, and bided his time.
+
+Philip, the educated half-brother of little Gqomisa, often visited the
+"great place," and he, as much as Songoza, was hated and feared by old
+Dogolwana.  Philip was a cold-natured, cunning man.  He had dwelt, ever
+since his father's death, at the kraal of Songoza, who was completely
+under his influence.
+
+The herd of black cattle, which numbered several hundred head, was ever
+in the mind of Songoza, and Philip was continually reminding him that
+only the life of little Gqomisa stood between him and his possession.
+Songoza was poor--his former wealth squandered in purchasing fresh
+wives.  He already possessed upwards of twenty, for he endeavoured to
+add every handsome girl he saw to his harem.  In his sinister mind,
+acted on by the evil influences of Philip, the wish for the little boy's
+death soon ripened into a murderous resolve.
+
+Songoza's chief wife Mahlokoza, a woman of considerable force of
+character, was the only one of his wives who possessed any influence
+over him, and her son Umkilwa, a boy of about seven years of age, was
+the only being who inspired him with anything like affection.  In his
+way, Songoza loved this boy, who already gave evidence of possessing a
+somewhat brutal nature.
+
+Mahlokoza and Philip between them hatched out a plot against little
+Gqomisa, and after all the details had been worked out, Songoza was
+taken into their confidence.  His stupidity would have rendered him
+useless in the preliminary stages of the conspiracy.
+
+About six months after Umsoala's death, in the winter, Mahlokoza's
+second son, a child of three years of age, sickened and nearly died.  As
+the child recovered, Mahlokoza herself became ill, and the witch-doctor
+was sent for.  After the exercise of most powerful incantations he
+announced that the sufferers had not been bewitched by any being of
+flesh, but that some evilly-disposed, disembodied spirits, who held a
+spite against the "great house," were plaguing them.  There existed, he
+officially declared to a large assemblage, one, and only one, possible
+remedy.  The chief must transfer his great wife and her children to the
+"great place" of his late father, and there cause to be slaughtered by
+him (the witch-doctor) a young black bull from the herd.  This sacrifice
+would attract the "imishologu," or ancestral spirits, who would rally
+round the "great house," and drive away the inimical ghosts.
+
+Old Dogolwana was obliged to agree to this, and even to assist at the
+ceremonial, knowing as he full well did that some treachery was afoot
+against little Gqomisa.  Mahlokoza, after she and her children had been
+sprinkled with the blood of the bull, declared herself much better, and
+began making preparations for returning home at once.  However, the
+function was not yet at an end.  The witch-doctor went through some
+further most elaborate ritual, and then fell into a trance.  On
+awakening he declared to have again received a communication from the
+spirits dwelling in the unseen, this time to the effect that the great
+wife and her children were required to remain at the late chief's "great
+place" for at least two weeks, at the end of which period the evil ones,
+who dared not venture near so sacred a locality, would have left the
+neighbourhood in disgust.
+
+Here again old Dogolwana was obliged to submit.  He now felt that
+matters were developing rapidly, and that the crisis was approaching
+fast.  Mahlokoza and her two sons were assigned a hut next door to the
+one occupied by little Gqomisa and his two guardians.
+
+Trouble began on the very first day--just after the witch-doctor left
+and the company dispersed--for Umkilwa and his younger brother fell upon
+little Gqomisa with their small clubs, and mauled him cruelly before old
+Dogolwana's wife, who was the only one near, could interfere.  This was
+added as a considerable item to the already heavy account debited
+against Songoza and his house.
+
+However, next day things went somewhat more smoothly.  Three of the
+black cows were assigned to Mahlokoza's hut for milking purposes, and a
+supply of corn was delivered in baskets every day.
+
+Philip became a constant visitor, and now and then Songoza called in
+passing.  One morning, about ten days after Mahlokoza's arrival, Songoza
+and Philip arrived together.  All the visitors were invited to partake
+of beer in old Dogolwana's hut.
+
+Kele's widow, Mamiekwa, was a silent little woman with very bright eyes.
+She was continually hovering around Mahlokoza and the others, trying to
+hear what they talked about, but hitherto she had been unable to
+overhear anything.
+
+On this occasion she announced her intention of spending the day in a
+neighbouring forest seeking for medicinal roots, so she handed over her
+baby to old Dogolwana's wife, asking her to look after it until evening.
+She managed to whisper to old Dogolwana just before she left:
+
+"Get them all in here again at sundown to drink beer."
+
+Mamiekwa gave a hurried glance around to make sure she was not being
+watched by any one, and then, instead of going to the forest, darted
+into the hut occupied by Mahlokoza and her family.
+
+Huts of the larger class generally have four poles fixed in the ground
+and extending to the roof close to the wall on the side opposite the
+door.  These poles are connected by horizontal pieces of wood, across
+which wattles are laid.  Rude shelving, generally in two tiers, is thus
+formed, and upon the shelves are kept skins, mats, bundles of dried
+rushes, and other bulky articles.  In the hut occupied by Mahlokoza the
+upper shelf was piled high with rolls of matting.  Mamiekwa nimbly
+climbed up and lay down amongst these, which effectually concealed her.
+Here she lay perfectly still, and hardly venturing to breathe.
+
+After some little time, Songoza, Mahlokoza, and Philip came in.
+Mahlokoza said to Philip:
+
+"Sit at the door where you can see outside, so that no one can creep up
+to listen.  That owl-face Mamiekwa is always sneaking near, and I am
+sure Dogolwana suspects."
+
+Philip went and sat right in the doorway, and every now and then looked
+out to either side.
+
+"Is it settled that it is to happen to-morrow night?" asked Songoza.
+
+"Yes," replied Philip; "and I shall stay here to see that all is
+arranged.  I must try and dispose of Mamiekwa.  If I can manage it, I
+will get her to sleep in the hut too."
+
+Bit by bit the horrible conspiracy was unfolded.  In the middle of the
+following night, the door of Dogolwana's hut was to be fastened from the
+outside, and then the hut was to be burnt with its inmates.  Songoza
+particularly wished the thing to be done in his absence, but Philip,
+whilst agreeing to fasten the door some time after the inmates had gone
+to sleep, insisted that Songoza's should be the hand to apply the fire.
+Philip knew Songoza well, and did not desire to run the risk of being
+made a scapegoat.
+
+The day seemed very long to Mamiekwa stretched amongst the mats, and it
+was with a keen sense of relief that she heard at sundown the voice of
+old Dogolwana at the door saying that a pot of beer of a fresh brew,
+which had risen splendidly, was waiting to be discussed, and that they
+must be sure and bring the children to have some of it.  Shortly
+afterwards every one else left the hut, so she came down from her shelf.
+After ascertaining that the coast was clear, she ran along the pathway
+at the back of the kraal, and darted into the forest, whence she emerged
+in a few moments, carrying some "mootie" (medicine) roots which she had
+dug out, scraped, and hidden on the previous day.
+
+That night she communicated what she had heard to old Dogolwana, his
+wife, and Notemba, and then under the influence of black wrath and
+despair, a counter-plot, equally appalling, was hatched.
+
+_The Vengeance_.
+
+Next morning Songoza took a friendly farewell, saying that he was going
+away on a three days' visit.  Late in the afternoon, Mahlokoza went to
+the forest to collect fuel, and her two boys went down to the field to
+gather sticks of "imfe" (sweet reed).  Old Dogolwana had been plying
+Philip heavily with beer, and consequently the latter was somewhat
+mellow.  When the coast was clear, Mamiekwa, to whom Philip had been
+making love all day, brought him an earthen pot of beer, over the edge
+of which the pink foam was temptingly protruding.  She lifted the pot
+for him to drink from, and as he stretched forth his head, old Dogolwana
+struck him a violent blow behind the ear with a knobbed stick, and he
+fell to the ground, stunned.  Dogolwana and the two women then bound his
+hands and feet securely with thongs which they had in readiness.  They
+then lashed him firmly to a heavy loose pole which was lying in the hut,
+passing the thongs round and round his body and the pole together, so
+firmly that he could hardly writhe.  They then fastened a gag in his
+mouth.  Just as they had finished, he regained consciousness, and glared
+at them like the trapped animal that he was.  A blanket was tied loosely
+over his head, and he was than left to his own reflections.
+
+Upon the return of Mahlokoza with the load of fuel she was treated in
+exactly the same way in her own hut.  After dark she was carried into
+the other hut and laid alongside Philip.  The two boys had been easily
+secured on their return from the field.  They were trussed and gagged in
+the same manner, and laid on the ground between their mother and uncle.
+
+The door of the hut was then securely fastened by lacing a strand of
+soft copper wire through the wicker-work, and round stout poles placed
+across the entrance, after the manner agreed upon by the conspirators,
+as overheard by Mamiekwa.
+
+Old Dogolwana, his wife, and Notemba, with little Gqomisa, Mamiekwa, and
+her baby moved into the hut which Mahlokoza had occupied.  Little
+Gqomisa had been kept out of the way whilst the terrible preparations
+described had been carried out.
+
+The huts at the "great place" were arranged in the form of a large
+crescent, with the cattle kraal midway between the points.  The old
+chief's hut had been in the middle of the curve.  After his death, old
+Dogolwana had taken possession of the huts near the right-hand point.
+Those huts towards the middle of the curve were uninhabited, being used
+as corn stores.  Thus, no one dwelt nearer to the hut where the wretched
+victims lay bound awaiting their doom than the women and boys occupying
+the huts at the left-hand point, beyond the cattle kraal.
+
+As soon as darkness fell, old Dogolwana and the women barred the door of
+the hut which they occupied securely on the inside, and sat in grim
+silence awaiting developments.  Dogolwana sat listening close to the
+wicker door.  After waiting thus for some hours he heard stealthy
+footsteps approaching, and then some one endeavoured to open the door.
+Then Songoza whispered:
+
+"Philip--Philip, open--it is I."
+
+The women snored loudly and Dogolwana sat mute and rigid.  After calling
+Philip's name several times in a low voice, and obtaining no answer,
+Songoza crept away.  Going softly to the door of the other hut, he
+examined the fastenings, which satisfied him that Philip had performed
+his share of the contract.  He then stole away on tip-toe until he
+reached the other side of the hut in which Dogolwana was.  Then he sat
+down and pulled out a flint, steel, and tinder-box.
+
+Old Dogolwana and the women could hear the low click, click of the steel
+on the flint through the "wattle and daub" wall of the hut.
+
+The touchwood soon ignited, so Songoza placed it in the curve of a
+doubled wisp of dry grass, and then he ran quickly over to the hut which
+contained his brother, his wife, and his two sons, one being the only
+creature that had ever awakened a spark of love in his cold and cruel
+heart.
+
+The wisp of grass quickly ignited, and with it Songoza ran around the
+hut, firing the overhanging eaves every few feet.  He then rushed into
+the forest.  The hut was old and as dry as tinder.  The roaring flames
+shot up instantly, and within a quarter of an hour the glowing roof sank
+down with a thud between the blazing walls.
+
+About an hour afterwards Dogolwana again heard some one trying to open
+the door.
+
+"Who is there?" he called out, his voice sounding muffled through the
+blanket which he had drawn over his head.
+
+"Open the door, Philip; it is I, Songoza."
+
+"My chief," replied Dogolwana; "Philip, with your wife and children, is
+sleeping in the next hut on the left."
+
+Songoza gave one frightful shriek, and rushed forth as if driven by
+fiends.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+GQUMA; OR, THE WHITE WAIF.
+
+  "A sun-child whiter than the whitest snows
+  Was born out of the world of sunless things
+  That round the round earth flows and ebbs and flows!"
+
+  _Thalassius_.
+
+_One_.
+
+The fish had been biting splendidly since midnight, and when at dawn we
+ran the boat into a little creek which branched from the main lagoon
+between steep, shelving, rocky banks overhung with forest, we counted
+out eleven "kabeljouws," the lightest of which must have weighed fifteen
+pounds, while the heaviest would certainly have turned the scale at
+fifty.
+
+We laid them out, 'Nqalate and I, on the smooth, cool rock shelves.  The
+fish more recently caught were yet quivering, and the lovely pink and
+purple flushes still chased each other along their shining sides.
+'Nqalate, like all Kafirs, hated having to touch fish; he regarded them
+as water-snakes with a bad smell superimposed upon the ordinary-ophidian
+disadvantages.  After cleansing the "kabeljouws" under my directions, he
+washed and re-washed his hands with great vigour; but, to judge by the
+expression of his face when he smelt them afterwards, the result of the
+scrubbing was not satisfactory.
+
+The morning was cool and bracing, and a wonderful breeze streamed in
+over the bar at the mouth of the lagoon, where the great ocean-rollers
+were thundering.  A flock of wild geese arose and flew inland after
+their night's feeding, uttering wild screams of delight as they soared
+into the sunlight, which had not yet descended upon us.  Seamews and
+curlews wheeled around with plaintive cries.  A couple of ospreys
+swooped down and settled on a giant euphorbia only a few yards off.
+Ever and anon vivid halcyons skimmed down the creek.  In the forest
+close at hand the bush-bucks were hoarsely barking, and the guinea-fowls
+uttering strident cries.
+
+While my companion collected fuel, I took the kettle and forced my way
+through the bush to the bed of the creek at a spot above the reach of
+the salt water.  On returning I found 'Nqalate blowing at the fire as
+only a Kafir can.  Lifting his head out of the smoke, he gave a sneeze,
+and immediately afterwards uttered the exclamation: "Gquma 'ndincede!"
+This struck me as peculiar.  "Gquma," pronounced "g (click) o-o-ma,"
+means in the Kafir language, "a roar," such as the roar of a lion, or of
+the sea; in this instance I took it to mean the latter, and "'ndincede"
+means "help me," or "give assistance."  After speculating upon this
+strange rudimentary suggestion of the widespread habit according to
+which divers races of men invoke their respective deities or deified
+ancestors after the innocuous process of sneezing, my curiosity as to
+how the roar of the sea came to be invoked in an apparently analogous
+sense prompted me to question 'Nqalate on the subject.
+
+"Gquma, whom I invoked," he replied, "is not the roar of the sea, but a
+woman of your race who lived many years ago, and whom we, the Tshomane,
+look upon as the head of our tribe.  You will notice that whenever a
+Tshomane sneezes he calls on Gquma."
+
+"But where did Gquma come from?"  I inquired, "and why was she so
+called?"
+
+"Gquma," replied 'Nqalate, "was a white woman who came out of the sea
+when she was a child.  She married our great chief 'Ndepa, and she and
+he together ruled our tribe.  She was the great-grandmother of our chief
+Dalasile, who died last year."
+
+The tide was running out swiftly, and I waited impatiently for it to
+turn, so that I could re-commence fishing.  The sun was now high, and
+the breeze had died down to a gentle, fragrant breath.  Suddenly the
+water ceased running, and began to sway troublously backward and
+forward, lapping loudly against the rocks.  Then the tide turned, up it
+came rushing--this strange, cold, pure, bitter spirit pulsating with the
+ocean's strenuous life.  Like a singing bird it was vocal with wonderful
+words that no man may understand; with joyful tidings from its
+habitations in the sea's most secret places were its murmurs thrilling.
+
+We cast off the boat and let her drift with the current until a good
+anchorage was reached.  Fishing usually affords large opportunities for
+reflection or conversation, and on this occasion 'Nqalate related to me
+all he knew about Gquma, and, moreover, gave reference to certain old
+men of the tribe, by whom the narrative was subsequently amplified.
+
+_Two_.
+
+One autumn morning early in the eighteenth century, some people of the
+Tshomane clan, then occupying that portion of the coast country of what
+is now Pondoland, which lies immediately to the north-east of the mouth
+of the Unitati river, were astonished by an unwonted spectacle.  The
+wind had been blowing strongly from the south-east for several days
+previously, and the sea was running high.  Just outside the fringe of
+breakers an immense "thing" was rolling about helplessly in the ocean
+swell.  This "thing" looked like a great fish, such as on rare occasions
+had been stranded in the neighbourhood, but it had a flat top from which
+thick, irregular stumps, like trunks of trees, protruded.  Moreover,
+long strings and objects resembling immense mats were hanging over the
+sides and trailing in the water.  As the rolling brought the flat
+surface into view, strange creatures resembling human beings could be
+seen moving about on it.
+
+Such an object had never been seen or heard of by the oldest man of the
+tribe.  The people assembled in crowds and watched, dumb with
+astonishment.  Then a shudder went through them.  A faint cry repeated
+at regular intervals pierced the booming of the surf, and a white
+fabric, which swelled out as it arose, was seen to ascend the tallest of
+the protruding stumps.  The breeze was now blowing lightly off the land.
+
+All day long the monster lay wallowing.  The trailing ropes and sails
+were cut away, and the great East Indiaman, impelled shoreward by the
+swell, was just able for a time to maintain her distance from the land.
+The current sucked her slowly southward, and the crowd of natives
+silently followed along the shore.  Late in the afternoon the breeze
+died down, and the doomed vessel rolled nearer and nearer the black
+rocks.  Just after sundown she struck with a crashing thud, and
+thereupon a long wail of agony arose from those on board.  Then she
+heeled over somewhat, and it soon appeared as though she were melting
+away in the water.  By the time night fell, strange objects which the
+people feared to touch had begun to wash up; these were stranded by the
+receding tide.  Nevertheless, the outline of the dark hull could still
+be faintly seen when the startled people withdrew to their homes, where
+they talked until far into the night, over the wonderful and
+unprecedented events of the day.
+
+At the first streak of dawn the people began to re-assemble on the
+beach.  The vessel was no longer to be seen, but the strand was strewn
+with wreckage of every description, a quantity of which had been flung
+high and dry by the waves.  When the sun arose the people gained
+confidence and scattered about examining the different articles, which
+were distributed over an extent of several hundred yards of beach.
+
+A shout arose, and then a rush was made to a certain spot where, in a
+wide cleft of the black reef, which was floored with gleaming white
+sand, a strange object had been discovered.  Huddled against the rock on
+one side of the cleft lay a child, a little white girl with long yellow
+hair.  She was clad in a light-coloured garment of a texture unknown to
+the natives, and around the upper part of her body were tied a number of
+discs of a substance resembling soft wood of little weight.
+
+The people crowded around the spot, keeping at a distance of a few
+yards, and gazed with astonishment at this strange creature cast up by
+the sea.  The night had been mild and the sun was now shining warmly on
+the pallid child, who was breathing slowly in a swoon-like sleep.  At
+length she opened her eyes, they were of the hue of the sky, a colour
+never previously seen by any of the spectators in the eyes of a human
+being.
+
+The gazing crowd increased, some of the people who climbed over the
+rocks gaining foot-hold on the higher ledges of the steep reef, and
+gazing eagerly over the heads of the others who were nearer.  At length
+an old man, Gambushe, head councillor to Sango, the chief, stepped
+forward and lifted the little girl in his arms.  She was deathly cold,
+and when she felt the warmth of the old man's body she clung to him and
+tried to throw her arms about his neck.  This, however, the discs of
+cork prevented her doing, so Gambushe sate her on his knee, and untied
+the string by which they were fastened.  She then nestled her face
+against his shoulder.  The child appeared to be quite without dread;
+probably she was accustomed to black faces, but in any case the terrors
+of the past night would, for the time being, have dulled her capacity
+for further fear.
+
+The kraal of Gambushe was situated in a valley behind the adjacent
+forest-covered sandhills which rose abruptly almost from
+high-water-mark, and thither he carried the worn-out child, who had
+fallen asleep on his shoulder.  A few of the natives followed him, but
+the greater number remained on the shore.  Their curiosity had now got
+the better of the dread inspired by the unprecedented events just
+witnessed, and they began to examine and appropriate flotsam and jetsam
+from the wreck.  Bales, boxes, clothing, and furniture--all things
+unknown--were eagerly examined.  The bales, on being ripped open, were
+found to contain silk and cotton fabrics, which struck the natives with
+wonder and delight.
+
+An order was sent by the chief to the effect that all the property
+salved was to be carried to his "great place," which was situated about
+five miles away, and thither long lines of laden men, women, and
+children wended over the sinuous footpaths.
+
+In the afternoon dead bodies began to roll in with the curling surf, and
+the white, bearded faces of the drowned men struck the excited natives
+with fresh terror.  All of the Bantu race shrink with the greatest
+horror from contact with a dead body, so the people drew back and
+gathered together in affrighted groups, to discuss the strange
+situation.  The wind again blew freshly, and as the sea arose the dead
+men came in more and more thickly, some with wide-open eyes, and lips
+parted in a terrifying smile.  Faster and faster came the bodies, until
+the whole beach was strewn with them.  Mixed with the bodies of the
+Europeans were those of a number of Lascars, of whom the crew was
+probably largely composed.
+
+The people left off removing the wreckage, and sent to the chief for
+instructions.  In the meantime they retired terror-stricken to their
+homes.
+
+Next morning the chief came down, accompanied by the witch-doctors and
+soothsayers of the tribe, who, with hardly dissembled dread, passed
+along the strand from body to body.  Then they withdrew for
+consultation, with ashen-grey faces and trembling limbs.
+
+They came to a unanimous decision, which was communicated to a general
+meeting of the tribe convened next day at the "great place."  The
+monster that had died on the rocks amidst the white water, was one of
+the creatures of the sea sent to bear the little white maiden to the
+land of the Tshomane.  She, when old enough, was to be the "great wife"
+of 'Ndepa, the chief's "great son," then a boy of about twelve years of
+age.  She was a daughter of the mighty ones that dwell in the sea,--her
+marine nature being clearly shown by her long yellow hair, which
+resembled nothing but sea-weed.  All the dead people strewn on the beach
+had been her slaves; they had now been destroyed because she no longer
+needed them.
+
+The chief gave an order that no more property should be removed from the
+beach, and that the things taken before the washing up of the bodies
+were to be carefully preserved for the use of the white maiden.  She had
+come to the land of the Tshomane when the sea was raging and thundering
+against the black rocks, so her name, said the soothsayers, must be
+called "Gquma,"--"the roar of the sea."
+
+_Three_.
+
+In those days the European was quite unknown to the Bantu of
+South-Eastern Africa.  Rumour had vaguely told of the advent of strange
+men with white, bearded faces, who had conquered the "Amalawu"--the
+Hottentots--by means of the thunder and lightning, over which they had
+command.  This was, however, regarded simply as one of the many
+semi-mythical tales which are always current among uncivilised people.
+Now and then, at long intervals, strange, white-winged monsters had been
+seen by the Tshomane gliding over the ocean, but these appearances had
+been classed with meteors, eclipses of the sun and moon, and other
+unexplainable phenomena.  Among savages the unprecedented does not
+occasion nearly so much astonishment as among civilised men, for the
+reason that the former have but a very rudimentary idea of the laws
+governing cause and effect.  Like the early Christians, to whom the
+miraculous was the normal, savages assign all the many things they do
+not understand to the category of the magical.
+
+The explanation of the nature and the advent of the little white waif as
+given by the soothsayers was fully accepted.  The fair-skinned,
+blue-eyed child with the long, shining, yellow locks was looked upon as
+a gracious gift from the undefined but dreadful powers that rule the
+world from the realm of the unseen, a creature to be fostered and
+cherished as a pledge of favour,--to be reverenced as an emanation from
+something that had its dwelling where the sea and the sky met, and that
+swayed the destinies of ordinary men from afar, something the less known
+the more awful.  It must be borne in mind that the brandy-seller, the
+gun-runner, and the loafer had not as yet nearly destroyed all respect
+on the part of the native for the European.
+
+Little Gquma took with strange kindness to her new surroundings.  She
+must have possessed one of those natures--more common among women than
+men--which can easily assimilate themselves to new surroundings.  She
+was apparently about seven years of age.  She talked freely, but of
+course her language could not be understood.  One word she repeated over
+and over again--pointing the while to herself: "Bessie, Bessie."  This
+was supposed to be her name, but the one given by the soothsayers quite
+superseded it.
+
+Gquma remained at the kraal of Gambushe, whither all the things saved
+from the wreck had been carried--two large store-huts having been built
+for their reception.  One day when one of the boxes was opened, the
+child caught sight of a pair of hairbrushes and a large mirror.  These
+she at once seized, bursting into tears at the same time.  She carried
+them away with her, and was soon afterwards seen to place the mirror
+standing against the side of one of the huts.  Then she sat down before
+it, and began brushing out her long, yellow hair, speaking softly to
+herself the while.  Every day thereafter she spent some time before the
+mirror, brushing her hair and sometimes weeping.  In some of the other
+boxes other brushes were found, and these were put aside for Gquma's
+use.
+
+Three white cows had been assigned from the chief's herd for Gquma's
+support, and soon afterwards a law was enacted in terms of which all
+pure white calves born in the Tshomane herds were regarded as "Gquma's
+cattle," and had to be delivered, when a year old, at Gambushe's kraal.
+This tribute was submitted to cheerfully by the people, and it was
+considered a token of good fortune when a cow gave birth to a white
+calf.  In those days virulent cattle diseases were unknown, and in a few
+years "Gquma's cattle" had increased to a herd of several hundreds.  The
+fame of "the child of the sea" spread far and wide, and people used to
+come great distances to see her and her wonderful herd of white cattle.
+
+The property salved from the wreck soon became destroyed by moths and
+damp, consequent on bad storage.  In the course of a few years nothing
+whatever of the textile fabrics was left.  At first some attempt was
+made to clothe Gquma in garments selected from the salved stores, but
+these were mostly of an ill fit, and soon she came to prefer the
+untrammelled nakedness of her little native companions.  These always
+paid her the greatest deference, and acknowledged her authority without
+question.  She quickly picked up the language of the tribe, and she
+appeared to be perfectly happy in her new surroundings.
+
+In the eighteenth century some of the best ideals of the age of chivalry
+were realised among the Bantu tribes of South-Eastern Africa.  Battles
+were fought for honour and not for plunder; in warfare the lives of
+women and children were respected--prisoners were never put to death,
+but were held at ransom.  After a battle the young men of one side would
+often send home their shields and spears by the attendant boys, and
+proceed as honoured guests to the kraals of their late adversaries.  It
+was an age of gentle manners and generous deeds, which withered for ever
+when the butcher Tshaka turned the land into a shambles.
+
+The uneventful years slipped by, and the white waif grew in stature and
+beauty.  Her favourite ornaments were cowrie and other sea-shells.
+Being always regarded as the child of the sea, her fondness for bathing
+was looked upon as appropriate and natural.  On the level sandy beach
+which stretched for miles to the north from the reef on which the ship
+had been wrecked, the great rollers of the Indian Ocean swept in,
+thundering, and here on sunny days, Gquma with her body-guard of boys
+and girls would sport and swim, diving through the combers, and then
+looking back to see them curl over and dash with a thud on the hard
+smooth sand.  On summer days, when the sun beat fiercely on the beach,
+they would spend hours on the banks of one of the many streams that
+trickled down through the forest, plunging every now and then into some
+crystal-clear, fern-fringed pool.
+
+In cold weather Gquma wore for clothing a kaross made of otter-skins,
+which had been tanned to the softness of silk, and sewn together
+cunningly with strands of sinew by an old refugee from one of the inland
+tribes, which excel as workers in peltries.
+
+Gquma grew to be a most lovely woman.  Her skin had browned to a rich
+glowing tint, and the healthy, natural life she led developed her form
+to the highest degree of symmetry.  She was never asked or expected to
+perform labour of any description, the Tshomane people regarding her as
+one who should be left to follow her own devices.  Those who sent her
+would show her what it was good that she should do.
+
+The one conventional practice which she continued was the brushing of
+her hair.  Before the wreck she had evidently been taught to take care
+of her locks, for from the day on which she wept at seeing the
+hairbrushes and the mirror, she had each night and morning brushed her
+hair carefully.  At night, before sleeping, she would twist it together,
+and then coil it around her neck.  In the morning when she arose she
+would shake it out until it fell over her shoulders to below her waist.
+Gquma's brushing of her hair was looked upon as a sort of rite, and the
+function was regarded with the deepest respect, more especially as she
+often wept softly during its performance.
+
+The Tshomane clan, which is located in the 'Mqanduli district,
+Tembuland, is now of comparative insignificance, but in the eighteenth
+century it stood at the head of a tribe of considerable strength and
+importance.  At the advent of Gquma, Sango had been chief for about four
+years.  His "great son" was 'Ndepa, who afterwards became the husband of
+Gquma.  Sango was a man of wisdom, who loved peace, and who kept his
+clan as much as possible within its own territory.  'Ndepa took after
+his father in character.  He was about five years older than Gquma, and
+he married her shortly after she arrived at womanhood.
+
+At the marriage feast of Gquma the whole tribe assembled.  By advice of
+the soothsayers the great dance took place at the sea shore, and instead
+of following the custom in terms of which the bride should have been led
+to her husband's dwelling, Gquma and her maidens stationed themselves
+midway in the cleft of the black reef, where she had been tenderly
+delivered by the destroying waves, and thither the bridegroom went to
+ask his bride of the Ocean.  Gifts of meat, milk, and beer were cast
+into the foam, and the soothsayers read the signs of the murmuring water
+as propitious to the union.
+
+Within a few years of the marriage Sango died, and 'Ndepa became "great
+chief"; but Gquma, rather than he, was looked upon as the head of the
+tribe.
+
+Gquma lived only for about eighteen years after her marriage.  She bore
+to her husband two sons, the eldest of whom was called Begela, and a
+daughter, who was called Bessie.  Begela inherited the chieftainship
+after the death of his father.  During the lifetime of Gquma, 'Ndepa did
+not take another wife.
+
+Gquma died of a mysterious disorder which baffled the skill of several
+renowned doctors.  She lay almost speechless on her mat for many days,
+and she became more and more emaciated.  Then her mind began to wander,
+and her speech was ever of the sea.  On the day she died she was, at her
+own request, carried down to the cleft in the reef.  Just before she
+breathed her last, she called for Bessie, her daughter.  The child was
+brought and placed at her side.  The dying mother strove to speak, but
+was unable to do so.  She partly lifted herself, and pointed across the
+sea with her right hand; then she turned, clasped the child to her
+bosom, and gave out her life with a long-drawn sigh.  In the night a
+terrible storm arose, and the shore afterwards was found to be strewn
+with myriads of dead fish.
+
+When the storm subsided, Gquma's body was carried at low tide to the
+extreme outside verge of the black reef.  After being heavily weighted,
+it was cast into the sea, as also were the hairbrushes and the mirror.
+
+It was noticed that soon after Gquma returned, as all the people
+believed, to the ocean that had given her birth, good fortune seemed to
+have departed from the tribe which had acknowledged her as its honoured
+and beloved chief, and the insignificant remnants of which venerate her
+memory even at the present unromantic day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE TRAMP'S TRAGEDY.
+
+  "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
+  pearls before swine."--_Matthew_ VII, 6.
+
+"From Durban, sir.  Been a matter of three weeks on the road.  Left my
+mate at Kokstad, where he 'listed in the Cape Mounted Rifles.  Wouldn't
+have me because I was half-an-inch too short, and a matter of fifteen
+years too old.
+
+"Yes, looking for a job now, same as lots of others.  You're right, sir,
+times _is_ mortal hard.  I tramped all the way down to Durban from
+Johannesburg.  No one, barring a black, can get taken on there now.
+Twenty years ago this was something of a white man's country;--'tisn't
+no more.
+
+"Yes, it's my own fault; 'most everything that happens to man is,
+barring good luck, and that's often sent special by the devil for the
+sake of what comes afterwards.  Drink? well, _that_ of course.  When a
+man has been tramping all day long in the hot sun, and then lies down so
+tired and blistered that he can't sleep, but lies thinking of the
+chances he has lost and the things he has done, small blame to him if he
+buys threepenn'orth of forgetfulness, even if it _is_ another nail in
+his coffin.  Another nail!  As if any more were wanted.  I tell you,
+sir, most of us tramps are dead and damned long ago, and any parson will
+tell you that when a man's damned there's no hope for him.
+
+"Drink? all sorts.  `Cape Smoke' is bad, and Natal rum is worse, but of
+all the brews to rot the inside out of a man, Transvaal brandy takes the
+cake.  But I will say this for it: a bottle goes mortal far.  I've seen
+more than one man killed by a single bottle, through drinking it too
+quick on an empty stomach.  But I'm too tough; that sort of thing won't
+finish me.
+
+"Let's see.  I first took to the road twenty years ago, just after the
+alluvial petered out at old `Pilgrim's,' and I've been on it ever since
+pretty well, except for a few years in the Transvaal when I was working
+on the Boers' farms before the war, helping them to build.  I'm a mason
+by trade; leastwise I never was in my articles, but I picked it up
+natural like.  I used to get a job that would keep me on a farm
+sometimes for two or three months, and when I got my money, swag it to
+the nearest town.  Then drunk for a fortnight, and the road again until
+I'd found another job."
+
+["Pilgrim's Rest," an alluvial gold-field in the north of the Transvaal,
+rushed in 1873.]
+
+"Well, I suppose 'most every man has something special to look back
+upon; mine, I never talk about.  However, you've given me a good feed
+and a shake-down, and you don't seem to suspect I'm going to try and
+steal your spoons or cut your throat, so I don't see why I shouldn't
+tell you about it; anyhow I'll try.  Just let me light my pipe, and then
+you sit sideways so's you can't see my face, and I'll be able to talk
+better.
+
+"It came about this way: me and a mate left `Pilgrim's' together,
+meaning to tramp to Kimberley, but of course we had to get work on the
+road.  I was just twenty-four years old, and as strong as a horse.  I'd
+not been drinking long, and you couldn't see by me that I'd ever touched
+a drop.
+
+"At Lydenburg we met a Dutchman who told us of a farm about two days'
+journey away, where there was some building wanting to be done, so for
+there we started.  The place was a little way off our course to the
+right, but that didn't matter.  Well, we reached it on the second day,
+and we were at once taken on.  The Boer wanted a `lean-to' built, and
+the bricks and mortar were ready.  The man who'd agreed to do the job
+had hurt his hand and been obliged to go away to a doctor, so the Boer
+was right glad to see us.
+
+"You know, sir, what life is like on a Boer's farm--coffee and biscuit
+first thing in the morning, early dinner of meat and pumpkin, and late
+supper of bread and dripping; lots of coffee, of course, in between.
