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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: She and Allan
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: August 22, 2002 [eBook #5745]
+[Most recently updated: January 23, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: John Bickers; Dagny; David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHE AND ALLAN ***
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+She and Allan
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+First Published 1921.
+
+
+Contents
+
+ NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+ SHE AND ALLAN
+
+ CHAPTER I. THE TALISMAN
+ CHAPTER II. THE MESSENGERS
+ CHAPTER III. UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE
+ CHAPTER IV. THE LION AND THE AXE
+ CHAPTER V. INEZ
+ CHAPTER VI. THE SEA-COW HUNT
+ CHAPTER VII. THE OATH
+ CHAPTER VIII. PURSUIT
+ CHAPTER IX. THE SWAMP
+ CHAPTER X. THE ATTACK
+ CHAPTER XI. THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL
+ CHAPTER XII. THE WHITE WITCH
+ CHAPTER XIII. ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE
+ CHAPTER XIV. ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY
+ CHAPTER XV. ROBERTSON IS LOST
+ CHAPTER XVI. ALLAN’S VISION
+ CHAPTER XVII. THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE
+ CHAPTER XVIII. THE SLAYING OF REZU
+ CHAPTER XIX. THE SPELL
+ CHAPTER XX. THE GATE OF DEATH
+ CHAPTER XXI. THE LESSON
+ CHAPTER XXII. AYESHA’S FAREWELL
+ CHAPTER XXIII. WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW
+ CHAPTER XXIV. UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE
+ CHAPTER XXV. ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+
+
+My friend, into whose hands I hope that all these manuscripts of mine
+will pass one day, of this one I have something to say to you.
+
+A long while ago I jotted down in it the history of the events that it
+details with more or less completeness. This I did for my own
+satisfaction. You will have noted how memory fails us as we advance in
+years; we recollect, with an almost painful exactitude, what we
+experienced and saw in our youth, but the happenings of our middle life
+slip away from us or become blurred, like a stretch of low-lying
+landscape overflowed by grey and nebulous mist. Far off the sun still
+seems to shine upon the plains and hills of adolescence and early
+manhood, as yet it shines about us in the fleeting hours of our age,
+that ground on which we stand to-day, but the valley between is filled
+with fog. Yes, even its prominences, which symbolise the more startling
+events of that past, often are lost in this confusing fog.
+
+It was an appreciation of these truths which led me to set down the
+following details (though of course much is omitted) of my brief
+intercourse with the strange and splendid creature whom I knew under
+the names of _Ayesha_, or _Híya_, or _She-who-commands_; not indeed
+with any view to their publication, but before I forgot them that, if I
+wished to do so, I might re-peruse them in the evening of old age to
+which I hope to attain.
+
+Indeed, at the time the last thing I intended was that they should be
+given to the world even after my own death, because they, or many of
+them, are so unusual that I feared lest they should cause smiles and in
+a way cast a slur upon my memory and truthfulness. Also, as you will
+read, as to this matter I made a promise and I have always tried to
+keep my promises and to guard the secrets of others. For these reasons
+I proposed, in case I neglected or forgot to destroy them myself, to
+leave a direction that this should be done by my executors. Further, I
+have been careful to make no allusion _whatever_ to them either in
+casual conversation or in anything else that I may have written, my
+desire being that this page of my life should be kept quite private,
+something known only to myself. Therefore, too, I never so much as
+hinted of them to anyone, not even to yourself to whom I have told so
+much.
+
+Well, I recorded the main facts concerning this expedition and its
+issues, simply and with as much exactness as I could, and laid them
+aside. I do not say that I never thought of them again, since amongst
+them were some which, together with the problems they suggested, proved
+to be of an unforgettable nature.
+
+Also, whenever any of Ayesha’s sayings or stories which are not
+preserved in these pages came back to me, as has happened from time to
+time, I jotted them down and put them away with this manuscript. Thus
+among these notes you will find a history of the city of Kôr as she
+told it to me, which I have omitted here. Still, many of these
+remarkable events did more or less fade from my mind, as the image does
+from an unfixed photograph, till only their outlines remained, faint if
+distinguishable.
+
+To tell the truth, I was rather ashamed of the whole story in which I
+cut so poor a figure. On reflection it was obvious to me, although
+honesty had compelled me to set out all that is essential exactly as it
+occurred, adding nothing and taking nothing away, that I had been the
+victim of very gross deceit. This strange woman, whom I had met in the
+ruins of a place called Kôr, without any doubt had thrown a glamour
+over my senses and at the moment almost caused me to believe much that
+is quite unbelievable.
+
+For instance, she had told me ridiculous stories as to interviews
+between herself and certain heathen goddesses, though it is true that,
+almost with her next breath, these she qualified or contradicted. Also,
+she had suggested that her life had been prolonged far beyond our
+mortal span, for hundreds and hundreds of years, indeed; which, as
+Euclid says, is absurd, and had pretended to supernatural powers, which
+is still more absurd. Moreover, by a clever use of some hypnotic or
+mesmeric power, she had feigned to transport me to some place beyond
+the earth and in the Halls of Hades to show me what is veiled from the
+eyes of man, and not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi,
+commonly called Umslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot,
+was my companion upon that adventure. There were like things equally
+incredible, such as her appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle
+with the troll-like Rezu. To omit these, the sum of it was that I had
+been shamefully duped, and if anyone finds himself in that position, as
+most people have at one time or another in their lives, Wisdom suggests
+that he had better keep the circumstances to himself.
+
+Well, so the matter stood, or rather lay in the recesses of my mind—and
+in the cupboard where I hide my papers—when one evening someone, as a
+matter of fact it was Captain Good, an individual of romantic
+tendencies who is fond, sometimes I think too fond, of fiction, brought
+a book to this house which he insisted over and over again really I
+must peruse.
+
+Ascertaining that it was a novel I declined, for to tell the truth I am
+not fond of romance in any shape, being a person who has found the hard
+facts of life of sufficient interest as they stand.
+
+Reading I admit I like, but in this matter, as in everything else, my
+range is limited. I study the Bible, especially the Old Testament, both
+because of its sacred lessons and of the majesty of the language of its
+inspired translators; whereof that of Ayesha, which I render so poorly
+from her flowing and melodious Arabic, reminded me. For poetry I turn
+to Shakespeare, and, at the other end of the scale, to the Ingoldsby
+Legends, many of which I know almost by heart, while for current
+affairs I content myself with the newspapers.
+
+For the rest I peruse anything to do with ancient Egypt that I happen
+to come across, because this land and its history have a queer
+fascination for me, that perhaps has its roots in occurrences or dreams
+of which this is not the place to speak. Lastly now and again I read
+one of the Latin or Greek authors in a translation, since I regret to
+say that my lack of education does not enable me to do so in the
+original. But for modern fiction I have no taste, although from time to
+time I sample it in a railway train and occasionally am amused by such
+excursions into the poetic and unreal.
+
+So it came about that the more Good bothered me to read this particular
+romance, the more I determined that I would do nothing of the sort.
+Being a persistent person, however, when he went away about ten o’clock
+at night, he deposited it by my side, under my nose indeed, so that it
+might not be overlooked. Thus it came about that I could not help
+seeing some Egyptian hieroglyphics in an oval on the cover, also the
+title, and underneath it your own name, my friend, all of which excited
+my curiosity, especially the title, which was brief and enigmatic,
+consisting indeed of one word, “_She_.”
+
+I took up the work and on opening it the first thing my eye fell upon
+was a picture of a veiled woman, the sight of which made my heart stand
+still, so painfully did it remind me of a certain veiled woman whom
+once it had been my fortune to meet. Glancing from it to the printed
+page one word seemed to leap at me. It was _Kôr_! Now of veiled women
+there are plenty in the world, but were there also two Kôrs?
+
+Then I turned to the beginning and began to read. This happened in the
+autumn when the sun does not rise till about six, but it was broad
+daylight before I ceased from reading, or rather rushing through that
+book.
+
+Oh! what was I to make of it? For here in its pages (to say nothing of
+old Billali, who, by the way lied, probably to order, when he told Mr.
+Holly that no white man had visited his country for many generations,
+and those gloomy, man-eating Amahagger scoundrels) once again I found
+myself face to face with _She-who-commands_, now rendered as
+_She-who-must-be-obeyed_, which means much the same thing—in her case
+at least; yes, with Ayesha the lovely, the mystic, the changeful and
+the imperious.
+
+Moreover the history filled up many gaps in my own limited experiences
+of that enigmatical being who was half divine (though, I think, rather
+wicked or at any rate unmoral in her way) and yet all woman. It is true
+that it showed her in lights very different from and higher than those
+in which she had presented herself to me. Yet the substratum of her
+character was the same, or rather of her characters, for of these she
+seemed to have several in a single body, being, as she said of herself
+to me, “not One but Many and not Here but Everywhere.”
+
+Further, I found the story of Kallikrates, which I had set down as a
+mere falsehood invented for my bewilderment, expanded and explained. Or
+rather not explained, since, perhaps that she might deceive, to me she
+had spoken of this murdered Kallikrates without enthusiasm, as a
+handsome person to whom, because of an indiscretion of her youth, she
+was bound by destiny and whose return—somewhat to her sorrow—she must
+wait. At least she did so at first, though in the end when she bared
+her heart at the moment of our farewell, she vowed she loved him only
+and was “appointed” to him “by a divine decree.”
+
+Also I found other things of which I knew nothing, such as the Fire of
+Life with its fatal gift of indefinite existence, although I remember
+that like the giant Rezu whom Umslopogaas defeated, she did talk of a
+“Cup of Life” of which she had drunk, that might have been offered to
+my lips, had I been politic, bowed the knee and shown more faith in her
+and her supernatural pretensions.
+
+Lastly I saw the story of her end, and as I read it I wept, yes, I
+confess I wept, although I feel sure that she will return again. Now I
+understood why she had quailed and even seemed to shrivel when, in my
+last interview with her, stung beyond endurance by her witcheries and
+sarcasms, I had suggested that even for her with all her powers, Fate
+might reserve one of its shrewdest blows. Some prescience had told her
+that if the words seemed random, Truth spoke through my lips, although,
+and this was the worst of it, she did not know what weapon would deal
+the stroke or when and where it was doomed to fall.
+
+I was amazed, I was overcome, but as I closed that book I made up my
+mind, first that I would continue to preserve absolute silence as to
+Ayesha and my dealings with her, as, during my life, I was bound by
+oath to do, and secondly that I would _not_ cause my manuscript to be
+destroyed. I did not feel that I had any right to do so in view of what
+already had been published to the world. There let it lie to appear one
+day, or not to appear, as might be fated. Meanwhile my lips were
+sealed. I would give Good back his book without comment and—buy another
+copy!
+
+One more word. It is clear that I did not touch more than the fringe of
+the real Ayesha. In a thousand ways she bewitched and deceived me so
+that I never plumbed her nature’s depths. Perhaps this was my own fault
+because from the first I shewed a lack of faith in her and she wished
+to pay me back in her own fashion, or perhaps she had other private
+reasons for her secrecy. Certainly the character she discovered to me
+differed in many ways from that which she revealed to Mr. Holly and to
+Leo Vincey, or Kallikrates, whom, it seems, once she slew in her
+jealousy and rage.
+
+She told me as much as she thought it fit that I should know, and no
+more!
+
+Allan Quatermain.
+
+The Grange, Yorkshire.
+
+
+
+
+SHE AND ALLAN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE TALISMAN
+
+
+I believe it was the old Egyptians, a very wise people, probably indeed
+much wiser than we know, for in the leisure of their ample centuries
+they had time to think out things, who declared that each individual
+personality is made up of six or seven different elements, although the
+Bible only allows us three, namely, body, soul, and spirit. The body
+that the man or woman wore, if I understand their theory aright which
+perhaps I, an ignorant person, do not, was but a kind of sack or
+fleshly covering containing these different principles. Or mayhap it
+did not contain them all, but was simply a house as it were, in which
+they lived from time to time and seldom all together, although one or
+more of them was present continually, as though to keep the place
+warmed and aired.
+
+This is but a casual illustrative suggestion, for what right have I,
+Allan Quatermain, out of my little reading and probably erroneous
+deductions, to form any judgment as to the theories of the old
+Egyptians? Still these, as I understand them, suffice to furnish me
+with the text that man is not one, but many, in which connection it may
+be remembered that often in Scripture he is spoken of as being the home
+of many demons, seven, I think. Also, to come to another far-off
+example, the Zulus talk of their witch-doctors as being inhabited by “a
+multitude of spirits.”
+
+Anyhow of one thing I am quite sure, we are not always the same.
+Different personalities actuate us at different times. In one hour
+passion of this sort or the other is our lord; in another we are reason
+itself. In one hour we follow the basest appetites; in another we hate
+them and the spirit arising through our mortal murk shines within or
+above us like a star. In one hour our desire is to kill and spare not;
+in another we are filled with the holiest compassion even towards an
+insect or a snake, and are ready to forgive like a god. Everything
+rules us in turn, to such an extent indeed, that sometimes one begins
+to wonder whether we really rule anything.
+
+Now the reason of all this homily is that I, Allan, the most practical
+and unimaginative of persons, just a homely, half-educated hunter and
+trader who chances to have seen a good deal of the particular little
+world in which his lot was cast, at one period of my life became the
+victim of spiritual longings.
+
+I am a man who has suffered great bereavements in my time such as have
+seared my soul, since, perhaps because of my rather primitive and
+simple nature, my affections are very strong. By day or night I can
+never forget those whom I have loved and whom I believe to have loved
+me.
+
+For you know, in our vanity some of us are apt to hold that certain
+people with whom we have been intimate upon the earth, really did care
+for us and, in our still greater vanity—or should it be called
+madness?—to imagine that they still care for us after they have left
+the earth and entered on some new state of society and surroundings
+which, if they exist, inferentially are much more congenial than any
+they can have experienced here. At times, however, cold doubts strike
+us as to this matter, of which we long to know the truth. Also behind
+looms a still blacker doubt, namely whether they live at all.
+
+For some years of my lonely existence these problems haunted me day by
+day, till at length I desired above everything on earth to lay them at
+rest in one way or another. Once, at Durban, I met a man who was a
+spiritualist to whom I confided a little of my perplexities. He laughed
+at me and said that they could be settled with the greatest ease. All I
+had to do was to visit a certain local medium who for a fee of one
+guinea would tell me everything I wanted to know. Although I rather
+grudged the guinea, being more than usually hard up at the time, I
+called upon this person, but over the results of that visit, or rather
+the lack of them, I draw a veil.
+
+My queer and perhaps unwholesome longing, however, remained with me and
+would not be abated. I consulted a clergyman of my acquaintance, a good
+and spiritually-minded man, but he could only shrug his shoulders and
+refer me to the Bible, saying, quite rightly I doubt not, that with
+what it reveals I ought to be contented. Then I read certain mystical
+books which were recommended to me. These were full of fine words,
+undiscoverable in a pocket dictionary, but really took me no forwarder,
+since in them I found nothing that I could not have invented myself,
+although while I was actually studying them, they seemed to convince
+me. I even tackled Swedenborg, or rather samples of him, for he is very
+copious, but without satisfactory results. [Ha!—JB]
+
+Then I gave up the business.
+
+Some months later I was in Zululand and being near the Black Kloof
+where he dwelt, I paid a visit to my acquaintance of whom I have
+written elsewhere, the wonderful and ancient dwarf, Zikali, known as
+“The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born,” also more universally
+among the Zulus as “Opener-of-Roads.” When we had talked of many things
+connected with the state of Zululand and its politics, I rose to leave
+for my waggon, since I never cared for sleeping in the Black Kloof if
+it could be avoided.
+
+“Is there nothing else that you want to ask me, Macumazahn?” asked the
+old dwarf, tossing back his long hair and looking at—I had almost
+written through—me.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+“That is strange, Macumazahn, for I seem to see something written on
+your mind—something to do with spirits.”
+
+Then I remembered all the problems that had been troubling me, although
+in truth I had never thought of propounding them to Zikali.
+
+“Ah! it comes back, does it?” he exclaimed, reading my thought. “Out
+with it, then, Macumazahn, while I am in a mood to answer, and before I
+grow tired, for you are an old friend of mine and will so remain till
+the end, many years hence, and if I can serve you, I will.”
+
+I filled my pipe and sat down again upon the stool of carved red-wood
+which had been brought for me.
+
+“You are named ‘Opener-of-Roads,’ are you not, Zikali?” I said.
+
+“Yes, the Zulus have always called me that, since before the days of
+Chaka. But what of names, which often enough mean nothing at all?”
+
+“Only that _I_ want to open a road, Zikali, that which runs across the
+River of Death.”
+
+“Oho!” he laughed, “it is very easy,” and snatching up a little assegai
+that lay beside him, he proffered it to me, adding, “Be brave now and
+fall on that. Then before I have counted sixty the road will be wide
+open, but whether you will see anything on it I cannot tell you.”
+
+Again I shook my head and answered,
+
+“It is against our law. Also while I still live I desire to know
+whether I shall meet certain others on that road after my time has come
+to cross the River. Perhaps you who deal with spirits, can prove the
+matter to me, which no one else seems able to do.”
+
+“Oho!” laughed Zikali again. “What do my ears hear? Am I, the poor Zulu
+cheat, as you will remember once you called me, Macumazahn, asked to
+show that which is hidden from all the wisdom of the great White
+People?”
+
+“The question is,” I answered with irritation, “not what you are asked
+to do, but what you can do.”
+
+“That I do not know yet, Macumazahn. Whose spirits do you desire to
+see? If that of a woman called Mameena is one of them, I think that
+perhaps I whom she loved——“[1]
+
+ [1] For the history of Mameena see the book called “Child of
+ Storm.”—Editor.
+
+“She is _not_ one of them, Zikali. Moreover, if she loved you, you paid
+back her love with death.”
+
+“Which perhaps was the kindest thing I could do, Macumazahn, for
+reasons that you may be able to guess, and others with which I will not
+trouble you. But if not hers, whose? Let me look, let me look! Why,
+there seems to be two of them, head-wives, I mean, and I thought that
+white men only took one wife. Also a multitude of others; their faces
+float up in the water of your mind. An old man with grey hair, little
+children, perhaps they were brothers and sisters, and some who may be
+friends. Also very clear indeed that Mameena whom you do not wish to
+see. Well, Macumazahn, this is unfortunate, since she is the only one
+whom I can show you, or rather put you in the way of finding. Unless
+indeed there are other Kaffir women——”
+
+“What do you mean?” I asked.
+
+“I mean, Macumazahn, that only black feet travel on the road which I
+can open; over those in which ran white blood I have no power.”
+
+“Then it is finished,” I said, rising again and taking a step or two
+towards the gate.
+
+“Come back and sit down, Macumazahn. I did not say so. Am I the only
+ruler of magic in Africa, which I am told is a big country?”
+
+I came back and sat down, for my curiosity, a great failing with me,
+was excited.
+
+“Thank you, Zikali,” I said, “but I will have no dealings with more of
+your witch-doctors.”
+
+“No, no, because you are afraid of them; quite without reason,
+Macumazahn, seeing that they are all cheats except myself. I am the
+last child of wisdom, the rest are stuffed with lies, as Chaka found
+out when he killed every one of them whom he could catch. But perhaps
+there might be a white doctor who would have rule over white spirits.”
+
+“If you mean missionaries——” I began hastily.
+
+“No, Macumazahn, I do not mean your praying men who are cast in one
+mould and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say,
+not thinking for themselves.”
+
+“Some of them think, Zikali.”
+
+“Yes, and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest
+is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings,
+and speaks through a mask carved by his father’s fathers. I am a priest
+like that, which is why all my fellowship have hated me.”
+
+“If so, you have paid back their hate, Zikali, but cease to cast round
+the lion, like a timid hound, and tell me what you mean. Of whom do you
+speak?”
+
+“That is the trouble, Macumazahn. I do not know. This lion, or rather
+lioness, lies hid in the caves of a very distant mountain and I have
+never seen her—in the flesh.”
+
+“Then how can you talk of what you have never seen?”
+
+“In the same way, Macumazahn, that your priests talk of what they have
+never seen, because they, or a few of them, have knowledge of it. I
+will tell you a secret. All seers who live at the same time, if they
+are great, commune with each other because they are akin and their
+spirits meet in sleep or dreams. Therefore I know of a mistress of our
+craft, a very lioness among jackals, who for thousands of years has
+lain sleeping in the northern caves and, humble though I am, she knows
+of me.”
+
+“Quite so,” I said, yawning, “but perhaps, Zikali, you will come to the
+point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she exists
+will she help me?”
+
+“I will answer your question backwards, Macumazahn. I think that she
+will help you if you help her, in what way I do not know, because
+although witch-doctors sometimes work without pay, as I am doing now,
+Macumazahn, witch-doctoresses never do. As for her name, the only one
+that she has among our company is ‘Queen,’ because she is the first of
+all of them and the most beauteous among women. For the rest I can tell
+you nothing, except that she has always been and I suppose, in this
+shape or in that, will always be while the world lasts, because she has
+found the secret of life unending.”
+
+“You mean that she is immortal, Zikali,” I answered with a smile.
+
+“I do not say that, Macumazahn, because my little mind cannot shape the
+thought of immortality. But when I was a babe, which is far ago, she
+had lived so long that scarce would she know the difference between
+then and now, and already in her breast was all wisdom gathered. I know
+it, because although, as I have said, we have never seen each other, at
+times we walk together in our sleep, for thus she shares her
+loneliness, and I think, though this may be but a dream, that last
+night she told me to send you on to her to seek an answer to certain
+questions which you would put to me to-day. Also to me she seemed to
+desire that you should do her a service; I know not what service.”
+
+Now I grew angry and asked,
+
+“Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If
+there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called _Queen_ lives
+and how I am to come to her.”
+
+The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me
+and with its blade raked out ashes from the fire that always burnt in
+front of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a
+random fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white
+man whom he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also
+of other matters, none of which interested me much at the time. These
+ashes he patted down flat and then on them drew a map with the point of
+his spear, making grooves for streams, certain marks for bush and
+forest, wavy lines for water and swamps and little heaps for hills.
+
+When he had finished it all he bade me come round the fire and study
+the picture across which by an after-thought he drew a wandering furrow
+with the edge of the assegai to represent a river, and gathered the
+ashes in a lump at the northern end to signify a large mountain.
+
+“Look at it well, Macumazahn,” he said, “and forget nothing, since if
+you make this journey and forget, you die. Nay, no need to copy it in
+that book of yours, for see, I will stamp it on your mind.”
+
+Then suddenly he gathered up the warm ashes in a double handful and
+threw them into my face, muttering something as he did so and adding
+aloud,
+
+“There, now you will remember.”
+
+“Certainly I shall,” I answered, coughing, “and I beg that you will not
+play such a joke upon me again.”
+
+As a matter of fact, whatever may have been the reason, I never forgot
+any detail of that extremely intricate map.
+
+“That big river must be the Zambesi,” I stuttered, “and even then the
+mountain of your Queen, if it be her mountain, is far away, and how can
+I come there alone?”
+
+“I don’t know, Macumazahn, though perhaps you might do so in company.
+At least I believe that in the old days people used to travel to the
+place, since I have heard a great city stood there once which was the
+heart of a mighty empire.”
+
+Now I pricked up my ears, for though I believed nothing of Zikali’s
+story of a wonderful Queen, I was always intensely interested in past
+civilisations and their relics. Also I knew that the old wizard’s
+knowledge was extensive and peculiar, however he came by it, and I did
+not think that he would lie to me in this matter. Indeed to tell the
+truth, then and there I made up my mind that if it were in any way
+possible, I would attempt this journey.
+
+“How did people travel to the city, Zikali?”
+
+“By sea, I suppose, Macumazahn, but I think that you will be wise not
+to try that road, since I believe that on the sea side the marshes are
+now impassable and you will be safer on your feet.”
+
+“You want me to go on this adventure, Zikali. Why? I know you never do
+anything without motive.”
+
+“Oho! Macumazahn, you are clever and see deeper into the trunk of a
+tree than most. Yes, I want you to go for three reasons. First, that
+you may satisfy your soul on certain matters and I would help you to do
+so. Secondly, because I want to satisfy mine, and thirdly, because I
+know that you will come back safe to be a prop to me in things that
+will happen in days unborn. Otherwise I would have told you nothing of
+this story, since it is necessary to me that you should remain living
+beneath the sun.”
+
+“Have done, Zikali. What is it that you desire?”
+
+“Oh! a great deal that I shall get, but chiefly two things, so with the
+rest I will not trouble you. First I desire to know whether these
+dreams of mine of a wonderful white witch-doctoress, or witch, and of
+my converse with her are indeed more than dreams. Next I would learn
+whether certain plots of mine at which I have worked for years, will
+succeed.”
+
+“What plots, Zikali, and how can my taking a distant journey tell you
+anything about them?”
+
+“You know them well enough, Macumazahn; they have to do with the
+overthrow of a Royal House that has worked me bitter wrong. As to how
+your journey can help me, why, thus. You shall promise to me to ask of
+this Queen whether Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, shall triumph or be
+overthrown in that on which he has set his heart.”
+
+“As you seem to know this witch so well, why do you not ask her
+yourself, Zikali?”
+
+“To ask is one thing, Macumazahn. To get an answer is another. I have
+asked in the watches of the night, and the reply was, ‘Come hither and
+perchance I will tell you.’ ‘Queen,’ I said, ‘how can I come save in
+the spirit, who am an ancient and a crippled dwarf scarcely able to
+stand upon my feet?’
+
+“‘Then send a messenger, Wizard, and be sure that he is white, for of
+black savages I have seen more than enough. Let him bear a token also
+that he comes from you and tell me of it in your sleep. Moreover let
+that token be something of power which will protect him on the
+journey.’
+
+“Such is the answer that comes to me in my dreams, Macumazahn.”
+
+“Well, what token will you give me, Zikali?”
+
+He groped about in his robe and produced a piece of ivory of the size
+of a large chessman, that had a hole in it, through which ran a plaited
+cord of the stiff hairs from an elephant’s tail. On this article, which
+was of a rusty brown colour, he breathed, then having whispered to it
+for a while, handed it to me.
+
+I took the talisman, for such I guessed it to be, idly enough, held it
+to the light to examine it, and started back so violently that almost I
+let it fall. I do not quite know why I started, but I think it was
+because some influence seemed to leap from it to me. Zikali started
+also and cried out,
+
+“Have a care, Macumazahn. Am I young that I can bear being dashed to
+the ground?”
+
+“What do you mean?” I asked, still staring at the thing which I
+perceived to be a most wonderfully fashioned likeness of the old dwarf
+himself as he appeared before me crouched upon the ground. There were
+the deepset eyes, the great head, the toad-like shape, the long hair,
+all.
+
+“It is a clever carving, is it not, Macumazahn? I am skilled in that
+art, you know, and therefore can judge of carving.”
+
+“Yes, I know,” I answered, bethinking me of another statuette of his
+which he had given to me on the morrow of the death of her from whom it
+was modelled. “But what of the thing?”
+
+“Macumazahn, it has come down to me through the ages. As you may have
+heard, all great doctors when they die pass on their wisdom and
+something of their knowledge to another doctor of spirits who is still
+living on the earth, that nothing may be lost, or as little as
+possible. Also I have learned that to such likenesses as these may be
+given the strength of him or her from whom they were shaped.”
+
+Now I bethought me of the old Egyptians and their _Ka_ statues of which
+I had read, and that these statues, magically charmed and set in the
+tombs of the departed, were supposed to be inhabited everlastingly by
+the Doubles of the dead endued with more power even than ever these
+possessed in life. But of this I said nothing to Zikali, thinking that
+it would take too much explanation, though I wondered very much how he
+had come by the same idea.
+
+“When that ivory is hung over your heart, Macumazahn, where you must
+always wear it, learn that with it goes the strength of Zikali; the
+thought that would have been his thought and the wisdom that is his
+wisdom, will be your companions, as much as though he walked at your
+side and could instruct you in every peril. Moreover north and south
+and east and west this image is known to men who, when they see it,
+will bow down and obey, opening a road to him who wears the medicine of
+the Opener-of-Roads.”
+
+“Indeed,” I said, smiling, “and what is this colour on the ivory?”
+
+“I forget, Macumazahn, who have had it a great number of years, ever
+since it descended to me from a forefather of mine, who was fashioned
+in the same mould as I am. It looks like blood, does it not? It is a
+pity that Mameena is not still alive, since she whose memory was so
+excellent might have been able to tell you,” and as he spoke, with a
+motion that was at once sure and swift, he threw the loop of elephant
+hair over my head.
+
+Hastily I changed the subject, feeling that after his wont this old
+wizard, the most terrible man whom ever I knew, who had been so much
+concerned with the tragic death of Mameena, was stabbing at me in some
+hidden fashion.
+
+“You tell me to go on this journey,” I said, “and not alone. Yet for
+companion you give me only an ugly piece of ivory shaped as no man ever
+was,” here I got one back at Zikali, “and from the look of it, steeped
+in blood, which ivory, if I had my way, I would throw into the camp
+fire. Who, then, am I to take with me?”
+
+“Don’t do that, Macumazahn—I mean throw the ivory into the fire—since I
+have no wish to burn before my time, and if you do, you who have worn
+it might burn with me. At least certainly you would die with the magic
+thing and go to acquire knowledge more quickly than you desire. No, no,
+and do not try to take it off your neck, or rather try if you will.”
+
+I did try, but something seemed to prevent me from accomplishing my
+purpose of giving the carving back to Zikali as I wished to do. First
+my pipe got in the way of my hand, then the elephant hairs caught in
+the collar of my coat; then a pang of rheumatism to which I was
+accustomed from an old lion-bite, developed of a sudden in my arm, and
+lastly I grew tired of bothering about the thing.
+
+Zikali, who had been watching my movements, burst out into one of his
+terrible laughs that seemed to fill the whole kloof and to re-echo from
+its rocky walls. It died away and he went on, without further reference
+to the talisman or image.
+
+“You asked whom you were to take with you, Macumazahn. Well, as to this
+I must make inquiry of those who know. Man, my medicines!”
+
+From the shadows in the hut behind darted out a tall figure carrying a
+great spear in one hand and in the other a catskin bag which with a
+salute he laid down at the feet of his master. This salute, by the way,
+was that of a Zulu word which means “Lord” or “Home” of Ghosts.
+
+Zikali groped in the bag and produced from it certain knuckle-bones.
+
+“A common method,” he muttered, “such as every vulgar wizard uses, but
+one that is quick and, as the matter concerned is small, will serve my
+turn. Let us see now, whom you shall take with you, Macumazahn.”
+
+Then he breathed upon the bones, shook them up in his thin hands and
+with a quick turn of the wrist, threw them into the air. After this he
+studied them carefully, where they lay among the ashes which he had
+raked out of the fire, those that he had used for the making of his
+map.
+
+“Do you know a man named Umslopogaas, Macumazahn, the chief of a tribe
+that is called The People of the Axe, whose titles of praise are
+Bulalio or the Slaughterer, and Woodpecker, the latter from the way he
+handles his ancient axe? He is a savage fellow, but one of high blood
+and higher courage, a great captain in his way, though he will never
+come to anything, save a glorious death—in your company, I think,
+Macumazahn.” (Here he studied the bones again for a while.) “Yes, I am
+sure, in your company, though not upon this journey.”
+
+“I have heard of him,” I answered cautiously. “It is said in the land
+that he is a son of Chaka, the great king of the Zulus.”
+
+“Is it, Macumazahn? And is it said also that he was the slayer of
+Chaka’s brother, Dingaan, also the lover of the fairest woman that the
+Zulus have ever seen, who was called Nada the Lily? Unless indeed a
+certain Mameena, who, I seem to remember, was a friend of yours, may
+have been even more beautiful?”
+
+“I know nothing of Nada the Lily,” I answered.
+
+“No, no, Mameena, ‘the Waiting Wind,’ has blown over her fame, so why
+should you know of one who has been dead a long while? Why also,
+Macumazahn, do you always bring women into every business? I begin to
+believe that although you are so strict in a white man’s fashion, you
+must be too fond of them, a weakness which makes for ruin to any man.
+Well, now, I think that this wolf-man, this axe-man, this warrior,
+Umslopogaas should be a good fellow to you on your journey to visit the
+white witch, Queen—another woman by the way, Macumazahn, and therefore
+one of whom you should be careful. Oh! yes, he will come with
+you—because of a man called Lousta and a woman named Monazi, a wife of
+his who hates him and does—not hate Lousta. I am almost sure that he
+will come with you, so do not stop to ask questions about him.”
+
+“Is there anyone else?” I inquired.
+
+Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with
+his toe, then replied with a yawn,
+
+“You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake
+who knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to
+lie hidden. I should take him too, if I were you.”
+
+“You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans,
+clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my
+father before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there
+to be any others?”
+
+“No, I think you three will be enough, with a guard of soldiers from
+the People of the Axe, for you will meet with fighting and a ghost or
+two. Umslopogaas has always one at his elbow named Nada, and perhaps
+you have several. For instance, there was a certain Mameena whom I
+always seem to feel about me when you are near, Macumazahn.
+
+“Why, the wind is rising again, which is odd on so still an evening.
+Listen to how it wails, yes, and stirs your hair, though mine hangs
+straight enough. But why do I talk of ghosts, seeing that you travel to
+seek other ghosts, white ghosts, beyond my ken, who can only deal with
+those who were black?
+
+“Good-night, Macumazahn, good-night. When you return from visiting the
+white Queen, that Great One beneath whose feet I, Zikali, who am also
+great in my way, am but a grain of dust, come and tell me her answer to
+my question.
+
+“Meanwhile, be careful always to wear that pretty little image which I
+have given you, as a young lover sometimes wears a lock of hair cut
+from the head of some fool-girl that he thinks is fond of him. It will
+bring you safety and luck, Macumazahn, which, for the most part, is
+more than the lock of hair does to the lover. Oh! it is a strange
+world, full of jest to those who can see the strings that work it. I am
+one of them, and perhaps, Macumazahn, you are another, or will be
+before all is done—or begun.
+
+“Good-night, and good fortune to you on your journeyings, and,
+Macumazahn, although you are so fond of women, be careful not to fall
+in love with that white Queen, because it would make others jealous; I
+mean some whom you have lost sight of for a while, also I think that
+being under a curse of her own, she is not one whom you can put into
+your sack. _Oho! Oho-ho!_ Slave, bring me my blanket, it grows cold,
+and my medicine also, that which protects me from the ghosts, who are
+thick to-night. Macumazahn brings them, I think. _Oho-ho!_”
+
+I turned to depart but when I had gone a little way Zikali called me
+back again and said, speaking very low,
+
+“When you meet this Umslopogaas, as you will meet him, he who is called
+the Woodpecker and the Slaughterer, say these words to him,
+
+“‘A bat has been twittering round the hut of the Opener-of-Roads, and
+to his ears it squeaked the name of a certain Lousta and the name of a
+woman called Monazi. Also it twittered another greater name that may
+not be uttered, that of an elephant who shakes the earth, and said that
+this elephant sniffs the air with his trunk and grows angry, and
+sharpens his tusks to dig a certain Woodpecker out of his hole in a
+tree that grows near the Witch Mountain. Say, too, that the
+Opener-of-Roads thinks that this Woodpecker would be wise to fly north
+for a while in the company of one who watches by night, lest harm
+should come to a bird that pecks at the feet of the great and chatters
+of it in his nest.’”
+
+Then Zikali waved his hand and I went, wondering into what plot I had
+stumbled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE MESSENGERS
+
+
+I did not rest as I should that night who somehow was never able to
+sleep well in the neighbourhood of the Black Kloof. I suppose that
+Zikali’s constant talk about ghosts, with his hints and innuendoes
+concerning those who were dead, always affected my nerves till, in a
+subconscious way, I began to believe that such things existed and were
+hanging about me. Many people are open to the power of suggestion, and
+I am afraid that I am one of them.
+
+However, the sun which has such strength to kill noxious things, puts
+an end to ghosts more quickly even than it does to other evil vapours
+and emanations, and when I woke up to find it shining brilliantly in a
+pure heaven, I laughed with much heartiness over the whole affair.
+
+Going to the spring near which we were outspanned, I took off my shirt
+to have a good wash, still chuckling at the memory of all the
+hocus-pocus of my old friend, the Opener-of-Roads.
+
+While engaged in this matutinal operation I struck my hand against
+something and looking, observed that it was the hideous little ivory
+image of Zikali, which he had set about my neck. The sight of the thing
+and the memory of his ridiculous talk about it, especially of its
+assertion that it had come down to him through the ages, which it could
+not have done, seeing that it was a likeness of himself, irritated me
+so much that I proceeded to take it off with the full intention of
+throwing it into the spring.
+
+As I was in the act of doing this, from a clump of reeds mixed with
+bushes, quite close to me, there came a sound of hissing, and suddenly
+above them appeared the head of a great black _immamba_, perhaps the
+deadliest of all our African snakes, and the only one I know which will
+attack man without provocation.
+
+Leaving go of the image, I sprang back in a great hurry towards where
+my gun lay. Then the snake vanished and making sure that it had
+departed to its hole, which was probably at a distance, I returned to
+the pool, and once more began to take off the talisman in order to
+consign it to the bottom of the pool.
+
+After all, I reflected, it was a hideous and probably a blood-stained
+thing which I did not in the least wish to wear about my neck like a
+lady’s love-token.
+
+Just as it was coming over my head, suddenly from the other side of the
+bush that infernal snake popped up again, this time, it was clear,
+really intent on business. It began to move towards me in the
+lightning-like way _immambas_ have, hissing and flicking its tongue.
+
+I was too quick for my friend, however, for snatching up the gun that I
+had lain down beside me, I let it have a charge of buckshot in the neck
+which nearly cut it in two, so that it fell down and expired with
+hideous convulsive writhings.
+
+Hearing the shot Hans came running from the waggon to see what was the
+matter. Hans, I should say, was that same Hottentot who had been the
+companion of most of my journeyings since my father’s day. He was with
+me when as a young fellow I accompanied Retief to Dingaan’s kraal, and
+like myself, escaped the massacre.[1] Also we shared many other
+adventures, including the great one in the Land of the Ivory Child
+where he slew the huge elephant-god, Jana, and himself was slain. But
+of this journey we did not dream in those days.
+
+ [1] See the book called “Marie.”—Editor.
+
+For the rest Hans was a most entirely unprincipled person, but as the
+Boers say, “as clever as a waggonload of monkeys.” Also he drank when
+he got the chance. One good quality he had, however; no man was ever
+more faithful, and perhaps it would be true to say that neither man nor
+woman ever loved me, unworthy, quite so well.
+
+In appearance he rather resembled an antique and dilapidated baboon;
+his face was wrinkled like a dried nut and his quick little eyes were
+bloodshot. I never knew what his age was, any more than he did himself,
+but the years had left him tough as whipcord and absolutely untiring.
+Lastly he was perhaps the best hand at following a spoor that ever I
+knew and up to a hundred and fifty yards or so, a very deadly shot with
+a rifle especially when he used a little single-barrelled,
+muzzle-loading gun of mine made by Purdey which he named _Intombi_ or
+Maiden. Of that gun, however, I have written in “The Holy Flower” and
+elsewhere.
+
+“What is it, Baas?” he asked. “Here there are no lions, nor any game.”
+
+“Look the other side of the bush, Hans.”
+
+He slipped round it, making a wide circle with his usual caution, then,
+seeing the snake which was, by the way, I think, the biggest _immamba_
+I ever killed, suddenly froze, as it were, in a stiff attitude that
+reminded me of a pointer when it scents game. Having made sure that it
+was dead, he nodded and said,
+
+“Black _‘mamba_, or so you would call it, though I know it for
+something else.”
+
+“What else, Hans?”
+
+“One of the old witch-doctor Zikali’s spirits which he sets at the
+mouth of this kloof to warn him of who comes or goes. I know it well,
+and so do others. I saw it listening behind a stone when you were up
+the kloof last evening talking with the Opener-of-Roads.”
+
+“Then Zikali will lack a spirit,” I answered, laughing, “which perhaps
+he will not miss amongst so many. It serves him right for setting the
+brute on me.”
+
+“Quite so, Baas. He will be angry. I wonder why he did it?” he added
+suspiciously, “seeing that he is such a friend of yours.”
+
+“He didn’t do it, Hans. These snakes are very fierce and give battle,
+that is all.”
+
+Hans paid no attention to my remark, which probably he thought only
+worthy of a white man who does not understand, but rolled his yellow,
+bloodshot eyes about, as though in search of explanations. Presently
+they fell upon the ivory that hung about my neck, and he started.
+
+“Why do you wear that pretty likeness of the Great One yonder over your
+heart, as I have known you do with things that belonged to women in
+past days, Baas? Do you know that it is Zikali’s Great Medicine,
+nothing less, as everyone does throughout the land? When Zikali sends
+an order far away, he always sends that image with it, for then he who
+receives the order knows that he must obey or die. Also the messenger
+knows that he will come to no harm if he does not take it off, because,
+Baas, the image is Zikali himself, and Zikali is the image. They are
+one and the same. Also it is the image of his father’s father’s
+father—or so he says.”
+
+“That is an odd story,” I said.
+
+Then I told Hans as much as I thought advisable of how this horrid
+little talisman came into my possession.
+
+Hans nodded without showing any surprise.
+
+“So we are going on a long journey,” he said. “Well, I thought it was
+time that we did something more than wander about these tame countries
+selling blankets to stinking old women and so forth, Baas. Moreover,
+Zikali does not wish that you should come to harm, doubtless because he
+does wish to make use of you afterwards—oh! it’s safe to talk now when
+that spirit is away looking for another snake. What were you doing with
+the Great Medicine, Baas, when the _‘mamba_ attacked you?”
+
+“Taking it off to throw it into the pool, Hans, as I do not like the
+thing. I tried twice and each time the _immamba_ appeared.”
+
+“Of course it appeared, Baas, and what is more, if you had taken that
+Medicine off and thrown it away _you_ would have disappeared, since the
+_‘mamba_ would have killed you. Zikali wanted to show you that, Baas,
+and that is why he set the snake at you.”
+
+“You are a superstitious old fool, Hans.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, but my father knew all about that Great Medicine before me,
+for he was a bit of a doctor, and so does every wizard and witch for a
+thousand miles or more. I tell you, Baas, it is known by all though no
+one ever talks about it, no, not even the king himself. Baas, speaking
+to you, not with the voice of Hans the old drunkard, but with that of
+the Predikant, your reverend father, who made so good a Christian of me
+and who tells me to do so from up in Heaven where the hot fires are
+which the wood feeds of itself, I beg you not to try to throw away the
+Medicine again, or if you wish to do so, to leave me behind on this
+journey. For you see, Baas, although I am now so good, almost like one
+of those angels with the pretty goose’s wings in the pictures, I feel
+that I should like to grow a little better before I go to the Place of
+Fires to make report to your reverend father, the Predikant.”
+
+Thinking of how horrified my dear father would be if he could hear all
+this string of ridiculous nonsense and learn the result of his moral
+and religious lessons on raw Hottentot material, I burst out laughing.
+But Hans went on as gravely as a judge,
+
+“Wear the Great Medicine, Baas, wear it; part with the liver inside you
+before you part with that, Baas. It may not be as pretty or smell as
+sweet as a woman’s hair in a little gold bottle, but it is much more
+useful. The sight of the woman’s hair will only make you sick in your
+stomach and cause you to remember a lot of things which you had much
+better forget, but the Great Medicine, or rather Zikali who is in it,
+will keep the assegais and sickness out of you and turn back bad magic
+on to the heads of those who sent it, and always bring us plenty to eat
+and perhaps, if we are lucky, a little to drink too sometimes.”
+
+“Go away,” I said, “I want to wash.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, but with the Baas’s leave I will sit on the other side of
+that bush with the gun—not to look at the Baas without his clothes,
+because white people are always so ugly that it makes me feel ill to
+see them undressed, also because—the Baas will forgive me—but because
+they smell. No, not for that, but just to see that no other snake
+comes.”
+
+“Get out of the road, you dirty little scoundrel, and stop your
+impudence,” I said, lifting my foot suggestively.
+
+Thereon he scooted with a subdued grin round the other side of the
+bush, whence as I knew well he kept his eye fixed on me to be sure that
+I made no further attempt to take off the Great Medicine.
+
+Now of this talisman I may as well say at once that I am no believer in
+it or its precious influences. Therefore, although it was useful
+sometimes, notably twice when Umslopogaas was concerned, I do not know
+whether personally I should have done better or worse upon that journey
+if I had thrown it into the pool.
+
+It is true, however, that until quite the end of this history when it
+became needful to do so to save another, I never made any further
+attempt to remove it from my neck, not even when it rubbed a sore in my
+skin, because I did not wish to offend the prejudices of Hans.
+
+It is true, moreover, that this hideous ivory had a reputation which
+stretched very far from the place where it was made and was regarded
+with great reverence by all kinds of queer people, even by the
+Amahagger themselves, of whom presently, as they say in pedigrees, a
+fact of which I found sundry proofs. Indeed, I saw a first example of
+it when a little while later I met that great warrior, Umslopogaas,
+Chief of the People of the Axe.
+
+For, after determining firmly, for reasons which I will set out, that I
+would not visit this man, in the end I did so, although by then I had
+given up any idea of journeying across the Zambesi to look for a
+mysterious and non-existent witch-woman, as Zikali had suggested that I
+should do. To begin with I knew that his talk was all rubbish and, even
+if it were not, that at the bottom of it was some desire of the
+Opener-of-Roads that I should make a path for him to travel towards an
+indefinite but doubtless evil object of his own. Further, by this time
+I had worn through that mood of mine which had caused me to yearn for
+correspondence with the departed and a certain knowledge of their
+existence.
+
+I wonder whether many people understand, as I do, how entirely distinct
+and how variable are these moods which sway us, or at any rate some of
+us, at sundry periods of our lives. As I think I have already
+suggested, at one time we are all spiritual; at another all physical;
+at one time we are sure that our lives here are as a dream and a shadow
+and that the real existence lies elsewhere; at another that these brief
+days of ours are the only business with which we have to do and that of
+it we must make the best. At one time we think our loves much more
+immortal than the stars; at another that they are mere shadows cast by
+the baleful sun of desire upon the shallow and fleeting water we call
+Life which seems to flow out of nowhere into nowhere. At one time we
+are full of faith, at another all such hopes are blotted out by a black
+wall of Nothingness, and so on _ad infinitum_. Only very stupid people,
+or humbugs, are or pretend to be, always consistent and unchanging.
+
+To return, I determined not only that I would not travel north to seek
+that which no living man will ever find, certainty as to the future,
+but also, to show my independence of Zikali, that I would not visit
+this chief, Umslopogaas. So, having traded all my goods and made a fair
+profit (on paper), I set myself to return to Natal, proposing to rest
+awhile in my little house at Durban, and told Hans my mind.
+
+“Very good, Baas,” he said. “I, too, should like to go to Durban. There
+are lots of things there that we cannot get here,” and he fixed his
+roving eye upon a square-faced gin bottle, which as it happened was
+filled with nothing stronger than water, because all the gin was drunk.
+“Yet, Baas, we shall not see the Berea for a long while.”
+
+“Why do you say that?” I asked sharply.
+
+“Oh! Baas, I don’t know, but you went to visit the Opener-of-Roads, did
+you not, and he told you to go north and lent you a certain Great
+Medicine, did he not?”
+
+Here Hans proceeded to light his corncob pipe with an ash from the
+fire, all the time keeping his beady eyes fixed upon that part of me
+where he knew the talisman was hung.
+
+“Quite true, Hans, but now I mean to show Zikali that I am not his
+messenger, for south or north or east or west. So to-morrow morning we
+cross the river and trek for Natal.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, but then why not cross it this evening? There is still
+light.”
+
+“I have said that we will cross it to-morrow morning,” I answered with
+that firmness which I have read always indicates a man of character,
+“and I do not change my word.”
+
+“No, Baas, but sometimes other things change besides words. Will the
+Baas have that buck’s leg for supper, or the stuff out of a tin with a
+dint in it, which we bought at a store two years ago? The flies have
+got at the buck’s leg, but I cut out the bits with the maggots on it
+and ate them myself.”
+
+Hans was right, things do change, especially the weather. That night,
+unexpectedly, for when I turned in the sky seemed quite serene, there
+came a terrible rain long before it was due, which lasted off and on
+for three whole days and continued intermittently for an indefinite
+period. Needless to say the river, which it would have been so easy to
+cross on this particular evening, by the morning was a raging torrent,
+and so remained for several weeks.
+
+In despair at length I trekked south to where a ford was reported,
+which, when reached, proved impracticable.
+
+I tried another, a dozen miles further on, which was very hard to come
+to over boggy land. It looked all right and we were getting across
+finely, when suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and
+there we stuck. Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would have
+remained in the neighbourhood of that ford to this day, had I not
+managed to borrow some extra oxen belonging to a Christian Kaffir, and
+with their help to drag it back to the bank whence we had started.
+
+As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storm which had
+burst further up the river, brought it down in flood again, a very
+heavy flood.
+
+In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere
+and no one seems to appreciate them. If they think of them at all it is
+to grumble about the cost of their upkeep. I wish they could have
+experienced what a lack of them means in a wild country during times of
+excessive rain, and the same remark applied to roads. You should think
+more of your blessings, my friends, as the old woman said to her
+complaining daughter who had twins two years running, adding that they
+might have been triplets.
+
+To return—after this I confessed myself beaten and gave up until such
+time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap. Trekking
+out of sight of that infernal river which annoyed me with its constant
+gurgling, I camped on a comparatively dry spot that overlooked a
+beautiful stretch of rolling veld. Towards sunset the clouds lifted and
+I saw a mile or two away a most extraordinary mountain on the lower
+slopes of which grew a dense forest. Its upper part, which was of bare
+rock, looked exactly like the seated figure of a grotesque person with
+the chin resting on the breast. There was the head, there were the
+arms, there were the knees. Indeed, the whole mass of it reminded me
+strongly of the effigy of Zikali which was tied about my neck, or
+rather of Zikali himself.
+
+“What is that called?” I said to Hans, pointing to this strange hill,
+now blazing in the angry fire of the setting sun that had burst out
+between the storm clouds, which made it appear more ominous even than
+before.
+
+“That is the Witch Mountain, Baas, where the Chief Umslopogaas and a
+blood brother of his who carried a great club used to hunt with the
+wolves. It is haunted and in a cave at the top of it lie the bones of
+Nada the Lily, the fair woman whose name is a song, she who was the
+love of Umslopogaas.”[2]
+
+ [2] For the story of Umslopogaas and Nada see the book called “Nada
+ the Lily.”—Editor.
+
+“Rubbish,” I said, though I had heard something of all that story and
+remembered that Zikali had mentioned this Nada, comparing her beauty to
+that of another whom once I knew.
+
+“Where then lives the Chief Umslopogaas?”
+
+“They say that his town is yonder on the plain, Baas. It is called the
+Place of the Axe and is strongly fortified with a river round most of
+it, and his people are the People of the Axe. They are a fierce people,
+and all the country round here is uninhabited because Umslopogaas has
+cleaned out the tribes who used to live in it, first with his wolves
+and afterwards in war. He is so strong a chief and so terrible in
+battle that even Chaka himself was afraid of him, and they say that he
+brought Dingaan the King to his end because of a quarrel about this
+Nada. Cetywayo, the present king, too leaves him alone and to him he
+pays no tribute.”
+
+Whilst I was about to ask Hans from whom he had collected all this
+information, suddenly I heard sounds, and looking up, saw three tall
+men clad in full herald’s dress rushing towards us at great speed.
+
+“Here come some chips from the Axe,” said Hans, and promptly bolted
+into the waggon.
+
+I did not bolt because there was no time to do so without loss of
+dignity, but, although I wished I had my rifle with me, just sat still
+upon my stool and with great deliberation lighted my pipe, taking not
+the slightest notice of the three savage-looking fellows.
+
+These, who I noted carried axes instead of assegais, rushed straight at
+me with the axes raised in such a fashion that anyone unacquainted with
+the habits of Zulu warriors of the old school, might have thought that
+they intended nothing short of murder.
+
+As I expected, however, within about six feet of me they halted
+suddenly and stood there still as statues. For my part I went on
+lighting my pipe as though I did not see them and when at length I was
+obliged to lift my head, surveyed them with an air of mild interest.
+
+Then I took a little book out of my pocket, it was my favourite copy of
+the Ingoldsby Legends—and began to read.
+
+The passage which caught my eye, if “axe” be substituted for “knife”
+was not inappropriate. It was from “The Nurse’s Story,” and runs,
+
+“But, oh! what a thing ‘tis to see and to know
+That the bare knife is raised in the hand of the foe,
+Without hope to repel or to ward off the blow!”
+
+This proceeding of mine astonished them a good deal who felt that they
+had, so to speak, missed fire. At last the soldier in the middle said,
+
+“Are you blind, White Man?”
+
+“No, Black Fellow,” I answered, “but I am short-sighted. Would you be
+so good as to stand out of my light?” a remark which puzzled them so
+much that all three drew back a few paces.
+
+When I had read a little further I came to the following lines,
+
+“‘Tis plain,
+As anatomists tell us, that never again,
+Shall life revisit the foully slain
+When once they’ve been cut through the jugular vein.”
+
+In my circumstances at that moment this statement seemed altogether too
+suggestive, so I shut up the book and remarked,
+
+“If you are wanderers who want food, as I judge by your being so thin,
+I am sorry that I have little meat, but my servants will give you what
+they can.”
+
+“_Ow!_” said the spokesman, “he calls us wanderers! Either he must be a
+very great man or he is mad.”
+
+“You are right. I _am_ a great man,” I answered, yawning, “and if you
+trouble me too much you will see that I can be mad also. Now what do
+you want?”
+
+“We are messengers from the great Chief Umslopogaas, Captain of the
+People of the Axe, and we want tribute,” answered the man in a somewhat
+changed tone.
+
+“Do you? Then you won’t get it. I thought that only the King of
+Zululand had a right to tribute, and your Captain’s name is not
+Cetywayo, is it?”
+
+“Our Captain is King here,” said the man still more uncertainly.
+
+“Is he indeed? Then away with you back to him and tell this King of
+whom I have never heard, though I have a message for a certain
+Umslopogaas, that Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, intends to visit him
+to-morrow, if he will send a guide at the first light to show the best
+path for the waggon.”
+
+“Hearken,” said the man to his companions, “this is Macumazahn himself
+and no other. Well, we thought it, for who else would have dared——”
+
+Then they saluted with their axes, calling me “Chief” and other fine
+names, and departed as they had come, at a run, calling out that my
+message should be delivered and that doubtless Umslopogaas would send
+the guide.
+
+So it came about that, quite contrary to my intention, after all
+circumstances brought me to the Town of the Axe. Even to the last
+moment I had not meant to go there, but when the tribute was demanded I
+saw that it was best to do so, and having once passed my word it could
+not be altered. Indeed, I felt sure that in this event there would be
+trouble and that my oxen would be stolen, or worse.
+
+So Fate having issued its decree, of which Hans’s version was that
+Zikali, or his Great Medicine, had so arranged things, I shrugged my
+shoulders and waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE
+
+
+Next morning at the dawn guides arrived from the Town of the Axe,
+bringing with them a yoke of spare oxen, which showed that its Chief
+was really anxious to see me. So, in due course we inspanned and
+started, the guides leading us by a rough but practicable road down the
+steep hillside to the saucer-like plain beneath, where I saw many
+cattle grazing. Travelling some miles across this plain, we came at
+last to a river of no great breadth that encircled a considerable
+Kaffir town on three sides, the fourth being protected by a little line
+of koppies which were joined together with walls. Also the place was
+strongly fortified with fences and in every other way known to the
+native mind.
+
+With the help of the spare oxen we crossed the river safely at the
+ford, although it was very full, and on the further side were received
+by a guard of men, tall, soldierlike fellows, all of them armed with
+axes as the messengers had been. They led us up to the cattle enclosure
+in the centre of the town, which although it could be used to protect
+beasts in case of emergency, also served the practical purpose of a
+public square.
+
+Here some ceremony was in progress, for soldiers stood round the kraal
+while heralds pranced and shouted. At the head of the place in front of
+the chief’s big hut was a little group of people, among whom a big,
+gaunt man sat upon a stool clad in a warrior’s dress with a great and
+very long axe hafted with wire-lashed rhinoceros horn, laid across his
+knees.
+
+Our guides led me, with Hans sneaking after me like a dejected and
+low-bred dog (for the waggon had stopped outside the gate), across the
+kraal to where the heralds shouted and the big man sat yawning. At once
+I noted that he was a very remarkable person, broad and tall and spare
+of frame, with long, tough-looking arms and a fierce face which
+reminded me of that of the late King Dingaan. Also he had a great hole
+in his head above the temple where the skull had been driven in by some
+blow, and keen, royal-looking eyes.
+
+He looked up and seeing me, cried out,
+
+“What! Has a white man come to fight me for the chieftainship of the
+People of the Axe? Well, he is a small one.”
+
+“No,” I answered quietly, “but Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, has come
+to visit you in answer to your request, O Umslopogaas; Macumazahn whose
+name was known in this land before yours was told of, O Umslopogaas.”
+
+The Chief heard and rising from his seat, lifted the big axe in salute.
+
+“I greet you, O Macumazahn,” he said, “who although you are small in
+stature, are very great indeed in fame. Have I not heard how you
+conquered Bangu, although Saduko slew him, and of how you gave up the
+six hundred head of cattle to Tshoza and the men of the Amangwane who
+fought with you, the cattle that were your own? Have I not heard how
+you led the Tulwana against the Usutu and stamped flat three of
+Cetywayo’s regiments in the days of Panda, although, alas! because of
+an oath of mine I lifted no steel in that battle, I who will have
+nothing to do with those that spring from the blood of
+Senzangacona—perhaps because I smell too strongly of it, Macumazahn.
+Oh! yes, I have heard these and many other things concerning you,
+though until now it has never been my fortune to look upon your face, O
+Watcher-by-Night, and therefore I greet you well, Bold one, Cunning
+one, Upright one, Friend of us Black People.”
+
+“Thank you,” I answered, “but you said something about fighting. If
+there is to be anything of the sort, let us get it over. If you want to
+fight, I am quite ready,” and I tapped the rifle which I carried.
+
+The grim Chief broke into a laugh and said,
+
+“Listen. By an ancient law any man on this day in each year may fight
+me for this Chieftainship, as I fought and conquered him who held it
+before me, and take it from me with my life and the axe, though of late
+none seems to like the business. But that law was made before there
+were guns, or men like Macumazahn who, it is said, can hit a lizard on
+a wall at fifty paces. Therefore I tell you that if you wish to fight
+me with a rifle, O Macumazahn, I give in and you may have the
+chieftainship,” and he laughed again in his fierce fashion.
+
+“I think it is too hot for fighting either with guns or axes, and
+Chieftainships are honey that is full of stinging bees,” I answered.
+
+Then I took my seat on a stool that had been brought for me and placed
+by the side of Umslopogaas, after which the ceremony went on.
+
+The heralds cried out the challenge to all and sundry to come and fight
+the Holder of the Axe for the chieftainship of the Axe without the
+slightest result, since nobody seemed to desire to do anything of the
+sort. Then, after a pause, Umslopogaas rose, swinging his formidable
+weapon round his head and declared that by right of conquest he was
+Chief of the Tribe for the ensuing year, an announcement that everybody
+accepted without surprise.
+
+Again the heralds summoned all and sundry who had grievances, to come
+forward and to state them and receive redress.
+
+After a little pause there appeared a very handsome woman with large
+eyes, particularly brilliant eyes that rolled as though they were in
+search of someone. She was finely dressed and I saw by the ornaments
+she wore that she held the rank of a chief’s wife.
+
+“I, Monazi, have a complaint to make,” she said, “as it is the right of
+the humblest to do on this day. In succession to Zinita whom Dingaan
+slew with her children, I am your _Inkosikaas_, your head-wife, O
+Umslopogaas.”
+
+“That I know well enough,” said Umslopogaas, “what of it?”
+
+“This, that you neglect me for other women, as you neglected Zinita for
+Nada the Beautiful, Nada the witch. I am childless, as are all your
+wives because of the curse that this Nada left behind her. I demand
+that this curse should be lifted from me. For your sake I abandoned
+Lousta the Chief, to whom I was betrothed, and this is the end of it,
+that I am neglected and childless.”
+
+“Am I the Heavens Above that I can cause you to bear children, woman?”
+asked Umslopogaas angrily. “Would that you had clung to Lousta, my
+blood-brother and my friend, whom you lament, and left me alone.”
+
+“That still may chance, if I am not better treated,” answered Monazi
+with a flash of her eyes. “Will you dismiss yonder new wife of yours
+and give me back my place, and will you lift the curse of Nada off me,
+or will you not?”
+
+“As to the first,” answered Umslopogaas, “learn, Monazi, that I will
+not dismiss my new wife, who at least is gentler-tongued and
+truer-hearted than you are. As to the second, you ask that which it is
+not in my power to give, since children are the gift of Heaven, and
+barrenness is its bane. Moreover, you have done ill to bring into this
+matter the name of one who is dead, who of all women was the sweetest
+and most innocent. Lastly, I warn you before the people to cease from
+your plottings or traffic with Lousta, lest ill come of them to you, or
+him, even though he be my blood-brother, or to both.”
+
+“Plottings!” cried Monazi in a shrill and furious voice. “Does
+Umslopogaas talk of plottings? Well, I have heard that Chaka the Lion
+left a son, and that this son has set a trap for the feet of him who
+sits on Chaka’s throne. Perchance that king has heard it also;
+perchance the People of the Axe will soon have another Chief.”
+
+“Is it thus?” said Umslopogaas quietly. “And if so, will he be named
+Lousta?”
+
+Then his smouldering wrath broke out and in a kind of roaring voice he
+went on,
+
+“What have I done that the wives of my bosom should be my betrayers,
+those who would give me to death? Zinita betrayed me to Dingaan and in
+reward was slain, and my children with her. Now would you, Monazi,
+betray me to Cetywayo—though in truth there is naught to betray? Well,
+if so, bethink you and let Lousta bethink him of what chanced to
+Zinita, and of what chances to those who stand before the axe of
+Umslopogaas. What have I done, I say, that women should thus strive to
+work me ill?”
+
+“This,” answered Monazi with a mocking laugh, “that you have loved one
+of them too well. If he would live in peace, he who has wives should
+favour all alike. Least of anything should he moan continually over one
+who is dead, a witch who has left a curse behind her and thus insulted
+and do wrong to the living. Also he would be wise to attend to the
+matters of his own tribe and household and to cease from ambitions that
+may bring him to the assegai, and them with him.”
+
+“I have heard your counsel, Wife, so now begone!” said Umslopogaas,
+looking at her very strangely, and it seemed to me not without fear.
+
+“Have you wives, Macumazahn?” he asked of me in a low voice when she
+was out of hearing.
+
+“Only among the spirits,” I answered.
+
+“Well for you then; moreover, it is a bond between us, for I too have
+but one true wife and she also is among the spirits. But go rest a
+while, and later we will talk.”
+
+So I went, leaving the Chief to his business, thinking as I walked away
+of a certain message with which I was charged for him and of how into
+that message came names that I had just heard, namely that of a man
+called Lousta and of a woman called Monazi. Also I thought of the hints
+which in her jealous anger and disappointment at her lack of children,
+this woman had dropped about a plot against him who sat on the throne
+of Chaka, which of course must mean King Cetywayo himself.
+
+I came to the guest-hut, which proved to be a very good place and
+clean; also in it I found plenty of food made ready for me and for my
+servants. After eating I slept for a time as it is always my fashion to
+do when I have nothing else on hand, since who knows for how long he
+may be kept awake at night? Indeed, it was not until the sun had begun
+to sink that a messenger came, saying that the Chief desired to see me
+if I had rested. So I went to his big hut which stood alone with a
+strong fence set round it at a distance, so that none could come within
+hearing of what was said, even at the door of the hut. I observed also
+that a man armed with an axe kept guard at the gateway in this fence
+round which he walked from time to time.
+
+The Chief Umslopogaas was seated on a stool by the door of his hut with
+his rhinoceros-horn-handled axe which was fastened to his right wrist
+by a thong, leaning against his thigh, and a wolfskin hanging from his
+broad shoulders. Very grim and fierce he looked thus, with the red
+light of the sunset playing on him. He greeted me and pointed to
+another stool on which I sat myself down. Apparently he had been
+watching my eyes, for he said,
+
+“I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards
+and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the
+soldier who guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how
+its gate is fashioned.”
+
+“Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief.”
+
+“Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance I
+shall soon be dead. It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the
+battle, Macumazahn. He who would sleep safe and of whom, when he dies,
+folk will say ‘He has eaten’ (i.e., he has lived out his life), must do
+more than this. He must guard his tongue and even his thoughts! he must
+listen to the stirring of rats in the thatch and look for snakes in the
+grass; he must trust few, and least of all those who sleep upon his
+bosom. But those who have the Lion’s blood in them or who are prone to
+charge like a buffalo, often neglect these matters and therefore in the
+end they fall into a pit.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “especially those who have the lion’s blood in them,
+whether that lion be man or beast.”
+
+This I said because of the rumours I had heard that this Slaughterer
+was in truth the son of Chaka. Therefore not knowing whether or no he
+were playing on the word “lion,” which was Chaka’s title, I wished to
+draw him, especially as I saw in his face a great likeness to Chaka’s
+brother Dingaan, whom, it was whispered, this same Umslopogaas had
+slain. As it happened I failed, for after a pause he said,
+
+“Why do you come to visit me, Macumazahn, who have never done so
+before?”
+
+“I do not come to visit you, Umslopogaas. That was not my intention.
+You brought me, or rather the flooded rivers and you together brought
+me, for I was on my way to Natal and could not cross the drifts.”
+
+“Yet I think you have a message for me, White Man, for not long ago a
+certain wandering witch-doctor who came here told me to expect you and
+that you had words to say to me.”
+
+“Did he, Umslopogaas? Well, it is true that I have a message, though it
+is one that I did not mean to deliver.”
+
+“Yet being here, perchance you will deliver it, Macumazahn, for those
+who have messages and will not speak them, sometimes come to trouble.”
+
+“Yes, being here, I will deliver it, seeing that so it seems to be
+fated. Tell me, do you chance to know a certain Small One who is great,
+a certain Old One whose brain is young, a doctor who is called
+Opener-of-Roads?”
+
+“I have heard of him, as have my forefathers for generations.”
+
+“Indeed, and if it pleases you to tell me, Umslopogaas, what might be
+the names of those forefathers of yours, who have heard of this doctor
+for generations? They must have been short-lived men and as such I
+should like to know of them.”
+
+“That you cannot,” replied Umslopogaas shortly, “since they are
+_hlonipa_ (i.e. not to be spoken) in this land.”
+
+“Indeed,” I said again. “I thought that rule applied only to the names
+of kings, but of course I am but an ignorant white man who may well be
+mistaken on such matters of your Zulu customs.”
+
+“Yes, O Macumazahn, you may be mistaken or—you may not. It matters
+nothing. But what of this message of yours?”
+
+“It came at the end of a long story, O Bulalio. But since you seek to
+know, these were the words of it, so nearly as I can remember them.”
+
+Then sentence by sentence I repeated to him all that Zikali had said to
+me when he called me back after bidding me farewell, which doubtless he
+did because he wished to cut his message more deeply into the tablets
+of my mind.
+
+Umslopogaas listened to every syllable with a curious intentness, and
+then asked me to repeat it all again, which I did.
+
+“Lousta! Monazi!” he said slowly. “Well, you heard those names to-day,
+did you not, White Man? And you heard certain things from the lips of
+this Monazi who was angry, that give colour to that talk of the
+Opener-of-Roads. It seems to me,” he added, glancing about him and
+speaking in a low voice, “that what I suspected is true and that
+without doubt I am betrayed.”
+
+“I do not understand,” I replied indifferently. “All this talk is dark
+to me, as is the message of the Opener-of-Roads, or rather its meaning.
+By whom and about what are you betrayed?”
+
+“Let that snake sleep. Do not kick it with your foot. Suffice it you to
+know that my head hangs upon this matter; that I am a rat in a forked
+stick, and if the stick is pressed on by a heavy hand, then where is
+the rat?”
+
+“Where all rats go, I suppose, that is, unless they are wise rats that
+bite the hand which holds the stick before it is pressed down.”
+
+“What is the rest of this story of yours, Macumazahn, which was told
+before the Opener-of-Roads gave you that message? Does it please you to
+repeat it to me that I may judge of it with my ears?”
+
+“Certainly,” I answered, “on one condition, that what the ears hear,
+the heart shall keep to itself alone.”
+
+Umslopogaas stooped and laid his hand upon the broad blade of the
+weapon beside him, saying,
+
+“By the Axe I swear it. If I break the oath be the Axe my doom.”
+
+Then I told him the tale, as I have set it down already, thinking to
+myself that of it he would understand little, being but a wild
+warrior-man. As it chanced, however, I was mistaken, for he seemed to
+understand a great deal, perchance because such primitive natures are
+in closer touch with high and secret things than we imagine; perchance
+for other reasons with which I became acquainted later.
+
+“It stands thus,” he said when I had finished, “or so I think. You,
+Macumazahn, seek certain women who are dead to learn whether they still
+live, or are really dead, but so far have failed to find them. Still
+seeking, you asked the counsel of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, he who among
+other titles is also called ‘Home of Spirits.’ He answered that he
+could not satisfy your heart because this tree was too tall for him to
+climb, but that far to the north there lives a certain white witch who
+has powers greater than his, being able to fly to the top of any tree,
+and to this white witch he bade you go. Have I the story right thus
+far?”
+
+I answered that he had.
+
+“Good! Then Zikali went on to choose you companions for your journey,
+but two, leaving out the guards or servants. I, Umhlopekazi, called
+Bulalio the Slaughterer, called the Woodpecker also, was one of these,
+and that little yellow monkey of a man whom I saw with you to-day,
+called Hansi, was the other. Then you made a mock of Zikali by
+determining not to visit me, Umhlopekazi, and not to go north to find
+the great white Queen of whom he had told you, but to return to Natal.
+Is that so?”
+
+I said it was.
+
+“Then the rain fell and the winds blew and the rivers rose in wrath so
+that you could not return to Natal, and after all by chance, or by
+fate, or by the will of Zikali, the wizard of wizards, you drifted here
+to the kraal of me, Umhlopekazi, and told me this story.”
+
+“Just so,” I answered.
+
+“Well, White Man, how am I to know that all this is not but a trap for
+my feet which already seem to feel cords between the toes of both of
+them? What token do you bring, O Watcher-by-Night? How am I to know
+that the Opener-of-Roads really sent me this message which has been
+delivered so strangely by one who wished to travel on another path? The
+wandering witch-doctor told me that he who came would bear some sign.”
+
+“I can’t say,” I answered, “at least in words. But,” I added after
+reflection, “as you ask for a token, perhaps I might be able to show
+you something that would bring proof to your heart, if there were any
+secret place——”
+
+Umslopogaas walked to the gateway of the fence and saw that the sentry
+was at his post. Then he walked round the hut casting an eye upon its
+roof, and muttered to me as he returned.
+
+“Once I was caught thus. There lived a certain wife of mine who set her
+ear to the smoke-hole and so brought about the death of many, and among
+them of herself and of our children. Enter. All is safe. Yet if you
+talk, speak low.”
+
+So we went into the hut taking the stools with us, and seated ourselves
+by the fire that burned there on to which Umslopogaas threw chips of
+resinous wood.
+
+“Now,” he said.
+
+I opened my shirt and by the clear light of the flame showed him the
+image of Zikali which hung about my neck. He stared at it, though touch
+it he would not. Then he stood up and lifting his great axe, he saluted
+the image with the word “_Makosi!_” the salute that is given to great
+wizards because they are supposed to be the home of many spirits.
+
+“It is the big Medicine, the Medicine itself,” he said, “that which has
+been known in the land since the time of Senzangacona, the father of
+the Zulu Royal House, and as it is said, before him.”
+
+“How can that be?” I asked, “seeing that this image represents Zikali,
+Opener-of-Roads, as an old man, and Senzangacona died many years ago?”
+
+“I do not know,” he answered, “but it is so. Listen. There was a
+certain Mopo, or as some called him, Umbopo, who was Chaka’s
+body-servant and my foster-father, and he told me that twice this
+Medicine,” and he pointed to the image, “was sent to Chaka, and that
+each time the Lion obeyed the message that came with it. A third time
+it was sent, but he did not obey the message and then—where was Chaka?”
+
+Here Umslopogaas passed his hand across his mouth, a significant
+gesture amongst the Zulus.
+
+“Mopo,” I said, “yes, I have heard the story of Mopo, also that Chaka’s
+body became _his_ servant in the end, since Mopo killed him with the
+help of the princes Dingaan and Umhlangana. Also I have heard that this
+Mopo still lives, though not in Zululand.”
+
+“Does he, Macumazahn?” said Umslopogaas, taking snuff from a spoon and
+looking at me keenly over the spoon. “You seem to know a great deal,
+Macumazahn; too much as some might think.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “perhaps I do know too much, or at any rate more
+than I want to know. For instance, O fosterling of Mopo and son of—was
+the lady named Baleka?—I know a good deal about _you_.”
+
+Umslopogaas stared at me and laying his hand upon the great axe, half
+rose. Then he sat down again.
+
+“I think that this,” and I touched the image of Zikali upon my breast,
+“would turn even the blade of the axe named Groan-maker,” I said and
+paused. As nothing happened, I went on, “For instance, again I think I
+know—or have I dreamed it?—that a certain chief, whose mother’s name I
+believe was Baleka—by the way, was she not one of Chaka’s
+‘sisters’?—has been plotting against that son of Panda who sits upon
+the throne, and that his plots have been betrayed, so that he is in
+some danger of his life.”
+
+“Macumazahn,” said Umslopogaas hoarsely, “I tell you that did you not
+wear the Great Medicine on your breast, I would kill you where you sit
+and bury you beneath the floor of the hut, as one who knows—too much.”
+
+“It would be a mistake, Umslopogaas, one of the many that you have
+made. But as I _do_ wear the Medicine, the question does not arise,
+does it?”
+
+Again he made no answer and I went on, “And now, what about this
+journey to the north? If indeed I must make it, would you wish to
+accompany me?”
+
+Umslopogaas rose from the stool and crawled out of the hut, apparently
+to make some inspection. Presently he returned and remarked that the
+night was clear although there were heavy storm clouds on the horizon,
+by which I understood him to convey in Zulu metaphor that it was safe
+for us to talk, but that danger threatened from afar.
+
+“Macumazahn,” he said, “we speak under the blanket of the
+Opener-of-Roads who sits upon your heart, and whose sign you bring to
+me, as he sent me word that you would, do we not?”
+
+“I suppose so,” I answered. “At any rate we speak as man to man, and
+hitherto the honour of Macumazahn has not been doubted in Zululand. So
+if you have anything to say, Chief Bulalio, say it at once, for I am
+tired and should like to eat and rest.”
+
+“Good, Macumazahn. I have this to say. I who am the son of one who was
+greater than he, have plotted to seize the throne of Zululand from him
+who sits upon that throne. It is true, for I grew weary of my idleness
+as a petty chief. Moreover, I should have succeeded with the help of
+Zikali, who hates the House of Senzangacona, though me, who am of its
+blood, he does not hate, because ever I have striven against that
+House. But it seems from his message and those words spoken by an angry
+woman, that I have been betrayed, and that to-night or to-morrow night,
+or by the next moon, the slayers will be upon me, smiting me before I
+can smite, at which I cannot grumble.”
+
+“By whom have you been betrayed, Umslopogaas?”
+
+“By that wife of mine, as I think, Macumazahn. Also by Lousta, my
+blood-brother, over whom she has cast her net and made false to me, so
+that he hopes to win her whom he has always loved and with her the
+Chieftainship of the Axe. Now what shall I do?—Tell me, you whose eyes
+can see in the dark.”
+
+I thought a moment and answered, “I think that if I were you, I would
+leave this Lousta to sit in my place for a while as Chief of the People
+of the Axe, and take a journey north, Umslopogaas. Then if trouble
+comes from the Great House where a king sits, it will come to Lousta
+who can show that the People of the Axe are innocent and that you are
+far away.”
+
+“That is cunning, Macumazahn. There speaks the Great Medicine. If I go
+north, who can say that I have plotted, and if I leave my betrayer in
+my place, who can say that I was a traitor, who have set him where I
+used to sit and left the land upon a private matter? And now tell me of
+this journey of yours.”
+
+So I told him everything, although until that moment I had not made up
+my mind to go upon this journey, I who had come here to his kraal by
+accident, or so it seemed, and by accident had delivered to him a
+certain message.
+
+“You wish to consult a white witch-doctoress, Macumazahn, who according
+to Zikali lives far to the north, as to the dead. Now I too, though
+perchance you will not think it of a black man, desire to learn of the
+dead; yes, of a certain wife of my youth who was sister and friend as
+well as wife, whom too I loved better than all the world. Also I desire
+to learn of a brother of mine whose name I never speak, who ruled the
+wolves with me and who died at my side on yonder Witch-Mountain, having
+made him a mat of men to lie on in a great and glorious fight. For of
+him as of the woman I think all day and dream all night, and I would
+know if they still live anywhere and I may look to see them again when
+I have died as a warrior should and as I hope to do. Do you understand,
+Watcher-by-Night?”
+
+I answered that I understood very well, as his case seemed to be like
+my own.
+
+“It may happen,” went on Umslopogaas, “that all this talk of the dead
+who are supposed to live after they are dead, is but as the sound of
+wind whispering in the reeds at night, that comes from nowhere and goes
+nowhere and means nothing. But at least ours will be a great journey in
+which we shall find adventure and fighting, since it is well known in
+the land that wherever Macumazahn goes there is plenty of both. Also it
+seems well for reasons that have been spoken of between us, as Zikali
+says, that I should leave the country of the Zulus for a while, who
+desire to die a man’s death at the last and not to be trapped like a
+jackal in a pit. Lastly I think that we shall agree well together
+though my temper is rough at times, and that neither of us will desert
+the other in trouble, though of that little yellow dog of yours I am
+not so sure.”
+
+“I answer for him,” I replied. “Hans is a true man, cunning also when
+once he is away from drink.”
+
+Then we spoke of plans for our journey, and of when and where we should
+meet to make it, talking till it was late, after which I went to sleep
+in the guest-hut.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE LION AND THE AXE
+
+
+Next day early I left the town of the People of the Axe, having bid a
+formal farewell to Umslopogaas, saying in a voice that all could hear
+that as the rivers were still flooded, I proposed to trek to the
+northern parts of Zululand and trade there until the weather was
+better. Our private arrangement, however, was that on the night of the
+next full moon, which happened about four weeks later, we should meet
+at the eastern foot of a certain great, flat-topped mountain known to
+both of us, which stands to the north of Zululand but well beyond its
+borders.
+
+So northward I trekked, slowly to spare my oxen, trading as I went. The
+details do not matter, but as it happened I met with more luck upon
+that journey than had come my way for many a long year. Although I
+worked on credit since nearly all my goods were sold, as owing to my
+repute I could always do in Zululand, I made some excellent bargains in
+cattle, and to top up with, bought a large lot of ivory so cheap that
+really I think it must have been stolen.
+
+All of this, cattle and ivory together, I sent to Natal in charge of a
+white friend of mine whom I could trust, where the stuff was sold very
+well indeed, and the proceeds paid to my account, the “trade”
+equivalents being duly remitted to the native vendors.
+
+In fact, my good fortune was such that if I had been superstitious like
+Hans, I should have been inclined to attribute it to the influence of
+Zikali’s “Great Medicine.” As it was I knew it to be one of the chances
+of a trader’s life and accepted it with a shrug as often as I had been
+accustomed to do in the alternative of losses.
+
+Only one untoward incident happened to me. Of a sudden a party of the
+King’s soldiers under the command of a well-known _Induna_ or
+Councillor, arrived and insisted upon searching my waggon, as I thought
+at first in connection with that cheap lot of ivory which had already
+departed to Natal. However, never a word did they say of ivory, nor
+indeed was a single thing belonging to me taken by them.
+
+I was very indignant and expressed my feelings to the _Induna_ in no
+measured terms. He on his part was most apologetic, and explained that
+what he did he was obliged to do “by the King’s orders.” Also he let it
+slip that he was seeking for a certain “evil-doer” who, it was thought,
+might be with me without my knowing his real character, and as this
+“evil-doer,” whose name he would not mention, was a very fierce man, it
+had been necessary to bring a strong guard with him.
+
+Now I bethought me of Umslopogaas, but merely looked blank and shrugged
+my shoulders, saying that I was not in the habit of consorting with
+evil-doers.
+
+Still unsatisfied, the _Induna_ questioned me as to the places where I
+had been during this journey of mine in the Zulu country. I told him
+with the utmost frankness, mentioning among others—because I was sure
+that already he knew all my movements well—the town of the People of
+the Axe.
+
+Then he asked me if I had seen its Chief, a certain Umslopogaas or
+Bulalio. I answered, Yes, that I had met him there for the first time
+and thought him a very remarkable man.
+
+With this the _Induna_ agreed emphatically, saying that perhaps I did
+not know _how_ remarkable. Next he asked me where he was now, to which
+I replied that I had not the faintest idea, but I presumed in his kraal
+where I had left him. The _Induna_ explained that he was _not_ in his
+kraal; that he had gone away leaving one Lousta and his own head wife
+Monazi to administer the chieftainship for a while, because, as he
+stated, he wished to make a journey.
+
+I yawned as if weary of the subject of this chief, and indeed of the
+whole business. Then the _Induna_ said that I must come to the King and
+repeat to him all the words that I had spoken. I replied that I could
+not possibly do so as, having finished my trading, I had arranged to go
+north to shoot elephants. He answered that elephants lived a long while
+and would not die while I was visiting the King.
+
+Then followed an argument which grew heated and ended in his declaring
+that to the King I must come, even if he had to take me there by force.
+
+I sat silent, wondering what to say or do and leant forward to pick a
+piece of wood out of the fire wherewith to light my pipe. Now my shirt
+was not buttoned and as it chanced this action caused the ivory image
+of Zikali that hung about my neck to appear between its edges. The
+_Induna_ saw it and his eyes grew big with fear.
+
+“Hide that!” he whispered, “hide that, lest it should bewitch me.
+Indeed, already I feel as though I were being bewitched. It is the
+Great Medicine itself.”
+
+“That will certainly happen to you,” I said, yawning again, “if you
+insist upon my taking a week’s trek to visit the Black One, or
+interfere with me in any way now or afterwards,” and I lifted my hand
+towards the talisman, looking him steadily in the face.
+
+“Perhaps after all, Macumazahn, it is not necessary for you to visit
+the King,” he said in an uncertain voice. “I will go and make report to
+him that you know nothing of this evil-doer.”
+
+And he went in such a hurry that he never waited to say good-bye. Next
+morning before the dawn I went also and trekked steadily until I was
+clear of Zululand.
+
+In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had been so
+wet, had now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great,
+flat-topped hill that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high,
+sparsely-timbered veld that offered few difficulties to the waggon.
+This peculiar hill, known to such natives as lived in those parts by a
+long word that means “Hut-with-a-flat-roof,” is surrounded by forest,
+for here trees grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water that
+flows from its slopes. Forcing our way through this forest, which was
+full of game, I reached its eastern foot and there camped, five days
+before that night of full moon on which I had arranged to meet
+Umslopogaas.
+
+That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly because
+I thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind about
+coming, and secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he had
+gone to call upon the King against his will, as I had been asked to do.
+It was evident to me that he was up to his eyes in some serious plot
+against Cetywayo, in which he was the old dwarf Zikali’s partner, or
+rather, tool; also that his plot had been betrayed, with the result
+that he was “wanted” and would have little chance of passing safely
+through Zululand. So taking one thing with another I imagined that I
+had seen his grim face and his peculiar, ancient-looking axe for the
+last time.
+
+To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed
+to me a little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch
+chase through unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who
+dwelt far across the Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the
+thing, but if Umslopogaas did not appear, my obligations would be at an
+end and I should return to Natal at my leisure. First, however, I would
+do a little shooting since I found that a large herd of elephants
+haunted this forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack them at once, but
+did not do so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going north it
+would be difficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had to leave
+the waggon, and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the great
+beasts for the fun of the thing.
+
+So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the
+hours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most
+slopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more
+than a hundred yards above the timber line.
+
+At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;
+probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I found
+human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the
+cattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by piling
+up a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrow
+entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxen
+at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though
+I had neither seen nor heard them.
+
+So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever
+we wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a
+spot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came
+the time of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the
+truth, I had begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has
+always led an active life too much of it is very bad, for then he
+begins to think and thought in large doses is depressing.
+
+Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind
+that on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had
+shot—or failed to shoot—some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable to
+remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhaps
+why I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down such
+reminiscences as these.
+
+Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a
+good look at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned
+in. An hour or two later some noise from the direction of the
+cattle-kraal woke me up. As it did not recur, I thought that I would go
+to sleep again. Then an uneasy thought came to me that I could not
+remember having looked to see whether the entrance was properly closed,
+as it was my habit to do. It was the same sort of troublesome doubt
+which in a civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go along the
+cold passages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put out the
+lamp. It always proves that he _has_ put it out, but that does not
+prevent a repetition of the performance next time the perplexity
+arises.
+
+I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing their
+way through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that I had
+better go to see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went without
+waking Hans or the boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-barrelled
+rifle which I used for shooting small buck, but no spare cartridges.
+
+Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew a
+single big tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I looked
+and saw that the gateway was quite securely closed, as now I remembered
+I had noted at sunset. Then I started to go back but had not stepped
+more than two or three paces when, in the bright moonlight, I saw the
+head of my smallest ox, a beast of the Zulu breed, suddenly appear over
+the top of the wall. About this there would have been nothing
+particularly astonishing, had it not been for the fact that this head
+belonged to a dead animal, as I could tell from the closed eyes and the
+hanging tongue.
+
+“What in the name of goodness——” I began to myself, when my reflections
+were cut short by the appearance of another head, that of one of the
+biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, and with the
+enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by getting its back
+beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over the wall, to drag
+it away to devour at its leisure.
+
+There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it saw
+me as I saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
+
+“What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead,” one
+can fancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift
+of God I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for
+even with the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have
+pierced through the soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have
+killed that lion as dead as Julius Cæsar. Theoretically the thing was
+easy enough; indeed, although I was startled for a moment, by the time
+that I had the rifle to my shoulder I had little fear of the issue,
+unless there was a miss-fire, especially as the beast seemed so
+astonished that it remained quite still.
+
+Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life, particularly
+in hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I fired, but by
+misfortune the bullet struck the tip of the horn of that confounded ox,
+which tip either was or at that moment fell in front of the spot on the
+lion’s throat whereat half-unconsciously I had aimed. Result: the ball
+was turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the skin of the lion’s
+neck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make it madder than all
+the hatters in the world.
+
+Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at
+me—I remember that there seemed to be yards of it—I mean of the lion—in
+front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming teeth.
+
+I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because
+there was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way,
+that after all Zikali’s Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The lion
+landed on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legs
+before getting to business, towering high above me but slightly to my
+left.
+
+Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past
+me—all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,
+probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it
+another shadow, that of a lion’s paw dropping to the ground. Next there
+was a most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray
+as never I shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was fighting the
+great lion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind
+legs, striking at him with the other.
+
+The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back with
+the axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it
+came to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only one
+fore-foot on which to light.
+
+The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or
+do anything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into
+the head. After this all was over, for the beast’s brain was cut in
+two.
+
+“I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn,” said Umslopogaas, for it
+was he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion’s severed
+skull, “to find you watching by night as it is reported that you always
+do.”
+
+“No,” I retorted, for his tone irritated me, “you are late, Bulalio,
+the moon has been up some hours.”
+
+“I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the _night_ of the full
+moon, not at the rising of the moon.”
+
+“That is true,” I replied, mollified, “and at any rate you came at a
+good moment.”
+
+“Yes,” he answered, “though as it happens in this clear light the thing
+was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the end
+might have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as I
+thought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a lion
+with a toy like that,” and he pointed to the little rifle in my hand.
+
+“I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas.”
+
+“That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or
+another there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared to
+meet, Macumazahn.”
+
+“You are right again,” I replied.
+
+At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet
+distance by the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
+
+“The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well,” was all he
+said.
+
+“The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better,” remarked
+Umslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe. “Never
+before since she came into my keeping has _Inkosikaas_ (i.e.
+‘Chieftainess,’ for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as to
+drink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she need
+not be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I have been
+told, are cunning, watch your master so ill?”
+
+“I was asleep,” stuttered Hans indignantly.
+
+“Those who serve should never sleep,” replied Umslopogaas sternly. Then
+he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at
+a little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing axes
+and wearing cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by raising their
+axes.
+
+“Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a mat,”
+said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away.
+
+“Who are these?” I asked.
+
+“A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There were
+one or two more, but they got lost on the way.”
+
+Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.
+
+Next morning I told Umslopogaas of the visit I had received from the
+_Induna_ of the King who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He
+nodded and said,
+
+“As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why
+one or two of my people remain behind who will never travel again. We
+made good play with those thieves; not one of them escaped,” he added
+grimly, “and their bodies we threw into a river where are many
+crocodiles. But their spears I brought away and I think that they are
+such as the King’s guard use. If so, his search for them will be long,
+since the fight took place where no man lives and we burned the shields
+and trappings. Oho! he will think that the ghosts have taken them.”
+
+That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for
+these “thieves” should strike and follow our spoor. Luckily the ox that
+the lion had killed was one of some spare cattle which I was driving
+with me, so its loss did not inconvenience us. As we went Umslopogaas
+told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife Monazi to rule
+the tribe during his absence, an office which they accepted doubtfully,
+Monazi acting as Chieftainess and Lousta as her head _Induna_ or
+Councillor.
+
+I asked him whether he thought this wise under all the circumstances,
+seeing that it had occurred to me since I made the suggestion, that
+they might be unwilling to surrender power on his return, also that
+other domestic complications might ensue.
+
+“It matters little, Macumazahn,” he said with a shrug of his great
+shoulders, “for of this I am sure, that I have played my part with the
+People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death, who
+am a man betrayed. What do I care who love none and now have no
+children? Still, it is true that I might have fled to Natal with the
+cattle and there have led a fat and easy life. But ease and plenty I do
+not desire who would live and fall as a warrior should.
+
+“Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves
+ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die,
+or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with
+wives and oxen while I have _Inkosikaas_ the Groan-maker and she is
+true to me?” he added, shaking the ancient axe above his head so that
+the sun gleamed upon the curved blade and the hollow gouge or point at
+the back beyond the shaft socket. “Where the Axe goes, there go the
+strength and virtue of the Axe, O Macumazahn.”
+
+“It is a strange weapon,” I said.
+
+“Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a
+warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter who was also the
+first of smiths and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to
+return to his hand when its work is finished beneath the sun. That will
+be soon, Macumazahn, since Zikali told me that I am the last Holder of
+the Axe.”
+
+“Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?” I asked.
+
+“Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from
+Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought
+you to my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the
+spirit of a snake had told him that you tried to throw the Great
+Medicine into a pool, but were stopped by that snake, whilst it was
+still alive. This, he said, you must do no more, lest he should send
+another snake to stop _you_.”
+
+“Did he?” I replied indignantly, for Zikali’s power of seeing or
+learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed
+me.
+
+Only Hans grinned and said,
+
+“I told you so, Baas.”
+
+On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and
+dangers as are common on roadless veld in Africa, but no more, for the
+grass was good and there was plenty of game, of which we shot what we
+wanted for meat. Indeed, here in the back regions of what is known as
+Portuguese South East Africa, every sort of wild animal was so numerous
+that personally I wished we could turn our journey into a shooting
+expedition.
+
+But of this Umslopogaas, whom hunting bored, would not hear. In fact,
+he was much more anxious than myself to carry out our original purpose.
+When I asked him why, he answered because of something Zikali had told
+him. What this was he would not say, except that in the country whither
+we wandered he would fight a great fight and win much honour.
+
+Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive
+joy in battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus only
+could a man decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person who loves
+quiet and a home. Still, I gave way, partly to please him, partly
+because I hoped that we might discover something of interest, and still
+more because, having once undertaken an enterprise, my pride prompted
+me to see it through.
+
+Now while he was preparing to draw his map in the ashes, or afterwards,
+I forget which, Zikali had told me that when we drew near to the great
+river we should come to a place on the edge of bush-veld that ran down
+to the river, where a white man lived, adding, after casting his bones
+and reading from them, that he thought this white man was a
+“trek-Boer.” This, I should explain, means a Dutchman who has travelled
+away from wherever he lived and made a home for himself in the
+wilderness, as some wandering spirit and the desire to be free of
+authority often prompt these people to do. Also, after another
+inspection of his enchanted knuckle-bones, he had declared that
+something remarkable would happen to this man or his family, while I
+was visiting him. Lastly in that map he drew in the ashes, the details
+of which were impressed so indelibly upon my memory, he had shown me
+where I should find the dwelling of this white man, of whom and of
+whose habitation doubtless he knew through the many spies who seemed to
+be at the service of all witch-doctors, and more especially of Zikali,
+the greatest among them.
+
+Travelling by the sun and the compass I had trekked steadily in the
+exact direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful
+particular he was well named the “Opener-of-Roads,” since always before
+me I found a practicable path, although to the right or to the left
+there would have been none. Thus when we came to mountains, it was at a
+spot where we discovered a pass; when we came to swamps it was where a
+ridge of high ground ran between, and so forth. Also such tribes as we
+met upon our journey always proved of a friendly character, although
+perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas and his fierce band whom, rather
+irreverently, I named his twelve Apostles, had a share in inducing this
+peaceful attitude.
+
+So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain
+intervals, that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be
+following some ancient road which at a forgotten period of history, had
+run from south to north, or _vice versâ_. Or rather, to be honest, it
+was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications
+which had escaped my notice. I need not stop to detail them, but one of
+these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high, rather
+barren land had been dug out, and in one or more instances, lined with
+stones after the fashion of an ancient well. Evidently we were
+following an old trade route made, perhaps, in forgotten ages when
+Africa was more civilised than it is now.
+
+Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our
+trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed
+itself before ten o’clock and disappeared at three or four in the
+afternoon, and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense
+fog, we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in
+movable grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed
+sheep.
+
+These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did
+them no harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of
+a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who was a
+great master of different native dialects, discovered a tongue, or a
+mixture of tongues, in which he could make himself understood to some
+of them.
+
+They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man,
+although their fathers’ fathers (an expression by which they meant
+their remote ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however,
+that if we went on steadily towards the north for another seven days’
+journey, we should come to a place where a white man lived, one, they
+had heard, who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as we
+did.
+
+Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down
+hill out of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld here
+was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East African
+plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as we
+could see where the rains had washed out dongas. The climate, too,
+seemed to be cool and very healthful. Altogether it was a pity to see
+such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless herds of game, for
+there were not any native inhabitants, or at least we met none.
+
+On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at
+length we saw far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed
+correctly, must fringe the great Zambesi River. Moreover we, or rather
+Hans, whose eyes were those of a hawk, saw something else, namely
+buildings of a more or less civilised kind, which stood among trees by
+the side of a stream several miles on this side of the great belt of
+bush.
+
+“Look, Baas,” said Hans, “those wanderers did not lie; there is the
+house of the white man. I wonder if he drinks anything stronger than
+water,” he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of
+his yellow throat.
+
+As it happened, he did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+INEZ
+
+
+We had sighted the house from far away shortly after sunrise and by
+midday we were there. As we approached I saw that it stood almost
+immediately beneath two great baobab trees, babyan trees we call them
+in South Africa, perhaps because monkeys eat their fruit. It was a
+thatched house with whitewashed walls and a stoep or veranda round it,
+apparently of the ordinary Dutch type. Moreover, beyond it, at a little
+distance were other houses or rather shanties with waggon sheds, etc.,
+and beyond and mixed up with these a number of native huts. Further on
+were considerable fields green with springing corn; also we saw herds
+of cattle grazing on the slopes. Evidently our white man was rich.
+
+Umslopogaas surveyed the place with a soldier’s eye and said to me,
+
+“This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is
+feared, since of defences I see none.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “why not, with a wilderness behind it and bush-veld
+and a great river in front?”
+
+“Men can cross rivers and travel through bush-veld,” he answered, and
+was silent.
+
+Up to this time we had seen no one, although it might have been
+presumed that a waggon trekking towards the house was a sufficiently
+unusual sight to have attracted attention.
+
+“Where can they be?” I asked.
+
+“Asleep, Baas, I think,” said Hans, and as a matter of fact he was
+right. The whole population of the place was indulging in a noonday
+siesta.
+
+At last we came so near to the house that I halted the waggon and
+descended from the driving-box in order to investigate. At this moment
+someone did appear, the sight of whom astonished me not a little,
+namely, a very striking-looking young woman. She was tall, handsome,
+with large dark eyes, good features, a rather pale complexion, and I
+think the saddest face that I ever saw. Evidently she had heard the
+noise of the waggon and had come out to see what caused it, for she had
+nothing on her head, which was covered with thick hair of a raven
+blackness. Catching sight of the great Umslopogaas with his gleaming
+axe and of his savage-looking bodyguard, she uttered an exclamation and
+not unnaturally turned to fly.
+
+“It’s all right,” I sang out, emerging from behind the oxen, and in
+English, though before the words had left my lips I reflected that
+there was not the slightest reason to suppose that she would understand
+them. Probably she was Dutch, or Portuguese, although by some instinct
+I had addressed her in English.
+
+To my surprise she answered me in the same tongue, spoken, it is true,
+with a peculiar accent which I could not place, as it was neither
+Scotch nor Irish.
+
+“Thank you,” she said. “I, sir, was frightened. Your friends look——”
+Here she stumbled for a word, then added, “terrocious.”
+
+I laughed at this composite adjective and answered,
+
+“Well, so they are in a way, though they will not harm you or me. But,
+young lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your husband——”
+
+“I have no husband, I have only a father, sir,” and she sighed.
+
+“Well, then, could I speak to your father? My name is Allan Quatermain
+and I am making a journey of exploration, to find out about the country
+beyond, you know.”
+
+“Yes, I will go to wake him. He is asleep. Everyone sleeps here at
+midday—except me,” she said with another sigh.
+
+“Why do you not follow their example?” I asked jocosely, for this young
+woman puzzled me and I wanted to find out about her.
+
+“Because I sleep little, sir, who think too much. There will be plenty
+of time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?”
+
+I stared at her and inquired her name, because I did not know what else
+to say.
+
+“My name is Inez Robertson,” she answered. “I will go to wake my
+father. Meanwhile please unyoke your oxen. They can feed with the
+others; they look as though they wanted rest, poor things.” Then she
+turned and went into the house.
+
+“Inez Robertson,” I said to myself, “that’s a queer combination.
+English father and Portuguese mother, I suppose. But what can an
+Englishman be doing in a place like this? If it had been a trek-Boer I
+should not have been surprised.” Then I began to give directions about
+out-spanning.
+
+We had just got the oxen out of the yokes, when a big, raw-boned,
+red-bearded, blue-eyed, roughly-clad man of about fifty years of age
+appeared from the house, yawning. I threw my eye over him as he
+advanced with a peculiar rolling gait, and formed certain conclusions.
+A drunkard who has once been a gentleman, I reflected to myself, for
+there was something peculiarly dissolute in his appearance, also one
+who has had to do with the sea, a diagnosis which proved very accurate.
+
+“How do you do, Mr. Allan Quatermain, which I think my daughter said is
+your name, unless I dreamed it, for it is one that I seem to have heard
+before,” he exclaimed with a broad Scotch accent which I do not attempt
+to reproduce. “What in the name of blazes brings you here where no real
+white man has been for years? Well, I am glad enough to see you any
+way, for I am sick of half-breed Portuguese and niggers, and
+snuff-and-butter girls, and gin and bad whisky. Leave your people to
+attend to those oxen and come in and have a drink.”
+
+“Thank you, Mr. Robertson——”
+
+“Captain Robertson,” he interrupted. “Man, don’t look astonished. You
+mightn’t guess it, but I commanded a mail-steamer once and should like
+to hear myself called rightly again before I die.”
+
+“I beg your pardon—Captain Robertson, but myself, I don’t drink
+anything before sundown. However, if you have something to eat——?”
+
+“Oh yes, Inez—she’s my daughter—will find you a bite. Those men of
+yours,” and he also looked doubtfully at Umslopogaas and his savage
+company, “will want food as well. I’ll have a beast killed for them;
+they look as if they could eat it, horns and all. Where are my people?
+All asleep, I suppose, the lazy lubbers. Wait a bit, I’ll wake them
+up.”
+
+Going to the house he snatched a great sjambok cut from hippopotamus
+hide, from where it hung on a nail in the wall, and ran towards the
+group of huts which I have mentioned, roaring out the name Thomaso,
+also a string of oaths such as seamen use, mixed with others of a
+Portuguese variety. What happened there I could not see because boughs
+were in the way, but presently I heard blows and screams, and caught
+sight of people, all dark-skinned, flying from the huts.
+
+A little later a fat, half-breed man—I should say from his curling hair
+that his mother was a negress and his father a Portuguese—appeared with
+some other nondescript fellows and began to give directions in a
+competent fashion about our oxen, also as to the killing of a calf. He
+spoke in bastard Portuguese, which I could understand, and I heard him
+talk of Umslopogaas to whom he pointed, as “that nigger,” after the
+fashion of such cross-bred people who choose to consider themselves
+white men. Also he made uncomplimentary remarks about Hans, who of
+course understood every word he said. Evidently Thomaso’s temper had
+been ruffled by this sudden and violent disturbance of his nap.
+
+Just then our host appeared puffing with his exertions and declaring
+that he had stirred up the swine with a vengeance, in proof of which he
+pointed to the sjambok that was reddened with blood.
+
+“Captain Robertson,” I said, “I wish to give you a hint to be passed on
+to Mr. Thomaso, if that is he. He spoke of the Zulu soldier there as a
+nigger, etc. Well, he is a chief of a high rank and rather a terrible
+fellow if roused. Therefore I recommend Mr. Thomaso not to let him
+understand that he is insulting him.”
+
+“Oh! that’s the way of these ‘snuff-and-butters’ one of whose
+grandmothers once met a white man,” replied the Captain, laughing, “but
+I’ll tell him,” and he did in Portuguese.
+
+His retainer listened in silence, looking at Umslopogaas rather
+sulkily. Then we walked into the house. As we went the Captain said,
+
+“Señor Thomaso—he calls himself Señor—is my manager here and a clever
+man, honest too in his way and attached to me, perhaps because I saved
+his life once. But he has a nasty temper, as have all these
+cross-breeds, so I hope he won’t get wrong with that native who carries
+a big axe.”
+
+“I hope so too, for his own sake,” I replied emphatically.
+
+The Captain led the way into the sitting-room; there was but one in the
+house. It proved a queer kind of place with rude furniture seated with
+strips of hide after the Boer fashion, and yet bearing a certain air of
+refinement which was doubtless due to Inez, who, with the assistance of
+a stout native girl, was already engaged in setting the table. Thus
+there was a shelf with books, Shakespeare was one of these, I
+noticed—over which hung an ivory crucifix, which suggested that Inez
+was a Catholic. On the walls, too, were some good portraits, and on the
+window-ledge a jar full of flowers. Also the forks and spoons were of
+silver, as were the mugs, and engraved with a tremendous coat-of-arms
+and a Portuguese motto.
+
+Presently the food appeared, which was excellent and plentiful, and the
+Captain, his daughter and I sat down and ate. I noted that he drank gin
+and water, an innocent-looking beverage but strong as he took it. It
+was offered to me, but like Miss Inez, I preferred coffee.
+
+During the meal and afterwards while we smoked upon the veranda, I told
+them as much as I thought desirable of my plans. I said that I was
+engaged upon a journey of exploration of the country beyond the
+Zambesi, and that having heard of this settlement, which, by the way,
+was called Strathmuir, as I gathered after a place in far away Scotland
+where the Captain had been born and passed his childhood, I had come
+here to inquire as to how to cross the great river, and about other
+things.
+
+The Captain was interested, especially when I informed him that I was
+that same “Hunter Quatermain” of whom he had heard in past years, but
+he told me that it would be impossible to take the waggon down into the
+low bush-veld which we could see beneath us, as there all the oxen
+would die of the bite of the tsetse fly. I answered that I was aware of
+this and proposed to try to make an arrangement to leave it in his
+charge till I returned.
+
+“That might be managed, Mr. Quatermain,” he answered. “But, man, will
+you ever return? They say there are queer folk living on the other side
+of the Zambesi, savage men who are cannibals, Amahagger I think they
+call them. It was they who in past years cleaned out all this country,
+except a few river tribes who live in floating huts or on islands among
+the reeds, and that’s why it is so empty. But this happened long ago,
+much before my time, and I don’t suppose they will ever cross the river
+again.”
+
+“If I might ask, what brought you here, Captain?” I said, for the point
+was one on which I felt curious.
+
+“That which brings most men to wild places, Mr. Quatermain—trouble. If
+you want to know, I had a misfortune and piled up my ship. There were
+some lives lost and, rightly or wrongly, I got the sack. Then I started
+as a trader in a God-forsaken hole named Chinde, one of the Zambesi
+mouths, you know, and did very well, as we Scotchmen have a way of
+doing.
+
+“There I married a Portuguese lady, a real lady of high blood, one of
+the old sort. When my girl, Inez, was about twelve years old I got into
+more trouble, for my wife died and it pleased a certain relative of
+hers to say that it was because I had neglected her. This ended in a
+row and the truth is that I killed him—in fair fight, mind you. Still,
+kill him I did though I scarcely knew that I had done it at the time,
+after which the place grew too hot to hold me. So I sold up and swore
+that I would have no more to do with what they are pleased to call
+civilisation on the East Coast.
+
+“During my trading I had heard that there was fine country up this way,
+and here I came and settled years ago, bringing my girl and Thomaso,
+who was one of my managers, also a few other people with me. And here I
+have been ever since, doing very well as before, for I trade a lot of
+ivory and other things and grow stuff and cattle, which I sell to the
+River natives. Yes, I am a rich man now and could go to live on my
+means in Scotland, or anywhere.”
+
+“Why don’t you?” I asked.
+
+“Oh! for many reasons. I have lost touch with all that and become half
+wild and I like this life and the sunshine and being my own master.
+Also, if I did, things might be raked up against me, about that man’s
+death. Also, though I daresay it will make you think badly of me for
+it, Mr. Quatermain, I have ties down there,” and he waved his hand
+towards the village, if so it could be called, “which it wouldn’t be
+easy for me to break. A man may be fond of his children, Mr.
+Quatermain, even if their skins ain’t so white as they ought to be.
+Lastly I have habits—you see, I am speaking out to you as man to
+man—which might get me into trouble again if I went back to the world,”
+and he nodded his fine, capable-looking head in the direction of the
+bottle on the table.
+
+“I see,” I said hastily, for this kind of confession bursting out of
+the man’s lonely heart when what he had drunk took a hold of him, was
+painful to hear. “But how about your daughter, Miss Inez?”
+
+“Ah!” he said, with a quiver in his voice, “there you touch it. She
+ought to go away. There is no one for her to marry here, where we
+haven’t seen a white man for years, and she’s a lady right enough, like
+her mother. But who is she to go to, being a Roman Catholic whom my own
+dour Presbyterian folk in Scotland, if any of them are left, would turn
+their backs on? Moreover, she loves me in her own fashion, as I love
+her, and she wouldn’t leave me because she thinks it her duty to stay
+and knows that if she did, I should go to the devil altogether.
+Still—perhaps you might help me about her, Mr. Quatermain, that is if
+you live to come back from your journey,” he added doubtfully.
+
+I felt inclined to ask how I could possibly help in such a matter, but
+thought it wisest to say nothing. This, however, he did not notice, for
+he went on,
+
+“Now I think I will have a nap, as I do my work in the early morning,
+and sometimes late at night when my brain seems to clear up again, for
+you see I was a sailor for many years and accustomed to keeping
+watches. You’ll look after yourself, won’t you, and treat the place as
+your own?” Then he vanished into the house to lie down.
+
+When I had finished my pipe I went for a walk. First I visited the
+waggon where I found Umslopogaas and his company engaged in cooking the
+beast that had been given them, Zulu fashion; Hans with his usual
+cunning had already secured a meal, probably from the servants, or from
+Inez herself; at least he left them and followed me. First we went down
+to the huts, where we saw a number of good-looking young women of mixed
+blood, all decently dressed and engaged about their household duties.
+Also we saw four or five boys and girls, to say nothing of a baby in
+arms, fine young people, one or two of whom were more white than
+coloured.
+
+“Those children are very like the Baas with the red beard,” remarked
+Hans reflectively.
+
+“Yes,” I said, and shivered, for now I understood the awfulness of this
+poor man’s case. He was the father of a number of half-breeds who tied
+him to this spot as anchors tie a ship. I went on rather hastily past
+some sheds to a long, low building which proved to be a store. Here the
+quarter-blood called Thomaso, and some assistants were engaged in
+trading with natives from the Zambesi swamps, men of a kind that I had
+never seen, but in a way more civilised than many further south. What
+they were selling or buying, I did not stop to see, but I noticed that
+the store was full of goods of one sort or another, including a great
+deal of ivory, which, as I supposed, had come down the river from
+inland.
+
+Then we walked on to the cultivated fields where we saw corn growing
+very well, also tobacco and other crops. Beyond this were cattle kraals
+and in the distance we perceived a great number of cattle and goats
+feeding on the slopes.
+
+“This red-bearded Baas must be very rich in all things,” remarked the
+observant Hans when we had completed our investigations.
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “rich and yet poor.”
+
+“How can a man be both rich and yet poor, Baas?” asked Hans.
+
+Just at that moment some of the half-breed children whom I have
+mentioned, ran past us more naked than dressed and whooping like little
+savages. Hans contemplated them gravely, then said,
+
+“I think I understand now, Baas. A man may be rich in things he loves
+and yet does not want, which makes him poor in other ways.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “as _you_ are, Hans, when you take too much to
+drink.”
+
+Just then we met the stately Miss Inez returning from the store,
+carrying some articles in a basket, soap, I think, and tea in a packet,
+amongst them. I told Hans to take the basket and bear it to the house
+for her. He went off with it and, walking slowly, we fell into
+conversation.
+
+“Your father must do very well here,” I said, nodding at the store with
+the crowd of natives round it.
+
+“Yes,” she answered, “he makes much money which he puts in a bank at
+the coast, for living costs us nothing and there is great profit in
+what he buys and sells, also in the crops he grows and in the cattle.
+But,” she added pathetically, “what is the use of money in a place like
+this?”
+
+“You can get things with it,” I answered vaguely.
+
+“That is what my father says, but what does he get? Strong stuff to
+drink; dresses for those women down there, and sometimes pearls, jewels
+and other things for me which I do not want. I have a box full of them
+set in ugly gold, or loose which I cannot use, and if I put them on,
+who is there to see them? That clever half-breed, Thomaso—for he is
+clever in his way, faithful too—or the women down there—no one else.”
+
+“You do not seem to be happy, Miss Inez.”
+
+“No. I cannot tell how unhappy others are, who have met none, but
+sometimes I think that I must be the most miserable woman in the
+world.”
+
+“Oh! no,” I replied cheerfully, “plenty are worse off.”
+
+“Then, Mr. Quatermain, it must be because they cannot feel. Did you
+ever have a father whom you loved?”
+
+“Yes, Miss Inez. He is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of
+saint. Ask my servant, the little Hottentot Hans; he will tell you
+about him.”
+
+“Ah! a very good man. Well, as you may have guessed, mine is not,
+though there is much good in him, for he has a kind heart, and a big
+brain. But the drink and those women down there, they ruin him,” and
+she wrung her hands.
+
+“Why don’t you go away?” I blurted out.
+
+“Because it is my duty to stop. That is what my religion teaches me,
+although of it I know little except through books, who have seen no
+priest for years except one who was a missionary, a Baptist, I think,
+who told me that my faith was false and would lead me to hell. Yes, not
+understanding how I lived, he said that, who did not know that hell is
+here. No, I cannot go, who hopes always that still God and the Saints
+will show me how to save my father, even though it be with my blood.
+And now I have said too much to you who are quite a stranger. Yet, I do
+not know why, I feel that you will not betray me, and what is more,
+that you will help me if you can, since you are not one of those who
+drink, or——” and she waved her hand towards the huts.
+
+“I have my faults, Miss Inez,” I answered.
+
+“Yes, no doubt, else you would be a saint, not a man, and even the
+saints had their faults, or so I seem to remember, and became saints by
+repentance and conquering them. Still, I am sure that you will help me
+if you can.”
+
+Then with a sudden flash of her dark eyes that said more than all her
+words, she turned and left me.
+
+Here’s a pretty kettle of fish, thought I to myself as I strolled back
+to the waggon to see how things were going on there, and how to get the
+live fish out of the kettle before they boil or spoil is more than I
+know. I wonder why fate is always finding me such jobs to do.
+
+Even as I thought thus a voice in my heart seemed to echo that poor
+girl’s words—because it is your duty—and to add others to them—woe
+betide him who neglects his duty. I was appointed to try to hook a few
+fish out of the vast kettle of human woe, and therefore I must go on
+hooking. Meanwhile this particular problem seemed beyond me. Perhaps
+Fate would help, I reflected. As a matter of fact, in the end Fate did,
+if Fate is the right word to use in this connection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE SEA-COW HUNT
+
+
+Now it had been my intention to push forward across the river at once,
+but here luck, or our old friend, Fate, was against me. To begin with
+several of Umslopogaas’ men fell sick with a kind of stomach trouble,
+arising no doubt from something they had eaten. This, however, was not
+their view, or that of Umslopogaas himself. It happened that one of
+these men, Goroko by name, who practised as a witch-doctor in his
+lighter moments, naturally suspected that a spell had been cast upon
+them, for such people see magic in everything.
+
+Therefore he organised a “smelling-out” at which Umslopogaas, who was
+as superstitious as the rest, assisted. So did Hans, although he called
+himself a Christian, partly out of curiosity, for he was as curious as
+a magpie, and partly from fear lest some implication should be brought
+against him in his absence. I saw the business going on from a little
+distance, and, unseen myself, thought it well to keep an eye upon the
+proceedings in case anything untoward should occur. This I did with
+Miss Inez, who had never witnessed anything of the sort, as a
+companion.
+
+The circle, a small one, was formed in the usual fashion; Goroko rigged
+up in the best witch-doctor’s costume that he could improvise, duly
+came under the influence of his “Spirit” and skipped about, waving a
+wildebeeste’s tail, and so forth.
+
+Finally to my horror he broke out of the ring, and running to a group
+of spectators from the village, switched Thomaso, who was standing
+among them with a lordly and contemptuous air, across the face with the
+gnu’s tail, shouting out that he was the wizard who had poisoned the
+bowels of the sick men. Thereon Thomaso, who although he could be
+insolent, like most crossbreeds was not remarkable for courage, seeing
+the stir that this announcement created amongst the fierce-faced Zulus
+and fearing developments, promptly bolted, none attempting to follow
+him.
+
+After this, just as I thought that everything was over and that the
+time had come for me to speak a few earnest words to Umslopogaas,
+pointing out that matters must go no further as regards Thomaso, whom I
+knew that he and his people hated, Goroko went back to the circle and
+was seized with a new burst of inspiration.
+
+Throwing down his whisk, he lifted his arms above his head and stared
+at the heavens. Then he began to shout out something in a loud voice
+which I was too far off to catch. Whatever it may have been, evidently
+it frightened his hearers, as I could see from the expressions on their
+faces. Even Umslopogaas was alarmed, for he let his axe fall for a
+moment, rose as though to speak, then sat down again and covered his
+eyes with his hands.
+
+In a minute it was over; Goroko seemed to become normal, took some
+snuff and as I guessed, after the usual fashion of these doctors, began
+to ask what he had been saying while the “Spirit” possessed him, which
+he either had, or affected to have, forgotten. The circle, too, broke
+up and its members began to talk to each other in a subdued way, while
+Umslopogaas remained seated on the ground, brooding, and Hans slipped
+away in his snake-like fashion, doubtless in search of me.
+
+“What was it all about, Mr. Quatermain?” asked Inez.
+
+“Oh! a lot of nonsense,” I said. “I fancy that witch-doctor declared
+that your friend Thomaso put something into those men’s food to make
+them sick.”
+
+“I daresay that he did; it would be just like him, Mr. Quatermain, as I
+know that he hates them, especially Umslopogaas, of whom I am very
+fond. He brought me some beautiful flowers this morning which he had
+found somewhere, and made a long speech which I could not understand.”
+
+The idea of Umslopogaas, that man of blood and iron, bringing flowers
+to a young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the
+sad-faced Inez smiled. Then she left me to see about something and I
+went to speak to Hans and asked him what had happened.
+
+“Something rather queer, I think, Baas,” he answered vacuously, “though
+I did not quite understand the last part. The doctor, Goroko, smelt out
+Thomaso as the man who had made them sick, and though they will not
+kill him because we are guests here, those Zulus are very angry with
+Thomaso and I think will beat him if they get a chance. But that is
+only the small half of the stick,” and he paused.
+
+“What is the big half, then?” I asked with irritation.
+
+“Baas, the Spirit in Goroko——”
+
+“The jackass in Goroko, you mean,” I interrupted. “How can you, who are
+a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits? I only wish that my
+father could hear you.”
+
+“Oh! Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is now wise enough to
+know all about Spirits and that there are some who come into black
+witch-doctors though they turn up their noses at white men and leave
+them alone. However, whatever it is that makes Goroko speak, got hold
+of him so that his lips said, though he remembered nothing of it
+afterwards, that soon this place would be red with blood—that there
+would be a great killing here, Baas. That is all.”
+
+“Red with blood! Whose blood? What did the fool mean?”
+
+“I don’t know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko, declared
+that those who are ‘with the Great Medicine’—meaning what you wear,
+Baas—will be quite safe. So I hope that it will not be our blood; also
+that you will get out of this place as soon as you can.”
+
+Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for
+I could see that he did believe it, then went to question Umslopogaas,
+whom I found looking quite pleased, which annoyed me still more.
+
+“What is it that Goroko has been saying and why do you smile, Bulalio?”
+I asked.
+
+“Nothing much, Macumazahn, except that the man who looks like tallow
+that has gone bad, put something in our food which made us sick, for
+which I would kill him were he not Red-beard’s servant and that it
+would frighten the lady his daughter. Also he said that soon there will
+be fighting, which is why I smiled, who grow weary of peace. We came
+out to fight, did we not?”
+
+“Certainly not,” I answered. “We came out to make a quiet journey in
+strange lands, which is what I mean to do.”
+
+“Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom
+one does not always agree, and then _Inkosikaas_ begins to talk,” and
+he whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it
+was forced through the gouge at its back.
+
+I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him
+that nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably
+quite unjustly accused, I went away.
+
+Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable impression on my mind,
+and I began to wish that we were safe across the Zambesi without more
+trouble. But we could not start at once because two of the Zulus were
+still not well enough to travel and there were many preparations to be
+made about the loads, and so forth, since the waggon must be left
+behind. Also, and this was another complication—Hans had a sore upon
+his foot, resulting from the prick of a poisonous thorn, and it was
+desirable that this should be quite healed before we marched.
+
+So it came about that I was really glad when Captain Robertson
+suggested that we should go down to a certain swamp formed, I gathered,
+by some small tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of
+hippopotamus battue. It seemed that at this season of the year these
+great animals always frequented the place in numbers, also that by
+barring a neck of deep water through which they gained it, they, or a
+proportion of them, could be cut off and killed.
+
+This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late,
+perhaps because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise
+such a hunt. Now he wished to do so again, taking advantage of my
+presence, both because of the value of the hides of the sea-cows which
+were cut up to be sent to the coast and sold as _sjamboks_ or whips,
+and because of the sport of the thing. Also I think he desired to show
+me that he was not altogether sunk in sloth and drink.
+
+I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in all my hunting life I
+had never seen anything of the sort, especially as I was told that the
+expedition would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick
+men and Hans would not be fit to travel sooner. So great preparations
+were made. The riverside natives, whose share of the spoil was to be
+the carcases of the slain sea-cows, were summoned by hundreds and sent
+off to their appointed stations to beat the swamps at a signal given by
+the firing of a great pile of reeds. Also many other things were done
+upon which I need not enter.
+
+Then came the time for us to depart to the appointed spot over twenty
+miles away, most of which distance it seemed we could trek in the
+waggon. Captain Robertson, who for the time had cut off his gin, was as
+active about the affair as though he were once more in command of a
+mail-steamer. Nothing escaped his attention; indeed, in the care which
+he gave to details he reminded me of the captain of a great ship that
+is leaving port, and from it I learned how able a man he must once have
+been.
+
+“Does your daughter accompany us?” I asked on the night before we
+started.
+
+“Oh! no,” he answered, “she would only be in the way. She will be quite
+safe here, especially as Thomaso, who is no hunter, remains in charge
+of the place with some of the older natives to look after the women and
+children.”
+
+Later I saw Inez herself, who said that she would have liked to come,
+although she hated to see great beasts killed, but that her father was
+against it because he thought she might catch fever. So she supposed
+that she had better remain where she was.
+
+I agreed, though in my heart I was doubtful, and said that I would
+leave Hans, whose foot was not as yet quite well, and with whom she had
+made friends as she had done with Umslopogaas, to look after her. Also
+there would be with him the two great Zulus who were now recovering
+from their attack of stomach sickness, so that she would have nothing
+to fear. She answered with her slow smile that she feared nothing,
+still, she would have liked to come with us. Then we parted, as it
+proved for a long time.
+
+It was quite a ceremony. Umslopogaas, “in the name of the Axe” solemnly
+gave over Inez to the charge of his two followers, bidding them guard
+her with so much earnestness that I began to suspect he feared
+something which he did not choose to mention. My mind went back indeed
+to the prophecy of the witch-doctor Goroko, of which it was possible
+that he might be thinking, but as while he spoke he kept his fierce
+eyes fixed upon the fat and pompous quarter-breed, Thomaso, I concluded
+that here was the object of his doubts.
+
+It might have occurred to him that this Thomaso would take the
+opportunity of her father’s absence to annoy Inez. If so I was sure
+that he was mistaken for various reasons, of which I need only quote
+one, namely, that even if such an idea had ever entered his head,
+Thomaso was far too great a coward to translate it into action. Still,
+suspecting something, I also gave Hans instructions to keep a sharp eye
+on Inez and generally to watch the place, and if he saw anything
+suspicious, to communicate with us at once.
+
+“Yes, Baas,” said Hans, “I will look after ‘Sad-Eyes’”—for so with
+their usual quickness of observation our Zulus had named Inez—“as
+though she were my grandmother, though what there is to fear for her, I
+do not know. But, Baas, I would much rather come and look after you, as
+your reverend father, the Predikant, told me to do always, which is my
+duty, not girl-herding, Baas. Also my foot is now quite well and—I want
+to shoot sea-cows, and——” Here he paused.
+
+“And what, Hans?”
+
+“And Goroko said that there was going to be much fighting and if there
+should be fighting and you should come to harm because I was not there
+to protect you, what would your reverend father think of me then?”
+
+All of which meant two things: that Hans never liked being separated
+from me if he could help it, and that he much preferred a shooting trip
+to stopping alone in this strange place with nothing to do except eat
+and sleep. So I concluded, though indeed I did not get quite to the
+bottom of the business. In reality Hans was putting up a most gallant
+struggle against temptation.
+
+As I found out afterwards, Captain Robertson had been giving him strong
+drink on the sly, moved thereto by sympathy with a fellow toper. Also
+he had shown him where, if he wanted it, he could get more, and Hans
+always wanted gin very badly indeed. To leave it within his reach was
+like leaving a handful of diamonds lying about in the room of a thief.
+This he knew, but was ashamed to tell me the truth, and thence came
+much trouble.
+
+“You will stop here, Hans, look after the young lady and nurse your
+foot,” I said sternly, whereon he collapsed with a sigh and asked for
+some tobacco.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Robertson, who I think had been taking a stirrup cup
+to cheer him on the road, was making his farewells down in what was
+known as “the village,” for I saw him there kissing a collection of
+half-breed children, and giving Thomaso instructions to look after them
+and their mothers. Returning at length, he called to Inez, who remained
+upon the veranda, for she always seemed to shrink from her father after
+his visits to the village, to “keep a stiff upper lip” and not feel
+lonely, and commanded the cavalcade to start.
+
+So off we went, about twenty of the village natives, a motley crew
+armed with every kind of gun, marching ahead and singing songs. Then
+came the waggon with Captain Robertson and myself seated on the
+driving-box, and lastly Umslopogaas and his Zulus, except the two who
+had been left behind.
+
+We trekked along a kind of native road over fine veld of the same
+character as that on which Strathmuir stood, having the lower-lying
+bush-veld which ran down to the Zambesi on our right. Before nightfall
+we came to a ridge whereon this bush-veld turned south, fringing that
+tributary of the great river in the swamps of which we were to hunt for
+sea-cows. Here we camped and next morning, leaving the waggon in charge
+of my _voorlooper_ and a couple of the Strathmuir natives, for the
+driver was to act as my gun-bearer—we marched down into the sea of
+bush-veld. It proved to be full of game, but at this we dared not fire
+for fearing of disturbing the hippopotami in the swamps beneath, whence
+in that event they might escape us back to the river.
+
+About midday we passed out of the bush-veld and reached the place where
+the drive was to be. Here, bordered by steep banks covered with bush,
+was swampy ground not more than two hundred yards wide, down the centre
+of which ran a narrow channel of rather deep water, draining a vast
+expanse of morass above. It was up this channel that the sea-cows
+travelled to the feeding ground where they loved to collect at that
+season of the year.
+
+There with the assistance of some of the riverside natives we made our
+preparations under the direction of Captain Robertson. The rest of
+these men, to the number of several hundreds, had made a wide détour to
+the head of the swamps, miles away, whence they were to advance at a
+certain signal. These preparations were simple. A quantity of thorn
+trees were cut down and by means of heavy stones fastened to their
+trunks, anchored in the narrow channel of deep water. To their tops,
+which floated on the placid surface, were tied a variety of rags which
+we had brought with us, such as old red flannel shirts, gay-coloured
+but worn-out blankets, and I know not what besides. Some of these
+fragments also were attached to the anchored ropes under water.
+
+Also we selected places for the guns upon the steep banks that I have
+mentioned, between which this channel ran. Foreseeing what would
+happen, I chose one for myself behind a particularly stout rock and
+what is more, built a stone wall to the height of several feet on the
+landward side of it, as I guessed that the natives posted near to me
+would prove wild in their shooting.
+
+These labours occupied the rest of that day, and at night we retired to
+higher ground to sleep. Before dawn on the following morning we
+returned and took up our stations, some on one side of the channel and
+some on the other which we had to reach in a canoe brought for the
+purpose by the river natives.
+
+Then, before the sun rose, Captain Robertson fired a huge pile of dried
+reeds and bushes, which was to give the signal to the river natives far
+away to begin their beat. This done, we sat down and waited, after
+making sure that every gun had plenty of ammunition ready.
+
+As the dawn broke, by climbing a tree near my _schanze_ or shelter, I
+saw a good many miles away to the south a wide circle of little fires,
+and guessed that the natives were beginning to burn the dry reeds of
+the swamp. Presently these fires drew together into a thin wall of
+flame. Then I knew that it was time to return to the _schanze_ and
+prepare. It was full daylight, however, before anything happened.
+
+Watching the still channel of water, I saw ripples on it and bubbles of
+air rising. Suddenly there appeared the head of a great
+bull-hippopotamus which, having caught sight of our rag barricade,
+either above or below water, had risen to the surface to see what it
+might be. I put a bullet from an eight-bore rifle through its brain,
+whereon it sank, as I guessed, stone dead to the bottom of the channel,
+thus helping to increase the barricade by the bulk of its great body.
+Also it had another effect. I have observed that sea-cows cannot bear
+the smell and taint of blood, which frightens them horribly, so that
+they will expose themselves to almost any risk, rather than get it into
+their nostrils.
+
+Now, in this still water where there was no perceptible current, the
+blood from the dead bull soon spread all about so that when the herd,
+following their leader, began to arrive they were much alarmed. Indeed,
+the first of them on winding or tasting it, turned and tried to get
+back up the channel where, however, they met others following, and
+there ensued a tremendous confusion. They rose to the surface, blowing,
+snorting, bellowing and scrambling over each other in the water, while
+continually more and more arrived behind them, till there was a perfect
+pandemonium in that narrow place.
+
+All our guns opened fire wildly upon the mass; it was like a battle and
+through the smoke I caught sight of the riverside natives who were
+acting as beaters, advancing far away, fantastically dressed, screaming
+with excitement and waving spears, or sometimes torches of flaming
+reeds. Most of these were scrambling along the banks, but some of the
+bolder spirits advanced over the lagoon in canoes, driving the
+hippopotami towards the mouth of the channel by which alone they could
+escape into the great swamps below and so on to the river. In all my
+hunting experience I do not think I ever saw a more remarkable scene.
+Still, in a way, to me it was unpleasant, for I flatter myself that I
+am a sportsman and a battle of this sort is not sport as I understand
+the term.
+
+At length it came to this; the channel for quite a long way was
+literally full of hippopotami—I should think there must have been a
+hundred of them or more of all sorts and sizes, from great bulls down
+to little calves. Some of these were killed, not many, for the shooting
+of our gallant company was execrable and almost at hazard. Also for
+every sea-cow that died, of which number I think that Captain Robertson
+and myself accounted for most—many were only wounded.
+
+Still, the unhappy beasts, crazed with noise and fire and blood, did
+not seem to dare to face our frail barricade, probably for the reason
+that I have given. For a while they remained massed together in the
+water, or under it, making a most horrible noise. Then of a sudden they
+seemed to take a resolution. A few of them broke back towards the
+burning reeds, the screaming beaters and the advancing canoes. One of
+these, indeed, a wounded bull, charged a canoe, crushed it in its huge
+jaws and killed the rower, how exactly I do not know, for his body was
+never found. The majority of them, however, took another counsel, for
+emerging from the water on either side, they began to scramble towards
+us along the steep banks, or even to climb up them with surprising
+agility. It was at this point in the proceedings that I congratulated
+myself earnestly upon the solid character of the water-worn rock which
+I had selected as a shelter.
+
+Behind this rock together with my gun-bearer and Umslopogaas, who, as
+he did not shoot, had elected to be my companion, I crouched and banged
+away at the unwieldy creatures as they advanced. But fire fast as I
+might with two rifles, I could not stop the half of them—they were
+drawing unpleasantly near. I glanced at Umslopogaas and even then was
+amused to see that probably for the first time in his life that
+redoubtable warrior was in a genuine fright.
+
+“This is madness, Macumazahn,” he shouted above the din. “Are we to
+stop here and be stamped flat by a horde of water-pigs?”
+
+“It seems so,” I answered, “unless you prefer to be stamped flat
+outside—or eaten,” I added, pointing to a great crocodile that had also
+emerged from the channel and was coming along towards us with open
+jaws.
+
+“By the Axe!” shouted Umslopogaas again, “I—a warrior—will not die
+thus, trodden on like a slug by an ox.”
+
+Now I have mentioned a tree which I climbed. In his extremity
+Umslopogaas rushed for that tree and went up it like a lamplighter,
+just as the crocodile wriggled past its trunk, snapping at his
+retreating legs.
+
+After this I took no more note of him, partly because of the advancing
+sea-cows, and more for the reason that one of the village natives
+posted above me, firing wildly, put a large round bullet through the
+sleeve of my coat. Indeed, had it not been for the wall which I built
+that protected us, I am certain that both my bearer and I would have
+been killed, for afterwards I found it splashed over with lead from
+bullets which had struck the stones.
+
+Well, thanks to the strength of my rock and to the wall, or as Hans
+said afterwards, to Zikali’s Great Medicine, we escaped unhurt. The
+rush went by me; indeed, I killed one sea-cow so close that the powder
+from the rifle actually burned its hide. But it did go by, leaving us
+untouched. All, however, were not so fortunate, since of the village
+natives two were trampled to death, while a third had his leg broken.
+
+Also, and this was really amusing—a bewildered bull charging at full
+speed, crashed into the trunk of Umslopogaas’ tree, and as it was not
+very thick, snapped it in two. Down came the top in which the dignified
+chief was ensconced like a bird in a nest, though at that moment there
+was precious little dignity about him. However, except for scratches he
+was not hurt, as the hippopotamus had other business in urgent need of
+attention and did not stop to settle with him.
+
+“Such are the things which happen to a man who mixes himself up with
+matters of which he knows nothing,” said Umslopogaas sententiously to
+me afterwards. But all the same he could never bear any allusion to
+this tree-climbing episode in his martial career, which, as it
+happened, had taken place in full view of his retainers, among whom it
+remained the greatest of jokes. Indeed, he wanted to kill a man, the
+wag of the party, who gave him a slang name which, being translated,
+means
+“_He-who-is-so-brave-that-he-dares-to-ride-a-water-horse-up-a-tree._ ”
+
+It was all over at last, for which I thanked Providence devoutly. A
+good many of the sea-cows were dead, I think twenty-one was our exact
+bag, but the majority of them had escaped in one way or another, many
+as I fear, wounded. I imagine that at the last the bulk of the herd
+overcame its fears and swimming through our screen, passed away down
+the channel. At any rate they were gone, and having ascertained that
+there was nothing to be done for the man who had been trampled on my
+side of the channel, I crossed it in the canoe with the object of
+returning quietly to our camp to rest.
+
+But as yet there was to be no quiet for me, for there I found Captain
+Robertson, who I think had been refreshing himself out of a bottle and
+was in a great state of excitement about a native who had been killed
+near him who was a favourite of his, and another whose leg was broken.
+He declared vehemently that the hippopotamus which had done this had
+been wounded and rushed into some bushes a few hundred yards away, and
+that he meant to take vengeance upon it. Indeed, he was just setting
+off to do so.
+
+Seeing his agitated state I thought it wisest to follow him. What
+happened need not be set out in detail. It is sufficient to say that he
+found that hippopotamus and blazed both barrels at it in the bushes,
+hitting it, but not seriously. Out lumbered the creature with its mouth
+open, wishing to escape. Robertson turned to fly as he was in its path,
+but from one cause or another, tripped and fell down. Certainly he
+would have been crushed beneath its huge feet had I not stepped in
+front of him and sent two solid eight-bore bullets down that yawning
+throat, killing it dead within three feet of where Robertson was trying
+to rise, and I may add, of myself.
+
+This narrow escape sobered him, and I am bound to say that his
+gratitude was profuse.
+
+“You are a brave man,” he said, “and had it not been for you by now I
+should be wherever bad people go. I’ll not forget it, Mr. Quatermain,
+and if ever you want anything that John Robertson can give, why, it’s
+yours.”
+
+“Very well,” I answered, being seized by an inspiration, “I do want
+something that you can give easily enough.”
+
+“Give it a name and it’s yours, half my place, if you like.”
+
+“I want,” I went on as I slipped new cartridges into the rifle, “I want
+you to promise to give up drink for your daughter’s sake. That’s what
+nearly did for you just now, you know.”
+
+“Man, you ask a hard thing,” he said slowly. “But by God I’ll try for
+her sake and for yours too.”
+
+Then I went to help to set the leg of the injured man, which was all
+the rest I got that morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THE OATH
+
+
+We spent three more days at that place. First it was necessary to allow
+time to elapse before the gases which generated in their great bodies
+caused those of the sea-cows which had been killed in the water, to
+float. Then they must be skinned and their thick hides cut into strips
+and pieces to be traded for _sjamboks_ or to make small native shields
+for which some of the East Coast tribes will pay heavily.
+
+All this took a long while, during which I amused, or disgusted myself
+in watching those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts. The
+lean, what there was of it, they dried and smoked into a kind of
+“biltong,” but a great deal of the fat they ate at once. I had the
+curiosity to weigh a lump which was given to one thin, hungry-looking
+fellow. It scaled quite twenty pounds. Within four hours he had eaten
+it to the last ounce and lay there, a distended and torpid log. What
+would not we white people give for such a digestion!
+
+At last all was over and we started homewards, the man with a broken
+leg being carried in a kind of litter. On the edge of the bush-veld we
+found the waggon quite safe, also one of Captain Robertson’s that had
+followed us from Strathmuir in order to carry the expected load of
+hippopotamus’ hides and ivory. I asked my _voorlooper_ if anything had
+happened during our absence. He answered nothing, but on the previous
+evening after dark, he had seen a glow in the direction of Strathmuir
+which lay on somewhat lower ground about twenty miles away, as though
+numerous fires had been lighted there. It struck him so much, he added,
+that he climbed a tree to observe it better. He did not think, however,
+that any building had been burned there, as the glow was not strong
+enough for that.
+
+I suggested that it was caused by some grass fire or reed-burning, to
+which he replied indifferently that he did not think so as the line of
+the glow was not sufficiently continuous.
+
+There the matter ended, though I confess that the story made me
+anxious, for what exact reason I could not say. Umslopogaas also, who
+had listened to it, for our talk was in Zulu, looked grave, but made no
+remark. But as since his tree-climbing experience he had been
+singularly silent, of this I thought little.
+
+We had trekked at a time which we calculated would bring us to
+Strathmuir about an hour before sundown, allowing for a short halt half
+way. As my oxen were got in more quickly than those of the other waggon
+after this outspan, I was the first away, followed at a little distance
+by Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk with his Zulus. The truth was
+that I could not get that story about the glow of fires out of my mind
+and was anxious to push on, which had caused me to hurry up the
+inspanning.
+
+Perhaps we had covered a couple of miles of the ten or twelve which
+still lay between us and Strathmuir, when far off on the crest of one
+of the waves of the veld which much resembled those of the swelling sea
+frozen while in motion, I saw a small figure approaching us at a rapid
+trot. Somehow that figure suggested Hans to my mind, so much so that I
+fetched my glasses to examine it more closely. A short scrutiny through
+them convinced me that Hans it was, Hans and no other, advancing at a
+great pace.
+
+Filled with uneasiness, I ordered the driver to flog up the oxen, with
+the result that in a little over five minutes we met. Halting the
+waggon, I leapt from the waggon-box and calling to Umslopogaas who had
+kept up with us at a slow, swinging trot, went to Hans, who, when he
+saw me, stood still at a little distance, swinging his apology for a
+hat in his hand, as was his fashion when ashamed or perplexed.
+
+“What is the matter, Hans?” I asked when we were within speaking
+distance.
+
+“Oh! Baas, everything,” he answered, and I noticed that he kept his
+eyes fixed upon the ground and that his lips twitched.
+
+“Speak, you fool, and in Zulu,” I said, for by now Umslopogaas had
+joined me.
+
+“Baas,” he answered in that tongue, “a terrible thing has come about at
+the farm of Red-Beard yonder. Yesterday afternoon at the time when
+people are in the habit of sleeping there till the sun grows less hot,
+a body of great men with fierce faces who carried big spears—perhaps
+there were fifty of them, Baas—crept up to the place through the long
+grass and growing crops, and attacked it.”
+
+“Did you see them come?” I asked.
+
+“No, Baas. I was watching at a little distance as you bade me do and
+the sun being hot, I shut my eyes to keep out the glare of it, so that
+I did not see them until they had passed me and heard the noise.”
+
+“You mean that you were asleep or drunk, Hans, but go on.”
+
+“Baas, I do not know,” he answered shamefacedly, “but after that I
+climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it” (I
+ascertained afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned palm),
+“and from it I saw everything without being seen.”
+
+“What did you see, Hans?” I asked him.
+
+“I saw the big men run up and make a kind of circle round the village.
+Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see what
+was the matter. Thomaso and some of the men caught sight of them first
+and ran away fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow,
+before the circle was complete. Then the women and the children came
+out and the big men killed them with their spears—all, all!”
+
+“Good God!” I exclaimed. “And what happened at the house and to the
+lady?”
+
+“Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the
+noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came the
+two Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite
+recovered. A number of the big men ran as though to take her, but the
+two Zulus made a great fight in front of the little steps to the stoep,
+having their backs protected by the stoep, and killed six of them
+before they themselves were killed. Also Sad-Eyes shot one with a
+pistol she carried, and wounded another so that the spear fell out of
+his hand.
+
+“Then the rest fell on her and tied her up, setting her in a chair on
+the stoep where two remained to watch her. They did her no hurt, Baas;
+indeed, they seemed to treat her as gently as they could. Also they
+went into the house and there they caught that tall fat yellow girl who
+always smiles and is called Janee, she who waits upon the Lady
+Sad-Eyes, and brought her out to her. I think they told her, Baas, that
+she must look after her mistress and that if she tried to run away she
+would be killed, for afterwards I saw Janee bring her food and other
+things.”
+
+“And then, Hans?”
+
+“Then, Baas, most of the great men rested a while, though some of them
+went through the store gathering such things as they liked, blankets,
+knives and iron cooking-pots, but they set fire to nothing, nor did
+they try to catch the cattle. Also they took dry wood from the pile and
+lit big fires, eight or nine of them, and when the sun set they began
+to feast.”
+
+“What did they feast on, Hans, if they took no cattle?” I asked with a
+shiver, for I was afraid of I knew not what.
+
+“Baas,” answered Hans, turning his head away and looking at the ground,
+“they feasted on the children whom they had killed, also on some of the
+young women. These tall soldiers are men-eaters, Baas.”
+
+At this horrible intelligence I turned faint and felt as though I was
+going to fall, but recovering myself, signed to him to go on with his
+story.
+
+“They feasted quite nicely, Baas,” he continued, “making no noise. Then
+some of them slept while others watched, and that went on all night. As
+soon as it was dark, but before the moon rose, I slid down the tree and
+crept round to the back of the house without being seen or heard, as I
+can, Baas. I got into the house by the back door and crawled to the
+window of the sitting-room. It was open and peeping through I saw
+Sad-Eyes still tied to the seat on the stoep not more than a pace away,
+while the girl Janee crouched on the floor at her feet—I think she was
+asleep or fainting.
+
+“I made a little noise, like a night-adder hissing, and kept on making
+it, till at last Sad-Eyes turned her head. Then I spoke in a very low
+whisper, for fear lest I should wake the two guards who were dozing on
+either side of her wrapped in their blankets, saying, ‘It is I, Hans,
+come to help you.’ ‘You cannot,’ she answered, also speaking very low.
+‘Get to your master and tell him and my father to follow. These men are
+called Amahagger and live far away across the river. They are going to
+take me to their home, as I understand, to rule them, because they want
+a white woman to be a queen over them who have always been ruled by a
+certain white queen, against whom they have rebelled. I do not think
+they mean to do me any harm, unless perhaps they want to marry me to
+their chief, but of this I am not sure from their talk which I
+understand badly. Now go, before they catch you.’
+
+“‘I think you might get away,’ I whispered back. ‘I will cut your
+bonds. When you are free, slip through the window and I will guide
+you.’
+
+“‘Very well, try it,’ she said.
+
+“So I drew my knife and stretched out my arm. But then, Baas, I showed
+myself a fool—if the Great Medicine had still been there I might have
+known better. I forgot the starlight which shone upon the blade of the
+knife. That girl Janee came out of her sleep or swoon, lifted her head
+and saw the knife. She screamed once, then at a word from her mistress
+was silent. But it was enough, for it woke up the guards who glared
+about them and threatened Janee with their great spears, also they went
+to sleep no more, but began to talk together, though what they said I
+could not hear, for I was hiding on the floor of the room. After this,
+knowing that I could do no good and might do harm and get myself
+killed, I crept out of the house as I had crept in, and crawled back to
+my tree.”
+
+“Why did you not come to me?” I asked.
+
+“Because I still hoped I might be able to help Sad-Eyes, Baas. Also I
+wanted to see what happened, and I knew that I could not bring you here
+in time to be any good. Yet it is true I thought of coming though I did
+not know the road.”
+
+“Perhaps you were right.”
+
+“At the first dawn,” continued Hans, “the great men who are called
+Amahagger rose and ate what was left over from the night before. Then
+they gathered themselves together and went to the house. Here they
+found a large chair, that seated with _rimpis_ in which the Baas
+Red-Beard sits, and lashed two poles to the chair. Beneath the chair
+they tied the garments and other things of the Lady Sad-Eyes which they
+made Janee gather as Sad-Eyes directed her. This done, very gently they
+sat Sad-Eyes herself in the chair, bowing while they made her fast.
+After this eight of them set the poles upon their shoulders, and they
+all went away at a trot, heading for the bush-veld, driving with them a
+herd of goats which they had stolen from the farm, and making Janee run
+by the chair. I saw everything, Baas, for they passed just beneath my
+tree. Then I came to seek you, following the outward spoor of the
+waggons which I could not have done well at night. That is all, Baas.”
+
+“Hans,” I said, “you have been drinking and because of it the lady
+Sad-Eyes is taken a prisoner by cannibals; for had you been awake and
+watching, you might have seen them coming and saved her and the rest.
+Still, afterwards you did well, and for the rest you must answer to
+Heaven.”
+
+“I must tell your reverend father, the Predikant, Baas, that the white
+master, Red-Beard, gave me the liquor and it is rude not to do as a
+great white master does, and drink it up. I am sure he will understand,
+Baas,” said Hans abjectly.
+
+I thought to myself that it was true and that the spear which Robertson
+cast had fallen upon his own head, as the Zulus say, but I made no
+answer, lacking time for argument.
+
+“Did you say,” asked Umslopogaas, speaking for the first time, “that my
+servants killed only six of these men-eaters?”
+
+Hans nodded and answered, “Yes, six. I counted the bodies.”
+
+“It was ill done, they should have killed six each,” said Umslopogaas
+moodily. “Well, they have left the more for us to finish,” and he
+fingered the great axe.
+
+Just then Captain Robertson arrived in his waggon, calling out
+anxiously to know what was the matter, for some premonition of evil
+seemed to have struck him. My heart sank at the sight of him, for how
+was I to tell such a story to the father of the murdered children and
+of the abducted girl?
+
+In the end I felt that I could not. Yes, I turned coward and saying
+that I must fetch something out of the waggon, bolted into it, bidding
+Hans go forward and repeat his tale. He obeyed unwillingly enough and
+looking out between the curtains of the waggon tent I saw all that
+happened, though I could not hear the words that passed.
+
+Robertson had halted the oxen and jumping from the waggon-box strode
+forward and met Hans, who began to speak with him, twitching his hat in
+his hands. Gradually as the tale progressed, I saw the Captain’s face
+freeze into a mask of horror. Then he began to argue and deny, then to
+weep—oh! it was a terrible sight to see that great man weeping over
+those whom he had lost, and in such a fashion.
+
+After this a kind of blind rage seized him and I thought he was going
+to kill Hans, who was of the same opinion, for he ran away. Next he
+staggered about, shaking his fists, cursing and shouting, till
+presently he fell of a heap and lay face downwards, beating his head
+against the ground and groaning.
+
+Now I went to him because I must.
+
+He saw me coming and sat up.
+
+“That’s a pretty story, Quatermain, which this little yellow monkey has
+been gibbering at me. Man, do you understand what he says? He says that
+all those half-blood children of mine are dead, murdered by savages
+from over the Zambesi, yes, and eaten, too, with their mothers. Do you
+take the point? Eaten like lambs. Those fires your man saw last night
+were the fires on which they were cooked, my little _so-and-so_ and
+_so-and-so_,” and he mentioned half a dozen different names. “Yes,
+cooked, Quatermain. And that isn’t all of it, they have taken Inez too.
+They didn’t eat her, but they have dragged her off a captive for God
+knows what reason. I couldn’t understand. The whole ship’s crew is
+gone, except the captain absent on leave and the first officer,
+Thomaso, who deserted with some Lascar stokers, and left the women and
+children to their fate. My God, I’m going mad. I’m going mad! If you
+have any mercy in you, give me something to drink.”
+
+“All right,” I said, “I will. Sit here and wait a minute.”
+
+Then I went to the waggon and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into
+which I put an amazing dose of bromide from a little medicine chest I
+always carry with me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it.
+All this compound I mixed up with a little water and took it to him in
+a tin cup so that he could not see the colour.
+
+He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the
+veld, groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance,
+for Hans had joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in
+drought-parched grass.
+
+In a few minutes the drugs began to take effect upon Robertson’s
+tortured nerves, for he rose and said quietly,
+
+“What now?”
+
+“Vengeance, or rather justice,” I answered.
+
+“Yes,” he exclaimed, “vengeance. I swear that I will be avenged, or
+die—or both.”
+
+Again I saw my opportunity and said, “You must swear more than that,
+Robertson. Only sober men can accomplish great things, for drink
+destroys the judgment. If you wish to be avenged for the dead and to
+rescue the living, you must be sober, or I for one will not help you.”
+
+“Will you help me if I do, to the end, good or ill, Quatermain?” he
+added.
+
+I nodded.
+
+“That’s as much as another’s oath,” he muttered. “Still, I will put my
+thought in words. I swear by God, by my mother—like these natives—and
+by my daughter born in honest marriage, that I will never touch another
+drop of strong drink, until I have avenged those poor women and their
+little children, and rescued Inez from their murderers. If I do you may
+put a bullet through me.”
+
+“That’s all right,” I said in an offhand fashion, though inwardly I
+glowed with pride at the success of my great idea, for at the time I
+thought it great, and went on,
+
+“Now let us get to business. The first thing to do is to trek to
+Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail.
+Come to sit on the waggon with me and tell me what guns and ammunition
+you have got, for according to Hans those savages don’t seem to have
+touched anything, except a few blankets and a herd of goats.”
+
+He did as I asked, telling me all he could remember. Then he said,
+
+“It is a strange thing, but now I recall that about two years ago a
+great savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like
+Inez, I understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and
+said he wanted to trade. I asked him what in, and he answered that he
+would like to buy some children. I told him that I was not a
+slave-dealer. Then he looked at Inez, who was moving about, and said
+that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his Chief, and offered
+some fabulous sum in ivory and in gold, which he said should be paid
+before she was taken away. I snatched his big spear from his hand,
+broke it over his head and gave him the best hiding with its shaft that
+he had ever heard of. Then I kicked him off the place. He limped away
+but when he was out of reach, turned and called out that one day he
+would come again with others and take her, meaning Inez, without
+leaving the price in ivory and gold. I ran for my gun, but when I got
+back he had gone and I never thought of the matter again from that day
+to this.”
+
+“Well, he kept his promise,” I said, but Robertson made no answer, for
+by this time that thundering dose of bromide and laudanum had taken
+effect on him and he had fallen asleep, of which I was glad, for I
+thought that this sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for
+a while.
+
+We reached Strathmuir towards sunset, too late to think of attempting
+the pursuit that day. Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter
+out carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be
+useless. We must rest and make preparations; also there was no hope of
+our overtaking these brutes who already had a clear twelve hours’
+start, by a sudden spurt. They must be run down patiently by following
+their spoor, if indeed they could be run down at all before they
+vanished into the vast recesses of unknown Africa. The most we could do
+this night was to get ready.
+
+Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of
+this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not
+pleasant to behold, especially when they are——! Indeed, of these I
+determined to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and
+some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by
+touching such human remnants—I made up two of the smouldering fires,
+the light of which the _voorlooper_ had seen upon the sky, and on to
+them cast, or caused to be cast, those poor fragments. Also I told the
+farm natives to dig a big grave and in it to place the other bodies and
+generally to remove the traces of murder.
+
+Then I went on to the house, and not too soon. Seeing the waggons
+arrive and having made sure that the Amahagger were gone, Thomaso and
+the other cowards emerged from their hiding-places and returned.
+Unfortunately for the former the first person he met was Umslopogaas,
+who began to revile the fat half-breed in no measured terms, calling
+him dog, coward, and other opprobrious names, such as deserter of women
+and children, and so forth—all of which someone translated.
+
+Thomaso, an insolent person, tried to swagger the matter out, saying
+that he had gone to get assistance. Infuriated at this lie, Umslopogaas
+leapt upon him with a roar and though he was a strong man, dealt with
+him as a lion does with a buck. Lifting him from his feet, he hurled
+him to the ground, then as he strove to rise and run, caught him again
+and as it seemed to me, was about to break his back across his knee.
+Just at this juncture I arrived.
+
+“Let the man go,” I shouted to him. “Is there not enough death here
+already?”
+
+“Yes,” answered Umslopogaas, “I think there is. Best that this jackal
+should live to eat his own shame,” and he cast Thomaso to the ground,
+where he lay groaning.
+
+Robertson, who was still asleep in the waggon, woke up at the noise,
+and descended from it, looking dazed. I got him to the house and in
+doing so made my way past, or rather between the bodies of the two
+Zulus and of the six men whom they had killed, also of him whom Inez
+had shot. Those Zulus had made a splendid fight for they were covered
+with wounds, all of them in front, as I found upon examination.
+
+Having made Robertson lie down upon his bed, I took a good look at the
+slain Amahagger. They were magnificent men, all of them; tall, spare
+and shapely with very clear-cut features and rather frizzled hair. From
+these characteristics, as well as the lightness of their colour, I
+concluded that they were of a Semitic or Arab type, and that the
+admixture of their blood with that of the Bantus was but slight, if
+indeed there were any at all. Their spears, of which one had been cut
+through by a blow of a Zulu’s axe, were long and broad, not unlike to
+those used by the Masai, but of finer workmanship.
+
+By this time the sun was setting and thoroughly tired by all that I had
+gone through, I went into the house to get something to eat, having
+told Hans to find food and prepare a meal. As I sat down Robertson
+joined me and I made him also eat. His first impulse was to go to the
+cupboard and fetch the spirit bottle; indeed, he rose to do so.
+
+“Hans is making coffee,” I said warningly.
+
+“Thank you,” he answered, “I forgot. Force of habit, you know.”
+
+Here I may state that never from that moment did I see him touch
+another drop of liquor, not even when I drank my modest tot in front of
+him. His triumph over temptation was splendid and complete, especially
+as the absence of his accustomed potations made him ill for some time
+and of course depressed his spirits, with painful results that were
+apparent in due course.
+
+In fact, the man became totally changed. He grew gloomy but
+resourceful, also full of patience. Only one idea obsessed him—to
+rescue his daughter and avenge the murder of his people; indeed, except
+his sins, he thought of and found interest in nothing else. Moreover,
+his iron constitution cast off all the effects of his past debauchery
+and he grew so strong that although I was pretty tough in those days,
+he could out-tire me.
+
+To return; I engaged him in conversation and with his help made a list
+of what we should require on our vendetta journey, all of which served
+to occupy his mind. Then I sent him to bed, saying that I would call
+him before dawn, having first put a little more bromide into his third
+cup of coffee. After this I turned in and notwithstanding the sight of
+those remains of the cannibal feast and the knowledge of the dead men
+who lay outside my window, I slept like a top.
+
+Indeed, it was the Captain who awakened me, not I the Captain, saying
+that daylight was on the break and we had better be stirring. So we
+went down to the Store, where I was thankful to find that everything
+had been tidied up in accordance with my directions.
+
+On our way Robertson asked me what had become of the remains, whereon I
+pointed to the smouldering ashes of one of the great fires. He went to
+it and kneeling down, said a prayer in broad Scotch, doubtless one that
+he had learned at his mother’s knee. Then he took some of the ashes
+from the edge of the pyre—for such it was—and threw them into the
+glowing embers where, as he knew, lay all that was left of those who
+had sprung from him. Also he tossed others of them into the air, though
+what he meant by this I did not understand and never asked. Probably it
+was some rite indicative of expiation or of revenge, or both, which he
+had learned from the savages among whom he had lived so long.
+
+After this we went into the Store and with the help of some of the
+natives, or half-breeds, who had accompanied us on the sea-cow
+expedition, selected all the goods we wanted, which we sent to the
+house.
+
+As we returned thither I saw Umslopogaas and his men engaged, with the
+usual Zulu ceremonies, in burying their two companions in a hole they
+had made in the hillside. I noted, however, that they did not inter
+their war-axes or their throwing-spears with them as usual, probably
+because they thought that these might be needed. In place of them they
+put with the dead little models roughly shaped of bits of wood, which
+models they “killed” by first breaking them across.
+
+I lingered to watch the funeral and heard Goroko, the witch-doctor,
+make a little speech.
+
+“O Father and Chief of the Axe,” he said, addressing Umslopogaas, who
+stood silent leaning on his weapon and watching all, a portentous
+figure in the morning mist, “O Father, O Son of the Heavens” (this was
+an allusion to the royal blood of Umslopogaas of which the secret was
+well known, although it would never have been spoken aloud in
+Zululand), “O Slaughterer (Bulalio), O Woodpecker who picks at the
+hearts of men; O King-Slayer; O Conqueror of the Halakazi; O Victor in
+a hundred fights; O Gatherer of the Lily-bloom that faded in the hand;
+O Wolf-man, Captain of the Wolves that ravened; O Slayer of Faku; O
+Great One whom it pleases to seem small, because he must follow his
+blood to the end appointed——”
+
+This was the opening of the speech, the “_bonga_-ing” or giving of
+Titles of Praise to the person addressed, of which I have quoted but a
+sample, for there were many more of them that I have forgotten. Then
+the speaker went on,
+
+“It was told to me, though of it I remember nothing, that when my
+Spirit was in me a while ago I prophesied that this place would flow
+with blood, and lo! the blood has flowed, and with it that of these our
+brothers,” and he gave the names of the two dead Zulus, also those of
+their forefathers for several generations.
+
+“It seems, Father, that they died well, as you would have wished them
+to die, and as doubtless they desired to die themselves, leaving a tale
+behind them, though it is true that they might have died better,
+killing more of the men-eaters, as it is certain they would have done,
+had they not been sick inside. They are finished; they have gone beyond
+to await us in the Under-world among the ghosts. Their story is told
+and soon to their children they will be but names whispered in honour
+after the sun has set. Enough of them who have showed us how to die as
+our fathers did before them.”
+
+Goroko paused a while, then added with a waving of his hands,
+
+“My Spirit comes to me again and I know that these our brothers shall
+not pass unavenged. Chief of the Axe, great glory awaits the Axe, for
+it shall feed full. I have spoken.”
+
+“Good words!” grunted Umslopogaas. Then he saluted the dead by raising
+_Inkosikaas_ and came to me to consult about our journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+PURSUIT
+
+
+After all we did not get away much before noon, because first there was
+a great deal to be done. To begin with the loads had to be arranged.
+These consisted largely of ammunition, everything else being cut down
+to an irreducible minimum. To carry them we took two donkeys there were
+on the place, also half a dozen pack oxen, all of which animals were
+supposed to be “salted”—that is, to have suffered and recovered from
+every kind of sickness, including the bite of the deadly tsetse fly. I
+suspected, it is true, that they would not be proof against further
+attacks, still, I hoped that they would last for some time, as indeed
+proved to be the case.
+
+In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best of
+those Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip, to
+serve as bearers when it became necessary. It cannot be said that these
+snuff-and-butter fellows—for most, if not all of them had some dash of
+white blood in their veins—were exactly willing volunteers. Indeed, if
+a choice had been left to them, they would, I think, have declined this
+adventure.
+
+But there was no choice. Their master, Robertson, ordered them to come
+and after a glance at the Zulus they concluded that the command was one
+which would be enforced and that if they stopped behind, it would not
+be as living men. Also some of them had lost wives or children in the
+slaughter, which, if they were not very brave, filled them with a
+desire for revenge. Lastly, they could all shoot after a fashion and
+had good rifles; moreover if I may say so, I think that they put
+confidence in my leadership. So they made the best of a bad business
+and got themselves ready.
+
+Then arrangements must be made about the carrying on of the farm and
+store during our absence. These, together with my waggon and oxen, were
+put in the charge of Thomaso, since there was no one else who could be
+trusted at all—a very battered and crestfallen Thomaso, by the way.
+When he heard of it he was much relieved, since I think he feared lest
+he also should be expected to take part in the hunt of the Amahagger
+man-eaters. Also it may have occurred to him that in all probability
+none of us would ever come back at all, in which case by a process of
+natural devolution, he might find himself the owner of the business and
+much valuable property. However, he swore by sundry saints—for Thomaso
+was nominally a Catholic—that he would look after everything as though
+it were his own, as no doubt he hoped it might become.
+
+“Hearken, fat pig,” said Umslopogaas, Hans obligingly translating so
+that there might be no mistake, “if I come back, and come back I shall
+who travel with the Great Medicine—and find even one of the cattle of
+the white lord, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, missing, or one article
+stolen from his waggon, or the fields of your master not cultivated or
+his goods wasted, I swear by the Axe that I will hew you into pieces
+with the axe; yes, if to do it I have to hunt you from where the sun
+rises to where it sets and down the length of the night between. Do you
+understand, fat pig, deserter of women and children, who to save
+yourself could run faster than a buck?”
+
+Thomaso replied that he understood very clearly indeed, and that,
+Heaven helping him, all should be kept safe and sound. Still, I was
+sure that in his manly heart he was promising great gifts to the saints
+if they would so arrange matters that Umslopogaas and his axe were
+never seen at Strathmuir again, and reflecting that after all the
+Amahagger had their uses. However, as I did not trust him in the least,
+much against their will, I left my driver and _voorlooper_ to guard my
+belongings.
+
+At last we did get off, pursued by the fervent blessings of Thomaso and
+the prayers of the others that we would avenge their murdered
+relatives. We were a curious and motley procession. First went Hans,
+because at following a spoor he was, I believe, almost unequalled in
+Africa, and with him, Umslopogaas, and three of his Zulus to guard
+against surprise. These were followed by Captain Robertson, who seemed
+to prefer to walk alone and whom I thought it best to leave
+undisturbed. Then I came and after me straggled the Strathmuir boys
+with the pack animals, the cavalcade being closed by the remaining
+Zulus under the command of Goroko. These walked last in case any of the
+mixed-bloods should attempt to desert, as we thought it quite probable
+that they would.
+
+Less than an hour’s tramp brought us to the bush-veld where I feared
+that our troubles might begin, since if the Amahagger were cunning,
+they would take advantage of it to confuse or hide their spoor. As it
+chanced, however, they had done nothing of the sort and a child could
+have followed their march. Just before nightfall we came to their first
+halting-place where they had made a fire and eaten one of the herd of
+farm goats which they had driven away with them, although they left the
+cattle, I suppose, because goats are docile and travel well.
+
+Hans showed us everything that had happened; where the chair in which
+Inez was carried was set down, where she and Janee had been allowed to
+walk that she might stretch her stiff limbs, the dregs of some coffee
+that evidently Janee had made in a saucepan, and so forth.
+
+He even told us the exact number of the Amahagger, which he said
+totalled forty-one, including the man whom Inez had wounded. His spoor
+he distinguished from that of the others both by an occasional drop of
+blood and because he walked lightly on his right foot, doubtless for
+the reason that he wished to avoid jarring his wound, which was on that
+side.
+
+At this spot we were obliged to stay till daybreak, since it was
+impossible to follow the spoor by night, a circumstance that gave the
+cannibals a great advantage over us.
+
+The next two days were repetitions of the first, but on the fourth we
+passed out of the bush-veld into the swamp country that bordered the
+great river. Here our task was still easy since the Amahagger had
+followed one of the paths made by the river-dwellers who had their
+habitations on mounds, though whether these were natural or artificial
+I am not sure, and sometimes on floating islands.
+
+On our second day in the reeds we came upon a sad sight. To our left
+stood one of these mound villages, if a village it could be called,
+since it consisted only of four or five huts inhabited perhaps by
+twenty people. We went up to it to obtain information and stumbled
+across the body of an old man lying in the pathway. A few yards further
+on we found the ashes of a big fire and by it such remains as we had
+seen at Strathmuir. Here there had been another cannibal feast. The
+miserable huts were empty, but as at Strathmuir, had not been burnt.
+
+We were going away when the acute ears of Hans caught the sound of
+groans. We searched about and in a clump of reeds near the foot of the
+mound, found an old woman with a great spear wound just above her
+skinny thigh piercing deep into the vitals, but of a nature which is
+not immediately mortal. One of Robertson’s people who understood the
+language of these swamp-dwellers well, spoke to her. She told him that
+she wanted water. It was brought and she drank copiously. Then in
+answer to his questions she began to talk.
+
+She said that the Amahagger had attacked the village and killed all who
+could not escape. They had eaten a young woman and three children. She
+had been wounded by a spear and fled away into the place where we found
+her, where none of them took the trouble to follow her as she “was not
+worth eating.”