+This Boer was a good sort and treated us well.  We took the job on as a
+piece, so we worked hard.  We grubbed with the family, listened without
+understanding a word when the old man read the Bible and prayed, and
+helped them (leastwise I did) to sing hymns.  I soon began to pick up a
+little of their lingo, learning a few words every day, but my mate
+didn't know a word of it, and wouldn't learn.
+
+"There were lots of children, mostly small, and a young nephew of the
+old woman's who lived in the house.  His name was Jacob, and he'd long,
+black hair and a cock-eye.  The two eldest children were boys, and the
+next one was a girl of twelve.  She and I became great chums.  She used
+to come out and sit near where I was at work, asking questions about the
+bricks and mortar, and teaching me Dutch words.  She used to laugh like
+the dickens at my way of saying them.  Often, when visitors came, or
+when the old woman made coffee between meals, as she did three or four
+times a day, Hessie (that was her name) would bring me out a cup, and
+watch me drink it.  She didn't like my mate, who was a surly old bear,
+so she would never bring him any, and if I gave him a swig out of mine,
+she'd get as mad as cats, and swear she'd never bring me any more.
+
+"Sometimes she'd ask me all about my people, and get me to describe the
+place I'd come from.  To hear me describing Manchester in my Dutch would
+have made a cow laugh.  She'd want to know all sorts of things, whether
+I'd any sisters, and what they were like, and if I'd a sweetheart, and
+whether I'd ever come back again to the farm after the job was finished.
+She always used to call me `Vellum.'
+
+"Well, the job was finished at last, and me and my mate left the farm
+with about ten pound each, meaning to go straight to Kimberley.  Hessie
+took on a powerful lot when I said good-bye to her, crying and sobbing.
+I was very sorry to say good-bye too, and I sent her back a present of a
+red leather belt with a big steel buckle from Middleburg, where we
+dossed down the first night after leaving the farm.
+
+"I don't know how it was, but although I met four or five of my old
+chums, I never touched a drop of drink at Middleburg, and what's more, I
+didn't want to.  My mate wanted to, sure enough, but I wouldn't let him;
+and to be quite safe we went and slept just outside the town, where we
+couldn't see the lights in the bars, nor hear the boys shouting.
+
+"Next morning we started for Pretoria, and there we both got on the
+bend.  In a week all our money was spent, and we were then kicked out of
+the hotel.  Next day me and my mate got blaming each other, and it ended
+in my giving him a most almighty hammering, after which we parted.
+
+"I hung about Pretoria for a while, loafing mostly, and doing odd jobs.
+Then I got work in the country again, and when it was finished, went
+back to Pretoria and drunk out what I'd made.  This sort of thing went
+on for about five years--a few months' work at which I'd earn a bit of
+money--then a couple of weeks' spree.  After this a loaf around looking
+for jobs and picking up whatever I could get.
+
+"You're right, sir, sometimes I was in very low water.  I've lived with
+the niggers in the locations at the lower end of Pretoria, and I've seen
+some queer sights.  I lay ill in a hut there once for three months, and
+never had a doctor near me; a woman just physicked me with roots, and
+did me a power of good.  When I got better I swore off drink for the
+twentieth time, and then, as luck would have it, I dropped on a Dutchman
+who wanted a house built.  He lent me a couple of pound to buy clothes
+with, and then loaded me up on his wagon and took me to his farm, which
+was not very far from Middleburg.
+
+"After the job, which took me four months, was finished, instead of
+going back to Pretoria I thought I'd drop round and see how little
+Hessie and the others on the farm where I'd got my first job over five
+years ago, were getting on.  I'd more than twenty pound in my pocket,
+and as I'd nearly died through spreeing after I was sick a few months
+back, I made up my mind to keep on the straight, at all events for some
+little time to come.
+
+"So I bought an old pony and a secondhand saddle from the man I'd been
+working for, and then I rode into Middleburg, where I got a bran-new
+rig-out at one of the stores.  Next day I went on to Hessie's farm.  The
+old man and the old woman were away visiting, and the children, who were
+nearly all standing outside, had grown so that I hardly knew one of
+them.  It seemed funny that none of them knew me from a crow.
+
+"I just hitched my horse on to a stake, and went straight up to the
+front door.  Not one of the children had recognised me, so they just
+lolled about and took no notice, same as Dutch children pretty nigh
+always does.  The door was open, but I knocked, meaning to ask for
+Hessie, and after I'd seen her and got a cup of coffee, to go back to
+Middleburg.  Just then, after I'd knocked, there came down the passage a
+tall, strapping young woman with the prettiest face I'd ever seen.  She
+shook hands same as the Dutch always do with strangers that come on
+horseback, and asked me to come inside, so inside I came.  I sat down on
+the old `bank' (sofa) with the straight back and the bottom of crossed
+thongs, that looked just as if no one had sat on it since I'd left the
+farm, and then I began to ask the young woman about Hessie.  When she
+heard my voice she gave a start, and then jumped up and called out in
+her own language: `Why it's Vellum,' so it turned out to be Hessie after
+all.  She just ran at me, holding out both her hands, and laughing and
+blushing.  Well, in less than no time I was talking to her about all
+sorts of things, and drinking cups of coffee as hard as ever I could.  I
+could now speak Dutch quite well, but she'd hardly give me a chance to
+speak at all, being so full of questions, and asking another before I'd
+had time to answer the one.  She was a wonderful pretty girl--very
+plump, with brown eyes and hair, and rosy cheeks.  I'd never have known
+her again.  She kept saying she wondered how it was she'd not known me,
+and then she'd get quite sad like, and say she thought I looked terrible
+old, and asked me if I'd had lots of trouble.  I said yes, and then she
+pressed me to tell her what my trouble was.  I told her a long yarn
+about my father and mother having died, and myself having been laid up
+for three months with fever (which was my name for the `rats,' and
+worse).  I felt so bad at deceiving her, that I was sorry I'd come back.
+All at once she jumped up and ran out of the room.  When she returned
+her cheeks were very red, and her eyes bright.  After a while I noticed
+that she had put on the belt I'd sent her long ago as a good-bye gift,
+and then that it was still nearly new.  Then she called in her brothers
+and sisters, and we all shook hands, and they made me welcome all round.
+
+"Well, she made me off-saddle my horse, and would hear of nothing but
+that I must stay for the night.  It was just a piece of luck my finding
+any one at the farm, because the old man was preparing to shift to
+another farm up near Lydenburg, which he had bought.  That evening we
+sat up late in the `voorhuis' (parlour), and talked to one another long
+after every one else had gone to bed.  Hessie told me all about herself,
+how she had missed me, and how she used to wonder where I was, and
+whether we'd ever meet again.
+
+"I lay that night, not in the little outside room that I'd used before,
+but in the big strangers' room, where there was a four-poster with a
+feather-bed so thick and soft that a bigger man than me might have got
+lost in it.  Will you believe me, sir, when I tell you that I didn't
+sleep a wink?  I just lay awake thinking of the life I'd been leading
+and the things I'd done, and feeling as if I'd made everything I touched
+dirty.  Then the way I'd had to lie to the girl made me feel so hot that
+I'd to kick off all the blankets, and that ashamed, that if I'd known
+where to find my saddle and bridle I'd have stole out and cleared.
+
+"Next day the old man and the old woman turned up, and right glad they
+were to see me, too.  They said I must stay on for a spell.  Then the
+old man remembered that he wanted some building done at the other farm,
+so he asked me to go there with them and take on another job.  This I
+agreed to do, and Hessie was that glad, her eyes just danced.
+
+"In about a fortnight's time we packed the wagons and started for the
+new farm, which lay in the mountains about fifteen miles, just as the
+crow flies, to the westward of Lydenburg.  We reached there in four
+days, and I began building at once with bricks from some old walls which
+we broke down.  There was a sort of a shanty already standing, but the
+old man wanted a bran-new house put up, and I took on the contract to do
+the mason-work, assisted by his boys.  What with brick-burning and
+laying the foundation, it promised to be a six months' job.
+
+"I just lived with the family like in the old days, only friendlier.
+Hessie could not do enough for me, and talked and went on with me just
+like she used to as a child.  By and by this young woman's fondness
+began to make me feel queer.  I was very fond of her, too, but a bit
+afraid of her at the same time; she was so mortal good and innocent, and
+the worst of it was she believed me to be the same.  Many's the time
+I've been sorrowful for days together through thinking of my past life,
+and wishing it had been different.  Supposing I'd kept on the straight
+those five years, I might perhaps have put by enough money to buy a
+little farm, and then have married Hessie; for the old man liked me and
+would, I'm pretty sure, have helped us with some stock.  These thoughts
+used to worry me more and more; it was just terrible to think of the
+chance I'd lost.  And then the girl got fonder and fonder of me, and
+used to look sad when I'd keep out of her way, as I often did for two or
+three days at a spell.
+
+"No, I never once thought of trying, as you say, `to live down the
+past,' and marry her.  You see, I couldn't.  There were good reasons
+against it.  I've not told you half about the life I led those five
+years.  Drink alone was enough.  I knew that sometimes when the thirst
+for lush took me, nothing on earth would keep me from drinking.  Once I
+went to Lydenburg where I was not known, and stayed a week just because
+I felt I must go on the bend.  I was drunk on the quiet for three days
+in a back room of the hotel, and then I stayed four days sober before
+returning, so as to let the signs work off.  But there was worse than
+the drink...
+
+"After I'd been on the farm about six months, young Jacob, the old
+woman's nephew, turned up.  He had been away down colony for nearly a
+year.  Jacob had grown into a long, thin, slouching galoot with a yellow
+face and a live-long-day scowl.  His squint made him seem to be always
+looking round the corner.  He, it turned out, had asked Hessie to marry
+him just before I'd conic back, and she'd not said no, nor yet yes, to
+him; but just that she wanted to wait a bit, and that she'd see when lie
+returned from the colony.  I soon saw that Jacob was hot spoons on
+Hessie, and dreadful jealous of me.  For a while I enjoyed making him
+mad, but when I saw how bad he looked I got sorry for him, and tried to
+avoid the girl.  Then _she_ began to look miserable, and, I can't tell
+you, what with one thing and another, I didn't just know where I was.
+
+"One day, just about a month before I expected the job to be finished, I
+was standing by myself working at pointing the foundation, when who
+should come round the corner but Hessie.  She sat down on a stone close
+by.  `Vellum,' says she, `Jacob has again been asking me to marry him,
+and I've told him I won't.'  `But,' says I, `why don't you marry him,
+Hessie? he's got a good farm, and I'm sure he's fond enough of you.'
+
+"When I'd begun speaking I'd my face towards my work, and just when I
+stopped I turned to look at Hessie.  She was leaning forward with her
+mouth half-open and her cheeks pale.  For a while she didn't speak.
+Then she gave a gulp and said, breathing hard: `Oh, Vellum, is it you
+who says that to me?'  I felt that sorry, I could have cut my throat.  I
+knew now that I loved the girl as I'd never loved any one else, and here
+she was offering herself to me and I couldn't take the gift.  I cursed
+my own folly again only hotter, and what with one thought and another, I
+clean forgot for a few moments where I was, and that Hessie was there.
+
+"When I looked round again Hessie was still staring at me, and then the
+thought came to tell her a lie which would hurt a bit at first, but do
+her good in the end.  So I just said in a sort of jokey way: `Why,
+Hessie, if I weren't a married man I'd think you were in love with me.'
+
+"At that she gave a start and another gulp and said: `Are you truly a
+married man, Vellum?'  Well, thinks I, it's no use turning back now, so
+I said: `Yes, Hessie; didn't you know I've been married four years, and
+that my wife has gone to stay with her people at Potchefstrom?'  At this
+she just stood up, and walked away.
+
+"Well, thinks I to myself, the sooner I'm out of this the better; but of
+course I couldn't leave before my job was finished.  I saw very little
+of Hessie now except at table.  She went about very pale, and never once
+looked me in the eye, for which I was very thankful.  Not many days
+after our talk, the old man told me she'd promised to marry Jacob, who,
+all the same, seemed to scowl worse than ever, and looked as mean as a
+rotten banana.
+
+"As bad luck would have it, no sooner was my contract finished than the
+war with the English broke out.  Then Lydenburg was in a state of siege,
+so I couldn't get away.  After a while a lot of Boers trecked on to the
+farm, and formed a `laager' there.  Then a commandant came from near
+Pretoria, and took charge.  This happened to be a man who'd often enough
+seen me blind drunk in the streets between my spells of work.  I'd done
+a job for him, too, and he'd humbugged me out of two pound ten.  I felt
+sure he'd told my old man all about me, but beyond looking a bit strange
+for a day or two, it made no difference in him or in the old woman--they
+were just as kind as ever.  But all the other Boers looked very sour at
+me, and would never answer when I'd speak to them.
+
+"Jacob had a cousin who was a parson--and the dead spit of him--right
+down to the squint and the scowl.  He was what they called a `dopper,'
+[a South African Calvinist], which means in parsons one who sings very
+slowly, and speaks through his nose.  This chap came one Sunday and
+preached to the Boers.  His sermon was all about some folks called the
+Amalekites, and a chap called Agag, and that the Lord's chosen people
+must hew to pieces all folks who weren't chosen.  He also told them they
+were to be careful of spies, and he talked a lot about wolves in sheep's
+clothing.  I was a long way off, but he ramped and shouted so loud, I
+could hear it all.
+
+"Next day the old man told me on the quiet that I was suspected of being
+a spy, and that my life was in clanger.  I told him this was ridiculous,
+because I'd been on the farm for months before the war began, and had no
+friends outside the `laager.'  He said he knew this, but that all the
+others were against me, and I must be careful.
+
+"A couple of days after this the old man told me I'd have to clear out
+without further delay, because all the other Boers hated me like poison,
+and they meant to try me by court-martial for being a spy, and perhaps
+shoot me.  He said that Jacob would take me away on horseback that
+night, and then I could lie by during the following day, and make my way
+to the English lines at Lydenburg when it got dark again.  Just after
+midnight we were to creep away to a bush where our horses would be tied,
+and ride on from there.  The old man gave me twenty-five pounds, which
+was all the money he had by him, and said he would send me the balance
+when the war was over, and I'd given him my address.
+
+"That night I went into my room, and pretended to go to bed as usual.  I
+just put my few little things together, and then I blew out the candle
+and sat waiting in the dark, feeling very lonesome and uneasy.
+
+"By and by I heard a light tap at the door, so I opened it, and there I
+found Hessie with a Hottentot servant-girl named Griet, who used to wash
+my clothes.  They came in on tip-toe, shut the door, and then Hessie
+drew me to one side and whispered very softly: `Vellum,' says she, `you
+must do what I tell you now, quickly, and ask no questions.'  `All
+right, Hessie,' says I, `what am I to do?'  `You must go into that
+corner of the room and take off all your clothes, and I will do the same
+in the opposite one.  Then Griet will bring yours to me and mine to you,
+which you must put on.  Do this at once, and then I will tell you the
+rest.'
+
+"I could tell from the girl's way of speaking that she was very much in
+earnest, so without saying anything I just went into the corner and took
+off my clothes.  In a few moments Griet carried them away, and brought
+me Hessie's, which I put on.  They fitted me quite well.
+
+"Just then Hessie stepped out of her corner and came to me in the dark.
+`Now, Vellum,' says she, `just go with Griet, and when she tells you,
+steal out of the "laager" and follow her.  Then walk as quickly as you
+can along the Lydenburg road until daybreak, when you must hide in the
+bush until night comes again.  From there you can easily reach the
+Lydenburg "laager" before next morning.'
+
+"She then took my two hands and pressed them very hard.  `Vellum,' says
+she, `we will never meet again; think kindly of me, for I love you very
+dearly.'  She then let go my hands, and put her arms around my neck.
+`Good-bye, Vellum,' says she, `give that to your wife when you see her,'
+and then she gave me a long, loving kiss.  Then she and Griet left the
+room together, before I'd been able to say a word.
+
+"Now that I knew I'd never see Hessie again, I felt more knocked of a
+heap than I'd ever felt in my life, and hot with shame at the lie I'd
+let her go away believing.  I sat in the room and waited for about an
+hour, feeling quite queer in Hessie's clothes, and liking to feel that
+what now touched me had touched her that was so good, and wondering
+whether, if I escaped, I'd have the grit in me to try and be a better
+man for her sake.  I had a big `cappie' on, which quite covered my face.
+I kept wondering why the plan for getting me away had been changed; but
+I guessed Hessie had some good reason for what she'd done.
+
+"Then Griet came in and told me to follow her quickly.  We went out by
+the front door.  She was barefoot, and I just in my socks, and carrying
+my boots.  We crept round the house in the shadow of the wall, and stole
+down the garden, which was long and narrow, with quince hedges on each
+side.  We crossed a stream of water at the other end, and then walked
+quickly up the hill opposite, until we came to the road, along which we
+went as hard as we could.  Then I wanted to put on my boots, so we
+turned a bit out of the road, and sat down under a bush.
+
+"Griet then said she'd go back, so I gave her half-a-sovereign for
+herself, and my kind love and thanks to take to Hessie.  Griet told me I
+was to listen for a horse's footsteps, and when I heard this, to take
+cover until the horseman had passed.  Griet then said `Good-bye, Boss,'
+and we shook hands, and she went back.
+
+"I walked along the road as quick as I could, and after going for about
+a quarter of an hour I heard a shot far ahead.  This gave me a bit of a
+start, but I knew there was nothing for it but to keep my ears and eyes
+open, and go straight on, so straight on I went.
+
+"Soon after this, I heard the sound of horses' feet coming on in front,
+so I just went a few yards out of the road, and lay down among some
+rocks.  In a few minutes a man rode past leading a horse by the bridle.
+This was Jacob, and he was laughing to himself quite loud.  After
+passing me by a few yards, he stopped and dismounted.  Then he let go
+the horse he had been leading, and gave it a heavy kick in the stomach.
+The horse just trotted away a few yards and began to feed.  Jacob
+mounted again and rode on, still laughing.  I tried to think what all
+this meant, but it got over me altogether.  The last thing I heard of
+him was his laugh.  What made it so queer was that I'd never heard him
+laugh before.
+
+"After Jacob had got well past I went over to the horse, which was still
+feeding, and found it was my old moke, ready saddled-up.  Here, thinks
+I, is a bit of luck; so I got on him and rode away, taking it easy, for
+I knew I could not reach Lydenburg that night, and I meant just to
+overhaul a gully full of scrub that I knew of about ten miles ahead, and
+where I could lie by next day.
+
+"As I was going slowly along, my old horse began to cock his ears and
+snort, and then he gave a shy that nearly threw me out of the saddle.  I
+looked, and saw something lying just at the side of the road.  It was
+not a very dark night; there was no moon, but the stars could be seen
+every now and then through the flying scud.  Seeing that the thing lay
+quite still, I got off to look more closely at it.  I found it was a
+dead body...  I at once thought of the shot and of Jacob's laugh.  I
+noticed a big slouch hat lying alongside, which somehow reminded me of
+my own.
+
+"I laid my hand on the body, and found that it was quite warm.  I felt
+farther and found...  My God!...  It was Hessie!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"She was quite dead, shot from behind through the back and chest...  I
+was standing in a puddle of her blood...  I saw it all now.  That
+damnable scoundrel Jacob had brought her out here and shot her, thinking
+it was me.  She had found out his meaning in offering to take me away,
+and come and died in my place...
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"So now you can see, sir, why it is of no use your talking to me of
+`turning over a new leaf,' and `leading a different life.'  I'm sick and
+tired of everything, and I'll be a drunken tramp until I die in a ditch.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"When the war was over I went back to look for Jacob and kill him at
+sight.  But the devil had got the best of me.  Jacob's neck had been
+broken by the capsizing of a wagon...  I often hear that laugh of his...
+Some day I'll hear it in hell."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE SEED OF THE CHURCH.
+
+  "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
+
+  Tertullian.
+
+_One_.
+
+Matshaka sat on a stone on the highest south-eastern spur of the Intsiza
+Mountain, just overlooking the Rode Wesleyan Mission Station, one Sunday
+morning in the month of November 1880, and listened to the faint
+throbbing of the church bell.  Beyond the mission, the broken hills of
+Pondoland, divided by the winding Umzimvubu--"the river of the
+sea-cows"--stretched away towards the ocean until they merged with the
+sky in an opaline haze.  Around the Intsiza and on the surrounding
+mountain ranges the air was clear; and the distant features of the
+landscape looked unnaturally near--an almost certain sign of imminent
+rain.
+
+It was the season of thunder-storms.  The sun beat fiercely into the
+glowing valleys, but on the mountain-tops the air was cool.  Already the
+heavy cumulus clouds were curdling over the distant Drakensberg, and
+raising their white and shining masses over the near Xomlenzi range.  In
+the course of a few hours they would unite and sweep over valley and
+mountain, with shoutings of thunder and wind, and volleys of lightning,
+hail, and rain.
+
+Along the almost invisible footpaths the people could be seen
+approaching the church from many directions.  They suggested ants slowly
+creeping to a nest.  Matshaka looked at them and thought deeply.  The
+light breeze that almost invariably streams for hours against an
+approaching thunder-storm carried to his ear the clear notes of the
+bell.  The beats grouped themselves in sets of three: what was the bell
+trying to say?  It seemed as if a word were being repeated over and over
+again in the ringing.  At length he found it--"Intsiza, Intsiza,
+Intsiza;" that was the word.  "Intsiza" in the Kafir language means
+"refuge."  The mountain was so called on account of its broken and
+involuted valleys which, in the oft-recurring inter-tribal wars between
+the Pondos, the Bacas, and the Xesibes, afforded a refuge to the
+vanquished.  And now the church bell tolled out the word so clearly that
+Matshaka wondered how the thing could ever have puzzled him--"Intsiza,
+Intsiza, Intsiza."
+
+Matshaka was a Pondo.  A heathen and a polygamist, he had lived his
+fifty years without a single aspiration towards anything better than the
+surrounding savage conditions afforded him.  A man of strong character,
+he had amassed considerable wealth, and attained to an influential
+position in his clan.  From where he sat listening to the bell he could
+see a large herd of his cattle grazing in the valley below his kraal,
+which was situated about four miles from the Rode Mission.
+
+Pondoland, like every state under savage rule, was the scene of cruelty,
+oppression, and misgovernment in most forms.  Exposed to the unchecked
+rapacity of the chiefs, the unhappy people were always in danger of
+death, or confiscation of their property upon some puerile pretext.  The
+one quality which was of advantage to its possessor was cunning.
+Frugality and industry resulted in the amassing of wealth, and wealth
+excited the envy and cupidity of the rulers, who, through the agency of
+the witch-doctor, were never at a loss for a pretext for "eating up" the
+owner.  Courage availed little, for what could one do against numbers?
+Honesty would have been ridiculously out of place; conspicuous ability
+minus cunning would have excited sure and fatal jealousy.  Cunning
+combined with force of character generally enabled a man to die a
+natural death--even though rich; provided, of course, that he had been
+judiciously liberal in the right quarters, and had consistently
+supported the strong against the weak.
+
+Matshaka had used strength and cunning, had used them unscrupulously,
+and prospered accordingly.  Throughout his long life he had stood on the
+side of the oppressor, and shared the spoil of the oppressed.  The words
+"right" and "wrong" had, practically speaking, no meaning for him.  But
+quite recently, something like the first faint glimmerings of a moral
+sense awoke in his soul.  The glaring and palpable frauds of the
+witch-doctor had never deceived him, his intellect was too acute and his
+temperament too reasonable.  Lately, a vague and undefined sense of
+general dissatisfaction with his surroundings had gradually grown, and
+after this developed the conviction that everything he knew, himself
+included, was utterly and hopelessly bad.  Thereafter the "beer-drink"
+knew him no more, he held aloof from the "eating up," which had been his
+favourite and profitable diversion, and he begun to shun his fellow-men.
+Soon he became an object of suspicion.
+
+Matshaka sat on the mountain-top and looked at the church far below him.
+It was built on a spur which ran out abruptly from the lower zone of
+the Intsiza.  The bell had ceased ringing, but the beats still kept
+sounding in his head.  Intsiza--Refuge.  Yes, the mission was at least a
+refuge for those fortunate enough to escape from the dreadful "smelling
+out," a sanctuary which had always been respected.  He had, on the
+previous Sunday, attended church for the first time in his life, and
+what he heard there increased his dissatisfaction and unrest ten fold.
+He could not have told what it was that impelled him to go.  He had, of
+course, often heard accounts of what was taught in churches, but the
+idea of an omnipotent God coming into the world in the semblance of a
+poor and insignificant member of a despised class, had always appeared
+to him as ridiculous.  The son of God going out mightily to war with a
+blood-red banner streaming over him would have seemed appropriate to his
+conception of deity, but meekness and submission as attributes of
+Godhead were too preposterous.
+
+Yet some of the things he had heard on the previous Sunday stuck in his
+memory.  "Come unto Me, all ye who labour and are heavily laden,"
+impressed him particularly.  He himself was one of the heavily laden;
+who and where was the God that gave relief to such?  Matshaka sat
+thinking over this until long after the service was over, and he was
+still thinking of it when the faint beats of the bell, which was now
+sounding for afternoon service, fell upon his tense ear.  As if in
+answer to his unspoken questions the wind swept up the one clear word:
+"Intsiza, Intsiza, Intsiza."
+
+The sun suddenly darkened, and, glancing to the westward, Matshaka saw
+the great bulging thunder-clouds sweeping up in a serried mass.  He
+arose and quickly descended the mountain.  He reached his dwelling just
+as the storm broke.
+
+_Two_.
+
+The germ of unrest planted in the congenial soil of Matshaka's mind grew
+and branched until it filled and dominated the man's whole being.  The
+result was a condition of hyperaesthesia.  He seemed to be more alive
+than formerly; things previously unnoticed forced themselves on his
+attention and became significant with mysterious meanings.  Everything
+in his environment hurt him.  His wives were mere animals that he had
+purchased for his pleasure and use, his sons and daughters were mere
+savages without his force of intellect.  He had hitherto held aloof from
+all who were Christians, and had strenuously opposed the missionaries.
+Now, however, he felt a pressing need for intellectual and spiritual
+communion, but there was not a living soul in the whole circle of his
+acquaintance with whom he felt he could speak of what was torturing him.
+His thoughts seemed to focus themselves upon the missionary at the
+Rode, but he could not make up his mind to speak.  What he really needed
+was some one to explain to him his own mental and spiritual condition, a
+talker rather than a listener.  His longings were quite undefined, and
+their object utterly unintelligible even to himself; had one asked him
+as to the nature of his trouble he could hardly have even guessed at its
+nature.
+
+During the week of suffering following the Sunday spent upon the
+Intsiza, one idea continually haunted Matshaka, the idea of becoming a
+Christian.  When first this presented itself the notion was summarily
+dismissed, but it kept persistently recurring.  Public opinion is
+probably a more potent coercive among savages than among civilised men,
+and for an intellectual savage with Matshaka's antecedents to turn his
+back on the traditions of a lifetime, and cleave publicly to what his
+fellows held in contemptuous scorn, involved consequences that might
+well appal the bravest.
+
+Next Sunday, however, found Matshaka at the Rode Church.  When he
+arrived there were not more than a dozen persons in the building.  It
+was a rainy day, and the congregation was consequently small.  He took
+his seat right at the back, in one of the corners, and from there
+watched the dripping worshippers as they arrived one by one.  An old man
+named Langabuya especially attracted his attention.  This man had been
+"smelt out" for witchcraft some seven or eight years previously, and
+Matshaka had assisted at his "eating up."  He had managed to gain the
+sanctuary of the mission, and thus to save his life.  He had been a rich
+man, almost as rich as Matshaka, but all his possessions had been taken.
+Now he lived at the mission, his sole substance, as Matshaka knew,
+being a few goats.  Yet he looked contented with his lot, and at peace
+with all men.
+
+The service began with a hymn sung by the congregation.  The natives are
+natural musicians, and they easily acquire the faculty of part-singing.
+The harmony seemed to intensify the discord and unrest of Matshaka's
+troubled spirit; all the events of his turbulent life seemed to crowd in
+on his mind as the past is said to overwhelm the consciousness of a
+drowning man.
+
+The hymn over, a prayer was said by the minister, but it made no
+impression on Matshaka; the ideas were pitched in a key to which his
+mind could not yet vibrate.  After the prayer another hymn was sung, and
+then the minister opened the Bible and said he was going to read the
+Word of God.  This statement set Matshaka's mind on the alert; now he
+would hear the very words spoken by the majestic and all-powerful God to
+the men He had made.  It was with an almost sick feeling of
+disappointment the forlorn man soon learnt that the words being spoken
+were not those of the God towards whom his spirit was passionately
+stretching forth its hands, but of one of His many prophets, who were,
+after all, only men.
+
+The chapter happened to be the second in the Epistle of Paul to the
+Colossians.  Matshaka listened to the sentences read by the minister in
+a sonorous voice and with excellent execution, and presently felt an
+unfamiliar stir within him.  When the minister reached the thirteenth
+verse: "And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
+flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all
+trespasses," something seemed to transfix the heart and then the brain
+of the desolate man sitting in the corner of the church, with bent head,
+and face hidden in his hands.
+
+Then happened to Matshaka what happened to Saul of Tarsus when on the
+road to Damascus: a great light from Heaven shone round about him.  This
+was succeeded by a darkness as of death.  Then the scales fell from his
+eyes, and he saw with a blinding clearness of vision.  That strange new
+birth, that awakening of the soul which transfigures those who genuinely
+experience it, was his; let those doubt it who may, this experience is
+the great _fact_ in some lives.  Its existence is ignored by many,
+denied by a few, and explained satisfactorily by none.  The Christian
+explanation is partly vitiated by attributing it solely to Christian
+influences; the fact being that it was well known in ancient times
+amongst Pagan nations.  Moreover it is in these days realised by many to
+whom Christianity, in some of its most important aspects, is a book
+sealed with adamant.  The materialistic attempt at an explanation is
+quite untenable.  Conversion, the conviction of sin, the awakening to a
+higher life, that thunder-trump which separates the many goats from the
+few sheep of our past, and summons the soul to that seat of agony from
+which it can and must discern good from evil, without speciousness or
+self-deception, is as real and fundamentally natural as the earthquake,
+and as tremendous in its effects.
+
+Matshaka broke into a passion of sobs which he vainly strove to stifle.
+At the conclusion of the reading the minister came down the aisle, and
+kneeling next to the penitent, besought the Lord to save this sinner,
+whose spirit was broken and whose pride lay in the dust.  The
+congregation prayed silently in unison, not one turned his head to look.
+They well knew what was happening; most of the elder members had
+undergone a similar experience.
+
+A short time elapsed and then Matshaka's sobs ceased.  When the ordinary
+service proceeded he became quite calm.  After its close, the minister
+met the penitent, took him by the hand, and led him apart.  It was
+eventually settled that he was to attend regularly for instruction each
+day at the mission, before being formally received as a church member.
+
+When Matshaka left the mission for his home the rain had cleared off;
+the steep, green slopes of the Intsiza shone in the sunlight, and
+foaming cataracts shot down the gleaming crags.  In his eyes was a
+new-born light, and his heart was the home of a virginal peace from
+whose gentle face the spirits of wrath had fled away--never to return.
+
+_Three_.
+
+Probably no more villainous and unmitigated fraud than the Kafir
+"isanuse" or witch-doctor cumbers the earth.  Pretending to the faculty
+of divination, he trains his powers of observation and memory to an
+extraordinary extent.  Every trivial circumstance coming within the
+sphere of his cognisance is hoarded with a view to future use, and by
+means of spies he is kept informed of all going on among the people of
+his clan.  Rich and influential men are, of course, the objects of his
+keenest regard.  Nothing is too unimportant to claim his attention.  The
+pattern of a snuff-box, a dent in an assegai handle or blade, the number
+of cowrie shells in a necklet or armlet--all facts of this description
+are noted with the view to possible use against the owner, should it be
+advisable to convict him of practising black magic.  Such facts can be
+used in this way, for instance: if a man be accused of causing any one's
+illness or death, it is very useful to be able to say--"You took the
+assegai with the crack in the handle that you mended with the sinew of a
+she-goat last spring, dug a hole with it in front of the sick man's hut,
+and buried therein" (whatever the particular supposed magical substance
+may be).  This knowledge of detail fills the spectators with awe at the
+witch-doctor's powers of divination.  All the friends of the accused
+know that he possesses an assegai mended in the manner described, and
+they at once feel that he is guilty.
+
+Superimposed upon all this fraud is a growth of self-deception; no doubt
+many of these wretches believe themselves to be possessed of magical
+powers.
+
+When a witch-doctor is consulted, a present, such as an ox, a sheep, or
+a goat--according to the rank and wealth of the person seeking his
+advice--is always brought.
+
+Such person, with his friends, sits down in front of the witch-doctor's
+hut.  Having already been advised by a spy of the probability of such a
+visit being made, the witch-doctor--after asserting his dignity by
+keeping his visitors waiting for a suitable period--comes forward, and
+without any greeting, states to the startled strangers the object of
+their visit.
+
+Those consulting a witch-doctor are bound by custom to "vuma," or
+acknowledge the truth of every statement he makes, whether it be true or
+false.  Thus, supposing a child to be ill, and the parents to have come
+to consult the witch-doctor as to who has bewitched it--for all illness
+is assumed to be caused by "umtagati," or witchcraft--the witch-doctor
+might say: "You, Sogolima," (or whoever it may be), "have come to find
+out who it is that has bewitched your child that is ill."  At once all
+would clap their hands loudly, and call out "Siyavuma," which means, "we
+acknowledge."  A false statement is sometimes purposely made.  For
+instance, in the case we are supposing, the witch-doctor might say next:
+"It is a girl that is sick," whereas as a matter of fact it is a boy.
+The audience would, nevertheless, cry out "Siyavuma," but involuntarily;
+the exclamation would not be so loud, nor would the hand-clap be so
+energetic as if a true statement had been made.  Then the witch-doctor
+would say: "No, you are lying; it is not a girl that is sick, but a
+boy."  Then "Siyavuma" would break forth with a loud shout, and all
+would be struck with terror at the wonderful powers of the "isanuse."
+
+Usually the witch-doctor takes his cue from the chief as to the
+selection of victims.  Women practise this horrible trade rather more
+often than men.
+
+Whilst it was yet early morning of the Sunday following that upon which
+Matshaka had attended church, and floated away from his past life on a
+flood of penitent tears, small bodies of men could be seen trooping over
+the hills from every direction towards the kraal of Nomaduma, priestess
+and witch-doctor, renowned over the whole country-side for skill in
+occult arts.  Her dwelling was situated at the foot of a conical hill
+which rose abruptly for about six hundred feet, and ended in a bare,
+rocky point, fringed close to its summit with large, loose boulders.
+This hill is known as the "Bonxa," a word which means the breast of a
+woman, in some of the northern Bantu dialects.  It is a striking object
+in the landscape, and has been the scene of many a horrible tragedy.
+All wizards detected anywhere in the neighbourhood were dragged thither
+for execution.
+
+An hour after sunrise several hundred men had assembled, and fresh
+arrivals happened every few moments.  The men were ranged in the form of
+a crescent along the hill-side, and facing the witch-doctor's hut.  A
+larger party than usual approached.  This consisted of the chief Makanda
+with his councillors and other attendants.  They took up a position
+midway between the central portion of the crescent-shaped crowd and the
+"isanuse's" dwelling.  Here they sat down and waited in silence.
+
+All the men bore arms when they came.  Some had guns, many had spears
+and assegais, and a few carried clubs, "amabunguza."  All the weapons,
+however, had been placed together in an empty hut about forty yards to
+the right of that occupied by Nomaduma.  The sun shone fiercely from a
+cloudless sky, and not a breath of wind could be felt.  The men sat
+absolutely mute and motionless.
+
+About half-an-hour after the arrival of the chief, the wicker door of
+the hut was drawn suddenly aside, and Nomaduma, the "isanuse," appeared.
+She was a tall, slender woman of about forty-five years of age.  Her
+features were emaciated, and her hair drawn out into innumerable long
+locks, which were stiffened with grease and red clay.  Her eyes were
+bright, and her cruel lips, partially withdrawn, showed her dazzlingly
+white teeth, which were beautifully small and even.  Her only garment
+was a robe of tanned calfskin, which was draped around her waist and
+hips.  Encircling her body, under her thin and pendent breasts, was a
+girdle made of the dried skins of snakes, twisted together.  From her
+neck depended a number of pieces of bone, fragments of dried and
+polished wood of different sorts, and various little skin bags.  But the
+most striking element of her attire was the innumerable dry, inflated
+gall-bladders which were fastened all over her in bunches and festoons.
+These were the gall-bladders of sheep and goats, some hundreds of which
+are an essential part of the witch-doctor's paraphernalia.
+
+When Nomaduma appeared, a low murmur, which lasted for a few seconds,
+arose, and then dead silence reigned.  She stood erect and gazed fixedly
+at the sun; then she turned slowly towards the gibbous moon which was
+sinking in the west.  She appeared to affect being unaware of the
+presence of the chief and his crowd of followers.  Moving very slowly,
+she took a few paces towards where Makanda was sitting, and then she
+paused, closing her eyes and throwing her head back, as her body and
+limbs stiffened.  After a silence of a few minutes, and without changing
+her posture, she spoke:
+
+"The chief has come to seek my help against the false friends who seek
+to do him evil."
+
+From hundreds of eager throats the one word "Siyavuma" burst out in a
+great shout, to the accompaniment of a simultaneous clap from the same
+number of pairs of hands.  Dead silence immediately followed, and after
+a short pause Nomaduma continued:
+
+"The chief was about to go forth to attack his enemies."  (Here she made
+a sweep with her hand to southward, the direction in which the Cwera
+country lay.) "Siyavuma."
+
+"The chief bade his `war-doctor' (inyanga) prepare the pot of magic
+medicines and place it on the roof of his hut, so that the spirits of
+his fathers (imishologu), that dwell in the unseen, might make his men
+brave and his enemies faint-hearted."
+
+"Siyavuma."
+
+"In the darkness of the night the stealthy steps of the traitor
+approached.  Then his perfidious hands bore away the pot, which he
+afterwards gave with the potent medicines of the war-doctor to a
+messenger sent to receive it by the enemy."
+
+"Siyavuma."
+
+"When the spirits of his fathers came to the chief's hut, and found that
+the medicines were gone, they departed in anger, thinking that the chief
+and his tribe held them in contempt."
+
+"Siyavuma."
+
+"Those who wish evil to the chief are few, but they are crafty.  Two men
+only are guilty in this matter, one bore the pot of medicines away, and
+the other afterwards delivered it to the messenger of the enemy."
+"Siyavuma."
+
+"These traitors were incited to this deed by greed, they having been
+promised large rewards by the enemy for their treachery."
+
+"Siyavuma."
+
+"The wicked ones have called themselves the friends of the chief, and
+they were trusted by him; one of them is present, but the other has
+feared to come before my face."
+
+There was no shout of "Siyavuma" at this, but a deep and confused murmur
+arose among the men.  It seemed to swell and break and shrink, and then
+to wander backwards and forwards and up and down the curving lines of
+the crescent, as if endowed with volition.  It was like an evil spirit
+seeking a victim to destroy.  Each man looked at his neighbour with
+shrinking distrust, and tried to draw away from contact with a possible
+wizard.  At length the shuddering sound died, and a tense and terrible
+silence reigned.
+
+Nomaduma stamped with her foot on the ground, and a girl who looked to
+be about twelve or thirteen years of age ran out of the hut carrying a
+heavy stabbing spear with a broad and gleaming blade.  This she handed
+to the witch-doctor, and then she ran back to the hut.  Nomaduma took
+the spear and advanced slowly to where Makanda and his councillors were
+sitting.  She paused when close before the chief, and said:
+
+"At your right hand sits your councillor Rolobani; he and Matshaka, who
+has joined the Christians, are the guilty men."
+
+Rolobani started to his feet, his eye-balls starting from his head, and
+his face ashen-grey.  He tried to speak, but could only gasp for breath.
+His companions fell away in every direction to avoid the contamination
+of his touch.
+
+The crescent broke up in disorder, the men surrounding the doomed wretch
+in a furious, surging crowd.  Nomaduma held up the spear, its head
+glinting brightly in the sunshine, and again dead silence fell on the
+throng.  She then walked up to Rolobani and seized the necklet of charms
+which he wore, after the manner of most natives.  This she dragged from
+his neck, and held out at arm's length.
+
+"In the pot of medicines prepared by the war-doctor for the chief, was
+the dried head of a water-snake; the war-doctor is present; let him
+declare if I speak the truth or not."
+
+The war-doctor called out from amongst the crowd that this statement was
+true.
+
+"Look.  I open this bag which I have taken from Rolobanis neck, and in
+it find the thing I have named.  He stole it out of the pot which he
+sold to the Cwera chief."
+
+Here she held up the shrivelled snake's head, so that it could be seen
+by all.
+
+This was accepted as proof positive, in the face of which, had any man
+dared to lift his voice in favour of the doomed but guiltless victim, he
+would probably have been killed as an accomplice.  The unhappy Rolobani
+again tried to speak, but his voice was drowned in shouts of rage.  In a
+few moments his hands were bound behind his back, and he was led away by
+two men, each holding a thong which was noosed around his neck.
+
+Rolobani was dragged towards the Bonxa hill, followed by the furious
+crowd.  On the least appearance of faltering he was freely prodded
+behind with spears, and by the time he reached the commencement of the
+steep ascent, he was streaming with blood.  Then a frenzy seized him and
+he bounded forward, climbing over the rocks on his abrupt course so fast
+that he tugged at the thongs by which he was held prisoner.  He knew he
+had to die at the top of the hill, and his only anxiety now was to get
+it over as quickly as possible.  Consequently, he and the two men
+holding him got some considerable distance ahead, and reached the bare
+summit of the hill some seconds before the nearest of the crowd which
+straggled after them.  Among the boulders forming the fringe gleamed
+white bones, and a shapeless horror, emitting a dreadful stench lay
+huddled in a cleft at the prisoners feet.  As the men arrived one by
+one, they gradually formed a ring around the doomed wretch whose last
+hour had so nearly sped; their black, sinister, relentless countenances
+shining with the sweat that poured plentifully from them.
+
+Rolobani was a man whose bravery had been proved in many a tribal fight.
+The terrible accusation of witchcraft combined with foul treachery had
+broken down his courage for a little space, but now he was his own man
+again, and, in the strength of his conscious innocence, could look
+steadily into the eyes of death.  He glanced round the ring of angry
+faces contemptuously, and then stood stolidly awaiting his certain doom.
+After a short pause a man stole out from the circle armed with a
+heavily knobbed club, and struck him from behind a violent, smashing
+blow on the head.  He fell forward on his face, and in a few moments was
+beaten into a shapeless mass.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Matshaka had not been bidden to the gathering at Nomaduma's kraal.  He
+was, however, aware of such through overhearing a conversation between
+two of his sons.  His conversion to Christianity had been a fruitful
+topic among the Pondos during the previous week; at every "beer-drink"
+it had been discussed.  His name became a by-word among the heathen, a
+shaking of the head among the people.
+
+As the men passed his kraal on their way to the witch-doctor's they
+shouted derisive and insulting words at him.  His former friends had cut
+him dead in the public ways.  All this was no more than he expected; he
+had helped to make others suffer what he now endured, and he felt that
+he deserved it.
+
+When he thought of the future it seemed to be one mass of difficulties,
+not the least of which was presented by his four wives.  His chief wife,
+old Nolenti, had been neglected by him for years past.  He now
+determined to marry her according to Christian rites, and to send the
+other three back to their respective homes.  He tried to explain this to
+Nolenti, but utterly failed to make her understand him.  She was quite
+satisfied with her position of chief wife, and her consequent immunity
+from labour in the fields.  It was, he felt, his appointed task to
+endeavour to make her see and appreciate the truth which illuminated his
+enfranchised spirit.  His three eldest sons had married and were
+established in kraals of their own.  They spent most of their days in
+going from beer-drink to beer-drink, leaving their wives to hoe in the
+fields.  Several of his elder daughters were also married.  His younger
+sons lounged about the huts all day, their only occupation being the
+herding of cattle, and keeping the calves away from the cows until
+milking-time.  His younger daughters played, naked and unashamed, about
+the kraal, except when fetching fuel from the forest on the Intsiza, or
+scaring the long-tailed finches from the crops.  He felt he must try and
+save the souls of his children; how to begin, that was the question.  He
+was as much an object of suspicion among them as among strangers.  He
+read distrust in every eye.  Even at his own kraal, if a few were
+gathered together and he approached, silence fell upon all, and they
+would nervously disperse if he joined them.
+
+And now, on this Sunday morning, Matshaka experienced his first
+revulsion of feeling against his new belief.  Was it true, after all?
+He could hardly have told what it was that he believed in.  How large
+the difficulties loomed! how bitter were the sufferings he was enduring!
+how the future lowered and threatened!  Matshaka was naturally a
+sociable man, and the ostracism to which he was subjected caused him
+acute pain.
+
+Musing miserably on all these things, he walked slowly towards the comb
+of the ridge about two miles from his kraal and in the direction of the
+Rode.  From this ridge the church could be seen by looking diagonally
+across a long, shallow, grassy valley.  This was the day on which he was
+to have been formally received into the church as a member.  Now his
+courage failed him, and he determined to postpone the matter, at all
+events for another week.
+
+As he reached the top of the ridge, the sound of the bell came floating
+and quivering up through the limpid air.  Being much nearer the church,
+the ringing sounded more clear and distinct in his ear than on the
+morning he had spent upon the mountain.
+
+Away to the left, and distant about five miles, the upper half of the
+Bonxa hill could be clearly seen projecting over an intervening ridge.
+Matshaka could see the swarm of men around the summit; he knew by
+experience what that indicated, and a shudder went through him.  He sat
+watching until he saw the crowd break up, descend slowly, and disappear
+behind the ridge.
+
+The bell rang on, and again Matshaka saw the little knots of people
+moving in towards the church, like ants towards a nest.  Then, suddenly,
+the doubter recovered his faith.  His soul again became flooded with
+light.  He bent his head and wept, partly with shame at his recent
+doubts, but mostly with relief and joy at the recovering of his faith.
+
+He arose after a while and moved towards the church.  After walking a
+few yards he recollected that he was wearing nothing but his blanket.
+He did not wish to enter the church unless properly clothed, so he sat
+down again, his brain reeling with the crowd of thoughts that hurtled
+through it, and his ears filled with the music of the mission bell.
+
+Glancing to the left, Matshaka noticed a party of about thirty men
+coming along the footpath which led towards his kraal over the saddle
+where he was sitting.  These men came from the direction of the Bonxa.
+Wishing to avoid them, Matshaka arose and walked slowly forward in the
+direction of the Rode.  Looking around again after a few moments, he saw
+to his surprise that the men had left the path, and were apparently
+endeavouring to intercept him.  He quickened his pace, and they began to
+run.  In an instant he saw what had happened: he had been "smelt out,"
+and this was the killing party sent to put him to a cruel death.
+
+The instinctive love of life surged up in Matshaka, and he bounded
+forward in the direction of the church where, like Adonijah, he might
+catch hold on the horns of the altar.  Matshaka well knew that the
+church was held to be an inviolable sanctuary even by the chiefs most
+rabid in their hatred of supposed wizards.  He had himself helped to
+hunt a fugitive along the same course under similar circumstances, and
+had angrily grumbled when the man eluded his clutches.
+
+But Matshaka was an elderly man, whilst several of his pursuers were
+young and in the prime of their strength.  They did not succeed in
+intercepting him, but as the chase proceeded it could easily be seen
+that the hunted man was losing ground.  He now crossed a shallow valley,
+the bulging side of which hid the church from view.  Running up the hill
+sorely tried his strength.  Glancing back over his shoulder he could see
+that the three foremost of his pursuers were rapidly gaining on him.
+
+Just then the bell rang out once more to call the people together to a
+special class meeting held after the conclusion of the ordinary service.
+The sound nerved Matshaka to fresh effort.  He knew that his time had
+conic--that he would never gain the sanctuary; so he now strove only to
+reach the top of the ridge from where the church could be seen.  This he
+just succeeded in doing, and then he turned and faced his pursuers, who
+were only a few yards behind him.  Instinctively he had thus far carried
+his knobbed stick; this he now flung away over the heads of his three
+enemies, lest he should be tempted to use it.
+
+In a few seconds Matshaka was surrounded by a ring of implacable foes.
+
+He stood as still as his panting would permit, with folded arms, and
+gazed fixedly at the church.  He was quite naked, having long since
+flung away his blanket in the course of the pursuit.  The bell had now
+ceased ringing, and the minister with his congregation stood bare-headed
+at the side of the building, sadly expectant of the impending tragedy.
+They knew they dared not interfere.
+
+The leader of the pursuers, a tall, ill-looking man named 'Ndatyana,
+took a pace forward and said:
+
+"Ha, Matshaka, son and father of wizards, so we have caught you."
+
+"Yes, and I am a dead man.  Whatever I am, my children are guiltless.
+Give me but a little time to pray; then do with me what you will, but
+spare them."
+
+Matshaka knelt down, clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and turned his
+face upwards to the sky.  His lips moved slightly.  The men stood around
+him without sound or movement.  After a short pause he stood up, folded
+his arms, looked straight into the eyes of 'Ndatyana, and said:
+
+"I am ready."
+
+For some seconds no one moved.  Then, at a nod from the leader, one
+stepped forward and struck Matshaka a violent blow on the head with a
+club.  He fell heavily to the ground, and in a few seconds all was over.
+
+The little congregation went back into the church, and soon the strains
+of a hymn arose.  When this had ceased, the minister offered up a
+fervent prayer to the Lord that He might show mercy and forgiveness to
+those who thus ignorantly slew His servants.
+
+By this time 'Ndatyana and his men were out of sight, so the male
+members of the congregation, headed by the minister, who carried a large
+white sheet, wended slowly to where the body lay.  Then with reverent
+hands they lifted it from the ground and bore it into the church.  They
+laid it, bleeding, in front of the little communion table at which they
+had so recently celebrated the Lord's Supper.
+
+And every one there knew it to be an acceptable offering.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+LITTLE TOBE.
+
+  "It wastes me more
+  Than were't my picture fashioned out of wax,
+  Stuck with a magic needle, and then buried
+  In some foul dunghill."
+  _The Duchess of Malfy_.
+
+_One_.
+
+For nearly two years after Madilenda came to the kraal of Sikulume as
+his third wife, she was fairly happy, Mamagobatyana, the "great wife,"
+was neither jealous nor exacting; she was fat and lazy, and took her
+highest enjoyment in sleeping in the hot sunshine on the lee-side of the
+hut.  Nozika, the second wife, had apparently been selected by her
+spouse for her muscle; she was extremely stupid and not particularly
+well-favoured, but powerfully built, and equal to any amount of hard
+work in the fields.
+
+Madilenda was of a type somewhat uncommon among native women.  She was
+light in colour, with finely-formed features and very prominent eyes.
+Her figure was the perfection of symmetry.  According to European taste
+she was very pretty indeed, but the ordinary native would have preferred
+a woman somewhat larger built, and generally of a coarser type.
+
+Near the end of the first year her baby,--"Little Tobe,"--was born, and
+then for a time she was perfectly happy.  The baby came just at the end
+of spring.  During the previous four months she had not been expected to
+work, and she had a nice long rest to look forward to before the hoeing
+of the maize and millet-fields would commence.
+
+Sikulume was a man whom every one found it easy to get on with, and he
+made in every respect a capital husband.  He was kind to his wives, and
+they were very fond of him.  He was rich, and the skin bags and
+calabashes at his kraal were full of milk.  Winter and summer, food was
+plentiful, work was easy, and the three wives were not jealous of each
+other.  Truly, Madilenda's lines were cast in comparatively pleasant
+places.
+
+Sikulume's kraal was situated in a deep valley through which one of the
+tributaries of the Kenira river runs.  He was a Hlubi Kafir.  Living in
+one of the territories administered by the Government of the Cape
+Colony, he had nothing to fear from the rapacity of the chief, or the
+malice of the witch-doctor.
+
+Little Tobe grew rapidly both in stature and intelligence.  His father
+was fond and proud of him, and his mother not only thought, but knew him
+to be the finest baby in the world.  She fastened charms around his
+neck, the seeds of the "rhiza" to keep away convulsions, and a piece of
+"mooti" or medicinal wood as a preventive against illness generally.
+Besides these, Madilenda's father gave her the tooth of a leopard, which
+she hung next to the "mooti" for the purpose of making her boy brave.
+
+Mamagobatyana, the "great wife," was very clever as a maker of mats.
+She used to send her daughters down to the banks of the Kenira river in
+the autumn, before the grass-fires swept over the country, to collect
+green rushes--of which they brought back great bundles.  Of these rushes
+she would construct mats which, for excellence of workmanship, were
+renowned throughout the district.  As soon as she had three or four mats
+completed she would take them up to the trader at the Mandilini, and
+dispose of them, obtaining sugar, bright-coloured handkerchiefs, brass
+ornaments, and beads in exchange.
+
+One day, when little Tobe was about a year old, Mamagobatyana returned
+from the trader's, laden with treasures.  She had carried up and
+disposed of an unusually large number of mats, and with the proceeds had
+purchased, amongst other things, twelve yards of print of a particularly
+striking pattern and hue.  With this she meant to have a dress made.
+She had never yet worn such a garment, but a woman from a mission
+station, who was visiting her relations at a neighbouring kraal, was
+wearing a dress made of similar material.  This woman was of about
+Mamagobatyana's age and build, and the sight of her dress had kindled in
+Mamagobatyana's soul a strong desire to possess a similar garment.  Thus
+when she saw the material at the trader's she at once purchased
+sufficient for her purpose.  The other woman happened to be in the shop
+at the same time, and she agreed to cut out and make the dress for a
+reasonable remuneration.  Mamagobatyana, however, was so proud of her
+purchase that she could not bear to relinquish the material to the
+modiste before exhibiting it to Madilenda and Nozika, so she tied it up
+in a bundle, placed it under her arm, and bore it away in triumph to her
+kraal.
+
+The day was cold, and most of the people were indoors warming their
+hands at the little fires lit in the centre of the different huts.
+Around these fires men, women, and children crouched on their hams,
+keeping their heads as low as possible, so as to be out of the upper
+stratum of thick smoke, which was sharply defined from the lower zone,
+about a yard thick, of quite clear air.  When you enter a Kafir hut in
+which there is a fire, you must always keep your head low, or else you
+will be stifled.  The greener the wood that happens to be burning is,
+the denser the smoke and the thicker the smoke-zone will be.  Sometimes
+in damp weather you may have to lie down on the ground to get a breath
+of clear air, and from within three inches of the tip of the nose
+through which you are breathing comfortably, you may watch the
+sharply-defined and undulating under-surface of an opaque cloud of
+acrid, stinging smoke.
+
+At the kraal of a polygamous Kafir each wife has her own particular hut,
+which is, in a very real sense, her castle, and the door of which she
+can shut against all except her husband; and even against him sometimes.
+When, however, the wives of a family live on fairly good terms
+mutually, they often exchange visits, and enjoy a considerable amount of
+reciprocal friendly intercourse.
+
+On the occasion when Mamagobatyana returned to her kraal, proud in the
+possession of the twelve yards of print, she found no fire lit in her
+own hut, her children having gone to the hut of Madilenda, where they
+were sitting playing with little Tobe.  She therefore decided to remain
+in Madilendas hut, and there dry her damp blanket and exhibit her
+purchases, whilst a fire was being lit by her daughters in her own
+dwelling.
+
+Mamagobatyana was stout and consequently had some difficulty in
+stooping; more especially after unwonted exercise.  When, therefore, she
+entered the hut through the low doorway, she found her head surrounded
+by an atmosphere of pungent smoke arising from the combustion of damp
+sneeze-wood.  This made her eyes smart excessively, and caused her to
+cough and gasp.
+
+She sat down on the ground close to the fire, and handed the parcel
+containing the dress material to Madilenda, asking her to open it.  This
+was soon done, and the material, in yard-length folds, was laid out for
+admiration on a clean mat at the other side of the fire.
+
+Just then Mamagobatyana got another bad fit of coughing.  Between her
+gasps she begged for a drink of water which Madilenda, after placing
+little Tobe on the ground, went to fetch in a cleft calabash.
+
+Now, little Tobe was an extremely lively child, and was of an inquiring
+turn of mind.  The thing of all others that had a special attraction for
+him was fire.  Repeated burnings and many slaps had not abated this
+attraction.  Whenever left to himself in the vicinity of a fire he would
+endeavour to seize one of the burning sticks and drag it away to play
+with.  On two occasions he had narrowly avoided setting fire to the hut
+by this means.  On the present occasion, no sooner had his mother left
+him to himself upon the ground, than he seized from the fire an
+attractive brand, one end of which was glowing charcoal, and turned to
+investigate the bright-coloured print which was close at hand.
+
+Madilenda returned with the water, and saw, to her horror, that Tobe had
+laid the fire-stick on the print, six or seven folds of which had been
+already burnt through.  She snatched away the firebrand, and quenched
+the burning material with the water which she had brought for
+Mamagobatyana.  The dress, of course, was completely ruined.
+Mamagobatyana broke out into fierce lamentations and tears of rage.  She
+refused to be comforted.  In a few moments she went off to her own hut,
+muttering threats and calling little Tobe all the abusive names she
+could think of.  Little Tobe, much to his astonishment, received from
+his mother a spanking more severe than any he had previously suffered.
+
+_Two_.
+
+About two months after the ruination of Mamagobatyana's dress by little
+Tobe, measles of a virulent type broke out among the native children,
+and nearly decimated the kraals.  It was not so much the disease itself,
+as its after effects, that were so fatal.  The children usually got over
+the measles easily enough, but they were allowed directly afterwards to
+run about naked, no matter how cold the weather might be.  Inflammation
+of the lungs then often supervened, usually with a fatal result.
+
+Little Tobe got the disease in the first instance in a very mild form,
+but just at the critical stage of convalescence, very cold, wet weather
+set in, and he soon developed a bad cough.  Soon afterwards he began to
+pine, and lose his appetite.  His eyes became unnaturally large and
+bright, and he evidently suffered severely from pains in his poor little
+chest.  Sometimes the cough nearly left him, but at the least recurrence
+of unfavourable weather another violent cold would ensue.
+
+A "gqira" (native doctor) was sent for, and a goat killed for his
+entertainment.  He made an infusion of ashes obtained from burnt roots
+of different sorts, frogs' feet, baboons' hair, lizards' tails, and
+other items included in his grotesque pharmacopoeia, and with this poor
+little Tobe was heavily dosed.  He then hung some infallible charms tied
+up in a little skin bag around the invalid's neck by a string made of
+twisted hairs from the tail of the "ubulunga" [see Note] cow.  Next
+morning, after promising a speedy recovery, he departed, taking a fat ox
+as his fee.  But poor little Tobe became worse and worse; his legs and
+arms that had been so chubby were now mere skinny sticks, and his ribs
+were sharply defined under the dry, feverish skin of his thorax.  When
+not coughing he wailed almost incessantly, and he hardly ever slept.
+
+Madilenda grew very thin and hollow-eyed herself, and she went her weary
+way the picture of utter misery.  Sikulume was very much distressed at
+the poor little boy's plight, and he sent to a distance for another
+"gqira," a most celebrated practitioner.  Upon arriving at the kraal
+this one required a fat black ox to be killed, with the blood of which
+he sprinkled every member of Sikulume's family, poor little Tobe coming
+in for an extra share.
+
+After speaking in the most slighting terms of the former doctor's
+treatment, he made a powder of the burnt bones of several kinds of
+snakes and birds.  He then made small incisions with a sharpened stick
+across the chest, and around the neck, arms, and body of the patient,
+and into these rubbed the powder.  After this he applied a plaster of
+fresh cow-dung to little Tobe's chest, and then wrapped him up in the
+skin of the black ox killed on the previous evening.  Then he carried
+him out of the hut and laid him in the middle of the cattle kraal.  This
+occurred at noon, and until sundown the "gqira" danced and chanted
+around his patient in the most violent and grotesque manner conceivable.
+Just after sundown he fell down in a kind of fit, foaming at the mouth
+and yelling horribly, and then appeared to go off into a swoon.  When he
+awoke from this he crawled over to where the poor little child was
+looking out from among his wraps with wondering eyes, inserted his hands
+between the folds of the skin, and drew forth a lizard about four inches
+in length.  This he held up to view of the admiring and applauding
+crowd.  Here was the cause of the malady, rid of which the child would
+at once mend.  Madilenda wept tears of joy as she released little Tobe
+from his unsavoury durance.
+
+The "gqira" left next morning with a reputation more firmly established
+than ever.  He took with him two of Sikulume's best cattle.
+
+For about a week after the function described the weather was mild and
+dry, and little Tobe really appeared to be somewhat better.
+Unfortunately, however, the improvement did not last.  A cold rain set
+in, and the cough became worse than ever.  The mother then grew
+desperate; she loved the child so passionately that the thought of the
+possibility of losing him maddened her.  The idea that little Tobe had
+been bewitched had gradually developed in her mind.  Among the
+uncivilised natives, illness, especially in the case of one who is
+young, is almost always attributed to witchcraft.  Some enemy, by means
+of occult arts, has caused the disease, embodied in a snake, a lizard,
+or a toad, to enter the body of the sufferer during sleep.  The unhappy
+mother strongly suspected Mamagobatyana of having committed some
+iniquity of this kind in revenge for the spoiling of her dress.  She was
+confirmed in this idea by an old woman from a neighbouring kraal, who
+had a spite against Mamagobatyana, and who suggested to Madilenda what
+she had loner been thinking of.  As a matter of fact, however, it had
+been for some little time whispered throughout the neighbourhood that
+Mamagobatyana had bewitched little Tobe.
+
+Here and there among the Hlubi kraals are to be found the dwellings of
+Basuto waifs who have drifted over the Maluti and Drakensberg mountains
+to find a refuge from deserved punishment or despotic oppression.  Among
+the natives an alien is often believed to be an adept in magic more
+effective than that practised by their own local tribal doctors, and the
+sorcery of the Basuto, being associated with the awful, mysterious, and
+cloudy mountains of his (in parts) almost impenetrable land, is held to
+be very potent indeed.
+
+Now, an old Basuto, named Lotuba, dwelt high up in the valley in which
+Sikulume's kraal was situated.  Lotuba was famed far and near for his
+skill as a wizard.  It was believed that he could reveal the secrets of
+the past as easily as he could foretell the future.  His methods were
+quite different to those practised by the Hlubi witch-doctors, and
+consisted principally of divining through the medium of the "dolossie"
+bones.  These are the metatarsal and metacarpal bones of sheep, goats,
+antelopes, and other animals, coloured variously.  Lotuba would sit on a
+mat, gather up two or three dozen of these bones, shake them up together
+in the corner of his calfskin kaross, and then fling them down on the
+ground after the manner of dice.  From the different combinations formed
+by the bones as they lay on the ground he would read the answer to any
+question put to him.  It was usual for those consulting him to pay a
+goat as a fee in advance.  In this manner he had accumulated
+considerable wealth.
+
+One night Madilenda asked Sikulume to let her take a goat from his flock
+and drive it up to the kraal of Lotuba, whose advice as to little Tobe
+she wished to ask for.  It happened, however, that Sikulume had reasons
+of his own for disliking the Basuto doctor, whose kraal, by permission
+of the chief, was built on what Sikulume considered to be by right his
+own particular run of pasturage, so he refused Madilenda's request,
+telling her rather roughly that he had had enough of doctors.  Madilenda
+heard him in silence.  She sat the whole night through, rocking little
+Tobe in her lap, and trying to soothe his cough.
+
+It was now mid-winter, and when the frosty dawn glimmered faintly
+through the latticed door of the hut, the hapless mother arose, wrapped
+the suffering child warmly in a blanket, stole quietly out, and hurried
+up the rugged valley towards the dwelling of Lotuba.  She had to walk
+but a little more than a mile, but the road was steep and stony, and she
+was weak from the effects of long-suffering anxiety and sleeplessness.
+Besides she was again _enceinte_; she expected the baby to be born in
+about two months.  Slowly and painfully she climbed her way along the
+zigzag pathway, sitting down on a stone to rest every now and then.
+When she reached Lotuba's kraal the sun had just risen.  She did not
+approach the hut at once, but sat down to rest on the sunny side of the
+stone goat-enclosure.  Here she found a spot sheltered from the keen
+breeze, so she laid little Tobe down gently upon the ground.  The child,
+protected from the raw air by the thick blanket which was loosely laid
+over his head, slept soundly, being exhausted from the sufferings of the
+night.
+
+Madilenda then proceeded to divest herself of all her ornaments.  She
+removed her double bracelets and anklets of cowrie shells, and the brass
+and copper bangles from her arms and legs.  From her throat she untied
+the necklet of goats' teeth strung on twisted sinew.  Around her waist
+was tied a small bundle; this she opened, and thus revealed two
+brightly-coloured cotton handkerchiefs and a small paper packet
+containing five silver sixpences and four three-penny pieces.  The money
+had been given to her by her husband, coin by coin, out of the proceeds
+of the hides which she had from time to time carried up to the trader's
+and sold.
+
+She spread out one of the handkerchiefs and wrapped the other articles
+loosely in it; then she lifted the child and walked up the slope to the
+witch-doctor's hut, in front of which she sat down and waited, trying at
+the same time to soothe the child, who was now awake, and who wailed
+pitifully in the intervals between the racking fits of coughing.
+
+After a short time the door of the hut was opened, and Lotuba the
+witch-doctor appeared.  He was an old man, with wizened features and
+small, bright eyes.  His limbs were thin, and he walked with a stoop.
+
+Lotuba stood, wrapped to the throat in a calfskin kaross, and looked
+intently at Madilenda, who returned his gaze.  After a few moments he
+re-entered the hut, and beckoned to her to follow him.  He seated
+himself on a mat just inside the door, and Madilenda knelt down, sitting
+on her heels, opposite him on the floor.
+
+"Those who seek my advice," he said, "bring something as payment."
+
+For answer Madilenda held out the little bundle tied in the
+handkerchief.  Lotuba took this, opened it deliberately and examined the
+contents.  Then he tied it up again and hung it to one of the wattles of
+the hut.  Suspended from the central pole was a bag made of the skin of
+a red mountain cat.  This Lotuba took down; then he emptied the
+"dolossie" bones which it contained into one of the corners of the
+kaross.  Taking a double handful of the bones he flung them down with a
+sweeping throw on the bare, clay floor.
+
+Bending over the bones with the appearance of one calculating deeply, he
+kept silence for some little time, and then began to speak in a droning,
+monotonous, sing-song voice:
+
+"The wife of Sikulume comes in the early morning with her sick child.
+She has held it to her breast for many days and nights.  It eats not.
+It gets thinner day by day.  It coughs from the rising of the sun to the
+falling of the darkness, and again until day comes."
+
+Here he gathered up the bones and again flung them to the ground.
+
+"The delight of the child before it got sick, was to play with fire.
+The `imishologu' (ancestral spirits) meant the child to be one who would
+sport with danger."
+
+Here he again gathered up the bones, waved them to and fro, and
+scattered them on the ground.  Madilenda sat gazing with wide eyes.  Her
+features were drawn and set.  She held the child, which once more slept,
+tightly to her bosom.  The witch-doctor continued:
+
+"The `great wife' of Sikulume had anger against the child in her heart.
+She dreamt a dream which made her fearful.  Then she went to the wise
+woman of the Vinyane, who told her that this child would overcome the
+sons of her house as the autumn fires overcome the grass."
+
+Madilenda sat like a statue with eyes aflame.  Lotuba threw the bones
+again, and continued:
+
+"She told her husband of this, and he too feared for the sons of his
+`great house'.  In the night they talked over the matter, and they
+determined that the child should die, so they buried the magic medicines
+that draw the poison-lizard to the side of the sleeper, in the floor of
+the hut of the child's mother.  Soon afterwards the child sickened.  He
+will die before the coming of the spring rains, for no skill can save
+him."