+
+By my direction the man asked her whether she knew anything of these
+Amahagger. She replied that her grandfathers had, though she had heard
+nothing of them since she was a child, which must have been seventy
+years before. They were a fierce people who lived far up north across
+the Great River, the remnants of a race that had once “ruled the
+world.”
+
+Her grandfathers used to say that they were not always cannibals, but
+had become so long before because of a lack of food and now had
+acquired the taste. It was for this purpose that they still raided to
+get other people to eat, since their ruler would not allow them to eat
+one another. The flesh of cattle they did not care for, although they
+had plenty of them, but sometimes they ate goats and pigs because they
+said they tasted like man. According to her grandfathers they were a
+very evil people and full of magic.
+
+All of this the old woman told us quite briskly after she had drunk the
+water, I think because her wound had mortified and she felt no pain.
+Her information, however, as is common with the aged, dealt entirely
+with the far past; of the history of the Amahagger since the days of
+her forebears she knew nothing, nor had she seen anything of Inez. All
+she could tell us was that some of them had attacked her village at
+dawn and that when she ran out of the hut she was speared.
+
+While Robertson and I were wondering what we should do with the poor
+old creature whom it seemed cruel to leave here to perish, she cleared
+up the question by suddenly expiring before our eyes. Uttering the name
+of someone with whom, doubtless, she had been familiar in her youth,
+three or four times over, she just sank down and seemed to go to sleep
+and on examination we found that she was dead. So we left her and went
+on.
+
+Next day we came to the edge of the Great River, here a sheet of placid
+running water about a mile across, for at this time of the year it was
+low. Perceiving quite a big village on our left, we went to it and made
+enquiries, to find that it had not been attacked by the cannibals,
+probably because it was too powerful, but that three nights before some
+of their canoes had been stolen, in which no doubt these had crossed
+the river.
+
+As the people of this village had traded with Robertson at Strathmuir,
+we had no difficulty in obtaining other canoes from them in which to
+cross the Zambesi in return for one of our oxen that I could see was
+already sickening from tsetse bite. These canoes were large enough to
+take the donkeys that were patient creatures and stood still, but the
+cattle we could not get into them for fear of an upset. So we killed
+the two driven beasts that were left to us and took them with us as
+dead meat for food, while the three remaining pack oxen we tried to
+swim across, dragging them after the canoes with hide _reims_ round
+their horns. As a result two were drowned, but one, a bold-hearted and
+enterprising animal, gained the other bank.
+
+Here again we struck a sea of reeds in which, after casting about, Hans
+once more found the spoor of the Amahagger. That it was theirs beyond
+doubt was proved by the circumstance that on a thorny kind of weed we
+found a fragment of a cotton dress which, because of the pattern
+stamped on it, we all recognised as one that Inez had been wearing. At
+first I thought that this had been torn off by the thorns, but on
+examination we became certain that it had been placed there purposely,
+probably by Janee, to give us a clue. This conclusion was confirmed
+when at subsequent periods of the hunt we found other fragments of the
+same garment.
+
+Now it would be useless for me to set out the details of this prolonged
+and arduous chase which in all endured for something over three weeks.
+Again and again we lost the trail and were only able to recover it by
+long and elaborate search, which occupied much time. Then, after we
+escaped from the reeds and swamps, we found ourselves upon stony
+uplands where the spoor was almost impossible to follow, indeed, we
+only rediscovered it by stumbling across the dead body of that cannibal
+whom Inez had wounded. Evidently he had perished from his hurt, which I
+could see had mortified. From the state of his remains we gathered that
+the raiders must be about two days’ march ahead of us.
+
+Striking their spoor again on softer ground where the impress of their
+feet remained—at any rate to the cunning sight of Hans—we followed them
+down across great valleys wherein trees grew sparsely, which valleys
+were separated from each other by ridges of high and barren land. On
+these belts of rocky soil our difficulties were great, but here twice
+we were put on the right track by more fragments torn from the dress of
+Inez.
+
+At length we lost the spoor altogether; not a sign of it was to be
+found. We had no idea which way to go. All about us appeared these
+valleys covered with scattered bush running this way and that, so that
+we could not tell which of them to follow or to cross. The thing seemed
+hopeless, for how could we expect to find a little body of men in that
+immensity? Hans shook his head and even the fierce and steadfast
+Robertson was discouraged.
+
+“I fear my poor lassie is gone,” he said, and relapsed into brooding as
+had become his wont.
+
+“Never say die! It’s dogged as does it!” I replied cheerfully in the
+words of Nelson, who also had learned what it meant to hunt an enemy
+over trackless wastes, although his were of water.
+
+I walked to the top of the rise where we were encamped, and sat down
+alone to think matters over. Our condition was somewhat parlous; all
+our beasts were now dead, even the second donkey, which was the last of
+them, having perished that morning, and been eaten, for food was scanty
+since of late we had met with little game. The Strathmuir men, who now
+must carry the loads, were almost worn out and doubtless would have
+deserted, except for the fact that there was no place to which they
+could go. Even the Zulus were discouraged, and said they had come away
+from home across the Great River to fight, not to run about in
+wildernesses and starve, though Umslopogaas made no complaint, being
+buoyed up by the promise of his soothsayer, Goroko, that battle was
+ahead of him in which he would win great glory.
+
+Hans, however, remained cheerful, for the reason, as he remarked
+vacuously, that the Great Medicine was with us and that therefore,
+however bad things seemed to be, all in fact was well; an argument that
+carried no conviction to my soul.
+
+It was on a certain evening towards sunset that I went away thus alone.
+I looked about me, east and west and north. Everywhere appeared the
+same bush-clad valleys and barren rises, miles upon miles of them. I
+bethought me of the map that old Zikali had drawn in the ashes, and
+remembered that it showed these valleys and rises and that beyond them
+there should be a great swamp, and beyond the swamp a mountain. So it
+seemed that we were on the right road to the home of his white Queen,
+if such a person existed, or at any rate we were passing over country
+similar to that which he had pictured or imagined.
+
+But at this time I was not troubling my head about white queens. I was
+thinking of poor Inez. That she was alive a few days before we knew
+from the fragments of her dress. But where was she now? The spoor was
+utterly lost on that stony ground, or if any traces of it remained a
+heavy deluge of rain had washed them away. Even Hans had confessed
+himself beaten.
+
+I stared about me helplessly, and as I did so a flying ray of light
+from the setting sun reflected downwards from a storm-cloud, fell upon
+a white patch on the crest of one of the distant land-waves. It struck
+me that probably limestone outcropped at this spot, as indeed proved to
+be the case; also that such a patch of white would be a convenient
+guide for any who were travelling across that sea of bush. Further,
+some instinct within seemed to impel me to steer for it, although I had
+all but made up my mind to go in a totally different direction many
+more points to the east. It was almost as though a voice were calling
+to me to take this path and no other. Doubtless this was an effect
+produced by weariness and mental overstrain. Still, there it was, very
+real and tangible, one that I did not attempt to combat.
+
+So next morning at the dawn I headed north by west, laying my course
+for that white patch and for the first time breaking the straight line
+of our advance. Captain Robertson, whose temper had not been bettered
+by prolonged and frightful anxiety, or I may add, by his unaccustomed
+abstinence, asked me rather roughly why I was altering the course.
+
+“Look here, Captain,” I answered, “if we were at sea and you did
+something of the sort, I should not put such a question to you, and if
+by any chance I did, I should not expect you to answer. Well, by your
+own wish I am in command here and I think that the same argument
+holds.”
+
+“Yes,” he replied. “I suppose you have studied your chart, if there is
+any of this God-forsaken country, and at any rate discipline is
+discipline. So steam ahead and don’t mind me.”
+
+The others accepted my decision without comment; most of them were so
+miserable that they did not care which way we went, also they were good
+enough to repose confidence in my judgment.
+
+“Doubtless the Baas has reasons,” said Hans dubiously, “although the
+spoor, when last we saw it, headed towards the rising sun and as the
+country is all the same, I do not see why those man-eaters should have
+returned.”
+
+“Yes,” I said, “I have reasons,” although in fact I had none at all.
+
+Hans surveyed me with a watery eye as though waiting for me to explain
+them, but I looked haughty and declined to oblige.
+
+“The Baas has reasons,” continued Hans, “for taking us on what I think
+to be the wrong side of that great ridge, there to hunt for the spoor
+of the men-eaters, and they are so deep down in his mind that he cannot
+dig them up for poor old Hans to look at. Well, the Baas wears the
+Great Medicine and perhaps it is there that the reasons sit. Those
+Strathmuir fellows say that they can go no further and wish to die.
+Umslopogaas has just gone to them with his axe to tell them that he is
+ready to help them to their wish. Look, he has got there, for they are
+coming quickly, who after all prefer to live.”
+
+Well, we started for my white patch of stones which no one else had
+noticed and of which I said nothing to anyone, and reached it by the
+following evening, to find, as I expected, that it was a lime outcrop.
+
+By now we were in a poor way, for we had practically nothing left to
+eat, which did not tend to raise the spirits of the party. Also that
+lime outcrop proved to be an uninteresting spot overlooking a wide
+valley which seemed to suggest that there were other valleys of a
+similar sort beyond it, and nothing more.
+
+Captain Robertson sat stern-faced and despondent at a distance
+muttering into his beard, as had become a habit with him. Umslopogaas
+leaned upon his axe and contemplated the heavens, also occasionally the
+Strathmuir men who cowered beneath his eye. The Zulus squatted about
+sharing such snuff as remained to them in economic pinches. Goroko, the
+witch-doctor, engaged himself in consulting his “Spirit,” by means of
+bone-throwing, upon the humble subject of whether or no we should
+succeed in killing any game for food to-morrow, a point on which I
+gathered that his “Spirit” was quite uncertain. In short, the gloom was
+deep and universal and the sky looked as though it were going to rain.
+
+Hans became sarcastic. Sneaking up to me in his most aggravating way,
+like a dog that means to steal something and cover up the theft with
+simulated affection, he pointed out one by one all the disadvantages of
+our present position. He indicated _per contra_, that if _his_ advice
+had been followed, his conviction was that even if we had not found the
+man-eaters and rescued the lady called Sad-Eyes, our state would have
+been quite different. He was sure, he added, that the valley which he
+had suggested we should follow, was one full of game, inasmuch as he
+had seen their spoor at its entrance.
+
+“Then why did you not say so?” I asked.
+
+Hans sucked at his empty corn-cob pipe, which was his way of indicating
+that he would like me to give him some tobacco, much as a dog groans
+heavily under the table when he wants a bit to eat, and answered that
+it was not for him to point out things to one who knew everything, like
+the great Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, his honoured master. Still, the
+luck did seem to have gone a bit wrong. The privations could have been
+put up with (here he sucked very loudly at the empty pipe and looked at
+mine, which was alight), everything could have been put up with, if
+only there had been a chance of coming even with those men-eaters and
+rescuing the Lady Sad-Eyes, whose face haunted his sleep. As it was,
+however, he was convinced that by following the course I had mapped out
+we had lost their spoor finally and that probably they were now three
+days’ march away in another direction. Still, the Baas had said that he
+had his reasons, and that of course was enough for him, Hans, only if
+the Baas would condescend to tell him, he would as a matter of
+curiosity like to know what the reasons were.
+
+At that moment I confess that, much as I was attached to him, I should
+have liked to murder Hans, who, I felt, believing that he had me “on
+toast,” to use a vulgar phrase, was taking advantage of my position to
+make a mock of me in his sly, Hottentot way.
+
+I tried to continue to look grand, but felt that the attitude did not
+impress. Then I stared about me as though taking counsel with the
+Heavens, devoutly hoping that the Heavens would respond to my mute
+appeal. As a matter of fact they did.
+
+“There is my reason, Hans,” I said in my most icy voice, and I pointed
+to a faint line of smoke rising against the twilight sky on the further
+side of the intervening valley.
+
+“You will perceive, Hans,” I added, “that those Amahagger cannibals
+have forgotten their caution and lit a fire yonder, which they have not
+done for a long time. Perhaps you would like to know why this has
+happened. If so I will tell you. It is because for some days past I
+have purposely lost their spoor, which they knew we were following, and
+lit fires to puzzle them. Now, thinking that they have done with us,
+they have become incautious and shown us where they are. That is my
+reason, Hans.”
+
+He heard and, although of course he did not believe that I had lost the
+spoor on purpose, stared at me till I thought his little eyes were
+going to drop out of his head. But even in his admiration he contrived
+to convey an insult as only a native can.
+
+“How wonderful is the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, that it
+should have been able thus to instruct the Baas,” he said. “Without
+doubt the Great Medicine is right and yonder those men-eaters are
+encamped, who might just as well as have been anywhere else within a
+hundred miles.”
+
+“Drat the Great Medicine,” I replied, but beneath my breath, then added
+aloud,
+
+“Be so good, Hans, as to go to Umslopogaas and to tell him that
+Macumazahn, or the Great Medicine, proposes to march at once to attack
+the camp of the Amahagger, and—here is some tobacco.”
+
+“Yes, Baas,” answered Hans humbly, as he snatched the tobacco and
+wriggled away like a worm.
+
+Then I went to talk with Robertson.
+
+The end of it was that within an hour we were creeping across that
+valley towards the spot where I had seen the line of smoke rising
+against the twilight sky.
+
+Somewhere about midnight we reached the neighbourhood of this place.
+How near or how far we were from it, we could not tell since the moon
+was invisible, as of course the smoke was in the dark. Now the question
+was, what should we do?
+
+Obviously there would be enormous advantages in a night attack, or at
+least in locating the enemy, so that it might be carried out at dawn
+before he marched. Especially was this so, since we were scarcely in a
+condition even if we could come face to face with them, to fight these
+savages when they were prepared and in the light of day. Only we two
+white men, with Hans, Umslopogaas and his Zulus, could be relied upon
+in such a case, since the Strathmuir mixed-bloods had become entirely
+demoralised and were not to be trusted at a pinch. Indeed, tired and
+half starving as we were, none of us was at his best. Therefore a
+surprise seemed our only chance. But first we must find those whom we
+wished to surprise.
+
+Ultimately, after a hurried consultation, it was agreed that Hans and I
+should go forward and see if we could locate the Amahagger. Robertson
+wished to come too, but I pointed out that he must remain to look after
+his people, who, if he left them, might take the opportunity to melt
+away in the darkness, especially as they knew that heavy fighting was
+at hand. Also if anything happened to me it was desirable that one
+white man should remain to lead the party. Umslopogaas, too,
+volunteered, but knowing his character, I declined his help. To tell
+the truth, I was almost certain that if we came upon the men-eaters, he
+would charge the whole lot of them and accomplish a fine but futile end
+after hacking down a number of cannibal barbarians, whose extinction or
+escape remained absolutely immaterial to our purpose, namely, the
+rescue of Inez.
+
+So it came about that Hans and I started alone, I not at all enjoying
+the job. I suppose that there lurks in my nature some of that primeval
+terror of the dark, which must continually have haunted our remote
+forefathers of a hundred or a thousand generations gone and still
+lingers in the blood of most of us. At any rate even if I am named the
+Watcher-by-Night, greatly do I prefer to fight or to face peril in the
+sunlight, though it is true that I would rather avoid both at any time.
+
+In fact, I wished heartily that the Amahagger were at the other side of
+Africa, or in heaven, and that I, completely ignorant of the person
+called Inez Robertson, were seated smoking the pipe of peace on my own
+stoep in Durban. I think that Hans guessed my state of mind, since he
+suggested that he should go alone, adding with his usual unveiled
+rudeness, that he was quite certain that he would do much better
+without me, since white men always made a noise.
+
+“Yes,” I replied, determined to give him a Roland for his Oliver, “I
+have no doubt you would—under the first bush you came across, where you
+would sleep till dawn, and then return and say that you could not find
+the Amahagger.”
+
+Hans chuckled, quite appreciating the joke, and having thus mutually
+affronted each other, we started on our quest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+THE SWAMP
+
+
+Neither Hans nor I carried rifles that we knew would be in the way on
+our business, which was just to scout. Moreover, one is always tempted
+to shoot if a gun is at hand, and this I did not want to do at present.
+So, although I had my revolver in case of urgent necessity, my only
+other weapon was a Zulu axe, that formerly had belonged to one of those
+two men who died defending Inez on the veranda at Strathmuir, while
+Hans had nothing but his long knife. Thus armed, or unarmed, we crept
+forward towards that spot whence, as we conjectured, we had seen the
+line of smoke rising some hours before.
+
+For about a quarter of a mile we went on thus without seeing or hearing
+anything, and a difficult job it was in that gloom among the scattered
+trees with no light save such as the stars gave us. Indeed, I was about
+to suggest that we had better abandon the enterprise until daybreak
+when Hans nudged me, whispering,
+
+“Look to the right between those twin thorns.”
+
+I obeyed and following the line of sight which he had indicated,
+perceived, at a distance of about two hundred yards a faint glow, so
+faint indeed that I think only Hans would have noticed it. Really it
+might have been nothing more than the phosphorescence rising from a
+heap of fungus, or even from a decaying animal.
+
+“The fire of which we saw the smoke that has burnt to ashes,” whispered
+Hans again. “I think that they have gone, but let us look.”
+
+So we crawled forward very cautiously to avoid making the slightest
+noise; so cautiously, indeed, that it must have taken us nearly half an
+hour to cover those two hundred yards.
+
+At length we were within about forty yards of that dying fire and,
+afraid to go further, came to a stand—or rather, a lie-still—behind
+some bushes until we knew more. Hans lifted his head and sniffed with
+his broad nostrils; then he whispered into my ear, but so low that I
+could scarcely hear him.
+
+“Amahagger there all right, Baas, I smell them.”
+
+This of course was possible, since what wind there was blew from the
+direction of the fire, although I whose nose is fairly keen could smell
+nothing at all. So I determined to wait and watch a while, and
+indicated my decision to Hans, who, considering our purpose
+accomplished, showed signs of wishing to retreat.
+
+Some minutes we lay thus, till of a sudden this happened. A branch of
+resinous wood of which the stem had been eaten through by the flames,
+fell upon the ashes of the fire and burnt up with a brilliant light. In
+it we saw that the Amahagger were sleeping in a circle round the fire
+wrapped in their blankets.
+
+Also we saw another thing, namely that nearer to us, not more than a
+dozen yards away, indeed, was a kind of little tent, also made of fur
+rugs or blankets, which doubtless sheltered Inez. Indeed, this was
+evident from the fact that at the mouth of it, wrapped up in something,
+lay none other than her maid, Janee, for her face being towards us, was
+recognised by us both in the flare of the flaming branch. One more
+thing we noted, namely, that two of the cannibals, evidently a guard,
+were sleeping between us and the little tent. Of course they ought to
+have been awake, but fatigue had overcome them and there they
+slumbered, seated on the ground, their heads hanging forward almost
+upon their knees.
+
+An idea came to me. If we could kill those men without waking the
+others in that gloom, it might be possible to rescue Inez at once.
+Rapidly I weighed the _pros_ and _cons_ of such an attempt. Its
+advantages, if successful, were that the object of our pursuit would be
+carried through without further trouble and that it was most doubtful
+whether we should ever get such a chance again. If we returned to fetch
+the others and attacked in force, the probability was that those
+Amahagger, or one of them, would hear some sound made by the advance of
+a number of men, and fly into the darkness; or, rather than lose Inez,
+they might kill her. Or if they stood and fought, she might be slain in
+the scrimmage. Or, as after all we had only about a dozen effectives,
+for the Strathmuir bearers could not be relied upon, they might defeat
+and kill us whom they outnumbered by two or three to one.
+
+These were the arguments for the attempt. Those for not making it were
+equally obvious. To begin with it was one of extraordinary risk; the
+two guards or someone else behind them might wake up—for such people,
+like dogs, mostly sleep with one eye open, especially when they know
+that they are being pursued. Or if they did not we might bungle the
+business so that they raised an outcry before they grew silent for
+ever, in which case both of us and perhaps Inez also would probably pay
+the penalty before we could get away.
+
+Such was the horned dilemma upon one point or other of which we ran the
+risk of being impaled. For a full minute or more I considered the
+matter with an earnestness almost amounting to mental agony, and at
+last all but came to the conclusion that the danger was too enormous.
+It would be better, notwithstanding the many disadvantages of that
+plan, to go back and fetch the others.
+
+But then it was that I made one of my many mistakes in life. Most of us
+do more foolish things than wise ones and sometimes I think that in
+spite of a certain reputation for caution and far-sightedness, I am
+exceptionally cursed in this respect. Indeed, when I look back upon my
+past, I can scarcely see the scanty flowers of wisdom that decorate its
+path because of the fat, ugly trees of error by which it is
+overshadowed.
+
+On that occasion, forgetting past experiences where Hans was concerned,
+my natural tendency to blunder took the form of relying upon another’s
+judgment instead of on my own. Although I had formed a certain view as
+to what should be done, the _pros_ and _cons_ seemed so evenly balanced
+that I determined to consult the little Hottentot and accept his
+verdict. This, after all, was but a form of gambling like pitch and
+toss, since, although it is true Hans was a clever, or at any rate a
+cunning man according to his lights, and experienced, it meant that I
+was placing my own judgment in abeyance, which no one considering a
+life-and-death enterprise should do, taking the chance of that of
+another, whatever it might be. However, not for the first time, I did
+so—to my grief.
+
+In the tiniest of whispers with my lips right against his smelly head,
+I submitted the problem to Hans, asking him what we should do, go on or
+go back. He considered a while, then answered in a voice which he
+contrived to make like the drone of a night beetle.
+
+“Those men are fast asleep, I know it by their breathing. Also the Baas
+has the Great Medicine. Therefore I say go on, kill them and rescue
+Sad-Eyes.”
+
+Now I saw that the Fates to which I had appealed had decided against me
+and that I must accept their decree. With a sick and sinking heart—for
+I did not at all like the business—I wondered for a moment what had led
+Hans to take this view, which was directly opposite to any I had
+expected from him. Of course his superstition about the Great Medicine
+had something to do with it, but I felt convinced that this was not
+all.
+
+Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him, of which the
+first was that he desired, if possible, to put an end to this
+intolerable and unceasing hunt which had worn us all out, no matter
+what that end might be. The second and more powerful, however, was, I
+believed, and rightly, that the idea of this stealthy, midnight blow
+appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild nature in which the
+strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with that of the
+human being. For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer of
+civilisation, Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages
+had preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems.
+
+The die having been cast, in the same infinitesimal whispers we made
+our arrangements, which were few and simple. They amounted to this—that
+we were to creep on to the men and each of us to kill that one who was
+opposite to him, I with the axe and Hans with his knife, remembering
+that it must be done with a single stroke—that is, if they did not wake
+up and kill us—after which we were to get Inez out of her shelter,
+dressed or undressed, and make off with her into the darkness where we
+were pretty sure of being able to baffle pursuit until we reached our
+own camp.
+
+Provided that we could kill the two guards in the proper fashion—rather
+a large proviso, I admit—the thing was simple as shelling peas which,
+notwithstanding the proverb, in my experience is not simple at all,
+since generally the shells crack the wrong way and at least one of the
+peas remained in the pod. So it happened in this case, for Janee, whom
+we had both forgotten, remained in the pod.
+
+I am sure I don’t know why we overlooked her; indeed, the error was
+inexcusable, especially as Hans had already experienced her foolishness
+and she was lying there before our eyes. I suppose that our minds were
+so concentrated upon the guard-killing and the tragic and impressive
+Inez that there was no room in them for the stolid and matter-of-fact
+Janee. At any rate she proved to be the pea that would not come out of
+the pod.
+
+Often in my life I have felt terrified, not being by nature one of
+those who rejoices in dangers and wild adventures for their own sake,
+which only the stupid do, but who has, on the contrary, been forced to
+undertake them by the pressure of circumstances, a kind of hydraulic
+force that no one can resist, and who, having undertaken, has been
+carried through them, triumphing over the shrinkings of his flesh by
+some secret reserve of nerve power. Almost am I tempted to call it
+spirit-power, something that lives beyond and yet inspires our frail
+and fallible bodies.
+
+Well, rarely have I been more frightened than I was at this moment.
+Actually I hung back until I saw that Hans slithering through the grass
+like a thick yellow snake with the great knife in his right hand, was
+quite a foot ahead of me. Then my pride came to the rescue and I
+spurted, if one can spurt upon one’s stomach, and drew level with him.
+After this we went at a pace so slow that any able-bodied snail would
+have left us standing still. Inch by inch we crept forward, lying
+motionless a while after each convulsive movement, once for quite a
+long time, since the left-hand cannibal seemed about to wake up, for he
+opened his mouth and yawned. If so, he changed his mind and rolling
+from a sitting posture on to his side, went to sleep much more soundly
+than before.
+
+A minute or so later the right-hand ruffian, my man, also stirred, so
+sharply that I thought he had heard something. Apparently, however, he
+was only haunted by dreams resulting from an evil life, or perhaps by
+the prescience of its end, for after waving his arm and muttering
+something in a frightened voice, he too, wearied out, poor devil, sank
+back into sleep.
+
+At last we were on them, but paused because we could not see exactly
+where to strike and knew, each of us, that our first blow must be the
+last and fatal. A cloud had come up and dimmed what light there was,
+and we must wait for it to pass. It was a long wait, or so it seemed.
+
+At length that cloud did pass and in faint outline I saw the classical
+head of my Amahagger bowed in deep sleep. With a heart beating as it
+does only in the fierce extremities of love or war, I hissed like a
+snake, which was our agreed signal. Then rising to my knees, I lifted
+the Zulu axe and struck with all my strength.
+
+The blow was straight and true; Umslopogaas himself could not have
+dealt a better. The victim in front of me uttered no sound and made no
+movement; only sank gently on to his side, and there lay as dead as
+though he had never been born.
+
+It appeared that Hans had done equally well, since the other man kicked
+out his long legs, which struck me on the knees. Then he also became
+strangely still. In short, both of them were stone dead and would tell
+no stories this side of Judgment Day.
+
+Recovering my axe, which had been wrenched from my hand, I crept
+forward and opened the curtain-like rugs or blankets, I do not know
+which they were, that covered Inez. I heard her stir at once. The
+movement had wakened her, since captives sleep lightly.
+
+“Make no noise, Inez,” I whispered. “It is I, Allan Quatermain, come to
+rescue you. Slip out and follow me; do you understand?”
+
+“Yes, quite,” she whispered back and began to rise.
+
+At this moment a blood-curdling yell seemed to fill earth and heaven, a
+yell at the memory of which even now I feel faint, although I am
+writing years after its echoes died away.
+
+I may as well say at once that it came from Janee who, awaking
+suddenly, had perceived against the background of the sky, Hans
+standing over her, looking like a yellow devil with a long knife in his
+hand, which she thought was about to be used to murder her.
+
+So, lacking self-restraint, she screamed in the most lusty fashion, for
+her lungs were excellent, and—the game was up.
+
+Instantly every man sleeping round the fire leapt to his feet and
+rushed in the direction of the echoes of Janee’s yell. It was
+impossible to get Inez free of her tent arrangement or to do anything,
+except whisper to her,
+
+“Feign sleep and know nothing. We will follow you. Your father is with
+us.”
+
+Then I bolted back into the bushes, which Hans had reached already.
+
+A minute or two later when we were clear of the hubbub and nearing our
+own camp, Hans remarked to me sententiously,
+
+“The Great Medicine worked well, Baas, but not quite well enough, for
+what medicine can avail against a woman’s folly?”
+
+“It was our own folly we should blame,” I answered. “We ought to have
+known that fool-girl would shriek, and taken precautions.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, we ought to have killed her too, for nothing else would
+have kept her quiet,” replied Hans in cheerful assent. “Now we shall
+have to pay for our mistake, for the hunt must go on.”
+
+At this moment we stumbled across Robertson and Umslopogaas who, with
+the others, and every living thing within a mile or two had also heard
+Janee’s yell, and briefly told our story. When he learned how near we
+had been to rescuing his daughter, Robertson groaned, but Umslopogaas
+only said,
+
+“Well, there are two less of the men-eaters left to deal with. Still,
+for once your wisdom failed you, Macumazahn. When you had found the
+camp you should have returned, so that we might all attack it together.
+Had we done so, before the dawn there would not have been one of them
+left.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “I think that my wisdom did fail me, if I have any
+to fail. But come; perhaps we may catch them yet.”
+
+So we advanced, Hans and I showing the road. But when we reached the
+place it was too late, for all that remained of the Amahagger, or of
+Inez and Janee, were the two dead men whom we had killed, and in that
+darkness pursuit was impossible. So we went back to our own camp to
+rest and await the dawn before taking up the trail, only to find
+ourselves confronted with a new trouble. All the Strathmuir half-breeds
+whom we had left behind as useless, had taken advantage of our absence
+and that of the Zulus, to desert. They had just bolted back upon our
+tracks and vanished into the sea of bush. What became of them I do not
+know, as we never saw them again, but my belief is that these cowardly
+fellows all perished, for certainly not one of them reached Strathmuir.
+
+Fortunately for us, however, they departed in such a hurry that they
+left all their loads behind them, and even some of the guns they
+carried. Evidently Janee’s yell was the last straw which broke the back
+of such nerve as remained to them. Doubtless they believed it to be the
+signal of attack by hordes of cannibals.
+
+As there was nothing to be said or done, since any pursuit of these
+curs was out of the question, we made the best of things as they were.
+It proved a simple business. From the loads we selected such articles
+as were essential, ammunition for the most part, to carry ourselves—and
+the rest we abandoned, hiding it under a pile of stones in case we
+should ever come that way again.
+
+The guns they had thrown aside we distributed among the Zulus who had
+none, though the thought that they possessed them, so far as I was
+concerned, added another terror to life. The prospect of going into
+battle with those wild axemen letting off bullets in every direction
+was not pleasant, but fortunately when that crisis came, they cast them
+away and reverted to the weapons to which they were accustomed.
+
+Now all this sounds much like a tale of disaster, or at any rate of
+failure. It is, however, wonderful by what strange ways good results
+are brought about, so much so that at times I think that these seeming
+accidents must be arranged by an Intelligence superior to our own, to
+fulfil through us purposes of which we know nothing, and frequently, be
+it admitted, of a nature sufficiently obscure. Of course this is a
+fatalistic doctrine, but then, as I have said before, within certain
+limits I am a fatalist.
+
+To take the present case, for instance, the whole Inez episode at first
+sight might appear to be an excrescence on my narrative, of which the
+object is to describe how I met a certain very wonderful woman and what
+I heard and experienced in her company. Yet it is not really so, since
+had it not been for the Inez adventure, it is quite clear that I should
+never have reached the home of this woman, if woman she were, or have
+seen her at all. Before long this became very obvious to me, as shall
+be told.
+
+From the night upon which Hans and I failed to rescue Inez we had no
+more difficulty in following the trail of the cannibals, who
+thenceforward were never more than a few hours ahead of us and had no
+time to be careful or to attempt to hide their spoor. Yet so fast did
+they travel that do what we would, burdened and wearied as we were, it
+proved impossible to overtake them.
+
+For the first three days the track ran on through scattered, rolling
+bush-veld of the character that I have described, but tending
+continually down hill. When we broke camp on the morning of the fourth
+day, eating a hasty meal at dawn (for now game had become astonishingly
+plentiful, so that we did not lack food) the rising sun showed beneath
+us an endless sea of billowy mist stretching in every direction far as
+the sight could carry.
+
+To the north, however, it did come to an end, for there, as I judged
+fifty or sixty miles away, rose the grim outline of what looked like a
+huge fortress, which I knew must be one of those extraordinary mountain
+formations, probably owing their origin to volcanic action, that are to
+be met with here and there in the vast expanses of Central and Eastern
+Africa. Being so distant it was impossible to estimate its size, which
+I guessed must be enormous, but in looking at it I bethought me of that
+great mountain in which Zikali said the marvellous white Queen lived,
+and wondered whether it could be the same, as from my memory of his map
+upon the ashes, it well might be, that is, if such a place existed at
+all. If so the map had shown it as surrounded by swamps and—well,
+surely that mist hid the face of a mighty swamp?
+
+It did indeed, since before nightfall, following the spoor of those
+Amahagger, we had plunged into a morass so vast that in all my
+experience I have never seen or heard of its like. It was a veritable
+ocean of papyrus and other reeds, some of them a dozen or more feet
+high, so that it was impossible to see a yard in any direction.
+
+Here it was that the Amahagger ahead of us proved our salvation, since
+without them to guide us we must soon have perished. For through that
+gigantic swamp there ran a road, as I think an ancient road, since in
+one or two places I saw stone work which must have been laid by man.
+Yet it was not a road which it would have been possible to follow
+without a guide, seeing that it also was overgrown with reeds. Indeed,
+the only difference between it and the surrounding swamp was that on
+the road the soil was comparatively firm, that is to say, one seldom
+sank into it above the knee, whereas on either side of it quagmires
+were often apparently bottomless, and what is more, partook of the
+nature of quicksand.
+
+This we found out soon after we entered the swamp, since Robertson,
+pushing forward with the fierce eagerness which seemed to consume him,
+neglected to keep his eye upon the spoor and stepped off the edge on to
+land that appeared to be exactly similar to its surface. Instantly he
+began to sink in greasy and tenacious mud. Umslopogaas and I were only
+twenty yards behind, yet by the time we reached him in answer to his
+shouts, already he was engulfed up to his middle and going down so
+rapidly that in another minute he would have vanished altogether. Well,
+we got him out but not with ease, for that mud clung to him like the
+tentacles of an octopus. After this we were more careful.
+
+Nor did this road run straight; on the contrary, it curved about and
+sometimes turned at right angles, doubtless to avoid a piece of swamp
+over which it had proved impossible for the ancients to construct a
+causeway, or to follow some out-crop of harder soil beneath.
+
+The difficulties of that horrible place are beyond description, and
+indeed can scarcely be imagined. First there was that of a kind of
+grass which grew among the roots of the reeds and had edges like to
+those of knives. As Robertson and I wore gaiters we did not suffer so
+much from it, but the poor Zulus with their bare legs were terribly cut
+about and in some cases lame.
+
+Then there were the mosquitoes which lived here by the million and all
+seemed anxious for a bite; also snakes of a peculiarly deadly kind were
+numerous. A Zulu was bitten by one of them of so poisonous a nature
+that he died within three minutes, for the venom seemed to go straight
+to his heart. We threw his body into the swamp, where it vanished at
+once.
+
+Lastly there was the all-pervading stench and the intolerable heat of
+the place, since no breath of air could penetrate that forest of reeds,
+while a minor trouble was that of the multitude of leeches which
+fastened on to our bodies. By looking one could see the creatures
+sitting on the under side of leaves with their heads stretched out
+waiting to attack anything that went by. As wayfarers there could not
+have been numerous, I wondered what they had lived on for the last few
+thousand years. By the way, I found that paraffin, of which we had a
+small supply for our hand-lamps, rubbed over all exposed surfaces, was
+to some extent a protection against these blood-sucking worms and the
+gnats, although it did make one go about smelling like a dirty oil tin.
+
+During the day, except for the occasional rush of some great iguana or
+other reptile, and the sound of the wings of the flocks of wildfowl
+passing over us from time to time, the march was deathly silent. But at
+night it was different, for then the bull-frogs boomed incessantly, as
+did the bitterns, while great swamp owls and other night-flying birds
+uttered their weird cries. Also there were mysterious sucking noises
+caused, no doubt, by the sinking of areas of swamp, with those of
+bursting bubbles of foul, up-rushing gas.
+
+Strange lights, too, played about, will-o’-the-wisps or St. Elmo fires,
+as I believe they are called, that frightened the Zulus very much,
+since they believed them to be spirits of the dead. Perhaps this
+superstition had something to do with their native legend that mankind
+was “torn out of the reeds.” If so, they may have imagined that the
+ghosts of men went back to the reeds, of which there were enough here
+to accommodate those of the entire Zulu nation. Any way they were much
+scared; even the bold witch-doctor, Goroko, was scared and went through
+incantations with the little bag of medicines he carried to secure
+protection for himself and his companions. Indeed, I think even the
+iron Umslopogaas himself was not as comfortable as he might have been,
+although he did inform me that he had come out to fight and did not
+care whether it were with man, or wizard, or spirit.
+
+In short, of all the journeys that I have made, with the exception of
+the passage of the desert on our way to King Solomon’s Mines, I think
+that through this enormous swamp was the most miserable. Heartily did I
+curse myself for ever having undertaken such a quest in a wild attempt
+to allay that sickness, or rather to quench that thirst of the soul
+which, I imagine, at times assails most of those who have hearts and
+think or dream.
+
+For this was at the bottom of the business: this it was which had
+delivered me into the hands of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, who, as now I
+am sure, was merely making use of me for his private occult purposes.
+He desired to consult the distant Oracle, if such a person existed, as
+to great schemes of his own, and therefore, to attain his end, made use
+of my secret longings which I had been so foolish as to reveal to him,
+quite careless of what happened to me in the process. [A bit narrow and
+uncharitable, this view. It seems to me that Zikali is taking a big
+risk in giving him the Great Medicine.—JB]
+
+Well, I was in for the business and must follow it to the finish
+whatever that might be. After all it was very interesting and if there
+were anything in what Zikali said (if there were not I could not
+conceive what object he had in sending me on such a wild-goose chase
+through this home of geese and ducks), it might become more interesting
+still. For being pretty well fever-proof I did not think I should die
+in that morass, as of course nine white men out of ten would have done,
+and, beyond it lay the huge mountain which day by day grew larger and
+clearer.
+
+Nor did Hans, who, with a childlike trust, pinned his faith to the
+Great Medicine. This, he remarked, was the worst veld through which he
+had ever travelled, but as the Great Medicine would never consent to be
+buried in that stinking mud, he had no doubt that we should come safely
+through it some time. I replied that this wonderful medicine of his had
+not saved one of our companions who had now made a grave in the same
+mud.
+
+“No, Baas,” he said, “but those Zulus have nothing to do with the
+Medicine which was given to you, and to me who accompanied you when we
+saw the Opener-of-Roads. Therefore perhaps they will all die, except
+Umslopogaas, whom you were told to take with you. If so, what does it
+matter, since there are plenty of Zulus, although there be but one
+Macumazahn or one Hans? Also the Baas may remember that he began by
+offending a snake and therefore it is quite natural that this snake’s
+brother should have bitten the Zulu.”
+
+“If you are right, he should have bitten me, Hans.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, and so no doubt he would have done had you not been
+protected by the Great Medicine, and me too had not my grandfather been
+a snake-charmer, to say nothing of the smell of the Medicine being on
+me as well. The snakes know those that they should bite, Baas.”
+
+“So do the mosquitoes,” I answered, grabbing a handful of them. “The
+Great Medicine has no effect upon them.”
+
+“Oh! yes, Baas, it has, since though it pleases them to bite, the bites
+do us no harm, or at least not much, and all are made happy. Still, I
+wish we could get out of these reeds of which I never want to see
+another, and Baas, please keep your rifle ready for I think I hear a
+crocodile stirring there.”
+
+“No need, Hans,” I remarked sarcastically. “Go and tell him that I have
+the Great Medicine.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, I will; also that if he is very hungry, there are some
+Zulus camped a few yards further down the road,” and he went solemnly
+to the reeds a little way off and began to talk to them.
+
+“You infernal donkey!” I murmured, and drew my blanket over my head in
+a vain attempt to keep out the mosquitoes and smoking furiously with
+the same object, tried to get to sleep.
+
+At last the swamp bottom began to slope upwards a little, with the
+result that as the land dried through natural drainage, the reeds grew
+thinner by degrees, until finally they ceased and we found ourselves on
+firmer ground; indeed, upon the lowest slopes of the great mountain
+that I have mentioned, that now towered above us, forbidden and
+majestic.
+
+I had made a little map in my pocket-book of the various twists and
+turns of the road through that vast Slough of Despond, marking them
+from hour to hour as we followed its devious wanderings. On studying
+this at the end of that part of our journey I realised afresh how
+utterly impossible it would have been for us to thread that misty maze
+where a few false steps would always have meant death by suffocation,
+had it not been for the spoor of those Amahagger travelling immediately
+ahead of us who were acquainted with its secrets. Had they been
+friendly guides they could not have done us a better turn.
+
+What I wondered was why they had not tried to ambush us in the reeds,
+since our fires must have shown them that we were close upon their
+heels. That they did try to burn us out was clear from certain
+evidences that I found, but fortunately at this season of the year in
+the absence of a strong wind the rank reeds were too green to catch
+fire. For the rest I was soon to learn the reason of their neglect to
+attack us in that dense cover.
+
+They were waiting for a better opportunity!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+THE ATTACK
+
+
+We won out of the reeds at last, for which I fervently thanked God,
+since to have crossed that endless marsh unguided, with the loss of
+only one man, seemed little less than miraculous. We emerged from them
+late in the afternoon and being wearied out, stopped for a while to
+rest and eat of the flesh of a buck that I had been fortunate enough to
+shoot upon their fringe. Then we pushed forward up the slope, proposing
+to camp for the night on the crest of it a mile or so away where I
+thought we should escape from the deadly mist in which we had been
+enveloped for so long, and obtain a clear view of the country ahead.
+
+Following the bank of a stream which here ran down into the marsh, we
+came at length to this crest just as the sun was sinking. Below us lay
+a deep valley, a fold, as it were, in the skin of the mountain, well
+but not densely bushed. The woods of this valley climbed up the
+mountain flank for some distance above it and then gave way to grassy
+slopes that ended in steep sides of rock, which were crowned by a black
+and frowning precipice of unknown height.
+
+There was, I remember, something very impressive about this towering
+natural wall, which seemed to shut off whatever lay beyond the gaze of
+man, as though it veiled an ancient mystery. Indeed, the aspect of it
+thrilled me, I knew not why. I observed, however, that at one point in
+the mighty cliff there seemed to be a narrow cleft down which, no
+doubt, lava had flowed in a remote age, and it occurred to me that up
+this cleft ran a roadway, probably a continuation of that by which we
+had threaded the swamp. The fact that through my glasses I could see
+herds of cattle grazing on the slopes of the mountain went to confirm
+this view, since cattle imply owners and herdsmen, and search as I
+would, I could find no native villages on the slopes. The inference
+seemed to be that those owners dwelt beyond or within the mountain.
+
+All of these things I saw and pointed out to Robertson in the light of
+the setting sun.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas had been engaged in selecting the spot where we
+were to camp for the night. Some soldierlike instinct, or perchance
+some prescience of danger, caused him to choose a place particularly
+suitable to defence. It was on a steep-sided mound that more or less
+resembled a gigantic ant-heap. Upon one side this mound was protected
+by the stream which because of a pool was here rather deep, while at
+the back of it stood a collection of those curious and piled-up
+water-worn rocks that are often to be found in Africa. These rocks,
+lying one upon another like the stones of a Cyclopean wall, curved
+round the western side of the mound, so that practically it was only
+open for a narrow space, say thirty or forty feet, upon that face of it
+which looked on to the mountain.
+
+“Umslopogaas expects battle,” remarked Hans to me with a grin,
+“otherwise with all this nice plain round us he would not have chosen
+to camp in a place which a few men could hold against many. Yes, Baas,
+he thinks that those cannibals are going to attack us.”
+
+“Stranger things have happened,” I answered indifferently, and having
+seen to the rifles, went to lie down, observing as I did so that the
+tired Zulus seemed already to be asleep. Only Umslopogaas did not
+sleep. On the contrary, he stood leaning on his axe staring at the dim
+outlines of the opposing precipice.
+
+“A strange mountain, Macumazahn,” he said, “compared to it that of the
+Witch, beneath which my kraal lies, is but a little baby. I wonder what
+we shall find within it. I have always loved mountains, Macumazahn,
+ever since a dead brother of mine and I lived with the wolves in the
+Witch’s lap, for on them I have had the best of my fighting.”
+
+“Perhaps it is not done with yet,” I answered wearily.
+
+“I hope not, Macumazahn, since some is due for us, after all these days
+of mud and stench. Sleep a while now, Macumazahn, for that head of
+yours which you use so much, must need rest. Fear not, I and the little
+yellow man who do not think as much as you do, will keep watch and wake
+you if there is need, as mayhap there will be before the dawn. Here
+none can come at us except in front, and the place is narrow.”
+
+So I lay down and slept as soundly as ever I had done in my life, for a
+space of four or five hours I suppose. Then, by some instinct perhaps,
+I awoke suddenly, feeling much refreshed in that sweet mountain air, a
+new man indeed, and in the moonlight saw Umslopogaas striding towards
+me.
+
+“Arise, Macumazahn,” he said, “I hear men stirring below us.”
+
+At this moment Hans slipped past him, whispering,
+
+“The cannibals are coming, Baas, a good number of them. I think they
+mean to attack before dawn.”
+
+Then he passed behind me to warn the Zulus. As he went by, I said to
+him,
+
+“If so, Hans, now is the time for your Great Medicine to show what it
+can do.”
+
+“The Great Medicine will look after you and me all right, Baas,” he
+replied, pausing and speaking in Dutch, which Umslopogaas did not
+understand, “but I expect there will be fewer of those Zulus to cook
+for before the sun grows hot. Their spirits will be turned into snakes
+and go back into the reeds from which they say they were ‘torn out,’”
+he added over his shoulder.
+
+I should explain that Hans acted as cook to our party and it was a
+grievance with him that the Zulus ate so much of the meat which he was
+called upon to prepare. Indeed, there is never much sympathy between
+Hottentots and Zulus.
+
+“What is the little yellow man saying about us?” asked Umslopogaas
+suspiciously.
+
+“He is saying that if it comes to battle, you and your men will make a
+great fight,” I replied diplomatically.
+
+“Yes, we will do that, Macumazahn, but I thought he said that we should
+be killed and that this pleased him.”
+
+“Oh dear no!” I answered hastily. “How could he be pleased if that
+happened, since then he would be left defenceless, if he were not
+killed too. Now, Umslopogaas, let us make a plan for this fight.”
+
+So, together with Robertson, rapidly we discussed the thing. As a
+result, with the help of the Zulus, we dragged together some loose
+stones and the tops of three small thorn trees which we had cut down,
+and with them made a low breastwork, sufficient to give us some
+protection if we lay down to shoot. It was the work of a few minutes
+since we had prepared the material when we camped in case an emergency
+should arise.
+
+Behind this breastwork we gathered and waited, Robertson and I being
+careful to get a little to the rear of the Zulus, who it will be
+remembered had the rifles which the Strathmuir bastards had left behind
+them when they bolted, in addition to their axes and throwing assegais.
+The question was how these cannibals would fight. I knew that they were
+armed with long spears and knives but I did not know if they used those
+spears for thrusting or for throwing. In the former case it would be
+difficult to get at them with the axes because they must have the
+longer reach. Fortunately as it turned out, they did both.
+
+At length all was ready and there came that long and trying wait, the
+most disagreeable part of a fight in which one grows nervous and begins
+to reflect earnestly upon one’s sins. Clearly the Amahagger, if they
+really intended business, did not mean to attack till just before dawn,
+after the common native fashion, thinking to rush us in the low and
+puzzling light. What perplexed me was that they should wish to attack
+us at all after having let so many opportunities of doing so go by.
+Apparently these men were now in sight of their own home, where no
+doubt they had many friends, and by pushing on could reach its shelter
+before us, especially as they knew the roads and we did not.
+
+They had come out for a secret purpose that seemed to have to do with
+the abduction of a certain young white woman for reasons connected with
+their tribal statecraft or ritual, which is the kind of thing that
+happens not infrequently among obscure and ancient African tribes.
+Well, they had abducted their young woman and were in sight of safety
+and success in their objects, whatever these might be. For what
+possible reason, then, could they desire to risk a fight with the
+outraged friends and relatives of that young woman?
+
+It was true that they outnumbered us and therefore had a good chance of
+victory, but on the other hand, they must know that it would be very
+dearly won, and if it were not won, that we should retake their
+captive, so that all their trouble would have been for nothing. Further
+they must be as exhausted and travel-worn as we were ourselves and in
+no condition to face a desperate battle.
+
+The problem was beyond me and I gave it up with the reflection that
+either this threatened attack was a mere feint to delay us, or that
+behind it was something mysterious, such as a determination to prevent
+us at all hazards from discovering the secrets of that mountain
+stronghold.
+
+When I put the riddle to Hans, who was lying next to me, he was ready
+with another solution.
+
+“They are men-eaters, Baas,” he said, “and being hungry, wish to eat us
+before they get to their own land where doubtless they are not allowed
+to eat each other.”
+
+“Do you think so,” I answered, “when we are so thin?” and I surveyed
+Hans’ scraggy form in the moonlight.
+
+“Oh! yes, Baas, we should be quite good boiled—like old hens, Baas.
+Also it is the nature of cannibals to prefer thin man to fat beef. The
+devil that is in them gives them that taste, Baas, just as he makes me
+like gin, or you turn your head to look at pretty women, as those Zulus
+say you always did in their country, especially at a certain witch who
+was named Mameena and whom you kissed before everybody——”
+
+Here I turned my head to look at Hans, proposing to smite him with
+words, or physically, since to have this Mameena myth, of which I have
+detailed the origin in the book called _Child of Storm_, re-arise out
+of his hideous little mouth was too much. But before I could get out a
+syllable he held up his finger and whispered,
+
+“Hush! the dawn breaks and they come. I hear them.”
+
+I listened intently but could distinguish nothing. Only straining my
+eyes, presently I thought that about a hundred yards down the slope
+beneath us in the dim light I caught sight of ghostlike figures
+flitting from tree to tree; also that these figures were drawing
+nearer.
+
+“Look out!” I said to Robertson on my right, “I believe they are
+coming.”
+
+“Man,” he answered sternly, “I hope so, for whom else have I wanted to
+meet all these days?”
+
+Now the figures vanished into a little fold of the ground. A minute or
+so later they re-appeared upon its hither side where such light as
+there was from the fading stars and the gathering dawn fell full upon
+them, for here were no trees. I looked and a thrill of horror went
+through me, for with one glance I recognised that these were _not the
+men whom we had been following_. To begin with, there were many more of
+them, quite a hundred, I should think, also they had painted shields,
+wore feathers in their hair, and generally so far as I could judge,
+seemed to be fat and fresh.
+
+“We have been led into an ambush,” I said first in Zulu to Umslopogaas
+immediately in front, and then in English to Robertson.
+
+“If so, man, we must just do the best we can,” answered the latter,
+“but God help my poor daughter, for those other devils will have taken
+her away, leaving their brethren to make an end of us.”
+
+“It is so, Macumazahn,” broke in Umslopogaas. “Well, whatever the end
+of it, we shall have a better fight. Now do you give the word and we
+will obey.”
+
+The savages, for so I call them, although I admit that cannibals or
+not, they looked more like high-class Arabs than savages, came on in
+perfect silence, hoping, I suppose, to catch us asleep. When they were
+about fifty yards away, running in a treble line with spears advanced,
+I called out “Fire!” in Zulu, and set the example by loosing off both
+barrels of my express rifle at men whom I had picked out as leaders,
+with results that must have been more satisfactory to me than to the
+two Amahagger whose troubles in this world came to an end.
+
+There followed a tremendous fusillade, the Zulus banging off their guns
+wildly, but even at that distance managing for the most part to shoot
+over the enemy’s heads. Captain Robertson and Hans, however, did better
+and the general result was that the Amahagger, who appeared to be
+unaccustomed to firearms, retreated in a hurry to a fold of the ground
+whence they had emerged. Before the last of them got there I loaded
+again, so that two more stopped behind. Altogether we had put nine or
+ten of them out of action.
+
+Now I hoped that they would give the business up. But this was not so,
+for being brave fellows, after a pause of perhaps five minutes, once
+more they charged in a body, hoping to overwhelm us. Again we greeted
+them with bullets and knocked out several, whereon the rest threw a
+volley of their long spears at us. I was glad to see them do this
+although one of the Zulus got his death from it, while two more were
+wounded. I myself had a very narrow escape, for a spear passed between
+my neck and shoulder. Each of them carried but one of these weapons and
+I knew that if they used them up in throwing, only their big knives
+would remain to them with which to attack us.
+
+After this discharge of spears which was kept up for some time, they
+rushed at us and there followed a great fight. The Zulus, throwing down
+their guns, rose to their feet and holding their little fighting
+shields which had been carried in their mats, in the left hand, wielded
+their axes with the right. Umslopogaas, who stood in the centre of
+them, however, had no shield and swung his great axe with both arms.
+This was the first time that I had seen him fight and the spectacle was
+in a way magnificent. Again and again the axe crashed down and every
+time it fell it left one dead beneath the stroke, till at length those
+Amahagger shrank back out of his reach.
+
+Meanwhile Robertson, Hans and I, standing on some stones at the back,
+kept up a continual fire upon them, shooting over the heads of the
+Zulus, who were playing their part like men. Yes, they shrank back,
+leaving many dead behind them. Then a captain tried to gather them for
+another rush, and once more they moved forward. I killed that captain
+with a revolver shot, for my rifle had become too hot to hold, and at
+the sight of his fall, they broke and ran back into the little hollow
+where our bullets could not reach them.
+
+So far we had held our own, but at a price, for three of the Zulus were
+now dead and three more wounded, one of them severely, the other two
+but enough to cripple them. In fact, now there were left of them but
+three untouched men, and Umslopogaas, so that in all for fighting
+purposes we were but seven. What availed it that we had killed a great
+number of these Amahagger, when we were but seven? How could seven men
+withstand such another onslaught?
+
+There in the pale light of the dawn we looked at each other dismayed.
+
+“Now,” said Umslopogaas, leaning on his red axe, “there remains but one
+thing to do, make a good end, though I would that it were in a greater
+cause. At least we must either fight or fly,” and he looked down at the
+wounded.
+
+“Think not of us, Father,” murmured one of them, the man who had a
+mortal hurt. “If it is best, kill us and begone that you may live to
+bear the Axe in years to come.”
+
+“Well spoken!” said Umslopogaas, and again stood still a while, then
+added, “The word is with you, Macumazahn, who are our captain.”
+
+I set out the situation to Robertson and Hans as briefly as I could,
+showing that there was a chance of life if we ran, but so far as I
+could see, none if we stayed.
+
+“Go if you like, Quatermain,” answered the Captain, “but I shall stop
+and die here, for since my girl is gone I think I’m better dead.”
+
+I motioned to Hans to speak.
+
+“Baas,” he answered, “the Great Medicine is here with us upon the earth
+and your reverend father, the Predikant, is with us in the sky, so I
+think we had better stop here and do what we can, especially as I do
+not want to see those reeds any more at present.”
+
+“So do I,” I said briefly, giving no reasons.
+
+So we made ready for the next attack which we knew would be the last,
+strengthening our little wall and dragging the dead Amahagger up
+against it as an added protection. As we were thus engaged the sun rose
+and in its first beams, some miles away on the opposing slopes of the
+mountain looking tiny against the black background of the precipice, we
+saw a party of men creeping forward. Lifting my glasses I studied it
+and perceived that in its midst was a litter.
+
+“There goes your daughter,” I said, and handed the glasses to
+Robertson.
+
+“Oh! my God,” he answered, “those villains have outwitted us after
+all.”
+
+Another minute and the litter, or rather the chair with its escort, had
+vanished into the shadow of the great cliffs, probably up some pass
+which we could not see.
+
+Next moment our thoughts were otherwise engaged, since from various
+symptoms we gathered that the attack was about to be renewed. Spears
+upon which shone the light of the rising sun, appeared above the edge
+of the ground-fold that I have mentioned, which to the east increased
+to a deep, bush-clad ravine. Also there were voices as of leaders
+encouraging their men to a desperate effort.
+
+“They are coming,” I said to Robertson.
+
+“Yes,” he answered, “they are coming and we are going. It’s a queer end
+to the thing we call life, isn’t it, Quatermain, and hang it all! I
+wonder what’s beyond? Not much for me, I expect, but whatever it is
+could scarcely be worse than what I’ve gone through here below in one
+way and another.”
+
+“There’s hope for all of us,” I replied as cheerfully as I could, for
+the man’s deep depression disturbed me.
+
+“Mayhap, Quatermain, for who knows the infinite mercy of whatever made
+us as we are? My old mother used to preach of it and I remember her
+words now. But in my case I expect it will stop at hope, or sleep, and
+if it wasn’t for Inez, I’d not mind so much, for I tell you I’ve had
+enough of the world and life. Look, there’s one of them. Take that, you
+black devil!” and lifting his rifle he aimed and fired at an Amahagger
+who appeared upon the edge of the fold of ground. What is more he hit
+him, for I saw the man double up and fall backwards.
+
+Then the game began afresh, for the cannibals (I suppose they were
+cannibals like their brethren) crept out of shelter, advancing on their
+stomachs or their hands and knees, so as to offer a smaller mark, and
+dragging between them a long and slender tree-trunk with which clearly
+they intended to batter down our wall.
+
+Of course I blazed away at them, pretty carefully too, for I was
+determined that what I believed to be the last exercise of the gift of
+shooting that has been given to me, should prove a record. Therefore I
+selected my men and even where I would hit them, and as subsequent
+examination showed, I made no mistakes in the seven or eight shots that
+I fired. But all the while, like poor Captain Robertson, I was thinking
+of other things; namely, where I was bound for presently and if I
+should meet certain folk there and what was the meaning of this show
+called Life, which unless it leads somewhere, according to my judgment
+has none at all. Until these questions were solved, however, my duty
+was to kill as many of those ruffians as I could, and this I did with
+finish and despatch.
+
+Robertson and Hans were firing also, with more or less success, but
+there were too many to be stopped by our three rifles. Still they came
+on till at length their fierce faces were within a few yards of our
+little parapet and Umslopogaas had lifted his great axe to give them
+greeting. They paused a moment before making their final rush, and so
+did we to slip in fresh cartridges.
+
+“Die well, Hans,” I said, “and if you get there first, wait for me on
+the other side.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, I always meant to do that, though not yet. We are not going
+to die this time, Baas. Those who have the Great Medicine don’t die; it
+is the others who die, like that fellow,” and he pointed to an
+Amahagger who went reeling round and round with a bullet from his
+Winchester through the middle, for he had fired in the midst of his
+remarks.
+
+“Curse—I mean bless—the Great Medicine,” I said as I lifted my rifle to
+my shoulder.
+
+At that moment all those Amahagger—there were about sixty of them
+left—became seized with a certain perturbation. They stood still, they
+stared towards the fold of ground out of which they had emerged; they
+called to each other words which I did not catch, and then—they turned
+to run.
+
+Umslopogaas saw, and with a leader’s instinct, acted. Springing over
+the parapet, followed by his remaining Zulus of the Axe, he leapt upon
+them with a roar. Down they went before _Inkosikaas_, like corn before
+a sickle. The thing was marvellous to see, it was like the charge of a
+leopard, so swift was the rush and so lightning-like were the strokes
+or rather the pecks of that flashing axe, for now he was tapping at
+their heads or spines with the gouge-like point upon its back. Nor were
+these the only victims, for those brave followers of his also did their
+part. In a minute all who remained upon their feet of the Amahagger
+were in full flight, vanishing this way and that among the trees. Hans
+fired a parting shot after the last of them, then sat down upon a stone
+and finding his corn-cob pipe, proceeded to fill it.
+
+“The Great Medicine, Baas,” he began sententiously, “or perhaps your
+reverend father, the Predikant——” Here he paused and pointed doubtfully
+with the bowl of the pipe towards the fold in the ground, adding, “Here
+it is, but I think it must be your reverend father, not the Great
+Medicine, yes, the Predikant himself, returned from Heaven, the Place
+of Fires!”
+
+Looking vaguely in the direction indicated, for I could not conceive
+what he meant and thought that the excitement must have made him mad, I
+perceived a venerable old man with a long white beard and clothed in a
+flowing garment, also white, who reminded me of Father Christmas at a
+child’s party, walking towards us and radiating benignancy. Also behind
+him I perceived a whole forest of spear points emerging from the gully.
+He seemed to take it for granted that we should not shoot at him, for
+he came on quite unconcerned, carefully picking his way among the
+corpses. When he was near enough he stopped and said in a kind of
+Arabic which I could understand,
+
+“I greet you, Strangers, in the name of her I serve. I see that I am
+just in time, but this does not surprise me, since she said that it
+would be so. You seem to have done very well with these dogs,” and he
+prodded a dead Amahagger with his sandalled foot. “Yes, very well
+indeed. You must be great warriors.”
+
+Then he paused and we stared at each other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL
+
+
+“These do not seem to be friends of yours,” I said, pointing to the
+fallen. “And yet,” I added, nodding towards the spearmen who were now
+emerging from the gully, “they are very like your friends.”
+
+“Puppies from the same litter are often alike, yet when they grow up
+sometimes they fight each other,” replied Father Christmas blandly. “At
+least these come to save and not to kill you. Look! they kill the
+others!” and he pointed to them making an end of some of the wounded
+men. “But who are these?” and he glanced with evident astonishment,
+first at the fearsome-looking Umslopogaas and then at the grotesque
+Hans. “Nay, answer not, you must be weary and need rest. Afterwards we
+can talk.”
+
+“Well, as a matter of fact we have not yet breakfasted,” I replied.
+“Also I have business to attend to here,” and I glanced at our wounded.
+
+The old fellow nodded and went to speak to the captains of his force,
+doubtless as to the pursuit of the enemy, for presently I saw a company
+spring forward on their tracks. Then, assisted by Hans and the
+remaining Zulus, of whom one was Goroko, I turned to attend to our own
+people. The task proved lighter than I expected, since the badly
+injured man was dead or dying and the hurts of the two others were in
+their legs and comparatively slight, such as Goroko could doctor in his
+own native fashion.
+
+After this, taking Hans to guard my back, I went down to the stream and
+washed myself. Then I returned and ate, wondering the while that I
+could do so with appetite after the terrible dangers which we had
+passed. Still, we had passed them, and Robertson, Umslopogaas with
+three of his men, I and Hans were quite unharmed, a fact for which I
+returned thanks in silence but sincerely enough to Providence.
+
+Hans also returned thanks in his own fashion, after he had filled
+himself, not before, and lit his corn-cob pipe. But Robertson made no
+remark; indeed, when he had satisfied his natural cravings, he rose and
+walking a few paces forward, stood staring at the cleft in the mountain
+cliff into which he had seen the litter vanish that bore his daughter
+to some fate unknown.
+
+Even the great fight that we had fought and the victory we had won
+against overpowering odds did not appear to impress him. He only glared
+at the mountain into the heart of which Inez had been raped away, and
+shook his fist. Since she was gone all else went for nothing, so much
+so that he did not offer to assist with the wounded Zulus or show
+curiosity about the strange old man by whom we had been rescued.
+
+“The Great Medicine, Baas,” said Hans in a bewildered way, “is even
+more powerful than I thought. Not only has it brought us safely through
+the fighting and without a scratch, for those Zulus there do not matter
+and there will be less cooking for me to do now that they are gone; it
+has also brought down your reverend father the Predikant from the Place
+of Fires in Heaven, somewhat changed from what I remember him, it is
+true, but still without doubt the same. When I make my report to him
+presently, if he can understand my talk, I shall——”
+
+“Stop your infernal nonsense, you son of a donkey,” I broke in, for at
+this moment old Father Christmas, smiling more benignly than before,
+re-appeared from the kloof into which he had vanished and advanced
+towards us bowing with much politeness.
+
+Having seated himself upon the little wall that we had built up, he
+contemplated us, stroking his beautiful white beard, then said,
+addressing me,
+
+“Of a certainty you should be proud who with a few have defeated so
+many. Still, had I not been ordered to come at speed, I think that by
+now you would have been as those are,” and he looked towards the dead
+Zulus who were laid out at a distance like men asleep, while their
+companions sought for a place to bury them.
+
+“Ordered by whom?” I asked.
+
+“There is only one who can order,” he answered with mild astonishment.
+“‘She-who-commands, She-who-is-everlasting’!”
+
+It occurred to me that this must be some Arabic idiom for the Eternal
+Feminine, but I only looked vague and said,
+
+“It would appear that there are some whom this exalted everlasting She
+cannot command; those who attacked us; also those who have fled away
+yonder,” and I waved my hand towards the mountain.
+
+“No command is absolute; in every country there are rebels, even, as I
+have heard, in Heaven above us. But, Wanderer, what is your name?”
+
+“Watcher-by-Night,” I answered.
+
+“Ah! a good name for one who must have watched well by night, and by
+day too, to reach this country living where She-who-commands says that
+no man of your colour has set foot for many generations. Indeed, I
+think she told me once that two thousand years had gone by since she
+spoke to a white man in the City of Kôr.”
+
+“Did she indeed?” I exclaimed, stifling a cough.
+
+“You do not believe me,” he went on, smiling. “Well, She-who-commands
+can explain matters for herself better than I who was not alive two
+thousand years ago, so far as I remember. But what must I call him with
+the Axe?”
+
+“Warrior is his name.”
+
+“Again a good name, as to judge by the wounds on them, certain of those
+rebels I think are now telling each other in Hell. And this man, if
+indeed he be a man——” he added, looking doubtfully at Hans.
+
+“Light-in-Darkness is his name.”
+
+“I see, doubtless because his colour is that of the winter sun in thick
+fog, or a bad egg broken into milk. And the other white man who mutters
+and whose brow is like a storm?”
+
+“He is called Avenger; you will learn why later on,” I answered
+impatiently, for I grew tired of this catechism, adding, “And what are
+you called and, if you are pleased to tell it to us, upon what errand
+do you visit us in so fortunate an hour?”
+
+“I am named Billali,” he answered, “the servant and messenger of
+She-who-commands, and I was sent to save you and to bring you safely to
+her.”
+
+“How can this be, Billali, seeing that none knew of our coming?”
+
+“Yet She-who-commands knew,” he said with his benignant smile. “Indeed,
+I think that she learned of it some moons ago through a message that
+was sent to her and so arranged all things that you should be guided
+safely to her secret home; since otherwise how would you have passed a
+great pathless swamp with the loss, I think she said, of but one man
+whom a snake bit?”
+
+Now I stared at the old fellow, for how could he know of the death of
+this man, but thought it useless to pursue the conversation further.
+
+“When you are rested and ready,” he went on, “we will start. Meanwhile
+I leave you that I may prepare litters to carry those wounded men, and
+you also, Watcher-by-Night, if you wish.” Then with a dignified bow,
+for everything about this old fellow was stately, he turned and
+vanished into the kloof.
+
+The next hour or so was occupied in the burial of the dead Zulus, a
+ceremony in which I took no part beyond standing up and raising my hat
+as they were borne away, for as I have said somewhere, it is best to
+leave natives alone on these occasions. Indeed, I lay down, reflecting
+that strangely enough there seemed to be something in old Zikali’s tale
+of a wonderful white Queen who lived in a mountain fastness, since
+there was the mountain as he had drawn it on the ashes, and the
+servants of that Queen who, apparently, had knowledge of our coming,
+appeared in the nick of time to rescue us from one of the tightest
+fixes in which ever I found myself.
+
+Moreover, the antique and courteous individual called Billali, spoke of
+her as “She-who-is-everlasting.” What the deuce could he mean by that,
+I wondered? Probably that she was very old and therefore disagreeable
+to look on, which I confessed to myself would be a disappointment.
+
+And how did she know that we were coming? I could not guess and when I
+asked Robertson, he merely shrugged his shoulders and intimated that he
+took no interest in the matter. The truth is that nothing moved the
+man, whose whole soul was wrapped in one desire, namely to rescue, or
+avenge, the daughter against whom he knew he had so sorely sinned.
+
+In fact, this loose-living but reformed seaman was becoming a
+monomaniac, and what is more, one of the religious type. He had a Bible
+with him that had been given to him by his mother when he was a boy,
+and in this he read constantly; also he was always on his knees and at
+night I could hear him groaning and praying aloud. Doubtless now that
+the chains of drink had fallen off him, the instincts and the blood of
+the dour old Covenanters from whom he was descended, were asserting
+themselves. In a way this was a good thing though for some time past I
+had feared lest it should end in his going mad, and certainly as a
+companion he was more cheerful in his unregenerate days.
+
+Abandoning speculation as useless and taking my chance of being
+murdered where I lay, for after all Billali’s followers were singularly
+like the men with whom we had been fighting and for aught I knew might
+be animated by identical objects—I just went to sleep, as I can do at
+any time, to wake up an hour or so later feeling wonderfully refreshed.
+Hans, who when I closed my eyes was already asleep slumbering at my
+feet curled up like a dog on a spot where the sun struck hotly, roused
+me by saying:
+
+“Awake, Baas, they are here!”
+
+I sprang up, snatching at my rifle, for I thought that he meant that we
+were being attacked again, to see Billali advancing at the head of a
+train of four litters made of bamboo with grass mats for curtains and
+coverings, each of which was carried by stalwart Amahagger, as I
+supposed that they must be. Two of these, the finest, Billali indicated
+were for Robertson and myself, and the two others for the wounded.
+Umslopogaas and the remaining Zulus evidently were expected to walk, as
+was Hans.
+
+“How did you make these so quickly,” I asked, surveying their elegant
+and indeed artistic workmanship.
+
+“We did not make them, Watcher-by-Night, we brought them with us folded
+up. She-who-commands looked in her glass and said that four would be
+needed, besides my own which is yonder, two for white lords and two for
+wounded black men, which you see is the number required.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered vaguely, marvelling what kind of a glass it was that
+gave the lady this information.
+
+Before I could inquire upon the point Billali added,
+
+“You will be glad to learn that my men caught some of those rebels who
+dared to attack you, eight or ten of them who had been hurt by your
+missiles or axe-cuts, and put them to death in the proper fashion—yes,
+quite the proper fashion,” and he smiled a little. “The rest had gone
+too far where it would have been dangerous to follow them among the
+rocks. Enter now, my lord Watcher-by-Night, for the road is steep and
+we must travel fast if we would reach the place where She-who-commands
+is camped in the ancient holy city, before the moon sinks behind the
+cliffs to-night.”
+
+So having explained matters to Robertson and Umslopogaas, who announced
+that nothing would induce _him_ to be carried like an old woman, or a
+corpse upon a shield, and seen that the hurt Zulus were comfortably
+accommodated, Robertson and I got into our litters, which proved to be
+delightfully easy and restful.
+
+Then when our gear was collected by the hook-nosed bearers to whom we
+were obliged to trust, though we kept with us our rifles and a certain
+amount of ammunition, we started. First went a number of Billali’s
+spearmen, then came the litters with the wounded alongside of which
+Umslopogaas and his three uninjured Zulus stalked or trotted, then
+another litter containing Billali, then my own by which ran Hans, and
+Robertson’s, and lastly the rest of the Amahagger and the relief
+bearers.
+
+“I see now, Baas,” said Hans, thrusting his head between my curtains,
+“that yonder Whitebeard cannot be your reverend father, the Predikant,
+after all.”
+
+“Why not?” I asked, though the fact was fairly obvious.
+
+“Because, Baas, if he were, he would not have left Hans, of whom he
+always thought so well, to run in the sun like a dog, while he and
+others travel in carriages like great white ladies.”
+
+“You had better save your breath instead of talking nonsense, Hans,” I
+said, “since I believe that you have a long way to go.”
+
+In fact, it proved to be a very long way indeed, especially as after we
+began to breast the mountain, we must travel slowly. We started about
+ten o’clock in the morning, for the fight which after all did not take
+long—had, it will be remembered, begun shortly after dawn, and it was
+three in the afternoon before we reached the base of the towering cliff
+which I have mentioned.
+
+Here, at the foot of a remarkable, isolated column of rock, on which I
+was destined to see a strange sight in the after days, we halted and
+ate of the remaining food which we had brought with us, while the
+Amahagger consumed their own, that seemed to consist largely of curdled
+milk, such as the Zulus call _maas_, and lumps of a kind of bread.
+
+I noted that they were a very curious people who fed in silence and on
+whose handsome, solemn faces one never saw a smile. Somehow it gave me
+the creeps to look at them. Robertson was affected in the same way, for
+in one of the rare intervals of his abstraction he remarked that they
+were “no canny.” Then he added,
+
+“Ask yon old wizard who might be one of the Bible prophets come to
+life—what those man-eating devils have done with my daughter.”
+
+I did so, and Billali answered,
+
+“Say that they have taken her away to make a queen of her, since having
+rebelled against their own queen, they must have another who is white.
+Say too that She-who-commands will wage war on them and perhaps win her
+back, unless they kill her first.”
+
+“Ah!” Robertson repeated when I had translated, “unless they kill her
+first—or worse.” Then he relapsed into his usual silence.
+
+Presently we started on again, heading straight for what looked like a
+sheer wall of black rock a thousand feet or more in height, up a path
+so steep that Robertson and I got out and walked, or rather scrambled,
+in order to ease the bearers. Billali, I noticed, remained in his
+litter. The convenience of the bearers did not trouble him; he only
+ordered an extra gang to the poles. I could not imagine how we were to
+negotiate this precipice. Nor could Umslopogaas, who looked at it and
+said,
+
+“If we are to climb that, Macumazahn, I think that the only one who
+will live to get to the top will be that little yellow monkey of
+yours,” and he pointed with his axe at Hans.
+
+“If I do,” replied that worthy, much nettled, for he hated to be called
+a “yellow monkey” by the Zulus, “be sure that I will roll down stones
+upon any black butcher whom I see sprawling upon the cliff below.”
+
+Umslopogaas smiled grimly, for he had a sense of humour and could
+appreciate a repartee even when it hit him hard. Then we stopped
+talking for the climb took all our breath.
+
+At length we came to the cliff face where, to all appearance, our
+journey must end. Suddenly, however, out of the blind black wall in
+front of us started the apparition of a tall man armed with a great
+spear and wearing a white robe, who challenged us hoarsely.
+
+Suddenly he stood before us, as a ghost might do, though whence he came
+we could not see. Presently the mystery was explained. Here in the
+cliff face there was a cleft, though one invisible even from a few
+paces away, since its outer edge projected over the inner wall of rock.
+Moreover, this opening was not above four feet in width, a mere split
+in the huge mountain mass caused by some titanic convulsion in past
+ages. For it was a definite split since, once entered, far, far above
+could be traced a faint line of light coming from the sky, although the
+gloom of the passage was such that torches, which were stored at hand,
+must be used by those who threaded it. One man could have held the
+place against a hundred—until he was killed. Still, it was guarded, not
+only at the mouth where the warrior had appeared, but further along at
+every turn in the jagged chasm, and these were many.
+
+Into this grim place we went. The Zulus did not like it at all, for
+they are a light-loving people and I noted that even Umslopogaas seemed
+scared and hung back a little. Nor did Hans, who with his usual
+suspicion, feared some trap; nor, for the matter of that, did I, though
+I thought it well to appear much interested. Only Robertson seemed
+quite indifferent and trudged along stolidly after a man carrying a
+torch.
+
+Old Billali put his head out of the litter and shouted back to me to
+fear nothing, since there were no pitfalls in the path, his voice
+echoing strangely between those narrow walls of measureless height.
+
+For half an hour or more we pursued this dreary, winding path round the
+corners of which the draught tore in gusts so fierce that more than
+once the litters with the wounded men and those who bore them were
+nearly blown over. It was safe enough, however, since on either side of
+us, smooth and without break, rose the sheer walls of rock over which
+lay the tiny ribbon of blue sky. At length the cleft widened somewhat
+and the light grew stronger, making the torches unnecessary.
+
+Then of a sudden we came to its end and found ourselves upon a little
+plateau in the mountainside. Behind us for a thousand feet or so rose
+the sheer rock wall as it did upon the outer face, while in front and
+beneath, far beneath, was a beautiful plain circular in shape and of
+great extent, which plain was everywhere surrounded, so far as I could
+see, by the same wall of rock. In short, notwithstanding its enormous
+size, without doubt it was neither more nor less than the crater of a
+vast extinct volcano. Lastly, not far from the centre of this plain was
+what appeared to be a city, since through my glasses I could see great
+walls built of stone, and what I thought were houses, all of them of a
+character more substantial than any that I had discovered in the wilds
+of Africa.
+
+I went to Billali’s litter and asked him who lived in the city.
+
+“No one,” he answered, “it has been dead for thousands of years, but
+She-who-commands is camped there at present with an army, and thither
+we go at once. Forward, bearers.”
+
+So, Robertson and I having re-entered our litters, we started on down
+hill at a rapid pace, for the road, though steep, was safe and kept in
+good order. All the rest of that afternoon we travelled and by sunset
+reached the edge of the plain, where we halted a while to rest and eat,
+till the light of the growing moon grew strong enough to enable us to
+proceed. Umslopogaas came up and spoke to me.
+
+“Here is a fortress indeed, Macumazahn,” he said, “since none can climb
+that fence of rock in which the holes seem to be few and small.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “but it is one out of which those who are in, would
+find it difficult to get out. We are buffaloes in a pit, Umslopogaas.”
+
+“That is so,” he answered, “I have thought it already. But if any would
+meddle with us we still have our horns and can toss for a while.”
+
+Then he went back to his men.
+
+The sunset in that great solemn place was a wonderful thing to see.
+First of all the measureless crater was filled with light like a bowl
+with fire. Then as the great orb sank behind the western cliff, half of
+the plain became quite dark while shadows seemed to rush forward over
+the eastern part of its surface, till that too was swallowed up in
+gloom and for a little while there remained only a glow reflected from
+the cliff face and from the sky above, while on the crest of the
+parapet of rock played strange and glorious fires. Presently these too
+vanished and the world was dark.
+
+Then the half moon broke from behind a bank of clouds and by its
+silver, uncertain light we struggled forward across the flat plain,
+rather slowly now, for even the iron muscles of those bearers grew
+tired. I could not see much of it, but I gathered that we were passing
+through crops, very fine crops to judge by their height, as doubtless
+they would be upon this lava soil; also once or twice we splashed
+through streams.
+
+At length, being tired and lulled by the swaying of the litter and by
+the sound of a weird, low chant that the bearers had set up now that
+they neared home and were afraid of no attack, I sank into a doze. When
+I awoke again it was to find that the litter had halted and to hear the
+voice of Billali say,
+
+“Descend, White Lords, and come with your companions, the black Warrior
+and the yellow man who is named Light-in-Darkness. She-who-commands
+desires to see you at once before you eat and sleep, and must not be
+kept waiting. Fear not for the others, they will be cared for till you
+return.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+THE WHITE WITCH
+
+
+I descended from the litter and told the others what the old fellow had
+said. Robertson did not want to come, and indeed refused to do so until
+I suggested to him that such conduct might prejudice a powerful person
+against us. Umslopogaas was indifferent, putting, as he remarked, no
+faith in a ruler who was a woman.
+
+Only Hans, although he was so tired, acquiesced with some eagerness,
+the fact being that his brain was more alert and that he had all the
+curiosity of the monkey tribe which he so much resembled in appearance,
+and wanted to see this queen whom Zikali revered.
+
+In the end we started, conducted by Billali and by men who carried
+torches whereof the light showed me that we were passing between
+houses, or at any rate walls that had been those of houses, and along
+what seemed to be a paved street.
+
+Walking under what I took to be a great arch or portico, we came into a
+court that was full of towering pillars but unroofed, for I could see
+the stars above. At its end we entered a building of which the doorway
+was hung with mats, to find that it was lighted with lamps and that all
+down its length on either side guards with long spears stood at
+intervals.
+
+“Oh, Baas,” said Hans hesitatingly, “this is the mouth of a trap,”
+while Umslopogaas glared about him suspiciously, fingering the handle
+of his great axe.
+
+“Be silent,” I answered. “All this mountain is a trap, therefore
+another does not matter, and we have our pistols.”
+
+Walking forward between the double line of guards who stood immovable
+as statues, we came to some curtains hung at the end of a long, narrow
+hall which, although I know little of such things, were, I noted, made
+of rich stuff embroidered in colours and with golden threads. Before
+these curtains Billali motioned us to halt.
+
+After a whispered colloquy with someone beyond carried on through the
+join of the curtains, he vanished between them, leaving us alone for
+five minutes or more. At length they opened and a tall and elegant
+woman with an Arab cast of countenance and clad in white robes,
+appeared and beckoned to us to enter. She did not speak or answer when
+I spoke to her, which was not wonderful as afterwards I discovered that
+she was a mute. We went in, I wondering very much what we were going to
+see.
+
+On the further side of the curtains was a room of no great size
+illumined with lamps of which the light fell upon sculptured walls. It
+looked to me as though it might once have been the inmost court or a
+sanctuary of some temple, for at its head was a dais upon which once
+perhaps had stood the shrine or statue of a god. On this dais there was
+now a couch and on the couch—a goddess!
+
+There she sat, straight and still, clothed in shining white and veiled,
+but with her draperies so arranged that they emphasised rather than
+concealed the wonderful elegance of her tall form. From beneath the
+veil, which was such as a bride wears, appeared two plaits of glossy,
+raven hair of great length, to the end of each of which was suspended a
+single large pearl. On either side of her stood a tall woman like to
+her who had led us through the curtains, and on his knees in front, but
+to the right, knelt Billali.
+
+About this seated personage there was an air of singular majesty, such
+as might pervade a queen as fancy paints her, though she had a nobler
+figure than any queen I ever saw depicted. Mystery seemed to flow from
+her; it clothed her like the veil she wore, which of course heightened
+the effect. Beauty flowed from her also; although it was shrouded I
+knew that it was there, no veil or coverings could obscure it—at least,
+to my imagination. Moreover she breathed out power also; one felt it in
+the air as one feels a thunderstorm before it breaks, and it seemed to
+me that this power was not quite human, that it drew its strength from
+afar and dwelt a stranger to the earth.
+
+To tell the truth, although my curiosity, always strong, was enormously
+excited and though now I felt glad that I had attempted this journey
+with all its perils, I was horribly afraid, so much afraid that I
+should have liked to turn and run away. From the beginning I knew
+myself to be in the presence of an unearthly being clothed in soft and
+perfect woman’s flesh, something alien, too, and different from our
+human race.
+
+What a picture it all made! There she sat, quiet and stately as a
+perfect marble statue; only her breast, rising and falling beneath the
+white robe, showed that she was alive and breathed as others do.
+Another thing showed it also—her eyes. At first I could not see them
+through the veil, but presently either because I grew accustomed to the
+light, or because they brightened as those of certain animals have
+power to do when they watch intently, it ceased to be a covering to
+them. Distinctly I saw them now, large and dark and splendid with a
+tinge of deep blue in the iris; alluring and yet awful in their
+majestic aloofness which seemed to look through and beyond, to embrace
+all without seeking and without effort. Those eyes were like windows
+through which light flows from within, a light of the spirit.
+
+I glanced round to see the effect of this vision upon my companions. It
+was most peculiar. Hans had sunk to his knees; his hands were joined in
+the attitude of prayer and his ugly little face reminded me of that of
+a big fish out of water and dying from excess of air. Robertson,
+startled out of his abstraction, stared at the royal-looking woman on
+the couch with his mouth open.
+
+“Man,” he whispered, “I’ve got them back although I have touched
+nothing for weeks, only this time they are lovely. For yon’s no human
+lady, I feel it in my bones.”
+
+Umslopogaas stood great and grim, his hands resting on the handle of
+his tall axe; and he stared also, the blood pulsing against the skin
+that covered the hole in his head.
+
+“Watcher-by-Night,” he said to me in his deep voice, but also speaking
+in a whisper, “this chieftainess is not one woman, but all women.
+Beneath those robes of hers I seem to see the beauty of one who has
+‘gone Beyond,’ of the Lily who is lost to me. Do you not feel it thus,
+Macumazahn?”
+
+Now that he mentioned it, certainly I did; indeed, I had felt it all
+along although amid the rush of sensations this one had scarcely
+disentangled itself in my mind. I looked at the draped shape and
+saw—well, never mind whom I saw; it was not one only but several in
+sequence; also a woman who at that time I did not know although I came
+to know her afterwards, too well, perhaps, or at any rate quite enough
+to puzzle me. The odd thing was that in this hallucination the
+personalities of these individuals seemed to overlap and merge, till at
+last I began to wonder whether they were not parts of the same entity
+or being, manifesting itself in sundry shapes, yet springing from one
+centre, as different coloured rays flow from the same crystal, while
+the beams from their source of light shift and change. But the fancy is
+too metaphysical for my poor powers to express as clearly as I would.
+Also no doubt it was but a hallucination that had its origin, perhaps,
+in the mischievous brain of her who sat before us.
+
+At length she spoke and her voice sounded like silver bells heard over
+water in a great calm. It was low and sweet, oh! so sweet that at its
+first notes for a moment my senses seemed to swoon and my pulse to
+stop. It was to me that she addressed herself.
+
+“My servant here,” and ever so slightly she turned her head towards the
+kneeling Billali, “tells me that you who are named
+Watcher-in-the-Night, understand the tongue in which I speak to you. Is
+it so?”
+
+“I understand Arabic of a kind well enough, having learned it on the
+East Coast and from Arabs in past years, but not such Arabic as you
+use, O——” and I paused.
+
+“Call me _Hiya_,” she broke in, “which is my title here, meaning, as
+you know, She, or Woman. Or if that does not please you, call me
+Ayesha. It would rejoice me after so long to hear the name I bore
+spoken by the lips of one of my colour and of gentle blood.”
+
+I blushed at the compliment so artfully conveyed, and repeated stupidly
+enough,
+
+“—Not such Arabic as you use, O—Ayesha.”
+
+“I thought that you would like the sound of the word better than that
+of _Hiya_, though afterwards I will teach you to pronounce it as you
+should, O—have you any other name save Watcher-by-Night, which seems
+also to be a title?”
+
+“Yes,” I answered. “Allan.”
+
+“—O—Allan. Tell me of these,” she went on quickly, indicating my
+companions with a sweep of her slender hand, “for they do not speak
+Arabic, I think. Or stay, I will tell you of them and you shall say if
+I do so rightly. This one,” and she nodded towards Robertson, “is a man
+bemused. There comes from him a colour which I see if you cannot, and
+that colour betokens a desire for revenge, though I think that in his
+time he has desired other things also, as I remember men always did
+from the beginning, to their ruin. Human nature does not change, Allan,
+and wine and women are ancient snares. Enough of him for this time. The
+little yellow one there is afraid of me, as are all of you. That is
+woman’s greatest power, although she is so weak and gentle, men are
+still afraid of her just because they are so foolish that they cannot
+understand her. To them after a million years she still remains the
+Unknown and to us all the Unknown is also the awful. Do you remember
+the proverb of the Romans that says it well and briefly?”
+
+I nodded, for it was one of the Latin tags that my father had taught
+me.
+
+“Good. Well, he is a little wild man, is he not, nearer to the apes
+from whose race our bodies come? But do you know that, Allan?”
+
+I nodded again, and said,
+
+“There are disputes upon the point, Ayesha.”
+
+“Yes, they had begun in my day and we will discuss them later. Still, I
+say—nearer to the ape than you or I, and therefore of interest, as the
+germ of things is always. Yet he has qualities, I think; cunning, and
+fidelity and love which in its round is all in all. Do you understand,
+Allan, that love is all in all?”
+
+I answered warily that it depended upon what she meant by love, to
+which she replied that she would explain afterwards when we had leisure
+to talk, adding,
+
+“What this little yellow monkey understands by it at least has served
+you well, or so I believe. You shall tell me the tale of it some day.
+Now of the last, this Black One. Here I think is a man indeed, a
+warrior of warriors such as there used to be in the early world, if a
+savage. Well, believe me, Allan, savages are often the best. Moreover,
+all are still savage at heart, even you and I. For what is termed
+culture is but coat upon coat of paint laid on to hide our native
+colour, and often there is poison in the paint. That axe of his has
+drunk deep, I think, though always in fair fight, and I say that it
+shall drink deeper yet. Have I read these men aright, Allan?”
+
+“Not so ill,” I answered.
+
+“I thought it,” she said with a musical laugh, “although at this place
+I rust and grow dull like an unused sword. Now you would rest. Go—all
+of you. To-morrow you and I will talk alone. Fear nothing for your
+safety; you are watched by my slaves and I watch my slaves. Until
+to-morrow, then, farewell. Go now, eat and sleep, as alas we all must
+do who linger on this ball of earth and cling to a life we should do
+well to lose. Billali, lead them hence,” and she waved her hand to
+signify that the audience was ended.
+
+At this sign Hans, who apparently was still much afraid, rose from his
+knees and literally bolted through the curtains. Robertson followed
+him. Umslopogaas stood a moment, drew himself up and lifting the great
+axe, cried _Bayéte_, after which he too turned and went.
+
+“What does that word mean, Allan?” she asked.
+
+I explained that it was the salutation which the Zulu people only give
+to kings.
+
+“Did I not say that savages are often the best?” she exclaimed in a
+gratified voice. “The white man, your companion, gave me no salute, but
+the Black One knows when he stands before a woman who is royal.”
+
+“He too is of royal blood in his own land,” I said.
+
+“If so, we are akin, Allan.”
+
+Then I bowed deeply to her in my best manner and rising from her couch
+for the first time she stood up, looking very tall and commanding, and
+bowed back.
+
+After this I went to find the others on the further side of the
+curtains, except Hans, who had run down the long narrow hall and
+through the mats at its end. We followed, marching with dignity behind
+Billali and between the double line of guards, who raised their spears
+as we passed them, and on the further side of the mats discovered Hans,
+still looking terrified.
+
+“Baas,” he said to me as we threaded our way through the court of
+columns, “in my life I have seen all kinds of dreadful things and faced
+them, but never have I been so much afraid as I am of that white witch.
+Baas, I think that she is the devil of whom your reverend father, the
+Predikant, used to talk so much, or perhaps his wife.”
+
+“If so, Hans,” I answered, “the devil is not so black as he is painted.
+But I advise you to be careful of what you say as she may have long
+ears.”
+
+“It doesn’t matter at all what one says, Baas, because she reads
+thoughts before they pass the lips. I felt her doing it there in that
+room. And do you be careful, Baas, or she will eat up your spirit and
+make you fall in love with her, who, I expect, is very ugly indeed,
+since otherwise she would not wear a veil. Whoever saw a pretty woman
+tie up her head in a sack, Baas?”
+
+“Perhaps she does this because she is so beautiful, Hans, that she
+fears the hearts of men who look upon her would melt.”
+
+“Oh, no, Baas, all women want to melt men’s hearts; the more the
+better. They seem to have other things in their minds, but really they
+think of nothing else until they are too old and ugly, and it takes
+them a long while to be sure of that.”
+
+So Hans went on talking his shrewd nonsense till, following so far as I
+could see, the same road as that by which we had come, we reached our
+quarters, where we found food prepared for us, broiled goat’s flesh
+with corncakes and milk, I think it was; also beds for us two white men
+covered with skin rugs and blankets woven of wool.
+
+These quarters, I should explain, consisted of rooms in a house built
+of stone of which the walls had once been painted. The roof of the
+house was gone now, for we could see the stars shining above us, but as
+the air was very soft in this sheltered plain, this was an advantage
+rather than otherwise. The largest room was reserved for Robertson and
+myself, while another at the back was given to Umslopogaas and his
+Zulus, and a third to the two wounded men.
+
+Billali showed us these arrangements by the light of lamps and
+apologised that they were not better because, as he explained, the
+place was a ruin and there had been no time to build us a house. He
+added that we might sleep without fear as we were guarded and none
+would dare to harm the guests of She-who-commands, on whom he was sure
+we, or at any rate I and the black Warrior, had produced an excellent
+impression. Then he bowed himself out, saying that he would return in
+the morning, and left us to our own devices.
+
+Robertson and I sat down on stools that had been set for us, and ate,
+but he seemed so overcome by his experiences, or by his sombre
+thoughts, that I could not draw him into conversation. All he remarked
+was that we had fallen into queer company and that those who supped
+with Satan needed a long spoon. Having delivered himself of this
+sentiment he threw himself upon the bed, prayed aloud for a while as
+had become his fashion, to be “protected from warlocks and witches,”
+amongst other things, and went to sleep.
+
+Before I turned in I visited Umslopogaas’s room to see that all was
+well with him and his people, and found him standing in the doorway
+staring at the star-spangled sky.
+
+“Greeting, Macumazahn,” he said, “you who are white and wise and I who
+am black and a fighter have seen many strange things beneath the sun,
+but never such a one as we have looked upon to-night. Who and what is
+that chieftainess, Macumazahn?”
+
+“I do not know,” I said, “but it is worth while to have lived to see
+her, even though she be veiled.”
+
+“Nor do I, Macumazahn. Nay, I do know, for my heart tells me that she
+is the greatest of all witches and that you will do well to guard your
+spirit lest she should steal it away. If she were not a witch, should I
+have seemed to behold the shape of Nada the Lily who was the wife of my
+youth, beneath those white robes of hers, and though the tongue in
+which she spoke was strange to me, to hear the murmur of Nada’s voice
+between her lips, of Nada who has gone further from me than those
+stars. It is good that you wear the Great Medicine of Zikali upon your
+breast, Macumazahn, for perhaps it will shield you from harm at those
+hands that are shaped of ivory.”
+
+“Zikali is another of the tribe,” I answered, laughing, “although less
+beautiful to see. Also I am not afraid of any of them, and from this
+one, if she be more than some white woman whom it pleases to veil
+herself, I shall hope to gather wisdom.”
+
+“Yes, Macumazahn, such wisdom as Spirits and the dead have to give.”
+
+“Mayhap, Umslopogaas, but we came here to seek Spirits and the dead,
+did we not?”
+
+“Aye,” answered Umslopogaas, “these and war, and I think that we shall
+find enough of all three. Only I hope that war will come the first,
+lest the Spirits and the dead should bewitch me and take away my skill
+and courage.”
+
+Then we parted, and too tired even to wonder any more, I threw myself
+down on my bed and slept.
+
+I was awakened when the sun was already high, by the sound of
+Robertson, who was on his knees, praying aloud as usual, a habit of his
+which I confess got on my nerves. Prayer, in my opinion, is a private
+matter between man and his Creator, that is, except in church; further,
+I did not in the least wish to hear all about Robertson’s sins, which
+seemed to have been many and peculiar. It is bad enough to have to bear
+the burden of one’s own transgressions without learning of those of
+other people, that is, unless one is a priest and must do so
+professionally. So I jumped up to escape and make arrangements for a
+wash, only to butt into old Billali, who was standing in the doorway
+contemplating Robertson with much interest and stroking his white
+beard.
+
+He greeted me with his courteous bow and said,
+
+“Tell your companion, O Watcher, that it is not necessary for him to go
+upon his knees to She-who-commands—and must be obeyed,” he added with
+emphasis, “when he is not in her presence, and that even then he would
+do well to keep silent, since so much talking in a strange tongue might
+trouble her.”
+
+I burst out laughing and answered,
+
+“He does not go upon his knees and pray to She-who-commands, but to the
+Great One who is in the sky.”
+
+“Indeed, Watcher. Well, here we only know a Great One who is upon the
+earth, though it is true that perhaps she visits the skies sometimes.”
+
+“Is it so, Billali?” I answered incredulously. “And now, I would ask
+you to take me to some place where I can bathe.”
+
+“It is ready,” he replied. “Come.”
+
+So I called to Hans, who was hanging about with a rifle on his arm, to
+follow with a cloth and soap, of which fortunately we had a couple of
+pieces left, and we started along what had once been a paved roadway
+running between stone houses, whereof the time-eaten ruins still
+remained on either side.
+
+“Who and what is this Queen of yours, Billali?” I asked as we went.
+“Surely she is not of the Amahagger blood.”
+
+“Ask it of herself, O Watcher, for I cannot tell you. All I know is
+that I can trace my own family for ten generations and that my tenth
+forefather told his son on his deathbed, for the saying has come down
+through his descendants—that when he was young She-who-commands had
+ruled the land for more scores of years than he could count months of
+life.”
+
+I stopped and stared at him, since the lie was so amazing that it
+seemed to deprive me of the power of motion. Noting my very obvious
+disbelief he continued blandly,
+
+“If you doubt, ask. And now here is where you may bathe.”
+
+Then he led me through an arched doorway and down a wrecked passage to
+what very obviously once had been a splendid bath-house such as some I
+have seen pictures of that were built by the Romans. Its size was that
+of a large room; it was constructed of a kind of marble with a sloping
+bottom that varied from three to seven feet in depth, and water still
+ran in and out of it through large glazed pipes. Moreover round it was
+a footway about five feet across, from which opened chambers, unroofed
+now, that the bathers used as dressing-rooms, while between these
+chambers stood the remains of statues. One at the end indeed, where an
+alcove had protected it from sun and weather, was still quite perfect,
+except for the outstretched arms which were gone (the right hand I
+noticed lying at the bottom of the bath). It was that of a nude young
+woman in the attitude of diving, a very beautiful bit of work, I
+thought, though of course I am no judge of sculpture. Even the smile
+mingled with trepidation upon the girl’s face was most naturally
+portrayed.
+
+This statue showed two things, that the bath was used by females and
+that the people who built it were highly civilised, also that they
+belonged to an advanced if somewhat Eastern race, since the girl’s nose
+was, if anything, Semitic in character, and her lips, though prettily
+shaped, were full. For the rest, the basin was so clean that I presume
+it must have been made ready for me or other recent bathers, and at its
+bottom I discovered gratings and broken pipes of earthenware which
+suggested that in the old days the water could be warmed by means of a
+furnace.
+
+This relic of a long-past civilisation excited Hans even more than it
+did myself, since having never seen anything of the sort, he thought it
+so strange that, as he informed me, he imagined that it must have been
+built by witchcraft. In it I had a most delightful and much-needed
+bath. Even Hans was persuaded to follow my example—a thing I had rarely
+known him to do before—and seated in its shallowest part, splashed some
+water over his yellow, wrinkled anatomy. Then we returned to our house,
+where I found an excellent breakfast had been provided which was
+brought to us by tall, silent, handsome women who surveyed us out of
+the corners of their eyes, but said nothing.
+
+Shortly after I had finished my meal, Billali, who had disappeared,
+came back again and said that She-who-commands desired my presence as
+she would speak with me; also that I must come alone. So, after
+attending to the wounded, who both seemed to be getting on well, I
+went, followed by Hans armed with his rifle, though I only carried my
+revolver. Robertson wished to accompany me, as he did not seem to care
+about being left alone with the Zulus in that strange place, but this
+Billali would not allow. Indeed, when he persisted, two great men
+stepped forward and crossed their spears before him in a somewhat
+threatening fashion. Then at my entreaty, for I feared lest trouble
+should arise, he gave in and returned to the house.
+
+Following our path of the night before, we walked up a ruined street
+which I could see was only one of scores in what had once been a very
+great city, until we came to the archway that I have mentioned, a large
+one now overgrown with plants that from their yellow, sweet-scented
+bloom I judged to be a species of wallflower, also with a kind of
+houseleek or saxifrage.
+
+Here Hans was stopped by guards, Billali explaining to me that he must
+await my return, an order which he obeyed unwillingly enough. Then I
+went on down the narrow passage, lined as before by guards who stood
+silent as statues, and came to the curtains at the end. Before these at
+a motion from Billali, who did not seem to dare to speak in this place,
+I stood still and waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE
+
+
+For some minutes I remained before those curtains until, had it not
+been for something electric in the air which got into my bones, a kind
+of force that, perhaps in my fancy only, seemed to pervade the place, I
+should certainly have grown bored. Indeed I was about to ask my
+companion why he did not announce our arrival instead of standing there
+like a stuck pig with his eyes shut as though in prayer or meditation,
+when the curtains parted and from between them appeared one of those
+tall waiting women whom we had seen on the previous night. She
+contemplated us gravely for a few moments, then moved her hand twice,
+once forward, towards Billali as a signal to him to retire, which he
+did with great rapidity, and next in a beckoning fashion towards myself
+to invite me to follow her.
+
+I obeyed, passing between the thick curtains which she fastened in some
+way behind me, and found myself in the same roofed and sculptured room
+that I have already described. Only now there were no lamps, such light
+as penetrated it coming from an opening above that I could not see, and
+falling upon the dais at its head, also on her who sat upon the dais.
+
+Yes, there she was in her white robes and veil, the point and centre of
+a little lake of light, a wondrous and in a sense a spiritual vision,
+for in truth there was something about her which was not of the world,
+something that drew and yet frightened me. Still as a statue she sat,
+like one to whom time is of no account and who has grown weary of
+motion, and on either side of her yet more still, like caryatides
+supporting a shrine, stood two of the stately women who were her
+attendants.
+
+For the rest a sweet and subtle odour pervaded the chamber which took
+hold of my senses as _hasheesh_ might do, which I was sure proceeded
+from her, or from her garments, for I could see no perfumes burning.
+She spoke no word, yet I knew she was inviting me to come nearer and
+moved forward till I reached a curious carved chair that was placed
+just beneath the dais, and there halted, not liking to sit down without
+permission.
+
+For a long while she contemplated me, for as before I could feel her
+eyes searching me from head to foot and as it were looking through me
+as though she would discover my very soul. Then at length she moved,
+waving those two ivory arms of hers outwards with a kind of swimming
+stroke, whereon the women to right and left of her turned and glided
+away, I know not whither.
+
+“Sit, Allan,” she said, “and let us talk, for I think we have much to
+say to each other. Have you slept well? And eaten?—though I fear that
+the food is but rough. Also was the bath made ready for you?”
+
+“Yes, Ayesha,” I answered to all three questions, adding, for I knew
+not what to say, “It seems to be a very ancient bath.”
+
+“When I last saw it,” she replied, “it was well enough with statues
+standing round it worked by a sculptor who had seen beauty in his
+dreams. But in two thousand years—or is it more?—the tooth of Time
+bites deep, and doubtless like all else in this dead place it is now a
+ruin.”
+
+I coughed to cover up the exclamation of disbelief that rose to my lips
+and remarked blandly that two thousand years was certainly a long time.
+
+“When you say one thing, Allan, and mean another, your Arabic is even
+more vile than usual and does not serve to cloak your thought.”
+
+“It may be so, Ayesha, for I only know that tongue as I do many other
+of the dialects of Africa by learning it from common men. My own speech
+is English, in which, if you are acquainted with it, I should prefer to
+talk.”
+
+“I know not English, which doubtless is some language that has arisen
+since I left the world. Perhaps later you shall teach it to me. I tell
+you, you anger me whom it is not well to anger, because you believe
+nothing that passes my lips and yet do not dare to say so.”
+
+“How can I believe one, Ayesha, who if I understand aright, speaks of
+having seen a certain bath two thousand years ago, whereas one hundred
+years are the full days of man? Forgive me therefore if I cannot
+believe what I know to be untrue.”
+
+Now I thought that she would be very angry and was sorry that I had
+spoken. But as it happened she was not.
+
+“You must have courage to give me the lie so boldly—and I like
+courage,” she said, “who have been cringed to for so long. Indeed, I
+know that you are brave, who have heard how you bore yourself in the
+fight yesterday, and much else about you. I think that we shall be
+friends, but—seek no more.”
+
+“What else should I seek, Ayesha?” I asked innocently.
+
+“Now you are lying again,” she said, “who know well that no man who is
+a man sees a woman who is beautiful and pleases him, without wondering
+whether, should he desire it, she could come to love him, that is, if
+she be young.”
+
+“Which at least is not possible if she has lived two thousand years.
+Then naturally she would prefer to wear a veil,” I said boldly, seeking
+to avoid the argument into which I saw she wished to drag me.
+
+“Ah!” she answered, “the little yellow man who is named
+Light-in-Darkness put that thought into your heart, I think. Oh, do not
+trouble as to how I know it, who have many spies here, as he guessed
+well enough. So a woman who has lived two thousand years must be
+hideous and wrinkled, must she? The stamp of youth and loveliness must
+long have fled from her; of that you, the wise man, are sure. Very
+well. Now you tempt me to do what I had determined I would not do and
+you shall pluck the fruit of that tree of curiosity which grows so fast
+within you. Look, Allan, and say whether I am old and hideous, even
+though I have lived two thousand years upon the earth and mayhap many
+more.”
+
+Then she lifted her hands and did something to her veil, so that for a
+moment—only one moment—her face was revealed, after which the veil fell
+into its place.
+
+I looked, I saw, and if that chair had lacked a back I believe that I
+should have fallen out of it to the ground. As for what I saw—well, it
+cannot be described, at any rate by me, except perhaps as a flash of
+glory.
+
+Every man has dreamed of perfect beauty, basing his ideas of it perhaps
+on that of some woman he has met who chanced to take his fancy, with a
+few accessories from splendid pictures or Greek statues thrown in,
+_plus_ a garnishment of the imagination. At any rate I have, and here
+was that perfect beauty multiplied by ten, such beauty, that at the
+sight of it the senses reeled. And yet I repeat that it is not to be
+described.
+
+I do not know what the nose or the lips were like; in fact, all that I
+can remember with distinctness is the splendour of the eyes, of which I
+had caught some hint through her veil on the previous night. Oh, they
+were wondrous, those eyes, but I cannot tell their colour save that the
+groundwork of them was black. Moreover they seemed to be more than eyes
+as we understand them. They were indeed windows of the soul, out of
+which looked thought and majesty and infinite wisdom, mixed with all
+the allurements and the mystery that we are accustomed to see or to
+imagine in woman.
+
+Here let me say something at once. If this marvellous creature expected
+that the revelation of her splendour was going to make me her slave; to
+cause me to fall in love with her, as it is called, well, she must have
+been disappointed, for it had no such effect. It frightened and in a
+sense humbled me, that is all, for I felt myself to be in the presence
+of something that was not human, something alien to me as a man, which
+I could fear and even adore as humanity would adore that which is
+Divine, but with which I had no desire to mix. Moreover, was it divine,
+or was it something very different? I did not know, I only knew that it
+was not for me; as soon should I have thought of asking for a star to
+set within my lantern.
+
+I think that she felt this, felt that her stroke had missed, as the
+French say, that is if she meant to strike at all at this moment. Of
+this I am not certain, for it was in a changed voice, one with a
+suspicion of chill in it that she said with a little laugh,
+
+“Do you admit now, Allan, that a woman may be old and still remain fair
+and unwrinkled?”
+
+“I admit,” I answered, although I was trembling so much that I could
+hardly speak with steadiness, “that a woman may be splendid and lovely
+beyond anything that the mind of man can conceive, whatever her age, of
+which I know nothing. I would add this, Ayesha, that I thank you very
+much for having revealed to me the glory that is hid beneath your
+veil.”
+
+“Why?” she asked, and I thought that I detected curiosity in her
+question.
+
+“For this reason, Ayesha. Now there is no fear of my troubling you in
+such a fashion as you seemed to dread a little while ago. As soon would
+a man desire to court the moon sailing in her silver loveliness through
+heaven.”
+
+“The moon! It is strange that you should compare me to the moon,” she
+said musingly. “Do you know that the moon was a great goddess in Old
+Egypt and that her name was Isis and—well, once I had to do with Isis?
+Perhaps you were there and knew it, since more lives than one are given
+to most of us. I must search and learn. For the rest, all have not
+thought as you do, Allan. Many, on the contrary, love and seek to win
+the Divine.”
+
+“So do I at a distance, Ayesha, but to come too near to it I do not
+aspire. If I did perhaps I might be consumed.”
+
+“You have wisdom,” she replied, not without a note of admiration in her
+voice. “The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the moths
+which live. Also I think that you have scorched your wings before and
+learned that fire hurts. Indeed, now I remember that I have heard of
+three such fires of love through which you have flown, Allan, though
+all of them are dead ashes now, or shine elsewhere. Two burned in your
+youth when a certain lady died to save you, a great woman that, is it
+not so? And the third, ah! she was fire indeed, though of a copper hue.
+What was her name? I cannot remember, but I think it had something to
+do with the wind, yes, with the wind when it wails.”
+
+I stared at her. Was this Mameena myth to be dug up again in a secret
+place in the heart of Africa? And how the deuce did she know anything
+about Mameena? Could she have been questioning Hans or Umslopogaas? No,
+it was not possible, for she had never seen them out of my presence.
+
+“Perhaps,” she went on in a mocking voice, “perhaps once again you
+disbelieve, Allan, whose cynic mind is so hard to open to new truths.
+Well, shall I show you the faces of these three? I can,” and she waved
+her hand towards some object that stood on a tripod to the right of her
+in the shadow—it looked like a crystal basin. “But what would it serve
+when you who know them so well, believed that I drew their pictures out
+of your own soul? Also perchance but one face would appear and that one
+strange to you. [Lady Ragnall perhaps?—JB]
+
+“Have you heard, Allan, that among the wise some hold that not all of
+us is visible at once here on earth within the same house of flesh;
+that the whole self in its home above, separates itself into sundry
+parts, each of which walks the earth in different form, a segment of
+life’s circle that can never be dissolved and must unite again at
+last?”
+
+I shook my head blankly, for I had never heard anything of the sort.
+
+“You have still much to learn, Allan, although doubtless there are some
+who think you wise,” she went on in the same mocking voice. “Well, I
+hold that this doctrine is built upon a rock of truth; also,” she added
+after studying me for a minute, “that in your case these three women do
+not complete that circle. I think there is a fourth who as yet is
+strange to you in this life, though you have known her well enough in
+others.”
+
+I groaned, imagining that she alluded to herself, which was foolish of
+me, for at once she read my mind and went on with a rather acid little
+laugh,
+
+“No, no, not the humble slave who sits before you, whom, as you have
+told me, it would please you to reject as unworthy were she brought to
+you in offering, as in the old days was done at the courts of the great
+kings of the East. O fool, fool! who hold yourself so strong and do not
+know that if I chose, before yon shadow had moved a finger’s breadth, I
+could bring you to my feet, praying that you might be suffered to kiss
+my robe, yes, just the border of my robe.”
+
+“Then I beg of you not to choose, Ayesha, since I think that when there
+is work to be done by both of us, we shall find more comfort side by
+side than if I were on the ground seeking to kiss a garment that
+doubtless then it would delight you to snatch away.”
+
+At these words her whole attitude seemed to change. I could see her
+lovely shape brace itself up, as it were, beneath her robes and felt in
+some way that her mind had also changed; that it had rid itself of
+mockery and woman’s pique and like a shifting searchlight, was directed
+upon some new objective.
+
+“Work to be done,” she repeated after me in a new voice. “Yes, I thank
+you who bring it to my mind, since the hours pass and that work
+presses. Also I think there is a bargain to be made between us who are
+both of the blood that keeps bargains, even if they be not written on a
+roll and signed and sealed. Why do you come to me and what do you seek
+of me, Allan, Watcher-in-the-Night? Say it and truthfully, for though I
+may laugh at lies and pass them by when they have to do with the
+eternal sword-play which Nature decrees between man and woman, until
+these break apart or, casting down the swords, seek arms in which they
+agree too well, when they have to do with policy and high purpose and
+ambition’s ends, why then I avenge them upon the liar.”
+
+Now I hesitated, as what I had to tell her seemed so foolish, indeed so
+insane, while she waited patiently as though to give me time to shape
+my thoughts. Speaking at last because I must, I said,
+
+“I come to ask you, Ayesha, to show me the dead, if the dead still live
+elsewhere.”
+
+“And who told you, Allan, that I could show you the dead, if they are
+not truly dead? There is but one, I think, and if you are his
+messenger, show me his token. Without it we do not speak together of
+this business.”
+
+“What token?” I asked innocently, though I guessed her meaning well
+enough.
+
+She searched me with her great eyes, for I felt, and indeed saw them on
+me through the veil, then answered,
+
+“I think—nay, let me be sure,” and half rising from the couch, she bent
+her head over the tripod that I have described, and stared into what
+seemed to be a crystal bowl. “If I read aright,” she said,
+straightening herself presently, “it is a hideous thing enough, the
+carving of an abortion of a man such as no woman would care to look on
+lest her babe should bear its stamp. It is a charmed thing also that
+has virtues for him who wears it, especially for you, Allan, since
+something tells me that it is dyed with the blood of one who loved you.
+If you have it, let it be revealed, since without it I do not talk with
+you of these dead you seek.”
+
+Now I drew Zikali’s talisman from its hiding-place and held it towards
+her.
+
+“Give it to me,” she said.
+
+I was about to obey when something seemed to warn me not to do so.
+
+“Nay,” I answered, “he who lent me this carving for a while, charged me
+that except in emergency and to save others, I must wear it night and
+day till I returned it to his hand, saying that if I parted from it
+fortune would desert me. I believe none of this talk and tried to be
+rid of it, whereon death drew near to me from a snake, such a snake as
+I see you wear about you, which doubtless also has poison in its fangs,
+if of another sort, Ayesha.”
+
+“Draw near,” she said, “and let me look. Man, be not afraid.”
+
+So I rose from my chair and knelt before her, hoping secretly that no
+one would see me in that ridiculous position, which the most
+unsuspicious might misinterpret. I admit, however, that it proved to
+have compensations, since even through the veil I saw her marvellous
+eyes better than I had done before, and something of the pure outline
+of her classic face; also the fragrance of her hair was wonderful.
+
+She took the talisman in her hand and examined it closely.
+
+“I have heard of this charm and it is true that the thing has power,”
+she said, “for I can feel it running through my veins, also that it is
+a shield of defence to him who wears it. Yes, and now I understand what
+perplexed me somewhat, namely, how it came about that when you vexed me
+into unveiling—but let that matter be. The wisdom was not your own, but
+another’s, that is all. Yes, the wisdom of one whose years have borne
+him beyond the shafts that fly from woman’s eyes, the ruinous shafts
+which bring men down to doom and nothingness. Tell me, Allan, is this
+the likeness of him who gave it to you?”
+
+“Yes, Ayesha, the very picture, as I think, carved by himself, though
+he said that it is ancient, and others tell that it has been known in
+the land for centuries.”
+
+“So perchance has he,” she answered drily, “since some of our company
+live long. Now tell me this wizard’s names. Nay, wait awhile for I
+would prove that indeed you are his messenger with whom I may talk
+about the dead, and other things, Allan. You can read Arabic, can you
+not?”
+
+“A little,” I answered.
+
+Then from a stool at her side she took paper, or rather papyrus and a
+reed pen, and on her knee wrote something on the sheet which she gave
+to me folded up.
+
+“Now tell me the names,” she said, “and then let us see if they tally
+with what I have written, for if so you are a true man, not a mere
+wanderer or a spy.”
+
+“The principal names of this doctor are Zikali, the Opener-of-Roads,
+the ‘_Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born_,’” I answered.
+
+“Read the writing, Allan,” she said.
+
+I unfolded the sheet and read Arabic words which meant, “Weapons,
+Cleaver-of-Rocks, One-at-whom-dogs-bark-and-children-wail.”
+
+“The last two are near enough,” she said, “but the first is wrong.”
+
+“Nay, Ayesha, since in this man’s tongue the word ‘Zikali’ means
+‘Weapons’”; intelligence at which she clapped her hands as a merry girl
+might do. “The man,” I went on, “is without doubt a great doctor, one
+who sees and knows things that others do not, but I do not understand
+why this token carved in his likeness should have power, as you say it
+has.”
+
+“Because with it goes his spirit, Allan. Have you never heard of the
+Egyptians, a very wise people who, as I remember, declared that man has
+a _Ka_ or Double, a second self, that can either dwell in his statue or
+be sent afar?”
+
+I answered that I had heard this.
+
+“Well the _Ka_ of this Zikali goes with that hideous image of him,
+which is perhaps why you have come safe through many dangers and why
+also I seemed to dream so much of him last night. Tell me now, what
+does Zikali want of me whose power he knows very well?”
+
+“An oracle, the answer to a riddle, Ayesha.”
+
+“Then set it out another time. So you desire to see the dead, and this
+old dwarf, who is a home of wisdom, desires an oracle from one who is
+greater than he. Good. And what are you, or both of you, prepared to
+pay for these boons? Know, Allan, that I am a merchant who sells my
+favours dear. Tell me then, will you pay?”
+
+“I think that it depends upon the price,” I answered cautiously. “Set
+out the price, Ayesha.”
+
+“Be not afraid, O cunning dealer,” she mocked. “I do not ask your soul
+or even that love of yours which you guard so jealously, since these
+things I could take without the asking. Nay, I ask only what a brave
+and honest man may give without shame: your help in war, and perhaps,”
+she added with a softer tone, “your friendship. I think, Allan, that I
+like you well, perhaps because you remind me of another whom I knew
+long ago.”
+
+I bowed at the compliment, feeling proud and pleased at the prospect of
+a friendship with this wonderful and splendid creature, although I was
+aware that it had many dangers. Then I sat still and waited. She also
+waited, brooding.
+
+“Listen,” she said after a while, “I will tell you a story and when you
+have heard it you shall answer, even if you do not believe it, but not
+before. Does it please you to listen to something of the tale of my
+life which I am moved to tell you, that you may know with whom you have
+to deal?”
+
+Again I bowed, thinking to myself that I knew nothing that would please
+me more, who was eaten up with a devouring curiosity about this woman.
+
+Now she rose from her couch and descending off the dais, began to walk
+up and down the chamber. I say, to walk, but her movements were more
+like the gliding of an eagle through the air or the motion of a swan
+upon still water, so smooth were they and gracious. As she walked she
+spoke in a low and thrilling voice.
+
+“Listen,” she said again, “and even if my story seems marvellous to
+you, interrupt, and above all, mock me not, lest I should grow angry,
+which might be ill for you. I am not as other women are, O Allan, who
+having conquered the secrets of Nature,” here I felt an intense desire
+to ask what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, “to my sorrow
+have preserved my youth and beauty through many ages. Moreover in the
+past, perhaps in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which
+some memory remains with me.
+
+“By my last birth I am an Arab lady of royal blood, a descendant of the
+Kings of the East. There I dwelt in the wilderness and ruled a people,
+and at night I gathered wisdom from the stars and the spirits of the
+earth and air. At length I wearied of it all and my people too wearied
+of me and besought me to depart, for, Allan, I would have naught to do
+with men, yet men went mad because of my beauty and slew each other out
+of jealousy. Moreover other peoples made war upon my people, hoping to
+take me captive that I might be a wife to their kings. So I left them,
+and being furnished with great wealth in hoarded gold and jewels,
+together with a certain holy man, my master, I wandered through the
+world, studying the nations and their worships. At Jerusalem I tarried
+and learned of Jehovah who is, or was, its God.
+
+“At Paphos in the Isle of Chitim I dwelt a while till the folk of that
+city thought that I was Aphrodite returned to earth and sought to
+worship me. For this reason and because I made a mock of Aphrodite, I,
+who, as I have said, would have naught to do with men, she through her
+priests cursed me, saying that her yoke should lie more heavily upon my
+neck from age to age than on that of any woman who had breathed beneath
+the sun.
+
+“It was a wondrous scene,” she added reflectively, “that of the
+cursing, since for every word I gave back two. Moreover I told the
+hoary villain of a high-priest to make report to his goddess that long
+after she was dead in the world, I would live on, for the spirit of
+prophecy was on me in that hour. Yet the curse fell in its season,
+since in her day, doubt it or not, Aphrodite had strength, as indeed
+under other names she has and will have while the world endures, and
+for aught I know, beyond it. Do they worship her now in any land,
+Allan?”
+
+“No, only her statues because of their beauty, though Love is always
+worshipped.”
+
+“Yes, who can testify to that better than you yourself, Allan, if he
+who is called Zikali tells me the truth concerning you in the dreams he
+sends? As for the statues, I saw some of them as they left the master’s
+hand in Greece, and when I told him that he might have found a better
+model, once I was that model. If this marble still endures, it must be
+the most famous of them all, though perchance Aphrodite has shattered
+it in her jealous rage. You shall tell me of these statues afterwards;
+mine had a mark on the left shoulder like to a mole, but the stone was
+imperfect, not my flesh, as I can prove if you should wish.”
+
+Thinking it better not to enter on a discussion as to Ayesha’s
+shoulder, I remained silent and she went on.
+
+“I dwelt in Egypt also, and there, to be rid of men who wearied me with
+their sighs and importunities, also to acquire more wisdom of which she
+was the mistress, I entered the service of the goddess Isis, Queen of
+Heaven, vowing to remain virgin for ever. Soon I became her
+high-priestess and in her most sacred shrines upon the Nile, I communed
+with the goddess and shared her power, since from me her daughter, she
+withheld none of her secrets. So it came about that though Pharaohs
+held the sceptre, it was I who ruled Egypt and brought it and Sidon to
+their fall, it matters not how or why, as it was fated that I must do.
+Yes, kings would come to seek counsel from me where I sat throned,
+dressed in the garb of Isis and breathing out her power. Yet, my task
+accomplished, of it all I grew weary, as men will surely do of the
+heavens that they preach, should they chance to find them.”
+
+I wondered what this “task” might be, but only asked, “Why?”
+
+“Because in their pictured heaven all things lie to their hands and
+man, being man, cannot be happy without struggle, and woman, being
+woman, without victory over others. What is cheaply bought, or given,
+has no value, Allan; to be enjoyed, it must first be won. But I bade
+you not to break my thought.”
+
+I asked pardon and she went on,
+
+“Then it was that the shadow of the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me,
+yes, and of the curse of Isis also, so that these twin maledictions
+have made me what I am, a lost soul dwelling in the wilderness waiting
+the fulfilment of a fate whereof I know not the end. For though I have
+all wisdom, all knowledge of the Past and much power together with the
+gift of life and beauty, the future is as dark to me as night without
+its moon and stars.
+
+“Hearken, this chanced to me. Though it be to my shame I tell it you
+that all may be clear. At a temple of Isis on the Nile where I ruled,
+there was a certain priest, a Greek by birth, vowed like myself to the
+service of the goddess and therefore to wed none but her, the goddess
+herself—that is, in the spirit. He was named Kallikrates, a man of
+courage and of beauty, such an one as those Greeks carved in the
+statues of their god Apollo. Never, I think, was a man more beautiful
+in face and form, though in soul he was not great, as often happens to
+men who have all else, and well-nigh always happens to women, save
+myself and perhaps one or two others that history tells of, doubtless
+magnifying their fabled charms.
+
+“The Pharaoh of that day, the last of the native blood, him whom the
+Persians drove to doom, had a daughter, the Princess of Egypt,
+Amenartas by name, a fair woman in her fashion, though somewhat
+swarthy. In her youth this Amenartas became enamoured of Kallikrates
+and he of her, when he was a captain of the Grecian Mercenaries at
+Pharaoh’s Court. Indeed, she brought blood upon his hands because of
+her, wherefore he fled to Isis for forgiveness and for peace. Thither
+in after time she followed him and again urged her love.
+
+“Learning of the thing and knowing it for sacrilege, I summoned this
+priest and warned him of his danger and of the doom which awaited him
+should he continue in that path. He grew affrighted. He flung himself
+upon the ground before me with groans and supplications, and kissing my
+feet, vowed most falsely to me that his dealings with the royal
+Amenartas were but a veil and that it was I whom he worshipped. His
+unhallowed words filled me with horror and sternly I bade him begone
+and do penance for his crime, saying that I would pray the goddess on
+behalf of him.
+
+“He went, leaving me alone lost in thought in the darkening shrine.
+Then sleep fell on me and in my sleep I dreamed a dream, or saw a
+vision. For suddenly there stood before me a woman beauteous as myself
+clad in nothing save a golden girdle and a veil of gossamer.
+
+“‘O Ayesha,’ she said in a honeyed voice, ‘priestess of Isis of the
+Egyptians, sworn to the barren worship of Isis and fed on the ashes of
+her unprofitable wisdom, know that I am Aphrodite of the Greeks whom
+many times thou hast mocked and defied, and Queen of the breathing
+world, as Isis is Queen of the world that is dead. Now because thou
+didst despise me and pour contempt upon my name, I smite thee with my
+strength and lay a curse upon thee. It is that thou shalt love and
+desire this man who but now hath kissed thy feet, ever longing till the
+world’s end to kiss his lips in payment, although thou art as far above
+him as the moon thou servest is above the Nile. Think not that thou
+shalt escape my doom, for know that however strong the spirit, here
+upon the earth the flesh is stronger still and of all flesh I am the
+queen.’
+
+“Then she laughed softly and smiting me across the eyes with a lock of
+her scented hair, was gone.
+
+“Allan, I awoke from my sleep and a great trouble fell upon me, for I
+who had never loved before now was rent with a rage of love and for
+this man who till that moment had been naught to me but as some
+beauteous image of gold and ivory. I longed for him, my heart was
+racked with jealousy because of the Egyptian who favoured him, an
+eating flame possessed my breast. I grew mad. There in the shrine of
+Isis the divine I cast myself upon my knees and cried to Aphrodite to
+return and give me him I sought, for whose sake I would renounce all
+else, even if I must pour my wisdom into a beauteous, empty cup. Yes,
+thus I prayed and lay upon the ground and wept until, outworn, once
+more sleep fell upon me.
+
+“Now in the darkness of the holy place once more there came a dream or
+vision, since before me in her glory stood the goddess Isis crowned
+with the crescent of the young moon and holding in her hand the
+jewelled _sistrum_ that is her symbol, from which came music like to
+the melody of distant bells. She gazed at me and in her great eyes were
+scorn and anger.
+
+“‘O Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom,’ she said in a solemn voice, ‘whom I,
+Isis, had come to look upon rather as a child than a servant, since in
+none other of my priestesses was such greatness to be found, and whom
+in a day to be I had purposed to raise to the very steps of my heavenly
+throne, thou hast broken thine oath and, forsaking me, hast worshipped
+false Aphrodite of the Greeks who is mine enemy. Yea, in the eternal
+war between the spirit and the flesh, thou hast chosen the part of
+flesh. Therefore I hate thee and add my doom to that which Aphrodite
+laid upon thee, which, hadst thou prayed to me and not to her, I would
+have lifted from thy heart.
+
+“‘Hearken! The Grecian whom thou hast chosen, by Aphrodite’s will, thou
+shalt love as the Pathian said. More, thy love shall bring his blood
+upon thy hands, nor mayest thou follow him to the grave. For I will
+show thee the Source of Life and thou shalt drink of it to make thyself
+more fair even than thou art and thus outpace thy rival, and when thy
+lover is dead, in a desolate place thou shalt wait in grief and
+solitude till he is born again and find thee there.
+
+“‘Yet shall this be but the beginning of thy sorrows, since through all
+time thou shalt pursue thy fate till at length thou canst draw up this
+man to the height on which thine own soul stands by the ropes of love
+and loss and suffering. Moreover through it all thou shalt despise
+thyself, which is man’s and woman’s hardest lot, thou who having the
+rare feast of spirit spread out before thee, hast chosen to fill
+thyself from the troughs of flesh.’
+
+“Then, Allan, in my dream I made a proud answer to the goddess, saying,
+‘Hear me, mighty mistress of many Forms who dost appear in all that
+lives! An evil fate has fallen upon me, but was it I who chose that
+fate? Can the leaf contend against the driving gale? Can the falling
+stone turn upwards to the sky, or when Nature draws it, can the tide
+cease to flow? A goddess whom I have offended, that goddess whose
+strength causes the whole world to be, has laid her curse upon me and
+because I have bent before the storm, as bend I must, or break, another
+goddess whom I serve, thou thyself, Mother Isis, hast added to the
+curse. Where then is Justice, O Lady of the Moon?’
+
+“‘Not here, Woman,’ she answered. ‘Yet far away Justice lives and shall
+be won at last and mayhap because thou art so proud and high-stomached,
+it is laid upon thee to seek her blinded eyes through many an age. Yet
+at last I think thou shalt set thy sins against her weights and find
+the balance even. Therefore cease from questioning the high decrees of
+destiny which thou canst not understand and be content to suffer,
+remembering that all joy grows from the root of pain. Moreover, know
+this for thy comfort, that the wisdom which thou hast shall grow and
+gather on thee and with it thy beauty and thy power; also that at the
+last thou shalt look upon my face again, in token whereof I leave to
+thee my symbol, the _sistrum_ that I bear, and with it this command.
+Follow that false priest of mine wherever he may go and avenge me upon
+him, and if thou lose him there, wait while the generations pass till
+he return again. Such and no other is thy destiny.’
+
+“Allan, the vision faded and when I awoke the lights of dawn played
+upon the image of the goddess in the sanctuary. They played, moreover,
+upon the holy jewelled thing that in my dream her hand had held, the
+_sistrum_ of her worship, shaped like the loop of life, the magic
+symbol that she had vowed to me, wherewith goes her power, which
+henceforth was mine.
+
+“I took it and followed after the priest Kallikrates, to whom
+thenceforward I was bound by passion’s ties that are stronger than all
+the goddesses in this wide universe.”
+
+Here I, Allan, could contain myself no longer and asked, “What for?”
+then, fearing her wrath, wished that I had been silent.
+
+But she was not angry, perhaps because this tale of her interviews with
+goddesses, doubtless fabled, had made her humble, for she answered
+quietly,
+
+“By Aphrodite, or by Isis, or both of them I did not know. All I knew
+was that I _must_ seek him, then and evermore, as seek I do to-day and
+shall perchance through æons yet unborn. So I followed, as I was taught
+and commanded, the _sistrum_ being my guide, how it matters not, and
+giving me the means, and so at last I came to this ancient land whereof
+the ruin in which you sit was once known as Kôr.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY
+
+
+All the while that she was talking thus the Lady or the Queen or the
+Witch-woman, Ayesha, had been walking up and down the place from the
+curtains to the foot of the dais, sweeping me with her scented robes as
+she passed to and fro, and as she walked she waved her arms as an
+orator might do to emphasise the more moving passages of her tale. Now
+at the end of it, or what I took to be the end, she stepped on to the
+dais and sank upon the couch as if exhausted, though I think her spirit
+was weary rather than her body.
+
+Here she sat awhile, brooding, her chin resting on her hand, then
+suddenly looked up and fixing her glance upon me—for I could see the
+flash of it through her thin veil—said,
+
+“What think you of this story, Allan? Do you believe it and have you
+ever heard its like?”
+
+“_Never_,” I answered with emphasis, “and of course I believe every
+word. Only there are one or two questions that with your leave I would
+wish to ask, Ayesha.”
+
+“By which you mean, Allan, that you believe nothing, being by nature
+without faith and doubtful of all that you cannot see and touch and
+handle. Well, perhaps you are wise, since what I have told you is not
+all the truth. For example, it comes back to me now that it was not in
+the temple on the Nile, or indeed upon the Earth, that I saw the vision
+of Aphrodite and of Isis, but elsewhere; also that it was here in Kôr
+that I was first consumed by passion for Kallikrates whom hitherto I
+had scorned. In two thousand years one forgets much, Allan. Out with
+your questions and I will answer them, unless they be too long.”
+
+“Ayesha,” I said humbly, reflecting to myself that my questions would,
+at any rate, be shorter than her varying tale, “even I who am not
+learned have heard of these goddesses of whom you speak, of the Grecian
+Aphrodite who rose from the sea upon the shores of Cyprus and dwelt at
+Paphos and elsewhere——”
+
+“Yes, doubtless like most men you have heard of her and perchance also
+have been struck across the eyes with her hair, like your betters
+before you,” she interrupted with sarcasm.
+
+“——Also,” I went on, avoiding argument, “I have heard of Isis of the
+Egyptians, Lady of the Moon, Mother of Mysteries, Spouse of Osiris
+whose child was Horus the Avenger.”
+
+“Aye, and I think will hear more of her before you have done, Allan,
+for now something comes back to me concerning you and her and another.
+I am not the only one who has broken the oaths of Isis and received her
+curse, Allan, as _you_ may find out in the days to come. But what of
+these heavenly queens?”
+
+“Only this, Ayesha; I have been taught that they were but phantasms
+fabled by men with many another false divinity, and could have sworn
+that this was true. And yet you talk of them as real and living, which
+perplexes me.”
+
+“Being dull of understanding doubtless it perplexes you, Allan. Yet if
+you had imagination you might understand that these goddesses are great
+Principles of Nature; Isis, of throned Wisdom and strait virtue, and
+Aphrodite, of Love, as it is known to men and women who, being human,
+have it laid upon them that they must hand on the torch of Life in
+their little hour. Also you would know that such Principles can seem to
+take shape and form and at certain ages of the world appear to their
+servants visible in majesty, though perchance to-day others with
+changed names wield their sceptres and work their will. Now you are
+answered on this matter. So to the next.”
+
+Privately I did not feel as though I were answered at all and I was
+sure that I know nothing of the kind she indicated, but thinking it
+best to leave the subject, I went on,
+
+“If I understood rightly, Ayesha, the events which you have been
+pleased first to describe to me, and then to qualify or contradict,
+took place when the Pharaohs reigned. Now no Pharaoh has sat upon the
+throne of Egypt for near two thousand years, for the last was a Grecian
+woman whom the Romans conquered and drove to death. And yet, Ayesha,
+you speak as though you have lived all through that gulf of time, and
+in this there must be error, because it is impossible. Therefore I
+suppose you to mean that this history has come down to you in writing,
+or perhaps in dreams. I believe that even in such far-off times there
+were writers of romance, and we all know of what stuff dreams are made.
+At least this thought comes to me,” I added hurriedly, fearing lest I
+had said too much, “and one so wise as you are, I repeat, knows well
+that a woman who says she has lived two thousand years must be mad
+or—suffer from delusions, because I repeat, it is impossible.”
+
+At these quite innocent remarks she sprang to her feet in a rage that
+might truly be called royal in every sense.
+
+“Impossible! Romance! Dreams! Delusions! Mad!” she cried in a ringing
+voice. “Oh! of a truth you weary me, and I have a mind to send you
+whither you will learn what is impossible and what is not. Indeed, I
+would do it, and now, only I need your services, and if I did there
+would be none left for me to talk with, since your companion is
+moonstruck and the others are but savages of whom I have seen enough.
+
+“Hearken, fool! _Nothing_ is impossible. Why do you seek, you who talk
+of the impossible, to girdle the great world in the span of your two
+hands and to weigh the secrets of the Universe in the balance of your
+petty mind and, of that which you cannot understand, to say that it is
+not? Life you admit because you see it all about you. But that it
+should endure for two thousand years, which after all is but a second’s
+beat in the story of the earth, that to you is ‘impossible,’ although
+in truth the buried seed or the sealed-up toad can live as long.
+Doubtless, also, you have some faith which promises you this same boon
+to all eternity, after the little change called Death.
+
+“Nay, Allan, it is possible enough, like to many other things of which
+you do not dream to-day that will be common to the eyes of those who
+follow after you. Mayhap you think it impossible that I should speak
+with and learn of you from yonder old black wizard who dwells in the
+country whence you came. And yet whenever I will I do so in the night
+because he is in tune with me, and what I do shall be done by all men
+in the years unborn. Yes, they shall talk together across the wide
+spaces of the earth, and the lover shall hear her lover’s voice
+although great seas roll between them. Nor perchance will it stop at
+this; perchance in future time men shall hold converse with the
+denizens of the stars, and even with the dead who have passed into
+silence and the darkness. Do you hear and understand me?”
+
+“Yes, yes,” I answered feebly.
+
+“You lie, as you are too prone to do. You hear but you do not
+understand nor believe, and oh! you vex me sorely. Now I had it in my
+mind to tell you the secret of this long life of mine; long, mark you,
+but not endless, for doubtless I must die and change and return again,
+like others, and even to show you how it may be won. But you are not
+worthy in your faithlessness.”
+
+“No, no, I am not worthy,” I answered, who at that moment did not feel
+the least desire to live two thousand years, perhaps with this woman as
+a neighbour, rating me from generation to generation. Yet it is true,
+that now when I am older and a certain event cannot be postponed much
+longer, I do often regret that I neglected to take this unique chance,
+if in truth there was one, of prolonging an existence which after all
+has its consolations—especially when one has made one’s pile. Certainly
+it is a case, a flagrant case, of neglected opportunities, and my only
+consolation for having lost them is that this was due to the
+uprightness of my nature which made it so hard for me to acquiesce in
+alternative statements that I had every cause to disbelieve and thus to
+give offence to a very powerful and petulant if attractive lady.
+
+“So that is done with,” she went on with a little stamp of indignation,
+“as soon you will be also, who, had you not crossed and doubted me,
+might have lived on for untold time and become one of the masters of
+the world, as I am.”
+
+Here she paused, choked, I think, with her almost childish anger, and
+because I could not help it, I said,
+
+“Such place and power, if they be yours, Ayesha, do not seem to bring
+you much reward. If I were a master of the world I do not think that I
+should choose to dwell unchangingly among savages who eat men and in a
+pile of ruins. But perhaps the curses of Aphrodite and of Isis are
+stronger masters still?” and I paused inquiringly.
+
+This bold argument—for now I see that it was bold—seemed to astonish
+and even bewilder my wonderful companion.
+
+“You have more wisdom than I thought,” she said reflectively, “who have
+come to understand that no one is really lord of anything, since above
+there is always a more powerful lord who withers all his pomp and pride
+to nothingness, even as the great kings learned in olden days, and I,
+who am higher than they are, am learning now. Hearken. Troubles beset
+me wherein I would have your help and that of your companions, for
+which I will pay each of you the fee that he desires. The brooding
+white man who is with you shall free his daughter and unharmed; though
+that _he_ will be unharmed I do not promise. The black savage captain
+shall fight his fill and gain the glory that he seeks, also something
+that he seeks still more. The little yellow man asks nothing save to be
+with his master like a dog and to satisfy at once his stomach and his
+apish curiosity. You, Allan, shall see those dead over whom you brood
+at night, though the other guerdon that you might have won is now
+passed from your reach because you mock me in your heart.”
+
+“What must we do to gain these things?” I asked. “How can we humble
+creatures help one who is all powerful and who has gathered in her
+breast the infinite knowledge of two thousand years?”
+
+“You must make war under my banner and rid me of my foes. As for the
+reason, listen to the end of my tale and you shall learn.”
+
+I reflected that it was a marvellous thing that this queen who claimed
+supernatural powers should need our help in a war, but thinking it
+wiser to keep my meditations to myself, said nothing. As a matter of
+fact I might just as well have spoken, since as usual she read my
+thoughts.
+
+“You are thinking that it is strange, Allan, that I, the Mighty and
+Undying, should seek your aid in some petty tribal battle, and so it
+would be were my foes but common savages. But they are more; they are
+men protected by the ancient god of this immemorial city of Kôr, a
+great god in his day whose spirit still haunts these ruins and whose
+strength still protects the worshippers who cling to him and practise
+his unholy rites of human sacrifice.”
+
+“How was this god named?” I asked.
+
+“_Rezu_ was his name, and from him came the Egyptian Re or Ra, since in
+the beginning Kôr was the mother of Egypt and the conquering people of
+Kôr took their god with them when they burst into the valley of the
+Nile and subdued its peoples long before the first Pharaoh, Menes, wore
+Egypt’s crown.”
+
+“Ra was the sun, was he not?” I asked.
+
+“Aye, and Rezu also was a sun-god whom from his throne in the fires of
+the Lord of Day, gave life to men, or slew them if he willed with his
+thunderbolts of drought and pestilence and storm. He was no gentle king
+of heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshippers,
+yes, even that of maids and children. So it came about that the people
+of Kôr, who saw their virgins slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu,
+and their infants burned to ashes in the fires that his rays lit,
+turned themselves to the worship of the gentle moon, the goddess whom
+they named _Lulala_, while some of them chose Truth for their queen,
+since Truth, they said, was greater and more to be desired than the
+fierce Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them
+both throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu,
+grew wroth and sent a pestilence upon Kôr and its subject lands and
+slew their people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy,
+and with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that
+escaped I know not how.”
+
+“Did you see this great pestilence?” I asked, much interested.
+
+“Nay, it befell generations before I came to Kôr. One Junis, a priest,
+wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where
+is the burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my day
+Kôr, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the
+history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands amidst
+the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people
+named the Amahagger dwelt in Households, or Tribes and there sacrificed
+men by fire and devoured them, following the rites of the demon Rezu.
+For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence.
+Also there were certain others, children of the worshippers of Lulala
+whose kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the
+gentle worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the
+followers of Rezu.”
+
+“What brought _you_ to Kôr, Ayesha?” I asked irrelevantly.
+
+“Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of
+great Isis whom I serve? Also,” she added after a pause, “that I might
+find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted
+thereto by the other.”
+
+“And did you find them, Ayesha?” I asked.
+
+“Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence the
+goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his
+temptress back to the world.”
+
+“That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that
+you also—liked this priest.”
+
+She sprang from her couch and in a low, hissing voice which resembled
+the sound made by an angry snake and turned my blood cold to hear,
+exclaimed,
+
+“Man, do you dare to mock me? Nay, you are but a blundering, curious
+fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like
+Kallikrates, never should you leave Kôr living. Cease from seeking that
+which you may not learn. Suffice it for you to know that the doom of
+Isis fell upon the lost Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on
+me also fell her doom, who must dwell here, dead yet living, till he
+return again and the play begins afresh.
+
+“Stranger,” she went on in a softer voice, “perchance your faith,
+whate’er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshippers and give
+strength to the arms of its prophesying priests, who swear they hold
+the keys of doom or of the eternal joys. I see you sign assent” (I had
+nodded at her extremely accurate guess) “and therefore can understand
+that in such a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for some
+two thousand years, expiating the crime of Powers above me whereof I am
+but the hand and instrument, since those Powers which decreed that I
+should love, decree also that I must avenge that love.”
+
+She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by emotion, of which I
+could only guess the reasons, hiding her face in her hands. Presently
+she let them fall again and continued,
+
+“Of these woes ask me no more. They sleep till the hour of their
+resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you
+perchance——But let that be. ‘Twas near the mark; nearer, Allan, than
+you know, not in it! Therefore leave them to their sleep as I would if
+I might—ah! if I might, whose companions they are throughout the weary
+ages. Alas! that through the secret which was revealed to me I remain
+undying on the earth who in death might perhaps have found a rest, and
+being human although half divine, must still busy myself with the
+affairs of earth.
+
+“Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I
+remained in my agony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk of
+the cup of enduring life and like the Prometheus of old fable, found
+myself bound to this changeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures
+of remorse tear out my living heart which in the watches of the night
+is ever doomed to grow again within my woman’s breast, I was plunged
+into petty troubles of the flesh, aye and welcomed them because their
+irk at times gave me forgetfulness. When the savage dwellers in this
+land came to know that a mighty one had arisen among them who was the
+servant of the Lady of the Moon, those of them who still worshipped
+their goddess Lulala, gathered themselves about me, while those of them
+who worshipped Rezu sought to overthrow me.
+
+“‘Here,’ they said, ‘is the goddess Lulala come to earth. In the name
+of Rezu let us slay her and make an end,’ for these fools thought that
+I could be killed. Allan, I conquered them, but their captain, who also
+is named Rezu and whom they held and hold to be an emanation of the god
+himself walking the earth, I could not conquer.”
+
+“Why not?” I asked.
+
+“For this reason, Allan. In some past age his god showed him the same
+secret that was shown to me. He too had drunk of the Cup of Life and
+lives on unharmed by Time, so that being in strength my equal, no spear
+of mine can reach his heart clad in the armour of his evil god.”
+
+“Then what spear can?” I inquired helplessly, who was bewildered.
+
+“None at all, Allan, yet an _axe_ may, as you shall hear, or so I
+think. For many generations there has been peace of a sort between the
+worshippers of Lulala who dwell with me in the Plain of Kôr, or rather
+of myself, since to these people _I_ am Lulala, and the worshippers of
+Rezu, who dwell in the strongholds beyond the mountain crest. But of
+late years their chief Rezu, having devastated the lands about, has
+grown restless and threatened attack on Kôr, which is not strong enough
+to stand against him. Moreover he has sought for a white queen to rule
+under him, purposing to set her up to mock my majesty.”
+
+“Is that why those cannibals carried away the daughter of my companion,
+the Sea-Captain who is named Avenger?” I asked.
+
+“It is, Allan, since presently he will give it out that I am dead or
+fled, if he has not done so already, and that this new queen has arisen
+in my place. Thereby he hopes to draw away many who cling to me ere he
+advances upon Kôr, carrying with him this girl veiled as I am, so that
+none may know the difference between us, since not a man of them has
+ever looked upon my face, Allan. Therefore this Rezu must die, if die
+he can; otherwise, although it is impossible that he should harm me, he
+may slay or draw away my people and leave me with none to rule in this
+place where by the decree of Fate I must dwell on until he whom I seek
+returns. You are thinking in your heart that such savages would be
+little loss and this is so, but still they serve as slaves to me in my
+loneliness. Moreover I have sworn to protect them from the demon Rezu
+and they have trusted in me and therefore my honour is at stake, for
+never shall it be said that those who trusted in She-who-commands, were
+overthrown because they put faith in one who was powerless.”
+
+“What do you mean about an axe, Ayesha?” I asked. “Why can an axe alone
+kill Rezu?”
+
+“The thing is a mystery, O Allan, of which I may not tell you all,
+since to do so I must reveal secrets which I have determined you shall
+not learn. Suffice it to you to know that when this Rezu drank of the
+Cup of Life he took with him his axe. Now this axe was an ancient
+weapon rumoured to have been fashioned by the gods and, as it chanced,
+that axe drew to itself more and stronger life than did Rezu, how, it
+does not matter, if indeed the tale be more than a fable. At least this
+I know is true, for he who guarded the Gate of Life, a certain Noot, a
+master of mysteries, and mine also in my day of youth, who being a
+philosopher and very wise, chose never to pass that portal which was
+open to him, said it to me himself ere he went the way of flesh. He
+told this Rezu also that now he had naught to fear save his own axe and
+therefore he counselled him to guard it well, since if it was lifted
+against him in another’s hands it would bring him down to death, which
+nothing else could do. Like to the heel of Achilles whereof the great
+Homer sings—have you read Homer, Allan?”
+
+“In a translation,” I answered.
+
+“Good, then you will remember the story. Like to the heel of Achilles,
+I say, that axe would be the only gate by which death could enter his
+invulnerable flesh, or rather it alone could make the gate.”
+
+“How did Noot know that?” I asked.
+
+“I cannot say,” she answered with irritation. “Perchance he did not
+know it. Perchance it is all an idle tale, but at least it is true that
+Rezu believed and believes it, and what a man believes is true for him
+and will certainly befall. If it were otherwise, what is the use of
+faith which in a thousand forms supports our race and holds it from the
+horrors of the Pit? Only those who believe nothing inherit what they
+believe—nothing, Allan.”
+
+“It may be so,” I replied prosaically, “but what happened about the
+axe?”
+
+“In the end it was lost, or as some say stolen by a woman whom Rezu had
+deserted, and therefore he walks the world in fear from day to day.
+Nay, ask no more empty questions” (I had opened my mouth to speak) “but
+hear the end of the tale. In my trouble concerning Rezu I remembered
+this wild legend of the axe and since, when lost in a forest every path
+that may lead to safety should be explored, I sent my wisdom forth to
+make inquiry concerning it, as I who am great, have the power to do, of
+certain who are in tune with me throughout this wide land of Africa.
+Amongst others, I inquired of that old wizard whom you named Zikali,
+Opener of Roads, and he gave me an answer that there lived in his land
+a certain warrior who ruled a tribe called the People of the Axe by
+right of the Axe, of which axe none, not even he, knew the beginning or
+the legend. On the chance, though it was a small one, I bade the wizard
+send that warrior here with his axe. Last night he stood before me and
+I looked upon him and the axe, which at least is ancient and has a
+story. Whether it be the same that Rezu bore I do not know who never
+saw it, yet perchance he who bears it now is prepared to hold it aloft
+in battle even against Rezu, though he be terrible to see, and then we
+shall learn.”
+
+“Oh! yes,” I answered, “he is quite prepared, for that is his nature.
+Also among this man’s people, the holder of the Axe is thought to be
+unconquerable.”
+
+“Yet some must have been conquered who held it,” she replied musingly.
+“Well, you shall tell me that tale later. Now we have talked long and
+you are weary and astonished. Go, eat and rest yourself. To-night when
+the moon rises I will come to where you are, not before, for I have
+much that must be done, and show you those with whom you must fight
+against Rezu, and make a plan of battle.”
+
+“But I do not want to fight,” I answered, “who have fought enough and
+came here to seek wisdom, not bloodshed.”
+
+“First the sacrifice, then the reward,” she answered, “that is if any
+are left to be rewarded. Farewell.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+ROBERTSON IS LOST
+
+
+So I went and was conducted by Billali, the old chamberlain, for such
+seemed to be his office, who had been waiting patiently without all
+this while, back to our rest-house. On my way I picked up Hans, whom I
+found sitting outside the arch, and found that as usual that worthy had
+been keeping his eyes and ears open.
+
+“Baas,” he said, “did the White Witch tell you that there is a big
+_impi_ encamped over yonder outside the houses, in what looks like a
+great dry ditch, and on the edge of the plain beyond?”
+
+“No, Hans, but she said that this evening she would show us those in
+whose company we must fight.”
+
+“Well, Baas, they are there, some thousands of them, for I crept
+through the broken walls like a snake and saw them. And, Baas, I do not
+think they are men, I think that they are evil spirits who walk at
+night only.”
+
+“Why, Hans?”
+
+“Because when the sun is high, Baas, as it is now, they are all
+sleeping. Yes, there they lie abed, fast asleep, as other people do at
+night, with only a few sentries out on guard, and these are yawning and
+rubbing their eyes.”
+
+“I have heard that there are folk like that in the middle of Africa
+where the sun is very hot, Hans,” I answered, “which perhaps is why
+She-who-commands is going to take us to see them at night. Also these
+people, it seems, are worshippers of the moon.”
+
+“No, Baas, they are worshippers of the devil and that White Witch is
+his wife.”
+
+“You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, Hans, for whatever she
+is I think that she can read thoughts from far away, as you guessed
+last night. Therefore I would not have any if I were you.”
+
+“No, Baas, or if I must think, henceforth, it shall be only of gin
+which in this place is also far away,” he replied, grinning.
+
+Then we came to the rest-house where I found that Robertson had already
+eaten his midday meal and like the Amahagger gone to sleep, while
+apparently Umslopogaas had done the same; at least I saw nothing of
+him. Of this I was glad, since that wondrous Ayesha seemed to draw
+vitality out of me and after my long talk with her I felt very tired.
+So I too ate and then went to lie down under an old wall in the shade
+at a little distance, and to reflect upon the marvellous things that I
+had heard.
+
+Here be it said at once that I believed nothing of them, or at least
+very little indeed. All the involved tale of Ayesha’s long life I
+dismissed at once as incredible. Clearly she was some beautiful woman
+who was more or less mad and suffered from megalomania; probably an
+Arab, who had wandered to this place for reasons of her own, and become
+the chieftainess of a savage tribe whose traditions she had absorbed
+and reproduced as personal experiences, again for reasons of her own.
+
+For the rest, she was now threatened by another tribe and knowing that
+we had guns and could fight from what happened on the yesterday, wished
+naturally enough for our assistance in the coming battle. As for the
+marvellous chief Rezu, or rather for his supernatural attributes and
+all the cock-and-bull story about an axe—well, it was humbug like the
+rest, and if she believed in it she must be more foolish than I took
+her to be—even if she were unhinged on certain points. For the rest,
+her information about myself and Umslopogaas doubtless had reached her
+from Zikali in some obscure fashion, as she herself acknowledged.
+
+But heavens! how beautiful she was! That flash of loveliness when out
+of pique or coquetry she lifted her veil, blinded like the lightning.
+But thank goodness, also like the lightning it frightened;
+instinctively one felt that it was very dangerous, even to death, and
+with it I for one wished no closer acquaintance. Fire may be lovely and
+attractive, also comforting at a proper distance, but he who sits on
+the top of it is cremated, as many a moth has found.
+
+So I argued, knowing well enough all the while that if this particular
+human—or inhuman—fire desired to make an holocaust of me, it could do
+so easily enough, and that in reality I owed my safety so far to a lack
+of that desire on its part. The glorious Ayesha saw nothing to attract
+her in an insignificant and withered hunter, or at any rate in his
+exterior, though with his mind she might find some small affinity.
+Moreover to make a fool of him just for the fun of it would not serve
+her purpose, since she needed his assistance in a business that
+necessitated clear wits and unprejudiced judgment.
+
+Lastly she had declared herself to be absorbed in some tiresome
+complication with another man, of which it was rather difficult to
+follow the details. It is true that she described him as a handsome but
+somewhat empty-headed person whom she had last seen two thousand years
+ago, but probably this only meant that she thought poorly of him
+because he had preferred some other woman to herself, while the two
+thousand years were added to the tale to give it atmosphere.
+
+The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two
+thousand years; witness that of Cleopatra with Cæsar, Mark Antony and
+other gentlemen. The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy,
+even in boarding-schools, and it is felt that were she by some miracle
+to be blotted out of the book of history, the loss would be enormous.
+The same applied to Helen, Phryne, and other bad lots. In fact now that
+one comes to think of it, most of the attractive personages in history,
+male or female, especially the latter, were bad lots. When we find
+someone to whose name is added “the good” we skip. No doubt Ayesha,
+being very clever, appreciated this regrettable truth, and therefore
+moved her murky entanglements of the past decade or so back for a
+couple of thousand years, as many of us would like to do.
+
+There remained the very curious circumstance of her apparent
+correspondence with old Zikali who lived far away. This, however, after
+all was not inexplicable. In the course of a great deal of experience I
+have observed that all the witch-doctor family, to which doubtless she
+belonged, have strange means of communication.
+
+In most instances these are no doubt physical, carried on by help of
+messengers, or messages passed from one to the other. But sometimes it
+is reasonable to assume what is known as telepathy, as their link of
+intercourse. Between two such highly developed experts as Ayesha and
+Zikali, it might for the sake of argument safely be supposed that it
+was thus they learned each other’s mind and co-operated in each other’s
+projects, though perhaps this end was effected by commoner methods.
+
+Whatever its interpretations, the issue of the business seemed to be
+that I was to be let in for more fighting. Well, in any case this could
+not be avoided, since Robertson’s daughter, Inez, had to be saved at
+all costs, if it could possibly be done, even if we lost our lives in
+the attempt. Therefore fight we must, so there was nothing more to be
+said. Also without doubt this adventure was particularly interesting
+and I could only hope that good luck, or Zikali’s Great Medicine, or
+rather Providence, would see me through it safely.
+
+For the rest the fact that our help was necessary to her in this
+war-like venture showed me clearly enough that all this wonderful
+woman’s pretensions to supernatural powers were the sheerest nonsense.
+Had they been otherwise she would not have needed our help in her
+tribal fights, notwithstanding the rubbish she talked about the chief,
+Rezu, who according to her account of him, must resemble one of the
+fabulous “trolls,” half-human and half-ghostly evil creatures, of whom
+I have read in the Norse Sagas, who could only be slain by some
+particular hero armed with a particular weapon.
+
+Reflecting thus I went to sleep and did not wake until the sun was
+setting. Finding that Hans was also sleeping at my feet just like a
+faithful dog, I woke him up and we went back together to the
+rest-house, which we reached as the darkness fell with extraordinary
+swiftness, as it does in those latitudes, especially in a place
+surrounded by cliffs.
+
+Not finding Robertson in the house, I concluded that he was somewhere
+outside, possibly making a reconnaissance on his own account, and told
+Hans to get supper ready for both of us. While he was doing so, by aid
+of the Amahagger lamps, Umslopogaas suddenly appeared in the circle of
+light, and looking about him, said,
+
+“Where is Red-Beard, Macumazahn?”
+
+I answered that I did not know and waited, for I felt sure that he had
+something to say.
+
+“I think that you had better keep Red-Beard close to you, Macumazahn,”
+he went on. “This afternoon, when you had returned from visiting the
+white doctoress and having eaten, had gone to sleep under the wall
+yonder, I saw Red-Beard come out of the house carrying a gun and a bag
+of cartridges. His eyes rolled wildly and he turned first this way and
+then that, sniffing at the air, like a buck that scents danger. Then he
+began to talk aloud in his own tongue and as I saw that he was speaking
+with his Spirit, as those do who are mad, I went away and left him.”
+
+“Why?” I asked.
+
+“Because, as you know, Macumazahn, it is a law among us Zulus never to
+disturb one who is mad and engaged in talking with his Spirit.
+Moreover, had I done so, probably he would have shot me, nor should I
+have complained who would have thrust myself in where I had no right to
+be.”
+
+“Then why did you not come to call me, Umslopogaas?”
+
+“Because then he might have shot you, for, as I have seen for some time
+he is inspired of heaven and knows not what he does upon the earth,
+thinking only of the Lady Sad-Eyes who has been stolen away from him,
+as is but natural. So I left him walking up and down, and when I
+returned later to look, saw that he was gone, as I thought into this
+walled hut. Now when Hansi tells me that he is not here, I have come to
+speak to you about him.”
+
+“No, certainly he is not here,” I said, and I went to look at the bed
+where Robertson slept to see if it had been used that evening.
+
+Then for the first time I saw lying on it a piece of paper torn from a
+pocketbook and addressed to myself. I seized and read it. It ran thus:
+
+“The merciful Lord has sent me a vision of Inez and shown me where she
+is over the cliff-edge away to the west, also the road to her. In my
+sleep I heard her talking to me. She told me that she is in great
+danger—that they are going to marry her to some brute—and called to me
+to come at once and save her; yes, and to come alone without saying
+anything to anyone. So I am going at once. Don’t be frightened or
+trouble about me. All will be well, all will be quite well. I will tell
+you the rest when we meet.”
+
+Horrorstruck I translated this insane screed to Umslopogaas and Hans.
+The former nodded gravely.
+
+“Did I not tell you that he was talking with his Spirit, Macumazahn?”
+(I had rendered “the merciful Lord” as the Good Spirit.) “Well, he has
+gone and doubtless his Spirit will take care of him. It is finished.”
+
+“At any rate we cannot, Baas,” broke in Hans, who I think feared that I
+might send him out to look for Robertson. “I can follow most spoors,
+but not on such a night as this when one could cut the blackness into
+lumps and build a wall of it.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “he has gone and nothing can be done at present,”
+though to myself I reflected that probably he had not gone far and
+would be found when the moon rose, or at any rate on the following
+morning.
+
+Still I was most uneasy about the man who, as I had noted for a long
+while, was losing his balance more and more. The shock of the barbarous
+and dreadful slaughter of his half-breed children and of the abduction
+of Inez by these grim, man-eating savages began the business, and I
+think that it was increased and accentuated by his sudden conversion to
+complete temperance after years of heavy drinking.
+
+When I persuaded him to this course I was very proud of myself,
+thinking that I had done a clever thing, but now I was not so sure.
+Perhaps it would have been better if he had continued to drink
+something, at any rate for a while, but the trouble is that in such
+cases there is generally no half-way house. A man, or still more a
+woman, given to this frailty either turns aggressively sober or remains
+very drunken. At any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted
+for the best and could not blame myself.
+
+For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious
+associations of his youth had re-asserted themselves with remarkable
+vigour, for I gathered that he had been brought up almost as a
+Calvinist, and in the rush of their return, had overset his
+equilibrium. As I have said, he prayed night and day without any of
+those reserves which most people prefer in their religious exercises,
+and when he talked of matters outside our quest, his conversation
+generally revolved round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to
+say the truth, did not make him a cheerful companion. Indeed in this
+respect I liked him much better in his old, unregenerate days, being, I
+fear, myself a somewhat worldly soul.
+
+Well, the sum of it was that the poor fellow had gone mad and given us
+the slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness
+was impossible. Indeed, even if it had been lighter, I do not think
+that it would have been safe among these Amahagger nightbirds whom I
+did not trust. Certainly I could not have asked Hans to undertake the
+task, and if I had, I do not think he would have gone since he was
+afraid of the Amahagger. Therefore there was nothing to be done except
+wait and hope for the best.
+
+So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had
+promised. Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded
+by Billali, followed by women, also cloaked, and surrounded by a guard
+of tall spearmen. I was seated outside the house, smoking, when
+suddenly she arrived from the shadows and stood before me.
+
+I rose respectfully and bowed, while Umslopogaas, Goroko and the other
+Zulus who were with me, gave her the royal salute, and Hans cringed
+like a dog that is afraid of being kicked.
+
+After a swift glance at them, as I guessed by the motion of her veiled
+head, she seemed to fix her gaze upon my pipe that evidently excited
+her curiosity, and asked me what it was. I explained as well as I
+could, expatiating on the charms of smoking.
+
+“So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and
+one that is filthy also,” she said, sniffing at the smoke and waving
+her hand before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into my pocket,
+where, being alight, it burnt a hole in my best remaining coat.
+
+I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she
+was who, to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be
+astonished at a habit with which she must have been well acquainted,
+although I believe that it was unknown in the ancient world.
+
+“You are troubled,” she went on, swiftly changing the subject, “I read
+it in your face. One of your company is missing. Who is it? Ah! I see,
+the white man you name Avenger. Where is he gone?”
+
+“That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha,” I said.
+
+“How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which
+to look for things that pass afar. Still, let me try,” and pressing her
+hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a minute, then
+spoke slowly.
+
+“I think that he has gone over the mountain lip towards the worshippers
+of Rezu. I think that he is mad; sorrow and something else which I do
+not understand have turned his brain; something that has to do with the
+Heavens. I think also that we shall recover him living, if only for a
+little while, though of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to
+me to read the future, but only the past, and sometimes the things that
+happen in the present though they be far away.”
+
+“Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?” I asked anxiously.
+
+“Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
+might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to
+your companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to
+seek?”
+
+“More or less,” I answered and translated to her the letter that
+Robertson had left for me.
+
+“It may be as the man writes,” she commented, “since the mad often see
+well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he
+imagines. The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan,
+although it seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of
+vision or the fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns
+through the gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns,
+since, whatever fools may think, often madness is true wisdom. Now
+follow me with the little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe. Stay,
+let me look upon that axe.”
+
+I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but
+refused to loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the
+leathern thong.
+
+“Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own
+weapon, I who am so weak and gentle?” she asked, laughing.
+
+“Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
+which he names ‘Chieftainess and Groan-maker,’ and clings to closer by
+day and night than a man does to his wife.”
+
+“There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
+never such another axe. The thing is ancient,” she added musingly after
+examining its every detail, “and who knows? It may be that whereof the
+legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this
+fierce-eyed Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to
+face the most terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a
+wizard also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this
+can he be made to bite the dust.”
+
+I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,
+
+“Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom
+I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight,
+though once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death,” and he
+touched the great hole in his forehead. “Say to her also that I have no
+fear of defeat, I from whom doom is, as I think, still far away, though
+the Opener-of-Roads has told me that among a strange people I shall die
+in war at last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in
+war.”
+
+“He speaks well,” she answered with a note of admiration in her voice.
+“By Isis, were he but white I would set him to rule these Amahagger
+under me. Tell him, Allan, that if he lays Rezu low he shall have a
+great reward.”
+
+“And tell the White Witch, Macumazahn,” Umslopogaas replied when I had
+translated, “that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the
+sight of one who is lost to me but with whom my heart still dwells, if
+indeed this Witch has strength to break the wall of blackness that is
+built between me and her who is ‘gone down.’”
+
+“Strange,” reflected Ayesha when she understood, “that this grim
+Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for
+one whom the grave has taken. Learn from it, Allan, that all humanity
+is cast in the same mould, since my longings and your longings are his
+also, though the three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon
+and the earth, and as different in every other quality. Yet it is true
+that sun and moon and earth are born of the same black womb of chaos.
+Therefore in the beginning they were identical, as doubtless they will
+be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light
+space with a flame at which the mocking gods that made them may warm
+their hands. Well, so it is with men, Allan, whose soul-stuff is drawn
+from the gulf of Spirit by Nature’s hand, and, cast upon the cold air
+of this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each
+different to the other and yet, be sure, the same. Now talk no more,
+but follow me. Slave” (this was addressed to Billali), “bid the guards
+lead on to the camp of the servants of Lulala.”
+
+So we went through the silent ruins. Ayesha walked, or rather glided a
+pace or two ahead, then came Umslopogaas and I side by side, while at
+our heels followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish
+to be out of reach of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally
+of the protection of axe and rifle.
+
+Thus we marched surrounded by the solemn guard for something between a
+quarter and half a mile, till at length we climbed the debris of a
+mighty wall that once had encompassed the city, and by the moonlight
+saw beneath us a vast hollow which clearly at some unknown time had
+been the bed of an enormous moat and filled with water.
+
+Now, however, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted numerous
+camp-fires round which men were moving, also some women who appeared to
+be engaged in cooking food. At a little distance too, upon the further
+edge of the moat-like depression were a number of white-robed
+individuals gathered in a circle about a large stone upon which
+something was stretched that resembled the carcase of a sheep or goat,
+and round these a great number of spectators.
+
+“The priests of Lulala who make sacrifice to the moon, as they do night
+by night, save when she is dead,” said Ayesha, turning back towards me
+as though in answer to the query which I had conceived but left
+unuttered.
+
+What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation
+and briskness. All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved
+about quickly and with the same kind of liveliness which might animate
+a camp of more natural people at the rising of the sun. It was as
+though they had just got up full of vigour to commence their daily, or
+rather their nightly round, which in truth was the case, since as Hans
+discovered, by habitude these Amahagger preferred to sleep during the
+day unless something prevented them, and to carry on the activities of
+life at night. It only remains to add that there seemed to be a great
+number of them, for their fires following the round of the dry moat,
+stretched further than I could see.
+
+Scrambling down the crumpled wall by a zig-zag pathway, we came upon
+the outposts of the army beneath us who challenged, then seeing with
+whom they had to do, fell flat upon their faces, leaving their great
+spears, which had iron spikes on their shafts like to those of the
+Masai, sticking in the ground beside them.
+
+We passed on between some of the fires and I noted how solemn and
+gloomy, although handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom
+these were surrounded. Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different
+world to ours, one alien to the kindly race of men. There was nothing
+social about these Amahagger, who seemed to be a people labouring under
+some ancient ancestral curse of which they could never shake off the
+memory. Even the women rarely smiled; their clear-cut, stately
+countenances remained stern and set, except when they glowered at us
+incuriously. Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated themselves like
+the rest.
+
+We went on through them and across the moat, climbing its further slope
+and here suddenly came upon a host of men gathered in a hollow square,
+apparently in order to receive us. They stood in ranks of five or six
+deep and their spear-points glimmering in the moonlight looked like
+long bands of level steel. As we entered the open side of the square
+all these spears were lifted. Thrice they were lifted and at each
+uplifting there rose a deep-throated cry of _Hiya_, which is the Arabic
+for She, and I suppose was a salutation to Ayesha.
+
+She swept on taking no heed, till we came to the centre of the square
+where a number of men were gathered who prostrated themselves in the
+usual fashion. Motioning to them to rise she said,
+
+“Captains, this very night within two hours we march against Rezu and
+the sun-worshippers, since otherwise as my arts tell me, they march
+against us. She-who-commands is immortal, as your fathers have known
+from generation to generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her
+servants, can be destroyed, and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of
+Life, out-numbers you by three to one and prepares a queen to set up in
+my place over his own people and such of you as remain. As though,” she
+added with a contemptuous laugh, “any woman of a day could take my
+place.”
+
+She paused and the spokesman of the captains said,
+
+“We hear, O Hiya, and we understand. What wouldst thou have us do, O
+Lulala-come-to-earth? The armies of Rezu are great and from the
+beginning he has hated thee and us, also his magic is as thy magic and
+his length of days as thy length of days. How then can we who are few,
+three thousand men at the most, match ourselves against Rezu, Son of
+the Sun? Would it not be better that we should accept the terms of
+Rezu, which are light, and acknowledge him as our king?”
+
+As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath
+her robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the meaning
+of them was clear enough, namely that rather than risk a battle with
+Rezu, these people were contemplating surrender and her own deposition,
+if indeed she could be deposed. Still she answered in a quiet voice,
+
+“It seems that I have dealt too gently with you and with your fathers,
+Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that
+because you only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sword within
+and that it can shine forth and smite. Well, why should I be wrath
+because the brutish will follow the law of brutes, though it be true
+that I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I less
+merciful I would leave you to the clutching hands of Rezu, who would
+drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your
+hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his heat. But I
+bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I
+knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you
+from yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.
+
+“Take counsel together now and say—Will you fight against Rezu, or will
+you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow’s sun I
+will begone, taking these with me,” and she pointed to us, “whom I have
+summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
+stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are
+the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,
+
+“‘Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and
+save us from this hell?’
+
+“Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
+will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear
+no more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you
+and your ways.”
+
+The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha
+stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the
+situation.
+
+It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against
+their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral
+nature, one that emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered
+was, being what she seemed to be, why she thought it worth while to
+exercise it at all. Then I remembered her statement that here and
+nowhere else she must abide for some secret reason, until a certain
+mystical gentleman with a Greek name came to fetch her away from this
+appointed _rendezvous_. Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or
+rather, suffering as she did from hallucinations, believed herself to
+have no choice and was obliged to put up with a crowd of disagreeable
+savages in quarters which were sadly out of repair.
+
+Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,
+
+“If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
+Hiya?”
+
+“My wisdom shall be your guide,” she answered, “this white man shall be
+your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face to
+face and bring him to the dust,” and she pointed to Umslopogaas leaning
+upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile.
+
+This reply did not seem to please the man for he withdrew to consult
+again with his companions. After a debate which I suppose was animated
+for the Amahagger, men of few words who did not indulge in oratory, all
+of them advanced on us and the spokesman said,
+
+“The choice of a General does not please us, Hiya. We know that the
+white man is brave because of the fight he made against the men of Rezu
+over the mountain yonder; also that he and his followers have weapons
+that deal death from afar. But there is a prophecy among us of which
+none know the beginning, that he who commands in the last great battle
+between Lulala and Rezu must produce before the eyes of the People of
+Lulala a certain holy thing, a charm of power, without which defeat
+will be the portion of Lulala. Of this holy thing, this spirit-haunted
+shape of power, we know the likeness and the fashion, for these have
+come down among our priests, though who told it to them we cannot tell,
+but of it I will say this only, that it speaks both of the spirit and
+the body, of man and yet of more than man.”
+
+“And if this wondrous charm, this talisman of might, cannot be shown by
+the white lord here, what then?” asked Ayesha coldly.
+
+“Then, Hiya, this is the word of the People of Lulala, that we will not
+serve under him in the battle, and this also is their word that we will
+not go up against Rezu. That thou art mighty we know well, Hiya, also
+that thou canst slay if thou wilt, but we know also that Rezu is
+mightier and that against him thou hast no power. Therefore kill us if
+thou dost so desire, until thy heart is satisfied with death. For it is
+better that we should perish thus than upon the altar of sacrifice
+wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu.”
+
+“So say we all,” exclaimed the rest of the company when he had
+finished.
+
+“The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward
+blood and that of thy companions,” said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she
+paused and turning to me, added, “O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is
+there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I
+have spread my feathers for so long?”
+
+I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as
+though they would go.
+
+Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of
+most African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.
+
+“The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali’s Great Medicine.”
+
+Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a
+“spirit-haunted shape of power” that spoke “both of the spirit and the
+body of man and yet of more than man,” was so vague that it might mean
+anything or nothing. And yet——
+
+I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted
+should be produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu
+to the death. She did so and with one voice they replied,
+
+“Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom
+also our legend tells.”
+
+Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of
+Zikali as far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,
+
+“Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend
+tells, O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?”
+
+The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire
+that burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared
+again; and as he did, so did the others bending over him.
+
+“Dog! would you singe my beard?” I cried in affected rage, and seizing
+the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.
+
+But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely to
+assert my authority. Still for a few moments he stared although the
+sparks from the wood were frizzling in his greasy hair, then of a
+sudden went down on his face before me, as did all the others and cried
+out,
+
+“It is the Holy Thing! It is the spirit-haunted Shape of Power itself,
+and we the Worshippers of Lulala will follow thee to the death, O white
+lord, Watcher-by-Night. Yes, where thou goest and he goes who bears the
+Axe, thither will we follow till not one of us is left upon his feet.”
+
+“Then that’s settled,” I said, yawning, since it is never wise to show
+concern about anything before savages. Indeed personally I had no wish
+to be the leader of this very peculiar tribe in an adventure of which I
+knew nothing, and therefore had hoped that they would leave that honour
+to someone else. Then I turned and told Umslopogaas what had passed, a
+tale at which he only shrugged his great shoulders, handling his axe as
+though he were minded to try its edge upon some of these “Dark-lovers,”
+as he named the Amahagger people because of their nocturnal habits.
+
+Meanwhile Ayesha gave certain orders. Then she came to me and said,
+
+“These men march at once, three thousand strong, and by dawn will camp
+on the northern mountain crest. At sunrise litters will come to bear
+you and those with you if they will, to join them, which you should do
+by midday. In the afternoon marshall them as you think wise, for the
+battle will take place in the small hours of the following morning,
+since the People of Lulala only fight at night. I have said.”
+
+“Do you not come with us?” I asked, dismayed.
+
+“Nay, not in a war against Rezu, why it matters not. Yet my Spirit will
+go with you, for I shall watch all that passes, how it matters not and
+perchance you may see it there—I know not. On the third day from
+to-morrow we shall meet again in the flesh or beyond it, but as I think
+in the flesh, and you can claim the reward which you journeyed here to
+seek. A place shall be prepared for the white lady whom Rezu would have
+set up as a rival queen to me. Farewell, and farewell also to yonder
+Bearer of the Axe that shall drink the blood of Rezu, also to the
+little yellow man who is rightly named Light-in-Darkness, as you shall
+learn ere all is done.”
+
+Then before I could speak she turned and glided away, swiftly
+surrounded by her guards, leaving me astonished and very uncomfortable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+ALLAN’S VISION
+
+
+The old chamberlain, Billali, conducted us back to our camp. As we went
+he discoursed to me of these Amahagger, of whom it seemed he was
+himself a developed specimen, one who threw back, perhaps tens of
+generations, to some superior ancestor who lived before they became
+debased. In substance he told me that they were a wild and lawless lot
+who lived amongst ruins or in caves, or some of them in swamp
+dwellings, in small separate communities, each governed by its petty
+headman who was generally a priest of their goddess Lulala.
+
+Originally they and the people of Rezu were the same, in times when
+they worshipped the sun and the moon jointly, but “thousands of years”
+ago, as he expressed it, they had separated, the Rezuites having gone
+to dwell to the north of the Great Mountain, whence they continually
+threatened the Lulalaites whom, had it not been for She-who-commands,
+they would have destroyed long before. The Rezuites, it seemed, were
+habitual cannibals, whereas the Lulalaite branch of the Amahagger only
+practised cannibalism occasionally when by a lucky chance they got hold
+of strangers. “Such as yourself, Watcher-by-Night, and your
+companions,” he added with meaning. If their crime were discovered,
+however, Hiya, She-who-commands, punished it by death.
+
+I asked if she exercised an active rule over these people. He answered
+that she did not, as she lacked sufficient interest in them; only when
+she was angry with individuals she would destroy some of them by “her
+arts,” as she had power to do if she chose. Most of them indeed had
+never seen her and only knew of her existence by rumour. To them she
+was a spirit or a goddess who inhabited the ancient tombs that lay to
+the south of the old city whither she had come because of the
+threatened war with Rezu, whom alone she feared, he did not know why.
+He told me again, moreover, that she was the greatest magician who had
+ever been, and that it was certain she did not die, since their
+forefathers knew her generations ago. Still she seemed to be under some
+curse, like the Amahagger themselves, who were the descendants of those
+who had once inhabited Kôr and the country round it, as far as the
+sea-coast and for hundreds of miles inland, having been a mighty people
+in their day before a great plague destroyed them.
+
+For the rest he thought that she was a very unhappy woman who “lived
+with her own soul mourning the dead” and consorting with none upon the
+earth.
+
+I asked him why she stayed here, whereat he shook his head and replied,
+he supposed because of the “curse,” since he could conceive of no other
+reason. He informed me also that her moods varied very much. Sometimes
+she was fierce and active and at others by comparison mild and
+low-spirited. Just now she was passing through one of the latter
+stages, perhaps because of the Rezu trouble, for she did not wish her
+people to be destroyed by this terrible person; or perhaps for some
+other reason with which he was not acquainted.
+
+When she chose, she knew all things, except the distant future. Thus
+she knew that we were coming, also the details of our march and that we
+should be attacked by the Rezuites who were going out to meet their
+returning company that had been sent afar to find a white queen.
+Therefore she had ordered him to go with soldiers to our assistance. I
+asked why she went veiled, and he replied, because of her beauty which
+drove even savage men mad, so that in old days she had been obliged to
+kill a number of them.
+
+That was all he seemed to know about her, except that she was kind to
+those who served her well, like himself, and protected them from evil
+of every sort.
+
+Then I asked him about Rezu. He answered that he was a dreadful person,
+undying, it was said, like She-who-commands, though he had never seen
+the man himself and never wanted to do so. His followers being
+cannibals and having literally eaten up all those that they could
+reach, were now desirous of conquering the people of Lulala that they
+might eat them also at their leisure. Each other they did not eat,
+because dog does not eat dog, and therefore they were beginning to grow
+hungry, although they had plenty of grain and cattle of which they used
+the milk and hides.
+
+As for the coming battle, he knew nothing about it or what would
+happen, save that She-who-commands said that it would go well for the
+Lulalaites under my direction. She was so sure that it would go well,
+that she did not think it worth while to accompany the army, for she
+hated noise and bloodshed.
+
+It occurred to me that perhaps she was afraid that she too would be
+taken captive and eaten, but I kept my reflection to myself.
+
+Just then we arrived at our camp-house, where Billali bade me farewell,
+saying that he wished to rest as he must be back at dawn with litters,
+when he hoped to find us ready to start. Then he departed. Umslopogaas
+and Hans also went away to sleep, leaving me alone who, having taken my
+repose in the afternoon, did not feel drowsy at the moment. So lovely
+was the night indeed that I made up my mind to take a little walk
+during the midnight hours, after the manner of the Amahagger
+themselves, for having now been recognised as Generalissimo of their
+forces, I had little fear of being attacked, especially as I carried a
+pistol in my pocket. So off I set strolling slowly down what seemed to
+have been a main street of the ancient city, which in its general
+appearance resembled excavated Pompeii, only on an infinitely larger
+scale.
+
+As I went I meditated on the strange circumstances in which I found
+myself. Really they tempted me to believe that I was suffering from
+delusions and perhaps all the while in fact lay stretched upon a bed in
+the delirium of fever. That marvellous woman, for instance—even
+rejecting her tale of miraculously extended life, which I did—what was
+I to make of her? I did not know, except that wondrous as she was, it
+remained clear that she claimed a great deal more power than she
+possessed. This was evident from her tone in the interview with the
+captains, and from the fact that she had shuffled off the command of
+her tribe on to my shoulders. If she were so mighty, why did she not
+command it herself and bring her celestial, or infernal, powers to bear
+upon the enemy? Again, I could not say, but one fact emerged, namely
+that she was as interesting as she was beautiful, and uncommonly clever
+into the bargain.
+
+But what a task was this that she had laid upon me, to lead into
+battle, with a foe of unascertained strength, a mob of savages probably
+quite undisciplined, of whose fighting qualities I knew nothing and
+whom I had no opportunity of organising. The affair seemed madness and
+I could only hope that luck or destiny would take me through somehow.
+
+To tell the truth, I believed it would, for I had grown almost as
+superstitious about Zikali and his Great Medicine as was Hans himself.
+Certainly the effect of it upon those captains was very odd, or would
+have been had not the explanation come to me in a flash. On the first
+night of our meeting, as I have described, I showed this talisman to
+Ayesha, as a kind of letter of credentials, and now I could see that it
+was she who had arranged all the scene with the captains, or their
+tribal magician, in order to get her way about my appointment to the
+command.
+
+Everything about her conduct bore this out, even her feigning ignorance
+of the existence of the charm and the leaving of it to Hans to suggest
+its production, which perhaps she did by influencing his mind
+subconsciously. No doubt more or less it fitted in with one of those
+nebulous traditions which are so common amongst ancient savage races,
+and therefore once shown to her confederate, or confederates, would be
+accepted by the common people as a holy sign, after which the rest was
+easy.
+
+Such an obvious explanation involved the death of any illusions I might
+still cherish about this Arab lady, Ayesha, and it is true that I
+parted with them with regret, as we all do when we think we have
+discovered something wonderful in the female line. But there it was,
+and to bother any more about her, her history and aims, seemed useless.
+
+So dismissing her and all present anxieties from my mind, I began to
+look about me and to wonder at the marvellous scene which unfolded
+itself before me in the moonlight. That I might see it better, although
+I was rather afraid of snakes which might hide among the stones, by an
+easy ascent I climbed a mount of ruins and up the broad slope of a
+tumbled massive wall, which from its thickness I judged must have been
+that of some fort or temple. On the crest of this wall, some seventy or
+eighty feet above the level of the streets, I sat down and looked about
+me.
+
+Everywhere around me stretched the ruins of the great city, now as
+fallen and as deserted as Babylon herself. The majestic loneliness of
+the place was something awful. Even the vision of companies and
+battalions of men crossing the plain towards the north with the
+moonlight glistening on their spear-points, did little to lessen this
+sense of loneliness. I knew that these were the regiments which I was
+destined to command, travelling to the camp where I must meet them. But
+in such silence did they move that no sound came from them even in the
+deathly stillness of the perfect night, so that almost I was tempted to
+believe them to be the shadow-ghosts of some army of old Kôr.
+
+They vanished, and musing thus I think I must have dozed. At any rate
+it seemed to me that of a sudden the city was as it had been in the
+days of its glory. I saw it brilliant with a hundred colours;
+everywhere was colour, on the painted walls and roofs, the flowering
+trees that lined the streets and the bright dresses of the men and
+women who by thousands crowded them and the marts and squares. Even the
+chariots that moved to and fro were coloured as were the countless
+banners which floated from palace walls and temple tops.
+
+The enormous place teemed with every activity of life; brides being
+borne to marriage and dead men to burial; squadrons marching, clad in
+glittering armour; merchants chaffering; white-robed priests and
+priestesses passing in procession (who or what did they worship? I
+wondered); children breaking out of school; grave philosophers debating
+in the shadow of a cool arcade; a royal person making a progress
+preceded by runners and surrounded by slaves, and lastly the multitudes
+of citizens going about the daily business of life.
+
+Even details were visible, such as those of officers of the law chasing
+an escaped prisoner who had a broken rope tied to his arm, and a
+collision between two chariots in a narrow street, about the wrecks of
+which an idle mob gathered as it does to-day if two vehicles collide,
+while the owners argued, gesticulating angrily, and the police and
+grooms tried to lift a fallen horse on to its feet. Only no sound of
+the argument or of anything else reached me. I saw, and that was all.
+The silence remained intense, as well it might do, since those chariots
+must have come to grief thousands upon thousands of years ago.
+
+A cloud seemed to pass before my eyes, a thin, gauzy cloud which
+somehow reminded me of the veil that Ayesha wore. Indeed at the moment,
+although I could not see her, I would have sworn that she was present
+at my side, and what is more, that she was mocking me who had set her
+down as so impotent a trickstress, which doubtless was part of the
+dream.
+
+At any rate I returned to my normal state, and there about me were the
+miles of desolate streets and the thousands of broken walls, and the
+black blots of roofless houses and the wide, untenanted plain bounded
+by the battlemented line of encircling mountain crests, and above all,
+the great moon shining softly in a tender sky.
+
+I looked and thrilled, though oppressed by the drear and desolate
+beauty of the scene around me, descended the wall and the ruined slope
+and made my way homewards, afraid even of my own shadow. For I seemed
+to be the only living thing among the dead habitations of immemorial
+Kôr.
+
+Reaching our camp I found Hans awake and watching for me.
+
+“I was just coming to look for you, Baas,” he said. “Indeed I should
+have done so before, only I knew that you had gone to pay a visit to
+that tall white ‘Missis’ who ties up her head in a blanket, and thought
+that neither of you would like to be disturbed.”
+
+“Then you thought wrong,” I answered, “and what is more, if you had
+made that visit I think it might have been one from which you would
+never have come back.”
+
+“Oh yes, Baas,” sniggered Hans. “The tall white lady would not have
+minded. It is you who are so particular, after the fashion of men whom
+Heaven made very shy.”
+
+Without deigning to reply to the gibes of Hans I went to lie down,
+wondering what kind of a bed poor Robertson occupied that night, and
+soon fell asleep, as fortunately for myself I have the power to do,
+whatever my circumstances at the moment. Men who can sleep are those
+who do the work of the world and succeed, though personally I have had
+more of the work than of the success.
+
+I was awakened at the first grey dawn by Hans, who informed me that
+Billali was waiting outside with litters, also that Goroko had already
+made his incantations and doctored Umslopogaas and his two men for war
+after the Zulu fashion when battle was expected. He added that these
+Zulus had refused to be left behind to guard and nurse their wounded
+companions, and said that rather than do so, they would kill them.
+
+Somehow, he informed me, in what way he could not guess, this had come
+to the ears of the White Lady who “hid her face from men because it was
+so ugly,” and she had sent women to attend to the sick ones, with word
+that they should be well cared for. All of this proved to be true
+enough, but I need not enter into the details.
+
+In the end off we went, I in my litter following Billali’s, with an
+express and a repeating rifle and plenty of ammunition for both, and
+Hans, also well armed, in that which had been sent for Umslopogaas, who
+preferred to walk with Goroko and the two other Zulus.
+
+For a little while Hans enjoyed the sensation of being carried by
+somebody else, and lay upon the cushions smoking with a seraphic smile
+and addressing sarcastic remarks to the bearers, who fortunately did
+not understand them. Soon, however, he wearied of these novel delights
+and as he was still determined not to walk until he was obliged,
+climbed on to the roof of the litter, astride of which he sat as though
+it were a horse, looking for all the world like a toy monkey on a
+horizontal stick.
+
+Our road ran across the level, fertile plain but a small portion of
+which was cultivated, though I could see that at some time or other,
+when its population was greater, every inch of it had been under crop.
+Now it was largely covered by trees, many of them fruit-bearing,
+between which meandered streams of water which once, I think, had been
+irrigation channels.
+
+About ten o’clock we reached the foot of the encircling cliffs and
+began the climb of the escarpment, which was steep, tortuous and
+difficult. By noon we reached its crest and here found all our little
+army encamped and, except for the sentries, sleeping, as seemed to be
+the invariable custom of these people in the daytime.
+
+I caused the chief captains to be awakened and with them made a circuit
+of the camp, reckoning the numbers of the men which came to about 3,250
+and learning what I could concerning them and their way of fighting.
+Then, accompanied by Umslopogaas and Hans with the Zulus as a guard,
+also by three of the head-captains of the Amahagger, I walked forward
+to study the lie of the land.
+
+Coming to the further edge of the escarpment, I found that at this
+place two broad-based ridges, shaped like those that spring from the
+boles of certain tropical forest trees, ran from its crest to the plain
+beneath at a gentle slope. Moreover I saw that on this plain between
+the ends of the ridges an army was encamped which, by the aid of my
+glasses, I examined and estimated to number at least ten thousand men.
+
+This army, the Amahagger captains informed me, was that of Rezu, who,
+they said, intended to commence his attack at dawn on the following
+morning, since the People of Rezu, being sun-worshippers, would never
+fight until their god appeared above the horizon. Having studied all
+there was to see I asked the captains to set out their plan of battle,
+if they had a plan.
+
+The chief of them answered that it was to advance halfway down the
+right-hand ridge to a spot where there was a narrow flat piece of
+ground, and there await attack, since at this place their smaller
+numbers would not so much matter, whereas these made it impossible for
+them to assail the enemy.
+
+“But suppose that Rezu should choose to come up to the other ridge and
+get behind you. What would happen then?” I inquired.
+
+He replied that he did not know, his ideas of strategy being, it was
+clear, of a primitive order.
+
+“Do your people fight best at night or in the day?” I went on.
+
+He said undoubtedly at night, indeed in all their history there was no
+record of their having done so in the daytime.
+
+“And yet you propose to let Rezu join battle with you when the sun is
+high, or in other words to court defeat,” I remarked.
+
+Then I went aside and discussed things for a while with Umslopogaas and
+Hans, after which I returned and gave my orders, declining all
+argument. Briefly these were that in the dusk before the rising of the
+moon, our Amahagger must advance down the right-hand ridge in complete
+silence, and hide themselves among the scrub which I saw grew thickly
+near its root. A small party, however, under the leadership of Goroko,
+whom I knew to be a brave and clever captain, was to pass halfway down
+the left-hand ridge and there light fires over a wide area, so as to
+make the enemy think that our whole force had encamped there. Then at
+the proper moment which I had not yet decided upon, we would attack the
+army of Rezu.
+
+The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I
+think was too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together.
+Seeing that I must assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and
+said to their chief man,
+
+“Hearken, my friend. By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed
+your general and I expect to be obeyed without question. From the
+moment that the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the
+Black One, and if so much as one of your men hesitates or turns back,
+you will die,” and I nodded towards the axe of Umslopogaas. “Moreover,
+afterwards She-who-commands will see that others of you die, should you
+escape in the fight.”
+
+Still they hesitated. Thereon without another word, I produced Zikali’s
+Great Medicine and held it before their eyes, with the result that the
+sight of this ugly thing did what even the threat of death could not
+do. They went flat on the ground, every one of them, and swore by
+Lulala and by She-who-commands, her priestess, that they would do all I
+said, however mad it seemed to them.
+
+“Good,” I answered. “Now go back and make ready, and for the rest, by
+this time to-morrow we shall know who is or is not mad.”
+
+From that moment till the end I had no more trouble with these
+Amahagger.
+
+I will get on quickly with the story of this fight whereof the
+preliminary details do not matter. At the proper time Goroko went off
+with two hundred and fifty men and one of the two Zulus to light the
+fires and, at an agreed signal, namely the firing of two shots in rapid
+succession by myself, to begin shouting and generally make as much
+noise as they could.
+
+We also went off with the remaining three thousand, and before the moon
+rose, crept as quietly as ghosts down the right-hand ridge. Being such
+a silent folk who were accustomed to move at night and could see in the
+dark almost as well as cats, the Amahagger executed this manoeuvre
+splendidly, wrapping their spear-blades in bands of dry grass lest
+light should glint on them and betray our movements. So in due course
+we came to the patch of bush where the ridge widened out about five
+hundred yards from the plain beneath, and there lay down in four
+companies or regiments, each of them about seven hundred and fifty
+strong.
+
+Now the moon had risen, but because of the mist which covered the
+surface of the plain, we could see nothing of the camp of Rezu which we
+knew must be within a thousand yards of us, unless indeed it had been
+moved, as the silence seemed to suggest.
+
+This circumstance gave me much anxiety, since I feared lest abandoning
+their reputed habits, these Rezuites were also contemplating a night
+attack. Umslopogaas, too, was disturbed on the subject, though because
+of Goroko and his men whose fires began to twinkle on the opposing
+ridge something over a mile away, they could not pass up there without
+our knowledge.
+
+Still, for aught I knew there might be other ways of scaling this
+mountain. I did not trust the Amahagger, who declared that none
+existed, since their local knowledge was slight as they never visited
+these northern slopes because of their fear of Rezu. Supposing that the
+enemy gained the crest and suddenly assaulted us in the rear! The
+thought of it made me feel cold down the back.
+
+While I was wondering how I could find out the truth, Hans, who was
+squatted behind a bush, suddenly rose and gave the rifle he was
+carrying to the remaining Zulu.
+
+“Baas,” he said, “I am going to look and find out what those people are
+doing, if they are still there, and then you will know how and when to
+attack them. Don’t be afraid for me, Baas, it will be easy in that mist
+and you know I can move like a snake. Also if I should not come back,
+it does not matter and it will tell you that they _are_ there.”
+
+I hesitated who did not wish to expose the brave little Hottentot to
+such risks. But when he understood, Umslopogaas said,
+
+“Let the man go. It is his gift and duty to spy, as it is mine to smite
+with the axe, and yours to lead, Macumazahn. Let him go, I say.”
+
+I nodded my head, and having kissed my hand in his silly fashion in
+token of much that he did not wish to say, Hans slipped out of sight,
+saying that he hoped to be back within an hour. Except for his great
+knife, he went unarmed, who feared that if he took a pistol he might be
+tempted to fire it and make a noise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE
+
+
+That hour went by very slowly. Again and again I consulted my watch by
+the light of the moon, which was now rising high in the heavens, and
+thought that it would never come to an end. Listen as I would, there
+was nothing to be heard, and as the mist still prevailed the only thing
+I could see except the heavens, was the twinkling of the fires lit by
+Goroko and his party.
+
+At length it was done and there was no sign of Hans. Another half hour
+passed and still no sign of Hans.
+
+“I think that Light-in-Darkness is dead or taken prisoner,” said
+Umslopogaas.
+
+I answered that I feared so, but that I would give him another fifteen
+minutes and then, if he did not appear, I proposed to order an advance,
+hoping to find the enemy where we had last seen them from the top of
+the mountain.
+
+The fifteen minutes went by also, and as I could see that the Amahagger
+captains who sat at a little distance were getting very nervous, I
+picked up my double-barrelled rifle and turned round so that I faced up
+hill with a view of firing it as had been agreed with Goroko, but in
+such a fashion that the flashes perhaps would not be seen from the
+plain below. For this purpose I moved a few yards to the left to get
+behind the trunk of a tree that grew there, and was already lifting the
+rifle to my shoulder, when a yellow hand clasped the barrel and a husky
+voice said,
+
+“Don’t fire yet, Baas, as I want to tell you my story first.”
+
+I looked down and there was the ugly face of Hans wearing a grin that
+might have frightened the man in the moon.
+
+“Well,” I said with cold indifference, assumed I admit to hide my
+excessive joy at his safe return, “tell on, and be quick about it. I
+suppose you lost your way and never found them.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, I lost my way for the fog was very thick down there. But in
+the end I found them all right, by my nose, Baas, for those man-eating
+people smell strong and I got the wind of one of their sentries. It was
+easy to pass him in the mist, Baas, so easy that I was tempted to cut
+his throat as I went, but I didn’t for fear lest he should make a
+noise. No, I walked on right into the middle of them, which was easy
+too, for they were all asleep, wrapped up in blankets. They hadn’t any
+fires perhaps because they didn’t want them to be seen, or perhaps
+because it is so hot down in that low land, I don’t know which.
+
+“So I crept on taking note of all I saw, till at last I came to a
+little hill of which the top rose above the level of the mist, so that
+I could see on it a long hut built of green boughs with the leaves
+still fresh upon them. Now I thought that I would crawl up to the hut
+since it came into my mind that Rezu himself must be sleeping there and
+that I might kill him. But while I stood hesitating I heard a noise
+like to that made by an old woman whose husband had thrown a blanket
+over her head to keep her quiet, or to that of a bee in a bottle, a
+sort of droning noise that reminded me of something.
+
+“I thought a while and remembered that when Red Beard was on his knees
+praying to Heaven, as is his habit when he has nothing else to do,
+Baas, he makes a noise just like that. I crept towards the sound and
+presently there I found Red Beard himself tied upon a stone and looking
+as mad as a buffalo bull stuck in a swamp, for he shook his head and
+rolled his eyes about, just as though he had had two bottles of bad
+gin, Baas, and all the while he kept saying prayers. Now I thought that
+I would cut him loose, and bent over him to do so, when by ill-luck he
+saw my face and began to shout, saying,
+
+“‘Go away, you yellow devil. I know you have come to take me to hell,
+but you are too soon, and if my hands were loose I would twist your
+head off your shoulders.’
+
+“He said this in English, Baas, which as you know I can understand
+quite well, after which I was sure that I had better leave him alone.
+Whilst I was thinking, there came out of the hut above two old men
+dressed in night-shirts, such as you white people wear, with yellow
+things upon their heads that had a metal picture of the sun in front of
+them.”
+
+“Medicine-men,” I suggested.
+
+“Yes, Baas, or Predikants of some sort, for they were rather like your
+reverend father when he dressed himself up and went into a box to
+preach. Seeing them I slipped back a little way to where the mist
+began, lay down and listened. They looked at Red Beard, for his shouts
+at me had brought them out, but he took no notice of them, only went on
+making a noise like a beetle in a tin can.
+
+“‘It is nothing,’ said one of the Predikants to the other in the same
+tongue that these Amahagger use. ‘But when is he to be sacrificed?
+Soon, I hope, for I cannot sleep because of the noise he makes.’
+
+“‘When the edge of the sun appears, not before,’ answered the other
+Predikant. ‘Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and this
+white man will be sacrificed to her.’
+
+“‘I think it is a pity to wait so long,’ said the first Predikant, ‘for
+never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on his head.’
+
+“‘First the victory, then the feast,’ answered the second Predikant,
+‘though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman who was
+with the new queen.’
+
+“Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back
+towards the hut. But the other did not go back. No, he sat down on the
+ground and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone. More, he struck
+him on the face to make him quiet.
+
+“Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they
+had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit
+in me grew so very angry and I thought that I would give this old
+_skellum_ (i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself,
+after which I purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get
+speech with the Lady Sad-Eyes, if she was there.
+
+“So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over
+Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would
+kill him at once. But it didn’t, Baas, for he fell on to his face and
+began to make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him.
+Then I heard a sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run
+away into the mist, without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes.
+I ran very hard, Baas, making a wide circle to the left, and so at last
+got back here. That’s all, Baas.”
+
+“And quite enough, too,” I answered, “though if they did not see you,
+the death of the Medicine-man may frighten them. Poor Janee! Well, I
+hope to come even with those devils before they are three hours older.”
+
+Then I called up Umslopogaas and the Amahagger captains and told them
+the substance of the story, also that Hans had located the army, or
+part of it.
+
+The end of it was that we made up our minds to attack at once; indeed I
+insisted on this, as I was determined if I could to save that
+unfortunate man, Robertson, who, from Hans’ account, evidently was now
+quite mad and raving. So I fired the two shots as had been arranged and
+presently heard the sound of distant shoutings on the slope of the
+opposing ridge. A few minutes later we started, Umslopogaas and I
+leading the vanguard and the Amahagger captains following with the
+three remaining companies.
+
+Now the reader, presuming the existence of such a person, will think
+that everything is sure to go right; that this cunning old fellow,
+Allan Quatermain, is going to surprise and wipe the floor with those
+Rezuites, who were already beguiled by the trick he had instructed
+Goroko to play. That after this he will rescue Robertson who doubtless
+shortly recovers his mind, also Inez with the greatest ease, in fact
+that everything will happen as it ought to do if this were a romance
+instead of a mere record of remarkable facts. But being the latter, as
+it happened, matters did not work out quite in this convenient way.
+
+To begin with, when those Amahagger told me that the Rezuites never
+fought in the dark or before the sun was well up, either they lied or
+they were much mistaken, for at any rate on this occasion they did the
+exact contrary. All the while that we thought we were stalking them,
+they were stalking us. The Goroko manoeuvre had not deceived them in
+the least, since from their spies they knew its exact significance.
+
+Here, I may add that those spies were in our own ranks, traitors, in
+short, who were really in the pay of Rezu and possibly belonged to his
+abominable faith, some of whom slipped away from time to time to the
+enemy to report our progress and plans, so far as they knew them.
+
+Further, what Hans had stumbled on was a mere rear guard left around
+the place of sacrifice and the hut where Inez was confined. The real
+army he never found at all. That was divided into two bodies and hidden
+in bush to the right and left of the ridge which we were descending
+just at the spot where it joined the plain beneath, and into the jaws
+of these two armies we marched gaily.
+
+Now that hypothetical reader will say, “Why didn’t that silly old fool,
+Allan, think of all these things? Why didn’t he remember that he was
+commanding a pack of savages with whom he had no real acquaintance,
+among whom there were sure to be traitors, especially as they were of
+the same blood as the Rezuites, and take precautions?”
+
+Ah! my dear reader, I will only answer that I wish you had handled the
+job yourself, and enjoyed the opportunity of seeing what _you_ could do
+in the circumstances. Do you suppose I didn’t think of all these
+points? Of course I did. But have you ever heard of the difficulty of
+making silk purses out of sows’ ears, or of turning a lot of gloomy and
+disagreeable barbarians whom you had never even drilled, into
+trustworthy and efficient soldiers ready to fight three times their own
+number and beat them?
+
+Also I beg to observe that I did get through somehow, as you shall
+learn, which is more than you might have done, Mr. Wisdom, though I
+admit, not without help from another quarter. It is all very well for
+you to sit in your armchair and be sapient and turn up your learned
+nose, like the gentlemen who criticise plays and poems, an easy job
+compared to the writing of them. From all of which, however, you will
+understand that I am, to tell the truth, rather ashamed of what
+followed, since _qui s’excuse, s’accuse_.
+
+As we slunk down that hill in the moonlight, a queer-looking crowd, I
+admit also that I felt very uncomfortable. To begin with I did not like
+that remark of the Medicine-man which Hans reported, to the effect that
+the feast must come after the victory, especially as he had said just
+before that Robertson was to be sacrificed as the sun rose, which would
+seem to suggest that the “victory” was planned to take place before
+that event.
+
+While I was ruminating upon this subject, I looked round for Hans to
+cross-examine him as to the priest’s exact words, only to find that he
+had slunk off somewhere. A few minutes later he reappeared running back
+towards us swiftly and, I noticed, taking shelter behind tree trunks
+and rocks as he came.
+
+“Baas,” he gasped, for he was out of breath, “be careful, those Rezu
+men are on either side ahead. I went forward and ran into them. They
+threw many spears at me. Look!” and he showed a slight cut on his arm
+from which blood was flowing.
+
+Instantly I understood that we were ambushed and began to think very
+hard indeed. As it chanced we were passing across a large flat space
+upon the ridge, say seven or eight acres in extent, where the bush grew
+lightly, though owing to the soil being better, the trees were tall.
+
+On the steep slope below this little plain it seemed to be denser and
+there it was, according to Hans, that the ambush was set. I halted my
+regiment and sent back messengers to the others that they were to halt
+also as they came up, on the pretext of giving them a rest before they
+were marshalled and we advanced to the battle.
+
+Then I told Umslopogaas what Hans said and asked him to send out his
+Zulu soldier whom he could trust, to see if he could obtain
+confirmation of the report. This he did at once. Also I asked him what
+he thought should be done, supposing that it was true.
+
+“Form the Amahagger into a ring or a square and await attack,” he
+answered.
+
+I nodded, for that was my own opinion, but replied,
+
+“If they were Zulus, the plan would be good. But how do we know that
+these men will stand?”
+
+“We know nothing, Macumazahn, and therefore can only try. If they run
+it must be up-hill.”
+
+Then I called the captains and told them what was toward, which seemed
+to alarm them very much. Indeed one or two of them wanted to retreat at
+once, but I said I would shoot the first man who tried to do so. In the
+end they agreed to my plan and said that they would post their best
+soldiers above, at the top of the square, with the orders to stop any
+attempt at a flight up the mountain.
+
+After this we formed up the square as best we could, arranging it in a
+rather rough, four-fold line. While we were doing this we heard some
+shouts below and presently the Zulu returned, who reported that all was
+as Hans had said and that Rezu’s men were moving round us, having
+discovered, as he thought, that we had halted and escaped their ambush.
+
+Still the attack did not develop at once, for the reason that the Rezu
+army was crawling up the steep flanks of the spur on either side of the
+level piece of ground, with a view of encircling us altogether, so as
+to make a clean sweep of our force. As a matter of fact, considered
+from our point of view, this was a most fortunate move, since thereby
+they stopped any attempt at a retreat on the part of our Amahagger,
+whose bolt-hole was now blocked.
+
+When we had done all we could, we sat down, or at least I did, and
+waited. The night, I remember, was strangely still, only from the
+slopes on either side of our plateau came a kind of rustling sound
+which in fact was caused by the feet of Rezu’s people, as they marched
+to surround us.
+
+It ceased at last and the silence grew complete, so much so that I
+could hear the teeth of some of our tall Amahagger chattering with
+fear, a sound that gave me little confidence and caused Umslopogaas to
+remark that the hearts of these big men had never grown; they remained
+“as those of babies.” I told the captains to pass the word down the
+ranks that those who stood might live, but those who fled would
+certainly die. Therefore if they wished to see their homes again they
+had better stand and fight like men. Otherwise most of them would be
+killed and the rest eaten by Rezu. This was done, and I observed that
+the message seemed to produce a steadying effect upon our ranks.
+
+Suddenly all around us, from below, from above and on either side there
+broke a most awful roar which seemed to shape itself into the word,
+_Rezu_, and next minute also from above, below and either side, some
+ten thousand men poured forth upon our square.
+
+In the moonlight they looked very terrible with their flowing white
+robes and great gleaming spears. Hans and I fired some shots, though
+for all the effect they produced, we might as well have pelted a
+breaker with pebbles. Then, as I thought that I should be more useful
+alive than dead, I retreated within the square, Umslopogaas, his Zulu,
+and Hans coming with me.
+
+On the whole our Amahagger stood the attack better than I expected.
+They beat back the first rush with considerable loss to the enemy, also
+the second after a longer struggle. Then there was a pause during which
+we re-formed our ranks, dragging the wounded men into the square.
+
+Scarcely had we done this when with another mighty shout of “Rezu!” the
+enemy attacked again—that was about an hour after the battle had begun.
+But now they had changed their tactics, for instead of trying to rush
+all sides of the square at once, they concentrated their efforts on the
+western front, that which faced towards the plain below.
+
+On they came, and among them in the forefront of the battle, now and
+again I caught sight of a gigantic man, a huge creature who seemed to
+me to be seven feet high and big in proportion. I could not see him
+clearly because of the uncertain moonlight, but I noted his fierce
+aspect, also that he had an enormous beard, black streaked with grey,
+that flowed down to his middle, and that his hair hung in masses upon
+his shoulders.
+
+“Rezu himself!” I shouted to Umslopogaas.
+
+“Aye, Macumazahn, Rezu himself without doubt, and I rejoice to see him
+for he will be a worthy foe to fight. Look! he carries an axe as I do.
+Now I must save my strength for when we come face to face I shall need
+it all.”
+
+I thought that I would spare Umslopogaas this exertion and watched my
+opportunity to put a bullet through this giant. But I could never get
+one. Once when I had covered him an Amahagger rushed in front of my gun
+so that I could not shoot, and when a second chance came a little cloud
+floated over the face of the moon and made him invisible. After that I
+had other things to which to attend, since, as I expected would happen,
+the western face of our square gave, and yelling like devils, the enemy
+began to pour in through the gap.
+
+A cold thrill went through me for I saw that the game was up. To
+re-form these undisciplined Amahagger was impossible; nothing was to be
+expected except panic, rout and slaughter. I cursed my folly for ever
+having had anything to do with the business, while Hans screamed to me
+in a thin voice that the only chance was for us three and the Zulu to
+bolt and hide in the bush.
+
+I did not answer him because, apart from any nasty pride, the thing was
+impossible, for how could we get through those struggling masses of men
+which surrounded us on every side? No, my clock had struck, so I went
+on making a kind of mental sandwich of prayers and curses; prayers for
+my soul and forgiveness for my sins, and curses on the Amahagger and
+everything to do with them, especially Zikali and the woman called
+Ayesha, who, between them, had led me into this affair.
+
+“Perhaps the Great Medicine of Zikali,” piped Hans again as he fired a
+rifle at the advancing foe.
+
+“Hang the Great Medicine,” I shouted back, “and Ayesha with it. No
+wonder she declined to take a hand in this business.”
+
+As I spoke the words I saw old Billali, who not being a man of war was
+keeping as close to us as he could, go flat onto his venerable face,
+and reflected that he must have got a thrown spear through him. Casting
+a hurried glance at him to see if he were done for or only wounded, out
+of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something diaphanous which
+gleamed in the moonlight and reminded me of I knew not what at the
+moment.
+
+I looked round quickly to see what it might be and lo! there, almost at
+my side was the veiled Ayesha herself, holding in her hand a little rod
+made of black wood inlaid with ivory not unlike a field marshal’s
+baton, or a sceptre.
+
+I never saw her come and to this day I do not know how she did so; she
+was just there and what is more she must have put luminous paint or
+something else on her robes, for they gleamed with a sort of faint,
+phosphorescent fire, which in the moonlight made her conspicuous all
+over the field of battle. Nor did she speak a single word, she only
+waved the rod, pointed with it towards the fierce hordes who were
+drawing near to us, killing as they came, and began to move forward
+with a gliding motion.
+
+Now from every side there went up a roar of “_She-who-commands!
+She-who-commands!_” while the people of Rezu in front shouted “_Lulala!
+Lulala!_ Fly, Lulala is upon us with the witchcrafts of the moon!”
+
+She moved forward and by some strange impulse, for no order was given,
+we all began to move after her. Yes, the ranks that a minute before
+were beginning to give way to wild panic, became filled with a
+marvellous courage and moved after her.
+
+The men of Rezu also, and I suppose with them Rezu himself, for I saw
+no more of him at that time, began to move uncommonly fast over the
+edge of the plateau towards the plain beneath. In fact they broke into
+flight and leaping over dead and dying, we rushed after them, always
+following the gleaming robe of Ayesha, who must have been an extremely
+agile person, since without any apparent exertion she held her place a
+few steps ahead of us.
+
+There was another curious circumstance about this affair, namely, that
+terrified though they were, those Rezuites, after the first break, soon
+seemed to find it impossible to depart with speed. They kept turning
+round to look behind them at that following vision, as though they were
+so many of Lot’s wives. Moreover, the same fate overtook many of them
+which fell upon that scriptural lady, since they appeared to become
+petrified and stood there quite still, like rabbits fascinated by a
+snake, until our people came up and killed them.
+
+This slaying went on all down the last steep slope of the ridge, on
+which I suppose at least two-thirds of the army of Rezu must have
+perished, since our Amahagger showed themselves very handy men when it
+came to exterminating foes who were too terror-struck to fight, and,
+exhilarated by the occupation, gained courage every moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+THE SLAYING OF REZU
+
+
+At last we were on the plain, the bemused remnant of Rezu’s army still
+doubling before us like a mob of game pursued by wild dogs. Here we
+halted to re-form our ranks; it seemed to me, although still she spoke
+no word, that some order reached me from the gleaming Ayesha that I
+should do this. The business took twenty minutes or so, and then,
+numbering about two thousand five hundred strong, for the rest had
+fallen in the fight of the square, we advanced again.
+
+Now there came that dusk which often precedes the rising of the sun,
+and through it I could see that the battle was not yet over, since
+gathered in front of us was still a force about equal to our own.
+Ayesha pointed towards it with her wand and we leapt forward to the
+attack. Here the men of Rezu stood awaiting us, for they seemed to
+overcome their terror with the approach of day.
+
+The battle was fierce, a very strange battle in that dim, uncertain
+light, which scarcely showed us friend from foe. Indeed I am not sure
+that we should have won it, since Ayesha was no longer visible to give
+our Amahagger confidence, and as the courage of the Rezuites increased,
+so theirs seemed to lessen with the passing of the night.
+
+Fortunately, however, just as the issue hung doubtful, there was a
+shout to our left and looking, I made out the tall shape of Goroko, the
+witch-doctor, with the other Zulu, followed by his two hundred and
+fifty men, and leaping on to the flank of the line of Rezu.
+
+That settled the business. The enemy crumpled up and melted, and just
+then the first lights of dawn appeared in the sky. I looked about me
+for Ayesha, but she had gone, where to I knew not, though at the moment
+I feared that she must have been killed in the mêlée.
+
+Then I gave up looking and thinking, since now or never was the time
+for action. Signalling and shouting to those hatchet-faced Amahagger to
+advance, accompanied by Umslopogaas with Goroko who had joined us, and
+Hans, I sprang forward to give them an example, which, to be just to
+them, they took.
+
+“This is the mound on which Red-Beard should be,” cried Hans as we
+faced a little slope.
+
+I ran up it and through the gloom which precedes the actual dawn, saw a
+group of men gathered round something, as people collect about a street
+accident.
+
+“Red-Beard on the stone. They are killing him,” screeched Hans again.
+
+It was so; at least several white-robed priests were bending over a
+prostrate figure with knives in their hands, while behind stood the
+huge fellow whom I took to be Rezu, staring towards the east as though
+he were waiting for the rim of the sun to appear before he gave some
+order. At that very moment it did appear, just a thin edge of bright
+light on the horizon, and he turned, shouting the order.
+
+Too late! For we were on them. Umslopogaas cut down one of the priests
+with his axe, and the men about me dealt with the others, while Hans
+with a couple of sweeps of his long knife, severed the cords with which
+Robertson was tied.
+
+The poor man who in the growing light I could see was raving mad,
+sprang up, calling out something in Scotch about “the deil.” Seizing a
+great spear which had fallen from the hand of one of the priests, he
+rushed furiously at the giant who had given the order, and with a yell
+drove it at his heart. I saw the spear snap, from which I concluded
+that this man, whom rightly I took to be Rezu, wore some kind of
+armour.
+
+Next instant the axe he held, a great weapon, flashed aloft and down
+went Robertson before its awful stroke, stone dead, for as we found out
+afterwards, he was cloven almost in two. At the sight of the death of
+my poor friend rage took hold of me. In my hand was a double-barrelled
+rifle, an Express loaded with hollow-pointed bullets. I covered the
+giant and let drive, first with one barrel and then with the other, and
+what is more, distinctly I heard both bullets strike upon him.
+
+Yet he did not fall. He rocked a little, that is all, then turned and
+marched off towards a hut, that whereof Hans had told me, which stood
+about fifty yards away.
+
+“Leave him to me,” shouted Umslopogaas. “Steel cuts where bullets
+cannot pierce,” and with a bound like to that of a buck, the great Zulu
+leapt away after him.
+
+I think that Rezu meant to enter the hut for some purpose of his own,
+but Umslopogaas was too hard upon his tracks. At any rate he ran past
+it and down the other slope of the little hill on to the plain behind
+where the remnants of his army were trying to re-form. There in front
+of them the giant turned and stood at bay.
+
+Umslopogaas halted also, waiting for us to come up, since, cunning old
+warrior as he was, he feared lest should he begin the fight before that
+happened, the horde of them would fall on him. Thirty seconds later we
+arrived and found him standing still with bent body, small shield
+advanced and the great axe raised as though in the act of striking, a
+wondrous picture outlined as it was against the swiftly rising-sun.
+
+Some ten paces away stood the giant leaning on the axe he bore, which
+was not unlike to that with which woodmen fell big trees. He was an
+evil man to see and at this, my first full sight of him, I likened him
+in my mind to Goliath whom David overthrew. Huge he was and hairy, with
+deep-set, piercing eyes and a great hooked nose. His face seemed thin
+and ancient also, when with a motion of the great head, he tossed his
+long locks back from about it, but his limbs were those of a Hercules
+and his movements full of a youthful vigour. Moreover his aspect as a
+whole was that of a devil rather than of a man; indeed the sight of it
+sickened me.
+
+“Let me shoot him,” I cried to Umslopogaas, for I had reloaded the
+rifle as I ran.
+
+“Nay, Watcher-by-Night,” answered the Zulu without moving his head,
+“rifle has had its chance and failed. Now let us see what axe can do.
+If I cannot kill this man, I will be borne hence feet first who shall
+have made a long journey for nothing.”
+
+Then the giant began to talk in a low, rumbling voice that reverberated
+from the slope of the little hill behind us.
+
+“Who are you?” he asked, speaking in the same tongue that the Amahagger
+use, “who dare to come face to face with Rezu? Black hound, do you not
+know that I cannot be slain who have lived a year for every week of
+your life’s days, and set my foot upon the necks of men by thousands.
+Have you not seen the spear shatter and the iron balls melt upon my
+breast like rain-drops, and would you try to bring me down with that
+toy you carry? My army is defeated—I know it. But what matters that
+when I can get me more? Because the sacrifice was not completed and the
+white queen was not wed, therefore my army was defeated by the magic of
+Lulala, the White Witch who dwells in the tombs. But _I_ am not
+defeated who cannot be slain until I show my back, and then only by a
+certain axe which long ago has rusted into dust.”
+
+Now of this long speech Umslopogaas understood nothing, so I answered
+for him, briefly enough, but to the point, for there flashed into my
+mind all Ayesha’s tale about an axe.
+
+“A certain axe!” I cried. “Aye, a certain axe! Well, look at that which
+is held by the Black One, the captain who is named Slaughterer, the
+ancient axe whose title is Chieftainess, because if so she wills, she
+takes the lives of all. Look at it well, Rezu, Giant and Wizard, and
+say whether it is not that which your forefather lost, that which is
+destined to bring you to your doom?”
+
+Thus I spoke, very loudly that all might hear, slowly also, pausing
+between each word because I wished to give time for the light to
+strengthen, seeing as I did that the rays of the rising sun struck upon
+the face of the giant, whereas the eyes of Umslopogaas were less
+dazzled by it.
+
+Rezu heard, and stared at the axe which Umslopogaas held aloft, causing
+it to quiver slightly by an imperceptible motion of his arm. As he
+stared I saw his hideous face change, and that on it for the first time
+gathered a look of something resembling fear. Also his followers behind
+him who were also studying the axe, began to murmur together.
+
+For here I should say that as though by common consent the battle had
+been stayed; we no longer attacked and the enemy no longer ran. They,
+or whose who were left of them, stood still as though they felt that
+the real and ultimate issue of the fight depended upon the forthcoming
+duel between these two champions, though of that issue they had little
+doubt since, as I learned afterwards, they believed their king to be
+invulnerable.
+
+For quite a while Rezu went on staring. Then he said aloud as if he
+were thinking to himself.
+
+“It is like, very like. The horn haft is the same; the pointed gouge is
+the same; the blade shaped like the young moon is the same. Almost
+could I think that before me shook the ancient holy axe. Nay, the gods
+have taken that back long ago and this is but a trick of the witch,
+Lulala of the Caves.”
+
+Thus he spoke, but still for a moment hesitated.
+
+“Umslopogaas,” I said in the deep silence that followed, “hear me.”
+
+“I hear you,” he answered without turning his head or moving his arms.
+“What counsel, Watcher-by-Night?”
+
+“This, Slaughterer. Strike not at that man’s face and breast, for there
+I think he is protected by witchcraft or by armour. Get behind him and
+strike at his back. Do you understand?”
+
+“Nay, Macumazahn, I understand not. Yet I will do your bidding because
+you are wiser than I and utter no empty words. Now be still.”
+
+Then Umslopogaas threw the axe into the air and caught it as it fell,
+and as he did so began to chant his own praises Zulu fashion.
+
+“Oho!” he said, “I am the child of the Lion, the Black-maned Lion,
+whose claws never loosened of their prey. I am the Wolf-king, he who
+hunted with the wolves upon the Witch-mountain with my brother, Bearer
+of the Club named Watcher-of-the-Fords, I am he who slew him called the
+Unconquered, Chief of the People of the Axe, he who bore the ancient
+Axe before me; I am he who smote the Halakazi tribe in their caves and
+won me Nada the Lily to wife. I am he who took to the King Dingaan a
+gift that he loved little, and afterward with Mopo, my foster-sire,
+hurled this Dingaan down to death. I am the Royal One, named Bulalio
+the Slaughterer, named Woodpecker, named Umhlopekazi the Captain,
+before whom never yet man has stood in fair and open fight. Now, thou
+Wizard Rezu, now thou Giant, now thou Ghost-man, come on against me and
+before the sun has risen by a hand’s breadth, all those who watch shall
+see which of us is better at the game of war. Come on, then! Come on,
+for I say that my blood boils over and my feet grow cold. Come on, thou
+grinning dog, thou monster grown fat with eating the flesh of men, thou
+hook-beaked vulture, thou old, grey-whiskered wolf!”
+
+Thus he chanted in his fierce, boastful way, while his two remaining
+Zulus clapped their hands and sentence by sentence echoed his words,
+and Goroko, the witch-doctor, muttered incantations behind him.
+
+While he sang thus Umslopogaas began to stir. First only his head and
+shoulders moved gently, swaying from side to side like a reed shaken in
+the wind or a snake about to strike. Then slowly he put out first one
+foot and next the other and drew them back again, as a dancer might do,
+tempting Rezu to attack.
+
+But the giant would not, his shield held before him, he stood still and
+waited to see what this black warrior would do.
+
+The snake struck. Umslopogaas darted in and let drive with the long
+axe. Rezu raised his shield above his head and caught the blow. From
+the clank it made I knew that this shield which seemed to be of hide,
+was lined with iron. Rezu smote back, but before the blow could fall
+the Zulu was out of his reach. This taught me how great was the giant’s
+strength, for though the stroke was heavy, like the steel-hatted axe he
+bore, still when he saw that it had missed he checked the weapon in mid
+air, which only a mighty man could have done.
+
+Umslopogaas saw these things also and changed his tactics. His axe was
+six or eight inches longer in the haft than that of Rezu, and therefore
+he could reach where Rezu could not, for the giant was short-armed. He
+twisted it round in his hand so that the moon-shaped blade was
+uppermost, and keeping it almost at full length, began to peck with the
+gouge-shaped point on the back at the head and arms of Rezu, that as I
+knew was a favourite trick of his in fight from which he won his name
+of “Woodpecker.” Rezu defended his head with his shield as best he
+could against the sharp points of steel which flashed all about him.
+
+Twice it seemed to me that the Zulu’s pecks went home upon the giant’s
+breast, but if so they did no harm. Either Rezu’s thick beard, or
+armour beneath it stopped them from penetrating his body. Still he
+roared out as though with pain, or fury, or both, and growing mad,
+charged at Umslopogaas and smote with all his strength.
+
+The Zulu caught the blow upon his shield, through which it shore as
+though the tough hide were paper. Stay the stroke it could not, yet it
+turned its direction, so that the falling axe slid past Umslopogaas’s
+shoulder, doing him no hurt. Next instant, before Rezu could strike
+again, the Zulu threw the severed shield into his face and seizing the
+axe with both hands, leapt in and struck. It was a mighty blow, for I
+saw the rhinoceros-horn handle of the famous axe bend like a drawn bow,
+and it went home with a dull thud full upon Rezu’s breast. He shook,
+but no more. Evidently the razor edge of _Inkosikaas_ had failed to
+pierce. There was a sound as though a hollow tree had been smitten and
+some strands of the long beard, shorn off, fell to the ground, but that
+was all.
+
+“_Tagati!_ (bewitched),” cried the watching Zulus. “That stroke should
+have cut him in two!” while I thought to myself that this man knew how
+to make good armour.
+
+Rezu laughed aloud, a bellowing kind of laugh, while Umslopogaas sprang
+back astonished.
+
+“Is it thus!” he cried in Zulu. “Well, all wizards have some door by
+which their Spirit enters and departs. I must find the door, I must
+find the door!”
+
+So he spoke and with springing movements tried to get past Rezu, first
+to the right and then to the left, all the while keeping out of reach.
+But Rezu ever turned and faced him, as he did so retreating step by
+step down the slope of the little hill and striking whenever he found a
+chance, but without avail, for always Umslopogaas was beyond his reach.
+Also the sunlight which now grew strong, dazzled him, or so I thought.
+Moreover he seemed to tire somewhat—or so I thought also.
+
+At any rate he determined to make an end of the play, for with a swift
+motion, as Umslopogaas had done, he threw away his shield and grasping
+the iron handle of his axe with both hands, charged the Zulu like a
+bull. Umslopogaas leapt back out of reach. Then suddenly he turned and
+ran up the rise. Yes, Bulalio the Slaughterer ran!
+
+A roar of mockery went up from the sun-worshippers behind, while our
+Amahagger laughed and Goroko and the two Zulus stared astonished and
+ashamed. Only I read his mind aright and wondered what guile he had
+conceived.
+
+He ran, and Rezu ran after him, but never could he catch the
+swiftest-footed man in Zululand. To and fro he followed him, for
+Umslopogaas was taking a zig-zag path towards the crest of the slope,
+till at length Rezu stopped breathless. But Umslopogaas still ran
+another twenty yards or so until he reached the top of the slope and
+there halted and wheeled round.
+
+For ten seconds or more he stood drawing his breath in great gasps,
+and, looking at his face, I saw that it had become as the face of a
+wolf. His lips were drawn up into a terrible grin, showing the white
+teeth between; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in and his eyes glared,
+while the skin over the hole in his forehead beat up and down.
+
+There he stood, gathering himself together for some mighty effort.
+
+“Run on!” shouted the spectators. “Run back to Kôr, black dog!”
+
+Umslopogaas knew that they were mocking him, but he took no heed, only
+bent down and rubbed his sweating hand in the grit of the dry earth.
+Then he straightened himself and charged down on Rezu.
+
+I, Allan Quatermain, have seen many things in battle, but never before
+or since did I see aught like to this charge. It was swift as that of a
+lioness, so swift that the Zulu’s feet scarcely seemed to touch the
+ground. On he sped like a thrown spear, till, when within about a dozen
+feet of Rezu who stood staring at him, he bent his frame almost double
+and leapt into the air.
+
+Oh! what a leap was that. Surely he must have learnt it from the lion,
+or the spring-buck. High he rose and now I saw his purpose; it was to
+clear the tall shape of Rezu. Aye, and he cleared him with half a foot
+to spare, and as he passed above, smote downwards with the axe so that
+the blow fell upon the back of Rezu’s head. Moreover it went home this
+time, for I saw the red blood stream and Rezu fell forward on his face.
+Umslopogaas landed far beyond him, ran a little way because he must,
+then wheeled round and charged again.
+
+Rezu was rising, but before he gained his feet, the axe _Inkosikaas_
+thundered down where the neck joins the shoulder and sank in. Still, so
+great was his strength that Rezu found his feet and smote out wildly.
+But now his movements were slow and again Umslopogaas got behind him,
+smiting at his back. Once, twice, thrice, he smote, and at the third
+blow it seemed as though the massive spine were severed, for his weapon
+fell from Rezu’s hand and slowly he sank down to the ground, and lay
+there, a huddled heap.
+
+Believing that all was over I ran to where he lay with Umslopogaas
+standing over him, as it seemed to me, utterly exhausted, for he
+supported himself by the axe and tottered upon his feet. But Rezu was
+not yet dead. He opened his cavernous eyes and glared at the Zulu with
+a look of hellish hate.
+
+“_Thou_ hast not conquered me, Black One,” he gasped. “It is thine axe
+which gave thee victory; the ancient, holy axe that once was mine until
+the woman stole it, yes, that and the craft of the Witch of the Caves
+who told thee to smite where the Spirit of Life which I feared to enter
+wholly, had not kissed my flesh, and there only left me mortal. Wolf of
+a black man, may we meet elsewhere and fight this fray again. Ah! would
+that I could get these hands about thy throat and take thee with me
+down into the Darkness. But Lulala wins if only for a while, since her
+fate, I think, shall be worse than mine. Ah! I see the magic beauty
+that she boasts turn to shameful——”
+
+Here of a sudden life left him and throwing his great arms wide, a last
+breath passed bubbling from his lips.
+
+As I stooped to examine the man’s huge and hairy carcase that to me
+looked only half human, with a thunder of feet our Amahagger rushed
+down upon us and thrusting me aside, fell upon the body of their
+ancient foe like hounds upon a helpless fox, and with hands and spears
+and knives literally tore and hacked it limb from limb, till no
+semblance of humanity remained.
+
+It was impossible to stop them; indeed I was too outworn with labours
+and emotions to make any such attempt. This I regret the more since I
+lost the opportunity of making an examination of the body of this
+troll-like man, and of ascertaining what kind of armour it was he wore
+beneath that great beard of his, which was strong enough to stop my
+bullets, and even the razor edge of the axe _Inkosikaas_ driven with
+all the might of the arms of the Zulu, Bulalio. For when I looked again
+at the sickening sight the giant was but scattered fragments and the
+armour, whatever it might have been, was gone, rent to little pieces
+and carried off, doubtless, by the Amahagger, perhaps to be divided
+between them to serve as charms.
+
+So of Rezu I know only that he was the hugest, most terrible-looking
+man I have ever seen, one too who carried his vast strength very late
+in life, since from the aspect of his countenance I imagine that he
+must have been nigh upon seventy years of age, though his supposed
+unnatural antiquity of course was nothing but a fable put about by the
+natives for their own purposes.
+
+Presently Umslopogaas seemed to recover from the kind of faint into
+which he had fallen and opening his eyes, looked about him. The first
+person they fell on was old Billali who stood stroking his white beard
+and contemplating the scene with an air which was at once philosophic
+and satisfied. This seemed to anger Umslopogaas, for he cried,
+
+“I think it was you, ancient bag of words and sweeper of paths for the
+feet of the great, who made a mock of me but now, when you thought that
+I fled before the horns of yonder man-eating bull—” and he nodded
+towards the fragments of what once had been Rezu. “Find now his axe and
+though I am weak and weary, I will wash away the insult with your
+blood.”
+
+“What does this glorious black hero say, Watcher-by-Night?” asked
+Billali in his most courteous tones.
+
+I told him word by word, whereon Billali lifted his hands in horror,
+turned and fled. Nor did I see him again until we arrived at Kôr.
+
+At the sight of the fall of their giant chief Rezu whom they believed
+to be invulnerable, his followers, who were watching the fray, set up a
+great wailing, a most mournful and uncanny noise to hear. Then, as I
+think did the hosts of the Philistines when David brought down Goliath
+by his admirable shot with a stone, they set out for their homes
+wherever these may have been, at an absolutely record pace and in the
+completest disarray.
+
+Our Amahagger followed them for a while, but soon were left standing
+still. So they contented themselves with killing any wounded they could
+find and returned. I did not accompany them; indeed the battle being
+won, metaphorically I washed my hands of them, and in my thoughts
+consigned them to a certain locality as a people of whom it might well
+be said that manners they had none and their customs were simply
+beastly. Also, although fierce and cruel, these night-bats were not
+good fighting men and in short never did I wish to have to do with such
+another company.
+
+Moreover, a very different matter pressed. The object of this business
+so far as I was concerned, had been to rescue poor Inez, since had it
+not been for her sake, never would I have consented to lead those
+Amahagger against their fellow blackguards, the Rezuites.
+
+But where was Inez? If Hans had understood the medicine-man aright, she
+was, or had been, in the hut, where it was my earnest hope that she
+still remained, since otherwise the hunt must be continued. This at any
+rate was easy to discover. Calling Hans, who was amusing himself by
+taking long shots at the flying enemy, so that they might not forget
+him, as he said, and the Zulus, I walked up the slope to the hut, or
+rather booth of boughs, for it was quite twenty feet long by twelve or
+fifteen broad.
+
+At its eastern end was a doorway or opening closed with a heavy
+curtain. Here I paused full of tremors, and listened, for to tell the
+truth I dreaded to draw that curtain, fearing what I might see within.
+Gathering up my courage at length I tore it aside and, a revolver in my
+hand, looked in. At first after the strong light without, for the sun
+was now well up, I could see nothing, since those green boughs and palm
+leaves were very closely woven. As my eyes grew accustomed to the
+gloom, however, I perceived a glittering object seated on a kind of
+throne at the end of the booth, while in a double row in front knelt
+six white-robed women who seemed to wear chains about their necks and
+carried large knives slung round their middles. On the floor between
+these women and the throne lay a dead man, a priest of some sort as I
+gathered from his garb, who still held a huge spear in his hand. So
+silent were the figure on the throne and those that knelt before it,
+that at first I thought that all of them must be dead.
+
+“Lady Sad-Eyes,” whispered Hans, “and her bride-women. Doubtless that
+old Predikant came to kill her when he saw that the battle was lost,
+but the bride-women killed him with their knives.”
+
+Here I may state that Hans’ suppositions proved to be quite correct,
+which shows how quick and deductive was his mind. The figure on the
+throne was Inez; the priest in his disappointed rage _had_ come to kill
+her, and the bride-women had killed _him_ with their knives before he
+could do so.
+
+I bade the Zulus tear down the curtain and pull away some of the end
+boughs, so as to let in more light. Then we advanced up the place,
+holding our pistols and spears in readiness. The kneeling women turned
+their heads to look at us and I saw that they were all young and
+handsome in their fashion, although fierce-faced. Also I saw their
+hands go to the knives they wore. I called to them to let these be and
+come out, and that if they did so they had nothing to fear. But if they
+understood, they did not heed my words.
+
+On the contrary while Hans and I covered them with our pistols, fearing
+lest they should stab the person on the throne whom we took to be Inez,
+at some word from one of them, they bowed simultaneously towards her,
+then at another word, suddenly they drew the knives and plunged them to
+their own hearts!
+
+It was a dreadful sight and one of which I never saw the like. Nor to
+this day do I know why the deed was done, unless perhaps the women were
+sworn to the service of the new queen and feared that if they failed to
+protect her, they would be doomed to some awful end. At any rate we got
+them out dead or dying, for their blows had been strong and true, and
+not one of them lived for more than a few minutes.
+
+Then I advanced to the figure on the throne, or rather foot-stooled
+chair of black wood inlaid with ivory, which sat so silent and
+motionless that I was certain it was that of a dead woman, especially
+when I perceived that she was fastened to the chair with leather
+straps, which were sewn over with gold wire. Also she was veiled and,
+with one exception, made up, if I may use the term, exactly to resemble
+the lady Ayesha, even down to the two long plaits of black hair, each
+finished with some kind of pearl and to the sandalled feet.
+
+The exception was that about her hung a great necklace of gold
+ornaments from which were suspended pendants also of gold representing
+the rayed disc of the sun in rude but bold and striking workmanship.
+
+I went to her and having cut the straps, since I could not stop to
+untie their knots, lifted the veil.
+
+Beneath it was Inez sure enough, and Inez living, for her breast rose
+and fell as she breathed, but Inez senseless. Her eyes were wide open,
+yet she was quite senseless. Probably she had been drugged, or perhaps
+some of the sights of horror which she saw, had taken away her mind. I
+confess that I was glad that this was so, who otherwise must have told
+her the dreadful story of her father’s end.
+
+We bore her out and away from that horrible place, apparently quite
+unhurt, and laid her under the shadow of a tree till a litter could be
+procured. I could do no more who knew not how to treat her state, and
+had no spirits with me to pour down her throat.
+
+This was the end of our long pursuit, and thus we rescued Inez, whom
+the Zulus called the Lady Sad-Eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+THE SPELL
+
+
+Of our return to Kôr I need say nothing, except that in due course we
+reached that interesting ruin. The journey was chiefly remarkable for
+one thing, that on this occasion, I imagine for the first and last time
+in his life, Umslopogaas consented to be carried in a litter, at least
+for part of the way. He was, as I have said, unwounded, for the axe of
+his mighty foe had never once so much as touched his skin. What he
+suffered from was shock, a kind of collapse, since, although few would
+have thought it, this great and utterly fearless warrior was at bottom
+a nervous, highly-strung man.
+
+It is only the nervous that climb the highest points of anything, and
+this is true of fights as of all others. That fearful fray with Rezu
+had been a great strain on the Zulu. As he put it himself, “the wizard
+had sucked the strength” out of him, especially when he found that
+owing to his armour he could not harm him in front, and owing to his
+cunning could not get at him behind. Then it was that he conceived the
+desperate expedient of leaping over his head and smiting backwards as
+he leapt, a trick, he told me, that he had once played years before
+when he was young, in order to break a shield ring and reach one who
+stood in its centre.
+
+In this great leap over Rezu’s head Umslopogaas knew that he must
+succeed, or be slain, which in turn would mean my death and that of the
+others. For this reason he faced the shame of seeming to fly in order
+to gain the higher ground, whence alone he could gather the speed
+necessary to such a terrific spring.
+
+Well, he made it and thereby conquered, and this was the end, but as he
+said, it had left him, “weak as a snake when it crawls out of its hole
+into the sun after the long winter sleep.”
+
+Of one thing, Umslopogaas added, he was thankful, namely that Rezu had
+never succeeded in getting his arms round him, since he was quite
+certain that if he had he would have broken him “as a baboon breaks a
+mealie-stalk.” No strength, not even his, could have resisted the iron
+might of that huge, gorilla-like man.
+
+I agreed with him who had noted Rezu’s vast chest and swelling muscles,
+also the weight of the blows that he struck with the steel-hafted axe
+(which, by the way, when I sought for it, was missing, stolen, I
+suppose, by one of the Amahagger).
+
+Whence did that strength come, I wondered, in one who from his face
+appeared to be old? Was there perchance, after all, some truth in the
+legend of Samson and did it dwell in that gigantic beard and those long
+locks of his? It was impossible to say and probably the man was but a
+Herculean freak, for that he was as strong as Hercules all the stories
+that I heard afterwards of his feats, left little room for doubt.
+
+About one thing only was I certain in connection with him, namely, that
+the tales of his supernatural abilities were the merest humbug. He was
+simply one of the representatives of the family of “strong men,” of
+whom examples are still to be seen doing marvellous feats all over the
+earth.
+
+For the rest, he was dead and broken up by those Amahagger blood-hounds
+before I could examine him, or his body-armour either, and there was an
+end of him and his story. But when I looked at the corpse of poor
+Robertson, which I did as we buried it where he fell, and saw that
+though so large and thick-set, it was cleft almost in two by a single
+blow of Rezu’s axe, I came to understand what the might of this savage
+must have been.
+
+I say savage, but I am not sure that this is a right description of
+Rezu. Evidently he had a religion of a sort, also imagination, as was
+shown by the theft of the white woman to be his queen; by his veiling
+of her to resemble Ayesha whom he dreaded; by the intended propitiatory
+sacrifice; by the guard of women sworn to her service who slew the
+priest that tried to kill her, and afterwards committed suicide when
+they had failed in their office, and by other things. All this
+indicated something more than savagery, perhaps survivals from a
+forgotten civilisation, or perhaps native ability on the part of an
+individual ruler. I do not know and it matters nothing.
+
+Rezu is dead and the world is well rid of him, and those who want to
+learn more of his people can go to study such as remain of them in
+their own habitat, which for my part I never wish to visit any more.
+
+During our journey to Kôr poor Inez never stirred. Whenever I went to
+look at her in the litter, I found her lying there with her eyes open
+and a fixed stare upon her face which frightened me very much, since I
+began to fear lest she should die. However I could do nothing to help
+her, except urge the bearers to top speed. So swiftly did we travel
+down the hill and across the plain that we reached Kôr just as the sun
+was setting. As we crossed the moat I perceived old Billali coming to
+meet us. This he did with many bows, keeping an anxious eye upon the
+litter which he had learned contained Umslopogaas. Indeed his attitude
+and that of the Amahagger towards the two of us, and even Hans,
+thenceforward became almost abject, since after our victory over Rezu
+and his death beneath the axe, they looked upon us as half divine and
+treated us accordingly.
+
+“O mighty General,” he said, “She-who-commands bids me conduct the lady
+who is sick to the place that has been made ready for her, which is
+near your own so that you may watch over her if you will.”
+
+I wondered how Ayesha knew that Inez was sick, but being too tired to
+ask questions, merely bade him lead on. This he did, taking us to
+another ruined house next to our own quarters which had been swept,
+cleaned and furnished after a fashion, and moreover cleverly roofed in
+with mats, so that it was really quite comfortable. Here we found two
+middle-aged women of a very superior type, who, Billali informed me,
+were by trade nurses of the sick. Having seen her laid upon her bed, I
+committed Inez to their charge, since the case was not one that I dared
+to try to doctor myself, not knowing what drug of the few I possessed
+should be administered to her. Moreover Billali comforted me with the
+information that soon She-who-commands would visit her and “make her
+well again,” as she could do.
+
+I answered that I hoped so and went to our quarters where I found an
+excellent meal ready cooked and with it a stone flagon, of the contents
+of which Billali said we were all three to drink by the command of
+Ayesha, who declared that it would take away our weariness.
+
+I tried the stuff, which was pale yellow in colour like sherry and, for
+aught I knew, might be poison, to find it most comforting, though it
+did not seem to be very strong to the taste. Certainly, too, its
+effects were wonderful, since presently all my great weariness fell
+from me like a discarded cloak, and I found myself with a splendid
+appetite and feeling better and stronger than I had done for years. In
+short that drink was a “cocktail” of the best, one of which I only wish
+I possessed the recipe, though Ayesha told me afterwards that it was
+distilled from quite harmless herbs and not in any sense a spirit.
+
+Having discovered this, I gave some of it to Hans, also to Umslopogaas,
+who was with the wounded Zulus, who, we found, were progressing well
+towards complete recovery, and lastly to Goroko who also was worn out.
+On all of these the effect of that magical brew proved most
+satisfactory.
+
+Then, having washed, I ate a splendid dinner, though in this respect
+Hans, who was seated on the ground nearby, far outpassed my finest
+efforts.
+
+“Baas,” he said, “things have gone very well with us when they might
+have gone very ill. The Baas Red-Beard is dead, which is a good thing,
+since a madman would have been difficult to look after, and a brain
+full of moonshine is a bad companion for any one. Oh! without doubt he
+is better dead, though your reverend father the Predikant will have a
+hard job looking after him there in the Place of Fires.”
+
+“Perhaps,” I said with a sigh, “since it is better to be dead than to
+live a lunatic. But what I fear is that the lady his daughter will
+follow him.”
+
+“Oh, no! Baas,” replied Hans cheerfully, “though I daresay that she
+will always be a little mad also, because you see it is in her blood
+and doubtless she has looked on dreadful things. But the Great Medicine
+will see to it that she does not die after we have taken so much
+trouble and gone into such big dangers to save her. That Great Medicine
+is very wonderful, Baas. First of all it makes you General over those
+Amahagger who without you would never have fought, as the Witch who
+ties up her head in a cloth knew well enough. Then it brings us safe
+through the battle and gives strength to Umslopogaas to kill the old
+man-eating giant.”
+
+“Why did it not give _me_ strength to kill him, Hans? I let him have
+two Express bullets on his chest, which hurt him no more than a tap
+upon the horns with a dancing stick would hurt a bull-buffalo.”
+
+“Oh! Baas, perhaps you missed him, who because you hit things
+sometimes, think that you do so always.”
+
+Having waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which
+of course I did not, he went on by way of letting me down easily, “Or
+perhaps he wore very good armour under his beard, for I saw some of
+those Amahagger who pulled his hair off and cut him to pieces, go away
+with what looked like little bits of brass. Also the Great Medicine
+meant that he should be killed by Umslopogaas and not by you, since
+otherwise Umslopogaas would have been sad for the rest of his life,
+whereas now he will walk about the world as proud as a cock with two
+tails and crow all night as well as all day. Then, Baas, when Rezu
+broke the square and the Amahagger began to run, without doubt it was
+the Great Medicine which changed their hearts and made them brave
+again, so that they charged at the right moment when they saw it going
+forward on your breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the
+cannibals.”
+
+“Indeed! I thought that the Lady who dwells yonder had something to do
+with that business. Did you see her, Hans?”
+
+“Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted
+the cloth from over her head and when the people of Rezu saw how ugly
+was the face beneath, it did frighten them a little. But doubtless the
+Great Medicine put that thought into her also, for, Baas, what could a
+silly woman do in such a case? Did you ever know of a woman who was of
+any use in a battle, or for anything else except to nurse babies, and
+this one does not even do that, no doubt because being so hideous under
+that sheet, no man can be found to marry her.”
+
+Now I looked up by chance and in the light of the lamps saw Ayesha
+standing in the room, which she had entered through the open doorway,
+within six feet of Hans’ back indeed.
+
+“Be sure Baas,” he went on, “that this bundle of rags is nothing but a
+common old cheat who frightens people by pretending to be a spook, as,
+if she dared to say that it was she who made those stinking Amahagger
+charge, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would tell
+her to her face.”
+
+Now I was too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it
+was fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch, she moved a little so
+that one of the lamps behind her caused her shadow to fall on to the
+back of the squatting Hans and over it on to the floor beyond. He saw
+it and stared at the distorted shape of the hooded head, then slowly
+screwed his neck round and looked upwards behind him.
+
+For a moment he went on staring as though he were frozen, then uttering
+a wild yell, he scrambled to his feet, bolted out of the house and
+vanished into the night.
+
+“It seems, Allan,” said Ayesha slowly, “that yonder yellow ape of yours
+is very bold at throwing sticks when the leopardess is not beneath the
+tree. But when she comes it is otherwise with him. Oh! make no excuse,
+for I know well that he was speaking ill things of me, because being
+curious, as apes are, he burns to learn what is behind my veil, and
+being simple, believes that no woman would hide her face unless its
+fashion were not pleasing to the nice taste of men.”
+
+Then, to my relief, she laughed a little, softly, which showed me that
+she had a sense of humour, and went on, “Well, let him be, for he is a
+good ape and courageous in his fashion, as he showed when he went out
+to spy upon the host of Rezu, and stabbed the murderer-priest by the
+stone of sacrifice.”
+
+“How can you know the words of Hans, Ayesha,” I asked, “seeing that he
+spoke in a tongue which you have never learned?”
+
+“Perchance I read faces, Allan.”
+
+“Or backs,” I suggested, remembering that his was turned to her.
+
+“Or backs, or voices, or hearts. It matters little which, since read I
+do. But have done with such childish talk and lead me to this maiden
+who has been snatched from the claws of Rezu and a fate that is worse
+than death. Do you understand, Allan, that ere the demon Rezu took her
+to wife, the plan was to sacrifice her own father to her and then eat
+him as the woman with her was eaten, and before her eyes? Now the
+father is dead, which is well, as I think the little yellow man said to
+you—nay, start not, I read it from his back [Ha!—JB]—since had he lived
+whose brain was rotted, he would have raved till his death’s day.
+Better, therefore, that he should die like a man fighting against a foe
+unconquerable by all save one. But she still lives.”
+
+“Aye, but mindless, Ayesha.”
+
+“Which, in great trouble such as she has passed, is a blessed state, O
+Allan. Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your
+own life when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And
+should we not, perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we
+could not remember, foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven,
+but believe me, the real Heaven is one of dreamless sleep, since life
+and wakefulness, however high their scale and on whatever star, mean
+struggle, which being so oft mistaken, must breed sorrow—or remorse
+that spoils all. Come now.”
+
+So I preceded her to the next ruined house where we found Inez lying on
+the bed still clothed in her barbaric trappings, although the veil had
+been drawn off her face. There she lay, wide-eyed and still, while the
+women watched her. Ayesha looked at her a while, then said to me,
+
+“So they tricked her out to be Ayesha’s mock and image, and in time
+accepted by those barbarians as my very self, and even set the seals of
+royalty on her,” and she pointed to the gold discs stamped with the
+likeness of the sun. “Well, she is a fair maiden, white and gently
+bred, the first such that I have seen for many an age. Nor did she wish
+this trickery. Moreover she has taken no hurt; her soul has sunk deep
+into a sea of horror and that is all, whence doubtless it can be drawn
+again. Yet I think it best that for a while she should remember naught,
+lest her brain break, as did her father’s, and therefore no net of mine
+shall drag her back to memory. Let that return gently in future days,
+and then of it not too much, for so shall all this terror become to her
+a void in which sad shapes move like shadows, and as shadows are soon
+forgot and gone, no more to be held than dreams by the awakening sense.
+Stand aside, Allan, and you women, leave us for a while.”
+
+I obeyed, and the women bowed and went. Then Ayesha drew up her veil,
+and knelt down by the bed of Inez, but in such a fashion that I could
+not see her face although I admit that I tried to do so. I could see,
+however, that she set her lips against those of Inez and as I gathered
+by her motions, seemed to breathe into her lips. Also she lifted her
+hands and placing one of them upon the heart of Inez, for a minute or
+more swayed the other from side to side above her eyes, pausing at
+times to touch her upon the forehead with her finger-tips.
+
+Presently Inez stirred and sat up, whereon Ayesha took a vessel of milk
+which stood upon the floor and held it to her lips. Inez drank to the
+last drop, then sank on to the bed again. For a while longer Ayesha
+continued the motions of her hands, then let fall her veil and rose.
+
+“Look, I have laid a spell upon her,” she said, beckoning to me to draw
+near.
+
+I did so and perceived that now the eyes of Inez were shut and that she
+seemed to be plunged in a deep and natural sleep.
+
+“So she will remain for this night and that day which follows,” said
+Ayesha, “and when she wakes it will be, I think, to believe herself
+once more a happy child. Not until she sees her home again will she
+find her womanhood, and then all this story will be forgotten by her.
+Of her father you must tell her that he died when you went out to hunt
+the river-beasts together, and if she seeks for certain others, that
+they have gone away. But I think that she will ask little more when she
+learns that he is dead, since I have laid that command upon her soul.”
+
+“Hypnotic suggestion,” thought I to myself, “and I only hope to heaven
+that it will work.”
+
+Ayesha seemed to guess what was passing through my mind, for she nodded
+and said,
+
+“Have no fear, Allan, for I am what the black axe-bearer and the little
+yellow man called a ‘witch’ which means, as you who are instructed
+know, one who has knowledge of medicine and other things and who holds
+a key to some of the mysteries that lie hid in Nature.”
+
+“For instance,” I suggested, “of how to transport yourself into a
+battle at the right moment, and out of it again—also at the right
+moment.”
+
+“Yes, Allan, since watching from afar, I saw that those Amahagger curs
+were about to flee and that I was needed there to hearten them and to
+put fear into the army of Rezu. So I came.”
+
+“But how did you come, Ayesha?”
+
+She laughed as she answered,
+
+“Perhaps I did not come at all. Perhaps you only thought I came; since
+I seemed to be there the rest matters nothing.”
+
+As I still looked unconvinced she went on,
+
+“Oh! foolish man, seek not to learn of that which is too high for you.
+Yet listen. You in your ignorance suppose that the soul dwells within
+the body, do you not?”
+
+I answered that I had always been under this impression.
+
+“Yet, Allan, it is otherwise, for the body dwells within the soul.”
+
+“Like the pearl in an oyster,” I suggested.
+
+“Aye, in a sense, since the pearl which to you is beautiful, is to the
+oyster a sickness and a poison, and so is the body to the soul whose
+temple it troubles and defiles. Yet round it is the white and holy soul
+that ever seeks to bring the vile body to its own purity and colour,
+yet oft-times fails. Learn, Allan, that flesh and spirit are the
+deadliest foes joined together by a high decree that they may forget
+their hate and perfect each other, or failing, be separate to all
+eternity, the spirit going to its own place and the flesh to its
+corruption.”
+
+“A strange theory,” I said.
+
+“Aye, Allan, and one which is so new to you that never will you
+understand it. Yet it is true and I set it out for this reason. The
+soul of man, being at liberty and not cooped within his narrow breast,
+is in touch with that soul of the Universe, which men know as God Whom
+they call by many names. Therefore it has all knowledge and perhaps all
+power, and at times the body within it, if it be a wise body, can draw
+from this well of knowledge and abounding power. So at least can I. And
+now you will understand why I am so good a doctoress and how I came to
+appear in the battle, as you said, at the right time, and to leave it
+when my work was done.”
+
+“Oh! yes,” I answered, “I quite understand. I thank you much for
+putting it so plainly.”
+
+She laughed a little, appreciating my jest, looked at the sleeping
+Inez, and said,
+
+“The fair body of this lady dwells in a large soul, I think, though one
+of a somewhat sombre hue, for souls have their colours, Allan, and
+stain that which is within them. She will never be a happy woman.”
+
+“The black people named her Sad-Eyes,” I said.
+
+“Is it so? Well, I name her Sad-Heart, though for such often there is
+joy at last. Meanwhile she will forget; yes, she will forget the worst
+and how narrow was the edge between her and the arms of Rezu.”
+
+“Just the width of the blade of the axe, _Inkosikaas_,” I answered.
+“But tell me, Ayesha, why could not that axe cut and why did my bullets
+flatten or turn aside when these smote the breast of Rezu?”
+
+“Because his front-armour was good, Allan, I suppose,” she replied
+indifferently, “and on his back he wore none.”
+
+“Then why did you fill my ears with such a different tale about that
+horrible giant having drunk of a Cup of Life, and all the rest?” I
+asked with irritation.
+
+“I have forgotten, Allan. Perhaps because the curious, such as you are,
+like to hear tales even stranger than their own, which in the days to
+be may become their own. Therefore you will be wise to believe only
+what I do, and of what I tell you, nothing.”
+
+“I don’t,” I exclaimed exasperated.
+
+She laughed again and replied,
+
+“What need to say to me that which I know already? Yet perhaps in the
+future it may be different, since often by the alchemy of the mind the
+fables of our youth are changed into the facts of our age, and we come
+to believe in anything, as your little yellow man believes in some
+savage named Zikali, and those Amahagger believe in the talisman round
+your neck, and I who am the maddest of you all, believe in Love and
+Wisdom, and the black warrior, Umslopogaas, believes in the virtue of
+that great axe of his, rather than in those of his own courage and of
+the strength that wields it. Fools, every one of us, though perchance I
+am the greatest fool among them. Now take me to the warrior,
+Umslopogaas, whom I would thank, as I thank you, Allan, and the little
+yellow man, although he jeers at me with his sharp tongue, not knowing
+that if I were angered, with a breath I could cause him to cease to
+be.”
+
+“Then why did you not choose Rezu to cease to be, and his army also,
+Ayesha?”
+
+“It seems that I have done these things through the axe of Umslopogaas
+and by the help of your generalship, Allan. Why then, waste my own
+strength when yours lay to my hand?”
+
+“Because you had no power over Rezu, Ayesha, or so you told me.”
+
+“Have I not said that my words are snowflakes, meant to melt and leave
+no trace, hiding my thoughts as this veil hides my beauty? Yet as the
+beauty is beneath the veil, perchance there is truth beneath the words,
+though not that truth you think. So you are well answered, and for the
+rest, I wonder whether Rezu thought I had no power over him when yonder
+on the mountain spur he saw me float down upon his companies like a
+spirit of the night. Well, perchance some day I shall learn this and
+many other things.”
+
+I made no answer, since what was the use of arguing with a woman who
+told me frankly that all she said was false. So, although I longed to
+ask her why these Amahagger had such reverence for the talisman that
+Hans called the Great Medicine, since now I guessed that her first
+explanations concerning it were quite untrue, I held my tongue.
+
+Yet as we went out of the house, by some coincidence she alluded to
+this very matter.
+
+“I wish to tell you, Allan,” she said, “why it was those Amahagger
+would not accept you as a General till their eyes had seen that which
+you wear upon your breast. Their tale of a legend of this very thing
+seemed that of savages or of their cunning priests, not to be believed
+by a wise man such as you are, like some others that you have heard in
+Kôr. Yet it has in it a grain of truth, for as it chanced a little
+while ago, about a hundred years ago, I think, the old wizard whose
+picture is cut upon the wood, came to visit her who held my place
+before me as ruler of this tribe—she was very like me and as I believe,
+my mother, Allan—because of her repute for wisdom.
+
+“At that time I have heard there was a question of war between the
+worshippers of Lulala and the grandfather of Rezu. But this Zikali told
+the People of Lulala that they must not fight the People of Rezu until
+in a day to come a white man should visit Kôr and bring with him a
+piece of wood on which was cut the image of a dwarf like to that of
+Zikali himself. Then and not before they must fight and conquer the
+People of Rezu. Now this story came down among them and you who may
+have thought the first tale magical, will understand it in its
+simplicity: is it not so, you wise Allan?”
+
+“Oh! yes,” I answered, “except that I do not see how Zikali can have
+come here a hundred years ago, since men do not live as long, although
+he pretends to have done so.”
+
+“No, Allan, nor do I, but perhaps it was his father, or his grandfather
+who came, since being observant, you will have noted that if the parent
+is mis-formed, so often are the descendants; also that the pretence of
+wizardry at times comes down with the blood.”
+
+Again I made no answer for I saw that Ayesha was fooling me, and before
+she could exhaust that amusement we reached the place where Umslopogaas
+and his men were gathered round a camp fire. He sat silent, but Goroko
+with much animation was telling the story of the fight in picturesque
+and colourful language, or that part of it which he had seen, for the
+benefit of the two wounded men who took no share in it and who, lying
+on their blankets with heads thrust forward, were listening with
+eagerness to the entrancing tale. Suddenly they caught sight of Ayesha,
+and those of the party who could stand sprang to their feet, while one
+and all they gave her the royal salute of _Bayéte_.
+
+She waited till the sound had died away. Then she said,
+
+“I come to thank you and your men, O Wielder of the Axe, who have shown
+yourself very great in battle, and to say to you that my Spirit tells
+me that every one of you, yes, even those who are still sick, will come
+safe to your own land again and live out your years with honour.”
+
+Again they saluted at this pleasing intelligence, when I had translated
+it to them, for of course they knew no Arabic. Then she went on,
+
+“I am told, Umslopogaas, Son of the Lion, as a certain king was named
+in your land, that the fight you made against Rezu was a very great
+fight, and that such a leap as yours above his head when you smote him
+with the axe on the hinder parts where he wore no armour, and brought
+him to his death, has not been seen before, nor will be again.”
+
+I rendered the words, and Umslopogaas, preferring truth to modesty,
+replied emphatically that this was the case.
+
+“Because of that fight and that leap,” Ayesha went on, “as for other
+deeds that you have done and will do, my Spirit tells me that your name
+will live in story for many generations. Yet of what use is fame to the
+dead? Therefore I make you an offer. Bide here with me and you shall
+rule these Amahagger, and with them the remnant of the People of Rezu.
+Your cattle shall be countless and your wives the fairest in the land,
+and your children many, for I will lift a certain curse from off you so
+that no more shall you be childless. Do you accept, O Holder of the
+Axe?”
+
+When he understood, Umslopogaas, after pondering a moment, asked if I
+meant to stay in this land and marry the white chieftainess who spoke
+such wise words and could appear and disappear in the battle at her
+will, and like a mountain-top hid her head in a cloud, which was his
+way of alluding to her veil.
+
+I answered at once and with decision that I intended to do nothing of
+the sort and immediately regretted my words, since, although I spoke in
+Zulu, I suppose she read their meaning from my face. At any rate she
+understood the drift of them.
+
+“Tell him, Allan,” she said with a kind of icy politeness, “that you
+will not stop here and marry me, because if ever I chose a husband he
+would not be a little man at the doors of whose heart so many women’s
+hands have knocked—yes, even those that are black—and not, I think, in
+vain. One, moreover, who holds himself so clever that he believes he
+has nothing left to learn, and in every flower of truth that is shown
+to him, however fair, smells only poison, and beneath, nurturing it,
+sees only the gross root of falsehood planted in corruption. Tell him
+these things, Allan, if it pleases you.”
+
+“It does not please me,” I answered in a rage at her insults.
+
+“Nor is it needful, Allan, since if I caught the meaning of that
+barbarous tongue you use aright, you have told him already. Well, let
+the jest pass, O man who least of all things desires to be Ayesha’s
+husband, and whom Ayesha least of all things desires as her spouse, and
+ask the Axe-bearer nothing since I perceive that without you he will
+not stay at Kôr. Nor indeed is it fated that he should do so, for now
+my Spirit tells me what it hid from me when I spoke a moment gone, that
+this warrior shall die in a great fight far away and that between then
+and now much sorrow waits him who save that of one, knows not how to
+win the love of women. Let him say moreover what reward he desires
+since if I can give it to him, it shall be his.”
+
+Again I translated. Umslopogaas received her prophecies in stoical
+silence, and as I thought with indifference, and only said in reply,
+
+“The glory that I have won is my reward and the only boon I seek at
+this queen’s hands is that if she can she should give me sight of a
+woman for whom my heart is hungry, and with it knowledge that this
+woman lives in that land whither I travel like all men.”
+
+When she heard these words Ayesha said,
+
+“True, I had forgotten. Your heart also is hungry, I think, Allan, for
+the vision of sundry faces that you see no more. Well, I will do my
+best, but since only faith fulfils itself, how can I who must strive to
+pierce the gates of darkness for one so unbelieving, know that they
+will open at my word? Come to me, both of you, at the sunset
+to-morrow.”
+
+Then as though to change the subject, she talked to me for a long while
+about Kôr, of which she told me a most interesting history, true or
+false, that I omit here.
+
+At length, as though suddenly she had grown tired, waving her hand to
+show that the conversation was ended, Ayesha went to the wounded men
+and touched them each in turn.
+
+“Now they will recover swiftly,” she said, and leaving the place was
+gone into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+THE GATE OF DEATH
+
+
+Before turning in I examined these wounded men for myself. The truth is
+that I was anxious to learn their exact condition in order that I might
+make an estimate as to when it would be possible for us to leave this
+valley or crater bottom of Kôr, of which I was heartily tired. Who
+could desire to stay in a place where he had not only been involved in
+a deal of hard, doubtful, and very dangerous fighting from which all
+personal interest was absent, but where also he was meshed in a perfect
+spider’s web of bewilderment, and exposed to continual insult into the
+bargain?
+
+For that is what it came to; this Ayesha took every opportunity to jeer
+at and affront me. And why? Just because I had conceived doubts, which
+somehow she discovered, of the amazing tales with which it had amused
+her to stuff me, as a farmer’s wife does a turkey poult with meal
+pellets. How could she expect me, a man, after all, of some experience,
+to believe such lies, which, not half an hour before, in the coolest
+possible fashion she had herself admitted to be lies and nothing else,
+told for the mere pleasure of romancing?
+
+The immortal Rezu, for instance, who had drunk of the Cup of Life or
+some such rubbish, now turned out to be nothing but a brawny savage
+descended from generations of chiefs also called Rezu. Moreover the
+immemorial Ayesha, who also had drunk of Cups of Life, and according to
+her first story, had lived in this place for thousands of years, had
+come here with a mother, who filled the same mystic rôle before her for
+the benefit of an extremely gloomy and disagreeable tribe of Semitic
+savages. Yet she was cross with me because I had not swallowed her
+crude and indigestible mixture of fable and philosophy without a
+moment’s question.
+
+At least I supposed that this was the reason, though another possible
+explanation did come into my mind. I had refused to be duly overcome by
+her charms, not because I was unimpressed, for who could be, having
+looked upon that blinding beauty even for a moment? but rather because,
+after sundry experiences, I had at last attained to some power of
+judgment and learned what it is best to leave alone. Perhaps this had
+annoyed her, especially as no white man seemed to have come her way for
+a long while and the fabulous Kallikrates had not put in his promised
+appearance.
+
+Also it was unfortunate that in one way or another—how did she do it, I
+wondered—she had interpreted Umslopogaas’ question to me about marrying
+her, and my compromising reply. Not that for one moment, as I saw very
+clearly, did she wish to marry me. But that fact, intuition suggested
+to my mind, did not the least prevent her from being angry because I
+shared her views upon this important subject.
+
+Oh! the whole thing was a bore and the sooner I saw the last of that
+veiled lady and the interesting but wearisome ruins in which she dwelt,
+the better I should be pleased, although apparently I must trek
+homewards with a poor young woman who was out of her mind, leaving the
+bones of her unfortunate father behind me. I admitted to myself,
+however, that there were consolations in the fact that Providence had
+thus decreed, for Robertson since he gave up drink had not been a
+cheerful companion, and two mad people would really have been more than
+I could manage.
+
+To return, for these reasons I examined the two wounded Zulus with
+considerable anxiety, only to discover another instance of the
+chicanery which it amused this Ayesha to play off upon me. For what did
+I find? That they were practically well. Their hurts, which had never
+been serious, had healed wonderfully in that pure air, as those of
+savages have a way of doing, and they told me themselves that they felt
+quite strong again. Yet with colossal impudence Ayesha had managed to
+suggest to my mind that she was going to work some remarkable cure upon
+them, who were already cured.
+
+Well, it was of a piece with the rest of her conduct and there was
+nothing to do except go to bed, which I did with much gratitude that my
+resting place that night was not of another sort. The last thing I
+remember was wondering how on earth Ayesha appeared and disappeared in
+the course of that battle, a problem as to which I could find no
+solution, though, as in the case of the others, I was sure that one
+would occur to me in course of time.
+
+I slept like a top, so soundly indeed that I think there was some kind
+of soporific in the pick-me-up which looked like sherry, especially as
+the others who had drunk of it also passed an excellent night.
+
+About ten o’clock on the following morning I awoke feeling particularly
+well and quite as though I had been enjoying a week at the seaside
+instead of my recent adventures, which included an abominable battle
+and some agonising moments during which I thought that my number was up
+upon the board of Destiny.
+
+I spent the most of that day lounging about, eating, talking over the
+details of the battle with Umslopogaas and the Zulus and smoking more
+than usual. (I forgot to say that these Amahagger grew some capital
+tobacco of which I had obtained a supply, although like most Africans,
+they only used it in the shape of snuff.) The truth was that after all
+my marvellings and acute anxieties, also mental and physical exertions,
+I felt like the housemaid who caused to be cut upon her tombstone that
+she had gone to a better land where her ambition was to do nothing “for
+ever and ever.” I just wanted to be completely idle and vacuous-minded
+for at least a month, but as I knew that all I could expect in that
+line was a single bank holiday, like a City clerk on the spree, of it I
+determined to make the most.
+
+The result was that before the evening I felt very bored indeed. I had
+gone to look at Inez, who was still fast asleep, as Ayesha said would
+be the case, but whose features seemed to have plumped up considerably.
+The reason of this I gathered from her Amahagger nurses, was that at
+certain intervals she had awakened sufficiently to swallow considerable
+quantities of milk, or rather cream, which I hoped would not make her
+ill. I had chatted with the wounded Zulus, who were now walking about,
+more bored even than I was myself, and heaping maledictions on their
+ancestral spirits because they had not been well enough to take part in
+the battle against Rezu.
+
+I even took a little stroll to look for Hans, who had vanished in his
+mysterious fashion, but the afternoon was so hot and oppressive with
+coming thunder, that soon I came back again and fell into a variety of
+reflections that I need not detail.
+
+While I was thus engaged and meditating, not without uneasiness, upon
+the ordeal that lay before me after sunset, for I felt sure that it
+would be an ordeal, Hans appeared and said that the Amahagger _impi_ or
+army was gathered on that spot where I had been elected to the proud
+position of their General. He added that he believed—how he got this
+information I do not know—that the White Lady was going to hold a
+review of them and give them the rewards that they had earned in the
+battle.
+
+Hearing this, Umslopogaas and the other Zulus said that they would like
+to see this review if I would accompany them. Although I did not want
+to go nor indeed desired ever to look at another Amahagger, I consented
+to save the trouble of argument, on condition that we should do so from
+a distance.
+
+So, including the wounded men, we strolled off and presently came to
+the crumbled wall of the old city, beyond which lay the great moat now
+dry, that once had encircled it with water.
+
+Here on the top of this wall we sat down where we could see without
+being seen, and observed the Amahagger companies, considerably reduced
+during the battle, being marshalled by their captains beneath us and
+about a couple of hundred yards away. Also we observed several groups
+of men under guard. These we took to be prisoners captured in the fight
+with Rezu, who, as Hans remarked with a smack of his lips, were
+probably awaiting sacrifice.
+
+I said I hoped not and yawned, for really the afternoon was intensely
+hot and the weather most peculiar. The sun had vanished behind clouds,
+and vapours filled the still air, so dense that at times it grew almost
+dark; also when these cleared for brief intervals, the landscape in the
+grey, unholy light looked distorted and unnatural, as it does during an
+eclipse of the sun.
+
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, stared round him, sniffed the air and then
+remarked ocularly that it was “wizard’s weather” and that there were
+many spirits about. Upon my word I felt inclined to agree with him, for
+my feelings were very uncomfortable, but I only replied that if so, I
+should be obliged if he, as a professional, would be good enough to
+keep them off me. Of course I knew that electrical charges were about,
+which accounted for my sensations, and wished that I had never left the
+camp.
+
+It was during one of these periods of dense gloom that Ayesha must have
+arrived upon the review ground. At least, when it lifted, there she was
+in her white garments, surrounded by women and guards, engaged
+apparently in making an oration, for although I could not hear a word,
+I could see by the motions of her arms that she was speaking.
+
+Had she been the central figure in some stage scene, no limelights
+could have set her off to better advantage, than did those of the
+heavens above her. Suddenly, through the blanket of cloud, flowing from
+a hole in it that looked like an eye, came a blood-red ray which fell
+full upon her, so that she alone was fiercely visible whilst all around
+was gloom in which shapes moved dimly. Certainly she looked strange and
+even terrifying in that red ray which stained her robe till I who had
+but just come out of battle with its “confused noise,” began to think
+of “the garments rolled in blood” of which I often read in my favourite
+Old Testament. For crimson was she from head to foot; a tall shape of
+terror and of wrath.
+
+The eye in heaven shut and the ray went out. Then came one of the
+spaces of grey light and in it I saw men being brought up, apparently
+from the groups of prisoners, under guard, and, to the number of a
+dozen or more, stood in a line before Ayesha.
+
+Then I saw nothing more for a long while, because blackness seemed to
+flow in from every quarter of the heavens and to block out the scene
+beneath. At least after a pause of perhaps five minutes, during which
+the stillness was intense, the storm broke.
+
+It was a very curious storm; in all my experience of African tempests I
+cannot recall one which it resembled. It began with the usual cold and
+wailing wind. This died away, and suddenly the whole arch of heaven was
+alive with little lightnings that seemed to strike horizontally, not
+downwards to the earth, weaving a web of fire upon the surface of the
+sky.
+
+By the illumination of these lightnings which, but for the swiftness of
+their flashing and greater intensity, somewhat resembled a dense shower
+of shooting stars, I perceived that Ayesha was addressing the men that
+had been brought before her, who stood dejectedly in a long line with
+their heads bent, quite unattended, since their guards had fallen back.
+
+“If I were going to receive a reward of cattle or wives, I should look
+happier than those moon-worshippers, Baas,” remarked Hans reflectively.
+
+“Perhaps it would depend,” I answered, “upon what the cattle and wives
+were like. If the cattle had red-water and would bring disease into
+your herd, or wild bulls that would gore you, and the wives were skinny
+old widows with evil tongues, then I think you would look as do those
+men, Hans.”
+
+I don’t quite know what made me speak thus, but I believe it was some
+sense of pending death or disaster, suggested, probably, by the ominous
+character of the setting provided by Nature to the curious drama of
+which we were witnesses.
+
+“I never thought of that, Baas,” commented Hans, “but it is true that
+all gifts are not good, especially witches’ gifts.”
+
+As he spoke the little net-like lightnings died away, leaving behind
+them a gross darkness through which, far above us, the wind wailed
+again.
+
+Then suddenly all the heaven was turned into one blaze of light, and by
+it I saw Ayesha standing tall and rigid with her hand pointed towards
+the line of men in front of her. The blaze went out, to be followed by
+blackness, and to return almost instantly in a yet fiercer blaze which
+seemed to fall earthwards in a torrent of fire that concentrated itself
+in a kind of flame-spout upon the spot where Ayesha stood.
+
+Through that flame or rather in the heart of it, I saw Ayesha and the
+file of men in front of her, as the great King saw the prophets in the
+midst of the furnace that had been heated sevenfold. Only these men did
+not walk about in the fire; no, they fell backwards, while Ayesha alone
+remained upon her feet with outstretched hand.
+
+Next came more blackness and crash upon crash of such thunder that the
+earth shook as it reverberated from the mountain cliffs. Never in my
+life did I hear such fearful thunder. It frightened the Zulus so much,
+that they fell upon their faces, except Goroko and Umslopogaas, whose
+pride kept them upon their feet, the former because he had a reputation
+to preserve as a “Heaven-herd,” or Master of tempests.
+
+I confess that I should have liked to follow their example, and lie
+down, being dreadfully afraid lest the lightning should strike me. But
+there—I did not.
+
+At last the thunder died away and in the most mysterious fashion that
+violent tempest came to a sudden end, as does a storm upon the stage.
+No rain fell, which in itself was surprising enough and most unusual,
+but in place of it a garment of the completest calm descended upon the
+earth. By degrees, too, the darkness passed and the westering sun
+reappeared. Its rays fell upon the place where the Amahagger companies
+had stood, but now not one of them was to be seen.
+
+They were all gone and Ayesha with them. So completely had they
+vanished away that I should have thought that we suffered from
+illusions, were it not for the line of dead men which lay there looking
+very small and lonesome on the veld; mere dots indeed at that distance.
+
+We stared at each other and at them, and then Goroko said that he would
+like to inspect the bodies to learn whether lightning killed at Kôr as
+it did elsewhere, also whether it had smitten them altogether or leapt
+from man to man. This, as a professional “Heaven-herd,” he declared he
+could tell from the marks upon these unfortunates.
+
+As I was curious also and wanted to make a few observations, I
+consented. So with the exception of the wounded men, who I thought
+should avoid the exertion, we scrambled down the débris of the tumbled
+wall and across the open space beyond, reaching the scene of the
+tragedy without meeting or seeing anyone.
+
+There lay the dead, eleven of them, in an exact line as they had stood.
+They were all upon their backs with widely-opened eyes and an
+expression of great fear frozen upon their faces. Some of these I
+recognised, as did Umslopogaas and Hans. They were soldiers or captains
+who had marched under me to attack Rezu, although until this moment I
+had not seen any of them after we began to descend the ridge where the
+battle took place.
+
+“Baas,” said Hans, “I believe that these were the traitors who slipped
+away and told Rezu of our plans so that he attacked us on the ridge,
+instead of our attacking him on the plain as we had arranged so nicely.
+At least they were none of them in the battle and afterwards I heard
+the Amahagger talking of some of them.”
+
+I remarked that if so the lightning had discriminated very well in this
+instance.
+
+Meanwhile Goroko was examining the bodies one by one, and presently
+called out,
+
+“These doomed ones died not by lightning but by witchcraft. There is
+not a burn upon one of them, nor are their garments scorched.”
+
+I went to look and found that it was perfectly true; to all outward
+appearance the eleven were quite unmarked and unharmed. Except for
+their frightened air, they might have died a natural death in their
+sleep.
+
+“Does lightning always scorch?” I asked Goroko.
+
+“Always, Macumazahn,” he answered, “that is, if he who has been struck
+is killed, as these are, and not only stunned. Moreover, most of yonder
+dead wear knives which should have melted or shattered with the sheaths
+burnt off them. Yet those knives are as though they had just left the
+smith’s hammer and the whet-stone,” and he drew some of them to show
+me.
+
+Again it was quite true and here I may remark that my experience
+tallied with that of Goroko, since I have never seen anyone killed by
+lightning on whom or on whose clothing there was not some trace of its
+passage.
+
+“_Ow!_” said Umslopogaas, “this is witchcraft, not Heaven-wrath. The
+place is enchanted. Let us get away lest we be smitten also who have
+not earned doom like those traitors.”
+
+“No need to fear,” said Hans, “since with us is the Great Medicine of
+Zikali which can tie up the lightning as an old woman does a bundle of
+sticks.”
+
+Still I observed that for all his confidence, Hans himself was the
+first to depart and with considerable speed. So we went back to our
+camp without more conversation, since the Zulus were scared and I
+confess that myself I could not understand the matter, though no doubt
+it admitted of some quite simple explanation.
+
+However that might be, this Kôr was a queer place with its legends, its
+sullen Amahagger and its mysterious queen, to whom at times, in spite
+of my inner conviction to the contrary, I was still inclined to
+attribute powers beyond those that are common even among very beautiful
+and able women.
+
+This reflection reminded me that she had promised us a further
+exhibition of those powers and within an hour or two. Remembering this
+I began to regret that I had ever asked for any such manifestations,
+for who knew what these might or might not involve?
+
+So much did I regret it that I determined, unless Ayesha sent for us,
+as she had said she would do, I would conveniently forget the
+appointment. Luckily Umslopogaas seemed to be of the same way of
+thinking; at any rate he went off to eat his evening meal without
+alluding to it at all. So I made up my mind that I would not bring the
+matter to his notice and having ascertained that Inez was still asleep,
+I followed his example and dined myself, though without any particular
+appetite.
+
+As I finished the sun was setting in a perfectly clear sky, so as there
+was no sign of any messenger, I thought that I would go to bed early,
+leaving orders that I was not to be disturbed. But on this point my
+luck was lacking, for just as I had taken off my coat, Hans arrived and
+said that old Billali was without and had come to take me somewhere.
+
+Well, there was nothing to do but to put it on again. Before I had
+finished this operation Billali himself arrived with undignified and
+unusual haste. I asked him what was the matter, and he answered
+inconsequently that the Black One, the slayer of Rezu, was at the door
+“with his axe.”
+
+“That generally accompanies him,” I replied. Then, remembering the
+cause of Billali’s alarm, I explained to him that he must not take too
+much notice of a few hasty words spoken by an essentially
+gentle-natured person whose nerve had given way beneath provocation and
+bodily effort. The old fellow bowed in assent and stroked his beard,
+but I noticed that while Umslopogaas was near, he clung to me like a
+shadow. Perhaps he thought that nervous attacks might be recurrent,
+like those of fever.
+
+Outside the house I found Umslopogaas leaning on his axe and looking at
+the sky in which the last red rays of evening lingered.
+
+“The sun has set, Macumazahn,” he said, “and it is time to visit this
+white queen as she bade us, and to learn whether she can indeed lead us
+‘down below’ where the dead are said to dwell.”
+
+So he had not forgotten, which was disconcerting. To cover up my own
+doubts I asked him with affected confidence and cheerfulness whether he
+was not afraid to risk this journey “down below,” that is, to the Realm
+of Death.
+
+“Why should I fear to tread a road that awaits the feet of all of us
+and at the gate of which we knock day by day, especially if we chance
+to live by war, as do you and I, Macumazahn?” he inquired with a quiet
+dignity, which made me feel ashamed.
+
+“Why indeed?” I answered, adding to myself, “though I should much
+prefer any other highway.”
+
+After this we started without more words, I keeping up my spirits by
+reflecting that the whole business was nonsense and that there could be
+nothing to dread.
+
+All too soon we passed the ruined archway and were admitted into
+Ayesha’s presence in the usual fashion. As Billali, who remained
+outside of them, drew the curtains behind us, I observed, to my
+astonishment, that Hans had sneaked in after me, and squatted down
+quite close to them, apparently in the hope of being overlooked.
+
+It seemed, as I gathered later, that somehow or other he had guessed,
+or become aware of the object of our visit, and that his burning
+curiosity had overcome his terror of the “White Witch.” Or possibly he
+hoped to discover whether or not she were so ugly as he supposed her
+veil-hidden face to be. At any rate there he was, and if Ayesha noticed
+him, as I think she did, for I saw by the motion of her head, that she
+was looking in his direction, she made no remark.
+
+For a while she sat still in her chair contemplating us both. Then she
+said,
+
+“How comes it that you are late? Those that seek their lost loves
+should run with eager feet, but yours have tarried.”
+
+I muttered some excuse to which she did not trouble to listen, for she
+went on,
+
+“I think, Allan, that your sandals, which should be winged like to
+those of the Roman Mercury, are weighted with the grey lead of fear.
+Well, it is not strange, since you have come to travel through the
+Gates of Death that are feared by all, even by Ayesha’s self, for who
+knows what he may find beyond them? Ask the Axe-Bearer if he also is
+afraid.”
+
+I obeyed, rendering all that she had said into the Zulu idiom as best I
+could.
+
+“Say to the Queen,” answered Umslopogaas, when he understood, “that I
+fear nothing, except women’s tongues. I am ready to pass the Gates of
+Death and, if need be, to come back no more. With the white people I
+know it is otherwise because of some dark teachings to which they
+listen, that tell of terrors to be, such as we who are black do not
+dread. Still, we believe that there are ghosts and that the spirits of
+our fathers live on and as it chances I would learn whether this is so,
+who above all things desire to met a certain ghost, for which reason I
+journeyed to this far land.
+
+“Say these things to the white Queen, Macumazahn, and tell her that if
+she should send me to a place whence there is no return, I who do not
+love the world, shall not blame her overmuch, though it is true that I
+should have chosen to die in war. Now I have spoken.”
+
+When I had passed on all this speech to Ayesha, her comment on it was,
+
+“This black Captain has a spirit as brave as his body, but how is it
+with your spirit, Allan? Are you also prepared to risk so much? Learn
+that I can promise you nothing, save that when I loose the bonds of
+your mortality and send out your soul to wander in the depths of Death,
+as I believe that I can do, though even of this I am not certain—you
+must pass through a gate of terrors that may be closed behind you by a
+stronger arm than mine. Moreover, what you will find beyond it I do not
+know, since be sure of this, each of us has his own heaven or his own
+hell, or both, that soon or late he is doomed to travel. Now will you
+go forward, or go back? Make choice while there is still time.”
+
+At all this ominous talk I felt my heart shrivel like a fire-withered
+leaf, if I may use that figure, and my blood assume the temperature and
+consistency of ice-cream. Earnestly did I curse myself for having
+allowed my curiosity about matters which we are not meant to understand
+to bring me to the edge of such a choice. Swiftly I determined to
+temporise, which I did by asking Ayesha whether she would accompany me
+upon this eerie expedition.
+
+She laughed a little as she answered,
+
+“Bethink you, Allan. Am I, whose face you have seen, a meet companion
+for a man who desires to visit the loves that once were his? What would
+they say or think, if they should see you hand in hand with such a
+one?”
+
+“I don’t know and don’t care,” I replied desperately, “but this is the
+kind of journey on which one requires a guide who knows the road.
+Cannot Umslopogaas go first and come back to tell me how it has fared
+with him?”
+
+“If the brave and instructed white lord, panoplied in the world’s last
+Faith, is not ashamed to throw the savage in his ignorance out like a
+feather to test the winds of hell and watch the while to learn whether
+these blow him back unscorched, or waft him into fires whence there is
+no return, perchance it might so be ordered, Allan. Ask him yourself,
+Allan, if he is willing to run this errand for your sake. Or perhaps
+the little yellow man——” and she paused.
+
+At this point Hans, who having a smattering of Arabic understood
+something of our talk, could contain himself no longer.
+
+“No, Baas,” he broke in from his corner by the curtain, “not _me_. I
+don’t care for hunting spooks, Baas, which leave no spoor that you can
+follow and are always behind when you think they are in front. Also
+there are too many of them waiting for me down there and how can I
+stand up to them until I am a spook myself and know their ways of
+fighting? Also if you should die when your spirit is away, I want to be
+left that I may bury you nicely.”
+
+“Be silent,” I said in my sternest manner. Then, unable to bear more of
+Ayesha’s mockery, for I felt that as usual she was mocking me, I added
+with all the dignity that I could command,
+
+“I am ready to make this journey through the gate of Death, Ayesha, if
+indeed you can show me the road. For one purpose and no other I came to
+Kôr, namely to learn, if so I might, whether those who have died upon
+the world, live on elsewhere. Now, what must I do?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+THE LESSON
+
+
+“Yes,” answered Ayesha, laughing very softly, “for that purpose alone,
+O truth-seeking Allan, whose curiosity is so fierce that the wide world
+cannot hold it, did you come to Kôr and not to seek wealth or new
+lands, or to fight more savages. No, not even to look upon a certain
+Ayesha, of whom the old wizard told you, though I think you have always
+loved to try to lift the veil that hides women’s hearts, if not their
+faces. Yet it was I who brought you to Kôr for my own purposes, not
+your desire, nor Zikali’s map and talisman, since had not the white
+lady who lies sick been stolen by Rezu, never would you have pursued
+the journey nor found the way hither.”
+
+“How could you have had anything to do with that business?” I asked
+testily, for my nerves were on edge and I said the first thing that
+came into my mind.
+
+“That, Allan, is a question over which you will wonder for a long while
+either beneath or beyond the sun, as you will wonder concerning much
+that has to do with me, which your little mind, shut in its iron box of
+ignorance and pride, cannot understand to-day.
+
+“For example, you have been wondering, I am sure, how the lightning
+killed those eleven men whose bodies you went to look on an hour or two
+ago, and left the rest untouched. Well, I will tell you at once that it
+was not lightning that killed them, although the strength within me was
+manifest to you in storm, but rather what that witch-doctor of your
+following called wizardry. Because they were traitors who betrayed your
+army to Rezu, I killed them with my wrath and by the wand of my power.
+Oh! you do not believe, yet perhaps ere long you will, since thus to
+fulfil your prayer I must also kill you—almost. That is the trouble,
+Allan. To kill you outright would be easy, but to kill you just enough
+to set your spirit free and yet leave one crevice of mortal life
+through which it can creep back again, that is most difficult; a thing
+that only I can do and even of myself I am not sure.”
+
+“Pray do not try the experiment——” I began thoroughly alarmed, but she
+cut me short.
+
+“Disturb me no more, Allan, with the tremors and changes of your
+uncertain mind, lest you should work more evil than you think, and
+making mine uncertain also, spoil my skill. Nay, do not try to fly, for
+already the net has thrown itself about you and you cannot stir, who
+are bound like a little gilded wasp in the spider’s web, or like birds
+beneath the eyes of basilisks.”
+
+This was true, for I found that, strive as I would, I could not move a
+limb or even an eyelid. I was frozen to that spot and there was nothing
+for it except to curse my folly and say my prayers.
+
+All this while she went on talking, but of what she said I have not the
+faintest idea, because my remaining wits were absorbed in these
+much-needed implorations.
+
+Presently, of a sudden, I appeared to see Ayesha seated in a temple,
+for there were columns about her, and behind her was an altar on which
+a fire burned. All round her, too, were hooded snakes like to that
+which she wore about her middle, fashioned in gold. To these snakes she
+sang and they danced to her singing; yes, with flickering tongues they
+danced upon their tails! What the scene signified I cannot conceive,
+unless it meant that this mistress of magic was consulting her
+familiars.
+
+Then that vision vanished and Ayesha’s voice began to seem very far
+away and dreamy, also her wondrous beauty became visible to me through
+her veil, as though I had acquired a new sense that overcame the
+limitations of mortal sight. Even in this extremity I reflected it was
+well that the last thing I looked on should be something so glorious.
+No, not quite the last thing, for out of the corners of my eyes I saw
+that Umslopogaas from a sitting position had sunk on to his back and
+lay, apparently dead, with his axe still gripped tightly and held above
+his head, as though his arm had been turned to ice.
+
+After this terrible things began to happen to me and I became aware
+that I was dying. A great wind seemed to catch me up and blow me to and
+fro, as a leaf is blown in the eddies of a winter gale. Enormous rushes
+of darkness flowed over me, to be succeeded by vivid bursts of
+brightness that dazzled like lightning. I fell off precipices and at
+the foot of them was caught by some fearful strength and tossed to the
+very skies.
+
+From those skies I was hurled down again into a kind of whirlpool of
+inky night, round which I spun perpetually, as it seemed for hours and
+hours. But worst of all was the awful loneliness from which I suffered.
+It seemed to me as though there were no other living thing in all the
+Universe and never had been and never would be any other living thing.
+I felt as though _I_ were the Universe rushing solitary through space
+for ages upon ages in a frantic search for fellowship, and finding
+none.
+
+Then something seemed to grip my throat and I knew that I had died—for
+the world floated away from beneath me.
+
+Now fear and every mortal sensation left me, to be replaced by a new
+and spiritual terror. I, or rather my disembodied consciousness, seemed
+to come up for judgment, and the horror of it was that I appeared to be
+my own judge. There, a very embodiment of cold justice, my Spirit,
+grown luminous, sat upon a throne and to it, with dread and merciless
+particularity I set out all my misdeeds. It was as if some part of me
+remained mortal, for I could see my two eyes, my mouth and my hands,
+but nothing else—and strange enough they looked. From the eyes came
+tears, from the mouth flowed words and the hands were joined, as though
+in prayer to that throned and adamantine Spirit which was ME.
+
+It was as though this Spirit were asking how my body had served its
+purposes and advanced its mighty ends, and in reply—oh! what a
+miserable tale I had to tell. Fault upon fault, weakness upon weakness,
+sin upon sin; never before did I understand how black was my record. I
+tried to relieve the picture with some incidents of attempted good, but
+that Spirit would not hearken. It seemed to say that it had gathered up
+the good and knew it all. It was of the evil that it would learn, not
+of the good that had bettered it, but of the evil by which it had been
+harmed.
+
+Hearing this there rose up in my consciousness some memory of what
+Ayesha had said; namely, that the body lived within the temple of the
+spirit which is oft defied, and not the spirit in the body.
+
+The story was told and I hearkened for the judgment, my own judgment on
+myself, which I knew would be accepted without question and registered
+for good or ill. But none came, since ere the balance sank this way or
+that, ere it could be uttered, I was swept afar.
+
+Through Infinity I was swept, and as I fled faster than the light, the
+meaning of what I had seen came home to me. I knew, or seemed to know
+for the first time, that at the last _man must answer to himself_, or
+perhaps to a divine principle within himself, that out of his own
+free-will, through long æons and by a million steps, he climbs or sinks
+to the heights or depths dormant in his nature; that from what he was,
+springs what he is, and what he is, engenders what he shall be for ever
+and aye.
+
+Now I envisaged Immortality and splendid and awful was its face. It
+clasped me to its breast and in the vast circle of its arms I was
+up-borne, I who knew myself to be without beginning and without end,
+and yet of the past and of the future knew nothing, save that these
+were full of mysteries.
+
+As I went I encountered others, or overtook them, making the same
+journey. Robertson swept past me, and spoke, but in a tongue I could
+not understand. I noted that the madness had left his eyes and that his
+fine-cut features were calm and spiritual. The other wanderers I did
+not know.
+
+I came to a region of blinding light; the thought rose in me that I
+must have reached the sun, or a sun, though I felt no heat. I stood in
+a lovely, shining valley about which burned mountains of fire. There
+were huge trees in that valley, but they glowed like gold and their
+flowers and fruit were as though they had been fashioned of
+many-coloured flames.
+
+The place was glorious beyond compare, but very strange to me and not
+to be described. I sat me down upon a boulder which burned like a ruby,
+whether with heat or colour I do not know, by the edge of a stream that
+flowed with what looked like fire and made a lovely music. I stooped
+down and drank of this water of flames and the scent and the taste of
+it were as those of the costliest wine.
+
+There, beneath the spreading limbs of a fire-tree I sat, and examined
+the strange flowers that grew around, coloured like rich jewels and
+perfumed above imagining. There were birds also which might have been
+feathered with sapphires, rubies and amethysts, and their song was so
+sweet that I could have wept to hear it. The scene was wonderful and
+filled me with exaltation, for I thought of the land where it is
+promised that there shall be no more night.
+
+People began to appear; men, women, and even children, though whence
+they came I could not see. They did not fly and they did not walk; they
+seemed to drift towards me, as unguided boats drift upon the tide. One
+and all they were very beautiful, but their beauty was not human
+although their shapes and faces resembled those of men and women made
+glorious. None were old, and except the children, none seemed very
+young; it was as though they had grown backwards or forwards to middle
+life and rested there at their very best.
+
+Now came the marvel; all these uncounted people were known to me,
+though so far as my knowledge went I had never set eyes on most of them
+before. Yet I was aware that in some forgotten life or epoch I had been
+intimate with every one of them; also that it was the fact of my
+presence and the call of my sub-conscious mind which drew them to this
+spot. Yet that presence and that call were not visible or audible to
+them, who, I suppose, flowed down some stream of sympathy, why or
+whither they did not know. Had I been as they were perchance they would
+have seen me, as it was they saw nothing and I could not speak and tell
+them of my presence.
+
+Some of this multitude, however, I knew well enough even when they had
+departed years and years ago. But about these I noted this, that every
+one of them was a man or a woman or a child for whom I had felt love or
+sympathy or friendship. Not one was a person whom I had disliked or
+whom I had no wish to see again. If they spoke at all I could not
+hear—or read—their speech, yet to a certain extent I could hear their
+thoughts.
+
+Many of these were beyond the power of my appreciation on subjects of
+which I had no knowledge, or that were too high for me, but some were
+of quite simple things such as concern us upon the earth, such as of
+friendship, or learning, or journeys made or to be made, or art, or
+literature, or the wonders of Nature, or of the fruits of the earth, as
+they knew them in this region.
+
+This I noted too, that each separate thought seemed to be hallowed and
+enclosed in an atmosphere of prayer or heavenly aspiration, as a seed
+is enclosed in the heart of a flower, or a fruit in its odorous rind,
+and that this prayer or aspiration presently appeared to bear the
+thought away, whither I knew not. Moreover, all these thoughts, even of
+the humblest things, were beauteous and spiritual, nothing cruel or
+impure or even coarse was to be found among them: they radiated
+charity, purity and goodness.
+
+Among them I perceived were none that had to do with our earth; this
+and its affairs seemed to be left far behind these thinkers, a truth
+that chilled my soul was alien to their company. Worse still, so far as
+I could discover, although I knew that all these bright ones had been
+near to me at some hour in the measurements of time and space, not one
+of their musings dwelt upon me or on aught with which I had to do.
+
+Between me and them there was a great gulf fixed and a high wall built.
+
+Oh, look! One came shining like a star, and from far away came another
+with dove-like eyes and beautiful exceedingly, and with this last a
+maiden, whose eyes were as hers who my own heart told me was her
+mother.
+
+Well, I knew them both; they were those whom I had come to seek, the
+women who had been mine upon the earth, and at the sight of them my
+spirit thrilled. Surely they would discover me. Surely at least they
+would speak of me and feel my presence.
+
+But, although they stayed within a pace or two of where I rested, alas!
+it was not so. They seemed to kiss and to exchange swift thoughts about
+many things, high things of which I will not write, and common things;
+yes, even of the shining robes they wore, but never a one of _me!_ I
+strove to rise and go to them, but could not; I strove to speak and
+could not; I strove to throw out my thought to them and could not; it
+fell back upon my head like a stone hurled heavenward.
+
+They were remote from me, utterly apart. I wept tears of bitterness
+that I should be so near and yet so far; a dull and jealous rage burned
+in my heart, and this they did seem to feel, or so I fancied; at any
+rate, apparently by mutual consent, they moved further from me as
+though something pained them. Yes, my love could not reach their
+perfected natures, but my anger hurt them.
+
+As I sat chewing this root of bitterness, a man appeared, a very noble
+man, in whom I recognised my father grown younger and happier-looking,
+but still my father, with whom came others, men and women whom I knew
+to be my brothers and sisters who had died in youth far away in
+Oxfordshire. Joy leapt up in me, for I thought—these will surely know
+me and give me welcome, since, though here sex has lost its power,
+blood must still call to blood.
+
+But it was not so. They spoke, or interchanged their thoughts, but not
+one of me. I read something that passed from my father to them. It was
+a speculation as to what had brought them all together there, and read
+also the answer hazarded, that perhaps it might be to give welcome to
+some unknown who was drawing near from below and would feel lonely and
+unfriended. Thereon my father replied that he did not see or feel this
+wanderer, and thought that it could not be so, since it was his mission
+to greet such on their coming.
+
+Then in an instant all were gone and that lovely, glowing plain was
+empty, save for myself seated on the ruby-like stone, weeping tears of
+blood and shame and loss within my soul.
+
+So I sat a long while, till presently I was aware of a new presence, a
+presence dusky and splendid and arrayed in rich barbaric robes.
+Straight she came towards me, like a thrown spear, and I knew her for a
+certain royal and savage woman who on earth was named Mameena, or
+“Wind-that-wailed.” Moreover she divined me, though see me she could
+not.
+
+“Art there, Watcher-in-the-Night, watching in the light?” she said or
+thought, I know not which, but the words came to me in the Zulu tongue.
+
+“Aye,” she went on, “I know that thou art there; from ten thousand
+leagues away I felt thy presence and broke from my own place to welcome
+thee, though I must pay for it with burning chains and bondage. How did
+those welcome thee whom thou camest out to seek? Did they clasp thee in
+their arms and press their kisses on thy brow? Or did they shrink away
+from thee because the smell of earth was on thy hands and lips?”
+
+I seemed to answer that they did not appear to know that I was there.
+
+“Aye, they did not know because their love is not enough, because they
+have grown too fine for love. But I, the sinner, I knew well, and here
+am I ready to suffer all for thee and to give thee place within this
+stormy heart of mine. Forget them, then, and come to rule with me who
+still am queen in my own house that thou shalt share. There we will
+live royally and when our hour comes, at least we shall have had our
+day.”
+
+Now before I could reply, some power seemed to seize this splendid
+creature and whirl her thence so that she departed, flashing these
+words from her mind to mine,
+
+“For a little while farewell, but remember always that Mameena, the
+Wailing Wind, being still as a sinful woman in a woman’s love and of
+the earth, earthy, found thee, whom all the rest forgot. O
+Watcher-in-the-Night, watch in the night for me, for there thou shalt
+find me, the Child of Storm, again, and yet again.”
+
+She was gone and once more I sat in utter solitude upon that ruby
+stone, staring at the jewelled flowers and the glorious flaming trees
+and the lambent waters of the brook. What was the meaning of it all, I
+wondered, and why was I deserted by everyone save a single savage
+woman, and why had she a power to find me which was denied to all the
+rest? Well, she had given me an answer, because she was “as a sinful
+woman with a woman’s love and of the earth, earthy,” while with the
+rest it was otherwise. Oh! this was clear, that in the heavens man has
+no friend among the heavenly, save perhaps the greatest Friend of all
+Who understands both flesh and spirit.
+
+Thus I mused in this burning world which was still so beautiful, this
+alien world into which I had thrust myself unwanted and unsought. And
+while I mused this happened. The fiery waters of the stream were
+disturbed by something and looking up I saw the cause.
+
+A dog had plunged into them and was swimming towards me. At a glance I
+knew that dog on which my eyes had not fallen for decades. It was a
+mongrel, half spaniel and half bull-terrier, which for years had been
+the dear friend of my youth and died at last on the horns of a wounded
+wildebeeste that attacked me when I had fallen from my horse upon the
+veld. Boldly it tackled the maddened buck, thus giving me time to
+scramble to my rifle and shoot it, but not before the poor hound had
+yielded its life for mine, since presently it died disembowelled, but
+licking my hand and forgetful of its agonies. This dog, Smut by name,
+it was that swam or seemed to swim the brook of fire. It scrambled to
+the hither shore, it nosed the earth and ran to the ruby stone and
+stared about it whining and sniffing.
+
+At last it seemed to see or feel me, for it stood upon its hind legs
+and licked my face, yelping with mad joy, as I could see though I heard
+nothing. Now I wept in earnest and bent down to hug and kiss the
+faithful beast, but this I could not do, since like myself it was only
+shadow.
+
+Then suddenly all dissolved in a cataract of many-coloured flames and I
+fell down into an infinite gulf of blackness.
+
+Surely Ayesha was talking to me! What did she say? What did she say? I
+could not catch her words, but I caught her laughter and knew that
+after her fashion she was making a mock of me. My eyelids were dragged
+down as though with heavy sleep; it was difficult to lift them. At last
+they were open and I saw Ayesha seated on her couch before me and—this
+I noted at once—with her lovely face unveiled. I looked about me,
+seeking Umslopogaas and Hans. But they were gone as I guessed they must
+be, since otherwise Ayesha would not have been unveiled. We were quite
+alone. She was addressing me and in a new fashion, since now she had
+abandoned the formal “you” and was using the more impressive and
+intimate “thou,” much as is the manner of the French.
+
+“Thou hast made thy journey, Allan,” she said, “and what thou hast seen
+there thou shalt tell me presently. Yet from thy mien I gather
+this—that thou art glad to look upon flesh and blood again and, after
+the company of spirits, to find that of mortal woman. Come then and sit
+beside me and tell thy tale.”
+
+“Where are the others?” I asked as I rose slowly to obey, for my head
+swam and my feet seemed feeble.
+
+“Gone, Allan, who as I think have had enough of ghosts, which is
+perhaps thy case also. Come, drink this and be a man once more. Drink
+it to me whose skill and power have brought thee safe from lands that
+human feet were never meant to tread,” and taking a strange-shaped cup
+from a stool that stood beside her, she offered it to me.
+
+I drank to the last drop, neither knowing nor caring whether it were
+wine or poison, since my heart seemed desperate at its failure and my
+spirit crushed beneath the weight of its great betrayal. I suppose it
+was the former, for the contents of that cup ran through my veins like
+fire and gave me back my courage and the joy of life.
+
+I stepped to the dais and sat me down upon the couch, leaning against
+its rounded end so that I was almost face to face with Ayesha who had
+turned towards me, and thence could study her unveiled loveliness. For
+a while she said nothing, only eyed me up and down and smiled and
+smiled, as though she were waiting for that wine to do its work with
+me.
+
+“Now that thou art a man again, Allan, tell me what thou didst see when
+thou wast more—or less—than man.”
+
+So I told her all, for some power within her seemed to draw the truth
+out of me. Nor did the tale appear to cause her much surprise.
+
+“There is truth in thy dream,” she said when I had finished; “a lesson
+also.”
+
+“Then it was all a dream?” I interrupted.
+
+“Is not everything a dream, even life itself, Allan? If so, what can
+this be that thou hast seen, but a dream within a dream, and itself
+containing other dreams, as in the old days the ball fashioned by the
+eastern workers of ivory would oft be found to contain another ball,
+and this yet another and another and another, till at the inmost might
+be found a bead of gold, or perchance a jewel, which was the prize of
+him who could draw out ball from ball and leave them all unbroken. That
+search was difficult and rarely was the jewel come by, if at all, so
+that some said there was none, save in the maker’s mind. Yes, I have
+seen a man go crazed with seeking and die with the mystery unsolved.
+How much harder, then, is it to come at the diamond of Truth which lies
+at the core of all our nest of dreams and without which to rest upon
+they could not be fashioned to seem realities?”
+
+“But was it really a dream, and if so, what were the truth and the
+lesson?” I asked, determined not to allow her to bemuse or escape me
+with her metaphysical talk and illustrations.
+
+“The first question has been answered, Allan, as well as I can answer,
+who am not the architect of this great globe of dreams, and as yet
+cannot clearly see the ineffable gem within, whose prisoned rays
+illuminate their substance, though so dimly that only those with the
+insight of a god can catch their glamour in the night of thought, since
+to most they are dark as glow-flies in the glare of noon.”
+
+“Then what are the truth and the lesson?” I persisted, perceiving that
+it was hopeless to extract from her an opinion as to the real nature of
+my experiences and that I must content myself with her deductions from
+them.
+
+“Thou tellest me, Allan, that in thy dream or vision thou didst seem to
+appear before thyself seated on a throne and in that self to find thy
+judge. That is the Truth whereof I spoke, though how it found its way
+through the black and ignorant shell of one whose wit is so small, is
+more than I can guess, since I believed that it was revealed to me
+alone.”
+
+(Now I, Allan, thought to myself that I began to see the origin of all
+these fantasies and that for once Ayesha had made a slip. If she had a
+theory and I developed that same theory in a hypnotic condition, it was
+not difficult to guess its fount. However, I kept my mouth shut, and
+luckily for once she did not seem to read my mind, perhaps because she
+was too much occupied in spinning her smooth web of entangling words.)
+
+“All men worship their own god,” she went on, “and yet seem not to know
+that this god dwells within them and that of him they are a part. There
+he dwells and there they mould him to their own fashion, as the potter
+moulds his clay, though whatever the shape he seems to take beneath
+their fingers, still he remains the god infinite and unalterable. Still
+he is the Seeker and the Sought, the Prayer and its Fulfilment, the
+Love and the Hate, the Virtue and the Vice, since all these qualities
+the alchemy of his spirit turns into an ultimate and eternal Good. For
+the god is in all things and all things are in the god, whom men clothe
+with such diverse garments and whose countenance they hide beneath so
+many masks.
+
+“In the tree flows the sap, yet what knows the great tree it nurtures
+of the sap? In the world’s womb burns the fire that gives life, yet
+what of the fire knows the glorious earth it conceived and will
+destroy; in the heavens the great globes swing through space and rest
+not, yet what know they of the Strength that sent them spinning and in
+a time to come will stay their mighty motions, or turn them to another
+course? Therefore of everything this all-present god is judge, or
+rather, not one but many judges, since of each living creature he makes
+its own magistrate to deal out justice according to that creature’s law
+which in the beginning the god established for it and decreed. Thus in
+the breast of everyone there is a rule and by that rule, at work
+through a countless chain of lives, in the end he shall be lifted up to
+Heaven, or bound about and cast down to Hell and death.”
+
+“You mean a conscience,” I suggested rather feebly, for her thoughts
+and images overpowered me.
+
+“Aye, a conscience, if thou wilt, and canst only understand that term,
+though it fits my theme but ill. This is my meaning, that consciences,
+as thou namest them, are many. I have one; thou, Allan, hast another;
+that black Axe-bearer has a third; the little yellow man a fourth, and
+so on through the tale of living things. For even a dog such as thou
+sawest has a conscience and—like thyself or I—must in the end be its
+own judge, because of the spark that comes to it from above, the same
+spark which in me burns as a great fire, and in thee as a smouldering
+ember of green wood.”
+
+“When _you_ sit in judgment on yourself in a day to come, Ayesha,” I
+could not help interpolating, “I trust that you will remember that
+humility did not shine among your virtues.”
+
+She smiled in her vivid way—only twice or thrice did I see her smile
+thus and then it was like a flash of summer lightning illumining a
+clouded sky, since for the most part her face was grave and even
+sombre.
+
+“Well answered,” she said. “Goad the patient ox enough and even it will
+grow fierce and paw the ground.
+
+“Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part
+of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and
+they are few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned.
+Now I have told thee of the Truth thou sawest in thy vision and wouldst
+thou hear the Lesson?”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “since I may as well be done with it at once, and
+doubtless it will be good for me.”
+
+“The Lesson, Allan, is one which thou preachest—humility. Vain man and
+foolish as thou art, thou didst desire to travel the Underworld in
+search of certain ones who once were all in all to thee—nay, not all in
+all since of them there were two or more—but at least much. Thus thou
+wouldst do because, as thou saidest, thou didst seek to know whether
+they still lived on beyond the gates of Blackness. Yes, thou saidest
+this, but what thou didst hope to learn in truth was whether they lived
+on in _thee_ and for _thee_ only. For thou, thou in thy vanity, didst
+picture these departed souls as doing naught in that Heaven they had
+won, save think of thee still burrowing on the earth, and, at times
+lightening thy labours with kisses from other lips than theirs.”
+
+“Never!” I exclaimed indignantly. “Never! it is not true.”
+
+“Then I pray pardon, Allan, who only judged of thee by others that were
+as men are made, and being such, not to be blamed if perchance from
+time to time, they turned to look on women, who alas! were as they are
+made. So at least it was when I knew the world, but mayhap since then
+its richest wine has turned to water, whereby I hope it has been
+bettered. At the least this was thy thought, that those women who had
+been thine for an hour, through all eternity could dream of naught else
+save thy perfections, and hope for naught else than to see thee at
+their sides through that eternity, or such part of thee as thou couldst
+spare to each of them. For thou didst forget that where they have gone
+there may be others even more peerless than thou art and more fit to
+hold a woman’s love, which as we know on earth was ever changeful, and
+perhaps may so remain where it is certain that new lights must shine
+and new desires beckon. Dost understand me, Allan?”
+
+“I think so,” I answered with a groan. “I understand you to mean that
+worldly impressions soon wear out and that people who have departed to
+other spheres may there form new ties and forget the old.”
+
+“Yes, Allan, as do those who remain upon this earth, whence these
+others have departed. Do men and women still re-marry in the world,
+Allan, as in my day they were wont to do?”
+
+“Of course—it is allowed.”
+
+“As many other things, or perchance this same thing, may be allowed
+elsewhere, for when there are so many habitations from which to choose,
+why should we always dwell in one of them, however strait the house or
+poor the prospect?”
+
+Now understanding that I was symbolised by the “strait house” and the
+“poor prospect” I should have grown angry, had not a certain sense of
+humour come to my rescue, who remembered that after all Ayesha’s satire
+was profoundly true. Why, beyond the earth, should anyone desire to
+remain unalterably tied to and inextricably wrapped up in such a
+personality as my own, especially if others of superior texture
+abounded about them? Now that I came to think of it, the thing was
+absurd and not to be the least expected in the midst of a thousand new
+and vivid interests. I had met with one more disillusionment, that was
+all.
+
+“Dost understand, Allan,” went on Ayesha, who evidently was determined
+that I should drink this cup to the last drop, “that these dwellers in
+the sun, or the far planet where thou hast been according to thy tale,
+saw thee not and knew naught of thee? It may chance therefore that at
+this time thou wast not in their minds which at others dream of thee
+continually. Or it may chance that they never dream of thee at all,
+having quite forgotten thee, as the weaned cub forgets its mother.”
+
+“At least there was one who seemed to remember,” I exclaimed, for her
+poisoned mocking stung the words out of me, “one woman and—a dog.”
+
+“Aye, the savage, who being Nature’s child, a sinner that departed
+hence by her own act” (how Ayesha knew this I cannot say, I never told
+her), “has not yet put on perfection and therefore still remembers him
+whose kiss was last upon her lips. But surely, Allan, it is not thy
+desire to pass from the gentle, ordered claspings of those white souls
+for the tumultuous arms of such a one as this. Still, let that be, for
+who knows what men will or will not do in jealousy and disappointed
+love? And the dog, it remembered also and even sought thee out, since
+dogs are more faithful and single-hearted than is mankind. There at
+least thou hast thy lesson, namely to grow more humble and never to
+think again that thou holdest all a woman’s soul for aye, because once
+she was kind to thee for a little while on earth.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, jumping up in a rage, “as you say, I have my lesson,
+and more of it than I want. So by your leave, I will now bid you
+farewell, hoping that when it comes to be _your_ turn to learn this
+lesson, or a worse, Ayesha, as I am sure it will one day, for something
+tells me so, you may enjoy it more than I have done.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+AYESHA’S FAREWELL
+
+
+Thus I spoke whose nerves were on edge after all that I had seen or, as
+even then I suspected, seemed to see. For how could I believe that
+these visions of mine had any higher origin than Ayesha’s rather
+malicious imagination? Already I had formed my theory.
+
+It was that she must be a hypnotist of power, who, after she had put a
+spell upon her subject, could project into his mind such fancies as she
+chose together with a selection of her own theories. Only two points
+remained obscure. The first was—how did she get the necessary
+information about the private affairs of a humble individual like
+myself, for these were not known even to Zikali with whom she seemed to
+be in some kind of correspondence, or to Hans, at any rate in such
+completeness?
+
+I could but presume that in some mysterious way she drew them from, or
+rather excited them in my own mind and memory, so that I seemed to see
+those with whom once I had been intimate, with modifications and in
+surroundings that her intelligence had carefully prepared. It would not
+be difficult for a mind like hers familiar, as I gathered it was, with
+the ancient lore of the Greeks and the Egyptians, to create a kind of
+Hades and, by way of difference, to change it from one of shadow to one
+of intense illumination, and into it to plunge the consciousness of him
+upon whom she had laid her charm of sleep. I had seen nothing and heard
+nothing that she might not thus have moulded, always given that she had
+access to the needful clay of facts which I alone could furnish.
+
+Granting this hypothesis, the second point was—what might be the object
+of her elaborate and most bitter jest? Well, I thought that I could
+guess. First, she wished to show her power, or rather to make me
+believe that she had power of a very unusual sort. Secondly, she owed
+Umslopogaas and myself a debt for our services in the war with Rezu
+which we had been told would be repaid in this way. Thirdly, I had
+offended her in some fashion and she took her opportunity of settling
+the score. Also there was a fourth possibility—that really she
+considered herself a moral instructress and desired, as she said, to
+teach me a lesson by showing how futile were human hopes and vanities
+in respect to the departed and their affections.
+
+Now I do not pretend that all this analysis of Ayesha’s motives
+occurred to me at the moment of my interview with her; indeed, I only
+completed it later after much careful thought, when I found it sound
+and good. At that time, although I had inklings, I was too bewildered
+to form a just judgment.
+
+Further, I was too angry and it was from this bow of my anger that I
+loosed a shaft at a venture as to some lesson which awaited _her_.
+Perhaps certain words spoken by the dying Rezu had shaped that shaft.
+Or perhaps some shadow of her advancing fate fell upon me.
+
+The success of the shot, however, was remarkable. Evidently it pierced
+the joints of her harness, and indeed went home to Ayesha’s heart. She
+turned pale; all the peach-bloom hues faded from her lovely face, her
+great eyes seemed to lessen and grow dull and her cheeks to fall in.
+Indeed, for a moment she looked old, very old, quite an aged woman.
+Moreover she wept, for I saw two big tears drop upon her white raiment
+and I was horrified.
+
+“What has happened to you?” I said, or rather gasped.
+
+“Naught,” she answered, “save that thou hast hurt me sore. Dost thou
+not know, Allan, that it is cruel to prophesy ill to any, since such
+words feathered from Fate’s own wing and barbed with venom, fester in
+the breast and mayhap bring about their own accomplishment. Most cruel
+of all is it when with them are repaid friendship and gentleness.”
+
+I reflected to myself—yes, friendship of the order that is called
+candid, and gentleness such as is hid in a cat’s velvet paw, but
+contented myself with asking how it was that she who said she was so
+powerful, came to fear anything at all.
+
+“Because as I have told thee, Allan, there is no armour that can turn
+the spear of Destiny which, when I heard those words of thine, it
+seemed to me, I know not why, was directed by thy hand. Look now on
+Rezu who thought himself unconquerable and yet was slain by the black
+Axe-bearer and whose bones to-night stay the famine of the jackals.
+Moreover I am accursed who sought to steal its servant from Heaven to
+be my love, and how know I when and where vengeance will fall at last?
+Indeed, it has fallen already on me, who through the long ages amid
+savages must mourn widowed and alone, but not all of it—oh! I think,
+not all.”
+
+Then she began to weep in good earnest, and watching her, for the first
+time I understood that this glorious creature who seemed to be so
+powerful, was after all one of the most miserable of women and as much
+a prey to loneliness, every sort of passion and apprehensive fear, as
+can be any common mortal. If, as she said, she had found the secret of
+life, which of course I did not believe, at least it was obvious that
+she had lost that of happiness.
+
+She sobbed softly and wept and while she did so the loveliness, which
+had left her for a little while, returned to her like light to a grey
+and darkened sky. Oh, how beautiful she seemed with the abundant locks
+in disorder over her tear-stained face, how beautiful beyond imagining!
+My heart melted as I studied her; I could think of nothing else except
+her surpassing charm and glory.
+
+“I pray you, do not weep,” I said; “it hurts me and indeed I am sorry
+if I said anything to give you pain.”
+
+But she only shook that glorious hair further about her face and behind
+its veil wept on.
+
+“You know, Ayesha,” I continued, “you have said many hard things to me,
+making me the target of your bitter wit, therefore it is not strange
+that at last I answered you.”
+
+“And hast thou not deserved them, Allan?” she murmured in soft and
+broken tones from behind that veil of scented locks.
+
+“Why?” I asked.
+
+“Because from the beginning thou didst defy me, showing in thine every
+accent that thou heldest me a liar and one of no account in body or in
+spirit, one not worthy of thy kind look, or of those gentle words which
+once were my portion among men. Oh! thou hast dealt hardly with me and
+therefore perchance—I know not—I paid thee back with such poor weapons
+as a woman holds, though all the while I liked thee well.”
+
+Then again she fell to sobbing, swaying herself gently to and fro in
+her sweet sorrow.
+
+It was too much. Not knowing what else to do to comfort her, I patted
+her ivory hand which lay upon the couch beside me, and as this appeared
+to have no effect, I kissed it, which she did not seem to resent. Then
+suddenly I remembered and let it fall.
+
+She tossed back her hair from her face and fixing her big eyes on me,
+said gently enough, looking down at her hand,
+
+“What ails thee, Allan?”
+
+“Oh, nothing,” I answered; “only I remembered the story you told me
+about some man called Kallikrates.”
+
+She frowned.
+
+“And what of Kallikrates, Allan? Is it not enough that for my sins,
+with tears, empty longings and repentance, I must wait for him through
+all the weary centuries? Must I also wear the chains of this
+Kallikrates, to whom I owe many a debt, when he is far away? Say, didst
+thou see him in that Heaven of thine, Allan, for there perchance he
+dwells?”
+
+I shook my head and tried to think the thing out while all the time
+those wonderful eyes of hers seemed to draw the soul from me. It seemed
+to me that she bent forward and held up her face to me. Then I lost my
+reason and also bent forward. Yes, she made me mad, and, save her, I
+forgot all.
+
+Swiftly she placed her hand upon my heart, saying,
+
+“Stay! What meanest thou? Dost love me, Allan?”
+
+“I think so—that is—yes,” I answered.
+
+She sank back upon the couch away from me and began to laugh very
+softly.
+
+“What words are these,” she said, “that they pass thy lips so easily
+and so unmeant, perchance from long practice? Oh! Allan, I am
+astonished. Art thou the same man who some few days ago told me, and
+this unasked, that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the moon as
+of courting me? Art thou he who not a minute gone swore proudly that
+never had his heart and his lips wandered from certain angels whither
+they should not? And now, and now——?”
+
+I coloured to my eyes and rose, muttering,
+
+“Let me be gone!”
+
+“Nay, Allan, why? I see no mark here,” and she held up her hand,
+scanning it carefully. “Thou art too much what thou wert before, except
+perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible,” she added with a touch of
+malice. “Nor am I angry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to
+charm away my woe, I should have thought but poorly of thee as a man.
+There let it rest and be forgotten—or remembered as thou wilt. Still,
+in answer to thy words concerning my Kallikrates, what of those adored
+ones that, according to thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a
+place of light? Because they seemed faithless, shouldst thou be
+faithless also? Shame on thee, thou fickle Allan!”
+
+She paused, waiting for me to speak.
+
+Well, I could not. I had nothing to say who was utterly disgraced and
+overwhelmed.
+
+“Thou thinkest, Allan,” she went on, “that I have cast my net about
+thee, and this is true. Learn wisdom from it, Allan, and never again
+defy a woman—that is, if she be fair, for then she is stronger than
+thou art, since Nature for its own purpose made her so. Whatever I have
+done by tears, that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is
+for thy instruction, Allan, that thou mayest benefit thereby.”
+
+Again I sprang up, uttering an English exclamation which I trust Ayesha
+did not understand, and again she motioned to me to be seated, saying,
+
+“Nay, leave me not yet since, even if the light fancy of a man that
+comes and goes like the evening wind and for a breath made me dear to
+thee, has passed away, there remains certain work which we must do
+together. Although, thinking of thyself alone, thou hast forgotten it,
+having been paid thine own fee, one is yet due to that old wizard in a
+far land who sent thee to visit Kôr and me, as indeed he has reminded
+me and within an hour.”
+
+This amazing statement aroused me from my personal and painful
+pre-occupation and caused me to stare at her blankly.
+
+“Again thou disbelievest me,” she said, with a little stamp. “Do so
+once more, Allan, and I swear I’ll bring thee to grovel on the ground
+and kiss my foot and babble nonsense to a woman sworn to another man,
+such as never for all thy days thou shalt think of without a blush of
+shame.”
+
+“Oh! no,” I broke in hurriedly, “I assure you that you are mistaken. I
+believe every word you have said, or say or will say; I do in truth.”
+
+“Now thou liest. Well, what is one more falsehood among so many? Let it
+pass.”
+
+“What, indeed?” I echoed in eager affirmation, “and as for Zikali’s
+message——” and I paused.
+
+“It was to recall to my mind that he desired to learn whether a certain
+great enterprise of his will succeed, the details of which he says thou
+canst tell me. Repeat them to me.”
+
+So, glad enough to get away from more dangerous topics, I narrated to
+her as briefly and clearly as I could, the history of the old
+witch-doctor’s feud with the Royal House of Zululand. She listened,
+taking in every word, and said,
+
+“So now he yearns to know whether he will conquer or be conquered; and
+that is why he sent, or thinks that he sent thee on this journey, not
+for thy sake, Allan, but for his own. I cannot tell thee, for what have
+I do to with the finish of this petty business, which to him seems so
+large? Still, as I owe him a debt for luring the Axe-Bearer here to rid
+me of mine enemy, and thee to lighten my solitude for an hour by the
+burnishing of thy mind, I will try. Set that bowl before me, Allan,”
+and she pointed to a marble tripod on which stood a basin half full of
+water, “and come, sit close by me and look into it, telling me what
+thou seest.”
+
+I obeyed her instructions and presently found myself with my head over
+the basin, staring into the water in the exact attitude of a person who
+is about to be shampooed.
+
+“This seems rather foolish,” I said abjectly, for at that moment I
+resembled the Queen of Sheba in one particular, if in no other, namely,
+that there was no more spirit in me. “What am I supposed to do? I see
+nothing at all.”
+
+“Look again,” she said, and as she spoke the water grew clouded. Then
+on it appeared a picture. I saw the interior of a Kaffir hut dimly
+lighted by a single candle set in the neck of a bottle. To the left of
+the door of the hut was a bedstead and on it lay stretched a wasted and
+dying man, in whom, to my astonishment, I recognised Cetywayo, King of
+the Zulus. At the foot of the bed stood another man—myself grown older
+by many years, and leaning over the bed, apparently whispering into the
+dying man’s ear, was a grotesque and malevolent figure which I knew to
+be that of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, whose glowing eyes were fixed upon
+the terrified and tortured face of Cetywayo. All was as it happened
+afterwards, as I have written down in the book called “Finished.”
+
+I described what I saw to Ayesha, and while I was doing so the picture
+vanished away, so that nothing remained save the clear water in the
+marble bowl. The story did not seem to interest her; indeed, she leaned
+back and yawned a little.
+
+“Thy vision is good, Allan,” she said indifferently, “and wide also,
+since thou canst see what passes in the sun or distant stars, and
+pictures of things to be in the water, to say nothing of other pictures
+in a woman’s eyes, all within an hour. Well, this savage business
+concerns me not and of it I want to know no more. Yet it would appear
+that here the old wizard who is thy friend, has the answer that he
+desires. For there in the picture the king he hates lies dying while he
+hisses in his ear and thou dost watch the end. What more can he seek?
+Tell him it when ye meet, and tell him also it is my will that in
+future he should trouble me less, since I love not to be wakened from
+my sleep to listen to his half-instructed talk and savage vapourings.
+Indeed, he presumes too much. And now enough of him and his dark plots.
+Ye have your desires, all of you, and are paid in full.”
+
+“Over-paid, perhaps,” I said with a sigh.
+
+“Ah, Allan, I think that Lesson thou hast learned pleases thee but
+little. Well, be comforted for the thing is common. Hast never heard
+that there is but one morsel more bitter to the taste than desire
+denied, namely, desire fulfilled? Believe me that there can be no
+happiness for man until he attains a land where all desire is dead.”
+
+“That is what the Buddha preaches, Ayesha.”
+
+“Aye, I remember the doctrines of that wise man well, who without doubt
+had found a key to the gate of Truth, one key only, for, mark thou,
+Allan, there are many. Yet, man being man must know desires, since
+without them, robbed of ambitions, strivings, hopes, fears, aye and of
+life itself, the race must die, which is not the will of the Lord of
+Life who needs a nursery for his servant’s souls, wherein his swords of
+Good and Ill shall shape them to his pattern. So it comes about, Allan,
+that what we think the worst is oft the best for us, and with that
+knowledge, if we are wise, let us assuage our bitterness and wipe away
+our tears.”
+
+“I have often thought that,” I said.
+
+“I doubt it not, Allan, since though it has pleased me to make a jest
+of thee, I know that thou hast thy share of wisdom, such little share
+as thou canst gather in thy few short years. I know, too, that thy
+heart is good and aspires high, and Friend—well, I find in thee a
+friend indeed, as I think not for the first time, nor certainly for the
+last. Mark, Allan, what I say, not a lover, but a _friend_, which is
+higher far. For when passion dies with the passing of the flesh, if
+there be no friendship what will remain save certain memories that,
+mayhap, are well forgot? Aye, how would those lovers meet elsewhere who
+were never more than lovers? With weariness, I hold, as they stared
+into each other’s empty soul, or even with disgust.
+
+“Therefore the wise will seek to turn those with whom Fate mates them
+into friends, since otherwise soon they will be lost for aye. More, if
+they are wiser still, having made them friends, they will suffer them
+to find lovers where they will. Good maxims, are they not? Yet hard to
+follow, or so, perchance, thou thinkest them—as I do.”
+
+She grew silent and brooded a while, resting her chin upon her hand and
+staring down the hall. Thus the aspect of her face was different from
+any that I had seen it wear. No longer had it the allure of Aphrodite
+or the majesty of Hera; rather might it have been that of Athene
+herself. So wise it seemed, so calm, so full of experience and of
+foresight, that almost it frightened me.
+
+What was this woman’s true story, I wondered, what her real self, and
+what the sum of her gathered knowledge? Perhaps it was accident, or
+perhaps, again, she guessed my mind. At any rate her next words seemed
+in some sense an answer to these speculations. Lifting her eyes she
+contemplated me a while, then said,
+
+“My friend, we part to meet no more in thy life’s day. Often thou wilt
+wonder concerning me, as to what in truth I am, and mayhap in the end
+thy judgment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer
+who, rejected of the world or driven from it by her crimes, made choice
+to rule among savages, playing the part of Oracle to that little
+audience and telling strange tales to such few travellers as come her
+way. Perhaps, indeed, I do play this part among many others, and if so,
+thou wilt not judge me wrongly.
+
+“Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas,
+told me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed
+from dizzy cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shines. They
+told me also that whereas above the ocean’s breast appears but a blue
+and dazzling point, sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle,
+invisible to man.
+
+“Such am I, Allan. Of my being thou seest but one little peak
+glittering in light or crowned with storm, as heaven’s moods sweep over
+it. But in the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations,
+hollowed by the seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit
+doth inhabit. So picture me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a
+soul unknown, and pray that in time to come thou mayest see it in its
+splendour.
+
+“Hadst thou been other than thou art, I might have shown thee secrets,
+making clear to thee the parable of much that I have told thee in
+metaphor and varying fable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power
+and enduring days of which thou knowest nothing. But of those who visit
+shrines, O Allan, two things are required, worship and faith, since
+without these the oracles are dumb and the healing waters will not
+flow.
+
+“Now I, Ayesha, am a shrine; yet to me thou broughtest no worship until
+I won it by a woman’s trick, and in me thou hast no faith. Therefore
+for thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will
+not flow. Yet I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard
+world has shaped thee.
+
+“And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not
+in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still
+exercise on earth, I, whom men name Ayesha, am in all things. I tell
+thee that I am not One but Many and, being many, am both Here and
+Everywhere. When thou standest beneath the sky at night and lookest on
+the stars, remember that in them mine eyes behold thee; when the soft
+winds of evening blow, that my breath is on thy brow and when the
+thunder rolls, that there am I riding on the lightnings and rushing
+with the gale.”
+
+“Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?” I asked, bewildered.
+“Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her priestess?”
+
+“Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds do not reach thine ears; all
+sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf
+and blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worship is
+forgot, some spark of the spirit of that immortal Lady whose chariot
+was the moon, lingers on the earth in this woman’s shape of mine,
+though her essence dwells afar, and perchance her other name is Nature,
+my mother and thine, O Allan. At the least hath not the World a
+soul—and of that soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou also? For
+the rest are not the priest and the Divine he bows to, oft the same?”
+
+It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a
+self-deceiver, but I did not.
+
+“Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha’s benison go with thee. Safe shalt
+thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy
+companions with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy
+time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt find those whom thou hast
+lost more kind than they seemed to be to-night.”
+
+She paused awhile, then added,
+
+“Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, much that I have told thee
+may bear a double meaning, as is the way of parables, to be interpreted
+as thou wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain man, in the old
+days named Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine
+decree, and I await him here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world
+without, tell him that Ayesha awaits him and grows weary in the
+waiting. Nay, thou wilt never find him, since even if he be born again,
+by what token would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge thee, keep
+my secrets well, lest Ayesha’s curse should fall on thee. While thou
+livest tell naught of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou swear to
+keep my secrets, Allan?”
+
+“I swear, Ayesha.”
+
+“I thank thee, Allan,” she answered, and grew silent for a while.
+
+At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height,
+stood there majestic. Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too
+had risen and left the dais.
+
+I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over me as though in
+blessing, then pointed towards the curtains which at this moment were
+drawn asunder, by whom I do not know.
+
+I went and when I reached them, turned to look my last on her.
+
+There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes were fixed upon the
+ground and her face once more was brooding absently as though no such a
+man as I had ever been. It came into my mind that already she had
+forgotten me, the plaything of an hour, who had served her turn and
+been cast aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW
+
+
+Like one who dreams I passed down the outer hall where stood the silent
+guards as statues might, and out through the archway. Here I paused for
+a moment, partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings of the
+night, and partly because I thought that I heard someone approaching me
+through the gloom, and in such a place where I might have many enemies,
+it was well to be prepared.
+
+As it chanced, however, my imaginary assailant was only Hans, who
+emerged from some place where he had been hiding; a very disturbed and
+frightened Hans.
+
+“Oh, Baas,” he said in a low and shaky whisper, “I am glad to see you
+again, and standing on your feet, not being carried with them sticking
+straight in front of you as I expected.”
+
+“Why?” I asked.
+
+“Oh, Baas, because of the things that happened in that place where the
+tall _vrouw_ with her head tied up as though she had tooth-ache, sits
+like a spider in a web.”
+
+“Well, what happened, Hans?” I asked as we walked forward.
+
+“This, Baas. The Doctoress talked and talked at you and Umslopogaas,
+and as she talked, your faces began to look as though you had drunk
+half a flask too much of the best gin, such as I wish I had some of
+here to-night, at once wise and foolish, and full and empty, Baas. Then
+you both rolled over and lay there quite dead, and whilst I was
+wondering what I should do and how I should get out your bodies to bury
+them, the Doctoress came down off her platform and bent, first over you
+and next over Umslopogaas, whispering into the ears of both of you.