+
+Madilenda waited for no more.  She arose, left the hut, and walked down
+along the pathway by which she had come, clasping little Tobe to her
+breaking heart.
+
+After walking a few hundred yards she turned abruptly to the right and
+ran swiftly along another footpath which led over a saddle to the next
+valley, in which her brother, Galonkulu, dwelt.
+
+_Three_.
+
+Sikulume soon ascertained that Madilenda was at the kraal of Galonkulu,
+and on the second day of her sojourn there he followed with the
+intention of persuading her to return to her home.  She confronted him
+with blazing eyes and heaving breast, and bade him begone and never
+again approach her.  Galonkulu and all the others at his kraal were
+fully persuaded of the guilt of Mamagobatyana, and they strongly
+suspected Sikulume of complicity.  He, conscious of his innocence, was
+thunderstruck at the accusation, the foulest that can be made against a
+native, and at once withdrew, filled with indignation.
+
+Madilenda and little Tobe were given a hut to live in, and were provided
+with milk and corn.  The poor little child only lived for a week after
+his removal.  One morning, after a night of terrible coughing, he lay
+very still in his mother's arms.  Fearing to disturb him she sat still
+until she became quite stiff.  By and by he grew cold, and when she
+moved her hand to reach for a blanket to cover him with, his head fell
+back loosely.  He had been dead for a long time whilst she thought he
+was sleeping.
+
+They dug a grave close to the kraal; a pit was first sunk to a depth of
+about five feet, and then in the side a little chamber was excavated.
+In this the emaciated little body, which had grown so long, was laid
+facing the north.  It was wrapped in white calico obtained from the
+trader, and beneath it was a mat.  The opening of the side-chamber was
+then walled up, and the grave filled in.  The desolate mother would sit
+for hours on a stone next to the grave-cairn, and weep bitter tears.
+
+The unhappy woman brooded day and night over her sorrow, and, as the
+time for her confinement approached, she was filled with a fresh dread.
+She had persuaded herself that Mamagobatyana and her husband had
+bewitched her unborn child, and that it would die like little Tobe.
+This delusion preyed upon her mind to such an extent that she became
+almost insane.  The people of the kraal feared and avoided her.  They
+still supplied her with food and left her in possession of the hut, but
+otherwise neglected her completely.  She took to lonely wanderings and
+often talked to herself.  Sikulume, wroth at the undeserved aspersion
+cast upon him and his "great wife," did not again come near her, and
+thus she ate her own heart out in grief, terror, and loneliness.
+
+It was now September, and the spring rains set in with a cold deluge.
+The Kenira river roared in flood through the rocky gorge below the
+northern face of the Umgano Mountain.
+
+One morning, the second after the rain had ceased, Madilenda wandered
+down the valley she dwelt in, to where it joins the river, and then lay
+down to rest in a sunny nook just below a rocky bluff.  The
+deep-thrilling murmur of the brown flood as it churned along in its
+winding course soothed her, the warm sunshine brought a sensation of
+physical comfort which to her weary and debilitated body had long been
+unknown, and she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.  When she awoke
+it was late in the afternoon.  She tried to rise, but found she was
+unable to do so.  A succession of sharp pains racked her.  Her time had
+come.
+
+One advantage which women of the uncivilised races possess over their
+European sisters is this, that for them the curse of Eve is lightened to
+such an extent as to be hardly a curse at all.  That ordeal which the
+artificial life of our race through so many generations has made
+pathological, is, with the majority of native women, a process so easy
+that in normal instances little suffering and hardly any danger is
+entailed.  But in Madilenda's case mental agony and bodily fatigue
+during the terrible months she had just lived through had lowered her
+vitality to such an extent that she completely collapsed.  The sun went
+down on her ineffectual pangs; throughout the long, cold, winter's night
+the stars swept over her anguish.
+
+The sun arose and thawed the thick hoarfrost that had crusted over the
+shrubs and the grass, and still she lay moaning between frequent swoons.
+A troop of wild baboons came searching along the mountain-side, turning
+over the stones in their pursuit of lizards and scorpions; the leader
+looked at Madilenda where she lay, and darted aside with a startled
+cough.  A jackal slinking home to his burrow after a night of
+depredation, crept close up to her, looked long and carefully, and then
+hid amongst the stones near by, awaiting further developments.  A
+wandering vulture made a loop in its course and then swept upwards in a
+widening circle.  Soon afterwards, other vultures, that had read the
+signal aright, came flocking up from all directions in increasing
+numbers.
+
+Late in the afternoon exhausted nature made a final effort, and the
+child was born.  The mother fainted immediately and then lay long
+unconscious.  When she again came to herself she turned with painful
+difficulty and drew the child to her.  It was cold and dead.
+
+So the curse had fallen here as well, as she had expected.  A wild
+indignation surged up in Madilenda and conquered the weakness of death
+that was stealing over her.  The sky seemed to have turned black, and
+the swirling river blood-red.
+
+A shadow slid over her.  She looked up and saw the sweeping vultures
+which were now rapidly drawing in their spirals over where she lay.  She
+knew what that meant.  One of them swooped so close that she felt the
+wind of its wings, and heard the horrible skur-r-r-r of the pinions.
+The bird alighted on a stone a few yards off, and began to preen the
+vermin from its filthy feathers.
+
+Drawing the dead child under her arm, Madilenda crept backwards on her
+hands and knees in the direction of the river.  From the ledge on which
+she had been lying, a steep slope of about twenty yards, which ended in
+an abrupt drop of a few feet where the water had undermined the bank,
+led to the swirling torrent.  Down this slope she slowly and painfully
+crept.  When she reached it, the undermined bank gave way under her, and
+she dropped like a stone into the water.  One dull splash, scarcely to
+be heard over the growling of the flood, and Madilenda slept in the soft
+and merciful arms of Death.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Note.  When a native woman marries, her husband presents her with a
+heifer, which is thereupon considered a sacred animal.  It may never be
+slaughtered, under any circumstances, and should it die untimely, such
+is regarded as a token of evil fortune.  The hairs of the tail are
+thought to have peculiarly protective properties for members of the
+"house," in respect of illness.  This animal is known as the "ubulunga."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE IMISHOLOGU.
+
+  There is no bird in any last year's nest.
+
+_One_.
+
+Whoever has traversed the valley of the Umzinivubu river below the
+Tabankulu Mountain, in that vicinity where the Tsitsa, the Tina, and the
+Umzimhlava streams have carved their several devious courses almost
+through the vitals of the earth to the main water-way, has seen the
+roughest part of Pondoland, and seldom feels inclined to repeat the
+experience.  However, ponies accustomed to such regions will clamber up
+and down precipices which would make a domestic cat that is only
+habituated to the house-top of civilisation nervous, and accidents on
+such journeys seldom occur.
+
+It has been my fortune twice to penetrate these rugged regions, an
+interval of a year elapsing between the expeditions.  Hence the
+following tale.
+
+The season was late autumn.  I had made a very early start, and my
+horses were tired.  I decided, therefore, to camp where I was, between
+the precipice from which I had just escaped and another, equally
+dangerous, frowning just before me, and which it seemed impossible to
+avoid.  The place was a small, flat ledge upon a rugged tongue of land
+running from the mountain out to a sheer bluff, under which the river,
+still slightly swollen from the late summer rains, murmured, hundreds of
+feet below.
+
+A native kraal consisting of three huts, a stone cattle enclosure, and a
+small goat-pen made of bushes, stood on the ledge.  Two of the huts were
+occupied by human beings, and the third, ordinarily used as a corn
+store, was civilly placed at my disposal by the head of the kraal, an
+old Pondo named Zwilibanzi.  His son, one Madolo, and the latter's wife
+and two children, were the only other occupants of the kraal.
+
+I was particularly struck by the air of cleanliness and neatness
+pervading the whole establishment.  This was in strong contrast with the
+condition of the other kraals I had visited.  The Pondos are, it may be
+stated, much dirtier in their habits than are other natives.  Their huts
+are usually ragged and disorderly on the outside, and as to the
+interiors--why, the less said about them the better.
+
+The night was cold, so after assisting my after-rider to make the horses
+as comfortable as circumstances would permit, I entered the hut of
+Madolo, who, with the old man, was sitting on the ground next to a
+bright, almost smokeless fire.  I then, for the first time, noticed the
+two children, one boy named Dhlaka, aged about ten years, and the other
+a little girl aged about six, whose name turned out to be Nodada, a
+Kafir word meaning "wild duck."  The mother was absent, but was
+momentarily expected to return.
+
+Nodada was a remarkably pretty child.  All she wore in the way of
+clothing was a small apron of strung beads, unless a necklet of charms
+hung on hairs from the tail of the "ubulunga" cow can be counted as
+such.  She made friends with me at once, although, as her grandfather
+assured me, she had never previously seen a European.  The boy, on the
+other hand, would not come to terms at all, but crouched on the ground
+near the door, ready to spring up and flee, as he did whenever I
+attempted to make advances, After a short interval, the mother, a
+good-looking woman of about thirty, arrived.  Her name was Nomayeshe.
+After greeting her husband, her father-in-law, and me (as guest) with
+politeness and ease, she turned to the children; the evidently genuine
+affection manifested between her and them was truly remarkable.  She sat
+down on the floor of the hut and they flung themselves upon her.  They
+were immediately clasped to her breast, with many an endearing epithet.
+I could not help wishing at the time that some of those who believe the
+Aryan race in South Africa to have a monopoly of the gentler feelings
+and emotions could have been present.  It could easily be seen that the
+warmest feeling on the part of the mother was for the little girl, who,
+up to the time when I retired for the night, never left her side.
+
+Next morning, shortly after daybreak, I bade farewell to my kind hosts,
+and resumed climbing the anything-but-delectable mountains.  In pausing
+to take breath just before passing out of sight of the kraal I looked
+back, and saw Nomayeshe at the hut door looking after me, and the little
+girl holding on to her mother's skin skirt.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Within a few days of a year afterwards, I travelled over the same
+course, but in an opposite direction.  I had attempted to reach old
+Zwilibanzi's, with the view of spending the night there, but when the
+sun went down, leaving me still several miles away from that spot, I
+found it necessary to seek shelter at another kraal, where my
+entertainment was somewhat indifferent.  However, I reached Zwilibanzi's
+next day at about noon.  Even from a distance it was apparent that
+things were changed for the worse in comparison with what I had seen a
+year previously.  The huts looked dilapidated, and there was an
+atmosphere of dreariness over the whole establishment.  I found old
+Zwilibanzi asleep on a mat on the sunny side of his hut, but could see
+no sign of another human being.  I wakened the old man, but it was some
+time before I could bring myself to his remembrance.  He was totally
+blind and extremely deaf, and had aged considerably in every respect.
+At length he remembered me, and then he seemed extremely pleased.
+
+Where were Madolo, Nomayeshe, and the children?  I asked.  Alas!
+Nomayeshe and the little girl Nodada were both dead, Madolo had left the
+neighbourhood, and the boy Dhlaka had gone to stay with an uncle at
+another kraal.  Of the happy family I had so often thought of, only this
+old man remained.  A nephew, with his two wives, had come to dwell at
+the kraal, but I gathered from Zwilibanzi that they were not kind to
+him, that the nephew was idle, and too much in the habit of going to
+beer-drinks, and the wives lazy, ill-tempered, and fonder of emptying
+than of filling the milk-sack and the calabashes.
+
+There was much that was tragic, and some that was sordid, in the old
+man's tale.  What follows is an account of the tragedy.
+
+_Two_.
+
+It was just at the merging of autumn and winter; the last of the maize
+crop was being gathered in, and the first touch of frost was browning
+the hill-tops.  The field cultivated by Zwilibanzi's family lay in a
+ravine a few hundred yards below the northern side of the ledge on which
+the kraal was built.  Thither Nomayeshe, with another woman who came to
+assist at the harvesting, went every day for the purpose of stripping
+what remained of the maize-cobs from the withered stalks, and carrying
+what they gathered in baskets up to the kraal.  At this work Madolo was
+not supposed to assist, so he took his departure for the "great place"
+of the paramount Pondo chief, for the purpose of attending an
+"umkandhlu," or "meeting for talk," of which general notice had been
+given.
+
+Early in the afternoon of the second day after Madolo left, there
+remained little more than two basketfuls of grain to remove, so
+Nomayeshe, with the other woman and Dhlaka, went down with baskets to
+fetch it.  Some little gleaning had to be done, so they expected to be
+away, more or less, for the whole afternoon.
+
+The day was cold, and old Zwilibanzi was lying asleep in his hut, where
+a fire had been lighted.  Little Nodada, who was very intelligent for
+her age, was left behind with instructions to attend to the fire and see
+that it neither went out nor endangered the hut by blazing too freely.
+This was an occupation to which she was quite accustomed.  Thus, when
+Nomayeshe and her two companions went to the field, the old man and the
+child were the only ones left at the kraal.
+
+The cattle were within sight on the hill-side, and the little flock of
+goats was close at hand.  Just before he disappeared over the lip of the
+ledge, Dhlaka called out to Nodada, asking her to keep her eye on the
+goats, among which were a few strange ones that might be liable to
+stray.
+
+The sun was still shining when Nomayeshe returned.  She found old
+Zwilibanzi asleep next to the fireplace, which was quite cold, but
+little Nodada was missing.  At first she felt no alarm, but rather anger
+at the child's disobedience in thus absenting herself, but after the sun
+sank behind the 'Ngwemnyama Mountain, and the child was still absent,
+she began to feel uneasy.  When the shades of night began to darken over
+the valley she became alarmed, and began searching all around the edge
+of the plateau, calling loudly the child's name.  The woman, her
+assistant in the harvesting, helped in the search.  Up and down the
+stony gullies, among the narrow rock fissures, below the precipice with
+which the ledge where the kraal was built ended, the frantic mother and
+her companion sought with flaming brands throughout the greater part of
+the long, cold night, but no trace of the child could they find.
+
+The kraal nearest to that of Zwilibanzi was about three miles away, and
+thither Nomayeshe hurried some time before daybreak, upon her
+companion's suggestion that the child might have taken refuge there.  At
+this kraal, however, nothing could be heard of her.  When day broke all
+the men, women, and children turned out and scoured the country.  The
+alarm was wailed out to all the surrounding kraals, and the inhabitants
+of these joined in the search.  When the all too short day drew towards
+its close, little Nodada was still missing.  The hills resounded with
+the shouts of the seekers, and dwellers in the more distant valleys,
+flocking in to see what was the matter, had swelled the number of the
+searchers to a considerable crowd.  But all in vain.  The sun again
+sank, and night descended from an untarnished sky of throbbing stars,
+and the poor little child was still lost in the maze of bare, frowning
+peak and yawning chasm.
+
+The unhappy mother was now nearly insane.  Throughout the whole day she
+had never rested for a moment, and since the previous noon she had not
+tasted food.  When darkness fell and the seekers returned to their
+homes, she kindled a large fire on a stony ridge just above the kraal,
+and all night long she wandered about carrying firebrands, and calling
+the name of her lost Nodada into the cold ear of the night that mocked
+her with wild echoes.
+
+Daylight found the searchers again at work, but the experience of the
+second day was only a repetition of that of the first.  Late in the
+afternoon Nomayeshe fell exhausted to the ground, and was carried
+senseless to her dwelling.  Then the searchers again wended sadly
+homewards, feeling that further effort would be vain.
+
+_Three_.
+
+The kraal of 'Ndondo was built in a particularly inaccessible part of
+the valley of the Umzimhlava, and about seven miles from the dwelling of
+Zwilibanzi.  Here, on the second day after the disappearance of little
+Nodada, was held a small and select gathering.  A fat ox had been
+slaughtered for the occasion, and the pink foam of beer was visible over
+the lips of several large earthen pots, some of them nearly three feet
+high.
+
+'Ndondo was related to the heads of several important kraals in the
+neighbourhood, to which he had only very recently returned.  He had, a
+few years previously, been "smelt out" upon an accusation of having, by
+means of black magic, caused the death of one of the wives of his chief.
+Luckily, however, he had got wind of the matter in time, and
+accordingly had managed to escape--not alone with his life, but with the
+bulk of his cattle--to the Cwera country.  His alleged confederate had
+not been so lucky.  This unhappy man had been tortured to death, his
+kraal had been destroyed, and all his property confiscated.
+
+Subsequently, however, 'Ndondo, by means of judicious bribery, had
+managed to convince the chief of his innocence, and had accordingly been
+permitted to return, as it were, on probation of good behaviour.  He was
+rich in cattle, and was now celebrated for generosity and hospitality to
+the "isanuse" and "inyanga" fraternities, members of which were
+generally to be found at his kraal.
+
+On the present occasion, no less than four witch-doctors--one a most
+celebrated man, a very Matthew Hopkins among witch-finders--were
+present, the occasion being an attempt to cure one of 'Ndondo's
+daughters of what was really epilepsy, but which was supposed to be an
+attack of "umdhlemnyana," or "love frenzy," believed to have been
+induced by a young man of the neighbourhood by means of the casting a
+love spell.
+
+It was about mid-day.  Long strips of roasted meat were circulating
+among the feasters, and the beer, which was of a very heavy brew, was
+being handed round freely in small pots, each with a cleft-calabash
+spoon floating in it.  Then one of the boys who had been herding cattle
+on the mountain-side rushed in, breathless, and told a strange tale.  He
+had, so he said, been seeking honey in a steep gorge, the entrance to
+which was visible from the kraal, when he heard cries, as of a child,
+issuing from beneath a large flat stone.  The gorge was not far off, and
+thither the feasters wended, some gazing back ruefully at the liquor and
+the baked meats.
+
+They reached the flat stone; it was evidently part of an old land-slip,
+and lay as a sort of bridge across the bottom of the gorge.  On each
+side the ground was flush with the top.  Below it were piled stones
+which had been carried over by aeons of floods, and above it boulders,
+too heavy to admit of their being moved by water over the obstacle, had
+lodged.  Among these were a few crevices, this being probably due to a
+general shifting of the whole mass under exceptionally violent pressure
+of water from above.
+
+All the men listened carefully, but at first nothing could be heard.
+The boy, however, was evidently in earnest over his tale, so they all
+sat down and waited.  Sure enough after a few moments they heard a faint
+wail issuing from under the stone.  Here was a portent which the
+witch-doctors welcomed as something coming specially within their
+province, and towards an explanation of which they alone could give a
+clue.
+
+The most celebrated witch-doctor was asked his opinion.  He did not give
+an opinion; he gave a full and positive explanation of the case.  There
+was, he said, undoubtedly a child under the stone, but it had been
+placed there by the "imishologu," or spirits of the earth, and under no
+circumstances whatever should it be interfered with so long as it was in
+their august charge.  The "imishologu" might, of course, be asked in
+some appropriate and orthodox manner to deliver the child back to the
+light of day, but any attempt to violate their domain would certainly be
+followed by severe punishment.
+
+The three other witch-doctors at once declared that they had each
+independently arrived at exactly the same conclusion.
+
+Upon being asked as to what form the request to the "imishologu" should
+take, the most celebrated witch-doctor claimed to have had it as a
+direct personal communication from some most potent spirits of this
+class, that the sounds most delectable to their shadowy ears were those
+caused by the trampling hoofs and clashing horns of cattle, the lowing
+of which was also grateful to them, but in a minor degree.  He, the
+witch-doctor, therefore recommended that the cattle be collected and
+driven round and over the spot, so that haply thereby might the
+earth-spirits be propitiated to the extent of permitting the imprisoned
+child to return to the light of day.  So the boys, of whom several were
+present, were sent to collect the cattle on the mountain-side, and drive
+them down the gorge for the appeasing of the "imishologu."
+
+All this time the pitiful wail of a little child who was dying in the
+cold and darkness could be heard coming at intervals from under the
+stone, which had lain through immemorial ages, not more deaf to pity, or
+more senseless, than the fraud and superstition of man.
+
+The cattle were not far off, so within a short time the lowing herd was
+hurried down the gorge by the shouting boys.  The men then formed a ring
+about a hundred yards in diameter, the flat stone being in the centre,
+and in this circle the cattle were driven round and round, the animals
+being crowded together so that their horns might clash, and beaten with
+sticks to make them low and bellow loudly.  This went on for some time;
+until, in fact, the afternoon was well spent.  Then the cattle were
+driven away, and the witch-doctors, jointly and severally, shouted down
+the crevices leading under the rock, conjuring the "imishologu" to
+permit the imprisoned child to return to the light of day.
+
+But, perchance, the "imishologu" slept, like Baal of old.  They gave no
+answer, nor did the child come forth.  When the sun went down the men
+returned to 'Ndondo's kraal, and resumed their feasting.
+
+Next morning one of the minor witch-doctors stated that he had, on a
+former occasion, been told by some "imishologu," in a vision, that the
+light pattering of the hoofs, the varying bleat, and the rank smell of
+goats were things that pleased them.  After consultation it was decided
+to try the experiment of propitiation by means of goats, where the
+cattle had failed.  The most celebrated witch-doctor, whilst admitting
+the possibility of some result from the goat function, gave it as his
+opinion that as the "imishologu" had remained obdurate in spite of the
+cattle function, they would not now relent.
+
+The witch-doctors again went up the gorge to the flat stone, the goats
+being driven after them by the people of the kraal.  They bent over the
+cleft and listened carefully.  After a while a faint moaning could be
+distinctly heard.  Then the goats were hurried in, made to crowd over
+the stone, and to rush backward and forward.  This went on until nearly
+noon, when the flock of goats was driven away.
+
+A most solemn invocation of the "imishologu" followed this, but they
+were still unappeased.  The child did not come forth, nor could any
+sounds now be heard issuing from under the stone.  Perhaps Death had at
+length shown mercy.
+
+The most celebrated witch-doctor now apparently became epileptic, and
+soon fell into a trance.  Upon awaking, he claimed to have been in
+spiritual communication with the "imishologu."  The child had, he
+declared, been taken by the spirits of the earth, but was being well
+treated, and was, in fact, much happier than it ever had been before.
+It was now playing in the wonderful underground fields where the sun
+never scorched nor wind chilled, with numerous companions.  It would
+never more suffer hunger, thirst, nor any other pain.  It was so happy
+that it did not wish to return to the regions of day and night.  Much of
+this may, after all, have been true.
+
+_Four_.
+
+After Nomayeshe had been carried down to her hut on the afternoon of the
+second day of the search for her lost child, she lay long unconscious,
+and when she awoke, it was to raging delirium, which lasted until late
+in the night, when sleep suddenly overcame her.
+
+Next morning, just after sunrise, she opened her eyes, and lay for a
+long time wondering as to what had happened.  At length she remembered,
+and with a cry she started up for the purpose of going forth again to
+search.  She staggered out of the hut, only to fall helplessly to the
+ground before the doorway.  Several women from the nearest kraals had
+come to tend her, and these tried to persuade her of the uselessness of
+further search.  Tears came to her relief, and she became calmer.  At
+length she was persuaded to drink a little milk, after which she sank to
+the floor in a stone-like sleep.  When she awoke, it was nearly noon.
+
+It happened just about this time that Dhlaka, who had been out herding
+the flock of goats, returned to the kraal with strange news.  In the
+veldt he had foregathered with other boys, who told him that a child had
+been heard crying under a stone near the kraal of 'Ndondo.
+
+When this was communicated to Nomayeshe, she uttered one wild cry in
+which hope and agony were blended, and rushed forth.  Her weakness had
+disappeared, and she climbed the steep, stony hills so fast that the two
+women who started with her were soon labouring on with heavy pantings,
+some distance behind.  The seven miles she had to travel led her through
+many a tangled thicket, and along many a dizzy ledge with frowning
+buttresses above, and sheer precipices yawning beneath.  She plunged
+into dark ravines, in the depths of which the light of day was almost
+lost, and scaled narrow, knife-back ridges so steep that hands as well
+as feet had to be used by the climber.
+
+Nomayeshe reached the kraal of 'Ndondo alone, about the middle of the
+afternoon, and probably two hours after the return of the party from the
+scene of their unsuccessful attempt at appeasing the "imishologu" by
+means of the goats.
+
+These hours had been spent by the men in heavy drinking; all had
+endeavoured to make up the time that had been lost, and the beer, being
+now fully fermented, was at its point of greatest strength, just before
+turning sour.
+
+Nomayeshe, wild-eyed and quivering, strode into the circle and sank
+exhausted to the ground before 'Ndondo, who was the only one present
+with whom she was acquainted.  In disjointed sentences she began asking
+about her child, for she knew that the one she had heard of as crying
+under the stone must be little Nodada.
+
+'Ndondo was in a very maudlin state, and the only two clear ideas he had
+were: that he must on no account whatsoever affront the witch-doctors,
+and that the said witch-doctors had stringently forbidden any
+interference with the child beneath the stone, under peril of the
+vengeance of the "imishologu"; or rather, what concerned 'Ndondo more
+nearly, under peril of offending the witch-doctors themselves.
+
+'Ndondo accordingly declared, with drunken emphasis, that he knew
+nothing of the matter, and that the account of the child crying under
+the stone was an idle tale set current by boys, who should be well
+beaten for speaking falsely.
+
+The most celebrated witch-doctor, however, took a different line.  He
+had reached that stage in his cups which brings to some immense
+self-confidence.  He arose, albeit somewhat unsteadily, and made a
+vigorous and eloquent speech.  He recapitulated all he had previously
+said about the danger of offending the "imishologu" by interference with
+their concerns.  He drew attention to an occurrence of a few years back,
+which was still fresh in the memories of all present, when the solid
+earth had shaken until a bluff of the mountain slid down with thunderous
+roarings, and overwhelmed a kraal, not one of the inhabitants of which
+had escaped.  Continuing, he depicted once more the happy condition of
+the child in the subterranean fields.  He ended by pronouncing the
+direst anathemas upon any one becoming accessory to the impious deed
+which the woman contemplated.
+
+Then Nomayeshe went around the circle, grovelling at the feet of each
+individual separately, and beseeching that she might be shown the spot
+where her Nodada, her little wild duck, the child she had carried in her
+womb and suckled at her breast, lay perishing in the cold and darkness.
+Some of the men were evidently inclined to tell, but the warning frowns
+of the witch-doctors deterred them, and they maintained the cruelty of
+silence.
+
+Then Nomayeshe broke out into fierce rage, and cursed all present, and
+their fathers and mothers before them as dogs and apes.  She wished that
+they might die under the spears of an enemy, and that the bodies of
+their children might shrivel and hiss under their burning roof-trees.
+This outburst came as a great relief to the men.  Her invective was
+easier to endure than her entreaties, and the drunken crew only laughed
+at her fury.
+
+While all this was going on, the two women who had followed Nomayeshe
+arrived at the kraal.  They had found out, from some other women they
+had met, all that Nomayeshe wanted to know.  These women described
+accurately the situation of the flat stone, so when Nomayeshe staggered
+back from the beer-drinkers, and met her two friends outside the circle
+of huts, she was led at once by them to the gorge where she knew that
+her lost child lay hidden.
+
+It was dusk when they reached the stone.  With unerring instinct the
+mother made straight for the largest crevice, through which she at once
+descended into the darkness.  The two women waited in silence, standing
+apart from each other.  Soon a faint shriek was heard issuing as though
+from the bowels of the earth.  The women looked at each other with awe
+in their eyes...  Nomayeshe emerged from the crevice, clasping her dead
+child to her bosom.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It was past midnight when the three women, carrying Nodada's body,
+arrived at Zwilibanzi's kraal.  Their return journey was made by a
+longer but safer route.  Nomayeshe placed the little body on a mat, and
+then laid herself down next to it.  The two women lit a fire, and
+prepared some food.  When they went to Nomayeshe to try and persuade her
+to eat, they found that she was dead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE MADNESS OF GWEVA.
+
+  "I have not left any calamity more hurtful to man than woman."
+  _Table-talk of Mohammad_.
+
+_One_.
+
+"Yes, my father; for although your years are many less than mine, did
+you not protect me, even as a father, when these dogs of Fingo policemen
+would have made me guilty over the chopping down of that white iron-wood
+tree?  I will now tell you the tale of Gweva, the son of Mehlo, which we
+yesterday spoke of when resting in the big forest during the hunt.
+Here, boy, bring fuel for the fire, for the night is cold and the tale
+is long.  Fetch also the last pot of that beer which was brewed seven
+days ago.  The new beer has not yet worked, and it tastes like water
+from a muddy puddle.  Fetch also the large calabash spoon; then clear
+out, and come not near unless you are called.
+
+"There is one subject, my father, upon which you and I will never agree,
+namely women.  You tell me that the women of your race are wiser than
+those of mine.  This is no doubt true in the same sense as that you, a
+European, are wiser than I, a Kafir; but experience teaches me that
+women are just women, whatever be their colour, and that men should be
+their masters.  Where it is otherwise, trouble always follows.  I grant
+you that some women are wiser and better than most men; your great
+Queen, for instance.  Her I used to hear of when I was a boy, and I
+still hear of her now that my head is white.  _She_ must be strong and
+wise.  Then, who has not heard of Gubele the wife of Umjoli, the
+cowardly chief of the Abasekunene, who, when her husband fled before
+Tshaka, remained behind with half of the tribe, and slew so many Zulus
+that men sang of her that she piled up the gateways of her kraal with
+Zulu heads to prevent the cattle from coming out.
+
+"But such women, my father, are really men, and besides, one does not
+meet them, one only hears of them.  I speak of the women one sees and
+knows and who become the mothers of our children, and I say that he who
+is their master, and holds them for his profit and pleasure, for the
+bringing forth of sons to fight for the chief (I forgot for the moment
+that we are under Government) and daughters for whom `lobola' (dowry)
+cattle will be sent to his kraal, is wise, whilst he who sets his heart
+on one woman only, and desires her above all else, suffers from a
+madness that often leads to ruin.
+
+"Hear then the tale of Gweva, the son of Mehlo, which tends to prove the
+truth of my judgment in this matter.  I will relate it, so far as I can,
+in the words of my grandfather Nqokomisa, who told it to me many years
+ago; he being at the time a man extremely old, also blind and deaf, and
+bereft of the use of every member except the tongue.
+
+"You have heard of our `great chief' 'Ngwanya, whose body lies in the
+deep pool in the Tina river just below the drift where the wagons cross.
+They tied him to a green iron-wood log and sunk him in the water so
+that no enemy could obtain his bones wherewith to work magic against the
+tribe.  Every year are cast into the pool slaughtered oxen and new bowls
+of beer as offerings.  You may have noticed that no woman of the
+Pondomisi ever lifts her skin skirt, no matter how high the water is, in
+crossing the Tina.
+
+"Well, in the days of 'Ngwanya, we Pondomisi occupied the whole of the
+country between the Dedesi, at the source of the Umzimvubu, and the
+Umtata.  We were then a large tribe, and we feared no enemy.  When we
+rose against the English in the last war, we should have regained our
+position had not our chief Umhlonhlo offended the `imishologu' by
+killing his magistrate treacherously.  Then an evil spirit put it into
+the minds of some of us to attack the Fingoes of the Tsitsa, who
+thereupon became our enemies instead of our allies, as had been
+arranged.  When Makaula and his Bacas slaughtered us in the Tina valley
+the `imishologu' had turned their faces from us, and we knew it.
+
+"'Ngwanya was old when his father died, and was the father of many sons
+and daughters.  The eldest daughter of his `great house' was Nomasaba,
+and it is of the madness caused by her, which fell upon Gweva, the son
+of Mehlo, that I am about to tell.
+
+"Mehlo was the younger brother of 'Ngwanya.  He was killed in a battle
+with the Tembus, on the Bazaya Mountain.  He was a young man of great
+courage, and his death was so much lamented that his uncle, who had been
+to him as a father, found his hair grow grey with grief.  Mehlo had only
+one wife--he had only been married a few months before his death.  The
+wife was, according to custom, taken into 'Ngwanya's household, and
+when, half a year afterwards, she gave birth to a boy, it was said that
+his name should be `Gwevu,' which means `grey.'  Soon afterwards she
+died, and the boy was formally adopted into 'Ngwanya's `great house.'
+Once he was gored by a grey ox, and thereupon the witch-doctors said
+that his name was an unlucky one, so they changed it to `Gweva,' which
+means `one who spies about.'
+
+"When Gweva was three years old, Nomasaba was born, and these two grew
+up together in one hut.  According to native custom they were brother
+and sister.  I have been told that amongst Europeans marriage is allowed
+between people so related, but with us such a thing would be looked upon
+as most horrible and unnatural.
+
+"Gweva grew up exactly like what his father had been--tall and strong,
+brave as a lion, and with eyes and voice that commanded the obedience of
+men, even against their will.  When hardly more than a lad he could
+fling an assegai or a knobbed stick farther, and as true, as any man in
+the tribe.  But for the madness that fell on him he would have been
+chief in the room of Pahlo, who was only of the right-hand house, the
+only son of the `great house,' into which Gweva had been legally
+adopted, having died young, through being bitten by a snake.
+
+"Nomasaba was said to be the most beautiful woman ever seen.  She was
+not black, but of a rich brown colour; she had large, smooth, rounded
+limbs, a neck like the trunk of a young tree, a bosom fit to give milk
+to the son of a great chief, and pleasing features, which, however, but
+seldom smiled.  Her voice, although soft, was said to resemble that of a
+man.  Nomasaba was sought by many in marriage, but she treated all
+offers with disdain.
+
+"When Tahli succeeded Dayene as great chief of the Pondos, 'Ngwanya
+became desirous that Nomasaba should be his `great wife,' so without the
+girl's knowledge he sent messengers, of whom my grandfather was one, to
+the `great place' in Pondoland, to open negotiations on the subject.  My
+grandfather, being fleet of foot, was sent with the assegai and the
+`umlomo,' or `word present' for the intended bridegroom.  These he
+dropped in the Pondo chiefs presence and then, according to custom,
+fled, pursued by the young men of the kraal.  Although hard pressed, he
+succeeded in escaping; otherwise, had he been caught, he would have been
+driven homeward ignominiously with his hands bound behind him, and the
+`umlomo' tied on his back.
+
+"After this the women were sent to `hlolela' or `spy' for the bride, and
+whilst they were absent on this errand Nomasaba was informed for the
+first time of the marriage which had been arranged for her.  To the
+surprise and embarrassment of all, she declared that she did not want to
+marry, and that nothing would induce her to go to the Pondo chief.