+Then she took off a snake that looked as though it were made of gold
+with green eyes, which she wears about her middle beneath the long
+dish-cloth, Baas, and held it to your lips and next to those of
+Umslopogaas.”
+
+“Well, and what then, Hans?”
+
+“After that all sorts of things came about, Baas, and I felt as though
+the whole house were travelling through the air, Baas, twice as fast as
+a bullet does from a rifle. Suddenly, too, the room became filled with
+fire so hot that it scorched me, and so bright that it made my eyes
+water, although they can look at the sun without winking. And, Baas,
+the fire was full of spooks which walked around; yes, I saw some of
+them standing on your head and stomach, Baas, also on that of
+Umslopogaas, whilst others went and talked to the white Doctoress as
+quietly as though they had met her in the market-place and wanted to
+sell her eggs or butter. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend
+father, the Predikant, who looked as though he were red-hot, as
+doubtless he is in the Place of Fires. I thought he came up to me,
+Baas, and said, ‘Get out of this, Hans. This is no place for a good
+Hottentot like you, Hans, for here only the very best Christians can
+bear the heat for long.’
+
+“That finished me, Baas. I just answered that I handed you, the Baas
+Allan his son, over to his care, hoping that he would see that you did
+not burn in that oven, whatever happened to Umslopogaas. Then I shut my
+eyes and mouth and held my nose, and wriggled beneath those curtains as
+a snake does, Baas, and ran down the hall and across the kraal-yard and
+through the archway out into the night, where I have been sitting
+cooling myself ever since, waiting for you to be carried away, Baas.
+And now you have come alive and with not even your hair burnt off,
+which shows how wonderful must be the Great Medicine of Zikali, Baas,
+since nothing else could have saved you in that fire, no, not even your
+reverend father, the Predikant.”
+
+“Hans,” I said when he had finished, “you are a very wonderful fellow,
+for you can get drunk on nothing at all. Please remember, Hans, that
+you have been drunk to-night, yes, very drunk indeed, and never dare to
+repeat anything that you thought you saw while you were drunk.”
+
+“Yes, Baas, I understand that I was drunk and already have forgotten
+everything. But, Baas, there is still a bottle full of brandy and if I
+could have just one more tot I should forget _so_ much better!”
+
+By now we had reached our camp and here I found Umslopogaas sitting in
+the doorway and staring at the sky.
+
+“Good-evening to you, Umslopogaas,” I said in my most unconcerned
+manner, and waited.
+
+“Good-evening, Watcher-by-Night, who I thought was lost in the night,
+since in the end the night is stronger than any of its watchers.”
+
+At this cryptic remark I looked bewildered but said nothing. At length
+Umslopogaas, whose nature, for a Zulu, was impulsive and lacking in the
+ordinary native patience, asked,
+
+“Did you make a journey this evening, Macumazahn, and if so, what did
+you see?”
+
+“Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogaas?” I inquired by way of
+answer, “and if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut
+your eyes in the House of the White One yonder, doubtless because you
+were weary of talk which you did not understand.”
+
+“Aye, Macumazahn, as you suppose I grew weary of that talk which flowed
+from the lips of the White Witch like the music that comes from a
+little stream babbling over stones when the sun is hot, and being
+weary, I fell asleep and dreamed. What I dreamed does not much matter.
+It is enough to say that I felt as though I were thrown through the air
+like a stone cast from his sling by a boy who is set upon a stage to
+scare the birds out of a mealie garden. Further than any stone I went,
+aye, further than a shooting star, till I reached a wonderful place. It
+does not much matter what it was like either, and indeed I am already
+beginning to forget, but there I met everyone I have ever known. I met
+the Lion of the Zulus, the Black One, the Earth-Shaker, he who had a
+‘sister’ named Baleka, which sister,” here he dropped his voice and
+looked about him suspiciously, “bore a child, which child was fostered
+by one Mopo, that Mopo who afterwards slew the Black one with the
+Princes. Now, Macumazahn, I had a score to settle with this Black One,
+aye, even though our blood be much of the same colour, I had a score to
+settle with him, because of the slaying of this sister of his, Baleka,
+together with the Langeni tribe.[1] So I walked up to him and took him
+by the head-ring and spat in his face and bade him find a spear and
+shield, and meet me as man to man. Yes, I did this.”
+
+ [1] For the history of Baleka, the mother of Umslopogaas, and Mopo,
+ see the book called “Nada the Lily.”—Editor.
+
+“And what happened then, Umslopogaas?” I said, when he paused in his
+narrative.
+
+“Macumazahn, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his
+head-ring and the skull beneath, and to shut upon itself while he went
+on talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognised, yes, one Faku,
+whom in the days of Dingaan, the Black One’s brother, I myself slew
+upon the Ghost-Mountain.
+
+“Yes, Macumazahn, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him
+and of the fight that I and my blood-brother and the wolves made, there
+on the knees of the old witch who sits aloft on the Ghost Mountain
+waiting for the world to die, for I could understand their talk, though
+mine went by them like the wind.
+
+“Macumazahn, they passed away and there came others, Dingaan among
+them, aye, Dingaan who also knows something of the Witch-Mountain,
+seeing that there Mopo and I hurled him to his death. With him also I
+would have had words, but it was the same story, only presently he
+caught sight of the Black One, yes, of Chaka whom he slew, stabbing him
+with the little red assegai, and turned and fled, because in that land
+I think he still fears Chaka, Macumazahn, or so the dream told.
+
+“I went on and met others, men I had fought in my day, most of them,
+among them was Jikiza, he who ruled the People of the Axe before me
+whom I slew with his own axe. I lifted the axe and made me ready to
+fight again, but not one of them took any note of me. There they walked
+about, or sat drinking beer or taking snuff, but never a sup of the
+beer or a pinch of the snuff did they offer me, no, not even those
+among them whom I chanced not to have killed. So I left them and walked
+on, seeking for Mopo, my foster-father, and a certain man, my
+blood-brother, by whose side I hunted with the wolves, yes, for them,
+and for another.”
+
+“Well, and did you find them?” I asked.
+
+“Mopo I found not, which makes me think, Macumazahn, that, as once you
+hinted to me, he whom I thought long dead, perchance still lingers on
+the earth. But the others I did find . . .” and he ceased, brooding.
+
+Now I knew enough of Umslopogaas’s history to be aware that he had
+loved this man and woman of whom he spoke more than any others on the
+earth. The “blood-brother,” whose name he would not utter, by which he
+did not mean that he was his brother in blood but one with whom he had
+made a pact of eternal friendship by the interchange of blood or some
+such ceremony, according to report, had dwelt with him on the
+Witch-Mountain where legend told, though this I could scarcely believe,
+that they had hunted with a pack of hyenas. There, it said also, they
+fought a great fight with a band send out by Dingaan the king under the
+command of that Faku whom Umslopogaas had mentioned, in which fight the
+“Blood-Brother,” wielder of a famous club known as
+Watcher-of-the-Fords, got his death after doing mighty deeds. There
+also, as I had heard, Nada the Lily, whose beauty was still famous in
+the land, died under circumstances strange as they were sad.
+
+Naturally, remembering my own experiences, or rather what seemed to be
+my experiences, for already I had made up my mind that they were but a
+dream, I was most anxious to learn whether these two who had been so
+dear to this fierce Zulu, had recognised him.
+
+“Well, and what did they say to you, Umslopogaas?” I asked.
+
+“Macumazahn, they said nothing at all. Hearken! There stood this pair,
+or sometimes they moved to and fro; my brother, an even greater man
+than he used to be, with the wolfskin girt about him and the club,
+Watcher-of-the-Fords, which he alone could wield, upon his shoulder,
+and Nada, grown lovelier even than she was of old, so lovely,
+Macumazahn, that my heart rose into my throat when I saw her and
+stopped my breath. Yes, Macumazahn, there they stood, or walked about
+arm in arm as lovers might, and looked into each other’s eyes and
+talked of how they had known each other on the earth, for I could
+understand their words or thoughts, and how it was good to be at rest
+together where they were.”
+
+“You see, they were old friends, Umslopogaas,” I said.
+
+“Yes, Macumazahn, very old friends as I thought. So much so that they
+had never had a word to say of me who also was the old friend of both
+of them. Aye, my brother, whose name I am sworn not to speak, the
+woman-hater who vowed he loved nothing save me and the wolves, could
+smile into the face of Nada the Lily, Nada the bride of my youth, yet
+never a word of me, while she could smile back and tell him how great a
+warrior he had been and never a word of me whose deeds she was wont to
+praise, who saved her in the Halakazi caves and from Dingaan; no, never
+a word of me although I stood there staring at them.”
+
+“I suppose that they did not see you, Umslopogaas.”
+
+“That is so, Macumazahn; I am sure that they did not see me, for if
+they had they would not have been so much at ease. But I saw them and
+as they would not take heed when I shouted, I ran up calling to my
+brother to defend himself with his club. Then, as he still took no
+note, I lifted the axe _Inkosikaas_, making it circle in the light, and
+smote with all my strength.”
+
+“And what happened, Umslopogaas?”
+
+“Only this, Macumazahn, that the axe went straight through my brother
+from the crown of his head to the groin, cutting him in two, and he
+just went on talking! Indeed, he did more, for stooping down he
+gathered a white lily-bloom which grew there and gave it to Nada, who
+smelt at it, smiled and thanked him, and then thrust it into her
+girdle, still thanking him all the while. Yes, she did this for I saw
+it with my eyes, Macumazahn.”
+
+Here the Zulu’s voice broke and I think that he wept, for in the faint
+light I saw him draw his long hand across his eyes, whereon I took the
+opportunity to turn my back and light a pipe.
+
+“Macumazahn,” he went on presently, “it seems that madness took hold of
+me for a long while, for I shouted and raved at them, thinking that
+words and rage might hurt where good steel could not, and as I did so
+they faded away and disappeared, still smiling and talking, Nada
+smelling at the lily which, having a long stalk, rose up above her
+breast. After this I rushed away and suddenly met that savage king,
+Rezu, whom I slew a few days gone. At him I went with the axe,
+wondering whether he would put up a better fight this second time.”
+
+“And did he, Umslopogaas?”
+
+“Nay, but I think he felt me for he turned and fled and when I tried to
+follow I could not see him. So I ran on and presently who should I find
+but Baleka, Baleka, Chaka’s ‘sister’ who—repeat it not, Macumazahn—was
+my mother; and, Macumazahn, _she_ saw me. Yes, though I was but little
+when last she looked on me who now am great and grim, she saw and knew
+me, for she floated up to me and smiled at me and seemed to press her
+lips upon my forehead, though I could feel no kiss, and to draw the
+soreness out of my heart. Then she, too, was gone and of a sudden I
+fell down through space, having, I suppose, stepped into some deep
+hole, or perchance a well.
+
+“The next thing I knew was that I awoke in the house of the White Witch
+and saw you sleeping at my side and the Witch leaning back upon her bed
+and smiling at me through the thin blanket with which she covers
+herself up, for I could see the laughter in her eyes.
+
+“Now I grew mad with her because of the things that I had seen in the
+Place of Dreams, and it came into my heart that it would be well to
+kill her that the world might be rid of her and her evil magic which
+can show lies to men. So, being distraught, I sprang up and lifted the
+axe and stepped towards her, whereon she rose and stood before me,
+laughing out loud. Then she said something in the tongue I cannot
+understand, and pointed with her finger, and lo! next moment it was as
+if giants had seized me and were whirling me away, till presently I
+found myself breathless but unharmed beyond the arch and—what does it
+all mean, Macumazahn?”
+
+“Very little, as I think, Umslopogaas, except that this queen has
+powers to which those of Zikali are as nothing, and can cause visions
+to float before the eyes of men. For know that such things as you saw,
+I saw, and in them those whom I have loved also seemed to take no
+thought of me but only to be concerned with each other. Moreover when I
+awoke and told this to the queen who is called She-who-commands, she
+laughed at me as she did at you, and said that it was a good lesson for
+my pride who in that pride had believed that the dead only thought of
+the living. But I think that the lesson came from her who wished to
+humble us, Umslopogaas, and that it was her mind that shaped these
+visions which we saw.”
+
+“I think so too, Macumazahn, but how she knew of all the matters of
+your life and mine, I do not know, unless perchance Zikali told them to
+her, speaking in the night-watches as wizards can.”
+
+“Nay, Umslopogaas, I believe that by her magic she drew our stories out
+of our own hearts and then set them forth to us afresh, putting her own
+colour on them. Also it may be that she drew something from Hans, and
+from Goroko and the other Zulus with you, and thus paid us the fee that
+she had promised for our service, but in lung-sick oxen and barren
+cows, not in good cattle, Umslopogaas.”
+
+He nodded and said,
+
+“Though at the time I seemed to go mad and though I know that women are
+false and men must follow where they lead them, never will I believe
+that my brother, the woman-hater, and Nada are lovers in the land below
+and have there forgotten me, the comrade of one of them and the husband
+of the other. Moreover I hold, Macumazahn, that you and I have met with
+a just reward for our folly.
+
+“We have sought to look through the bottom of the grave at things which
+the Great-Great in Heaven above did not mean that men should see, and
+now that we have seen we are unhappier than we were, since such dreams
+burn themselves upon the heart as a red-hot iron burns the hide of an
+ox, so that the hair will never grow again where it has been and the
+hide is marred.
+
+“To you, Watcher-by-Night, I say, ‘Content yourself with your watching
+and whatever it may bring to you in fame and wealth.’ And to myself I
+say, ‘Holder of the Axe, content yourself with the axe and what it may
+bring to you in fair fight and glory’; and to both of us I say, ‘Let
+the Dead sleep unawakened until we go to join them, which surely will
+be soon enough.’”
+
+“Good words, Umslopogaas, but they should have been spoken ere ever we
+set out on this journey.”
+
+“Not so, Macumazahn, since that journey we were fated to make to save
+one who lies yonder, the Lady Sad-Eyes, and, as they tell me, is well
+again. Also Zikali willed it, and who can resist the will of the
+Opener-of-Roads? So it is made and we have seen many strange things and
+won some glory and come to know how deep is the pool of our own
+foolishness, who thought that we could search out the secrets of Death,
+and there have only found those of a witch’s mind and venom, reflected
+as in water. And now having discovered all these things I wish to be
+gone from this haunted land. When do we march, Macumazahn?”
+
+“To-morrow morning, I believe, if the Lady Sad-Eyes and the others are
+well enough, as She-who-commands says they will be.”
+
+“Good. Then I would sleep who am more weary than I was after I had
+killed Rezu in the battle on the mountain.”
+
+“Yes,” I answered, “since it is harder to fight ghosts than men, and
+dreams, if they be bad, are more dreadful than deeds. Good-night,
+Umslopogaas.”
+
+He went, and I too went to see how it fared with Inez. I found that she
+was fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which
+Ayesha seemed to have plunged her. Now it was absolutely natural and
+looking at her lying there upon the bed, I thought how young and
+healthy was her appearance. The women in charge of her also told me
+that she had awakened at the hour appointed by She-who-commands, as it
+seemed, quite well and very hungry, although she appeared to be puzzled
+by her surroundings. After she had eaten, they added that she had “sung
+a song,” which was probably a hymn, and prayed upon her knees, “making
+signs upon her breast” and then gone quietly to bed.
+
+My anxiety relieved as regards Inez, I returned to my own quarters. Not
+feeling inclined for slumber, however, instead of turning in I sat at
+the doorway contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the
+countless fireflies that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning
+gold; also the great owls and other fowl that haunt the dark. These had
+come out in numbers from their hiding-places among the ruins and sailed
+to and fro like white-winged spirits, now seen and now lost in the
+gloom.
+
+While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary
+nature of my experiences during the past few days. Had any man ever
+known the like, I wondered? What could they mean and what could this
+marvellous woman Ayesha be? Was she perhaps a personification of Nature
+itself, as indeed to some extent all women are? Was she human at all,
+or was she some spirit symbolising a departed people, faith and
+civilisation, and haunting the ruins where once she reigned as queen?
+No, the idea was ridiculous, since such beings do not exist, though it
+was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of
+common humanity, as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than
+are given to any other woman.
+
+Of one thing I was certain, however, that the Shades I had seemed to
+visit had their being in the circle of her own imagination and
+intelligence. There Umslopogaas was right; we had seen no dead, we had
+only seen pictures and images that she drew and fashioned.
+
+Why did she do this, I wondered. Perhaps to pretend to powers which she
+did not possess, perhaps out of sheer elfish mischief, or perhaps, as
+she asserted, just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own
+sight. Well, if so she had succeeded, for never did I feel so crushed
+and humiliated as at that moment.
+
+I had seemed to descend, or ascend, into Hades, and there had only seen
+things that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds.
+Then, on awaking, I had been bewitched; yes, fresh from those visions
+of the most dear dead, I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic
+of this woman’s loveliness and charm, and made a fool of myself, only
+to be brought back to my senses by her triumphant mockery. Oh, I was
+humbled indeed, and yet the odd thing is that I could not feel angry
+with her, and what is more that, perhaps from vanity, I believed in her
+profession of friendship towards myself.
+
+Well, the upshot of it was that, like Umslopogaas, more than anything
+else in the world did I desire to depart from this haunted Kôr and to
+bury all its recollections in such activities as fortune might bring to
+me. And yet, and yet it was well to have seen it and to have plucked
+the flower of such marvellous experience, nor, as I knew even then,
+could I ever inter the memory of Ayesha the wise, the perfect in all
+loveliness, and the half-divine in power.
+
+When I awoke the next morning the sun was well up and after I had taken
+a swim in the old bath and dressed myself, I went to see how it fared
+with Inez. I found her sitting at the door of her house looking
+extremely well and with a radiant face. She was engaged in making a
+chain of some small and beautiful blue flowers of the iris tribe, of
+which quantities grew about, that she threaded together upon stalks of
+dry grass.
+
+This chain, which was just finished, she threw over her head so that it
+hung down upon her white robe, for now she was dressed like an Arab
+woman though without the veil. I watched her unseen for a little while
+then came forward and spoke to her. She started at the sight of me and
+rose as though to run away; then, apparently reassured by my
+appearance, selected a particularly fine flower and offered it to me.
+
+I saw at once that she did not know me in the least and thought that
+she had never seen me before, in short, that her mind had gone, exactly
+as Ayesha had said that it would do. By way of making conversation I
+asked her if she felt well. She replied, Oh, yes, she had never felt
+better, then added,
+
+“Daddy has gone on a long journey and will not be back for weeks and
+weeks.”
+
+An idea came to me and I answered,
+
+“Yes, Inez, but I am a friend of his and he has sent me to take you to
+a place where I hope that we shall find him. Only it is far away, so
+you also must make a long journey.”
+
+She clapped her hands and answered,
+
+“Oh, that will be nice, I do so love travelling, especially to find
+Daddy, who I expect will have my proper clothes with him, not these
+which, although they are very comfortable and pretty, seem different to
+what I used to wear. You look very nice too and I am sure that we shall
+be great friends, which I am glad of, for I have been rather lonely
+since my mother went to live with the saints in Heaven, because, you
+see, Daddy is so busy and so often away, that I do not see much of
+him.”
+
+Upon my word I could have wept when I heard her prattle on thus. It is
+so terribly unnatural, almost dreadful indeed, to listen to a full
+grown woman who talks in the accents and expresses the thoughts of a
+child. However, under all the circumstances I recognised that her
+calamity was merciful, and remembering that Ayesha had prophesied the
+recovery of her mind as well as its loss and how great seemed to be her
+powers in these directions, I took such comfort as I could.
+
+Leaving her I went to see the two Zulus who had been wounded and found
+to my joy that they were now quite well and fit to travel, for here,
+too, Ayesha’s prophecy had proved good. The other men also were
+completely rested and anxious to be gone like Umslopogaas and myself.
+
+While I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Billali,
+who with a sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we
+should be ready to start, as he had received orders to see to all the
+necessary arrangements. I replied—within an hour, and he departed in a
+hurry.
+
+But little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of
+litters and their bearers, also with a bodyguard of twenty-five picked
+men, all of whom we recognised as brave fellows who had fought well in
+the battle. These men and the bearers old Billali harangued, telling
+them that they were to guide, carry and escort us to the other side of
+the great swamp, or further if we needed it, and that it was the word
+of She-who-commands that if so much as the smallest harm came to any
+one of us, even by accident, they should die every man of them “by the
+hot-pot,” whatever that might be, for I was not sure of the
+significance of this horror.[2] Then he asked them if they understood.
+They replied with fervour that they understood perfectly and would lead
+and guard us as though we were their own mothers.
+
+ [2] For this see the book called “She.”—Editor.
+
+As a matter of fact they did, and I think would have done so
+independently of Ayesha’s command, since they looked upon Umslopogaas
+and myself almost as gods and thought that we could destroy them all if
+we wished, as we had destroyed Rezu and his host.
+
+I asked Billali if he were not coming with us, to which he replied, No,
+as She-who-commands had returned to her own place and he must follow
+her at once. I asked him again where her own place might be, to which
+he answered vaguely that it was everywhere and he stared first at the
+heavens and then at the earth as though she inhabited most of them,
+adding that generally it was “in the Caves,” though what he meant by
+that I did not know. Then he said that he was very glad to have met us
+and that the sight of Umslopogaas killing Rezu was a spectacle that he
+would remember with pleasure all his life. Also he asked me for a
+present. I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little German
+silver case, with which he was delighted. Thus I parted with old
+Billali, of whom I shall always think with a certain affection.
+
+I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslopogaas,
+thinking, I suppose, that he might take a last opportunity to fulfil
+his threats and introduce him to his terrible Axe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE
+
+
+A little while later we started, some of us in litters, including the
+wounded Zulus, who I insisted should be carried for a day or two, and
+some on foot. Inez I caused to be borne immediately in front of myself
+so that I could keep an eye upon her. Moreover I put her in the
+especial charge of Hans, to whom fortunately she took a great fancy at
+once, perhaps because she remembered subconsciously that she knew him
+and that he had been kind to her, although when they met after her long
+sleep, as in my own case, she did not recognise him in the least.
+
+Soon, however, they were again the fastest of friends, so much so that
+within a day or two the little Hottentot practically filled the place
+of a maid to her, attending to her every want and looking after her
+exactly as a nurse does after a child, with the result that it was
+quite touching to see how she came to depend upon him, “her monkey,” as
+she called him, and how fond he grew of her.
+
+Once, indeed, there was trouble, since hearing a noise, I came up to
+find Hans bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the
+Zulus, who stupidly, or perhaps rudely, had knocked against the litter
+of Inez and nearly turned it over. For the rest, the Lady Sad-Eyes, as
+they called her, had for the time became the Lady Glad-Eyes, since she
+was merry as the day was long, laughing and singing and playing just as
+a healthy happy child should do.
+
+Only once did I see her wretched and weep. It was when a kitten which
+she had insisted on bringing with her, sprang out of the litter and
+vanished into some bush where it could not be found. Even when she was
+soon consoled and dried her tears, when Hans explained to her in a
+mixture of bad English and worse Portuguese, that it had only run away
+because it wished to get back to its mother which it loved, and that it
+was cruel to separate it from its mother.
+
+We made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over the
+crest of the cliff or volcano lip that encircles the great plain of
+Kôr, and descending rapidly to a sheltered spot on the outer slope
+where our camp was to be set for the night.
+
+Not very far from this place, as I think I have mentioned, stood, and I
+suppose still stands, a very curious pinnacle of rock, which, doubtless
+being of some harder sort, had remained when, hundreds of thousands or
+millions of years before, the surrounding lava had been washed or had
+corroded away. This rock pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and as
+smooth as though it had been worked by man; indeed, I remembered having
+remarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas—I forget which—when we passed it on
+our inward journey, that there was a column which no monkey could
+climb.
+
+As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappeared
+behind the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struck
+upon a storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in a
+glow of angry light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon
+the summit of this strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.
+
+At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas at
+the end of the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncoming
+darkness. When we had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards,
+something caused Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered an
+exclamation which made me follow his example, with the result that I
+saw a very wonderful thing. For there on the point of the pillar, like
+St. Simeon Stylites on his famous column, glowing in the sunset rays as
+though she were on fire, stood Ayesha herself!
+
+It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus between
+earth and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather than a
+woman, standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness; since the
+shadows, save for the faintest outline, had swallowed up the column
+that supported her. Moreover, in the intense, rich light that was
+focussed on her, we could see every detail of her form and face, for
+she was unveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which gazed
+upwards emptily (at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the
+little gold studs that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the
+snake girdle she wore about her waist.
+
+We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,
+
+“Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me that
+She-who-commands had departed from Kôr to her own place.”
+
+“Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,
+Macumazahn.”
+
+“If she be there,” I answered angrily, for my nerves were at once
+thrilled and torn. “Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where else
+can she be when we see her with our eyes?”
+
+“Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds,
+are able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rock
+like a lizard, Macumazahn?”
+
+“Doubtless——” and I began some explanation which I have forgotten, when
+a passing cloud, or I know not what, cut off the light so that both the
+pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible. A minute later it
+returned for a little while, and there was the point of the
+needle-shaped rock, but it was empty, as, save for the birds that
+rested on it, it had been since the beginning of the world.
+
+Then Umslopogaas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence.
+
+This was the last that I saw of the glorious Ayesha, if indeed I did
+see her and not her ghost. Yet it is true that for all the first part
+of the journey, till we were through the great swamp in fact, from time
+to time I was conscious, or imagined that I was conscious of her
+presence. Moreover, once others saw her, or someone who might have been
+her. It happened thus.
+
+We were in the centre of the great swamp and the trained guides who
+were leading came to a place where the path forked and were uncertain
+which road to take. Finally they fixed on the right-hand path and were
+preparing to follow it together with those who bore the litter of Inez,
+by the side of which Hans was walking as usual.
+
+At this moment, as Hans told me, the guides went down upon their faces
+and he saw standing in front of them a white-veiled form who pointed to
+the left-hand path, and then seemed to be lost in the mist. Without a
+word the guides rose and followed this left-hand path. Hans stopped the
+litter till I came up when he told me what had happened, while Inez
+also began to chatter in her childish fashion about a “White Lady.”
+
+I had the curiosity to walk a little way along the right-hand path
+which they were about to take. Only a few yards further on I found
+myself sinking in a floating quagmire, from which I extricated myself
+with much difficulty but just in time for as I discovered afterwards by
+probing with a pole, the water beneath the matted reeds was deep. That
+night I questioned the guides upon the subject, but without result, for
+they pretended to have seen nothing and not to understand what I meant.
+Of neither of these incidents have I any explanation to offer, except
+that once contracted, it is as difficult to be rid of the habit of
+hallucinations as of any other.
+
+It is not necessary that I should give all the details of our long
+homeward journey. So I will only say that having dismissed our bearers
+and escorts when we reached higher ground beyond the horrible swamp,
+keeping one litter for Inez in which the Zulus carried her when she was
+tired, we accomplished it in complete safety and having crossed the
+Zambesi, at last one evening reached the house called Strathmuir.
+
+Here we found the waggon and oxen quite safe and were welcomed
+rapturously by my Zulu driver and the _voorlooper_, who had made up
+their minds that we were dead and were thinking of trekking homewards.
+Here also Thomaso greeted us, though I think that, like the Zulus, he
+was astonished at our safe return and indeed not over-pleased to see
+us. I told him that Captain Robertson had been killed in a fight in
+which we had rescued his daughter from the cannibals who had carried
+her off (information which I cautioned him to keep to himself) but
+nothing else that I could help.
+
+Also I warned the Zulus through Umslopogaas and Goroko, that no mention
+was to be made of our adventures, either then or afterwards, since if
+this were done the curse of the White Queen would fall on them and
+bring them to disaster and death. I added that the name of this queen
+and everything that was connected with her, or her doings, must be
+locked up in their own hearts. It must be like the name of dead kings,
+not to be spoken. Nor indeed did they ever speak it or tell the story
+of our search, because they were too much afraid both of Ayesha whom
+they believed to be the greatest of all witches, and of the axe of
+their captain, Umslopogaas.
+
+Inez went to bed that night without seeming to recognise her old home,
+to all appearance just a mindless child as she had been ever since she
+awoke from her trance at Kôr. Next morning, however, Hans came to tell
+me that she was changed and that she wished to speak with me. I went,
+wondering, to find her in the sitting-room, dressed in European clothes
+which she had taken from where she kept them, and once more a reasoning
+woman.
+
+“Mr. Quatermain,” she said, “I suppose that I must have been ill, for
+the last thing I remember is going to sleep on the night after you
+started for the hippopotamus hunt. Where is my father? Did any harm
+come to him while he was hunting?”
+
+“Alas!” I answered, lying boldly, for I feared lest the truth should
+take away her mind again, “it did. He was trampled upon by a
+hippopotamus bull, which charged him, and killed, and we were obliged
+to bury him where he died.”
+
+She bowed her head for a while and muttered some prayer for his soul,
+then looked at me keenly and said,
+
+“I do not think you are telling me everything, Mr. Quatermain, but
+something seems to say that this is because it is not well that I
+should learn everything.”
+
+“No,” I answered, “you have been ill and out of your mind for quite a
+long while; something gave you a shock. I think that you learned of
+your father’s death, which you have now forgotten, and were overcome
+with the news. Please trust to me and believe that if I keep anything
+back from you, it is because I think it best to do so for the present.”
+
+“I trust and I believe,” she answered. “Now please leave me, but tell
+me first where are those women and their children?”
+
+“After your father died they went away,” I replied, lying once more.
+
+She looked at me again but made no comment.
+
+Then I left her.
+
+How much Inez ever learned of the true story of her adventures I do not
+know to this hour, though my opinion is that it was but little. To
+begin with, everyone, including Thomaso, was threatened with the direst
+consequences if he said a word to her on the subject; moreover in her
+way she was a wise woman, one who knew when it was best not to ask
+questions. She was aware that she had suffered from a fit of aberration
+or madness and that during this time her father had died and certain
+peculiar things had happened. There she was content to leave the
+business and she never again spoke to me upon the subject. Of this I
+was very glad, as how on earth could I have explained to her about
+Ayesha’s prophecies as to her lapse into childishness and subsequent
+return to a normal state when she reached her home seeing that I did
+not understand them myself?
+
+Once indeed she did inquire what had become of Janee to which I
+answered that she had died during her sickness. It was another lie, at
+any rate by implication, but I hold that there are occasions when it is
+righteous to lie. At least these particular falsehoods have never
+troubled my conscience.
+
+Here I may as well finish the story of Inez, that is, as far as I can.
+As I have shown she was always a woman of melancholy and religious
+temperament, qualities that seemed to grow upon her after her return to
+health. Certainly the religion did, for continually she was engaged in
+prayer, a development with which heredity may have had something to do,
+since after he became a reformed character and grew unsettled in his
+mind, her father followed the same road.
+
+On our return to civilisation, as it chanced, one of the first persons
+with whom she came in contact was a very earnest and excellent old
+priest of her own faith. The end of this intimacy was much what might
+have been expected. Very soon Inez determined to renounce the world,
+which I think never had any great attractions for her, and entered a
+sisterhood of an extremely strict Order in Natal, where, added to her
+many merits, her considerable possessions made her very welcome indeed.
+
+Once in after years I saw her again when she expected before long to
+become the Mother-Superior of her convent. I found her very cheerful
+and she told me that her happiness was complete. Even then she did not
+ask me the true story of what had happened to her during that period
+when her mind was a blank. She said that she knew something had
+happened but that as she no longer felt any curiosity about earthly
+things, she did not wish to know the details. Again I rejoiced, for how
+could I tell the true tale and expect to be believed, even by the most
+confiding and simple-minded nun?
+
+To return to more immediate events. When we had been at Strathmuir for
+a day or two and I thought that her mind was clear enough to judge of
+affairs, I told Inez that I must journey on to Natal, and asked her
+what she wished to do. Without a moment’s hesitation she replied that
+she desired to come with me, as now that her father was dead nothing
+would induce her to continue to live at Strathmuir without friends, or
+indeed the consolations of religion.
+
+Then she showed me a secret hiding-place cunningly devised in a sort of
+cellar under the sitting-room floor, where her father was accustomed to
+keep the spirits of which he consumed so great a quantity. In this hole
+beneath some bricks, we discovered a large sum in gold stored away,
+which Robertson had always told his daughter she would find there, in
+the event of anything happening to him. With the money were his will
+and securities, also certain mementos of his youth and some
+love-letters together with a prayer-book that his mother had given him.
+
+These valuables, of which no one knew the existence except herself, we
+removed and then made our preparations for departure. They were simple;
+such articles of value as we could carry were packed into the waggon
+and the best of the cattle we drove with us. The place with the store
+and the rest of the stock were handed over to Thomaso on a half-profit
+agreement under arrangement that he should remit the share of Inez
+twice a year to a bank on the coast, where her father had an account.
+Whether or not he ever did this I am unable to say, but as no one
+wished to stop at Strathmuir, I could conceive no better plan because
+purchasers of property in that district did not exist.
+
+As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Inez whether she was sorry
+to leave the place.
+
+“No,” she replied with energy, “my life there has been a hell and I
+never wish to see it again.”
+
+Now it was after this, on the northern borders of Zululand, that
+Zikali’s Great Medicine, as Hans called it, really played its chief
+part, for without it I think that we should have been killed, every one
+of us. I do not propose to set out the business in detail; it is too
+long and intricate. Suffice it to say, therefore, that it had to do
+with the plots of Umslopogaas against Cetywayo, which had been betrayed
+by his wife Monazi and her lover Lousta, both of whom I have mentioned
+earlier in this record. The result was that a watch for him was kept on
+all the frontiers, because it was guessed that sooner or later he would
+return to Zululand; also it had become known that he was travelling in
+my company.
+
+So it came about that when my approach was reported by spies, a company
+was gathered under the command of a man connected with the Royal House,
+and by it we were surrounded. Before attacking, however, this captain
+sent men to me with the message that with me the King had no quarrel,
+although I was travelling in doubtful company, and that if I would
+deliver over to him Umslopogaas, Chief of the People of the Axe, and
+his followers, I might go whither I wished unharmed, taking my goods
+with me. Otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed every one
+of us, since it was not desired that any witnesses should be left of
+what happened to Umslopogaas. Having delivered this ultimatum and
+declined any argument as to its terms, the messengers retired, saying
+that they would return for my answer within half an hour.
+
+When they were out of hearing Umslopogaas, who had listened to their
+words in grim silence, turned and spoke in such fashion as might have
+been expected of him.
+
+“Macumazahn,” he said, “now I come to the end of an unlucky journey,
+though mayhap it is not so evil as it seems, since I who went out to
+seek the dead but to be filled by yonder White Witch with the meat of
+mocking shadows, am about to find the dead in the only way in which
+they can be found, namely by becoming of their number.”
+
+“It seems that this is the case with all of us, Umslopogaas.”
+
+“Not so, Macumazahn. That child of the King will give you safe-conduct.
+It is I and mine whose blood he seeks, as he has the right to do, since
+it is true that I would have raised rebellion against the King, I who
+wearied of my petty lot and knew that by blood his place was mine. In
+this quarrel you have no share, though you, whose heart is as white as
+your skin, are not minded to desert me. Moreover, even if you wished to
+fight, there is one in the waggon yonder whose life is not yours to
+give. The Lady Sad-Eyes is as a child in your arms and her you must
+bear to safety.”
+
+Now this argument was so unanswerable that I did not know what to say.
+So I only asked what he meant to do, as escape was impossible, seeing
+that we were surrounded on every side.
+
+“Make a glorious end, Macumazahn,” he said with a smile. “I will go out
+with those who cling to me, that is with all who remain of my men,
+since my fate must be theirs, and stand back to back on yonder mound
+and there wait till these dogs of the King come up against us. Watch a
+while, Macumazahn, and see how Umslopogaas, Bearer of the Axe, and the
+warriors of the Axe can fight and die.”
+
+Now I was silent for I knew not what to say. There we all stood silent,
+while minute by minute I watched the shadow creeping forward towards a
+mark that the head messenger had made with his spear upon the ground,
+for he had said that when it touched that mark he would return for his
+answer.
+
+In this rather dreadful silence I heard a dry little cough, which I
+knew came from the throat of Hans, and to be his method of indicating
+that he had a remark to make.
+
+“What is it?” I asked with irritation, for it was annoying to see him
+seated there on the ground fanning himself with the remains of a hat
+and staring vacantly at the sky.
+
+“Nothing, Baas, or rather, only this, Baas: Those hyenas of Zulus are
+even more afraid of the Great Medicine than were the cannibals up
+north, since the maker of it is nearer to them, Baas. You remember,
+Baas, they knelt to it, as it were, when we were going out of
+Zululand.”
+
+“Well, what of it, now that we are going into Zululand?” I inquired
+sharply. “Do you want me to show it to them?”
+
+“No, Baas. What is the use, seeing that they are ready to let you pass,
+also the Lady Sad-Eyes, and me and the cattle with the driver and
+_voorlooper_, which is better still, and all the other goods. So what
+have you to gain by showing them the medicine? But perchance if it were
+on the neck of Umslopogaas and _he_ showed it to them and brought it to
+their minds that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Zikali’s
+Great Medicine, or aught that is his, die within three moons in this
+way or in that—well, Baas, who knows?” and again he coughed drily and
+stared up at the sky.
+
+I translated what Hans had said in Dutch to Umslopogaas, who remarked
+indifferently,
+
+“This little yellow man is well named Light-in-Darkness; at least the
+plan can be tried—if it fails there is always time to die.”
+
+So thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so,
+for the first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so
+long, and Umslopogaas put it over his head and hid it beneath his
+blanket.
+
+A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain
+himself came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightly
+and once we had dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chat
+he turned to the matter of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at some
+length. I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a
+_very_ awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearer
+of the Great Medicine of Zikali itself. When the captain heard this his
+eyes almost started out of his head.
+
+“The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!” he exclaimed. “Oh, now I
+understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe is
+unconquerable—such a wizard that no one is able to kill him.”
+
+“Yes,” I replied, “and you remember, do you not, that he who offends
+the Great Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies
+horribly within three moons, he and his household and all those with
+him?”
+
+“I have heard it,” he said with a sickly smile.
+
+“And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true,” I added
+cheerfully.
+
+Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.
+
+I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was that
+Umslopogaas came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss a
+single word, that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me, his
+friend, to be involved in any trouble, together with his men he had
+agreed to accompany this King’s captain to the royal kraal where he had
+been guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had been
+brought against him. He added that the King’s captain had sworn upon
+the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads to give him safe conduct and
+attempt no mischief against him which, as was well known throughout the
+land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished to
+continue to look upon the sun.
+
+I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loud
+voice. He replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas alive
+if he might. He was only to kill him if he would not come.
+
+Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of the
+waggon, I had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that
+the arrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with
+his people.
+
+“Be sure of this, Macumazahn,” he said, “that if I do not escape,
+neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,
+and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that
+thick head of his and make friends with the brain inside.
+
+“Macumazahn,” he added, “we have made a strange journey together and
+seen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I have
+fought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone
+was worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end as
+everything must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I do
+not think that I shall die on this journey with the captain, though I
+do think that others will die at the end of it,” he added grimly, a
+saying which at the time I did not understand.
+
+“It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches and
+wizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept into
+my bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the
+after-years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last,
+as I believe that the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives in
+Zikali’s Medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in
+words. I cannot say, but I pray that it is a true spirit, since
+although you are white and I am black and you are small and I am big,
+and you are gentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce and as open as the
+blade of my own axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as though we
+were born of the same mother and had been brought up in the same kraal.
+Now that captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I
+will return the Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he
+must send one of the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my
+bones.
+
+“Farewell to you also, Yellow Man,” he went on to Hans, who had
+appeared, hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome;
+“well are you named Light-in-Darkness, and glad am I to have met you,
+who have learned from you how a snake moves and strikes, and how a
+jackal thinks and avoids the snare. Yes, farewell, for the spirit
+within me does not tell me that you and I shall meet again.”
+
+Then he lifted the great axe, and gave me a formal salute, naming me
+“Chief and Father, Great Chief and Father, from of old” (_Baba! Koos y
+umcool! Koos y pagate!_), thereby acknowledging my superiority over
+him, a thing that he had never done before, and as he did, so did
+Goroko and the other Zulus, adding to their salute many titles of
+praise. In another minute he had gone with the King’s captain, to whose
+side I noted he clung lovingly, his long, thin fingers playing about
+the horn handle of the axe that was named _Inkosikaas_ and Groan-maker.
+
+“I am glad we have seen the last of him and his axe, Baas,” remarked
+Hans, spitting reflectively. “It is very well to sleep in the same hut
+with a tame lion sometimes, but after you have done so for many moons,
+you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pulling
+the blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws. Yes, I am
+very glad that this half-tame lion is gone, since sometimes I have
+thought that I should be obliged to poison it that we might sleep in
+peace. You know he called me a snake, Baas, and poison is a snake’s
+only spear. Shall I tell the boys to inspan the oxen, Baas? I think the
+further we get from that King’s captain and his men, the more
+comfortably shall we travel, especially now when we no longer have the
+Great Medicine to protect us.”
+
+“You suggested giving it to him, Hans,” I said.
+
+“Yes, Baas, I had rather that Umslopogaas went away with the Great
+Medicine, than that you kept the Great Medicine and he stopped with us
+here. Never travel with a traitor, Baas, at any rate in the land of the
+king whom he wishes to kill. Kings are very selfish people, Baas, and
+do not like being killed, especially by someone who wants to sit upon
+their stool and to take the royal salute. No one gives the royal salute
+to a dead king, Baas, however great he was before he died, and no one
+thinks the worse of a king who was a traitor before he became a king.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE
+
+
+Once more I sat in the Black Kloof face to face with old Zikali.
+
+“So you have got back safely, Macumazahn,” he said. “Well, I told you
+you would, did I not? As for what happened to you upon the journey, let
+it be, for now that I am old long stories tire me and I daresay that
+there is nothing wonderful about this one. Where is the charm I lent
+you? Give it back now that it has served its turn.”
+
+“I have not got it, Zikali. I passed it on to Umslopogaas of the Axe to
+save his life from the King’s men.”
+
+“Oh! yes, so you did. I had forgotten. Here it is,” and opening his
+robe of fur, he showed me the hideous little talisman hanging about his
+neck, then added, “Would you like a copy of it, Macumazahn, to keep as
+a memory? If so, I will carve one for you.”
+
+“No,” I answered, “I should not. Has Umslopogaas been here?”
+
+“Yes, he has been and gone again, which is one of the reasons why I do
+not wish to hear your tale a second time.”
+
+“Where to? The Town of the People of the Axe?”
+
+“No, Macumazahn, he came thence, or so I understood, but thither he
+will return no more.”
+
+“Why not, Zikali?”
+
+“Because after his fashion he made trouble there and left some dead
+behind him; one Lousta, I believe, whom he had appointed to sit on his
+stool as chief while he was away, and a woman called Monazi, who was
+his wife, or Lousta’s wife, or the wife of both of them, I forget
+which. It is said that having heard stories of her—and the ears of
+jealousy are long, Macumazahn—he cut off this woman’s head with a sweep
+of the axe and made Lousta fight him till he fell, which the fool did
+almost before he had lifted his shield. It served him right who should
+have made sure that Umslopogaas was dead before he wrapped himself in
+his blanket and took the woman to cook his porridge.”
+
+“Where has the Axe-bearer gone?” I asked without surprise, for this
+news did not astonish me.
+
+“I neither know nor care, Macumazahn. To become a wanderer, I suppose.
+He will tell you the tale when you meet again in the after-days, as I
+understand he thinks that you will do.[1] Hearken! I have done with
+this lion’s whelp, who is Chaka over again, but without Chaka’s wit.
+Yes, he is just a fighting man with a long reach, a sure eye and the
+trick of handling an axe, and such are of little use to me who know too
+many of them. Thrice have I tried to make him till my garden, but each
+time he has broken the hoe, although the wage I promised him was a
+royal _kaross_ and nothing less. So enough of Umslopogaas, the
+Woodpecker. Almost I wish that you had not lent him the charm, for then
+the King’s men would have made an end of him, who knows too much and
+like some silly boaster, may shout out the truth when his axe is aloft
+and he is full of the beer of battle. For in battle he will live and in
+battle he will die, Macumazahn, as perhaps you may see one day.”
+
+ [1] For the tale of this meeting see the book called “Allan
+ Quatermain.”—Editor.
+
+“The fate of your friends does not trouble you over much,
+Opener-of-Roads,” I said with sarcasm.
+
+“Not at all, Macumazahn, because I have none. The only friends of the
+old are those whom they can turn to their own ends, and if these fail
+them they find others.”
+
+“I understand, Zikali, and know now what to expect from you.”
+
+He laughed in his strange way and answered,
+
+“Aye, and it is good that you must expect, good in the future as in the
+past, for _you_, Macumazahn, who are brave in your own fashion, without
+being a fool like Umslopogaas, and, although you know it not, like some
+master-smith, forge my assegais out of the red ore I give you,
+tempering them in the blood of men, and yet keep your mind innocent and
+your hands clean. Friends like you are useful to such as I, Macumazahn,
+and must be well paid in those wares that please them.”
+
+The old wizard brooded for a space, while I reflected upon his amazing
+cynicism, which interested me in a way, for the extreme of unmorality
+is as fascinating to study as the extreme of virtue and often more so.
+Then jerking up his great head, he asked suddenly,
+
+“What message had the White Queen for me?”
+
+“She said that you troubled her too much at night in dreams, Zikali.”
+
+“Aye, but if I cease to do so, ever she desires to know the reason why,
+for I hear her asking me in the voices of the wind, or in the
+twittering of bats. After all, she is a woman, Macumazahn, and it must
+be dull sitting alone from year to year with naught to stay her
+appetite save the ashes of the past and dreams of the future, so dull
+that I wonder, having once meshed you in her web, how she found the
+heart to let you go before she had sucked out your life and spirit. I
+suppose that having made a mock of you and drained you dry, she was
+content to throw you aside like an empty gourd. Perchance, had she kept
+you at her side, you would have been a stone in her path in days to
+come. Perchance, Macumazahn, she waits for other travellers and would
+welcome them, or one of them alone, saying nothing of a certain
+Watcher-by-Night who has served her turn and vanished into the night.
+
+“But what other message had the White Queen for the poor old savage
+witch-doctor whose talk wearies her so much in her haunted sleep?”
+
+Then I told him of the picture that Ayesha had shown me in the water;
+the picture of a king dying in a hut and of two who watched his end.
+
+Zikali listened intently to every word, then broke into a peal of his
+unholy laughter.
+
+“_Oho-ho!_” he laughed, “so all goes well, though the road be long,
+since whatever this White One may have shown you in the fire of the
+heavens above, she could show you nothing but truth in the water of the
+earth below, for that is the law of our company of seers. You have
+worked well for me, Macumazahn, and you have had your fee, the fee of
+the vision of the dead which you desired above all mortal things.”
+
+“Aye,” I answered indignantly, “a fee of bitter fruits whereof the
+juice burns and twists the mouth and the stones still stick fast within
+the gizzard. I tell you, Zikali, that she stuffed my heart with lies.”
+
+“I daresay, Macumazahn, I daresay, but they were very pretty lies, were
+they not? And after all I am sure that there was wisdom in them, as you
+will discover when you have thought them over for a score of years.
+
+“Lies, lies, all is lies! But beyond the lie stands Truth, as the White
+Witch stands behind her veil. You drew the veil, Macumazahn, and saw
+that beneath which brought you to your knees. Why, it is a parable.
+Wander on through the Valley of Lies till at last it takes a turn, and,
+glittering in the sunshine, glittering like gold, you perceive the
+Mountain of everlasting Truth, sought of all men but found by few.
+
+“Lies, lies, all is lies! Yet beyond I tell you, beauteous and eternal
+stands the Truth, Macumazahn. _Oho-ho! Oho-ho!_ Fare you well,
+Watcher-by-Night, fare you well, Seeker after Truth. After the Night
+comes Dawn and after Death comes what—Macumazahn? Well, you will learn
+one day, for always the veil is lifted, at last, as the White Witch
+shewed you yonder, Macumazahn.”
+
+
+
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: She and Allan</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 22, 2002 [eBook #5745]<br />
+[Most recently updated: January 23, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: John Bickers; Dagny; David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHE AND ALLAN ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:55%;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>She and Allan</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by H. Rider Haggard</h2>
+
+<h4>First Published 1921.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#pref01">NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap00">SHE AND ALLAN</a><br /><br /></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. THE TALISMAN</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. THE MESSENGERS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. THE LION AND THE AXE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. INEZ</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. THE SEA-COW HUNT</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. THE OATH</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. PURSUIT</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. THE SWAMP</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. THE ATTACK</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE WHITE WITCH</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. ROBERTSON IS LOST</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. ALLAN&rsquo;S VISION</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII. THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII. THE SLAYING OF REZU</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX. THE SPELL</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX. THE GATE OF DEATH</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI. THE LESSON</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII. AYESHA&rsquo;S FAREWELL</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII. WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV. UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV. ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="pref01"></a>NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN</h2>
+
+<p>
+My friend, into whose hands I hope that all these manuscripts of mine will pass
+one day, of this one I have something to say to you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long while ago I jotted down in it the history of the events that it details
+with more or less completeness. This I did for my own satisfaction. You will
+have noted how memory fails us as we advance in years; we recollect, with an
+almost painful exactitude, what we experienced and saw in our youth, but the
+happenings of our middle life slip away from us or become blurred, like a
+stretch of low-lying landscape overflowed by grey and nebulous mist. Far off
+the sun still seems to shine upon the plains and hills of adolescence and early
+manhood, as yet it shines about us in the fleeting hours of our age, that
+ground on which we stand to-day, but the valley between is filled with fog.
+Yes, even its prominences, which symbolise the more startling events of that
+past, often are lost in this confusing fog.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an appreciation of these truths which led me to set down the following
+details (though of course much is omitted) of my brief intercourse with the
+strange and splendid creature whom I knew under the names of <i>Ayesha</i>, or
+<i>Híya</i>, or <i>She-who-commands</i>; not indeed with any view to their
+publication, but before I forgot them that, if I wished to do so, I might
+re-peruse them in the evening of old age to which I hope to attain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed, at the time the last thing I intended was that they should be given to
+the world even after my own death, because they, or many of them, are so
+unusual that I feared lest they should cause smiles and in a way cast a slur
+upon my memory and truthfulness. Also, as you will read, as to this matter I
+made a promise and I have always tried to keep my promises and to guard the
+secrets of others. For these reasons I proposed, in case I neglected or forgot
+to destroy them myself, to leave a direction that this should be done by my
+executors. Further, I have been careful to make no allusion <i>whatever</i> to
+them either in casual conversation or in anything else that I may have written,
+my desire being that this page of my life should be kept quite private,
+something known only to myself. Therefore, too, I never so much as hinted of
+them to anyone, not even to yourself to whom I have told so much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, I recorded the main facts concerning this expedition and its issues,
+simply and with as much exactness as I could, and laid them aside. I do not say
+that I never thought of them again, since amongst them were some which,
+together with the problems they suggested, proved to be of an unforgettable
+nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also, whenever any of Ayesha&rsquo;s sayings or stories which are not preserved
+in these pages came back to me, as has happened from time to time, I jotted
+them down and put them away with this manuscript. Thus among these notes you
+will find a history of the city of Kôr as she told it to me, which I have
+omitted here. Still, many of these remarkable events did more or less fade from
+my mind, as the image does from an unfixed photograph, till only their outlines
+remained, faint if distinguishable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To tell the truth, I was rather ashamed of the whole story in which I cut so
+poor a figure. On reflection it was obvious to me, although honesty had
+compelled me to set out all that is essential exactly as it occurred, adding
+nothing and taking nothing away, that I had been the victim of very gross
+deceit. This strange woman, whom I had met in the ruins of a place called Kôr,
+without any doubt had thrown a glamour over my senses and at the moment almost
+caused me to believe much that is quite unbelievable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For instance, she had told me ridiculous stories as to interviews between
+herself and certain heathen goddesses, though it is true that, almost with her
+next breath, these she qualified or contradicted. Also, she had suggested that
+her life had been prolonged far beyond our mortal span, for hundreds and
+hundreds of years, indeed; which, as Euclid says, is absurd, and had pretended
+to supernatural powers, which is still more absurd. Moreover, by a clever use
+of some hypnotic or mesmeric power, she had feigned to transport me to some
+place beyond the earth and in the Halls of Hades to show me what is veiled from
+the eyes of man, and not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi, commonly
+called Umslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot, was my companion
+upon that adventure. There were like things equally incredible, such as her
+appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle with the troll-like Rezu. To
+omit these, the sum of it was that I had been shamefully duped, and if anyone
+finds himself in that position, as most people have at one time or another in
+their lives, Wisdom suggests that he had better keep the circumstances to
+himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, so the matter stood, or rather lay in the recesses of my mind&mdash;and
+in the cupboard where I hide my papers&mdash;when one evening someone, as a
+matter of fact it was Captain Good, an individual of romantic tendencies who is
+fond, sometimes I think too fond, of fiction, brought a book to this house
+which he insisted over and over again really I must peruse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ascertaining that it was a novel I declined, for to tell the truth I am not
+fond of romance in any shape, being a person who has found the hard facts of
+life of sufficient interest as they stand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reading I admit I like, but in this matter, as in everything else, my range is
+limited. I study the Bible, especially the Old Testament, both because of its
+sacred lessons and of the majesty of the language of its inspired translators;
+whereof that of Ayesha, which I render so poorly from her flowing and melodious
+Arabic, reminded me. For poetry I turn to Shakespeare, and, at the other end of
+the scale, to the Ingoldsby Legends, many of which I know almost by heart,
+while for current affairs I content myself with the newspapers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest I peruse anything to do with ancient Egypt that I happen to come
+across, because this land and its history have a queer fascination for me, that
+perhaps has its roots in occurrences or dreams of which this is not the place
+to speak. Lastly now and again I read one of the Latin or Greek authors in a
+translation, since I regret to say that my lack of education does not enable me
+to do so in the original. But for modern fiction I have no taste, although from
+time to time I sample it in a railway train and occasionally am amused by such
+excursions into the poetic and unreal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came about that the more Good bothered me to read this particular
+romance, the more I determined that I would do nothing of the sort. Being a
+persistent person, however, when he went away about ten o&rsquo;clock at night,
+he deposited it by my side, under my nose indeed, so that it might not be
+overlooked. Thus it came about that I could not help seeing some Egyptian
+hieroglyphics in an oval on the cover, also the title, and underneath it your
+own name, my friend, all of which excited my curiosity, especially the title,
+which was brief and enigmatic, consisting indeed of one word,
+&ldquo;<i>She</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took up the work and on opening it the first thing my eye fell upon was a
+picture of a veiled woman, the sight of which made my heart stand still, so
+painfully did it remind me of a certain veiled woman whom once it had been my
+fortune to meet. Glancing from it to the printed page one word seemed to leap
+at me. It was <i>Kôr</i>! Now of veiled women there are plenty in the world,
+but were there also two Kôrs?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I turned to the beginning and began to read. This happened in the autumn
+when the sun does not rise till about six, but it was broad daylight before I
+ceased from reading, or rather rushing through that book.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! what was I to make of it? For here in its pages (to say nothing of old
+Billali, who, by the way lied, probably to order, when he told Mr. Holly that
+no white man had visited his country for many generations, and those gloomy,
+man-eating Amahagger scoundrels) once again I found myself face to face with
+<i>She-who-commands</i>, now rendered as <i>She-who-must-be-obeyed</i>, which
+means much the same thing&mdash;in her case at least; yes, with Ayesha the
+lovely, the mystic, the changeful and the imperious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover the history filled up many gaps in my own limited experiences of that
+enigmatical being who was half divine (though, I think, rather wicked or at any
+rate unmoral in her way) and yet all woman. It is true that it showed her in
+lights very different from and higher than those in which she had presented
+herself to me. Yet the substratum of her character was the same, or rather of
+her characters, for of these she seemed to have several in a single body,
+being, as she said of herself to me, &ldquo;not One but Many and not Here but
+Everywhere.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further, I found the story of Kallikrates, which I had set down as a mere
+falsehood invented for my bewilderment, expanded and explained. Or rather not
+explained, since, perhaps that she might deceive, to me she had spoken of this
+murdered Kallikrates without enthusiasm, as a handsome person to whom, because
+of an indiscretion of her youth, she was bound by destiny and whose
+return&mdash;somewhat to her sorrow&mdash;she must wait. At least she did so at
+first, though in the end when she bared her heart at the moment of our
+farewell, she vowed she loved him only and was &ldquo;appointed&rdquo; to him
+&ldquo;by a divine decree.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also I found other things of which I knew nothing, such as the Fire of Life
+with its fatal gift of indefinite existence, although I remember that like the
+giant Rezu whom Umslopogaas defeated, she did talk of a &ldquo;Cup of
+Life&rdquo; of which she had drunk, that might have been offered to my lips,
+had I been politic, bowed the knee and shown more faith in her and her
+supernatural pretensions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lastly I saw the story of her end, and as I read it I wept, yes, I confess I
+wept, although I feel sure that she will return again. Now I understood why she
+had quailed and even seemed to shrivel when, in my last interview with her,
+stung beyond endurance by her witcheries and sarcasms, I had suggested that
+even for her with all her powers, Fate might reserve one of its shrewdest
+blows. Some prescience had told her that if the words seemed random, Truth
+spoke through my lips, although, and this was the worst of it, she did not know
+what weapon would deal the stroke or when and where it was doomed to fall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was amazed, I was overcome, but as I closed that book I made up my mind,
+first that I would continue to preserve absolute silence as to Ayesha and my
+dealings with her, as, during my life, I was bound by oath to do, and secondly
+that I would <i>not</i> cause my manuscript to be destroyed. I did not feel
+that I had any right to do so in view of what already had been published to the
+world. There let it lie to appear one day, or not to appear, as might be fated.
+Meanwhile my lips were sealed. I would give Good back his book without comment
+and&mdash;buy another copy!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One more word. It is clear that I did not touch more than the fringe of the
+real Ayesha. In a thousand ways she bewitched and deceived me so that I never
+plumbed her nature&rsquo;s depths. Perhaps this was my own fault because from
+the first I shewed a lack of faith in her and she wished to pay me back in her
+own fashion, or perhaps she had other private reasons for her secrecy.
+Certainly the character she discovered to me differed in many ways from that
+which she revealed to Mr. Holly and to Leo Vincey, or Kallikrates, whom, it
+seems, once she slew in her jealousy and rage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She told me as much as she thought it fit that I should know, and no more!
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+Allan Quatermain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Grange, Yorkshire.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap00"></a>SHE AND ALLAN</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+THE TALISMAN</h2>
+
+<p>
+I believe it was the old Egyptians, a very wise people, probably indeed much
+wiser than we know, for in the leisure of their ample centuries they had time
+to think out things, who declared that each individual personality is made up
+of six or seven different elements, although the Bible only allows us three,
+namely, body, soul, and spirit. The body that the man or woman wore, if I
+understand their theory aright which perhaps I, an ignorant person, do not, was
+but a kind of sack or fleshly covering containing these different principles.
+Or mayhap it did not contain them all, but was simply a house as it were, in
+which they lived from time to time and seldom all together, although one or
+more of them was present continually, as though to keep the place warmed and
+aired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is but a casual illustrative suggestion, for what right have I, Allan
+Quatermain, out of my little reading and probably erroneous deductions, to form
+any judgment as to the theories of the old Egyptians? Still these, as I
+understand them, suffice to furnish me with the text that man is not one, but
+many, in which connection it may be remembered that often in Scripture he is
+spoken of as being the home of many demons, seven, I think. Also, to come to
+another far-off example, the Zulus talk of their witch-doctors as being
+inhabited by &ldquo;a multitude of spirits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anyhow of one thing I am quite sure, we are not always the same. Different
+personalities actuate us at different times. In one hour passion of this sort
+or the other is our lord; in another we are reason itself. In one hour we
+follow the basest appetites; in another we hate them and the spirit arising
+through our mortal murk shines within or above us like a star. In one hour our
+desire is to kill and spare not; in another we are filled with the holiest
+compassion even towards an insect or a snake, and are ready to forgive like a
+god. Everything rules us in turn, to such an extent indeed, that sometimes one
+begins to wonder whether we really rule anything.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the reason of all this homily is that I, Allan, the most practical and
+unimaginative of persons, just a homely, half-educated hunter and trader who
+chances to have seen a good deal of the particular little world in which his
+lot was cast, at one period of my life became the victim of spiritual longings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am a man who has suffered great bereavements in my time such as have seared
+my soul, since, perhaps because of my rather primitive and simple nature, my
+affections are very strong. By day or night I can never forget those whom I
+have loved and whom I believe to have loved me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For you know, in our vanity some of us are apt to hold that certain people with
+whom we have been intimate upon the earth, really did care for us and, in our
+still greater vanity&mdash;or should it be called madness?&mdash;to imagine
+that they still care for us after they have left the earth and entered on some
+new state of society and surroundings which, if they exist, inferentially are
+much more congenial than any they can have experienced here. At times, however,
+cold doubts strike us as to this matter, of which we long to know the truth.
+Also behind looms a still blacker doubt, namely whether they live at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For some years of my lonely existence these problems haunted me day by day,
+till at length I desired above everything on earth to lay them at rest in one
+way or another. Once, at Durban, I met a man who was a spiritualist to whom I
+confided a little of my perplexities. He laughed at me and said that they could
+be settled with the greatest ease. All I had to do was to visit a certain local
+medium who for a fee of one guinea would tell me everything I wanted to know.
+Although I rather grudged the guinea, being more than usually hard up at the
+time, I called upon this person, but over the results of that visit, or rather
+the lack of them, I draw a veil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My queer and perhaps unwholesome longing, however, remained with me and would
+not be abated. I consulted a clergyman of my acquaintance, a good and
+spiritually-minded man, but he could only shrug his shoulders and refer me to
+the Bible, saying, quite rightly I doubt not, that with what it reveals I ought
+to be contented. Then I read certain mystical books which were recommended to
+me. These were full of fine words, undiscoverable in a pocket dictionary, but
+really took me no forwarder, since in them I found nothing that I could not
+have invented myself, although while I was actually studying them, they seemed
+to convince me. I even tackled Swedenborg, or rather samples of him, for he is
+very copious, but without satisfactory results. [Ha!&mdash;JB]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I gave up the business.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Some months later I was in Zululand and being near the Black Kloof where he
+dwelt, I paid a visit to my acquaintance of whom I have written elsewhere, the
+wonderful and ancient dwarf, Zikali, known as
+&ldquo;The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born,&rdquo; also more universally
+among the Zulus as &ldquo;Opener-of-Roads.&rdquo; When we had talked of many
+things connected with the state of Zululand and its politics, I rose to leave
+for my waggon, since I never cared for sleeping in the Black Kloof if it could
+be avoided.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there nothing else that you want to ask me, Macumazahn?&rdquo; asked
+the old dwarf, tossing back his long hair and looking at&mdash;I had almost
+written through&mdash;me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is strange, Macumazahn, for I seem to see something written on your
+mind&mdash;something to do with spirits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I remembered all the problems that had been troubling me, although in
+truth I had never thought of propounding them to Zikali.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! it comes back, does it?&rdquo; he exclaimed, reading my thought.
+&ldquo;Out with it, then, Macumazahn, while I am in a mood to answer, and
+before I grow tired, for you are an old friend of mine and will so remain till
+the end, many years hence, and if I can serve you, I will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I filled my pipe and sat down again upon the stool of carved red-wood which had
+been brought for me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are named &lsquo;Opener-of-Roads,&rsquo; are you not, Zikali?&rdquo;
+I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, the Zulus have always called me that, since before the days of
+Chaka. But what of names, which often enough mean nothing at all?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only that <i>I</i> want to open a road, Zikali, that which runs across
+the River of Death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho!&rdquo; he laughed, &ldquo;it is very easy,&rdquo; and snatching up
+a little assegai that lay beside him, he proffered it to me, adding, &ldquo;Be
+brave now and fall on that. Then before I have counted sixty the road will be
+wide open, but whether you will see anything on it I cannot tell you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I shook my head and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is against our law. Also while I still live I desire to know whether
+I shall meet certain others on that road after my time has come to cross the
+River. Perhaps you who deal with spirits, can prove the matter to me, which no
+one else seems able to do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho!&rdquo; laughed Zikali again. &ldquo;What do my ears hear? Am I, the
+poor Zulu cheat, as you will remember once you called me, Macumazahn, asked to
+show that which is hidden from all the wisdom of the great White People?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The question is,&rdquo; I answered with irritation, &ldquo;not what you
+are asked to do, but what you can do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I do not know yet, Macumazahn. Whose spirits do you desire to see?
+If that of a woman called Mameena is one of them, I think that perhaps I whom
+she loved&mdash;&mdash;&ldquo;<a href="#fn-1.1" name="fnref-1.1" id="fnref-1.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-1.1" id="fn-1.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1.1">[1]</a>
+For the history of Mameena see the book called &ldquo;Child of
+Storm.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She is <i>not</i> one of them, Zikali. Moreover, if she loved you, you
+paid back her love with death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Which perhaps was the kindest thing I could do, Macumazahn, for reasons
+that you may be able to guess, and others with which I will not trouble you.
+But if not hers, whose? Let me look, let me look! Why, there seems to be two of
+them, head-wives, I mean, and I thought that white men only took one wife. Also
+a multitude of others; their faces float up in the water of your mind. An old
+man with grey hair, little children, perhaps they were brothers and sisters,
+and some who may be friends. Also very clear indeed that Mameena whom you do
+not wish to see. Well, Macumazahn, this is unfortunate, since she is the only
+one whom I can show you, or rather put you in the way of finding. Unless indeed
+there are other Kaffir women&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean, Macumazahn, that only black feet travel on the road which I can
+open; over those in which ran white blood I have no power.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then it is finished,&rdquo; I said, rising again and taking a step or
+two towards the gate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come back and sit down, Macumazahn. I did not say so. Am I the only
+ruler of magic in Africa, which I am told is a big country?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I came back and sat down, for my curiosity, a great failing with me, was
+excited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you, Zikali,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;but I will have no dealings
+with more of your witch-doctors.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, because you are afraid of them; quite without reason,
+Macumazahn, seeing that they are all cheats except myself. I am the last child
+of wisdom, the rest are stuffed with lies, as Chaka found out when he killed
+every one of them whom he could catch. But perhaps there might be a white
+doctor who would have rule over white spirits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you mean missionaries&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; I began hastily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Macumazahn, I do not mean your praying men who are cast in one mould
+and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say, not thinking
+for themselves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Some of them think, Zikali.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest
+is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings, and speaks
+through a mask carved by his father&rsquo;s fathers. I am a priest like that,
+which is why all my fellowship have hated me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, you have paid back their hate, Zikali, but cease to cast round
+the lion, like a timid hound, and tell me what you mean. Of whom do you
+speak?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is the trouble, Macumazahn. I do not know. This lion, or rather
+lioness, lies hid in the caves of a very distant mountain and I have never seen
+her&mdash;in the flesh.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then how can you talk of what you have never seen?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the same way, Macumazahn, that your priests talk of what they have
+never seen, because they, or a few of them, have knowledge of it. I will tell
+you a secret. All seers who live at the same time, if they are great, commune
+with each other because they are akin and their spirits meet in sleep or
+dreams. Therefore I know of a mistress of our craft, a very lioness among
+jackals, who for thousands of years has lain sleeping in the northern caves
+and, humble though I am, she knows of me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite so,&rdquo; I said, yawning, &ldquo;but perhaps, Zikali, you will
+come to the point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she
+exists will she help me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will answer your question backwards, Macumazahn. I think that she will
+help you if you help her, in what way I do not know, because although
+witch-doctors sometimes work without pay, as I am doing now, Macumazahn,
+witch-doctoresses never do. As for her name, the only one that she has among
+our company is &lsquo;Queen,&rsquo; because she is the first of all of them and
+the most beauteous among women. For the rest I can tell you nothing, except
+that she has always been and I suppose, in this shape or in that, will always
+be while the world lasts, because she has found the secret of life
+unending.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean that she is immortal, Zikali,&rdquo; I answered with a smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not say that, Macumazahn, because my little mind cannot shape the
+thought of immortality. But when I was a babe, which is far ago, she had lived
+so long that scarce would she know the difference between then and now, and
+already in her breast was all wisdom gathered. I know it, because although, as
+I have said, we have never seen each other, at times we walk together in our
+sleep, for thus she shares her loneliness, and I think, though this may be but
+a dream, that last night she told me to send you on to her to seek an answer to
+certain questions which you would put to me to-day. Also to me she seemed to
+desire that you should do her a service; I know not what service.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I grew angry and asked,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If
+there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called <i>Queen</i> lives and
+how I am to come to her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me and with
+its blade raked out ashes from the fire that always burnt in front of him.
+While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random fashion, perhaps to
+distract my attention, of a certain white man whom he said I should meet upon
+my journey and of his affairs, also of other matters, none of which interested
+me much at the time. These ashes he patted down flat and then on them drew a
+map with the point of his spear, making grooves for streams, certain marks for
+bush and forest, wavy lines for water and swamps and little heaps for hills.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had finished it all he bade me come round the fire and study the
+picture across which by an after-thought he drew a wandering furrow with the
+edge of the assegai to represent a river, and gathered the ashes in a lump at
+the northern end to signify a large mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look at it well, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and forget nothing,
+since if you make this journey and forget, you die. Nay, no need to copy it in
+that book of yours, for see, I will stamp it on your mind.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then suddenly he gathered up the warm ashes in a double handful and threw them
+into my face, muttering something as he did so and adding aloud,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There, now you will remember.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly I shall,&rdquo; I answered, coughing, &ldquo;and I beg that
+you will not play such a joke upon me again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a matter of fact, whatever may have been the reason, I never forgot any
+detail of that extremely intricate map.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That big river must be the Zambesi,&rdquo; I stuttered, &ldquo;and even
+then the mountain of your Queen, if it be her mountain, is far away, and how
+can I come there alone?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Macumazahn, though perhaps you might do so in
+company. At least I believe that in the old days people used to travel to the
+place, since I have heard a great city stood there once which was the heart of
+a mighty empire.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I pricked up my ears, for though I believed nothing of Zikali&rsquo;s story
+of a wonderful Queen, I was always intensely interested in past civilisations
+and their relics. Also I knew that the old wizard&rsquo;s knowledge was
+extensive and peculiar, however he came by it, and I did not think that he
+would lie to me in this matter. Indeed to tell the truth, then and there I made
+up my mind that if it were in any way possible, I would attempt this journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How did people travel to the city, Zikali?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By sea, I suppose, Macumazahn, but I think that you will be wise not to
+try that road, since I believe that on the sea side the marshes are now
+impassable and you will be safer on your feet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You want me to go on this adventure, Zikali. Why? I know you never do
+anything without motive.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho! Macumazahn, you are clever and see deeper into the trunk of a tree
+than most. Yes, I want you to go for three reasons. First, that you may satisfy
+your soul on certain matters and I would help you to do so. Secondly, because I
+want to satisfy mine, and thirdly, because I know that you will come back safe
+to be a prop to me in things that will happen in days unborn. Otherwise I would
+have told you nothing of this story, since it is necessary to me that you
+should remain living beneath the sun.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have done, Zikali. What is it that you desire?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! a great deal that I shall get, but chiefly two things, so with the
+rest I will not trouble you. First I desire to know whether these dreams of
+mine of a wonderful white witch-doctoress, or witch, and of my converse with
+her are indeed more than dreams. Next I would learn whether certain plots of
+mine at which I have worked for years, will succeed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What plots, Zikali, and how can my taking a distant journey tell you
+anything about them?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You know them well enough, Macumazahn; they have to do with the
+overthrow of a Royal House that has worked me bitter wrong. As to how your
+journey can help me, why, thus. You shall promise to me to ask of this Queen
+whether Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, shall triumph or be overthrown in that on
+which he has set his heart.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As you seem to know this witch so well, why do you not ask her yourself,
+Zikali?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To ask is one thing, Macumazahn. To get an answer is another. I have
+asked in the watches of the night, and the reply was, &lsquo;Come hither and
+perchance I will tell you.&rsquo; &lsquo;Queen,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;how can I
+come save in the spirit, who am an ancient and a crippled dwarf scarcely able
+to stand upon my feet?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Then send a messenger, Wizard, and be sure that he is white, for
+of black savages I have seen more than enough. Let him bear a token also that
+he comes from you and tell me of it in your sleep. Moreover let that token be
+something of power which will protect him on the journey.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Such is the answer that comes to me in my dreams, Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, what token will you give me, Zikali?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He groped about in his robe and produced a piece of ivory of the size of a
+large chessman, that had a hole in it, through which ran a plaited cord of the
+stiff hairs from an elephant&rsquo;s tail. On this article, which was of a
+rusty brown colour, he breathed, then having whispered to it for a while,
+handed it to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took the talisman, for such I guessed it to be, idly enough, held it to the
+light to examine it, and started back so violently that almost I let it fall. I
+do not quite know why I started, but I think it was because some influence
+seemed to leap from it to me. Zikali started also and cried out,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have a care, Macumazahn. Am I young that I can bear being dashed to the
+ground?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo; I asked, still staring at the thing which I
+perceived to be a most wonderfully fashioned likeness of the old dwarf himself
+as he appeared before me crouched upon the ground. There were the deepset eyes,
+the great head, the toad-like shape, the long hair, all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a clever carving, is it not, Macumazahn? I am skilled in that art,
+you know, and therefore can judge of carving.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I know,&rdquo; I answered, bethinking me of another statuette of
+his which he had given to me on the morrow of the death of her from whom it was
+modelled. &ldquo;But what of the thing?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn, it has come down to me through the ages. As you may have
+heard, all great doctors when they die pass on their wisdom and something of
+their knowledge to another doctor of spirits who is still living on the earth,
+that nothing may be lost, or as little as possible. Also I have learned that to
+such likenesses as these may be given the strength of him or her from whom they
+were shaped.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I bethought me of the old Egyptians and their <i>Ka</i> statues of which I
+had read, and that these statues, magically charmed and set in the tombs of the
+departed, were supposed to be inhabited everlastingly by the Doubles of the
+dead endued with more power even than ever these possessed in life. But of this
+I said nothing to Zikali, thinking that it would take too much explanation,
+though I wondered very much how he had come by the same idea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When that ivory is hung over your heart, Macumazahn, where you must
+always wear it, learn that with it goes the strength of Zikali; the thought
+that would have been his thought and the wisdom that is his wisdom, will be
+your companions, as much as though he walked at your side and could instruct
+you in every peril. Moreover north and south and east and west this image is
+known to men who, when they see it, will bow down and obey, opening a road to
+him who wears the medicine of the Opener-of-Roads.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; I said, smiling, &ldquo;and what is this colour on the
+ivory?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I forget, Macumazahn, who have had it a great number of years, ever
+since it descended to me from a forefather of mine, who was fashioned in the
+same mould as I am. It looks like blood, does it not? It is a pity that Mameena
+is not still alive, since she whose memory was so excellent might have been
+able to tell you,&rdquo; and as he spoke, with a motion that was at once sure
+and swift, he threw the loop of elephant hair over my head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hastily I changed the subject, feeling that after his wont this old wizard, the
+most terrible man whom ever I knew, who had been so much concerned with the
+tragic death of Mameena, was stabbing at me in some hidden fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You tell me to go on this journey,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;and not alone.
+Yet for companion you give me only an ugly piece of ivory shaped as no man ever
+was,&rdquo; here I got one back at Zikali, &ldquo;and from the look of it,
+steeped in blood, which ivory, if I had my way, I would throw into the camp
+fire. Who, then, am I to take with me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t do that, Macumazahn&mdash;I mean throw the ivory into the
+fire&mdash;since I have no wish to burn before my time, and if you do, you who
+have worn it might burn with me. At least certainly you would die with the
+magic thing and go to acquire knowledge more quickly than you desire. No, no,
+and do not try to take it off your neck, or rather try if you will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did try, but something seemed to prevent me from accomplishing my purpose of
+giving the carving back to Zikali as I wished to do. First my pipe got in the
+way of my hand, then the elephant hairs caught in the collar of my coat; then a
+pang of rheumatism to which I was accustomed from an old lion-bite, developed
+of a sudden in my arm, and lastly I grew tired of bothering about the thing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zikali, who had been watching my movements, burst out into one of his terrible
+laughs that seemed to fill the whole kloof and to re-echo from its rocky walls.
+It died away and he went on, without further reference to the talisman or
+image.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You asked whom you were to take with you, Macumazahn. Well, as to this I
+must make inquiry of those who know. Man, my medicines!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the shadows in the hut behind darted out a tall figure carrying a great
+spear in one hand and in the other a catskin bag which with a salute he laid
+down at the feet of his master. This salute, by the way, was that of a Zulu
+word which means &ldquo;Lord&rdquo; or &ldquo;Home&rdquo; of Ghosts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zikali groped in the bag and produced from it certain knuckle-bones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A common method,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;such as every vulgar wizard
+uses, but one that is quick and, as the matter concerned is small, will serve
+my turn. Let us see now, whom you shall take with you, Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he breathed upon the bones, shook them up in his thin hands and with a
+quick turn of the wrist, threw them into the air. After this he studied them
+carefully, where they lay among the ashes which he had raked out of the fire,
+those that he had used for the making of his map.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you know a man named Umslopogaas, Macumazahn, the chief of a tribe
+that is called The People of the Axe, whose titles of praise are Bulalio or the
+Slaughterer, and Woodpecker, the latter from the way he handles his ancient
+axe? He is a savage fellow, but one of high blood and higher courage, a great
+captain in his way, though he will never come to anything, save a glorious
+death&mdash;in your company, I think, Macumazahn.&rdquo; (Here he studied the
+bones again for a while.) &ldquo;Yes, I am sure, in your company, though not
+upon this journey.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard of him,&rdquo; I answered cautiously. &ldquo;It is said in
+the land that he is a son of Chaka, the great king of the Zulus.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it, Macumazahn? And is it said also that he was the slayer of
+Chaka&rsquo;s brother, Dingaan, also the lover of the fairest woman that the
+Zulus have ever seen, who was called Nada the Lily? Unless indeed a certain
+Mameena, who, I seem to remember, was a friend of yours, may have been even
+more beautiful?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know nothing of Nada the Lily,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Mameena, &lsquo;the Waiting Wind,&rsquo; has blown over her
+fame, so why should you know of one who has been dead a long while? Why also,
+Macumazahn, do you always bring women into every business? I begin to believe
+that although you are so strict in a white man&rsquo;s fashion, you must be too
+fond of them, a weakness which makes for ruin to any man. Well, now, I think
+that this wolf-man, this axe-man, this warrior, Umslopogaas should be a good
+fellow to you on your journey to visit the white witch, Queen&mdash;another
+woman by the way, Macumazahn, and therefore one of whom you should be careful.
+Oh! yes, he will come with you&mdash;because of a man called Lousta and a woman
+named Monazi, a wife of his who hates him and does&mdash;not hate Lousta. I am
+almost sure that he will come with you, so do not stop to ask questions about
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there anyone else?&rdquo; I inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with his toe,
+then replied with a yawn,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake who
+knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to lie hidden. I
+should take him too, if I were you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans,
+clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my father
+before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there to be any
+others?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I think you three will be enough, with a guard of soldiers from the
+People of the Axe, for you will meet with fighting and a ghost or two.
+Umslopogaas has always one at his elbow named Nada, and perhaps you have
+several. For instance, there was a certain Mameena whom I always seem to feel
+about me when you are near, Macumazahn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, the wind is rising again, which is odd on so still an evening.
+Listen to how it wails, yes, and stirs your hair, though mine hangs straight
+enough. But why do I talk of ghosts, seeing that you travel to seek other
+ghosts, white ghosts, beyond my ken, who can only deal with those who were
+black?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good-night, Macumazahn, good-night. When you return from visiting the
+white Queen, that Great One beneath whose feet I, Zikali, who am also great in
+my way, am but a grain of dust, come and tell me her answer to my question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Meanwhile, be careful always to wear that pretty little image which I
+have given you, as a young lover sometimes wears a lock of hair cut from the
+head of some fool-girl that he thinks is fond of him. It will bring you safety
+and luck, Macumazahn, which, for the most part, is more than the lock of hair
+does to the lover. Oh! it is a strange world, full of jest to those who can see
+the strings that work it. I am one of them, and perhaps, Macumazahn, you are
+another, or will be before all is done&mdash;or begun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good-night, and good fortune to you on your journeyings, and,
+Macumazahn, although you are so fond of women, be careful not to fall in love
+with that white Queen, because it would make others jealous; I mean some whom
+you have lost sight of for a while, also I think that being under a curse of
+her own, she is not one whom you can put into your sack. <i>Oho! Oho-ho!</i>
+Slave, bring me my blanket, it grows cold, and my medicine also, that which
+protects me from the ghosts, who are thick to-night. Macumazahn brings them, I
+think. <i>Oho-ho!</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned to depart but when I had gone a little way Zikali called me back again
+and said, speaking very low,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When you meet this Umslopogaas, as you will meet him, he who is called
+the Woodpecker and the Slaughterer, say these words to him,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;A bat has been twittering round the hut of the Opener-of-Roads,
+and to his ears it squeaked the name of a certain Lousta and the name of a
+woman called Monazi. Also it twittered another greater name that may not be
+uttered, that of an elephant who shakes the earth, and said that this elephant
+sniffs the air with his trunk and grows angry, and sharpens his tusks to dig a
+certain Woodpecker out of his hole in a tree that grows near the Witch
+Mountain. Say, too, that the Opener-of-Roads thinks that this Woodpecker would
+be wise to fly north for a while in the company of one who watches by night,
+lest harm should come to a bird that pecks at the feet of the great and
+chatters of it in his nest.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Zikali waved his hand and I went, wondering into what plot I had stumbled.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+THE MESSENGERS</h2>
+
+<p>
+I did not rest as I should that night who somehow was never able to sleep well
+in the neighbourhood of the Black Kloof. I suppose that Zikali&rsquo;s constant
+talk about ghosts, with his hints and innuendoes concerning those who were
+dead, always affected my nerves till, in a subconscious way, I began to believe
+that such things existed and were hanging about me. Many people are open to the
+power of suggestion, and I am afraid that I am one of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However, the sun which has such strength to kill noxious things, puts an end to
+ghosts more quickly even than it does to other evil vapours and emanations, and
+when I woke up to find it shining brilliantly in a pure heaven, I laughed with
+much heartiness over the whole affair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Going to the spring near which we were outspanned, I took off my shirt to have
+a good wash, still chuckling at the memory of all the hocus-pocus of my old
+friend, the Opener-of-Roads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While engaged in this matutinal operation I struck my hand against something
+and looking, observed that it was the hideous little ivory image of Zikali,
+which he had set about my neck. The sight of the thing and the memory of his
+ridiculous talk about it, especially of its assertion that it had come down to
+him through the ages, which it could not have done, seeing that it was a
+likeness of himself, irritated me so much that I proceeded to take it off with
+the full intention of throwing it into the spring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I was in the act of doing this, from a clump of reeds mixed with bushes,
+quite close to me, there came a sound of hissing, and suddenly above them
+appeared the head of a great black <i>immamba</i>, perhaps the deadliest of all
+our African snakes, and the only one I know which will attack man without
+provocation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving go of the image, I sprang back in a great hurry towards where my gun
+lay. Then the snake vanished and making sure that it had departed to its hole,
+which was probably at a distance, I returned to the pool, and once more began
+to take off the talisman in order to consign it to the bottom of the pool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After all, I reflected, it was a hideous and probably a blood-stained thing
+which I did not in the least wish to wear about my neck like a lady&rsquo;s
+love-token.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as it was coming over my head, suddenly from the other side of the bush
+that infernal snake popped up again, this time, it was clear, really intent on
+business. It began to move towards me in the lightning-like way <i>immambas</i>
+have, hissing and flicking its tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was too quick for my friend, however, for snatching up the gun that I had
+lain down beside me, I let it have a charge of buckshot in the neck which
+nearly cut it in two, so that it fell down and expired with hideous convulsive
+writhings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hearing the shot Hans came running from the waggon to see what was the matter.
+Hans, I should say, was that same Hottentot who had been the companion of most
+of my journeyings since my father&rsquo;s day. He was with me when as a young
+fellow I accompanied Retief to Dingaan&rsquo;s kraal, and like myself, escaped
+the massacre.<a href="#fn-2.1" name="fnref-2.1" id="fnref-2.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+Also we shared many other adventures, including the great one in the Land of
+the Ivory Child where he slew the huge elephant-god, Jana, and himself was
+slain. But of this journey we did not dream in those days.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-2.1" id="fn-2.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-2.1">[1]</a>
+See the book called &ldquo;Marie.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest Hans was a most entirely unprincipled person, but as the Boers
+say, &ldquo;as clever as a waggonload of monkeys.&rdquo; Also he drank when he
+got the chance. One good quality he had, however; no man was ever more
+faithful, and perhaps it would be true to say that neither man nor woman ever
+loved me, unworthy, quite so well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In appearance he rather resembled an antique and dilapidated baboon; his face
+was wrinkled like a dried nut and his quick little eyes were bloodshot. I never
+knew what his age was, any more than he did himself, but the years had left him
+tough as whipcord and absolutely untiring. Lastly he was perhaps the best hand
+at following a spoor that ever I knew and up to a hundred and fifty yards or
+so, a very deadly shot with a rifle especially when he used a little
+single-barrelled, muzzle-loading gun of mine made by Purdey which he named
+<i>Intombi</i> or Maiden. Of that gun, however, I have written in &ldquo;The
+Holy Flower&rdquo; and elsewhere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it, Baas?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;Here there are no lions, nor
+any game.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look the other side of the bush, Hans.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He slipped round it, making a wide circle with his usual caution, then, seeing
+the snake which was, by the way, I think, the biggest <i>immamba</i> I ever
+killed, suddenly froze, as it were, in a stiff attitude that reminded me of a
+pointer when it scents game. Having made sure that it was dead, he nodded and
+said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Black <i>&lsquo;mamba</i>, or so you would call it, though I know it for
+something else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What else, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One of the old witch-doctor Zikali&rsquo;s spirits which he sets at the
+mouth of this kloof to warn him of who comes or goes. I know it well, and so do
+others. I saw it listening behind a stone when you were up the kloof last
+evening talking with the Opener-of-Roads.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then Zikali will lack a spirit,&rdquo; I answered, laughing,
+&ldquo;which perhaps he will not miss amongst so many. It serves him right for
+setting the brute on me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite so, Baas. He will be angry. I wonder why he did it?&rdquo; he
+added suspiciously, &ldquo;seeing that he is such a friend of yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t do it, Hans. These snakes are very fierce and give
+battle, that is all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans paid no attention to my remark, which probably he thought only worthy of a
+white man who does not understand, but rolled his yellow, bloodshot eyes about,
+as though in search of explanations. Presently they fell upon the ivory that
+hung about my neck, and he started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you wear that pretty likeness of the Great One yonder over your
+heart, as I have known you do with things that belonged to women in past days,
+Baas? Do you know that it is Zikali&rsquo;s Great Medicine, nothing less, as
+everyone does throughout the land? When Zikali sends an order far away, he
+always sends that image with it, for then he who receives the order knows that
+he must obey or die. Also the messenger knows that he will come to no harm if
+he does not take it off, because, Baas, the image is Zikali himself, and Zikali
+is the image. They are one and the same. Also it is the image of his
+father&rsquo;s father&rsquo;s father&mdash;or so he says.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is an odd story,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I told Hans as much as I thought advisable of how this horrid little
+talisman came into my possession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans nodded without showing any surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So we are going on a long journey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Well, I
+thought it was time that we did something more than wander about these tame
+countries selling blankets to stinking old women and so forth, Baas. Moreover,
+Zikali does not wish that you should come to harm, doubtless because he does
+wish to make use of you afterwards&mdash;oh! it&rsquo;s safe to talk now when
+that spirit is away looking for another snake. What were you doing with the
+Great Medicine, Baas, when the <i>&lsquo;mamba</i> attacked you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Taking it off to throw it into the pool, Hans, as I do not like the
+thing. I tried twice and each time the <i>immamba</i> appeared.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course it appeared, Baas, and what is more, if you had taken that
+Medicine off and thrown it away <i>you</i> would have disappeared, since the
+<i>&lsquo;mamba</i> would have killed you. Zikali wanted to show you that,
+Baas, and that is why he set the snake at you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a superstitious old fool, Hans.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, but my father knew all about that Great Medicine before me,
+for he was a bit of a doctor, and so does every wizard and witch for a thousand
+miles or more. I tell you, Baas, it is known by all though no one ever talks
+about it, no, not even the king himself. Baas, speaking to you, not with the
+voice of Hans the old drunkard, but with that of the Predikant, your reverend
+father, who made so good a Christian of me and who tells me to do so from up in
+Heaven where the hot fires are which the wood feeds of itself, I beg you not to
+try to throw away the Medicine again, or if you wish to do so, to leave me
+behind on this journey. For you see, Baas, although I am now so good, almost
+like one of those angels with the pretty goose&rsquo;s wings in the pictures, I
+feel that I should like to grow a little better before I go to the Place of
+Fires to make report to your reverend father, the Predikant.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thinking of how horrified my dear father would be if he could hear all this
+string of ridiculous nonsense and learn the result of his moral and religious
+lessons on raw Hottentot material, I burst out laughing. But Hans went on as
+gravely as a judge,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Wear the Great Medicine, Baas, wear it; part with the liver inside you
+before you part with that, Baas. It may not be as pretty or smell as sweet as a
+woman&rsquo;s hair in a little gold bottle, but it is much more useful. The
+sight of the woman&rsquo;s hair will only make you sick in your stomach and
+cause you to remember a lot of things which you had much better forget, but the
+Great Medicine, or rather Zikali who is in it, will keep the assegais and
+sickness out of you and turn back bad magic on to the heads of those who sent
+it, and always bring us plenty to eat and perhaps, if we are lucky, a little to
+drink too sometimes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go away,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I want to wash.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, but with the Baas&rsquo;s leave I will sit on the other side
+of that bush with the gun&mdash;not to look at the Baas without his clothes,
+because white people are always so ugly that it makes me feel ill to see them
+undressed, also because&mdash;the Baas will forgive me&mdash;but because they
+smell. No, not for that, but just to see that no other snake comes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Get out of the road, you dirty little scoundrel, and stop your
+impudence,&rdquo; I said, lifting my foot suggestively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereon he scooted with a subdued grin round the other side of the bush, whence
+as I knew well he kept his eye fixed on me to be sure that I made no further
+attempt to take off the Great Medicine.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Now of this talisman I may as well say at once that I am no believer in it or
+its precious influences. Therefore, although it was useful sometimes, notably
+twice when Umslopogaas was concerned, I do not know whether personally I should
+have done better or worse upon that journey if I had thrown it into the pool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true, however, that until quite the end of this history when it became
+needful to do so to save another, I never made any further attempt to remove it
+from my neck, not even when it rubbed a sore in my skin, because I did not wish
+to offend the prejudices of Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true, moreover, that this hideous ivory had a reputation which stretched
+very far from the place where it was made and was regarded with great reverence
+by all kinds of queer people, even by the Amahagger themselves, of whom
+presently, as they say in pedigrees, a fact of which I found sundry proofs.
+Indeed, I saw a first example of it when a little while later I met that great
+warrior, Umslopogaas, Chief of the People of the Axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For, after determining firmly, for reasons which I will set out, that I would
+not visit this man, in the end I did so, although by then I had given up any
+idea of journeying across the Zambesi to look for a mysterious and non-existent
+witch-woman, as Zikali had suggested that I should do. To begin with I knew
+that his talk was all rubbish and, even if it were not, that at the bottom of
+it was some desire of the Opener-of-Roads that I should make a path for him to
+travel towards an indefinite but doubtless evil object of his own. Further, by
+this time I had worn through that mood of mine which had caused me to yearn for
+correspondence with the departed and a certain knowledge of their existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I wonder whether many people understand, as I do, how entirely distinct and how
+variable are these moods which sway us, or at any rate some of us, at sundry
+periods of our lives. As I think I have already suggested, at one time we are
+all spiritual; at another all physical; at one time we are sure that our lives
+here are as a dream and a shadow and that the real existence lies elsewhere; at
+another that these brief days of ours are the only business with which we have
+to do and that of it we must make the best. At one time we think our loves much
+more immortal than the stars; at another that they are mere shadows cast by the
+baleful sun of desire upon the shallow and fleeting water we call Life which
+seems to flow out of nowhere into nowhere. At one time we are full of faith, at
+another all such hopes are blotted out by a black wall of Nothingness, and so
+on <i>ad infinitum</i>. Only very stupid people, or humbugs, are or pretend to
+be, always consistent and unchanging.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return, I determined not only that I would not travel north to seek that
+which no living man will ever find, certainty as to the future, but also, to
+show my independence of Zikali, that I would not visit this chief, Umslopogaas.
+So, having traded all my goods and made a fair profit (on paper), I set myself
+to return to Natal, proposing to rest awhile in my little house at Durban, and
+told Hans my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very good, Baas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I, too, should like to go to
+Durban. There are lots of things there that we cannot get here,&rdquo; and he
+fixed his roving eye upon a square-faced gin bottle, which as it happened was
+filled with nothing stronger than water, because all the gin was drunk.
+&ldquo;Yet, Baas, we shall not see the Berea for a long while.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you say that?&rdquo; I asked sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Baas, I don&rsquo;t know, but you went to visit the Opener-of-Roads,
+did you not, and he told you to go north and lent you a certain Great Medicine,
+did he not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Hans proceeded to light his corncob pipe with an ash from the fire, all
+the time keeping his beady eyes fixed upon that part of me where he knew the
+talisman was hung.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite true, Hans, but now I mean to show Zikali that I am not his
+messenger, for south or north or east or west. So to-morrow morning we cross
+the river and trek for Natal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, but then why not cross it this evening? There is still
+light.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have said that we will cross it to-morrow morning,&rdquo; I answered
+with that firmness which I have read always indicates a man of character,
+&ldquo;and I do not change my word.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas, but sometimes other things change besides words. Will the Baas
+have that buck&rsquo;s leg for supper, or the stuff out of a tin with a dint in
+it, which we bought at a store two years ago? The flies have got at the
+buck&rsquo;s leg, but I cut out the bits with the maggots on it and ate them
+myself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Hans was right, things do change, especially the weather. That night,
+unexpectedly, for when I turned in the sky seemed quite serene, there came a
+terrible rain long before it was due, which lasted off and on for three whole
+days and continued intermittently for an indefinite period. Needless to say the
+river, which it would have been so easy to cross on this particular evening, by
+the morning was a raging torrent, and so remained for several weeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In despair at length I trekked south to where a ford was reported, which, when
+reached, proved impracticable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tried another, a dozen miles further on, which was very hard to come to over
+boggy land. It looked all right and we were getting across finely, when
+suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and there we stuck.
+Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would have remained in the
+neighbourhood of that ford to this day, had I not managed to borrow some extra
+oxen belonging to a Christian Kaffir, and with their help to drag it back to
+the bank whence we had started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storm which had burst
+further up the river, brought it down in flood again, a very heavy flood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere and no
+one seems to appreciate them. If they think of them at all it is to grumble
+about the cost of their upkeep. I wish they could have experienced what a lack
+of them means in a wild country during times of excessive rain, and the same
+remark applied to roads. You should think more of your blessings, my friends,
+as the old woman said to her complaining daughter who had twins two years
+running, adding that they might have been triplets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return&mdash;after this I confessed myself beaten and gave up until such
+time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap. Trekking out of
+sight of that infernal river which annoyed me with its constant gurgling, I
+camped on a comparatively dry spot that overlooked a beautiful stretch of
+rolling veld. Towards sunset the clouds lifted and I saw a mile or two away a
+most extraordinary mountain on the lower slopes of which grew a dense forest.
+Its upper part, which was of bare rock, looked exactly like the seated figure
+of a grotesque person with the chin resting on the breast. There was the head,
+there were the arms, there were the knees. Indeed, the whole mass of it
+reminded me strongly of the effigy of Zikali which was tied about my neck, or
+rather of Zikali himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is that called?&rdquo; I said to Hans, pointing to this strange
+hill, now blazing in the angry fire of the setting sun that had burst out
+between the storm clouds, which made it appear more ominous even than before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is the Witch Mountain, Baas, where the Chief Umslopogaas and a
+blood brother of his who carried a great club used to hunt with the wolves. It
+is haunted and in a cave at the top of it lie the bones of Nada the Lily, the
+fair woman whose name is a song, she who was the love of Umslopogaas.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-2.2" name="fnref-2.2" id="fnref-2.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-2.2" id="fn-2.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2.2">[2]</a>
+For the story of Umslopogaas and Nada see the book called &ldquo;Nada the
+Lily.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rubbish,&rdquo; I said, though I had heard something of all that story
+and remembered that Zikali had mentioned this Nada, comparing her beauty to
+that of another whom once I knew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where then lives the Chief Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They say that his town is yonder on the plain, Baas. It is called the
+Place of the Axe and is strongly fortified with a river round most of it, and
+his people are the People of the Axe. They are a fierce people, and all the
+country round here is uninhabited because Umslopogaas has cleaned out the
+tribes who used to live in it, first with his wolves and afterwards in war. He
+is so strong a chief and so terrible in battle that even Chaka himself was
+afraid of him, and they say that he brought Dingaan the King to his end because
+of a quarrel about this Nada. Cetywayo, the present king, too leaves him alone
+and to him he pays no tribute.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst I was about to ask Hans from whom he had collected all this information,
+suddenly I heard sounds, and looking up, saw three tall men clad in full
+herald&rsquo;s dress rushing towards us at great speed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here come some chips from the Axe,&rdquo; said Hans, and promptly bolted
+into the waggon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did not bolt because there was no time to do so without loss of dignity, but,
+although I wished I had my rifle with me, just sat still upon my stool and with
+great deliberation lighted my pipe, taking not the slightest notice of the
+three savage-looking fellows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These, who I noted carried axes instead of assegais, rushed straight at me with
+the axes raised in such a fashion that anyone unacquainted with the habits of
+Zulu warriors of the old school, might have thought that they intended nothing
+short of murder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I expected, however, within about six feet of me they halted suddenly and
+stood there still as statues. For my part I went on lighting my pipe as though
+I did not see them and when at length I was obliged to lift my head, surveyed
+them with an air of mild interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I took a little book out of my pocket, it was my favourite copy of the
+Ingoldsby Legends&mdash;and began to read.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The passage which caught my eye, if &ldquo;axe&rdquo; be substituted for
+&ldquo;knife&rdquo; was not inappropriate. It was from &ldquo;The Nurse&rsquo;s
+Story,&rdquo; and runs,
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;But, oh! what a thing &lsquo;tis to see and to know<br />
+That the bare knife is raised in the hand of the foe,<br />
+Without hope to repel or to ward off the blow!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This proceeding of mine astonished them a good deal who felt that they had, so
+to speak, missed fire. At last the soldier in the middle said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you blind, White Man?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Black Fellow,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;but I am short-sighted.
+Would you be so good as to stand out of my light?&rdquo; a remark which puzzled
+them so much that all three drew back a few paces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I had read a little further I came to the following lines,
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Tis plain,<br />
+As anatomists tell us, that never again,<br />
+Shall life revisit the foully slain<br />
+When once they&rsquo;ve been cut through the jugular vein.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In my circumstances at that moment this statement seemed altogether too
+suggestive, so I shut up the book and remarked,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you are wanderers who want food, as I judge by your being so thin, I
+am sorry that I have little meat, but my servants will give you what they
+can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Ow!</i>&rdquo; said the spokesman, &ldquo;he calls us wanderers!
+Either he must be a very great man or he is mad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are right. I <i>am</i> a great man,&rdquo; I answered, yawning,
+&ldquo;and if you trouble me too much you will see that I can be mad also. Now
+what do you want?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We are messengers from the great Chief Umslopogaas, Captain of the
+People of the Axe, and we want tribute,&rdquo; answered the man in a somewhat
+changed tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you? Then you won&rsquo;t get it. I thought that only the King of
+Zululand had a right to tribute, and your Captain&rsquo;s name is not Cetywayo,
+is it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Our Captain is King here,&rdquo; said the man still more uncertainly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is he indeed? Then away with you back to him and tell this King of whom
+I have never heard, though I have a message for a certain Umslopogaas, that
+Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, intends to visit him to-morrow, if he will send a
+guide at the first light to show the best path for the waggon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken,&rdquo; said the man to his companions, &ldquo;this is
+Macumazahn himself and no other. Well, we thought it, for who else would have
+dared&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they saluted with their axes, calling me &ldquo;Chief&rdquo; and other
+fine names, and departed as they had come, at a run, calling out that my
+message should be delivered and that doubtless Umslopogaas would send the
+guide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came about that, quite contrary to my intention, after all circumstances
+brought me to the Town of the Axe. Even to the last moment I had not meant to
+go there, but when the tribute was demanded I saw that it was best to do so,
+and having once passed my word it could not be altered. Indeed, I felt sure
+that in this event there would be trouble and that my oxen would be stolen, or
+worse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Fate having issued its decree, of which Hans&rsquo;s version was that
+Zikali, or his Great Medicine, had so arranged things, I shrugged my shoulders
+and waited.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE</h2>
+
+<p>
+Next morning at the dawn guides arrived from the Town of the Axe, bringing with
+them a yoke of spare oxen, which showed that its Chief was really anxious to
+see me. So, in due course we inspanned and started, the guides leading us by a
+rough but practicable road down the steep hillside to the saucer-like plain
+beneath, where I saw many cattle grazing. Travelling some miles across this
+plain, we came at last to a river of no great breadth that encircled a
+considerable Kaffir town on three sides, the fourth being protected by a little
+line of koppies which were joined together with walls. Also the place was
+strongly fortified with fences and in every other way known to the native mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the help of the spare oxen we crossed the river safely at the ford,
+although it was very full, and on the further side were received by a guard of
+men, tall, soldierlike fellows, all of them armed with axes as the messengers
+had been. They led us up to the cattle enclosure in the centre of the town,
+which although it could be used to protect beasts in case of emergency, also
+served the practical purpose of a public square.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here some ceremony was in progress, for soldiers stood round the kraal while
+heralds pranced and shouted. At the head of the place in front of the
+chief&rsquo;s big hut was a little group of people, among whom a big, gaunt man
+sat upon a stool clad in a warrior&rsquo;s dress with a great and very long axe
+hafted with wire-lashed rhinoceros horn, laid across his knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our guides led me, with Hans sneaking after me like a dejected and low-bred dog
+(for the waggon had stopped outside the gate), across the kraal to where the
+heralds shouted and the big man sat yawning. At once I noted that he was a very
+remarkable person, broad and tall and spare of frame, with long, tough-looking
+arms and a fierce face which reminded me of that of the late King Dingaan. Also
+he had a great hole in his head above the temple where the skull had been
+driven in by some blow, and keen, royal-looking eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked up and seeing me, cried out,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What! Has a white man come to fight me for the chieftainship of the
+People of the Axe? Well, he is a small one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I answered quietly, &ldquo;but Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night,
+has come to visit you in answer to your request, O Umslopogaas; Macumazahn
+whose name was known in this land before yours was told of, O
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Chief heard and rising from his seat, lifted the big axe in salute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I greet you, O Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;who although you are
+small in stature, are very great indeed in fame. Have I not heard how you
+conquered Bangu, although Saduko slew him, and of how you gave up the six
+hundred head of cattle to Tshoza and the men of the Amangwane who fought with
+you, the cattle that were your own? Have I not heard how you led the Tulwana
+against the Usutu and stamped flat three of Cetywayo&rsquo;s regiments in the
+days of Panda, although, alas! because of an oath of mine I lifted no steel in
+that battle, I who will have nothing to do with those that spring from the
+blood of Senzangacona&mdash;perhaps because I smell too strongly of it,
+Macumazahn. Oh! yes, I have heard these and many other things concerning you,
+though until now it has never been my fortune to look upon your face, O
+Watcher-by-Night, and therefore I greet you well, Bold one, Cunning one,
+Upright one, Friend of us Black People.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;but you said something about
+fighting. If there is to be anything of the sort, let us get it over. If you
+want to fight, I am quite ready,&rdquo; and I tapped the rifle which I carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The grim Chief broke into a laugh and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen. By an ancient law any man on this day in each year may fight me
+for this Chieftainship, as I fought and conquered him who held it before me,
+and take it from me with my life and the axe, though of late none seems to like
+the business. But that law was made before there were guns, or men like
+Macumazahn who, it is said, can hit a lizard on a wall at fifty paces.
+Therefore I tell you that if you wish to fight me with a rifle, O Macumazahn, I
+give in and you may have the chieftainship,&rdquo; and he laughed again in his
+fierce fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think it is too hot for fighting either with guns or axes, and
+Chieftainships are honey that is full of stinging bees,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I took my seat on a stool that had been brought for me and placed by the
+side of Umslopogaas, after which the ceremony went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The heralds cried out the challenge to all and sundry to come and fight the
+Holder of the Axe for the chieftainship of the Axe without the slightest
+result, since nobody seemed to desire to do anything of the sort. Then, after a
+pause, Umslopogaas rose, swinging his formidable weapon round his head and
+declared that by right of conquest he was Chief of the Tribe for the ensuing
+year, an announcement that everybody accepted without surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again the heralds summoned all and sundry who had grievances, to come forward
+and to state them and receive redress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a little pause there appeared a very handsome woman with large eyes,
+particularly brilliant eyes that rolled as though they were in search of
+someone. She was finely dressed and I saw by the ornaments she wore that she
+held the rank of a chief&rsquo;s wife.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I, Monazi, have a complaint to make,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;as it is
+the right of the humblest to do on this day. In succession to Zinita whom
+Dingaan slew with her children, I am your <i>Inkosikaas</i>, your head-wife, O
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I know well enough,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, &ldquo;what of
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This, that you neglect me for other women, as you neglected Zinita for
+Nada the Beautiful, Nada the witch. I am childless, as are all your wives
+because of the curse that this Nada left behind her. I demand that this curse
+should be lifted from me. For your sake I abandoned Lousta the Chief, to whom I
+was betrothed, and this is the end of it, that I am neglected and
+childless.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Am I the Heavens Above that I can cause you to bear children,
+woman?&rdquo; asked Umslopogaas angrily. &ldquo;Would that you had clung to
+Lousta, my blood-brother and my friend, whom you lament, and left me
+alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That still may chance, if I am not better treated,&rdquo; answered
+Monazi with a flash of her eyes. &ldquo;Will you dismiss yonder new wife of
+yours and give me back my place, and will you lift the curse of Nada off me, or
+will you not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As to the first,&rdquo; answered Umslopogaas, &ldquo;learn, Monazi, that
+I will not dismiss my new wife, who at least is gentler-tongued and
+truer-hearted than you are. As to the second, you ask that which it is not in
+my power to give, since children are the gift of Heaven, and barrenness is its
+bane. Moreover, you have done ill to bring into this matter the name of one who
+is dead, who of all women was the sweetest and most innocent. Lastly, I warn
+you before the people to cease from your plottings or traffic with Lousta, lest
+ill come of them to you, or him, even though he be my blood-brother, or to
+both.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Plottings!&rdquo; cried Monazi in a shrill and furious voice.
+&ldquo;Does Umslopogaas talk of plottings? Well, I have heard that Chaka the
+Lion left a son, and that this son has set a trap for the feet of him who sits
+on Chaka&rsquo;s throne. Perchance that king has heard it also; perchance the
+People of the Axe will soon have another Chief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it thus?&rdquo; said Umslopogaas quietly. &ldquo;And if so, will he
+be named Lousta?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then his smouldering wrath broke out and in a kind of roaring voice he went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What have I done that the wives of my bosom should be my betrayers,
+those who would give me to death? Zinita betrayed me to Dingaan and in reward
+was slain, and my children with her. Now would you, Monazi, betray me to
+Cetywayo&mdash;though in truth there is naught to betray? Well, if so, bethink
+you and let Lousta bethink him of what chanced to Zinita, and of what chances
+to those who stand before the axe of Umslopogaas. What have I done, I say, that
+women should thus strive to work me ill?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This,&rdquo; answered Monazi with a mocking laugh, &ldquo;that you have
+loved one of them too well. If he would live in peace, he who has wives should
+favour all alike. Least of anything should he moan continually over one who is
+dead, a witch who has left a curse behind her and thus insulted and do wrong to
+the living. Also he would be wise to attend to the matters of his own tribe and
+household and to cease from ambitions that may bring him to the assegai, and
+them with him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard your counsel, Wife, so now begone!&rdquo; said Umslopogaas,
+looking at her very strangely, and it seemed to me not without fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you wives, Macumazahn?&rdquo; he asked of me in a low voice when
+she was out of hearing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only among the spirits,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well for you then; moreover, it is a bond between us, for I too have but
+one true wife and she also is among the spirits. But go rest a while, and later
+we will talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I went, leaving the Chief to his business, thinking as I walked away of a
+certain message with which I was charged for him and of how into that message
+came names that I had just heard, namely that of a man called Lousta and of a
+woman called Monazi. Also I thought of the hints which in her jealous anger and
+disappointment at her lack of children, this woman had dropped about a plot
+against him who sat on the throne of Chaka, which of course must mean King
+Cetywayo himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I came to the guest-hut, which proved to be a very good place and clean; also
+in it I found plenty of food made ready for me and for my servants. After
+eating I slept for a time as it is always my fashion to do when I have nothing
+else on hand, since who knows for how long he may be kept awake at night?
+Indeed, it was not until the sun had begun to sink that a messenger came,
+saying that the Chief desired to see me if I had rested. So I went to his big
+hut which stood alone with a strong fence set round it at a distance, so that
+none could come within hearing of what was said, even at the door of the hut. I
+observed also that a man armed with an axe kept guard at the gateway in this
+fence round which he walked from time to time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Chief Umslopogaas was seated on a stool by the door of his hut with his
+rhinoceros-horn-handled axe which was fastened to his right wrist by a thong,
+leaning against his thigh, and a wolfskin hanging from his broad shoulders.
+Very grim and fierce he looked thus, with the red light of the sunset playing
+on him. He greeted me and pointed to another stool on which I sat myself down.
+Apparently he had been watching my eyes, for he said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards
+and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the soldier who
+guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how its gate is
+fashioned.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance I
+shall soon be dead. It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the battle,
+Macumazahn. He who would sleep safe and of whom, when he dies, folk will say
+&lsquo;He has eaten&rsquo; (i.e., he has lived out his life), must do more than
+this. He must guard his tongue and even his thoughts! he must listen to the
+stirring of rats in the thatch and look for snakes in the grass; he must trust
+few, and least of all those who sleep upon his bosom. But those who have the
+Lion&rsquo;s blood in them or who are prone to charge like a buffalo, often
+neglect these matters and therefore in the end they fall into a pit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;especially those who have the
+lion&rsquo;s blood in them, whether that lion be man or beast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This I said because of the rumours I had heard that this Slaughterer was in
+truth the son of Chaka. Therefore not knowing whether or no he were playing on
+the word &ldquo;lion,&rdquo; which was Chaka&rsquo;s title, I wished to draw
+him, especially as I saw in his face a great likeness to Chaka&rsquo;s brother
+Dingaan, whom, it was whispered, this same Umslopogaas had slain. As it
+happened I failed, for after a pause he said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you come to visit me, Macumazahn, who have never done so
+before?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not come to visit you, Umslopogaas. That was not my intention. You
+brought me, or rather the flooded rivers and you together brought me, for I was
+on my way to Natal and could not cross the drifts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet I think you have a message for me, White Man, for not long ago a
+certain wandering witch-doctor who came here told me to expect you and that you
+had words to say to me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did he, Umslopogaas? Well, it is true that I have a message, though it
+is one that I did not mean to deliver.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet being here, perchance you will deliver it, Macumazahn, for those who
+have messages and will not speak them, sometimes come to trouble.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, being here, I will deliver it, seeing that so it seems to be fated.
+Tell me, do you chance to know a certain Small One who is great, a certain Old
+One whose brain is young, a doctor who is called Opener-of-Roads?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard of him, as have my forefathers for generations.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, and if it pleases you to tell me, Umslopogaas, what might be the
+names of those forefathers of yours, who have heard of this doctor for
+generations? They must have been short-lived men and as such I should like to
+know of them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That you cannot,&rdquo; replied Umslopogaas shortly, &ldquo;since they
+are <i>hlonipa</i> (i.e. not to be spoken) in this land.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; I said again. &ldquo;I thought that rule applied only to
+the names of kings, but of course I am but an ignorant white man who may well
+be mistaken on such matters of your Zulu customs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, O Macumazahn, you may be mistaken or&mdash;you may not. It matters
+nothing. But what of this message of yours?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It came at the end of a long story, O Bulalio. But since you seek to
+know, these were the words of it, so nearly as I can remember them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then sentence by sentence I repeated to him all that Zikali had said to me when
+he called me back after bidding me farewell, which doubtless he did because he
+wished to cut his message more deeply into the tablets of my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas listened to every syllable with a curious intentness, and then
+asked me to repeat it all again, which I did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lousta! Monazi!&rdquo; he said slowly. &ldquo;Well, you heard those
+names to-day, did you not, White Man? And you heard certain things from the
+lips of this Monazi who was angry, that give colour to that talk of the
+Opener-of-Roads. It seems to me,&rdquo; he added, glancing about him and
+speaking in a low voice, &ldquo;that what I suspected is true and that without
+doubt I am betrayed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not understand,&rdquo; I replied indifferently. &ldquo;All this
+talk is dark to me, as is the message of the Opener-of-Roads, or rather its
+meaning. By whom and about what are you betrayed?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let that snake sleep. Do not kick it with your foot. Suffice it you to
+know that my head hangs upon this matter; that I am a rat in a forked stick,
+and if the stick is pressed on by a heavy hand, then where is the rat?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where all rats go, I suppose, that is, unless they are wise rats that
+bite the hand which holds the stick before it is pressed down.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the rest of this story of yours, Macumazahn, which was told
+before the Opener-of-Roads gave you that message? Does it please you to repeat
+it to me that I may judge of it with my ears?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;on one condition, that what the
+ears hear, the heart shall keep to itself alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas stooped and laid his hand upon the broad blade of the weapon beside
+him, saying,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By the Axe I swear it. If I break the oath be the Axe my doom.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I told him the tale, as I have set it down already, thinking to myself
+that of it he would understand little, being but a wild warrior-man. As it
+chanced, however, I was mistaken, for he seemed to understand a great deal,
+perchance because such primitive natures are in closer touch with high and
+secret things than we imagine; perchance for other reasons with which I became
+acquainted later.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It stands thus,&rdquo; he said when I had finished, &ldquo;or so I
+think. You, Macumazahn, seek certain women who are dead to learn whether they
+still live, or are really dead, but so far have failed to find them. Still
+seeking, you asked the counsel of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, he who among other
+titles is also called &lsquo;Home of Spirits.&rsquo; He answered that he could
+not satisfy your heart because this tree was too tall for him to climb, but
+that far to the north there lives a certain white witch who has powers greater
+than his, being able to fly to the top of any tree, and to this white witch he
+bade you go. Have I the story right thus far?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that he had.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good! Then Zikali went on to choose you companions for your journey, but
+two, leaving out the guards or servants. I, Umhlopekazi, called Bulalio the
+Slaughterer, called the Woodpecker also, was one of these, and that little
+yellow monkey of a man whom I saw with you to-day, called Hansi, was the other.
+Then you made a mock of Zikali by determining not to visit me, Umhlopekazi, and
+not to go north to find the great white Queen of whom he had told you, but to
+return to Natal. Is that so?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I said it was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then the rain fell and the winds blew and the rivers rose in wrath so
+that you could not return to Natal, and after all by chance, or by fate, or by
+the will of Zikali, the wizard of wizards, you drifted here to the kraal of me,
+Umhlopekazi, and told me this story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Just so,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, White Man, how am I to know that all this is not but a trap for my
+feet which already seem to feel cords between the toes of both of them? What
+token do you bring, O Watcher-by-Night? How am I to know that the
+Opener-of-Roads really sent me this message which has been delivered so
+strangely by one who wished to travel on another path? The wandering
+witch-doctor told me that he who came would bear some sign.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;at least in words.
+But,&rdquo; I added after reflection, &ldquo;as you ask for a token, perhaps I
+might be able to show you something that would bring proof to your heart, if
+there were any secret place&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas walked to the gateway of the fence and saw that the sentry was at
+his post. Then he walked round the hut casting an eye upon its roof, and
+muttered to me as he returned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Once I was caught thus. There lived a certain wife of mine who set her
+ear to the smoke-hole and so brought about the death of many, and among them of
+herself and of our children. Enter. All is safe. Yet if you talk, speak
+low.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we went into the hut taking the stools with us, and seated ourselves by the
+fire that burned there on to which Umslopogaas threw chips of resinous wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I opened my shirt and by the clear light of the flame showed him the image of
+Zikali which hung about my neck. He stared at it, though touch it he would not.
+Then he stood up and lifting his great axe, he saluted the image with the word
+&ldquo;<i>Makosi!</i>&rdquo; the salute that is given to great wizards because
+they are supposed to be the home of many spirits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the big Medicine, the Medicine itself,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that
+which has been known in the land since the time of Senzangacona, the father of
+the Zulu Royal House, and as it is said, before him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can that be?&rdquo; I asked, &ldquo;seeing that this image
+represents Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, as an old man, and Senzangacona died many
+years ago?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;but it is so. Listen. There
+was a certain Mopo, or as some called him, Umbopo, who was Chaka&rsquo;s
+body-servant and my foster-father, and he told me that twice this
+Medicine,&rdquo; and he pointed to the image, &ldquo;was sent to Chaka, and
+that each time the Lion obeyed the message that came with it. A third time it
+was sent, but he did not obey the message and then&mdash;where was
+Chaka?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Umslopogaas passed his hand across his mouth, a significant gesture
+amongst the Zulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mopo,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;yes, I have heard the story of Mopo, also
+that Chaka&rsquo;s body became <i>his</i> servant in the end, since Mopo killed
+him with the help of the princes Dingaan and Umhlangana. Also I have heard that
+this Mopo still lives, though not in Zululand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does he, Macumazahn?&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, taking snuff from a spoon
+and looking at me keenly over the spoon. &ldquo;You seem to know a great deal,
+Macumazahn; too much as some might think.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;perhaps I do know too much, or at any
+rate more than I want to know. For instance, O fosterling of Mopo and son
+of&mdash;was the lady named Baleka?&mdash;I know a good deal about
+<i>you</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas stared at me and laying his hand upon the great axe, half rose.
+Then he sat down again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that this,&rdquo; and I touched the image of Zikali upon my
+breast, &ldquo;would turn even the blade of the axe named Groan-maker,&rdquo; I
+said and paused. As nothing happened, I went on, &ldquo;For instance, again I
+think I know&mdash;or have I dreamed it?&mdash;that a certain chief, whose
+mother&rsquo;s name I believe was Baleka&mdash;by the way, was she not one of
+Chaka&rsquo;s &lsquo;sisters&rsquo;?&mdash;has been plotting against that son
+of Panda who sits upon the throne, and that his plots have been betrayed, so
+that he is in some danger of his life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas hoarsely, &ldquo;I tell you that did
+you not wear the Great Medicine on your breast, I would kill you where you sit
+and bury you beneath the floor of the hut, as one who knows&mdash;too
+much.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would be a mistake, Umslopogaas, one of the many that you have made.
+But as I <i>do</i> wear the Medicine, the question does not arise, does
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again he made no answer and I went on, &ldquo;And now, what about this journey
+to the north? If indeed I must make it, would you wish to accompany me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas rose from the stool and crawled out of the hut, apparently to make
+some inspection. Presently he returned and remarked that the night was clear
+although there were heavy storm clouds on the horizon, by which I understood
+him to convey in Zulu metaphor that it was safe for us to talk, but that danger
+threatened from afar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we speak under the blanket of the
+Opener-of-Roads who sits upon your heart, and whose sign you bring to me, as he
+sent me word that you would, do we not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose so,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;At any rate we speak as man to
+man, and hitherto the honour of Macumazahn has not been doubted in Zululand. So
+if you have anything to say, Chief Bulalio, say it at once, for I am tired and
+should like to eat and rest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good, Macumazahn. I have this to say. I who am the son of one who was
+greater than he, have plotted to seize the throne of Zululand from him who sits
+upon that throne. It is true, for I grew weary of my idleness as a petty chief.
+Moreover, I should have succeeded with the help of Zikali, who hates the House
+of Senzangacona, though me, who am of its blood, he does not hate, because ever
+I have striven against that House. But it seems from his message and those
+words spoken by an angry woman, that I have been betrayed, and that to-night or
+to-morrow night, or by the next moon, the slayers will be upon me, smiting me
+before I can smite, at which I cannot grumble.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By whom have you been betrayed, Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By that wife of mine, as I think, Macumazahn. Also by Lousta, my
+blood-brother, over whom she has cast her net and made false to me, so that he
+hopes to win her whom he has always loved and with her the Chieftainship of the
+Axe. Now what shall I do?&mdash;Tell me, you whose eyes can see in the
+dark.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thought a moment and answered, &ldquo;I think that if I were you, I would
+leave this Lousta to sit in my place for a while as Chief of the People of the
+Axe, and take a journey north, Umslopogaas. Then if trouble comes from the
+Great House where a king sits, it will come to Lousta who can show that the
+People of the Axe are innocent and that you are far away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is cunning, Macumazahn. There speaks the Great Medicine. If I go
+north, who can say that I have plotted, and if I leave my betrayer in my place,
+who can say that I was a traitor, who have set him where I used to sit and left
+the land upon a private matter? And now tell me of this journey of
+yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I told him everything, although until that moment I had not made up my mind
+to go upon this journey, I who had come here to his kraal by accident, or so it
+seemed, and by accident had delivered to him a certain message.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You wish to consult a white witch-doctoress, Macumazahn, who according
+to Zikali lives far to the north, as to the dead. Now I too, though perchance
+you will not think it of a black man, desire to learn of the dead; yes, of a
+certain wife of my youth who was sister and friend as well as wife, whom too I
+loved better than all the world. Also I desire to learn of a brother of mine
+whose name I never speak, who ruled the wolves with me and who died at my side
+on yonder Witch-Mountain, having made him a mat of men to lie on in a great and
+glorious fight. For of him as of the woman I think all day and dream all night,
+and I would know if they still live anywhere and I may look to see them again
+when I have died as a warrior should and as I hope to do. Do you understand,
+Watcher-by-Night?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I understood very well, as his case seemed to be like my own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may happen,&rdquo; went on Umslopogaas, &ldquo;that all this talk of
+the dead who are supposed to live after they are dead, is but as the sound of
+wind whispering in the reeds at night, that comes from nowhere and goes nowhere
+and means nothing. But at least ours will be a great journey in which we shall
+find adventure and fighting, since it is well known in the land that wherever
+Macumazahn goes there is plenty of both. Also it seems well for reasons that
+have been spoken of between us, as Zikali says, that I should leave the country
+of the Zulus for a while, who desire to die a man&rsquo;s death at the last and
+not to be trapped like a jackal in a pit. Lastly I think that we shall agree
+well together though my temper is rough at times, and that neither of us will
+desert the other in trouble, though of that little yellow dog of yours I am not
+so sure.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I answer for him,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;Hans is a true man, cunning
+also when once he is away from drink.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Then we spoke of plans for our journey, and of when and where we should meet to
+make it, talking till it was late, after which I went to sleep in the
+guest-hut.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+THE LION AND THE AXE</h2>
+
+<p>
+Next day early I left the town of the People of the Axe, having bid a formal
+farewell to Umslopogaas, saying in a voice that all could hear that as the
+rivers were still flooded, I proposed to trek to the northern parts of Zululand
+and trade there until the weather was better. Our private arrangement, however,
+was that on the night of the next full moon, which happened about four weeks
+later, we should meet at the eastern foot of a certain great, flat-topped
+mountain known to both of us, which stands to the north of Zululand but well
+beyond its borders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So northward I trekked, slowly to spare my oxen, trading as I went. The details
+do not matter, but as it happened I met with more luck upon that journey than
+had come my way for many a long year. Although I worked on credit since nearly
+all my goods were sold, as owing to my repute I could always do in Zululand, I
+made some excellent bargains in cattle, and to top up with, bought a large lot
+of ivory so cheap that really I think it must have been stolen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All of this, cattle and ivory together, I sent to Natal in charge of a white
+friend of mine whom I could trust, where the stuff was sold very well indeed,
+and the proceeds paid to my account, the &ldquo;trade&rdquo; equivalents being
+duly remitted to the native vendors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, my good fortune was such that if I had been superstitious like Hans, I
+should have been inclined to attribute it to the influence of Zikali&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Great Medicine.&rdquo; As it was I knew it to be one of the chances of a
+trader&rsquo;s life and accepted it with a shrug as often as I had been
+accustomed to do in the alternative of losses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only one untoward incident happened to me. Of a sudden a party of the
+King&rsquo;s soldiers under the command of a well-known <i>Induna</i> or
+Councillor, arrived and insisted upon searching my waggon, as I thought at
+first in connection with that cheap lot of ivory which had already departed to
+Natal. However, never a word did they say of ivory, nor indeed was a single
+thing belonging to me taken by them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was very indignant and expressed my feelings to the <i>Induna</i> in no
+measured terms. He on his part was most apologetic, and explained that what he
+did he was obliged to do &ldquo;by the King&rsquo;s orders.&rdquo; Also he let
+it slip that he was seeking for a certain &ldquo;evil-doer&rdquo; who, it was
+thought, might be with me without my knowing his real character, and as this
+&ldquo;evil-doer,&rdquo; whose name he would not mention, was a very fierce
+man, it had been necessary to bring a strong guard with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I bethought me of Umslopogaas, but merely looked blank and shrugged my
+shoulders, saying that I was not in the habit of consorting with evil-doers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still unsatisfied, the <i>Induna</i> questioned me as to the places where I had
+been during this journey of mine in the Zulu country. I told him with the
+utmost frankness, mentioning among others&mdash;because I was sure that already
+he knew all my movements well&mdash;the town of the People of the Axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he asked me if I had seen its Chief, a certain Umslopogaas or Bulalio. I
+answered, Yes, that I had met him there for the first time and thought him a
+very remarkable man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this the <i>Induna</i> agreed emphatically, saying that perhaps I did not
+know <i>how</i> remarkable. Next he asked me where he was now, to which I
+replied that I had not the faintest idea, but I presumed in his kraal where I
+had left him. The <i>Induna</i> explained that he was <i>not</i> in his kraal;
+that he had gone away leaving one Lousta and his own head wife Monazi to
+administer the chieftainship for a while, because, as he stated, he wished to
+make a journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I yawned as if weary of the subject of this chief, and indeed of the whole
+business. Then the <i>Induna</i> said that I must come to the King and repeat
+to him all the words that I had spoken. I replied that I could not possibly do
+so as, having finished my trading, I had arranged to go north to shoot
+elephants. He answered that elephants lived a long while and would not die
+while I was visiting the King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed an argument which grew heated and ended in his declaring that to
+the King I must come, even if he had to take me there by force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat silent, wondering what to say or do and leant forward to pick a piece of
+wood out of the fire wherewith to light my pipe. Now my shirt was not buttoned
+and as it chanced this action caused the ivory image of Zikali that hung about
+my neck to appear between its edges. The <i>Induna</i> saw it and his eyes grew
+big with fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hide that!&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;hide that, lest it should bewitch
+me. Indeed, already I feel as though I were being bewitched. It is the Great
+Medicine itself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That will certainly happen to you,&rdquo; I said, yawning again,
+&ldquo;if you insist upon my taking a week&rsquo;s trek to visit the Black One,
+or interfere with me in any way now or afterwards,&rdquo; and I lifted my hand
+towards the talisman, looking him steadily in the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps after all, Macumazahn, it is not necessary for you to visit the
+King,&rdquo; he said in an uncertain voice. &ldquo;I will go and make report to
+him that you know nothing of this evil-doer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he went in such a hurry that he never waited to say good-bye. Next morning
+before the dawn I went also and trekked steadily until I was clear of Zululand.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had been so wet, had
+now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great, flat-topped hill
+that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high, sparsely-timbered veld that
+offered few difficulties to the waggon. This peculiar hill, known to such
+natives as lived in those parts by a long word that means
+&ldquo;Hut-with-a-flat-roof,&rdquo; is surrounded by forest, for here trees
+grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water that flows from its slopes.
+Forcing our way through this forest, which was full of game, I reached its
+eastern foot and there camped, five days before that night of full moon on
+which I had arranged to meet Umslopogaas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly because I
+thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind about coming, and
+secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he had gone to call upon the
+King against his will, as I had been asked to do. It was evident to me that he
+was up to his eyes in some serious plot against Cetywayo, in which he was the
+old dwarf Zikali&rsquo;s partner, or rather, tool; also that his plot had been
+betrayed, with the result that he was &ldquo;wanted&rdquo; and would have
+little chance of passing safely through Zululand. So taking one thing with
+another I imagined that I had seen his grim face and his peculiar,
+ancient-looking axe for the last time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed to me a
+little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch chase through
+unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who dwelt far across the
+Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the thing, but if Umslopogaas did
+not appear, my obligations would be at an end and I should return to Natal at
+my leisure. First, however, I would do a little shooting since I found that a
+large herd of elephants haunted this forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack
+them at once, but did not do so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going
+north it would be difficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had to leave
+the waggon, and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the great beasts for
+the fun of the thing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the hours of
+light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most slopes of the big
+mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more than a hundred yards above
+the timber line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot; probably
+the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I found human bones black
+with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the cattle-kraal still remained and
+in such good condition that by piling up a few stones here and there on the
+walls and closing the narrow entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it
+to enclose our oxen at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions
+about, though I had neither seen nor heard them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever we
+wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a spot whither
+they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came the time of full moon.
+Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the truth, I had begun to be bored.
+Rest is good, but for a man who has always led an active life too much of it is
+very bad, for then he begins to think and thought in large doses is depressing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind that on
+the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had shot&mdash;or
+failed to shoot&mdash;some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable to remain
+idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhaps why I employ my
+ample leisure here in England in jotting down such reminiscences as these.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a good look
+at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned in. An hour or two
+later some noise from the direction of the cattle-kraal woke me up. As it did
+not recur, I thought that I would go to sleep again. Then an uneasy thought
+came to me that I could not remember having looked to see whether the entrance
+was properly closed, as it was my habit to do. It was the same sort of
+troublesome doubt which in a civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go
+along the cold passages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put out the
+lamp. It always proves that he <i>has</i> put it out, but that does not prevent
+a repetition of the performance next time the perplexity arises.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing their way
+through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that I had better go to
+see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went without waking Hans or the
+boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-barrelled rifle which I used for
+shooting small buck, but no spare cartridges.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew a single big
+tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I looked and saw that the
+gateway was quite securely closed, as now I remembered I had noted at sunset.
+Then I started to go back but had not stepped more than two or three paces
+when, in the bright moonlight, I saw the head of my smallest ox, a beast of the
+Zulu breed, suddenly appear over the top of the wall. About this there would
+have been nothing particularly astonishing, had it not been for the fact that
+this head belonged to a dead animal, as I could tell from the closed eyes and
+the hanging tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What in the name of goodness&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; I began to myself,
+when my reflections were cut short by the appearance of another head, that of
+one of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, and with
+the enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by getting its back
+beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over the wall, to drag it away
+to devour at its leisure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it saw me as I
+saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead,&rdquo;
+one can fancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift of
+God I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for even with
+the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have pierced through the
+soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have killed that lion as dead as
+Julius Cæsar. Theoretically the thing was easy enough; indeed, although I was
+startled for a moment, by the time that I had the rifle to my shoulder I had
+little fear of the issue, unless there was a miss-fire, especially as the beast
+seemed so astonished that it remained quite still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life, particularly in
+hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I fired, but by misfortune the
+bullet struck the tip of the horn of that confounded ox, which tip either was
+or at that moment fell in front of the spot on the lion&rsquo;s throat whereat
+half-unconsciously I had aimed. Result: the ball was turned and, departing at
+an angle, just cut the skin of the lion&rsquo;s neck deeply enough to hurt it
+very much and to make it madder than all the hatters in the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at me&mdash;I
+remember that there seemed to be yards of it&mdash;I mean of the lion&mdash;in
+front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because there was
+nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way, that after all
+Zikali&rsquo;s Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The lion landed on my side
+of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legs before getting to business,
+towering high above me but slightly to my left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past
+me&mdash;all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,
+probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it another
+shadow, that of a lion&rsquo;s paw dropping to the ground. Next there was a
+most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray as never I
+shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was fighting the great lion, that now
+lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind legs, striking at him with the
+other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back with the axe,
+catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it came to the ground
+in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only one fore-foot on which to light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or do
+anything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into the head.
+After this all was over, for the beast&rsquo;s brain was cut in two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas,
+for it was he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion&rsquo;s
+severed skull, &ldquo;to find you watching by night as it is reported that you
+always do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I retorted, for his tone irritated me, &ldquo;you are late,
+Bulalio, the moon has been up some hours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the <i>night</i> of the
+full moon, not at the rising of the moon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is true,&rdquo; I replied, mollified, &ldquo;and at any rate you
+came at a good moment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;though as it happens in this clear light
+the thing was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the end
+might have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as I thought,
+since otherwise you would not have come out against a lion with a toy like
+that,&rdquo; and he pointed to the little rifle in my hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or
+another there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared to meet,
+Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are right again,&rdquo; I replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet distance by
+the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well,&rdquo; was
+all he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better,&rdquo;
+remarked Umslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe.
+&ldquo;Never before since she came into my keeping has <i>Inkosikaas</i> (i.e.
+&lsquo;Chieftainess,&rsquo; for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as
+to drink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she need not
+be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I have been told, are
+cunning, watch your master so ill?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was asleep,&rdquo; stuttered Hans indignantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those who serve should never sleep,&rdquo; replied Umslopogaas sternly.
+Then he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at a
+little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing axes and wearing
+cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by raising their axes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a
+mat,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted
+away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who are these?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There were one
+or two more, but they got lost on the way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Next morning I told Umslopogaas of the visit I had received from the
+<i>Induna</i> of the King who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He nodded
+and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why
+one or two of my people remain behind who will never travel again. We made good
+play with those thieves; not one of them escaped,&rdquo; he added grimly,
+&ldquo;and their bodies we threw into a river where are many crocodiles. But
+their spears I brought away and I think that they are such as the King&rsquo;s
+guard use. If so, his search for them will be long, since the fight took place
+where no man lives and we burned the shields and trappings. Oho! he will think
+that the ghosts have taken them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for these
+&ldquo;thieves&rdquo; should strike and follow our spoor. Luckily the ox that
+the lion had killed was one of some spare cattle which I was driving with me,
+so its loss did not inconvenience us. As we went Umslopogaas told me that he
+had duly appointed Lousta and his wife Monazi to rule the tribe during his
+absence, an office which they accepted doubtfully, Monazi acting as
+Chieftainess and Lousta as her head <i>Induna</i> or Councillor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked him whether he thought this wise under all the circumstances, seeing
+that it had occurred to me since I made the suggestion, that they might be
+unwilling to surrender power on his return, also that other domestic
+complications might ensue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It matters little, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said with a shrug of his great
+shoulders, &ldquo;for of this I am sure, that I have played my part with the
+People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death, who am a
+man betrayed. What do I care who love none and now have no children? Still, it
+is true that I might have fled to Natal with the cattle and there have led a
+fat and easy life. But ease and plenty I do not desire who would live and fall
+as a warrior should.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves
+ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die, or sleep
+in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with wives and oxen while
+I have <i>Inkosikaas</i> the Groan-maker and she is true to me?&rdquo; he
+added, shaking the ancient axe above his head so that the sun gleamed upon the
+curved blade and the hollow gouge or point at the back beyond the shaft socket.
+&ldquo;Where the Axe goes, there go the strength and virtue of the Axe, O
+Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a strange weapon,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a
+warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter who was also the first of
+smiths and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to return to his hand
+when its work is finished beneath the sun. That will be soon, Macumazahn, since
+Zikali told me that I am the last Holder of the Axe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from
+Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought you to
+my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the spirit of a snake
+had told him that you tried to throw the Great Medicine into a pool, but were
+stopped by that snake, whilst it was still alive. This, he said, you must do no
+more, lest he should send another snake to stop <i>you</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did he?&rdquo; I replied indignantly, for Zikali&rsquo;s power of seeing
+or learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only Hans grinned and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I told you so, Baas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and dangers as
+are common on roadless veld in Africa, but no more, for the grass was good and
+there was plenty of game, of which we shot what we wanted for meat. Indeed,
+here in the back regions of what is known as Portuguese South East Africa,
+every sort of wild animal was so numerous that personally I wished we could
+turn our journey into a shooting expedition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But of this Umslopogaas, whom hunting bored, would not hear. In fact, he was
+much more anxious than myself to carry out our original purpose. When I asked
+him why, he answered because of something Zikali had told him. What this was he
+would not say, except that in the country whither we wandered he would fight a
+great fight and win much honour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive joy in
+battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus only could a man
+decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person who loves quiet and a home.
+Still, I gave way, partly to please him, partly because I hoped that we might
+discover something of interest, and still more because, having once undertaken
+an enterprise, my pride prompted me to see it through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now while he was preparing to draw his map in the ashes, or afterwards, I
+forget which, Zikali had told me that when we drew near to the great river we
+should come to a place on the edge of bush-veld that ran down to the river,
+where a white man lived, adding, after casting his bones and reading from them,
+that he thought this white man was a &ldquo;trek-Boer.&rdquo; This, I should
+explain, means a Dutchman who has travelled away from wherever he lived and
+made a home for himself in the wilderness, as some wandering spirit and the
+desire to be free of authority often prompt these people to do. Also, after
+another inspection of his enchanted knuckle-bones, he had declared that
+something remarkable would happen to this man or his family, while I was
+visiting him. Lastly in that map he drew in the ashes, the details of which
+were impressed so indelibly upon my memory, he had shown me where I should find
+the dwelling of this white man, of whom and of whose habitation doubtless he
+knew through the many spies who seemed to be at the service of all
+witch-doctors, and more especially of Zikali, the greatest among them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Travelling by the sun and the compass I had trekked steadily in the exact
+direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful particular he was
+well named the &ldquo;Opener-of-Roads,&rdquo; since always before me I found a
+practicable path, although to the right or to the left there would have been
+none. Thus when we came to mountains, it was at a spot where we discovered a
+pass; when we came to swamps it was where a ridge of high ground ran between,
+and so forth. Also such tribes as we met upon our journey always proved of a
+friendly character, although perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas and his fierce
+band whom, rather irreverently, I named his twelve Apostles, had a share in
+inducing this peaceful attitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain intervals,
+that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be following some ancient
+road which at a forgotten period of history, had run from south to north, or
+<i>vice versâ</i>. Or rather, to be honest, it was the observant Hans who made
+this discovery from various indications which had escaped my notice. I need not
+stop to detail them, but one of these was that at certain places the
+water-holes on a high, rather barren land had been dug out, and in one or more
+instances, lined with stones after the fashion of an ancient well. Evidently we
+were following an old trade route made, perhaps, in forgotten ages when Africa
+was more civilised than it is now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our trek, where
+frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed itself before ten
+o&rsquo;clock and disappeared at three or four in the afternoon, and where
+twice we were held up for two whole days by dense fog, we came across a queer
+nomadic people who seemed to live in movable grass huts and to keep great herds
+of goats and long-tailed sheep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did them no
+harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of a kind of slug
+or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who was a great master of
+different native dialects, discovered a tongue, or a mixture of tongues, in
+which he could make himself understood to some of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man, although their
+fathers&rsquo; fathers (an expression by which they meant their remote
+ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however, that if we went on
+steadily towards the north for another seven days&rsquo; journey, we should
+come to a place where a white man lived, one, they had heard, who had a long
+beard and killed animals with guns, as we did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down hill out
+of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld here was beautiful,
+high, rolling plains like those of the East African plateau, covered with a
+deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as we could see where the rains had
+washed out dongas. The climate, too, seemed to be cool and very healthful.
+Altogether it was a pity to see such lands lying idle and tenanted only by
+countless herds of game, for there were not any native inhabitants, or at least
+we met none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at length we saw
+far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed correctly, must fringe the
+great Zambesi River. Moreover we, or rather Hans, whose eyes were those of a
+hawk, saw something else, namely buildings of a more or less civilised kind,
+which stood among trees by the side of a stream several miles on this side of
+the great belt of bush.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look, Baas,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;those wanderers did not lie; there
+is the house of the white man. I wonder if he drinks anything stronger than
+water,&rdquo; he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of his
+yellow throat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it happened, he did.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+INEZ</h2>
+
+<p>
+We had sighted the house from far away shortly after sunrise and by midday we
+were there. As we approached I saw that it stood almost immediately beneath two
+great baobab trees, babyan trees we call them in South Africa, perhaps because
+monkeys eat their fruit. It was a thatched house with whitewashed walls and a
+stoep or veranda round it, apparently of the ordinary Dutch type. Moreover,
+beyond it, at a little distance were other houses or rather shanties with
+waggon sheds, etc., and beyond and mixed up with these a number of native huts.
+Further on were considerable fields green with springing corn; also we saw
+herds of cattle grazing on the slopes. Evidently our white man was rich.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas surveyed the place with a soldier&rsquo;s eye and said to me,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is feared,
+since of defences I see none.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;why not, with a wilderness behind it and
+bush-veld and a great river in front?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Men can cross rivers and travel through bush-veld,&rdquo; he answered,
+and was silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to this time we had seen no one, although it might have been presumed that a
+waggon trekking towards the house was a sufficiently unusual sight to have
+attracted attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where can they be?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Asleep, Baas, I think,&rdquo; said Hans, and as a matter of fact he was
+right. The whole population of the place was indulging in a noonday siesta.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last we came so near to the house that I halted the waggon and descended
+from the driving-box in order to investigate. At this moment someone did
+appear, the sight of whom astonished me not a little, namely, a very
+striking-looking young woman. She was tall, handsome, with large dark eyes,
+good features, a rather pale complexion, and I think the saddest face that I
+ever saw. Evidently she had heard the noise of the waggon and had come out to
+see what caused it, for she had nothing on her head, which was covered with
+thick hair of a raven blackness. Catching sight of the great Umslopogaas with
+his gleaming axe and of his savage-looking bodyguard, she uttered an
+exclamation and not unnaturally turned to fly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all right,&rdquo; I sang out, emerging from behind the oxen,
+and in English, though before the words had left my lips I reflected that there
+was not the slightest reason to suppose that she would understand them.
+Probably she was Dutch, or Portuguese, although by some instinct I had
+addressed her in English.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To my surprise she answered me in the same tongue, spoken, it is true, with a
+peculiar accent which I could not place, as it was neither Scotch nor Irish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I, sir, was frightened. Your friends
+look&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; Here she stumbled for a word, then added,
+&ldquo;terrocious.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed at this composite adjective and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, so they are in a way, though they will not harm you or me. But,
+young lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your
+husband&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have no husband, I have only a father, sir,&rdquo; and she sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, then, could I speak to your father? My name is Allan Quatermain
+and I am making a journey of exploration, to find out about the country beyond,
+you know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I will go to wake him. He is asleep. Everyone sleeps here at
+midday&mdash;except me,&rdquo; she said with another sigh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you not follow their example?&rdquo; I asked jocosely, for this
+young woman puzzled me and I wanted to find out about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I sleep little, sir, who think too much. There will be plenty of
+time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stared at her and inquired her name, because I did not know what else to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My name is Inez Robertson,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;I will go to wake
+my father. Meanwhile please unyoke your oxen. They can feed with the others;
+they look as though they wanted rest, poor things.&rdquo; Then she turned and
+went into the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Inez Robertson,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s a queer
+combination. English father and Portuguese mother, I suppose. But what can an
+Englishman be doing in a place like this? If it had been a trek-Boer I should
+not have been surprised.&rdquo; Then I began to give directions about
+out-spanning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had just got the oxen out of the yokes, when a big, raw-boned, red-bearded,
+blue-eyed, roughly-clad man of about fifty years of age appeared from the
+house, yawning. I threw my eye over him as he advanced with a peculiar rolling
+gait, and formed certain conclusions. A drunkard who has once been a gentleman,
+I reflected to myself, for there was something peculiarly dissolute in his
+appearance, also one who has had to do with the sea, a diagnosis which proved
+very accurate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you do, Mr. Allan Quatermain, which I think my daughter said is
+your name, unless I dreamed it, for it is one that I seem to have heard
+before,&rdquo; he exclaimed with a broad Scotch accent which I do not attempt
+to reproduce. &ldquo;What in the name of blazes brings you here where no real
+white man has been for years? Well, I am glad enough to see you any way, for I
+am sick of half-breed Portuguese and niggers, and snuff-and-butter girls, and
+gin and bad whisky. Leave your people to attend to those oxen and come in and
+have a drink.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you, Mr. Robertson&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Captain Robertson,&rdquo; he interrupted. &ldquo;Man, don&rsquo;t look
+astonished. You mightn&rsquo;t guess it, but I commanded a mail-steamer once
+and should like to hear myself called rightly again before I die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I beg your pardon&mdash;Captain Robertson, but myself, I don&rsquo;t
+drink anything before sundown. However, if you have something to
+eat&mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh yes, Inez&mdash;she&rsquo;s my daughter&mdash;will find you a bite.
+Those men of yours,&rdquo; and he also looked doubtfully at Umslopogaas and his
+savage company, &ldquo;will want food as well. I&rsquo;ll have a beast killed
+for them; they look as if they could eat it, horns and all. Where are my
+people? All asleep, I suppose, the lazy lubbers. Wait a bit, I&rsquo;ll wake
+them up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Going to the house he snatched a great sjambok cut from hippopotamus hide, from
+where it hung on a nail in the wall, and ran towards the group of huts which I
+have mentioned, roaring out the name Thomaso, also a string of oaths such as
+seamen use, mixed with others of a Portuguese variety. What happened there I
+could not see because boughs were in the way, but presently I heard blows and
+screams, and caught sight of people, all dark-skinned, flying from the huts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little later a fat, half-breed man&mdash;I should say from his curling hair
+that his mother was a negress and his father a Portuguese&mdash;appeared with
+some other nondescript fellows and began to give directions in a competent
+fashion about our oxen, also as to the killing of a calf. He spoke in bastard
+Portuguese, which I could understand, and I heard him talk of Umslopogaas to
+whom he pointed, as &ldquo;that nigger,&rdquo; after the fashion of such
+cross-bred people who choose to consider themselves white men. Also he made
+uncomplimentary remarks about Hans, who of course understood every word he
+said. Evidently Thomaso&rsquo;s temper had been ruffled by this sudden and
+violent disturbance of his nap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then our host appeared puffing with his exertions and declaring that he
+had stirred up the swine with a vengeance, in proof of which he pointed to the
+sjambok that was reddened with blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Captain Robertson,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I wish to give you a hint to be
+passed on to Mr. Thomaso, if that is he. He spoke of the Zulu soldier there as
+a nigger, etc. Well, he is a chief of a high rank and rather a terrible fellow
+if roused. Therefore I recommend Mr. Thomaso not to let him understand that he
+is insulting him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! that&rsquo;s the way of these &lsquo;snuff-and-butters&rsquo; one of
+whose grandmothers once met a white man,&rdquo; replied the Captain, laughing,
+&ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll tell him,&rdquo; and he did in Portuguese.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His retainer listened in silence, looking at Umslopogaas rather sulkily. Then
+we walked into the house. As we went the Captain said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Señor Thomaso&mdash;he calls himself Señor&mdash;is my manager here and
+a clever man, honest too in his way and attached to me, perhaps because I saved
+his life once. But he has a nasty temper, as have all these cross-breeds, so I
+hope he won&rsquo;t get wrong with that native who carries a big axe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hope so too, for his own sake,&rdquo; I replied emphatically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Captain led the way into the sitting-room; there was but one in the house.
+It proved a queer kind of place with rude furniture seated with strips of hide
+after the Boer fashion, and yet bearing a certain air of refinement which was
+doubtless due to Inez, who, with the assistance of a stout native girl, was
+already engaged in setting the table. Thus there was a shelf with books,
+Shakespeare was one of these, I noticed&mdash;over which hung an ivory
+crucifix, which suggested that Inez was a Catholic. On the walls, too, were
+some good portraits, and on the window-ledge a jar full of flowers. Also the
+forks and spoons were of silver, as were the mugs, and engraved with a
+tremendous coat-of-arms and a Portuguese motto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently the food appeared, which was excellent and plentiful, and the
+Captain, his daughter and I sat down and ate. I noted that he drank gin and
+water, an innocent-looking beverage but strong as he took it. It was offered to
+me, but like Miss Inez, I preferred coffee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the meal and afterwards while we smoked upon the veranda, I told them as
+much as I thought desirable of my plans. I said that I was engaged upon a
+journey of exploration of the country beyond the Zambesi, and that having heard
+of this settlement, which, by the way, was called Strathmuir, as I gathered
+after a place in far away Scotland where the Captain had been born and passed
+his childhood, I had come here to inquire as to how to cross the great river,
+and about other things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Captain was interested, especially when I informed him that I was that same
+&ldquo;Hunter Quatermain&rdquo; of whom he had heard in past years, but he told
+me that it would be impossible to take the waggon down into the low bush-veld
+which we could see beneath us, as there all the oxen would die of the bite of
+the tsetse fly. I answered that I was aware of this and proposed to try to make
+an arrangement to leave it in his charge till I returned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That might be managed, Mr. Quatermain,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;But,
+man, will you ever return? They say there are queer folk living on the other
+side of the Zambesi, savage men who are cannibals, Amahagger I think they call
+them. It was they who in past years cleaned out all this country, except a few
+river tribes who live in floating huts or on islands among the reeds, and
+that&rsquo;s why it is so empty. But this happened long ago, much before my
+time, and I don&rsquo;t suppose they will ever cross the river again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I might ask, what brought you here, Captain?&rdquo; I said, for the
+point was one on which I felt curious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That which brings most men to wild places, Mr. Quatermain&mdash;trouble.
+If you want to know, I had a misfortune and piled up my ship. There were some
+lives lost and, rightly or wrongly, I got the sack. Then I started as a trader
+in a God-forsaken hole named Chinde, one of the Zambesi mouths, you know, and
+did very well, as we Scotchmen have a way of doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There I married a Portuguese lady, a real lady of high blood, one of the
+old sort. When my girl, Inez, was about twelve years old I got into more
+trouble, for my wife died and it pleased a certain relative of hers to say that
+it was because I had neglected her. This ended in a row and the truth is that I
+killed him&mdash;in fair fight, mind you. Still, kill him I did though I
+scarcely knew that I had done it at the time, after which the place grew too
+hot to hold me. So I sold up and swore that I would have no more to do with
+what they are pleased to call civilisation on the East Coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;During my trading I had heard that there was fine country up this way,
+and here I came and settled years ago, bringing my girl and Thomaso, who was
+one of my managers, also a few other people with me. And here I have been ever
+since, doing very well as before, for I trade a lot of ivory and other things
+and grow stuff and cattle, which I sell to the River natives. Yes, I am a rich
+man now and could go to live on my means in Scotland, or anywhere.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! for many reasons. I have lost touch with all that and become half
+wild and I like this life and the sunshine and being my own master. Also, if I
+did, things might be raked up against me, about that man&rsquo;s death. Also,
+though I daresay it will make you think badly of me for it, Mr. Quatermain, I
+have ties down there,&rdquo; and he waved his hand towards the village, if so
+it could be called, &ldquo;which it wouldn&rsquo;t be easy for me to break. A
+man may be fond of his children, Mr. Quatermain, even if their skins
+ain&rsquo;t so white as they ought to be. Lastly I have habits&mdash;you see, I
+am speaking out to you as man to man&mdash;which might get me into trouble
+again if I went back to the world,&rdquo; and he nodded his fine,
+capable-looking head in the direction of the bottle on the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see,&rdquo; I said hastily, for this kind of confession bursting out
+of the man&rsquo;s lonely heart when what he had drunk took a hold of him, was
+painful to hear. &ldquo;But how about your daughter, Miss Inez?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; he said, with a quiver in his voice, &ldquo;there you touch
+it. She ought to go away. There is no one for her to marry here, where we
+haven&rsquo;t seen a white man for years, and she&rsquo;s a lady right enough,
+like her mother. But who is she to go to, being a Roman Catholic whom my own
+dour Presbyterian folk in Scotland, if any of them are left, would turn their
+backs on? Moreover, she loves me in her own fashion, as I love her, and she
+wouldn&rsquo;t leave me because she thinks it her duty to stay and knows that
+if she did, I should go to the devil altogether. Still&mdash;perhaps you might
+help me about her, Mr. Quatermain, that is if you live to come back from your
+journey,&rdquo; he added doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I felt inclined to ask how I could possibly help in such a matter, but thought
+it wisest to say nothing. This, however, he did not notice, for he went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now I think I will have a nap, as I do my work in the early morning, and
+sometimes late at night when my brain seems to clear up again, for you see I
+was a sailor for many years and accustomed to keeping watches. You&rsquo;ll
+look after yourself, won&rsquo;t you, and treat the place as your own?&rdquo;
+Then he vanished into the house to lie down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I had finished my pipe I went for a walk. First I visited the waggon where
+I found Umslopogaas and his company engaged in cooking the beast that had been
+given them, Zulu fashion; Hans with his usual cunning had already secured a
+meal, probably from the servants, or from Inez herself; at least he left them
+and followed me. First we went down to the huts, where we saw a number of
+good-looking young women of mixed blood, all decently dressed and engaged about
+their household duties. Also we saw four or five boys and girls, to say nothing
+of a baby in arms, fine young people, one or two of whom were more white than
+coloured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those children are very like the Baas with the red beard,&rdquo;
+remarked Hans reflectively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I said, and shivered, for now I understood the awfulness of
+this poor man&rsquo;s case. He was the father of a number of half-breeds who
+tied him to this spot as anchors tie a ship. I went on rather hastily past some
+sheds to a long, low building which proved to be a store. Here the
+quarter-blood called Thomaso, and some assistants were engaged in trading with
+natives from the Zambesi swamps, men of a kind that I had never seen, but in a
+way more civilised than many further south. What they were selling or buying, I
+did not stop to see, but I noticed that the store was full of goods of one sort
+or another, including a great deal of ivory, which, as I supposed, had come
+down the river from inland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we walked on to the cultivated fields where we saw corn growing very well,
+also tobacco and other crops. Beyond this were cattle kraals and in the
+distance we perceived a great number of cattle and goats feeding on the slopes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This red-bearded Baas must be very rich in all things,&rdquo; remarked
+the observant Hans when we had completed our investigations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;rich and yet poor.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can a man be both rich and yet poor, Baas?&rdquo; asked Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just at that moment some of the half-breed children whom I have mentioned, ran
+past us more naked than dressed and whooping like little savages. Hans
+contemplated them gravely, then said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think I understand now, Baas. A man may be rich in things he loves and
+yet does not want, which makes him poor in other ways.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;as <i>you</i> are, Hans, when you take
+too much to drink.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then we met the stately Miss Inez returning from the store, carrying some
+articles in a basket, soap, I think, and tea in a packet, amongst them. I told
+Hans to take the basket and bear it to the house for her. He went off with it
+and, walking slowly, we fell into conversation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your father must do very well here,&rdquo; I said, nodding at the store
+with the crowd of natives round it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;he makes much money which he puts in a
+bank at the coast, for living costs us nothing and there is great profit in
+what he buys and sells, also in the crops he grows and in the cattle.
+But,&rdquo; she added pathetically, &ldquo;what is the use of money in a place
+like this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You can get things with it,&rdquo; I answered vaguely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is what my father says, but what does he get? Strong stuff to
+drink; dresses for those women down there, and sometimes pearls, jewels and
+other things for me which I do not want. I have a box full of them set in ugly
+gold, or loose which I cannot use, and if I put them on, who is there to see
+them? That clever half-breed, Thomaso&mdash;for he is clever in his way,
+faithful too&mdash;or the women down there&mdash;no one else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You do not seem to be happy, Miss Inez.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No. I cannot tell how unhappy others are, who have met none, but
+sometimes I think that I must be the most miserable woman in the world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no,&rdquo; I replied cheerfully, &ldquo;plenty are worse off.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Mr. Quatermain, it must be because they cannot feel. Did you ever
+have a father whom you loved?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Miss Inez. He is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of saint.
+Ask my servant, the little Hottentot Hans; he will tell you about him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! a very good man. Well, as you may have guessed, mine is not, though
+there is much good in him, for he has a kind heart, and a big brain. But the
+drink and those women down there, they ruin him,&rdquo; and she wrung her
+hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you go away?&rdquo; I blurted out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because it is my duty to stop. That is what my religion teaches me,
+although of it I know little except through books, who have seen no priest for
+years except one who was a missionary, a Baptist, I think, who told me that my
+faith was false and would lead me to hell. Yes, not understanding how I lived,
+he said that, who did not know that hell is here. No, I cannot go, who hopes
+always that still God and the Saints will show me how to save my father, even
+though it be with my blood. And now I have said too much to you who are quite a
+stranger. Yet, I do not know why, I feel that you will not betray me, and what
+is more, that you will help me if you can, since you are not one of those who
+drink, or&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and she waved her hand towards the huts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have my faults, Miss Inez,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, no doubt, else you would be a saint, not a man, and even the saints
+had their faults, or so I seem to remember, and became saints by repentance and
+conquering them. Still, I am sure that you will help me if you can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then with a sudden flash of her dark eyes that said more than all her words,
+she turned and left me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here&rsquo;s a pretty kettle of fish, thought I to myself as I strolled back to
+the waggon to see how things were going on there, and how to get the live fish
+out of the kettle before they boil or spoil is more than I know. I wonder why
+fate is always finding me such jobs to do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even as I thought thus a voice in my heart seemed to echo that poor
+girl&rsquo;s words&mdash;because it is your duty&mdash;and to add others to
+them&mdash;woe betide him who neglects his duty. I was appointed to try to hook
+a few fish out of the vast kettle of human woe, and therefore I must go on
+hooking. Meanwhile this particular problem seemed beyond me. Perhaps Fate would
+help, I reflected. As a matter of fact, in the end Fate did, if Fate is the
+right word to use in this connection.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+THE SEA-COW HUNT</h2>
+
+<p>
+Now it had been my intention to push forward across the river at once, but here
+luck, or our old friend, Fate, was against me. To begin with several of
+Umslopogaas&rsquo; men fell sick with a kind of stomach trouble, arising no
+doubt from something they had eaten. This, however, was not their view, or that
+of Umslopogaas himself. It happened that one of these men, Goroko by name, who
+practised as a witch-doctor in his lighter moments, naturally suspected that a
+spell had been cast upon them, for such people see magic in everything.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore he organised a &ldquo;smelling-out&rdquo; at which Umslopogaas, who
+was as superstitious as the rest, assisted. So did Hans, although he called
+himself a Christian, partly out of curiosity, for he was as curious as a
+magpie, and partly from fear lest some implication should be brought against
+him in his absence. I saw the business going on from a little distance, and,
+unseen myself, thought it well to keep an eye upon the proceedings in case
+anything untoward should occur. This I did with Miss Inez, who had never
+witnessed anything of the sort, as a companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The circle, a small one, was formed in the usual fashion; Goroko rigged up in
+the best witch-doctor&rsquo;s costume that he could improvise, duly came under
+the influence of his &ldquo;Spirit&rdquo; and skipped about, waving a
+wildebeeste&rsquo;s tail, and so forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally to my horror he broke out of the ring, and running to a group of
+spectators from the village, switched Thomaso, who was standing among them with
+a lordly and contemptuous air, across the face with the gnu&rsquo;s tail,
+shouting out that he was the wizard who had poisoned the bowels of the sick
+men. Thereon Thomaso, who although he could be insolent, like most crossbreeds
+was not remarkable for courage, seeing the stir that this announcement created
+amongst the fierce-faced Zulus and fearing developments, promptly bolted, none
+attempting to follow him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this, just as I thought that everything was over and that the time had
+come for me to speak a few earnest words to Umslopogaas, pointing out that
+matters must go no further as regards Thomaso, whom I knew that he and his
+people hated, Goroko went back to the circle and was seized with a new burst of
+inspiration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Throwing down his whisk, he lifted his arms above his head and stared at the
+heavens. Then he began to shout out something in a loud voice which I was too
+far off to catch. Whatever it may have been, evidently it frightened his
+hearers, as I could see from the expressions on their faces. Even Umslopogaas
+was alarmed, for he let his axe fall for a moment, rose as though to speak,
+then sat down again and covered his eyes with his hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a minute it was over; Goroko seemed to become normal, took some snuff and as
+I guessed, after the usual fashion of these doctors, began to ask what he had
+been saying while the &ldquo;Spirit&rdquo; possessed him, which he either had,
+or affected to have, forgotten. The circle, too, broke up and its members began
+to talk to each other in a subdued way, while Umslopogaas remained seated on
+the ground, brooding, and Hans slipped away in his snake-like fashion,
+doubtless in search of me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What was it all about, Mr. Quatermain?&rdquo; asked Inez.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! a lot of nonsense,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I fancy that witch-doctor
+declared that your friend Thomaso put something into those men&rsquo;s food to
+make them sick.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I daresay that he did; it would be just like him, Mr. Quatermain, as I
+know that he hates them, especially Umslopogaas, of whom I am very fond. He
+brought me some beautiful flowers this morning which he had found somewhere,
+and made a long speech which I could not understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The idea of Umslopogaas, that man of blood and iron, bringing flowers to a
+young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the sad-faced Inez
+smiled. Then she left me to see about something and I went to speak to Hans and
+asked him what had happened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Something rather queer, I think, Baas,&rdquo; he answered vacuously,
+&ldquo;though I did not quite understand the last part. The doctor, Goroko,
+smelt out Thomaso as the man who had made them sick, and though they will not
+kill him because we are guests here, those Zulus are very angry with Thomaso
+and I think will beat him if they get a chance. But that is only the small half
+of the stick,&rdquo; and he paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the big half, then?&rdquo; I asked with irritation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas, the Spirit in Goroko&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The jackass in Goroko, you mean,&rdquo; I interrupted. &ldquo;How can
+you, who are a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits? I only wish that my
+father could hear you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is now wise enough to
+know all about Spirits and that there are some who come into black
+witch-doctors though they turn up their noses at white men and leave them
+alone. However, whatever it is that makes Goroko speak, got hold of him so that
+his lips said, though he remembered nothing of it afterwards, that soon this
+place would be red with blood&mdash;that there would be a great killing here,
+Baas. That is all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Red with blood! Whose blood? What did the fool mean?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko,
+declared that those who are &lsquo;with the Great Medicine&rsquo;&mdash;meaning
+what you wear, Baas&mdash;will be quite safe. So I hope that it will not be our
+blood; also that you will get out of this place as soon as you can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for I could
+see that he did believe it, then went to question Umslopogaas, whom I found
+looking quite pleased, which annoyed me still more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it that Goroko has been saying and why do you smile,
+Bulalio?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nothing much, Macumazahn, except that the man who looks like tallow that
+has gone bad, put something in our food which made us sick, for which I would
+kill him were he not Red-beard&rsquo;s servant and that it would frighten the
+lady his daughter. Also he said that soon there will be fighting, which is why
+I smiled, who grow weary of peace. We came out to fight, did we not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;We came out to make a quiet
+journey in strange lands, which is what I mean to do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom
+one does not always agree, and then <i>Inkosikaas</i> begins to talk,&rdquo;
+and he whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it was
+forced through the gouge at its back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him that
+nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably quite
+unjustly accused, I went away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable impression on my mind, and I
+began to wish that we were safe across the Zambesi without more trouble. But we
+could not start at once because two of the Zulus were still not well enough to
+travel and there were many preparations to be made about the loads, and so
+forth, since the waggon must be left behind. Also, and this was another
+complication&mdash;Hans had a sore upon his foot, resulting from the prick of a
+poisonous thorn, and it was desirable that this should be quite healed before
+we marched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came about that I was really glad when Captain Robertson suggested that
+we should go down to a certain swamp formed, I gathered, by some small
+tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of hippopotamus battue. It
+seemed that at this season of the year these great animals always frequented
+the place in numbers, also that by barring a neck of deep water through which
+they gained it, they, or a proportion of them, could be cut off and killed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late, perhaps
+because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise such a hunt. Now he
+wished to do so again, taking advantage of my presence, both because of the
+value of the hides of the sea-cows which were cut up to be sent to the coast
+and sold as <i>sjamboks</i> or whips, and because of the sport of the thing.
+Also I think he desired to show me that he was not altogether sunk in sloth and
+drink.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in all my hunting life I had
+never seen anything of the sort, especially as I was told that the expedition
+would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick men and Hans would
+not be fit to travel sooner. So great preparations were made. The riverside
+natives, whose share of the spoil was to be the carcases of the slain sea-cows,
+were summoned by hundreds and sent off to their appointed stations to beat the
+swamps at a signal given by the firing of a great pile of reeds. Also many
+other things were done upon which I need not enter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came the time for us to depart to the appointed spot over twenty miles
+away, most of which distance it seemed we could trek in the waggon. Captain
+Robertson, who for the time had cut off his gin, was as active about the affair
+as though he were once more in command of a mail-steamer. Nothing escaped his
+attention; indeed, in the care which he gave to details he reminded me of the
+captain of a great ship that is leaving port, and from it I learned how able a
+man he must once have been.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does your daughter accompany us?&rdquo; I asked on the night before we
+started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;she would only be in the way. She
+will be quite safe here, especially as Thomaso, who is no hunter, remains in
+charge of the place with some of the older natives to look after the women and
+children.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Later I saw Inez herself, who said that she would have liked to come, although
+she hated to see great beasts killed, but that her father was against it
+because he thought she might catch fever. So she supposed that she had better
+remain where she was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I agreed, though in my heart I was doubtful, and said that I would leave Hans,
+whose foot was not as yet quite well, and with whom she had made friends as she
+had done with Umslopogaas, to look after her. Also there would be with him the
+two great Zulus who were now recovering from their attack of stomach sickness,
+so that she would have nothing to fear. She answered with her slow smile that
+she feared nothing, still, she would have liked to come with us. Then we
+parted, as it proved for a long time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was quite a ceremony. Umslopogaas, &ldquo;in the name of the Axe&rdquo;
+solemnly gave over Inez to the charge of his two followers, bidding them guard
+her with so much earnestness that I began to suspect he feared something which
+he did not choose to mention. My mind went back indeed to the prophecy of the
+witch-doctor Goroko, of which it was possible that he might be thinking, but as
+while he spoke he kept his fierce eyes fixed upon the fat and pompous
+quarter-breed, Thomaso, I concluded that here was the object of his doubts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It might have occurred to him that this Thomaso would take the opportunity of
+her father&rsquo;s absence to annoy Inez. If so I was sure that he was mistaken
+for various reasons, of which I need only quote one, namely, that even if such
+an idea had ever entered his head, Thomaso was far too great a coward to
+translate it into action. Still, suspecting something, I also gave Hans
+instructions to keep a sharp eye on Inez and generally to watch the place, and
+if he saw anything suspicious, to communicate with us at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;I will look after
+&lsquo;Sad-Eyes&rsquo;&rdquo;&mdash;for so with their usual quickness of
+observation our Zulus had named Inez&mdash;&ldquo;as though she were my
+grandmother, though what there is to fear for her, I do not know. But, Baas, I
+would much rather come and look after you, as your reverend father, the
+Predikant, told me to do always, which is my duty, not girl-herding, Baas. Also
+my foot is now quite well and&mdash;I want to shoot sea-cows,
+and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; Here he paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Goroko said that there was going to be much fighting and if there
+should be fighting and you should come to harm because I was not there to
+protect you, what would your reverend father think of me then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All of which meant two things: that Hans never liked being separated from me if
+he could help it, and that he much preferred a shooting trip to stopping alone
+in this strange place with nothing to do except eat and sleep. So I concluded,
+though indeed I did not get quite to the bottom of the business. In reality
+Hans was putting up a most gallant struggle against temptation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I found out afterwards, Captain Robertson had been giving him strong drink
+on the sly, moved thereto by sympathy with a fellow toper. Also he had shown
+him where, if he wanted it, he could get more, and Hans always wanted gin very
+badly indeed. To leave it within his reach was like leaving a handful of
+diamonds lying about in the room of a thief. This he knew, but was ashamed to
+tell me the truth, and thence came much trouble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will stop here, Hans, look after the young lady and nurse your
+foot,&rdquo; I said sternly, whereon he collapsed with a sigh and asked for
+some tobacco.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Captain Robertson, who I think had been taking a stirrup cup to cheer
+him on the road, was making his farewells down in what was known as &ldquo;the
+village,&rdquo; for I saw him there kissing a collection of half-breed
+children, and giving Thomaso instructions to look after them and their mothers.
+Returning at length, he called to Inez, who remained upon the veranda, for she
+always seemed to shrink from her father after his visits to the village, to
+&ldquo;keep a stiff upper lip&rdquo; and not feel lonely, and commanded the
+cavalcade to start.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So off we went, about twenty of the village natives, a motley crew armed with
+every kind of gun, marching ahead and singing songs. Then came the waggon with
+Captain Robertson and myself seated on the driving-box, and lastly Umslopogaas
+and his Zulus, except the two who had been left behind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We trekked along a kind of native road over fine veld of the same character as
+that on which Strathmuir stood, having the lower-lying bush-veld which ran down
+to the Zambesi on our right. Before nightfall we came to a ridge whereon this
+bush-veld turned south, fringing that tributary of the great river in the
+swamps of which we were to hunt for sea-cows. Here we camped and next morning,
+leaving the waggon in charge of my <i>voorlooper</i> and a couple of the
+Strathmuir natives, for the driver was to act as my gun-bearer&mdash;we marched
+down into the sea of bush-veld. It proved to be full of game, but at this we
+dared not fire for fearing of disturbing the hippopotami in the swamps beneath,
+whence in that event they might escape us back to the river.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About midday we passed out of the bush-veld and reached the place where the
+drive was to be. Here, bordered by steep banks covered with bush, was swampy
+ground not more than two hundred yards wide, down the centre of which ran a
+narrow channel of rather deep water, draining a vast expanse of morass above.
+It was up this channel that the sea-cows travelled to the feeding ground where
+they loved to collect at that season of the year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There with the assistance of some of the riverside natives we made our
+preparations under the direction of Captain Robertson. The rest of these men,
+to the number of several hundreds, had made a wide détour to the head of the
+swamps, miles away, whence they were to advance at a certain signal. These
+preparations were simple. A quantity of thorn trees were cut down and by means
+of heavy stones fastened to their trunks, anchored in the narrow channel of
+deep water. To their tops, which floated on the placid surface, were tied a
+variety of rags which we had brought with us, such as old red flannel shirts,
+gay-coloured but worn-out blankets, and I know not what besides. Some of these
+fragments also were attached to the anchored ropes under water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also we selected places for the guns upon the steep banks that I have
+mentioned, between which this channel ran. Foreseeing what would happen, I
+chose one for myself behind a particularly stout rock and what is more, built a
+stone wall to the height of several feet on the landward side of it, as I
+guessed that the natives posted near to me would prove wild in their shooting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These labours occupied the rest of that day, and at night we retired to higher
+ground to sleep. Before dawn on the following morning we returned and took up
+our stations, some on one side of the channel and some on the other which we
+had to reach in a canoe brought for the purpose by the river natives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, before the sun rose, Captain Robertson fired a huge pile of dried reeds
+and bushes, which was to give the signal to the river natives far away to begin
+their beat. This done, we sat down and waited, after making sure that every gun
+had plenty of ammunition ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the dawn broke, by climbing a tree near my <i>schanze</i> or shelter, I saw
+a good many miles away to the south a wide circle of little fires, and guessed
+that the natives were beginning to burn the dry reeds of the swamp. Presently
+these fires drew together into a thin wall of flame. Then I knew that it was
+time to return to the <i>schanze</i> and prepare. It was full daylight,
+however, before anything happened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Watching the still channel of water, I saw ripples on it and bubbles of air
+rising. Suddenly there appeared the head of a great bull-hippopotamus which,
+having caught sight of our rag barricade, either above or below water, had
+risen to the surface to see what it might be. I put a bullet from an eight-bore
+rifle through its brain, whereon it sank, as I guessed, stone dead to the
+bottom of the channel, thus helping to increase the barricade by the bulk of
+its great body. Also it had another effect. I have observed that sea-cows
+cannot bear the smell and taint of blood, which frightens them horribly, so
+that they will expose themselves to almost any risk, rather than get it into
+their nostrils.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, in this still water where there was no perceptible current, the blood from
+the dead bull soon spread all about so that when the herd, following their
+leader, began to arrive they were much alarmed. Indeed, the first of them on
+winding or tasting it, turned and tried to get back up the channel where,
+however, they met others following, and there ensued a tremendous confusion.
+They rose to the surface, blowing, snorting, bellowing and scrambling over each
+other in the water, while continually more and more arrived behind them, till
+there was a perfect pandemonium in that narrow place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All our guns opened fire wildly upon the mass; it was like a battle and through
+the smoke I caught sight of the riverside natives who were acting as beaters,
+advancing far away, fantastically dressed, screaming with excitement and waving
+spears, or sometimes torches of flaming reeds. Most of these were scrambling
+along the banks, but some of the bolder spirits advanced over the lagoon in
+canoes, driving the hippopotami towards the mouth of the channel by which alone
+they could escape into the great swamps below and so on to the river. In all my
+hunting experience I do not think I ever saw a more remarkable scene. Still, in
+a way, to me it was unpleasant, for I flatter myself that I am a sportsman and
+a battle of this sort is not sport as I understand the term.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length it came to this; the channel for quite a long way was literally full
+of hippopotami&mdash;I should think there must have been a hundred of them or
+more of all sorts and sizes, from great bulls down to little calves. Some of
+these were killed, not many, for the shooting of our gallant company was
+execrable and almost at hazard. Also for every sea-cow that died, of which
+number I think that Captain Robertson and myself accounted for most&mdash;many
+were only wounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still, the unhappy beasts, crazed with noise and fire and blood, did not seem
+to dare to face our frail barricade, probably for the reason that I have given.
+For a while they remained massed together in the water, or under it, making a
+most horrible noise. Then of a sudden they seemed to take a resolution. A few
+of them broke back towards the burning reeds, the screaming beaters and the
+advancing canoes. One of these, indeed, a wounded bull, charged a canoe,
+crushed it in its huge jaws and killed the rower, how exactly I do not know,
+for his body was never found. The majority of them, however, took another
+counsel, for emerging from the water on either side, they began to scramble
+towards us along the steep banks, or even to climb up them with surprising
+agility. It was at this point in the proceedings that I congratulated myself
+earnestly upon the solid character of the water-worn rock which I had selected
+as a shelter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind this rock together with my gun-bearer and Umslopogaas, who, as he did
+not shoot, had elected to be my companion, I crouched and banged away at the
+unwieldy creatures as they advanced. But fire fast as I might with two rifles,
+I could not stop the half of them&mdash;they were drawing unpleasantly near. I
+glanced at Umslopogaas and even then was amused to see that probably for the
+first time in his life that redoubtable warrior was in a genuine fright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is madness, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he shouted above the din. &ldquo;Are
+we to stop here and be stamped flat by a horde of water-pigs?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems so,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;unless you prefer to be stamped
+flat outside&mdash;or eaten,&rdquo; I added, pointing to a great crocodile that
+had also emerged from the channel and was coming along towards us with open
+jaws.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By the Axe!&rdquo; shouted Umslopogaas again, &ldquo;I&mdash;a
+warrior&mdash;will not die thus, trodden on like a slug by an ox.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I have mentioned a tree which I climbed. In his extremity Umslopogaas
+rushed for that tree and went up it like a lamplighter, just as the crocodile
+wriggled past its trunk, snapping at his retreating legs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this I took no more note of him, partly because of the advancing
+sea-cows, and more for the reason that one of the village natives posted above
+me, firing wildly, put a large round bullet through the sleeve of my coat.
+Indeed, had it not been for the wall which I built that protected us, I am
+certain that both my bearer and I would have been killed, for afterwards I
+found it splashed over with lead from bullets which had struck the stones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, thanks to the strength of my rock and to the wall, or as Hans said
+afterwards, to Zikali&rsquo;s Great Medicine, we escaped unhurt. The rush went
+by me; indeed, I killed one sea-cow so close that the powder from the rifle
+actually burned its hide. But it did go by, leaving us untouched. All, however,
+were not so fortunate, since of the village natives two were trampled to death,
+while a third had his leg broken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also, and this was really amusing&mdash;a bewildered bull charging at full
+speed, crashed into the trunk of Umslopogaas&rsquo; tree, and as it was not
+very thick, snapped it in two. Down came the top in which the dignified chief
+was ensconced like a bird in a nest, though at that moment there was precious
+little dignity about him. However, except for scratches he was not hurt, as the
+hippopotamus had other business in urgent need of attention and did not stop to
+settle with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Such are the things which happen to a man who mixes himself up with
+matters of which he knows nothing,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas sententiously to me
+afterwards. But all the same he could never bear any allusion to this
+tree-climbing episode in his martial career, which, as it happened, had taken
+place in full view of his retainers, among whom it remained the greatest of
+jokes. Indeed, he wanted to kill a man, the wag of the party, who gave him a
+slang name which, being translated, means
+&ldquo;<i>He-who-is-so-brave-that-he-dares-to-ride-a-water-horse-up-a-tree.</i>
+&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all over at last, for which I thanked Providence devoutly. A good many
+of the sea-cows were dead, I think twenty-one was our exact bag, but the
+majority of them had escaped in one way or another, many as I fear, wounded. I
+imagine that at the last the bulk of the herd overcame its fears and swimming
+through our screen, passed away down the channel. At any rate they were gone,
+and having ascertained that there was nothing to be done for the man who had
+been trampled on my side of the channel, I crossed it in the canoe with the
+object of returning quietly to our camp to rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as yet there was to be no quiet for me, for there I found Captain
+Robertson, who I think had been refreshing himself out of a bottle and was in a
+great state of excitement about a native who had been killed near him who was a
+favourite of his, and another whose leg was broken. He declared vehemently that
+the hippopotamus which had done this had been wounded and rushed into some
+bushes a few hundred yards away, and that he meant to take vengeance upon it.
+Indeed, he was just setting off to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Seeing his agitated state I thought it wisest to follow him. What happened need
+not be set out in detail. It is sufficient to say that he found that
+hippopotamus and blazed both barrels at it in the bushes, hitting it, but not
+seriously. Out lumbered the creature with its mouth open, wishing to escape.
+Robertson turned to fly as he was in its path, but from one cause or another,
+tripped and fell down. Certainly he would have been crushed beneath its huge
+feet had I not stepped in front of him and sent two solid eight-bore bullets
+down that yawning throat, killing it dead within three feet of where Robertson
+was trying to rise, and I may add, of myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This narrow escape sobered him, and I am bound to say that his gratitude was
+profuse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a brave man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and had it not been for you
+by now I should be wherever bad people go. I&rsquo;ll not forget it, Mr.
+Quatermain, and if ever you want anything that John Robertson can give, why,
+it&rsquo;s yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; I answered, being seized by an inspiration, &ldquo;I
+do want something that you can give easily enough.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Give it a name and it&rsquo;s yours, half my place, if you like.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I want,&rdquo; I went on as I slipped new cartridges into the rifle,
+&ldquo;I want you to promise to give up drink for your daughter&rsquo;s sake.
+That&rsquo;s what nearly did for you just now, you know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Man, you ask a hard thing,&rdquo; he said slowly. &ldquo;But by God
+I&rsquo;ll try for her sake and for yours too.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went to help to set the leg of the injured man, which was all the rest I
+got that morning.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+THE OATH</h2>
+
+<p>
+We spent three more days at that place. First it was necessary to allow time to
+elapse before the gases which generated in their great bodies caused those of
+the sea-cows which had been killed in the water, to float. Then they must be
+skinned and their thick hides cut into strips and pieces to be traded for
+<i>sjamboks</i> or to make small native shields for which some of the East
+Coast tribes will pay heavily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this took a long while, during which I amused, or disgusted myself in
+watching those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts. The lean, what
+there was of it, they dried and smoked into a kind of &ldquo;biltong,&rdquo;
+but a great deal of the fat they ate at once. I had the curiosity to weigh a
+lump which was given to one thin, hungry-looking fellow. It scaled quite twenty
+pounds. Within four hours he had eaten it to the last ounce and lay there, a
+distended and torpid log. What would not we white people give for such a
+digestion!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last all was over and we started homewards, the man with a broken leg being
+carried in a kind of litter. On the edge of the bush-veld we found the waggon
+quite safe, also one of Captain Robertson&rsquo;s that had followed us from
+Strathmuir in order to carry the expected load of hippopotamus&rsquo; hides and
+ivory. I asked my <i>voorlooper</i> if anything had happened during our
+absence. He answered nothing, but on the previous evening after dark, he had
+seen a glow in the direction of Strathmuir which lay on somewhat lower ground
+about twenty miles away, as though numerous fires had been lighted there. It
+struck him so much, he added, that he climbed a tree to observe it better. He
+did not think, however, that any building had been burned there, as the glow
+was not strong enough for that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I suggested that it was caused by some grass fire or reed-burning, to which he
+replied indifferently that he did not think so as the line of the glow was not
+sufficiently continuous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There the matter ended, though I confess that the story made me anxious, for
+what exact reason I could not say. Umslopogaas also, who had listened to it,
+for our talk was in Zulu, looked grave, but made no remark. But as since his
+tree-climbing experience he had been singularly silent, of this I thought
+little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had trekked at a time which we calculated would bring us to Strathmuir about
+an hour before sundown, allowing for a short halt half way. As my oxen were got
+in more quickly than those of the other waggon after this outspan, I was the
+first away, followed at a little distance by Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk
+with his Zulus. The truth was that I could not get that story about the glow of
+fires out of my mind and was anxious to push on, which had caused me to hurry
+up the inspanning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps we had covered a couple of miles of the ten or twelve which still lay
+between us and Strathmuir, when far off on the crest of one of the waves of the
+veld which much resembled those of the swelling sea frozen while in motion, I
+saw a small figure approaching us at a rapid trot. Somehow that figure
+suggested Hans to my mind, so much so that I fetched my glasses to examine it
+more closely. A short scrutiny through them convinced me that Hans it was, Hans
+and no other, advancing at a great pace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Filled with uneasiness, I ordered the driver to flog up the oxen, with the
+result that in a little over five minutes we met. Halting the waggon, I leapt
+from the waggon-box and calling to Umslopogaas who had kept up with us at a
+slow, swinging trot, went to Hans, who, when he saw me, stood still at a little
+distance, swinging his apology for a hat in his hand, as was his fashion when
+ashamed or perplexed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the matter, Hans?&rdquo; I asked when we were within speaking
+distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Baas, everything,&rdquo; he answered, and I noticed that he kept his
+eyes fixed upon the ground and that his lips twitched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Speak, you fool, and in Zulu,&rdquo; I said, for by now Umslopogaas had
+joined me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he answered in that tongue, &ldquo;a terrible thing has
+come about at the farm of Red-Beard yonder. Yesterday afternoon at the time
+when people are in the habit of sleeping there till the sun grows less hot, a
+body of great men with fierce faces who carried big spears&mdash;perhaps there
+were fifty of them, Baas&mdash;crept up to the place through the long grass and
+growing crops, and attacked it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you see them come?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas. I was watching at a little distance as you bade me do and the
+sun being hot, I shut my eyes to keep out the glare of it, so that I did not
+see them until they had passed me and heard the noise.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean that you were asleep or drunk, Hans, but go on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas, I do not know,&rdquo; he answered shamefacedly, &ldquo;but after
+that I climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it&rdquo; (I
+ascertained afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned palm), &ldquo;and
+from it I saw everything without being seen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did you see, Hans?&rdquo; I asked him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I saw the big men run up and make a kind of circle round the village.
+Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see what was the
+matter. Thomaso and some of the men caught sight of them first and ran away
+fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow, before the circle was
+complete. Then the women and the children came out and the big men killed them
+with their spears&mdash;all, all!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good God!&rdquo; I exclaimed. &ldquo;And what happened at the house and
+to the lady?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the
+noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came the two
+Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite recovered. A number
+of the big men ran as though to take her, but the two Zulus made a great fight
+in front of the little steps to the stoep, having their backs protected by the
+stoep, and killed six of them before they themselves were killed. Also Sad-Eyes
+shot one with a pistol she carried, and wounded another so that the spear fell
+out of his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then the rest fell on her and tied her up, setting her in a chair on the
+stoep where two remained to watch her. They did her no hurt, Baas; indeed, they
+seemed to treat her as gently as they could. Also they went into the house and
+there they caught that tall fat yellow girl who always smiles and is called
+Janee, she who waits upon the Lady Sad-Eyes, and brought her out to her. I
+think they told her, Baas, that she must look after her mistress and that if
+she tried to run away she would be killed, for afterwards I saw Janee bring her
+food and other things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And then, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Baas, most of the great men rested a while, though some of them
+went through the store gathering such things as they liked, blankets, knives
+and iron cooking-pots, but they set fire to nothing, nor did they try to catch
+the cattle. Also they took dry wood from the pile and lit big fires, eight or
+nine of them, and when the sun set they began to feast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did they feast on, Hans, if they took no cattle?&rdquo; I asked
+with a shiver, for I was afraid of I knew not what.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; answered Hans, turning his head away and looking at the
+ground, &ldquo;they feasted on the children whom they had killed, also on some
+of the young women. These tall soldiers are men-eaters, Baas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this horrible intelligence I turned faint and felt as though I was going to
+fall, but recovering myself, signed to him to go on with his story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They feasted quite nicely, Baas,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;making no
+noise. Then some of them slept while others watched, and that went on all
+night. As soon as it was dark, but before the moon rose, I slid down the tree
+and crept round to the back of the house without being seen or heard, as I can,
+Baas. I got into the house by the back door and crawled to the window of the
+sitting-room. It was open and peeping through I saw Sad-Eyes still tied to the
+seat on the stoep not more than a pace away, while the girl Janee crouched on
+the floor at her feet&mdash;I think she was asleep or fainting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I made a little noise, like a night-adder hissing, and kept on making
+it, till at last Sad-Eyes turned her head. Then I spoke in a very low whisper,
+for fear lest I should wake the two guards who were dozing on either side of
+her wrapped in their blankets, saying, &lsquo;It is I, Hans, come to help
+you.&rsquo; &lsquo;You cannot,&rsquo; she answered, also speaking very low.
+&lsquo;Get to your master and tell him and my father to follow. These men are
+called Amahagger and live far away across the river. They are going to take me
+to their home, as I understand, to rule them, because they want a white woman
+to be a queen over them who have always been ruled by a certain white queen,
+against whom they have rebelled. I do not think they mean to do me any harm,
+unless perhaps they want to marry me to their chief, but of this I am not sure
+from their talk which I understand badly. Now go, before they catch you.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;I think you might get away,&rsquo; I whispered back. &lsquo;I
+will cut your bonds. When you are free, slip through the window and I will
+guide you.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Very well, try it,&rsquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I drew my knife and stretched out my arm. But then, Baas, I showed
+myself a fool&mdash;if the Great Medicine had still been there I might have
+known better. I forgot the starlight which shone upon the blade of the knife.
+That girl Janee came out of her sleep or swoon, lifted her head and saw the
+knife. She screamed once, then at a word from her mistress was silent. But it
+was enough, for it woke up the guards who glared about them and threatened
+Janee with their great spears, also they went to sleep no more, but began to
+talk together, though what they said I could not hear, for I was hiding on the
+floor of the room. After this, knowing that I could do no good and might do
+harm and get myself killed, I crept out of the house as I had crept in, and
+crawled back to my tree.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why did you not come to me?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I still hoped I might be able to help Sad-Eyes, Baas. Also I
+wanted to see what happened, and I knew that I could not bring you here in time
+to be any good. Yet it is true I thought of coming though I did not know the
+road.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps you were right.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At the first dawn,&rdquo; continued Hans, &ldquo;the great men who are
+called Amahagger rose and ate what was left over from the night before. Then
+they gathered themselves together and went to the house. Here they found a
+large chair, that seated with <i>rimpis</i> in which the Baas Red-Beard sits,
+and lashed two poles to the chair. Beneath the chair they tied the garments and
+other things of the Lady Sad-Eyes which they made Janee gather as Sad-Eyes
+directed her. This done, very gently they sat Sad-Eyes herself in the chair,
+bowing while they made her fast. After this eight of them set the poles upon
+their shoulders, and they all went away at a trot, heading for the bush-veld,
+driving with them a herd of goats which they had stolen from the farm, and
+making Janee run by the chair. I saw everything, Baas, for they passed just
+beneath my tree. Then I came to seek you, following the outward spoor of the
+waggons which I could not have done well at night. That is all, Baas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hans,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;you have been drinking and because of it the
+lady Sad-Eyes is taken a prisoner by cannibals; for had you been awake and
+watching, you might have seen them coming and saved her and the rest. Still,
+afterwards you did well, and for the rest you must answer to Heaven.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I must tell your reverend father, the Predikant, Baas, that the white
+master, Red-Beard, gave me the liquor and it is rude not to do as a great white
+master does, and drink it up. I am sure he will understand, Baas,&rdquo; said
+Hans abjectly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thought to myself that it was true and that the spear which Robertson cast
+had fallen upon his own head, as the Zulus say, but I made no answer, lacking
+time for argument.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you say,&rdquo; asked Umslopogaas, speaking for the first time,
+&ldquo;that my servants killed only six of these men-eaters?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans nodded and answered, &ldquo;Yes, six. I counted the bodies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was ill done, they should have killed six each,&rdquo; said
+Umslopogaas moodily. &ldquo;Well, they have left the more for us to
+finish,&rdquo; and he fingered the great axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then Captain Robertson arrived in his waggon, calling out anxiously to
+know what was the matter, for some premonition of evil seemed to have struck
+him. My heart sank at the sight of him, for how was I to tell such a story to
+the father of the murdered children and of the abducted girl?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the end I felt that I could not. Yes, I turned coward and saying that I must
+fetch something out of the waggon, bolted into it, bidding Hans go forward and
+repeat his tale. He obeyed unwillingly enough and looking out between the
+curtains of the waggon tent I saw all that happened, though I could not hear
+the words that passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robertson had halted the oxen and jumping from the waggon-box strode forward
+and met Hans, who began to speak with him, twitching his hat in his hands.
+Gradually as the tale progressed, I saw the Captain&rsquo;s face freeze into a
+mask of horror. Then he began to argue and deny, then to weep&mdash;oh! it was
+a terrible sight to see that great man weeping over those whom he had lost, and
+in such a fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this a kind of blind rage seized him and I thought he was going to kill
+Hans, who was of the same opinion, for he ran away. Next he staggered about,
+shaking his fists, cursing and shouting, till presently he fell of a heap and
+lay face downwards, beating his head against the ground and groaning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I went to him because I must.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He saw me coming and sat up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a pretty story, Quatermain, which this little yellow monkey
+has been gibbering at me. Man, do you understand what he says? He says that all
+those half-blood children of mine are dead, murdered by savages from over the
+Zambesi, yes, and eaten, too, with their mothers. Do you take the point? Eaten
+like lambs. Those fires your man saw last night were the fires on which they
+were cooked, my little <i>so-and-so</i> and <i>so-and-so</i>,&rdquo; and he
+mentioned half a dozen different names. &ldquo;Yes, cooked, Quatermain. And
+that isn&rsquo;t all of it, they have taken Inez too. They didn&rsquo;t eat
+her, but they have dragged her off a captive for God knows what reason. I
+couldn&rsquo;t understand. The whole ship&rsquo;s crew is gone, except the
+captain absent on leave and the first officer, Thomaso, who deserted with some
+Lascar stokers, and left the women and children to their fate. My God,
+I&rsquo;m going mad. I&rsquo;m going mad! If you have any mercy in you, give me
+something to drink.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I will. Sit here and wait a
+minute.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went to the waggon and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into which I
+put an amazing dose of bromide from a little medicine chest I always carry with
+me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it. All this compound I mixed
+up with a little water and took it to him in a tin cup so that he could not see
+the colour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the veld,
+groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance, for Hans had
+joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in drought-parched grass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a few minutes the drugs began to take effect upon Robertson&rsquo;s tortured
+nerves, for he rose and said quietly,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What now?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vengeance, or rather justice,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;vengeance. I swear that I will be
+avenged, or die&mdash;or both.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I saw my opportunity and said, &ldquo;You must swear more than that,
+Robertson. Only sober men can accomplish great things, for drink destroys the
+judgment. If you wish to be avenged for the dead and to rescue the living, you
+must be sober, or I for one will not help you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you help me if I do, to the end, good or ill, Quatermain?&rdquo; he
+added.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s as much as another&rsquo;s oath,&rdquo; he muttered.
+&ldquo;Still, I will put my thought in words. I swear by God, by my
+mother&mdash;like these natives&mdash;and by my daughter born in honest
+marriage, that I will never touch another drop of strong drink, until I have
+avenged those poor women and their little children, and rescued Inez from their
+murderers. If I do you may put a bullet through me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rdquo; I said in an offhand fashion, though
+inwardly I glowed with pride at the success of my great idea, for at the time I
+thought it great, and went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now let us get to business. The first thing to do is to trek to
+Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail. Come to sit
+on the waggon with me and tell me what guns and ammunition you have got, for
+according to Hans those savages don&rsquo;t seem to have touched anything,
+except a few blankets and a herd of goats.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did as I asked, telling me all he could remember. Then he said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a strange thing, but now I recall that about two years ago a great
+savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like Inez, I
+understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and said he wanted to
+trade. I asked him what in, and he answered that he would like to buy some
+children. I told him that I was not a slave-dealer. Then he looked at Inez, who
+was moving about, and said that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his
+Chief, and offered some fabulous sum in ivory and in gold, which he said should
+be paid before she was taken away. I snatched his big spear from his hand,
+broke it over his head and gave him the best hiding with its shaft that he had
+ever heard of. Then I kicked him off the place. He limped away but when he was
+out of reach, turned and called out that one day he would come again with
+others and take her, meaning Inez, without leaving the price in ivory and gold.
+I ran for my gun, but when I got back he had gone and I never thought of the
+matter again from that day to this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, he kept his promise,&rdquo; I said, but Robertson made no answer,
+for by this time that thundering dose of bromide and laudanum had taken effect
+on him and he had fallen asleep, of which I was glad, for I thought that this
+sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for a while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We reached Strathmuir towards sunset, too late to think of attempting the
+pursuit that day. Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter out
+carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be useless. We
+must rest and make preparations; also there was no hope of our overtaking these
+brutes who already had a clear twelve hours&rsquo; start, by a sudden spurt.
+They must be run down patiently by following their spoor, if indeed they could
+be run down at all before they vanished into the vast recesses of unknown
+Africa. The most we could do this night was to get ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of this I
+was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not pleasant to
+behold, especially when they are&mdash;&mdash;! Indeed, of these I determined
+to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and some of the farm
+boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by touching such human
+remnants&mdash;I made up two of the smouldering fires, the light of which the
+<i>voorlooper</i> had seen upon the sky, and on to them cast, or caused to be
+cast, those poor fragments. Also I told the farm natives to dig a big grave and
+in it to place the other bodies and generally to remove the traces of murder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went on to the house, and not too soon. Seeing the waggons arrive and
+having made sure that the Amahagger were gone, Thomaso and the other cowards
+emerged from their hiding-places and returned. Unfortunately for the former the
+first person he met was Umslopogaas, who began to revile the fat half-breed in
+no measured terms, calling him dog, coward, and other opprobrious names, such
+as deserter of women and children, and so forth&mdash;all of which someone
+translated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thomaso, an insolent person, tried to swagger the matter out, saying that he
+had gone to get assistance. Infuriated at this lie, Umslopogaas leapt upon him
+with a roar and though he was a strong man, dealt with him as a lion does with
+a buck. Lifting him from his feet, he hurled him to the ground, then as he
+strove to rise and run, caught him again and as it seemed to me, was about to
+break his back across his knee. Just at this juncture I arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let the man go,&rdquo; I shouted to him. &ldquo;Is there not enough
+death here already?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Umslopogaas, &ldquo;I think there is. Best that
+this jackal should live to eat his own shame,&rdquo; and he cast Thomaso to the
+ground, where he lay groaning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robertson, who was still asleep in the waggon, woke up at the noise, and
+descended from it, looking dazed. I got him to the house and in doing so made
+my way past, or rather between the bodies of the two Zulus and of the six men
+whom they had killed, also of him whom Inez had shot. Those Zulus had made a
+splendid fight for they were covered with wounds, all of them in front, as I
+found upon examination.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having made Robertson lie down upon his bed, I took a good look at the slain
+Amahagger. They were magnificent men, all of them; tall, spare and shapely with
+very clear-cut features and rather frizzled hair. From these characteristics,
+as well as the lightness of their colour, I concluded that they were of a
+Semitic or Arab type, and that the admixture of their blood with that of the
+Bantus was but slight, if indeed there were any at all. Their spears, of which
+one had been cut through by a blow of a Zulu&rsquo;s axe, were long and broad,
+not unlike to those used by the Masai, but of finer workmanship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time the sun was setting and thoroughly tired by all that I had gone
+through, I went into the house to get something to eat, having told Hans to
+find food and prepare a meal. As I sat down Robertson joined me and I made him
+also eat. His first impulse was to go to the cupboard and fetch the spirit
+bottle; indeed, he rose to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hans is making coffee,&rdquo; I said warningly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I forgot. Force of habit, you
+know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I may state that never from that moment did I see him touch another drop
+of liquor, not even when I drank my modest tot in front of him. His triumph
+over temptation was splendid and complete, especially as the absence of his
+accustomed potations made him ill for some time and of course depressed his
+spirits, with painful results that were apparent in due course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, the man became totally changed. He grew gloomy but resourceful, also
+full of patience. Only one idea obsessed him&mdash;to rescue his daughter and
+avenge the murder of his people; indeed, except his sins, he thought of and
+found interest in nothing else. Moreover, his iron constitution cast off all
+the effects of his past debauchery and he grew so strong that although I was
+pretty tough in those days, he could out-tire me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return; I engaged him in conversation and with his help made a list of what
+we should require on our vendetta journey, all of which served to occupy his
+mind. Then I sent him to bed, saying that I would call him before dawn, having
+first put a little more bromide into his third cup of coffee. After this I
+turned in and notwithstanding the sight of those remains of the cannibal feast
+and the knowledge of the dead men who lay outside my window, I slept like a
+top.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed, it was the Captain who awakened me, not I the Captain, saying that
+daylight was on the break and we had better be stirring. So we went down to the
+Store, where I was thankful to find that everything had been tidied up in
+accordance with my directions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On our way Robertson asked me what had become of the remains, whereon I pointed
+to the smouldering ashes of one of the great fires. He went to it and kneeling
+down, said a prayer in broad Scotch, doubtless one that he had learned at his
+mother&rsquo;s knee. Then he took some of the ashes from the edge of the
+pyre&mdash;for such it was&mdash;and threw them into the glowing embers where,
+as he knew, lay all that was left of those who had sprung from him. Also he
+tossed others of them into the air, though what he meant by this I did not
+understand and never asked. Probably it was some rite indicative of expiation
+or of revenge, or both, which he had learned from the savages among whom he had
+lived so long.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this we went into the Store and with the help of some of the natives, or
+half-breeds, who had accompanied us on the sea-cow expedition, selected all the
+goods we wanted, which we sent to the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we returned thither I saw Umslopogaas and his men engaged, with the usual
+Zulu ceremonies, in burying their two companions in a hole they had made in the
+hillside. I noted, however, that they did not inter their war-axes or their
+throwing-spears with them as usual, probably because they thought that these
+might be needed. In place of them they put with the dead little models roughly
+shaped of bits of wood, which models they &ldquo;killed&rdquo; by first
+breaking them across.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I lingered to watch the funeral and heard Goroko, the witch-doctor, make a
+little speech.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O Father and Chief of the Axe,&rdquo; he said, addressing Umslopogaas,
+who stood silent leaning on his weapon and watching all, a portentous figure in
+the morning mist, &ldquo;O Father, O Son of the Heavens&rdquo; (this was an
+allusion to the royal blood of Umslopogaas of which the secret was well known,
+although it would never have been spoken aloud in Zululand), &ldquo;O
+Slaughterer (Bulalio), O Woodpecker who picks at the hearts of men; O
+King-Slayer; O Conqueror of the Halakazi; O Victor in a hundred fights; O
+Gatherer of the Lily-bloom that faded in the hand; O Wolf-man, Captain of the
+Wolves that ravened; O Slayer of Faku; O Great One whom it pleases to seem
+small, because he must follow his blood to the end
+appointed&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was the opening of the speech, the &ldquo;<i>bonga</i>-ing&rdquo; or
+giving of Titles of Praise to the person addressed, of which I have quoted but
+a sample, for there were many more of them that I have forgotten. Then the
+speaker went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was told to me, though of it I remember nothing, that when my Spirit
+was in me a while ago I prophesied that this place would flow with blood, and
+lo! the blood has flowed, and with it that of these our brothers,&rdquo; and he
+gave the names of the two dead Zulus, also those of their forefathers for
+several generations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems, Father, that they died well, as you would have wished them to
+die, and as doubtless they desired to die themselves, leaving a tale behind
+them, though it is true that they might have died better, killing more of the
+men-eaters, as it is certain they would have done, had they not been sick
+inside. They are finished; they have gone beyond to await us in the Under-world
+among the ghosts. Their story is told and soon to their children they will be
+but names whispered in honour after the sun has set. Enough of them who have
+showed us how to die as our fathers did before them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Goroko paused a while, then added with a waving of his hands,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My Spirit comes to me again and I know that these our brothers shall not
+pass unavenged. Chief of the Axe, great glory awaits the Axe, for it shall feed
+full. I have spoken.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good words!&rdquo; grunted Umslopogaas. Then he saluted the dead by
+raising <i>Inkosikaas</i> and came to me to consult about our journey.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+PURSUIT</h2>
+
+<p>
+After all we did not get away much before noon, because first there was a great
+deal to be done. To begin with the loads had to be arranged. These consisted
+largely of ammunition, everything else being cut down to an irreducible
+minimum. To carry them we took two donkeys there were on the place, also half a
+dozen pack oxen, all of which animals were supposed to be
+&ldquo;salted&rdquo;&mdash;that is, to have suffered and recovered from every
+kind of sickness, including the bite of the deadly tsetse fly. I suspected, it
+is true, that they would not be proof against further attacks, still, I hoped
+that they would last for some time, as indeed proved to be the case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best of those
+Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip, to serve as bearers
+when it became necessary. It cannot be said that these snuff-and-butter
+fellows&mdash;for most, if not all of them had some dash of white blood in
+their veins&mdash;were exactly willing volunteers. Indeed, if a choice had been
+left to them, they would, I think, have declined this adventure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But there was no choice. Their master, Robertson, ordered them to come and
+after a glance at the Zulus they concluded that the command was one which would
+be enforced and that if they stopped behind, it would not be as living men.
+Also some of them had lost wives or children in the slaughter, which, if they
+were not very brave, filled them with a desire for revenge. Lastly, they could
+all shoot after a fashion and had good rifles; moreover if I may say so, I
+think that they put confidence in my leadership. So they made the best of a bad
+business and got themselves ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then arrangements must be made about the carrying on of the farm and store
+during our absence. These, together with my waggon and oxen, were put in the
+charge of Thomaso, since there was no one else who could be trusted at
+all&mdash;a very battered and crestfallen Thomaso, by the way. When he heard of
+it he was much relieved, since I think he feared lest he also should be
+expected to take part in the hunt of the Amahagger man-eaters. Also it may have
+occurred to him that in all probability none of us would ever come back at all,
+in which case by a process of natural devolution, he might find himself the
+owner of the business and much valuable property. However, he swore by sundry
+saints&mdash;for Thomaso was nominally a Catholic&mdash;that he would look
+after everything as though it were his own, as no doubt he hoped it might
+become.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken, fat pig,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, Hans obligingly translating
+so that there might be no mistake, &ldquo;if I come back, and come back I shall
+who travel with the Great Medicine&mdash;and find even one of the cattle of the
+white lord, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, missing, or one article stolen from
+his waggon, or the fields of your master not cultivated or his goods wasted, I
+swear by the Axe that I will hew you into pieces with the axe; yes, if to do it
+I have to hunt you from where the sun rises to where it sets and down the
+length of the night between. Do you understand, fat pig, deserter of women and
+children, who to save yourself could run faster than a buck?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thomaso replied that he understood very clearly indeed, and that, Heaven
+helping him, all should be kept safe and sound. Still, I was sure that in his
+manly heart he was promising great gifts to the saints if they would so arrange
+matters that Umslopogaas and his axe were never seen at Strathmuir again, and
+reflecting that after all the Amahagger had their uses. However, as I did not
+trust him in the least, much against their will, I left my driver and
+<i>voorlooper</i> to guard my belongings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last we did get off, pursued by the fervent blessings of Thomaso and the
+prayers of the others that we would avenge their murdered relatives. We were a
+curious and motley procession. First went Hans, because at following a spoor he
+was, I believe, almost unequalled in Africa, and with him, Umslopogaas, and
+three of his Zulus to guard against surprise. These were followed by Captain
+Robertson, who seemed to prefer to walk alone and whom I thought it best to
+leave undisturbed. Then I came and after me straggled the Strathmuir boys with
+the pack animals, the cavalcade being closed by the remaining Zulus under the
+command of Goroko. These walked last in case any of the mixed-bloods should
+attempt to desert, as we thought it quite probable that they would.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Less than an hour&rsquo;s tramp brought us to the bush-veld where I feared that
+our troubles might begin, since if the Amahagger were cunning, they would take
+advantage of it to confuse or hide their spoor. As it chanced, however, they
+had done nothing of the sort and a child could have followed their march. Just
+before nightfall we came to their first halting-place where they had made a
+fire and eaten one of the herd of farm goats which they had driven away with
+them, although they left the cattle, I suppose, because goats are docile and
+travel well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans showed us everything that had happened; where the chair in which Inez was
+carried was set down, where she and Janee had been allowed to walk that she
+might stretch her stiff limbs, the dregs of some coffee that evidently Janee
+had made in a saucepan, and so forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He even told us the exact number of the Amahagger, which he said totalled
+forty-one, including the man whom Inez had wounded. His spoor he distinguished
+from that of the others both by an occasional drop of blood and because he
+walked lightly on his right foot, doubtless for the reason that he wished to
+avoid jarring his wound, which was on that side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this spot we were obliged to stay till daybreak, since it was impossible to
+follow the spoor by night, a circumstance that gave the cannibals a great
+advantage over us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next two days were repetitions of the first, but on the fourth we passed
+out of the bush-veld into the swamp country that bordered the great river. Here
+our task was still easy since the Amahagger had followed one of the paths made
+by the river-dwellers who had their habitations on mounds, though whether these
+were natural or artificial I am not sure, and sometimes on floating islands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On our second day in the reeds we came upon a sad sight. To our left stood one
+of these mound villages, if a village it could be called, since it consisted
+only of four or five huts inhabited perhaps by twenty people. We went up to it
+to obtain information and stumbled across the body of an old man lying in the
+pathway. A few yards further on we found the ashes of a big fire and by it such
+remains as we had seen at Strathmuir. Here there had been another cannibal
+feast. The miserable huts were empty, but as at Strathmuir, had not been burnt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were going away when the acute ears of Hans caught the sound of groans. We
+searched about and in a clump of reeds near the foot of the mound, found an old
+woman with a great spear wound just above her skinny thigh piercing deep into
+the vitals, but of a nature which is not immediately mortal. One of
+Robertson&rsquo;s people who understood the language of these swamp-dwellers
+well, spoke to her. She told him that she wanted water. It was brought and she
+drank copiously. Then in answer to his questions she began to talk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She said that the Amahagger had attacked the village and killed all who could
+not escape. They had eaten a young woman and three children. She had been
+wounded by a spear and fled away into the place where we found her, where none
+of them took the trouble to follow her as she &ldquo;was not worth
+eating.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By my direction the man asked her whether she knew anything of these Amahagger.
+She replied that her grandfathers had, though she had heard nothing of them
+since she was a child, which must have been seventy years before. They were a
+fierce people who lived far up north across the Great River, the remnants of a
+race that had once &ldquo;ruled the world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her grandfathers used to say that they were not always cannibals, but had
+become so long before because of a lack of food and now had acquired the taste.
+It was for this purpose that they still raided to get other people to eat,
+since their ruler would not allow them to eat one another. The flesh of cattle
+they did not care for, although they had plenty of them, but sometimes they ate
+goats and pigs because they said they tasted like man. According to her
+grandfathers they were a very evil people and full of magic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All of this the old woman told us quite briskly after she had drunk the water,
+I think because her wound had mortified and she felt no pain. Her information,
+however, as is common with the aged, dealt entirely with the far past; of the
+history of the Amahagger since the days of her forebears she knew nothing, nor
+had she seen anything of Inez. All she could tell us was that some of them had
+attacked her village at dawn and that when she ran out of the hut she was
+speared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While Robertson and I were wondering what we should do with the poor old
+creature whom it seemed cruel to leave here to perish, she cleared up the
+question by suddenly expiring before our eyes. Uttering the name of someone
+with whom, doubtless, she had been familiar in her youth, three or four times
+over, she just sank down and seemed to go to sleep and on examination we found
+that she was dead. So we left her and went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next day we came to the edge of the Great River, here a sheet of placid running
+water about a mile across, for at this time of the year it was low. Perceiving
+quite a big village on our left, we went to it and made enquiries, to find that
+it had not been attacked by the cannibals, probably because it was too
+powerful, but that three nights before some of their canoes had been stolen, in
+which no doubt these had crossed the river.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the people of this village had traded with Robertson at Strathmuir, we had
+no difficulty in obtaining other canoes from them in which to cross the Zambesi
+in return for one of our oxen that I could see was already sickening from
+tsetse bite. These canoes were large enough to take the donkeys that were
+patient creatures and stood still, but the cattle we could not get into them
+for fear of an upset. So we killed the two driven beasts that were left to us
+and took them with us as dead meat for food, while the three remaining pack
+oxen we tried to swim across, dragging them after the canoes with hide
+<i>reims</i> round their horns. As a result two were drowned, but one, a
+bold-hearted and enterprising animal, gained the other bank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here again we struck a sea of reeds in which, after casting about, Hans once
+more found the spoor of the Amahagger. That it was theirs beyond doubt was
+proved by the circumstance that on a thorny kind of weed we found a fragment of
+a cotton dress which, because of the pattern stamped on it, we all recognised
+as one that Inez had been wearing. At first I thought that this had been torn
+off by the thorns, but on examination we became certain that it had been placed
+there purposely, probably by Janee, to give us a clue. This conclusion was
+confirmed when at subsequent periods of the hunt we found other fragments of
+the same garment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now it would be useless for me to set out the details of this prolonged and
+arduous chase which in all endured for something over three weeks. Again and
+again we lost the trail and were only able to recover it by long and elaborate
+search, which occupied much time. Then, after we escaped from the reeds and
+swamps, we found ourselves upon stony uplands where the spoor was almost
+impossible to follow, indeed, we only rediscovered it by stumbling across the
+dead body of that cannibal whom Inez had wounded. Evidently he had perished
+from his hurt, which I could see had mortified. From the state of his remains
+we gathered that the raiders must be about two days&rsquo; march ahead of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Striking their spoor again on softer ground where the impress of their feet
+remained&mdash;at any rate to the cunning sight of Hans&mdash;we followed them
+down across great valleys wherein trees grew sparsely, which valleys were
+separated from each other by ridges of high and barren land. On these belts of
+rocky soil our difficulties were great, but here twice we were put on the right
+track by more fragments torn from the dress of Inez.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length we lost the spoor altogether; not a sign of it was to be found. We
+had no idea which way to go. All about us appeared these valleys covered with
+scattered bush running this way and that, so that we could not tell which of
+them to follow or to cross. The thing seemed hopeless, for how could we expect
+to find a little body of men in that immensity? Hans shook his head and even
+the fierce and steadfast Robertson was discouraged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I fear my poor lassie is gone,&rdquo; he said, and relapsed into
+brooding as had become his wont.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never say die! It&rsquo;s dogged as does it!&rdquo; I replied cheerfully
+in the words of Nelson, who also had learned what it meant to hunt an enemy
+over trackless wastes, although his were of water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I walked to the top of the rise where we were encamped, and sat down alone to
+think matters over. Our condition was somewhat parlous; all our beasts were now
+dead, even the second donkey, which was the last of them, having perished that
+morning, and been eaten, for food was scanty since of late we had met with
+little game. The Strathmuir men, who now must carry the loads, were almost worn
+out and doubtless would have deserted, except for the fact that there was no
+place to which they could go. Even the Zulus were discouraged, and said they
+had come away from home across the Great River to fight, not to run about in
+wildernesses and starve, though Umslopogaas made no complaint, being buoyed up
+by the promise of his soothsayer, Goroko, that battle was ahead of him in which
+he would win great glory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans, however, remained cheerful, for the reason, as he remarked vacuously,
+that the Great Medicine was with us and that therefore, however bad things
+seemed to be, all in fact was well; an argument that carried no conviction to
+my soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on a certain evening towards sunset that I went away thus alone. I
+looked about me, east and west and north. Everywhere appeared the same
+bush-clad valleys and barren rises, miles upon miles of them. I bethought me of
+the map that old Zikali had drawn in the ashes, and remembered that it showed
+these valleys and rises and that beyond them there should be a great swamp, and
+beyond the swamp a mountain. So it seemed that we were on the right road to the
+home of his white Queen, if such a person existed, or at any rate we were
+passing over country similar to that which he had pictured or imagined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But at this time I was not troubling my head about white queens. I was thinking
+of poor Inez. That she was alive a few days before we knew from the fragments
+of her dress. But where was she now? The spoor was utterly lost on that stony
+ground, or if any traces of it remained a heavy deluge of rain had washed them
+away. Even Hans had confessed himself beaten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stared about me helplessly, and as I did so a flying ray of light from the
+setting sun reflected downwards from a storm-cloud, fell upon a white patch on
+the crest of one of the distant land-waves. It struck me that probably
+limestone outcropped at this spot, as indeed proved to be the case; also that
+such a patch of white would be a convenient guide for any who were travelling
+across that sea of bush. Further, some instinct within seemed to impel me to
+steer for it, although I had all but made up my mind to go in a totally
+different direction many more points to the east. It was almost as though a
+voice were calling to me to take this path and no other. Doubtless this was an
+effect produced by weariness and mental overstrain. Still, there it was, very
+real and tangible, one that I did not attempt to combat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So next morning at the dawn I headed north by west, laying my course for that
+white patch and for the first time breaking the straight line of our advance.
+Captain Robertson, whose temper had not been bettered by prolonged and
+frightful anxiety, or I may add, by his unaccustomed abstinence, asked me
+rather roughly why I was altering the course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here, Captain,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;if we were at sea and you
+did something of the sort, I should not put such a question to you, and if by
+any chance I did, I should not expect you to answer. Well, by your own wish I
+am in command here and I think that the same argument holds.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;I suppose you have studied your chart, if
+there is any of this God-forsaken country, and at any rate discipline is
+discipline. So steam ahead and don&rsquo;t mind me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The others accepted my decision without comment; most of them were so miserable
+that they did not care which way we went, also they were good enough to repose
+confidence in my judgment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Doubtless the Baas has reasons,&rdquo; said Hans dubiously,
+&ldquo;although the spoor, when last we saw it, headed towards the rising sun
+and as the country is all the same, I do not see why those man-eaters should
+have returned.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I have reasons,&rdquo; although in fact I had
+none at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans surveyed me with a watery eye as though waiting for me to explain them,
+but I looked haughty and declined to oblige.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Baas has reasons,&rdquo; continued Hans, &ldquo;for taking us on
+what I think to be the wrong side of that great ridge, there to hunt for the
+spoor of the men-eaters, and they are so deep down in his mind that he cannot
+dig them up for poor old Hans to look at. Well, the Baas wears the Great
+Medicine and perhaps it is there that the reasons sit. Those Strathmuir fellows
+say that they can go no further and wish to die. Umslopogaas has just gone to
+them with his axe to tell them that he is ready to help them to their wish.
+Look, he has got there, for they are coming quickly, who after all prefer to
+live.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, we started for my white patch of stones which no one else had noticed and
+of which I said nothing to anyone, and reached it by the following evening, to
+find, as I expected, that it was a lime outcrop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By now we were in a poor way, for we had practically nothing left to eat, which
+did not tend to raise the spirits of the party. Also that lime outcrop proved
+to be an uninteresting spot overlooking a wide valley which seemed to suggest
+that there were other valleys of a similar sort beyond it, and nothing more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Robertson sat stern-faced and despondent at a distance muttering into
+his beard, as had become a habit with him. Umslopogaas leaned upon his axe and
+contemplated the heavens, also occasionally the Strathmuir men who cowered
+beneath his eye. The Zulus squatted about sharing such snuff as remained to
+them in economic pinches. Goroko, the witch-doctor, engaged himself in
+consulting his &ldquo;Spirit,&rdquo; by means of bone-throwing, upon the humble
+subject of whether or no we should succeed in killing any game for food
+to-morrow, a point on which I gathered that his &ldquo;Spirit&rdquo; was quite
+uncertain. In short, the gloom was deep and universal and the sky looked as
+though it were going to rain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans became sarcastic. Sneaking up to me in his most aggravating way, like a
+dog that means to steal something and cover up the theft with simulated
+affection, he pointed out one by one all the disadvantages of our present
+position. He indicated <i>per contra</i>, that if <i>his</i> advice had been
+followed, his conviction was that even if we had not found the man-eaters and
+rescued the lady called Sad-Eyes, our state would have been quite different. He
+was sure, he added, that the valley which he had suggested we should follow,
+was one full of game, inasmuch as he had seen their spoor at its entrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why did you not say so?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans sucked at his empty corn-cob pipe, which was his way of indicating that he
+would like me to give him some tobacco, much as a dog groans heavily under the
+table when he wants a bit to eat, and answered that it was not for him to point
+out things to one who knew everything, like the great Macumazahn,
+Watcher-by-Night, his honoured master. Still, the luck did seem to have gone a
+bit wrong. The privations could have been put up with (here he sucked very
+loudly at the empty pipe and looked at mine, which was alight), everything
+could have been put up with, if only there had been a chance of coming even
+with those men-eaters and rescuing the Lady Sad-Eyes, whose face haunted his
+sleep. As it was, however, he was convinced that by following the course I had
+mapped out we had lost their spoor finally and that probably they were now
+three days&rsquo; march away in another direction. Still, the Baas had said
+that he had his reasons, and that of course was enough for him, Hans, only if
+the Baas would condescend to tell him, he would as a matter of curiosity like
+to know what the reasons were.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment I confess that, much as I was attached to him, I should have
+liked to murder Hans, who, I felt, believing that he had me &ldquo;on
+toast,&rdquo; to use a vulgar phrase, was taking advantage of my position to
+make a mock of me in his sly, Hottentot way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tried to continue to look grand, but felt that the attitude did not impress.
+Then I stared about me as though taking counsel with the Heavens, devoutly
+hoping that the Heavens would respond to my mute appeal. As a matter of fact
+they did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is my reason, Hans,&rdquo; I said in my most icy voice, and I
+pointed to a faint line of smoke rising against the twilight sky on the further
+side of the intervening valley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will perceive, Hans,&rdquo; I added, &ldquo;that those Amahagger
+cannibals have forgotten their caution and lit a fire yonder, which they have
+not done for a long time. Perhaps you would like to know why this has happened.
+If so I will tell you. It is because for some days past I have purposely lost
+their spoor, which they knew we were following, and lit fires to puzzle them.
+Now, thinking that they have done with us, they have become incautious and
+shown us where they are. That is my reason, Hans.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He heard and, although of course he did not believe that I had lost the spoor
+on purpose, stared at me till I thought his little eyes were going to drop out
+of his head. But even in his admiration he contrived to convey an insult as
+only a native can.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How wonderful is the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, that it
+should have been able thus to instruct the Baas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Without
+doubt the Great Medicine is right and yonder those men-eaters are encamped, who
+might just as well as have been anywhere else within a hundred miles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Drat the Great Medicine,&rdquo; I replied, but beneath my breath, then
+added aloud,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be so good, Hans, as to go to Umslopogaas and to tell him that
+Macumazahn, or the Great Medicine, proposes to march at once to attack the camp
+of the Amahagger, and&mdash;here is some tobacco.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas,&rdquo; answered Hans humbly, as he snatched the tobacco and
+wriggled away like a worm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went to talk with Robertson.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+The end of it was that within an hour we were creeping across that valley
+towards the spot where I had seen the line of smoke rising against the twilight
+sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somewhere about midnight we reached the neighbourhood of this place. How near
+or how far we were from it, we could not tell since the moon was invisible, as
+of course the smoke was in the dark. Now the question was, what should we do?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Obviously there would be enormous advantages in a night attack, or at least in
+locating the enemy, so that it might be carried out at dawn before he marched.
+Especially was this so, since we were scarcely in a condition even if we could
+come face to face with them, to fight these savages when they were prepared and
+in the light of day. Only we two white men, with Hans, Umslopogaas and his
+Zulus, could be relied upon in such a case, since the Strathmuir mixed-bloods
+had become entirely demoralised and were not to be trusted at a pinch. Indeed,
+tired and half starving as we were, none of us was at his best. Therefore a
+surprise seemed our only chance. But first we must find those whom we wished to
+surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ultimately, after a hurried consultation, it was agreed that Hans and I should
+go forward and see if we could locate the Amahagger. Robertson wished to come
+too, but I pointed out that he must remain to look after his people, who, if he
+left them, might take the opportunity to melt away in the darkness, especially
+as they knew that heavy fighting was at hand. Also if anything happened to me
+it was desirable that one white man should remain to lead the party.
+Umslopogaas, too, volunteered, but knowing his character, I declined his help.
+To tell the truth, I was almost certain that if we came upon the men-eaters, he
+would charge the whole lot of them and accomplish a fine but futile end after
+hacking down a number of cannibal barbarians, whose extinction or escape
+remained absolutely immaterial to our purpose, namely, the rescue of Inez.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came about that Hans and I started alone, I not at all enjoying the job.
+I suppose that there lurks in my nature some of that primeval terror of the
+dark, which must continually have haunted our remote forefathers of a hundred
+or a thousand generations gone and still lingers in the blood of most of us. At
+any rate even if I am named the Watcher-by-Night, greatly do I prefer to fight
+or to face peril in the sunlight, though it is true that I would rather avoid
+both at any time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, I wished heartily that the Amahagger were at the other side of Africa,
+or in heaven, and that I, completely ignorant of the person called Inez
+Robertson, were seated smoking the pipe of peace on my own stoep in Durban. I
+think that Hans guessed my state of mind, since he suggested that he should go
+alone, adding with his usual unveiled rudeness, that he was quite certain that
+he would do much better without me, since white men always made a noise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I replied, determined to give him a Roland for his Oliver,
+&ldquo;I have no doubt you would&mdash;under the first bush you came across,
+where you would sleep till dawn, and then return and say that you could not
+find the Amahagger.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans chuckled, quite appreciating the joke, and having thus mutually affronted
+each other, we started on our quest.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+THE SWAMP</h2>
+
+<p>
+Neither Hans nor I carried rifles that we knew would be in the way on our
+business, which was just to scout. Moreover, one is always tempted to shoot if
+a gun is at hand, and this I did not want to do at present. So, although I had
+my revolver in case of urgent necessity, my only other weapon was a Zulu axe,
+that formerly had belonged to one of those two men who died defending Inez on
+the veranda at Strathmuir, while Hans had nothing but his long knife. Thus
+armed, or unarmed, we crept forward towards that spot whence, as we
+conjectured, we had seen the line of smoke rising some hours before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For about a quarter of a mile we went on thus without seeing or hearing
+anything, and a difficult job it was in that gloom among the scattered trees
+with no light save such as the stars gave us. Indeed, I was about to suggest
+that we had better abandon the enterprise until daybreak when Hans nudged me,
+whispering,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look to the right between those twin thorns.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed and following the line of sight which he had indicated, perceived, at
+a distance of about two hundred yards a faint glow, so faint indeed that I
+think only Hans would have noticed it. Really it might have been nothing more
+than the phosphorescence rising from a heap of fungus, or even from a decaying
+animal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The fire of which we saw the smoke that has burnt to ashes,&rdquo;
+whispered Hans again. &ldquo;I think that they have gone, but let us
+look.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we crawled forward very cautiously to avoid making the slightest noise; so
+cautiously, indeed, that it must have taken us nearly half an hour to cover
+those two hundred yards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length we were within about forty yards of that dying fire and, afraid to go
+further, came to a stand&mdash;or rather, a lie-still&mdash;behind some bushes
+until we knew more. Hans lifted his head and sniffed with his broad nostrils;
+then he whispered into my ear, but so low that I could scarcely hear him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Amahagger there all right, Baas, I smell them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This of course was possible, since what wind there was blew from the direction
+of the fire, although I whose nose is fairly keen could smell nothing at all.
+So I determined to wait and watch a while, and indicated my decision to Hans,
+who, considering our purpose accomplished, showed signs of wishing to retreat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some minutes we lay thus, till of a sudden this happened. A branch of resinous
+wood of which the stem had been eaten through by the flames, fell upon the
+ashes of the fire and burnt up with a brilliant light. In it we saw that the
+Amahagger were sleeping in a circle round the fire wrapped in their blankets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also we saw another thing, namely that nearer to us, not more than a dozen
+yards away, indeed, was a kind of little tent, also made of fur rugs or
+blankets, which doubtless sheltered Inez. Indeed, this was evident from the
+fact that at the mouth of it, wrapped up in something, lay none other than her
+maid, Janee, for her face being towards us, was recognised by us both in the
+flare of the flaming branch. One more thing we noted, namely, that two of the
+cannibals, evidently a guard, were sleeping between us and the little tent. Of
+course they ought to have been awake, but fatigue had overcome them and there
+they slumbered, seated on the ground, their heads hanging forward almost upon
+their knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An idea came to me. If we could kill those men without waking the others in
+that gloom, it might be possible to rescue Inez at once. Rapidly I weighed the
+<i>pros</i> and <i>cons</i> of such an attempt. Its advantages, if successful,
+were that the object of our pursuit would be carried through without further
+trouble and that it was most doubtful whether we should ever get such a chance
+again. If we returned to fetch the others and attacked in force, the
+probability was that those Amahagger, or one of them, would hear some sound
+made by the advance of a number of men, and fly into the darkness; or, rather
+than lose Inez, they might kill her. Or if they stood and fought, she might be
+slain in the scrimmage. Or, as after all we had only about a dozen effectives,
+for the Strathmuir bearers could not be relied upon, they might defeat and kill
+us whom they outnumbered by two or three to one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These were the arguments for the attempt. Those for not making it were equally
+obvious. To begin with it was one of extraordinary risk; the two guards or
+someone else behind them might wake up&mdash;for such people, like dogs, mostly
+sleep with one eye open, especially when they know that they are being pursued.
+Or if they did not we might bungle the business so that they raised an outcry
+before they grew silent for ever, in which case both of us and perhaps Inez
+also would probably pay the penalty before we could get away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the horned dilemma upon one point or other of which we ran the risk of
+being impaled. For a full minute or more I considered the matter with an
+earnestness almost amounting to mental agony, and at last all but came to the
+conclusion that the danger was too enormous. It would be better,
+notwithstanding the many disadvantages of that plan, to go back and fetch the
+others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But then it was that I made one of my many mistakes in life. Most of us do more
+foolish things than wise ones and sometimes I think that in spite of a certain
+reputation for caution and far-sightedness, I am exceptionally cursed in this
+respect. Indeed, when I look back upon my past, I can scarcely see the scanty
+flowers of wisdom that decorate its path because of the fat, ugly trees of
+error by which it is overshadowed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that occasion, forgetting past experiences where Hans was concerned, my
+natural tendency to blunder took the form of relying upon another&rsquo;s
+judgment instead of on my own. Although I had formed a certain view as to what
+should be done, the <i>pros</i> and <i>cons</i> seemed so evenly balanced that
+I determined to consult the little Hottentot and accept his verdict. This,
+after all, was but a form of gambling like pitch and toss, since, although it
+is true Hans was a clever, or at any rate a cunning man according to his
+lights, and experienced, it meant that I was placing my own judgment in
+abeyance, which no one considering a life-and-death enterprise should do,
+taking the chance of that of another, whatever it might be. However, not for
+the first time, I did so&mdash;to my grief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the tiniest of whispers with my lips right against his smelly head, I
+submitted the problem to Hans, asking him what we should do, go on or go back.
+He considered a while, then answered in a voice which he contrived to make like
+the drone of a night beetle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those men are fast asleep, I know it by their breathing. Also the Baas
+has the Great Medicine. Therefore I say go on, kill them and rescue
+Sad-Eyes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I saw that the Fates to which I had appealed had decided against me and
+that I must accept their decree. With a sick and sinking heart&mdash;for I did
+not at all like the business&mdash;I wondered for a moment what had led Hans to
+take this view, which was directly opposite to any I had expected from him. Of
+course his superstition about the Great Medicine had something to do with it,
+but I felt convinced that this was not all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him, of which the first was
+that he desired, if possible, to put an end to this intolerable and unceasing
+hunt which had worn us all out, no matter what that end might be. The second
+and more powerful, however, was, I believed, and rightly, that the idea of this
+stealthy, midnight blow appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild
+nature in which the strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with
+that of the human being. For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer
+of civilisation, Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages had
+preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The die having been cast, in the same infinitesimal whispers we made our
+arrangements, which were few and simple. They amounted to this&mdash;that we
+were to creep on to the men and each of us to kill that one who was opposite to
+him, I with the axe and Hans with his knife, remembering that it must be done
+with a single stroke&mdash;that is, if they did not wake up and kill
+us&mdash;after which we were to get Inez out of her shelter, dressed or
+undressed, and make off with her into the darkness where we were pretty sure of
+being able to baffle pursuit until we reached our own camp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Provided that we could kill the two guards in the proper fashion&mdash;rather a
+large proviso, I admit&mdash;the thing was simple as shelling peas which,
+notwithstanding the proverb, in my experience is not simple at all, since
+generally the shells crack the wrong way and at least one of the peas remained
+in the pod. So it happened in this case, for Janee, whom we had both forgotten,
+remained in the pod.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am sure I don&rsquo;t know why we overlooked her; indeed, the error was
+inexcusable, especially as Hans had already experienced her foolishness and she
+was lying there before our eyes. I suppose that our minds were so concentrated
+upon the guard-killing and the tragic and impressive Inez that there was no
+room in them for the stolid and matter-of-fact Janee. At any rate she proved to
+be the pea that would not come out of the pod.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Often in my life I have felt terrified, not being by nature one of those who
+rejoices in dangers and wild adventures for their own sake, which only the
+stupid do, but who has, on the contrary, been forced to undertake them by the
+pressure of circumstances, a kind of hydraulic force that no one can resist,
+and who, having undertaken, has been carried through them, triumphing over the
+shrinkings of his flesh by some secret reserve of nerve power. Almost am I
+tempted to call it spirit-power, something that lives beyond and yet inspires
+our frail and fallible bodies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, rarely have I been more frightened than I was at this moment. Actually I
+hung back until I saw that Hans slithering through the grass like a thick
+yellow snake with the great knife in his right hand, was quite a foot ahead of
+me. Then my pride came to the rescue and I spurted, if one can spurt upon
+one&rsquo;s stomach, and drew level with him. After this we went at a pace so
+slow that any able-bodied snail would have left us standing still. Inch by inch
+we crept forward, lying motionless a while after each convulsive movement, once
+for quite a long time, since the left-hand cannibal seemed about to wake up,
+for he opened his mouth and yawned. If so, he changed his mind and rolling from
+a sitting posture on to his side, went to sleep much more soundly than before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A minute or so later the right-hand ruffian, my man, also stirred, so sharply
+that I thought he had heard something. Apparently, however, he was only haunted
+by dreams resulting from an evil life, or perhaps by the prescience of its end,
+for after waving his arm and muttering something in a frightened voice, he too,
+wearied out, poor devil, sank back into sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last we were on them, but paused because we could not see exactly where to
+strike and knew, each of us, that our first blow must be the last and fatal. A
+cloud had come up and dimmed what light there was, and we must wait for it to
+pass. It was a long wait, or so it seemed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length that cloud did pass and in faint outline I saw the classical head of
+my Amahagger bowed in deep sleep. With a heart beating as it does only in the
+fierce extremities of love or war, I hissed like a snake, which was our agreed
+signal. Then rising to my knees, I lifted the Zulu axe and struck with all my
+strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The blow was straight and true; Umslopogaas himself could not have dealt a
+better. The victim in front of me uttered no sound and made no movement; only
+sank gently on to his side, and there lay as dead as though he had never been
+born.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It appeared that Hans had done equally well, since the other man kicked out his
+long legs, which struck me on the knees. Then he also became strangely still.
+In short, both of them were stone dead and would tell no stories this side of
+Judgment Day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Recovering my axe, which had been wrenched from my hand, I crept forward and
+opened the curtain-like rugs or blankets, I do not know which they were, that
+covered Inez. I heard her stir at once. The movement had wakened her, since
+captives sleep lightly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Make no noise, Inez,&rdquo; I whispered. &ldquo;It is I, Allan
+Quatermain, come to rescue you. Slip out and follow me; do you
+understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, quite,&rdquo; she whispered back and began to rise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment a blood-curdling yell seemed to fill earth and heaven, a yell at
+the memory of which even now I feel faint, although I am writing years after
+its echoes died away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may as well say at once that it came from Janee who, awaking suddenly, had
+perceived against the background of the sky, Hans standing over her, looking
+like a yellow devil with a long knife in his hand, which she thought was about
+to be used to murder her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, lacking self-restraint, she screamed in the most lusty fashion, for her
+lungs were excellent, and&mdash;the game was up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly every man sleeping round the fire leapt to his feet and rushed in the
+direction of the echoes of Janee&rsquo;s yell. It was impossible to get Inez
+free of her tent arrangement or to do anything, except whisper to her,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Feign sleep and know nothing. We will follow you. Your father is with
+us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I bolted back into the bushes, which Hans had reached already.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A minute or two later when we were clear of the hubbub and nearing our own
+camp, Hans remarked to me sententiously,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine worked well, Baas, but not quite well enough, for
+what medicine can avail against a woman&rsquo;s folly?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was our own folly we should blame,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;We ought
+to have known that fool-girl would shriek, and taken precautions.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, we ought to have killed her too, for nothing else would have
+kept her quiet,&rdquo; replied Hans in cheerful assent. &ldquo;Now we shall
+have to pay for our mistake, for the hunt must go on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment we stumbled across Robertson and Umslopogaas who, with the
+others, and every living thing within a mile or two had also heard
+Janee&rsquo;s yell, and briefly told our story. When he learned how near we had
+been to rescuing his daughter, Robertson groaned, but Umslopogaas only said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, there are two less of the men-eaters left to deal with. Still, for
+once your wisdom failed you, Macumazahn. When you had found the camp you should
+have returned, so that we might all attack it together. Had we done so, before
+the dawn there would not have been one of them left.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I think that my wisdom did fail me, if I
+have any to fail. But come; perhaps we may catch them yet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we advanced, Hans and I showing the road. But when we reached the place it
+was too late, for all that remained of the Amahagger, or of Inez and Janee,
+were the two dead men whom we had killed, and in that darkness pursuit was
+impossible. So we went back to our own camp to rest and await the dawn before
+taking up the trail, only to find ourselves confronted with a new trouble. All
+the Strathmuir half-breeds whom we had left behind as useless, had taken
+advantage of our absence and that of the Zulus, to desert. They had just bolted
+back upon our tracks and vanished into the sea of bush. What became of them I
+do not know, as we never saw them again, but my belief is that these cowardly
+fellows all perished, for certainly not one of them reached Strathmuir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately for us, however, they departed in such a hurry that they left all
+their loads behind them, and even some of the guns they carried. Evidently
+Janee&rsquo;s yell was the last straw which broke the back of such nerve as
+remained to them. Doubtless they believed it to be the signal of attack by
+hordes of cannibals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As there was nothing to be said or done, since any pursuit of these curs was
+out of the question, we made the best of things as they were. It proved a
+simple business. From the loads we selected such articles as were essential,
+ammunition for the most part, to carry ourselves&mdash;and the rest we
+abandoned, hiding it under a pile of stones in case we should ever come that
+way again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The guns they had thrown aside we distributed among the Zulus who had none,
+though the thought that they possessed them, so far as I was concerned, added
+another terror to life. The prospect of going into battle with those wild
+axemen letting off bullets in every direction was not pleasant, but fortunately
+when that crisis came, they cast them away and reverted to the weapons to which
+they were accustomed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now all this sounds much like a tale of disaster, or at any rate of failure. It
+is, however, wonderful by what strange ways good results are brought about, so
+much so that at times I think that these seeming accidents must be arranged by
+an Intelligence superior to our own, to fulfil through us purposes of which we
+know nothing, and frequently, be it admitted, of a nature sufficiently obscure.
+Of course this is a fatalistic doctrine, but then, as I have said before,
+within certain limits I am a fatalist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To take the present case, for instance, the whole Inez episode at first sight
+might appear to be an excrescence on my narrative, of which the object is to
+describe how I met a certain very wonderful woman and what I heard and
+experienced in her company. Yet it is not really so, since had it not been for
+the Inez adventure, it is quite clear that I should never have reached the home
+of this woman, if woman she were, or have seen her at all. Before long this
+became very obvious to me, as shall be told.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the night upon which Hans and I failed to rescue Inez we had no more
+difficulty in following the trail of the cannibals, who thenceforward were
+never more than a few hours ahead of us and had no time to be careful or to
+attempt to hide their spoor. Yet so fast did they travel that do what we would,
+burdened and wearied as we were, it proved impossible to overtake them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the first three days the track ran on through scattered, rolling bush-veld
+of the character that I have described, but tending continually down hill. When
+we broke camp on the morning of the fourth day, eating a hasty meal at dawn
+(for now game had become astonishingly plentiful, so that we did not lack food)
+the rising sun showed beneath us an endless sea of billowy mist stretching in
+every direction far as the sight could carry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the north, however, it did come to an end, for there, as I judged fifty or
+sixty miles away, rose the grim outline of what looked like a huge fortress,
+which I knew must be one of those extraordinary mountain formations, probably
+owing their origin to volcanic action, that are to be met with here and there
+in the vast expanses of Central and Eastern Africa. Being so distant it was
+impossible to estimate its size, which I guessed must be enormous, but in
+looking at it I bethought me of that great mountain in which Zikali said the
+marvellous white Queen lived, and wondered whether it could be the same, as
+from my memory of his map upon the ashes, it well might be, that is, if such a
+place existed at all. If so the map had shown it as surrounded by swamps
+and&mdash;well, surely that mist hid the face of a mighty swamp?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It did indeed, since before nightfall, following the spoor of those Amahagger,
+we had plunged into a morass so vast that in all my experience I have never
+seen or heard of its like. It was a veritable ocean of papyrus and other reeds,
+some of them a dozen or more feet high, so that it was impossible to see a yard
+in any direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here it was that the Amahagger ahead of us proved our salvation, since without
+them to guide us we must soon have perished. For through that gigantic swamp
+there ran a road, as I think an ancient road, since in one or two places I saw
+stone work which must have been laid by man. Yet it was not a road which it
+would have been possible to follow without a guide, seeing that it also was
+overgrown with reeds. Indeed, the only difference between it and the
+surrounding swamp was that on the road the soil was comparatively firm, that is
+to say, one seldom sank into it above the knee, whereas on either side of it
+quagmires were often apparently bottomless, and what is more, partook of the
+nature of quicksand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This we found out soon after we entered the swamp, since Robertson, pushing
+forward with the fierce eagerness which seemed to consume him, neglected to
+keep his eye upon the spoor and stepped off the edge on to land that appeared
+to be exactly similar to its surface. Instantly he began to sink in greasy and
+tenacious mud. Umslopogaas and I were only twenty yards behind, yet by the time
+we reached him in answer to his shouts, already he was engulfed up to his
+middle and going down so rapidly that in another minute he would have vanished
+altogether. Well, we got him out but not with ease, for that mud clung to him
+like the tentacles of an octopus. After this we were more careful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor did this road run straight; on the contrary, it curved about and sometimes
+turned at right angles, doubtless to avoid a piece of swamp over which it had
+proved impossible for the ancients to construct a causeway, or to follow some
+out-crop of harder soil beneath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The difficulties of that horrible place are beyond description, and indeed can
+scarcely be imagined. First there was that of a kind of grass which grew among
+the roots of the reeds and had edges like to those of knives. As Robertson and
+I wore gaiters we did not suffer so much from it, but the poor Zulus with their
+bare legs were terribly cut about and in some cases lame.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then there were the mosquitoes which lived here by the million and all seemed
+anxious for a bite; also snakes of a peculiarly deadly kind were numerous. A
+Zulu was bitten by one of them of so poisonous a nature that he died within
+three minutes, for the venom seemed to go straight to his heart. We threw his
+body into the swamp, where it vanished at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lastly there was the all-pervading stench and the intolerable heat of the
+place, since no breath of air could penetrate that forest of reeds, while a
+minor trouble was that of the multitude of leeches which fastened on to our
+bodies. By looking one could see the creatures sitting on the under side of
+leaves with their heads stretched out waiting to attack anything that went by.
+As wayfarers there could not have been numerous, I wondered what they had lived
+on for the last few thousand years. By the way, I found that paraffin, of which
+we had a small supply for our hand-lamps, rubbed over all exposed surfaces, was
+to some extent a protection against these blood-sucking worms and the gnats,
+although it did make one go about smelling like a dirty oil tin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the day, except for the occasional rush of some great iguana or other
+reptile, and the sound of the wings of the flocks of wildfowl passing over us
+from time to time, the march was deathly silent. But at night it was different,
+for then the bull-frogs boomed incessantly, as did the bitterns, while great
+swamp owls and other night-flying birds uttered their weird cries. Also there
+were mysterious sucking noises caused, no doubt, by the sinking of areas of
+swamp, with those of bursting bubbles of foul, up-rushing gas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Strange lights, too, played about, will-o&rsquo;-the-wisps or St. Elmo fires,
+as I believe they are called, that frightened the Zulus very much, since they
+believed them to be spirits of the dead. Perhaps this superstition had
+something to do with their native legend that mankind was &ldquo;torn out of
+the reeds.&rdquo; If so, they may have imagined that the ghosts of men went
+back to the reeds, of which there were enough here to accommodate those of the
+entire Zulu nation. Any way they were much scared; even the bold witch-doctor,
+Goroko, was scared and went through incantations with the little bag of
+medicines he carried to secure protection for himself and his companions.
+Indeed, I think even the iron Umslopogaas himself was not as comfortable as he
+might have been, although he did inform me that he had come out to fight and
+did not care whether it were with man, or wizard, or spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In short, of all the journeys that I have made, with the exception of the
+passage of the desert on our way to King Solomon&rsquo;s Mines, I think that
+through this enormous swamp was the most miserable. Heartily did I curse myself
+for ever having undertaken such a quest in a wild attempt to allay that
+sickness, or rather to quench that thirst of the soul which, I imagine, at
+times assails most of those who have hearts and think or dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For this was at the bottom of the business: this it was which had delivered me
+into the hands of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, who, as now I am sure, was merely
+making use of me for his private occult purposes. He desired to consult the
+distant Oracle, if such a person existed, as to great schemes of his own, and
+therefore, to attain his end, made use of my secret longings which I had been
+so foolish as to reveal to him, quite careless of what happened to me in the
+process. [A bit narrow and uncharitable, this view. It seems to me that Zikali
+is taking a big risk in giving him the Great Medicine.&mdash;JB]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, I was in for the business and must follow it to the finish whatever that
+might be. After all it was very interesting and if there were anything in what
+Zikali said (if there were not I could not conceive what object he had in
+sending me on such a wild-goose chase through this home of geese and ducks), it
+might become more interesting still. For being pretty well fever-proof I did
+not think I should die in that morass, as of course nine white men out of ten
+would have done, and, beyond it lay the huge mountain which day by day grew
+larger and clearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor did Hans, who, with a childlike trust, pinned his faith to the Great
+Medicine. This, he remarked, was the worst veld through which he had ever
+travelled, but as the Great Medicine would never consent to be buried in that
+stinking mud, he had no doubt that we should come safely through it some time.
+I replied that this wonderful medicine of his had not saved one of our
+companions who had now made a grave in the same mud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but those Zulus have nothing to do with
+the Medicine which was given to you, and to me who accompanied you when we saw
+the Opener-of-Roads. Therefore perhaps they will all die, except Umslopogaas,
+whom you were told to take with you. If so, what does it matter, since there
+are plenty of Zulus, although there be but one Macumazahn or one Hans? Also the
+Baas may remember that he began by offending a snake and therefore it is quite
+natural that this snake&rsquo;s brother should have bitten the Zulu.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you are right, he should have bitten me, Hans.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, and so no doubt he would have done had you not been protected
+by the Great Medicine, and me too had not my grandfather been a snake-charmer,
+to say nothing of the smell of the Medicine being on me as well. The snakes
+know those that they should bite, Baas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So do the mosquitoes,&rdquo; I answered, grabbing a handful of them.
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine has no effect upon them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, Baas, it has, since though it pleases them to bite, the bites
+do us no harm, or at least not much, and all are made happy. Still, I wish we
+could get out of these reeds of which I never want to see another, and Baas,
+please keep your rifle ready for I think I hear a crocodile stirring
+there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No need, Hans,&rdquo; I remarked sarcastically. &ldquo;Go and tell him
+that I have the Great Medicine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, I will; also that if he is very hungry, there are some Zulus
+camped a few yards further down the road,&rdquo; and he went solemnly to the
+reeds a little way off and began to talk to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You infernal donkey!&rdquo; I murmured, and drew my blanket over my head
+in a vain attempt to keep out the mosquitoes and smoking furiously with the
+same object, tried to get to sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+At last the swamp bottom began to slope upwards a little, with the result that
+as the land dried through natural drainage, the reeds grew thinner by degrees,
+until finally they ceased and we found ourselves on firmer ground; indeed, upon
+the lowest slopes of the great mountain that I have mentioned, that now towered
+above us, forbidden and majestic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had made a little map in my pocket-book of the various twists and turns of
+the road through that vast Slough of Despond, marking them from hour to hour as
+we followed its devious wanderings. On studying this at the end of that part of
+our journey I realised afresh how utterly impossible it would have been for us
+to thread that misty maze where a few false steps would always have meant death
+by suffocation, had it not been for the spoor of those Amahagger travelling
+immediately ahead of us who were acquainted with its secrets. Had they been
+friendly guides they could not have done us a better turn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What I wondered was why they had not tried to ambush us in the reeds, since our
+fires must have shown them that we were close upon their heels. That they did
+try to burn us out was clear from certain evidences that I found, but
+fortunately at this season of the year in the absence of a strong wind the rank
+reeds were too green to catch fire. For the rest I was soon to learn the reason
+of their neglect to attack us in that dense cover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were waiting for a better opportunity!
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+THE ATTACK</h2>
+
+<p>
+We won out of the reeds at last, for which I fervently thanked God, since to
+have crossed that endless marsh unguided, with the loss of only one man, seemed
+little less than miraculous. We emerged from them late in the afternoon and
+being wearied out, stopped for a while to rest and eat of the flesh of a buck
+that I had been fortunate enough to shoot upon their fringe. Then we pushed
+forward up the slope, proposing to camp for the night on the crest of it a mile
+or so away where I thought we should escape from the deadly mist in which we
+had been enveloped for so long, and obtain a clear view of the country ahead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following the bank of a stream which here ran down into the marsh, we came at
+length to this crest just as the sun was sinking. Below us lay a deep valley, a
+fold, as it were, in the skin of the mountain, well but not densely bushed. The
+woods of this valley climbed up the mountain flank for some distance above it
+and then gave way to grassy slopes that ended in steep sides of rock, which
+were crowned by a black and frowning precipice of unknown height.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was, I remember, something very impressive about this towering natural
+wall, which seemed to shut off whatever lay beyond the gaze of man, as though
+it veiled an ancient mystery. Indeed, the aspect of it thrilled me, I knew not
+why. I observed, however, that at one point in the mighty cliff there seemed to
+be a narrow cleft down which, no doubt, lava had flowed in a remote age, and it
+occurred to me that up this cleft ran a roadway, probably a continuation of
+that by which we had threaded the swamp. The fact that through my glasses I
+could see herds of cattle grazing on the slopes of the mountain went to confirm
+this view, since cattle imply owners and herdsmen, and search as I would, I
+could find no native villages on the slopes. The inference seemed to be that
+those owners dwelt beyond or within the mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All of these things I saw and pointed out to Robertson in the light of the
+setting sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas had been engaged in selecting the spot where we were to
+camp for the night. Some soldierlike instinct, or perchance some prescience of
+danger, caused him to choose a place particularly suitable to defence. It was
+on a steep-sided mound that more or less resembled a gigantic ant-heap. Upon
+one side this mound was protected by the stream which because of a pool was
+here rather deep, while at the back of it stood a collection of those curious
+and piled-up water-worn rocks that are often to be found in Africa. These
+rocks, lying one upon another like the stones of a Cyclopean wall, curved round
+the western side of the mound, so that practically it was only open for a
+narrow space, say thirty or forty feet, upon that face of it which looked on to
+the mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Umslopogaas expects battle,&rdquo; remarked Hans to me with a grin,
+&ldquo;otherwise with all this nice plain round us he would not have chosen to
+camp in a place which a few men could hold against many. Yes, Baas, he thinks
+that those cannibals are going to attack us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stranger things have happened,&rdquo; I answered indifferently, and
+having seen to the rifles, went to lie down, observing as I did so that the
+tired Zulus seemed already to be asleep. Only Umslopogaas did not sleep. On the
+contrary, he stood leaning on his axe staring at the dim outlines of the
+opposing precipice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A strange mountain, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;compared to it
+that of the Witch, beneath which my kraal lies, is but a little baby. I wonder
+what we shall find within it. I have always loved mountains, Macumazahn, ever
+since a dead brother of mine and I lived with the wolves in the Witch&rsquo;s
+lap, for on them I have had the best of my fighting.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps it is not done with yet,&rdquo; I answered wearily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hope not, Macumazahn, since some is due for us, after all these days
+of mud and stench. Sleep a while now, Macumazahn, for that head of yours which
+you use so much, must need rest. Fear not, I and the little yellow man who do
+not think as much as you do, will keep watch and wake you if there is need, as
+mayhap there will be before the dawn. Here none can come at us except in front,
+and the place is narrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I lay down and slept as soundly as ever I had done in my life, for a space
+of four or five hours I suppose. Then, by some instinct perhaps, I awoke
+suddenly, feeling much refreshed in that sweet mountain air, a new man indeed,
+and in the moonlight saw Umslopogaas striding towards me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Arise, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I hear men stirring below
+us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment Hans slipped past him, whispering,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The cannibals are coming, Baas, a good number of them. I think they mean
+to attack before dawn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he passed behind me to warn the Zulus. As he went by, I said to him,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, Hans, now is the time for your Great Medicine to show what it can
+do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine will look after you and me all right, Baas,&rdquo; he
+replied, pausing and speaking in Dutch, which Umslopogaas did not understand,
+&ldquo;but I expect there will be fewer of those Zulus to cook for before the
+sun grows hot. Their spirits will be turned into snakes and go back into the
+reeds from which they say they were &lsquo;torn out,&rsquo;&rdquo; he added
+over his shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I should explain that Hans acted as cook to our party and it was a grievance
+with him that the Zulus ate so much of the meat which he was called upon to
+prepare. Indeed, there is never much sympathy between Hottentots and Zulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the little yellow man saying about us?&rdquo; asked Umslopogaas
+suspiciously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is saying that if it comes to battle, you and your men will make a
+great fight,&rdquo; I replied diplomatically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, we will do that, Macumazahn, but I thought he said that we should
+be killed and that this pleased him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh dear no!&rdquo; I answered hastily. &ldquo;How could he be pleased if
+that happened, since then he would be left defenceless, if he were not killed
+too. Now, Umslopogaas, let us make a plan for this fight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, together with Robertson, rapidly we discussed the thing. As a result, with
+the help of the Zulus, we dragged together some loose stones and the tops of
+three small thorn trees which we had cut down, and with them made a low
+breastwork, sufficient to give us some protection if we lay down to shoot. It
+was the work of a few minutes since we had prepared the material when we camped
+in case an emergency should arise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind this breastwork we gathered and waited, Robertson and I being careful to
+get a little to the rear of the Zulus, who it will be remembered had the rifles
+which the Strathmuir bastards had left behind them when they bolted, in
+addition to their axes and throwing assegais. The question was how these
+cannibals would fight. I knew that they were armed with long spears and knives
+but I did not know if they used those spears for thrusting or for throwing. In
+the former case it would be difficult to get at them with the axes because they
+must have the longer reach. Fortunately as it turned out, they did both.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length all was ready and there came that long and trying wait, the most
+disagreeable part of a fight in which one grows nervous and begins to reflect
+earnestly upon one&rsquo;s sins. Clearly the Amahagger, if they really intended
+business, did not mean to attack till just before dawn, after the common native
+fashion, thinking to rush us in the low and puzzling light. What perplexed me
+was that they should wish to attack us at all after having let so many
+opportunities of doing so go by. Apparently these men were now in sight of
+their own home, where no doubt they had many friends, and by pushing on could
+reach its shelter before us, especially as they knew the roads and we did not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had come out for a secret purpose that seemed to have to do with the
+abduction of a certain young white woman for reasons connected with their
+tribal statecraft or ritual, which is the kind of thing that happens not
+infrequently among obscure and ancient African tribes. Well, they had abducted
+their young woman and were in sight of safety and success in their objects,
+whatever these might be. For what possible reason, then, could they desire to
+risk a fight with the outraged friends and relatives of that young woman?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was true that they outnumbered us and therefore had a good chance of
+victory, but on the other hand, they must know that it would be very dearly
+won, and if it were not won, that we should retake their captive, so that all
+their trouble would have been for nothing. Further they must be as exhausted
+and travel-worn as we were ourselves and in no condition to face a desperate
+battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The problem was beyond me and I gave it up with the reflection that either this
+threatened attack was a mere feint to delay us, or that behind it was something
+mysterious, such as a determination to prevent us at all hazards from
+discovering the secrets of that mountain stronghold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I put the riddle to Hans, who was lying next to me, he was ready with
+another solution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are men-eaters, Baas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and being hungry, wish
+to eat us before they get to their own land where doubtless they are not
+allowed to eat each other.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think so,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;when we are so thin?&rdquo;
+and I surveyed Hans&rsquo; scraggy form in the moonlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, Baas, we should be quite good boiled&mdash;like old hens, Baas.
+Also it is the nature of cannibals to prefer thin man to fat beef. The devil
+that is in them gives them that taste, Baas, just as he makes me like gin, or
+you turn your head to look at pretty women, as those Zulus say you always did
+in their country, especially at a certain witch who was named Mameena and whom
+you kissed before everybody&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I turned my head to look at Hans, proposing to smite him with words, or
+physically, since to have this Mameena myth, of which I have detailed the
+origin in the book called <i>Child of Storm</i>, re-arise out of his hideous
+little mouth was too much. But before I could get out a syllable he held up his
+finger and whispered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hush! the dawn breaks and they come. I hear them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I listened intently but could distinguish nothing. Only straining my eyes,
+presently I thought that about a hundred yards down the slope beneath us in the
+dim light I caught sight of ghostlike figures flitting from tree to tree; also
+that these figures were drawing nearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look out!&rdquo; I said to Robertson on my right, &ldquo;I believe they
+are coming.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Man,&rdquo; he answered sternly, &ldquo;I hope so, for whom else have I
+wanted to meet all these days?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the figures vanished into a little fold of the ground. A minute or so later
+they re-appeared upon its hither side where such light as there was from the
+fading stars and the gathering dawn fell full upon them, for here were no
+trees. I looked and a thrill of horror went through me, for with one glance I
+recognised that these were <i>not the men whom we had been following</i>. To
+begin with, there were many more of them, quite a hundred, I should think, also
+they had painted shields, wore feathers in their hair, and generally so far as
+I could judge, seemed to be fat and fresh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We have been led into an ambush,&rdquo; I said first in Zulu to
+Umslopogaas immediately in front, and then in English to Robertson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, man, we must just do the best we can,&rdquo; answered the latter,
+&ldquo;but God help my poor daughter, for those other devils will have taken
+her away, leaving their brethren to make an end of us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is so, Macumazahn,&rdquo; broke in Umslopogaas. &ldquo;Well, whatever
+the end of it, we shall have a better fight. Now do you give the word and we
+will obey.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The savages, for so I call them, although I admit that cannibals or not, they
+looked more like high-class Arabs than savages, came on in perfect silence,
+hoping, I suppose, to catch us asleep. When they were about fifty yards away,
+running in a treble line with spears advanced, I called out &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo;
+in Zulu, and set the example by loosing off both barrels of my express rifle at
+men whom I had picked out as leaders, with results that must have been more
+satisfactory to me than to the two Amahagger whose troubles in this world came
+to an end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There followed a tremendous fusillade, the Zulus banging off their guns wildly,
+but even at that distance managing for the most part to shoot over the
+enemy&rsquo;s heads. Captain Robertson and Hans, however, did better and the
+general result was that the Amahagger, who appeared to be unaccustomed to
+firearms, retreated in a hurry to a fold of the ground whence they had emerged.
+Before the last of them got there I loaded again, so that two more stopped
+behind. Altogether we had put nine or ten of them out of action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I hoped that they would give the business up. But this was not so, for
+being brave fellows, after a pause of perhaps five minutes, once more they
+charged in a body, hoping to overwhelm us. Again we greeted them with bullets
+and knocked out several, whereon the rest threw a volley of their long spears
+at us. I was glad to see them do this although one of the Zulus got his death
+from it, while two more were wounded. I myself had a very narrow escape, for a
+spear passed between my neck and shoulder. Each of them carried but one of
+these weapons and I knew that if they used them up in throwing, only their big
+knives would remain to them with which to attack us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this discharge of spears which was kept up for some time, they rushed at
+us and there followed a great fight. The Zulus, throwing down their guns, rose
+to their feet and holding their little fighting shields which had been carried
+in their mats, in the left hand, wielded their axes with the right.
+Umslopogaas, who stood in the centre of them, however, had no shield and swung
+his great axe with both arms. This was the first time that I had seen him fight
+and the spectacle was in a way magnificent. Again and again the axe crashed
+down and every time it fell it left one dead beneath the stroke, till at length
+those Amahagger shrank back out of his reach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Robertson, Hans and I, standing on some stones at the back, kept up a
+continual fire upon them, shooting over the heads of the Zulus, who were
+playing their part like men. Yes, they shrank back, leaving many dead behind
+them. Then a captain tried to gather them for another rush, and once more they
+moved forward. I killed that captain with a revolver shot, for my rifle had
+become too hot to hold, and at the sight of his fall, they broke and ran back
+into the little hollow where our bullets could not reach them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So far we had held our own, but at a price, for three of the Zulus were now
+dead and three more wounded, one of them severely, the other two but enough to
+cripple them. In fact, now there were left of them but three untouched men, and
+Umslopogaas, so that in all for fighting purposes we were but seven. What
+availed it that we had killed a great number of these Amahagger, when we were
+but seven? How could seven men withstand such another onslaught?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There in the pale light of the dawn we looked at each other dismayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, leaning on his red axe, &ldquo;there
+remains but one thing to do, make a good end, though I would that it were in a
+greater cause. At least we must either fight or fly,&rdquo; and he looked down
+at the wounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think not of us, Father,&rdquo; murmured one of them, the man who had a
+mortal hurt. &ldquo;If it is best, kill us and begone that you may live to bear
+the Axe in years to come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well spoken!&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, and again stood still a while,
+then added, &ldquo;The word is with you, Macumazahn, who are our
+captain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I set out the situation to Robertson and Hans as briefly as I could, showing
+that there was a chance of life if we ran, but so far as I could see, none if
+we stayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go if you like, Quatermain,&rdquo; answered the Captain, &ldquo;but I
+shall stop and die here, for since my girl is gone I think I&rsquo;m better
+dead.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I motioned to Hans to speak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;the Great Medicine is here with us upon
+the earth and your reverend father, the Predikant, is with us in the sky, so I
+think we had better stop here and do what we can, especially as I do not want
+to see those reeds any more at present.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; I said briefly, giving no reasons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we made ready for the next attack which we knew would be the last,
+strengthening our little wall and dragging the dead Amahagger up against it as
+an added protection. As we were thus engaged the sun rose and in its first
+beams, some miles away on the opposing slopes of the mountain looking tiny
+against the black background of the precipice, we saw a party of men creeping
+forward. Lifting my glasses I studied it and perceived that in its midst was a
+litter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There goes your daughter,&rdquo; I said, and handed the glasses to
+Robertson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! my God,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;those villains have outwitted us
+after all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another minute and the litter, or rather the chair with its escort, had
+vanished into the shadow of the great cliffs, probably up some pass which we
+could not see.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next moment our thoughts were otherwise engaged, since from various symptoms we
+gathered that the attack was about to be renewed. Spears upon which shone the
+light of the rising sun, appeared above the edge of the ground-fold that I have
+mentioned, which to the east increased to a deep, bush-clad ravine. Also there
+were voices as of leaders encouraging their men to a desperate effort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are coming,&rdquo; I said to Robertson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;they are coming and we are going.
+It&rsquo;s a queer end to the thing we call life, isn&rsquo;t it, Quatermain,
+and hang it all! I wonder what&rsquo;s beyond? Not much for me, I expect, but
+whatever it is could scarcely be worse than what I&rsquo;ve gone through here
+below in one way and another.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There&rsquo;s hope for all of us,&rdquo; I replied as cheerfully as I
+could, for the man&rsquo;s deep depression disturbed me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mayhap, Quatermain, for who knows the infinite mercy of whatever made us
+as we are? My old mother used to preach of it and I remember her words now. But
+in my case I expect it will stop at hope, or sleep, and if it wasn&rsquo;t for
+Inez, I&rsquo;d not mind so much, for I tell you I&rsquo;ve had enough of the
+world and life. Look, there&rsquo;s one of them. Take that, you black
+devil!&rdquo; and lifting his rifle he aimed and fired at an Amahagger who
+appeared upon the edge of the fold of ground. What is more he hit him, for I
+saw the man double up and fall backwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the game began afresh, for the cannibals (I suppose they were cannibals
+like their brethren) crept out of shelter, advancing on their stomachs or their
+hands and knees, so as to offer a smaller mark, and dragging between them a
+long and slender tree-trunk with which clearly they intended to batter down our
+wall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course I blazed away at them, pretty carefully too, for I was determined
+that what I believed to be the last exercise of the gift of shooting that has
+been given to me, should prove a record. Therefore I selected my men and even
+where I would hit them, and as subsequent examination showed, I made no
+mistakes in the seven or eight shots that I fired. But all the while, like poor
+Captain Robertson, I was thinking of other things; namely, where I was bound
+for presently and if I should meet certain folk there and what was the meaning
+of this show called Life, which unless it leads somewhere, according to my
+judgment has none at all. Until these questions were solved, however, my duty
+was to kill as many of those ruffians as I could, and this I did with finish
+and despatch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robertson and Hans were firing also, with more or less success, but there were
+too many to be stopped by our three rifles. Still they came on till at length
+their fierce faces were within a few yards of our little parapet and
+Umslopogaas had lifted his great axe to give them greeting. They paused a
+moment before making their final rush, and so did we to slip in fresh
+cartridges.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Die well, Hans,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;and if you get there first, wait
+for me on the other side.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, I always meant to do that, though not yet. We are not going
+to die this time, Baas. Those who have the Great Medicine don&rsquo;t die; it
+is the others who die, like that fellow,&rdquo; and he pointed to an Amahagger
+who went reeling round and round with a bullet from his Winchester through the
+middle, for he had fired in the midst of his remarks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Curse&mdash;I mean bless&mdash;the Great Medicine,&rdquo; I said as I
+lifted my rifle to my shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment all those Amahagger&mdash;there were about sixty of them
+left&mdash;became seized with a certain perturbation. They stood still, they
+stared towards the fold of ground out of which they had emerged; they called to
+each other words which I did not catch, and then&mdash;they turned to run.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas saw, and with a leader&rsquo;s instinct, acted. Springing over the
+parapet, followed by his remaining Zulus of the Axe, he leapt upon them with a
+roar. Down they went before <i>Inkosikaas</i>, like corn before a sickle. The
+thing was marvellous to see, it was like the charge of a leopard, so swift was
+the rush and so lightning-like were the strokes or rather the pecks of that
+flashing axe, for now he was tapping at their heads or spines with the
+gouge-like point upon its back. Nor were these the only victims, for those
+brave followers of his also did their part. In a minute all who remained upon
+their feet of the Amahagger were in full flight, vanishing this way and that
+among the trees. Hans fired a parting shot after the last of them, then sat
+down upon a stone and finding his corn-cob pipe, proceeded to fill it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine, Baas,&rdquo; he began sententiously, &ldquo;or
+perhaps your reverend father, the Predikant&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; Here he paused
+and pointed doubtfully with the bowl of the pipe towards the fold in the
+ground, adding, &ldquo;Here it is, but I think it must be your reverend father,
+not the Great Medicine, yes, the Predikant himself, returned from Heaven, the
+Place of Fires!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Looking vaguely in the direction indicated, for I could not conceive what he
+meant and thought that the excitement must have made him mad, I perceived a
+venerable old man with a long white beard and clothed in a flowing garment,
+also white, who reminded me of Father Christmas at a child&rsquo;s party,
+walking towards us and radiating benignancy. Also behind him I perceived a
+whole forest of spear points emerging from the gully. He seemed to take it for
+granted that we should not shoot at him, for he came on quite unconcerned,
+carefully picking his way among the corpses. When he was near enough he stopped
+and said in a kind of Arabic which I could understand,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I greet you, Strangers, in the name of her I serve. I see that I am just
+in time, but this does not surprise me, since she said that it would be so. You
+seem to have done very well with these dogs,&rdquo; and he prodded a dead
+Amahagger with his sandalled foot. &ldquo;Yes, very well indeed. You must be
+great warriors.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he paused and we stared at each other.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;These do not seem to be friends of yours,&rdquo; I said, pointing to the
+fallen. &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; I added, nodding towards the spearmen who were
+now emerging from the gully, &ldquo;they are very like your friends.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Puppies from the same litter are often alike, yet when they grow up
+sometimes they fight each other,&rdquo; replied Father Christmas blandly.
+&ldquo;At least these come to save and not to kill you. Look! they kill the
+others!&rdquo; and he pointed to them making an end of some of the wounded men.
+&ldquo;But who are these?&rdquo; and he glanced with evident astonishment,
+first at the fearsome-looking Umslopogaas and then at the grotesque Hans.
+&ldquo;Nay, answer not, you must be weary and need rest. Afterwards we can
+talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, as a matter of fact we have not yet breakfasted,&rdquo; I replied.
+&ldquo;Also I have business to attend to here,&rdquo; and I glanced at our
+wounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old fellow nodded and went to speak to the captains of his force, doubtless
+as to the pursuit of the enemy, for presently I saw a company spring forward on
+their tracks. Then, assisted by Hans and the remaining Zulus, of whom one was
+Goroko, I turned to attend to our own people. The task proved lighter than I
+expected, since the badly injured man was dead or dying and the hurts of the
+two others were in their legs and comparatively slight, such as Goroko could
+doctor in his own native fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this, taking Hans to guard my back, I went down to the stream and washed
+myself. Then I returned and ate, wondering the while that I could do so with
+appetite after the terrible dangers which we had passed. Still, we had passed
+them, and Robertson, Umslopogaas with three of his men, I and Hans were quite
+unharmed, a fact for which I returned thanks in silence but sincerely enough to
+Providence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hans also returned thanks in his own fashion, after he had filled himself, not
+before, and lit his corn-cob pipe. But Robertson made no remark; indeed, when
+he had satisfied his natural cravings, he rose and walking a few paces forward,
+stood staring at the cleft in the mountain cliff into which he had seen the
+litter vanish that bore his daughter to some fate unknown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even the great fight that we had fought and the victory we had won against
+overpowering odds did not appear to impress him. He only glared at the mountain
+into the heart of which Inez had been raped away, and shook his fist. Since she
+was gone all else went for nothing, so much so that he did not offer to assist
+with the wounded Zulus or show curiosity about the strange old man by whom we
+had been rescued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine, Baas,&rdquo; said Hans in a bewildered way,
+&ldquo;is even more powerful than I thought. Not only has it brought us safely
+through the fighting and without a scratch, for those Zulus there do not matter
+and there will be less cooking for me to do now that they are gone; it has also
+brought down your reverend father the Predikant from the Place of Fires in
+Heaven, somewhat changed from what I remember him, it is true, but still
+without doubt the same. When I make my report to him presently, if he can
+understand my talk, I shall&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop your infernal nonsense, you son of a donkey,&rdquo; I broke in, for
+at this moment old Father Christmas, smiling more benignly than before,
+re-appeared from the kloof into which he had vanished and advanced towards us
+bowing with much politeness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having seated himself upon the little wall that we had built up, he
+contemplated us, stroking his beautiful white beard, then said, addressing me,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of a certainty you should be proud who with a few have defeated so many.
+Still, had I not been ordered to come at speed, I think that by now you would
+have been as those are,&rdquo; and he looked towards the dead Zulus who were
+laid out at a distance like men asleep, while their companions sought for a
+place to bury them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ordered by whom?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is only one who can order,&rdquo; he answered with mild
+astonishment. &ldquo;&lsquo;She-who-commands,
+She-who-is-everlasting&rsquo;!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It occurred to me that this must be some Arabic idiom for the Eternal Feminine,
+but I only looked vague and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would appear that there are some whom this exalted everlasting She
+cannot command; those who attacked us; also those who have fled away
+yonder,&rdquo; and I waved my hand towards the mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No command is absolute; in every country there are rebels, even, as I
+have heard, in Heaven above us. But, Wanderer, what is your name?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Watcher-by-Night,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! a good name for one who must have watched well by night, and by day
+too, to reach this country living where She-who-commands says that no man of
+your colour has set foot for many generations. Indeed, I think she told me once
+that two thousand years had gone by since she spoke to a white man in the City
+of Kôr.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did she indeed?&rdquo; I exclaimed, stifling a cough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You do not believe me,&rdquo; he went on, smiling. &ldquo;Well,
+She-who-commands can explain matters for herself better than I who was not
+alive two thousand years ago, so far as I remember. But what must I call him
+with the Axe?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Warrior is his name.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Again a good name, as to judge by the wounds on them, certain of those
+rebels I think are now telling each other in Hell. And this man, if indeed he
+be a man&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; he added, looking doubtfully at Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Light-in-Darkness is his name.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see, doubtless because his colour is that of the winter sun in thick
+fog, or a bad egg broken into milk. And the other white man who mutters and
+whose brow is like a storm?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is called Avenger; you will learn why later on,&rdquo; I answered
+impatiently, for I grew tired of this catechism, adding, &ldquo;And what are
+you called and, if you are pleased to tell it to us, upon what errand do you
+visit us in so fortunate an hour?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am named Billali,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;the servant and messenger
+of She-who-commands, and I was sent to save you and to bring you safely to
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can this be, Billali, seeing that none knew of our coming?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet She-who-commands knew,&rdquo; he said with his benignant smile.
+&ldquo;Indeed, I think that she learned of it some moons ago through a message
+that was sent to her and so arranged all things that you should be guided
+safely to her secret home; since otherwise how would you have passed a great
+pathless swamp with the loss, I think she said, of but one man whom a snake
+bit?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I stared at the old fellow, for how could he know of the death of this man,
+but thought it useless to pursue the conversation further.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When you are rested and ready,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;we will start.
+Meanwhile I leave you that I may prepare litters to carry those wounded men,
+and you also, Watcher-by-Night, if you wish.&rdquo; Then with a dignified bow,
+for everything about this old fellow was stately, he turned and vanished into
+the kloof.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next hour or so was occupied in the burial of the dead Zulus, a ceremony in
+which I took no part beyond standing up and raising my hat as they were borne
+away, for as I have said somewhere, it is best to leave natives alone on these
+occasions. Indeed, I lay down, reflecting that strangely enough there seemed to
+be something in old Zikali&rsquo;s tale of a wonderful white Queen who lived in
+a mountain fastness, since there was the mountain as he had drawn it on the
+ashes, and the servants of that Queen who, apparently, had knowledge of our
+coming, appeared in the nick of time to rescue us from one of the tightest
+fixes in which ever I found myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover, the antique and courteous individual called Billali, spoke of her as
+&ldquo;She-who-is-everlasting.&rdquo; What the deuce could he mean by that, I
+wondered? Probably that she was very old and therefore disagreeable to look on,
+which I confessed to myself would be a disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And how did she know that we were coming? I could not guess and when I asked
+Robertson, he merely shrugged his shoulders and intimated that he took no
+interest in the matter. The truth is that nothing moved the man, whose whole
+soul was wrapped in one desire, namely to rescue, or avenge, the daughter
+against whom he knew he had so sorely sinned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, this loose-living but reformed seaman was becoming a monomaniac, and
+what is more, one of the religious type. He had a Bible with him that had been
+given to him by his mother when he was a boy, and in this he read constantly;
+also he was always on his knees and at night I could hear him groaning and
+praying aloud. Doubtless now that the chains of drink had fallen off him, the
+instincts and the blood of the dour old Covenanters from whom he was descended,
+were asserting themselves. In a way this was a good thing though for some time
+past I had feared lest it should end in his going mad, and certainly as a
+companion he was more cheerful in his unregenerate days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Abandoning speculation as useless and taking my chance of being murdered where
+I lay, for after all Billali&rsquo;s followers were singularly like the men
+with whom we had been fighting and for aught I knew might be animated by
+identical objects&mdash;I just went to sleep, as I can do at any time, to wake
+up an hour or so later feeling wonderfully refreshed. Hans, who when I closed
+my eyes was already asleep slumbering at my feet curled up like a dog on a spot
+where the sun struck hotly, roused me by saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Awake, Baas, they are here!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sprang up, snatching at my rifle, for I thought that he meant that we were
+being attacked again, to see Billali advancing at the head of a train of four
+litters made of bamboo with grass mats for curtains and coverings, each of
+which was carried by stalwart Amahagger, as I supposed that they must be. Two
+of these, the finest, Billali indicated were for Robertson and myself, and the
+two others for the wounded. Umslopogaas and the remaining Zulus evidently were
+expected to walk, as was Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How did you make these so quickly,&rdquo; I asked, surveying their
+elegant and indeed artistic workmanship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We did not make them, Watcher-by-Night, we brought them with us folded
+up. She-who-commands looked in her glass and said that four would be needed,
+besides my own which is yonder, two for white lords and two for wounded black
+men, which you see is the number required.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered vaguely, marvelling what kind of a glass it was
+that gave the lady this information.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before I could inquire upon the point Billali added,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will be glad to learn that my men caught some of those rebels who
+dared to attack you, eight or ten of them who had been hurt by your missiles or
+axe-cuts, and put them to death in the proper fashion&mdash;yes, quite the
+proper fashion,&rdquo; and he smiled a little. &ldquo;The rest had gone too far
+where it would have been dangerous to follow them among the rocks. Enter now,
+my lord Watcher-by-Night, for the road is steep and we must travel fast if we
+would reach the place where She-who-commands is camped in the ancient holy
+city, before the moon sinks behind the cliffs to-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So having explained matters to Robertson and Umslopogaas, who announced that
+nothing would induce <i>him</i> to be carried like an old woman, or a corpse
+upon a shield, and seen that the hurt Zulus were comfortably accommodated,
+Robertson and I got into our litters, which proved to be delightfully easy and
+restful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then when our gear was collected by the hook-nosed bearers to whom we were
+obliged to trust, though we kept with us our rifles and a certain amount of
+ammunition, we started. First went a number of Billali&rsquo;s spearmen, then
+came the litters with the wounded alongside of which Umslopogaas and his three
+uninjured Zulus stalked or trotted, then another litter containing Billali,
+then my own by which ran Hans, and Robertson&rsquo;s, and lastly the rest of
+the Amahagger and the relief bearers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see now, Baas,&rdquo; said Hans, thrusting his head between my
+curtains, &ldquo;that yonder Whitebeard cannot be your reverend father, the
+Predikant, after all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; I asked, though the fact was fairly obvious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, Baas, if he were, he would not have left Hans, of whom he
+always thought so well, to run in the sun like a dog, while he and others
+travel in carriages like great white ladies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You had better save your breath instead of talking nonsense,
+Hans,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;since I believe that you have a long way to
+go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, it proved to be a very long way indeed, especially as after we began
+to breast the mountain, we must travel slowly. We started about ten
+o&rsquo;clock in the morning, for the fight which after all did not take
+long&mdash;had, it will be remembered, begun shortly after dawn, and it was
+three in the afternoon before we reached the base of the towering cliff which I
+have mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, at the foot of a remarkable, isolated column of rock, on which I was
+destined to see a strange sight in the after days, we halted and ate of the
+remaining food which we had brought with us, while the Amahagger consumed their
+own, that seemed to consist largely of curdled milk, such as the Zulus call
+<i>maas</i>, and lumps of a kind of bread.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I noted that they were a very curious people who fed in silence and on whose
+handsome, solemn faces one never saw a smile. Somehow it gave me the creeps to
+look at them. Robertson was affected in the same way, for in one of the rare
+intervals of his abstraction he remarked that they were &ldquo;no canny.&rdquo;
+Then he added,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ask yon old wizard who might be one of the Bible prophets come to
+life&mdash;what those man-eating devils have done with my daughter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did so, and Billali answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say that they have taken her away to make a queen of her, since having
+rebelled against their own queen, they must have another who is white. Say too
+that She-who-commands will wage war on them and perhaps win her back, unless
+they kill her first.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; Robertson repeated when I had translated, &ldquo;unless they
+kill her first&mdash;or worse.&rdquo; Then he relapsed into his usual silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently we started on again, heading straight for what looked like a sheer
+wall of black rock a thousand feet or more in height, up a path so steep that
+Robertson and I got out and walked, or rather scrambled, in order to ease the
+bearers. Billali, I noticed, remained in his litter. The convenience of the
+bearers did not trouble him; he only ordered an extra gang to the poles. I
+could not imagine how we were to negotiate this precipice. Nor could
+Umslopogaas, who looked at it and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If we are to climb that, Macumazahn, I think that the only one who will
+live to get to the top will be that little yellow monkey of yours,&rdquo; and
+he pointed with his axe at Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I do,&rdquo; replied that worthy, much nettled, for he hated to be
+called a &ldquo;yellow monkey&rdquo; by the Zulus, &ldquo;be sure that I will
+roll down stones upon any black butcher whom I see sprawling upon the cliff
+below.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas smiled grimly, for he had a sense of humour and could appreciate a
+repartee even when it hit him hard. Then we stopped talking for the climb took
+all our breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length we came to the cliff face where, to all appearance, our journey must
+end. Suddenly, however, out of the blind black wall in front of us started the
+apparition of a tall man armed with a great spear and wearing a white robe, who
+challenged us hoarsely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly he stood before us, as a ghost might do, though whence he came we
+could not see. Presently the mystery was explained. Here in the cliff face
+there was a cleft, though one invisible even from a few paces away, since its
+outer edge projected over the inner wall of rock. Moreover, this opening was
+not above four feet in width, a mere split in the huge mountain mass caused by
+some titanic convulsion in past ages. For it was a definite split since, once
+entered, far, far above could be traced a faint line of light coming from the
+sky, although the gloom of the passage was such that torches, which were stored
+at hand, must be used by those who threaded it. One man could have held the
+place against a hundred&mdash;until he was killed. Still, it was guarded, not
+only at the mouth where the warrior had appeared, but further along at every
+turn in the jagged chasm, and these were many.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Into this grim place we went. The Zulus did not like it at all, for they are a
+light-loving people and I noted that even Umslopogaas seemed scared and hung
+back a little. Nor did Hans, who with his usual suspicion, feared some trap;
+nor, for the matter of that, did I, though I thought it well to appear much
+interested. Only Robertson seemed quite indifferent and trudged along stolidly
+after a man carrying a torch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Old Billali put his head out of the litter and shouted back to me to fear
+nothing, since there were no pitfalls in the path, his voice echoing strangely
+between those narrow walls of measureless height.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For half an hour or more we pursued this dreary, winding path round the corners
+of which the draught tore in gusts so fierce that more than once the litters
+with the wounded men and those who bore them were nearly blown over. It was
+safe enough, however, since on either side of us, smooth and without break,
+rose the sheer walls of rock over which lay the tiny ribbon of blue sky. At
+length the cleft widened somewhat and the light grew stronger, making the
+torches unnecessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then of a sudden we came to its end and found ourselves upon a little plateau
+in the mountainside. Behind us for a thousand feet or so rose the sheer rock
+wall as it did upon the outer face, while in front and beneath, far beneath,
+was a beautiful plain circular in shape and of great extent, which plain was
+everywhere surrounded, so far as I could see, by the same wall of rock. In
+short, notwithstanding its enormous size, without doubt it was neither more nor
+less than the crater of a vast extinct volcano. Lastly, not far from the centre
+of this plain was what appeared to be a city, since through my glasses I could
+see great walls built of stone, and what I thought were houses, all of them of
+a character more substantial than any that I had discovered in the wilds of
+Africa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went to Billali&rsquo;s litter and asked him who lived in the city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No one,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;it has been dead for thousands of
+years, but She-who-commands is camped there at present with an army, and
+thither we go at once. Forward, bearers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, Robertson and I having re-entered our litters, we started on down hill at a
+rapid pace, for the road, though steep, was safe and kept in good order. All
+the rest of that afternoon we travelled and by sunset reached the edge of the
+plain, where we halted a while to rest and eat, till the light of the growing
+moon grew strong enough to enable us to proceed. Umslopogaas came up and spoke
+to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here is a fortress indeed, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;since none
+can climb that fence of rock in which the holes seem to be few and
+small.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;but it is one out of which those who are
+in, would find it difficult to get out. We are buffaloes in a pit,
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is so,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I have thought it already. But if
+any would meddle with us we still have our horns and can toss for a
+while.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he went back to his men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sunset in that great solemn place was a wonderful thing to see. First of
+all the measureless crater was filled with light like a bowl with fire. Then as
+the great orb sank behind the western cliff, half of the plain became quite
+dark while shadows seemed to rush forward over the eastern part of its surface,
+till that too was swallowed up in gloom and for a little while there remained
+only a glow reflected from the cliff face and from the sky above, while on the
+crest of the parapet of rock played strange and glorious fires. Presently these
+too vanished and the world was dark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the half moon broke from behind a bank of clouds and by its silver,
+uncertain light we struggled forward across the flat plain, rather slowly now,
+for even the iron muscles of those bearers grew tired. I could not see much of
+it, but I gathered that we were passing through crops, very fine crops to judge
+by their height, as doubtless they would be upon this lava soil; also once or
+twice we splashed through streams.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, being tired and lulled by the swaying of the litter and by the sound
+of a weird, low chant that the bearers had set up now that they neared home and
+were afraid of no attack, I sank into a doze. When I awoke again it was to find
+that the litter had halted and to hear the voice of Billali say,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Descend, White Lords, and come with your companions, the black Warrior
+and the yellow man who is named Light-in-Darkness. She-who-commands desires to
+see you at once before you eat and sleep, and must not be kept waiting. Fear
+not for the others, they will be cared for till you return.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+THE WHITE WITCH</h2>
+
+<p>
+I descended from the litter and told the others what the old fellow had said.
+Robertson did not want to come, and indeed refused to do so until I suggested
+to him that such conduct might prejudice a powerful person against us.
+Umslopogaas was indifferent, putting, as he remarked, no faith in a ruler who
+was a woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only Hans, although he was so tired, acquiesced with some eagerness, the fact
+being that his brain was more alert and that he had all the curiosity of the
+monkey tribe which he so much resembled in appearance, and wanted to see this
+queen whom Zikali revered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the end we started, conducted by Billali and by men who carried torches
+whereof the light showed me that we were passing between houses, or at any rate
+walls that had been those of houses, and along what seemed to be a paved
+street.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Walking under what I took to be a great arch or portico, we came into a court
+that was full of towering pillars but unroofed, for I could see the stars
+above. At its end we entered a building of which the doorway was hung with
+mats, to find that it was lighted with lamps and that all down its length on
+either side guards with long spears stood at intervals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Baas,&rdquo; said Hans hesitatingly, &ldquo;this is the mouth of a
+trap,&rdquo; while Umslopogaas glared about him suspiciously, fingering the
+handle of his great axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be silent,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;All this mountain is a trap,
+therefore another does not matter, and we have our pistols.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Walking forward between the double line of guards who stood immovable as
+statues, we came to some curtains hung at the end of a long, narrow hall which,
+although I know little of such things, were, I noted, made of rich stuff
+embroidered in colours and with golden threads. Before these curtains Billali
+motioned us to halt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a whispered colloquy with someone beyond carried on through the join of
+the curtains, he vanished between them, leaving us alone for five minutes or
+more. At length they opened and a tall and elegant woman with an Arab cast of
+countenance and clad in white robes, appeared and beckoned to us to enter. She
+did not speak or answer when I spoke to her, which was not wonderful as
+afterwards I discovered that she was a mute. We went in, I wondering very much
+what we were going to see.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the further side of the curtains was a room of no great size illumined with
+lamps of which the light fell upon sculptured walls. It looked to me as though
+it might once have been the inmost court or a sanctuary of some temple, for at
+its head was a dais upon which once perhaps had stood the shrine or statue of a
+god. On this dais there was now a couch and on the couch&mdash;a goddess!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There she sat, straight and still, clothed in shining white and veiled, but
+with her draperies so arranged that they emphasised rather than concealed the
+wonderful elegance of her tall form. From beneath the veil, which was such as a
+bride wears, appeared two plaits of glossy, raven hair of great length, to the
+end of each of which was suspended a single large pearl. On either side of her
+stood a tall woman like to her who had led us through the curtains, and on his
+knees in front, but to the right, knelt Billali.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About this seated personage there was an air of singular majesty, such as might
+pervade a queen as fancy paints her, though she had a nobler figure than any
+queen I ever saw depicted. Mystery seemed to flow from her; it clothed her like
+the veil she wore, which of course heightened the effect. Beauty flowed from
+her also; although it was shrouded I knew that it was there, no veil or
+coverings could obscure it&mdash;at least, to my imagination. Moreover she
+breathed out power also; one felt it in the air as one feels a thunderstorm
+before it breaks, and it seemed to me that this power was not quite human, that
+it drew its strength from afar and dwelt a stranger to the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To tell the truth, although my curiosity, always strong, was enormously excited
+and though now I felt glad that I had attempted this journey with all its
+perils, I was horribly afraid, so much afraid that I should have liked to turn
+and run away. From the beginning I knew myself to be in the presence of an
+unearthly being clothed in soft and perfect woman&rsquo;s flesh, something
+alien, too, and different from our human race.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What a picture it all made! There she sat, quiet and stately as a perfect
+marble statue; only her breast, rising and falling beneath the white robe,
+showed that she was alive and breathed as others do. Another thing showed it
+also&mdash;her eyes. At first I could not see them through the veil, but
+presently either because I grew accustomed to the light, or because they
+brightened as those of certain animals have power to do when they watch
+intently, it ceased to be a covering to them. Distinctly I saw them now, large
+and dark and splendid with a tinge of deep blue in the iris; alluring and yet
+awful in their majestic aloofness which seemed to look through and beyond, to
+embrace all without seeking and without effort. Those eyes were like windows
+through which light flows from within, a light of the spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I glanced round to see the effect of this vision upon my companions. It was
+most peculiar. Hans had sunk to his knees; his hands were joined in the
+attitude of prayer and his ugly little face reminded me of that of a big fish
+out of water and dying from excess of air. Robertson, startled out of his
+abstraction, stared at the royal-looking woman on the couch with his mouth
+open.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Man,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got them back although I
+have touched nothing for weeks, only this time they are lovely. For yon&rsquo;s
+no human lady, I feel it in my bones.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas stood great and grim, his hands resting on the handle of his tall
+axe; and he stared also, the blood pulsing against the skin that covered the
+hole in his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Watcher-by-Night,&rdquo; he said to me in his deep voice, but also
+speaking in a whisper, &ldquo;this chieftainess is not one woman, but all
+women. Beneath those robes of hers I seem to see the beauty of one who has
+&lsquo;gone Beyond,&rsquo; of the Lily who is lost to me. Do you not feel it
+thus, Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now that he mentioned it, certainly I did; indeed, I had felt it all along
+although amid the rush of sensations this one had scarcely disentangled itself
+in my mind. I looked at the draped shape and saw&mdash;well, never mind whom I
+saw; it was not one only but several in sequence; also a woman who at that time
+I did not know although I came to know her afterwards, too well, perhaps, or at
+any rate quite enough to puzzle me. The odd thing was that in this
+hallucination the personalities of these individuals seemed to overlap and
+merge, till at last I began to wonder whether they were not parts of the same
+entity or being, manifesting itself in sundry shapes, yet springing from one
+centre, as different coloured rays flow from the same crystal, while the beams
+from their source of light shift and change. But the fancy is too metaphysical
+for my poor powers to express as clearly as I would. Also no doubt it was but a
+hallucination that had its origin, perhaps, in the mischievous brain of her who
+sat before us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length she spoke and her voice sounded like silver bells heard over water in
+a great calm. It was low and sweet, oh! so sweet that at its first notes for a
+moment my senses seemed to swoon and my pulse to stop. It was to me that she
+addressed herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My servant here,&rdquo; and ever so slightly she turned her head towards
+the kneeling Billali, &ldquo;tells me that you who are named
+Watcher-in-the-Night, understand the tongue in which I speak to you. Is it
+so?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I understand Arabic of a kind well enough, having learned it on the East
+Coast and from Arabs in past years, but not such Arabic as you use,
+O&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and I paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Call me <i>Hiya</i>,&rdquo; she broke in, &ldquo;which is my title here,
+meaning, as you know, She, or Woman. Or if that does not please you, call me
+Ayesha. It would rejoice me after so long to hear the name I bore spoken by the
+lips of one of my colour and of gentle blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I blushed at the compliment so artfully conveyed, and repeated stupidly enough,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&mdash;Not such Arabic as you use, O&mdash;Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought that you would like the sound of the word better than that of
+<i>Hiya</i>, though afterwards I will teach you to pronounce it as you should,
+O&mdash;have you any other name save Watcher-by-Night, which seems also to be a
+title?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Allan.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&mdash;O&mdash;Allan. Tell me of these,&rdquo; she went on quickly,
+indicating my companions with a sweep of her slender hand, &ldquo;for they do
+not speak Arabic, I think. Or stay, I will tell you of them and you shall say
+if I do so rightly. This one,&rdquo; and she nodded towards Robertson,
+&ldquo;is a man bemused. There comes from him a colour which I see if you
+cannot, and that colour betokens a desire for revenge, though I think that in
+his time he has desired other things also, as I remember men always did from
+the beginning, to their ruin. Human nature does not change, Allan, and wine and
+women are ancient snares. Enough of him for this time. The little yellow one
+there is afraid of me, as are all of you. That is woman&rsquo;s greatest power,
+although she is so weak and gentle, men are still afraid of her just because
+they are so foolish that they cannot understand her. To them after a million
+years she still remains the Unknown and to us all the Unknown is also the
+awful. Do you remember the proverb of the Romans that says it well and
+briefly?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded, for it was one of the Latin tags that my father had taught me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good. Well, he is a little wild man, is he not, nearer to the apes from
+whose race our bodies come? But do you know that, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded again, and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There are disputes upon the point, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, they had begun in my day and we will discuss them later. Still, I
+say&mdash;nearer to the ape than you or I, and therefore of interest, as the
+germ of things is always. Yet he has qualities, I think; cunning, and fidelity
+and love which in its round is all in all. Do you understand, Allan, that love
+is all in all?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered warily that it depended upon what she meant by love, to which she
+replied that she would explain afterwards when we had leisure to talk, adding,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What this little yellow monkey understands by it at least has served you
+well, or so I believe. You shall tell me the tale of it some day. Now of the
+last, this Black One. Here I think is a man indeed, a warrior of warriors such
+as there used to be in the early world, if a savage. Well, believe me, Allan,
+savages are often the best. Moreover, all are still savage at heart, even you
+and I. For what is termed culture is but coat upon coat of paint laid on to
+hide our native colour, and often there is poison in the paint. That axe of his
+has drunk deep, I think, though always in fair fight, and I say that it shall
+drink deeper yet. Have I read these men aright, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so ill,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought it,&rdquo; she said with a musical laugh, &ldquo;although at
+this place I rust and grow dull like an unused sword. Now you would rest.
+Go&mdash;all of you. To-morrow you and I will talk alone. Fear nothing for your
+safety; you are watched by my slaves and I watch my slaves. Until to-morrow,
+then, farewell. Go now, eat and sleep, as alas we all must do who linger on
+this ball of earth and cling to a life we should do well to lose. Billali, lead
+them hence,&rdquo; and she waved her hand to signify that the audience was
+ended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this sign Hans, who apparently was still much afraid, rose from his knees
+and literally bolted through the curtains. Robertson followed him. Umslopogaas
+stood a moment, drew himself up and lifting the great axe, cried <i>Bayéte</i>,
+after which he too turned and went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What does that word mean, Allan?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I explained that it was the salutation which the Zulu people only give to
+kings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did I not say that savages are often the best?&rdquo; she exclaimed in a
+gratified voice. &ldquo;The white man, your companion, gave me no salute, but
+the Black One knows when he stands before a woman who is royal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He too is of royal blood in his own land,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, we are akin, Allan.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I bowed deeply to her in my best manner and rising from her couch for the
+first time she stood up, looking very tall and commanding, and bowed back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this I went to find the others on the further side of the curtains,
+except Hans, who had run down the long narrow hall and through the mats at its
+end. We followed, marching with dignity behind Billali and between the double
+line of guards, who raised their spears as we passed them, and on the further
+side of the mats discovered Hans, still looking terrified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he said to me as we threaded our way through the court of
+columns, &ldquo;in my life I have seen all kinds of dreadful things and faced
+them, but never have I been so much afraid as I am of that white witch. Baas, I
+think that she is the devil of whom your reverend father, the Predikant, used
+to talk so much, or perhaps his wife.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, Hans,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;the devil is not so black as he
+is painted. But I advise you to be careful of what you say as she may have long
+ears.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter at all what one says, Baas, because she reads
+thoughts before they pass the lips. I felt her doing it there in that room. And
+do you be careful, Baas, or she will eat up your spirit and make you fall in
+love with her, who, I expect, is very ugly indeed, since otherwise she would
+not wear a veil. Whoever saw a pretty woman tie up her head in a sack,
+Baas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps she does this because she is so beautiful, Hans, that she fears
+the hearts of men who look upon her would melt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no, Baas, all women want to melt men&rsquo;s hearts; the more the
+better. They seem to have other things in their minds, but really they think of
+nothing else until they are too old and ugly, and it takes them a long while to
+be sure of that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Hans went on talking his shrewd nonsense till, following so far as I could
+see, the same road as that by which we had come, we reached our quarters, where
+we found food prepared for us, broiled goat&rsquo;s flesh with corncakes and
+milk, I think it was; also beds for us two white men covered with skin rugs and
+blankets woven of wool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These quarters, I should explain, consisted of rooms in a house built of stone
+of which the walls had once been painted. The roof of the house was gone now,
+for we could see the stars shining above us, but as the air was very soft in
+this sheltered plain, this was an advantage rather than otherwise. The largest
+room was reserved for Robertson and myself, while another at the back was given
+to Umslopogaas and his Zulus, and a third to the two wounded men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Billali showed us these arrangements by the light of lamps and apologised that
+they were not better because, as he explained, the place was a ruin and there
+had been no time to build us a house. He added that we might sleep without fear
+as we were guarded and none would dare to harm the guests of She-who-commands,
+on whom he was sure we, or at any rate I and the black Warrior, had produced an
+excellent impression. Then he bowed himself out, saying that he would return in
+the morning, and left us to our own devices.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robertson and I sat down on stools that had been set for us, and ate, but he
+seemed so overcome by his experiences, or by his sombre thoughts, that I could
+not draw him into conversation. All he remarked was that we had fallen into
+queer company and that those who supped with Satan needed a long spoon. Having
+delivered himself of this sentiment he threw himself upon the bed, prayed aloud
+for a while as had become his fashion, to be &ldquo;protected from warlocks and
+witches,&rdquo; amongst other things, and went to sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before I turned in I visited Umslopogaas&rsquo;s room to see that all was well
+with him and his people, and found him standing in the doorway staring at the
+star-spangled sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Greeting, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you who are white and wise
+and I who am black and a fighter have seen many strange things beneath the sun,
+but never such a one as we have looked upon to-night. Who and what is that
+chieftainess, Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;but it is worth while to have lived
+to see her, even though she be veiled.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nor do I, Macumazahn. Nay, I do know, for my heart tells me that she is
+the greatest of all witches and that you will do well to guard your spirit lest
+she should steal it away. If she were not a witch, should I have seemed to
+behold the shape of Nada the Lily who was the wife of my youth, beneath those
+white robes of hers, and though the tongue in which she spoke was strange to
+me, to hear the murmur of Nada&rsquo;s voice between her lips, of Nada who has
+gone further from me than those stars. It is good that you wear the Great
+Medicine of Zikali upon your breast, Macumazahn, for perhaps it will shield you
+from harm at those hands that are shaped of ivory.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Zikali is another of the tribe,&rdquo; I answered, laughing,
+&ldquo;although less beautiful to see. Also I am not afraid of any of them, and
+from this one, if she be more than some white woman whom it pleases to veil
+herself, I shall hope to gather wisdom.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Macumazahn, such wisdom as Spirits and the dead have to
+give.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mayhap, Umslopogaas, but we came here to seek Spirits and the dead, did
+we not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; answered Umslopogaas, &ldquo;these and war, and I think that
+we shall find enough of all three. Only I hope that war will come the first,
+lest the Spirits and the dead should bewitch me and take away my skill and
+courage.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we parted, and too tired even to wonder any more, I threw myself down on
+my bed and slept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was awakened when the sun was already high, by the sound of Robertson, who
+was on his knees, praying aloud as usual, a habit of his which I confess got on
+my nerves. Prayer, in my opinion, is a private matter between man and his
+Creator, that is, except in church; further, I did not in the least wish to
+hear all about Robertson&rsquo;s sins, which seemed to have been many and
+peculiar. It is bad enough to have to bear the burden of one&rsquo;s own
+transgressions without learning of those of other people, that is, unless one
+is a priest and must do so professionally. So I jumped up to escape and make
+arrangements for a wash, only to butt into old Billali, who was standing in the
+doorway contemplating Robertson with much interest and stroking his white
+beard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He greeted me with his courteous bow and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell your companion, O Watcher, that it is not necessary for him to go
+upon his knees to She-who-commands&mdash;and must be obeyed,&rdquo; he added
+with emphasis, &ldquo;when he is not in her presence, and that even then he
+would do well to keep silent, since so much talking in a strange tongue might
+trouble her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I burst out laughing and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He does not go upon his knees and pray to She-who-commands, but to the
+Great One who is in the sky.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, Watcher. Well, here we only know a Great One who is upon the
+earth, though it is true that perhaps she visits the skies sometimes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it so, Billali?&rdquo; I answered incredulously. &ldquo;And now, I
+would ask you to take me to some place where I can bathe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is ready,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I called to Hans, who was hanging about with a rifle on his arm, to follow
+with a cloth and soap, of which fortunately we had a couple of pieces left, and
+we started along what had once been a paved roadway running between stone
+houses, whereof the time-eaten ruins still remained on either side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who and what is this Queen of yours, Billali?&rdquo; I asked as we went.
+&ldquo;Surely she is not of the Amahagger blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ask it of herself, O Watcher, for I cannot tell you. All I know is that
+I can trace my own family for ten generations and that my tenth forefather told
+his son on his deathbed, for the saying has come down through his
+descendants&mdash;that when he was young She-who-commands had ruled the land
+for more scores of years than he could count months of life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stopped and stared at him, since the lie was so amazing that it seemed to
+deprive me of the power of motion. Noting my very obvious disbelief he
+continued blandly,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you doubt, ask. And now here is where you may bathe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he led me through an arched doorway and down a wrecked passage to what
+very obviously once had been a splendid bath-house such as some I have seen
+pictures of that were built by the Romans. Its size was that of a large room;
+it was constructed of a kind of marble with a sloping bottom that varied from
+three to seven feet in depth, and water still ran in and out of it through
+large glazed pipes. Moreover round it was a footway about five feet across,
+from which opened chambers, unroofed now, that the bathers used as
+dressing-rooms, while between these chambers stood the remains of statues. One
+at the end indeed, where an alcove had protected it from sun and weather, was
+still quite perfect, except for the outstretched arms which were gone (the
+right hand I noticed lying at the bottom of the bath). It was that of a nude
+young woman in the attitude of diving, a very beautiful bit of work, I thought,
+though of course I am no judge of sculpture. Even the smile mingled with
+trepidation upon the girl&rsquo;s face was most naturally portrayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This statue showed two things, that the bath was used by females and that the
+people who built it were highly civilised, also that they belonged to an
+advanced if somewhat Eastern race, since the girl&rsquo;s nose was, if
+anything, Semitic in character, and her lips, though prettily shaped, were
+full. For the rest, the basin was so clean that I presume it must have been
+made ready for me or other recent bathers, and at its bottom I discovered
+gratings and broken pipes of earthenware which suggested that in the old days
+the water could be warmed by means of a furnace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This relic of a long-past civilisation excited Hans even more than it did
+myself, since having never seen anything of the sort, he thought it so strange
+that, as he informed me, he imagined that it must have been built by
+witchcraft. In it I had a most delightful and much-needed bath. Even Hans was
+persuaded to follow my example&mdash;a thing I had rarely known him to do
+before&mdash;and seated in its shallowest part, splashed some water over his
+yellow, wrinkled anatomy. Then we returned to our house, where I found an
+excellent breakfast had been provided which was brought to us by tall, silent,
+handsome women who surveyed us out of the corners of their eyes, but said
+nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after I had finished my meal, Billali, who had disappeared, came back
+again and said that She-who-commands desired my presence as she would speak
+with me; also that I must come alone. So, after attending to the wounded, who
+both seemed to be getting on well, I went, followed by Hans armed with his
+rifle, though I only carried my revolver. Robertson wished to accompany me, as
+he did not seem to care about being left alone with the Zulus in that strange
+place, but this Billali would not allow. Indeed, when he persisted, two great
+men stepped forward and crossed their spears before him in a somewhat
+threatening fashion. Then at my entreaty, for I feared lest trouble should
+arise, he gave in and returned to the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following our path of the night before, we walked up a ruined street which I
+could see was only one of scores in what had once been a very great city, until
+we came to the archway that I have mentioned, a large one now overgrown with
+plants that from their yellow, sweet-scented bloom I judged to be a species of
+wallflower, also with a kind of houseleek or saxifrage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Hans was stopped by guards, Billali explaining to me that he must await my
+return, an order which he obeyed unwillingly enough. Then I went on down the
+narrow passage, lined as before by guards who stood silent as statues, and came
+to the curtains at the end. Before these at a motion from Billali, who did not
+seem to dare to speak in this place, I stood still and waited.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE</h2>
+
+<p>
+For some minutes I remained before those curtains until, had it not been for
+something electric in the air which got into my bones, a kind of force that,
+perhaps in my fancy only, seemed to pervade the place, I should certainly have
+grown bored. Indeed I was about to ask my companion why he did not announce our
+arrival instead of standing there like a stuck pig with his eyes shut as though
+in prayer or meditation, when the curtains parted and from between them
+appeared one of those tall waiting women whom we had seen on the previous
+night. She contemplated us gravely for a few moments, then moved her hand
+twice, once forward, towards Billali as a signal to him to retire, which he did
+with great rapidity, and next in a beckoning fashion towards myself to invite
+me to follow her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed, passing between the thick curtains which she fastened in some way
+behind me, and found myself in the same roofed and sculptured room that I have
+already described. Only now there were no lamps, such light as penetrated it
+coming from an opening above that I could not see, and falling upon the dais at
+its head, also on her who sat upon the dais.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes, there she was in her white robes and veil, the point and centre of a
+little lake of light, a wondrous and in a sense a spiritual vision, for in
+truth there was something about her which was not of the world, something that
+drew and yet frightened me. Still as a statue she sat, like one to whom time is
+of no account and who has grown weary of motion, and on either side of her yet
+more still, like caryatides supporting a shrine, stood two of the stately women
+who were her attendants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest a sweet and subtle odour pervaded the chamber which took hold of
+my senses as <i>hasheesh</i> might do, which I was sure proceeded from her, or
+from her garments, for I could see no perfumes burning. She spoke no word, yet
+I knew she was inviting me to come nearer and moved forward till I reached a
+curious carved chair that was placed just beneath the dais, and there halted,
+not liking to sit down without permission.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a long while she contemplated me, for as before I could feel her eyes
+searching me from head to foot and as it were looking through me as though she
+would discover my very soul. Then at length she moved, waving those two ivory
+arms of hers outwards with a kind of swimming stroke, whereon the women to
+right and left of her turned and glided away, I know not whither.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sit, Allan,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and let us talk, for I think we have
+much to say to each other. Have you slept well? And eaten?&mdash;though I fear
+that the food is but rough. Also was the bath made ready for you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Ayesha,&rdquo; I answered to all three questions, adding, for I
+knew not what to say, &ldquo;It seems to be a very ancient bath.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When I last saw it,&rdquo; she replied, &ldquo;it was well enough with
+statues standing round it worked by a sculptor who had seen beauty in his
+dreams. But in two thousand years&mdash;or is it more?&mdash;the tooth of Time
+bites deep, and doubtless like all else in this dead place it is now a
+ruin.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I coughed to cover up the exclamation of disbelief that rose to my lips and
+remarked blandly that two thousand years was certainly a long time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When you say one thing, Allan, and mean another, your Arabic is even
+more vile than usual and does not serve to cloak your thought.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be so, Ayesha, for I only know that tongue as I do many other of
+the dialects of Africa by learning it from common men. My own speech is
+English, in which, if you are acquainted with it, I should prefer to
+talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know not English, which doubtless is some language that has arisen
+since I left the world. Perhaps later you shall teach it to me. I tell you, you
+anger me whom it is not well to anger, because you believe nothing that passes
+my lips and yet do not dare to say so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can I believe one, Ayesha, who if I understand aright, speaks of
+having seen a certain bath two thousand years ago, whereas one hundred years
+are the full days of man? Forgive me therefore if I cannot believe what I know
+to be untrue.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I thought that she would be very angry and was sorry that I had spoken. But
+as it happened she was not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must have courage to give me the lie so boldly&mdash;and I like
+courage,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;who have been cringed to for so long. Indeed,
+I know that you are brave, who have heard how you bore yourself in the fight
+yesterday, and much else about you. I think that we shall be friends,
+but&mdash;seek no more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What else should I seek, Ayesha?&rdquo; I asked innocently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now you are lying again,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;who know well that no
+man who is a man sees a woman who is beautiful and pleases him, without
+wondering whether, should he desire it, she could come to love him, that is, if
+she be young.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Which at least is not possible if she has lived two thousand years. Then
+naturally she would prefer to wear a veil,&rdquo; I said boldly, seeking to
+avoid the argument into which I saw she wished to drag me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;the little yellow man who is named
+Light-in-Darkness put that thought into your heart, I think. Oh, do not trouble
+as to how I know it, who have many spies here, as he guessed well enough. So a
+woman who has lived two thousand years must be hideous and wrinkled, must she?
+The stamp of youth and loveliness must long have fled from her; of that you,
+the wise man, are sure. Very well. Now you tempt me to do what I had determined
+I would not do and you shall pluck the fruit of that tree of curiosity which
+grows so fast within you. Look, Allan, and say whether I am old and hideous,
+even though I have lived two thousand years upon the earth and mayhap many
+more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she lifted her hands and did something to her veil, so that for a
+moment&mdash;only one moment&mdash;her face was revealed, after which the veil
+fell into its place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked, I saw, and if that chair had lacked a back I believe that I should
+have fallen out of it to the ground. As for what I saw&mdash;well, it cannot be
+described, at any rate by me, except perhaps as a flash of glory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every man has dreamed of perfect beauty, basing his ideas of it perhaps on that
+of some woman he has met who chanced to take his fancy, with a few accessories
+from splendid pictures or Greek statues thrown in, <i>plus</i> a garnishment of
+the imagination. At any rate I have, and here was that perfect beauty
+multiplied by ten, such beauty, that at the sight of it the senses reeled. And
+yet I repeat that it is not to be described.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I do not know what the nose or the lips were like; in fact, all that I can
+remember with distinctness is the splendour of the eyes, of which I had caught
+some hint through her veil on the previous night. Oh, they were wondrous, those
+eyes, but I cannot tell their colour save that the groundwork of them was
+black. Moreover they seemed to be more than eyes as we understand them. They
+were indeed windows of the soul, out of which looked thought and majesty and
+infinite wisdom, mixed with all the allurements and the mystery that we are
+accustomed to see or to imagine in woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here let me say something at once. If this marvellous creature expected that
+the revelation of her splendour was going to make me her slave; to cause me to
+fall in love with her, as it is called, well, she must have been disappointed,
+for it had no such effect. It frightened and in a sense humbled me, that is
+all, for I felt myself to be in the presence of something that was not human,
+something alien to me as a man, which I could fear and even adore as humanity
+would adore that which is Divine, but with which I had no desire to mix.
+Moreover, was it divine, or was it something very different? I did not know, I
+only knew that it was not for me; as soon should I have thought of asking for a
+star to set within my lantern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I think that she felt this, felt that her stroke had missed, as the French say,
+that is if she meant to strike at all at this moment. Of this I am not certain,
+for it was in a changed voice, one with a suspicion of chill in it that she
+said with a little laugh,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you admit now, Allan, that a woman may be old and still remain fair
+and unwrinkled?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I admit,&rdquo; I answered, although I was trembling so much that I
+could hardly speak with steadiness, &ldquo;that a woman may be splendid and
+lovely beyond anything that the mind of man can conceive, whatever her age, of
+which I know nothing. I would add this, Ayesha, that I thank you very much for
+having revealed to me the glory that is hid beneath your veil.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; she asked, and I thought that I detected curiosity in her
+question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For this reason, Ayesha. Now there is no fear of my troubling you in
+such a fashion as you seemed to dread a little while ago. As soon would a man
+desire to court the moon sailing in her silver loveliness through
+heaven.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The moon! It is strange that you should compare me to the moon,&rdquo;
+she said musingly. &ldquo;Do you know that the moon was a great goddess in Old
+Egypt and that her name was Isis and&mdash;well, once I had to do with Isis?
+Perhaps you were there and knew it, since more lives than one are given to most
+of us. I must search and learn. For the rest, all have not thought as you do,
+Allan. Many, on the contrary, love and seek to win the Divine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So do I at a distance, Ayesha, but to come too near to it I do not
+aspire. If I did perhaps I might be consumed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have wisdom,&rdquo; she replied, not without a note of admiration in
+her voice. &ldquo;The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the
+moths which live. Also I think that you have scorched your wings before and
+learned that fire hurts. Indeed, now I remember that I have heard of three such
+fires of love through which you have flown, Allan, though all of them are dead
+ashes now, or shine elsewhere. Two burned in your youth when a certain lady
+died to save you, a great woman that, is it not so? And the third, ah! she was
+fire indeed, though of a copper hue. What was her name? I cannot remember, but
+I think it had something to do with the wind, yes, with the wind when it
+wails.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stared at her. Was this Mameena myth to be dug up again in a secret place in
+the heart of Africa? And how the deuce did she know anything about Mameena?
+Could she have been questioning Hans or Umslopogaas? No, it was not possible,
+for she had never seen them out of my presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; she went on in a mocking voice, &ldquo;perhaps once
+again you disbelieve, Allan, whose cynic mind is so hard to open to new truths.
+Well, shall I show you the faces of these three? I can,&rdquo; and she waved
+her hand towards some object that stood on a tripod to the right of her in the
+shadow&mdash;it looked like a crystal basin. &ldquo;But what would it serve
+when you who know them so well, believed that I drew their pictures out of your
+own soul? Also perchance but one face would appear and that one strange to you.
+[Lady Ragnall perhaps?&mdash;JB]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you heard, Allan, that among the wise some hold that not all of us
+is visible at once here on earth within the same house of flesh; that the whole
+self in its home above, separates itself into sundry parts, each of which walks
+the earth in different form, a segment of life&rsquo;s circle that can never be
+dissolved and must unite again at last?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head blankly, for I had never heard anything of the sort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have still much to learn, Allan, although doubtless there are some
+who think you wise,&rdquo; she went on in the same mocking voice. &ldquo;Well,
+I hold that this doctrine is built upon a rock of truth; also,&rdquo; she added
+after studying me for a minute, &ldquo;that in your case these three women do
+not complete that circle. I think there is a fourth who as yet is strange to
+you in this life, though you have known her well enough in others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I groaned, imagining that she alluded to herself, which was foolish of me, for
+at once she read my mind and went on with a rather acid little laugh,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, not the humble slave who sits before you, whom, as you have told
+me, it would please you to reject as unworthy were she brought to you in
+offering, as in the old days was done at the courts of the great kings of the
+East. O fool, fool! who hold yourself so strong and do not know that if I
+chose, before yon shadow had moved a finger&rsquo;s breadth, I could bring you
+to my feet, praying that you might be suffered to kiss my robe, yes, just the
+border of my robe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I beg of you not to choose, Ayesha, since I think that when there
+is work to be done by both of us, we shall find more comfort side by side than
+if I were on the ground seeking to kiss a garment that doubtless then it would
+delight you to snatch away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At these words her whole attitude seemed to change. I could see her lovely
+shape brace itself up, as it were, beneath her robes and felt in some way that
+her mind had also changed; that it had rid itself of mockery and woman&rsquo;s
+pique and like a shifting searchlight, was directed upon some new objective.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Work to be done,&rdquo; she repeated after me in a new voice.
+&ldquo;Yes, I thank you who bring it to my mind, since the hours pass and that
+work presses. Also I think there is a bargain to be made between us who are
+both of the blood that keeps bargains, even if they be not written on a roll
+and signed and sealed. Why do you come to me and what do you seek of me, Allan,
+Watcher-in-the-Night? Say it and truthfully, for though I may laugh at lies and
+pass them by when they have to do with the eternal sword-play which Nature
+decrees between man and woman, until these break apart or, casting down the
+swords, seek arms in which they agree too well, when they have to do with
+policy and high purpose and ambition&rsquo;s ends, why then I avenge them upon
+the liar.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I hesitated, as what I had to tell her seemed so foolish, indeed so insane,
+while she waited patiently as though to give me time to shape my thoughts.
+Speaking at last because I must, I said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I come to ask you, Ayesha, to show me the dead, if the dead still live
+elsewhere.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And who told you, Allan, that I could show you the dead, if they are not
+truly dead? There is but one, I think, and if you are his messenger, show me
+his token. Without it we do not speak together of this business.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What token?&rdquo; I asked innocently, though I guessed her meaning well
+enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She searched me with her great eyes, for I felt, and indeed saw them on me
+through the veil, then answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think&mdash;nay, let me be sure,&rdquo; and half rising from the
+couch, she bent her head over the tripod that I have described, and stared
+into what seemed to be a crystal bowl. &ldquo;If I read aright,&rdquo; she
+said, straightening herself presently, &ldquo;it is a hideous thing enough, the
+carving of an abortion of a man such as no woman would care to look on lest her
+babe should bear its stamp. It is a charmed thing also that has virtues for him
+who wears it, especially for you, Allan, since something tells me that it is
+dyed with the blood of one who loved you. If you have it, let it be revealed,
+since without it I do not talk with you of these dead you seek.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I drew Zikali&rsquo;s talisman from its hiding-place and held it towards
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Give it to me,&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was about to obey when something seemed to warn me not to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;he who lent me this carving for a while,
+charged me that except in emergency and to save others, I must wear it night
+and day till I returned it to his hand, saying that if I parted from it fortune
+would desert me. I believe none of this talk and tried to be rid of it, whereon
+death drew near to me from a snake, such a snake as I see you wear about you,
+which doubtless also has poison in its fangs, if of another sort,
+Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Draw near,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and let me look. Man, be not
+afraid.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I rose from my chair and knelt before her, hoping secretly that no one would
+see me in that ridiculous position, which the most unsuspicious might
+misinterpret. I admit, however, that it proved to have compensations, since
+even through the veil I saw her marvellous eyes better than I had done before,
+and something of the pure outline of her classic face; also the fragrance of
+her hair was wonderful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She took the talisman in her hand and examined it closely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard of this charm and it is true that the thing has
+power,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;for I can feel it running through my veins, also
+that it is a shield of defence to him who wears it. Yes, and now I understand
+what perplexed me somewhat, namely, how it came about that when you vexed me
+into unveiling&mdash;but let that matter be. The wisdom was not your own, but
+another&rsquo;s, that is all. Yes, the wisdom of one whose years have borne him
+beyond the shafts that fly from woman&rsquo;s eyes, the ruinous shafts which
+bring men down to doom and nothingness. Tell me, Allan, is this the likeness of
+him who gave it to you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Ayesha, the very picture, as I think, carved by himself, though he
+said that it is ancient, and others tell that it has been known in the land for
+centuries.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So perchance has he,&rdquo; she answered drily, &ldquo;since some of our
+company live long. Now tell me this wizard&rsquo;s names. Nay, wait awhile for
+I would prove that indeed you are his messenger with whom I may talk about the
+dead, and other things, Allan. You can read Arabic, can you not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A little,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then from a stool at her side she took paper, or rather papyrus and a reed pen,
+and on her knee wrote something on the sheet which she gave to me folded up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now tell me the names,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and then let us see if
+they tally with what I have written, for if so you are a true man, not a mere
+wanderer or a spy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The principal names of this doctor are Zikali, the Opener-of-Roads, the
+&lsquo;<i>Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born</i>,&rsquo;&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Read the writing, Allan,&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I unfolded the sheet and read Arabic words which meant, &ldquo;Weapons,
+Cleaver-of-Rocks, One-at-whom-dogs-bark-and-children-wail.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The last two are near enough,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but the first is
+wrong.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Ayesha, since in this man&rsquo;s tongue the word
+&lsquo;Zikali&rsquo; means &lsquo;Weapons&rsquo;&rdquo;; intelligence at which
+she clapped her hands as a merry girl might do. &ldquo;The man,&rdquo; I went
+on, &ldquo;is without doubt a great doctor, one who sees and knows things that
+others do not, but I do not understand why this token carved in his likeness
+should have power, as you say it has.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because with it goes his spirit, Allan. Have you never heard of the
+Egyptians, a very wise people who, as I remember, declared that man has a
+<i>Ka</i> or Double, a second self, that can either dwell in his statue or be
+sent afar?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I had heard this.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well the <i>Ka</i> of this Zikali goes with that hideous image of him,
+which is perhaps why you have come safe through many dangers and why also I
+seemed to dream so much of him last night. Tell me now, what does Zikali want
+of me whose power he knows very well?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;An oracle, the answer to a riddle, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then set it out another time. So you desire to see the dead, and this
+old dwarf, who is a home of wisdom, desires an oracle from one who is greater
+than he. Good. And what are you, or both of you, prepared to pay for these
+boons? Know, Allan, that I am a merchant who sells my favours dear. Tell me
+then, will you pay?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that it depends upon the price,&rdquo; I answered cautiously.
+&ldquo;Set out the price, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be not afraid, O cunning dealer,&rdquo; she mocked. &ldquo;I do not ask
+your soul or even that love of yours which you guard so jealously, since these
+things I could take without the asking. Nay, I ask only what a brave and honest
+man may give without shame: your help in war, and perhaps,&rdquo; she added
+with a softer tone, &ldquo;your friendship. I think, Allan, that I like you
+well, perhaps because you remind me of another whom I knew long ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bowed at the compliment, feeling proud and pleased at the prospect of a
+friendship with this wonderful and splendid creature, although I was aware that
+it had many dangers. Then I sat still and waited. She also waited, brooding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; she said after a while, &ldquo;I will tell you a story
+and when you have heard it you shall answer, even if you do not believe it, but
+not before. Does it please you to listen to something of the tale of my life
+which I am moved to tell you, that you may know with whom you have to
+deal?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I bowed, thinking to myself that I knew nothing that would please me
+more, who was eaten up with a devouring curiosity about this woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now she rose from her couch and descending off the dais, began to walk up and
+down the chamber. I say, to walk, but her movements were more like the gliding
+of an eagle through the air or the motion of a swan upon still water, so smooth
+were they and gracious. As she walked she spoke in a low and thrilling voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; she said again, &ldquo;and even if my story seems
+marvellous to you, interrupt, and above all, mock me not, lest I should grow
+angry, which might be ill for you. I am not as other women are, O Allan, who
+having conquered the secrets of Nature,&rdquo; here I felt an intense desire to
+ask what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, &ldquo;to my sorrow have
+preserved my youth and beauty through many ages. Moreover in the past, perhaps
+in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which some memory remains
+with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By my last birth I am an Arab lady of royal blood, a descendant of the
+Kings of the East. There I dwelt in the wilderness and ruled a people, and at
+night I gathered wisdom from the stars and the spirits of the earth and air. At
+length I wearied of it all and my people too wearied of me and besought me to
+depart, for, Allan, I would have naught to do with men, yet men went mad
+because of my beauty and slew each other out of jealousy. Moreover other
+peoples made war upon my people, hoping to take me captive that I might be a
+wife to their kings. So I left them, and being furnished with great wealth in
+hoarded gold and jewels, together with a certain holy man, my master, I
+wandered through the world, studying the nations and their worships. At
+Jerusalem I tarried and learned of Jehovah who is, or was, its God.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At Paphos in the Isle of Chitim I dwelt a while till the folk of that
+city thought that I was Aphrodite returned to earth and sought to worship me.
+For this reason and because I made a mock of Aphrodite, I, who, as I have said,
+would have naught to do with men, she through her priests cursed me, saying
+that her yoke should lie more heavily upon my neck from age to age than on that
+of any woman who had breathed beneath the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was a wondrous scene,&rdquo; she added reflectively, &ldquo;that of
+the cursing, since for every word I gave back two. Moreover I told the hoary
+villain of a high-priest to make report to his goddess that long after she was
+dead in the world, I would live on, for the spirit of prophecy was on me in
+that hour. Yet the curse fell in its season, since in her day, doubt it or not,
+Aphrodite had strength, as indeed under other names she has and will have while
+the world endures, and for aught I know, beyond it. Do they worship her now in
+any land, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, only her statues because of their beauty, though Love is always
+worshipped.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, who can testify to that better than you yourself, Allan, if he who
+is called Zikali tells me the truth concerning you in the dreams he sends? As
+for the statues, I saw some of them as they left the master&rsquo;s hand in
+Greece, and when I told him that he might have found a better model, once I was
+that model. If this marble still endures, it must be the most famous of them
+all, though perchance Aphrodite has shattered it in her jealous rage. You shall
+tell me of these statues afterwards; mine had a mark on the left shoulder like
+to a mole, but the stone was imperfect, not my flesh, as I can prove if you
+should wish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thinking it better not to enter on a discussion as to Ayesha&rsquo;s shoulder,
+I remained silent and she went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I dwelt in Egypt also, and there, to be rid of men who wearied me with
+their sighs and importunities, also to acquire more wisdom of which she was the
+mistress, I entered the service of the goddess Isis, Queen of Heaven, vowing to
+remain virgin for ever. Soon I became her high-priestess and in her most sacred
+shrines upon the Nile, I communed with the goddess and shared her power, since
+from me her daughter, she withheld none of her secrets. So it came about that
+though Pharaohs held the sceptre, it was I who ruled Egypt and brought it and
+Sidon to their fall, it matters not how or why, as it was fated that I must do.
+Yes, kings would come to seek counsel from me where I sat throned, dressed in
+the garb of Isis and breathing out her power. Yet, my task accomplished, of it
+all I grew weary, as men will surely do of the heavens that they preach, should
+they chance to find them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I wondered what this &ldquo;task&rdquo; might be, but only asked,
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because in their pictured heaven all things lie to their hands and man,
+being man, cannot be happy without struggle, and woman, being woman, without
+victory over others. What is cheaply bought, or given, has no value, Allan; to
+be enjoyed, it must first be won. But I bade you not to break my
+thought.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked pardon and she went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then it was that the shadow of the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me, yes,
+and of the curse of Isis also, so that these twin maledictions have made me
+what I am, a lost soul dwelling in the wilderness waiting the fulfilment of a
+fate whereof I know not the end. For though I have all wisdom, all knowledge of
+the Past and much power together with the gift of life and beauty, the future
+is as dark to me as night without its moon and stars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken, this chanced to me. Though it be to my shame I tell it you that
+all may be clear. At a temple of Isis on the Nile where I ruled, there was a
+certain priest, a Greek by birth, vowed like myself to the service of the
+goddess and therefore to wed none but her, the goddess herself&mdash;that is,
+in the spirit. He was named Kallikrates, a man of courage and of beauty, such
+an one as those Greeks carved in the statues of their god Apollo. Never, I
+think, was a man more beautiful in face and form, though in soul he was not
+great, as often happens to men who have all else, and well-nigh always happens
+to women, save myself and perhaps one or two others that history tells of,
+doubtless magnifying their fabled charms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Pharaoh of that day, the last of the native blood, him whom the
+Persians drove to doom, had a daughter, the Princess of Egypt, Amenartas by
+name, a fair woman in her fashion, though somewhat swarthy. In her youth this
+Amenartas became enamoured of Kallikrates and he of her, when he was a captain
+of the Grecian Mercenaries at Pharaoh&rsquo;s Court. Indeed, she brought blood
+upon his hands because of her, wherefore he fled to Isis for forgiveness and
+for peace. Thither in after time she followed him and again urged her love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Learning of the thing and knowing it for sacrilege, I summoned this
+priest and warned him of his danger and of the doom which awaited him should he
+continue in that path. He grew affrighted. He flung himself upon the ground
+before me with groans and supplications, and kissing my feet, vowed most
+falsely to me that his dealings with the royal Amenartas were but a veil and
+that it was I whom he worshipped. His unhallowed words filled me with horror
+and sternly I bade him begone and do penance for his crime, saying that I would
+pray the goddess on behalf of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He went, leaving me alone lost in thought in the darkening shrine. Then
+sleep fell on me and in my sleep I dreamed a dream, or saw a vision. For
+suddenly there stood before me a woman beauteous as myself clad in nothing save
+a golden girdle and a veil of gossamer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;O Ayesha,&rsquo; she said in a honeyed voice, &lsquo;priestess of
+Isis of the Egyptians, sworn to the barren worship of Isis and fed on the ashes
+of her unprofitable wisdom, know that I am Aphrodite of the Greeks whom many
+times thou hast mocked and defied, and Queen of the breathing world, as Isis is
+Queen of the world that is dead. Now because thou didst despise me and pour
+contempt upon my name, I smite thee with my strength and lay a curse upon thee.
+It is that thou shalt love and desire this man who but now hath kissed thy
+feet, ever longing till the world&rsquo;s end to kiss his lips in payment,
+although thou art as far above him as the moon thou servest is above the Nile.
+Think not that thou shalt escape my doom, for know that however strong the
+spirit, here upon the earth the flesh is stronger still and of all flesh I am
+the queen.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then she laughed softly and smiting me across the eyes with a lock of
+her scented hair, was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Allan, I awoke from my sleep and a great trouble fell upon me, for I who
+had never loved before now was rent with a rage of love and for this man who
+till that moment had been naught to me but as some beauteous image of gold and
+ivory. I longed for him, my heart was racked with jealousy because of the
+Egyptian who favoured him, an eating flame possessed my breast. I grew mad.
+There in the shrine of Isis the divine I cast myself upon my knees and cried to
+Aphrodite to return and give me him I sought, for whose sake I would renounce
+all else, even if I must pour my wisdom into a beauteous, empty cup. Yes, thus
+I prayed and lay upon the ground and wept until, outworn, once more sleep fell
+upon me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now in the darkness of the holy place once more there came a dream or
+vision, since before me in her glory stood the goddess Isis crowned with the
+crescent of the young moon and holding in her hand the jewelled <i>sistrum</i>
+that is her symbol, from which came music like to the melody of distant bells.