+However, we natives have our own ways of arranging such matters, so no
+notice was taken of her words.
+
+"Gweva was absent on a military expedition against a clan of Tembus
+which dwelt amongst the mountains just over our inland border, and which
+had been raiding into our territory.  He had departed shortly before the
+first messengers were sent, and he did not return until after the
+`hlolela' party had come back, having arranged all preliminaries.
+Nomasaba was then told that she should start with the bridal party on a
+certain day, and after declaring over and over again with considerable
+violence that she would kill herself, and that they might take her dead
+body to the Pondo chief, she suddenly changed her tone, and cheerfully
+signified her willingness to accept Tahli as her husband.
+
+"In due course the bridal party started.  The bride was accompanied by
+twenty girls and fifty young men, including my grandfather and Gweva,
+who went as the representatives of 'Ngwanya.  Amongst the girls was one
+Nonsimbi, who was known as Nomasaba's shadow, for the reason that she
+hardly ever left Nomasaba's side.  She was a girl of fierce temper and
+great strength, and she loved Nomasaba as a dog loves its master.
+
+"The `great place' of the Pondo chief was distant about five days' walk
+from that of 'Ngwanya.  On the afternoon of the fourth day Nomasaba, at
+whose side Nonsimbi was walking, suddenly fell to the ground with a
+sharp cry.  When questioned she said she had hurt her ankle, and that it
+was impossible for her to proceed any farther.  They were then on the
+bank of the Umzimvubu river, close to the Lukawi drift, and there were
+no dwellings of men close at hand.  The huts at which it had been
+arranged to sleep were still a long way ahead, so nothing could be done
+except halt for the night where they were.  Some of the young men went
+into the forest close by to cut light poles and wattles which they meant
+to bind together in the form of a litter, whereon to carry Nomasaba next
+day unless, as appeared unlikely, she should prove to be better in the
+morning.
+
+"Nomasaba, moaning and crying out, limped, with the assistance of
+Nonsimbi, to a spot a short distance apart from where the others had
+halted, and there lay down.
+
+"Next morning at daylight when the men awoke they found that Gweva, the
+son of Mehlo, Nomasaba, and Nonsimbi had disappeared.  Search was made
+in every direction, but a heavy dew had fallen, and consequently no
+spoor could be found.  This, of course, indicated that the three must
+have taken their departure early in the night.
+
+_Two_.
+
+"I will not say much about what happened to my grandfather, the men of
+the escort, and the companions of the bride.  They did not proceed to
+the `great place' of the Pondo chief, but after searching much and
+finding no trace of the missing ones, started for home, travelling so
+fast, that although the return journey was up-hill, they performed it in
+less than three days.  They had much difficulty in persuading 'Ngwanya
+of the truth of their story, and the lives of my grandfather and, in
+fact, of all the men of the party, were in the greatest danger.  To
+avoid so far as possible any cause of quarrel, 'Ngwanya, who was at the
+time at war with the Tembus, sent the fifty men who had formed the
+escort unarmed to Tahli to answer for their carelessness, and suffer
+such punishment as the Pondo chief might think fit to inflict.  However,
+by that time Tahli's wrath was no longer hot, so he sent them back
+unpunished.
+
+"What now follows was told many years afterwards when, 'Ngwanya being
+dead and the Bahlo chief in his place, she ventured to return to the
+Pondomisi country to die among her own people.
+
+"It would appear that the plan of escaping was arranged before the
+bridal party left 'Ngwanya's `great place,' in fact on the very day
+Nomasaba stated her willingness to accept the Pondo chief as her
+husband.  The plan originated with Nomasaba herself, and she caused
+Nonsimbi to communicate the same to Gweva.  No particular spot was fixed
+upon for the escape, it being settled that Gweva should give the signal
+agreed upon, on reaching some locality where, from the density of its
+forests and its lack of inhabitants, escape would be rendered easy.
+
+"Through Nonsimbi's good management the fugitives were enabled to take
+with them enough food to last several days.  They fled quite early in
+the night, in fact whilst some of the men were still talking around the
+fires, and slipped at once into the forest.  They then bore swiftly away
+towards the coast by a route which Gweva had discovered in the afternoon
+when cutting sticks for the litter whereon to carry Nomasaba.
+
+"The coast country in this part of Pondoland is extremely broken, and
+even now is well wooded, but in those days it was covered by dense,
+almost continuous forest, which was full of elephants, buffaloes, and
+other kinds of game.  All this had been ascertained by Gweva from the
+people of the kraals at which he and his party had rested on their way
+down.  Gweva's idea was to lie in hiding in the forest for some little
+time, and then work his way down until he could manage to cross the
+Umtata river and enter the country of the Amabonwane, who were reported
+to be hospitable to strangers.
+
+"In the forest track, however, were living a number of Pondo outlaws,
+formerly the adherents of a chief who had rebelled against Tahli's
+father Dayene, and had lost his life in consequence.  These people were
+fierce and brave; for years they had evaded the different expeditions
+sent against them.  They always made welcome and incorporated among
+themselves any fugitives from Pondoland or elsewhere who were willing to
+join them.  They lived principally by hunting, but had entered into a
+secret arrangement with those people living nearest the forest, who, in
+return for being left unmolested, grew a little grain for the outlaws
+and looked after the few cattle that they owned.
+
+"One day Gweva and his two companions found themselves surrounded by a
+number of these people.  Instead, however, of being killed, as they
+expected, the fugitives were civilly treated; eventually they were
+received into full fellowship by the outlaw community.
+
+"Gweva represented that his house had been `eaten up' after his father
+had been `smelt out' by the witch-doctor, and killed, and that he, with
+his wife and sister, for he represented Nonsimbi as standing in the
+latter relationship towards himself, had fled in consequence from over
+the Pondo border.
+
+"Gweva soon became a leader amongst the outlaws; his bravery, his skill
+in hunting, and his strength being very great.  Nomasaba and Nonsimbi
+built huts in a glade deep in the thickest part of the forest, and there
+the three dwelt together for a time.  But women were scarce among the
+outlaws, and soon Nonsimbi found herself asked in marriage after a
+manner which made it difficult for her to refuse, so she left the
+dwelling of Gweva, and went to live with one of the leaders of the
+outlaws as his wife.
+
+"Gweva and Nomasaba dwelt together in the forest for four years, during
+which time the man's madness did not abate, and it was said that the
+madness of the woman became worse as time passed.  Although living very
+much to themselves and, in fact, avoiding other people as much as
+possible, they seemed to be happy and contented with their lot.  Early
+in the second year Nomasaba bore a son, and in the year following she
+was delivered of a daughter.
+
+"The forest being full of game there was never any lack of meat; much
+honey was to be found in the hollow trees: and the ground held many
+roots which were fit for food.  Besides, some few trees bore fruits, and
+on the dead tree-trunks large mushrooms, good to eat, grew plentifully.
+After they had become accustomed to the life, Gweva and Nomasaba ceased
+to feel any hardship.  Besides, their love-madness for each other was
+such that they were content only to be together.
+
+"It was early in the fourth year of Gweva's dwelling in the forest when
+messengers from the Pondo chief arrived offering forgiveness to the
+outlaws if they would consent to leave the forest and return to their
+homes.  The outlaws assembled and heard the words of the messengers, who
+satisfied them that the proposals were made in good faith, and that the
+chief really meant to overlook the past.  Most of the outlaws were tired
+of the life they were leading, so were glad to accept the terms
+proposed, and return to their allegiance.
+
+"The word being given, the whole outlaw community moved out of the
+forest and assembled between the Umlengaan hill and the Umgazi river, at
+a spot agreed upon.  Here they were met by the chief induna of Tahli,
+who had brought a herd of cattle given by the chief as a token of
+forgiveness.  The appearance of the outlaws was extremely fierce--they
+were gaunt and worn from the effects of the hard life and the scarcity
+of food.  The children born in the forest were as wild as apes, and
+showed great uneasiness in the open country.  In passing through the
+Umzimvubu forest, several of them ran away and hid, and were only
+recovered after great difficulty.
+
+"It was soon ascertained that Gweva, who was known amongst the outlaws
+by the name of Sondaba, and his family were missing.  No particular
+attention was paid to this fact at the time, but some months afterwards,
+when the people had settled in their old homes, it began to be talked
+about.  The late outlaws were naturally much given to discussion with
+their old friends as to all that had happened in Pondoland during recent
+years, and, as may be imagined, the disappearance of the daughter of the
+Pondomisi chief when on her wedding journey did not fail to be
+mentioned.  Gradually the idea grew that the wife of Sondaba was the
+missing bride, and the shocking suggestion that these two who lived as
+man and wife were really brother and sister (as, according to our ideas,
+they were) was whispered from one to another.  Nonsimbi, who had also
+changed her name, was questioned on the subject, but no information
+could be elicited from her.
+
+"The rumour at length reached the ears of Tahli, who sent word of it to
+'Ngwanya, asking what he wished to be done.  'Ngwanya's wrath at the
+flight of Nomasaba had from the first been fiercer than Tahli's, and his
+heart was such that he never forgave an insult or an injury.  He sent
+back word to the Pondo chief that he wished his shameless daughter and
+her criminal lover to be captured and sent to him for punishment.  Such
+punishment, the messengers added, would be of such severity that men
+would talk of it for many years.
+
+"Tahli thereupon dispatched an expedition to capture Gweva and Nomasaba.
+Some of those who had been outlaws acted as guides, and accordingly, a
+few days after the arrival of 'Ngwanya's messenger, the valley wherein
+the huts of Gweva were built was surrounded by armed men.  But Gweva,
+who evidently had expected some such event, had removed from the valley
+just after the departure of the outlaws, and taken up his abode some
+distance away, nearer the sea.
+
+"Gweva had great skill in the training of dogs to hunt, and it was
+through his dogs that he was betrayed to his doom.  After vainly
+scouring the forest in unsuccessful search of the fugitives during
+several days, the induna in charge of the expedition decided to return
+home.  He and the guides were of opinion that Gweva had fled across the
+Umtata river.
+
+"On the first day of the return journey one of a hunting party, that had
+been led afar in pursuit of a wounded koodoo, heard a dog barking in the
+distance.  Following the sound, the men went up a narrow, winding valley
+with steep, rocky sides, until they came to a cave.  The dog had now
+ceased barking, having been, as they afterwards found out, tied up
+inside the cave.  They had found tracks leading to the cave, so the men,
+who were ten in number, formed a line before its mouth, so that none who
+were inside could escape.  They then advanced, and a man armed with a
+large stabbing spear and a shield made of buffalo hide, came towards
+them, calling out a warning that they were to advance no farther.
+Behind him was a woman also armed with a spear.  She had two children
+with her, one she held to her breast, whilst the other clung to her skin
+skirt.  The man and woman looked so fierce that the ten stood still for
+a space at their warning.
+
+"`Who are you, and what do you want?' asked the man of the cave.
+
+"`Who we are matters not,' replied the leader of the ten, `but we want
+you, Gweva, and this wife of yours who is also your sister.'
+
+"`My husband, it has come,' said the woman in a deep but quiet voice; `I
+will do my work; see that you do yours as well.'
+
+"With that she plunged the spear into the back of the little boy who was
+clinging to her skirt; then she withdrew it, and drove it through the
+body of the child which she held on her arm.  This done, she flung down
+the spear, lifted her arms high over her head, and cried out in a loud
+voice:
+
+"`My husband, I am ready--remember.'
+
+"The man turned, lifted his spear, and smote the woman downwards above
+the left breast.
+
+"He withdrew the spear gently, and the woman sank slowly to the ground,
+he supporting her to save her from falling, and holding his hand under
+her head as she lay, until she ceased gasping.
+
+"The man then lifted his shield from where he had placed it leaning
+against a rock, put his arm through the loop-thong, and turned towards
+the ten, who stood struck dumb and rigid by what they had seen.  Those
+who were living when the sun went down that day said that the face of
+Gweva was like a thunder-cloud, and that red flashes darted out of his
+eyes.  He lifted his spear and sprang upon the ten like a wounded lion.
+Their surprise at the deeds they had just witnessed was such, that they
+were taken quite unprepared.  Three fell dead from as many rapid
+strokes, and then the others closed in on the desperate man, who did not
+seem to heed the many wounds which were dealt him.  A fourth fell with
+his throat slit in such a manner that he soon afterwards died, and then
+Gweva drove his spear so hard into the head of a fifth, through the eye,
+that the weapon stuck by its edges between the bones of the aperture.
+Being thus disarmed, Gweva was quickly pierced through the heart from
+behind, so he sank dead to the ground.
+
+"This was the end of Gweva, the son of Mehlo, who was smitten with such
+a strange madness of desire for a woman whom he could not lawfully take
+as his wife.  Had he escaped this misfortune of love-madness, he might
+have been `great chief' of the Pondomisi nation, and have taken a new
+woman to his kraal each year, through all the years of his life."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE LOVE CHARM.
+
+  "Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once;
+  The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
+  Will make or man or woman madly dote
+  Upon the next live creature that it sees."
+
+  _A Midsummer Night's Dream_.
+
+"Ca, 'mntan 'am (no, my child), I am too old, as you can see for
+yourself; my memory is no longer good, and all these things happened so
+very long ago.  Besides, you have not yet told me why you want me to
+talk about these old days, you white people are so wise you cannot
+require to learn from an old woman such as I.  Hear him now, what can
+the great people who live beyond the sea in those big houses you show me
+the shadows (pictures) of, and of which I never can tell the top from
+the bottom, want to know about the dead and gone Bacas?  Yes, yes, I
+have heard all this before from you, and you know I only promised to
+talk on condition that you told me the true reason why you wanted to
+write down my words.
+
+"You white people are _very_ sly; you know most things, yet one thing
+you are always trying to learn, all of you: the magic of the native.
+And what is our magic compared with yours?  With us the `isanuse'
+(witch-doctor) calls to all in a loud voice, boasting of what he knows,
+yet you `abelungu' (white people) are for ever trying to persuade the
+natives that you are not wizards.  Don't tell me.  Does not one of you
+speak with your mouth close to the end of an iron string at Umzimkulu,
+while another listens at Matatiele where the string passes over the big
+poles, and hear the words spoken? and this over a distance which it
+takes a man six days to walk.  I know myself that such is the case,
+because when my grand-daughter's baby was born at Umzimkulu last spring,
+did I not learn it from the pink paper which the constable read to me on
+the same day.  I asked Rachel particularly about the date afterwards,
+and she swore to me that the child was born two days before the new
+moon, and that was the day on which the constable came.
+
+"Did you not yourself open the eye of a box at me, with a click, and
+show me the next day the water-shadow of myself upon paper; and was not
+the very torn place in my blanket, which I had not yet mended, there
+too?  Magic, _I_ know magic when I see it.
+
+"Yes, I am very old.  I remember, like it were yesterday, the time when
+Ncapay was killed by the Pondos, when he and his `impi' were driven over
+the cliff on the Umzimvubu, and I have seen our chief, Makaula, herding
+calves when he was a boy.  My first husband was old Palelo (he died when
+I was away at Umzimkulu), and my second was Momlotyolo, who got his head
+broken with a club in a fight with the Pondomisi.  He came home with his
+head tied up, and laid himself down on a mat.  Next day he could not
+speak.  He lay snoring for five days, and then died in a fit.  I had
+only been married to him three years, and we had three children.  The
+first was a girl, she died when still a child, and the second a boy whom
+we called Tutani.  He was drowned trying to cross the Umzimvubu after a
+beer-drink.
+
+"The first time I was married?  That is long ago, and I have almost
+forgotten all about it.  We were then living in what is now Cweraland.
+I was quite a young girl when old Palelo took me as his wife.  Yes, he
+had six other wives then living, and several others had died.  Palelo
+was a very old man, but he was rich and my father was poor.  Eighteen
+head of cattle were given as my dowry, and a new hut was built for me.
+In this hut old Palelo nearly lived for two years, and I was quite glad
+when I heard that he was paying `lobola' for another girl, as I knew
+that when he married her, he'd leave me alone for a time.
+
+"Who told you that I went to Umzimkulu?  So, so, I had forgotten
+mentioning it.  Well, I suppose I may as well tell you everything about
+it now, because you might hear it spoken of by others who do not know
+all that happened, and thus come to think evil of me, not knowing that
+it was Lamla's fault, and that I was blameless.
+
+"You have heard of the charm which a man places upon a woman to make her
+follow him.  Perhaps you do not believe in such things, eh?  I thought
+not.  It is strange what a lot of true things you wise people disbelieve
+in.  Well, well, if you do not believe in such things why do you want to
+hear about them?  I think I know the reason, but it runs on a different
+spoor to that of your words.  Whether you believe in them or not, these
+things exist.  I have lived much longer than you in spite of the drought
+on the top of your head, and I have not only seen, but experienced the
+effect of such a charm.  No, no, although you are old enough to know
+better, you are also old enough to have seen that the eyes of a young
+woman do not shine on you as on younger men, and this knowledge might
+lead you into mischief.
+
+"Well, I will tell you of some, but not of the strongest.  There are
+many things which can be used as charms, and some work quite differently
+from others.  Some are of use only to a young man, and some to one who
+is old.  There is the `duba' (wild garlic: _Tulbaghia alliacea_) which
+is pounded up with fat and clay, and kept in the tip of a goat's horn.
+If a young man touch a young woman with this it will make her think of
+him night and day, until the `umdhlemnyana' (a kind of hysteria) seizes
+her.  This will never leave her unless he releases her, or she can steal
+the charm from where he has to keep it, wrapped in a skin, in the roof
+of his dwelling.  Then there is the `insonga 'mazwe' (literally `turner'
+or `wrapper up' of words--_Commelyna speciosa_--a little blue, furry
+flower, with bright yellow anthers).  If a young man bathes, and then
+rubs himself all over with this, his words become so wise and sweet to
+the ear, that no woman can deny him anything.  Besides, there is that
+stuff which can be bought at the big stores, `zamlandela' (camphor;
+literally `that which leads,' or `induces').  If a young man rub his
+hands with this, and he touch a girl on the cheeks, she will dream of
+him whether she be asleep or awake.  There are other things; roots and
+flowers which, if placed by a man in the water-pool at which the girls
+drink, or in which they bathe in hot weather, will have such an effect
+that their fathers and brothers will want to shed blood.  Then there is
+another flower which, if broken up and scattered on a path along which a
+woman walks, will make her follow the man who scattered it wheresoever
+he leads her.  It was in this way I was charmed and led away to
+Umzimkulu, where I dwelt for a year.
+
+"Lamla came to dwell in our neighbourhood nearly two years after I had
+married old Palelo.  He was a young man of Umzimkulu.  He had been
+obliged to flee for a time from there on account of having broken the
+law.  He was related to some people of a kraal near ours, and with them
+he stayed.  He was a very big man and a strong dancer, and was nearly
+always laughing.
+
+"Old Palelo had many sons and daughters, and as he was rich, there was
+plenty of feasting at our kraal.  Lamla often visited my hut and seemed
+to be very fond of talking to Palelo about old times, and about the
+deeds my husband had done in his youth.  The two would often sit over
+the fire, far into the night, and I used to lie on my mat, my head
+covered with a kaross, listening.  There was a little hole in the
+kaross, and through this I used to watch Lamla, who always sat with his
+face towards me.  I do not know how it was, but somehow that part of the
+kaross with the hole in it was always just in front of my eyes.  It was
+strange to see how fond old Palelo was of Lamla; I think it was because
+Lamla listened to him so quietly, and just let him talk.
+
+"Lamla said very little to me on these occasions, but we used often to
+meet when I went down to the pool to fetch water, or to the millet-field
+to hoe.  I did not altogether like meeting him alone, because the way in
+which he talked and went on annoyed me.  It was not so much his words as
+his ways that made me angry.  Whenever we were alone he mimicked old
+Palelo--his walk, his voice, his way of taking snuff--everything.
+Although I could not keep from laughing, I did not like Lamla to go on
+like this.  He said he meant to make himself so like Palelo that none
+would be able to tell one from the other, and that he came to practise
+before me, so that I could tell him how he was getting on.
+
+"Sometimes he would tell me about what a lot of girls were in love with
+him at Umzimkulu, and when I told him to go back to them and not trouble
+me any more, he said he had got so fond of Palelo that he could not bear
+to think of departing.  Occasionally he would come down to the field
+where I was hoeing, and if it were a hot day would make me sit with him
+under a tree, chewing `imfe' (sweet reed), and listening while he blew
+music on the `ugwalo' (a musical instrument formed of a single string
+attached to a quill, and stretched along a stick), or talking nonsense.
+
+"One day as I was returning from the pool carrying a pot of water, I met
+Lamla coming out of the bush with a lot of yellow flowers in his hands.
+I inquired as to what he was going to do with these, and he said he was
+going to do some `doctoring.'  `Who, then, is sick?'  I asked.  `I am,'
+he replied.  I laughed at this, because at the dance the day before he
+had tired all the others out.  `Do you know what sickness these are to
+cure?' he asked, looking at me very hard.  `No,' said I, `unless it be
+the sickness that makes people think they are not themselves; that is
+the only sickness you have got.'  `Why, you are almost as good as a
+doctor yourself,' he replied; then he laughed and went away.
+
+"Next morning I saw some little bits of yellow stuff on the ground just
+outside my hut, and also strewn along the pathway leading to the
+millet-field.  I picked a piece up, and found it to be very like a
+portion of a flower such as Lamla had been carrying when I met him
+coming out of the bush.  I soon picked up a whole flower.  This, without
+considering what I was doing, I stuck into the carrying-hole of my left
+ear.  Then it suddenly seemed as if something began to sing inside me,
+and I felt very happy, but rather frightened.
+
+"On that day I could not work.  I felt as if quite changed in every way.
+I could not forget the yellow flowers, or Lamla.  I just stuck my hoe
+into the ground and went to the spot under the big tree where he and I
+used to sit.  It was very hot, so I lay down and soon fell fast asleep.
+
+"I had a strange dream.  I thought that Lamla came to me with a lot of
+yellow flowers tied around his head in the way the Pondos tie the
+`imvani' (wild asparagus) when they want rain to fall.  I thought he
+kept changing into old Palelo, and then back into himself again, and
+that I was running away from him and at the same time feeling sorry that
+he could not catch me.  Just as I thought he had caught me, I woke up
+suddenly, and there he stood.
+
+"I got such a fright that I screamed out and then began to weep.  Lamla
+sat down next to me.  I told him to leave me alone, but he would not, so
+I jumped up and ran away home.
+
+"That night I could eat nothing, and the `umdhlemnyana' sickness seized
+me so badly that old Palelo became quite frightened, and said he would
+fetch the witch-doctor next day to see who had bewitched me.  When I
+felt better I lay down to try and sleep, but it was of no use.  I
+dreamed of Lamla's coming, but when it got late and he had not come, I
+felt like a long-tailed finch trying to fly against the wind on a wet
+day.  I kept wondering as to where he was, and the thought that he might
+be at a feast at another kraal where there was a girl who I knew liked
+him, troubled me so much that I got another `umdhlemnyana' fit, and when
+old Palelo came to me with a pot of water, I threw the water all over
+him, and broke the pot.  This made me feel a little better, so I lay
+quiet, pretending to be asleep.
+
+"Old Palelo went to sleep on his mat, but I lay long awake, until at
+length I felt I could not stay in the hut any longer; something seemed
+to draw me outside.  I took my kaross and left the hut.  The moon was
+large and yellow.  The stream of water in the kloof just below was
+making a noise exactly like some one speaking, and at length I found
+out what it was saying.  It was
+`lam-lam-lam-la-la-la-lam-la-la-lam-la-lam-la-lam-la,' that the water
+was calling out over and over again as it ran over the stones.  Lamla
+seemed to be all about me, and I kept looking behind me to see if he was
+not there.
+
+"A jackal up on the hill was calling out `yonk, yonk, yonk, yow-a-a-ow,'
+like a man singing through his nose.  The bats and night-jars were
+flitting about, and two owls were crying out to each other among the
+tops of the yellow-wood trees.
+
+"I first sat down near the hut, but old Palelo was snoring like a big
+frog, so I walked away beyond the cattle kraal, and laid myself down on
+the short, green grass, which was cool and wet with dew.
+
+"All this time I could think of nothing but Lamla, and I kept wondering
+why this should be so.  Why did I feel so strange and so changed?  My
+thoughts went back to the first time I had seen him.  It was at the
+wedding feast of one of Palelo's daughters.  I remember thinking I had
+never seen any one dance so well.  Then I went over, one by one, all the
+occasions upon which we had since met.  Although they were many I think
+I remembered every one of them.  I began to laugh when I thought of the
+way he used to mimic my husband.  Then I thought of the long talks in
+the hut at night, so I lay back and covered myself up with the kaross,
+looking through the same little hole at a post standing near me, and
+trying to imagine it was Lamla, giving his ears to Palelo and his eyes
+to me.
+
+"Next I remembered his coming out of the bush with the yellow flowers,
+and this set me thinking of what had been strewn on the path.  Then I
+suddenly understood the whole thing--I was bewitched.  Lamla had said
+the flowers were for medicine, and this was what he had meant, the
+rogue.
+
+"When the thought first struck me I felt very much frightened, and I
+jumped up, meaning to run into the hut at once.  However, I remained
+where I was for a little time, and then my fright seemed to pass away.
+Then I walked on a few yards and sat down on the grass.
+
+"I listened to the water calling out Lamla's name, and thought seriously
+over the whole matter of Lamla and his doings.  After considering for a
+while I concluded that in spite of the `umdhlemnyana' sickness, being
+bewitched was, after all, not so very terrible.  I had often heard of
+girls being charmed in this way, and I knew that one cure for it was to
+follow the man about, and make him take off the charm.  `Ah, ha, my
+friend Lamla,' thought I, `I am up to your ways and tricks, and will let
+you know it the next time we meet.  You have not got a silly girl to
+deal with this time, but a woman who has been married nearly two years,
+and who can take care of herself very well, in spite of the
+"umdhlemnyana."'
+
+"The dogs suddenly began to bark all together, and then they rushed
+round to the back of the cattle kraal, where they all ceased barking.
+Just afterwards a man walked out into the moonlight from behind the
+kraal-fence, and came slowly towards me.  It was Lamla.  The dogs knew
+him, and were running after him and fawning.
+
+"He came up to where I was sitting, and without saying a word took my
+hands in his and drew me gently towards him.  I stood up, and then he
+walked on, and I followed.  I could not have resisted then, even if I
+had wanted to, but I do not think I wanted to at all.  You see, the
+charm had influenced me more strongly than I had thought.  I was no
+longer myself, but just Lamla and nothing else.
+
+"I followed Lamla down the hill along the path to the millet-field, and
+then we sat down under the tree.  The dogs came too, and Lamla got very
+angry because he could not at first manage to drive them back.  `Lamla,'
+said I, `you have bewitched me with those yellow flowers, and we will
+both be killed by Palelo's sons.'  `No,' said he, `it is you that have
+bewitched me, and I only used those flowers to cure myself.'
+
+"After a while we went on together, Lamla leading me by the hand.  When
+we reached a little bush near the kraal he was living at, he left me for
+a short time, and then he returned with two bundles, one of which he
+gave me to carry.  We walked on all night.  Just before daybreak we
+turned to the left and entered a thick forest.  Here we spent the day.
+We did not light a fire.  Lamla had brought some millet already boiled,
+in a skin bag.  We ate this, and also some roots which he dug up with
+the blade of his spear.  From a hollow tree he brought some of the
+sweetest honey I have ever tasted.  He did not seem to mind the bees
+stinging him at all.
+
+"All this time we hardly spoke a word.  In the afternoon we were sitting
+together hidden in some thick, green brushwood; I heard a rustle and,
+looking up, saw a long green snake gliding through the branches just
+over Lamla's head.  I called out: `Look, there is a snake.'  He just
+smiled and, without standing up, killed the snake with one blow of his
+stick.  It nearly fell on him, so I screamed out, but he laughed and
+comforted me and said that he had been doctored by a great wizard
+against all dangerous things except me.
+
+"Then he asked me how I liked being bewitched.  I replied: `I like it
+very well now, because the charm is on me, but I know that by and by I
+will be very angry.'  He laughed very loud at this.  Afterwards he asked
+me if I knew what had really happened.  I answered: `Yes, Lamla, you
+wicked man, you have bewitched me and made me follow you away from my
+home.'  `No, you are mistaken,' said he, `I am not Lamla at all, but
+your husband Palelo in Lamla's body; Lamla is still at the kraal in the
+body of Palelo.'  I could not understand how this could be, and I now
+know that he was talking nonsense, but at the time the charm was so
+strong on me that I would have believed anything he told me.
+
+"That night we crossed the Umzimvubu, and reached the big forest below
+the Tabankulu.  Here we laid down and slept.  The sun was high when we
+awoke.  We travelled on through the forest, and again rested and spent
+the night on the other side.
+
+"Next day we went on without concealment through the open country.  We
+were now in Pondoland, so had nothing to fear, so we just wandered on
+quietly from kraal to kraal, getting food in plenty; for Lamla had such
+pleasant ways, especially with the women, that we were always made
+welcome.  Lamla said I was his wife, whom he had fetched from the
+Pondomisi country, and no one seemed to doubt his words.
+
+"When we reached the Baca country at Umzimkulu, we went straight to the
+kraal of Lamla's father, and when he told his relations that I was his
+wife, and that he had paid `lobola' for me, they all laughed at him, and
+asked whether horns or feathers grew on the `lobola' cattle.  I did not
+see at the time why they should have doubted his words, but I found out
+the reason afterwards.
+
+"At first we lived very happily, for the charm was still strong upon me,
+but after some months Lamla began to go away from home very often, and
+then I heard that he was courting another girl.  Well, he married her,
+and she and I quarrelled, and he took her part and beat me, so I became
+very miserable.  It was nearly a year after we came to Umzimkulu that my
+baby, a boy, was born.
+
+"One day, when my baby was over a month old, who should walk up to the
+kraal but the Matshoba, old Palelo's `great son.'  I picked up the child
+and ran away into the bush, but next day I got hungry and had to return.
+Matshoba was not very angry.  It turned out that Palelo was dead.
+Matshoba said that I must return with him.  I was not sorry to do so,
+because the charm had now quite passed away from me.
+
+"Matshoba brought a law case before the chief against Lamla for taking
+me away.  I told all about the charm which had been used, and Lamla did
+not deny having used it.  He was ordered by the chief to pay ten head of
+cattle as a fine.  These his father had to pay, because Lamla had no
+cattle of his own.  The chief said that if Lamla's father had got him a
+wife Lamla would not have gone about bewitching the wives of other
+people.  When the cattle were paid the chief took five head, and
+Matshoba and I drove the other five to my old home.  Soon afterwards I
+was married to Momlotyolo.
+
+"My baby grew up and became just like his father both in appearance and
+ways.  When quite a young man he was `smelt out' for bewitching one of
+the wives of the chief, and had to flee for his life.  I have never
+heard of him since.
+
+"No, no; I am not going to tell you anything more about the flower.  It
+was not a yellow flower at all, but one of quite another colour.
+Besides, it is a young man's charm, and therefore would be of no use to
+you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+DERELICTS.
+
+  "God help all poor souls lost in the dark."
+
+  _The Heretic's Tragedy_.
+
+"There is, after all, nothing equal to philosophic cultivation of the
+mind for enabling one to withstand misfortune," said the man, as he
+entered the room.
+
+The woman looked up at him from where she was sitting, with a start of
+surprise.  Pain, love, pity, and yearning made worlds of her eyes.
+
+"Now take my case," continued the man; "it is only four days since
+Wallie died, and it was but yesterday we laid him in his grave, and yet
+to-night I feel hardly any grief.  Of course, the shock unmanned me at
+first, but now I am quite myself again.  I have never been able to make
+you see the uses of--"
+
+The man ceased speaking and began to cough.  Then he walked slowly
+backwards and forwards with an air of extreme preoccupation.  The woman
+said nothing, but kept her eyes, which were now swimming in tears, fixed
+on him.
+
+"Really, my darling," he continued after a pause, and in an impatient
+tone, "you must try and look at the thing as I do.  He is dead, and we
+saw the lid of the coffin screwed down over his cold body, yet,
+wonderful to relate, he is so close to us that I can bring him back at
+will.  I have only to close my eyes and I see him.  Look here, I hold
+his cap just three feet from the floor, and there he stands below it,
+with his face under the peak, and his curls behind.  Now cover your face
+with the cap, and draw in your breath;--so--did I not tell you?--He has
+only just taken it off.  Now, look: can you not see him there before
+you?  Now he is here nestling up, and just going to beg for a story.
+There, he has gone over to his rocking-horse.  Now close your eyes and
+rock it; to close your eyes at the right time is the great secret."
+
+Here the man's voice was again interrupted by the cough.  The woman
+stood up and laid her hand caressingly over his shoulder.  Then she
+tried to move in front of him and look into his eyes.  With an impatient
+gesture he shook himself free, and resumed his walking to and fro,
+always avoiding her eyes.
+
+"How foolish you are," he resumed, "not to help me, not to participate
+in this new creation which I have discovered the secret of effecting.
+Look here, be reasonable, every night we will make up his bed and place
+his clothes ready for the morning.  Then we will tie the string to your
+wrist so that he can pull it and waken you without disturbing me.  Now
+just try it, and I am quite positive you will feel the string being
+pulled just when he wants you to kiss him at the usual time.  You have
+always been pitching into me for reading metaphysics, but look at the
+difference between us now.  You remember what Fichte--"
+
+Here the man's voice was once more interrupted by the cough.  He turned
+and leant against the wall, resting his forehead against his arm.  The
+woman tried to make him sit down on an easy-chair, which she drew
+towards him, but he refused with the same impatient gesture.  Soon he
+resumed his walking, and continued:
+
+"I am even prepared to maintain that in some respects we are better off
+than if he had lived.  I do not imagine that either of us will last very
+long, and think what it would have been to leave him behind, uncared
+for.  Then, if he had grown up, who knows what mistakes he might have
+made, and what he might have suffered.  As it is now, he will always be
+the same to us.  I am glad you are not crying any longer.  Now I will go
+and carry his cot back into the bedroom.  Do not come in until I have
+things arranged."