+She gazed at me and in her great eyes were scorn and anger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;O Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom,&rsquo; she said in a solemn voice,
+&lsquo;whom I, Isis, had come to look upon rather as a child than a servant,
+since in none other of my priestesses was such greatness to be found, and whom
+in a day to be I had purposed to raise to the very steps of my heavenly throne,
+thou hast broken thine oath and, forsaking me, hast worshipped false Aphrodite
+of the Greeks who is mine enemy. Yea, in the eternal war between the spirit and
+the flesh, thou hast chosen the part of flesh. Therefore I hate thee and add my
+doom to that which Aphrodite laid upon thee, which, hadst thou prayed to me and
+not to her, I would have lifted from thy heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Hearken! The Grecian whom thou hast chosen, by Aphrodite&rsquo;s
+will, thou shalt love as the Pathian said. More, thy love shall bring his blood
+upon thy hands, nor mayest thou follow him to the grave. For I will show thee
+the Source of Life and thou shalt drink of it to make thyself more fair even
+than thou art and thus outpace thy rival, and when thy lover is dead, in a
+desolate place thou shalt wait in grief and solitude till he is born again and
+find thee there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Yet shall this be but the beginning of thy sorrows, since through
+all time thou shalt pursue thy fate till at length thou canst draw up this man
+to the height on which thine own soul stands by the ropes of love and loss and
+suffering. Moreover through it all thou shalt despise thyself, which is
+man&rsquo;s and woman&rsquo;s hardest lot, thou who having the rare feast of
+spirit spread out before thee, hast chosen to fill thyself from the troughs of
+flesh.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Allan, in my dream I made a proud answer to the goddess, saying,
+&lsquo;Hear me, mighty mistress of many Forms who dost appear in all that
+lives! An evil fate has fallen upon me, but was it I who chose that fate? Can
+the leaf contend against the driving gale? Can the falling stone turn upwards
+to the sky, or when Nature draws it, can the tide cease to flow? A goddess whom
+I have offended, that goddess whose strength causes the whole world to be, has
+laid her curse upon me and because I have bent before the storm, as bend I
+must, or break, another goddess whom I serve, thou thyself, Mother Isis, hast
+added to the curse. Where then is Justice, O Lady of the Moon?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Not here, Woman,&rsquo; she answered. &lsquo;Yet far away Justice
+lives and shall be won at last and mayhap because thou art so proud and
+high-stomached, it is laid upon thee to seek her blinded eyes through many an
+age. Yet at last I think thou shalt set thy sins against her weights and find
+the balance even. Therefore cease from questioning the high decrees of destiny
+which thou canst not understand and be content to suffer, remembering that all
+joy grows from the root of pain. Moreover, know this for thy comfort, that the
+wisdom which thou hast shall grow and gather on thee and with it thy beauty and
+thy power; also that at the last thou shalt look upon my face again, in token
+whereof I leave to thee my symbol, the <i>sistrum</i> that I bear, and with it
+this command. Follow that false priest of mine wherever he may go and avenge me
+upon him, and if thou lose him there, wait while the generations pass till he
+return again. Such and no other is thy destiny.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Allan, the vision faded and when I awoke the lights of dawn played upon
+the image of the goddess in the sanctuary. They played, moreover, upon the holy
+jewelled thing that in my dream her hand had held, the <i>sistrum</i> of her
+worship, shaped like the loop of life, the magic symbol that she had vowed to
+me, wherewith goes her power, which henceforth was mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I took it and followed after the priest Kallikrates, to whom
+thenceforward I was bound by passion&rsquo;s ties that are stronger than all
+the goddesses in this wide universe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I, Allan, could contain myself no longer and asked, &ldquo;What
+for?&rdquo; then, fearing her wrath, wished that I had been silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she was not angry, perhaps because this tale of her interviews with
+goddesses, doubtless fabled, had made her humble, for she answered quietly,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By Aphrodite, or by Isis, or both of them I did not know. All I knew was
+that I <i>must</i> seek him, then and evermore, as seek I do to-day and shall
+perchance through æons yet unborn. So I followed, as I was taught and
+commanded, the <i>sistrum</i> being my guide, how it matters not, and giving me
+the means, and so at last I came to this ancient land whereof the ruin in which
+you sit was once known as Kôr.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY</h2>
+
+<p>
+All the while that she was talking thus the Lady or the Queen or the
+Witch-woman, Ayesha, had been walking up and down the place from the curtains
+to the foot of the dais, sweeping me with her scented robes as she passed to
+and fro, and as she walked she waved her arms as an orator might do to
+emphasise the more moving passages of her tale. Now at the end of it, or what I
+took to be the end, she stepped on to the dais and sank upon the couch as if
+exhausted, though I think her spirit was weary rather than her body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here she sat awhile, brooding, her chin resting on her hand, then suddenly
+looked up and fixing her glance upon me&mdash;for I could see the flash of it
+through her thin veil&mdash;said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What think you of this story, Allan? Do you believe it and have you ever
+heard its like?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Never</i>,&rdquo; I answered with emphasis, &ldquo;and of course I
+believe every word. Only there are one or two questions that with your leave I
+would wish to ask, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By which you mean, Allan, that you believe nothing, being by nature
+without faith and doubtful of all that you cannot see and touch and handle.
+Well, perhaps you are wise, since what I have told you is not all the truth.
+For example, it comes back to me now that it was not in the temple on the Nile,
+or indeed upon the Earth, that I saw the vision of Aphrodite and of Isis, but
+elsewhere; also that it was here in Kôr that I was first consumed by passion
+for Kallikrates whom hitherto I had scorned. In two thousand years one forgets
+much, Allan. Out with your questions and I will answer them, unless they be too
+long.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ayesha,&rdquo; I said humbly, reflecting to myself that my questions
+would, at any rate, be shorter than her varying tale, &ldquo;even I who am not
+learned have heard of these goddesses of whom you speak, of the Grecian
+Aphrodite who rose from the sea upon the shores of Cyprus and dwelt at Paphos
+and elsewhere&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, doubtless like most men you have heard of her and perchance also
+have been struck across the eyes with her hair, like your betters before
+you,&rdquo; she interrupted with sarcasm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&mdash;&mdash;Also,&rdquo; I went on, avoiding argument, &ldquo;I have
+heard of Isis of the Egyptians, Lady of the Moon, Mother of Mysteries, Spouse
+of Osiris whose child was Horus the Avenger.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, and I think will hear more of her before you have done, Allan, for
+now something comes back to me concerning you and her and another. I am not the
+only one who has broken the oaths of Isis and received her curse, Allan, as
+<i>you</i> may find out in the days to come. But what of these heavenly
+queens?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only this, Ayesha; I have been taught that they were but phantasms
+fabled by men with many another false divinity, and could have sworn that this
+was true. And yet you talk of them as real and living, which perplexes
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Being dull of understanding doubtless it perplexes you, Allan. Yet if
+you had imagination you might understand that these goddesses are great
+Principles of Nature; Isis, of throned Wisdom and strait virtue, and Aphrodite,
+of Love, as it is known to men and women who, being human, have it laid upon
+them that they must hand on the torch of Life in their little hour. Also you
+would know that such Principles can seem to take shape and form and at certain
+ages of the world appear to their servants visible in majesty, though perchance
+to-day others with changed names wield their sceptres and work their will. Now
+you are answered on this matter. So to the next.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Privately I did not feel as though I were answered at all and I was sure that I
+know nothing of the kind she indicated, but thinking it best to leave the
+subject, I went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I understood rightly, Ayesha, the events which you have been pleased
+first to describe to me, and then to qualify or contradict, took place when the
+Pharaohs reigned. Now no Pharaoh has sat upon the throne of Egypt for near two
+thousand years, for the last was a Grecian woman whom the Romans conquered and
+drove to death. And yet, Ayesha, you speak as though you have lived all through
+that gulf of time, and in this there must be error, because it is impossible.
+Therefore I suppose you to mean that this history has come down to you in
+writing, or perhaps in dreams. I believe that even in such far-off times there
+were writers of romance, and we all know of what stuff dreams are made. At
+least this thought comes to me,&rdquo; I added hurriedly, fearing lest I had
+said too much, &ldquo;and one so wise as you are, I repeat, knows well that a
+woman who says she has lived two thousand years must be mad or&mdash;suffer
+from delusions, because I repeat, it is impossible.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At these quite innocent remarks she sprang to her feet in a rage that might
+truly be called royal in every sense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Impossible! Romance! Dreams! Delusions! Mad!&rdquo; she cried in a
+ringing voice. &ldquo;Oh! of a truth you weary me, and I have a mind to send
+you whither you will learn what is impossible and what is not. Indeed, I would
+do it, and now, only I need your services, and if I did there would be none
+left for me to talk with, since your companion is moonstruck and the others are
+but savages of whom I have seen enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken, fool! <i>Nothing</i> is impossible. Why do you seek, you who
+talk of the impossible, to girdle the great world in the span of your two hands
+and to weigh the secrets of the Universe in the balance of your petty mind and,
+of that which you cannot understand, to say that it is not? Life you admit
+because you see it all about you. But that it should endure for two thousand
+years, which after all is but a second&rsquo;s beat in the story of the earth,
+that to you is &lsquo;impossible,&rsquo; although in truth the buried seed or
+the sealed-up toad can live as long. Doubtless, also, you have some faith which
+promises you this same boon to all eternity, after the little change called
+Death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Allan, it is possible enough, like to many other things of which
+you do not dream to-day that will be common to the eyes of those who follow
+after you. Mayhap you think it impossible that I should speak with and learn of
+you from yonder old black wizard who dwells in the country whence you came. And
+yet whenever I will I do so in the night because he is in tune with me, and
+what I do shall be done by all men in the years unborn. Yes, they shall talk
+together across the wide spaces of the earth, and the lover shall hear her
+lover&rsquo;s voice although great seas roll between them. Nor perchance will
+it stop at this; perchance in future time men shall hold converse with the
+denizens of the stars, and even with the dead who have passed into silence and
+the darkness. Do you hear and understand me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; I answered feebly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You lie, as you are too prone to do. You hear but you do not understand
+nor believe, and oh! you vex me sorely. Now I had it in my mind to tell you the
+secret of this long life of mine; long, mark you, but not endless, for
+doubtless I must die and change and return again, like others, and even to show
+you how it may be won. But you are not worthy in your faithlessness.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, I am not worthy,&rdquo; I answered, who at that moment did not
+feel the least desire to live two thousand years, perhaps with this woman as a
+neighbour, rating me from generation to generation. Yet it is true, that now
+when I am older and a certain event cannot be postponed much longer, I do often
+regret that I neglected to take this unique chance, if in truth there was one,
+of prolonging an existence which after all has its
+consolations&mdash;especially when one has made one&rsquo;s pile. Certainly it
+is a case, a flagrant case, of neglected opportunities, and my only consolation
+for having lost them is that this was due to the uprightness of my nature which
+made it so hard for me to acquiesce in alternative statements that I had every
+cause to disbelieve and thus to give offence to a very powerful and petulant if
+attractive lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So that is done with,&rdquo; she went on with a little stamp of
+indignation, &ldquo;as soon you will be also, who, had you not crossed and
+doubted me, might have lived on for untold time and become one of the masters
+of the world, as I am.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here she paused, choked, I think, with her almost childish anger, and because I
+could not help it, I said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Such place and power, if they be yours, Ayesha, do not seem to bring you
+much reward. If I were a master of the world I do not think that I should
+choose to dwell unchangingly among savages who eat men and in a pile of ruins.
+But perhaps the curses of Aphrodite and of Isis are stronger masters
+still?&rdquo; and I paused inquiringly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This bold argument&mdash;for now I see that it was bold&mdash;seemed to
+astonish and even bewilder my wonderful companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have more wisdom than I thought,&rdquo; she said reflectively,
+&ldquo;who have come to understand that no one is really lord of anything,
+since above there is always a more powerful lord who withers all his pomp and
+pride to nothingness, even as the great kings learned in olden days, and I, who
+am higher than they are, am learning now. Hearken. Troubles beset me wherein I
+would have your help and that of your companions, for which I will pay each of
+you the fee that he desires. The brooding white man who is with you shall free
+his daughter and unharmed; though that <i>he</i> will be unharmed I do not
+promise. The black savage captain shall fight his fill and gain the glory that
+he seeks, also something that he seeks still more. The little yellow man asks
+nothing save to be with his master like a dog and to satisfy at once his
+stomach and his apish curiosity. You, Allan, shall see those dead over whom you
+brood at night, though the other guerdon that you might have won is now passed
+from your reach because you mock me in your heart.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What must we do to gain these things?&rdquo; I asked. &ldquo;How can we
+humble creatures help one who is all powerful and who has gathered in her
+breast the infinite knowledge of two thousand years?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must make war under my banner and rid me of my foes. As for the
+reason, listen to the end of my tale and you shall learn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I reflected that it was a marvellous thing that this queen who claimed
+supernatural powers should need our help in a war, but thinking it wiser to
+keep my meditations to myself, said nothing. As a matter of fact I might just
+as well have spoken, since as usual she read my thoughts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are thinking that it is strange, Allan, that I, the Mighty and
+Undying, should seek your aid in some petty tribal battle, and so it would be
+were my foes but common savages. But they are more; they are men protected by
+the ancient god of this immemorial city of Kôr, a great god in his day whose
+spirit still haunts these ruins and whose strength still protects the
+worshippers who cling to him and practise his unholy rites of human
+sacrifice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How was this god named?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Rezu</i> was his name, and from him came the Egyptian Re or Ra, since
+in the beginning Kôr was the mother of Egypt and the conquering people of Kôr
+took their god with them when they burst into the valley of the Nile and
+subdued its peoples long before the first Pharaoh, Menes, wore Egypt&rsquo;s
+crown.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ra was the sun, was he not?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, and Rezu also was a sun-god whom from his throne in the fires of
+the Lord of Day, gave life to men, or slew them if he willed with his
+thunderbolts of drought and pestilence and storm. He was no gentle king of
+heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshippers, yes, even
+that of maids and children. So it came about that the people of Kôr, who saw
+their virgins slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu, and their infants burned
+to ashes in the fires that his rays lit, turned themselves to the worship of
+the gentle moon, the goddess whom they named <i>Lulala</i>, while some of them
+chose Truth for their queen, since Truth, they said, was greater and more to be
+desired than the fierce Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat
+above them both throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu,
+grew wroth and sent a pestilence upon Kôr and its subject lands and slew their
+people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy, and with them some
+others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that escaped I know not
+how.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you see this great pestilence?&rdquo; I asked, much interested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, it befell generations before I came to Kôr. One Junis, a priest,
+wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where is the
+burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my day Kôr, of which,
+should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the history, was a ruin as it is
+now, though scattered in the lands amidst the tumbled stones which once built
+up her subject cities, a people named the Amahagger dwelt in Households, or
+Tribes and there sacrificed men by fire and devoured them, following the rites
+of the demon Rezu. For these were the descendants of those who escaped the
+pestilence. Also there were certain others, children of the worshippers of
+Lulala whose kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the
+gentle worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the followers of
+Rezu.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What brought <i>you</i> to Kôr, Ayesha?&rdquo; I asked irrelevantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of
+great Isis whom I serve? Also,&rdquo; she added after a pause, &ldquo;that I
+might find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted
+thereto by the other.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And did you find them, Ayesha?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence the
+goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his temptress back
+to the world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that
+you also&mdash;liked this priest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sprang from her couch and in a low, hissing voice which resembled the sound
+made by an angry snake and turned my blood cold to hear, exclaimed,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Man, do you dare to mock me? Nay, you are but a blundering, curious
+fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like Kallikrates,
+never should you leave Kôr living. Cease from seeking that which you may not
+learn. Suffice it for you to know that the doom of Isis fell upon the lost
+Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on me also fell her doom, who must
+dwell here, dead yet living, till he return again and the play begins afresh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stranger,&rdquo; she went on in a softer voice, &ldquo;perchance your
+faith, whate&rsquo;er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshippers and give
+strength to the arms of its prophesying priests, who swear they hold the keys
+of doom or of the eternal joys. I see you sign assent&rdquo; (I had nodded at
+her extremely accurate guess) &ldquo;and therefore can understand that in such
+a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for some two thousand years,
+expiating the crime of Powers above me whereof I am but the hand and
+instrument, since those Powers which decreed that I should love, decree also
+that I must avenge that love.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by emotion, of which I could
+only guess the reasons, hiding her face in her hands. Presently she let them
+fall again and continued,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of these woes ask me no more. They sleep till the hour of their
+resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you
+perchance&mdash;&mdash;But let that be. &lsquo;Twas near the mark; nearer,
+Allan, than you know, not in it! Therefore leave them to their sleep as I would
+if I might&mdash;ah! if I might, whose companions they are throughout the weary
+ages. Alas! that through the secret which was revealed to me I remain undying
+on the earth who in death might perhaps have found a rest, and being human
+although half divine, must still busy myself with the affairs of earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I
+remained in my agony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk of the cup
+of enduring life and like the Prometheus of old fable, found myself bound to
+this changeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures of remorse tear out my
+living heart which in the watches of the night is ever doomed to grow again
+within my woman&rsquo;s breast, I was plunged into petty troubles of the flesh,
+aye and welcomed them because their irk at times gave me forgetfulness. When
+the savage dwellers in this land came to know that a mighty one had arisen
+among them who was the servant of the Lady of the Moon, those of them who still
+worshipped their goddess Lulala, gathered themselves about me, while those of
+them who worshipped Rezu sought to overthrow me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Here,&rsquo; they said, &lsquo;is the goddess Lulala come to
+earth. In the name of Rezu let us slay her and make an end,&rsquo; for these
+fools thought that I could be killed. Allan, I conquered them, but their
+captain, who also is named Rezu and whom they held and hold to be an emanation
+of the god himself walking the earth, I could not conquer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For this reason, Allan. In some past age his god showed him the same
+secret that was shown to me. He too had drunk of the Cup of Life and lives on
+unharmed by Time, so that being in strength my equal, no spear of mine can
+reach his heart clad in the armour of his evil god.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then what spear can?&rdquo; I inquired helplessly, who was bewildered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;None at all, Allan, yet an <i>axe</i> may, as you shall hear, or so I
+think. For many generations there has been peace of a sort between the
+worshippers of Lulala who dwell with me in the Plain of Kôr, or rather of
+myself, since to these people <i>I</i> am Lulala, and the worshippers of Rezu,
+who dwell in the strongholds beyond the mountain crest. But of late years their
+chief Rezu, having devastated the lands about, has grown restless and
+threatened attack on Kôr, which is not strong enough to stand against him.
+Moreover he has sought for a white queen to rule under him, purposing to set
+her up to mock my majesty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is that why those cannibals carried away the daughter of my companion,
+the Sea-Captain who is named Avenger?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is, Allan, since presently he will give it out that I am dead or
+fled, if he has not done so already, and that this new queen has arisen in my
+place. Thereby he hopes to draw away many who cling to me ere he advances upon
+Kôr, carrying with him this girl veiled as I am, so that none may know the
+difference between us, since not a man of them has ever looked upon my face,
+Allan. Therefore this Rezu must die, if die he can; otherwise, although it is
+impossible that he should harm me, he may slay or draw away my people and leave
+me with none to rule in this place where by the decree of Fate I must dwell on
+until he whom I seek returns. You are thinking in your heart that such savages
+would be little loss and this is so, but still they serve as slaves to me in my
+loneliness. Moreover I have sworn to protect them from the demon Rezu and they
+have trusted in me and therefore my honour is at stake, for never shall it be
+said that those who trusted in She-who-commands, were overthrown because they
+put faith in one who was powerless.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean about an axe, Ayesha?&rdquo; I asked. &ldquo;Why can an
+axe alone kill Rezu?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The thing is a mystery, O Allan, of which I may not tell you all, since
+to do so I must reveal secrets which I have determined you shall not learn.
+Suffice it to you to know that when this Rezu drank of the Cup of Life he took
+with him his axe. Now this axe was an ancient weapon rumoured to have been
+fashioned by the gods and, as it chanced, that axe drew to itself more and
+stronger life than did Rezu, how, it does not matter, if indeed the tale be
+more than a fable. At least this I know is true, for he who guarded the Gate of
+Life, a certain Noot, a master of mysteries, and mine also in my day of youth,
+who being a philosopher and very wise, chose never to pass that portal which
+was open to him, said it to me himself ere he went the way of flesh. He told
+this Rezu also that now he had naught to fear save his own axe and therefore he
+counselled him to guard it well, since if it was lifted against him in
+another&rsquo;s hands it would bring him down to death, which nothing else
+could do. Like to the heel of Achilles whereof the great Homer sings&mdash;have
+you read Homer, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In a translation,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good, then you will remember the story. Like to the heel of Achilles, I
+say, that axe would be the only gate by which death could enter his
+invulnerable flesh, or rather it alone could make the gate.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How did Noot know that?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot say,&rdquo; she answered with irritation. &ldquo;Perchance he
+did not know it. Perchance it is all an idle tale, but at least it is true that
+Rezu believed and believes it, and what a man believes is true for him and will
+certainly befall. If it were otherwise, what is the use of faith which in a
+thousand forms supports our race and holds it from the horrors of the Pit? Only
+those who believe nothing inherit what they believe&mdash;nothing,
+Allan.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be so,&rdquo; I replied prosaically, &ldquo;but what happened
+about the axe?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the end it was lost, or as some say stolen by a woman whom Rezu had
+deserted, and therefore he walks the world in fear from day to day. Nay, ask no
+more empty questions&rdquo; (I had opened my mouth to speak) &ldquo;but hear
+the end of the tale. In my trouble concerning Rezu I remembered this wild
+legend of the axe and since, when lost in a forest every path that may lead to
+safety should be explored, I sent my wisdom forth to make inquiry concerning
+it, as I who am great, have the power to do, of certain who are in tune with me
+throughout this wide land of Africa. Amongst others, I inquired of that old
+wizard whom you named Zikali, Opener of Roads, and he gave me an answer that
+there lived in his land a certain warrior who ruled a tribe called the People
+of the Axe by right of the Axe, of which axe none, not even he, knew the
+beginning or the legend. On the chance, though it was a small one, I bade the
+wizard send that warrior here with his axe. Last night he stood before me and I
+looked upon him and the axe, which at least is ancient and has a story. Whether
+it be the same that Rezu bore I do not know who never saw it, yet perchance he
+who bears it now is prepared to hold it aloft in battle even against Rezu,
+though he be terrible to see, and then we shall learn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;he is quite prepared, for that is his
+nature. Also among this man&rsquo;s people, the holder of the Axe is thought to
+be unconquerable.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet some must have been conquered who held it,&rdquo; she replied
+musingly. &ldquo;Well, you shall tell me that tale later. Now we have talked
+long and you are weary and astonished. Go, eat and rest yourself. To-night when
+the moon rises I will come to where you are, not before, for I have much that
+must be done, and show you those with whom you must fight against Rezu, and
+make a plan of battle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do not want to fight,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;who have fought
+enough and came here to seek wisdom, not bloodshed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;First the sacrifice, then the reward,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;that
+is if any are left to be rewarded. Farewell.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+ROBERTSON IS LOST</h2>
+
+<p>
+So I went and was conducted by Billali, the old chamberlain, for such seemed to
+be his office, who had been waiting patiently without all this while, back to
+our rest-house. On my way I picked up Hans, whom I found sitting outside the
+arch, and found that as usual that worthy had been keeping his eyes and ears
+open.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;did the White Witch tell you that there is
+a big <i>impi</i> encamped over yonder outside the houses, in what looks like a
+great dry ditch, and on the edge of the plain beyond?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Hans, but she said that this evening she would show us those in
+whose company we must fight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Baas, they are there, some thousands of them, for I crept through
+the broken walls like a snake and saw them. And, Baas, I do not think they are
+men, I think that they are evil spirits who walk at night only.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because when the sun is high, Baas, as it is now, they are all sleeping.
+Yes, there they lie abed, fast asleep, as other people do at night, with only a
+few sentries out on guard, and these are yawning and rubbing their eyes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard that there are folk like that in the middle of Africa where
+the sun is very hot, Hans,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;which perhaps is why
+She-who-commands is going to take us to see them at night. Also these people,
+it seems, are worshippers of the moon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas, they are worshippers of the devil and that White Witch is his
+wife.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, Hans, for whatever she is
+I think that she can read thoughts from far away, as you guessed last night.
+Therefore I would not have any if I were you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas, or if I must think, henceforth, it shall be only of gin which
+in this place is also far away,&rdquo; he replied, grinning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we came to the rest-house where I found that Robertson had already eaten
+his midday meal and like the Amahagger gone to sleep, while apparently
+Umslopogaas had done the same; at least I saw nothing of him. Of this I was
+glad, since that wondrous Ayesha seemed to draw vitality out of me and after my
+long talk with her I felt very tired. So I too ate and then went to lie down
+under an old wall in the shade at a little distance, and to reflect upon the
+marvellous things that I had heard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here be it said at once that I believed nothing of them, or at least very
+little indeed. All the involved tale of Ayesha&rsquo;s long life I dismissed at
+once as incredible. Clearly she was some beautiful woman who was more or less
+mad and suffered from megalomania; probably an Arab, who had wandered to this
+place for reasons of her own, and become the chieftainess of a savage tribe
+whose traditions she had absorbed and reproduced as personal experiences, again
+for reasons of her own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest, she was now threatened by another tribe and knowing that we had
+guns and could fight from what happened on the yesterday, wished naturally
+enough for our assistance in the coming battle. As for the marvellous chief
+Rezu, or rather for his supernatural attributes and all the cock-and-bull story
+about an axe&mdash;well, it was humbug like the rest, and if she believed in it
+she must be more foolish than I took her to be&mdash;even if she were unhinged
+on certain points. For the rest, her information about myself and Umslopogaas
+doubtless had reached her from Zikali in some obscure fashion, as she herself
+acknowledged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But heavens! how beautiful she was! That flash of loveliness when out of pique
+or coquetry she lifted her veil, blinded like the lightning. But thank
+goodness, also like the lightning it frightened; instinctively one felt that it
+was very dangerous, even to death, and with it I for one wished no closer
+acquaintance. Fire may be lovely and attractive, also comforting at a proper
+distance, but he who sits on the top of it is cremated, as many a moth has
+found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I argued, knowing well enough all the while that if this particular
+human&mdash;or inhuman&mdash;fire desired to make an holocaust of me, it could
+do so easily enough, and that in reality I owed my safety so far to a lack of
+that desire on its part. The glorious Ayesha saw nothing to attract her in an
+insignificant and withered hunter, or at any rate in his exterior, though with
+his mind she might find some small affinity. Moreover to make a fool of him
+just for the fun of it would not serve her purpose, since she needed his
+assistance in a business that necessitated clear wits and unprejudiced
+judgment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lastly she had declared herself to be absorbed in some tiresome complication
+with another man, of which it was rather difficult to follow the details. It is
+true that she described him as a handsome but somewhat empty-headed person whom
+she had last seen two thousand years ago, but probably this only meant that she
+thought poorly of him because he had preferred some other woman to herself,
+while the two thousand years were added to the tale to give it atmosphere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two thousand
+years; witness that of Cleopatra with Cæsar, Mark Antony and other gentlemen.
+The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy, even in boarding-schools,
+and it is felt that were she by some miracle to be blotted out of the book of
+history, the loss would be enormous. The same applied to Helen, Phryne, and
+other bad lots. In fact now that one comes to think of it, most of the
+attractive personages in history, male or female, especially the latter, were
+bad lots. When we find someone to whose name is added &ldquo;the good&rdquo; we
+skip. No doubt Ayesha, being very clever, appreciated this regrettable truth,
+and therefore moved her murky entanglements of the past decade or so back for a
+couple of thousand years, as many of us would like to do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There remained the very curious circumstance of her apparent correspondence
+with old Zikali who lived far away. This, however, after all was not
+inexplicable. In the course of a great deal of experience I have observed that
+all the witch-doctor family, to which doubtless she belonged, have strange
+means of communication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In most instances these are no doubt physical, carried on by help of
+messengers, or messages passed from one to the other. But sometimes it is
+reasonable to assume what is known as telepathy, as their link of intercourse.
+Between two such highly developed experts as Ayesha and Zikali, it might for
+the sake of argument safely be supposed that it was thus they learned each
+other&rsquo;s mind and co-operated in each other&rsquo;s projects, though
+perhaps this end was effected by commoner methods.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever its interpretations, the issue of the business seemed to be that I was
+to be let in for more fighting. Well, in any case this could not be avoided,
+since Robertson&rsquo;s daughter, Inez, had to be saved at all costs, if it
+could possibly be done, even if we lost our lives in the attempt. Therefore
+fight we must, so there was nothing more to be said. Also without doubt this
+adventure was particularly interesting and I could only hope that good luck, or
+Zikali&rsquo;s Great Medicine, or rather Providence, would see me through it
+safely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest the fact that our help was necessary to her in this war-like
+venture showed me clearly enough that all this wonderful woman&rsquo;s
+pretensions to supernatural powers were the sheerest nonsense. Had they been
+otherwise she would not have needed our help in her tribal fights,
+notwithstanding the rubbish she talked about the chief, Rezu, who according to
+her account of him, must resemble one of the fabulous &ldquo;trolls,&rdquo;
+half-human and half-ghostly evil creatures, of whom I have read in the Norse
+Sagas, who could only be slain by some particular hero armed with a particular
+weapon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Reflecting thus I went to sleep and did not wake until the sun was setting.
+Finding that Hans was also sleeping at my feet just like a faithful dog, I woke
+him up and we went back together to the rest-house, which we reached as the
+darkness fell with extraordinary swiftness, as it does in those latitudes,
+especially in a place surrounded by cliffs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not finding Robertson in the house, I concluded that he was somewhere outside,
+possibly making a reconnaissance on his own account, and told Hans to get
+supper ready for both of us. While he was doing so, by aid of the Amahagger
+lamps, Umslopogaas suddenly appeared in the circle of light, and looking about
+him, said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is Red-Beard, Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I did not know and waited, for I felt sure that he had
+something to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that you had better keep Red-Beard close to you,
+Macumazahn,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;This afternoon, when you had returned
+from visiting the white doctoress and having eaten, had gone to sleep under the
+wall yonder, I saw Red-Beard come out of the house carrying a gun and a bag of
+cartridges. His eyes rolled wildly and he turned first this way and then that,
+sniffing at the air, like a buck that scents danger. Then he began to talk
+aloud in his own tongue and as I saw that he was speaking with his Spirit, as
+those do who are mad, I went away and left him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, as you know, Macumazahn, it is a law among us Zulus never to
+disturb one who is mad and engaged in talking with his Spirit. Moreover, had I
+done so, probably he would have shot me, nor should I have complained who would
+have thrust myself in where I had no right to be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why did you not come to call me, Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because then he might have shot you, for, as I have seen for some time
+he is inspired of heaven and knows not what he does upon the earth, thinking
+only of the Lady Sad-Eyes who has been stolen away from him, as is but natural.
+So I left him walking up and down, and when I returned later to look, saw that
+he was gone, as I thought into this walled hut. Now when Hansi tells me that he
+is not here, I have come to speak to you about him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, certainly he is not here,&rdquo; I said, and I went to look at the
+bed where Robertson slept to see if it had been used that evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then for the first time I saw lying on it a piece of paper torn from a
+pocketbook and addressed to myself. I seized and read it. It ran thus:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The merciful Lord has sent me a vision of Inez and shown me where she is
+over the cliff-edge away to the west, also the road to her. In my sleep I heard
+her talking to me. She told me that she is in great danger&mdash;that they are
+going to marry her to some brute&mdash;and called to me to come at once and
+save her; yes, and to come alone without saying anything to anyone. So I am
+going at once. Don&rsquo;t be frightened or trouble about me. All will be well,
+all will be quite well. I will tell you the rest when we meet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Horrorstruck I translated this insane screed to Umslopogaas and Hans. The
+former nodded gravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did I not tell you that he was talking with his Spirit,
+Macumazahn?&rdquo; (I had rendered &ldquo;the merciful Lord&rdquo; as the Good
+Spirit.) &ldquo;Well, he has gone and doubtless his Spirit will take care of
+him. It is finished.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At any rate we cannot, Baas,&rdquo; broke in Hans, who I think feared
+that I might send him out to look for Robertson. &ldquo;I can follow most
+spoors, but not on such a night as this when one could cut the blackness into
+lumps and build a wall of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;he has gone and nothing can be done at
+present,&rdquo; though to myself I reflected that probably he had not gone far
+and would be found when the moon rose, or at any rate on the following morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still I was most uneasy about the man who, as I had noted for a long while, was
+losing his balance more and more. The shock of the barbarous and dreadful
+slaughter of his half-breed children and of the abduction of Inez by these
+grim, man-eating savages began the business, and I think that it was increased
+and accentuated by his sudden conversion to complete temperance after years of
+heavy drinking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I persuaded him to this course I was very proud of myself, thinking that I
+had done a clever thing, but now I was not so sure. Perhaps it would have been
+better if he had continued to drink something, at any rate for a while, but the
+trouble is that in such cases there is generally no half-way house. A man, or
+still more a woman, given to this frailty either turns aggressively sober or
+remains very drunken. At any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted
+for the best and could not blame myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious associations of
+his youth had re-asserted themselves with remarkable vigour, for I gathered
+that he had been brought up almost as a Calvinist, and in the rush of their
+return, had overset his equilibrium. As I have said, he prayed night and day
+without any of those reserves which most people prefer in their religious
+exercises, and when he talked of matters outside our quest, his conversation
+generally revolved round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to say the
+truth, did not make him a cheerful companion. Indeed in this respect I liked
+him much better in his old, unregenerate days, being, I fear, myself a somewhat
+worldly soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, the sum of it was that the poor fellow had gone mad and given us the
+slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness was
+impossible. Indeed, even if it had been lighter, I do not think that it would
+have been safe among these Amahagger nightbirds whom I did not trust. Certainly
+I could not have asked Hans to undertake the task, and if I had, I do not think
+he would have gone since he was afraid of the Amahagger. Therefore there was
+nothing to be done except wait and hope for the best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had promised.
+Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded by Billali,
+followed by women, also cloaked, and surrounded by a guard of tall spearmen. I
+was seated outside the house, smoking, when suddenly she arrived from the
+shadows and stood before me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rose respectfully and bowed, while Umslopogaas, Goroko and the other Zulus
+who were with me, gave her the royal salute, and Hans cringed like a dog that
+is afraid of being kicked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a swift glance at them, as I guessed by the motion of her veiled head,
+she seemed to fix her gaze upon my pipe that evidently excited her curiosity,
+and asked me what it was. I explained as well as I could, expatiating on the
+charms of smoking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and one
+that is filthy also,&rdquo; she said, sniffing at the smoke and waving her hand
+before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into my pocket, where, being
+alight, it burnt a hole in my best remaining coat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she was who,
+to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be astonished at a habit
+with which she must have been well acquainted, although I believe that it was
+unknown in the ancient world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are troubled,&rdquo; she went on, swiftly changing the subject,
+&ldquo;I read it in your face. One of your company is missing. Who is it? Ah! I
+see, the white man you name Avenger. Where is he gone?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which
+to look for things that pass afar. Still, let me try,&rdquo; and pressing her
+hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a minute, then spoke
+slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that he has gone over the mountain lip towards the worshippers
+of Rezu. I think that he is mad; sorrow and something else which I do not
+understand have turned his brain; something that has to do with the Heavens. I
+think also that we shall recover him living, if only for a little while, though
+of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to me to read the future, but
+only the past, and sometimes the things that happen in the present though they
+be far away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?&rdquo; I asked anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
+might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to your
+companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to seek?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;More or less,&rdquo; I answered and translated to her the letter that
+Robertson had left for me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be as the man writes,&rdquo; she commented, &ldquo;since the mad
+often see well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he
+imagines. The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan, although it
+seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of vision or the fury of a
+soul distraught blows away the veils or burns through the gates of distance,
+then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever fools may think, often
+madness is true wisdom. Now follow me with the little yellow man and the
+Warrior of the Axe. Stay, let me look upon that axe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but refused to
+loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the leathern thong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own weapon,
+I who am so weak and gentle?&rdquo; she asked, laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
+which he names &lsquo;Chieftainess and Groan-maker,&rsquo; and clings to closer
+by day and night than a man does to his wife.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
+never such another axe. The thing is ancient,&rdquo; she added musingly after
+examining its every detail, &ldquo;and who knows? It may be that whereof the
+legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this fierce-eyed
+Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to face the most
+terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a wizard also, of whom it is
+prophesied that only by such an axe as this can he be made to bite the
+dust.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom I
+would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight, though
+once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death,&rdquo; and he touched the
+great hole in his forehead. &ldquo;Say to her also that I have no fear of
+defeat, I from whom doom is, as I think, still far away, though the
+Opener-of-Roads has told me that among a strange people I shall die in war at
+last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in war.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He speaks well,&rdquo; she answered with a note of admiration in her
+voice. &ldquo;By Isis, were he but white I would set him to rule these
+Amahagger under me. Tell him, Allan, that if he lays Rezu low he shall have a
+great reward.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And tell the White Witch, Macumazahn,&rdquo; Umslopogaas replied when I
+had translated, &ldquo;that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the
+sight of one who is lost to me but with whom my heart still dwells, if indeed
+this Witch has strength to break the wall of blackness that is built between me
+and her who is &lsquo;gone down.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Strange,&rdquo; reflected Ayesha when she understood, &ldquo;that this
+grim Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for
+one whom the grave has taken. Learn from it, Allan, that all humanity is cast
+in the same mould, since my longings and your longings are his also, though the
+three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon and the earth, and as
+different in every other quality. Yet it is true that sun and moon and earth
+are born of the same black womb of chaos. Therefore in the beginning they were
+identical, as doubtless they will be in the end when, their journeyings done,
+they rush together to light space with a flame at which the mocking gods that
+made them may warm their hands. Well, so it is with men, Allan, whose
+soul-stuff is drawn from the gulf of Spirit by Nature&rsquo;s hand, and, cast
+upon the cold air of this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes
+each different to the other and yet, be sure, the same. Now talk no more, but
+follow me. Slave&rdquo; (this was addressed to Billali), &ldquo;bid the guards
+lead on to the camp of the servants of Lulala.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we went through the silent ruins. Ayesha walked, or rather glided a pace or
+two ahead, then came Umslopogaas and I side by side, while at our heels
+followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish to be out of reach
+of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally of the protection of axe
+and rifle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus we marched surrounded by the solemn guard for something between a quarter
+and half a mile, till at length we climbed the debris of a mighty wall that
+once had encompassed the city, and by the moonlight saw beneath us a vast
+hollow which clearly at some unknown time had been the bed of an enormous moat
+and filled with water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, however, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted numerous
+camp-fires round which men were moving, also some women who appeared to be
+engaged in cooking food. At a little distance too, upon the further edge of the
+moat-like depression were a number of white-robed individuals gathered in a
+circle about a large stone upon which something was stretched that resembled
+the carcase of a sheep or goat, and round these a great number of spectators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The priests of Lulala who make sacrifice to the moon, as they do night
+by night, save when she is dead,&rdquo; said Ayesha, turning back towards me as
+though in answer to the query which I had conceived but left unuttered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation and
+briskness. All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved about quickly
+and with the same kind of liveliness which might animate a camp of more natural
+people at the rising of the sun. It was as though they had just got up full of
+vigour to commence their daily, or rather their nightly round, which in truth
+was the case, since as Hans discovered, by habitude these Amahagger preferred
+to sleep during the day unless something prevented them, and to carry on the
+activities of life at night. It only remains to add that there seemed to be a
+great number of them, for their fires following the round of the dry moat,
+stretched further than I could see.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scrambling down the crumpled wall by a zig-zag pathway, we came upon the
+outposts of the army beneath us who challenged, then seeing with whom they had
+to do, fell flat upon their faces, leaving their great spears, which had iron
+spikes on their shafts like to those of the Masai, sticking in the ground
+beside them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We passed on between some of the fires and I noted how solemn and gloomy,
+although handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom these were
+surrounded. Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different world to ours, one
+alien to the kindly race of men. There was nothing social about these
+Amahagger, who seemed to be a people labouring under some ancient ancestral
+curse of which they could never shake off the memory. Even the women rarely
+smiled; their clear-cut, stately countenances remained stern and set, except
+when they glowered at us incuriously. Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated
+themselves like the rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We went on through them and across the moat, climbing its further slope and
+here suddenly came upon a host of men gathered in a hollow square, apparently
+in order to receive us. They stood in ranks of five or six deep and their
+spear-points glimmering in the moonlight looked like long bands of level steel.
+As we entered the open side of the square all these spears were lifted. Thrice
+they were lifted and at each uplifting there rose a deep-throated cry of
+<i>Hiya</i>, which is the Arabic for She, and I suppose was a salutation to
+Ayesha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She swept on taking no heed, till we came to the centre of the square where a
+number of men were gathered who prostrated themselves in the usual fashion.
+Motioning to them to rise she said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Captains, this very night within two hours we march against Rezu and the
+sun-worshippers, since otherwise as my arts tell me, they march against us.
+She-who-commands is immortal, as your fathers have known from generation to
+generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her servants, can be destroyed,
+and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of Life, out-numbers you by three to
+one and prepares a queen to set up in my place over his own people and such of
+you as remain. As though,&rdquo; she added with a contemptuous laugh,
+&ldquo;any woman of a day could take my place.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She paused and the spokesman of the captains said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We hear, O Hiya, and we understand. What wouldst thou have us do, O
+Lulala-come-to-earth? The armies of Rezu are great and from the beginning he
+has hated thee and us, also his magic is as thy magic and his length of days as
+thy length of days. How then can we who are few, three thousand men at the
+most, match ourselves against Rezu, Son of the Sun? Would it not be better that
+we should accept the terms of Rezu, which are light, and acknowledge him as our
+king?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath her
+robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the meaning of them was
+clear enough, namely that rather than risk a battle with Rezu, these people
+were contemplating surrender and her own deposition, if indeed she could be
+deposed. Still she answered in a quiet voice,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems that I have dealt too gently with you and with your fathers,
+Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that because you
+only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sword within and that it can
+shine forth and smite. Well, why should I be wrath because the brutish will
+follow the law of brutes, though it be true that I am minded to slay you where
+you stand? Hearken! Were I less merciful I would leave you to the clutching
+hands of Rezu, who would drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and
+there offer up your hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his
+heat. But I bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom
+I knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you from
+yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take counsel together now and say&mdash;Will you fight against Rezu, or
+will you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow&rsquo;s sun
+I will begone, taking these with me,&rdquo; and she pointed to us, &ldquo;whom
+I have summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
+stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are the
+slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return
+and save us from this hell?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
+will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear no
+more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you and your
+ways.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha stood
+still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against their
+strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral nature, one that
+emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered was, being what she seemed
+to be, why she thought it worth while to exercise it at all. Then I remembered
+her statement that here and nowhere else she must abide for some secret reason,
+until a certain mystical gentleman with a Greek name came to fetch her away
+from this appointed <i>rendezvous</i>. Therefore I supposed she had no choice,
+or rather, suffering as she did from hallucinations, believed herself to have
+no choice and was obliged to put up with a crowd of disagreeable savages in
+quarters which were sadly out of repair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
+Hiya?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My wisdom shall be your guide,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;this white
+man shall be your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face
+to face and bring him to the dust,&rdquo; and she pointed to Umslopogaas
+leaning upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This reply did not seem to please the man for he withdrew to consult again with
+his companions. After a debate which I suppose was animated for the Amahagger,
+men of few words who did not indulge in oratory, all of them advanced on us and
+the spokesman said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The choice of a General does not please us, Hiya. We know that the white
+man is brave because of the fight he made against the men of Rezu over the
+mountain yonder; also that he and his followers have weapons that deal death
+from afar. But there is a prophecy among us of which none know the beginning,
+that he who commands in the last great battle between Lulala and Rezu must
+produce before the eyes of the People of Lulala a certain holy thing, a charm
+of power, without which defeat will be the portion of Lulala. Of this holy
+thing, this spirit-haunted shape of power, we know the likeness and the
+fashion, for these have come down among our priests, though who told it to them
+we cannot tell, but of it I will say this only, that it speaks both of the
+spirit and the body, of man and yet of more than man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if this wondrous charm, this talisman of might, cannot be shown by
+the white lord here, what then?&rdquo; asked Ayesha coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Hiya, this is the word of the People of Lulala, that we will not
+serve under him in the battle, and this also is their word that we will not go
+up against Rezu. That thou art mighty we know well, Hiya, also that thou canst
+slay if thou wilt, but we know also that Rezu is mightier and that against him
+thou hast no power. Therefore kill us if thou dost so desire, until thy heart
+is satisfied with death. For it is better that we should perish thus than upon
+the altar of sacrifice wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So say we all,&rdquo; exclaimed the rest of the company when he had
+finished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward
+blood and that of thy companions,&rdquo; said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she
+paused and turning to me, added, &ldquo;O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is
+there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I have
+spread my feathers for so long?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as though they
+would go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of most
+African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali&rsquo;s Great
+Medicine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a
+&ldquo;spirit-haunted shape of power&rdquo; that spoke &ldquo;both of the
+spirit and the body of man and yet of more than man,&rdquo; was so vague that
+it might mean anything or nothing. And yet&mdash;&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted should be
+produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu to the death. She
+did so and with one voice they replied,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom
+also our legend tells.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of Zikali as
+far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend tells,
+O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire that
+burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared again; and as he
+did, so did the others bending over him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dog! would you singe my beard?&rdquo; I cried in affected rage, and
+seizing the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely to assert
+my authority. Still for a few moments he stared although the sparks from the
+wood were frizzling in his greasy hair, then of a sudden went down on his face
+before me, as did all the others and cried out,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the Holy Thing! It is the spirit-haunted Shape of Power itself,
+and we the Worshippers of Lulala will follow thee to the death, O white lord,
+Watcher-by-Night. Yes, where thou goest and he goes who bears the Axe, thither
+will we follow till not one of us is left upon his feet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then that&rsquo;s settled,&rdquo; I said, yawning, since it is never
+wise to show concern about anything before savages. Indeed personally I had no
+wish to be the leader of this very peculiar tribe in an adventure of which I
+knew nothing, and therefore had hoped that they would leave that honour to
+someone else. Then I turned and told Umslopogaas what had passed, a tale at
+which he only shrugged his great shoulders, handling his axe as though he were
+minded to try its edge upon some of these &ldquo;Dark-lovers,&rdquo; as he
+named the Amahagger people because of their nocturnal habits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Ayesha gave certain orders. Then she came to me and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;These men march at once, three thousand strong, and by dawn will camp on
+the northern mountain crest. At sunrise litters will come to bear you and those
+with you if they will, to join them, which you should do by midday. In the
+afternoon marshall them as you think wise, for the battle will take place in
+the small hours of the following morning, since the People of Lulala only fight
+at night. I have said.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you not come with us?&rdquo; I asked, dismayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, not in a war against Rezu, why it matters not. Yet my Spirit will
+go with you, for I shall watch all that passes, how it matters not and
+perchance you may see it there&mdash;I know not. On the third day from
+to-morrow we shall meet again in the flesh or beyond it, but as I think in the
+flesh, and you can claim the reward which you journeyed here to seek. A place
+shall be prepared for the white lady whom Rezu would have set up as a rival
+queen to me. Farewell, and farewell also to yonder Bearer of the Axe that shall
+drink the blood of Rezu, also to the little yellow man who is rightly named
+Light-in-Darkness, as you shall learn ere all is done.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then before I could speak she turned and glided away, swiftly surrounded by her
+guards, leaving me astonished and very uncomfortable.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+ALLAN&rsquo;S VISION</h2>
+
+<p>
+The old chamberlain, Billali, conducted us back to our camp. As we went he
+discoursed to me of these Amahagger, of whom it seemed he was himself a
+developed specimen, one who threw back, perhaps tens of generations, to some
+superior ancestor who lived before they became debased. In substance he told me
+that they were a wild and lawless lot who lived amongst ruins or in caves, or
+some of them in swamp dwellings, in small separate communities, each governed
+by its petty headman who was generally a priest of their goddess Lulala.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Originally they and the people of Rezu were the same, in times when they
+worshipped the sun and the moon jointly, but &ldquo;thousands of years&rdquo;
+ago, as he expressed it, they had separated, the Rezuites having gone to dwell
+to the north of the Great Mountain, whence they continually threatened the
+Lulalaites whom, had it not been for She-who-commands, they would have
+destroyed long before. The Rezuites, it seemed, were habitual cannibals,
+whereas the Lulalaite branch of the Amahagger only practised cannibalism
+occasionally when by a lucky chance they got hold of strangers. &ldquo;Such as
+yourself, Watcher-by-Night, and your companions,&rdquo; he added with meaning.
+If their crime were discovered, however, Hiya, She-who-commands, punished it by
+death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked if she exercised an active rule over these people. He answered that she
+did not, as she lacked sufficient interest in them; only when she was angry
+with individuals she would destroy some of them by &ldquo;her arts,&rdquo; as
+she had power to do if she chose. Most of them indeed had never seen her and
+only knew of her existence by rumour. To them she was a spirit or a goddess who
+inhabited the ancient tombs that lay to the south of the old city whither she
+had come because of the threatened war with Rezu, whom alone she feared, he did
+not know why. He told me again, moreover, that she was the greatest magician
+who had ever been, and that it was certain she did not die, since their
+forefathers knew her generations ago. Still she seemed to be under some curse,
+like the Amahagger themselves, who were the descendants of those who had once
+inhabited Kôr and the country round it, as far as the sea-coast and for
+hundreds of miles inland, having been a mighty people in their day before a
+great plague destroyed them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest he thought that she was a very unhappy woman who &ldquo;lived with
+her own soul mourning the dead&rdquo; and consorting with none upon the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked him why she stayed here, whereat he shook his head and replied, he
+supposed because of the &ldquo;curse,&rdquo; since he could conceive of no
+other reason. He informed me also that her moods varied very much. Sometimes
+she was fierce and active and at others by comparison mild and low-spirited.
+Just now she was passing through one of the latter stages, perhaps because of
+the Rezu trouble, for she did not wish her people to be destroyed by this
+terrible person; or perhaps for some other reason with which he was not
+acquainted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she chose, she knew all things, except the distant future. Thus she knew
+that we were coming, also the details of our march and that we should be
+attacked by the Rezuites who were going out to meet their returning company
+that had been sent afar to find a white queen. Therefore she had ordered him to
+go with soldiers to our assistance. I asked why she went veiled, and he
+replied, because of her beauty which drove even savage men mad, so that in old
+days she had been obliged to kill a number of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was all he seemed to know about her, except that she was kind to those who
+served her well, like himself, and protected them from evil of every sort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I asked him about Rezu. He answered that he was a dreadful person,
+undying, it was said, like She-who-commands, though he had never seen the man
+himself and never wanted to do so. His followers being cannibals and having
+literally eaten up all those that they could reach, were now desirous of
+conquering the people of Lulala that they might eat them also at their leisure.
+Each other they did not eat, because dog does not eat dog, and therefore they
+were beginning to grow hungry, although they had plenty of grain and cattle of
+which they used the milk and hides.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for the coming battle, he knew nothing about it or what would happen, save
+that She-who-commands said that it would go well for the Lulalaites under my
+direction. She was so sure that it would go well, that she did not think it
+worth while to accompany the army, for she hated noise and bloodshed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It occurred to me that perhaps she was afraid that she too would be taken
+captive and eaten, but I kept my reflection to myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then we arrived at our camp-house, where Billali bade me farewell, saying
+that he wished to rest as he must be back at dawn with litters, when he hoped
+to find us ready to start. Then he departed. Umslopogaas and Hans also went
+away to sleep, leaving me alone who, having taken my repose in the afternoon,
+did not feel drowsy at the moment. So lovely was the night indeed that I made
+up my mind to take a little walk during the midnight hours, after the manner of
+the Amahagger themselves, for having now been recognised as Generalissimo of
+their forces, I had little fear of being attacked, especially as I carried a
+pistol in my pocket. So off I set strolling slowly down what seemed to have
+been a main street of the ancient city, which in its general appearance
+resembled excavated Pompeii, only on an infinitely larger scale.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I went I meditated on the strange circumstances in which I found myself.
+Really they tempted me to believe that I was suffering from delusions and
+perhaps all the while in fact lay stretched upon a bed in the delirium of
+fever. That marvellous woman, for instance&mdash;even rejecting her tale of
+miraculously extended life, which I did&mdash;what was I to make of her? I did
+not know, except that wondrous as she was, it remained clear that she claimed a
+great deal more power than she possessed. This was evident from her tone in the
+interview with the captains, and from the fact that she had shuffled off the
+command of her tribe on to my shoulders. If she were so mighty, why did she not
+command it herself and bring her celestial, or infernal, powers to bear upon
+the enemy? Again, I could not say, but one fact emerged, namely that she was as
+interesting as she was beautiful, and uncommonly clever into the bargain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what a task was this that she had laid upon me, to lead into battle, with a
+foe of unascertained strength, a mob of savages probably quite undisciplined,
+of whose fighting qualities I knew nothing and whom I had no opportunity of
+organising. The affair seemed madness and I could only hope that luck or
+destiny would take me through somehow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To tell the truth, I believed it would, for I had grown almost as superstitious
+about Zikali and his Great Medicine as was Hans himself. Certainly the effect
+of it upon those captains was very odd, or would have been had not the
+explanation come to me in a flash. On the first night of our meeting, as I have
+described, I showed this talisman to Ayesha, as a kind of letter of
+credentials, and now I could see that it was she who had arranged all the scene
+with the captains, or their tribal magician, in order to get her way about my
+appointment to the command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everything about her conduct bore this out, even her feigning ignorance of the
+existence of the charm and the leaving of it to Hans to suggest its production,
+which perhaps she did by influencing his mind subconsciously. No doubt more or
+less it fitted in with one of those nebulous traditions which are so common
+amongst ancient savage races, and therefore once shown to her confederate, or
+confederates, would be accepted by the common people as a holy sign, after
+which the rest was easy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such an obvious explanation involved the death of any illusions I might still
+cherish about this Arab lady, Ayesha, and it is true that I parted with them
+with regret, as we all do when we think we have discovered something wonderful
+in the female line. But there it was, and to bother any more about her, her
+history and aims, seemed useless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So dismissing her and all present anxieties from my mind, I began to look about
+me and to wonder at the marvellous scene which unfolded itself before me in the
+moonlight. That I might see it better, although I was rather afraid of snakes
+which might hide among the stones, by an easy ascent I climbed a mount of ruins
+and up the broad slope of a tumbled massive wall, which from its thickness I
+judged must have been that of some fort or temple. On the crest of this wall,
+some seventy or eighty feet above the level of the streets, I sat down and
+looked about me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everywhere around me stretched the ruins of the great city, now as fallen and
+as deserted as Babylon herself. The majestic loneliness of the place was
+something awful. Even the vision of companies and battalions of men crossing
+the plain towards the north with the moonlight glistening on their
+spear-points, did little to lessen this sense of loneliness. I knew that these
+were the regiments which I was destined to command, travelling to the camp
+where I must meet them. But in such silence did they move that no sound came
+from them even in the deathly stillness of the perfect night, so that almost I
+was tempted to believe them to be the shadow-ghosts of some army of old Kôr.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They vanished, and musing thus I think I must have dozed. At any rate it seemed
+to me that of a sudden the city was as it had been in the days of its glory. I
+saw it brilliant with a hundred colours; everywhere was colour, on the painted
+walls and roofs, the flowering trees that lined the streets and the bright
+dresses of the men and women who by thousands crowded them and the marts and
+squares. Even the chariots that moved to and fro were coloured as were the
+countless banners which floated from palace walls and temple tops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The enormous place teemed with every activity of life; brides being borne to
+marriage and dead men to burial; squadrons marching, clad in glittering armour;
+merchants chaffering; white-robed priests and priestesses passing in procession
+(who or what did they worship? I wondered); children breaking out of school;
+grave philosophers debating in the shadow of a cool arcade; a royal person
+making a progress preceded by runners and surrounded by slaves, and lastly the
+multitudes of citizens going about the daily business of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even details were visible, such as those of officers of the law chasing an
+escaped prisoner who had a broken rope tied to his arm, and a collision between
+two chariots in a narrow street, about the wrecks of which an idle mob gathered
+as it does to-day if two vehicles collide, while the owners argued,
+gesticulating angrily, and the police and grooms tried to lift a fallen horse
+on to its feet. Only no sound of the argument or of anything else reached me. I
+saw, and that was all. The silence remained intense, as well it might do, since
+those chariots must have come to grief thousands upon thousands of years ago.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A cloud seemed to pass before my eyes, a thin, gauzy cloud which somehow
+reminded me of the veil that Ayesha wore. Indeed at the moment, although I
+could not see her, I would have sworn that she was present at my side, and what
+is more, that she was mocking me who had set her down as so impotent a
+trickstress, which doubtless was part of the dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At any rate I returned to my normal state, and there about me were the miles of
+desolate streets and the thousands of broken walls, and the black blots of
+roofless houses and the wide, untenanted plain bounded by the battlemented line
+of encircling mountain crests, and above all, the great moon shining softly in
+a tender sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked and thrilled, though oppressed by the drear and desolate beauty of the
+scene around me, descended the wall and the ruined slope and made my way
+homewards, afraid even of my own shadow. For I seemed to be the only living
+thing among the dead habitations of immemorial Kôr.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Reaching our camp I found Hans awake and watching for me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was just coming to look for you, Baas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Indeed I
+should have done so before, only I knew that you had gone to pay a visit to
+that tall white &lsquo;Missis&rsquo; who ties up her head in a blanket, and
+thought that neither of you would like to be disturbed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you thought wrong,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;and what is more, if
+you had made that visit I think it might have been one from which you would
+never have come back.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh yes, Baas,&rdquo; sniggered Hans. &ldquo;The tall white lady would
+not have minded. It is you who are so particular, after the fashion of men whom
+Heaven made very shy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without deigning to reply to the gibes of Hans I went to lie down, wondering
+what kind of a bed poor Robertson occupied that night, and soon fell asleep, as
+fortunately for myself I have the power to do, whatever my circumstances at the
+moment. Men who can sleep are those who do the work of the world and succeed,
+though personally I have had more of the work than of the success.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+I was awakened at the first grey dawn by Hans, who informed me that Billali was
+waiting outside with litters, also that Goroko had already made his
+incantations and doctored Umslopogaas and his two men for war after the Zulu
+fashion when battle was expected. He added that these Zulus had refused to be
+left behind to guard and nurse their wounded companions, and said that rather
+than do so, they would kill them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow, he informed me, in what way he could not guess, this had come to the
+ears of the White Lady who &ldquo;hid her face from men because it was so
+ugly,&rdquo; and she had sent women to attend to the sick ones, with word that
+they should be well cared for. All of this proved to be true enough, but I need
+not enter into the details.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the end off we went, I in my litter following Billali&rsquo;s, with an
+express and a repeating rifle and plenty of ammunition for both, and Hans, also
+well armed, in that which had been sent for Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk
+with Goroko and the two other Zulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a little while Hans enjoyed the sensation of being carried by somebody
+else, and lay upon the cushions smoking with a seraphic smile and addressing
+sarcastic remarks to the bearers, who fortunately did not understand them.
+Soon, however, he wearied of these novel delights and as he was still
+determined not to walk until he was obliged, climbed on to the roof of the
+litter, astride of which he sat as though it were a horse, looking for all the
+world like a toy monkey on a horizontal stick.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our road ran across the level, fertile plain but a small portion of which was
+cultivated, though I could see that at some time or other, when its population
+was greater, every inch of it had been under crop. Now it was largely covered
+by trees, many of them fruit-bearing, between which meandered streams of water
+which once, I think, had been irrigation channels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About ten o&rsquo;clock we reached the foot of the encircling cliffs and began
+the climb of the escarpment, which was steep, tortuous and difficult. By noon
+we reached its crest and here found all our little army encamped and, except
+for the sentries, sleeping, as seemed to be the invariable custom of these
+people in the daytime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I caused the chief captains to be awakened and with them made a circuit of the
+camp, reckoning the numbers of the men which came to about 3,250 and learning
+what I could concerning them and their way of fighting. Then, accompanied by
+Umslopogaas and Hans with the Zulus as a guard, also by three of the
+head-captains of the Amahagger, I walked forward to study the lie of the land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Coming to the further edge of the escarpment, I found that at this place two
+broad-based ridges, shaped like those that spring from the boles of certain
+tropical forest trees, ran from its crest to the plain beneath at a gentle
+slope. Moreover I saw that on this plain between the ends of the ridges an army
+was encamped which, by the aid of my glasses, I examined and estimated to
+number at least ten thousand men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This army, the Amahagger captains informed me, was that of Rezu, who, they
+said, intended to commence his attack at dawn on the following morning, since
+the People of Rezu, being sun-worshippers, would never fight until their god
+appeared above the horizon. Having studied all there was to see I asked the
+captains to set out their plan of battle, if they had a plan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief of them answered that it was to advance halfway down the right-hand
+ridge to a spot where there was a narrow flat piece of ground, and there await
+attack, since at this place their smaller numbers would not so much matter,
+whereas these made it impossible for them to assail the enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But suppose that Rezu should choose to come up to the other ridge and
+get behind you. What would happen then?&rdquo; I inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He replied that he did not know, his ideas of strategy being, it was clear, of
+a primitive order.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do your people fight best at night or in the day?&rdquo; I went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He said undoubtedly at night, indeed in all their history there was no record
+of their having done so in the daytime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And yet you propose to let Rezu join battle with you when the sun is
+high, or in other words to court defeat,&rdquo; I remarked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went aside and discussed things for a while with Umslopogaas and Hans,
+after which I returned and gave my orders, declining all argument. Briefly
+these were that in the dusk before the rising of the moon, our Amahagger must
+advance down the right-hand ridge in complete silence, and hide themselves
+among the scrub which I saw grew thickly near its root. A small party, however,
+under the leadership of Goroko, whom I knew to be a brave and clever captain,
+was to pass halfway down the left-hand ridge and there light fires over a wide
+area, so as to make the enemy think that our whole force had encamped there.
+Then at the proper moment which I had not yet decided upon, we would attack the
+army of Rezu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I think was
+too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together. Seeing that I must
+assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and said to their chief man,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken, my friend. By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed
+your general and I expect to be obeyed without question. From the moment that
+the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the Black One, and if so
+much as one of your men hesitates or turns back, you will die,&rdquo; and I
+nodded towards the axe of Umslopogaas. &ldquo;Moreover, afterwards
+She-who-commands will see that others of you die, should you escape in the
+fight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still they hesitated. Thereon without another word, I produced Zikali&rsquo;s
+Great Medicine and held it before their eyes, with the result that the sight of
+this ugly thing did what even the threat of death could not do. They went flat
+on the ground, every one of them, and swore by Lulala and by She-who-commands,
+her priestess, that they would do all I said, however mad it seemed to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Now go back and make ready, and for the
+rest, by this time to-morrow we shall know who is or is not mad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From that moment till the end I had no more trouble with these Amahagger.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+I will get on quickly with the story of this fight whereof the preliminary
+details do not matter. At the proper time Goroko went off with two hundred and
+fifty men and one of the two Zulus to light the fires and, at an agreed signal,
+namely the firing of two shots in rapid succession by myself, to begin shouting
+and generally make as much noise as they could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We also went off with the remaining three thousand, and before the moon rose,
+crept as quietly as ghosts down the right-hand ridge. Being such a silent folk
+who were accustomed to move at night and could see in the dark almost as well
+as cats, the Amahagger executed this manoeuvre splendidly, wrapping their
+spear-blades in bands of dry grass lest light should glint on them and betray
+our movements. So in due course we came to the patch of bush where the ridge
+widened out about five hundred yards from the plain beneath, and there lay down
+in four companies or regiments, each of them about seven hundred and fifty
+strong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the moon had risen, but because of the mist which covered the surface of
+the plain, we could see nothing of the camp of Rezu which we knew must be
+within a thousand yards of us, unless indeed it had been moved, as the silence
+seemed to suggest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This circumstance gave me much anxiety, since I feared lest abandoning their
+reputed habits, these Rezuites were also contemplating a night attack.
+Umslopogaas, too, was disturbed on the subject, though because of Goroko and
+his men whose fires began to twinkle on the opposing ridge something over a
+mile away, they could not pass up there without our knowledge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still, for aught I knew there might be other ways of scaling this mountain. I
+did not trust the Amahagger, who declared that none existed, since their local
+knowledge was slight as they never visited these northern slopes because of
+their fear of Rezu. Supposing that the enemy gained the crest and suddenly
+assaulted us in the rear! The thought of it made me feel cold down the back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While I was wondering how I could find out the truth, Hans, who was squatted
+behind a bush, suddenly rose and gave the rifle he was carrying to the
+remaining Zulu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I am going to look and find out what those
+people are doing, if they are still there, and then you will know how and when
+to attack them. Don&rsquo;t be afraid for me, Baas, it will be easy in that
+mist and you know I can move like a snake. Also if I should not come back, it
+does not matter and it will tell you that they <i>are</i> there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I hesitated who did not wish to expose the brave little Hottentot to such
+risks. But when he understood, Umslopogaas said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let the man go. It is his gift and duty to spy, as it is mine to smite
+with the axe, and yours to lead, Macumazahn. Let him go, I say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded my head, and having kissed my hand in his silly fashion in token of
+much that he did not wish to say, Hans slipped out of sight, saying that he
+hoped to be back within an hour. Except for his great knife, he went unarmed,
+who feared that if he took a pistol he might be tempted to fire it and make a
+noise.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE</h2>
+
+<p>
+That hour went by very slowly. Again and again I consulted my watch by the
+light of the moon, which was now rising high in the heavens, and thought that
+it would never come to an end. Listen as I would, there was nothing to be
+heard, and as the mist still prevailed the only thing I could see except the
+heavens, was the twinkling of the fires lit by Goroko and his party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length it was done and there was no sign of Hans. Another half hour passed
+and still no sign of Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that Light-in-Darkness is dead or taken prisoner,&rdquo; said
+Umslopogaas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I feared so, but that I would give him another fifteen minutes
+and then, if he did not appear, I proposed to order an advance, hoping to find
+the enemy where we had last seen them from the top of the mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fifteen minutes went by also, and as I could see that the Amahagger
+captains who sat at a little distance were getting very nervous, I picked up my
+double-barrelled rifle and turned round so that I faced up hill with a view of
+firing it as had been agreed with Goroko, but in such a fashion that the
+flashes perhaps would not be seen from the plain below. For this purpose I
+moved a few yards to the left to get behind the trunk of a tree that grew
+there, and was already lifting the rifle to my shoulder, when a yellow hand
+clasped the barrel and a husky voice said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t fire yet, Baas, as I want to tell you my story first.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked down and there was the ugly face of Hans wearing a grin that might
+have frightened the man in the moon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I said with cold indifference, assumed I admit to hide my
+excessive joy at his safe return, &ldquo;tell on, and be quick about it. I
+suppose you lost your way and never found them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, I lost my way for the fog was very thick down there. But in
+the end I found them all right, by my nose, Baas, for those man-eating people
+smell strong and I got the wind of one of their sentries. It was easy to pass
+him in the mist, Baas, so easy that I was tempted to cut his throat as I went,
+but I didn&rsquo;t for fear lest he should make a noise. No, I walked on right
+into the middle of them, which was easy too, for they were all asleep, wrapped
+up in blankets. They hadn&rsquo;t any fires perhaps because they didn&rsquo;t
+want them to be seen, or perhaps because it is so hot down in that low land, I
+don&rsquo;t know which.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I crept on taking note of all I saw, till at last I came to a little
+hill of which the top rose above the level of the mist, so that I could see on
+it a long hut built of green boughs with the leaves still fresh upon them. Now
+I thought that I would crawl up to the hut since it came into my mind that Rezu
+himself must be sleeping there and that I might kill him. But while I stood
+hesitating I heard a noise like to that made by an old woman whose husband had
+thrown a blanket over her head to keep her quiet, or to that of a bee in a
+bottle, a sort of droning noise that reminded me of something.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought a while and remembered that when Red Beard was on his knees
+praying to Heaven, as is his habit when he has nothing else to do, Baas, he
+makes a noise just like that. I crept towards the sound and presently there I
+found Red Beard himself tied upon a stone and looking as mad as a buffalo bull
+stuck in a swamp, for he shook his head and rolled his eyes about, just as
+though he had had two bottles of bad gin, Baas, and all the while he kept
+saying prayers. Now I thought that I would cut him loose, and bent over him to
+do so, when by ill-luck he saw my face and began to shout, saying,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Go away, you yellow devil. I know you have come to take me to
+hell, but you are too soon, and if my hands were loose I would twist your head
+off your shoulders.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He said this in English, Baas, which as you know I can understand quite
+well, after which I was sure that I had better leave him alone. Whilst I was
+thinking, there came out of the hut above two old men dressed in night-shirts,
+such as you white people wear, with yellow things upon their heads that had a
+metal picture of the sun in front of them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Medicine-men,&rdquo; I suggested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, or Predikants of some sort, for they were rather like your
+reverend father when he dressed himself up and went into a box to preach.
+Seeing them I slipped back a little way to where the mist began, lay down and
+listened. They looked at Red Beard, for his shouts at me had brought them out,
+but he took no notice of them, only went on making a noise like a beetle in a
+tin can.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;It is nothing,&rsquo; said one of the Predikants to the other in
+the same tongue that these Amahagger use. &lsquo;But when is he to be
+sacrificed? Soon, I hope, for I cannot sleep because of the noise he
+makes.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;When the edge of the sun appears, not before,&rsquo; answered the
+other Predikant. &lsquo;Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and
+this white man will be sacrificed to her.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;I think it is a pity to wait so long,&rsquo; said the first
+Predikant, &lsquo;for never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on
+his head.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;First the victory, then the feast,&rsquo; answered the second
+Predikant, &lsquo;though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman
+who was with the new queen.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back
+towards the hut. But the other did not go back. No, he sat down on the ground
+and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone. More, he struck him on the face
+to make him quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they
+had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit in me
+grew so very angry and I thought that I would give this old <i>skellum</i>
+(i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself, after which I
+purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get speech with the Lady
+Sad-Eyes, if she was there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over
+Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would kill him
+at once. But it didn&rsquo;t, Baas, for he fell on to his face and began to
+make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him. Then I heard a
+sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run away into the mist,
+without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes. I ran very hard, Baas,
+making a wide circle to the left, and so at last got back here. That&rsquo;s
+all, Baas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And quite enough, too,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;though if they did not
+see you, the death of the Medicine-man may frighten them. Poor Janee! Well, I
+hope to come even with those devils before they are three hours older.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I called up Umslopogaas and the Amahagger captains and told them the
+substance of the story, also that Hans had located the army, or part of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The end of it was that we made up our minds to attack at once; indeed I
+insisted on this, as I was determined if I could to save that unfortunate man,
+Robertson, who, from Hans&rsquo; account, evidently was now quite mad and
+raving. So I fired the two shots as had been arranged and presently heard the
+sound of distant shoutings on the slope of the opposing ridge. A few minutes
+later we started, Umslopogaas and I leading the vanguard and the Amahagger
+captains following with the three remaining companies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the reader, presuming the existence of such a person, will think that
+everything is sure to go right; that this cunning old fellow, Allan Quatermain,
+is going to surprise and wipe the floor with those Rezuites, who were already
+beguiled by the trick he had instructed Goroko to play. That after this he will
+rescue Robertson who doubtless shortly recovers his mind, also Inez with the
+greatest ease, in fact that everything will happen as it ought to do if this
+were a romance instead of a mere record of remarkable facts. But being the
+latter, as it happened, matters did not work out quite in this convenient way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To begin with, when those Amahagger told me that the Rezuites never fought in
+the dark or before the sun was well up, either they lied or they were much
+mistaken, for at any rate on this occasion they did the exact contrary. All the
+while that we thought we were stalking them, they were stalking us. The Goroko
+manoeuvre had not deceived them in the least, since from their spies they knew
+its exact significance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, I may add that those spies were in our own ranks, traitors, in short, who
+were really in the pay of Rezu and possibly belonged to his abominable faith,
+some of whom slipped away from time to time to the enemy to report our progress
+and plans, so far as they knew them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further, what Hans had stumbled on was a mere rear guard left around the place
+of sacrifice and the hut where Inez was confined. The real army he never found
+at all. That was divided into two bodies and hidden in bush to the right and
+left of the ridge which we were descending just at the spot where it joined the
+plain beneath, and into the jaws of these two armies we marched gaily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now that hypothetical reader will say, &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t that silly old
+fool, Allan, think of all these things? Why didn&rsquo;t he remember that he
+was commanding a pack of savages with whom he had no real acquaintance, among
+whom there were sure to be traitors, especially as they were of the same blood
+as the Rezuites, and take precautions?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! my dear reader, I will only answer that I wish you had handled the job
+yourself, and enjoyed the opportunity of seeing what <i>you</i> could do in the
+circumstances. Do you suppose I didn&rsquo;t think of all these points? Of
+course I did. But have you ever heard of the difficulty of making silk purses
+out of sows&rsquo; ears, or of turning a lot of gloomy and disagreeable
+barbarians whom you had never even drilled, into trustworthy and efficient
+soldiers ready to fight three times their own number and beat them?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also I beg to observe that I did get through somehow, as you shall learn, which
+is more than you might have done, Mr. Wisdom, though I admit, not without help
+from another quarter. It is all very well for you to sit in your armchair and
+be sapient and turn up your learned nose, like the gentlemen who criticise
+plays and poems, an easy job compared to the writing of them. From all of
+which, however, you will understand that I am, to tell the truth, rather
+ashamed of what followed, since <i>qui s&rsquo;excuse, s&rsquo;accuse</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we slunk down that hill in the moonlight, a queer-looking crowd, I admit
+also that I felt very uncomfortable. To begin with I did not like that remark
+of the Medicine-man which Hans reported, to the effect that the feast must come
+after the victory, especially as he had said just before that Robertson was to
+be sacrificed as the sun rose, which would seem to suggest that the
+&ldquo;victory&rdquo; was planned to take place before that event.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While I was ruminating upon this subject, I looked round for Hans to
+cross-examine him as to the priest&rsquo;s exact words, only to find that he
+had slunk off somewhere. A few minutes later he reappeared running back towards
+us swiftly and, I noticed, taking shelter behind tree trunks and rocks as he
+came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he gasped, for he was out of breath, &ldquo;be careful,
+those Rezu men are on either side ahead. I went forward and ran into them. They
+threw many spears at me. Look!&rdquo; and he showed a slight cut on his arm
+from which blood was flowing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly I understood that we were ambushed and began to think very hard
+indeed. As it chanced we were passing across a large flat space upon the ridge,
+say seven or eight acres in extent, where the bush grew lightly, though owing
+to the soil being better, the trees were tall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the steep slope below this little plain it seemed to be denser and there it
+was, according to Hans, that the ambush was set. I halted my regiment and sent
+back messengers to the others that they were to halt also as they came up, on
+the pretext of giving them a rest before they were marshalled and we advanced
+to the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I told Umslopogaas what Hans said and asked him to send out his Zulu
+soldier whom he could trust, to see if he could obtain confirmation of the
+report. This he did at once. Also I asked him what he thought should be done,
+supposing that it was true.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Form the Amahagger into a ring or a square and await attack,&rdquo; he
+answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded, for that was my own opinion, but replied,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If they were Zulus, the plan would be good. But how do we know that
+these men will stand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We know nothing, Macumazahn, and therefore can only try. If they run it
+must be up-hill.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I called the captains and told them what was toward, which seemed to alarm
+them very much. Indeed one or two of them wanted to retreat at once, but I said
+I would shoot the first man who tried to do so. In the end they agreed to my
+plan and said that they would post their best soldiers above, at the top of the
+square, with the orders to stop any attempt at a flight up the mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this we formed up the square as best we could, arranging it in a rather
+rough, four-fold line. While we were doing this we heard some shouts below and
+presently the Zulu returned, who reported that all was as Hans had said and
+that Rezu&rsquo;s men were moving round us, having discovered, as he thought,
+that we had halted and escaped their ambush.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still the attack did not develop at once, for the reason that the Rezu army was
+crawling up the steep flanks of the spur on either side of the level piece of
+ground, with a view of encircling us altogether, so as to make a clean sweep of
+our force. As a matter of fact, considered from our point of view, this was a
+most fortunate move, since thereby they stopped any attempt at a retreat on the
+part of our Amahagger, whose bolt-hole was now blocked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we had done all we could, we sat down, or at least I did, and waited. The
+night, I remember, was strangely still, only from the slopes on either side of
+our plateau came a kind of rustling sound which in fact was caused by the feet
+of Rezu&rsquo;s people, as they marched to surround us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It ceased at last and the silence grew complete, so much so that I could hear
+the teeth of some of our tall Amahagger chattering with fear, a sound that gave
+me little confidence and caused Umslopogaas to remark that the hearts of these
+big men had never grown; they remained &ldquo;as those of babies.&rdquo; I told
+the captains to pass the word down the ranks that those who stood might live,
+but those who fled would certainly die. Therefore if they wished to see their
+homes again they had better stand and fight like men. Otherwise most of them
+would be killed and the rest eaten by Rezu. This was done, and I observed that
+the message seemed to produce a steadying effect upon our ranks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly all around us, from below, from above and on either side there broke a
+most awful roar which seemed to shape itself into the word, <i>Rezu</i>, and
+next minute also from above, below and either side, some ten thousand men
+poured forth upon our square.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the moonlight they looked very terrible with their flowing white robes and
+great gleaming spears. Hans and I fired some shots, though for all the effect
+they produced, we might as well have pelted a breaker with pebbles. Then, as I
+thought that I should be more useful alive than dead, I retreated within the
+square, Umslopogaas, his Zulu, and Hans coming with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the whole our Amahagger stood the attack better than I expected. They beat
+back the first rush with considerable loss to the enemy, also the second after
+a longer struggle. Then there was a pause during which we re-formed our ranks,
+dragging the wounded men into the square.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had we done this when with another mighty shout of &ldquo;Rezu!&rdquo;
+the enemy attacked again&mdash;that was about an hour after the battle had
+begun. But now they had changed their tactics, for instead of trying to rush
+all sides of the square at once, they concentrated their efforts on the western
+front, that which faced towards the plain below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On they came, and among them in the forefront of the battle, now and again I
+caught sight of a gigantic man, a huge creature who seemed to me to be seven
+feet high and big in proportion. I could not see him clearly because of the
+uncertain moonlight, but I noted his fierce aspect, also that he had an
+enormous beard, black streaked with grey, that flowed down to his middle, and
+that his hair hung in masses upon his shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rezu himself!&rdquo; I shouted to Umslopogaas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, Macumazahn, Rezu himself without doubt, and I rejoice to see him
+for he will be a worthy foe to fight. Look! he carries an axe as I do. Now I
+must save my strength for when we come face to face I shall need it all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thought that I would spare Umslopogaas this exertion and watched my
+opportunity to put a bullet through this giant. But I could never get one. Once
+when I had covered him an Amahagger rushed in front of my gun so that I could
+not shoot, and when a second chance came a little cloud floated over the face
+of the moon and made him invisible. After that I had other things to which to
+attend, since, as I expected would happen, the western face of our square gave,
+and yelling like devils, the enemy began to pour in through the gap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A cold thrill went through me for I saw that the game was up. To re-form these
+undisciplined Amahagger was impossible; nothing was to be expected except
+panic, rout and slaughter. I cursed my folly for ever having had anything to do
+with the business, while Hans screamed to me in a thin voice that the only
+chance was for us three and the Zulu to bolt and hide in the bush.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did not answer him because, apart from any nasty pride, the thing was
+impossible, for how could we get through those struggling masses of men which
+surrounded us on every side? No, my clock had struck, so I went on making a
+kind of mental sandwich of prayers and curses; prayers for my soul and
+forgiveness for my sins, and curses on the Amahagger and everything to do with
+them, especially Zikali and the woman called Ayesha, who, between them, had led
+me into this affair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps the Great Medicine of Zikali,&rdquo; piped Hans again as he
+fired a rifle at the advancing foe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hang the Great Medicine,&rdquo; I shouted back, &ldquo;and Ayesha with
+it. No wonder she declined to take a hand in this business.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I spoke the words I saw old Billali, who not being a man of war was keeping
+as close to us as he could, go flat onto his venerable face, and reflected that
+he must have got a thrown spear through him. Casting a hurried glance at him to
+see if he were done for or only wounded, out of the corner of my eye I caught
+sight of something diaphanous which gleamed in the moonlight and reminded me of
+I knew not what at the moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked round quickly to see what it might be and lo! there, almost at my side
+was the veiled Ayesha herself, holding in her hand a little rod made of black
+wood inlaid with ivory not unlike a field marshal&rsquo;s baton, or a sceptre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I never saw her come and to this day I do not know how she did so; she was just
+there and what is more she must have put luminous paint or something else on
+her robes, for they gleamed with a sort of faint, phosphorescent fire, which in
+the moonlight made her conspicuous all over the field of battle. Nor did she
+speak a single word, she only waved the rod, pointed with it towards the fierce
+hordes who were drawing near to us, killing as they came, and began to move
+forward with a gliding motion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now from every side there went up a roar of &ldquo;<i>She-who-commands!
+She-who-commands!</i>&rdquo; while the people of Rezu in front shouted
+&ldquo;<i>Lulala! Lulala!</i> Fly, Lulala is upon us with the witchcrafts of
+the moon!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She moved forward and by some strange impulse, for no order was given, we all
+began to move after her. Yes, the ranks that a minute before were beginning to
+give way to wild panic, became filled with a marvellous courage and moved after
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men of Rezu also, and I suppose with them Rezu himself, for I saw no more
+of him at that time, began to move uncommonly fast over the edge of the plateau
+towards the plain beneath. In fact they broke into flight and leaping over dead
+and dying, we rushed after them, always following the gleaming robe of Ayesha,
+who must have been an extremely agile person, since without any apparent
+exertion she held her place a few steps ahead of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was another curious circumstance about this affair, namely, that
+terrified though they were, those Rezuites, after the first break, soon seemed
+to find it impossible to depart with speed. They kept turning round to look
+behind them at that following vision, as though they were so many of
+Lot&rsquo;s wives. Moreover, the same fate overtook many of them which fell
+upon that scriptural lady, since they appeared to become petrified and stood
+there quite still, like rabbits fascinated by a snake, until our people came up
+and killed them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This slaying went on all down the last steep slope of the ridge, on which I
+suppose at least two-thirds of the army of Rezu must have perished, since our
+Amahagger showed themselves very handy men when it came to exterminating foes
+who were too terror-struck to fight, and, exhilarated by the occupation, gained
+courage every moment.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+THE SLAYING OF REZU</h2>
+
+<p>
+At last we were on the plain, the bemused remnant of Rezu&rsquo;s army still
+doubling before us like a mob of game pursued by wild dogs. Here we halted to
+re-form our ranks; it seemed to me, although still she spoke no word, that some
+order reached me from the gleaming Ayesha that I should do this. The business
+took twenty minutes or so, and then, numbering about two thousand five hundred
+strong, for the rest had fallen in the fight of the square, we advanced again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now there came that dusk which often precedes the rising of the sun, and
+through it I could see that the battle was not yet over, since gathered in
+front of us was still a force about equal to our own. Ayesha pointed towards it
+with her wand and we leapt forward to the attack. Here the men of Rezu stood
+awaiting us, for they seemed to overcome their terror with the approach of day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The battle was fierce, a very strange battle in that dim, uncertain light,
+which scarcely showed us friend from foe. Indeed I am not sure that we should
+have won it, since Ayesha was no longer visible to give our Amahagger
+confidence, and as the courage of the Rezuites increased, so theirs seemed to
+lessen with the passing of the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, however, just as the issue hung doubtful, there was a shout to our
+left and looking, I made out the tall shape of Goroko, the witch-doctor, with
+the other Zulu, followed by his two hundred and fifty men, and leaping on to
+the flank of the line of Rezu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That settled the business. The enemy crumpled up and melted, and just then the
+first lights of dawn appeared in the sky. I looked about me for Ayesha, but she
+had gone, where to I knew not, though at the moment I feared that she must have
+been killed in the mêlée.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I gave up looking and thinking, since now or never was the time for
+action. Signalling and shouting to those hatchet-faced Amahagger to advance,
+accompanied by Umslopogaas with Goroko who had joined us, and Hans, I sprang
+forward to give them an example, which, to be just to them, they took.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is the mound on which Red-Beard should be,&rdquo; cried Hans as we
+faced a little slope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I ran up it and through the gloom which precedes the actual dawn, saw a group
+of men gathered round something, as people collect about a street accident.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Red-Beard on the stone. They are killing him,&rdquo; screeched Hans
+again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was so; at least several white-robed priests were bending over a prostrate
+figure with knives in their hands, while behind stood the huge fellow whom I
+took to be Rezu, staring towards the east as though he were waiting for the rim
+of the sun to appear before he gave some order. At that very moment it did
+appear, just a thin edge of bright light on the horizon, and he turned,
+shouting the order.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Too late! For we were on them. Umslopogaas cut down one of the priests with his
+axe, and the men about me dealt with the others, while Hans with a couple of
+sweeps of his long knife, severed the cords with which Robertson was tied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The poor man who in the growing light I could see was raving mad, sprang up,
+calling out something in Scotch about &ldquo;the deil.&rdquo; Seizing a great
+spear which had fallen from the hand of one of the priests, he rushed furiously
+at the giant who had given the order, and with a yell drove it at his heart. I
+saw the spear snap, from which I concluded that this man, whom rightly I took
+to be Rezu, wore some kind of armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next instant the axe he held, a great weapon, flashed aloft and down went
+Robertson before its awful stroke, stone dead, for as we found out afterwards,
+he was cloven almost in two. At the sight of the death of my poor friend rage
+took hold of me. In my hand was a double-barrelled rifle, an Express loaded
+with hollow-pointed bullets. I covered the giant and let drive, first with one
+barrel and then with the other, and what is more, distinctly I heard both
+bullets strike upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet he did not fall. He rocked a little, that is all, then turned and marched
+off towards a hut, that whereof Hans had told me, which stood about fifty yards
+away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Leave him to me,&rdquo; shouted Umslopogaas. &ldquo;Steel cuts where
+bullets cannot pierce,&rdquo; and with a bound like to that of a buck, the
+great Zulu leapt away after him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I think that Rezu meant to enter the hut for some purpose of his own, but
+Umslopogaas was too hard upon his tracks. At any rate he ran past it and down
+the other slope of the little hill on to the plain behind where the remnants of
+his army were trying to re-form. There in front of them the giant turned and
+stood at bay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas halted also, waiting for us to come up, since, cunning old warrior
+as he was, he feared lest should he begin the fight before that happened, the
+horde of them would fall on him. Thirty seconds later we arrived and found him
+standing still with bent body, small shield advanced and the great axe raised
+as though in the act of striking, a wondrous picture outlined as it was against
+the swiftly rising-sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some ten paces away stood the giant leaning on the axe he bore, which was not
+unlike to that with which woodmen fell big trees. He was an evil man to see and
+at this, my first full sight of him, I likened him in my mind to Goliath whom
+David overthrew. Huge he was and hairy, with deep-set, piercing eyes and a
+great hooked nose. His face seemed thin and ancient also, when with a motion of
+the great head, he tossed his long locks back from about it, but his limbs were
+those of a Hercules and his movements full of a youthful vigour. Moreover his
+aspect as a whole was that of a devil rather than of a man; indeed the sight of
+it sickened me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me shoot him,&rdquo; I cried to Umslopogaas, for I had reloaded the
+rifle as I ran.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Watcher-by-Night,&rdquo; answered the Zulu without moving his head,
+&ldquo;rifle has had its chance and failed. Now let us see what axe can do. If
+I cannot kill this man, I will be borne hence feet first who shall have made a
+long journey for nothing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the giant began to talk in a low, rumbling voice that reverberated from
+the slope of the little hill behind us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; he asked, speaking in the same tongue that the
+Amahagger use, &ldquo;who dare to come face to face with Rezu? Black hound, do
+you not know that I cannot be slain who have lived a year for every week of
+your life&rsquo;s days, and set my foot upon the necks of men by thousands.
+Have you not seen the spear shatter and the iron balls melt upon my breast like
+rain-drops, and would you try to bring me down with that toy you carry? My army
+is defeated&mdash;I know it. But what matters that when I can get me more?
+Because the sacrifice was not completed and the white queen was not wed,
+therefore my army was defeated by the magic of Lulala, the White Witch who
+dwells in the tombs. But <i>I</i> am not defeated who cannot be slain until I
+show my back, and then only by a certain axe which long ago has rusted into
+dust.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now of this long speech Umslopogaas understood nothing, so I answered for him,
+briefly enough, but to the point, for there flashed into my mind all
+Ayesha&rsquo;s tale about an axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A certain axe!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;Aye, a certain axe! Well, look at
+that which is held by the Black One, the captain who is named Slaughterer, the
+ancient axe whose title is Chieftainess, because if so she wills, she takes the
+lives of all. Look at it well, Rezu, Giant and Wizard, and say whether it is
+not that which your forefather lost, that which is destined to bring you to
+your doom?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I spoke, very loudly that all might hear, slowly also, pausing between
+each word because I wished to give time for the light to strengthen, seeing as
+I did that the rays of the rising sun struck upon the face of the giant,
+whereas the eyes of Umslopogaas were less dazzled by it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rezu heard, and stared at the axe which Umslopogaas held aloft, causing it to
+quiver slightly by an imperceptible motion of his arm. As he stared I saw his
+hideous face change, and that on it for the first time gathered a look of
+something resembling fear. Also his followers behind him who were also studying
+the axe, began to murmur together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For here I should say that as though by common consent the battle had been
+stayed; we no longer attacked and the enemy no longer ran. They, or whose who
+were left of them, stood still as though they felt that the real and ultimate
+issue of the fight depended upon the forthcoming duel between these two
+champions, though of that issue they had little doubt since, as I learned
+afterwards, they believed their king to be invulnerable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For quite a while Rezu went on staring. Then he said aloud as if he were
+thinking to himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is like, very like. The horn haft is the same; the pointed gouge is
+the same; the blade shaped like the young moon is the same. Almost could I
+think that before me shook the ancient holy axe. Nay, the gods have taken that
+back long ago and this is but a trick of the witch, Lulala of the Caves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus he spoke, but still for a moment hesitated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Umslopogaas,&rdquo; I said in the deep silence that followed,
+&ldquo;hear me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hear you,&rdquo; he answered without turning his head or moving his
+arms. &ldquo;What counsel, Watcher-by-Night?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This, Slaughterer. Strike not at that man&rsquo;s face and breast, for
+there I think he is protected by witchcraft or by armour. Get behind him and
+strike at his back. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Macumazahn, I understand not. Yet I will do your bidding because
+you are wiser than I and utter no empty words. Now be still.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Umslopogaas threw the axe into the air and caught it as it fell, and as he
+did so began to chant his own praises Zulu fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I am the child of the Lion, the Black-maned
+Lion, whose claws never loosened of their prey. I am the Wolf-king, he who
+hunted with the wolves upon the Witch-mountain with my brother, Bearer of the
+Club named Watcher-of-the-Fords, I am he who slew him called the Unconquered,
+Chief of the People of the Axe, he who bore the ancient Axe before me; I am he
+who smote the Halakazi tribe in their caves and won me Nada the Lily to wife. I
+am he who took to the King Dingaan a gift that he loved little, and afterward
+with Mopo, my foster-sire, hurled this Dingaan down to death. I am the Royal
+One, named Bulalio the Slaughterer, named Woodpecker, named Umhlopekazi the
+Captain, before whom never yet man has stood in fair and open fight. Now, thou
+Wizard Rezu, now thou Giant, now thou Ghost-man, come on against me and before
+the sun has risen by a hand&rsquo;s breadth, all those who watch shall see
+which of us is better at the game of war. Come on, then! Come on, for I say
+that my blood boils over and my feet grow cold. Come on, thou grinning dog,
+thou monster grown fat with eating the flesh of men, thou hook-beaked vulture,
+thou old, grey-whiskered wolf!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus he chanted in his fierce, boastful way, while his two remaining Zulus
+clapped their hands and sentence by sentence echoed his words, and Goroko, the
+witch-doctor, muttered incantations behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While he sang thus Umslopogaas began to stir. First only his head and shoulders
+moved gently, swaying from side to side like a reed shaken in the wind or a
+snake about to strike. Then slowly he put out first one foot and next the other
+and drew them back again, as a dancer might do, tempting Rezu to attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the giant would not, his shield held before him, he stood still and waited
+to see what this black warrior would do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The snake struck. Umslopogaas darted in and let drive with the long axe. Rezu
+raised his shield above his head and caught the blow. From the clank it made I
+knew that this shield which seemed to be of hide, was lined with iron. Rezu
+smote back, but before the blow could fall the Zulu was out of his reach. This
+taught me how great was the giant&rsquo;s strength, for though the stroke was
+heavy, like the steel-hatted axe he bore, still when he saw that it had missed
+he checked the weapon in mid air, which only a mighty man could have done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas saw these things also and changed his tactics. His axe was six or
+eight inches longer in the haft than that of Rezu, and therefore he could reach
+where Rezu could not, for the giant was short-armed. He twisted it round in his
+hand so that the moon-shaped blade was uppermost, and keeping it almost at full
+length, began to peck with the gouge-shaped point on the back at the head and
+arms of Rezu, that as I knew was a favourite trick of his in fight from which
+he won his name of &ldquo;Woodpecker.&rdquo; Rezu defended his head with his
+shield as best he could against the sharp points of steel which flashed all
+about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Twice it seemed to me that the Zulu&rsquo;s pecks went home upon the
+giant&rsquo;s breast, but if so they did no harm. Either Rezu&rsquo;s thick
+beard, or armour beneath it stopped them from penetrating his body. Still he
+roared out as though with pain, or fury, or both, and growing mad, charged at
+Umslopogaas and smote with all his strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Zulu caught the blow upon his shield, through which it shore as though the
+tough hide were paper. Stay the stroke it could not, yet it turned its
+direction, so that the falling axe slid past Umslopogaas&rsquo;s shoulder,
+doing him no hurt. Next instant, before Rezu could strike again, the Zulu threw
+the severed shield into his face and seizing the axe with both hands, leapt in
+and struck. It was a mighty blow, for I saw the rhinoceros-horn handle of the
+famous axe bend like a drawn bow, and it went home with a dull thud full upon
+Rezu&rsquo;s breast. He shook, but no more. Evidently the razor edge of
+<i>Inkosikaas</i> had failed to pierce. There was a sound as though a hollow
+tree had been smitten and some strands of the long beard, shorn off, fell to
+the ground, but that was all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Tagati!</i> (bewitched),&rdquo; cried the watching Zulus. &ldquo;That
+stroke should have cut him in two!&rdquo; while I thought to myself that this
+man knew how to make good armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rezu laughed aloud, a bellowing kind of laugh, while Umslopogaas sprang back
+astonished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it thus!&rdquo; he cried in Zulu. &ldquo;Well, all wizards have some
+door by which their Spirit enters and departs. I must find the door, I must
+find the door!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So he spoke and with springing movements tried to get past Rezu, first to the
+right and then to the left, all the while keeping out of reach. But Rezu ever
+turned and faced him, as he did so retreating step by step down the slope of
+the little hill and striking whenever he found a chance, but without avail, for
+always Umslopogaas was beyond his reach. Also the sunlight which now grew
+strong, dazzled him, or so I thought. Moreover he seemed to tire
+somewhat&mdash;or so I thought also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At any rate he determined to make an end of the play, for with a swift motion,
+as Umslopogaas had done, he threw away his shield and grasping the iron handle
+of his axe with both hands, charged the Zulu like a bull. Umslopogaas leapt
+back out of reach. Then suddenly he turned and ran up the rise. Yes, Bulalio
+the Slaughterer ran!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A roar of mockery went up from the sun-worshippers behind, while our Amahagger
+laughed and Goroko and the two Zulus stared astonished and ashamed. Only I read
+his mind aright and wondered what guile he had conceived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ran, and Rezu ran after him, but never could he catch the swiftest-footed
+man in Zululand. To and fro he followed him, for Umslopogaas was taking a
+zig-zag path towards the crest of the slope, till at length Rezu stopped
+breathless. But Umslopogaas still ran another twenty yards or so until he
+reached the top of the slope and there halted and wheeled round.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For ten seconds or more he stood drawing his breath in great gasps, and,
+looking at his face, I saw that it had become as the face of a wolf. His lips
+were drawn up into a terrible grin, showing the white teeth between; his cheeks
+seemed to have fallen in and his eyes glared, while the skin over the hole in
+his forehead beat up and down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There he stood, gathering himself together for some mighty effort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Run on!&rdquo; shouted the spectators. &ldquo;Run back to Kôr, black
+dog!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas knew that they were mocking him, but he took no heed, only bent
+down and rubbed his sweating hand in the grit of the dry earth. Then he
+straightened himself and charged down on Rezu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I, Allan Quatermain, have seen many things in battle, but never before or since
+did I see aught like to this charge. It was swift as that of a lioness, so
+swift that the Zulu&rsquo;s feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground. On he
+sped like a thrown spear, till, when within about a dozen feet of Rezu who
+stood staring at him, he bent his frame almost double and leapt into the air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! what a leap was that. Surely he must have learnt it from the lion, or the
+spring-buck. High he rose and now I saw his purpose; it was to clear the tall
+shape of Rezu. Aye, and he cleared him with half a foot to spare, and as he
+passed above, smote downwards with the axe so that the blow fell upon the back
+of Rezu&rsquo;s head. Moreover it went home this time, for I saw the red blood
+stream and Rezu fell forward on his face. Umslopogaas landed far beyond him,
+ran a little way because he must, then wheeled round and charged again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rezu was rising, but before he gained his feet, the axe <i>Inkosikaas</i>
+thundered down where the neck joins the shoulder and sank in. Still, so great
+was his strength that Rezu found his feet and smote out wildly. But now his
+movements were slow and again Umslopogaas got behind him, smiting at his back.
+Once, twice, thrice, he smote, and at the third blow it seemed as though the
+massive spine were severed, for his weapon fell from Rezu&rsquo;s hand and
+slowly he sank down to the ground, and lay there, a huddled heap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Believing that all was over I ran to where he lay with Umslopogaas standing
+over him, as it seemed to me, utterly exhausted, for he supported himself by
+the axe and tottered upon his feet. But Rezu was not yet dead. He opened his
+cavernous eyes and glared at the Zulu with a look of hellish hate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Thou</i> hast not conquered me, Black One,&rdquo; he gasped.
+&ldquo;It is thine axe which gave thee victory; the ancient, holy axe that once
+was mine until the woman stole it, yes, that and the craft of the Witch of the
+Caves who told thee to smite where the Spirit of Life which I feared to enter
+wholly, had not kissed my flesh, and there only left me mortal. Wolf of a black
+man, may we meet elsewhere and fight this fray again. Ah! would that I could
+get these hands about thy throat and take thee with me down into the Darkness.
+But Lulala wins if only for a while, since her fate, I think, shall be worse
+than mine. Ah! I see the magic beauty that she boasts turn to
+shameful&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here of a sudden life left him and throwing his great arms wide, a last breath
+passed bubbling from his lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I stooped to examine the man&rsquo;s huge and hairy carcase that to me
+looked only half human, with a thunder of feet our Amahagger rushed down upon
+us and thrusting me aside, fell upon the body of their ancient foe like hounds
+upon a helpless fox, and with hands and spears and knives literally tore and
+hacked it limb from limb, till no semblance of humanity remained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was impossible to stop them; indeed I was too outworn with labours and
+emotions to make any such attempt. This I regret the more since I lost the
+opportunity of making an examination of the body of this troll-like man, and of
+ascertaining what kind of armour it was he wore beneath that great beard of
+his, which was strong enough to stop my bullets, and even the razor edge of the
+axe <i>Inkosikaas</i> driven with all the might of the arms of the Zulu,
+Bulalio. For when I looked again at the sickening sight the giant was but
+scattered fragments and the armour, whatever it might have been, was gone, rent
+to little pieces and carried off, doubtless, by the Amahagger, perhaps to be
+divided between them to serve as charms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So of Rezu I know only that he was the hugest, most terrible-looking man I have
+ever seen, one too who carried his vast strength very late in life, since from
+the aspect of his countenance I imagine that he must have been nigh upon
+seventy years of age, though his supposed unnatural antiquity of course was
+nothing but a fable put about by the natives for their own purposes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Umslopogaas seemed to recover from the kind of faint into which he
+had fallen and opening his eyes, looked about him. The first person they fell
+on was old Billali who stood stroking his white beard and contemplating the
+scene with an air which was at once philosophic and satisfied. This seemed to
+anger Umslopogaas, for he cried,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think it was you, ancient bag of words and sweeper of paths for the
+feet of the great, who made a mock of me but now, when you thought that I fled
+before the horns of yonder man-eating bull&mdash;&rdquo; and he nodded towards
+the fragments of what once had been Rezu. &ldquo;Find now his axe and though I
+am weak and weary, I will wash away the insult with your blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What does this glorious black hero say, Watcher-by-Night?&rdquo; asked
+Billali in his most courteous tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told him word by word, whereon Billali lifted his hands in horror, turned and
+fled. Nor did I see him again until we arrived at Kôr.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+At the sight of the fall of their giant chief Rezu whom they believed to be
+invulnerable, his followers, who were watching the fray, set up a great
+wailing, a most mournful and uncanny noise to hear. Then, as I think did the
+hosts of the Philistines when David brought down Goliath by his admirable shot
+with a stone, they set out for their homes wherever these may have been, at an
+absolutely record pace and in the completest disarray.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our Amahagger followed them for a while, but soon were left standing still. So
+they contented themselves with killing any wounded they could find and
+returned. I did not accompany them; indeed the battle being won, metaphorically
+I washed my hands of them, and in my thoughts consigned them to a certain
+locality as a people of whom it might well be said that manners they had none
+and their customs were simply beastly. Also, although fierce and cruel, these
+night-bats were not good fighting men and in short never did I wish to have to
+do with such another company.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover, a very different matter pressed. The object of this business so far
+as I was concerned, had been to rescue poor Inez, since had it not been for her
+sake, never would I have consented to lead those Amahagger against their fellow
+blackguards, the Rezuites.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But where was Inez? If Hans had understood the medicine-man aright, she was, or
+had been, in the hut, where it was my earnest hope that she still remained,
+since otherwise the hunt must be continued. This at any rate was easy to
+discover. Calling Hans, who was amusing himself by taking long shots at the
+flying enemy, so that they might not forget him, as he said, and the Zulus, I
+walked up the slope to the hut, or rather booth of boughs, for it was quite
+twenty feet long by twelve or fifteen broad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At its eastern end was a doorway or opening closed with a heavy curtain. Here I
+paused full of tremors, and listened, for to tell the truth I dreaded to draw
+that curtain, fearing what I might see within. Gathering up my courage at
+length I tore it aside and, a revolver in my hand, looked in. At first after
+the strong light without, for the sun was now well up, I could see nothing,
+since those green boughs and palm leaves were very closely woven. As my eyes
+grew accustomed to the gloom, however, I perceived a glittering object seated
+on a kind of throne at the end of the booth, while in a double row in front
+knelt six white-robed women who seemed to wear chains about their necks and
+carried large knives slung round their middles. On the floor between these
+women and the throne lay a dead man, a priest of some sort as I gathered from
+his garb, who still held a huge spear in his hand. So silent were the figure on
+the throne and those that knelt before it, that at first I thought that all of
+them must be dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lady Sad-Eyes,&rdquo; whispered Hans, &ldquo;and her bride-women.
+Doubtless that old Predikant came to kill her when he saw that the battle was
+lost, but the bride-women killed him with their knives.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I may state that Hans&rsquo; suppositions proved to be quite correct,
+which shows how quick and deductive was his mind. The figure on the throne was
+Inez; the priest in his disappointed rage <i>had</i> come to kill her, and the
+bride-women had killed <i>him</i> with their knives before he could do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bade the Zulus tear down the curtain and pull away some of the end boughs, so
+as to let in more light. Then we advanced up the place, holding our pistols and
+spears in readiness. The kneeling women turned their heads to look at us and I
+saw that they were all young and handsome in their fashion, although
+fierce-faced. Also I saw their hands go to the knives they wore. I called to
+them to let these be and come out, and that if they did so they had nothing to
+fear. But if they understood, they did not heed my words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the contrary while Hans and I covered them with our pistols, fearing lest
+they should stab the person on the throne whom we took to be Inez, at some word
+from one of them, they bowed simultaneously towards her, then at another word,
+suddenly they drew the knives and plunged them to their own hearts!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a dreadful sight and one of which I never saw the like. Nor to this day
+do I know why the deed was done, unless perhaps the women were sworn to the
+service of the new queen and feared that if they failed to protect her, they
+would be doomed to some awful end. At any rate we got them out dead or dying,
+for their blows had been strong and true, and not one of them lived for more
+than a few minutes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I advanced to the figure on the throne, or rather foot-stooled chair of
+black wood inlaid with ivory, which sat so silent and motionless that I was
+certain it was that of a dead woman, especially when I perceived that she was
+fastened to the chair with leather straps, which were sewn over with gold wire.
+Also she was veiled and, with one exception, made up, if I may use the term,
+exactly to resemble the lady Ayesha, even down to the two long plaits of black
+hair, each finished with some kind of pearl and to the sandalled feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exception was that about her hung a great necklace of gold ornaments from
+which were suspended pendants also of gold representing the rayed disc of the
+sun in rude but bold and striking workmanship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went to her and having cut the straps, since I could not stop to untie their
+knots, lifted the veil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beneath it was Inez sure enough, and Inez living, for her breast rose and fell
+as she breathed, but Inez senseless. Her eyes were wide open, yet she was quite
+senseless. Probably she had been drugged, or perhaps some of the sights of
+horror which she saw, had taken away her mind. I confess that I was glad that
+this was so, who otherwise must have told her the dreadful story of her
+father&rsquo;s end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We bore her out and away from that horrible place, apparently quite unhurt, and
+laid her under the shadow of a tree till a litter could be procured. I could do
+no more who knew not how to treat her state, and had no spirits with me to pour
+down her throat.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+This was the end of our long pursuit, and thus we rescued Inez, whom the Zulus
+called the Lady Sad-Eyes.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+THE SPELL</h2>
+
+<p>
+Of our return to Kôr I need say nothing, except that in due course we reached
+that interesting ruin. The journey was chiefly remarkable for one thing, that
+on this occasion, I imagine for the first and last time in his life,
+Umslopogaas consented to be carried in a litter, at least for part of the way.
+He was, as I have said, unwounded, for the axe of his mighty foe had never once
+so much as touched his skin. What he suffered from was shock, a kind of
+collapse, since, although few would have thought it, this great and utterly
+fearless warrior was at bottom a nervous, highly-strung man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is only the nervous that climb the highest points of anything, and this is
+true of fights as of all others. That fearful fray with Rezu had been a great
+strain on the Zulu. As he put it himself, &ldquo;the wizard had sucked the
+strength&rdquo; out of him, especially when he found that owing to his armour
+he could not harm him in front, and owing to his cunning could not get at him
+behind. Then it was that he conceived the desperate expedient of leaping over
+his head and smiting backwards as he leapt, a trick, he told me, that he had
+once played years before when he was young, in order to break a shield ring and
+reach one who stood in its centre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this great leap over Rezu&rsquo;s head Umslopogaas knew that he must
+succeed, or be slain, which in turn would mean my death and that of the others.
+For this reason he faced the shame of seeming to fly in order to gain the
+higher ground, whence alone he could gather the speed necessary to such a
+terrific spring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, he made it and thereby conquered, and this was the end, but as he said,
+it had left him, &ldquo;weak as a snake when it crawls out of its hole into the
+sun after the long winter sleep.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of one thing, Umslopogaas added, he was thankful, namely that Rezu had never
+succeeded in getting his arms round him, since he was quite certain that if he
+had he would have broken him &ldquo;as a baboon breaks a mealie-stalk.&rdquo;
+No strength, not even his, could have resisted the iron might of that huge,
+gorilla-like man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I agreed with him who had noted Rezu&rsquo;s vast chest and swelling muscles,
+also the weight of the blows that he struck with the steel-hafted axe (which,
+by the way, when I sought for it, was missing, stolen, I suppose, by one of the
+Amahagger).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whence did that strength come, I wondered, in one who from his face appeared to
+be old? Was there perchance, after all, some truth in the legend of Samson and
+did it dwell in that gigantic beard and those long locks of his? It was
+impossible to say and probably the man was but a Herculean freak, for that he
+was as strong as Hercules all the stories that I heard afterwards of his feats,
+left little room for doubt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About one thing only was I certain in connection with him, namely, that the
+tales of his supernatural abilities were the merest humbug. He was simply one
+of the representatives of the family of &ldquo;strong men,&rdquo; of whom
+examples are still to be seen doing marvellous feats all over the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest, he was dead and broken up by those Amahagger blood-hounds before
+I could examine him, or his body-armour either, and there was an end of him and
+his story. But when I looked at the corpse of poor Robertson, which I did as we
+buried it where he fell, and saw that though so large and thick-set, it was
+cleft almost in two by a single blow of Rezu&rsquo;s axe, I came to understand
+what the might of this savage must have been.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I say savage, but I am not sure that this is a right description of Rezu.
+Evidently he had a religion of a sort, also imagination, as was shown by the
+theft of the white woman to be his queen; by his veiling of her to resemble
+Ayesha whom he dreaded; by the intended propitiatory sacrifice; by the guard of
+women sworn to her service who slew the priest that tried to kill her, and
+afterwards committed suicide when they had failed in their office, and by other
+things. All this indicated something more than savagery, perhaps survivals from
+a forgotten civilisation, or perhaps native ability on the part of an
+individual ruler. I do not know and it matters nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rezu is dead and the world is well rid of him, and those who want to learn more
+of his people can go to study such as remain of them in their own habitat,
+which for my part I never wish to visit any more.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+During our journey to Kôr poor Inez never stirred. Whenever I went to look at
+her in the litter, I found her lying there with her eyes open and a fixed stare
+upon her face which frightened me very much, since I began to fear lest she
+should die. However I could do nothing to help her, except urge the bearers to
+top speed. So swiftly did we travel down the hill and across the plain that we
+reached Kôr just as the sun was setting. As we crossed the moat I perceived old
+Billali coming to meet us. This he did with many bows, keeping an anxious eye
+upon the litter which he had learned contained Umslopogaas. Indeed his attitude
+and that of the Amahagger towards the two of us, and even Hans, thenceforward
+became almost abject, since after our victory over Rezu and his death beneath
+the axe, they looked upon us as half divine and treated us accordingly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O mighty General,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;She-who-commands bids me
+conduct the lady who is sick to the place that has been made ready for her,
+which is near your own so that you may watch over her if you will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I wondered how Ayesha knew that Inez was sick, but being too tired to ask
+questions, merely bade him lead on. This he did, taking us to another ruined
+house next to our own quarters which had been swept, cleaned and furnished
+after a fashion, and moreover cleverly roofed in with mats, so that it was
+really quite comfortable. Here we found two middle-aged women of a very
+superior type, who, Billali informed me, were by trade nurses of the sick.
+Having seen her laid upon her bed, I committed Inez to their charge, since the
+case was not one that I dared to try to doctor myself, not knowing what drug of
+the few I possessed should be administered to her. Moreover Billali comforted
+me with the information that soon She-who-commands would visit her and
+&ldquo;make her well again,&rdquo; as she could do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I hoped so and went to our quarters where I found an excellent
+meal ready cooked and with it a stone flagon, of the contents of which Billali
+said we were all three to drink by the command of Ayesha, who declared that it
+would take away our weariness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tried the stuff, which was pale yellow in colour like sherry and, for aught I
+knew, might be poison, to find it most comforting, though it did not seem to be
+very strong to the taste. Certainly, too, its effects were wonderful, since
+presently all my great weariness fell from me like a discarded cloak, and I
+found myself with a splendid appetite and feeling better and stronger than I
+had done for years. In short that drink was a &ldquo;cocktail&rdquo; of the
+best, one of which I only wish I possessed the recipe, though Ayesha told me
+afterwards that it was distilled from quite harmless herbs and not in any sense
+a spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having discovered this, I gave some of it to Hans, also to Umslopogaas, who was
+with the wounded Zulus, who, we found, were progressing well towards complete
+recovery, and lastly to Goroko who also was worn out. On all of these the
+effect of that magical brew proved most satisfactory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, having washed, I ate a splendid dinner, though in this respect Hans, who
+was seated on the ground nearby, far outpassed my finest efforts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;things have gone very well with us when
+they might have gone very ill. The Baas Red-Beard is dead, which is a good
+thing, since a madman would have been difficult to look after, and a brain full
+of moonshine is a bad companion for any one. Oh! without doubt he is better
+dead, though your reverend father the Predikant will have a hard job looking
+after him there in the Place of Fires.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; I said with a sigh, &ldquo;since it is better to be dead
+than to live a lunatic. But what I fear is that the lady his daughter will
+follow him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no! Baas,&rdquo; replied Hans cheerfully, &ldquo;though I daresay
+that she will always be a little mad also, because you see it is in her blood
+and doubtless she has looked on dreadful things. But the Great Medicine will
+see to it that she does not die after we have taken so much trouble and gone
+into such big dangers to save her. That Great Medicine is very wonderful, Baas.
+First of all it makes you General over those Amahagger who without you would
+never have fought, as the Witch who ties up her head in a cloth knew well
+enough. Then it brings us safe through the battle and gives strength to
+Umslopogaas to kill the old man-eating giant.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why did it not give <i>me</i> strength to kill him, Hans? I let him have
+two Express bullets on his chest, which hurt him no more than a tap upon the
+horns with a dancing stick would hurt a bull-buffalo.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Baas, perhaps you missed him, who because you hit things sometimes,
+think that you do so always.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which of
+course I did not, he went on by way of letting me down easily, &ldquo;Or
+perhaps he wore very good armour under his beard, for I saw some of those
+Amahagger who pulled his hair off and cut him to pieces, go away with what
+looked like little bits of brass. Also the Great Medicine meant that he should
+be killed by Umslopogaas and not by you, since otherwise Umslopogaas would have
+been sad for the rest of his life, whereas now he will walk about the world as
+proud as a cock with two tails and crow all night as well as all day. Then,
+Baas, when Rezu broke the square and the Amahagger began to run, without doubt
+it was the Great Medicine which changed their hearts and made them brave again,
+so that they charged at the right moment when they saw it going forward on your
+breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the cannibals.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed! I thought that the Lady who dwells yonder had something to do
+with that business. Did you see her, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted the
+cloth from over her head and when the people of Rezu saw how ugly was the face
+beneath, it did frighten them a little. But doubtless the Great Medicine put
+that thought into her also, for, Baas, what could a silly woman do in such a
+case? Did you ever know of a woman who was of any use in a battle, or for
+anything else except to nurse babies, and this one does not even do that, no
+doubt because being so hideous under that sheet, no man can be found to marry
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I looked up by chance and in the light of the lamps saw Ayesha standing in
+the room, which she had entered through the open doorway, within six feet of
+Hans&rsquo; back indeed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be sure Baas,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that this bundle of rags is
+nothing but a common old cheat who frightens people by pretending to be a
+spook, as, if she dared to say that it was she who made those stinking
+Amahagger charge, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would
+tell her to her face.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I was too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it was
+fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch, she moved a little so that one of
+the lamps behind her caused her shadow to fall on to the back of the squatting
+Hans and over it on to the floor beyond. He saw it and stared at the distorted
+shape of the hooded head, then slowly screwed his neck round and looked upwards
+behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment he went on staring as though he were frozen, then uttering a wild
+yell, he scrambled to his feet, bolted out of the house and vanished into the
+night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems, Allan,&rdquo; said Ayesha slowly, &ldquo;that yonder yellow
+ape of yours is very bold at throwing sticks when the leopardess is not beneath
+the tree. But when she comes it is otherwise with him. Oh! make no excuse, for
+I know well that he was speaking ill things of me, because being curious, as
+apes are, he burns to learn what is behind my veil, and being simple, believes
+that no woman would hide her face unless its fashion were not pleasing to the
+nice taste of men.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, to my relief, she laughed a little, softly, which showed me that she had
+a sense of humour, and went on, &ldquo;Well, let him be, for he is a good ape
+and courageous in his fashion, as he showed when he went out to spy upon the
+host of Rezu, and stabbed the murderer-priest by the stone of sacrifice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can you know the words of Hans, Ayesha,&rdquo; I asked,
+&ldquo;seeing that he spoke in a tongue which you have never learned?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perchance I read faces, Allan.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Or backs,&rdquo; I suggested, remembering that his was turned to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Or backs, or voices, or hearts. It matters little which, since read I
+do. But have done with such childish talk and lead me to this maiden who has
+been snatched from the claws of Rezu and a fate that is worse than death. Do
+you understand, Allan, that ere the demon Rezu took her to wife, the plan was
+to sacrifice her own father to her and then eat him as the woman with her was
+eaten, and before her eyes? Now the father is dead, which is well, as I think
+the little yellow man said to you&mdash;nay, start not, I read it from his back
+[Ha!&mdash;JB]&mdash;since had he lived whose brain was rotted, he would have
+raved till his death&rsquo;s day. Better, therefore, that he should die like a
+man fighting against a foe unconquerable by all save one. But she still
+lives.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, but mindless, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Which, in great trouble such as she has passed, is a blessed state, O
+Allan. Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your own life
+when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And should we not,
+perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we could not remember,
+foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven, but believe me, the real
+Heaven is one of dreamless sleep, since life and wakefulness, however high
+their scale and on whatever star, mean struggle, which being so oft mistaken,
+must breed sorrow&mdash;or remorse that spoils all. Come now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I preceded her to the next ruined house where we found Inez lying on the bed
+still clothed in her barbaric trappings, although the veil had been drawn off
+her face. There she lay, wide-eyed and still, while the women watched her.
+Ayesha looked at her a while, then said to me,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So they tricked her out to be Ayesha&rsquo;s mock and image, and in time
+accepted by those barbarians as my very self, and even set the seals of royalty
+on her,&rdquo; and she pointed to the gold discs stamped with the likeness of
+the sun. &ldquo;Well, she is a fair maiden, white and gently bred, the first
+such that I have seen for many an age. Nor did she wish this trickery. Moreover
+she has taken no hurt; her soul has sunk deep into a sea of horror and that is
+all, whence doubtless it can be drawn again. Yet I think it best that for a
+while she should remember naught, lest her brain break, as did her
+father&rsquo;s, and therefore no net of mine shall drag her back to memory. Let
+that return gently in future days, and then of it not too much, for so shall
+all this terror become to her a void in which sad shapes move like shadows, and
+as shadows are soon forgot and gone, no more to be held than dreams by the
+awakening sense. Stand aside, Allan, and you women, leave us for a
+while.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed, and the women bowed and went. Then Ayesha drew up her veil, and knelt
+down by the bed of Inez, but in such a fashion that I could not see her face
+although I admit that I tried to do so. I could see, however, that she set her
+lips against those of Inez and as I gathered by her motions, seemed to breathe
+into her lips. Also she lifted her hands and placing one of them upon the heart
+of Inez, for a minute or more swayed the other from side to side above her
+eyes, pausing at times to touch her upon the forehead with her finger-tips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Inez stirred and sat up, whereon Ayesha took a vessel of milk which
+stood upon the floor and held it to her lips. Inez drank to the last drop, then
+sank on to the bed again. For a while longer Ayesha continued the motions of
+her hands, then let fall her veil and rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look, I have laid a spell upon her,&rdquo; she said, beckoning to me to
+draw near.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did so and perceived that now the eyes of Inez were shut and that she seemed
+to be plunged in a deep and natural sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So she will remain for this night and that day which follows,&rdquo;
+said Ayesha, &ldquo;and when she wakes it will be, I think, to believe herself
+once more a happy child. Not until she sees her home again will she find her
+womanhood, and then all this story will be forgotten by her. Of her father you
+must tell her that he died when you went out to hunt the river-beasts together,
+and if she seeks for certain others, that they have gone away. But I think that
+she will ask little more when she learns that he is dead, since I have laid
+that command upon her soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hypnotic suggestion,&rdquo; thought I to myself, &ldquo;and I only hope
+to heaven that it will work.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ayesha seemed to guess what was passing through my mind, for she nodded and
+said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have no fear, Allan, for I am what the black axe-bearer and the little
+yellow man called a &lsquo;witch&rsquo; which means, as you who are instructed
+know, one who has knowledge of medicine and other things and who holds a key to
+some of the mysteries that lie hid in Nature.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For instance,&rdquo; I suggested, &ldquo;of how to transport yourself
+into a battle at the right moment, and out of it again&mdash;also at the right
+moment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Allan, since watching from afar, I saw that those Amahagger curs
+were about to flee and that I was needed there to hearten them and to put fear
+into the army of Rezu. So I came.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how did you come, Ayesha?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She laughed as she answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps I did not come at all. Perhaps you only thought I came; since I
+seemed to be there the rest matters nothing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I still looked unconvinced she went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! foolish man, seek not to learn of that which is too high for you.
+Yet listen. You in your ignorance suppose that the soul dwells within the body,
+do you not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered that I had always been under this impression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet, Allan, it is otherwise, for the body dwells within the soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Like the pearl in an oyster,&rdquo; I suggested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, in a sense, since the pearl which to you is beautiful, is to the
+oyster a sickness and a poison, and so is the body to the soul whose temple it
+troubles and defiles. Yet round it is the white and holy soul that ever seeks
+to bring the vile body to its own purity and colour, yet oft-times fails.
+Learn, Allan, that flesh and spirit are the deadliest foes joined together by a
+high decree that they may forget their hate and perfect each other, or failing,
+be separate to all eternity, the spirit going to its own place and the flesh to
+its corruption.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A strange theory,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, Allan, and one which is so new to you that never will you
+understand it. Yet it is true and I set it out for this reason. The soul of
+man, being at liberty and not cooped within his narrow breast, is in touch with
+that soul of the Universe, which men know as God Whom they call by many names.
+Therefore it has all knowledge and perhaps all power, and at times the body
+within it, if it be a wise body, can draw from this well of knowledge and
+abounding power. So at least can I. And now you will understand why I am so
+good a doctoress and how I came to appear in the battle, as you said, at the
+right time, and to leave it when my work was done.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I quite understand. I thank you much
+for putting it so plainly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She laughed a little, appreciating my jest, looked at the sleeping Inez, and
+said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The fair body of this lady dwells in a large soul, I think, though one
+of a somewhat sombre hue, for souls have their colours, Allan, and stain that
+which is within them. She will never be a happy woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The black people named her Sad-Eyes,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it so? Well, I name her Sad-Heart, though for such often there is joy
+at last. Meanwhile she will forget; yes, she will forget the worst and how
+narrow was the edge between her and the arms of Rezu.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Just the width of the blade of the axe, <i>Inkosikaas</i>,&rdquo; I
+answered. &ldquo;But tell me, Ayesha, why could not that axe cut and why did my
+bullets flatten or turn aside when these smote the breast of Rezu?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because his front-armour was good, Allan, I suppose,&rdquo; she replied
+indifferently, &ldquo;and on his back he wore none.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why did you fill my ears with such a different tale about that
+horrible giant having drunk of a Cup of Life, and all the rest?&rdquo; I asked
+with irritation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have forgotten, Allan. Perhaps because the curious, such as you are,
+like to hear tales even stranger than their own, which in the days to be may
+become their own. Therefore you will be wise to believe only what I do, and of
+what I tell you, nothing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I exclaimed exasperated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She laughed again and replied,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What need to say to me that which I know already? Yet perhaps in the
+future it may be different, since often by the alchemy of the mind the fables
+of our youth are changed into the facts of our age, and we come to believe in
+anything, as your little yellow man believes in some savage named Zikali, and
+those Amahagger believe in the talisman round your neck, and I who am the
+maddest of you all, believe in Love and Wisdom, and the black warrior,
+Umslopogaas, believes in the virtue of that great axe of his, rather than in
+those of his own courage and of the strength that wields it. Fools, every one
+of us, though perchance I am the greatest fool among them. Now take me to the
+warrior, Umslopogaas, whom I would thank, as I thank you, Allan, and the little
+yellow man, although he jeers at me with his sharp tongue, not knowing that if
+I were angered, with a breath I could cause him to cease to be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why did you not choose Rezu to cease to be, and his army also,
+Ayesha?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems that I have done these things through the axe of Umslopogaas
+and by the help of your generalship, Allan. Why then, waste my own strength
+when yours lay to my hand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because you had no power over Rezu, Ayesha, or so you told me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have I not said that my words are snowflakes, meant to melt and leave no
+trace, hiding my thoughts as this veil hides my beauty? Yet as the beauty is
+beneath the veil, perchance there is truth beneath the words, though not that
+truth you think. So you are well answered, and for the rest, I wonder whether
+Rezu thought I had no power over him when yonder on the mountain spur he saw me
+float down upon his companies like a spirit of the night. Well, perchance some
+day I shall learn this and many other things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I made no answer, since what was the use of arguing with a woman who told me
+frankly that all she said was false. So, although I longed to ask her why these
+Amahagger had such reverence for the talisman that Hans called the Great
+Medicine, since now I guessed that her first explanations concerning it were
+quite untrue, I held my tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet as we went out of the house, by some coincidence she alluded to this very
+matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wish to tell you, Allan,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;why it was those
+Amahagger would not accept you as a General till their eyes had seen that which
+you wear upon your breast. Their tale of a legend of this very thing seemed
+that of savages or of their cunning priests, not to be believed by a wise man
+such as you are, like some others that you have heard in Kôr. Yet it has in it
+a grain of truth, for as it chanced a little while ago, about a hundred years
+ago, I think, the old wizard whose picture is cut upon the wood, came to visit
+her who held my place before me as ruler of this tribe&mdash;she was very like
+me and as I believe, my mother, Allan&mdash;because of her repute for wisdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At that time I have heard there was a question of war between the
+worshippers of Lulala and the grandfather of Rezu. But this Zikali told the
+People of Lulala that they must not fight the People of Rezu until in a day to
+come a white man should visit Kôr and bring with him a piece of wood on which
+was cut the image of a dwarf like to that of Zikali himself. Then and not
+before they must fight and conquer the People of Rezu. Now this story came down
+among them and you who may have thought the first tale magical, will understand
+it in its simplicity: is it not so, you wise Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;except that I do not see how Zikali
+can have come here a hundred years ago, since men do not live as long, although
+he pretends to have done so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Allan, nor do I, but perhaps it was his father, or his grandfather
+who came, since being observant, you will have noted that if the parent is
+mis-formed, so often are the descendants; also that the pretence of wizardry at
+times comes down with the blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I made no answer for I saw that Ayesha was fooling me, and before she
+could exhaust that amusement we reached the place where Umslopogaas and his men
+were gathered round a camp fire. He sat silent, but Goroko with much animation
+was telling the story of the fight in picturesque and colourful language, or
+that part of it which he had seen, for the benefit of the two wounded men who
+took no share in it and who, lying on their blankets with heads thrust forward,
+were listening with eagerness to the entrancing tale. Suddenly they caught
+sight of Ayesha, and those of the party who could stand sprang to their feet,
+while one and all they gave her the royal salute of <i>Bayéte</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She waited till the sound had died away. Then she said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I come to thank you and your men, O Wielder of the Axe, who have shown
+yourself very great in battle, and to say to you that my Spirit tells me that
+every one of you, yes, even those who are still sick, will come safe to your
+own land again and live out your years with honour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again they saluted at this pleasing intelligence, when I had translated it to
+them, for of course they knew no Arabic. Then she went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am told, Umslopogaas, Son of the Lion, as a certain king was named in
+your land, that the fight you made against Rezu was a very great fight, and
+that such a leap as yours above his head when you smote him with the axe on the
+hinder parts where he wore no armour, and brought him to his death, has not
+been seen before, nor will be again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rendered the words, and Umslopogaas, preferring truth to modesty, replied
+emphatically that this was the case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because of that fight and that leap,&rdquo; Ayesha went on, &ldquo;as
+for other deeds that you have done and will do, my Spirit tells me that your
+name will live in story for many generations. Yet of what use is fame to the
+dead? Therefore I make you an offer. Bide here with me and you shall rule these
+Amahagger, and with them the remnant of the People of Rezu. Your cattle shall
+be countless and your wives the fairest in the land, and your children many,
+for I will lift a certain curse from off you so that no more shall you be
+childless. Do you accept, O Holder of the Axe?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he understood, Umslopogaas, after pondering a moment, asked if I meant to
+stay in this land and marry the white chieftainess who spoke such wise words
+and could appear and disappear in the battle at her will, and like a
+mountain-top hid her head in a cloud, which was his way of alluding to her
+veil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered at once and with decision that I intended to do nothing of the sort
+and immediately regretted my words, since, although I spoke in Zulu, I suppose
+she read their meaning from my face. At any rate she understood the drift of
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell him, Allan,&rdquo; she said with a kind of icy politeness,
+&ldquo;that you will not stop here and marry me, because if ever I chose a
+husband he would not be a little man at the doors of whose heart so many
+women&rsquo;s hands have knocked&mdash;yes, even those that are black&mdash;and
+not, I think, in vain. One, moreover, who holds himself so clever that he
+believes he has nothing left to learn, and in every flower of truth that is
+shown to him, however fair, smells only poison, and beneath, nurturing it, sees
+only the gross root of falsehood planted in corruption. Tell him these things,
+Allan, if it pleases you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It does not please me,&rdquo; I answered in a rage at her insults.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nor is it needful, Allan, since if I caught the meaning of that
+barbarous tongue you use aright, you have told him already. Well, let the jest
+pass, O man who least of all things desires to be Ayesha&rsquo;s husband, and
+whom Ayesha least of all things desires as her spouse, and ask the Axe-bearer
+nothing since I perceive that without you he will not stay at Kôr. Nor indeed
+is it fated that he should do so, for now my Spirit tells me what it hid from
+me when I spoke a moment gone, that this warrior shall die in a great fight far
+away and that between then and now much sorrow waits him who save that of one,
+knows not how to win the love of women. Let him say moreover what reward he
+desires since if I can give it to him, it shall be his.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I translated. Umslopogaas received her prophecies in stoical silence, and
+as I thought with indifference, and only said in reply,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The glory that I have won is my reward and the only boon I seek at this
+queen&rsquo;s hands is that if she can she should give me sight of a woman for
+whom my heart is hungry, and with it knowledge that this woman lives in that
+land whither I travel like all men.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she heard these words Ayesha said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True, I had forgotten. Your heart also is hungry, I think, Allan, for
+the vision of sundry faces that you see no more. Well, I will do my best, but
+since only faith fulfils itself, how can I who must strive to pierce the gates
+of darkness for one so unbelieving, know that they will open at my word? Come
+to me, both of you, at the sunset to-morrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then as though to change the subject, she talked to me for a long while about
+Kôr, of which she told me a most interesting history, true or false, that I
+omit here.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, as though suddenly she had grown tired, waving her hand to show that
+the conversation was ended, Ayesha went to the wounded men and touched them
+each in turn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now they will recover swiftly,&rdquo; she said, and leaving the place
+was gone into the darkness.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+THE GATE OF DEATH</h2>
+
+<p>
+Before turning in I examined these wounded men for myself. The truth is that I
+was anxious to learn their exact condition in order that I might make an
+estimate as to when it would be possible for us to leave this valley or crater
+bottom of Kôr, of which I was heartily tired. Who could desire to stay in a
+place where he had not only been involved in a deal of hard, doubtful, and very
+dangerous fighting from which all personal interest was absent, but where also
+he was meshed in a perfect spider&rsquo;s web of bewilderment, and exposed to
+continual insult into the bargain?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For that is what it came to; this Ayesha took every opportunity to jeer at and
+affront me. And why? Just because I had conceived doubts, which somehow she
+discovered, of the amazing tales with which it had amused her to stuff me, as a
+farmer&rsquo;s wife does a turkey poult with meal pellets. How could she expect
+me, a man, after all, of some experience, to believe such lies, which, not half
+an hour before, in the coolest possible fashion she had herself admitted to be
+lies and nothing else, told for the mere pleasure of romancing?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The immortal Rezu, for instance, who had drunk of the Cup of Life or some such
+rubbish, now turned out to be nothing but a brawny savage descended from
+generations of chiefs also called Rezu. Moreover the immemorial Ayesha, who
+also had drunk of Cups of Life, and according to her first story, had lived in
+this place for thousands of years, had come here with a mother, who filled the
+same mystic rôle before her for the benefit of an extremely gloomy and
+disagreeable tribe of Semitic savages. Yet she was cross with me because I had
+not swallowed her crude and indigestible mixture of fable and philosophy
+without a moment&rsquo;s question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At least I supposed that this was the reason, though another possible
+explanation did come into my mind. I had refused to be duly overcome by her
+charms, not because I was unimpressed, for who could be, having looked upon
+that blinding beauty even for a moment? but rather because, after sundry
+experiences, I had at last attained to some power of judgment and learned what
+it is best to leave alone. Perhaps this had annoyed her, especially as no white
+man seemed to have come her way for a long while and the fabulous Kallikrates
+had not put in his promised appearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also it was unfortunate that in one way or another&mdash;how did she do it, I
+wondered&mdash;she had interpreted Umslopogaas&rsquo; question to me about
+marrying her, and my compromising reply. Not that for one moment, as I saw very
+clearly, did she wish to marry me. But that fact, intuition suggested to my
+mind, did not the least prevent her from being angry because I shared her views
+upon this important subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! the whole thing was a bore and the sooner I saw the last of that veiled
+lady and the interesting but wearisome ruins in which she dwelt, the better I
+should be pleased, although apparently I must trek homewards with a poor young
+woman who was out of her mind, leaving the bones of her unfortunate father
+behind me. I admitted to myself, however, that there were consolations in the
+fact that Providence had thus decreed, for Robertson since he gave up drink had
+not been a cheerful companion, and two mad people would really have been more
+than I could manage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return, for these reasons I examined the two wounded Zulus with considerable
+anxiety, only to discover another instance of the chicanery which it amused
+this Ayesha to play off upon me. For what did I find? That they were
+practically well. Their hurts, which had never been serious, had healed
+wonderfully in that pure air, as those of savages have a way of doing, and they
+told me themselves that they felt quite strong again. Yet with colossal
+impudence Ayesha had managed to suggest to my mind that she was going to work
+some remarkable cure upon them, who were already cured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, it was of a piece with the rest of her conduct and there was nothing to
+do except go to bed, which I did with much gratitude that my resting place that
+night was not of another sort. The last thing I remember was wondering how on
+earth Ayesha appeared and disappeared in the course of that battle, a problem
+as to which I could find no solution, though, as in the case of the others, I
+was sure that one would occur to me in course of time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I slept like a top, so soundly indeed that I think there was some kind of
+soporific in the pick-me-up which looked like sherry, especially as the others
+who had drunk of it also passed an excellent night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About ten o&rsquo;clock on the following morning I awoke feeling particularly
+well and quite as though I had been enjoying a week at the seaside instead of
+my recent adventures, which included an abominable battle and some agonising
+moments during which I thought that my number was up upon the board of Destiny.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I spent the most of that day lounging about, eating, talking over the details
+of the battle with Umslopogaas and the Zulus and smoking more than usual. (I
+forgot to say that these Amahagger grew some capital tobacco of which I had
+obtained a supply, although like most Africans, they only used it in the shape
+of snuff.) The truth was that after all my marvellings and acute anxieties,
+also mental and physical exertions, I felt like the housemaid who caused to be
+cut upon her tombstone that she had gone to a better land where her ambition
+was to do nothing &ldquo;for ever and ever.&rdquo; I just wanted to be
+completely idle and vacuous-minded for at least a month, but as I knew that all
+I could expect in that line was a single bank holiday, like a City clerk on the
+spree, of it I determined to make the most.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result was that before the evening I felt very bored indeed. I had gone to
+look at Inez, who was still fast asleep, as Ayesha said would be the case, but
+whose features seemed to have plumped up considerably. The reason of this I
+gathered from her Amahagger nurses, was that at certain intervals she had
+awakened sufficiently to swallow considerable quantities of milk, or rather
+cream, which I hoped would not make her ill. I had chatted with the wounded
+Zulus, who were now walking about, more bored even than I was myself, and
+heaping maledictions on their ancestral spirits because they had not been well
+enough to take part in the battle against Rezu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I even took a little stroll to look for Hans, who had vanished in his
+mysterious fashion, but the afternoon was so hot and oppressive with coming
+thunder, that soon I came back again and fell into a variety of reflections
+that I need not detail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While I was thus engaged and meditating, not without uneasiness, upon the
+ordeal that lay before me after sunset, for I felt sure that it would be an
+ordeal, Hans appeared and said that the Amahagger <i>impi</i> or army was
+gathered on that spot where I had been elected to the proud position of their
+General. He added that he believed&mdash;how he got this information I do not
+know&mdash;that the White Lady was going to hold a review of them and give them
+the rewards that they had earned in the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hearing this, Umslopogaas and the other Zulus said that they would like to see
+this review if I would accompany them. Although I did not want to go nor indeed
+desired ever to look at another Amahagger, I consented to save the trouble of
+argument, on condition that we should do so from a distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, including the wounded men, we strolled off and presently came to the
+crumbled wall of the old city, beyond which lay the great moat now dry, that
+once had encircled it with water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here on the top of this wall we sat down where we could see without being seen,
+and observed the Amahagger companies, considerably reduced during the battle,
+being marshalled by their captains beneath us and about a couple of hundred
+yards away. Also we observed several groups of men under guard. These we took
+to be prisoners captured in the fight with Rezu, who, as Hans remarked with a
+smack of his lips, were probably awaiting sacrifice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I said I hoped not and yawned, for really the afternoon was intensely hot and
+the weather most peculiar. The sun had vanished behind clouds, and vapours
+filled the still air, so dense that at times it grew almost dark; also when
+these cleared for brief intervals, the landscape in the grey, unholy light
+looked distorted and unnatural, as it does during an eclipse of the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, stared round him, sniffed the air and then remarked
+ocularly that it was &ldquo;wizard&rsquo;s weather&rdquo; and that there were
+many spirits about. Upon my word I felt inclined to agree with him, for my
+feelings were very uncomfortable, but I only replied that if so, I should be
+obliged if he, as a professional, would be good enough to keep them off me. Of
+course I knew that electrical charges were about, which accounted for my
+sensations, and wished that I had never left the camp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was during one of these periods of dense gloom that Ayesha must have arrived
+upon the review ground. At least, when it lifted, there she was in her white
+garments, surrounded by women and guards, engaged apparently in making an
+oration, for although I could not hear a word, I could see by the motions of
+her arms that she was speaking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had she been the central figure in some stage scene, no limelights could have
+set her off to better advantage, than did those of the heavens above her.
+Suddenly, through the blanket of cloud, flowing from a hole in it that looked
+like an eye, came a blood-red ray which fell full upon her, so that she alone
+was fiercely visible whilst all around was gloom in which shapes moved dimly.
+Certainly she looked strange and even terrifying in that red ray which stained
+her robe till I who had but just come out of battle with its &ldquo;confused
+noise,&rdquo; began to think of &ldquo;the garments rolled in blood&rdquo; of
+which I often read in my favourite Old Testament. For crimson was she from head
+to foot; a tall shape of terror and of wrath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eye in heaven shut and the ray went out. Then came one of the spaces of
+grey light and in it I saw men being brought up, apparently from the groups of
+prisoners, under guard, and, to the number of a dozen or more, stood in a line
+before Ayesha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I saw nothing more for a long while, because blackness seemed to flow in
+from every quarter of the heavens and to block out the scene beneath. At least
+after a pause of perhaps five minutes, during which the stillness was intense,
+the storm broke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a very curious storm; in all my experience of African tempests I cannot
+recall one which it resembled. It began with the usual cold and wailing wind.
+This died away, and suddenly the whole arch of heaven was alive with little
+lightnings that seemed to strike horizontally, not downwards to the earth,
+weaving a web of fire upon the surface of the sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the illumination of these lightnings which, but for the swiftness of their
+flashing and greater intensity, somewhat resembled a dense shower of shooting
+stars, I perceived that Ayesha was addressing the men that had been brought
+before her, who stood dejectedly in a long line with their heads bent, quite
+unattended, since their guards had fallen back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I were going to receive a reward of cattle or wives, I should look
+happier than those moon-worshippers, Baas,&rdquo; remarked Hans reflectively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps it would depend,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;upon what the cattle
+and wives were like. If the cattle had red-water and would bring disease into
+your herd, or wild bulls that would gore you, and the wives were skinny old
+widows with evil tongues, then I think you would look as do those men,
+Hans.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I don&rsquo;t quite know what made me speak thus, but I believe it was some
+sense of pending death or disaster, suggested, probably, by the ominous
+character of the setting provided by Nature to the curious drama of which we
+were witnesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I never thought of that, Baas,&rdquo; commented Hans, &ldquo;but it is
+true that all gifts are not good, especially witches&rsquo; gifts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he spoke the little net-like lightnings died away, leaving behind them a
+gross darkness through which, far above us, the wind wailed again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then suddenly all the heaven was turned into one blaze of light, and by it I
+saw Ayesha standing tall and rigid with her hand pointed towards the line of
+men in front of her. The blaze went out, to be followed by blackness, and to
+return almost instantly in a yet fiercer blaze which seemed to fall earthwards
+in a torrent of fire that concentrated itself in a kind of flame-spout upon the
+spot where Ayesha stood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through that flame or rather in the heart of it, I saw Ayesha and the file of
+men in front of her, as the great King saw the prophets in the midst of the
+furnace that had been heated sevenfold. Only these men did not walk about in
+the fire; no, they fell backwards, while Ayesha alone remained upon her feet
+with outstretched hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next came more blackness and crash upon crash of such thunder that the earth
+shook as it reverberated from the mountain cliffs. Never in my life did I hear
+such fearful thunder. It frightened the Zulus so much, that they fell upon
+their faces, except Goroko and Umslopogaas, whose pride kept them upon their
+feet, the former because he had a reputation to preserve as a
+&ldquo;Heaven-herd,&rdquo; or Master of tempests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I confess that I should have liked to follow their example, and lie down, being
+dreadfully afraid lest the lightning should strike me. But there&mdash;I did
+not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the thunder died away and in the most mysterious fashion that violent
+tempest came to a sudden end, as does a storm upon the stage. No rain fell,
+which in itself was surprising enough and most unusual, but in place of it a
+garment of the completest calm descended upon the earth. By degrees, too, the
+darkness passed and the westering sun reappeared. Its rays fell upon the place
+where the Amahagger companies had stood, but now not one of them was to be
+seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were all gone and Ayesha with them. So completely had they vanished away
+that I should have thought that we suffered from illusions, were it not for the
+line of dead men which lay there looking very small and lonesome on the veld;
+mere dots indeed at that distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We stared at each other and at them, and then Goroko said that he would like to
+inspect the bodies to learn whether lightning killed at Kôr as it did
+elsewhere, also whether it had smitten them altogether or leapt from man to
+man. This, as a professional &ldquo;Heaven-herd,&rdquo; he declared he could
+tell from the marks upon these unfortunates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I was curious also and wanted to make a few observations, I consented. So
+with the exception of the wounded men, who I thought should avoid the exertion,
+we scrambled down the débris of the tumbled wall and across the open space
+beyond, reaching the scene of the tragedy without meeting or seeing anyone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There lay the dead, eleven of them, in an exact line as they had stood. They
+were all upon their backs with widely-opened eyes and an expression of great
+fear frozen upon their faces. Some of these I recognised, as did Umslopogaas
+and Hans. They were soldiers or captains who had marched under me to attack
+Rezu, although until this moment I had not seen any of them after we began to
+descend the ridge where the battle took place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Baas,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;I believe that these were the traitors
+who slipped away and told Rezu of our plans so that he attacked us on the
+ridge, instead of our attacking him on the plain as we had arranged so nicely.
+At least they were none of them in the battle and afterwards I heard the
+Amahagger talking of some of them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I remarked that if so the lightning had discriminated very well in this
+instance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Goroko was examining the bodies one by one, and presently called out,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;These doomed ones died not by lightning but by witchcraft. There is not
+a burn upon one of them, nor are their garments scorched.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went to look and found that it was perfectly true; to all outward appearance
+the eleven were quite unmarked and unharmed. Except for their frightened air,
+they might have died a natural death in their sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does lightning always scorch?&rdquo; I asked Goroko.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Always, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;that is, if he who has
+been struck is killed, as these are, and not only stunned. Moreover, most of
+yonder dead wear knives which should have melted or shattered with the sheaths
+burnt off them. Yet those knives are as though they had just left the
+smith&rsquo;s hammer and the whet-stone,&rdquo; and he drew some of them to
+show me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again it was quite true and here I may remark that my experience tallied with
+that of Goroko, since I have never seen anyone killed by lightning on whom or
+on whose clothing there was not some trace of its passage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Ow!</i>&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, &ldquo;this is witchcraft, not
+Heaven-wrath. The place is enchanted. Let us get away lest we be smitten also
+who have not earned doom like those traitors.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No need to fear,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;since with us is the Great
+Medicine of Zikali which can tie up the lightning as an old woman does a bundle
+of sticks.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still I observed that for all his confidence, Hans himself was the first to
+depart and with considerable speed. So we went back to our camp without more
+conversation, since the Zulus were scared and I confess that myself I could not
+understand the matter, though no doubt it admitted of some quite simple
+explanation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However that might be, this Kôr was a queer place with its legends, its sullen
+Amahagger and its mysterious queen, to whom at times, in spite of my inner
+conviction to the contrary, I was still inclined to attribute powers beyond
+those that are common even among very beautiful and able women.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This reflection reminded me that she had promised us a further exhibition of
+those powers and within an hour or two. Remembering this I began to regret that
+I had ever asked for any such manifestations, for who knew what these might or
+might not involve?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So much did I regret it that I determined, unless Ayesha sent for us, as she
+had said she would do, I would conveniently forget the appointment. Luckily
+Umslopogaas seemed to be of the same way of thinking; at any rate he went off
+to eat his evening meal without alluding to it at all. So I made up my mind
+that I would not bring the matter to his notice and having ascertained that
+Inez was still asleep, I followed his example and dined myself, though without
+any particular appetite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I finished the sun was setting in a perfectly clear sky, so as there was no
+sign of any messenger, I thought that I would go to bed early, leaving orders
+that I was not to be disturbed. But on this point my luck was lacking, for just
+as I had taken off my coat, Hans arrived and said that old Billali was without
+and had come to take me somewhere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, there was nothing to do but to put it on again. Before I had finished
+this operation Billali himself arrived with undignified and unusual haste. I
+asked him what was the matter, and he answered inconsequently that the Black
+One, the slayer of Rezu, was at the door &ldquo;with his axe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That generally accompanies him,&rdquo; I replied. Then, remembering the
+cause of Billali&rsquo;s alarm, I explained to him that he must not take too
+much notice of a few hasty words spoken by an essentially gentle-natured person
+whose nerve had given way beneath provocation and bodily effort. The old fellow
+bowed in assent and stroked his beard, but I noticed that while Umslopogaas was
+near, he clung to me like a shadow. Perhaps he thought that nervous attacks
+might be recurrent, like those of fever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside the house I found Umslopogaas leaning on his axe and looking at the sky
+in which the last red rays of evening lingered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The sun has set, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and it is time to
+visit this white queen as she bade us, and to learn whether she can indeed lead
+us &lsquo;down below&rsquo; where the dead are said to dwell.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So he had not forgotten, which was disconcerting. To cover up my own doubts I
+asked him with affected confidence and cheerfulness whether he was not afraid
+to risk this journey &ldquo;down below,&rdquo; that is, to the Realm of Death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why should I fear to tread a road that awaits the feet of all of us and
+at the gate of which we knock day by day, especially if we chance to live by
+war, as do you and I, Macumazahn?&rdquo; he inquired with a quiet dignity,
+which made me feel ashamed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why indeed?&rdquo; I answered, adding to myself, &ldquo;though I should
+much prefer any other highway.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this we started without more words, I keeping up my spirits by reflecting
+that the whole business was nonsense and that there could be nothing to dread.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All too soon we passed the ruined archway and were admitted into Ayesha&rsquo;s
+presence in the usual fashion. As Billali, who remained outside of them, drew
+the curtains behind us, I observed, to my astonishment, that Hans had sneaked
+in after me, and squatted down quite close to them, apparently in the hope of
+being overlooked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed, as I gathered later, that somehow or other he had guessed, or become
+aware of the object of our visit, and that his burning curiosity had overcome
+his terror of the &ldquo;White Witch.&rdquo; Or possibly he hoped to discover
+whether or not she were so ugly as he supposed her veil-hidden face to be. At
+any rate there he was, and if Ayesha noticed him, as I think she did, for I saw
+by the motion of her head, that she was looking in his direction, she made no
+remark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a while she sat still in her chair contemplating us both. Then she said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How comes it that you are late? Those that seek their lost loves should
+run with eager feet, but yours have tarried.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I muttered some excuse to which she did not trouble to listen, for she went on,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think, Allan, that your sandals, which should be winged like to those
+of the Roman Mercury, are weighted with the grey lead of fear. Well, it is not
+strange, since you have come to travel through the Gates of Death that are
+feared by all, even by Ayesha&rsquo;s self, for who knows what he may find
+beyond them? Ask the Axe-Bearer if he also is afraid.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed, rendering all that she had said into the Zulu idiom as best I could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say to the Queen,&rdquo; answered Umslopogaas, when he understood,
+&ldquo;that I fear nothing, except women&rsquo;s tongues. I am ready to pass
+the Gates of Death and, if need be, to come back no more. With the white people
+I know it is otherwise because of some dark teachings to which they listen,
+that tell of terrors to be, such as we who are black do not dread. Still, we
+believe that there are ghosts and that the spirits of our fathers live on and
+as it chances I would learn whether this is so, who above all things desire to
+met a certain ghost, for which reason I journeyed to this far land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say these things to the white Queen, Macumazahn, and tell her that if
+she should send me to a place whence there is no return, I who do not love the
+world, shall not blame her overmuch, though it is true that I should have
+chosen to die in war. Now I have spoken.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I had passed on all this speech to Ayesha, her comment on it was,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This black Captain has a spirit as brave as his body, but how is it with
+your spirit, Allan? Are you also prepared to risk so much? Learn that I can
+promise you nothing, save that when I loose the bonds of your mortality and
+send out your soul to wander in the depths of Death, as I believe that I can
+do, though even of this I am not certain&mdash;you must pass through a gate of
+terrors that may be closed behind you by a stronger arm than mine. Moreover,
+what you will find beyond it I do not know, since be sure of this, each of us
+has his own heaven or his own hell, or both, that soon or late he is doomed to
+travel. Now will you go forward, or go back? Make choice while there is still
+time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At all this ominous talk I felt my heart shrivel like a fire-withered leaf, if
+I may use that figure, and my blood assume the temperature and consistency of
+ice-cream. Earnestly did I curse myself for having allowed my curiosity about
+matters which we are not meant to understand to bring me to the edge of such a
+choice. Swiftly I determined to temporise, which I did by asking Ayesha whether
+she would accompany me upon this eerie expedition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She laughed a little as she answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bethink you, Allan. Am I, whose face you have seen, a meet companion for
+a man who desires to visit the loves that once were his? What would they say or
+think, if they should see you hand in hand with such a one?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know and don&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; I replied desperately,
+&ldquo;but this is the kind of journey on which one requires a guide who knows
+the road. Cannot Umslopogaas go first and come back to tell me how it has fared
+with him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If the brave and instructed white lord, panoplied in the world&rsquo;s
+last Faith, is not ashamed to throw the savage in his ignorance out like a
+feather to test the winds of hell and watch the while to learn whether these
+blow him back unscorched, or waft him into fires whence there is no return,
+perchance it might so be ordered, Allan. Ask him yourself, Allan, if he is
+willing to run this errand for your sake. Or perhaps the little yellow
+man&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and she paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this point Hans, who having a smattering of Arabic understood something of
+our talk, could contain himself no longer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas,&rdquo; he broke in from his corner by the curtain, &ldquo;not
+<i>me</i>. I don&rsquo;t care for hunting spooks, Baas, which leave no spoor
+that you can follow and are always behind when you think they are in front.
+Also there are too many of them waiting for me down there and how can I stand
+up to them until I am a spook myself and know their ways of fighting? Also if
+you should die when your spirit is away, I want to be left that I may bury you
+nicely.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be silent,&rdquo; I said in my sternest manner. Then, unable to bear
+more of Ayesha&rsquo;s mockery, for I felt that as usual she was mocking me, I
+added with all the dignity that I could command,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am ready to make this journey through the gate of Death, Ayesha, if
+indeed you can show me the road. For one purpose and no other I came to Kôr,
+namely to learn, if so I might, whether those who have died upon the world,
+live on elsewhere. Now, what must I do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+THE LESSON</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Ayesha, laughing very softly, &ldquo;for that
+purpose alone, O truth-seeking Allan, whose curiosity is so fierce that the
+wide world cannot hold it, did you come to Kôr and not to seek wealth or new
+lands, or to fight more savages. No, not even to look upon a certain Ayesha, of
+whom the old wizard told you, though I think you have always loved to try to
+lift the veil that hides women&rsquo;s hearts, if not their faces. Yet it was I
+who brought you to Kôr for my own purposes, not your desire, nor Zikali&rsquo;s
+map and talisman, since had not the white lady who lies sick been stolen by
+Rezu, never would you have pursued the journey nor found the way hither.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How could you have had anything to do with that business?&rdquo; I asked
+testily, for my nerves were on edge and I said the first thing that came into
+my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That, Allan, is a question over which you will wonder for a long while
+either beneath or beyond the sun, as you will wonder concerning much that has
+to do with me, which your little mind, shut in its iron box of ignorance and
+pride, cannot understand to-day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For example, you have been wondering, I am sure, how the lightning
+killed those eleven men whose bodies you went to look on an hour or two ago,
+and left the rest untouched. Well, I will tell you at once that it was not
+lightning that killed them, although the strength within me was manifest to you
+in storm, but rather what that witch-doctor of your following called wizardry.
+Because they were traitors who betrayed your army to Rezu, I killed them with
+my wrath and by the wand of my power. Oh! you do not believe, yet perhaps ere
+long you will, since thus to fulfil your prayer I must also kill
+you&mdash;almost. That is the trouble, Allan. To kill you outright would be
+easy, but to kill you just enough to set your spirit free and yet leave one
+crevice of mortal life through which it can creep back again, that is most
+difficult; a thing that only I can do and even of myself I am not sure.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Pray do not try the experiment&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; I began thoroughly
+alarmed, but she cut me short.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Disturb me no more, Allan, with the tremors and changes of your
+uncertain mind, lest you should work more evil than you think, and making mine
+uncertain also, spoil my skill. Nay, do not try to fly, for already the net has
+thrown itself about you and you cannot stir, who are bound like a little gilded
+wasp in the spider&rsquo;s web, or like birds beneath the eyes of
+basilisks.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was true, for I found that, strive as I would, I could not move a limb or
+even an eyelid. I was frozen to that spot and there was nothing for it except
+to curse my folly and say my prayers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this while she went on talking, but of what she said I have not the
+faintest idea, because my remaining wits were absorbed in these much-needed
+implorations.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Presently, of a sudden, I appeared to see Ayesha seated in a temple, for there
+were columns about her, and behind her was an altar on which a fire burned. All
+round her, too, were hooded snakes like to that which she wore about her
+middle, fashioned in gold. To these snakes she sang and they danced to her
+singing; yes, with flickering tongues they danced upon their tails! What the
+scene signified I cannot conceive, unless it meant that this mistress of magic
+was consulting her familiars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then that vision vanished and Ayesha&rsquo;s voice began to seem very far away
+and dreamy, also her wondrous beauty became visible to me through her veil, as
+though I had acquired a new sense that overcame the limitations of mortal
+sight. Even in this extremity I reflected it was well that the last thing I
+looked on should be something so glorious. No, not quite the last thing, for
+out of the corners of my eyes I saw that Umslopogaas from a sitting position
+had sunk on to his back and lay, apparently dead, with his axe still gripped
+tightly and held above his head, as though his arm had been turned to ice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this terrible things began to happen to me and I became aware that I was
+dying. A great wind seemed to catch me up and blow me to and fro, as a leaf is
+blown in the eddies of a winter gale. Enormous rushes of darkness flowed over
+me, to be succeeded by vivid bursts of brightness that dazzled like lightning.
+I fell off precipices and at the foot of them was caught by some fearful
+strength and tossed to the very skies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From those skies I was hurled down again into a kind of whirlpool of inky
+night, round which I spun perpetually, as it seemed for hours and hours. But
+worst of all was the awful loneliness from which I suffered. It seemed to me as
+though there were no other living thing in all the Universe and never had been
+and never would be any other living thing. I felt as though <i>I</i> were the
+Universe rushing solitary through space for ages upon ages in a frantic search
+for fellowship, and finding none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then something seemed to grip my throat and I knew that I had died&mdash;for
+the world floated away from beneath me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now fear and every mortal sensation left me, to be replaced by a new and
+spiritual terror. I, or rather my disembodied consciousness, seemed to come up
+for judgment, and the horror of it was that I appeared to be my own judge.
+There, a very embodiment of cold justice, my Spirit, grown luminous, sat upon a
+throne and to it, with dread and merciless particularity I set out all my
+misdeeds. It was as if some part of me remained mortal, for I could see my two
+eyes, my mouth and my hands, but nothing else&mdash;and strange enough they
+looked. From the eyes came tears, from the mouth flowed words and the hands
+were joined, as though in prayer to that throned and adamantine Spirit which
+was ME.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was as though this Spirit were asking how my body had served its purposes
+and advanced its mighty ends, and in reply&mdash;oh! what a miserable tale I
+had to tell. Fault upon fault, weakness upon weakness, sin upon sin; never
+before did I understand how black was my record. I tried to relieve the picture
+with some incidents of attempted good, but that Spirit would not hearken. It
+seemed to say that it had gathered up the good and knew it all. It was of the
+evil that it would learn, not of the good that had bettered it, but of the evil
+by which it had been harmed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hearing this there rose up in my consciousness some memory of what Ayesha had
+said; namely, that the body lived within the temple of the spirit which is oft
+defied, and not the spirit in the body.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+The story was told and I hearkened for the judgment, my own judgment on myself,
+which I knew would be accepted without question and registered for good or ill.
+But none came, since ere the balance sank this way or that, ere it could be
+uttered, I was swept afar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through Infinity I was swept, and as I fled faster than the light, the meaning
+of what I had seen came home to me. I knew, or seemed to know for the first
+time, that at the last <i>man must answer to himself</i>, or perhaps to a
+divine principle within himself, that out of his own free-will, through long
+æons and by a million steps, he climbs or sinks to the heights or depths
+dormant in his nature; that from what he was, springs what he is, and what he
+is, engenders what he shall be for ever and aye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I envisaged Immortality and splendid and awful was its face. It clasped me
+to its breast and in the vast circle of its arms I was up-borne, I who knew
+myself to be without beginning and without end, and yet of the past and of the
+future knew nothing, save that these were full of mysteries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I went I encountered others, or overtook them, making the same journey.
+Robertson swept past me, and spoke, but in a tongue I could not understand. I
+noted that the madness had left his eyes and that his fine-cut features were
+calm and spiritual. The other wanderers I did not know.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+I came to a region of blinding light; the thought rose in me that I must have
+reached the sun, or a sun, though I felt no heat. I stood in a lovely, shining
+valley about which burned mountains of fire. There were huge trees in that
+valley, but they glowed like gold and their flowers and fruit were as though
+they had been fashioned of many-coloured flames.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The place was glorious beyond compare, but very strange to me and not to be
+described. I sat me down upon a boulder which burned like a ruby, whether with
+heat or colour I do not know, by the edge of a stream that flowed with what
+looked like fire and made a lovely music. I stooped down and drank of this
+water of flames and the scent and the taste of it were as those of the
+costliest wine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, beneath the spreading limbs of a fire-tree I sat, and examined the
+strange flowers that grew around, coloured like rich jewels and perfumed above
+imagining. There were birds also which might have been feathered with
+sapphires, rubies and amethysts, and their song was so sweet that I could have
+wept to hear it. The scene was wonderful and filled me with exaltation, for I
+thought of the land where it is promised that there shall be no more night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+People began to appear; men, women, and even children, though whence they came
+I could not see. They did not fly and they did not walk; they seemed to drift
+towards me, as unguided boats drift upon the tide. One and all they were very
+beautiful, but their beauty was not human although their shapes and faces
+resembled those of men and women made glorious. None were old, and except the
+children, none seemed very young; it was as though they had grown backwards or
+forwards to middle life and rested there at their very best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now came the marvel; all these uncounted people were known to me, though so far
+as my knowledge went I had never set eyes on most of them before. Yet I was
+aware that in some forgotten life or epoch I had been intimate with every one
+of them; also that it was the fact of my presence and the call of my
+sub-conscious mind which drew them to this spot. Yet that presence and that
+call were not visible or audible to them, who, I suppose, flowed down some
+stream of sympathy, why or whither they did not know. Had I been as they were
+perchance they would have seen me, as it was they saw nothing and I could not
+speak and tell them of my presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of this multitude, however, I knew well enough even when they had departed
+years and years ago. But about these I noted this, that every one of them was a
+man or a woman or a child for whom I had felt love or sympathy or friendship.
+Not one was a person whom I had disliked or whom I had no wish to see again. If
+they spoke at all I could not hear&mdash;or read&mdash;their speech, yet to a
+certain extent I could hear their thoughts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many of these were beyond the power of my appreciation on subjects of which I
+had no knowledge, or that were too high for me, but some were of quite simple
+things such as concern us upon the earth, such as of friendship, or learning,
+or journeys made or to be made, or art, or literature, or the wonders of
+Nature, or of the fruits of the earth, as they knew them in this region.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This I noted too, that each separate thought seemed to be hallowed and enclosed
+in an atmosphere of prayer or heavenly aspiration, as a seed is enclosed in the
+heart of a flower, or a fruit in its odorous rind, and that this prayer or
+aspiration presently appeared to bear the thought away, whither I knew not.
+Moreover, all these thoughts, even of the humblest things, were beauteous and
+spiritual, nothing cruel or impure or even coarse was to be found among them:
+they radiated charity, purity and goodness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among them I perceived were none that had to do with our earth; this and its
+affairs seemed to be left far behind these thinkers, a truth that chilled my
+soul was alien to their company. Worse still, so far as I could discover,
+although I knew that all these bright ones had been near to me at some hour in
+the measurements of time and space, not one of their musings dwelt upon me or
+on aught with which I had to do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between me and them there was a great gulf fixed and a high wall built.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh, look! One came shining like a star, and from far away came another with
+dove-like eyes and beautiful exceedingly, and with this last a maiden, whose
+eyes were as hers who my own heart told me was her mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, I knew them both; they were those whom I had come to seek, the women who
+had been mine upon the earth, and at the sight of them my spirit thrilled.
+Surely they would discover me. Surely at least they would speak of me and feel
+my presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, although they stayed within a pace or two of where I rested, alas! it was
+not so. They seemed to kiss and to exchange swift thoughts about many things,
+high things of which I will not write, and common things; yes, even of the
+shining robes they wore, but never a one of <i>me!</i> I strove to rise and go
+to them, but could not; I strove to speak and could not; I strove to throw out
+my thought to them and could not; it fell back upon my head like a stone hurled
+heavenward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were remote from me, utterly apart. I wept tears of bitterness that I
+should be so near and yet so far; a dull and jealous rage burned in my heart,
+and this they did seem to feel, or so I fancied; at any rate, apparently by
+mutual consent, they moved further from me as though something pained them.