+
+There was a smell of carbolic disinfectant throughout the house, for the
+boy had died of diphtheritic croup, after an agonising illness of five
+days.  This smell continually suggested death to the woman; it seemed to
+have got into her nostrils permanently, go where she would she could not
+avoid it.  She now stood up from where she had been sitting near the
+fireplace, and walked into the drawing-room, which had a south-eastern
+aspect.  It was winter, and the night was somewhat unseasonably warm.
+The weather had long been dry.  A bright moon was high in the heavens.
+The woman stood in the dark room and looked out of the window to where
+the bare, silvery rods of a willow swayed and undulated to the faint,
+intermittent breeze.  Then her gaze wandered to an oak, out of the
+leafless boughs of which hung the ropes of the boy's swing, oscillating
+gently.  Every now and then she coughed, and the sound of the man's
+coughing reached her at short intervals from the next room.  The rising
+wind began to sough and moan over the house, and to call ghostly
+whisperings from the bare, chafing branches of the crowded oak trees.
+Stretched across the sky from horizon to horizon was a curved fringe of
+delicate snow-white cloud, suggestive of an ostrich feather in shape and
+texture.  This came nearer every moment.  It hung for a breath like a
+broken, opaline halo round the moon.  Now it was over the house, and the
+moon was again clear, but low down on the southern horizon from whence
+it had arisen, dark clouds of gradually increasing bulk were surging up,
+and faint lightnings flickering.
+
+The man came from the bedroom into the passage and called to the woman,
+who silently joined him, and again passed her arm over his shoulder.
+
+"Come along, darling," he said, as they went towards the bedroom; "see
+how I have arranged it all.  What a pity we did not think of this last
+night!"
+
+The little cot had been moved back to its place, and in it the boy's bed
+had been made, pillow, white sheet turned back, and little eider-down
+quilt, all complete.  In the middle of the pillow was a dent, as if a
+head had just been lying there, and the bed-clothes were slightly
+tumbled.  On a chair at the foot of the cot were carelessly thrown a
+flannel shirt, a blue-striped tunic, and a pair of blue serge
+knickerbockers; upon these lay loose a pair of cardinal-coloured socks,
+and two shoes with bright steel buckles stood close by on the floor.
+The woman walked up to the cot, her face was ashen.  Her lips had ceased
+quivering, but she could not speak.  Her heart stood almost still.  Her
+mental tension was such that she almost lost consciousness.  Two
+impressions dominated all others, the smell of the carbolic, and the
+swelling moan of the wind over the roof.  The man went on garrulously,
+and in a cheerful voice:
+
+"Look here, we will hang his plaid over the side of the cot, and when we
+light the candle in the night to see if he is covered properly, we can
+just _know_ that he is there, behind it.  He lies so quietly that we
+never can hear him breathe.
+
+"Sit down now and I will read a chapter of the Bible to you.  It is past
+our usual time."
+
+The man stretched forth his hand and took a Bible down from a small
+book-shelf which hung on the wall close to the head of the bed.  Then he
+began to speak, turning over the leaves at the same time.
+
+"Let me see, what shall we read to-night?  I forgot to-day to pick one
+out that Wallie will not ask awkward questions about.
+
+"Ah! here is the one about King David's child dying; you remember he
+lost a child, a boy too, his son and Bathsheba's...  I will read this.
+Come close; I believe Wallie is asleep, so I must speak low...  How the
+wind is wailing;... but you know, wind always makes him sleep more
+soundly."
+
+The woman bent forward and hid her face in her hands, her elbows resting
+on her knees.  The man began to read:
+
+"And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died.  And the
+servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they
+said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he
+would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself if we
+tell him that the child is dead?
+
+"But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that
+the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child
+dead? and they said, He is dead.
+
+"Then David arose from the earth and washed, and anointed himself; and
+changed his apparel, and came into the House of the Lord, and
+worshipped; then he came to his own house; and when he required, they
+set bread before him, and he did eat.
+
+"Then said his servants unto him: What thing is this that thou hast
+done?  Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive, but
+when the child was dead thou didst arise and eat bread.
+
+"And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I
+said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child
+may live?
+
+"But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?  Can I bring him back
+again?  I shall go to him, but he shall not come to me."
+
+The wind had gradually increased in violence, and now there came a
+strong gust and a sudden clash of rain against the iron roof.  The man
+ceased reading, and looked up with a light of wildness in his eyes.
+Then he flung down the book, started up, and ran around to the other
+side of the bed, where the cot was.  He looked into the cot, and a long
+cry of agony broke from him when he saw that it was empty.  He staggered
+and would have fallen but for the woman, who supported him for a moment,
+and then let him sink back on the bed.  Another fit of coughing came on,
+after which white foam, slightly tinged with blood, appeared on his
+lips.  The rain, with which hail was now mixed, swept down on the roof
+in a roaring torrent.
+
+Suddenly the man sprang up, and before the woman could restrain him, had
+reached the passage leading to the front door.
+
+"Come, come," he shouted, "he is out in the cold and wet, and we are in
+here warm and dry.  Let me go; I will take his plaid to put over him.
+You do not care, or you would not try to stop me.  Let me go."
+
+All this time he was struggling to escape from the woman's clasping
+arms, and at length he succeeded.  He rushed back into the bedroom,
+seized the plaid from where it hung on the cot, and again made for the
+door.  The woman followed him with an overcoat, and caught him as he was
+turning the handle.
+
+"Wait one moment, Fred," she said in a low-toned voice, which had the
+immediate effect of calming him, "we will go together.  Come back with
+me until I get my cloak."
+
+He followed her back to the bedroom, and there walked impatiently about,
+struggling to get into the overcoat, and coughing incessantly.  She put
+on a waterproof ulster, and then opened a little jewel-case which stood
+on the dressing-table.  From this she took a thick, glossy lock of dark,
+curly hair, which she hid in the bosom of her dress.
+
+The woman took the man's arm, and the two walked out into the wild
+night.  It was not dark, for the moon was nearly full, but swift on the
+wings of the screaming gale low, combing clouds were hurrying over the
+land.  From these heavy showers of piercing sleet fell.  Each shower
+only lasted for a few minutes, but the intervals between them were
+hardly longer.  As the storm grew, the duration of the showers
+increased, whilst that of the intervals diminished.  As yet, how ever,
+the moon shone out brightly after each shower.
+
+The graveyard was on the spur of a mountain which overhung the river
+about a mile below the village.  Thither the man and the woman wended.
+Fortunately the wind was behind them.  It was this circumstance that
+made their progress possible.  They never could have faced the howling
+storm.  Faster and faster they staggered onward, the woman supporting
+the man by means of her left arm, which she had passed around his body,
+and holding his left in her right hand.  They both coughed dreadfully,
+but the paroxysms of the man were the worse.
+
+They reached the graveyard at length, and sank down exhausted on the
+boy's grave.  Just then, a furious shower of hail lashed out of a
+driving cloud, and in a few moments the whole world was white.  They
+managed to spread the plaid over the little mound.  The woman being on
+the windward side, held it for a while in position, and soon the hail
+lay thickly on it.
+
+In a short lull between two of the worst gusts the woman managed to
+creep around to the other side of the grave where the man was lying
+huddled.  She passed her arm around him in the old protective manner,
+and laid her cold lips against his cheek, which was like frozen marble.
+He was only just breathing.  Then the cough seized him again, and he
+struggled violently.  The woman closed her eyes, and held him fast.  He
+gave a great gulp, a shudder passed over his limbs, and then he lay
+still.
+
+The woman opened her eyes.  The moon was shining brightly through a
+narrow rift between the storm-cloud that had just passed over and the
+one hurrying on its track.  The dazzlingly white hail covered
+everything, and lay in heaps against the graveyard wall, the
+tree-trunks, and the tombstones.  It half covered the man and the woman,
+and on the white heap against which his head was lying, was a dark
+stain.
+
+The woman closed her eyes and lay with her head against the man's body.
+She soon fell asleep, and dreamt a dream.  She thought she was swinging
+in the hammock which was slung between the verandah poles of the
+cottage, reading to the boy his favourite story.  It was a slight and
+simple allegory which the man had composed for him, and was based
+principally upon the last chapter of Revelation, the description of the
+Delectable Mountains, and Augustine's City of God.  The story was
+written in the man's happiest vein, and was full of the loveliest
+fancy-play.  The best passage in it was that description of the valley
+through which runs the River of the Water of Life.  She read as far as
+this, and lo! in the twinkling of an eye she was in the valley.  There
+stood the grove of those wondrous trees which bear twelve different
+kinds of fruit, and the leaves of which are for the healing of the
+suffering nations.
+
+But she was alone in the midst of all this wonder and beauty.  She
+wandered along in a state of disquietude, seeking something or somebody,
+she knew not who or what.  Then she heard a halloa far away in a voice
+that seemed familiar, and that sent a thrill of agonising bliss through
+her being.  Soon a well-known, pattering footstep sounded down one of
+the spacious avenues, and the boy rushed into her arms.  After an
+ecstatic moment she lifted her face out of his dark curls, and saw the
+man hurrying towards her with shining face and outstretched arms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE RETURN OF SOBEDE.
+
+  "There is a deal of human nature in mankind."
+
+  Josh Billings.
+
+_One_.
+
+Sobede stood in the prisoners' dock before the Circuit Court at Kokstad,
+between his fellow-prisoners Kwekwe and Gazile, and pleaded "Not Guilty"
+to the charge of having stolen four head of cattle from one Jasper
+Swainson, a farmer dwelling in the valley of the Indwana river,
+Umzimkulu district, whom he had served as a shepherd two years
+previously.
+
+Sobede belonged to the Hlangweni tribe, whilst his companions were Gaika
+Kafirs from near King William's Town.  But the important difference
+between Sobede and the others lay in this: that whereas they were guilty
+of the crime laid to their charge, he was as innocent as was his
+Lordship the learned judge who, clad in a gorgeous vestment of crimson
+silk, was trying him.
+
+Appearances were, however, strongly against Sobede.  The evidence showed
+that the stolen cattle had been found by the farmers who followed on
+their spoor in the possession of the three prisoners, and were at the
+time being driven up one of the gorges of the steep Drakensberg range,
+in the direction of Basutoland, that great and grievous receptacle for
+stolen stock of all kinds.  When Sobede told his story, namely, that he
+had casually joined the other two but a few minutes before he had been
+apprehended, having come from his kraal along one of the many footpaths
+leading through the same gorge, no one believed him, although the
+relation was perfectly true.  His wife, Mampitizili, with her
+two-months-old baby slung on her back and hushing it as she spoke, gave
+evidence to the effect that her husband had left her after the sun was
+high on the same day for the purpose of fetching medicine from a native
+doctor for the week-old baby, which happened at the time to be ailing,
+whereas the cattle had been stolen thirty hours previously.  His old,
+half-decrepit father, 'Mbope, corroborated Mampitizili's statement in a
+voice that rose to a quavering shout.  The old man's lips trembled, his
+eyes flashed for a moment through the blue film that had gradually
+overspread them during the past few years, and he held his shaking right
+hand with the two first fingers extended high over his head.  He really
+afforded a very fine tragic spectacle, and suggested a kind of Bantu
+Lear in appearance and mien, but to judge by the behaviour of the jury
+the exhibition was rather comic than otherwise, for they put their heads
+together and laughed consumedly.  _They_ knew the dodges all these old
+niggers get up to, and it was quite clear that the old man had pitched
+it too strong for sincerity.  The old man's display evidently impressed
+his Lordship, but was nevertheless of no use to Sobede.  The damning
+fact remained that the cattle had been stolen from a farmer in whose
+service he had for some time been, and when the passing flash of insight
+had faded from the mind of the judge, no one in court except Sobede's
+wife and father had the slightest doubt as to Sobede's guilt.
+
+The prosecuting barrister finished his address to his own entire
+satisfaction, and then, sitting down, leaned back in his seat and
+contemplated the recently-painted ceiling, conscious of having done his
+duty to society.  Then the judge made a few remarks of an analytic
+nature, inclining at the same time towards the jury-box with that
+well-known and well-studied air of forensic friendliness which so tends
+to establish a good understanding between all parties concerned; except,
+perhaps, the prisoner at the bar.  After this the nine heads of the
+jurymen bent towards each other in a whispered colloquy which may
+perhaps have lasted for thirty seconds.  Then the jurymen all stood up
+together, and the foreman communicated their verdict as one of "guilty"
+against the three prisoners.
+
+Then the judge, pushing back the forensic friendliness stop, and drawing
+out that of judicial austerity, began to admonish the prisoners, and it
+could be seen that it was at Sobede his harangue was chiefly aimed.
+Although the address was well interpreted, Sobede could not follow the
+drift of it, his attention being divided between the wails of his child
+sounding faintly from the court-house yard where the witnesses were
+kept, and the little white tippets which waggled a silent accompaniment
+to his Lordship's eloquence over the breast of his Lordship's beautiful
+red silk robe.  The baseness of ingratitude (it had transpired in the
+course of the evidence that Sobede had, in recognition of meritorious
+service, been sent away with four goats over and above his specified
+wages) was enlarged upon, and the ineradicable nature of the furtive
+bent in the average Bantu was treated from an ethnological point.
+Eventually Sobede found himself sentenced to three years' imprisonment
+with hard labour, whilst his companions, who could not help smiling at
+the peculiarity of the situation, got off each with a year less.
+
+After sentence, as he was being hurried through the court-house yard to
+the lock-up, Sobede caught a glimpse of old 'Mbope crouching with bent
+head in a corner, and then he passed Mampitizili.  She was still hushing
+the baby, who as yet refused to be comforted, and as her husband passed
+her with the horror of the prospect of three years of unmerited, painful
+servitude darkening his uncivilised soul, these two exchanged such looks
+as are never forgotten on this side of the grave.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_Two_.
+
+Mampitizili and 'Mbope took two days wherein to perform the return
+journey to Sidote's location, where they dwelt.  Owing to his
+infirmities the old man walked with great difficulty, but he kept a good
+heart, and endeavoured his best to comfort the miserable wife of his
+unhappy son, reminding her from his vantage coign of old age that three
+years pass very quickly and do not, after all, make much of a slice out
+of a lifetime.  This is quite true when the lifetime is regarded from
+near the wrong end of it, but such philosophy is unintelligible to the
+young.  The poor woman had only been married about a year, and the baby,
+a boy, was not yet three months old.  It had not as yet even been given
+a name.
+
+They reached home one cold, misty evening, and it was then that the full
+significance of their misfortune came home to them for the first time.
+The friends who had taken charge of the premises during their absence
+left next morning taking with them a goat, as a reward for their
+services, and all day long the two miserable creatures sat and hugged
+their misery.  The hearth was cold, the milk-sacks were empty, and the
+strong arm and shrewd head of Sobede were missed at every turn.
+
+The season was early autumn, and the crops were nearly ready to reap,
+but during their absence the cattle, the birds, and marauding children
+from kraals in the next valley had so damaged them that they were now
+hardly worth the reaping.  The calves of two of the best cows had died,
+and consequently milk was scarce.  Everything seemed to be falling into
+disorganisation.  A boy of about twelve years of age, a grandson of the
+old man, was sent to dwell at the kraal for the purpose of assisting in
+looking after the stock, but the loneliness weighed upon him to such an
+extent that he repeatedly deserted and ran home, in spite of repeated
+heavy beatings from his father, who had been promised a cow in payment
+for the boy's services.
+
+Mampitizili struggled on bravely, and carried up basket after basket of
+grain from the depleted field, but when the last cob had been harvested
+there was hardly enough grain to last half-way through the winter, to
+say nothing of seed for the ensuing spring.
+
+'Mbope had another son whose name was Manciya.  Manciya's mother had
+been the "great wife," and consequently he took precedence of Sobede,
+whose mother was the wife of 'Mbope's "right hand."  All the rest of
+'Mbope's children were daughters, and they had all long since been
+married.  Sobede was 'Mbope's youngest child and his favourite.
+
+Manciya and his father did not agree, and consequently 'Mbope had dwelt
+with Sobede since the latter had married and set up a kraal of his own
+on a sheltered ledge near the head of a deep valley on the eastern
+fringe of the Hlangweni location.  Manciya had, under pretext of
+seniority, seized the lion's share of the cattle.  He had, it is true, a
+right to a great deal of it, but he took more than his share, and it was
+only after much trouble that he was compelled to disgorge.  However, a
+herd of about twenty head had been rescued from his clutches and
+formally ceded to Sobede as his prospective share in his father's
+estate, to be his unconditionally after 'Mbope's death.
+
+Manciya now and then called to see his father.  His kraal, where he
+dwelt with his several wives, was situated about five miles away.  His
+visits were not welcome, for the reason that he always appeared to
+assume that Sobede was guilty, and this was resented by both 'Mbope and
+Mampitizili.  Theft of cattle, especially if it happens to be on a large
+scale, is probably regarded by the native of to-day more or less as it
+was regarded by the moss-trooper of the Scotch Border in the sixteenth
+century.  In Sobede's case, however, his wife and his father knew him to
+be suffering for a sin he had not committed.  The ever-present sense of
+injustice made them sensitive, and they felt the inconvenience of their
+position most keenly.
+
+Two years passed, full of misery to the widowed wife and the old man who
+now felt his death approaching, and keenly longed for a sight of his
+favourite son to carry with him into the grave.  They did not even know
+at which of the convict stations Sobede was serving his time, for no
+word from him had ever reached them since the day of his conviction.
+The little boy grew strong and tall.  He was now able to run about.
+"Kungaye" was the name given to him.  This word means "It was through
+(or owing to) him."  This name, the significance of which will be
+obvious, was not given as a reproach, but so that, in after life, the
+son might remember and deplore his father's unmerited sufferings, of
+which he had been the innocent cause.
+
+_Three_.
+
+One evening old 'Mbope, who had the habit of pottering about digging out
+medicinal roots with an iron spike, returned and laid himself down on
+his mat after refusing to eat any supper.  The season was again early
+autumn, and a bitterly cold wind swept down from the snow-flecked
+Drakensberg range.  Next day he was unable to arise, and he lay moaning
+then and throughout the following night in a burning fever, whilst a
+cruel cough racked his spent frame.  His talk, as he wandered in
+delirium, was ever of Sobede, and the "red chief" who had punished him
+undeservedly.  The poor old man appeared to imagine that he was still
+giving evidence at the trial.  In the early morning he tried to stand
+up, but fell back dead on his mat.
+
+Manciya came over and buried his father, and then Mampitizili, with
+little Kungaye, accompanied him back to his kraal.  Manciya was now the
+head of the family, and according to native custom the interests of
+Sobede were vested in him for the time being.  The cattle and goats were
+driven over, and the mats, calabashes, and other _lares_ and _penates_,
+with the assegais and clubs of Sobede, were taken to Manciya's kraal.
+Mampitizili found herself disposed of as joint occupant, with Manciya's
+oldest and ugliest wife, of a large hut on the left-hand side of the
+cattle kraal.
+
+For a time Mampitizili was left to herself, but within a few months she
+had come to find that all the inconvenience she had previously suffered
+was as nothing compared to what she now had to endure.
+
+A rumour was set afloat to the effect that Sobede was dead; this at
+first caused her much terror, but when all efforts to trace it to its
+source had failed, Mampitizili ceased to give it much credence;
+nevertheless, it left a rankling thorn of uneasiness in her mind.  Soon
+after this she began to see far more of Manciya than she liked, and then
+he commenced paying her attentions that were extremely distasteful.
+Among the many Jewish customs followed by the Kafirs is the one
+prescribed in the fifth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of the book of
+Deuteronomy, and Manciya, assuming the report as to Sobede's death to be
+true, proposed to follow this custom in Mampitizili's ease.  She, it may
+be stated, was an extremely attractive young woman.  Manciya found
+himself repulsed with indignation over and over again.  Then he began to
+try the effect of harsh and even cruel treatment where soft measures had
+failed.
+
+The wife whose dwelling Mampitizili shared had been neglected by her
+husband for years, and was now savagely jealous of the attentions which
+he paid, in her hut and before her face, to a young, good-looking woman,
+and she accordingly gave full vent to her spite when she saw from
+Manciya's changed demeanour that it was safe for her to do so.  Soon
+Mampitizili's life became one of continuous misery.  It was through
+little Kungaye that she suffered most severely.  The child was bullied
+or beaten every day by the other children, who were encouraged to
+torment him, and all attempts at defence or retaliation on the mother's
+part proved to be worse than useless.  The hardest drudgery fell to
+Mampitizili's lot, and the worst food was her scanty portion, but all
+this she regarded as nothing in comparison with what she had to endure
+in respect of the treatment to which her child was subjected.
+
+Sometimes she would manage to steal away and carry little Kungaye over
+to the old kraal, there to muse miserably over the short-lived happiness
+that she and Sobede had enjoyed.  The three huts were falling into
+decay, the corn-pits in the kraal were full of water, and the whole
+place was overgrown with weeds.  But here she had at least peace; the
+leering, libidinous eye of Manciya no longer affronted her, and she was
+free from the constant nagging of his jealous, spiteful wives.  Here,
+moreover, little Kungaye could play in peace with the little toy oxen
+she had made for him out of mud, free from the persecution of his
+malevolent cousins.
+
+As may have been inferred, it was Manciya who had for his own purposes
+set afloat the rumour as to Sobede's having died at the convict station.
+He knew that Sobede's return home might be expected in a few months,
+and he determined, therefore, to overcome Mampitizili's resistance to
+his amatory advances with as little further delay as possible.  With
+this end in view he again changed his tactics, and began once more to
+treat her with kindness.  Amongst other manifestations of this may be
+mentioned his buying a gaudy blanket for her at a traders, and his
+administration of a most unmerciful thrashing to her hut-companion--to
+whom, very unfairly, he had failed to notify the change in his tactics,
+and who inopportunely was guilty before his face of a spiteful act
+towards the object of his desires.  Mampitizili felt grateful, but kept,
+nevertheless, strictly on her guard.
+
+One day Manciya sent messages to the surrounding kraals inviting a
+number of his friends to a beer-drink.  For some days previously every
+one had been kept busy grinding the "imitombo," or partly-germinated
+millet from which the beer is made, in large earthen pots.  The banquet
+began early in the forenoon, and by the time the sun went down many
+heads had been broken, and all the revellers were extremely drunk.
+Shortly after nightfall Manciya staggered into the hut in which
+Mampitizili dwelt.  The other woman was crouching at the central hearth
+over some faintly-glowing embers, and her he struck brutally with one of
+the door-poles which he had stumbled over.  The woman rushed with a yell
+out of the hut, and Manciya began to grope about in the darkness for
+Mampitizili.
+
+Mampitizili took in the situation at once.  She was crouching against
+the wall at the back of the hut when Manciya entered, clasping little
+Kungaye close to her.  Manciya passed her in his search, and she leaped
+to her feet and rushed out into the night with her child.
+
+The unhappy woman at length felt that her burthen was greater than she
+could bear;--that she must get away from Manciya's kraal now and for
+ever,--even if she had to fling herself into the cold, dark, deep pool
+of the river just below the waterfall.  But that might happen to-morrow;
+for to-night she would return to the old kraal, for the last time.  She
+felt she would like to sleep once more in the hut that she and Sobede
+had occupied together.  The season was late winter.  She hurried on
+through the darkness with hot head and cold, bruised feet.  The night
+was cloudless and still, and a heavy frost was settling down through the
+keen, crisp air.  Soon the eastern sky began to whiten, and then the
+moon lit up the snowy masses of the Drakensberg rising abruptly to her
+left.  The child shivered and clung to her mutely; he had acquired the
+habit of mutely enduring.
+
+At length she reached the rocky ledge upon which the three huts stood,
+facing down the valley.  Broken and dilapidated as they were, they
+seemed to her like a city of refuge and peace.  The largest hut was that
+which stood in the centre facing the entrance to the stone cattle
+enclosure.  Mampitizili approached this hut from the back, with
+faltering steps, half-blinded with her tears, and shaken by sobs wrung
+from the depths of her despair.
+
+A portion of the wall of the hut had fallen in at one side, and, as
+Mampitizili passed the aperture thus formed, she uttered a cry and fell
+to the ground in terror, for a fire was alight in the centre of the hut,
+and a man with his back towards her lay next to it, half covered by a
+blanket.
+
+_Four_.
+
+Sobede, after his sentence, was drafted with other convicted prisoners
+to the convict station at Port Saint John's, on the coast of Pondoland
+and at the mouth of the Umzimvubu river.  Here, every working day, he
+trundled a wheel-barrow filled with gravel at the bluff that was being
+broken down for the purpose, and tipped it into the lagoon which, before
+it was thus filled up, wound sinuously through the little village.  When
+each day's work was done, he was marched with the other convicts to the
+prison, which was built of galvanised iron on the flattened top of a
+sand-hill overlooking the deep blue wonder of the Indian Ocean, and the
+lovely river-mouth with its beetling cliffs and steep forest-fringed
+slopes.  He was well fed and comfortably housed; the work was not heavy,
+nor were the working hours distressingly long.  The only things that
+troubled him much, after the first wild, desperate feeling of being
+trapped had passed away, were the monotony of the life, the restraint,
+always so specially irksome to uncivilised man, and the longing to
+obtain news of his wife and child, of his father and his cattle.
+
+The climate of Port Saint John's, the gentle haze that seems to steal
+into the soul and allay every irritation, the health-giving breath and
+the commiserating murmur of the great ocean, all brought him peace.
+Thus the time passed more quickly and less painfully than he had
+expected.  Moreover, he obtained the remission of six weeks for each
+year of his sentence, such as is allowed to all well-conducted convicts
+whose sentences exceed a certain limit.  Of the regulation authorising
+this he and his family had been unaware.
+
+At length he one day found himself a free man, with a clear conscience
+and in perfect health.  In spite of having herded with evil-doers he
+came out of prison a better man than he had entered it.  He had endured
+heavy tribulation without losing hope; he had never lost hold of his
+past and his future; he had instinctively and insensibly acquired a
+healthy philosophy under the stress of his unmerited misfortune.
+
+Now he looked forward to meeting, within a few days, the wife, child,
+and father whom, in spite of his black skin and his uncivilised nature,
+he dearly loved.  Conscious of his innocence and buoyant with hope,
+Sobede, as he walked down the hill from the convict station after his
+release, held his head erect and looked every man he met straight in the
+face.  He was probably a better man than most of those who would have
+felt themselves contaminated by touching him.
+
+It is a long day's walk from Port Saint John's to Sidote's location, and
+the whole course lies up-hill.  Sobede was, however, in perfect
+condition, and although he hurried on, walking all day long and half the
+night, he felt less and less fatigue the farther he went.  The cold was
+severe in the higher altitudes, and he felt it considerably after his
+nearly three years spent at sea-level, but this he did not mind.  His
+warm hearth, with Mampitizili and the child, who, he thought, must now
+be big and old enough to run about and talk, was waiting for him, and
+once there his troubles would all be forgotten.
+
+Upon taking his discharge, a few shillings wherewith to buy food on his
+homeward journey had been given to him by the superintendent of the
+convict station.  Of this money he spent hardly any.  Natives are
+extremely hospitable to strangers, and all through Pondoland and the
+Xesibe country Sobede never lacked food to eat.
+
+The last day of Sobede's journey dawned at last.  His course now lay
+along a main road running over farms occupied by Europeans, so he met
+with hardly any people, nor did he see a single one whom he knew.  Just
+before sundown he came to a wagon outspanned, the owner of which had
+just slaughtered a goat.  Thinking it probable that there would be no
+fresh meat at his kraal, Sobede invested a shilling of his
+maintenance-money in goat-flesh.  He cut a hole in the lump of meat,
+stuck his stick through it, and carried it over his shoulder.
+
+Sobede's kraal was situated almost on the verge of the Hlangweni
+location, and the footpath leading to it from the main road passed no
+other dwellings of men.  It was sundown when he reached the point at
+which the footpath diverged, leading up the valley at the upper end of
+which the huts were built.  His feet were worn and sore from the long
+walk, but he hurried along the steep, rugged course with firm nervous
+steps.  It was almost dark when he began to ascend the short, steep lip
+of the ledge.  It struck him as being strange that he had seen no signs
+of cattle or other animals, nor had he even heard the bark of a dog.
+Perhaps, he thought, those at the kraal had gone to sleep, and the dogs
+crept in under shelter from the cold.  Of course, he was not expected
+for another four months, as his family knew nothing of the good-conduct
+remission.
+
+He reached the top of the ledge; there sure enough, he could see the
+outline of each hut in the shadow of the dark hill-side, beneath the
+faintly-gleaming western sky.--But what was the matter?  Not only was
+there no sign of life, but he was surrounded by indications of
+desolation and decay.  The weeds were growing thickly all around him.
+Sobede stepped forward with faltering steps and a sinking heart and made
+for the largest hut.  He saw that the wall had partly fallen in on one
+side, the door had disappeared, and a gleam of stars showed through a
+ragged gap in the roof.  Sobede flung himself to the ground before the
+threshold, and sobbed like a tired and despairing child.
+
+He lay until the keen frost chilled him to the bone.  Then he arose and
+began to search for fuel, which he found without any difficulty.  Then
+he drew a little of the tinder-dry grass from the roof, and by means of
+his flint, steel, and touchwood, soon lit a fire on the cold and barren
+hearth.  The hut was in a fearfully dilapidated and dirty state, but
+with a broom extemporised out of a small bush which he plucked outside,
+he swept the place out.  Amongst the rubbish he found several of the
+little clay oxen which Mampitizili had made for Kungaye, and the sight
+of these formed a small nucleus of hope in his mind, around which shreds
+of comfort began to gather.  No doubt, he thought, Mampitizili and the
+old man had, for good and sufficient reasons, removed to Manciya's or to
+some other part of the location.  To-morrow he would, no doubt, find
+them.  To-night he felt far too weary, after the shock of his
+disappointment, to seek them even at Manciya's kraal.  All the fatigues
+of the previous five days seemed to creep into his bones at once, and he
+felt, for the time being, completely crushed.
+
+Sobede cooked a portion of the goat-flesh, ate it, and then laid himself
+down, wrapped in his blanket, at the side of the fire.  The wind had
+completely died away, and the frosty night seemed tense with utter
+silence.
+
+With the keen senses of his race Sobede became aware of an approaching
+footstep.  It was not so much that he heard any sound, as that he felt a
+slight rhythmic tremor of the ground beneath him.  The footstep drew
+nearer, and then the sound of sobbing could be heard.  Sobede did not
+move; he was not in the slightest degree alarmed, and was far too weary
+and heartsore to feel interested in anything just then.  Then he heard a
+cry and a sound as of some one falling heavily to the ground.
+
+He arose, seized a burning stick from the fire, and went outside.  He
+saw a woman crouching to the ground, with her face hidden in her hands.
+Clinging to her was a little child, who gazed up at Sobede with wide,
+terror-strained eyes.  Sobede bent down and touched the woman on the
+shoulder, telling her to arise and have no fear.  At the sound of his
+voice the woman looked up quickly with a start of recognition and a cry
+of joy, and Sobede saw that her face was the face of Mampitizili.  Then
+he flung down the spent firebrand, and clasped his wife and son in a
+long, silent embrace.
+
+Soon the three were sitting together in the hut, where the fire was now
+again blazing cheerfully;--the man and the woman with hearts too full
+for speech, and the child looking with wonder at the big stranger who
+did not treat him unkindly.
+
+Mampitizili and Kungaye were faint from hunger, so the goat-flesh was
+soon cut into strips, roasted upon the embers, and eaten as a sort of
+sacrament of reunion.  Then Sobede fetched water in a broken earthen pot
+from the little streamlet that babbled down the gully at the side of the
+ledge, and they washed out their mouths, Kafir fashion, and drank of the
+icy-cold water, which seemed to taste more delicious than the best
+calabash-milk.
+
+It was long before they could find words to express all that made big
+their hearts.  Sobede heard of the death of his father with equanimity;
+the natives, with true philosophy, look upon the visitation of death to
+the old and infirm without regret.  Bit by bit--the little boy sleeping
+peacefully at their feet as they talked--the whole shameful story of
+Manciya's conduct was told.  But Sobede was too happy to be angry for
+long even under this provocation.  His wife and child were safe with
+him, and he knew that Manciya dared not refuse to give up his cattle,--
+the headman and the magistrate would see to that.  They decided to
+remain at the old kraal, and to commence repairing the huts on the
+following day.
+
+Of all the myriad dwellings of men upon which the snowy peaks of the
+Drakensberg glanced down that night in cold disdain of man and his
+destinies, none held such happy human hearts as did this hut without a
+door, with the wall falling down in ruin, and through the gaping roof of
+which the frost fell from a wintry sky.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.
+
+  "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
+  death?"  _Romans_ VII, 24.
+
+_One_.
+
+Omfunda sat smoking his pipe alongside the fire he had lit close to the
+spring gushing out at the foot of the big cliff at the upper end of
+Krantz Vogel Kloof.  The cliff arose sheer three hundred feet, and at
+each side of it the steep, broken terraces of the mountain, covered with
+huddled patches of immense boulders, swelled out into mighty flanks.
+From between the boulders gnarled and stunted trees grew, rooted in soil
+so deep down in the fissures that it could not be seen.  Here and there
+dark, ragged-edged chasms yawned.  These boulder-patches were bordered
+by fringes of scrubby forest, outside which grew coarse, matted grass.
+
+It was a hot day in late spring, and Nomfunda felt drowsy.  The
+bleatings of a flock of sheep came faintly to his ear.  His dog lay
+curled up at his feet.  The day was at noon.  A light breeze hushed
+faintly through the tree-tops, soothing as the whisper of Somnus, and
+then died away.  Nomfunda slept.
+
+Nomfunda was the shepherd of Sarel Marais, the proprietor of the farm
+which took its name from the thickly-wooded kloof at the head of which
+he, Nomfunda, lay sleeping.  Sarel Marais had over and over again warned
+him not to come with his sheep to this neighbourhood, for the reason
+that animals were so apt to get lost in the broken ground through
+falling into the fissures; and Sarel's eldest son "Rooi Jan"--so called
+on account of his red hair--had sworn to have Nomfunda's life if he ever
+again disobeyed in this respect.  However, on the present occasion
+Nomfunda felt safe, for old Sarel was absent from home, and "Rooi Jan"
+had only a few hours previously departed on horseback for a farm several
+"hours" distant, where the girl he meant to marry in a few months' time
+resided.