+Yes, my love could not reach their perfected natures, but my anger hurt them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I sat chewing this root of bitterness, a man appeared, a very noble man, in
+whom I recognised my father grown younger and happier-looking, but still my
+father, with whom came others, men and women whom I knew to be my brothers and
+sisters who had died in youth far away in Oxfordshire. Joy leapt up in me, for
+I thought&mdash;these will surely know me and give me welcome, since, though
+here sex has lost its power, blood must still call to blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it was not so. They spoke, or interchanged their thoughts, but not one of
+me. I read something that passed from my father to them. It was a speculation
+as to what had brought them all together there, and read also the answer
+hazarded, that perhaps it might be to give welcome to some unknown who was
+drawing near from below and would feel lonely and unfriended. Thereon my father
+replied that he did not see or feel this wanderer, and thought that it could
+not be so, since it was his mission to greet such on their coming.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Then in an instant all were gone and that lovely, glowing plain was empty, save
+for myself seated on the ruby-like stone, weeping tears of blood and shame and
+loss within my soul.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+So I sat a long while, till presently I was aware of a new presence, a presence
+dusky and splendid and arrayed in rich barbaric robes. Straight she came
+towards me, like a thrown spear, and I knew her for a certain royal and savage
+woman who on earth was named Mameena, or &ldquo;Wind-that-wailed.&rdquo;
+Moreover she divined me, though see me she could not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Art there, Watcher-in-the-Night, watching in the light?&rdquo; she said
+or thought, I know not which, but the words came to me in the Zulu tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;I know that thou art there; from ten
+thousand leagues away I felt thy presence and broke from my own place to
+welcome thee, though I must pay for it with burning chains and bondage. How did
+those welcome thee whom thou camest out to seek? Did they clasp thee in their
+arms and press their kisses on thy brow? Or did they shrink away from thee
+because the smell of earth was on thy hands and lips?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I seemed to answer that they did not appear to know that I was there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, they did not know because their love is not enough, because they
+have grown too fine for love. But I, the sinner, I knew well, and here am I
+ready to suffer all for thee and to give thee place within this stormy heart of
+mine. Forget them, then, and come to rule with me who still am queen in my own
+house that thou shalt share. There we will live royally and when our hour
+comes, at least we shall have had our day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now before I could reply, some power seemed to seize this splendid creature and
+whirl her thence so that she departed, flashing these words from her mind to
+mine,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For a little while farewell, but remember always that Mameena, the
+Wailing Wind, being still as a sinful woman in a woman&rsquo;s love and of the
+earth, earthy, found thee, whom all the rest forgot. O Watcher-in-the-Night,
+watch in the night for me, for there thou shalt find me, the Child of Storm,
+again, and yet again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+She was gone and once more I sat in utter solitude upon that ruby stone,
+staring at the jewelled flowers and the glorious flaming trees and the lambent
+waters of the brook. What was the meaning of it all, I wondered, and why was I
+deserted by everyone save a single savage woman, and why had she a power to
+find me which was denied to all the rest? Well, she had given me an answer,
+because she was &ldquo;as a sinful woman with a woman&rsquo;s love and of the
+earth, earthy,&rdquo; while with the rest it was otherwise. Oh! this was clear,
+that in the heavens man has no friend among the heavenly, save perhaps the
+greatest Friend of all Who understands both flesh and spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I mused in this burning world which was still so beautiful, this alien
+world into which I had thrust myself unwanted and unsought. And while I mused
+this happened. The fiery waters of the stream were disturbed by something and
+looking up I saw the cause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A dog had plunged into them and was swimming towards me. At a glance I knew
+that dog on which my eyes had not fallen for decades. It was a mongrel, half
+spaniel and half bull-terrier, which for years had been the dear friend of my
+youth and died at last on the horns of a wounded wildebeeste that attacked me
+when I had fallen from my horse upon the veld. Boldly it tackled the maddened
+buck, thus giving me time to scramble to my rifle and shoot it, but not before
+the poor hound had yielded its life for mine, since presently it died
+disembowelled, but licking my hand and forgetful of its agonies. This dog, Smut
+by name, it was that swam or seemed to swim the brook of fire. It scrambled to
+the hither shore, it nosed the earth and ran to the ruby stone and stared about
+it whining and sniffing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last it seemed to see or feel me, for it stood upon its hind legs and licked
+my face, yelping with mad joy, as I could see though I heard nothing. Now I
+wept in earnest and bent down to hug and kiss the faithful beast, but this I
+could not do, since like myself it was only shadow.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Then suddenly all dissolved in a cataract of many-coloured flames and I fell
+down into an infinite gulf of blackness.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Surely Ayesha was talking to me! What did she say? What did she say? I could
+not catch her words, but I caught her laughter and knew that after her fashion
+she was making a mock of me. My eyelids were dragged down as though with heavy
+sleep; it was difficult to lift them. At last they were open and I saw Ayesha
+seated on her couch before me and&mdash;this I noted at once&mdash;with her
+lovely face unveiled. I looked about me, seeking Umslopogaas and Hans. But they
+were gone as I guessed they must be, since otherwise Ayesha would not have been
+unveiled. We were quite alone. She was addressing me and in a new fashion,
+since now she had abandoned the formal &ldquo;you&rdquo; and was using the more
+impressive and intimate &ldquo;thou,&rdquo; much as is the manner of the
+French.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou hast made thy journey, Allan,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and what thou
+hast seen there thou shalt tell me presently. Yet from thy mien I gather
+this&mdash;that thou art glad to look upon flesh and blood again and, after the
+company of spirits, to find that of mortal woman. Come then and sit beside me
+and tell thy tale.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where are the others?&rdquo; I asked as I rose slowly to obey, for my
+head swam and my feet seemed feeble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gone, Allan, who as I think have had enough of ghosts, which is perhaps
+thy case also. Come, drink this and be a man once more. Drink it to me whose
+skill and power have brought thee safe from lands that human feet were never
+meant to tread,&rdquo; and taking a strange-shaped cup from a stool that stood
+beside her, she offered it to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I drank to the last drop, neither knowing nor caring whether it were wine or
+poison, since my heart seemed desperate at its failure and my spirit crushed
+beneath the weight of its great betrayal. I suppose it was the former, for the
+contents of that cup ran through my veins like fire and gave me back my courage
+and the joy of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stepped to the dais and sat me down upon the couch, leaning against its
+rounded end so that I was almost face to face with Ayesha who had turned
+towards me, and thence could study her unveiled loveliness. For a while she
+said nothing, only eyed me up and down and smiled and smiled, as though she
+were waiting for that wine to do its work with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now that thou art a man again, Allan, tell me what thou didst see when
+thou wast more&mdash;or less&mdash;than man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I told her all, for some power within her seemed to draw the truth out of
+me. Nor did the tale appear to cause her much surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is truth in thy dream,&rdquo; she said when I had finished;
+&ldquo;a lesson also.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then it was all a dream?&rdquo; I interrupted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is not everything a dream, even life itself, Allan? If so, what can this
+be that thou hast seen, but a dream within a dream, and itself containing other
+dreams, as in the old days the ball fashioned by the eastern workers of ivory
+would oft be found to contain another ball, and this yet another and another
+and another, till at the inmost might be found a bead of gold, or perchance a
+jewel, which was the prize of him who could draw out ball from ball and leave
+them all unbroken. That search was difficult and rarely was the jewel come by,
+if at all, so that some said there was none, save in the maker&rsquo;s mind.
+Yes, I have seen a man go crazed with seeking and die with the mystery
+unsolved. How much harder, then, is it to come at the diamond of Truth which
+lies at the core of all our nest of dreams and without which to rest upon they
+could not be fashioned to seem realities?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But was it really a dream, and if so, what were the truth and the
+lesson?&rdquo; I asked, determined not to allow her to bemuse or escape me with
+her metaphysical talk and illustrations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The first question has been answered, Allan, as well as I can answer,
+who am not the architect of this great globe of dreams, and as yet cannot
+clearly see the ineffable gem within, whose prisoned rays illuminate their
+substance, though so dimly that only those with the insight of a god can catch
+their glamour in the night of thought, since to most they are dark as
+glow-flies in the glare of noon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then what are the truth and the lesson?&rdquo; I persisted, perceiving
+that it was hopeless to extract from her an opinion as to the real nature of my
+experiences and that I must content myself with her deductions from them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou tellest me, Allan, that in thy dream or vision thou didst seem to
+appear before thyself seated on a throne and in that self to find thy judge.
+That is the Truth whereof I spoke, though how it found its way through the
+black and ignorant shell of one whose wit is so small, is more than I can
+guess, since I believed that it was revealed to me alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Now I, Allan, thought to myself that I began to see the origin of all these
+fantasies and that for once Ayesha had made a slip. If she had a theory and I
+developed that same theory in a hypnotic condition, it was not difficult to
+guess its fount. However, I kept my mouth shut, and luckily for once she did
+not seem to read my mind, perhaps because she was too much occupied in spinning
+her smooth web of entangling words.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All men worship their own god,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;and yet seem
+not to know that this god dwells within them and that of him they are a part.
+There he dwells and there they mould him to their own fashion, as the potter
+moulds his clay, though whatever the shape he seems to take beneath their
+fingers, still he remains the god infinite and unalterable. Still he is the
+Seeker and the Sought, the Prayer and its Fulfilment, the Love and the Hate,
+the Virtue and the Vice, since all these qualities the alchemy of his spirit
+turns into an ultimate and eternal Good. For the god is in all things and all
+things are in the god, whom men clothe with such diverse garments and whose
+countenance they hide beneath so many masks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the tree flows the sap, yet what knows the great tree it nurtures of
+the sap? In the world&rsquo;s womb burns the fire that gives life, yet what of
+the fire knows the glorious earth it conceived and will destroy; in the heavens
+the great globes swing through space and rest not, yet what know they of the
+Strength that sent them spinning and in a time to come will stay their mighty
+motions, or turn them to another course? Therefore of everything this
+all-present god is judge, or rather, not one but many judges, since of each
+living creature he makes its own magistrate to deal out justice according to
+that creature&rsquo;s law which in the beginning the god established for it and
+decreed. Thus in the breast of everyone there is a rule and by that rule, at
+work through a countless chain of lives, in the end he shall be lifted up to
+Heaven, or bound about and cast down to Hell and death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean a conscience,&rdquo; I suggested rather feebly, for her
+thoughts and images overpowered me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, a conscience, if thou wilt, and canst only understand that term,
+though it fits my theme but ill. This is my meaning, that consciences, as thou
+namest them, are many. I have one; thou, Allan, hast another; that black
+Axe-bearer has a third; the little yellow man a fourth, and so on through the
+tale of living things. For even a dog such as thou sawest has a conscience
+and&mdash;like thyself or I&mdash;must in the end be its own judge, because of
+the spark that comes to it from above, the same spark which in me burns as a
+great fire, and in thee as a smouldering ember of green wood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When <i>you</i> sit in judgment on yourself in a day to come,
+Ayesha,&rdquo; I could not help interpolating, &ldquo;I trust that you will
+remember that humility did not shine among your virtues.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She smiled in her vivid way&mdash;only twice or thrice did I see her smile thus
+and then it was like a flash of summer lightning illumining a clouded sky,
+since for the most part her face was grave and even sombre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well answered,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Goad the patient ox enough and
+even it will grow fierce and paw the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part
+of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and they are
+few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned. Now I have told
+thee of the Truth thou sawest in thy vision and wouldst thou hear the
+Lesson?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;since I may as well be done with it at
+once, and doubtless it will be good for me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Lesson, Allan, is one which thou preachest&mdash;humility. Vain man
+and foolish as thou art, thou didst desire to travel the Underworld in search
+of certain ones who once were all in all to thee&mdash;nay, not all in all
+since of them there were two or more&mdash;but at least much. Thus thou wouldst
+do because, as thou saidest, thou didst seek to know whether they still lived
+on beyond the gates of Blackness. Yes, thou saidest this, but what thou didst
+hope to learn in truth was whether they lived on in <i>thee</i> and for
+<i>thee</i> only. For thou, thou in thy vanity, didst picture these departed
+souls as doing naught in that Heaven they had won, save think of thee still
+burrowing on the earth, and, at times lightening thy labours with kisses from
+other lips than theirs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never!&rdquo; I exclaimed indignantly. &ldquo;Never! it is not
+true.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I pray pardon, Allan, who only judged of thee by others that were
+as men are made, and being such, not to be blamed if perchance from time to
+time, they turned to look on women, who alas! were as they are made. So at
+least it was when I knew the world, but mayhap since then its richest wine has
+turned to water, whereby I hope it has been bettered. At the least this was thy
+thought, that those women who had been thine for an hour, through all eternity
+could dream of naught else save thy perfections, and hope for naught else than
+to see thee at their sides through that eternity, or such part of thee as thou
+couldst spare to each of them. For thou didst forget that where they have gone
+there may be others even more peerless than thou art and more fit to hold a
+woman&rsquo;s love, which as we know on earth was ever changeful, and perhaps
+may so remain where it is certain that new lights must shine and new desires
+beckon. Dost understand me, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; I answered with a groan. &ldquo;I understand you to
+mean that worldly impressions soon wear out and that people who have departed
+to other spheres may there form new ties and forget the old.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Allan, as do those who remain upon this earth, whence these others
+have departed. Do men and women still re-marry in the world, Allan, as in my
+day they were wont to do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course&mdash;it is allowed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As many other things, or perchance this same thing, may be allowed
+elsewhere, for when there are so many habitations from which to choose, why
+should we always dwell in one of them, however strait the house or poor the
+prospect?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now understanding that I was symbolised by the &ldquo;strait house&rdquo; and
+the &ldquo;poor prospect&rdquo; I should have grown angry, had not a certain
+sense of humour come to my rescue, who remembered that after all Ayesha&rsquo;s
+satire was profoundly true. Why, beyond the earth, should anyone desire to
+remain unalterably tied to and inextricably wrapped up in such a personality as
+my own, especially if others of superior texture abounded about them? Now that
+I came to think of it, the thing was absurd and not to be the least expected in
+the midst of a thousand new and vivid interests. I had met with one more
+disillusionment, that was all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dost understand, Allan,&rdquo; went on Ayesha, who evidently was
+determined that I should drink this cup to the last drop, &ldquo;that these
+dwellers in the sun, or the far planet where thou hast been according to thy
+tale, saw thee not and knew naught of thee? It may chance therefore that at
+this time thou wast not in their minds which at others dream of thee
+continually. Or it may chance that they never dream of thee at all, having
+quite forgotten thee, as the weaned cub forgets its mother.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At least there was one who seemed to remember,&rdquo; I exclaimed, for
+her poisoned mocking stung the words out of me, &ldquo;one woman and&mdash;a
+dog.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, the savage, who being Nature&rsquo;s child, a sinner that departed
+hence by her own act&rdquo; (how Ayesha knew this I cannot say, I never told
+her), &ldquo;has not yet put on perfection and therefore still remembers him
+whose kiss was last upon her lips. But surely, Allan, it is not thy desire to
+pass from the gentle, ordered claspings of those white souls for the tumultuous
+arms of such a one as this. Still, let that be, for who knows what men will or
+will not do in jealousy and disappointed love? And the dog, it remembered also
+and even sought thee out, since dogs are more faithful and single-hearted than
+is mankind. There at least thou hast thy lesson, namely to grow more humble and
+never to think again that thou holdest all a woman&rsquo;s soul for aye,
+because once she was kind to thee for a little while on earth.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, jumping up in a rage, &ldquo;as you say, I have
+my lesson, and more of it than I want. So by your leave, I will now bid you
+farewell, hoping that when it comes to be <i>your</i> turn to learn this
+lesson, or a worse, Ayesha, as I am sure it will one day, for something tells
+me so, you may enjoy it more than I have done.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap22"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
+AYESHA&rsquo;S FAREWELL</h2>
+
+<p>
+Thus I spoke whose nerves were on edge after all that I had seen or, as even
+then I suspected, seemed to see. For how could I believe that these visions of
+mine had any higher origin than Ayesha&rsquo;s rather malicious imagination?
+Already I had formed my theory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was that she must be a hypnotist of power, who, after she had put a spell
+upon her subject, could project into his mind such fancies as she chose
+together with a selection of her own theories. Only two points remained
+obscure. The first was&mdash;how did she get the necessary information about
+the private affairs of a humble individual like myself, for these were not
+known even to Zikali with whom she seemed to be in some kind of correspondence,
+or to Hans, at any rate in such completeness?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could but presume that in some mysterious way she drew them from, or rather
+excited them in my own mind and memory, so that I seemed to see those with whom
+once I had been intimate, with modifications and in surroundings that her
+intelligence had carefully prepared. It would not be difficult for a mind like
+hers familiar, as I gathered it was, with the ancient lore of the Greeks and
+the Egyptians, to create a kind of Hades and, by way of difference, to change
+it from one of shadow to one of intense illumination, and into it to plunge the
+consciousness of him upon whom she had laid her charm of sleep. I had seen
+nothing and heard nothing that she might not thus have moulded, always given
+that she had access to the needful clay of facts which I alone could furnish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Granting this hypothesis, the second point was&mdash;what might be the object
+of her elaborate and most bitter jest? Well, I thought that I could guess.
+First, she wished to show her power, or rather to make me believe that she had
+power of a very unusual sort. Secondly, she owed Umslopogaas and myself a debt
+for our services in the war with Rezu which we had been told would be repaid in
+this way. Thirdly, I had offended her in some fashion and she took her
+opportunity of settling the score. Also there was a fourth
+possibility&mdash;that really she considered herself a moral instructress and
+desired, as she said, to teach me a lesson by showing how futile were human
+hopes and vanities in respect to the departed and their affections.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I do not pretend that all this analysis of Ayesha&rsquo;s motives occurred
+to me at the moment of my interview with her; indeed, I only completed it later
+after much careful thought, when I found it sound and good. At that time,
+although I had inklings, I was too bewildered to form a just judgment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further, I was too angry and it was from this bow of my anger that I loosed a
+shaft at a venture as to some lesson which awaited <i>her</i>. Perhaps certain
+words spoken by the dying Rezu had shaped that shaft. Or perhaps some shadow of
+her advancing fate fell upon me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The success of the shot, however, was remarkable. Evidently it pierced the
+joints of her harness, and indeed went home to Ayesha&rsquo;s heart. She turned
+pale; all the peach-bloom hues faded from her lovely face, her great eyes
+seemed to lessen and grow dull and her cheeks to fall in. Indeed, for a moment
+she looked old, very old, quite an aged woman. Moreover she wept, for I saw two
+big tears drop upon her white raiment and I was horrified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What has happened to you?&rdquo; I said, or rather gasped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Naught,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;save that thou hast hurt me sore.
+Dost thou not know, Allan, that it is cruel to prophesy ill to any, since such
+words feathered from Fate&rsquo;s own wing and barbed with venom, fester in the
+breast and mayhap bring about their own accomplishment. Most cruel of all is it
+when with them are repaid friendship and gentleness.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I reflected to myself&mdash;yes, friendship of the order that is called candid,
+and gentleness such as is hid in a cat&rsquo;s velvet paw, but contented myself
+with asking how it was that she who said she was so powerful, came to fear
+anything at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because as I have told thee, Allan, there is no armour that can turn the
+spear of Destiny which, when I heard those words of thine, it seemed to me, I
+know not why, was directed by thy hand. Look now on Rezu who thought himself
+unconquerable and yet was slain by the black Axe-bearer and whose bones
+to-night stay the famine of the jackals. Moreover I am accursed who sought to
+steal its servant from Heaven to be my love, and how know I when and where
+vengeance will fall at last? Indeed, it has fallen already on me, who through
+the long ages amid savages must mourn widowed and alone, but not all of
+it&mdash;oh! I think, not all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she began to weep in good earnest, and watching her, for the first time I
+understood that this glorious creature who seemed to be so powerful, was after
+all one of the most miserable of women and as much a prey to loneliness, every
+sort of passion and apprehensive fear, as can be any common mortal. If, as she
+said, she had found the secret of life, which of course I did not believe, at
+least it was obvious that she had lost that of happiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sobbed softly and wept and while she did so the loveliness, which had left
+her for a little while, returned to her like light to a grey and darkened sky.
+Oh, how beautiful she seemed with the abundant locks in disorder over her
+tear-stained face, how beautiful beyond imagining! My heart melted as I studied
+her; I could think of nothing else except her surpassing charm and glory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I pray you, do not weep,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;it hurts me and indeed I
+am sorry if I said anything to give you pain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she only shook that glorious hair further about her face and behind its
+veil wept on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You know, Ayesha,&rdquo; I continued, &ldquo;you have said many hard
+things to me, making me the target of your bitter wit, therefore it is not
+strange that at last I answered you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And hast thou not deserved them, Allan?&rdquo; she murmured in soft and
+broken tones from behind that veil of scented locks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because from the beginning thou didst defy me, showing in thine every
+accent that thou heldest me a liar and one of no account in body or in spirit,
+one not worthy of thy kind look, or of those gentle words which once were my
+portion among men. Oh! thou hast dealt hardly with me and therefore
+perchance&mdash;I know not&mdash;I paid thee back with such poor weapons as a
+woman holds, though all the while I liked thee well.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then again she fell to sobbing, swaying herself gently to and fro in her sweet
+sorrow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was too much. Not knowing what else to do to comfort her, I patted her ivory
+hand which lay upon the couch beside me, and as this appeared to have no
+effect, I kissed it, which she did not seem to resent. Then suddenly I
+remembered and let it fall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She tossed back her hair from her face and fixing her big eyes on me, said
+gently enough, looking down at her hand,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What ails thee, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, nothing,&rdquo; I answered; &ldquo;only I remembered the story you
+told me about some man called Kallikrates.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She frowned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what of Kallikrates, Allan? Is it not enough that for my sins, with
+tears, empty longings and repentance, I must wait for him through all the weary
+centuries? Must I also wear the chains of this Kallikrates, to whom I owe many
+a debt, when he is far away? Say, didst thou see him in that Heaven of thine,
+Allan, for there perchance he dwells?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head and tried to think the thing out while all the time those
+wonderful eyes of hers seemed to draw the soul from me. It seemed to me that
+she bent forward and held up her face to me. Then I lost my reason and also
+bent forward. Yes, she made me mad, and, save her, I forgot all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Swiftly she placed her hand upon my heart, saying,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stay! What meanest thou? Dost love me, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think so&mdash;that is&mdash;yes,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sank back upon the couch away from me and began to laugh very softly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What words are these,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;that they pass thy lips so
+easily and so unmeant, perchance from long practice? Oh! Allan, I am
+astonished. Art thou the same man who some few days ago told me, and this
+unasked, that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the moon as of courting
+me? Art thou he who not a minute gone swore proudly that never had his heart
+and his lips wandered from certain angels whither they should not? And now, and
+now&mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I coloured to my eyes and rose, muttering,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me be gone!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Allan, why? I see no mark here,&rdquo; and she held up her hand,
+scanning it carefully. &ldquo;Thou art too much what thou wert before, except
+perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible,&rdquo; she added with a touch of
+malice. &ldquo;Nor am I angry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to charm
+away my woe, I should have thought but poorly of thee as a man. There let it
+rest and be forgotten&mdash;or remembered as thou wilt. Still, in answer to thy
+words concerning my Kallikrates, what of those adored ones that, according to
+thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a place of light? Because they
+seemed faithless, shouldst thou be faithless also? Shame on thee, thou fickle
+Allan!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She paused, waiting for me to speak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, I could not. I had nothing to say who was utterly disgraced and
+overwhelmed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou thinkest, Allan,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;that I have cast my net
+about thee, and this is true. Learn wisdom from it, Allan, and never again defy
+a woman&mdash;that is, if she be fair, for then she is stronger than thou art,
+since Nature for its own purpose made her so. Whatever I have done by tears,
+that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is for thy instruction,
+Allan, that thou mayest benefit thereby.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I sprang up, uttering an English exclamation which I trust Ayesha did not
+understand, and again she motioned to me to be seated, saying,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, leave me not yet since, even if the light fancy of a man that comes
+and goes like the evening wind and for a breath made me dear to thee, has
+passed away, there remains certain work which we must do together. Although,
+thinking of thyself alone, thou hast forgotten it, having been paid thine own
+fee, one is yet due to that old wizard in a far land who sent thee to visit Kôr
+and me, as indeed he has reminded me and within an hour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This amazing statement aroused me from my personal and painful pre-occupation
+and caused me to stare at her blankly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Again thou disbelievest me,&rdquo; she said, with a little stamp.
+&ldquo;Do so once more, Allan, and I swear I&rsquo;ll bring thee to grovel on
+the ground and kiss my foot and babble nonsense to a woman sworn to another
+man, such as never for all thy days thou shalt think of without a blush of
+shame.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no,&rdquo; I broke in hurriedly, &ldquo;I assure you that you are
+mistaken. I believe every word you have said, or say or will say; I do in
+truth.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now thou liest. Well, what is one more falsehood among so many? Let it
+pass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What, indeed?&rdquo; I echoed in eager affirmation, &ldquo;and as for
+Zikali&rsquo;s message&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and I paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was to recall to my mind that he desired to learn whether a certain
+great enterprise of his will succeed, the details of which he says thou canst
+tell me. Repeat them to me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, glad enough to get away from more dangerous topics, I narrated to her as
+briefly and clearly as I could, the history of the old witch-doctor&rsquo;s
+feud with the Royal House of Zululand. She listened, taking in every word, and
+said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So now he yearns to know whether he will conquer or be conquered; and
+that is why he sent, or thinks that he sent thee on this journey, not for thy
+sake, Allan, but for his own. I cannot tell thee, for what have I do to with
+the finish of this petty business, which to him seems so large? Still, as I owe
+him a debt for luring the Axe-Bearer here to rid me of mine enemy, and thee to
+lighten my solitude for an hour by the burnishing of thy mind, I will try. Set
+that bowl before me, Allan,&rdquo; and she pointed to a marble tripod on which
+stood a basin half full of water, &ldquo;and come, sit close by me and look
+into it, telling me what thou seest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed her instructions and presently found myself with my head over the
+basin, staring into the water in the exact attitude of a person who is about to
+be shampooed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This seems rather foolish,&rdquo; I said abjectly, for at that moment I
+resembled the Queen of Sheba in one particular, if in no other, namely, that
+there was no more spirit in me. &ldquo;What am I supposed to do? I see nothing
+at all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look again,&rdquo; she said, and as she spoke the water grew clouded.
+Then on it appeared a picture. I saw the interior of a Kaffir hut dimly lighted
+by a single candle set in the neck of a bottle. To the left of the door of the
+hut was a bedstead and on it lay stretched a wasted and dying man, in whom, to
+my astonishment, I recognised Cetywayo, King of the Zulus. At the foot of the
+bed stood another man&mdash;myself grown older by many years, and leaning over
+the bed, apparently whispering into the dying man&rsquo;s ear, was a grotesque
+and malevolent figure which I knew to be that of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, whose
+glowing eyes were fixed upon the terrified and tortured face of Cetywayo. All
+was as it happened afterwards, as I have written down in the book called
+&ldquo;Finished.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I described what I saw to Ayesha, and while I was doing so the picture vanished
+away, so that nothing remained save the clear water in the marble bowl. The
+story did not seem to interest her; indeed, she leaned back and yawned a
+little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thy vision is good, Allan,&rdquo; she said indifferently, &ldquo;and
+wide also, since thou canst see what passes in the sun or distant stars, and
+pictures of things to be in the water, to say nothing of other pictures in a
+woman&rsquo;s eyes, all within an hour. Well, this savage business concerns me
+not and of it I want to know no more. Yet it would appear that here the old
+wizard who is thy friend, has the answer that he desires. For there in the
+picture the king he hates lies dying while he hisses in his ear and thou dost
+watch the end. What more can he seek? Tell him it when ye meet, and tell him
+also it is my will that in future he should trouble me less, since I love not
+to be wakened from my sleep to listen to his half-instructed talk and savage
+vapourings. Indeed, he presumes too much. And now enough of him and his dark
+plots. Ye have your desires, all of you, and are paid in full.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Over-paid, perhaps,&rdquo; I said with a sigh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Allan, I think that Lesson thou hast learned pleases thee but
+little. Well, be comforted for the thing is common. Hast never heard that there
+is but one morsel more bitter to the taste than desire denied, namely, desire
+fulfilled? Believe me that there can be no happiness for man until he attains a
+land where all desire is dead.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is what the Buddha preaches, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, I remember the doctrines of that wise man well, who without doubt
+had found a key to the gate of Truth, one key only, for, mark thou, Allan,
+there are many. Yet, man being man must know desires, since without them,
+robbed of ambitions, strivings, hopes, fears, aye and of life itself, the race
+must die, which is not the will of the Lord of Life who needs a nursery for his
+servant&rsquo;s souls, wherein his swords of Good and Ill shall shape them to
+his pattern. So it comes about, Allan, that what we think the worst is oft the
+best for us, and with that knowledge, if we are wise, let us assuage our
+bitterness and wipe away our tears.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have often thought that,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I doubt it not, Allan, since though it has pleased me to make a jest of
+thee, I know that thou hast thy share of wisdom, such little share as thou
+canst gather in thy few short years. I know, too, that thy heart is good and
+aspires high, and Friend&mdash;well, I find in thee a friend indeed, as I think
+not for the first time, nor certainly for the last. Mark, Allan, what I say,
+not a lover, but a <i>friend</i>, which is higher far. For when passion dies
+with the passing of the flesh, if there be no friendship what will remain save
+certain memories that, mayhap, are well forgot? Aye, how would those lovers
+meet elsewhere who were never more than lovers? With weariness, I hold, as they
+stared into each other&rsquo;s empty soul, or even with disgust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Therefore the wise will seek to turn those with whom Fate mates them
+into friends, since otherwise soon they will be lost for aye. More, if they are
+wiser still, having made them friends, they will suffer them to find lovers
+where they will. Good maxims, are they not? Yet hard to follow, or so,
+perchance, thou thinkest them&mdash;as I do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+She grew silent and brooded a while, resting her chin upon her hand and staring
+down the hall. Thus the aspect of her face was different from any that I had
+seen it wear. No longer had it the allure of Aphrodite or the majesty of Hera;
+rather might it have been that of Athene herself. So wise it seemed, so calm,
+so full of experience and of foresight, that almost it frightened me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What was this woman&rsquo;s true story, I wondered, what her real self, and
+what the sum of her gathered knowledge? Perhaps it was accident, or perhaps,
+again, she guessed my mind. At any rate her next words seemed in some sense an
+answer to these speculations. Lifting her eyes she contemplated me a while,
+then said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My friend, we part to meet no more in thy life&rsquo;s day. Often thou
+wilt wonder concerning me, as to what in truth I am, and mayhap in the end thy
+judgment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer who,
+rejected of the world or driven from it by her crimes, made choice to rule
+among savages, playing the part of Oracle to that little audience and telling
+strange tales to such few travellers as come her way. Perhaps, indeed, I do
+play this part among many others, and if so, thou wilt not judge me wrongly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas, told
+me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed from dizzy
+cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shines. They told me also that
+whereas above the ocean&rsquo;s breast appears but a blue and dazzling point,
+sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle, invisible to man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Such am I, Allan. Of my being thou seest but one little peak glittering
+in light or crowned with storm, as heaven&rsquo;s moods sweep over it. But in
+the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations, hollowed by the
+seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit doth inhabit. So picture
+me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a soul unknown, and pray that in time
+to come thou mayest see it in its splendour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hadst thou been other than thou art, I might have shown thee secrets,
+making clear to thee the parable of much that I have told thee in metaphor and
+varying fable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power and enduring days of
+which thou knowest nothing. But of those who visit shrines, O Allan, two things
+are required, worship and faith, since without these the oracles are dumb and
+the healing waters will not flow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now I, Ayesha, am a shrine; yet to me thou broughtest no worship until I
+won it by a woman&rsquo;s trick, and in me thou hast no faith. Therefore for
+thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will not flow. Yet
+I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard world has shaped thee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not
+in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still exercise
+on earth, I, whom men name Ayesha, am in all things. I tell thee that I am not
+One but Many and, being many, am both Here and Everywhere. When thou standest
+beneath the sky at night and lookest on the stars, remember that in them mine
+eyes behold thee; when the soft winds of evening blow, that my breath is on thy
+brow and when the thunder rolls, that there am I riding on the lightnings and
+rushing with the gale.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?&rdquo; I asked, bewildered.
+&ldquo;Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her
+priestess?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds do not reach thine ears; all
+sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf and
+blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worship is forgot, some
+spark of the spirit of that immortal Lady whose chariot was the moon, lingers
+on the earth in this woman&rsquo;s shape of mine, though her essence dwells
+afar, and perchance her other name is Nature, my mother and thine, O Allan. At
+the least hath not the World a soul&mdash;and of that soul am I not mayhap a
+part, aye, and thou also? For the rest are not the priest and the Divine he
+bows to, oft the same?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a self-deceiver,
+but I did not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha&rsquo;s benison go with thee. Safe shalt
+thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy companions
+with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy time comes, and then,
+perchance, thou wilt find those whom thou hast lost more kind than they seemed
+to be to-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She paused awhile, then added,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, much that I have told thee
+may bear a double meaning, as is the way of parables, to be interpreted as thou
+wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain man, in the old days named
+Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine decree, and I await him
+here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world without, tell him that Ayesha
+awaits him and grows weary in the waiting. Nay, thou wilt never find him, since
+even if he be born again, by what token would he be known to thee? Therefore I
+charge thee, keep my secrets well, lest Ayesha&rsquo;s curse should fall on
+thee. While thou livest tell naught of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou
+swear to keep my secrets, Allan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I swear, Ayesha.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank thee, Allan,&rdquo; she answered, and grew silent for a while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height, stood
+there majestic. Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too had risen and
+left the dais.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over me as though in blessing,
+then pointed towards the curtains which at this moment were drawn asunder, by
+whom I do not know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went and when I reached them, turned to look my last on her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes were fixed upon the ground
+and her face once more was brooding absently as though no such a man as I had
+ever been. It came into my mind that already she had forgotten me, the
+plaything of an hour, who had served her turn and been cast aside.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap23"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
+WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW</h2>
+
+<p>
+Like one who dreams I passed down the outer hall where stood the silent guards
+as statues might, and out through the archway. Here I paused for a moment,
+partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings of the night, and partly
+because I thought that I heard someone approaching me through the gloom, and in
+such a place where I might have many enemies, it was well to be prepared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it chanced, however, my imaginary assailant was only Hans, who emerged from
+some place where he had been hiding; a very disturbed and frightened Hans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Baas,&rdquo; he said in a low and shaky whisper, &ldquo;I am glad to
+see you again, and standing on your feet, not being carried with them sticking
+straight in front of you as I expected.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Baas, because of the things that happened in that place where the
+tall <i>vrouw</i> with her head tied up as though she had tooth-ache, sits like
+a spider in a web.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, what happened, Hans?&rdquo; I asked as we walked forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This, Baas. The Doctoress talked and talked at you and Umslopogaas, and
+as she talked, your faces began to look as though you had drunk half a flask
+too much of the best gin, such as I wish I had some of here to-night, at once
+wise and foolish, and full and empty, Baas. Then you both rolled over and lay
+there quite dead, and whilst I was wondering what I should do and how I should
+get out your bodies to bury them, the Doctoress came down off her platform and
+bent, first over you and next over Umslopogaas, whispering into the ears of
+both of you. Then she took off a snake that looked as though it were made of
+gold with green eyes, which she wears about her middle beneath the long
+dish-cloth, Baas, and held it to your lips and next to those of
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, and what then, Hans?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After that all sorts of things came about, Baas, and I felt as though
+the whole house were travelling through the air, Baas, twice as fast as a
+bullet does from a rifle. Suddenly, too, the room became filled with fire so
+hot that it scorched me, and so bright that it made my eyes water, although
+they can look at the sun without winking. And, Baas, the fire was full of
+spooks which walked around; yes, I saw some of them standing on your head and
+stomach, Baas, also on that of Umslopogaas, whilst others went and talked to
+the white Doctoress as quietly as though they had met her in the market-place
+and wanted to sell her eggs or butter. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend
+father, the Predikant, who looked as though he were red-hot, as doubtless he is
+in the Place of Fires. I thought he came up to me, Baas, and said, &lsquo;Get
+out of this, Hans. This is no place for a good Hottentot like you, Hans, for
+here only the very best Christians can bear the heat for long.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That finished me, Baas. I just answered that I handed you, the Baas
+Allan his son, over to his care, hoping that he would see that you did not burn
+in that oven, whatever happened to Umslopogaas. Then I shut my eyes and mouth
+and held my nose, and wriggled beneath those curtains as a snake does, Baas,
+and ran down the hall and across the kraal-yard and through the archway out
+into the night, where I have been sitting cooling myself ever since, waiting
+for you to be carried away, Baas. And now you have come alive and with not even
+your hair burnt off, which shows how wonderful must be the Great Medicine of
+Zikali, Baas, since nothing else could have saved you in that fire, no, not
+even your reverend father, the Predikant.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hans,&rdquo; I said when he had finished, &ldquo;you are a very
+wonderful fellow, for you can get drunk on nothing at all. Please remember,
+Hans, that you have been drunk to-night, yes, very drunk indeed, and never dare
+to repeat anything that you thought you saw while you were drunk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, I understand that I was drunk and already have forgotten
+everything. But, Baas, there is still a bottle full of brandy and if I could
+have just one more tot I should forget <i>so</i> much better!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By now we had reached our camp and here I found Umslopogaas sitting in the
+doorway and staring at the sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good-evening to you, Umslopogaas,&rdquo; I said in my most unconcerned
+manner, and waited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good-evening, Watcher-by-Night, who I thought was lost in the night,
+since in the end the night is stronger than any of its watchers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this cryptic remark I looked bewildered but said nothing. At length
+Umslopogaas, whose nature, for a Zulu, was impulsive and lacking in the
+ordinary native patience, asked,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you make a journey this evening, Macumazahn, and if so, what did you
+see?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogaas?&rdquo; I inquired by way
+of answer, &ldquo;and if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut
+your eyes in the House of the White One yonder, doubtless because you were
+weary of talk which you did not understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, Macumazahn, as you suppose I grew weary of that talk which flowed
+from the lips of the White Witch like the music that comes from a little stream
+babbling over stones when the sun is hot, and being weary, I fell asleep and
+dreamed. What I dreamed does not much matter. It is enough to say that I felt
+as though I were thrown through the air like a stone cast from his sling by a
+boy who is set upon a stage to scare the birds out of a mealie garden. Further
+than any stone I went, aye, further than a shooting star, till I reached a
+wonderful place. It does not much matter what it was like either, and indeed I
+am already beginning to forget, but there I met everyone I have ever known. I
+met the Lion of the Zulus, the Black One, the Earth-Shaker, he who had a
+&lsquo;sister&rsquo; named Baleka, which sister,&rdquo; here he dropped his
+voice and looked about him suspiciously, &ldquo;bore a child, which child was
+fostered by one Mopo, that Mopo who afterwards slew the Black one with the
+Princes. Now, Macumazahn, I had a score to settle with this Black One, aye,
+even though our blood be much of the same colour, I had a score to settle with
+him, because of the slaying of this sister of his, Baleka, together with the
+Langeni tribe.<a href="#fn-23.1" name="fnref-23.1" id="fnref-23.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+So I walked up to him and took him by the head-ring and spat in his face and
+bade him find a spear and shield, and meet me as man to man. Yes, I did
+this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-23.1" id="fn-23.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-23.1">[1]</a>
+For the history of Baleka, the mother of Umslopogaas, and Mopo, see the book
+called &ldquo;Nada the Lily.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what happened then, Umslopogaas?&rdquo; I said, when he paused in
+his narrative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his
+head-ring and the skull beneath, and to shut upon itself while he went on
+talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognised, yes, one Faku, whom in
+the days of Dingaan, the Black One&rsquo;s brother, I myself slew upon the
+Ghost-Mountain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Macumazahn, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him
+and of the fight that I and my blood-brother and the wolves made, there on the
+knees of the old witch who sits aloft on the Ghost Mountain waiting for the
+world to die, for I could understand their talk, though mine went by them like
+the wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn, they passed away and there came others, Dingaan among them,
+aye, Dingaan who also knows something of the Witch-Mountain, seeing that there
+Mopo and I hurled him to his death. With him also I would have had words, but
+it was the same story, only presently he caught sight of the Black One, yes, of
+Chaka whom he slew, stabbing him with the little red assegai, and turned and
+fled, because in that land I think he still fears Chaka, Macumazahn, or so the
+dream told.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I went on and met others, men I had fought in my day, most of them,
+among them was Jikiza, he who ruled the People of the Axe before me whom I slew
+with his own axe. I lifted the axe and made me ready to fight again, but not
+one of them took any note of me. There they walked about, or sat drinking beer
+or taking snuff, but never a sup of the beer or a pinch of the snuff did they
+offer me, no, not even those among them whom I chanced not to have killed. So I
+left them and walked on, seeking for Mopo, my foster-father, and a certain man,
+my blood-brother, by whose side I hunted with the wolves, yes, for them, and
+for another.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, and did you find them?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mopo I found not, which makes me think, Macumazahn, that, as once you
+hinted to me, he whom I thought long dead, perchance still lingers on the
+earth. But the others I did find . . .&rdquo; and he ceased, brooding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I knew enough of Umslopogaas&rsquo;s history to be aware that he had loved
+this man and woman of whom he spoke more than any others on the earth. The
+&ldquo;blood-brother,&rdquo; whose name he would not utter, by which he did not
+mean that he was his brother in blood but one with whom he had made a pact of
+eternal friendship by the interchange of blood or some such ceremony, according
+to report, had dwelt with him on the Witch-Mountain where legend told, though
+this I could scarcely believe, that they had hunted with a pack of hyenas.
+There, it said also, they fought a great fight with a band send out by Dingaan
+the king under the command of that Faku whom Umslopogaas had mentioned, in
+which fight the &ldquo;Blood-Brother,&rdquo; wielder of a famous club known as
+Watcher-of-the-Fords, got his death after doing mighty deeds. There also, as I
+had heard, Nada the Lily, whose beauty was still famous in the land, died under
+circumstances strange as they were sad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Naturally, remembering my own experiences, or rather what seemed to be my
+experiences, for already I had made up my mind that they were but a dream, I
+was most anxious to learn whether these two who had been so dear to this fierce
+Zulu, had recognised him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, and what did they say to you, Umslopogaas?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn, they said nothing at all. Hearken! There stood this pair, or
+sometimes they moved to and fro; my brother, an even greater man than he used
+to be, with the wolfskin girt about him and the club, Watcher-of-the-Fords,
+which he alone could wield, upon his shoulder, and Nada, grown lovelier even
+than she was of old, so lovely, Macumazahn, that my heart rose into my throat
+when I saw her and stopped my breath. Yes, Macumazahn, there they stood, or
+walked about arm in arm as lovers might, and looked into each other&rsquo;s
+eyes and talked of how they had known each other on the earth, for I could
+understand their words or thoughts, and how it was good to be at rest together
+where they were.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You see, they were old friends, Umslopogaas,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Macumazahn, very old friends as I thought. So much so that they had
+never had a word to say of me who also was the old friend of both of them. Aye,
+my brother, whose name I am sworn not to speak, the woman-hater who vowed he
+loved nothing save me and the wolves, could smile into the face of Nada the
+Lily, Nada the bride of my youth, yet never a word of me, while she could smile
+back and tell him how great a warrior he had been and never a word of me whose
+deeds she was wont to praise, who saved her in the Halakazi caves and from
+Dingaan; no, never a word of me although I stood there staring at them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose that they did not see you, Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is so, Macumazahn; I am sure that they did not see me, for if they
+had they would not have been so much at ease. But I saw them and as they would
+not take heed when I shouted, I ran up calling to my brother to defend himself
+with his club. Then, as he still took no note, I lifted the axe
+<i>Inkosikaas</i>, making it circle in the light, and smote with all my
+strength.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what happened, Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only this, Macumazahn, that the axe went straight through my brother
+from the crown of his head to the groin, cutting him in two, and he just went
+on talking! Indeed, he did more, for stooping down he gathered a white
+lily-bloom which grew there and gave it to Nada, who smelt at it, smiled and
+thanked him, and then thrust it into her girdle, still thanking him all the
+while. Yes, she did this for I saw it with my eyes, Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here the Zulu&rsquo;s voice broke and I think that he wept, for in the faint
+light I saw him draw his long hand across his eyes, whereon I took the
+opportunity to turn my back and light a pipe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn,&rdquo; he went on presently, &ldquo;it seems that madness
+took hold of me for a long while, for I shouted and raved at them, thinking
+that words and rage might hurt where good steel could not, and as I did so they
+faded away and disappeared, still smiling and talking, Nada smelling at the
+lily which, having a long stalk, rose up above her breast. After this I rushed
+away and suddenly met that savage king, Rezu, whom I slew a few days gone. At
+him I went with the axe, wondering whether he would put up a better fight this
+second time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And did he, Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, but I think he felt me for he turned and fled and when I tried to
+follow I could not see him. So I ran on and presently who should I find but
+Baleka, Baleka, Chaka&rsquo;s &lsquo;sister&rsquo; who&mdash;repeat it not,
+Macumazahn&mdash;was my mother; and, Macumazahn, <i>she</i> saw me. Yes, though
+I was but little when last she looked on me who now am great and grim, she saw
+and knew me, for she floated up to me and smiled at me and seemed to press her
+lips upon my forehead, though I could feel no kiss, and to draw the soreness
+out of my heart. Then she, too, was gone and of a sudden I fell down through
+space, having, I suppose, stepped into some deep hole, or perchance a well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The next thing I knew was that I awoke in the house of the White Witch
+and saw you sleeping at my side and the Witch leaning back upon her bed and
+smiling at me through the thin blanket with which she covers herself up, for I
+could see the laughter in her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now I grew mad with her because of the things that I had seen in the
+Place of Dreams, and it came into my heart that it would be well to kill her
+that the world might be rid of her and her evil magic which can show lies to
+men. So, being distraught, I sprang up and lifted the axe and stepped towards
+her, whereon she rose and stood before me, laughing out loud. Then she said
+something in the tongue I cannot understand, and pointed with her finger, and
+lo! next moment it was as if giants had seized me and were whirling me away,
+till presently I found myself breathless but unharmed beyond the arch
+and&mdash;what does it all mean, Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very little, as I think, Umslopogaas, except that this queen has powers
+to which those of Zikali are as nothing, and can cause visions to float before
+the eyes of men. For know that such things as you saw, I saw, and in them those
+whom I have loved also seemed to take no thought of me but only to be concerned
+with each other. Moreover when I awoke and told this to the queen who is called
+She-who-commands, she laughed at me as she did at you, and said that it was a
+good lesson for my pride who in that pride had believed that the dead only
+thought of the living. But I think that the lesson came from her who wished to
+humble us, Umslopogaas, and that it was her mind that shaped these visions
+which we saw.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think so too, Macumazahn, but how she knew of all the matters of your
+life and mine, I do not know, unless perchance Zikali told them to her,
+speaking in the night-watches as wizards can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Umslopogaas, I believe that by her magic she drew our stories out
+of our own hearts and then set them forth to us afresh, putting her own colour
+on them. Also it may be that she drew something from Hans, and from Goroko and
+the other Zulus with you, and thus paid us the fee that she had promised for
+our service, but in lung-sick oxen and barren cows, not in good cattle,
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He nodded and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Though at the time I seemed to go mad and though I know that women are
+false and men must follow where they lead them, never will I believe that my
+brother, the woman-hater, and Nada are lovers in the land below and have there
+forgotten me, the comrade of one of them and the husband of the other. Moreover
+I hold, Macumazahn, that you and I have met with a just reward for our folly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We have sought to look through the bottom of the grave at things which
+the Great-Great in Heaven above did not mean that men should see, and now that
+we have seen we are unhappier than we were, since such dreams burn themselves
+upon the heart as a red-hot iron burns the hide of an ox, so that the hair will
+never grow again where it has been and the hide is marred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To you, Watcher-by-Night, I say, &lsquo;Content yourself with your
+watching and whatever it may bring to you in fame and wealth.&rsquo; And to
+myself I say, &lsquo;Holder of the Axe, content yourself with the axe and what
+it may bring to you in fair fight and glory&rsquo;; and to both of us I say,
+&lsquo;Let the Dead sleep unawakened until we go to join them, which surely
+will be soon enough.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good words, Umslopogaas, but they should have been spoken ere ever we
+set out on this journey.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so, Macumazahn, since that journey we were fated to make to save one
+who lies yonder, the Lady Sad-Eyes, and, as they tell me, is well again. Also
+Zikali willed it, and who can resist the will of the Opener-of-Roads? So it is
+made and we have seen many strange things and won some glory and come to know
+how deep is the pool of our own foolishness, who thought that we could search
+out the secrets of Death, and there have only found those of a witch&rsquo;s
+mind and venom, reflected as in water. And now having discovered all these
+things I wish to be gone from this haunted land. When do we march,
+Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To-morrow morning, I believe, if the Lady Sad-Eyes and the others are
+well enough, as She-who-commands says they will be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good. Then I would sleep who am more weary than I was after I had killed
+Rezu in the battle on the mountain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;since it is harder to fight ghosts than
+men, and dreams, if they be bad, are more dreadful than deeds. Good-night,
+Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+He went, and I too went to see how it fared with Inez. I found that she was
+fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which Ayesha seemed to
+have plunged her. Now it was absolutely natural and looking at her lying there
+upon the bed, I thought how young and healthy was her appearance. The women in
+charge of her also told me that she had awakened at the hour appointed by
+She-who-commands, as it seemed, quite well and very hungry, although she
+appeared to be puzzled by her surroundings. After she had eaten, they added
+that she had &ldquo;sung a song,&rdquo; which was probably a hymn, and prayed
+upon her knees, &ldquo;making signs upon her breast&rdquo; and then gone
+quietly to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My anxiety relieved as regards Inez, I returned to my own quarters. Not feeling
+inclined for slumber, however, instead of turning in I sat at the doorway
+contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the countless fireflies
+that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning gold; also the great owls
+and other fowl that haunt the dark. These had come out in numbers from their
+hiding-places among the ruins and sailed to and fro like white-winged spirits,
+now seen and now lost in the gloom.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary nature of
+my experiences during the past few days. Had any man ever known the like, I
+wondered? What could they mean and what could this marvellous woman Ayesha be?
+Was she perhaps a personification of Nature itself, as indeed to some extent
+all women are? Was she human at all, or was she some spirit symbolising a
+departed people, faith and civilisation, and haunting the ruins where once she
+reigned as queen? No, the idea was ridiculous, since such beings do not exist,
+though it was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of
+common humanity, as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than are given
+to any other woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of one thing I was certain, however, that the Shades I had seemed to visit had
+their being in the circle of her own imagination and intelligence. There
+Umslopogaas was right; we had seen no dead, we had only seen pictures and
+images that she drew and fashioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Why did she do this, I wondered. Perhaps to pretend to powers which she did not
+possess, perhaps out of sheer elfish mischief, or perhaps, as she asserted,
+just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own sight. Well, if so she
+had succeeded, for never did I feel so crushed and humiliated as at that
+moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had seemed to descend, or ascend, into Hades, and there had only seen things
+that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds. Then, on
+awaking, I had been bewitched; yes, fresh from those visions of the most dear
+dead, I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic of this woman&rsquo;s
+loveliness and charm, and made a fool of myself, only to be brought back to my
+senses by her triumphant mockery. Oh, I was humbled indeed, and yet the odd
+thing is that I could not feel angry with her, and what is more that, perhaps
+from vanity, I believed in her profession of friendship towards myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, the upshot of it was that, like Umslopogaas, more than anything else in
+the world did I desire to depart from this haunted Kôr and to bury all its
+recollections in such activities as fortune might bring to me. And yet, and yet
+it was well to have seen it and to have plucked the flower of such marvellous
+experience, nor, as I knew even then, could I ever inter the memory of Ayesha
+the wise, the perfect in all loveliness, and the half-divine in power.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+When I awoke the next morning the sun was well up and after I had taken a swim
+in the old bath and dressed myself, I went to see how it fared with Inez. I
+found her sitting at the door of her house looking extremely well and with a
+radiant face. She was engaged in making a chain of some small and beautiful
+blue flowers of the iris tribe, of which quantities grew about, that she
+threaded together upon stalks of dry grass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This chain, which was just finished, she threw over her head so that it hung
+down upon her white robe, for now she was dressed like an Arab woman though
+without the veil. I watched her unseen for a little while then came forward and
+spoke to her. She started at the sight of me and rose as though to run away;
+then, apparently reassured by my appearance, selected a particularly fine
+flower and offered it to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I saw at once that she did not know me in the least and thought that she had
+never seen me before, in short, that her mind had gone, exactly as Ayesha had
+said that it would do. By way of making conversation I asked her if she felt
+well. She replied, Oh, yes, she had never felt better, then added,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Daddy has gone on a long journey and will not be back for weeks and
+weeks.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An idea came to me and I answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Inez, but I am a friend of his and he has sent me to take you to a
+place where I hope that we shall find him. Only it is far away, so you also
+must make a long journey.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She clapped her hands and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, that will be nice, I do so love travelling, especially to find
+Daddy, who I expect will have my proper clothes with him, not these which,
+although they are very comfortable and pretty, seem different to what I used to
+wear. You look very nice too and I am sure that we shall be great friends,
+which I am glad of, for I have been rather lonely since my mother went to live
+with the saints in Heaven, because, you see, Daddy is so busy and so often
+away, that I do not see much of him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon my word I could have wept when I heard her prattle on thus. It is so
+terribly unnatural, almost dreadful indeed, to listen to a full grown woman who
+talks in the accents and expresses the thoughts of a child. However, under all
+the circumstances I recognised that her calamity was merciful, and remembering
+that Ayesha had prophesied the recovery of her mind as well as its loss and how
+great seemed to be her powers in these directions, I took such comfort as I
+could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving her I went to see the two Zulus who had been wounded and found to my
+joy that they were now quite well and fit to travel, for here, too,
+Ayesha&rsquo;s prophecy had proved good. The other men also were completely
+rested and anxious to be gone like Umslopogaas and myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Billali, who with
+a sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we should be ready
+to start, as he had received orders to see to all the necessary arrangements. I
+replied&mdash;within an hour, and he departed in a hurry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of litters and
+their bearers, also with a bodyguard of twenty-five picked men, all of whom we
+recognised as brave fellows who had fought well in the battle. These men and
+the bearers old Billali harangued, telling them that they were to guide, carry
+and escort us to the other side of the great swamp, or further if we needed it,
+and that it was the word of She-who-commands that if so much as the smallest
+harm came to any one of us, even by accident, they should die every man of them
+&ldquo;by the hot-pot,&rdquo; whatever that might be, for I was not sure of the
+significance of this horror.<a href="#fn-23.2" name="fnref-23.2" id="fnref-23.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+Then he asked them if they understood. They replied with fervour that they
+understood perfectly and would lead and guard us as though we were their own
+mothers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-23.2" id="fn-23.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-23.2">[2]</a>
+For this see the book called &ldquo;She.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a matter of fact they did, and I think would have done so independently of
+Ayesha&rsquo;s command, since they looked upon Umslopogaas and myself almost as
+gods and thought that we could destroy them all if we wished, as we had
+destroyed Rezu and his host.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked Billali if he were not coming with us, to which he replied, No, as
+She-who-commands had returned to her own place and he must follow her at once.
+I asked him again where her own place might be, to which he answered vaguely
+that it was everywhere and he stared first at the heavens and then at the earth
+as though she inhabited most of them, adding that generally it was &ldquo;in
+the Caves,&rdquo; though what he meant by that I did not know. Then he said
+that he was very glad to have met us and that the sight of Umslopogaas killing
+Rezu was a spectacle that he would remember with pleasure all his life. Also he
+asked me for a present. I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little
+German silver case, with which he was delighted. Thus I parted with old
+Billali, of whom I shall always think with a certain affection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslopogaas, thinking, I
+suppose, that he might take a last opportunity to fulfil his threats and
+introduce him to his terrible Axe.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
+UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE</h2>
+
+<p>
+A little while later we started, some of us in litters, including the wounded
+Zulus, who I insisted should be carried for a day or two, and some on foot.
+Inez I caused to be borne immediately in front of myself so that I could keep
+an eye upon her. Moreover I put her in the especial charge of Hans, to whom
+fortunately she took a great fancy at once, perhaps because she remembered
+subconsciously that she knew him and that he had been kind to her, although
+when they met after her long sleep, as in my own case, she did not recognise
+him in the least.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon, however, they were again the fastest of friends, so much so that within a
+day or two the little Hottentot practically filled the place of a maid to her,
+attending to her every want and looking after her exactly as a nurse does after
+a child, with the result that it was quite touching to see how she came to
+depend upon him, &ldquo;her monkey,&rdquo; as she called him, and how fond he
+grew of her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once, indeed, there was trouble, since hearing a noise, I came up to find Hans
+bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the Zulus, who stupidly, or
+perhaps rudely, had knocked against the litter of Inez and nearly turned it
+over. For the rest, the Lady Sad-Eyes, as they called her, had for the time
+became the Lady Glad-Eyes, since she was merry as the day was long, laughing
+and singing and playing just as a healthy happy child should do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only once did I see her wretched and weep. It was when a kitten which she had
+insisted on bringing with her, sprang out of the litter and vanished into some
+bush where it could not be found. Even when she was soon consoled and dried her
+tears, when Hans explained to her in a mixture of bad English and worse
+Portuguese, that it had only run away because it wished to get back to its
+mother which it loved, and that it was cruel to separate it from its mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over the crest
+of the cliff or volcano lip that encircles the great plain of Kôr, and
+descending rapidly to a sheltered spot on the outer slope where our camp was to
+be set for the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not very far from this place, as I think I have mentioned, stood, and I suppose
+still stands, a very curious pinnacle of rock, which, doubtless being of some
+harder sort, had remained when, hundreds of thousands or millions of years
+before, the surrounding lava had been washed or had corroded away. This rock
+pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and as smooth as though it had been worked
+by man; indeed, I remembered having remarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas&mdash;I
+forget which&mdash;when we passed it on our inward journey, that there was a
+column which no monkey could climb.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappeared behind
+the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struck upon a
+storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in a glow of angry
+light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon the summit of this
+strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas at the end of
+the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncoming darkness. When we
+had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards, something caused
+Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered an exclamation which made me
+follow his example, with the result that I saw a very wonderful thing. For
+there on the point of the pillar, like St. Simeon Stylites on his famous
+column, glowing in the sunset rays as though she were on fire, stood Ayesha
+herself!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus between earth
+and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather than a woman, standing as
+she seemed to do upon the darkness; since the shadows, save for the faintest
+outline, had swallowed up the column that supported her. Moreover, in the
+intense, rich light that was focussed on her, we could see every detail of her
+form and face, for she was unveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which
+gazed upwards emptily (at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the
+little gold studs that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake
+girdle she wore about her waist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me that
+She-who-commands had departed from Kôr to her own place.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,
+Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If she be there,&rdquo; I answered angrily, for my nerves were at once
+thrilled and torn. &ldquo;Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where else
+can she be when we see her with our eyes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds, are
+able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rock like a
+lizard, Macumazahn?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Doubtless&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and I began some explanation which I have
+forgotten, when a passing cloud, or I know not what, cut off the light so that
+both the pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible. A minute later it
+returned for a little while, and there was the point of the needle-shaped rock,
+but it was empty, as, save for the birds that rested on it, it had been since
+the beginning of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Umslopogaas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+This was the last that I saw of the glorious Ayesha, if indeed I did see her
+and not her ghost. Yet it is true that for all the first part of the journey,
+till we were through the great swamp in fact, from time to time I was
+conscious, or imagined that I was conscious of her presence. Moreover, once
+others saw her, or someone who might have been her. It happened thus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were in the centre of the great swamp and the trained guides who were
+leading came to a place where the path forked and were uncertain which road to
+take. Finally they fixed on the right-hand path and were preparing to follow it
+together with those who bore the litter of Inez, by the side of which Hans was
+walking as usual.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment, as Hans told me, the guides went down upon their faces and he
+saw standing in front of them a white-veiled form who pointed to the left-hand
+path, and then seemed to be lost in the mist. Without a word the guides rose
+and followed this left-hand path. Hans stopped the litter till I came up when
+he told me what had happened, while Inez also began to chatter in her childish
+fashion about a &ldquo;White Lady.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had the curiosity to walk a little way along the right-hand path which they
+were about to take. Only a few yards further on I found myself sinking in a
+floating quagmire, from which I extricated myself with much difficulty but just
+in time for as I discovered afterwards by probing with a pole, the water
+beneath the matted reeds was deep. That night I questioned the guides upon the
+subject, but without result, for they pretended to have seen nothing and not to
+understand what I meant. Of neither of these incidents have I any explanation
+to offer, except that once contracted, it is as difficult to be rid of the
+habit of hallucinations as of any other.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+It is not necessary that I should give all the details of our long homeward
+journey. So I will only say that having dismissed our bearers and escorts when
+we reached higher ground beyond the horrible swamp, keeping one litter for Inez
+in which the Zulus carried her when she was tired, we accomplished it in
+complete safety and having crossed the Zambesi, at last one evening reached the
+house called Strathmuir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here we found the waggon and oxen quite safe and were welcomed rapturously by
+my Zulu driver and the <i>voorlooper</i>, who had made up their minds that we
+were dead and were thinking of trekking homewards. Here also Thomaso greeted
+us, though I think that, like the Zulus, he was astonished at our safe return
+and indeed not over-pleased to see us. I told him that Captain Robertson had
+been killed in a fight in which we had rescued his daughter from the cannibals
+who had carried her off (information which I cautioned him to keep to himself)
+but nothing else that I could help.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Also I warned the Zulus through Umslopogaas and Goroko, that no mention was to
+be made of our adventures, either then or afterwards, since if this were done
+the curse of the White Queen would fall on them and bring them to disaster and
+death. I added that the name of this queen and everything that was connected
+with her, or her doings, must be locked up in their own hearts. It must be like
+the name of dead kings, not to be spoken. Nor indeed did they ever speak it or
+tell the story of our search, because they were too much afraid both of Ayesha
+whom they believed to be the greatest of all witches, and of the axe of their
+captain, Umslopogaas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Inez went to bed that night without seeming to recognise her old home, to all
+appearance just a mindless child as she had been ever since she awoke from her
+trance at Kôr. Next morning, however, Hans came to tell me that she was changed
+and that she wished to speak with me. I went, wondering, to find her in the
+sitting-room, dressed in European clothes which she had taken from where she
+kept them, and once more a reasoning woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mr. Quatermain,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I suppose that I must have been
+ill, for the last thing I remember is going to sleep on the night after you
+started for the hippopotamus hunt. Where is my father? Did any harm come to him
+while he was hunting?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; I answered, lying boldly, for I feared lest the truth
+should take away her mind again, &ldquo;it did. He was trampled upon by a
+hippopotamus bull, which charged him, and killed, and we were obliged to bury
+him where he died.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She bowed her head for a while and muttered some prayer for his soul, then
+looked at me keenly and said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not think you are telling me everything, Mr. Quatermain, but
+something seems to say that this is because it is not well that I should learn
+everything.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;you have been ill and out of your mind for
+quite a long while; something gave you a shock. I think that you learned of
+your father&rsquo;s death, which you have now forgotten, and were overcome with
+the news. Please trust to me and believe that if I keep anything back from you,
+it is because I think it best to do so for the present.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I trust and I believe,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Now please leave me,
+but tell me first where are those women and their children?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After your father died they went away,&rdquo; I replied, lying once
+more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me again but made no comment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I left her.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+How much Inez ever learned of the true story of her adventures I do not know to
+this hour, though my opinion is that it was but little. To begin with,
+everyone, including Thomaso, was threatened with the direst consequences if he
+said a word to her on the subject; moreover in her way she was a wise woman,
+one who knew when it was best not to ask questions. She was aware that she had
+suffered from a fit of aberration or madness and that during this time her
+father had died and certain peculiar things had happened. There she was content
+to leave the business and she never again spoke to me upon the subject. Of this
+I was very glad, as how on earth could I have explained to her about
+Ayesha&rsquo;s prophecies as to her lapse into childishness and subsequent
+return to a normal state when she reached her home seeing that I did not
+understand them myself?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once indeed she did inquire what had become of Janee to which I answered that
+she had died during her sickness. It was another lie, at any rate by
+implication, but I hold that there are occasions when it is righteous to lie.
+At least these particular falsehoods have never troubled my conscience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I may as well finish the story of Inez, that is, as far as I can. As I
+have shown she was always a woman of melancholy and religious temperament,
+qualities that seemed to grow upon her after her return to health. Certainly
+the religion did, for continually she was engaged in prayer, a development with
+which heredity may have had something to do, since after he became a reformed
+character and grew unsettled in his mind, her father followed the same road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On our return to civilisation, as it chanced, one of the first persons with
+whom she came in contact was a very earnest and excellent old priest of her own
+faith. The end of this intimacy was much what might have been expected. Very
+soon Inez determined to renounce the world, which I think never had any great
+attractions for her, and entered a sisterhood of an extremely strict Order in
+Natal, where, added to her many merits, her considerable possessions made her
+very welcome indeed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once in after years I saw her again when she expected before long to become the
+Mother-Superior of her convent. I found her very cheerful and she told me that
+her happiness was complete. Even then she did not ask me the true story of what
+had happened to her during that period when her mind was a blank. She said that
+she knew something had happened but that as she no longer felt any curiosity
+about earthly things, she did not wish to know the details. Again I rejoiced,
+for how could I tell the true tale and expect to be believed, even by the most
+confiding and simple-minded nun?
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+To return to more immediate events. When we had been at Strathmuir for a day or
+two and I thought that her mind was clear enough to judge of affairs, I told
+Inez that I must journey on to Natal, and asked her what she wished to do.
+Without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation she replied that she desired to come with
+me, as now that her father was dead nothing would induce her to continue to
+live at Strathmuir without friends, or indeed the consolations of religion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she showed me a secret hiding-place cunningly devised in a sort of cellar
+under the sitting-room floor, where her father was accustomed to keep the
+spirits of which he consumed so great a quantity. In this hole beneath some
+bricks, we discovered a large sum in gold stored away, which Robertson had
+always told his daughter she would find there, in the event of anything
+happening to him. With the money were his will and securities, also certain
+mementos of his youth and some love-letters together with a prayer-book that
+his mother had given him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These valuables, of which no one knew the existence except herself, we removed
+and then made our preparations for departure. They were simple; such articles
+of value as we could carry were packed into the waggon and the best of the
+cattle we drove with us. The place with the store and the rest of the stock
+were handed over to Thomaso on a half-profit agreement under arrangement that
+he should remit the share of Inez twice a year to a bank on the coast, where
+her father had an account. Whether or not he ever did this I am unable to say,
+but as no one wished to stop at Strathmuir, I could conceive no better plan
+because purchasers of property in that district did not exist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Inez whether she was sorry to leave
+the place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; she replied with energy, &ldquo;my life there has been a hell
+and I never wish to see it again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Now it was after this, on the northern borders of Zululand, that Zikali&rsquo;s
+Great Medicine, as Hans called it, really played its chief part, for without it
+I think that we should have been killed, every one of us. I do not propose to
+set out the business in detail; it is too long and intricate. Suffice it to
+say, therefore, that it had to do with the plots of Umslopogaas against
+Cetywayo, which had been betrayed by his wife Monazi and her lover Lousta, both
+of whom I have mentioned earlier in this record. The result was that a watch
+for him was kept on all the frontiers, because it was guessed that sooner or
+later he would return to Zululand; also it had become known that he was
+travelling in my company.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came about that when my approach was reported by spies, a company was
+gathered under the command of a man connected with the Royal House, and by it
+we were surrounded. Before attacking, however, this captain sent men to me with
+the message that with me the King had no quarrel, although I was travelling in
+doubtful company, and that if I would deliver over to him Umslopogaas, Chief of
+the People of the Axe, and his followers, I might go whither I wished unharmed,
+taking my goods with me. Otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed
+every one of us, since it was not desired that any witnesses should be left of
+what happened to Umslopogaas. Having delivered this ultimatum and declined any
+argument as to its terms, the messengers retired, saying that they would return
+for my answer within half an hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they were out of hearing Umslopogaas, who had listened to their words in
+grim silence, turned and spoke in such fashion as might have been expected of
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;now I come to the end of an unlucky
+journey, though mayhap it is not so evil as it seems, since I who went out to
+seek the dead but to be filled by yonder White Witch with the meat of mocking
+shadows, am about to find the dead in the only way in which they can be found,
+namely by becoming of their number.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems that this is the case with all of us, Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so, Macumazahn. That child of the King will give you safe-conduct.
+It is I and mine whose blood he seeks, as he has the right to do, since it is
+true that I would have raised rebellion against the King, I who wearied of my
+petty lot and knew that by blood his place was mine. In this quarrel you have
+no share, though you, whose heart is as white as your skin, are not minded to
+desert me. Moreover, even if you wished to fight, there is one in the waggon
+yonder whose life is not yours to give. The Lady Sad-Eyes is as a child in your
+arms and her you must bear to safety.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now this argument was so unanswerable that I did not know what to say. So I
+only asked what he meant to do, as escape was impossible, seeing that we were
+surrounded on every side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Make a glorious end, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said with a smile. &ldquo;I
+will go out with those who cling to me, that is with all who remain of my men,
+since my fate must be theirs, and stand back to back on yonder mound and there
+wait till these dogs of the King come up against us. Watch a while, Macumazahn,
+and see how Umslopogaas, Bearer of the Axe, and the warriors of the Axe can
+fight and die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I was silent for I knew not what to say. There we all stood silent, while
+minute by minute I watched the shadow creeping forward towards a mark that the
+head messenger had made with his spear upon the ground, for he had said that
+when it touched that mark he would return for his answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this rather dreadful silence I heard a dry little cough, which I knew came
+from the throat of Hans, and to be his method of indicating that he had a
+remark to make.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I asked with irritation, for it was annoying to see
+him seated there on the ground fanning himself with the remains of a hat and
+staring vacantly at the sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nothing, Baas, or rather, only this, Baas: Those hyenas of Zulus are
+even more afraid of the Great Medicine than were the cannibals up north, since
+the maker of it is nearer to them, Baas. You remember, Baas, they knelt to it,
+as it were, when we were going out of Zululand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, what of it, now that we are going into Zululand?&rdquo; I inquired
+sharply. &ldquo;Do you want me to show it to them?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Baas. What is the use, seeing that they are ready to let you pass,
+also the Lady Sad-Eyes, and me and the cattle with the driver and
+<i>voorlooper</i>, which is better still, and all the other goods. So what have
+you to gain by showing them the medicine? But perchance if it were on the neck
+of Umslopogaas and <i>he</i> showed it to them and brought it to their minds
+that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Zikali&rsquo;s Great Medicine,
+or aught that is his, die within three moons in this way or in that&mdash;well,
+Baas, who knows?&rdquo; and again he coughed drily and stared up at the sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I translated what Hans had said in Dutch to Umslopogaas, who remarked
+indifferently,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This little yellow man is well named Light-in-Darkness; at least the
+plan can be tried&mdash;if it fails there is always time to die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so, for the
+first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so long, and
+Umslopogaas put it over his head and hid it beneath his blanket.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain himself
+came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightly and once we had
+dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chat he turned to the matter
+of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at some length. I said that I quite
+understood his position but that it was a <i>very</i> awkward thing to
+interfere with a man who was the actual wearer of the Great Medicine of Zikali
+itself. When the captain heard this his eyes almost started out of his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!&rdquo; he exclaimed.
+&ldquo;Oh, now I understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe is
+unconquerable&mdash;such a wizard that no one is able to kill him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I replied, &ldquo;and you remember, do you not, that he who
+offends the Great Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies
+horribly within three moons, he and his household and all those with
+him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard it,&rdquo; he said with a sickly smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true,&rdquo; I added
+cheerfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was that Umslopogaas
+came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss a single word, that as
+resistance was useless and he did not wish me, his friend, to be involved in
+any trouble, together with his men he had agreed to accompany this King&rsquo;s
+captain to the royal kraal where he had been guaranteed a fair trial as to
+certain false charges which had been brought against him. He added that the
+King&rsquo;s captain had sworn upon the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads
+to give him safe conduct and attempt no mischief against him which, as was well
+known throughout the land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who
+wished to continue to look upon the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loud voice. He
+replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas alive if he might. He
+was only to kill him if he would not come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of the waggon, I
+had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that the arrangement was
+that he should be allowed to escape at night with his people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be sure of this, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that if I do not
+escape, neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,
+and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that thick
+head of his and make friends with the brain inside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;we have made a strange journey
+together and seen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I
+have fought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone was
+worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end as everything
+must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I do not think that I
+shall die on this journey with the captain, though I do think that others will
+die at the end of it,&rdquo; he added grimly, a saying which at the time I did
+not understand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches and
+wizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept into my
+bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the after-years
+and stand together in a great fray which will be our last, as I believe that
+the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives in Zikali&rsquo;s Medicine
+which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in words. I cannot say, but I
+pray that it is a true spirit, since although you are white and I am black and
+you are small and I am big, and you are gentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce
+and as open as the blade of my own axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as
+though we were born of the same mother and had been brought up in the same
+kraal. Now that captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I
+will return the Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he must send
+one of the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my bones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Farewell to you also, Yellow Man,&rdquo; he went on to Hans, who had
+appeared, hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome;
+&ldquo;well are you named Light-in-Darkness, and glad am I to have met you, who
+have learned from you how a snake moves and strikes, and how a jackal thinks
+and avoids the snare. Yes, farewell, for the spirit within me does not tell me
+that you and I shall meet again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he lifted the great axe, and gave me a formal salute, naming me
+&ldquo;Chief and Father, Great Chief and Father, from of old&rdquo; (<i>Baba!
+Koos y umcool! Koos y pagate!</i>), thereby acknowledging my superiority over
+him, a thing that he had never done before, and as he did, so did Goroko and
+the other Zulus, adding to their salute many titles of praise. In another
+minute he had gone with the King&rsquo;s captain, to whose side I noted he
+clung lovingly, his long, thin fingers playing about the horn handle of the axe
+that was named <i>Inkosikaas</i> and Groan-maker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am glad we have seen the last of him and his axe, Baas,&rdquo;
+remarked Hans, spitting reflectively. &ldquo;It is very well to sleep in the
+same hut with a tame lion sometimes, but after you have done so for many moons,
+you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pulling the
+blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws. Yes, I am very glad that
+this half-tame lion is gone, since sometimes I have thought that I should be
+obliged to poison it that we might sleep in peace. You know he called me a
+snake, Baas, and poison is a snake&rsquo;s only spear. Shall I tell the boys to
+inspan the oxen, Baas? I think the further we get from that King&rsquo;s
+captain and his men, the more comfortably shall we travel, especially now when
+we no longer have the Great Medicine to protect us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You suggested giving it to him, Hans,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Baas, I had rather that Umslopogaas went away with the Great
+Medicine, than that you kept the Great Medicine and he stopped with us here.
+Never travel with a traitor, Baas, at any rate in the land of the king whom he
+wishes to kill. Kings are very selfish people, Baas, and do not like being
+killed, especially by someone who wants to sit upon their stool and to take the
+royal salute. No one gives the royal salute to a dead king, Baas, however great
+he was before he died, and no one thinks the worse of a king who was a traitor
+before he became a king.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap25"></a>CHAPTER XXV.<br />
+ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE</h2>
+
+<p>
+Once more I sat in the Black Kloof face to face with old Zikali.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So you have got back safely, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Well, I
+told you you would, did I not? As for what happened to you upon the journey,
+let it be, for now that I am old long stories tire me and I daresay that there
+is nothing wonderful about this one. Where is the charm I lent you? Give it
+back now that it has served its turn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have not got it, Zikali. I passed it on to Umslopogaas of the Axe to
+save his life from the King&rsquo;s men.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, so you did. I had forgotten. Here it is,&rdquo; and opening his
+robe of fur, he showed me the hideous little talisman hanging about his neck,
+then added, &ldquo;Would you like a copy of it, Macumazahn, to keep as a
+memory? If so, I will carve one for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I should not. Has Umslopogaas been
+here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, he has been and gone again, which is one of the reasons why I do
+not wish to hear your tale a second time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where to? The Town of the People of the Axe?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Macumazahn, he came thence, or so I understood, but thither he will
+return no more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not, Zikali?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because after his fashion he made trouble there and left some dead
+behind him; one Lousta, I believe, whom he had appointed to sit on his stool as
+chief while he was away, and a woman called Monazi, who was his wife, or
+Lousta&rsquo;s wife, or the wife of both of them, I forget which. It is said
+that having heard stories of her&mdash;and the ears of jealousy are long,
+Macumazahn&mdash;he cut off this woman&rsquo;s head with a sweep of the axe and
+made Lousta fight him till he fell, which the fool did almost before he had
+lifted his shield. It served him right who should have made sure that
+Umslopogaas was dead before he wrapped himself in his blanket and took the
+woman to cook his porridge.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where has the Axe-bearer gone?&rdquo; I asked without surprise, for this
+news did not astonish me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I neither know nor care, Macumazahn. To become a wanderer, I suppose. He
+will tell you the tale when you meet again in the after-days, as I understand
+he thinks that you will do.<a href="#fn-25.1" name="fnref-25.1" id="fnref-25.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+Hearken! I have done with this lion&rsquo;s whelp, who is Chaka over again, but
+without Chaka&rsquo;s wit. Yes, he is just a fighting man with a long reach, a
+sure eye and the trick of handling an axe, and such are of little use to me who
+know too many of them. Thrice have I tried to make him till my garden, but each
+time he has broken the hoe, although the wage I promised him was a royal
+<i>kaross</i> and nothing less. So enough of Umslopogaas, the Woodpecker.
+Almost I wish that you had not lent him the charm, for then the King&rsquo;s
+men would have made an end of him, who knows too much and like some silly
+boaster, may shout out the truth when his axe is aloft and he is full of the
+beer of battle. For in battle he will live and in battle he will die,
+Macumazahn, as perhaps you may see one day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-25.1" id="fn-25.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-25.1">[1]</a>
+For the tale of this meeting see the book called &ldquo;Allan
+Quatermain.&rdquo;&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The fate of your friends does not trouble you over much,
+Opener-of-Roads,&rdquo; I said with sarcasm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not at all, Macumazahn, because I have none. The only friends of the old
+are those whom they can turn to their own ends, and if these fail them they
+find others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I understand, Zikali, and know now what to expect from you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He laughed in his strange way and answered,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, and it is good that you must expect, good in the future as in the
+past, for <i>you</i>, Macumazahn, who are brave in your own fashion, without
+being a fool like Umslopogaas, and, although you know it not, like some
+master-smith, forge my assegais out of the red ore I give you, tempering them
+in the blood of men, and yet keep your mind innocent and your hands clean.
+Friends like you are useful to such as I, Macumazahn, and must be well paid in
+those wares that please them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old wizard brooded for a space, while I reflected upon his amazing
+cynicism, which interested me in a way, for the extreme of unmorality is as
+fascinating to study as the extreme of virtue and often more so. Then jerking
+up his great head, he asked suddenly,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What message had the White Queen for me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She said that you troubled her too much at night in dreams,
+Zikali.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, but if I cease to do so, ever she desires to know the reason why,
+for I hear her asking me in the voices of the wind, or in the twittering of
+bats. After all, she is a woman, Macumazahn, and it must be dull sitting alone
+from year to year with naught to stay her appetite save the ashes of the past
+and dreams of the future, so dull that I wonder, having once meshed you in her
+web, how she found the heart to let you go before she had sucked out your life
+and spirit. I suppose that having made a mock of you and drained you dry, she
+was content to throw you aside like an empty gourd. Perchance, had she kept you
+at her side, you would have been a stone in her path in days to come.
+Perchance, Macumazahn, she waits for other travellers and would welcome them,
+or one of them alone, saying nothing of a certain Watcher-by-Night who has
+served her turn and vanished into the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what other message had the White Queen for the poor old savage
+witch-doctor whose talk wearies her so much in her haunted sleep?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I told him of the picture that Ayesha had shown me in the water; the
+picture of a king dying in a hut and of two who watched his end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zikali listened intently to every word, then broke into a peal of his unholy
+laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Oho-ho!</i>&rdquo; he laughed, &ldquo;so all goes well, though the
+road be long, since whatever this White One may have shown you in the fire of
+the heavens above, she could show you nothing but truth in the water of the
+earth below, for that is the law of our company of seers. You have worked well
+for me, Macumazahn, and you have had your fee, the fee of the vision of the
+dead which you desired above all mortal things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; I answered indignantly, &ldquo;a fee of bitter fruits
+whereof the juice burns and twists the mouth and the stones still stick fast
+within the gizzard. I tell you, Zikali, that she stuffed my heart with
+lies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I daresay, Macumazahn, I daresay, but they were very pretty lies, were
+they not? And after all I am sure that there was wisdom in them, as you will
+discover when you have thought them over for a score of years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lies, lies, all is lies! But beyond the lie stands Truth, as the White
+Witch stands behind her veil. You drew the veil, Macumazahn, and saw that
+beneath which brought you to your knees. Why, it is a parable. Wander on
+through the Valley of Lies till at last it takes a turn, and, glittering in the
+sunshine, glittering like gold, you perceive the Mountain of everlasting Truth,
+sought of all men but found by few.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lies, lies, all is lies! Yet beyond I tell you, beauteous and eternal
+stands the Truth, Macumazahn. <i>Oho-ho! Oho-ho!</i> Fare you well,
+Watcher-by-Night, fare you well, Seeker after Truth. After the Night comes Dawn
+and after Death comes what&mdash;Macumazahn? Well, you will learn one day, for
+always the veil is lifted, at last, as the White Witch shewed you yonder,
+Macumazahn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHE AND ALLAN ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+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: She and Allan
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHE AND ALLAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+SHE AND ALLAN
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+First Published 1921.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+
+My friend, into whose hands I hope that all these manuscripts of mine
+will pass one day, of this one I have something to say to you.
+
+A long while ago I jotted down in it the history of the events that
+it details with more or less completeness. This I did for my own
+satisfaction. You will have noted how memory fails us as we advance
+in years; we recollect, with an almost painful exactitude, what we
+experienced and saw in our youth, but the happenings of our middle
+life slip away from us or become blurred, like a stretch of low-lying
+landscape overflowed by grey and nebulous mist. Far off the sun still
+seems to shine upon the plains and hills of adolescence and early
+manhood, as yet it shines about us in the fleeting hours of our age,
+that ground on which we stand to-day, but the valley between is filled
+with fog. Yes, even its prominences, which symbolise the more startling
+events of that past, often are lost in this confusing fog.
+
+It was an appreciation of these truths which led me to set down the
+following details (though of course much is omitted) of my brief
+intercourse with the strange and splendid creature whom I knew under the
+names of _Ayesha_, or _H�ya_, or _She-who-commands_; not indeed with any
+view to their publication, but before I forgot them that, if I wished to
+do so, I might re-peruse them in the evening of old age to which I hope
+to attain.
+
+Indeed, at the time the last thing I intended was that they should be
+given to the world even after my own death, because they, or many of
+them, are so unusual that I feared lest they should cause smiles and
+in a way cast a slur upon my memory and truthfulness. Also, as you will
+read, as to this matter I made a promise and I have always tried to
+keep my promises and to guard the secrets of others. For these reasons I
+proposed, in case I neglected or forgot to destroy them myself, to leave
+a direction that this should be done by my executors. Further, I have
+been careful to make no allusion _whatever_ to them either in casual
+conversation or in anything else that I may have written, my desire
+being that this page of my life should be kept quite private, something
+known only to myself. Therefore, too, I never so much as hinted of them
+to anyone, not even to yourself to whom I have told so much.
+
+Well, I recorded the main facts concerning this expedition and its
+issues, simply and with as much exactness as I could, and laid them
+aside. I do not say that I never thought of them again, since amongst
+them were some which, together with the problems they suggested, proved
+to be of an unforgettable nature.
+
+Also, whenever any of Ayesha's sayings or stories which are not
+preserved in these pages came back to me, as has happened from time to
+time, I jotted them down and put them away with this manuscript. Thus
+among these notes you will find a history of the city of K�r as she told
+it to me, which I have omitted here. Still, many of these remarkable
+events did more or less fade from my mind, as the image does from
+an unfixed photograph, till only their outlines remained, faint if
+distinguishable.
+
+To tell the truth, I was rather ashamed of the whole story in which
+I cut so poor a figure. On reflection it was obvious to me, although
+honesty had compelled me to set out all that is essential exactly as it
+occurred, adding nothing and taking nothing away, that I had been the
+victim of very gross deceit. This strange woman, whom I had met in the
+ruins of a place called K�r, without any doubt had thrown a glamour over
+my senses and at the moment almost caused me to believe much that is
+quite unbelievable.
+
+For instance, she had told me ridiculous stories as to interviews
+between herself and certain heathen goddesses, though it is true that,
+almost with her next breath, these she qualified or contradicted. Also,
+she had suggested that her life had been prolonged far beyond our mortal
+span, for hundreds and hundreds of years, indeed; which, as Euclid says,
+is absurd, and had pretended to supernatural powers, which is still more
+absurd. Moreover, by a clever use of some hypnotic or mesmeric power,
+she had feigned to transport me to some place beyond the earth and in
+the Halls of Hades to show me what is veiled from the eyes of man,
+and not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi, commonly called
+Umslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot, was my companion
+upon that adventure. There were like things equally incredible, such as
+her appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle with the troll-like
+Rezu. To omit these, the sum of it was that I had been shamefully duped,
+and if anyone finds himself in that position, as most people have at one
+time or another in their lives, Wisdom suggests that he had better keep
+the circumstances to himself.
+
+Well, so the matter stood, or rather lay in the recesses of my mind--and
+in the cupboard where I hide my papers--when one evening someone, as a
+matter of fact it was Captain Good, an individual of romantic tendencies
+who is fond, sometimes I think too fond, of fiction, brought a book to
+this house which he insisted over and over again really I must peruse.
+
+Ascertaining that it was a novel I declined, for to tell the truth I am
+not fond of romance in any shape, being a person who has found the hard
+facts of life of sufficient interest as they stand.
+
+Reading I admit I like, but in this matter, as in everything else, my
+range is limited. I study the Bible, especially the Old Testament, both
+because of its sacred lessons and of the majesty of the language of its
+inspired translators; whereof that of Ayesha, which I render so poorly
+from her flowing and melodious Arabic, reminded me. For poetry I turn
+to Shakespeare, and, at the other end of the scale, to the Ingoldsby
+Legends, many of which I know almost by heart, while for current affairs
+I content myself with the newspapers.
+
+For the rest I peruse anything to do with ancient Egypt that I happen to
+come across, because this land and its history have a queer fascination
+for me, that perhaps has its roots in occurrences or dreams of which
+this is not the place to speak. Lastly now and again I read one of the
+Latin or Greek authors in a translation, since I regret to say that my
+lack of education does not enable me to do so in the original. But for
+modern fiction I have no taste, although from time to time I sample it
+in a railway train and occasionally am amused by such excursions into
+the poetic and unreal.
+
+So it came about that the more Good bothered me to read this particular
+romance, the more I determined that I would do nothing of the sort.
+Being a persistent person, however, when he went away about ten o'clock
+at night, he deposited it by my side, under my nose indeed, so that it
+might not be overlooked. Thus it came about that I could not help seeing
+some Egyptian hieroglyphics in an oval on the cover, also the title,
+and underneath it your own name, my friend, all of which excited
+my curiosity, especially the title, which was brief and enigmatic,
+consisting indeed of one word, "_She_."
+
+I took up the work and on opening it the first thing my eye fell upon
+was a picture of a veiled woman, the sight of which made my heart stand
+still, so painfully did it remind me of a certain veiled woman whom once
+it had been my fortune to meet. Glancing from it to the printed page one
+word seemed to leap at me. It was _K�r_! Now of veiled women there are
+plenty in the world, but were there also two K�rs?
+
+Then I turned to the beginning and began to read. This happened in
+the autumn when the sun does not rise till about six, but it was broad
+daylight before I ceased from reading, or rather rushing through that
+book.
+
+Oh! what was I to make of it? For here in its pages (to say nothing of
+old Billali, who, by the way lied, probably to order, when he told Mr.
+Holly that no white man had visited his country for many generations,
+and those gloomy, man-eating Amahagger scoundrels) once again I
+found myself face to face with _She-who-commands_, now rendered as
+_She-who-must-be-obeyed_, which means much the same thing--in her case
+at least; yes, with Ayesha the lovely, the mystic, the changeful and the
+imperious.
+
+Moreover the history filled up many gaps in my own limited experiences
+of that enigmatical being who was half divine (though, I think, rather
+wicked or at any rate unmoral in her way) and yet all woman. It is true
+that it showed her in lights very different from and higher than those
+in which she had presented herself to me. Yet the substratum of her
+character was the same, or rather of her characters, for of these she
+seemed to have several in a single body, being, as she said of herself
+to me, "not One but Many and not Here but Everywhere."
+
+Further, I found the story of Kallikrates, which I had set down as a
+mere falsehood invented for my bewilderment, expanded and explained. Or
+rather not explained, since, perhaps that she might deceive, to me
+she had spoken of this murdered Kallikrates without enthusiasm, as a
+handsome person to whom, because of an indiscretion of her youth, she
+was bound by destiny and whose return--somewhat to her sorrow--she must
+wait. At least she did so at first, though in the end when she bared her
+heart at the moment of our farewell, she vowed she loved him only and
+was "appointed" to him "by a divine decree."
+
+Also I found other things of which I knew nothing, such as the Fire of
+Life with its fatal gift of indefinite existence, although I remember
+that like the giant Rezu whom Umslopogaas defeated, she did talk of a
+"Cup of Life" of which she had drunk, that might have been offered to my
+lips, had I been politic, bowed the knee and shown more faith in her and
+her supernatural pretensions.
+
+Lastly I saw the story of her end, and as I read it I wept, yes, I
+confess I wept, although I feel sure that she will return again. Now I
+understood why she had quailed and even seemed to shrivel when, in my
+last interview with her, stung beyond endurance by her witcheries and
+sarcasms, I had suggested that even for her with all her powers, Fate
+might reserve one of its shrewdest blows. Some prescience had told her
+that if the words seemed random, Truth spoke through my lips, although,
+and this was the worst of it, she did not know what weapon would deal
+the stroke or when and where it was doomed to fall.
+
+I was amazed, I was overcome, but as I closed that book I made up my
+mind, first that I would continue to preserve absolute silence as to
+Ayesha and my dealings with her, as, during my life, I was bound by
+oath to do, and secondly that I would _not_ cause my manuscript to be
+destroyed. I did not feel that I had any right to do so in view of what
+already had been published to the world. There let it lie to appear one
+day, or not to appear, as might be fated. Meanwhile my lips were sealed.
+I would give Good back his book without comment and--buy another copy!
+
+One more word. It is clear that I did not touch more than the fringe
+of the real Ayesha. In a thousand ways she bewitched and deceived me so
+that I never plumbed her nature's depths. Perhaps this was my own fault
+because from the first I shewed a lack of faith in her and she wished to
+pay me back in her own fashion, or perhaps she had other private reasons
+for her secrecy. Certainly the character she discovered to me differed
+in many ways from that which she revealed to Mr. Holly and to Leo
+Vincey, or Kallikrates, whom, it seems, once she slew in her jealousy
+and rage.
+
+She told me as much as she thought it fit that I should know, and no
+more!
+
+Allan Quatermain.
+
+The Grange, Yorkshire.
+
+
+
+
+
+SHE AND ALLAN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TALISMAN
+
+I believe it was the old Egyptians, a very wise people, probably indeed
+much wiser than we know, for in the leisure of their ample centuries
+they had time to think out things, who declared that each individual
+personality is made up of six or seven different elements, although the
+Bible only allows us three, namely, body, soul, and spirit. The body
+that the man or woman wore, if I understand their theory aright which
+perhaps I, an ignorant person, do not, was but a kind of sack or fleshly
+covering containing these different principles. Or mayhap it did not
+contain them all, but was simply a house as it were, in which they lived
+from time to time and seldom all together, although one or more of them
+was present continually, as though to keep the place warmed and aired.
+
+This is but a casual illustrative suggestion, for what right have
+I, Allan Quatermain, out of my little reading and probably erroneous
+deductions, to form any judgment as to the theories of the old
+Egyptians? Still these, as I understand them, suffice to furnish me with
+the text that man is not one, but many, in which connection it may be
+remembered that often in Scripture he is spoken of as being the home of
+many demons, seven, I think. Also, to come to another far-off example,
+the Zulus talk of their witch-doctors as being inhabited by "a multitude
+of spirits."
+
+Anyhow of one thing I am quite sure, we are not always the same.
+Different personalities actuate us at different times. In one hour
+passion of this sort or the other is our lord; in another we are reason
+itself. In one hour we follow the basest appetites; in another we hate
+them and the spirit arising through our mortal murk shines within or
+above us like a star. In one hour our desire is to kill and spare not;
+in another we are filled with the holiest compassion even towards an
+insect or a snake, and are ready to forgive like a god. Everything
+rules us in turn, to such an extent indeed, that sometimes one begins to
+wonder whether we really rule anything.
+
+Now the reason of all this homily is that I, Allan, the most practical
+and unimaginative of persons, just a homely, half-educated hunter and
+trader who chances to have seen a good deal of the particular little
+world in which his lot was cast, at one period of my life became the
+victim of spiritual longings.
+
+I am a man who has suffered great bereavements in my time such as have
+seared my soul, since, perhaps because of my rather primitive and simple
+nature, my affections are very strong. By day or night I can never
+forget those whom I have loved and whom I believe to have loved me.
+
+For you know, in our vanity some of us are apt to hold that certain
+people with whom we have been intimate upon the earth, really did
+care for us and, in our still greater vanity--or should it be called
+madness?--to imagine that they still care for us after they have left
+the earth and entered on some new state of society and surroundings
+which, if they exist, inferentially are much more congenial than any
+they can have experienced here. At times, however, cold doubts strike us
+as to this matter, of which we long to know the truth. Also behind looms
+a still blacker doubt, namely whether they live at all.
+
+For some years of my lonely existence these problems haunted me day by
+day, till at length I desired above everything on earth to lay them
+at rest in one way or another. Once, at Durban, I met a man who was a
+spiritualist to whom I confided a little of my perplexities. He laughed
+at me and said that they could be settled with the greatest ease. All
+I had to do was to visit a certain local medium who for a fee of one
+guinea would tell me everything I wanted to know. Although I rather
+grudged the guinea, being more than usually hard up at the time, I
+called upon this person, but over the results of that visit, or rather
+the lack of them, I draw a veil.
+
+My queer and perhaps unwholesome longing, however, remained with me and
+would not be abated. I consulted a clergyman of my acquaintance, a good
+and spiritually-minded man, but he could only shrug his shoulders and
+refer me to the Bible, saying, quite rightly I doubt not, that with what
+it reveals I ought to be contented. Then I read certain mystical
+books which were recommended to me. These were full of fine words,
+undiscoverable in a pocket dictionary, but really took me no forwarder,
+since in them I found nothing that I could not have invented myself,
+although while I was actually studying them, they seemed to convince
+me. I even tackled Swedenborg, or rather samples of him, for he is very
+copious, but without satisfactory results. [Ha!--JB]
+
+Then I gave up the business.
+
+
+
+Some months later I was in Zululand and being near the Black Kloof
+where he dwelt, I paid a visit to my acquaintance of whom I have
+written elsewhere, the wonderful and ancient dwarf, Zikali, known as
+"The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born," also more universally
+among the Zulus as "Opener-of-Roads." When we had talked of many things
+connected with the state of Zululand and its politics, I rose to leave
+for my waggon, since I never cared for sleeping in the Black Kloof if it
+could be avoided.
+
+"Is there nothing else that you want to ask me, Macumazahn?" asked
+the old dwarf, tossing back his long hair and looking at--I had almost
+written through--me.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"That is strange, Macumazahn, for I seem to see something written on
+your mind--something to do with spirits."
+
+Then I remembered all the problems that had been troubling me, although
+in truth I had never thought of propounding them to Zikali.
+
+"Ah! it comes back, does it?" he exclaimed, reading my thought. "Out
+with it, then, Macumazahn, while I am in a mood to answer, and before
+I grow tired, for you are an old friend of mine and will so remain till
+the end, many years hence, and if I can serve you, I will."
+
+I filled my pipe and sat down again upon the stool of carved red-wood
+which had been brought for me.
+
+"You are named 'Opener-of-Roads,' are you not, Zikali?" I said.
+
+"Yes, the Zulus have always called me that, since before the days of
+Chaka. But what of names, which often enough mean nothing at all?"
+
+"Only that _I_ want to open a road, Zikali, that which runs across the
+River of Death."
+
+"Oho!" he laughed, "it is very easy," and snatching up a little assegai
+that lay beside him, he proffered it to me, adding, "Be brave now and
+fall on that. Then before I have counted sixty the road will be wide
+open, but whether you will see anything on it I cannot tell you."
+
+Again I shook my head and answered,
+
+"It is against our law. Also while I still live I desire to know whether
+I shall meet certain others on that road after my time has come to cross
+the River. Perhaps you who deal with spirits, can prove the matter to
+me, which no one else seems able to do."
+
+"Oho!" laughed Zikali again. "What do my ears hear? Am I, the poor Zulu
+cheat, as you will remember once you called me, Macumazahn, asked
+to show that which is hidden from all the wisdom of the great White
+People?"
+
+"The question is," I answered with irritation, "not what you are asked
+to do, but what you can do."
+
+"That I do not know yet, Macumazahn. Whose spirits do you desire to see?
+If that of a woman called Mameena is one of them, I think that perhaps I
+whom she loved----"[*]
+
+     [*] For the history of Mameena see the book called "Child of
+     Storm."--Editor.
+
+"She is _not_ one of them, Zikali. Moreover, if she loved you, you paid
+back her love with death."
+
+"Which perhaps was the kindest thing I could do, Macumazahn, for reasons
+that you may be able to guess, and others with which I will not trouble
+you. But if not hers, whose? Let me look, let me look! Why, there seems
+to be two of them, head-wives, I mean, and I thought that white men only
+took one wife. Also a multitude of others; their faces float up in the
+water of your mind. An old man with grey hair, little children, perhaps
+they were brothers and sisters, and some who may be friends. Also very
+clear indeed that Mameena whom you do not wish to see. Well, Macumazahn,
+this is unfortunate, since she is the only one whom I can show you,
+or rather put you in the way of finding. Unless indeed there are other
+Kaffir women----"
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"I mean, Macumazahn, that only black feet travel on the road which I can
+open; over those in which ran white blood I have no power."
+
+"Then it is finished," I said, rising again and taking a step or two
+towards the gate.
+
+"Come back and sit down, Macumazahn. I did not say so. Am I the only
+ruler of magic in Africa, which I am told is a big country?"
+
+I came back and sat down, for my curiosity, a great failing with me, was
+excited.
+
+"Thank you, Zikali," I said, "but I will have no dealings with more of
+your witch-doctors."
+
+"No, no, because you are afraid of them; quite without reason,
+Macumazahn, seeing that they are all cheats except myself. I am the last
+child of wisdom, the rest are stuffed with lies, as Chaka found out when
+he killed every one of them whom he could catch. But perhaps there might
+be a white doctor who would have rule over white spirits."
+
+"If you mean missionaries----" I began hastily.
+
+"No, Macumazahn, I do not mean your praying men who are cast in one
+mould and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say,
+not thinking for themselves."
+
+"Some of them think, Zikali."
+
+"Yes, and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest
+is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings, and
+speaks through a mask carved by his father's fathers. I am a priest like
+that, which is why all my fellowship have hated me."
+
+"If so, you have paid back their hate, Zikali, but cease to cast round
+the lion, like a timid hound, and tell me what you mean. Of whom do you
+speak?"
+
+"That is the trouble, Macumazahn. I do not know. This lion, or rather
+lioness, lies hid in the caves of a very distant mountain and I have
+never seen her--in the flesh."
+
+"Then how can you talk of what you have never seen?"
+
+"In the same way, Macumazahn, that your priests talk of what they have
+never seen, because they, or a few of them, have knowledge of it. I
+will tell you a secret. All seers who live at the same time, if they are
+great, commune with each other because they are akin and their spirits
+meet in sleep or dreams. Therefore I know of a mistress of our craft, a
+very lioness among jackals, who for thousands of years has lain sleeping
+in the northern caves and, humble though I am, she knows of me."
+
+"Quite so," I said, yawning, "but perhaps, Zikali, you will come to the
+point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she exists
+will she help me?"
+
+"I will answer your question backwards, Macumazahn. I think that she
+will help you if you help her, in what way I do not know, because
+although witch-doctors sometimes work without pay, as I am doing now,
+Macumazahn, witch-doctoresses never do. As for her name, the only one
+that she has among our company is 'Queen,' because she is the first of
+all of them and the most beauteous among women. For the rest I can tell
+you nothing, except that she has always been and I suppose, in this
+shape or in that, will always be while the world lasts, because she has
+found the secret of life unending."
+
+"You mean that she is immortal, Zikali," I answered with a smile.
+
+"I do not say that, Macumazahn, because my little mind cannot shape the
+thought of immortality. But when I was a babe, which is far ago, she had
+lived so long that scarce would she knew the difference between then
+and now, and already in her breast was all wisdom gathered. I know it,
+because although, as I have said, we have never seen each other, at
+times we walk together in our sleep, for thus she shares her loneliness,
+and I think, though this may be but a dream, that last night she told me
+to send you on to her to seek an answer to certain questions which you
+would put to me to-day. Also to me she seemed to desire that you should
+do her a service; I know not what service."
+
+Now I grew angry and asked,
+
+"Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If
+there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called _Queen_ lives
+and how I am to come to her."
+
+The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me and
+with its blade raked our ashes from the fire that always burnt in front
+of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random
+fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white man whom
+he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also of other
+matters, none of which interested me much at the time. These ashes
+he patted down flat and then on them drew a map with the point of his
+spear, making grooves for streams, certain marks for bush and forest,
+wavy lines for water and swamps and little heaps for hills.
+
+When he had finished it all he bade me come round the fire and study the
+picture across which by an after-thought he drew a wandering furrow with
+the edge of the assegai to represent a river, and gathered the ashes in
+a lump at the northern end to signify a large mountain.
+
+"Look at it well, Macumazahn," he said, "and forget nothing, since if
+you make this journey and forget, you die. Nay, no need to copy it in
+that book of yours, for see, I will stamp it on your mind."
+
+Then suddenly he gathered up the warm ashes in a double handful and
+threw them into my face, muttering something as he did so and adding
+aloud,
+
+"There, now you will remember."
+
+"Certainly I shall," I answered, coughing, "and I beg that you will not
+play such a joke upon me again."
+
+As a matter of fact, whatever may have been the reason, I never forgot
+any detail of that extremely intricate map.
+
+"That big river must be the Zambesi," I stuttered, "and even then the
+mountain of your Queen, if it be her mountain, is far away, and how can
+I come there alone?"
+
+"I don't know, Macumazahn, though perhaps you might do so in company. At
+least I believe that in the old days people used to travel to the place,
+since I have heard a great city stood there once which was the heart of
+a mighty empire."
+
+Now I pricked up my ears, for though I believed nothing of Zikali's
+story of a wonderful Queen, I was always intensely interested in past
+civilisations and their relics. Also I knew that the old wizard's
+knowledge was extensive and peculiar, however he came by it, and I did
+not think that he would lie to me in this matter. Indeed to tell the
+truth, then and there I made up my mind that if it were in any way
+possible, I would attempt this journey.
+
+"How did people travel to the city, Zikali?"
+
+"By sea, I suppose, Macumazahn, but I think that you will be wise not to
+try that road, since I believe that on the sea side the marshes are now
+impassable and you will be safer on your feet."
+
+"You want me to go on this adventure, Zikali. Why? I know you never do
+anything without motive."
+
+"Oho! Macumazahn, you are clever and see deeper into the trunk of a tree
+than most. Yes, I want you to go for three reasons. First, that you
+may satisfy your soul on certain matters and I would help you to do so.
+Secondly, because I want to satisfy mine, and thirdly, because I know
+that you will come back safe to be a prop to me in things that will
+happen in days unborn. Otherwise I would have told you nothing of this
+story, since it is necessary to me that you should remain living beneath
+the sun."
+
+"Have done, Zikali. What is it that you desire?"
+
+"Oh! a great deal that I shall get, but chiefly two things, so with
+the rest I will not trouble you. First I desire to know to know whether
+these dreams of mine of a wonderful white witch-doctoress, or witch, and
+of my converse with her are indeed more than dreams. Next I would learn
+whether certain plots of mine at which I have worked for years, will
+succeed."
+
+"What plots, Zikali, and how can my taking a distant journey tell you
+anything about them?"
+
+"You know them well enough, Macumazahn; they have to do with the
+overthrow of a Royal House that has worked me bitter wrong. As to how
+your journey can help me, why, thus. You shall promise to me to ask
+of this Queen whether Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, shall triumph or be
+overthrown in that on which he has set his heart."
+
+"As you seem to know this witch so well, why do you not ask her
+yourself, Zikali?"
+
+"To ask is one thing, Macumazahn. To get an answer is another. I have
+asked in the watches of the night, and the reply was, 'Come hither and
+perchance I will tell you.' 'Queen,' I said, 'how can I come save in the
+spirit, who am an ancient and a crippled dwarf scarcely able to stand
+upon my feet?'
+
+"'Then send a messenger, Wizard, and be sure that he is white, for of
+black savages I have seen more than enough. Let him bear a token also
+that he comes from you and tell me of it in your sleep. Moreover let
+that token be something of power which will protect him on the journey.'
+
+"Such is the answer that comes to me in my dreams, Macumazahn."
+
+"Well, what token will you give me, Zikali?"
+
+He groped about in his robe and produced a piece of ivory of the size
+of a large chessman, that had a hole in it, through which ran a plaited
+cord of the stiff hairs from an elephant's tail. On this article, which
+was of a rusty brown colour, he breathed, then having whispered to it
+for a while, handed it to me.
+
+I took the talisman, for such I guessed it to be, idly enough, held it
+to the light to examine it, and started back so violently that almost
+I let it fall. I do not quite know why I started, but I think it was
+because some influence seemed to leap from it to me. Zikali started also
+and cried out,
+
+"Have a care, Macumazahn. Am I young that I can bear bring dashed to the
+ground?"
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked, still staring at the thing which I
+perceived to be a most wonderfully fashioned likeness of the old dwarf
+himself as he appeared before me crouched upon the ground. There were
+the deepset eyes, the great head, the toad-like shape, the long hair,
+all.
+
+"It is a clever carving, is it not, Macumazahn? I am skilled in that
+art, you know, and therefore can judge of carving."
+
+"Yes, I know," I answered, bethinking me of another statuette of his
+which he had given to me on the morrow of the death of her from whom it
+was modelled. "But what of the thing?"
+
+"Macumazahn, it has come down to me through the ages. As you may
+have heard, all great doctors when they die pass on their wisdom and
+something of their knowledge to another doctor of spirits who is still
+living on the earth, that nothing may be lost, or as little as possible.
+Also I have learned that to such likenesses as these may be given the
+strength of him or her from whom they were shaped."
+
+Now I bethought me of the old Egyptians and their _Ka_ statues of which
+I had read, and that these statues, magically charmed and set in the
+tombs of the departed, were supposed to be inhabited everlastingly by
+the Doubles of the dead endued with more power even than ever these
+possessed in life. But of this I said nothing to Zikali, thinking that
+it would take too much explanation, though I wondered very much how he
+had come by the same idea.
+
+"When that ivory is hung over your heart, Macumazahn, where you must
+always wear it, learn that with it goes the strength of Zikali; the
+thought that would have been his thought and the wisdom that is his
+wisdom, will be your companions, as much as though he walked at your
+side and could instruct you in every peril. Moreover north and south and
+east and west this image is known to men who, when they see it, will
+bow down and obey, opening a road to him who wears the medicine of the
+Opener-of-Roads."
+
+"Indeed," I said, smiling, "and what is this colour on the ivory?"
+
+"I forget, Macumazahn, who have had it a great number of years, ever
+since it descended to me from a forefather of mine, who was fashioned in
+the same mould as I am. It looks like blood, does it not? It is a pity
+that Mameena is not still alive, since she whose memory was so excellent
+might have been able to tell you," and as he spoke, with a motion that
+was at once sure and swift, he threw the loop of elephant hair over my
+head.
+
+Hastily I changed the subject, feeling that after his wont this old
+wizard, the most terrible man whom ever I knew, who had been so much
+concerned with the tragic death of Mameena, was stabbing at me in some
+hidden fashion.
+
+"You tell me to go on this journey," I said, "and not alone. Yet for
+companion you give me only an ugly piece of ivory shaped as no man ever
+was," here I got one back at Zikali, "and from the look of it, steeped
+in blood, which ivory, if I had my way, I would throw into the camp
+fire. Who, then, am I to take with me?"
+
+"Don't do that, Macumazahn--I mean throw the ivory into the fire--since
+I have no wish to burn before my time, and if you do, you who have worn
+it might burn with me. At least certainly you would die with the magic
+thing and go to acquire knowledge more quickly than you desire. No, no,
+and do not try to take it off your neck, or rather try if you will."
+
+I did try, but something seemed to prevent me from accomplishing my
+purpose of giving the carving back to Zikali as I wished to do. First
+my pipe got in the way of my hand, then the elephant hairs caught in the
+collar of my coat; then a pang of rheumatism to which I was accustomed
+from an old lion-bite, developed of a sudden in my arm, and lastly I
+grew tired of bothering about the thing.
+
+Zikali, who had been watching my movements, burst out into one of his
+terrible laughs that seemed to fill the whole kloof and to re-echo from
+its rocky walls. It died away and he went on, without further reference
+to the talisman or image.
+
+"You asked whom you were to take with you, Macumazahn. Well, as to this
+I must make inquiry of those who know. Man, my medicines!"
+
+From the shadows in the hut behind darted out a tall figure carrying
+a great spear in one hand and in the other a catskin bag which with a
+salute he laid down at the feet of his master. This salute, by the way,
+was that of a Zulu word which means "Lord" or "Home" of Ghosts.
+
+Zikali groped in the bag and produced from it certain knuckle-bones.
+
+"A common method," he muttered, "such as every vulgar wizard uses, but
+one that is quick and, as the matter concerned is small, will serve my
+turn. Let us see now, whom you shall take with you, Macumazahn."
+
+Then he breathed upon the bones, shook them up in his thin hands and
+with a quick turn of the wrist, threw them into the air. After this
+he studied them carefully, where they lay among the ashes which he had
+raked out of the fire, those that he had used for the making of his map.
+
+"Do you know a man named Umslopogaas, Macumazahn, the chief of a tribe
+that is called The People of the Axe, whose titles of praise are Bulalio
+or the Slaughterer, and Woodpecker, the latter from the way he handles
+his ancient axe? He is a savage fellow, but one of high blood and
+higher courage, a great captain in his way, though he will never come to
+anything, save a glorious death--in your company, I think, Macumazahn."
+(Here he studied the bones again for a while.) "Yes, I am sure, in your
+company, though not upon this journey."
+
+"I have heard of him," I answered cautiously. "It is said in the land
+that he is a son of Chaka, the great king of the Zulus."
+
+"Is it, Macumazahn? And is it said also that he was the slayer of
+Chaka's brother, Dingaan, also the lover of the fairest woman that the
+Zulus have ever seen, who was called Nada the Lily? Unless indeed a
+certain Mameena, who, I seem to remember, was a friend of yours, may
+have been even more beautiful?"
+
+"I know nothing of Nada the Lily," I answered.
+
+"No, no, Mameena, 'the Waiting Wind,' has blown over her fame, so
+why should you know of one who has been dead a long while? Why also,
+Macumazahn, do you always bring women into every business? I begin to
+believe that although you are so strict in a white man's fashion, you
+must be too fond of them, a weakness which makes for ruin to any man.
+Well, now, I think that this wolf-man, this axe-man, this warrior,
+Umslopogaas should be a good fellow to you on your journey to visit the
+white witch, Queen--another woman by the way, Macumazahn, and
+therefore one of whom you should be careful. Oh! yes, he will come with
+you--because of a man called Lousta and a woman named Monazi, a wife of
+his who hates him and does--not hate Lousta. I am almost sure that he
+will come with you, so do not stop to ask questions about him."
+
+"Is there anyone else?" I inquired.
+
+Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with
+his toe, then replied with a yawn,
+
+"You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake
+who knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to lie
+hidden. I should take him too, if I were you."
+
+"You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans,
+clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my
+father before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there
+to be any others?"
+
+"No, I think you three will be enough, with a guard of soldiers from the
+People of the Axe, for you will meet with fighting and a ghost or two.
+Umslopogaas has always one at his elbow named Nada, and perhaps you have
+several. For instance, there was a certain Mameena whom I always seem to
+feel about me when you are near, Macumazahn.
+
+"Why, the wind is rising again, which is odd on so still an evening.
+Listen to how it wails, yes, and stirs your hair, though mine hangs
+straight enough. But why do I talk of ghosts, seeing that you travel to
+seek other ghosts, white ghosts, beyond my ken, who can only deal with
+those who were black?
+
+"Good-night, Macumazahn, good-night. When you return from visiting the
+white Queen, that Great One beneath those feet I, Zikali, who am also
+great in my way, am but a grain of dust, come and tell me her answer to
+my question.
+
+"Meanwhile, be careful always to wear that pretty little image which I
+have given you, as a young lover sometimes wears a lock of hair cut from
+the head of some fool-girl that he thinks is fond of him. It will bring
+you safety and luck, Macumazahn, which, for the most part, is more than
+the lock of hair does to the lover. Oh! it is a strange world, full of
+jest to those who can see the strings that work it. I am one of them,
+and perhaps, Macumazahn, you are another, or will be before all is
+done--or begun.
+
+"Good-night, and good fortune to you on your journeyings, and,
+Macumazahn, although you are so fond of women, be careful not to fall in
+love with that white Queen, because it would make others jealous; I mean
+some who you have lost sight of for a while, also I think that being
+under a curse of her own, she is not one whom you can put into your
+sack. _Oho! Oho-ho!_ Slave, bring me my blanket, it grows cold, and my
+medicine also, that which protects me from the ghosts, who are thick
+to-night. Macumazahn brings them, I think. _Oho-ho!_"
+
+I turned to depart but when I had gone a little way Zikali called me
+back again and said, speaking very low,
+
+"When you meet this Umslopogaas, as you will meet him, he who is called
+the Woodpecker and the Slaughterer, say these words to him,
+
+"'A bat has been twittering round the hut of the Opener-of-Roads, and
+to his ears it squeaked the name of a certain Lousta and the name of a
+woman called Monazi. Also it twittered another greater name that may not
+be uttered, that of an elephant who shakes the earth, and said that this
+elephant sniffs the air with his trunk and grows angry, and sharpens his
+tusks to dig a certain Woodpecker out of his hole in a tree that grows
+near the Witch Mountain. Say, too, that the Opener-of-Roads thinks that
+this Woodpecker would be wise to fly north for a while in the company of
+one who watches by night, lest harm should come to a bird that pecks at
+the feet of the great and chatters of it in his nest.'"
+
+
+
+Then Zikali waved his hand and I went, wondering into what plot I had
+stumbled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MESSENGERS
+
+I did not rest as I should that night who somehow was never able to
+sleep well in the neighbourhood of the Black Kloof. I suppose that
+Zikali's constant talk about ghosts, with his hints and innuendoes
+concerning those who were dead, always affected my nerves till, in a
+subconscious way, I began to believe that such things existed and were
+hanging about me. Many people are open to the power of suggestion, and I
+am afraid that I am one of them.
+
+However, the sun which has such strength to kill noxious things, puts an
+end to ghosts more quickly even than it does to other evil vapours and
+emanations, and when I woke up to find it shining brilliantly in a pure
+heaven, I laughed with much heartiness over the whole affair.
+
+Going to the spring near which we were outspanned, I took off my
+shirt to have a good wash, still chuckling at the memory of all the
+hocus-pocus of my old friend, the Opener-of-Roads.
+
+While engaged in this matutinal operation I struck my hand against
+something and looking, observed that it was the hideous little ivory
+image of Zikali, which he had set about my neck. The sight of the
+thing and the memory of his ridiculous talk about it, especially of its
+assertion that it had come down to him through the ages, which it could
+not have done, seeing that it was a likeness of himself, irritated me so
+much that I proceeded to take it off with the full intention of throwing
+it into the spring.
+
+As I was in the act of doing this, from a clump of reeds mixed with
+bushes, quite close to me, there came a sound of hissing, and suddenly
+above them appeared the head of a great black _immamba_, perhaps the
+deadliest of all our African snakes, and the only one I know which will
+attack man without provocation.
+
+Leaving go of the image, I sprang back in a great hurry towards where my
+gun lay. Then the snake vanished and making sure that it had departed to
+its hole, which was probably at a distance, I returned to the pool, and
+once more began to take off the talisman in order to consign it to the
+bottom of the pool.
+
+After all, I reflected, it was a hideous and probably a blood-stained
+thing which I did not in the least wish to wear about my neck like a
+lady's love-token.
+
+Just as it was coming over my head, suddenly from the other side of
+the bush that infernal snake popped up again, this time, it was
+clear, really intent on business. It began to move towards me in the
+lightning-like way _immambas_ have, hissing and flicking its tongue.
+
+I was too quick for my friend, however, for snatching up the gun that I
+had lain down beside me, I let it have a charge of buckshot in the
+neck which nearly cut it in two, so that it fell down and expired with
+hideous convulsive writhings.
+
+Hearing the shot Hans came running from the waggon to see what was the
+matter. Hans, I should say, was that same Hottentot who had been the
+companion of most of my journeyings since my father's day. He was with
+me when as a young fellow I accompanied Retief to Dingaan's kraal,
+and like myself, escaped the massacre.[*] Also we shared many other
+adventures, including the great one in the Land of the Ivory Child where
+he slew the huge elephant-god, Jana, and himself was slain. But of this
+journey we did not dream in those days.
+
+[*] See the book called "Marie."--Editor.
+
+For the rest Hans was a most entirely unprincipled person, but as the
+Boers say, "as clever as a waggonload of monkeys." Also he drank when he
+got the chance. One good quality he had, however; no man was ever more
+faithful, and perhaps it would be true to say that neither man nor woman
+ever loved me, unworthy, quite so well.
+
+In appearance he rather resembled an antique and dilapidated baboon;
+his face was wrinkled like a dried nut and his quick little eyes were
+bloodshot. I never knew what his age was, any more than he did himself,
+but the years had left him tough as whipcord and absolutely untiring.
+Lastly he was perhaps the best hand at following a spoor that ever I
+knew and up to a hundred and fifty yards or so, a very deadly shot
+with a rifle especially when he used a little single-barrelled,
+muzzle-loading gun of mine made by Purdey which he named _Intombi_ or
+Maiden. Of that gun, however, I have written in "The Holy Flower" and
+elsewhere.
+
+"What is it, Baas?" he asked. "Here there are no lions, nor any game."
+
+"Look the other side of the bush, Hans."
+
+He slipped round it, making a wide circle with his usual caution, then,
+seeing the snake which was, by the way, I think, the biggest _immamba_
+I ever killed, suddenly froze, as it were, in a stiff attitude that
+reminded me of a pointer when it scents game. Having made sure that it
+was dead, he nodded and said,
+
+"Black _'mamba_, or so you would call it, though I know it for something
+else."
+
+"What else, Hans?"
+
+"One of the old witch-doctor Zikali's spirits which he sets at the mouth
+of this kloof to warn him of who comes or goes. I know it well, and so
+do others. I saw it listening behind a stone when you were up the kloof
+last evening talking with the Opener-of-Roads."
+
+"Then Zikali will lack a spirit," I answered, laughing, "which perhaps
+he will not miss amongst so many. It serves him right for setting the
+brute on me."
+
+"Quite so, Baas. He will be angry. I wonder why he did it?" he added
+suspiciously, "seeing that he is such a friend of yours."
+
+"He didn't do it, Hans. These snakes are very fierce and give battle,
+that is all."
+
+Hans paid no attention to my remark, which probably he thought only
+worthy of a white man who does not understand, but rolled his yellow,
+bloodshot eyes about, as though in search of explanations. Presently
+they fell upon the ivory that hung about my neck, and he started.
+
+"Why do you wear that pretty likeness of the Great One yonder over your
+heart, as I have known you do with things that belonged to women in
+past days, Baas? Do you know that it is Zikali's Great Medicine, nothing
+less, as everyone does throughout the land? When Zikali sends an order
+far away, he always sends that image with it, for then he who receives
+the order knows that he must obey or die. Also the messenger knows that
+he will come to no harm if he does not take it off, because, Baas, the
+image is Zikali himself, and Zikali is the image. They are one and the
+same. Also it is the image of his father's father's father--or so he
+says."
+
+"That is an odd story," I said.
+
+Then I told Hans as much as I thought advisable of how this horrid
+little talisman came into my possession.
+
+Hans nodded without showing any surprise.
+
+"So we are going on a long journey," he said. "Well, I thought it was
+time that we did something more than wander about these tame countries
+selling blankets to stinking old women and so forth, Baas. Moreover,
+Zikali does not wish that you should come to harm, doubtless because he
+does wish to make use of you afterwards--oh! it's safe to talk now when
+that spirit is away looking for another snake. What were you doing with
+the Great Medicine, Baas, when the _'mamba_ attacked you?"
+
+"Taking it off to throw it into the pool, Hans, as I do not like the
+thing. I tried twice and each time the _immamba_ appeared."
+
+"Of course it appeared, Baas, and what is more, if you had taken that
+Medicine off and thrown it away _you_ would have disappeared, since the
+_'mamba_ would have killed you. Zikali wanted to show you that, Baas,
+and that is why he set the snake at you."
+
+"You are a superstitious old fool, Hans."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but my father knew all about that Great Medicine before me,
+for he was a bit of a doctor, and so does every wizard and witch for a
+thousand miles or more. I tell you, Baas, it is known by all though no
+one ever talks about it, no, not even the king himself. Baas, speaking
+to you, not with the voice of Hans the old drunkard, but with that of
+the Predikant, your reverend father, who made so good a Christian of
+me and who tells me to do so from up in Heaven where the hot fires are
+which the wood feeds of itself, I beg you not to try to throw away the
+Medicine again, or if you wish to do so, to leave me behind on this
+journey. For you see, Baas, although I am now so good, almost like one
+of those angels with the pretty goose's wings in the pictures, I feel
+that I should like to grow a little better before I go to the Place of
+Fires to make report to your reverend father, the Predikant."
+
+Thinking of how horrified my dear father would be if he could hear all
+this string of ridiculous nonsense and learn the result of his moral and
+religious lessons on raw Hottentot material, I burst out laughing. But
+Hans went on as gravely as a judge,
+
+"Wear the Great Medicine, Baas, wear it; part with the liver inside you
+before you part with that, Baas. It may not be as pretty or smell as
+sweet as a woman's hair in a little gold bottle, but it is much more
+useful. The sight of the woman's hair will only make you sick in your
+stomach and cause you to remember a lot of things which you had much
+better forget, but the Great Medicine, or rather Zikali who is in it,
+will keep the assegais and sickness out of you and turn back bad magic
+on to the heads of those who sent it, and always bring us plenty to eat
+and perhaps, if we are lucky, a little to drink too sometimes."
+
+"Go away," I said, "I want to wash."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but with the Baas's leave I will sit on the other side of
+that bush with the gun--not to look at the Baas without his clothes,
+because white people are always so ugly that it makes me feel ill to see
+them undressed, also because--the Baas will forgive me--but because they
+smell. No, not for that, but just to see that no other snake comes."
+
+"Get out of the road, you dirty little scoundrel, and stop your
+impudence," I said, lifting my foot suggestively.
+
+Thereon he scooted with a subdued grin round the other side of the bush,
+whence as I knew well he kept his eye fixed on me to be sure that I made
+no further attempt to take off the Great Medicine.
+
+
+
+Now of this talisman I may as well say at once that I am no believer
+in it or its precious influences. Therefore, although it was useful
+sometimes, notably twice when Umslopogaas was concerned, I do not know
+whether personally I should have done better or worse upon that journey
+if I had thrown it into the pool.
+
+It is true, however, that until quite the end of this history when
+it became needful to do so to save another, I never made any further
+attempt to remove it from my neck, not even when it rubbed a sore in my
+skin, because I did not wish to offend the prejudices of Hans.
+
+It is true, moreover, that this hideous ivory had a reputation which
+stretched very far from the place where it was made and was regarded
+with great reverence by all kinds of queer people, even by the Amahagger
+themselves, of whom presently, as they say in pedigrees, a fact of which
+I found sundry proofs. Indeed, I saw a first example of it when a little
+while later I met that great warrior, Umslopogaas, Chief of the People
+of the Axe.
+
+For, after determining firmly, for reasons which I will set out, that
+I would not visit this man, in the end I did so, although by then I
+had given up any idea of journeying across the Zambesi to look for a
+mysterious and non-existent witch-woman, as Zikali had suggested that I
+should do. To begin with I knew that his talk was all rubbish and,
+even if it were not, that at the bottom of it was some desire of the
+Opener-of-Roads that I should make a path for him to travel towards an
+indefinite but doubtless evil object of his own. Further, by this time
+I had worn through that mood of mine which had caused me to yearn
+for correspondence with the departed and a certain knowledge of their
+existence.
+
+I wonder whether many people understand, as I do, how entirely distinct
+and how variable are these moods which sway us, or at any rate some of
+us, at sundry periods of our lives. As I think I have already suggested,
+at one time we are all spiritual; at another all physical; at one time
+we are sure that our lives here are as a dream and a shadow and that the
+real existence lies elsewhere; at another that these brief days of ours
+are the only business with which we have to do and that of it we must
+make the best. At one time we think our loves much more immortal than
+the stars; at another that they are mere shadows cast by the baleful sun
+of desire upon the shallow and fleeting water we call Life which seems
+to flow out of nowhere into nowhere. At one time we are full of
+faith, at another all such hopes are blotted out by a black wall of
+Nothingness, and so on _ad infinitum_. Only very stupid people, or
+humbugs, are or pretend to be, always consistent and unchanging.
+
+To return, I determined not only that I would not travel north to seek
+that which no living man will ever find, certainty as to the future,
+but also, to show my independence of Zikali, that I would not visit
+this chief, Umslopogaas. So, having traded all my goods and made a fair
+profit (on paper), I set myself to return to Natal, proposing to rest
+awhile in my little house at Durban, and told Hans my mind.
+
+"Very good, Baas," he said. "I, too, should like to go to Durban. There
+are lots of things there that we cannot get here," and he fixed his
+roving eye upon a square-faced gin bottle, which as it happened was
+filled with nothing stronger than water, because all the gin was drunk.
+"Yet, Baas, we shall not see the Berea for a long while."
+
+"Why do you say that?" I asked sharply.
+
+"Oh! Baas, I don't know, but you went to visit the Opener-of-Roads,
+did you not, and he told you to go north and lent you a certain Great
+Medicine, did he not?"
+
+Here Hands proceeded to light his corncob pipe with an ash from the
+fire, all the time keeping his beady eyes fixed upon that part of me
+where he knew the talisman was hung.
+
+"Quite true, Hans, but now I mean to show Zikali that I am not his
+messenger, for south or north or east or west. So to-morrow morning we
+cross the river and trek for Natal."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but then why not cross it this evening? There is still
+light."
+
+"I have said that we will cross it to-morrow morning," I answered with
+that firmness which I have read always indicates a man of character,
+"and I do not change my word."
+
+"No, Baas, but sometimes other things change besides words. Will the
+Baas have that buck's leg for supper, or the stuff out of a tin with a
+dint in it, which we bought at a store two years ago? The flies have got
+at the buck's leg, but I cut out the bits with the maggots on it and ate
+them myself."
+
+
+
+Hans was right, things do change, especially the weather. That night,
+unexpectedly, for when I turned in the sky seemed quite serene, there
+came a terrible rain long before it was due, which lasted off and on for
+three whole days and continued intermittently for an indefinite period.
+Needless to say the river, which it would have been so easy to cross
+on this particular evening, by the morning was a raging torrent, and so
+remained for several weeks.
+
+In despair at length I trekked south to where a ford was reported,
+which, when reached, proved impracticable.
+
+I tried another, a dozen miles further on, which was very hard to come
+to over boggy land. It looked all right and we were getting across
+finely, when suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and
+there we stuck. Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would
+have remained in the neighbourhood of that ford to this day, had I not
+managed to borrow some extra oxen belonging to a Christian Kaffir, and
+with their help to drag it back to the bank whence we had started.
+
+As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storm which had
+burst further up the river, brought it down in flood again, a very heavy
+flood.
+
+In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere
+and no one seems to appreciate them. If they think of them at all it
+is to grumble about the cost of their upkeep. I wish they could have
+experienced what a lack of them means in a wild country during times of
+excessive rain, and the same remark applied to roads. You should
+think more of your blessings, my friends, as the old woman said to her
+complaining daughter who had twins two years running, adding that they
+might have been triplets.
+
+To return--after this I confessed myself beaten and gave up until such
+time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap. Trekking
+out of sight of that infernal river which annoyed me with its constant
+gurgling, I camped on a comparatively dry spot that overlooked a
+beautiful stretch of rolling veld. Towards sunset the clouds lifted
+and I saw a mile or two away a most extraordinary mountain on the lower
+slopes of which grew a dense forest. Its upper part, which was of bare
+rock, looked exactly like the seated figure of a grotesque person with
+the chin resting on the breast. There was the head, there were the arms,
+there were the knees. Indeed, the whole mass of it reminded me strongly
+of the effigy of Zikali which was tied about my neck, or rather of
+Zikali himself.
+
+"What is that called?" I said to Hans, pointing to this strange hill,
+now blazing in the angry fire of the setting sun that had burst out
+between the storm clouds, which made it appear more ominous even than
+before.
+
+"That is the Witch Mountain, Baas, where the Chief Umslopogaas and a
+blood brother of his who carried a great club used to hunt with the
+wolves. It is haunted and in a cave at the top of it lie the bones of
+Nada the Lily, the fair woman whose name is a song, she who was the love
+of Umslopogaas."[*]
+
+     [*] For the story of Umslopogaas and Nada see the book
+     called "Nada the Lily."--Editor.
+
+"Rubbish," I said, though I had heard something of all that story and
+remembered that Zikali had mentioned this Nada, comparing her beauty to
+that of another whom once I knew.
+
+"Where then lives the Chief Umslopogaas?"
+
+"They say that his town is yonder on the plain, Baas. It is called the
+Place of the Axe and is strongly fortified with a river round most of
+it, and his people are the People of the Axe. They are a fierce people,
+and all the country round here is uninhabited because Umslopogaas has
+cleaned out the tribes who used to live in it, first with his wolves
+and afterwards in war. He is so strong a chief and so terrible in battle
+that even Chaka himself was afraid of him, and they say that he brought
+Dingaan the King to his end because of a quarrel about this Nada.
+Cetywayo, the present king, too leaves him alone and to him he pays no
+tribute."
+
+Whilst I was about to ask Hans from whom he had collected all this
+information, suddenly I heard sounds, and looking up, saw three tall men
+clad in full herald's dress rushing towards us at great speed.
+
+"Here come some chips from the Axe," said Hans, and promptly bolted into
+the waggon.
+
+I did not bolt because there was no time to do so without loss of
+dignity, but, although I wished I had my rifle with me, just sat still
+upon my stool and with great deliberation lighted my pipe, taking not
+the slightest notice of the three savage-looking fellows.
+
+These, who I noted carried axes instead of assegais, rushed straight at
+me with the axes raised in such a fashion that anyone unacquainted with
+the habits of Zulu warriors of the old school, might have thought that
+they intended nothing short of murder.
+
+As I expected, however, within about six feet of me they halted suddenly
+and stood there still as statues. For my part I went on lighting my pipe
+as though I did not see them and when at length I was obliged to lift my
+head, surveyed them with an air of mild interest.
+
+Then I took a little book out of my pocket, it was my favourite copy of
+the Ingoldsby Legends--and began to read.
+
+The passage which caught my eye, if "axe" be substituted for "knife" was
+not inappropriate. It was from "The Nurse's Story," and runs,
+
+     "But, oh! what a thing 'tis to see and to know
+     That the bare knife is raised in the hand of the foe,
+     Without hope to repel or to ward off the blow!"
+
+This proceeding of mine astonished them a good deal who felt that they
+had, so to speak, missed fire. At last the soldier in the middle said,
+
+"Are you blind, White Man?"
+
+"No, Black Fellow," I answered, "but I am short-sighted. Would you be so
+good as to stand out of my light?" a remark which puzzled them so much
+that all three drew back a few paces.
+
+When I had read a little further I came to the following lines,
+
+                                 "'Tis plain,
+     As anatomists tell us, that never again,
+     Shall life revisit the foully slain
+     When once they've been cut through the jugular vein."
+
+In my circumstances at that moment this statement seemed altogether too
+suggestive, so I shut up the book and remarked,
+
+"If you are wanderers who want food, as I judge by your being so thin,
+I am sorry that I have little meat, but my servants will give you what
+they can."
+
+"_Ow!_" said the spokesman, "he calls us wanderers! Either he must be a
+very great man or he is mad."
+
+"You are right. I _am_ a great man," I answered, yawning, "and if you
+trouble me too much you will see that I can be mad also. Now what do you
+want?"
+
+"We are messengers from the great Chief Umslopogaas, Captain of the
+People of the Axe, and we want tribute," answered the man in a somewhat
+changed tone.
+
+"Do you? Then you won't get it. I thought that only the King of Zululand
+had a right to tribute, and your Captain's name is not Cetywayo, is it?"
+
+"Our Captain is King here," said the man still more uncertainly.
+
+"Is he indeed? Then away with you back to him and tell this King of whom
+I have never heard, though I have a message for a certain Umslopogaas,
+that Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, intends to visit him to-morrow, if
+he will send a guide at the first light to show the best path for the
+waggon."
+
+"Hearken," said the man to his companions, "this is Macumazahn himself
+and no other. Well, we thought it, for who else would have dared----"
+
+Then they saluted with their axes, calling me "Chief" and other fine
+names, and departed as they had come, at a run, calling out that my
+message should be delivered and that doubtless Umslopogaas would send
+the guide.
+
+
+
+So it came about that, quite contrary to my intention, after all
+circumstances brought me to the Town of the Axe. Even to the last moment
+I had not meant to go there, but when the tribute was demanded I saw
+that it was best to do so, and having once passed my word it could
+not be altered. Indeed, I felt sure that in this event there would be
+trouble and that my oxen would be stolen, or worse.
+
+So Fate having issued its decree, of which Hans's version was that
+Zikali, or his Great Medicine, had so arranged things, I shrugged my
+shoulders and waited.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE
+
+Next morning at the dawn guides arrived from the Town of the Axe,
+bringing with them a yoke of spare oxen, which showed that its Chief was
+really anxious to see me. So, in due course we inspanned and started,
+the guides leading us by a rough but practicable road down the steep
+hillside to the saucer-like plain beneath, where I saw many cattle
+grazing. Travelling some miles across this plain, we came at last to a
+river of no great breadth that encircled a considerable Kaffir town
+on three sides, the fourth being protected by a little line of koppies
+which were joined together with walls. Also the place was strongly
+fortified with fences and in every other way known to the native mind.
+
+With the help of the spare oxen we crossed the river safely at the ford,
+although it was very full, and on the further side were received by a
+guard of men, tall, soldierlike fellows, all of them armed with axes as
+the messengers had been. They led us up to the cattle enclosure in the
+centre of the town, which although it could be used to protect beasts in
+case of emergency, also served the practical purpose of a public square.
+
+Here some ceremony was in progress, for soldiers stood round the kraal
+while heralds pranced and shouted. At the head of the place in front
+of the chief's big hut was a little group of people, among whom a big,
+gaunt man sat upon a stool clad in a warrior's dress with a great and
+very long axe hafted with wire-lashed rhinoceros horn, laid across his
+knees.
+
+Our guides led me, with Hans sneaking after me like a dejected and
+low-bred dog (for the waggon had stopped outside the gate), across the
+kraal to where the heralds shouted and the big man sat yawning. At once
+I noted that he was a very remarkable person, broad and tall and spare
+of frame, with long, tough-looking arms and a fierce face which reminded
+me of that of the late King Dingaan. Also he had a great hole in his
+head above the temple where the skull had been driven in by some blow,
+and keen, royal-looking eyes.
+
+He looked up and seeing me, cried out,
+
+"What! Has a white man come to fight me for the chieftainship of the
+People of the Axe? Well, he is a small one."
+
+"No," I answered quietly, "but Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, has come
+to visit you in answer to your request, O Umslopogaas; Macumazahn whose
+name was known in this land before yours was told of, O Umslopogaas."
+
+The Chief heard and rising from his seat, lifted the big axe in salute.
+
+"I greet you, O Macumazahn," he said, "who although you are small
+in stature, are very great indeed in fame. Have I not heard how you
+conquered Bangu, although Saduko slew him, and of how you gave up the
+six hundred head of cattle to Tshoza and the men of the Amangwane who
+fought with you, the cattle that were your own? Have I not heard how you
+led the Tulwana against the Usutu and stamped flat three of Cetywayo's
+regiments in the days of Panda, although, alas! because of an oath of
+mine I lifted no steel in that battle, I who will have nothing to do
+with those that spring from the blood of Senzangacona--perhaps because
+I smell too strongly of it, Macumazahn. Oh! yes, I have heard these and
+many other things concerning you, though until now it has never been
+my fortune to look upon your face, O Watcher-by-Night, and therefore I
+greet you well, Bold one, Cunning one, Upright one, Friend of us Black
+People."
+
+"Thank you," I answered, "but you said something about fighting. If
+there is to be anything of the sort, let us get it over. If you want to
+fight, I am quite ready," and I tapped the rifle which I carried.
+
+The grim Chief broke into a laugh and said,
+
+"Listen. By an ancient law any man on this day in each year may fight me
+for this Chieftainship, as I fought and conquered him who held it before
+me, and take it from me with my life and the axe, though of late none
+seems to like the business. But that law was made before there were
+guns, or men like Macumazahn who, it is said, can hit a lizard on a wall
+at fifty paces. Therefore I tell you that if you wish to fight me with a
+rifle, O Macumazahn, I give in and you may have the chieftainship," and
+he laughed again in his fierce fashion.
+
+"I think it is too hot for fighting either with guns or axes, and
+Chieftainships are honey that is full of stinging bees," I answered.
+
+Then I took my seat on a stool that had been brought for me and placed
+by the side of Umslopogaas, after which the ceremony went on.
+
+The heralds cried out the challenge to all and sundry to come and fight
+the Holder of the Axe for the chieftainship of the Axe without the
+slightest result, since nobody seemed to desire to do anything of the
+sort. Then, after a pause, Umslopogaas rose, swinging his formidable
+weapon round his head and declared that by right of conquest he was
+Chief of the Tribe for the ensuing year, an announcement that everybody
+accepted without surprise.
+
+Again the heralds summoned all and sundry who had grievances, to come
+forward and to state them and receive redress.
+
+After a little pause there appeared a very handsome woman with large
+eyes, particularly brilliant eyes that rolled as though they were in
+search of someone. She was finely dressed and I saw by the ornaments she
+wore that she held the rank of a chief's wife.
+
+"I, Monazi, have a complaint to make," she said, "as it is the right
+of the humblest to do on this day. In succession to Zinita whom Dingaan
+slew with her children, I am your _Inkosikaas_, your head-wife, O
+Umslopogaas."
+
+"That I know well enough," said Umslopogaas, "what of it?"
+
+"This, that you neglect me for other women, as you neglected Zinita
+for Nada the Beautiful, Nada the witch. I am childless, as are all your
+wives because of the curse that this Nada left behind her. I demand that
+this curse should be lifted from me. For your sake I abandoned Lousta
+the Chief, to whom I was betrothed, and this is the end of it, that I am
+neglected and childless."
+
+"Am I the Heavens Above that I can cause you to bear children, woman?"
+asked Umslopogaas angrily. "Would that you had clung to Lousta, my
+blood-brother and my friend, whom you lament, and left me alone."
+
+"That still may chance, if I am not better treated," answered Monazi
+with a flash of her eyes. "Will you dismiss yonder new wife of yours and
+give me back my place, and will you lift the curse of Nada off me, or
+will you not?"
+
+"As to the first," answered Umslopogaas, "learn, Monazi, that I will not
+dismiss my new wife, who at least is gentler-tongued and truer-hearted
+than you are. As to the second, you ask that which it is not in my power
+to give, since children are the gift of Heaven, and barrenness is its
+bane. Moreover, you have done ill to bring into this matter the name of
+one who is dead, who of all women was the sweetest and most innocent.
+Lastly, I warn you before the people to cease from your plottings or
+traffic with Lousta, lest ill come of them to you, or him, even though
+he be my blood-brother, or to both."
+
+"Plottings!" cried Monazi in a shrill and furious voice. "Does
+Umslopogaas talk of plottings? Well, I have heard that Chaka the Lion
+left a son, and that this son has set a trap for the feet of him who
+sits on Chaka's throne. Perchance that king has heard it also; perchance
+the People of the Axe will soon have another Chief."
+
+"Is it thus?" said Umslopogaas quietly. "And if so, will he be named
+Lousta?"
+
+Then his smouldering wrath broke out and in a kind of roaring voice he
+went on,
+
+"What have I done that the wives of my bosom should be my betrayers,
+those who would give me to death? Zinita betrayed me to Dingaan and
+in reward was slain, and my children with her. Now would you, Monazi,
+betray me to Cetywayo--though in truth there is naught to betray? Well,
+if so, bethink you and let Lousta bethink him of what chanced to Zinita,
+and of what chances to those who stand before the axe of Umslopogaas.
+What have I done, I say, that women should thus strive to work me ill?"
+
+"This," answered Monazi with a mocking laugh, "that you have loved one
+of them too well. If he would live in peace, he who has wives should
+favour all alike. Least of anything should he moan continually over one
+who is dead, a witch who has left a curse behind her and thus insulted
+and do wrong to the living. Also he would be wise to attend to the
+matters of his own tribe and household and to cease from ambitions that
+may bring him to the assegai, and them with him."
+
+"I have heard your counsel, Wife, so now begone!" said Umslopogaas,
+looking at her very strangely, and it seemed to me not without fear.
+
+"Have you wives, Macumazahn?" he asked of me in a low voice when she was
+out of hearing.
+
+"Only among the spirits," I answered.
+
+"Well for you then; moreover, it is a bond between us, for I too have
+but one true wife and she also is among the spirits. But go rest a
+while, and later we will talk."
+
+So I went, leaving the Chief to his business, thinking as I walked away
+of a certain message with which I was charged for him and of how into
+that message came names that I had just heard, namely that of a man
+called Lousta and of a woman called Monazi. Also I thought of the hints
+which in her jealous anger and disappointment at her lack of children,
+this woman had dropped about a plot against him who sat on the throne of
+Chaka, which of course must mean King Cetywayo himself.
+
+I came to the guest-hut, which proved to be a very good place and clean;
+also in it I found plenty of food made ready for me and for my servants.
+After eating I slept for a time as it is always my fashion to do when I
+have nothing else on hand, since who knows for how long he may be kept
+awake at night? Indeed, it was not until the sun had begun to sink
+that a messenger came, saying that the Chief desired to see me if I had
+rested. So I went to his big hut which stood alone with a strong fence
+set round it at a distance, so that none could come within hearing of
+what was said, even at the door of the hut. I observed also that a man
+armed with an axe kept guard at the gateway in this fence round which he
+walked from time to time.
+
+The Chief Umslopogaas was seated on a stool by the door of his hut with
+his rhinoceros-horn-handled axe which was fastened to his right wrist
+by a thong, leaning against his thigh, and a wolfskin hanging from his
+broad shoulders. Very grim and fierce he looked thus, with the red light
+of the sunset playing on him. He greeted me and pointed to another stool
+on which I sat myself down. Apparently he had been watching my eyes, for
+he said,
+
+"I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards
+and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the
+soldier who guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how
+its gate is fashioned."
+
+"Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief."
+
+"Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance
+I shall soon be dead. It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the
+battle, Macumazahn. He who would sleep safe and of whom, when he dies,
+folk will say 'He has eaten' (i.e., he has lived out his life), must do
+more than this. He must guard his tongue and even his thoughts! he must
+listen to the stirring of rats in the thatch and look for snakes in
+the grass; he must trust few, and least of all those who sleep upon his
+bosom. But those who have the Lion's blood in them or who are prone to
+charge like a buffalo, often neglect these matters and therefore in the
+end they fall into a pit."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "especially those who have the lion's blood in them,
+whether that lion be man or beast."
+
+This I said because of the rumours I had heard that this Slaughterer was
+in truth the son of Chaka. Therefore not knowing whether or no he were
+playing on the word "lion," which was Chaka's title, I wished to draw
+him, especially as I saw in his face a great likeness to Chaka's brother
+Dingaan, whom, it was whispered, this same Umslopogaas had slain. As it
+happened I failed, for after a pause he said,
+
+"Why do you come to visit me, Macumazahn, who have never done so
+before?"
+
+"I do not come to visit you, Umslopogaas. That was not my intention. You
+brought me, or rather the flooded rivers and you together brought me,
+for I was on my way to Natal and could not cross the drifts."
+
+"Yet I think you have a message for me, White Man, for not long ago a
+certain wandering witch-doctor who came here told me to expect you and
+that you had words to say to me."
+
+"Did he, Umslopogaas? Well, it is true that I have a message, though it
+is one that I did not mean to deliver."
+
+"Yet being here, perchance you will deliver it, Macumazahn, for those
+who have messages and will not speak them, sometimes come to trouble."
+
+"Yes, being here, I will deliver it, seeing that so it seems to be
+fated. Tell me, do you chance to know a certain Small One who is
+great, a certain Old One whose brain is young, a doctor who is called
+Opener-of-Roads?"
+
+"I have heard of him, as have my forefathers for generations."
+
+"Indeed, and if it pleases you to tell me, Umslopogaas, what might be
+the names of those forefathers of yours, who have heard of this doctor
+for generations? They must have been short-lived men and as such I
+should like to know of them."
+
+"That you cannot," replied Umslopogaas shortly, "since they are
+_hlonipa_ (i.e. not to be spoken) in this land."
+
+"Indeed," I said again. "I thought that rule applied only to the names
+of kings, but of course I am but an ignorant white man who may well be
+mistaken on such matters of your Zulu customs."
+
+"Yes, O Macumazahn, you may be mistaken or--you may not. It matters
+nothing. But what of this message of yours?"
+
+"It came at the end of a long story, O Bulalio. But since you seek to
+know, these were the words of it, so nearly as I can remember them."
+
+Then sentence by sentence I repeated to him all that Zikali had said to
+me when he called me back after bidding me farewell, which doubtless he
+did because he wished to cut his message more deeply into the tablets of
+my mind.
+
+Umslopogaas listened to every syllable with a curious intentness, and
+then asked me to repeat it all again, which I did.
+
+"Lousta! Monazi!" he said slowly. "Well, you heard those names to-day,
+did you not, White Man? And you heard certain things from the lips
+of this Monazi who was angry, that give colour to that talk of the
+Opener-of-Roads. It seems to me," he added, glancing about him and
+speaking in a low voice, "that what I suspected is true and that without
+doubt I am betrayed."
+
+"I do not understand," I replied indifferently. "All this talk is dark
+to me, as is the message of the Opener-of-Roads, or rather its meaning.
+By whom and about what are you betrayed?"
+
+"Let that snake sleep. Do not kick it with your foot. Suffice it you to
+know that my head hangs upon this matter; that I am a rat in a forked
+stick, and if the stick is pressed on by a heavy hand, then where is the
+rat?"
+
+"Where all rats go, I suppose, that is, unless they are wise rats that
+bite the hand which holds the stick before it is pressed down."
+
+"What is the rest of this story of yours, Macumazahn, which was told
+before the Opener-of-Roads gave you that message? Does it please you to
+repeat it to me that I may judge of it with my ears?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, "on one condition, that what the ears hear, the
+heart shall keep to itself alone."
+
+Umslopogaas stooped and laid his hand upon the broad blade of the weapon
+beside him, saying,
+
+"By the Axe I swear it. If I break the oath be the Axe my doom."
+
+Then I told him the tale, as I have set it down already, thinking
+to myself that of it he would understand little, being but a wild
+warrior-man. As it chanced, however, I was mistaken, for he seemed to
+understand a great deal, perchance because such primitive natures are in
+closer touch with high and secret things than we imagine; perchance for
+other reasons with which I became acquainted later.
+
+"It stands thus," he said when I had finished, "or so I think. You,
+Macumazahn, seek certain women who are dead to learn whether they still
+live, or are really dead, but so far have failed to find them. Still
+seeking, you asked the counsel of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, he who among
+other titles is also called 'Home of Spirits.' He answered that he could
+not satisfy your heart because this tree was too tall for him to climb,
+but that far to the north there lives a certain white witch who has
+powers greater than his, being able to fly to the top of any tree, and
+to this white witch he bade you go. Have I the story right thus far?"
+
+I answered that he had.
+
+"Good! Then Zikali went on to choose you companions for your journey,
+but two, leaving out the guards or servants. I, Umhlopekazi, called
+Bulalio the Slaughterer, called the Woodpecker also, was one of these,
+and that little yellow monkey of a man whom I saw with you to-day,
+called Hansi, was the other. Then you made a mock of Zikali by
+determining not to visit me, Umhlopekazi, and not to go north to find
+the great white Queen of whom he had told you, but to return to Natal.
+Is that so?"
+
+I said it was.
+
+"Then the rain fell and the winds blew and the rivers rose in wrath so
+that you could not return to Natal, and after all by chance, or by fate,
+or by the will of Zikali, the wizard of wizards, you drifted here to the
+kraal of me, Umhlopekazi, and told me this story."
+
+"Just so," I answered.
+
+"Well, White Man, how am I to know that all this is not but a trap for
+my feet which already seem to feel cords between the toes of both of
+them? What token do you bring, O Watcher-by-Night? How am I to know that
+the Opener-of-Roads really sent me this message which has been delivered
+so strangely by one who wished to travel on another path? The wandering
+witch-doctor told me that he who came would bear some sign."
+
+"I can't say," I answered, "at least in words. But," I added after
+reflection, "as you ask for a token, perhaps I might be able to show you
+something that would bring proof to your heart, if there were any secret
+place----"
+
+Umslopogaas walked to the gateway of the fence and saw that the sentry
+was at his post. Then he walked round the hut casting an eye upon its
+roof, and muttered to me as he returned.
+
+"Once I was caught thus. There lived a certain wife of mine who set her
+ear to the smoke-hole and so brought about the death of many, and among
+them of herself and of our children. Enter. All is safe. Yet if you
+talk, speak low."
+
+So we went into the hut taking the stools with us, and seated ourselves
+by the fire that burned there on to which Umslopogaas threw chips of
+resinous wood.
+
+"Now," he said.
+
+I opened my shirt and by the clear light of the flame showed him the
+image of Zikali which hung about my neck. He stared at it, though touch
+it he would not. Then he stood up and lifting his great axe, he saluted
+the image with the word "_Makosi!_" the salute that is given to great
+wizards because they are supposed to be the home of many spirits.
+
+"It is the big Medicine, the Medicine itself," he said, "that which has
+been known in the land since the time of Senzangacona, the father of the
+Zulu Royal House, and as it is said, before him."
+
+"How can that be?" I asked, "seeing that this image represents Zikali,
+Opener-of-Roads, as an old man, and Senzangacona died many years ago?"
+
+"I do not know," he answered, "but it is so. Listen. There was a certain
+Mopo, or as some called him, Umbopo, who was Chaka's body-servant and my
+foster-father, and he told me that twice this Medicine," and he pointed
+to the image, "was sent to Chaka, and that each time the Lion obeyed the
+message that came with it. A third time it was sent, but he did not obey
+the message and then--where was Chaka?"
+
+Here Umslopogaas passed his hand across his mouth, a significant gesture
+amongst the Zulus.
+
+"Mopo," I said, "yes, I have heard the story of Mopo, also that Chaka's
+body became _his_ servant in the end, since Mopo killed him with the
+help of the princes Dingaan and Umhlangana. Also I have heard that this
+Mopo still lives, though not in Zululand."
+
+"Does he, Macumazahn?" said Umslopogaas, taking snuff from a spoon and
+looking at me keenly over the spoon. "You seem to know a great deal,
+Macumazahn; too much as some might think."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "perhaps I do know too much, or at any rate more than
+I want to know. For instance, O fosterling of Mopo and son of--was the
+lady named Baleka?--I know a good deal about _you_."
+
+Umslopogaas stared at me and laying his hand upon the great axe, half
+rose. Then he sat down again.
+
+"I think that this," and I touched the image of Zikali upon my breast,
+"would turn even the blade of the axe named Groan-maker," I said and
+paused. As nothing happened, I went on, "For instance, again I think I
+know--or have I dreamed it?--that a certain chief, whose mother's name
+I believe was Baleka--by the way, was she not one of Chaka's
+'sisters'?--has been plotting against that son of Panda who sits upon
+the throne, and that his plots have been betrayed, so that he is in some
+danger of his life."
+
+"Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas hoarsely, "I tell you that did you not
+wear the Great Medicine on your breast, I would kill you where you sit
+and bury you beneath the floor of the hut, as one who knows--too much."
+
+"It would be a mistake, Umslopogaas, one of the many that you have made.
+But as I _do_ wear the Medicine, the question does not arise, does it?"
+
+Again he made no answer and I went on, "And now, what about this journey
+to the north? If indeed I must make it, would you wish to accompany me?"
+
+Umslopogaas rose from the stool and crawled out of the hut, apparently
+to make some inspection. Presently he returned and remarked that the
+night was clear although there were heavy storm clouds on the horizon,
+by which I understood him to convey in Zulu metaphor that it was safe
+for us to talk, but that danger threatened from afar.
+
+"Macumazahn," he said, "we speak under the blanket of the
+Opener-of-Roads who sits upon your heart, and whose sign you bring to
+me, as he sent me word that you would, do we not?"
+
+"I suppose so," I answered. "At any rate we speak as man to man, and
+hitherto the honour of Macumazahn has not been doubted in Zululand. So
+if you have anything to say, Chief Bulalio, say it at once, for I am
+tired and should like to eat and rest."
+
+"Good, Macumazahn. I have this to say. I who am the son of one who was
+greater than he, have plotted to seize the throne of Zululand from him
+who sits upon that throne. It is true, for I grew weary of my idleness
+as a petty chief. Moreover, I should have succeeded with the help of
+Zikali, who hates the House of Senzangacona, though me, who am of its
+blood, he does not hate, because ever I have striven against that House.
+But it seems from his message and those words spoken by an angry woman,
+that I have been betrayed, and that to-night or to-morrow night, or
+by the next moon, the slayers will be upon me, smiting me before I can
+smite, at which I cannot grumble."
+
+"By whom have you been betrayed, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"By that wife of mine, as I think, Macumazahn. Also by Lousta, my
+blood-brother, over whom she has cast her net and made false to me,
+so that he hopes to win her whom he has always loved and with her the
+Chieftainship of the Axe. Now what shall I do?--Tell me, you whose eyes
+can see in the dark."
+
+I thought a moment and answered, "I think that if I were you, I would
+leave this Lousta to sit in my place for a while as Chief of the People
+of the Axe, and take a journey north, Umslopogaas. Then if trouble comes
+from the Great House where a king sits, it will come to Lousta who can
+show that the People of the Axe are innocent and that you are far away."
+
+"That is cunning, Macumazahn. There speaks the Great Medicine. If I go
+north, who can say that I have plotted, and if I leave my betrayer in my
+place, who can say that I was a traitor, who have set him where I used
+to sit and left the land upon a private matter? And now tell me of this
+journey of yours."
+
+So I told him everything, although until that moment I had not made up
+my mind to go upon this journey, I who had come here to his kraal
+by accident, or so it seemed, and by accident had delivered to him a
+certain message.
+
+"You wish to consult a white witch-doctoress, Macumazahn, who according
+to Zikali lives far to the north, as to the dead. Now I too, though
+perchance you will not think it of a black man, desire to learn of the
+dead; yes, of a certain wife of my youth who was sister and friend as
+well as wife, whom too I loved better than all the world. Also I desire
+to learn of a brother of mine whose name I never speak, who ruled the
+wolves with me and who died at my side on yonder Witch-Mountain, having
+made him a mat of men to lie on in a great and glorious fight. For of
+him as of the woman I think all day and dream all night, and I would
+know if they still live anywhere and I may look to see them again when
+I have died as a warrior should and as I hope to do. Do you understand,
+Watcher-by-Night?"
+
+I answered that I understood very well, as his case seemed to be like my
+own.
+
+"It may happen," went on Umslopogaas, "that all this talk of the dead
+who are supposed to live after they are dead, is but as the sound of
+wind whispering in the reeds at night, that comes from nowhere and goes
+nowhere and means nothing. But at least ours will be a great journey in
+which we shall find adventure and fighting, since it is well known in
+the land that wherever Macumazahn goes there is plenty of both. Also it
+seems well for reasons that have been spoken of between us, as Zikali
+says, that I should leave the country of the Zulus for a while, who
+desire to die a man's death at the last and not to be trapped like a
+jackal in a pit. Lastly I think that we shall agree well together though
+my temper is rough at times, and that neither of us will desert the
+other in trouble, though of that little yellow dog of yours I am not so
+sure."
+
+"I answer for him," I replied. "Hans is a true man, cunning also when
+once he is away from drink."
+
+
+
+Then we spoke of plans for our journey, and of when and where we should
+meet to make it, talking till it was late, after which I went to sleep
+in the guest-hut.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LION AND THE AXE
+
+Next day early I left the town of the People of the Axe, having bid a
+formal farewell to Umslopogaas, saying in a voice that all could
+hear that as the rivers were still flooded, I proposed to trek to the
+northern parts of Zululand and trade there until the weather was better.
+Our private arrangement, however, was that on the night of the next
+full moon, which happened about four weeks later, we should meet at the
+eastern foot of a certain great, flat-topped mountain known to both of
+us, which stands to the north of Zululand but well beyond its borders.
+
+So northward I trekked, slowly to spare my oxen, trading as I went. The
+details do not matter, but as it happened I met with more luck upon that
+journey than had come my way for many a long year. Although I worked
+on credit since nearly all my goods were sold, as owing to my repute I
+could always do in Zululand, I made some excellent bargains in cattle,
+and to top up with, bought a large lot of ivory so cheap that really I
+think it must have been stolen.
+
+All of this, cattle, and ivory together, I sent to Natal in charge of a
+white friend of mine whom I could trust, where the stuff was sold
+very well indeed, and the proceeds paid to my account, the "trade"
+equivalents being duly remitted to the native vendors.
+
+In fact, my good fortune was such that if I had been superstitious like
+Hans, I should have been inclined to attribute it to the influence of
+Zikali's "Great Medicine." As it was I knew it to be one of the chances
+of a trader's life and accepted it with a shrug as often as I had been
+accustomed to do in the alternative of losses.
+
+Only one untoward incident happened to me. Of a sudden a party of
+the King's soldiers under the command of a well-known _Induna_ or
+Councillor, arrived and insisted upon searching my waggon, as I thought
+at first in connection with that cheap lot of ivory which had already
+departed to Natal. However, never a word did they say of ivory, nor
+indeed was a single thing belonging to me taken by them.
+
+I was very indignant and expressed my feelings to the _Induna_ in no
+measured terms. He on his part was most apologetic, and explained that
+what he did he was obliged to do "by the King's orders." Also he let it
+slip that he was seeking for a certain "evil-doer" who, it was thought,
+might be with me without my knowing his real character, and as this
+"evil-doer," whose name he would not mention, was a very fierce man, it
+had been necessary to bring a strong guard with him.
+
+Now I bethought me of Umslopogaas, but merely looked blank and shrugged
+my shoulders, saying that I was not in the habit of consorting with
+evil-doers.
+
+Still unsatisfied, the _Induna_ questioned me as to the places where
+I had been during this journey of mine in the Zulu country. I told him
+with the utmost frankness, mentioning among others--because I was sure
+that already he knew all my movements well--the town of the People of
+the Axe.
+
+Then he asked me if I had seen its Chief, a certain Umslopogaas or
+Bulalio. I answered, Yes, that I had met him there for the first time
+and thought him a very remarkable man.
+
+With this the _Induna_ agreed emphatically, saying that perhaps I did
+not know _how_ remarkable. Next he asked me where he was now, to which
+I replied that I had not the faintest idea, but I presumed in his kraal
+where I had left him. The _Induna_ explained that he was _not_ in his
+kraal; that he had gone away leaving one Lousta and his own head wife
+Monazi to administer the chieftainship for a while, because, as he
+stated, he wished to make a journey.
+
+I yawned as if weary of the subject of this chief, and indeed of the
+whole business. Then the _Induna_ said that I must come to the King and
+repeat to him all the words that I had spoken. I replied that I could
+not possibly do so as, having finished my trading, I had arranged to go
+north to shoot elephants. He answered that elephants lived a long while
+and would not die while I was visiting the King.
+
+Then followed an argument which grew heated and ended in his declaring
+that to the King I must come, even if he had to take me there by force.
+
+I sat silent, wondering what to say or do and leant forward to pick a
+piece of wood out of the fire wherewith to light my pipe. Now my shirt
+was not buttoned and as it chanced this action caused the ivory image of
+Zikali that hung about my neck to appear between its edges. The _Induna_
+saw it and his eyes grew big with fear.
+
+"Hide that!" he whispered, "hide that, lest it should bewitch me.
+Indeed, already I feel as though I were being bewitched. It is the Great
+Medicine itself."
+
+"That will certainly happen to you," I said, yawning again, "if you
+insist upon my taking a week's trek to visit the Black One, or interfere
+with me in any way now or afterwards," and I lifted my hand towards the
+talisman, looking him steadily in the face.
+
+"Perhaps after all, Macumazahn, it is not necessary for you to visit the
+King," he said in an uncertain voice. "I will go and make report to him
+that you know nothing of this evil-doer."
+
+And he went in such a hurry that he never waited to say good-bye. Next
+morning before the dawn I went also and trekked steadily until I was
+clear of Zululand.
+
+
+
+In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had been
+so wet, had now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great,
+flat-topped hill that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high,
+sparsely-timbered veld that offered few difficulties to the waggon. This
+peculiar hill, known to such natives as lived in those parts by a long
+word that means "Hut-with-a-flat-roof," is surrounded by forest, for
+here trees grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water that
+flows from its slopes. Forcing our way through this forest, which was
+full of game, I reached its eastern foot and there camped, five
+days before that night of full moon on which I had arranged to meet
+Umslopogaas.
+
+That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly because
+I thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind about
+coming, and secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he had
+gone to call upon the King against his will, as I had been asked to do.
+It was evident to me that he was up to his eyes in some serious plot
+against Cetywayo, in which he was the old dwarf Zikali's partner, or
+rather, tool; also that his plot had been betrayed, with the result that
+he was "wanted" and would have little chance of passing safely through
+Zululand. So taking one thing with another I imagined that I had seen
+his grim face and his peculiar, ancient-looking axe for the last time.
+
+To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed to
+me a little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch chase
+through unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who dwelt
+far across the Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the thing,
+but if Umslopogaas did not appear, my obligations would be at an end
+and I should return to Natal at my leisure. First, however, I would do
+a little shooting since I found that a large herd of elephants haunted
+this forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack them at once, but did not
+do so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going north it would be
+difficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had to leave the waggon,
+and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the great beasts for the
+fun of the thing.
+
+So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the
+hours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most
+slopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more
+than a hundred yards above the timber line.
+
+At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;
+probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I
+found human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the
+cattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by piling
+up a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrow
+entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxen
+at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though I
+had neither seen nor heard them.
+
+So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever
+we wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a
+spot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came the
+time of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the truth, I
+had begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has always led an
+active life too much of it is very bad, for then he begins to think and
+thought in large doses is depressing.
+
+Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind
+that on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had
+shot--or failed to shoot--some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable
+to remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhaps
+why I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down such
+reminiscences as these.
+
+Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a good
+look at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned in. An
+hour or two later some noise from the direction of the cattle-kraal woke
+me up. As it did not recur, I thought that I would go to sleep again.
+Then an uneasy thought came to me that I could not remember having
+looked to see whether the entrance was properly closed, as it was
+my habit to do. It was the same sort of troublesome doubt which in
+a civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go along the cold
+passages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put out the lamp.
+It always proves that he _has_ put it out, but that does not prevent a
+repetition of the performance next time the perplexity arises.