+
+The foot of the cliff where the spring gushed out had a peculiar
+fascination for Nomfunda.  It was cool on the hottest day.  The water
+plashed from under a jutting ledge and scattered moisture over luxuriant
+masses of fern.  The "umgwenya," or "Kafir plum," grew plentifully in
+the forest close at hand, and the holes in the porous cliff were full of
+bees' nests brimming with the storage of industrious years.  These bees
+were of the small, black, forest variety, which is celebrated as being
+extremely savage when interfered with; this fact, and the
+inaccessibility of the nests, accounted for their still being in
+existence.  However, Nomfunda was an expert and daring honey-hunter, and
+was extremely pachydermatous; he hardly ever came to this spot without
+plundering a nest and feeding on honey to repletion.
+
+Moreover, an antelope known as the "klipspringer" was to be found in
+large numbers in the neighbourhood, and Nomfunda's dog thoroughly
+understood the way to circumvent this animal.  Sometimes, quite on its
+own account, the dog would drive a buck to the point of some
+rock-pinnacle in the vicinity, and there hold it prisoner until
+Nomfunda, guided by the dog's baying, would hurry to the spot and knock
+the buck over with his knob-kerrie.  This dog was an utter mongrel
+showing traces of extremely diverse canine types.  Its enemies declared
+they could even see a great deal of the jackal in it.  The dog was,
+however, utterly faithful to its master, and had a wonderful knack of
+bailing up "klipspringers."  One peculiarity of the animal's was that it
+never barked.
+
+When Nomfunda awoke it was to find "Rooi Jan," gun in hand, watching
+him.  Nomfunda instinctively grasped his knob-kerrie, which lay on the
+ground next to him, and sprang to his feet.  The dog ran behind its
+master and crouched, showing its teeth.  "Rooi Jan" regarded Nomfunda in
+silence for some seconds, and Nomfunda returned his gaze.  Then "Rooi
+Jan" spoke, using the Dutch language, which Nomfunda, who had worked
+among the Boers for several years, understood fairly well.
+
+"Did I not tell you never to bring the sheep up here?"
+
+"Ja, Baas."  ["Yes, Master."]
+
+"Did I not tell you that if ever you did, I would shoot you for the d--d
+Kafir dog that you are?"
+
+"Ja, Baas."
+
+"Then," uttered "Rooi Jan," his face distorted with fury, and his voice
+coming in husky gasps, as he deliberately, one after the other, drew
+back the hammers of his double-barrelled gun, "to-day will I do it;
+to-day you are dead; to-day will your black carcase lie down among the
+rocks with the bones of the sheep that you--"
+
+Nomfunda had all this time kept his eyes on the face of the enraged
+Boer, and when, blind and quivering, "Rooi Jan" lifted the gun to his
+shoulder, Nomfunda sprang to one side, whilst the charge of buck-shot
+passed so close to his head that he felt the wind of it.  Then, as "Rooi
+Jan," cursing his own clumsiness, was again raising the gun to his
+shoulder, Nomfunda lifted his knob-kerrie and flung it with all his
+force.  The heavy knob caught "Rooi Jan" on the left temple, and he fell
+backwards, and lay on the ground motionless.
+
+Nomfunda had no idea that "Rooi Jan" was seriously injured.  The first
+thing he did was to seize the gun and pitch it down the kloof into a
+very thick patch of fern.  Then he picked up his kerrie, returned to the
+seat he had occupied when "Rooi Jan" arrived, and sat down to await
+developments.  He knew he had done wrong, and was prepared, as natives
+generally are, to take his punishment like a man.  The dog became very
+uneasy; it began to whine and cowered against its master, with ears
+cocked, tail tucked under, and hair on end all along the back.
+
+Nomfunda sat for a long time wondering why "Rooi Jan" did not move.
+Then he stood up and examined the injured man, who had fallen on his
+back across a flat stone.  His head lay back and his mouth was wide
+open.  A very small trickle of blood came from his left temple, and
+dabbled his hair.  Nomfunda plucked a delicate frond of fern and held it
+in front of "Rooi Jan's" gaping mouth and nostrils.  It moved only to
+the trembling of the hand that held it.
+
+For a long time Nomfunda could not realise what had happened; surely, he
+thought, a little wound like that could not cause death.  Then the
+shadows began to fall the other way, the brown hawks came screaming out
+of their nests in the cliff, and the bees came up the kloof in a steady
+stream.  Still "Rooi Jan" lay motionless, the ghastly pallor of his face
+and stretched throat contrasting forcibly with the vivid red of his hair
+and beard.  Large, blue flies buzzed round in ever-increasing numbers,
+and eventually a few of them settled on the nostrils and lips of the
+corpse.  Then Nomfunda realised that his master's son was dead and that
+he had killed him.
+
+The wretched man already felt the strangling rope around his neck.  He
+was young and he loved his life.  A flush of hope passed through him.
+No one saw the deed--he would hide the body down one of the clefts.  No,
+that would not do; a search was sure to be made about here, and the
+smell would betray the hiding-place.  The body must be hidden far away,
+high up on the mountain, in some secret place where it would never be
+discovered.
+
+Nomfunda was of powerful build, and "Rooi Jan" had not been a very big
+man.  The blood had long since ceased trickling, so after carefully
+removing the small quantity that had stained the stones, Nomfunda lifted
+the corpse upon his shoulder and began ascending the steep
+mountain-side.  His course laid for the most part through cover, but he
+had now and then to emerge into comparatively open spaces.  Each time,
+before doing this, he carefully reconnoitred, but not a human being was
+in sight in any direction.  At length he reached the bleak and broken
+top of the mountain, and then he made straight for a small cavern he
+knew of, the mouth of which was concealed by shrubs.  Here he laid the
+body, and after carefully re-adjusting the shrubs at the entrance, he
+returned to his sheep by a different course.  The flock was scattered
+along the flanks of the mountain; he at once collected it and drove it
+down to the kraal at the homestead, where he arrived at the usual time.
+Then he joined the other servants in the hut wherein they dwelt
+together, cooked and ate his supper and laid himself down wrapped in his
+blanket,--just as though nothing had happened.  But he lay awake during
+the whole night, thinking of "Rooi Jan," whilst the dogs howled weirdly
+beneath the unregarding stars.
+
+_Two_.
+
+The disappearance of "Rooi Jan" caused great surprise and uneasiness.
+He had left the homestead early in the morning after an early breakfast,
+with the avowed intention of visiting the farm of Jacob Venter, which
+was situated about fifteen miles away, and where the girl lived to whom
+he was engaged to be married.  He meant to return during the afternoon
+of the same day.  It now transpired that he had not reached Venter's
+farm.  Each one of the servants, including Nomfunda, was closely
+questioned, but apparently nothing had been seen of the missing man
+since he disappeared riding along the road which scarped round the bluff
+just below the homestead, early in the morning.  The spoor of his horse
+was traced along the road from here by an old Hottentot named Gezwint,
+who was celebrated as a tracker.  This spoor was found to lead along the
+road for some distance, and then turn abruptly to the left towards the
+wooded kloof, at the upper end of which, four miles away, "Rooi Jan" had
+met his doom.  It was late in the afternoon when the fact of the spoor
+turning out of the road was discovered, and night fell before it could
+be traced to any distance worth speaking of from this point.
+
+Next morning at daylight the tracking was resumed.  Old Sarel Marais had
+been sent for, but had not yet arrived.  Several of the neighbouring
+farmers had been sent for to come and assist in the search.  The party
+on the spoor consisted of old Gezwint, "Rooi Jan's" younger brothers
+Piet and Willem--aged, respectively, fifteen and fourteen years--six
+young farmers, and several native farm servants.  Old Gezwint worked
+like a bloodhound, deciphering almost invisible signs upon the rough,
+stony ground, and casting back whenever at fault.  On again verifying
+the spoor after a check, he would call out "Hier's hij" ("Here he is"),
+and again run forward on the slot, followed at a respectful distance by
+the others, who left the real business of the tracking to his well-known
+skill.  It was at about noon that they came upon "Rooi Jan's" grey mare,
+saddled and bridled, and tied to a tree deep in the bush.  From this
+point they followed swiftly and without a check the slot of a boot up
+the kloof to the spring under the cliff.  Here the spoor ceased.  They
+found the remains of a recent fire, and the tracks of naked human feet,
+and of a dog.  Beyond this point a spoor was hardly to be hoped for
+because of the nature of the ground.  They spent the rest of the day in
+searching among the rocky chasms, but when night fell they had found no
+further track, nor any sign of the missing man.  Upon the search party
+reaching the homestead an hour later, it was found that the flock of
+sheep had not been brought back to the kraal, and that Nomfunda, the
+shepherd, was missing.
+
+_Three_.
+
+Nomfunda was herding his sheep on the open, grassy slope to the
+left-hand side of the kloof when the search party was at work.  The day
+was clear and still, and he could tell the whereabouts of the trackers
+from the shouts which arose from time to time.  As the trackers advanced
+towards the head of the kloof, Nomfunda drove his flock along the
+hill-side by a parallel course until the broken ground was almost
+reached.  Then he darted past the flock, and taking a course still
+further to the right, through some scrub, he worked his round-about way
+to the top of the cliff overhanging the scene of the tragedy.  Here he
+lay down just above a jutting bush, through the branches of which he
+could see without being seen.
+
+He saw the party emerge from the forest and disappear out of the range
+of his vision under the ledge where the spring gushed out.  He could
+faintly hear the sound of voices, but without being able to distinguish
+the words.  After a while he saw the men emerge and scatter about among
+the rocks, searching.  He made sure they had found the gun, but had no
+fear just then of their being able to trace the body.  It was almost
+dark when the party withdrew, but Nomfunda had been so absorbed in
+watching their operations that he had lost all recollection of his
+sheep.  He had been in a state of complete fascination during the whole
+afternoon.  Sometimes one or other of the searchers would take more or
+less the course along which the body had been carried up the mountain.
+When such happened, the unfortunate culprit would give himself up for
+lost: the cavern would inevitably be found and searched.  Then the man
+who caused his uneasiness would proceed in another direction, and a
+joyous, unreasoning relief would take possession of the watcher, only to
+be dissipated when one of the others would accidentally take the former
+course.
+
+The stars came out one by one, and at length the last shred of daylight
+died out of the sky.  Then Nomfunda sat up and considered.  He had lain
+on the same spot and in the same position for hours and hours.  He began
+to collect his wandering wits.  He suddenly remembered his sheep.  Why
+had he come up on the mountain at all? he asked himself in desperation.
+He could not now return, for it would be impossible for him to give an
+explanation of his absence.  Why had he not returned with his flock at
+sundown?  Fool, fool--thus to tie the rope around his own neck.  No, it
+would never do to return.  He must escape;--but where to?  The alarm had
+been given; he was known to everybody in the neighbourhood, and all
+would now be on the watch after he had practically admitted his guilt by
+remaining away from the homestead just when he ought to have been most
+particular to avoid any conduct calculated to cause suspicion.  No, he
+must remain on the mountain,--for some time at all events.  He had his
+day's ration with him, but it was still untouched, for all day long he
+had been unable to eat.  He was now hungry, but he determined to keep
+the food for the morrow.  The dog had lain quietly next to him all day;
+its ears were cocked, its dilated nostrils were continuously working,
+and the ridge of hair along the back was still erect.
+
+Next morning's dawn found Nomfunda still lying at the edge of the cliff,
+and the searchers again at work among the fissures.  It was, they made
+sure, in one or the other of these that the body of "Rooi Jan" would be
+found concealed.  Since the disappearance of Nomfunda, everybody was
+certain he had murdered the "Klein Baas," ["Little Master"], as "Rooi
+Jan" was called.  The whole forenoon was wasted on the lower parts of
+the mountain.  Nomfunda still lay on the top of the cliff and watched
+the searchers.  He now suffered from a burning thirst, but until
+nightfall he must endure this physical, in addition to his mental
+misery.
+
+Early in the afternoon a shrill yell of "Hier's hij" arose from Gezwint,
+the old sleuth-Hottentot.  He had again found the spoor.  All that could
+be seen was a frayed pad of lichen on a sloping stone, higher up than
+any of the other searchers had reached.  From this stone the spoor was
+taken on slowly and with difficulty until sundown, by which time it had
+been verified to the very top of the mountain, and within about four
+hundred yards of where the haggard watcher lay, enduring more than the
+agonies of death, at his post on the edge of the cliff.
+
+But the spoor could then be traced no further, and the nature of the
+ground rendered it extremely unlikely that any more tracks would be
+found.  The top of the mountain was composed of flat stones lying
+closely together, and bare even of lichen.
+
+At nightfall the searchers again returned to the homestead, and Nomfunda
+hurried down the mountain to the spring, from which he drank his fill of
+the pure, cold, delicious water, the dog lapping next to him.  Then he
+again ascended the mountain, stepping carefully from stone to stone so
+as to avoid making a spoor.  In places where the stones were not
+continuous he carried the dog in his arms.  He knew the animal was a
+source of danger to him, and he thought of tying its mouth up and its
+legs together and cutting its throat, but he remembered that the signs
+of the deed would be so much more to conceal, and, moreover, he could
+not endure the thought of the utter loneliness which would be his lot
+without the dog's companionship.
+
+At midnight Nomfunda was sitting on a stone near the very summit of the
+mountain.  The place where the body was concealed was about half-a-mile
+from him.  The night was cold, but he did not feel any inconvenience
+although clothed only in a threadbare cotton blanket.  He had been for
+two days almost without food, and for three nights he had not slept, yet
+he knew neither hunger nor fatigue.  Just then he felt fairly
+comfortable.  He was quite easy in his mind about the body; it would
+never be found--none of the searchers would ever dream of looking in
+that cave--probably none of them even knew of its existence...  Nomfunda
+sprang to his feet and gasped for breath, whilst his very heart seemed
+to freeze in his breast.  Had he not _himself_ shown this very cave to
+young Piet, "Rooi Jan's" brother, one day when they together were
+seeking strayed horses about two years ago?  Fool, and again fool!  Why
+had he hidden the body there?  Talking over the events of the day down
+at the homestead, young Piet had probably by this told the others about
+the cave.  It was certain to be visited next day--probably early in the
+morning.  What was there to be done?  An unspeakable solution of the
+difficulty kept suggesting itself, but he drove the frightful notion
+from him over and over again.  At length it overwhelmed him like the
+slime of a serpent that drenches a crushed victim about to be swallowed.
+He must enter the charnel cave, and remove the body to some other
+hiding-place.  But the horror of it!  There is nothing so horrifying to
+a native as having to handle a dead body...  "Rooi Jan" had been dead
+nearly three days...  He felt through every fibre of his tortured being
+that he could _not_ do this thing.  But he _must_.  The body must not be
+found.  Until the body were found there was only suspicion against him;
+not proof.  Yes, _it_ must be done, so get it over quickly and then
+laugh at danger.  He caught up the dog again in his arms and fled,
+leaping from stone to stone, towards the cave.  Before he reached it he
+had made up his mind as to what he should do with the corpse.  There was
+another cave in an adjoining mountain about four miles away, and in a
+very inaccessible place.  Fool, and again fool, not to have thought of
+this spot in the first instance.
+
+Nomfunda readied the mouth of the cave and, throwing down the dog, burst
+through the bushes into the charnel-house.  He tore a strip off his
+blanket and tied it over his mouth and nostrils.  Then he caught up the
+body, which lay horribly limp in his arms.  He seemed to be endowed with
+more than human strength.  The frightful _thing_ seemed to cling to him
+as it lay across his shoulders, and one loosely-hanging hand patted him
+gruesomely on the bare flesh of his flank with rhythm corresponding to
+his steps.  His course led over bare, flat, rocky ledges.  Here and
+there he sat down to rest.  He noticed that the dog, although it
+followed, did not come near him.  Day was just breaking when he reached
+the other cave.  He entered at once, and placed the body in a cleft at
+the further extremity, piling up stones, which he felt for in the
+darkness, against it.  One of these slipped down, and Nomfunda thought
+he heard the body move.  He gave a wild shriek and rushed outside.  It
+was broad daylight.  The dog heard his steps and ran forward to meet
+him.  When it caught sight of his face the dog stopped short and stood
+rigid with uplifted paw, and a tingling ridge of hair erected along its
+back.  Then it gave a terrible howl, turned, and fled.  It never
+returned to him.
+
+All day long the wretched Nomfunda lay beneath the undermined bank of a
+donga.  Reeds and long grass concealed his hiding-place.  When night
+fell, he again visited the spring, drank his fill of water, and
+plundered a bees' nest in the cliff, from which he had only recently
+removed nearly all the honey.  The combs were now full of bee-bread and
+young bees.  These were better as food for him just then than mere honey
+would have been.  After this he re-ascended the mountain and again
+concealed himself in the donga, where he fell into a deep sleep.  This
+was the first time he had slept since the death of "Rooi Jan."  He was
+awakened early in the forenoon of the next day by voices.  The speakers
+stood so close that he could hear what they were saying.  Their speech
+was to the effect that in the event of the present day's search proving
+unsuccessful they would on the following day overhaul the adjacent
+mountain, in which it was known that several caves existed.  The
+wretched listener nearly expired from sheer terror.  When night fell he
+emerged from his den and hurried to the second sepulchre of "Rooi Jan."
+The body must again be removed.  The moon was new and sank soon after
+the sun.  He reached the cave and grovelled upon the ground before the
+entrance in terror and anguish.  But the awful deed had to be done.  He
+entered; the air was horribly foetid.  One by one, with dreadful
+groanings, he dragged away the piled-up stones, and then, trying to hold
+his breath, he bore the corpse out into the pure air of the spring
+night.  Then, shutting his teeth tight, he lifted the swollen horror to
+his shoulders and carried it in the direction of its former
+resting-place.  He knew of another secret spot--a deep cleft near the
+edge of the clift overhanging the spring.  He reached this spot with his
+ghastly burthen just before dawn.  He rolled the body into the cleft and
+covered it with small bushes and handfuls of grass which he pulled out.
+After this he concealed himself in another cleft in the vicinity.
+
+Shortly after daybreak he saw the searchers again ascending the kloof,
+one of them leading his dog by a rein fastened to its neck.  They passed
+over the mountain to his left, and he did not again see them until they
+returned in the evening.  About mid-day he saw his dog, which had
+evidently escaped, running as hard as ever it could down the mountain
+towards the homestead, with the rein trailing from its neck.
+
+Nomfunda remained three weeks upon the mountain, and nine separate times
+he took the body of "Rooi Jan" on his shoulders at the last
+hiding-place, and, limping on lacerated and bleeding feet, removed it to
+another.  The moon grew night by night in soft splendour, and looked
+down upon the awful spectacle of a putrid human corpse being carried
+from place to place by a human being.  The tempest wrapped the mountain
+in flame and roarings, and the rain-charged wind buffeted the quick and
+the dead thus linked together by a gruesome prank of Fate.  The pure
+breath of the midnight mountain breeze hurried on to rid itself of the
+taint left by the gross gases of mortality which the earth should have
+sealed up in its transmuting alembic, and the clear mountain height,
+sacred to the most cleanly influences of Nature, was polluted by the
+ghoul-wanderings of a terrific creature bearing an unspeakable burthen,
+whom horror had deprived of the semblance of humanity.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The sequel to this narrative may be found in the records of a certain
+Circuit Court and the (more or less) thirty-year-old files of some
+Colonial newspapers.  It may therein be read how old Gezwint was
+perplexed by the fresh spoors which he found from time to time; these
+sometimes showing signs of blood.  Further, how the searchers eventually
+determined to remain on the mountain by night, where they then scattered
+about in pairs; how two of the searchers, concealed one night near a
+certain footpath, were startled by the sound of heavy groanings,
+followed by the rustle of staggering footsteps and an awful stench; how
+they then captured Nomfunda carrying what had once been the body of
+"Rooi Jan" Marais.  He made no resistance, and they led him away to
+prison.  His aspect was such as to strike dread into all who beheld him.
+
+It may also be ascertained from the same sources how Nomfunda was tried
+for murder by a jury composed of Dutch farmers, found guilty without any
+recommendation to mercy, and sentenced to be hanged by the neck till he
+was dead; how a certain minister of the United Presbyterian Church
+obtained access to the condemned man, heard his story, believed it, went
+to the scene of the initial tragedy, and found "Rooi Jan's" gun where it
+was still concealed, with one barrel empty and one yet loaded; how
+representations were made to the proper quarter with the effect that the
+death-sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life.  One somehow fails
+to see clearly either the justice or mercy of this particular
+commutation.  Possibly Nomfunda is still serving out his sentence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+AIALA.
+
+_One_.
+
+I promised Lourens Brand not to tell the tale of his strange adventure
+and its stranger consequences until at least ten years should have
+elapsed from the date of his departure from South Africa, and the
+promise has been kept in the spirit if not in the letter.  Poor Brand
+never left South Africa--in the flesh, at least.  His bones lie buried
+in an unfenced graveyard, near the deserted site of an old mining camp
+in the north of the Transvaal, where he died of fever in 1885.
+
+Brand was a Dutchman; his family established itself generations back in
+Java, and several of his ancestors were prominent officials under the
+old Dutch East India Company.  He had a dash of Malay blood in his
+veins--his great-grandfather having married the daughter of one of the
+Singapore rajahs in the last century.  This, however, one would never
+have suspected from his appearance, for he was tall and blonde, with
+blue eyes, and the presence and bearing of a sea-king.  His disposition
+was diffident and somewhat retiring, and his Eastern blood showed itself
+in a certain dreaminess and a tendency to dwell rather on the occult
+than the obvious properties and relations of the things around him.  He
+was a mechanical engineer by profession.
+
+Brand landed in Cape Town in the early autumn of 188--, and took
+lodgings in the house where I was boarding.  This was on the Sir Lowry
+road, not far from the Castle.  We struck up an intimacy almost
+immediately.  He had been educated at Leyden, and had returned to Java,
+meaning to practise his profession there, but the scope was too small
+for a man of his energetic disposition, so he came to South Africa in
+the hope of obtaining employment in some mine.  He spoke the Malay
+language perfectly, and could quote copiously from the Malay version of
+the Koran.
+
+One thing must, for the adequate understanding of this tale, be laid
+stress on.  Brand, although twenty-six years of age, had never strayed
+in the fields where the wild oats grow.  His nature was passionate in
+its depths, but the passion still slept.  It was probably an innate
+fastidiousness combined with a strong sense of shame that kept his feet
+in the path of purity.  Be this as it may, the fact remains that
+although he had lived in the East, where, they tell us, Galahads are
+uncommon, Brand had never kissed a woman except his mother and sisters.
+As regards religion, he was what is known as an agnostic.
+
+It was on the second day after arriving in Cape Town that Brand went
+down to the docks to see about the landing of some of his effects from
+the steamer.  As it happened, another steamer had just arrived from the
+east coast ports, bringing a cargo of Malay pilgrims on their return
+journey from Mecca, and a lot of the pilgrims' friends had come to meet
+and greet them.  A number of cabs with Malay drivers were standing about
+on the wharf, and in one of these Brand noticed, sitting by herself, a
+young Malay girl of such rare beauty that it could not be concealed by
+the formless hideousness of the local Malay garb.  The driver had gone
+on board the steamer to greet some of his friends, and left the cab to
+take care of itself.
+
+The cab was close to the rail-track, and as Brand stood looking at the
+girl he heard the warning whistle of a dock-engine which was rapidly
+approaching.  The startled horse moved a few paces forward and again
+stood, this time right on the rail-track.  Nothing could now save the
+cab, but Brand sprang forward, lifted the girl in his arms, and sprang
+with her out of danger just an instant before the vehicle and the
+hapless horse were crushed into a mass of hopeless ruin.
+
+The girl was, of course, terribly frightened, and she clung convulsively
+to her preserver.  He spoke to her reassuringly in the Malay language,
+which, strange to say, she appeared to understand perfectly.  With the
+exception of the priests, very few of the Cape Town Malays understand
+the Malay tongue, they having adopted a very corrupt dialect of Dutch.
+He was more than ever struck by her beauty.  Her figure was effectually
+concealed by her dress, but she was tall, and her head, which had become
+freed from the head-dress when she was being dragged out of the cab, was
+small, delicately moulded, and gracefully poised over a pair of shapely
+shoulders, on a neck like the stem of an asphodel.  Her colour was very
+light, her face was a pure oval, and between her shaded eyelids lurked
+the most wonderful depths of dark, liquid brown that ever drowned the
+reason of a man.
+
+After being effusively thanked by the girl's friends, who had now come
+with a swarm of others from the steamer, Brand took his leave of her
+with a certain twinge of regret.  The girl's eyes were to him henceforth
+an abiding remembrance.
+
+It was about a month after the rescue of the girl that Brand's strange
+adventure took place.
+
+It was now winter of the year of the small-pox epidemic.  The streets of
+Cape Town at the lower levels were slushy as only Cape Town streets can
+be, for the rain had been falling steadily for ten days.  Then followed
+a day and a night of absolutely cloudless and unseasonably warm weather,
+and it was on the night in question that Brand took the walk which had
+such remarkable consequences.
+
+Brand, another man, and I dined together at the club.  The other man had
+arrived by the last mail steamer from England, and he and I had booked
+to start by the up-country train at half-past ten.  Our luggage was safe
+at the railway-station, and having nothing to do for the moment, it was
+suggested that we might take a walk to some of the higher levels where
+we would be comparatively free of the mud, and from where we might
+obtain a good view of Table Mountain and the city lights.  We
+accordingly lit our pipes and wandered forth.
+
+There is always much to fascinate in the streets of a strange city, and
+the Cape Town streets at night, filled as they are with men and women of
+all shades of colour, garbed variously and speaking divers tongues, are
+especially interesting--at all events to any one with an imagination.
+
+On this night the streets possessed an unusual attraction of a weird and
+impressive kind, for the small-pox epidemic was at its greatest height,
+and a brooding terror overshadowed the stricken city.  Every one abroad
+seemed to have a furtive look.  When two met near a lamp-post startled
+glances were exchanged, and in hurrying along the pavements the passers
+sheered off to avoid one another.  Every now and then an empty coffin
+would be seen being hurried along the middle of the street upon men's
+shoulders.  The few cabs on the almost deserted stands looked like
+hearses, their occupation was almost gone for the time being, for hardly
+a soul would venture into a cab for fear of infection.
+
+We strolled down Adderley Street for some distance, and then, turning to
+the left, went up Long Market Street, across Saint George's and Long
+Streets, and on until we found ourselves in the Malay quarter on the
+slope at the base of the Lion's Rump.  Here silence and desolation
+reigned supreme.  The moon had now arisen, so on reaching half-way up
+the ascent we paused to examine the view and to take breath.  Looking
+back we saw the gleaming city stretched like a vast necropolis under the
+crags of the great mountain, which gleamed silvery in the moonlight.  To
+our left opened the glassy expanse of Table Bay, with the breakwater
+lights glinting on the water.  From the Malay graveyard on the hill-side
+above us came the shrill howls of the mourners.  There was not a breath
+of wind.  Owing to the comparative suspension of traffic the city seemed
+silent as the grave.
+
+We retraced our steps for a short distance, and then, turning to the
+right, walked along a deserted street of white, flat-topped,
+sepulchre-like houses.  All at once we became aware of a sound of loud
+wailing going on in a house to our left.  We stood still for a space and
+listened.  The shrill treble of a woman's cry could be distinguished,
+and also the quavering tones of an old man's voice, full of the deepest
+agony.  We drew near the house very softly.  The windows were covered by
+dark Venetian shutters, between the slats of which a dim light could be
+discerned.  The house was one of a row all more or less similar in size
+and shape, and built touching each other.  Each house had a paved
+"stoep" in front, with a masoned seat at either end.  Against the house
+next to the one in which the wailing was going on, was standing a ladder
+which just reached the top of the parapet.
+
+After listening for a few moments we moved quietly away and continued
+our course along the street.  Soon we turned again to the right, and
+afterwards to the left.  Eventually we found that we had lost ourselves.
+We wandered about helplessly for some time, getting into blind alleys
+and streets that led nowhere, and thus having to retrace our steps over
+and over again.  Quarter by quarter the hour was chimed from the belfry
+tower of the far-away Dutch church, and when ten o'clock struck, and we
+were still lost, the situation looked serious for us who required to
+catch the train in half-an-hour.
+
+Just after this, however, we found ourselves in the street where we had
+listened to the wailing, and soon the rumbling of an approaching cab was
+heard.  After being hailed, the driver, an Irishman of even more than
+average volubility, swore with fervour that his cab had never, since it
+was turned out with its first coat of varnish from the very best
+workshop in the whole of South Africa, had a "dirty Malay" sitting
+across its axle (it was from Malays that the infection was mostly
+dreaded); that the vehicle was known throughout the length and breadth
+of Cape Town as "the white man's cab"; that if we weren't too proud to
+take a look at the panel, we would find the cab's name, "The Blanche,"
+in "purty gould letthers."  Of course "ivry wan" who was educated knew
+_that_ to mean just "white," and nothing else in the English language.
+
+So we bade Brand farewell and were driven, smoking germicidically, to
+the railway-station, which we reached just in time to catch the train.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_Two_.
+
+Brand strolled slowly down the street and again stopped before the house
+of sorrow, where the wailing had now ceased.  Yielding to a
+reprehensible impulse of morbid curiosity he approached the shuttered
+window, where light still faintly gleamed, and endeavoured to find an
+aperture through which he could see into the house.  By looking upwards
+between the diagonally-fixed slats he could see the ceiling, but the
+lower areas of the chamber were quite out of the range of his vision.
+Listening carefully, he seemed to hear a smothered sob and then a sigh.
+One of those unaccountable impulses that grip men by the throat
+sometimes, and make them do to their own undoing things which under
+ordinary circumstances they would never dream of attempting, then
+overcame him, and he felt that, come what may, he must see the inside of
+that room.  He caught hold of the shutter and gently tried to open it,
+but the outside leaf was firmly bolted to the window-sill, and could not
+be moved.  However, in passing his hand over the slats he found that one
+was slightly loose and yielded to pressure.  He pressed this slat and it
+slid upwards and inwards, leaving a space of about an inch and a half in
+width through which he could look.
+
+The room was one of medium size, with a fireplace at one end.  A lamp
+hung from the ceiling and distributed a dim light.  The papered walls
+were of a deep crimson hue, and the floor was covered with Indian mats.
+A very large cushioned divan draped with dark green silk stood before a
+curtained recess in the opposite wall, and a large open volume lay upon
+a Koran stand of black wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl.  A number of
+feminine garments, principally of silk, lay about the room in disorder.
+
+Sitting on the divan and facing the window was a young girl, apparently
+a Malay; and although her face was partly covered by her hands, Brand
+could see that she was very lovely.  Judging by her figure she looked to
+be about seventeen years of age.  She was bent forward with her elbows
+resting on her knees, and her long black hair hung down in a rolled
+sheaf over one side of her bosom.  Her neck, arms, and legs below the
+knees were bare, and of the most delicate symmetry.  Her only clothing
+appeared to be a short petticoat and bodice, both of red silk delicately
+embroidered with white, and a pair of richly-worked sandals.  Her skin
+was even lighter than that delicate, slightly dusky tint usually only
+found in pure-bred Malay girls and young boys.
+
+Brand withdrew from the window with a flush of shame at his
+dishonourable conduct, and stood in the middle of the street.  The huge
+bulk of Table Mountain loomed sheer before him, transfigured by the
+white splendour of the moonlight,--a faint film of mist hanging
+motionless over its highest western buttress.  A gentle breeze was now
+streaming from the south-east.  This, flowing over the city, bore to his
+ear a low and confused murmur of belated life.  From the graveyard high
+on the hill-side above him still pierced the shrill cadences of the
+mourners.  Then an indescribable feeling of oppression came over him, a
+sort of hopeless sense of the mystery overshadowing Man and his
+destinies--Death, the falling of the awful veil that men, since the
+beginning of Time, had been trying to pierce with their agonised
+prayers.  The God who dwelt behind it and made no sign--what did it
+matter what He were called--Jehovah or Allah--whether the favoured
+interpreter of His laws to men were called Christ or Mahomet, or whether
+the broken heart sobbed out its yearning appeal from the church pew, or
+from the carpet on the pavement of a mosque?
+
+Did men tell truth when they declared that they could realise His
+existence with absolute certainty?  Where in this world of shows and
+shadows might a humble seeker happily find--not Him--that were too much
+to hope for--but some sacred, authentic shred from the hem of His divine
+robe?  Just then from the tower of the adjacent mosque pealed out the
+clear voice of a priest calling the faithful to prayer.  Brand smiled
+wearily--prayer, in the sense of communion with the object prayed to,
+was as unintelligible to him as colour to one born blind.
+
+These impassive house-fronts that he passed in his slow, absorbed
+stroll--what a dark, persistent stream of life trickled from eternity to
+eternity behind them.  These Malays of the Cape, although they had shed
+their language like an outworn garment on the wayside, and had adapted
+an alien tongue to their needs, had they not kept their previously
+adopted faith, their customs, and their prejudices intact?  What strange
+quality was it in Mahometanism that rendered it so easy to grasp and so
+difficult to let go?  What curiosity was aroused in respect of the
+family life of the Malay, which he has guarded so jealously from the ken
+of the European who rules him from the next street.  Yet, as Brand knew,
+the dwellers in these tomb-like houses hoped and feared very much on the
+same lines as did the other children of men.  And how much alike was not
+all human nature after all?  The scene he had just witnessed, was it not
+thoroughly and ordinarily feminine in all its detail--from the careful
+manner in which the sheaf of opulent hair was rolled and tied to prevent
+it tangling, to the petulant tap of the sandalled foot on the floor, and
+the way the girl threw herself on the divan?  Yes, the great beginning
+and the great end, with the devious way and the changeful weather
+between--the way so smooth for some and so rough for others, but with
+the one splendid flower blooming for all by the wayside--the triple
+mystery of birth and love and death--was it not all common to him and to
+the alien dwellers in these silent streets?  Then the present terror of
+the pestilence made manifest in the solitude by the wails of the
+mourners smote him to the heart with a sense of exalted sympathy, and a
+deep pity for the stricken people came home to him.
+
+Brand, absorbed in his reflections, had unwittingly wandered back some
+distance down the deserted street, and he now turned back with the
+intention of returning to his lodgings.  As he drew near the house of
+sorrow for the third time, he again noticed the ladder leaning against
+the parapet next, door, and the impulse seized him to climb to the top
+and see what the city looked like from there.  This impulse he
+immediately and unthinkingly yielded to.  Stepping from the ladder he
+stood for a space on the flat roof of mason-work behind the parapet.
+Then he walked softly towards the back and looked down into the yards
+behind the row.  Here, as in the street, everything seemed to be frozen
+into white silence.
+
+The roof of the house next to Brand on his left was about three feet
+higher than the one he was standing on, and was separated from it by a
+parapet rising a foot higher still.  He vaulted over the latter and
+walked on for some yards; then he again stood still and regarded the
+view.  After a pause of a few moments he turned and retraced his steps,
+meaning now to descend and return to his lodgings without further delay.
+When, however, he reached the place where he had ascended he found to
+his alarm and perplexity that the ladder had disappeared.
+
+It seemed most extraordinary.  He had not heard a sound or seen a living
+soul.  He glanced up and down the street; all was vacant and as still as
+death.  Then the awkwardness and danger of his situation came home to
+him in full force.  What was he to do?  The descent to the street was
+nearly twenty feet, that into the back-yard rather more, but might be
+broken by taking advantage of a sort of out-house built as a lean-to
+against the main building.  But in the yard he would be like a rat in a
+trap.  The yards at each side appeared to be all more or less
+constructed on the same principle.  His position was truly a desperate
+one, and he knew this perfectly well.  Most unfounded accusations had
+been made against the Malays, to the effect that they were maliciously
+endeavouring to spread the disease among the Europeans by means of
+infected clothing.  Indignation on this account ran high, and would no
+doubt be ruthlessly vented on any European found in such an extremely
+equivocal position as he was now in.  Inwardly cursing his folly, he
+took off his boots, remounted the roof to his left, and began walking
+along the tops of the houses in the hope of discovering some means of
+escape.
+
+After passing over the roofs of four houses he noticed that there seemed
+to be a considerable drop to the roof of the next.  He approached this,
+and to his horror there arose before him from behind the parapet, the
+dark, bearded face of a man who held a gleaming knife in his teeth.
+
+Brand turned and fled just as the man sprang over the parapet.  As he
+did so he heard a rough, guttural exclamation behind him, and the sound
+of pursuing footsteps.  As he sprang down to the roof of the house he
+had ascended at, he heard his pursuer fall with a heavy thud on the hard
+mason-work.
+
+Brand rushed on, and when he reached the roof of the next house he
+noticed a curious cowl-shaped wooden structure, something like that
+which covers the approach to the forecastle ladder on the deck of a
+ship.  He quickly turned and took refuge in this on the chance of his
+pursuer, who had not yet reappeared, and who was most probably lying
+stunned from his fall, going past it.  When, however, he entered the
+cowl the floor gave way almost noiselessly beneath him, and he fell
+through nearly twenty feet of space, with a thud on what seemed to be a
+pile of tumbled clothing.  He lay half stunned for a few seconds, and
+then sat up.  He found himself in complete darkness.  A sound of low
+muttering reached his ear, but from what direction it came he could not
+tell, and a strange smell suggestive somewhat of incense was strongly
+perceptible.
+
+Searching in his pockets Brand managed to find a match, which he struck
+on his boot.  He found himself in a small room out of which one doorway
+led.  On the floor, which was of clay, was a heap of clothing of all
+sorts, interspersed with bedding and mats, all thrown together in the
+greatest confusion.  He made for the door and turned the handle softly.
+The leaf swung towards him.  Passing into the doorway with his hands
+outstretched, he groped forward and came in contact with the heavy folds
+of a curtain, which he gently drew aside.
+
+A blaze of white light nearly blinded him.  He found himself on the
+threshold of a room about twenty feet square.  From the ceiling a large
+brazen lamp hung, and other lamps with burnished reflectors shone from
+each of the four walls.  On a low bier in the centre of the room lay the
+dead body of a young man clad in green robes, his face frightfully
+disfigured from the effects of small-pox.  At the head and foot of the
+bier stood braziers on which scented woods were burning, and the almost
+invisible fumes which arose caused the smell which he had perceived.
+
+Crouching on the ground at the foot of the bier was an old man clad in a
+cassock-like garment of dingy green alpaca.  He was bent and
+decrepit-looking, and he swayed slowly from side to side repeating some
+words softly in a high-pitched, quavering tone.  His long, white beard
+and bald head were plentifully strewn with ashes, and his disordered
+turban of green silk was thrown upon the floor next to him.
+
+Brand gazed spell-bound for a moment at the strange spectacle.  The old
+man's profile was towards him.  Then words in an unknown dialect were
+hoarsely shouted by some one on the roof, evidently at the aperture
+through which Brand had made his entrance.  The old man slowly turned
+his head in the direction of the curtained door, and Brand then saw that
+he was stone blind.
+
+At the opposite side of the room was another door also curtained, so
+Brand, hearing a sound as though some one was descending through the
+aperture by means of a ladder, crossed the room, stepping noiselessly
+upon the soft carpet.  He passed close to the head of the bier, pushed
+the curtain to one side, opened the door, and entered the room into
+which he had been looking from the street.
+
+The girl started up from the divan with a smothered cry and gazed wildly
+at the intruder.  To his intense surprise he recognised in her the one
+whose life he had saved on the wharf.
+
+The girl evidently recognised him as well, for she checked the cry upon
+her lips, and the terror faded out of her face.  Brand closed the door
+softly behind him, and then advanced towards her, his hands stretched
+out with a gesture of appeal.  As he did this he whispered in the Malay
+tongue:
+
+"Save me, for God's sake; they want to kill me."
+
+Just then a movement was heard in the next room, and immediately
+afterwards could be distinguished the hoarse, guttural tones which Brand
+associated with the bearded man who carried the knife between his teeth,
+and whose pursuit had filled him with such terror.  The eyes of the girl
+softened; she hesitated for a second, and then hurriedly motioned to
+Brand to hide himself in the recess next to the divan.  When he had
+effected this she laid herself down in her former position.
+
+No sooner had this happened than the door opened, and some one, from the
+voice evidently a woman, entered the room.  After discussing rapidly for
+a few seconds in Dutch so corrupt that Brand could barely understand a
+word here and there, this person left, closing the door behind her.
+Then a noise as of many people moving about on the roof, the pavement,
+and at the back of the premises arose.  This, however, soon died down,
+and dead silence, only broken from time to time by a groan or a cry from
+the old mourner, again reigned.
+
+After an interval the girl arose, turned the lamp down low, and
+whispered to Brand to emerge from his concealment.  He had now
+completely regained his self-possession, and he fully expected to be
+able to escape from the house with the girl's assistance, without much
+difficulty or delay.  She had now put on a loose skirt, and wrapped a
+white, silken shawl over her shoulders and bosom.
+
+Brand told her the exact truth as to the circumstances under which he
+had entered the room, and the girl evidently believed him.  He thanked
+her warmly for what she had done, and begged of her to show him a way by
+which he might make his escape.  This, however, she declared, to his
+horror, she was absolutely unable to do.  The window was, she assured
+him, fastened down with nails, and the only other way of possible exit
+lay through the room in which the corpse was lying, and thence through a
+passage to the front door.  This course was obviously impossible under
+the circumstances, so there was nothing for it but for him to remain
+where he was until the following morning, and then take advantage of
+circumstances as they might arise.
+
+The recess in the wall was about two feet deep, and in this the girl
+made a sort of a couch for her uninvited and unwilling guest, who lay
+awake throughout the whole of the long July night, cursing his folly,
+and wondering as to what the end of his adventure was to be.  The girl
+lay on the divan close to him, and although she hardly moved, Brand
+could tell from her breathing that she was as sleepless as himself.
+
+Soon after daybreak the girl arose and, speaking softly, told Brand to
+lie quietly where he was whilst she went out to see if the coast were
+clear.  Soon after this the sounds of people moving about the house
+could be heard, and then a deadly feeling of being trapped took
+possession of the concealed man.  Had it not been for the certainty of
+compromising the girl he would have risked the worst and burst his way
+through the window.  He felt, of course, that after her heroic conduct
+in shielding him at terrible risk to herself, such a course would be
+unpardonable, and he dismissed the idea at once.  By and by the noise in
+the next room increased; the heavy, shuffling tread of several men could
+be heard, and the wailing of the old mourner rose to a high pitch.  Then
+came stillness.  The body of the dead hadji had been carried away to be
+prepared for burial.
+
+After another interval the girl returned, and in a whisper told Brand to
+follow her.  Then she sped swiftly through the curtained room and into a
+passage to the left; then down this passage to the right, and out into a
+small courtyard, on the opposite side of which a detached building
+stood.  This building was double-storied at one end.  The girl darted
+across the yard into the detached building, and Brand followed her
+through the half-opened door.  He found himself in a sort of lumber
+store, which contained, amongst other things, a large number of
+packing-cases piled one over the other.  In obedience to a gesture on
+the part of the girl, Brand entered a second room through a doorway
+standing open just in front of him.  Here he found himself in
+semi-darkness.  The girl closed the door behind him, and then ran
+quickly back across the yard to the house.
+
+Brand's eyes soon accustomed themselves to the gloom, and then he began
+to examine his prison.  He found here also a number of packing-cases,
+some apparently full of merchandise and others containing bound volumes
+of the Koran in the Malay tongue.  In the corner of the room stood a
+ladder, and immediately above it an open trap-door, evidently leading to
+an upper chamber.  He mounted the ladder and soon found himself in a
+small, cheerful-looking room with a window at either side.  It contained
+a small table, a chair, and a bracket which hung in one of the corners.
+A thick, new carpet was on the floor, and on one side were heaped a
+number of rich rugs which had evidently not been woven in Western looms.
+On the bracket stood a jug of water, a loaf of bread, some baked meat,
+and a small quantity of fruit.  Brand closed the trap-door, took a long
+drink of water,--which he had been longing for,--and flung himself down
+upon the pile of rugs.
+
+The morning was for Brand one deadly monotony of apprehension.  Once
+only did he hear any evidence of movement below, and then it was the
+sound of a footstep followed by the light click of some metal utensil
+being placed on the floor.  Just afterwards he cautiously lifted the
+trap-door and looked down.  He saw a bucket containing water, a rough
+towel, and a piece of soap.  He had heard the sound of the key being
+turned in the door, so he descended and had a refreshing wash.  After
+this he re-ascended to the upper room, taking a copy of the Koran with
+him.  What he saw when he looked out of the windows was not reassuring.
+The building stood at one side of a closed yard of small size but with
+very high walls.  It was quite certain that there was no means of exit
+except through the house.  Even could he cross these walls he knew from
+his recollection of what he had seen from the roof that his position
+would be no better.  The trapped feeling overcame him again, and he
+threw himself on the floor in despair.
+
+Early in the afternoon he heard the door below opened softly, and just
+afterwards the girl ascended through the trap-door.  She brought some
+food,--a few hard-boiled eggs, a dish of meat cooked after the Malay
+fashion in a paste, and some dates.  Brands first question was as to the
+practicability of his escaping, but the girl strongly negatived the idea
+of any attempt in that direction being made for the present.  The house
+was, she said, so arranged that until some occasion arose upon which all
+the dwellers except the old priest were absent, he could not possibly
+get away without being discovered.  She seated herself on the rug next
+to him and they talked together like old friends.  He ascertained from
+her that he was on the premises of a very celebrated Malay priest,--the
+girl's grandfather.  This was a wealthy man, who combined commerce with
+the practice of official religious functions.  Two of his sons had
+managed his business concerns, which had principally to do with the
+importation of silken fabrics from the East.  One of the sons had died
+of the pest, and the other was away on a trading trip to Madagascar.
+The dead body which Brand had seen was that of the old priest's youngest
+and favourite son, a promising young hadji of highly reputed sanctity,
+who had returned but a few weeks previously from Mecca, only to be
+smitten by small-pox in its deadliest form.  Altogether four members of
+the family had died,--one an elderly widowed daughter of the old priest,
+and the other a female servant.
+
+Brand also learned her own history, which was peculiar and interesting.
+Her name was Aiala.  Her father had been an Englishman who, on being
+converted to Islam, had married a daughter of the old priest.  This
+accounted for her knowledge of European ways and her sympathetic
+apprehension of European modes of thought, both of which had puzzled
+Brand extremely.  After her fathers death, two years previously, she had
+left Java and had come to Cape Town to join her grandfather.  She had
+been very unhappy in her new surroundings; the local peculiarities of
+the Malays were distasteful to her; she could hardly understand anything
+of their speech.  They, divining her contempt for them, and recognising
+her superiority, disliked her intensely.  She made no friends, and the
+only one who had treated her with sympathy or kindness was the young
+hadji who was now dead.  To him she had been much attached.  She had
+recently been promised in marriage to a man for whom she had no regard
+of any kind, and who was much older than she was.
+
+Before leaving, the girl made Brand solemnly promise, with his hand on
+the Koran, that he would make no attempt to escape without her
+co-operation.  She reminded him of the terrible risk she ran in thus
+hiding him, and that discovery would undoubtedly result in his death and
+her ruin.  His disappearance was, she said, a mystery to the whole
+neighbourhood.  He had been seen by others on the roof, and an organised
+hunt had accordingly taken place.  The black-bearded man was continually
+on the watch, and had sworn, if he could find him, to have the
+stranger's life.  Brand, after some hesitation which she overcame by
+falling at his feet in tears, made the promise she demanded, and
+regretted having done so immediately afterwards.
+
+Aiala returned late that night and sat in the chair before the window,
+with the moonlight shining on her beautiful face, and flashing back in
+softened and enriched splendour from the depths of her glorious eyes.
+Her proximity began to engender strange emotions in Brand, and to make
+some unsuspected springs stir in the depths of his being.  Perhaps it
+was that the Malay strain in his blood had given a certain fibre to his
+heartstrings, which required some such influence as this to draw it to
+vibrating tension.
+
+After pressing his hand in silence to her breast, Aiala stole softly
+away, leaving Brand to dream till dawn of her loveliness.  She returned
+early next morning, bringing food, clean linen, and other things
+conducive to his comfort.  The rain had again set in, and the prospect
+which Brand regarded from the windows of his prison was the most
+cheerless imaginable,--just dingy, yellow walls streaming with water.
+He again besought the girl to try and arrange for his escape, and after
+a few moments of deep thought she promised to let him out, irrespective
+of risks, on the following day.  It had hitherto struck Brand as
+extremely strange that she should have consistently placed obstacles in
+the way of every project for escaping which he suggested.
+
+All day long Aiala kept flitting up and down the ladder.  She was
+dressed in the most splendid attire.  After the death of her uncle the
+more valuable of the contents of the shop had been removed for
+safe-keeping to the old priest's dwelling-house, and the girl thus had
+access to a quantity of gorgeous Eastern finery, and in this she now
+revelled to the utmost.  The intimacy between her and Brand made rapid
+progress.  She was radiant with smiles so long as he avoided the subject
+of his departure.  When, however, he made any allusion to his wish to
+escape, she wept bitterly, and begged of him not to be her undoing.
+
+They talked of the scenes of their childhood in far-off Java,--of how
+the children used to go forth in troops in the early morning from the
+"kampong," the village built of bamboo, to gather into baskets the
+"melatti" flowers that had fallen during the night from the trees, until
+the ground was covered as with a white carpet; of how they would weave
+the blossoms into garlands and long festoons, wherewith all, even the
+criminal going to suffer on the gallows, would be decked.  From thus
+talking over scenes which they both knew and loved, they attained to a
+strange intuitive understanding of each other.  Aiala had been her
+father's favourite child, and he, without teaching her his own tongue,
+had developed her mind to a degree almost unknown among women of her
+mother's race.  Her finely-moulded head contained a strange farrago of
+fantastic and poetical notions, and for one so illiterate she had a
+wonderful gift of language.  Her memory was very retentive, especially
+for poetry and passages from the Koran, which she would repeat with a
+remarkable faculty of original expression, while her sensitive face
+reflected the spirit of the words.
+
+Brand, however, did not even remotely suspect what was the true state of
+the case,--that the girl loved him with the full strength of her
+passionate nature.  The man who had appeared twice in her life, each
+time in a great crisis, had stamped himself indelibly on the untouched
+wax of her heart, and she felt, without even defining the feeling to
+herself, that her love and her life had become one and the same.  From
+the day when he lifted her from the cab in his arms she had tenderly
+cherished the memory of the strong, tall, blue-eyed stranger who had
+rescued her from a terrible death, and who looked like a god among the
+uncouth, patois-jabbering crowd, from the like of which her only
+acquaintance was drawn.  Moreover, was he not of the race of the dead
+father whom she had loved so well?  And when he rushed into her
+presence, a hunted fugitive, had she not--after the first shock of
+surprise was over--been filled with exalted joy at the thought that this
+man of men was hers to save or to slay with a word?  And whilst he
+cowered until dawn behind the curtain within a yard of where she lay,
+outwardly composed, but inwardly seething as though with the thunder and
+the tumult of the sea pent within her breast, throughout the long night
+made splendid by starry, sleepless dreams, had her very soul not melted
+in the ardent crucible of her burning hopes and re-formed in the mould
+of the man whose personality was a revelation to her, far nobler than
+her highest ideal?
+
+Aiala had hitherto been loverless; now passion awoke in her torrid,
+Eastern nature like a summer tempest on an Indian Sea, and its waves'
+resistless strength undermined what had hitherto been the impregnable
+rock of Brand's insensibility.  All the untaught wiles which are as
+instinctive to the natural woman in her youth as is preening its
+feathers to a bird in the spring-time, were lavished on him, and long
+before he even suspected it, Aiala had filled his heart as completely as
+he filled hers.
+
+She bade him farewell in the dusk, promising to return as soon as ever
+she could manage again to escape.  When the weary, leaden-footed hours
+dragged past and yet she did not come, Brand was in despair.  He thought
+something had happened to prevent her coming at all that night, and the
+agony of longing which he underwent taught him unmistakably that the
+love he had dreamt of, but never before experienced, had at length made
+its home in his heart.
+
+A sound in the room below threw him into an ecstasy of expectation, and
+just afterwards the trap-door was lifted with the usual creaking sound
+which he had come to regard as sweeter than the sweetest music.  It was
+absolutely dark; the moon had not yet arisen, and the wind-driven rain
+hissed against the streaming window-panes.
+
+Brand came forward to the corner where the trap-door was, and his
+outstretched hands came in contact with Aiala, who was shivering,
+apparently with cold, beneath a heavy, wet cloak.  She slid from his
+attempted embrace with a low breath of laughter, and when he followed
+her she again eluded him.  This, acting on his over-wrought mind and his
+inexperience, vexed him sorely, and he sat down on the chair in silence
+and weary perplexity.
+
+After a few moments she startled him by striking a match and lighting a
+small lamp, which she then placed on the bracket.  Brand then noticed
+that she had hung dark cloths across the windows.
+
+He stood up and looked at her in wonderment.  A thick, dark cloak
+covered her from head to foot and, being drawn in around her throat with
+a string, formed a hood which quite hid her face.  When she lifted the
+lighted lamp to the bracket he saw with a thrill that her arms were bare
+from firm, round wrist to shapely shoulder.  Then she slowly turned
+towards him and gazed fixedly into his eyes from the darkness of her
+hood.  Lifting her hands slowly to her throat she untied the string, and
+then made a sudden, backward movement with her head.  The cloak slid
+down behind her to the floor.
+
+She was clad after the fashion of her native land in a "kabaai," or robe
+of delicate, fawn-coloured silk, and a "sarong" or skirt of the same
+material, cerise-coloured.  Her thick, glossy, black hair hung loosely
+over her shoulders; her throat, arms, and ankles were bare, and her feet
+were covered by delicate sandals of crimson silk.  In her hair and
+around her bosom were garlanded white blossoms of a kind that Brand was
+unacquainted with, strung together after the manner of the "melatti"
+flowers, and emitting a very sweet and pungent scent.
+
+They stood, hardly a pace apart, and gazed at each other, the girl with
+parted lips and heaving breast, and Brand awed to a statue before her
+beauty and the spell of her eyes.  Then she said in a steady voice:
+
+"I have come to bid you farewell.  To-morrow morning the doors will be
+opened to you, and you can go forth; then I shall die."
+
+She spoke with a calmness that carried conviction.  Brand's love had
+become as necessary to her untutored heart, with its wild, elemental
+promptings, as the air to her nostrils; and he, with his perceptions
+rendered acute by emotional stress, knew that she spoke but the truth.
+
+Then Aiala's strength seemed suddenly to give way; she covered her face
+with her hands, swayed like a lily in the wind, and faltered to the
+ground at Brand's feet.
+
+The spell was broken; the love in the rising stream of which he had
+unwittingly been standing overwhelmed and bore Brand away in its
+resistless course.  He bent down to Aiala and clasped her to his breast.
+She nestled to him with low murmurs of blissful content, and wound her
+soft arms about his neck.
+
+As their lips met for the first time, the sordid world rolled away and
+was forgotten, and they seemed to rest on some palm-shaded isle in a sea
+of infinite delight, where the waves sang around them strong songs of
+peace and joy.
+
+_Three_.
+
+Thus love grew, burgeoned, and flowered between these two thus strangely
+thrown together in the house of pestilence and death, like some rich,
+exotic plant.  Brand no longer thought of departing.  To him had come
+the end of Time, and the realisation of Eternity through infinity of
+joy.  The ever-present danger of discovery, the inevitable consequence
+of which would have been death, added ardour to their bliss even as wind
+causes glowing embers to flush and glow more hotly.  Their short
+meetings were full of rapture, and the hours they spent apart were long,
+delicious trances of remembrance and anticipation.  Time was like a
+golden chain studded here and there at uncertain intervals with
+fire-hearted rubies.
+
+The rainy, tempestuous weather continued, but the lovers did not miss
+the sun by day nor the stars by night.  Safe in their warm nest they
+would listen to the muffled roar of the rain on the masoned roof,
+thrilling with a delicious realisation of the contrast between the cold
+and darkness outside, and the love and light which filled their little
+chamber.  Under the influence of fulfilled love Aiala became a new
+being, developing fresh and wonderful qualities every day.  To her lover
+she was a perpetually unfolding rose of wonder and sweetness.  Once, in
+the midst of a spring-day noon of changing moods she burst into tears,
+flung herself at Brand's feet, and confessed that she had all along
+deceived him as to the difficulty of escaping; that on any of the nights
+of his imprisonment she could, without much danger, have guided him
+through the almost deserted house and into the silent street.  Would he
+forgive her for having thus deceived him?  He only found in what she
+told him a reason for loving her the more, if that were possible.
+
+One morning, after Aiala had left him, Brand heard the sound of
+footsteps and voices in the lower chamber.  Then followed silence.
+After some little time he lifted the trap-door and looked down.  He saw,
+lying upon trestles, the hideous corpse of an old woman,--another victim
+of the scourge.  When Aiala came again she did not mention the
+circumstance, and when Brand asked her about it she appeared to consider
+it not worth regarding.  The body was that of the last of the original
+domestic servants, who had died during the previous night.  It was
+removed for burial after dark.
+
+Now and then Brand thought carelessly of the possibility of either Aiala
+or himself taking the disease, but familiarity had, as is usual, bred
+contempt for the danger.  Moreover, Brand was strongly imbued with
+fatalism, absorbed insensibly from the people among whom so much of his
+life had been spent.  Once when he alluded to the danger, Aiala mocked
+lightly at the notion, and he felt reassured.  The superabundant
+vitality with which she thrilled seemed as though it were sufficient to
+defy any form of disease, if not death itself.
+
+Aiala took the greatest delight in ministering to the wants of her
+lover.  She brought him food in delicate variety, and changes of wearing
+apparel.  He now dressed like a Malay of superior rank, in loose, white
+trousers, long smock, short, sleeveless jacket of velvet, pointed
+sandals, and silken turban.  The latter she would over and over again
+skilfully roll for him, place upon his head, and immediately disarrange
+with an embrace.
+
+Seven golden days dawned under a pall of tempest and drenching rain,
+each with a brimming cup of delight for their unsated lips.  Seven
+nights of fierce storm curtained them away from a world of shifting
+shadows with a rich fabric woven in the golden loom of happy dreams.
+Death was busy all around them, but they heeded him not, and he forebore
+to smite.  Perhaps the genius of happiness that guested with them for a
+little time shielded their nest with a wing which even the Destroyers
+dart could not pierce.
+
+The eighth morning brought a cloudless sun, before the garish face of
+which their bliss melted like a snow-flake on the lips of a rose.
+
+When Brand looked out into the bright, bracing morning he awoke from his
+trance and again yearned for freedom.  The whole man in him revolted
+against this hiding like a mole in the earth.  The sunshine and the
+cool, moist air seemed to call him forth in tones of imperative command.
+His love for Aiala had not in the slightest degree diminished, but a
+horror at his situation, which was accentuated by the pure, blue sky,
+fell upon him when he realised the nature of his surroundings.  A
+longing to lave in the cold, cleansing sea came over him, and he felt
+that he must go forth, taking Aiala with him.  He was prepared to
+acknowledge her as his wife in the face of the world, and in all his
+plans for the future she was inextricably woven.
+
+Aiala had slipped away from his side before dawn while he was yet
+sleeping, and it was the middle of the forenoon before she was able to
+return.  She found him pacing to and fro like a caged lion raging for
+its freedom.
+
+Brand clasped her in his arms and poured out his trouble in a torrent of
+passionate words.  She freed herself gently from his embrace and knelt
+before him with her head bowed in token of submission.  She had
+understood in a flash the state of her lover's mind, and the strength of
+his longing to go forth, and she submitted to the inevitable.  One of
+the most marked effects which their mutual, virginal passion had upon
+these two was, that they became one in a very real sense.  Aiala, as a
+woman, naturally absorbed more of Brand than he did of her, and it was
+the intuitive perception of his thoughts, his hopes, and his needs
+manifested by Aiala which struck her lover with a sense of wonder and
+almost with fear.  It sometimes felt as though he had recreated her in
+his own mental and spiritual image and likeness.
+
+It was decided that Brand was to make his escape just before midnight,
+Aiala guiding him through the front door into the street.  He was to
+dress as a Malay, leaving his own clothes to be disposed of by Aiala
+amongst the lumber in the lower room.  He was to return forty-eight
+hours later, and these two meant then to wander forth together into the
+wide world.
+
+The last few hours of companionship which remained to them seemed to be
+blighted by the shadow of impending woe.  After they had arranged the
+preliminaries regarding Brand's departure they hardly spoke again to
+each other, but sat locked in a silent, close embrace.  The vivid colour
+and the ethereal, bliss-born light had faded out of Aiala's lovely face,
+and given place to a shaded pallor.  Her eyes were more wonderful than
+ever; the pupils having dilated to such an extent that the irises were
+completely absorbed.
+
+It was at about eleven o'clock that Aiala ascended the ladder for the
+last time, for the purpose of leading her lover forth.  She hung around
+his neck a thin gold chain with a large pearl clasped by a rough, gold
+band attached to it.  They bade each other a silent, tearless,
+passionate farewell, and then went forth, down the ladder and across the
+yard, Aiala leading and Brand following with steps that faltered now
+that the parting was so near.  Had Aiala asked him to stay now at the
+last moment he would have done so without hesitation, but although the
+word was probably upon her lips, for she always divined Brand's moods,
+she did not speak it.
+
+Once they paused in going along the passage to the front door, and Aiala
+lifted a curtain that hung before a doorway.  Brand looked and saw the
+old priest sitting on the floor in mourning garb, still with ashes
+strewn upon his head.  A dim light shone upon the pain-worn face, the
+sightless eyes, and the trembling lips that moved in prayer to the God
+whom the Great Prophet of Islam had always called "the compassionate--
+the merciful."  On the floor near the mourner lay the green robe and the
+turban of his dead son.
+
+Brand walked down the street with a heart like lead in his breast, and a
+sense as of one who, having died and reached Paradise, and again come to
+life, knows that henceforth he must be a stranger among the sons of men.
+
+_Four_.
+
+Brand arrived at his lodgings just before midnight, and went up-stairs
+quietly to his room.  The front door of the house had been left open for
+some of the lodgers who were still out.  To his relief he met no one on
+the stairs or in the passages; otherwise he would have had some
+difficulty in accounting for his being in Malay garb.
+
+Upon awaking in the morning he had some difficulty in persuading himself
+that he had been away for ten days,--or indeed at all.  The last week
+seemed now a fevered dream of terror and delight.  Was it real?  His
+hand accidentally touched Aiala's pearl which hung from his neck, and
+his doubts vanished.  He sprang out of bed, dressed as quickly as he
+could, and hurried down to the sea to have the swim he so longed for.
+The cold southern current was sweeping into Table Bay.  Brand plunged
+into the surf, and swam out beyond the line of breakers.  He felt the
+clean, stinging water dissipating the fantasies which were woven around
+him, and Aiala's image rose clear over the mists that had clouded his
+understanding, like the sun over a huddled mass of dissolving,
+wind-driven clouds.
+
+After his swim Brand walked slowly back to his lodgings, thinking over
+the strange problem set before him for solution, and wondering as to
+what the outcome of the matter would be.  As to Aiala, his intentions
+were clear and distinct up to a certain point.  He meant to take her
+away at once from the house of pestilence, and eventually to marry her,
+but he knew enough of law to be quite sure that, she being under age, he
+could not marry her without the consent of her guardians, and he knew
+enough of Mahometan prejudice to be certain that such consent he would
+never obtain.
+
+What in the mean time was he to do?  He could not bring Aiala to the
+lodging-house--that was quite certain.  His means, moreover, were very
+limited.  He had been waiting in Cape Town in the hope of obtaining
+employment from a certain mining-syndicate there being formed, but as
+yet no definite offer had been made him.  However, Aiala must, under any
+circumstances, be at his side from and after the second midnight
+following--that was the only certain and important thing; all the rest
+was mere detail.
+
+Brand's landlady was much astonished when he put in an appearance at
+breakfast, but he silenced all inquiries on the subject of his absence
+by stating that he had been called suddenly away, and that he supposed
+his letter explaining his absence had miscarried.
+
+After breakfast he went to his room, and, feeling unwell, threw himself
+on the bed, and fell asleep.  It was late in the afternoon when he awoke
+with a violent headache, a feverish skin, and a burning thirst.  In the
+evening delirium set in and a doctor was sent for.  He pronounced the
+malady to be small-pox, so next morning Brand was removed to the
+lazaretto.
+
+In spite of the fact that Brand had recently been vaccinated the attack
+was a severe one.  When he regained his senses at the cessation of the
+fever he wanted, weak as he was, to rush out and go to Aiala, but this,
+of course, the attendants prevented him from doing.  Afterwards he
+resigned himself quietly to his fate, and remained at the lazaretto
+until discharged as cured.
+
+He took a cab and returned to his lodgings, where he found, to his
+relief, that the disease had not been communicated to any of the other
+inmates.  As the day wore on he watched the slowly-sinking sun with
+chafing impatience, longing for the hour when he could go to Aiala,
+clasp her to his heart, and explain his absence.
+
+At length the hour of eleven was slowly struck from the belfry tower,
+and Brand hurried to the nearest cab-stand.  He hired a cab to convey
+him in the direction of the silent street, and discharged it some little
+distance from his destination.  He went forward on foot, and when he got
+close to the house he knew so well, he noticed a small crowd of people
+congregated before the door.  They were all Malays.  He moved in among
+them and listened to their conversation.  He heard one man relating to
+another, evidently a stranger, how every member of the old priest's
+family had been carried off by the scourge, and how the young girl, his
+grand-daughter, whose body they were now about to bury, had almost
+recovered, but had died of weakness through refusing to take nourishment
+after her convalescence had set in.
+
+Then the door opened, and the body, wrapped in white linen, was carried
+out and borne onward upon a bier by four men.  The little crowd of
+people formed a procession behind it.  Brand, with a heart of frozen
+stone in his desolated breast, followed after the others.
+
+The _cortege_ wended slowly to the Malay burial-ground high on the
+mountain-side, and here Brand stood among the tinselled tombs and saw
+Aiala's body lowered into the dark grave.  He listened in dread for the
+first sound of the earth falling upon the flesh that he loved, and that
+had thrilled to his kisses, but found to his surprise that it had little
+or no effect upon his feelings.  The funeral was hurriedly and
+unceremoniously conducted, so in a very few minutes the grave was filled
+in, and those who gathered round it dispersed.
+
+Brand threw himself upon the new-made grave.  As yet no wailing mourners
+had come to desecrate the spot.  All around him the weird howls arose,
+but they smote unheeded on his ear.  He was just stupidly trying to
+recall Aiala's face, and finding to his annoyance that he could not do
+so clearly.  Then he began to murmur her name over and over to himself
+softly, in different cadences.
+
+An old man, probably a priest, came quietly up and bent over him.  Brand
+had kept on repeating Aiala's name.  The old man laid a kindly hand on
+his shoulder and reminded him in the Malay tongue of the Prophet's words
+of consolation to mourners, and promises to such as die in the faith.
+Brand listened without being able to understand a word of what he was
+saying for some time; but an expression that Aiala had been in the habit
+of using in her poetical moods fell from the old man's lips, and
+startled the stunned hearer into momentary animation.  The passage where
+the expression occurs is at the beginning of that chapter of the Koran
+known as "The Rending Asunder."  Brand interrupted the garrulous flow of
+the old man's talk by continuing the passage which he had unconsciously
+quoted:
+
+"When the seas are let loose, and when the tombs are turned upside down,
+the soul shall know what it hath done and left undone."
+
+The old man stood up and moved quietly away.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_The End_.
+
+
+
+
+
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+End of Project Gutenberg's The White Hecatomb, by William Charles Scully
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