+
+I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing their
+way through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that I had
+better go to see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went without
+waking Hans or the boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-barrelled
+rifle which I used for shooting small buck, but no spare cartridges.
+
+Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew a
+single big tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I looked
+and saw that the gateway was quite securely closed, as now I remembered
+I had noted at sunset. Then I started to go back but had not stepped
+more than two or three paces when, in the bright moonlight, I saw the
+head of my smallest ox, a beast of the Zulu breed, suddenly appear
+over the top of the wall. About this there would have been nothing
+particularly astonishing, had it not been for the fact that this head
+belonged to a dead animal, as I could tell from the closed eyes and the
+hanging tongue.
+
+"What in the name of goodness----" I began to myself, when my
+reflections were cut short by the appearance of another head, that of
+one of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, and
+with the enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by getting
+its back beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over the wall,
+to drag it away to devour at its leisure.
+
+There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it saw
+me as I saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
+
+"What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead," one can
+fancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift of
+God I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for even
+with the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have pierced
+through the soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have killed
+that lion as dead as Julius C�sar. Theoretically the thing was easy
+enough; indeed, although I was startled for a moment, by the time that
+I had the rifle to my shoulder I had little fear of the issue, unless
+there was a miss-fire, especially as the beast seemed so astonished that
+it remained quite still.
+
+Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life, particularly
+in hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I fired, but by
+misfortune the bullet struck the tip of the horn of that confounded ox,
+which tip either was or at that moment fell in front of the spot on the
+lion's throat whereat half-unconsciously I had aimed. Result: the ball
+was turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the skin of the lion's
+neck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make it madder than all
+the hatters in the world.
+
+Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at
+me--I remember that there seemed to be yards of it--I mean of the
+lion--in front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming
+teeth.
+
+I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because
+there was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way,
+that after all Zikali's Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The lion
+landed on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legs
+before getting to business, towering high above me but slightly to my
+left.
+
+Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past
+me--all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,
+probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it another
+shadow, that of a lion's paw dropping to the ground. Next there was a
+most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray as
+never I shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was fighting the great
+lion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind legs,
+striking at him with the other.
+
+The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back with
+the axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it
+came to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only one
+fore-foot on which to light.
+
+The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or do
+anything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into the
+head. After this all was over, for the beast's brain was cut in two.
+
+"I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas, for it
+was he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion's severed
+skull, "to find you watching by night as it is reported that you always
+do."
+
+"No," I retorted, for his tone irritated me, "you are late, Bulalio, the
+moon has been up some hours."
+
+"I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the _night_ of the full
+moon, not at the rising of the moon."
+
+"That is true," I replied, mollified, "and at any rate you came at a
+good moment."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "though as it happens in this clear light the thing
+was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the end
+might have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as I
+thought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a lion with
+a toy like that," and he pointed to the little rifle in my hand.
+
+"I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or
+another there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared to
+meet, Macumazahn."
+
+"You are right again," I replied.
+
+At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet
+distance by the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
+
+"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well," was all he
+said.
+
+"The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better," remarked
+Umslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe.
+"Never before since she came into my keeping has _Inkosikaas_ (i.e.
+'Chieftainess,' for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as to
+drink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she need
+not be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I have been
+told, are cunning, watch your master so ill?"
+
+"I was asleep," stuttered Hans indignantly.
+
+"Those who serve should never sleep," replied Umslopogaas sternly. Then
+he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at a
+little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing axes and
+wearing cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by raising their axes.
+
+"Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a mat,"
+said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away.
+
+"Who are these?" I asked.
+
+"A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There were
+one or two more, but they got lost on the way."
+
+Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.
+
+
+
+Next morning I told Umslopogaas of the visit I had received from the
+_Induna_ of the King who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He nodded
+and said,
+
+"As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why
+one or two of my people remain behind who will never travel again. We
+made good play with those thieves; not one of them escaped," he
+added grimly, "and their bodies we threw into a river where are many
+crocodiles. But their spears I brought away and I think that they are
+such as the King's guard use. If so, his search for them will be long,
+since the fight took place where no man lives and we burned the shields
+and trappings. Oho! he will think that the ghosts have taken them."
+
+That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for
+these "thieves" should strike and follow our spoor. Luckily the ox that
+the lion had killed was one of some spare cattle which I was driving
+with me, so its loss did not inconvenience us. As we went Umslopogaas
+told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife Monazi to rule
+the tribe during his absence, an office which they accepted doubtfully,
+Monazi acting as Chieftainess and Lousta as her head _Induna_ or
+Councillor.
+
+I asked him whether he thought this wise under all the circumstances,
+seeing that it had occurred to me since I made the suggestion, that they
+might be unwilling to surrender power on his return, also that other
+domestic complications might ensue.
+
+"It matters little, Macumazahn," he said with a shrug of his great
+shoulders, "for of this I am sure, that I have played my part with the
+People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death,
+who am a man betrayed. What do I care who love none and now have no
+children? Still, it is true that I might have fled to Natal with the
+cattle and there have led a fat and easy life. But ease and plenty I do
+not desire who would live and fall as a warrior should.
+
+"Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves
+ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die,
+or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with wives
+and oxen while I have _Inkosikaas_ the Groan-maker and she is true to
+me?" he added, shaking the ancient axe above his head so that the sun
+gleamed upon the curved blade and the hollow gouge or point at the back
+beyond the shaft socket. "Where the Axe goes, there go the strength and
+virtue of the Axe, O Macumazahn."
+
+"It is a strange weapon," I said.
+
+"Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a
+warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter who was also the
+first of smiths and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to return
+to his hand when its work is finished beneath the sun. That will be
+soon, Macumazahn, since Zikali told me that I am the last Holder of the
+Axe."
+
+"Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from
+Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought
+you to my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the spirit
+of a snake had told him that you tried to throw the Great Medicine into
+a pool, but were stopped by that snake, whilst it was still alive. This,
+he said, you must do no more, lest he should send another snake to stop
+_you_."
+
+"Did he?" I replied indignantly, for Zikali's power of seeing or
+learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed
+me.
+
+Only Hans grinned and said,
+
+"I told you so, Baas."
+
+
+
+On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and
+dangers as are common on roadless veld in Africa, but no more, for the
+grass was good and there was plenty of game, of which we shot what we
+wanted for meat. Indeed, here in the back regions of what is known as
+Portuguese South East Africa, every sort of wild animal was so numerous
+that personally I wished we could turn our journey into a shooting
+expedition.
+
+But of this Umslopogaas, whom hunting bored, would not hear. In fact,
+he was much more anxious than myself to carry out our original purpose.
+When I asked him why, he answered because of something Zikali had told
+him. What this was he would not say, except that in the country whither
+we wandered he would fight a great fight and win much honour.
+
+Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive
+joy in battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus only
+could a man decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person who
+loves quiet and a home. Still, I gave way, partly to please him, partly
+because I hoped that we might discover something of interest, and still
+more because, having once undertaken an enterprise, my pride prompted me
+to see it through.
+
+Now while he was preparing to draw his map in the ashes, or afterwards,
+I forget which, Zikali had told me that when we drew near to the great
+river we should come to a place on the edge of bush-veld that ran down
+to the river, where a white man lived, adding, after casting his bones
+and reading from them, that he thought this white man was a "trek-Boer."
+This, I should explain, means a Dutchman who has travelled away from
+wherever he lived and made a home for himself in the wilderness, as some
+wandering spirit and the desire to be free of authority often prompt
+these people to do. Also, after another inspection of his enchanted
+knuckle-bones, he had declared that something remarkable would happen to
+this man or his family, while I was visiting him. Lastly in that map he
+drew in the ashes, the details of which were impressed so indelibly
+upon my memory, he had shown me where I should find the dwelling of this
+white man, of whom and of whose habitation doubtless he knew through
+the many spies who seemed to be at the service of all witch-doctors, and
+more especially of Zikali, the greatest among them.
+
+Travelling by the sun and the compress I had trekked steadily in
+the exact direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful
+particular he was well named the "Opener-of-Roads," since always before
+me I found a practicable path, although to the right or to the left
+there would have been none. Thus when we came to mountains, it was at a
+spot where we discovered a pass; when we came to swamps it was where a
+ridge of high ground ran between, and so forth. Also such tribes as we
+met upon our journey always proved of a friendly character, although
+perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas and his fierce band whom, rather
+irreverently, I named his twelve Apostles, had a share in inducing this
+peaceful attitude.
+
+So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain
+intervals, that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be
+following some ancient road which at a forgotten period of history, had
+run from south to north, or _vice vers�_. Or rather, to be honest, it
+was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications
+which had escaped my notice. I need not stop to detail them, but one
+of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high, rather
+barren land had been dug out, and in one or more instances, lined with
+stones after the fashion of an ancient well. Evidently we were following
+an old trade route made, perhaps, in forgotten ages when Africa was more
+civilised than it is now.
+
+Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our
+trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed
+itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the
+afternoon, and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense
+fog, we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in movable
+grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed sheep.
+
+These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did
+them no harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of
+a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who was
+a great master of different native dialects, discovered a tongue, or a
+mixture of tongues, in which he could make himself understood to some of
+them.
+
+They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man,
+although their fathers' fathers (an expression by which they meant their
+remote ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however, that if
+we went on steadily towards the north for another seven days' journey,
+we should come to a place where a white man lived, one, they had heard,
+who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as we did.
+
+Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down
+hill out of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld
+here was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East African
+plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as
+we could see where the rains had washed out dongas. The climate, too,
+seemed to be cool and very healthful. Altogether it was a pity to see
+such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless herds of game, for
+there were not any native inhabitants, or at least we met none.
+
+On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at length
+we saw far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed correctly,
+must fringe the great Zambesi River. Moreover we, or rather Hans, whose
+eyes were those of a hawk, saw something else, namely buildings of a
+more or less civilised kind, which stood among trees by the side of a
+stream several miles on this side of the great belt of bush.
+
+"Look, Baas," said Hans, "those wanderers did not lie; there is the
+house of the white man. I wonder if he drinks anything stronger than
+water," he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of
+his yellow throat.
+
+As it happened, he did.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INEZ
+
+We had sighted the house from far away shortly after sunrise and by
+midday we were there. As we approached I saw that it stood almost
+immediately beneath two great baobab trees, babyan trees we call them in
+South Africa, perhaps because monkeys eat their fruit. It was a thatched
+house with whitewashed walls and a stoep or veranda round it, apparently
+of the ordinary Dutch type. Moreover, beyond it, at a little distance
+were other houses or rather shanties with waggon sheds, etc., and
+beyond and mixed up with these a number of native huts. Further on were
+considerable fields green with springing corn; also we saw herds of
+cattle grazing on the slopes. Evidently our white man was rich.
+
+Umslopogaas surveyed the place with a soldier's eye and said to me,
+
+"This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is feared,
+since of defences I see none."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "why not, with a wilderness behind it and bush-veld
+and a great river in front?"
+
+"Men can cross rivers and travel through bush-veld," he answered, and
+was silent.
+
+Up to this time we had seen no one, although it might have been presumed
+that a waggon trekking towards the house was a sufficiently unusual
+sight to have attracted attention.
+
+"Where can they be?" I asked.
+
+"Asleep, Baas, I think," said Hans, and as a matter of fact he was
+right. The whole population of the place was indulging in a noonday
+siesta.
+
+At last we came so near to the house that I halted the waggon and
+descended from the driving-box in order to investigate. At this moment
+someone did appear, the sight of whom astonished me not a little,
+namely, a very striking-looking young woman. She was tall, handsome,
+with large dark eyes, good features, a rather pale complexion, and I
+think the saddest face that I ever saw. Evidently she had heard the
+noise of the waggon and had come out to see what caused it, for she
+had nothing on her head, which was covered with thick hair of a raven
+blackness. Catching sight of the great Umslopogaas with his gleaming axe
+and of his savage-looking bodyguard, she uttered an exclamation and not
+unnaturally turned to fly.
+
+"It's all right," I sang out, emerging from behind the oxen, and in
+English, though before the words had left my lips I reflected that there
+was not the slightest reason to suppose that she would understand them.
+Probably she was Dutch, or Portuguese, although by some instinct I had
+addressed her in English.
+
+To my surprise she answered me in the same tongue, spoken, it is true,
+with a peculiar accent which I could not place, as it was neither Scotch
+nor Irish.
+
+"Thank you," she said. "I, sir, was frightened. Your friends look----"
+Here she stumbled for a word, then added, "terrocious."
+
+I laughed at this composite adjective and answered,
+
+"Well, so they are in a way, though they will not harm you or me. But,
+young lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your husband----"
+
+"I have no husband, I have only a father, sir," and she sighed.
+
+"Well, then, could I speak to your father? My name is Allan Quatermain
+and I am making a journey of exploration, to find out about the country
+beyond, you know."
+
+"Yes, I will go to wake him. He is asleep. Everyone sleeps here at
+midday--except me," she said with another sigh.
+
+"Why do you not follow their example?" I asked jocosely, for this young
+woman puzzled me and I wanted to find out about her.
+
+"Because I sleep little, sir, who think too much. There will be plenty
+of time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?"
+
+I stared at her and inquired her name, because I did not know what else
+to say.
+
+"My name is Inez Robertson," she answered. "I will go to wake my father.
+Meanwhile please unyoke your oxen. They can feed with the others; they
+look as though they wanted rest, poor things." Then she turned and went
+into the house.
+
+"Inez Robertson," I said to myself, "that's a queer combination. English
+father and Portuguese mother, I suppose. But what can an Englishman be
+doing in a place like this? If it had been a trek-Boer I should not have
+been surprised." Then I began to give directions about out-spanning.
+
+We had just got the oxen out of the yokes, when a big, raw-boned,
+red-bearded, blue-eyed, roughly-clad man of about fifty years of age
+appeared from the house, yawning. I threw my eye over him as he advanced
+with a peculiar rolling gait, and formed certain conclusions. A drunkard
+who has once been a gentleman, I reflected to myself, for there was
+something peculiarly dissolute in his appearance, also one who has had
+to do with the sea, a diagnosis which proved very accurate.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Allan Quatermain, which I think my daughter said is
+your name, unless I dreamed it, for it is one that I seem to have heard
+before," he exclaimed with a broad Scotch accent which I do not attempt
+to reproduce. "What in the name of blazes brings you here where no real
+white man has been for years? Well, I am glad enough to see you any way,
+for I am sick of half-breed Portuguese and niggers, and snuff-and-butter
+girls, and gin and bad whisky. Leave your people to attend to those oxen
+and come in and have a drink."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Robertson----"
+
+"Captain Robertson," he interrupted. "Man, don't look astonished. You
+mightn't guess it, but I commanded a mail-steamer once and should like
+to hear myself called rightly again before I die."
+
+"I beg your pardon--Captain Robertson, but myself, I don't drink
+anything before sundown. However, if you have something to eat----?"
+
+"Oh yes, Inez--she's my daughter--will find you a bite. Those men of
+yours," and he also looked doubtfully at Umslopogaas and his savage
+company, "will want food as well. I'll have a beast killed for them;
+they look as if they could eat it, horns and all. Where are my people?
+All asleep, I suppose, the lazy lubbers. Wait a bit, I'll wake them up."
+
+Going to the house he snatched a great sjambok cut from hippopotamus
+hide, from where it hung on a nail in the wall, and ran towards the
+group of huts which I have mentioned, roaring out the name Thomaso, also
+a string of oaths such as seamen use, mixed with others of a Portuguese
+variety. What happened there I could not see because boughs were in
+the way, but presently I heard blows and screams, and caught sight of
+people, all dark-skinned, flying from the huts.
+
+A little later a fat, half-breed man--I should say from his curling hair
+that his mother was a negress and his father a Portuguese--appeared
+with some other nondescript fellows and began to give directions in a
+competent fashion about our oxen, also as to the killing of a calf. He
+spoke in bastard Portuguese, which I could understand, and I heard him
+talk of Umslopogaas to whom he pointed, as "that nigger," after the
+fashion of such cross-bred people who choose to consider themselves
+white men. Also he made uncomplimentary remarks about Hans, who of
+course understood every word he said. Evidently Thomaso's temper had
+been ruffled by this sudden and violent disturbance of his nap.
+
+Just then our host appeared puffing with his exertions and declaring
+that he had stirred up the swine with a vengeance, in proof of which he
+pointed to the sjambok that was reddened with blood.
+
+"Captain Robertson," I said, "I wish to give you a hint to be passed on
+to Mr. Thomaso, if that is he. He spoke of the Zulu soldier there as a
+nigger, etc. Well, he is a chief of a high rank and rather a terrible
+fellow if roused. Therefore I recommend Mr. Thomaso not to let him
+understand that he is insulting him."
+
+"Oh! that's the way of these 'snuff-and-butters' one of whose
+grandmothers once met a white man," replied the Captain, laughing, "but
+I'll tell him," and he did in Portuguese.
+
+His retainer listened in silence, looking at Umslopogaas rather sulkily.
+Then we walked into the house. As we went the Captain said,
+
+"Se�or Thomaso--he calls himself Se�or--is my manager here and a clever
+man, honest too in his way and attached to me, perhaps because I
+saved his life once. But he has a nasty temper, as have all these
+cross-breeds, so I hope he won't get wrong with that native who carries
+a big axe."
+
+"I hope so too, for his own sake," I replied emphatically.
+
+The Captain led the way into the sitting-room; there was but one in the
+house. It proved a queer kind of place with rude furniture seated with
+strips of hide after the Boer fashion, and yet bearing a certain air of
+refinement which was doubtless due to Inez, who, with the assistance
+of a stout native girl, was already engaged in setting the table.
+Thus there was a shelf with books, Shakespeare was one of these, I
+noticed--over which hung an ivory crucifix, which suggested that Inez
+was a Catholic. On the walls, too, were some good portraits, and on the
+window-ledge a jar full of flowers. Also the forks and spoons were of
+silver, as were the mugs, and engraved with a tremendous coat-of-arms
+and a Portuguese motto.
+
+Presently the food appeared, which was excellent and plentiful, and the
+Captain, his daughter and I sat down and ate. I noted that he drank gin
+and water, an innocent-looking beverage but strong as he took it. It was
+offered to me, but like Miss Inez, I preferred coffee.
+
+During the meal and afterwards while we smoked upon the veranda, I
+told them as much as I thought desirable of my plans. I said that I was
+engaged upon a journey of exploration of the country beyond the Zambesi,
+and that having heard of this settlement, which, by the way, was called
+Strathmuir, as I gathered after a place in far away Scotland where
+the Captain had been born and passed his childhood, I had come here to
+inquire as to how to cross the great river, and about other things.
+
+The Captain was interested, especially when I informed him that I was
+that same "Hunter Quatermain" of whom he had heard in past years, but he
+told me that it would be impossible to take the waggon down into the low
+bush-veld which we could see beneath us, as there all the oxen would die
+of the bite of the tsetse fly. I answered that I was aware of this and
+proposed to try to make an arrangement to leave it in his charge till I
+returned.
+
+"That might be managed, Mr. Quatermain," he answered. "But, man, will
+you ever return? They say there are queer folk living on the other side
+of the Zambesi, savage men who are cannibals, Amahagger I think they
+call them. It was they who in past years cleaned out all this country,
+except a few river tribes who live in floating huts or on islands among
+the reeds, and that's why it is so empty. But this happened long ago,
+much before my time, and I don't suppose they will ever cross the river
+again."
+
+"If I might ask, what brought you here, Captain?" I said, for the point
+was one on which I felt curious.
+
+"That which brings most men to wild places, Mr. Quatermain--trouble. If
+you want to know, I had a misfortune and piled up my ship. There were
+some lives lost and, rightly or wrongly, I got the sack. Then I started
+as a trader in a God-forsaken hole named Chinde, one of the Zambesi
+mouths, you know, and did very well, as we Scotchmen have a way of
+doing.
+
+"There I married a Portuguese lady, a real lady of high blood, one of
+the old sort. When my girl, Inez, was about twelve years old I got into
+more trouble, for my wife died and it pleased a certain relative of hers
+to say that it was because I had neglected her. This ended in a row and
+the truth is that I killed him--in fair fight, mind you. Still, kill him
+I did though I scarcely knew that I had done it at the time, after which
+the place grew too hot to hold me. So I sold up and swore that I would
+have no more to do with what they are pleased to call civilisation on
+the East Coast.
+
+"During my trading I had heard that there was fine country up this way,
+and here I came and settled years ago, bringing my girl and Thomaso, who
+was one of my managers, also a few other people with me. And here I have
+been ever since, doing very well as before, for I trade a lot of ivory
+and other things and grow stuff and cattle, which I sell to the River
+natives. Yes, I am a rich man now and could go to live on my means in
+Scotland, or anywhere."
+
+"Why don't you?" I asked.
+
+"Oh! for many reasons. I have lost touch with all that and become half
+wild and I like this life and the sunshine and being my own master.
+Also, if I did, things might be raked up against me, about that man's
+death. Also, though I daresay it will make you think badly of me for it,
+Mr. Quatermain, I have ties down there," and he waved is hand towards
+the village, if so it could be called, "which it wouldn't be easy for
+me to break. A man may be fond of his children, Mr. Quatermain, even
+if their skins ain't so white as they ought to be. Lastly I have
+habits--you see, I am speaking out to you as man to man--which might get
+me into trouble again if I went back to the world," and he nodded his
+fine, capable-looking head in the direction of the bottle on the table.
+
+"I see," I said hastily, for this kind of confession bursting out of
+the man's lonely heart when what he had drunk took a hold of him, was
+painful to hear. "But how about your daughter, Miss Inez?"
+
+"Ah!" he said, with a quiver in his voice, "there you touch it. She
+ought to go away. There is no one for her to marry here, where we
+haven't seen a white man for years, and she's a lady right enough, like
+her mother. But who is she to go to, being a Roman Catholic whom my own
+dour Presbyterian folk in Scotland, if any of them are left, would turn
+their backs on? Moreover, she loves me in her own fashion, as I love
+her, and she wouldn't leave me because she thinks it her duty to
+stay and knows that if she did, I should go to the devil altogether.
+Still--perhaps you might help me about her, Mr. Quatermain, that is if
+you live to come back from your journey," he added doubtfully.
+
+I felt inclined to ask how I could possibly help in such a matter, but
+thought it wisest to say nothing. This, however, he did not notice, for
+he went on,
+
+"Now I think I will have a nap, as I do my work in the early morning,
+and sometimes late at night when my brain seems to clear up again, for
+you see I was a sailor for many years and accustomed to keeping watches.
+You'll look after yourself, won't you, and treat the place as your own?"
+Then he vanished into the house to lie down.
+
+When I had finished my pipe I went for a walk. First I visited the
+waggon where I found Umslopogaas and his company engaged in cooking
+the beast that had been given them, Zulu fashion; Hans with his usual
+cunning had already secured a meal, probably from the servants, or from
+Inez herself; at least he left them and followed me. First we went down
+to the huts, where we saw a number of good-looking young women of mixed
+blood, all decently dressed and engaged about their household duties.
+Also we saw four or five boys and girls, to say nothing of a baby
+in arms, fine young people, one or two of whom were more white than
+coloured.
+
+"Those children are very like the Baas with the red beard," remarked
+Hans reflectively.
+
+"Yes," I said, and shivered, for now I understood the awfulness of this
+poor man's case. He was the father of a number of half-breeds who tied
+him to this spot as anchors tie a ship. I went on rather hastily past
+some sheds to a long, low building which proved to be a store. Here
+the quarter-blood called Thomaso, and some assistants were engaged in
+trading with natives from the Zambesi swamps, men of a kind that I had
+never seen, but in a way more civilised than many further south. What
+they were selling or buying, I did not stop to see, but I noticed that
+the store was full of goods of one sort or another, including a great
+deal of ivory, which, as I supposed, had come down the river from
+inland.
+
+Then we walked on to the cultivated fields where we saw corn growing
+very well, also tobacco and other crops. Beyond this were cattle kraals
+and in the distance we perceived a great number of cattle and goats
+feeding on the slopes.
+
+"This red-bearded Baas must be very rich in all things," remarked the
+observant Hans when we had completed our investigations.
+
+"Yes," I answered, "rich and yet poor."
+
+"How can a man be both rich and yet poor, Baas?" asked Hans.
+
+Just at that moment some of the half-breed children whom I have
+mentioned, ran past us more naked than dressed and whooping like little
+savages. Hans contemplated them gravely, then said,
+
+"I think I understand now, Baas. A man may be rich in things he loves
+and yet does not want, which makes him poor in other ways."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "as you _are_, Hans, when you take too much to
+drink."
+
+Just then we met the stately Miss Inez returning from the store,
+carrying some articles in a basket, soap, I think, and tea in a packet,
+amongst them. I told Hans to take the basket and bear it to the
+house for her. He went off with it and, walking slowly, we fell into
+conversation.
+
+"Your father must do very well here," I said, nodding at the store with
+the crowd of natives round it.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "he makes much money which he puts in a bank at the
+coast, for living costs us nothing and there is great profit in what he
+buys and sells, also in the crops he grows and in the cattle. But," she
+added pathetically, "what is the use of money in a place like this?"
+
+"You can get things with it," I answered vaguely.
+
+"That is what my father says, but what does he get? Strong stuff to
+drink; dresses for those women down there, and sometimes pearls, jewels
+and other things for me which I do not want. I have a box full of them
+set in ugly gold, or loose which I cannot use, and if I put them on, who
+is there to see them? That clever half-breed, Thomaso--for he is clever
+in his way, faithful too--or the women down there--no one else."
+
+"You do not seem to be happy, Miss Inez."
+
+"No. I cannot tell how unhappy others are, who have met none, but
+sometimes I think that I must be the most miserable woman in the world."
+
+"Oh! no," I replied cheerfully, "plenty are worse off."
+
+"Then, Mr. Quatermain, it must be because they cannot feel. Did you ever
+have a father whom you loved?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Inez. He is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of
+saint. Ask my servant, the little Hottentot Hans; he will tell you about
+him."
+
+"Ah! a very good man. Well, as you may have guessed, mine is not, though
+there is much good in him, for he has a kind heart, and a big brain. But
+the drink and those women down there, they ruin him," and she wrung her
+hands.
+
+"Why don't you go away?" I blurted out.
+
+"Because it is my duty to stop. That is what my religion teaches me,
+although of it I know little except through books, who have seen no
+priest for years except one who was a missionary, a Baptist, I think,
+who told me that my faith was false and would lead me to hell. Yes, not
+understanding how I lived, he said that, who did not know that hell is
+here. No, I cannot go, who hopes always that still God and the Saints
+will show me how to save my father, even though it be with my blood. And
+now I have said too much to you who are quite a stranger. Yet, I do not
+know why, I feel that you will not betray me, and what is more, that
+you will help me if you can, since you are not one of those who drink,
+or----" and she waved her hand towards the huts.
+
+"I have my faults, Miss Inez," I answered.
+
+"Yes, no doubt, else you would be a saint, not a man, and even the
+saints had their faults, or so I seem to remember, and became saints by
+repentance and conquering them. Still, I am sure that you will help me
+if you can."
+
+Then with a sudden flash of her dark eyes that said more than all her
+words, she turned and left me.
+
+Here's a pretty kettle of fish, thought I to myself as I strolled back
+to the waggon to see how things were going on there, and how to get the
+live fish out of the kettle before they boil or spoil is more than I
+know. I wonder why fate is always finding me such jobs to do.
+
+Even as I thought thus a voice in my heart seemed to echo that poor
+girl's words--because it is your duty--and to add others to them--woe
+betide him who neglects his duty. I was appointed to try to hook a few
+fish out of the vast kettle of human woe, and therefore I must go on
+hooking. Meanwhile this particular problem seemed beyond me. Perhaps
+Fate would help, I reflected. As a matter of fact, in the end Fate did,
+if Fate is the right word to use in this connection.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SEA-COW HUNT
+
+Now it had been my intention to push forward across the river at once,
+but here luck, or our old friend, Fate, was against me. To begin with
+several of Umslopogaas' men fell sick with a kind of stomach trouble,
+arising no doubt from something they had eaten. This, however, was not
+their view, or that of Umslopogaas himself. It happened that one of
+these men, Goroko by name, who practised as a witch-doctor in his
+lighter moments, naturally suspected that a spell had been cast upon
+them, for such people see magic in everything.
+
+Therefore he organised a "smelling-out" at which Umslopogaas, who was
+as superstitious as the rest, assisted. So did Hans, although he called
+himself a Christian, partly out of curiosity, for he was as curious as
+a magpie, and partly from fear lest some implication should be brought
+against him in his absence. I saw the business going on from a little
+distance, and, unseen myself, thought it well to keep an eye upon the
+proceedings in case anything untoward should occur. This I did with Miss
+Inez, who had never witnessed anything of the sort, as a companion.
+
+The circle, a small one, was formed in the usual fashion; Goroko rigged
+up in the best witch-doctor's costume that he could improvise, duly
+came under the influence of his "Spirit" and skipped about, waving a
+wildebeeste's tail, and so forth.
+
+Finally to my horror he broke out of the ring, and running to a group
+of spectators from the village, switched Thomaso, who was standing among
+them with a lordly and contemptuous air, across the face with the gnu's
+tail, shouting out that he was the wizard who had poisoned the bowels of
+the sick men. Thereon Thomaso, who although he could be insolent, like
+most crossbreeds was not remarkable for courage, seeing the stir that
+this announcement created amongst the fierce-faced Zulus and fearing
+developments, promptly bolted, none attempting to follow him.
+
+After this, just as I thought that everything was over and that the time
+had come for me to speak a few earnest words to Umslopogaas, pointing
+out that matters must go no further as regards Thomaso, whom I knew that
+he and his people hated, Goroko went back to the circle and was seized
+with a new burst of inspiration.
+
+Throwing down his whisk, he lifted his arms above his head and stared at
+the heavens. Then he began to shout out something in a loud voice which
+I was too far off to catch. Whatever it may have been, evidently it
+frightened his hearers, as I could see from the expressions on their
+faces. Even Umslopogaas was alarmed, for he let his axe fall for a
+moment, rose as though to speak, then sat down again and covered his
+eyes with his hands.
+
+In a minute it was over; Goroko seemed to become normal, took some snuff
+and as I guessed, after the usual fashion of these doctors, began to
+ask what he had been saying while the "Spirit" possessed him, which he
+either had, or affected to have, forgotten. The circle, too, broke up
+and its members began to talk to each other in a subdued way, while
+Umslopogaas remained seated on the ground, brooding, and Hans slipped
+away in his snake-like fashion, doubtless in search of me.
+
+"What was it all about, Mr. Quatermain?" asked Inez.
+
+"Oh! a lot of nonsense," I said. "I fancy that witch-doctor declared
+that your friend Thomaso put something into those men's food to make
+them sick."
+
+"I daresay that he did; it would be just like him, Mr. Quatermain, as I
+know that he hates them, especially Umslopogaas, of whom I am very fond.
+He brought me some beautiful flowers this morning which he had found
+somewhere, and made a long speech which I could not understand."
+
+The idea of Umslopogaas, that man of blood and iron, bringing flowers
+to a young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the
+sad-faced Inez smiled. Then she left me to see about something and I
+went to speak to Hans and asked him what had happened.
+
+"Something rather queer, I think, Baas," he answered vacuously, "though
+I did not quite understand the last part. The doctor, Goroko, smelt out
+Thomaso as the man who had made them sick, and though they will not kill
+him because we are guests here, those Zulus are very angry with Thomaso
+and I think will beat him if they get a chance. But that is only the
+small half of the stick," and he paused.
+
+"What is the big half, then?" I asked with irritation.
+
+"Baas, the Spirit in Goroko----"
+
+"The jackass in Goroko, you mean," I interrupted. "How can you, who are
+a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits? I only wish that my father
+could hear you."
+
+"Oh! Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is now wise enough
+to know all about Spirits and that there are some who come into black
+witch-doctors though they turn up their noses at white men and leave
+them alone. However, whatever it is that makes Goroko speak, got hold
+of him so that his lips said, though he remembered nothing of it
+afterwards, that soon this place would be red with blood--that there
+would be a great killing here, Baas. That is all."
+
+"Red with blood! Whose blood? What did the fool mean?"
+
+"I don't know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko, declared
+that those who are 'with the Great Medicine'--meaning what you wear,
+Baas--will be quite safe. So I hope that it will not be our blood; also
+that you will get out of this place as soon as you can."
+
+Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for
+I could see that he did believe it, then went to question Umslopogaas,
+whom I found looking quite pleased, which annoyed me still more.
+
+"What is it that Goroko has been saying and why do you smile, Bulalio?"
+I asked.
+
+"Nothing much, Macumazahn, except that the man who looks like tallow
+that has gone bad, put something in our food which made us sick, for
+which I would kill him were he not Red-beard's servant and that it would
+frighten the lady his daughter. Also he said that soon there will be
+fighting, which is why I smiled, who grow weary of peace. We came out to
+fight, did we not?"
+
+"Certainly not," I answered. "We came out to make a quiet journey in
+strange lands, which is what I mean to do."
+
+"Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom
+one does not always agree, and then _Inkosikaas_ begins to talk," and he
+whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it was
+forced through the gouge at its back.
+
+I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him
+that nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably
+quite unjustly accused, I went away.
+
+Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable impression on my mind,
+and I began to wish that we were safe across the Zambesi without more
+trouble. But we could not start at once because two of the Zulus were
+still not well enough to travel and there were many preparations to
+be made about the loads, and so forth, since the waggon must be left
+behind. Also, and this was another complication--Hans had a sore upon
+his foot, resulting from the prick of a poisonous thorn, and it was
+desirable that this should be quite healed before we marched.
+
+So it came about that I was really glad when Captain Robertson suggested
+that we should go down to a certain swamp formed, I gathered, by some
+small tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of hippopotamus
+battue. It seemed that at this season of the year these great animals
+always frequented the place in numbers, also that by barring a neck of
+deep water through which they gained it, they, or a proportion of them,
+could be cut off and killed.
+
+This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late,
+perhaps because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise such
+a hunt. Now he wished to do so again, taking advantage of my presence,
+both because of the value of the hides of the sea-cows which were cut up
+to be sent to the coast and sold as _sjamboks_ or whips, and because of
+the sport of the thing. Also I think he desired to show me that he was
+not altogether sunk in sloth and drink.
+
+I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in all my hunting life I
+had never seen anything of the sort, especially as I was told that the
+expedition would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick
+men and Hans would not be fit to travel sooner. So great preparations
+were made. The riverside natives, whose share of the spoil was to be the
+carcases of the slain sea-cows, were summoned by hundreds and sent off
+to their appointed stations to beat the swamps at a signal given by the
+firing of a great pile of reeds. Also many other things were done upon
+which I need not enter.
+
+Then came the time for us to depart to the appointed spot over twenty
+miles away, most of which distance it seemed we could trek in the
+waggon. Captain Robertson, who for the time had cut off his gin, was
+as active about the affair as though he were once more in command of a
+mail-steamer. Nothing escaped his attention; indeed, in the care which
+he gave to details he reminded me of the captain of a great ship that
+is leaving port, and from it I learned how able a man he must once have
+been.
+
+"Does your daughter accompany us?" I asked on the night before we
+started.
+
+"Oh! no," he answered, "she would only be in the way. She will be quite
+safe here, especially as Thomaso, who is no hunter, remains in charge
+of the place with some of the older natives to look after the women and
+children."
+
+Later I saw Inez herself, who said that she would have liked to come,
+although she hated to see great beasts killed, but that her father was
+against it because he thought she might catch fever. So she supposed
+that she had better remain where she was.
+
+I agreed, though in my heart I was doubtful, and said that I would leave
+Hans, whose foot was not as yet quite well, and with whom she had made
+friends as she had done with Umslopogaas, to look after her. Also there
+would be with him the two great Zulus who were now recovering from their
+attack of stomach sickness, so that she would have nothing to fear. She
+answered with her slow smile that she feared nothing, still, she would
+have liked to come with us. Then we parted, as it proved for a long
+time.
+
+It was quite a ceremony. Umslopogaas, "in the name of the Axe" solemnly
+gave over Inez to the charge of his two followers, bidding them guard
+her with so much earnestness that I began to suspect he feared something
+which he did not choose to mention. My mind went back indeed to the
+prophecy of the witch-doctor Goroko, of which it was possible that he
+might be thinking, but as while he spoke he kept his fierce eyes fixed
+upon the fat and pompous quarter-breed, Thomaso, I concluded that here
+was the object of his doubts.
+
+It might have occurred to him that this Thomaso would take the
+opportunity of her father's absence to annoy Inez. If so I was sure that
+he was mistaken for various reasons, of which I need only quote one,
+namely, that even if such an idea had ever entered his head, Thomaso was
+far too great a coward to translate it into action. Still, suspecting
+something, I also gave Hans instructions to keep a sharp eye on Inez
+and generally to watch the place, and if he saw anything suspicious, to
+communicate with us at once.
+
+"Yes, Baas," said Hans, "I will look after 'Sad-Eyes'"--for so with
+their usual quickness of observation our Zulus had named Inez--"as
+though she were my grandmother, though what there is to fear for her, I
+do not know. But, Baas, I would much rather come and look after you, as
+your reverend father, the Predikant, told me to do always, which is my
+duty, not girl-herding, Baas. Also my foot is now quite well and--I want
+to shoot sea-cows, and----" Here he paused.
+
+"And what, Hans?"
+
+"And Goroko said that there was going to be much fighting and if there
+should be fighting and you should come to harm because I was not there
+to protect you, what would your reverend father think of me then?"
+
+All of which meant two things: that Hans never liked being separated
+from me if he could help it, and that he much preferred a shooting trip
+to stopping alone in this strange place with nothing to do except eat
+and sleep. So I concluded, though indeed I did not get quite to the
+bottom of the business. In reality Hans was putting up a most gallant
+struggle against temptation.
+
+As I found out afterwards, Captain Robertson had been giving him strong
+drink on the sly, moved thereto by sympathy with a fellow toper. Also he
+had shown him where, if he wanted it, he could get more, and Hans always
+wanted gin very badly indeed. To leave it within his reach was like
+leaving a handful of diamonds lying about in the room of a thief. This
+he knew, but was ashamed to tell me the truth, and thence came much
+trouble.
+
+"You will stop here, Hans, look after the young lady and nurse your
+foot," I said sternly, whereon he collapsed with a sigh and asked for
+some tobacco.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Robertson, who I think had been taking a stirrup cup
+to cheer him on the road, was making his farewells down in what was
+known as "the village," for I saw him there kissing a collection of
+half-breed children, and giving Thomaso instructions to look after them
+and their mothers. Returning at length, he called to Inez, who remained
+upon the veranda, for she always seemed to shrink from her father after
+his visits to the village, to "keep a stiff upper lip" and not feel
+lonely, and commanded the cavalcade to start.
+
+So off we went, about twenty of the village natives, a motley crew armed
+with every kind of gun, marching ahead and singing songs. Then came the
+waggon with Captain Robertson and myself seated on the driving-box,
+and lastly Umslopogaas and his Zulus, except the two who had been left
+behind.
+
+We trekked along a kind of native road over fine veld of the same
+character as that on which Strathmuir stood, having the lower-lying
+bush-veld which ran down to the Zambesi on our right. Before nightfall
+we came to a ridge whereon this bush-veld turned south, fringing that
+tributary of the great river in the swamps of which we were to hunt for
+sea-cows. Here we camped and next morning, leaving the waggon in charge
+of my _voorlooper_ and a couple of the Strathmuir natives, for the
+driver was to act as my gun-bearer--we marched down into the sea of
+bush-veld. It proved to be full of game, but at this we dared not fire
+for fearing of disturbing the hippopotami in the swamps beneath, whence
+in that event they might escape us back to the river.
+
+About midday we passed out of the bush-veld and reached the place where
+the drive was to be. Here, bordered by steep banks covered with bush,
+was swampy ground not more than two hundred yards wide, down the centre
+of which ran a narrow channel of rather deep water, draining a vast
+expanse of morass above. It was up this channel that the sea-cows
+travelled to the feeding ground where they loved to collect at that
+season of the year.
+
+There with the assistance of some of the riverside natives we made our
+preparations under the direction of Captain Robertson. The rest of these
+men, to the number of several hundreds, had made a wide d�tour to the
+head of the swamps, miles away, whence they were to advance at a certain
+signal. These preparations were simple. A quantity of thorn trees were
+cut down and by means of heavy stones fastened to their trunks, anchored
+in the narrow channel of deep water. To their tops, which floated on the
+placid surface, were tied a variety of rags which we had brought with
+us, such as old red flannel shirts, gay-coloured but worn-out blankets,
+and I know not what besides. Some of these fragments also were attached
+to the anchored ropes under water.
+
+Also we selected places for the guns upon the steep banks that I have
+mentioned, between which this channel ran. Foreseeing what would happen,
+I chose one for myself behind a particularly stout rock and what is
+more, built a stone wall to the height of several feet on the landward
+side of it, as I guessed that the natives posted near to me would prove
+wild in their shooting.
+
+These labours occupied the rest of that day, and at night we retired to
+higher ground to sleep. Before dawn on the following morning we returned
+and took up our stations, some on one side of the channel and some on
+the other which we had to reach in a canoe brought for the purpose by
+the river natives.
+
+Then, before the sun rose, Captain Robertson fired a huge pile of dried
+reeds and bushes, which was to give the signal to the river natives
+far away to begin their beat. This done, we sat down and waited, after
+making sure that every gun had plenty of ammunition ready.
+
+As the dawn broke, by climbing a tree near my _schanze_ or shelter, I
+saw a good many miles away to the south a wide circle of little fires,
+and guessed that the natives were beginning to burn the dry reeds of the
+swamp. Presently these fires drew together into a thin wall of flame.
+Then I knew that it was time to return to the _schanze_ and prepare. It
+was full daylight, however, before anything happened.
+
+Watching the still channel of water, I saw ripples on it and bubbles
+of air rising. Suddenly there appeared the head of a great
+bull-hippopotamus which, having caught sight of our rag barricade,
+either above or below water, had risen to the surface to see what it
+might be. I put a bullet from an eight-bore rifle through its brain,
+whereon it sank, as I guessed, stone dead to the bottom of the channel,
+thus helping to increase the barricade by the bulk of its great body.
+Also it had another effect. I have observed that sea-cows cannot bear
+the smell and taint of blood, which frightens them horribly, so that
+they will expose themselves to almost any risk, rather than get it into
+their nostrils.
+
+Now, in this still water where there was no perceptible current, the
+blood from the dead bull soon spread all about so that when the herd,
+following their leader, began to arrive they were much alarmed. Indeed,
+the first of them on winding or tasting it, turned and tried to get
+back up the channel where, however, they met others following, and
+there ensued a tremendous confusion. They rose to the surface, blowing,
+snorting, bellowing and scrambling over each other in the water, while
+continually more and more arrived behind them, till there was a perfect
+pandemonium in that narrow place.
+
+All our guns opened fire wildly upon the mass; it was like a battle
+and through the smoke I caught sight of the riverside natives who were
+acting as beaters, advancing far away, fantastically dressed, screaming
+with excitement and waving spears, or sometimes torches of flaming
+reeds. Most of these were scrambling along the banks, but some of
+the bolder spirits advanced over the lagoon in canoes, driving the
+hippopotami towards the mouth of the channel by which alone they could
+escape into the great swamps below and so on to the river. In all my
+hunting experience I do not think I ever saw a more remarkable scene.
+Still, in a way, to me it was unpleasant, for I flatter myself that I am
+a sportsman and a battle of this sort is not sport as I understand the
+term.
+
+At length it came to this; the channel for quite a long way was
+literally full of hippopotami--I should think there must have been a
+hundred of them or more of all sorts and sizes, from great bulls down to
+little calves. Some of these were killed, not many, for the shooting of
+our gallant company was execrable and almost at hazard. Also for every
+sea-cow that died, of which number I think that Captain Robertson and
+myself accounted for most--many were only wounded.
+
+Still, the unhappy beasts, crazed with noise and fire and blood, did not
+seem to dare to face our frail barricade, probably for the reason that
+I have given. For a while they remained massed together in the water, or
+under it, making a most horrible noise. Then of a sudden they seemed to
+take a resolution. A few of them broke back towards the burning reeds,
+the screaming beaters and the advancing canoes. One of these, indeed,
+a wounded bull, charged a canoe, crushed it in its huge jaws and killed
+the rower, how exactly I do not know, for his body was never found. The
+majority of them, however, took another counsel, for emerging from the
+water on either side, they began to scramble towards us along the steep
+banks, or even to climb up them with surprising agility. It was at this
+point in the proceedings that I congratulated myself earnestly upon
+the solid character of the water-worn rock which I had selected as a
+shelter.
+
+Behind this rock together with my gun-bearer and Umslopogaas, who, as
+he did not shoot, had elected to be my companion, I crouched and banged
+away at the unwieldy creatures as they advanced. But fire fast as I
+might with two rifles, I could not stop the half of them--they were
+drawing unpleasantly near. I glanced at Umslopogaas and even then
+was amused to see that probably for the first time in his life that
+redoubtable warrior was in a genuine fright.
+
+"This is madness, Macumazahn," he shouted above the din. "Are we to stop
+here and be stamped flat by a horde of water-pigs?"
+
+"It seems so," I answered, "unless you prefer to be stamped flat
+outside--or eaten," I added, pointing to a great crocodile that had also
+emerged from the channel and was coming along towards us with open jaws.
+
+"By the Axe!" shouted Umslopogaas again, "I--a warrior--will not die
+thus, trodden on like a slug by an ox."
+
+Now I have mentioned a tree which I climbed. In his extremity
+Umslopogaas rushed for that tree and went up it like a lamplighter, just
+as the crocodile wriggled past its trunk, snapping at his retreating
+legs.
+
+After this I took no more note of him, partly because of the advancing
+sea-cows, and more for the reason that one of the village natives posted
+above me, firing wildly, put a large round bullet through the sleeve
+of my coat. Indeed, had it not been for the wall which I built that
+protected us, I am certain that both my bearer and I would have been
+killed, for afterwards I found it splashed over with lead from bullets
+which had struck the stones.
+
+Well, thanks to the strength of my rock and to the wall, or as Hans said
+afterwards, to Zikali's Great Medicine, we escaped unhurt. The rush went
+by me; indeed, I killed one sea-cow so close that the powder from the
+rifle actually burned its hide. But it did go by, leaving us untouched.
+All, however, were not so fortunate, since of the village natives two
+were trampled to death, while a third had his leg broken.
+
+Also, and this was really amusing--a bewildered bull charging at full
+speed, crashed into the trunk of Umslopogaas' tree, and as it was not
+very thick, snapped it in two. Down came the top in which the dignified
+chief was ensconced like a bird in a nest, though at that moment there
+was precious little dignity about him. However, except for scratches he
+was not hurt, as the hippopotamus had other business in urgent need of
+attention and did not stop to settle with him.
+
+"Such are the things which happen to a man who mixes himself up with
+matters of which he knows nothing," said Umslopogaas sententiously to
+me afterwards. But all the same he could never bear any allusion to this
+tree-climbing episode in his martial career, which, as it happened, had
+taken place in full view of his retainers, among whom it remained the
+greatest of jokes. Indeed, he wanted to kill a man, the wag of the
+party, who gave him a slang name which, being translated, means
+"_He-who-is-so-brave-that-he-dares-to-ride-a-water-horse-up-a-tree._"
+
+It was all over at last, for which I thanked Providence devoutly. A good
+many of the sea-cows were dead, I think twenty-one was out exact bag,
+but the majority of them had escaped in one way or another, many as I
+fear, wounded. I imagine that at the last the bulk of the herd overcame
+its fears and swimming through our screen, passed away down the channel.
+At any rate they were gone, and having ascertained that there was
+nothing to be done for the man who had been trampled on my side of the
+channel, I crossed it in the canoe with the object of returning quietly
+to our camp to rest.
+
+But as yet there was to be no quiet for me, for there I found Captain
+Robertson, who I think had been refreshing himself out of a bottle and
+was in a great state of excitement about a native who had been killed
+near him who was a favourite of his, and another whose leg was broken.
+He declared vehemently that the hippopotamus which had done this had
+been wounded and rushed into some bushes a few hundred yards away, and
+that he meant to take vengeance upon it. Indeed, he was just setting off
+to do so.
+
+Seeing his agitated state I thought it wisest to follow him. What
+happened need not be set out in detail. It is sufficient to say that
+he found that hippopotamus and blazed both barrels at it in the bushes,
+hitting it, but not seriously. Out lumbered the creature with its mouth
+open, wishing to escape. Robertson turned to fly as he was in its path,
+but from one cause or another, tripped and fell down. Certainly he would
+have been crushed beneath its huge feet had I not stepped in front of
+him and sent two solid eight-bore bullets down that yawning throat,
+killing it dead within three feet of where Robertson was trying to rise,
+and I may add, of myself.
+
+This narrow escape sobered him, and I am bound to say that his gratitude
+was profuse.
+
+"You are a brave man," he said, "and had it not been for you by now I
+should be wherever bad people go. I'll not forget it, Mr. Quatermain,
+and if ever you want anything that John Robertson can give, why, it's
+yours."
+
+"Very well," I answered, being seized by an inspiration, "I do want
+something that you can give easily enough."
+
+"Give it a name and it's yours, half my place, if you like."
+
+"I want," I went on as I slipped new cartridges into the rifle, "I want
+you to promise to give up drink for your daughter's sake. That's what
+nearly did for you just now, you know."
+
+"Man, you ask a hard thing," he said slowly. "But by God I'll try for
+her sake and for yours too."
+
+Then I went to help to set the leg of the injured man, which was all the
+rest I got that morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE OATH
+
+We spent three more days at that place. First it was necessary to allow
+time to elapse before the gases which generated in their great bodies
+caused those of the sea-cows which had been killed in the water, to
+float. Then they must be skinned and their thick hides cut into strips
+and pieces to be traded for _sjamboks_ or to make small native shields
+for which some of the East Coast tribes will pay heavily.
+
+All this took a long while, during which I amused, or disgusted myself
+in watching those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts.
+The lean, what there was of it, they dried and smoked into a kind of
+"biltong," but a great deal of the fat they ate at once. I had the
+curiosity to weigh a lump which was given to one thin, hungry-looking
+fellow. It scaled quite twenty pounds. Within four hours he had eaten it
+to the last ounce and lay there, a distended and torpid log. What would
+not we white people give for such a digestion!
+
+At last all was over and we started homewards, the man with a broken leg
+being carried in a kind of litter. On the edge of the bush-veld we found
+the waggon quite safe, also one of Captain Robertson's that had followed
+us from Strathmuir in order to carry the expected load of hippopotamus'
+hides and ivory. I asked my _voorlooper_ if anything had happened during
+our absence. He answered nothing, but on the previous evening after
+dark, he had seen a glow in the direction of Strathmuir which lay on
+somewhat lower ground about twenty miles away, as though numerous fires
+had been lighted there. It struck him so much, he added, that he
+climbed a tree to observe it better. He did not think, however, that any
+building had been burned there, as the glow was not strong enough for
+that.
+
+I suggested that it was caused by some grass fire or reed-burning, to
+which he replied indifferently that he did not think so as the line of
+the glow was not sufficiently continuous.
+
+There the matter ended, though I confess that the story made me anxious,
+for what exact reason I could not say. Umslopogaas also, who had
+listened to it, for our talk was in Zulu, looked grave, but made no
+remark. But as since his tree-climbing experience he had been singularly
+silent, of this I thought little.
+
+We had trekked at a time which we calculated would bring us to
+Strathmuir about an hour before sundown, allowing for a short halt half
+way. As my oxen were got in more quickly than those of the other waggon
+after this outspan, I was the first away, followed at a little distance
+by Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk with his Zulus. The truth was that
+I could not get that story about the glow of fires out of my mind and
+was anxious to push on, which had caused me to hurry up the inspanning.
+
+Perhaps we had covered a couple of miles of the ten or twelve which
+still lay between us and Strathmuir, when far off on the crest of one
+of the waves of the veld which much resembled those of the swelling sea
+frozen while in motion, I saw a small figure approaching us at a rapid
+trot. Somehow that figure suggested Hans to my mind, so much so that I
+fetched my glasses to examine it more closely. A short scrutiny through
+them convinced me that Hans it was, Hans and no other, advancing at a
+great pace.
+
+Filled with uneasiness, I ordered the driver to flog up the oxen,
+with the result that in a little over five minutes we met. Halting the
+waggon, I leapt from the waggon-box and calling to Umslopogaas who had
+kept up with us at a slow, swinging trot, went to Hans, who, when he saw
+me, stood still at a little distance, swinging his apology for a hat in
+his hand, as was his fashion when ashamed or perplexed.
+
+"What is the matter, Hans?" I asked when we were within speaking
+distance.
+
+"Oh! Baas, everything," he answered, and I noticed that he kept his eyes
+fixed upon the ground and that his lips twitched.
+
+"Speak, you fool, and in Zulu," I said, for by now Umslopogaas had
+joined me.
+
+"Baas," he answered in that tongue, "a terrible thing has come about
+at the farm of Red-Beard yonder. Yesterday afternoon at the time when
+people are in the habit of sleeping there till the sun grows less hot,
+a body of great men with fierce faces who carried big spears--perhaps
+there were fifty of them, Baas--crept up to the place through the long
+grass and growing crops, and attacked it."
+
+"Did you see them come?" I asked.
+
+"No, Baas. I was watching at a little distance as you bade me do and the
+sun being hot, I shut my eyes to keep out the glare of it, so that I did
+not see them until they had passed me and heard the noise."
+
+"You mean that you were asleep or drunk, Hans, but go on."
+
+"Baas, I do not know," he answered shamefacedly, "but after that I
+climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it" (I ascertained
+afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned palm), "and from it I
+saw everything without being seen."
+
+"What did you see, Hans?" I asked him.
+
+"I saw the big men run up and make a kind of circle round the village.
+Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see what
+was the matter. Thomaso and some of the men caught sight of them first
+and ran away fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow,
+before the circle was complete. Then the women and the children came out
+and the big men killed them with their spears--all, all!"
+
+"Good God!" I exclaimed. "And what happened at the house and to the
+lady?"
+
+"Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the
+noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came
+the two Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite
+recovered. A number of the big men ran as though to take her, but the
+two Zulus made a great fight in front of the little steps to the stoep,
+having their backs protected by the stoep, and killed six of them before
+they themselves were killed. Also Sad-Eyes shot one with a pistol she
+carried, and wounded another so that the spear fell out of his hand.
+
+"Then the rest fell on her and tied her up, setting her in a chair on
+the stoep where two remained to watch her. They did her no hurt, Baas;
+indeed, they seemed to treat her as gently as they could. Also they
+went into the house and there they caught that tall fat yellow girl who
+always smiles and is called Janee, she who waits upon the Lady Sad-Eyes,
+and brought her out to her. I think they told her, Baas, that she must
+look after her mistress and that if she tried to run away she would be
+killed, for afterwards I saw Janee bring her food and other things."
+
+"And then, Hans?"
+
+"Then, Baas, most of the great men rested a while, though some of them
+went through the store gathering such things as they liked, blankets,
+knives and iron cooking-pots, but they set fire to nothing, nor did they
+try to catch the cattle. Also they took dry wood from the pile and lit
+big fires, eight or nine of them, and when the sun set they began to
+feast."
+
+"What did they feast on, Hans, if they took no cattle?" I asked with a
+shiver, for I was afraid of I knew not what.
+
+"Baas," answered Hans, turning his head away and looking at the ground,
+"they feasted on the children whom they had killed, also on some of the
+young women. These tall soldiers are men-eaters, Baas."
+
+At this horrible intelligence I turned faint and felt as though I was
+going to fall, but recovering myself, signed to him to go on with his
+story.
+
+"They feasted quite nicely, Baas," he continued, "making no noise. Then
+some of them slept while others watched, and that went on all night. As
+soon as it was dark, but before the moon rose, I slid down the tree and
+crept round to the back of the house without being seen or heard, as
+I can, Baas. I got into the house by the back door and crawled to
+the window of the sitting-room. It was open and peeping through I saw
+Sad-Eyes still tied to the seat on the stoep not more than a pace away,
+while the girl Janee crouched on the floor at her feet--I think she was
+asleep or fainting.
+
+"I made a little noise, like a night-adder hissing, and kept on making
+it, till at last Sad-Eyes turned her head. Then I spoke in a very low
+whisper, for fear lest I should wake the two guards who were dozing on
+either side of her wrapped in their blankets, saying, 'It is I, Hans,
+come to help you.' 'You cannot,' she answered, also speaking very low.
+'Get to your master and tell him and my father to follow. These men are
+called Amahagger and live far away across the river. They are going to
+take me to their home, as I understand, to rule them, because they want
+a white woman to be a queen over them who have always been ruled by a
+certain white queen, against whom they have rebelled. I do not think
+they mean to do me any harm, unless perhaps they want to marry me
+to their chief, but of this I am not sure from their talk which I
+understand badly. Now go, before they catch you.'
+
+"'I think you might get away,' I whispered back. 'I will cut your bonds.
+When you are free, slip through the window and I will guide you.'
+
+"'Very well, try it,' she said.
+
+"So I drew my knife and stretched out my arm. But then, Baas, I showed
+myself a fool--if the Great Medicine had still been there I might have
+known better. I forgot the starlight which shone upon the blade of the
+knife. That girl Janee came out of her sleep or swoon, lifted her head
+and saw the knife. She screamed once, then at a word from her mistress
+was silent. But it was enough, for it woke up the guards who glared
+about them and threatened Janee with their great spears, also they went
+to sleep no more, but began to talk together, though what they said I
+could not hear, for I was hiding on the floor of the room. After this,
+knowing that I could do no good and might do harm and get myself killed,
+I crept out of the house as I had crept in, and crawled back to my
+tree."
+
+"Why did you not come to me?" I asked.
+
+"Because I still hoped I might be able to help Sad-Eyes, Baas. Also I
+wanted to see what happened, and I knew that I could not bring you here
+in time to be any good. Yet it is true I thought of coming though I did
+not know the road."
+
+"Perhaps you were right."
+
+"At the first dawn," continued Hans, "the great men who are called
+Amahagger rose and ate what was left over from the night before. Then
+they gathered themselves together and went to the house. Here they found
+a large chair, that seated with _rimpis_ in which the Baas Red-Beard
+sits, and lashed two poles to the chair. Beneath the chair they tied
+the garments and other things of the Lady Sad-Eyes which they made
+Janee gather as Sad-Eyes directed her. This done, very gently they sat
+Sad-Eyes herself in the chair, bowing while they made her fast. After
+this eight of them set the poles upon their shoulders, and they all went
+away at a trot, heading for the bush-veld, driving with them a herd of
+goats which they had stolen from the farm, and making Janee run by the
+chair. I saw everything, Baas, for they passed just beneath my tree.
+Then I came to seek you, following the outward spoor of the waggons
+which I could not have done well at night. That is all, Baas."
+
+"Hans," I said, "you have been drinking and because of it the lady
+Sad-Eyes is taken a prisoner by cannibals; for had you been awake and
+watching, you might have seen them coming and saved her and the rest.
+Still, afterwards you did well, and for the rest you must answer to
+Heaven."
+
+"I must tell your reverend father, the Predikant, Baas, that the white
+master, Red-Beard, gave me the liquor and it is rude not to do as a
+great white master does, and drink it up. I am sure he will understand,
+Baas," said Hans abjectly.
+
+I thought to myself that it was true and that the spear which Robertson
+cast had fallen upon his own head, as the Zulus say, but I made no
+answer, lacking time for argument.
+
+"Did you say," asked Umslopogaas, speaking for the first time, "that my
+servants killed only six of these men-eaters?"
+
+Hans nodded and answered, "Yes, six. I counted the bodies."
+
+"It was ill done, they should have killed six each," said Umslopogaas
+moodily. "Well, they have left the more for us to finish," and he
+fingered the great axe.
+
+Just then Captain Robertson arrived in his waggon, calling out anxiously
+to know what was the matter, for some premonition of evil seemed to have
+struck him. My heart sank at the sight of him, for how was I to tell
+such a story to the father of the murdered children and of the abducted
+girl?
+
+In the end I felt that I could not. Yes, I turned coward and saying that
+I must fetch something out of the waggon, bolted into it, bidding Hans
+go forward and repeat his tale. He obeyed unwillingly enough and looking
+out between the curtains of the waggon tent I saw all that happened,
+though I could not hear the words that passed.
+
+Robertson had halted the oxen and jumping from the waggon-box strode
+forward and met Hans, who began to speak with him, twitching his hat in
+his hands. Gradually as the tale progressed, I saw the Captain's face
+freeze into a mask of horror. Then he began to argue and deny, then to
+weep--oh! it was a terrible sight to see that great man weeping over
+those whom he had lost, and in such a fashion.
+
+After this a kind of blind rage seized him and I thought he was going
+to kill Hans, who was of the same opinion, for he ran away. Next he
+staggered about, shaking his fists, cursing and shouting, till presently
+he fell of a heap and lay face downwards, beating his head against the
+ground and groaning.
+
+Now I went to him and sat up.
+
+"That's a pretty story, Quatermain, which this little yellow monkey has
+been gibbering at me. Man, do you understand what he says? He says that
+all those half-blood children of mine are dead, murdered by savages from
+over the Zambesi, yes, and eaten, too, with their mothers. Do you take
+the point? Eaten like lambs. Those fires your man saw last night
+were the fires on which they were cooked, my little _so-and-so_ and
+_so-and-so_," and he mentioned half a dozen different names. "Yes,
+cooked, Quatermain. And that isn't all of it, they have taken Inez too.
+They didn't eat her, but they have dragged her off a captive for God
+knows what reason. I couldn't understand. The whole ship's crew is gone,
+except the captain absent on leave and the first officer, Thomaso, who
+deserted with some Lascar stokers, and left the women and children to
+their fate. My God, I'm going mad. I'm going mad! If you have any mercy
+in you, give me something to drink."
+
+"All right," I said, "I will. Sit here and wait a minute."
+
+Then I went to the waggon and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into
+which I put an amazing doze of bromide from a little medicine chest I
+always carry with me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it.
+All this compound I mixed up with a little water and took it to him in a
+tin cup so that he could not see the colour.
+
+He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the
+veld, groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance,
+for Hans had joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in
+drought-parched grass.
+
+In a few minutes the drugs began to take effect upon Robertson's
+tortured nerves, for he rose and said quietly,
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Vengeance, or rather justice," I answered.
+
+"Yes," he exclaimed, "vengeance. I swear that I will be avenged, or
+die--or both."
+
+Again I saw my opportunity and said, "You must swear more than that,
+Robertson. Only sober men can accomplish great things, for drink
+destroys the judgment. If you wish to be avenged for the dead and to
+rescue the living, you must be sober, or I for one will not help you."
+
+"Will you help me if I do, to the end, good or ill, Quatermain?" he
+added.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"That's as much as another's oath," he muttered. "Still, I will put my
+thought in words. I swear by God, by my mother--like these natives--and
+by my daughter born in honest marriage, that I will never touch another
+drop of strong drink, until I have avenged those poor women and their
+little children, and rescued Inez from their murderers. If I do you may
+put a bullet through me."
+
+"That's all right," I said in an offhand fashion, though inwardly I
+glowed with pride at the success of my great idea, for at the time I
+thought it great, and went on,
+
+"Now let us get to business. The first thing to do is to trek to
+Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail. Come
+to sit on the waggon with me and tell me what guns and ammunition you
+have got, for according to Hans those savages don't seem to have touched
+anything, except a few blankets and a herd of goats."
+
+He did as I asked, telling me all he could remember. Then he said,
+
+"It is a strange thing, but now I recall that about two years ago a
+great savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like
+Inez, I understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and
+said he wanted to trade. I asked him what in, and he answered that
+he would like to buy some children. I told him that I was not a
+slave-dealer. Then he looked at Inez, who was moving about, and said
+that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his Chief, and offered
+some fabulous sum in ivory and in gold, which he said should be paid
+before she was taken away. I snatched his big spear from his hand, broke
+it over his head and gave him the best hiding with its shaft that he had
+ever heard of. Then I kicked him off the place. He limped away but when
+he was out of reach, turned and called out that one day he would come
+again with others and take her, meaning Inez, without leaving the price
+in ivory and gold. I ran for my gun, but when I got back he had gone and
+I never thought of the matter again from that day to this."
+
+"Well, he kept his promise," I said, but Robertson made no answer, for
+by this time that thundering dose of bromide and laudanum had taken
+effect on him and he had fallen asleep, of which I was glad, for I
+thought that this sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for a
+while.
+
+We reached Strathmuir towards sunset, too late to think of attempting
+the pursuit that day. Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter
+out carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be
+useless. We must rest and make preparations; also there was no hope of
+our overtaking these brutes who already had a clear twelve hours' start,
+by a sudden spurt. They must be run down patiently by following their
+spoor, if indeed they could be run down at all before they vanished into
+the vast recesses of unknown Africa. The most we could do this night was
+to get ready.
+
+Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of
+this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not
+pleasant to behold, especially when they are----! Indeed, of these I
+determined to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and
+some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by
+touching such human remnants--I made up two of the smouldering fires,
+the light of which the _voorlooper_ had seen upon the sky, and on to
+them cast, or caused to be cast, those poor fragments. Also I told the
+farm natives to dig a big grave and in it to place the other bodies and
+generally to remove the traces of murder.
+
+Then I went on to the house, and not too soon. Seeing the waggons arrive
+and having made sure that the Amahagger were gone, Thomaso and the other
+cowards emerged from their hiding-places and returned. Unfortunately for
+the former the first person he met was Umslopogaas, who began to revile
+the fat half-breed in no measured terms, calling him dog, coward, and
+other opprobrious names, such as deserter of women and children, and so
+forth--all of which someone translated.
+
+Thomaso, an insolent person, tried to swagger the matter out, saying
+that he had gone to get assistance. Infuriated at this lie, Umslopogaas
+leapt upon him with a roar and though he was a strong man, dealt with
+him as a lion does with a buck. Lifting him from his feet, he hurled him
+to the ground, then as he strove to rise and run, caught him again and
+as it seemed to me, was about to break his back across his knee. Just at
+this juncture I arrived.
+
+"Let the man go," I shouted to him. "Is there not enough death here
+already?"
+
+"Yes," answered Umslopogaas, "I think there is. Best that this jackal
+should live to eat his own shame," and he cast Thomaso to the ground,
+where he lay groaning.
+
+Robertson, who was still asleep in the waggon, woke up at the noise, and
+descended from it, looking dazed. I got him to the house and in doing so
+made my way past, or rather between the bodies of the two Zulus and of
+the six men whom they had killed, also of him whom Inez had shot. Those
+Zulus had made a splendid fight for they were covered with wounds, all
+of them in front, as I found upon examination.
+
+Having made Robertson lie down upon his bed, I took a good look at the
+slain Amahagger. They were magnificent men, all of them; tall, spare
+and shapely with very clear-cut features and rather frizzled hair.
+From these characteristics, as well as the lightness of their colour,
+I concluded that they were of a Semitic or Arab type, and that the
+admixture of their blood with that of the Bantus was but slight, if
+indeed there were any at all. Their spears, of which one had been cut
+through by a blow of a Zulu's axe, were long and broad, not unlike to
+those used by the Masai, but of finer workmanship.
+
+By this time the sun was setting and thoroughly tired by all that I had
+gone through, I went into the house to get something to eat, having told
+Hans to find food and prepare a meal. As I sat down Robertson joined me
+and I made him also eat. His first impulse was to go to the cupboard and
+fetch the spirit bottle; indeed, he rose to do so.
+
+"Hans is making coffee," I said warningly.
+
+"Thank you," he answered, "I forgot. Force of habit, you know."
+
+Here I may state that never from that moment did I see him touch another
+drop of liquor, not even when I drank my modest tot in front of him.
+His triumph over temptation was splendid and complete, especially as the
+absence of his accustomed potations made him ill for some time and of
+course depressed his spirits, with painful results that were apparent in
+due course.
+
+In fact, the man became totally changed. He grew gloomy but resourceful,
+also full of patience. Only one idea obsessed him--to rescue his
+daughter and avenge the murder of his people; indeed, except his sins,
+he thought of and found interest in nothing else. Moreover, his iron
+constitution cast off all the effects of his past debauchery and he
+grew so strong that although I was pretty tough in those days, he could
+out-tire me.
+
+To return; I engaged him in conversation and with his help made a list
+of what we should require on our vendetta journey, all of which served
+to occupy his mind. Then I sent him to bed, saying that I would call him
+before dawn, having first put a little more bromide into his third cup
+of coffee. After this I turned in and notwithstanding the sight of those
+remains of the cannibal feast and the knowledge of the dead men who lay
+outside my window, I slept like a top.
+
+Indeed, it was the Captain who awakened me, not I the Captain, saying
+that daylight was on the break and we had better be stirring. So we went
+down to the Store, where I was thankful to find that everything had been
+tidied up in accordance with my directions.
+
+On our way Robertson asked me what had become of the remains, whereon I
+pointed to the smouldering ashes of one of the great fires. He went to
+it and kneeling down, said a prayer in broad Scotch, doubtless one that
+he had learned at his mother's knee. Then he took some of the ashes from
+the edge of the pyre--for such it was--and threw them into the glowing
+embers where, as he knew, lay all that was left of those who had sprung
+from him. Also he tossed others of them into the air, though what he
+meant by this I did not understand and never asked. Probably it was
+some rite indicative of expiation or of revenge, or both, which he had
+learned from the savages among whom he had lived so long.
+
+After this we went into the Store and with the help of some of
+the natives, or half-breeds, who had accompanied us on the sea-cow
+expedition, selected all the goods we wanted, which we sent to the
+house.
+
+As we returned thither I saw Umslopogaas and his men engaged, with the
+usual Zulu ceremonies, in burying their two companions in a hole they
+had made in the hillside. I noted, however, that they did not inter
+their war-axes or their throwing-spears with them as usual, probably
+because they thought that these might be needed. In place of them they
+put with the dead little models roughly shaped of bits of wood, which
+models they "killed" by first breaking them across.
+
+I lingered to watch the funeral and heard Goroko, the witch-doctor, make
+a little speech.
+
+"O Father and Chief of the Axe," he said, addressing Umslopogaas, who
+stood silent leaning on his weapon and watching all, a portentous figure
+in the morning mist, "O Father, O Son of the Heavens" (this was an
+allusion to the royal blood of Umslopogaas of which the secret was well
+known, although it would never have been spoken aloud in Zululand), "O
+Slaughterer (Bulalio), O Woodpecker who picks at the hearts of men; O
+King-Slayer; O Conqueror of the Halakazi; O Victor in a hundred fights;
+O Gatherer of the Lily-bloom that faded in the hand; O Wolf-man, Captain
+of the Wolves that ravened; O Slayer of Faku; O Great One whom it
+pleases to seem small, because he must follow his blood to the end
+appointed----"
+
+This was the opening of the speech, the "_bonga_-ing" or giving of
+Titles of Praise to the person addressed, of which I have quoted but a
+sample, for there were many more of them that I have forgotten. Then the
+speaker went on,
+
+"It was told to me, though of it I remember nothing, that when my Spirit
+was in me a while ago I prophesied that this place would flow with
+blood, and lo! the blood has flowed, and with it that of these our
+brothers," and he gave the names of the two dead Zulus, also those of
+their forefathers for several generations.
+
+"It seems, Father, that they died well, as you would have wished them
+to die, and as doubtless they desired to die themselves, leaving a tale
+behind them, though it is true that they might have died better, killing
+more of the men-eaters, as it is certain they would have done, had they
+not been sick inside. They are finished; they have gone beyond to await
+us in the Under-world among the ghosts. Their story is told and soon to
+their children they will be but names whispered in honour after the sun
+has set. Enough of them who have showed us how to die as our fathers did
+before them."
+
+Goroko paused a while, then added with a waving of his hands,
+
+"My Spirit comes to me again and I know that these our brothers shall
+not pass unavenged. Chief of the Axe, great glory awaits the Axe, for it
+shall feed full. I have spoken."
+
+"Good words!" grunted Umslopogaas. Then he saluted the dead by raising
+_Inkosikaas_ and came to me to consult about our journey.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PURSUIT
+
+After all we did not get away much before noon, because first there was
+a great deal to be done. To begin with the loads had to be arranged.
+These consisted largely of ammunition, everything else being cut down to
+an irreducible minimum. To carry them we took two donkeys there were
+on the place, also half a dozen pack oxen, all of which animals were
+supposed to be "salted"--that is, to have suffered and recovered from
+every kind of sickness, including the bite of the deadly tsetse fly.
+I suspected, it is true, that they would not be proof against further
+attacks, still, I hoped that they would last for some time, as indeed
+proved to be the case.
+
+In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best
+of those Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip, to
+serve as bearers when it became necessary. It cannot be said that these
+snuff-and-butter fellows--for most, if not all of them had some dash of
+white blood in their veins--were exactly willing volunteers. Indeed, if
+a choice had been left to them, they would, I think, have declined this
+adventure.
+
+But there was no choice. Their master, Robertson, ordered them to come
+and after a glance at the Zulus they concluded that the command was one
+which would be enforced and that if they stopped behind, it would not
+be as living men. Also some of them had lost wives or children in the
+slaughter, which, if they were not very brave, filled them with a desire
+for revenge. Lastly, they could all shoot after a fashion and had good
+rifles; moreover if I may say so, I think that they put confidence in my
+leadership. So they made the best of a bad business and got themselves
+ready.
+
+Then arrangements must be made about the carrying on of the farm and
+store during our absence. These, together with my waggon and oxen, were
+put in the charge of Thomaso, since there was no one else who could be
+trusted at all--a very battered and crestfallen Thomaso, by the way.
+When he heard of it he was much relieved, since I think he feared lest
+he also should be expected to take part in the hunt of the Amahagger
+man-eaters. Also it may have occurred to him that in all probability
+none of us would ever come back at all, in which case by a process of
+natural devolution, he might find himself the owner of the business and
+much valuable property. However, he swore by sundry saints--for Thomaso
+was nominally a Catholic--that he would look after everything as though
+it were his own, as no doubt he hoped it might become.
+
+"Hearken, fat pig," said Umslopogaas, Hans obligingly translating so
+that there might be no mistake, "if I come back, and come back I shall
+who travel with the Great Medicine--and find even one of the cattle of
+the white lord, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, missing, or one article
+stolen from his waggon, or the fields of your master not cultivated or
+his goods wasted, I swear by the Axe that I will hew you into pieces
+with the axe; yes, if to do it I have to hunt you from where the sun
+rises to where it sets and down the length of the night between. Do
+you understand, fat pig, deserter of women and children, who to save
+yourself could run faster than a buck?"
+
+Thomaso replied that he understood very clearly indeed, and that, Heaven
+helping him, all should be kept safe and sound. Still, I was sure that
+in his manly heart he was promising great gifts to the saints if they
+would so arrange matters that Umslopogaas and his axe were never seen at
+Strathmuir again, and reflecting that after all the Amahagger had their
+uses. However, as I did not trust him in the least, much against their
+will, I left my driver and _voorlooper_ to guard my belongings.
+
+At last we did get off, pursued by the fervent blessings of Thomaso and
+the prayers of the others that we would avenge their murdered relatives.
+We were a curious and motley procession. First went Hans, because at
+following a spoor he was, I believe, almost unequalled in Africa, and
+with him, Umslopogaas, and three of his Zulus to guard against surprise.
+These were followed by Captain Robertson, who seemed to prefer to walk
+alone and whom I thought it best to leave undisturbed. Then I came
+and after me straggled the Strathmuir boys with the pack animals, the
+cavalcade being closed by the remaining Zulus under the command of
+Goroko. These walked last in case any of the mixed-bloods should attempt
+to desert, as we thought it quite probable that they would.
+
+Less than an hour's tramp brought us to the bush-veld where I feared
+that our troubles might begin, since if the Amahagger were cunning,
+they would take advantage of it to confuse or hide their spoor. As it
+chanced, however, they had done nothing of the sort and a child could
+have followed their march. Just before nightfall we came to their first
+halting-place where they had made a fire and eaten one of the herd of
+farm goats which they had driven away with them, although they left the
+cattle, I suppose, because goats are docile and travel well.
+
+Hans showed us everything that had happened; where the chair in which
+Inez was carried was set down, where she and Janee had been allowed to
+walk that she might stretch her stiff limbs, the dregs of some coffee
+that evidently Janee had made in a saucepan, and so forth.
+
+He even told us the exact number of the Amahagger, which he said
+totalled forty-one, including the man whom Inez had wounded. His spoor
+he distinguished from that of the others both by an occasional drop of
+blood and because he walked lightly on his right foot, doubtless for
+the reason that he wished to avoid jarring his wound, which was on that
+side.
+
+At this spot we were obliged to stay till daybreak, since it was
+impossible to follow the spoor by night, a circumstance that gave the
+cannibals a great advantage over us.
+
+The next two days were repetitions of the first, but on the fourth we
+passed out of the bush-veld into the swamp country that bordered the
+great river. Here our task was still easy since the Amahagger had
+followed one of the paths made by the river-dwellers who had their
+habitations on mounds, though whether these were natural or artificial I
+am not sure, and sometimes on floating islands.
+
+On our second day in the reeds we came upon a sad sight. To our left
+stood one of these mound villages, if a village it could be called,
+since it consisted only of four or five huts inhabited perhaps by twenty
+people. We went up to it to obtain information and stumbled across the
+body of an old man lying in the pathway. A few yards further on we
+found the ashes of a big fire and by it such remains as we had seen at
+Strathmuir. Here there had been another cannibal feast. The miserable
+huts were empty, but as at Strathmuir, had not been burnt.
+
+We were going away when the acute ears of Hans caught the sound of
+groans. We searched about and in a clump of reeds near the foot of the
+mound, found an old woman with a great spear wound just above her
+skinny thigh piercing deep into the vitals, but of a nature which is
+not immediately mortal. One of Robertson's people who understood the
+language of these swamp-dwellers well, spoke to her. She told him that
+she wanted water. It was brought and she drank copiously. Then in answer
+to his questions she began to talk.
+
+She said that the Amahagger had attacked the village and killed all who
+could not escape. They had eaten a young woman and three children. She
+had been wounded by a spear and fled away into the place where we found
+her, where none of them took the trouble to follow her as she "was not
+worth eating."
+
+By my direction the man asked her whether she knew anything of these
+Amahagger. She replied that her grandfathers had, though she had heard
+nothing of them since she was a child, which must have been seventy
+years before. They were a fierce people who lived far up north across
+the Great River, the remnants of a race that had once "ruled the world."
+
+Her grandfathers used to say that they were not always cannibals, but
+had become so long before because of a lack of food and now had acquired
+the taste. It was for this purpose that they still raided to get
+other people to eat, since their ruler would not allow them to eat one
+another. The flesh of cattle they did not care for, although they had
+plenty of them, but sometimes they ate goats and pigs because they said
+they tasted like man. According to her grandfathers they were a very
+evil people and full of magic.
+
+All of this the old woman told us quite briskly after she had drunk the
+water, I think because her wound had mortified and she felt no pain. Her
+information, however, as is common with the aged, dealt entirely with
+the far past; of the history of the Amahagger since the days of her
+forebears she knew nothing, nor had she seen anything of Inez. All she
+could tell us was that some of them had attacked her village at dawn and
+that when she ran out of the hut she was speared.
+
+While Robertson and I were wondering what we should do with the poor old
+creature whom it seemed cruel to leave here to perish, she cleared up
+the question by suddenly expiring before our eyes. Uttering the name of
+someone with whom, doubtless, she had been familiar in her youth, three
+or four times over, she just sank down and seemed to go to sleep and on
+examination we found that she was dead. So we left her and went on.
+
+Next day we came to the edge of the Great River, here a sheet of placid
+running water about a mile across, for at this time of the year it was
+low. Perceiving quite a big village on our left, we went to it and
+made enquiries, to find that it had not been attacked by the cannibals,
+probably because it was too powerful, but that three nights before some
+of their canoes had been stolen, in which no doubt these had crossed the
+river.
+
+As the people of this village had traded with Robertson at Strathmuir,
+we had no difficulty in obtaining other canoes from them in which to
+cross the Zambesi in return for one of our oxen that I could see was
+already sickening from tsetse bite. These canoes were large enough to
+take the donkeys that were patient creatures and stood still, but the
+cattle we could not get into them for fear of an upset. So we killed
+the two driven beasts that were left to us and took them with us as
+dead meat for food, while the three remaining pack oxen we tried to swim
+across, dragging them after the canoes with hide _reims_ round their
+horns. As a result two were drowned, but one, a bold-hearted and
+enterprising animal, gained the other bank.
+
+Here again we struck a sea of reeds in which, after casting about, Hans
+once more found the spoor of the Amahagger. That it was theirs beyond
+doubt was proved by the circumstance that on a thorny kind of weed we
+found a fragment of a cotton dress which, because of the pattern stamped
+on it, we all recognised as one that Inez had been wearing. At first I
+thought that this had been torn off by the thorns, but on examination
+we became certain that it had been placed there purposely, probably
+by Janee, to give us a clue. This conclusion was confirmed when at
+subsequent periods of the hunt we found other fragments of the same
+garment.
+
+Now it would be useless for me to set out the details of this prolonged
+and arduous chase which in all endured for something over three weeks.
+Again and again we lost the trail and were only able to recover it by
+long and elaborate search, which occupied much time. Then, after we
+escaped from the reeds and swamps, we found ourselves upon stony
+uplands where the spoor was almost impossible to follow, indeed, we only
+rediscovered it by stumbling across the dead body of that cannibal whom
+Inez had wounded. Evidently he had perished from his hurt, which I could
+see had mortified. From the state of his remains we gathered that the
+raiders must be about two days' march ahead of us.
+
+Striking their spoor again on softer ground where the impress of their
+feet remained--at any rate to the cunning sight of Hans--we followed
+them down across great valleys wherein trees grew sparsely, which
+valleys were separated from each other by ridges of high and barren
+land. On these belts of rocky soil our difficulties were great, but here
+twice we were put on the right track by more fragments torn from the
+dress of Inez.
+
+At length we lost the spoor altogether; not a sign of it was to be
+found. We had no idea which way to go. All about us appeared these
+valleys covered with scattered bush running this way and that, so that
+we could not tell which of them to follow or to cross. The thing seemed
+hopeless, for how could we expect to find a little body of men in
+that immensity? Hans shook his head and even the fierce and steadfast
+Robertson was discouraged.
+
+"I fear my poor lassie is gone," he said, and relapsed into brooding as
+had become his wont.
+
+"Never say die! It's dogged as does it!" I replied cheerfully in the
+words of Nelson, who also had learned what it meant to hunt an enemy
+over trackless wastes, although his were of water.
+
+I walked to the top of the rise where we were encamped, and sat down
+alone to think matters over. Our condition was somewhat parlous; all
+our beasts were now dead, even the second donkey, which was the last of
+them, having perished that morning, and been eaten, for food was scanty
+since of late we had met with little game. The Strathmuir men, who now
+must carry the loads, were almost worn out and doubtless would have
+deserted, except for the fact that there was no place to which they
+could go. Even the Zulus were discouraged, and said they had come
+away from home across the Great River to fight, not to run about in
+wildernesses and starve, though Umslopogaas made no complaint, being
+buoyed up by the promise of his soothsayer, Goroko, that battle was
+ahead of him in which he would win great glory.
+
+Hans, however, remained cheerful, for the reason, as he remarked
+vacuously, that the Great Medicine was with us and that therefore,
+however bad things seemed to be, all in fact was well; an argument that
+carried no conviction to my soul.
+
+It was on a certain evening towards sunset that I went away thus alone.
+I looked about me, east and west and north. Everywhere appeared the
+same bush-clad valleys and barren rises, miles upon miles of them. I
+bethought me of the map that old Zikali had drawn in the ashes, and
+remembered that it showed these valleys and rises and that beyond them
+there should be a great swamp, and beyond the swamp a mountain. So it
+seemed that we were on the right road to the home of his white Queen,
+if such a person existed, or at any rate we were passing over country
+similar to that which he had pictured or imagined.
+
+But at this time I was not troubling my head about white queens. I was
+thinking of poor Inez. That she was alive a few days before we knew from
+the fragments of her dress. But where was she now? The spoor was utterly
+lost on that stony ground, or if any traces of it remained a heavy
+deluge of rain had washed them away. Even Hans had confessed himself
+beaten.
+
+I stared about me helplessly, and as I did so a flying ray of light
+from the setting sun reflected downwards from a storm-cloud, fell upon a
+white patch on the crest of one of the distant land-waves. It struck me
+that probably limestone outcropped at this spot, as indeed proved to be
+the case; also that such a patch of white would be a convenient guide
+for any who were travelling across that sea of bush. Further, some
+instinct within seemed to impel me to steer for it, although I had all
+but made up my mind to go in a totally different direction many more
+points to the east. It was almost as though a voice were calling to me
+to take this path and no other. Doubtless this was an effect produced
+by weariness and mental overstrain. Still, there it was, very real and
+tangible, one that I did not attempt to combat.
+
+So next morning at the dawn I headed north by west, laying my course for
+that white patch and for the first time breaking the straight line of
+our advance. Captain Robertson, whose temper had not been bettered
+by prolonged and frightful anxiety, or I may add, by his unaccustomed
+abstinence, asked me rather roughly why I was altering the course.
+
+"Look here, Captain," I answered, "if we were at sea and you did
+something of the sort, I should not put such a question to you, and if
+by any chance I did, I should not expect you to answer. Well, by your
+own wish I am in command here and I think that the same argument holds."
+
+"Yes," he replied. "I suppose you have studied your chart, if there
+is any of this God-forsaken country, and at any rate discipline is
+discipline. So steam ahead and don't mind me."
+
+The others accepted my decision without comment; most of them were so
+miserable that they did not care which way we went, also they were good
+enough to repose confidence in my judgment.
+
+"Doubtless the Baas has reasons," said Hans dubiously, "although the
+spoor, when last we saw it, headed towards the rising sun and as the
+country is all the same, I do not see why those man-eaters should have
+returned."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I have reasons," although in fact I had none at all.
+
+Hans surveyed me with a watery eye as though waiting for me to explain
+them, but I looked haughty and declined to oblige.
+
+"The Baas has reasons," continued Hans, "for taking us on what I think
+to be the wrong side of that great ridge, there to hunt for the spoor of
+the men-eaters, and they are so deep down in his mind that he cannot
+dig them up for poor old Hans to look at. Well, the Baas wears the Great
+Medicine and perhaps it is there that the reasons sit. Those Strathmuir
+fellows say that they can go no further and wish to die. Umslopogaas
+has just gone to them with his axe to tell them that he is ready to help
+them to their wish. Look, he has got there, for they are coming quickly,
+who after all prefer to live."
+
+Well, we started for my white patch of stones which no one else had
+noticed and of which I said nothing to anyone, and reached it by the
+following evening, to find, as I expected, that it was a lime outcrop.
+
+By now we were in a poor way, for we had practically nothing left to
+eat, which did not tend to raise the spirits of the party. Also that
+lime outcrop proved to be an uninteresting spot overlooking a wide
+valley which seemed to suggest that there were other valleys of a
+similar sort beyond it, and nothing more.
+
+Captain Robertson sat stern-faced and despondent at a distance muttering
+into his beard, as had become a habit with him. Umslopogaas leaned upon
+his axe and contemplated the heavens, also occasionally the Strathmuir
+men who cowered beneath his eye. The Zulus squatted about sharing such
+snuff as remained to them in economic pinches. Goroko, the witch-doctor,
+engaged himself in consulting his "Spirit," by means of bone-throwing,
+upon the humble subject of whether or no we should succeed in killing
+any game for food to-morrow, a point on which I gathered that his
+"Spirit" was quite uncertain. In short, the gloom was deep and universal
+and the sky looked as though it were going to rain.
+
+Hans became sarcastic. Sneaking up to me in his most aggravating way,
+like a dog that means to steal something and cover up the theft with
+simulated affection, he pointed out one by one all the disadvantages of
+our present position. He indicated _per contra_, that if _his_ advice
+had been followed, his conviction was that even if we had not found the
+man-eaters and rescued the lady called Sad-Eyes, our state would have
+been quite different. He was sure, he added, that the valley which he
+had suggested we should follow, was one full of game, inasmuch as he had
+seen their spoor at its entrance.
+
+"Then why did you not say so?" I asked.
+
+Hans sucked at his empty corn-cob pipe, which was his way of indicating
+that he would like me to give him some tobacco, much as a dog groans
+heavily under the table when he wants a bit to eat, and answered that it
+was not for him to point out things to one who knew everything, like the
+great Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, his honoured master. Still, the luck
+did seem to have gone a bit wrong. The privations could have been put up
+with (here he sucked very loudly at the empty pipe and looked at mine,
+which was alight), everything could have been put up with, if only there
+had been a chance of coming even with those men-eaters and rescuing the
+Lady Sad-Eyes, whose face haunted his sleep. As it was, however, he
+was convinced that by following the course I had mapped out we had lost
+their spoor finally and that probably they were now three days' march
+away in another direction. Still, the Baas had said that he had his
+reasons, and that of course was enough for him, Hans, only if the Baas
+would condescend to tell him, he would as a matter of curiosity like to
+know what the reasons were.
+
+At that moment I confess that, much as I was attached to him, I should
+have liked to murder Hans, who, I felt, believing that he had me "on
+toast," to use a vulgar phrase, was taking advantage of my position to
+make a mock of me in his sly, Hottentot way.
+
+I tried to continue to look grand, but felt that the attitude did
+not impress. Then I stared about me as though taking counsel with the
+Heavens, devoutly hoping that the Heavens would respond to my mute
+appeal. As a matter of fact they did.
+
+"There is my reason, Hans," I said in my most icy voice, and I pointed
+to a faint line of smoke rising against the twilight sky on the further
+side of the intervening valley.
+
+"You will perceive, Hans," I added, "that those Amahagger cannibals have
+forgotten their caution and lit a fire yonder, which they have not done
+for a long time. Perhaps you would like to know why this has happened.
+If so I will tell you. It is because for some days past I have purposely
+lost their spoor, which they knew we were following, and lit fires to
+puzzle them. Now, thinking that they have done with us, they have become
+incautious and shown us where they are. That is my reason, Hans."
+
+He heard and, although of course he did not believe that I had lost the
+spoor on purpose, stared at me till I thought his little eyes were going
+to drop out of his head. But even in his admiration he contrived to
+convey an insult as only a native can.
+
+"How wonderful is the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, that it
+should have been able thus to instruct the Baas," he said. "Without
+doubt the Great Medicine is right and yonder those men-eaters are
+encamped, who might just as well as have been anywhere else within a
+hundred miles."
+
+"Drat the Great Medicine," I replied, but beneath my breath, then added
+aloud,
+
+"Be so good, Hans, as to go to Umslopogaas and to tell him that
+Macumazahn, or the Great Medicine, proposes to march at once to attack
+the camp of the Amahagger, and--here is some tobacco."
+
+"Yes, Baas," answered Hans humbly, as he snatched the tobacco and
+wriggled away like a worm.
+
+Then I went to talk with Robertson.
+
+The end of it was that within an hour we were creeping across that
+valley towards the spot where I had seen the line of smoke rising
+against the twilight sky.
+
+Somewhere about midnight we reached the neighbourhood of this place. How
+near or how far we were from it, we could not tell since the moon was
+invisible, as of course the smoke was in the dark. Now the question was,
+what should we do?
+
+Obviously there would be enormous advantages in a night attack, or at
+least in locating the enemy, so that it might be carried out at dawn
+before he marched. Especially was this so, since we were scarcely in a
+condition even if we could come face to face with them, to fight these
+savages when they were prepared and in the light of day. Only we two
+white men, with Hans, Umslopogaas and his Zulus, could be relied upon
+in such a case, since the Strathmuir mixed-bloods had become entirely
+demoralised and were not to be trusted at a pinch. Indeed, tired and
+half starving as we were, none of us was at his best. Therefore a
+surprise seemed our only chance. But first we must find those whom we
+wished to surprise.
+
+Ultimately, after a hurried consultation, it was agreed that Hans and
+I should go forward and see if we could locate the Amahagger. Robertson
+wished to come too, but I pointed out that he must remain to look after
+his people, who, if he left them, might take the opportunity to melt
+away in the darkness, especially as they knew that heavy fighting was
+at hand. Also if anything happened to me it was desirable that one white
+man should remain to lead the party. Umslopogaas, too, volunteered, but
+knowing his character, I declined his help. To tell the truth, I was
+almost certain that if we came upon the men-eaters, he would charge the
+whole lot of them and accomplish a fine but futile end after hacking
+down a number of cannibal barbarians, whose extinction or escape
+remained absolutely immaterial to our purpose, namely, the rescue of
+Inez.
+
+So it came about that Hans and I started alone, I not at all enjoying
+the job. I suppose that there lurks in my nature some of that primeval
+terror of the dark, which must continually have haunted our remote
+forefathers of a hundred or a thousand generations gone and still
+lingers in the blood of most of us. At any rate even if I am named the
+Watcher-by-Night, greatly do I prefer to fight or to face peril in the
+sunlight, though it is true that I would rather avoid both at any time.
+
+In fact, I wished heartily that the Amahagger were at the other side
+of Africa, or in heaven, and that I, completely ignorant of the person
+called Inez Robertson, were seated smoking the pipe of peace on my own
+stoep in Durban. I think that Hans guessed my state of mind, since
+he suggested that he should go alone, adding with his usual unveiled
+rudeness, that he was quite certain that he would do much better without
+me, since white men always made a noise.
+
+"Yes," I replied, determined to give him a Roland for his Oliver, "I
+have no doubt you would--under the first bush you came across, where you
+would sleep till dawn, and then return and say that you could not find
+the Amahagger."
+
+Hans chuckled, quite appreciating the joke, and having thus mutually
+affronted each other, we started on our quest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SWAMP
+
+Neither Hans nor I carried rifles that we knew would be in the way on
+our business, which was just to scout. Moreover, one is always tempted
+to shoot if a gun is at hand, and this I did not want to do at present.
+So, although I had my revolver in case of urgent necessity, my only
+other weapon was a Zulu axe, that formerly had belonged to one of those
+two men who died defending Inez on the veranda at Strathmuir, while Hans
+had nothing but his long knife. Thus armed, or unarmed, we crept forward
+towards that spot whence, as we conjectured, we had seen the line of
+smoke rising some hours before.
+
+For about a quarter of a mile we went on thus without seeing or hearing
+anything, and a difficult job it was in that gloom among the scattered
+trees with no light save such as the stars gave us. Indeed, I was about
+to suggest that we had better abandon the enterprise until daybreak when
+Hans nudged me, whispering,
+
+"Look to the right between those twin thorns."
+
+I obeyed and following the line of sight which he had indicated,
+perceived, at a distance of about two hundred yards a faint glow, so
+faint indeed that I think only Hans would have noticed it. Really it
+might have been nothing more than the phosphorescence rising from a heap
+of fungus, or even from a decaying animal.
+
+"The fire of which we saw the smoke that has burnt to ashes," whispered
+Hans again. "I think that they have gone, but let us look."
+
+So we crawled forward very cautiously to avoid making the slightest
+noise; so cautiously, indeed, that it must have taken us nearly half an
+hour to cover those two hundred yards.
+
+At length we were within about forty yards of that dying fire and,
+afraid to go further, came to a stand--or rather, a lie-still--behind
+some bushes until we knew more. Hans lifted his head and sniffed with
+his broad nostrils; then he whispered into my ear, but so low that I
+could scarcely hear him.
+
+"Amahagger there all right, Baas, I smell them."
+
+This of course was possible, since what wind there was blew from the
+direction of the fire, although I whose nose is fairly keen could smell
+nothing at all. So I determined to wait and watch a while, and indicated
+my decision to Hans, who, considering our purpose accomplished, showed
+signs of wishing to retreat.
+
+Some minutes we lay thus, till of a sudden this happened. A branch of
+resinous wood of which the stem had been eaten through by the flames,
+fell upon the ashes of the fire and burnt up with a brilliant light. In
+it we saw that the Amahagger were sleeping in a circle round the fire
+wrapped in their blankets.
+
+Also we saw another thing, namely that nearer to us, not more than a
+dozen yards away, indeed, was a kind of little tent, also made of fur
+rugs or blankets, which doubtless sheltered Inez. Indeed, this was
+evident from the fact that at the mouth of it, wrapped up in something,
+lay none other than her maid, Janee, for her face being towards us, was
+recognised by us both in the flare of the flaming branch. One more thing
+we noted, namely, that two of the cannibals, evidently a guard, were
+sleeping between us and the little tent. Of course they ought to have
+been awake, but fatigue had overcome them and there they slumbered,
+seated on the ground, their heads hanging forward almost upon their
+knees.
+
+An idea came to me. If we could kill those men without waking the others
+in that gloom, it might be possible to rescue Inez at once. Rapidly I
+weighed the _pros_ and _cons_ of such an attempt. Its advantages, if
+successful, were that the object of our pursuit would be carried through
+without further trouble and that it was most doubtful whether we should
+ever get such a chance again. If we returned to fetch the others and
+attacked in force, the probability was that those Amahagger, or one of
+them, would hear some sound made by the advance of a number of men, and
+fly into the darkness; or, rather than lose Inez, they might kill her.
+Or if they stood and fought, she might be slain in the scrimmage. Or,
+as after all we had only about a dozen effectives, for the Strathmuir
+bearers could not be relied upon, they might defeat and kill us whom
+they outnumbered by two or three to one.
+
+These were the arguments for the attempt. Those for not making it were
+equally obvious. To begin with it was one of extraordinary risk; the two
+guards or someone else behind them might wake up--for such people, like
+dogs, mostly sleep with one eye open, especially when they knew that
+they are being pursued. Or if they did not we might bungle the business
+so that they raised an outcry before they grew silent for ever, in which
+case both of us and perhaps Inez also would probably pay the penalty
+before we could get away.
+
+Such was the horned dilemma upon one point or other of which we ran the
+risk of being impaled. For a full minute or more I considered the matter
+with an earnestness almost amounting to mental agony, and at last all
+but came to the conclusion that the danger was too enormous. It would be
+better, notwithstanding the many disadvantages of that plan, to go back
+and fetch the others.
+
+But then it was that I made one of my many mistakes in life. Most of
+us do more foolish things than wise ones and sometimes I think that
+in spite of a certain reputation for caution and far-sightedness, I am
+exceptionally cursed in this respect. Indeed, when I look back upon my
+past, I can scarcely see the scanty flowers of wisdom that decorate
+its path because of the fat, ugly trees of error by which it is
+overshadowed.
+
+On that occasion, forgetting past experiences where Hans was concerned,
+my natural tendency to blunder took the form of relying upon another's
+judgment instead of on my own. Although I had formed a certain view as
+to what should be done, the _pros_ and _cons_ seemed so evenly balanced
+that I determined to consult the little Hottentot and accept his
+verdict. This, after all, was but a form of gambling like pitch and
+toss, since, although it is true Hans was a clever, or at any rate a
+cunning man according to his lights, and experienced, it meant that
+I was placing my own judgment in abeyance, which no one considering
+a life-and-death enterprise should do, taking the chance of that of
+another, whatever it might be. However, not for the first time, I did
+so--to my grief.
+
+In the tiniest of whispers with my lips right against his smelly head, I
+submitted the problem to Hans, asking him what we should do, go on or go
+back. He considered a while, then answered in a voice which he contrived
+to make like the drone of a night beetle.
+
+"Those men are fast asleep, I know it by their breathing. Also the Baas
+has the Great Medicine. Therefore I say go on, kill them and rescue
+Sad-Eyes."
+
+Now I saw that the Fates to which I had appealed had decided against me
+and that I must accept their decree. With a sick and sinking heart--for
+I did not at all like the business--I wondered for a moment what had
+led Hans to take this view, which was directly opposite to any I had
+expected from him. Of course his superstition about the Great Medicine
+had something to do with it, but I felt convinced that this was not all.
+
+Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him, of which
+the first was that he desired, if possible, to put an end to this
+intolerable and unceasing hunt which had worn us all out, no matter
+what that end might be. The second and more powerful, however, was, I
+believed, and rightly, that the idea of this stealthy, midnight blow
+appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild nature in which the
+strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with that of the
+human being. For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer of
+civilisation, Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages had
+preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems.
+
+The die having been cast, in the same infinitesimal whispers we made our
+arrangements, which were few and simple. They amounted to this--that
+we were to creep on to the men and each of us to kill that one who was
+opposite to him, I with the axe and Hans with his knife, remembering
+that it must be done with a single stroke--that is, if they did not
+wake up and kill us--after which we were to get Inez out of her shelter,
+dressed or undressed, and make off with her into the darkness where we
+were pretty sure of being able to baffle pursuit until we reached our
+own camp.
+
+Provided that we could kill the two guards in the proper fashion--rather
+a large proviso, I admit--the thing was simple as shelling peas which,
+notwithstanding the proverb, in my experience is not simple at all,
+since generally the shells crack the wrong way and at least one of the
+peas remained in the pod. So it happened in this case, for Janee, whom
+we had both forgotten, remained in the pod.
+
+I am sure I don't know why we overlooked her; indeed, the error was
+inexcusable, especially as Hans had already experienced her foolishness
+and she was lying there before our eyes. I suppose that our minds were
+so concentrated upon the guard-killing and the tragic and impressive
+Inez that there was no room in them for the stolid and matter-of-fact
+Janee. At any rate she proved to be the pea that would not come out of
+the pod.
+
+Often in my life I have felt terrified, not being by nature one of those
+who rejoices in dangers and wild adventures for their own sake, which
+only the stupid do, but who has, on the contrary, been forced to
+undertake them by the pressure of circumstances, a kind of hydraulic
+force that no one can resist, and who, having undertaken, has been
+carried through them, triumphing over the shrinkings of his flesh by
+some secret reserve of nerve power. Almost am I tempted to call it
+spirit-power, something that lives beyond and yet inspires our frail and
+fallible bodies.
+
+Well, rarely have I been more frightened than I was at this moment.
+Actually I hung back until I saw that Hans slithering through the grass
+like a thick yellow snake with the great knife in his right hand,
+was quite a foot ahead of me. Then my pride came to the rescue and I
+spurted, if one can spurt upon one's stomach, and drew level with him.
+After this we went at a pace so slow that any able-bodied snail would
+have left us standing still. Inch by inch we crept forward, lying
+motionless a while after each convulsive movement, once for quite a
+long time, since the left-hand cannibal seemed about to wake up, for he
+opened his mouth and yawned. If so, he changed his mind and rolling from
+a sitting posture on to his side, went to sleep much more soundly than
+before.
+
+A minute or so later the right-hand ruffian, my man, also stirred, so
+sharply that I thought he had heard something. Apparently, however, he
+was only haunted by dreams resulting from an evil life, or perhaps
+by the prescience of its end, for after waving his arm and muttering
+something in a frightened voice, he too, wearied out, poor devil, sank
+back into sleep.
+
+At last we were on them, but paused because we could not see exactly
+where to strike and knew, each of us, that our first blow must be the
+last and fatal. A cloud had come up and dimmed what light there was, and
+we must wait for it to pass. It was a long wait, or so it seemed.
+
+At length that cloud did pass and in faint outline I saw the classical
+head of my Amahagger bowed in deep sleep. With a heart beating as it
+does only in the fierce extremities of love or war, I hissed like a
+snake, which was our agreed signal. Then rising to my knees, I lifted
+the Zulu axe and struck with all my strength.
+
+The blow was straight and true; Umslopogaas himself could not have
+dealt a better. The victim in front of me uttered no sound and made
+no movement; only sank gently on to his side, and there lay as dead as
+though he had never been born.
+
+It appeared that Hans had done equally well, since the other man kicked
+out his long legs, which struck me on the knees. Then he also became
+strangely still. In short, both of them were stone dead and would tell
+no stories this side of Judgment Day.
+
+Recovering my axe, which had been wrenched from my hand, I crept forward
+and opened the curtain-like rugs or blankets, I do not know which they
+were, that covered Inez. I heard her stir at once. The movement had
+wakened her, since captives sleep lightly.
+
+"Make no noise, Inez," I whispered. "It is I, Allan Quatermain, come to
+rescue you. Slip out and follow me; do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, quite," she whispered back and began to rise.
+
+At this moment a blood-curdling yell seemed to fill earth and heaven, a
+yell at the memory of which even now I feel faint, although I am writing
+years after its echoes died away.
+
+I may as well say at once that it came from Janee who, awaking suddenly,
+had perceived against the background of the sky, Hans standing over her,
+looking like a yellow devil with a long knife in his hand, which she
+thought was about to be used to murder her.
+
+So, lacking self-restraint, she screamed in the most lusty fashion, for
+her lungs were excellent, and--the game was up.
+
+Instantly every man sleeping round the fire leapt to his feet and rushed
+in the direction of the echoes of Janee's yell. It was impossible to get
+Inez free of her tent arrangement or to do anything, except whisper to
+her,
+
+"Feign sleep and know nothing. We will follow you. Your father is with
+us."
+
+Then I bolted back into the bushes, which Hans had reached already.
+
+A minute or two later when we were clear of the hubbub and nearing our
+own camp, Hans remarked to me sententiously,
+
+"The Great Medicine worked well, Baas, but not quite well enough, for
+what medicine can avail against a woman's folly?"
+
+"It was our own folly we should blame," I answered. "We ought to have
+known that fool-girl would shriek, and taken precautions."
+
+"Yes, Baas, we ought to have killed her too, for nothing else would have
+kept her quiet," replied Hans in cheerful assent. "Now we shall have to
+pay for our mistake, for the hunt must go on."
+
+At this moment we stumbled across Robertson and Umslopogaas who, with
+the others, and every living thing within a mile or two had also heard
+Janee's yell, and briefly told our story. When he learned how near we
+had been to rescuing his daughter, Robertson groaned, but Umslopogaas
+only said,
+
+"Well, there are two less of the men-eaters left to deal with. Still,
+for once your wisdom failed you, Macumazahn. When you had found the camp
+you should have returned, so that we might all attack it together. Had
+we done so, before the dawn there would not have been one of them left."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "I think that my wisdom did fail me, if I have any to
+fail. But come; perhaps we may catch them yet."
+
+So we advanced, Hans and I showing the road. But when we reached the
+place it was too late, for all that remained of the Amahagger, or of
+Inez and Janee, were the two dead men whom we had killed, and in that
+darkness pursuit was impossible. So we went back to our own camp to rest
+and await the dawn before taking up the trail, only to find ourselves
+confronted with a new trouble. All the Strathmuir half-breeds whom we
+had left behind as useless, had taken advantage of our absence and that
+of the Zulus, to desert. They had just bolted back upon our tracks and
+vanished into the sea of bush. What became of them I do not know, as we
+never saw them again, but my belief is that these cowardly fellows all
+perished, for certainly not one of them reached Strathmuir.
+
+Fortunately for us, however, they departed in such a hurry that they
+left all their loads behind them, and even some of the guns they
+carried. Evidently Janee's yell was the last straw which broke the back
+of such nerve as remained to them. Doubtless they believed it to be the
+signal of attack by hordes of cannibals.
+
+As there was nothing to said or done, since any pursuit of these curs
+was out of the question, we made the best of things as they were. It
+proved a simple business. From the loads we selected such articles as
+were essential, ammunition for the most part, to carry ourselves--and
+the rest we abandoned, hiding it under a pile of stones in case we
+should ever come that way again.
+
+The guns they had thrown aside we distributed among the Zulus who had
+none, though the thought that they possessed them, so far as I was
+concerned, added another terror to life. The prospect of going into
+battle with those wild axemen letting off bullets in every direction was
+not pleasant, but fortunately when that crisis came, they cast them away
+and reverted to the weapons to which they were accustomed.
+
+Now all this sounds much like a tale of disaster, or at any rate of
+failure. It is, however, wonderful by what strange ways good results
+are brought about, so much so that at times I think that these seeming
+accidents must be arranged by an Intelligence superior to our own, to
+fulfil through us purposes of which we know nothing, and frequently,
+be it admitted, of a nature sufficiently obscure. Of course this is a
+fatalistic doctrine, but then, as I have said before, within certain
+limits I am a fatalist.
+
+To take the present case, for instance, the whole Inez episode at first
+sight might appear to be an excrescence on my narrative, of which the
+object is to describe how I met a certain very wonderful woman and what
+I heard and experienced in her company. Yet it is not really so, since
+had it not been for the Inez adventure, it is quite clear that I should
+never have reached the home of this woman, if woman she were, or have
+seen her at all. Before long this became very obvious to me, as shall be
+told.
+
+From the night upon which Hans and I failed to rescue Inez we had
+no more difficulty in following the trail of the cannibals, who
+thenceforward were never more than a few hours ahead of us and had no
+time to be careful or to attempt to hide their spoor. Yet so fast did
+they travel that do what we would, burdened and wearied as we were, it
+proved impossible to overtake them.
+
+For the first three days the track ran on through scattered, rolling
+bush-veld of the character that I have described, but tending
+continually down hill. When we broke camp on the morning of the fourth
+day, eating a hasty meal at dawn (for now game had become astonishingly
+plentiful, so that we did not lack food) the rising sun showed beneath
+us an endless sea of billowy mist stretching in every direction far as
+the sight could carry.
+
+To the north, however, it did come to an end, for there, as I judged
+fifty or sixty miles away, rose the grim outline of what looked like a
+huge fortress, which I knew must be one of those extraordinary mountain
+formations, probably owing their origin to volcanic action, that are to
+be met with here and there in the vast expanses of Central and Eastern
+Africa. Being so distant it was impossible to estimate its size, which
+I guessed must be enormous, but in looking at it I bethought me of that
+great mountain in which Zikali said the marvellous white Queen lived,
+and wondered whether it could be the same, as from my memory of his map
+upon the ashes, it well might be, that is, if such a place existed
+at all. If so the map had shown it as surrounded by swamps and--well,
+surely that mist hid the face of a mighty swamp?
+
+It did indeed, since before nightfall, following the spoor of those
+Amahagger, we had plunged into a morass so vast that in all my
+experience I have never seen or heard of its like. It was a veritable
+ocean of papyrus and other reeds, some of them a dozen or more feet
+high, so that it was impossible to see a yard in any direction.
+
+Here it was that the Amahagger ahead of us proved our salvation, since
+without them to guide us we must soon have perished. For through that
+gigantic swamp there ran a road, as I think an ancient road, since in
+one or two places I saw stone work which must have been laid by man. Yet
+it was not a road which it would have been possible to follow without
+a guide, seeing that it also was overgrown with reeds. Indeed, the only
+difference between it and the surrounding swamp was that on the road
+the soil was comparatively firm, that is to say, one seldom sank into
+it above the knee, whereas on either side of it quagmires were often
+apparently bottomless, and what is more, partook of the nature of
+quicksand.
+
+This we found out soon after we entered the swamp, since Robertson,
+pushing forward with the fierce eagerness which seemed to consume him,
+neglected to keep his eye upon the spoor and stepped off the edge on to
+land that appeared to be exactly similar to its surface. Instantly he
+began to sink in greasy and tenacious mud. Umslopogaas and I were only
+twenty yards behind, yet by the time we reached him in answer to his
+shouts, already he was engulfed up to his middle and going down so
+rapidly that in another minute he would have vanished altogether. Well,
+we got him out but not with ease, for that mud clung to him like the
+tentacles of an octopus. After this we were more careful.
+
+Nor did this road run straight; on the contrary, it curved about and
+sometimes turned at right angles, doubtless to avoid a piece of swamp
+over which it had proved impossible for the ancients to construct a
+causeway, or to follow some out-crop of harder soil beneath.
+
+The difficulties of that horrible place are beyond description, and
+indeed can scarcely be imagined. First there was that of a kind of grass
+which grew among the roots of the reeds and had edges like to those of
+knives. As Robertson and I wore gaiters we did not suffer so much from
+it, but the poor Zulus with their bare legs were terribly cut about and
+in some cases lame.
+
+Then there were the mosquitoes which lived here by the million and all
+seemed anxious for a bite; also snakes of a peculiarly deadly kind were
+numerous. A Zulu was bitten by one of them of so poisonous a nature that
+he died within three minutes, for the venom seemed to go straight to his
+heart. We threw his body into the swamp, where it vanished at once.
+
+Lastly there was the all-pervading stench and the intolerable heat of
+the place, since no breath of air could penetrate that forest of
+reeds, while a minor trouble was that of the multitude of leeches
+which fastened on to our bodies. By looking one could see the creatures
+sitting on the under side of leaves with their heads stretched out
+waiting to attack anything that went by. As wayfarers there could not
+have been numerous, I wondered what they had lived on for the last few
+thousand years. By the way, I found that paraffin, of which we had a
+small supply for our hand-lamps, rubbed over all exposed surfaces, was
+to some extent a protection against these blood-sucking worms and the
+gnats, although it did make one go about smelling like a dirty oil tin.
+
+During the day, except for the occasional rush of some great iguana
+or other reptile, and the sound of the wings of the flocks of wildfowl
+passing over us from time to time, the march was deathly silent. But at
+night it was different, for then the bull-frogs boomed incessantly, as
+did the bitterns, while great swamp owls and other night-flying birds
+uttered their weird cries. Also there were mysterious sucking noises
+caused, no doubt, by the sinking of areas of swamp, with those of
+bursting bubbles of foul, up-rushing gas.
+
+Strange lights, too, played about, will-o'-the-wisps or St. Elmo fires,
+as I believe they are called, that frightened the Zulus very much, since
+they believed them to be spirits of the dead. Perhaps this superstition
+had something to do with their native legend that mankind was "torn out
+of the reeds." If so, they may have imagined that the ghosts of men went
+back to the reeds, of which there were enough here to accommodate those
+of the entire Zulu nation. Any way they were much scared; even the bold
+witch-doctor, Goroko, was scared and went through incantations with the
+little bag of medicines he carried to secure protection for himself and
+his companions. Indeed, I think even the iron Umslopogaas himself was
+not as comfortable as he might have been, although he did inform me that
+he had come out to fight and did not care whether it were with man, or
+wizard, or spirit.
+
+In short, of all the journeys that I have made, with the exception of
+the passage of the desert on our way to King Solomon's Mines, I think
+that through this enormous swamp was the most miserable. Heartily did I
+curse myself for ever having undertaken such a quest in a wild attempt
+to allay that sickness, or rather to quench that thirst of the soul
+which, I imagine, at times assails most of those who have hearts and
+think or dream.
+
+For this was at the bottom of the business: this it was which had
+delivered me into the hands of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, who, as now I
+am sure, was merely making use of me for his private occult purposes. He
+desired to consult the distant Oracle, if such a person existed, as to
+great schemes of his own, and therefore, to attain his end, made use
+of my secret longings which I had been so foolish as to reveal to him,
+quite careless of what happened to me in the process. [A bit narrow and
+uncharitable, this view. It seems to me that Zikali is taking a big risk
+in giving him the Great Medicine.--JB]
+
+Well, I was in for the business and must follow it to the finish
+whatever that might be. After all it was very interesting and if
+there were anything in what Zikali said (if there were not I could not
+conceive what object he had in sending me on such a wild-goose chase
+through this home of geese and ducks), it might become more interesting
+still. For being pretty well fever-proof I did not think I should die
+in that morass, as of course nine white men out of ten would have done,
+and, beyond it lay the huge mountain which day by day grew larger and
+clearer.
+
+Nor did Hans, who, with a childlike trust, pinned his faith to the Great
+Medicine. This, he remarked, was the worst veld through which he had
+ever travelled, but as the Great Medicine would never consent to be
+buried in that stinking mud, he had no doubt that we should come safely
+through it some time. I replied that this wonderful medicine of his had
+not saved one of our companions who had now made a grave in the same
+mud.
+
+"No, Baas," he said, "but those Zulus have nothing to do with the
+Medicine which was given to you, and to me who accompanied you when we
+saw the Opener-of-Roads. Therefore perhaps they will all die, except
+Umslopogaas, whom you were told to take with you. If so, what does
+it matter, since there are plenty of Zulus, although there be but one
+Macumazahn or one Hans? Also the Baas may remember that he began by
+offending a snake and therefore it is quite natural that this snake's
+brother should have bitten the Zulu."
+
+"If you are right, he should have bitten me, Hans."
+
+"Yes, Baas, and so no doubt he would have done had you not been
+protected by the Great Medicine, and me too had not my grandfather been
+a snake-charmer, to say nothing of the smell of the Medicine being on me
+as well. The snakes know those that they should bite, Baas."
+
+"So do the mosquitoes," I answered, grabbing a handful of them. "The
+Great Medicine has no effect upon them."
+
+"Oh! yes, Baas, it has, since though it pleases them to bite, the bites
+do us no harm, or at least not much, and all are made happy. Still,
+I wish we could get out of these reeds of which I never want to see
+another, and Baas, please keep your rifle ready for I think I hear a
+crocodile stirring there."
+
+"No need, Hans," I remarked sarcastically. "Go and tell him that I have
+the Great Medicine."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I will; also that if he is very hungry, there are some Zulus
+camped a few yards further down the road," and he went solemnly to the
+reeds a little way off and began to talk to them.
+
+"You infernal donkey!" I murmured, and drew my blanket over my head in
+a vain attempt to keep out the mosquitoes and smoking furiously with the
+same object, tried to get to sleep.
+
+
+
+At last the swamp bottom began to slope upwards a little, with the
+result that as the land dried through natural drainage, the reeds grew
+thinner by degrees, until finally they ceased and we found ourselves on
+firmer ground; indeed, upon the lowest slopes of the great mountain that
+I have mentioned, that now towered above us, forbidden and majestic.
+
+I had made a little map in my pocket-book of the various twists and
+turns of the road through that vast Slough of Despond, marking them from
+hour to hour as we followed its devious wanderings. On studying this
+at the end of that part of our journey I realised afresh how utterly
+impossible it would have been for us to thread that misty maze where a
+few false steps would always have meant death by suffocation, had it not
+been for the spoor of those Amahagger travelling immediately ahead of us
+who were acquainted with its secrets. Had they been friendly guides they
+could not have done us a better turn.
+
+What I wondered was why they had not tried to ambush us in the reeds,
+since our fires must have shown them that we were close upon their
+heels. That they did try to burn us out was clear from certain evidences
+that I found, but fortunately at this season of the year in the absence
+of a strong wind the rank reeds were too green to catch fire. For the
+rest I was soon to learn the reason of their neglect to attack us in
+that dense cover.
+
+They were waiting for a better opportunity!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ATTACK
+
+We won out of the reeds at last, for which I fervently thanked God,
+since to have crossed that endless marsh unguided, with the loss of only
+one man, seemed little less than miraculous. We emerged from them late
+in the afternoon and being wearied out, stopped for a while to rest and
+eat of the flesh of a buck that I had been fortunate enough to shoot
+upon their fringe. Then we pushed forward up the slope, proposing to
+camp for the night on the crest of it a mile or so away where I thought
+we should escape from the deadly mist in which we had been enveloped for
+so long, and obtain a clear view of the country ahead.
+
+Following the bank of a stream which here ran down into the marsh, we
+came at length to this crest just as the sun was sinking. Below us lay
+a deep valley, a fold, as it were, in the skin of the mountain, well
+but not densely bushed. The woods of this valley climbed up the mountain
+flank for some distance above it and then gave way to grassy slopes that
+ended in steep sides of rock, which were crowned by a black and frowning
+precipice of unknown height.
+
+There was, I remember, something very impressive about this towering
+natural wall, which seemed to shut off whatever lay beyond the gaze of
+man, as though it veiled an ancient mystery. Indeed, the aspect of it
+thrilled me, I knew not why. I observed, however, that at one point in
+the mighty cliff there seemed to be a narrow cleft down which, no doubt,
+lava had flowed in a remote age, and it occurred to me that up this
+cleft ran a roadway, probably a continuation of that by which we had
+threaded the swamp. The fact that through my glasses I could see herds
+of cattle grazing on the slopes of the mountain went to confirm this
+view, since cattle imply owners and herdsmen, and search as I would, I
+could find no native villages on the slopes. The inference seemed to be
+that those owners dwelt beyond or within the mountain.
+
+All of these things I saw and pointed out to Robertson in the light of
+the setting sun.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas had been engaged in selecting the spot where we
+were to camp for the night. Some soldierlike instinct, or perchance some
+prescience of danger, caused him to choose a place particularly suitable
+to defence. It was on a steep-sided mound that more or less resembled a
+gigantic ant-heap. Upon one side this mound was protected by the stream
+which because of a pool was here rather deep, while at the back of it
+stood a collection of those curious and piled-up water-worn rocks that
+are often to be found in Africa. These rocks, lying one upon another
+like the stones of a Cyclopean wall, curved round the western side of
+the mound, so that practically it was only open for a narrow space,
+say thirty or forty feet, upon that face of it which looked on to the
+mountain.
+
+"Umslopogaas expects battle," remarked Hans to me with a grin,
+"otherwise with all this nice plain round us he would not have chosen to
+camp in a place which a few men could hold against many. Yes, Baas, he
+thinks that those cannibals are going to attack us."
+
+"Stranger things have happened," I answered indifferently, and having
+seen to the rifles, went to lie down, observing as I did so that the
+tired Zulus seemed already to be asleep. Only Umslopogaas did not sleep.
+On the contrary, he stood leaning on his axe staring at the dim outlines
+of the opposing precipice.
+
+"A strange mountain, Macumazahn," he said, "compared to it that of the
+Witch, beneath which my kraal lies, is but a little baby. I wonder what
+we shall find within it. I have always loved mountains, Macumazahn, ever
+since a dead brother of mine and I lived with the wolves in the Witch's
+lap, for on them I have had the best of my fighting."
+
+"Perhaps it is not done with yet," I answered wearily.
+
+"I hope not, Macumazahn, since some is due for us, after all these days
+of mud and stench. Sleep a while now, Macumazahn, for that head of yours
+which you use so much, must need rest. Fear not, I and the little yellow
+man who do not think as much as you do, will keep watch and wake you if
+there is need, as mayhap there will be before the dawn. Here none can
+come at us except in front, and the place is narrow."
+
+So I lay down and slept as soundly as ever I had done in my life, for a
+space of four or five hours I suppose. Then, by some instinct perhaps, I
+awoke suddenly, feeling much refreshed in that sweet mountain air, a new
+man indeed, and in the moonlight saw Umslopogaas striding towards me.
+
+"Arise, Macumazahn," he said, "I hear men stirring below us."
+
+At this moment Hans slipped past him, whispering,
+
+"The cannibals are coming, Baas, a good number of them. I think they
+mean to attack before dawn."
+
+Then he passed behind me to warn the Zulus. As he went by, I said to
+him,
+
+"If so, Hans, now is the time for your Great Medicine to show what it
+can do."
+
+"The Great Medicine will look after you and me all right, Baas," he
+replied, pausing and speaking in Dutch, which Umslopogaas did not
+understand, "but I expect there will be fewer of those Zulus to cook for
+before the sun grows hot. Their spirits will be turned into snakes and
+go back into the reeds from which they say they were 'torn out,'" he
+added over his shoulder.
+
+I should explain that Hans acted as cook to our party and it was a
+grievance with him that the Zulus ate so much of the meat which he was
+called upon to prepare. Indeed, there is never much sympathy between
+Hottentots and Zulus.
+
+"What is the little yellow man saying about us?" asked Umslopogaas
+suspiciously.
+
+"He is saying that if it comes to battle, you and your men will make a
+great fight," I replied diplomatically.
+
+"Yes, we will do that, Macumazahn, but I thought he said that we should
+be killed and that this pleased him."
+
+"Oh dear no!" I answered hastily. "How could he be pleased if that
+happened, since then he would be left defenceless, if he were not killed
+too. Now, Umslopogaas, let us make a plan for this fight."
+
+So, together with Robertson, rapidly we discussed the thing. As a
+result, with the help of the Zulus, we dragged together some loose
+stones and the tops of three small thorn trees which we had cut
+down, and with them made a low breastwork, sufficient to give us some
+protection if we lay down to shoot. It was the work of a few minutes
+since we had prepared the material when we camped in case an emergency
+should arise.
+
+Behind this breastwork we gathered and waited, Robertson and I being
+careful to get a little to the rear of the Zulus, who it will be
+remembered had the rifles which the Strathmuir bastards had left behind
+them when they bolted, in addition to their axes and throwing assegais.
+The question was how these cannibals would fight. I knew that they were
+armed with long spears and knives but I did not know if they used those
+spears for thrusting or for throwing. In the former case it would be
+difficult to get at them with the axes because they must have the longer
+reach. Fortunately as it turned out, they did both.
+
+At length all was ready and there came that long and trying wait, the
+most disagreeable part of a fight in which one grows nervous and begins
+to reflect earnestly upon one's sins. Clearly the Amahagger, if they
+really intended business, did not mean to attack till just before dawn,
+after the common native fashion, thinking to rush us in the low and
+puzzling light. What perplexed me was that they should wish to attack
+us at all after having let so many opportunities of doing so go by.
+Apparently these men were now in sight of their own home, where no doubt
+they had many friends, and by pushing on could reach its shelter before
+us, especially as they knew the roads and we did not.
+
+They had come out for a secret purpose that seemed to have to do with
+the abduction of a certain young white woman for reasons connected
+with their tribal statecraft or ritual, which is the kind of thing that
+happens not infrequently among obscure and ancient African tribes. Well,
+they had abducted their young woman and were in sight of safety and
+success in their objects, whatever these might be. For what possible
+reason, then, could they desire to risk a fight with the outraged
+friends and relatives of that young woman?
+
+It was true that they outnumbered us and therefore had a good chance
+of victory, but on the other hand, they must know that it would be very
+dearly won, and if it were not won, that we should retake their captive,
+so that all their trouble would have been for nothing. Further they must
+be as exhausted and travel-worn as we were ourselves and in no condition
+to face a desperate battle.
+
+The problem was beyond me and I gave it up with the reflection that
+either this threatened attack was a mere feint to delay us, or that
+behind it was something mysterious, such as a determination to prevent
+us at all hazards from discovering the secrets of that mountain
+stronghold.
+
+When I put the riddle to Hans, who was lying next to me, he was ready
+with another solution.
+
+"They are men-eaters, Baas," he said, "and being hungry, wish to eat us
+before they get to their own land where doubtless they are not allowed
+to eat each other."
+
+"Do you think so," I answered, "when we are so thin?" and I surveyed
+Hans' scraggy form in the moonlight.
+
+"Oh! yes, Baas, we should be quite good boiled--like old hens, Baas.
+Also it is the nature of cannibals to prefer thin man to fat beef. The
+devil that is in them gives them that taste, Baas, just as he makes me
+like gin, or you turn your head to look at pretty women, as those Zulus
+say you always did in their country, especially at a certain witch who
+was named Mameena and whom you kissed before everybody----"
+
+Here I turned my head to look at Hans, proposing to smite him with
+words, or physically, since to have this Mameena myth, of which I have
+detailed the origin in the book called _Child of Storm_, re-arise out
+of his hideous little mouth was too much. But before I could get out a
+syllable he held up his finger and whispered,
+
+"Hush! the dawn breaks and they come. I hear them."
+
+I listened intently but could distinguish nothing. Only straining my
+eyes, presently I thought that about a hundred yards down the slope
+beneath us in the dim light I caught sight of ghostlike figures flitting
+from tree to tree; also that these figures were drawing nearer.
+
+"Look out!" I said to Robertson on my right, "I believe they are
+coming."
+
+"Man," he answered sternly, "I hope so, for whom else have I wanted to
+meet all these days?"
+
+Now the figures vanished into a little fold of the ground. A minute or
+so later they re-appeared upon its hither side where such light as there
+was from the fading stars and the gathering dawn fell full upon them,
+for here were no trees. I looked and a thrill of horror went through me,
+for with one glance I recognised that these were _not the men whom we
+had been following_. To begin with, there were many more of them, quite
+a hundred, I should think, also they had painted shields, wore feathers
+in their hair, and generally so far as I could judge, seemed to be fat
+and fresh.
+
+"We have been led into an ambush," I said first in Zulu to Umslopogaas
+immediately in front, and then in English to Robertson.
+
+"If so, man, we must just do the best we can," answered the latter, "but
+God help my poor daughter, for those other devils will have taken her
+away, leaving their brethren to make an end of us."
+
+"It is so, Macumazahn," broke in Umslopogaas. "Well, whatever the end of
+it, we shall have a better fight. Now do you give the word and we will
+obey."
+
+The savages, for so I call them, although I admit that cannibals or not,
+they looked more like high-class Arabs than savages, came on in perfect
+silence, hoping, I suppose, to catch us asleep. When they were about
+fifty yards away, running in a treble line with spears advanced, I
+called out "Fire!" in Zulu, and set the example by loosing off both
+barrels of my express rifle at men whom I had picked out as leaders,
+with results that must have been more satisfactory to me than to the two
+Amahagger whose troubles in this world came to an end.
+
+There followed a tremendous fusillade, the Zulus banging off their guns
+wildly, but even at that distance managing for the most part to shoot
+over the enemy's heads. Captain Robertson and Hans, however, did better
+and the general result was that the Amahagger, who appeared to be
+unaccustomed to firearms, retreated in a hurry to a fold of the ground
+whence they had emerged. Before the last of them got there I loaded
+again, so that two more stopped behind. Altogether we had put nine or
+ten of them out of action.
+
+Now I hoped that they would give the business up. But this was not so,
+for being brave fellows, after a pause of perhaps five minutes, once
+more they charged in a body, hoping to overwhelm us. Again we greeted
+them with bullets and knocked out several, whereon the rest threw
+a volley of their long spears at us. I was glad to see them do this
+although one of the Zulus got his death from it, while two more were
+wounded. I myself had a very narrow escape, for a spear passed between
+my neck and shoulder. Each of them carried but one of these weapons
+and I knew that if they used them up in throwing, only their big knives
+would remain to them with which to attack us.
+
+After this discharge of spears which was kept up for some time, they
+rushed at us and there followed a great fight. The Zulus, throwing down
+their guns, rose to their feet and holding their little fighting shields
+which had been carried in their mats, in the left hand, wielded their
+axes with the right. Umslopogaas, who stood in the centre of them,
+however, had no shield and swung his great axe with both arms. This was
+the first time that I had seen him fight and the spectacle was in a way
+magnificent. Again and again the axe crashed down and every time it
+fell it left one dead beneath the stroke, till at length those Amahagger
+shrank back out of his reach.
+
+Meanwhile Robertson, Hans and I, standing on some stones at the back,
+kept up a continual fire upon them, shooting over the heads of the
+Zulus, who were playing their part like men. Yes, they shrank back,
+leaving many dead behind them. Then a captain tried to gather them for
+another rush, and once more they moved forward. I killed that captain
+with a revolver shot, for my rifle had become too hot to hold, and at
+the sight of his fall, they broke and ran back into the little hollow
+where our bullets could not reach them.
+
+So far we had held our own, but at a price, for three of the Zulus were
+now dead and three more wounded, one of them severely, the other two but
+enough to cripple them. In fact, now there were left of them but three
+untouched men, and Umslopogaas, so that in all for fighting purposes
+we were but seven. What availed it that we had killed a great number of
+these Amahagger, when we were but seven? How could seven men withstand
+such another onslaught?
+
+There in the pale light of the dawn we looked at each other dismayed.
+
+"Now," said Umslopogaas, leaning on his red axe, "there remains but one
+thing to do, make a good end, though I would that it were in a greater
+cause. At least we must either fight or fly," and he looked down at the
+wounded.
+
+"Think not of us, Father," murmured one of them, the man who had a
+mortal hurt. "If it is best, kill us and begone that you may live to
+bear the Axe in years to come."
+
+"Well spoken!" said Umslopogaas, and again stood still a while, then
+added, "The word is with you, Macumazahn, who are our captain."
+
+I set out the situation to Robertson and Hans as briefly as I could,
+showing that there was a chance of life if we ran, but so far as I could
+see, none if we stayed.
+
+"Go if you like, Quatermain," answered the Captain, "but I shall stop
+and die here, for since my girl is gone I think I'm better dead."
+
+I motioned to Hans to speak.
+
+"Baas," he answered, "the Great Medicine is here with us upon the earth
+and your reverend father, the Predikant, is with us in the sky, so I
+think we had better stop here and do what we can, especially as I do not
+want to see those reeds any more at present."
+
+"So do I," I said briefly, giving no reasons.
+
+So we made ready for the next attack which we knew would be the last,
+strengthening our little wall and dragging the dead Amahagger up against
+it as an added protection. As we were thus engaged the sun rose and in
+its first beams, some miles away on the opposing slopes of the mountain
+looking tiny against the black background of the precipice, we saw
+a party of men creeping forward. Lifting my glasses I studied it and
+perceived that in its midst was a litter.
+
+"There goes your daughter," I said, and handed the glasses to Robertson.
+
+"Oh! my God," he answered, "those villains have outwitted us after all."
+
+Another minute and the litter, or rather the chair with its escort,
+had vanished into the shadow of the great cliffs, probably up some pass
+which we could not see.
+
+Next moment our thoughts were otherwise engaged, since from various
+symptoms we gathered that the attack was about to be renewed. Spears
+upon which shone the light of the rising sun, appeared above the edge of
+the ground-fold that I have mentioned, which to the east increased to a
+deep, bush-clad ravine. Also there were voices as of leaders encouraging
+their men to a desperate effort.
+
+"They are coming," I said to Robertson.
+
+"Yes," he answered, "they are coming and we are going. It's a queer
+end to the thing we call life, isn't it, Quatermain, and hang it all!
+I wonder what's beyond? Not much for me, I expect, but whatever it is
+could scarcely be worse than what I've gone through here below in one
+way and another."
+
+"There's hope for all of us," I replied as cheerfully as I could, for
+the man's deep depression disturbed me.
+
+"Mayhap, Quatermain, for who knows the infinite mercy of whatever made
+us as we are? My old mother used to preach of it and I remember her
+words now. But in my case I expect it will stop at hope, or sleep, and
+if it wasn't for Inez, I'd not mind so much, for I tell you I've had
+enough of the world and life. Look, there's one of them. Take that, you
+black devil!" and lifting his rifle he aimed and fired at an Amahagger
+who appeared upon the edge of the fold of ground. What is more he hit
+him, for I saw the man double up and fall backwards.
+
+Then the game began afresh, for the cannibals (I suppose they were
+cannibals like their brethren) crept out of shelter, advancing on their
+stomachs or their hands and knees, so as to offer a smaller mark, and
+dragging between them a long and slender tree-trunk with which clearly
+they intended to batter down our wall.
+
+Of course I blazed away at them, pretty carefully too, for I was
+determined that what I believed to be the last exercise of the gift of
+shooting that has been given to me, should prove a record. Therefore
+I selected my men and even where I would hit them, and as subsequent
+examination showed, I made no mistakes in the seven or eight shots that
+I fired. But all the while, like poor Captain Robertson, I was thinking
+of other things; namely, where I was bound for presently and if I should
+meet certain folk there and what was the meaning of this show called
+Life, which unless it leads somewhere, according to my judgment has none
+at all. Until these questions were solved, however, my duty was to kill
+as many of those ruffians as I could, and this I did with finish and
+despatch.
+
+Robertson and Hans were firing also, with more or less success, but
+there were too many to be stopped by our three rifles. Still they came
+on till at length their fierce faces were within a few yards of our
+little parapet and Umslopogaas had lifted his great axe to give them
+greeting. They paused a moment before making their final rush, and so
+did we to slip in fresh cartridges.
+
+"Die well, Hans," I said, "and if you get there first, wait for me on
+the other side."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I always meant to do that, though not yet. We are not going
+to die this time, Baas. Those who have the Great Medicine don't die; it
+is the others who die, like that fellow," and he pointed to an Amahagger
+who went reeling round and round with a bullet from his Winchester
+through the middle, for he had fired in the midst of his remarks.
+
+"Curse--I mean bless--the Great Medicine," I said as I lifted my rifle
+to my shoulder.
+
+At that moment all those Amahagger--there were about sixty of them
+left--became seized with a certain perturbation. They stood still, they
+stared towards the fold of ground out of which they had emerged; they
+called to each other words which I did not catch, and then--they turned
+to run.
+
+Umslopogaas saw, and with a leader's instinct, acted. Springing over the
+parapet, followed by his remaining Zulus of the Axe, he leapt upon them
+with a roar. Down they went before _Inkosikaas_, like corn before a
+sickle. The thing was marvellous to see, it was like the charge of a
+leopard, so swift was the rush and so lightning-like were the strokes or
+rather the pecks of that flashing axe, for now he was tapping at their
+heads or spines with the gouge-like point upon its back. Nor were these
+the only victims, for those brave followers of his also did their part.
+In a minute all who remained upon their feet of the Amahagger were in
+full flight, vanishing this way and that among the trees. Hans fired
+a parting shot after the last of them, then sat down upon a stone and
+finding his corn-cob pipe, proceeded to fill it.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas," he began sententiously, "or perhaps
+your reverend father, the Predikant----" Here he paused and pointed
+doubtfully with the bowl of the pipe towards the fold in the ground,
+adding, "Here it is, but I think it must be your reverend father, not
+the Great Medicine, yes, the Predikant himself, returned from Heaven,
+the Place of Fires!"
+
+Looking vaguely in the direction indicated, for I could not conceive
+what he meant and thought that the excitement must have made him mad, I
+perceived a venerable old man with a long white beard and clothed in a
+flowing garment, also white, who reminded me of Father Christmas at a
+child's party, walking towards us and radiating benignancy. Also behind
+him I perceived a whole forest of spear points emerging from the gully.
+He seemed to take it for granted that we should not shoot at him, for he
+came on quite unconcerned, carefully picking his way among the corpses.
+When he was near enough he stopped and said in a kind of Arabic which I
+could understand,
+
+"I greet you, Strangers, in the name of her I serve. I see that I am
+just in time, but this does not surprise me, since she said that it
+would be so. You seem to have done very well with these dogs," and
+he prodded a dead Amahagger with his sandalled foot. "Yes, very well
+indeed. You must be great warriors."
+
+Then he paused and we stared at each other.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL
+
+"These do not seem to be friends of yours," I said, pointing to the
+fallen. "And yet," I added, nodding towards the spearmen who were now
+emerging from the gully, "they are very like your friends."
+
+"Puppies from the same litter are often alike, yet when they grow up
+sometimes they fight each other," replied Father Christmas blandly.
+"At least these come to save and not to kill you. Look! they kill the
+others!" and he pointed to them making an end of some of the wounded
+men. "But who are these?" and he glanced with evident astonishment,
+first at the fearsome-looking Umslopogaas and then at the grotesque
+Hans. "Nay, answer not, you must be weary and need rest. Afterwards we
+can talk."
+
+"Well, as a matter of fact we have not yet breakfasted," I replied.
+"Also I have business to attend to here," and I glanced at our wounded.
+
+The old fellow nodded and went to speak to the captains of his force,
+doubtless as to the pursuit of the enemy, for presently I saw a company
+spring forward on their tracks. Then, assisted by Hans and the remaining
+Zulus, of whom one was Goroko, I turned to attend to our own people.
+The task proved lighter than I expected, since the badly injured man
+was dead or dying and the hurts of the two others were in their legs
+and comparatively slight, such as Goroko could doctor in his own native
+fashion.
+
+After this, taking Hans to guard my back, I went down to the stream and
+washed myself. Then I returned and ate, wondering the while that I could
+do so with appetite after the terrible dangers which we had passed.
+Still, we had passed them, and Robertson, Umslopogaas with three of his
+men, I and Hans were quite unharmed, a fact for which I returned thanks
+in silence but sincerely enough to Providence.
+
+Hans also returned thanks in his own fashion, after he had filled
+himself, not before, and lit his corn-cob pipe. But Robertson made no
+remark; indeed, when he had satisfied his natural cravings, he rose and
+walking a few paces forward, stood staring at the cleft in the mountain
+cliff into which he had seen the litter vanish that bore his daughter to
+some fate unknown.
+
+Even the great fight that we had fought and the victory we had won
+against overpowering odds did not appear to impress him. He only glared
+at the mountain into the heart of which Inez had been raped away, and
+shook his fist. Since she was gone all else went for nothing, so much so
+that he did not offer to assist with the wounded Zulus or show curiosity
+about the strange old man by whom we had been rescued.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas," said Hans in a bewildered way, "is even more
+powerful than I thought. Not only has it brought us safely through the
+fighting and without a scratch, for those Zulus there do not matter and
+there will be less cooking for me to do now that they are gone; it has
+also brought down your reverend father the Predikant from the Place of
+Fires in Heaven, somewhat changed from what I remember him, it is
+true, but still without doubt the same. When I make my report to him
+presently, if he can understand my talk, I shall----"
+
+"Stop your infernal nonsense, you son of a donkey," I broke in, for at
+this moment old Father Christmas, smiling more benignly than before,
+re-appeared from the kloof into which he had vanished and advanced
+towards us bowing with much politeness.
+
+Having seated himself upon the little wall that we had built up,
+he contemplated us, stroking his beautiful white beard, then said,
+addressing me,
+
+"Of a certainty you should be proud who with a few have defeated so
+many. Still, had I not been ordered to come at speed, I think that by
+now you would have been as those are," and he looked towards the dead
+Zulus who were laid out at a distance like men asleep, while their
+companions sought for a place to bury them.
+
+"Ordered by whom?" I asked.
+
+"There is only one who can order," he answered with mild astonishment.
+"'She-who-commands, She-who-is-everlasting'!"
+
+It occurred to me that this must be some Arabic idiom for the Eternal
+Feminine, but I only looked vague and said,
+
+"It would appear that there are some whom this exalted everlasting She
+cannot command; those who attacked us; also those who have fled away
+yonder," and I waved my hand towards the mountain.
+
+"No command is absolute; in every country there are rebels, even, as I
+have heard, in Heaven above us. But, Wanderer, what is your name?"
+
+"Watcher-by-Night," I answered.
+
+"Ah! a good name for one who must have watched well by night, and by day
+too, to reach this country living where She-who-commands says that no
+man of your colour has set foot for many generations. Indeed, I think
+she told me once that two thousand years had gone by since she spoke to
+a white man in the City of K�r."
+
+"Did she indeed?" I exclaimed, stifling a cough.
+
+"You do not believe me," he went on, smiling. "Well, She-who-commands
+can explain matters for herself better than I who was not alive two
+thousand years ago, so far as I remember. But what must I call him with
+the Axe?"
+
+"Warrior is his name."
+
+"Again a good name, as to judge by the wounds on them, certain of those
+rebels I think are now telling each other in Hell. And this man, if
+indeed he be a man----" he added, looking doubtfully at Hans.
+
+"Light-in-Darkness is his name."
+
+"I see, doubtless because his colour is that of the winter sun in thick
+fog, or a bad egg broken into milk. And the other white man who mutters
+and whose brow is like a storm?"
+
+"He is called Avenger; you will learn why later on," I answered
+impatiently, for I grew tired of this catechism, adding, "And what are
+you called and, if you are pleased to tell it to us, upon what errand do
+you visit us in so fortunate an hour?"
+
+"I am named Billali," he answered, "the servant and messenger of
+She-who-commands, and I was sent to save you and to bring you safely to
+her."
+
+"How can this be, Billali, seeing that none knew of our coming?"
+
+"Yet She-who-commands knew," he said with his benignant smile. "Indeed,
+I think that she learned of it some moons ago through a message that was
+sent to her and so arranged all things that you should be guided safely
+to her secret home; since otherwise how would you have passed a great
+pathless swamp with the loss, I think she said, of but one man whom a
+snake bit?"
+
+Now I stared at the old fellow, for how could he know of the death of
+this man, but thought it useless to pursue the conversation further.
+
+"When you are rested and ready," he went on, "we will start. Meanwhile I
+leave you that I may prepare litters to carry those wounded men, and
+you also, Watcher-by-Night, if you wish." Then with a dignified bow,
+for everything about this old fellow was stately, he turned and vanished
+into the kloof.
+
+The next hour or so was occupied in the burial of the dead Zulus, a
+ceremony in which I took no part beyond standing up and raising my hat
+as they were borne away, for as I have said somewhere, it is best to
+leave natives alone on these occasions. Indeed, I lay down, reflecting
+that strangely enough there seemed to be something in old Zikali's tale
+of a wonderful white Queen who lived in a mountain fastness, since there
+was the mountain as he had drawn it on the ashes, and the servants of
+that Queen who, apparently, had knowledge of our coming, appeared in the
+nick of time to rescue us from one of the tightest fixes in which ever I
+found myself.
+
+Moreover, the antique and courteous individual called Billali, spoke of
+her as "She-who-is-everlasting." What the deuce could he mean by that,
+I wondered? Probably that she was very old and therefore disagreeable to
+look on, which I confessed to myself would be a disappointment.
+
+And how did she know that we were coming? I could not guess and when I
+asked Robertson, he merely shrugged his shoulders and intimated that he
+took no interest in the matter. The truth is that nothing moved the man,
+whose whole soul was wrapped in one desire, namely to rescue, or avenge,
+the daughter against whom he knew he had so sorely sinned.
+
+In fact, this loose-living but reformed seaman was becoming a
+monomaniac, and what is more, one of the religious type. He had a Bible
+with him that had been given to him by his mother when he was a boy, and
+in this he read constantly; also he was always on his knees and at night
+I could hear him groaning and praying aloud. Doubtless now that the
+chains of drink had fallen off him, the instincts and the blood of
+the dour old Covenanters from whom he was descended, were asserting
+themselves. In a way this was a good thing though for some time past
+I had feared lest it should end in his going mad, and certainly as a
+companion he was more cheerful in his unregenerate days.
+
+Abandoning speculation as useless and taking my chance of being murdered
+where I lay, for after all Billali's followers were singularly like
+the men with whom we had been fighting and for aught I knew might be
+animated by identical objects--I just went to sleep, as I can do at
+any time, to wake up an hour or so later feeling wonderfully refreshed.
+Hans, who when I closed my eyes was already asleep slumbering at my feet
+curled up like a dog on a spot where the sun struck hotly, roused me by
+saying:
+
+"Awake, Baas, they are here!"
+
+I sprang up, snatching at my rifle, for I thought that he meant that
+we were being attacked again, to see Billali advancing at the head of
+a train of four litters made of bamboo with grass mats for curtains
+and coverings, each of which was carried by stalwart Amahagger, as I
+supposed that they must be. Two of these, the finest, Billali indicated
+were for Robertson and myself, and the two others for the wounded.
+Umslopogaas and the remaining Zulus evidently were expected to walk, as
+was Hans.
+
+"How did you make these so quickly," I asked, surveying their elegant
+and indeed artistic workmanship.
+
+"We did not make them, Watcher-by-Night, we brought them with us folded
+up. She-who-commands looked in her glass and said that four would be
+needed, besides my own which is yonder, two for white lords and two for
+wounded black men, which you see is the number required."
+
+"Yes," I answered vaguely, marvelling what kind of a glass it was that
+gave the lady this information.
+
+Before I could inquire upon the point Billali added,
+
+"You will be glad to learn that my men caught some of those rebels who
+dared to attack you, eight or ten of them who had been hurt by your
+missiles or axe-cuts, and put them to death in the proper fashion--yes,
+quite the proper fashion," and he smiled a little. "The rest had gone
+too far where it would have been dangerous to follow them among the
+rocks. Enter now, my lord Watcher-by-Night, for the road is steep and we
+must travel fast if we would reach the place where She-who-commands is
+camped in the ancient holy city, before the moon sinks behind the cliffs
+to-night."
+
+So having explained matters to Robertson and Umslopogaas, who announced
+that nothing would induce _him_ to be carried like an old woman, or
+a corpse upon a shield, and seen that the hurt Zulus were comfortably
+accommodated, Robertson and I got into our litters, which proved to be
+delightfully easy and restful.
+
+Then when our gear was collected by the hook-nosed bearers to whom we
+were obliged to trust, though we kept with us our rifles and a certain
+amount of ammunition, we started. First went a number of Billali's
+spearmen, then came the litters with the wounded alongside of which
+Umslopogaas and his three uninjured Zulus talked or trotted, then
+another litter containing Billali, then my own by which ran Hans,
+and Robertson's, and lastly the rest of the Amahagger and the relief
+bearers.
+
+"I see now, Baas," said Hans, thrusting his head between my curtains,
+"that yonder Whitebeard cannot be your reverend father, the Predikant,
+after all."
+
+"Why not?" I asked, though the fact was fairly obvious.
+
+"Because, Baas, if he were, he would not have left Hans, of whom he
+always thought so well, to run in the sun like a dog, while he and
+others travel in carriages like great white ladies."
+
+"You had better save your breath instead of talking nonsense, Hans," I
+said, "since I believe that you have a long way to go."
+
+In fact, it proved to be a very long way indeed, especially as after we
+began to breast the mountain, we must travel slowly. We started about
+ten o'clock in the morning, for the fight which after all did not take
+long--had, it will be remembered, begun shortly after dawn, and it was
+three in the afternoon before we reached the base of the towering cliff
+which I have mentioned.
+
+Here, at the foot of a remarkable, isolated column of rock, on which I
+was destined to see a strange sight in the after days, we halted and ate
+of the remaining food which we had brought with us, while the Amahagger
+consumed their own, that seemed to consist largely of curdled milk, such
+as the Zulus call _maas_, and lumps of a kind of bread.
+
+I noted that they were a very curious people who fed in silence and on
+whose handsome, solemn faces one never saw a smile. Somehow it gave me
+the creeps to look at them. Robertson was affected in the same way, for
+in one of the rare intervals of his abstraction he remarked that they
+were "no canny." Then he added,
+
+"Ask yon old wizard who might be one of the Bible prophets come to
+life--what those man-eating devils have done with my daughter."
+
+I did so, and Billali answered,
+
+"Say that they have taken her away to make a queen of her, since having
+rebelled against their own queen, they must have another who is white.
+Say too that She-who-commands will wage war on them and perhaps win her
+back, unless they kill her first."
+
+"Ah!" Robertson repeated when I had translated, "unless they kill her
+first--or worse." Then he relapsed into his usual silence.
+
+Presently we started on again, heading straight for what looked like a
+sheer wall of black rock a thousand feet or more in height, up a path so
+steep that Robertson and I got out and walked, or rather scrambled, in
+order to ease the bearers. Billali, I noticed, remained in his litter.
+The convenience of the bearers did not trouble him; he only ordered an
+extra gang to the poles. I could not imagine how we were to negotiate
+this precipice. Nor could Umslopogaas, who looked at it and said,
+
+"If we are to climb that, Macumazahn, I think that the only one who will
+live to get to the top will be that little yellow monkey of yours," and
+he pointed with his axe at Hans.
+
+"If I do," replied that worthy, much nettled, for he hated to be called
+a "yellow monkey" by the Zulus, "be sure that I will roll down stones
+upon any black butcher whom I see sprawling upon the cliff below."
+
+Umslopogaas smiled grimly, for he had a sense of humour and could
+appreciate a repartee even when it hit him hard. Then we stopped talking
+for the climb took all our breath.
+
+At length we came to the cliff face where, to all appearance, our
+journey must end. Suddenly, however, out of the blind black wall in
+front of us started the apparition of a tall man armed with a great
+spear and wearing a white robe, who challenged us hoarsely.
+
+Suddenly he stood before us, as a ghost might do, though whence he came
+we could not see. Presently the mystery was explained. Here in the cliff
+face there was a cleft, though one invisible even from a few paces away,
+since its outer edge projected over the inner wall of rock. Moreover,
+this opening was not above four feet in width, a mere split in the huge
+mountain mass caused by some titanic convulsion in past ages. For it was
+a definite split since, once entered, far, far above could be traced
+a faint line of light coming from the sky, although the gloom of the
+passage was such that torches, which were stored at hand, must be used
+by those who threaded it. One man could have held the place against a
+hundred--until he was killed. Still, it was guarded, not only at the
+mouth where the warrior had appeared, but further along at every turn in
+the jagged chasm, and these were many.
+
+Into this grim place we went. The Zulus did not like it at all, for
+they are a light-loving people and I noted that even Umslopogaas
+seemed scared and hung back a little. Nor did Hans, who with his usual
+suspicion, feared some trap; nor, for the matter of that, did I, though
+I thought it well to appear much interested. Only Robertson seemed quite
+indifferent and trudged along stolidly after a man carrying a torch.
+
+Old Billali put his head out of the litter and shouted back to me
+to fear nothing, since there were no pitfalls in the path, his voice
+echoing strangely between those narrow walls of measureless height.
+
+For half an hour or more we pursued this dreary, winding path round the
+corners of which the draught tore in gusts so fierce that more than once
+the litters with the wounded men and those who bore them were nearly
+blown over. It was safe enough, however, since on either side of us,
+smooth and without break, rose the sheer walls of rock over which lay
+the tiny ribbon of blue sky. At length the cleft widened somewhat and
+the light grew stronger, making the torches unnecessary.
+
+Then of a sudden we came to its end and found ourselves upon a little
+plateau in the mountainside. Behind us for a thousand feet or so rose
+the sheer rock wall as it did upon the outer face, while in front and
+beneath, far beneath, was a beautiful plain circular in shape and of
+great extent, which plain was everywhere surrounded, so far as I could
+see, by the same wall of rock. In short, notwithstanding its enormous
+size, without doubt it was neither more nor less than the crater of a
+vast extinct volcano. Lastly, not far from the centre of this plain was
+what appeared to be a city, since through my glasses I could see great
+walls built of stone, and what I thought were houses, all of them of a
+character more substantial than any that I had discovered in the wilds
+of Africa.
+
+I went to Billali's litter and asked him who lived in the city.
+
+"No one," he answered, "it has been dead for thousands of years, but
+She-who-commands is camped there at present with an army, and thither we
+go at once. Forward, bearers."
+
+So, Robertson and I having re-entered our litters, we started on down
+hill at a rapid pace, for the road, though steep, was safe and kept in
+good order. All the rest of that afternoon we travelled and by sunset
+reached the edge of the plain, where we halted a while to rest and eat,
+till the light of the growing moon grew strong enough to enable us to
+proceed. Umslopogaas came up and spoke to me.
+
+"Here is a fortress indeed, Macumazahn," he said, "since none can climb
+that fence of rock in which the holes seem to be few and small."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "but it is one out of which those who are in, would
+find it difficult to get out. We are buffaloes in a pit, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is so," he answered, "I have thought it already. But if any would
+meddle with us we still have our horns and can toss for a while."
+
+Then he went back to his men.
+
+The sunset in that great solemn place was a wonderful thing to see.
+First of all the measureless crater was filled with light like a bowl
+with fire. Then as the great orb sank behind the western cliff, half of
+the plain became quite dark while shadows seemed to rush forward over
+the eastern part of its surface, till that too was swallowed up in gloom
+and for a little while there remained only a glow reflected from the
+cliff face and from the sky above, while on the crest of the parapet of
+rock played strange and glorious fires. Presently these too vanished and
+the world was dark.
+
+Then the half moon broke from behind a bank of clouds and by its silver,
+uncertain light we struggled forward across the flat plain, rather
+slowly now, for even the iron muscles of those bearers grew tired. I
+could not see much of it, but I gathered that we were passing through
+crops, very fine crops to judge by their height, as doubtless they would
+be upon this lava soil; also once or twice we splashed through streams.
+
+At length, being tired and lulled by the swaying of the litter and by
+the sound of a weird, low chant that the bearers had set up now that
+they neared home and were afraid of no attack, I sank into a doze. When
+I awoke again it was to find that the litter had halted and to hear the
+voice of Billali say,
+
+"Descend, White Lords, and come with your companions, the black Warrior
+and the yellow man who is named Light-in-Darkness. She-who-commands
+desires to see you at once before you eat and sleep, and must not be
+kept waiting. Fear not for the others, they will be cared for till you
+return."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE WHITE WITCH
+
+I descended from the litter and told the others what the old fellow had
+said. Robertson did not want to come, and indeed refused to do so until
+I suggested to him that such conduct might prejudice a powerful person
+against us. Umslopogaas was indifferent, putting, as he remarked, no
+faith in a ruler who was a woman.
+
+Only Hans, although he was so tired, acquiesced with some eagerness,
+the fact being that his brain was more alert and that he had all the
+curiosity of the monkey tribe which he so much resembled in appearance,
+and wanted to see this queen whom Zikali revered.
+
+In the end we started, conducted by Billali and by men who carried
+torches whereof the light showed me that we were passing between houses,
+or at any rate walls that had been those of houses, and along what
+seemed to be a paved street.
+
+Walking under what I took to be a great arch or portico, we came into
+a court that was full of towering pillars but unroofed, for I could see
+the stars above. At its end we entered a building of which the doorway
+was hung with mats, to find that it was lighted with lamps and that
+all down its length on either side guards with long spears stood at
+intervals.
+
+"Oh, Baas," said Hans hesitatingly, "this is the mouth of a trap," while
+Umslopogaas glared about him suspiciously, fingering the handle of his
+great axe.
+
+"Be silent," I answered. "All this mountain is a trap, therefore another
+does not matter, and we have our pistols."
+
+Walking forward between the double line of guards who stood immovable as
+statues, we came to some curtains hung at the end of a long, narrow hall
+which, although I know little of such things, were, I noted, made of
+rich stuff embroidered in colours and with golden threads. Before these
+curtains Billali motioned us to halt.
+
+After a whispered colloquy with someone beyond carried on through the
+join of the curtains, he vanished between them, leaving us alone for
+five minutes or more. At length they opened and a tall and elegant woman
+with an Arab cast of countenance and clad in white robes, appeared and
+beckoned to us to enter. She did not speak or answer when I spoke to
+her, which was not wonderful as afterwards I discovered that she was a
+mute. We went in, I wondering very much what we were going to see.
+
+On the further side of the curtains was a room of no great size
+illumined with lamps of which the light fell upon sculptured walls. It
+looked to me as though it might once have been the inmost court or a
+sanctuary of some temple, for at its head was a dais upon which once
+perhaps had stood the shrine or statue of a god. On this dais there was
+now a couch and on the couch--a goddess!
+
+There she sat, straight and still, clothed in shining white and veiled,
+but with her draperies so arranged that they emphasised rather than
+concealed the wonderful elegance of her tall form. From beneath the
+veil, which was such as a bride wears, appeared two plaits of glossy,
+raven hair of great length, to the end of each of which was suspended a
+single large pearl. On either side of her stood a tall woman like to her
+who had led us through the curtains, and on his knees in front, but to
+the right, knelt Billali.
+
+About this seated personage there was an air of singular majesty, such
+as might pervade a queen as fancy paints her, though she had a nobler
+figure than any queen I ever saw depicted. Mystery seemed to flow from
+her; it clothed her like the veil she wore, which of course heightened
+the effect. Beauty flowed from her also; although it was shrouded I knew
+that it was there, no veil or coverings could obscure it--at least, to
+my imagination. Moreover she breathed out power also; one felt it in the
+air as one feels a thunderstorm before it breaks, and it seemed to me
+that this power was not quite human, that it drew its strength from afar
+and dwelt a stranger to the earth.
+
+To tell the truth, although my curiosity, always strong, was enormously
+excited and though now I felt glad that I had attempted this journey
+with all its perils, I was horribly afraid, so much afraid that I should
+have liked to turn and run away. From the beginning I knew myself to
+be in the presence of an unearthly being clothed in soft and perfect
+woman's flesh, something alien, too, and different from our human race.
+
+What a picture it all made! There she sat, quiet and stately as a
+perfect marble statue; only her breast, rising and falling beneath the
+white robe, showed that she was alive and breathed as others do. Another
+thing showed it also--her eyes. At first I could not see them through
+the veil, but presently either because I grew accustomed to the light,
+or because they brightened as those of certain animals have power to do
+when they watch intently, it ceased to be a covering to them. Distinctly
+I saw them now, large and dark and splendid with a tinge of deep blue
+in the iris; alluring and yet awful in their majestic aloofness which
+seemed to look through and beyond, to embrace all without seeking and
+without effort. Those eyes were like windows through which light flows
+from within, a light of the spirit.
+
+I glanced round to see the effect of this vision upon my companions. It
+was most peculiar. Hans had sunk to his knees; his hands were joined in
+the attitude of prayer and his ugly little face reminded me of that of a
+big fish out of water and dying from excess of air. Robertson, startled
+out of his abstraction, stared at the royal-looking woman on the couch
+with his mouth open.
+
+"Man," he whispered, "I've got them back although I have touched nothing
+for weeks, only this time they are lovely. For yon's no human lady, I
+feel it in my bones."
+
+Umslopogaas stood great and grim, his hands resting on the handle of his
+tall axe; and he stared also, the blood pulsing against the skin that
+covered the hole in his head.
+
+"Watcher-by-Night," he said to me in his deep voice, but also speaking
+in a whisper, "this chieftainess is not one woman, but all women.
+Beneath those robes of hers I seem to see the beauty of one who has
+'gone Beyond,' of the Lily who is lost to me. Do you not feel it thus,
+Macumazahn?"
+
+Now that he mentioned it, certainly I did; indeed, I had felt it
+all along although amid the rush of sensations this one had scarcely
+disentangled itself in my mind. I looked at the draped shape and
+saw--well, never mind whom I saw; it was not one only but several in
+sequence; also a woman who at that time I did not know although I came
+to know her afterwards, too well, perhaps, or at any rate quite
+enough to puzzle me. The odd thing was that in this hallucination the
+personalities of these individuals seemed to overlap and merge, till at
+last I began to wonder whether they were not parts of the same entity
+or being, manifesting itself in sundry shapes, yet springing from one
+centre, as different coloured rays flow from the same crystal, while the
+beams from their source of light shift and change. But the fancy is too
+metaphysical for my poor powers to express as clearly as I would. Also
+no doubt it was but a hallucination that had its origin, perhaps, in the
+mischievous brain of her who sat before us.
+
+At length she spoke and her voice sounded like silver bells heard over
+water in a great calm. It was low and sweet, oh! so sweet that at its
+first notes for a moment my senses seemed to swoon and my pulse to stop.
+It was to me that she addressed herself.
+
+"My servant here," and ever so slightly she turned her head towards the
+kneeling Billali, "tells me that you who are named Watcher-in-the-Night,
+understand the tongue in which I speak to you. Is it so?"
+
+"I understand Arabic of a kind well enough, having learned it on the
+East Coast and from Arabs in past years, but not such Arabic as you use,
+O----" and I paused.
+
+"Call me _Hiya_," she broke in, "which is my title here, meaning, as you
+know, She, or Woman. Or if that does not please you, call me Ayesha.
+It would rejoice me after so long to hear the name I bore spoken by the
+lips of one of my colour and of gentle blood."
+
+I blushed at the compliment so artfully conveyed, and repeated stupidly
+enough,
+
+"--Not such Arabic as you use, O--Ayesha."
+
+"I thought that you would like the sound of the word better than that
+of _Hiya_, though afterwards I will teach you to pronounce it as you
+should, O--have you any other name save Watcher-by-Night, which seems
+also to be a title?"
+
+"Yes," I answered. "Allan."
+
+"--O--Allan. Tell me of these," she went on quickly, indicating my
+companions with a sweep of her slender hand, "for they do not speak
+Arabic, I think. Or stay, I will tell you of them and you shall say if
+I do so rightly. This one," and she nodded towards Robertson, "is a man
+bemused. There comes from him a colour which I see if you cannot, and
+that colour betokens a desire for revenge, though I think that in his
+time he has desired other things also, as I remember men always did from
+the beginning, to their ruin. Human nature does not change, Allan, and
+wine and women are ancient snares. Enough of him for this time. The
+little yellow one there is afraid of me, as are all of you. That is
+woman's greatest power, although she is so weak and gentle, men are
+still afraid of her just because they are so foolish that they cannot
+understand her. To them after a million years she still remains the
+Unknown and to us all the Unknown is also the awful. Do you remember the
+proverb of the Romans that says it well and briefly?"
+
+I nodded, for it was one of the Latin tags that my father had taught me.
+
+"Good. Well, he is a little wild man, is he not, nearer to the apes from
+whose race our bodies come? But do you know that, Allan?"
+
+I nodded again, and said,
+
+"There are disputes upon the point, Ayesha."
+
+"Yes, they had begun in my day and we will discuss them later. Still, I
+say--nearer to the ape than you or I, and therefore of interest, as the
+germ of things is always. Yet he has qualities, I think; cunning, and
+fidelity and love which in its round is all in all. Do you understand,
+Allan, that love is all in all?"
+
+I answered warily that it depended upon what she meant by love, to which
+she replied that she would explain afterwards when we had leisure to
+talk, adding,
+
+"What this little yellow monkey understands by it at least has served
+you well, or so I believe. You shall tell me the tale of it some day.
+Now of the last, this Black One. Here I think is a man indeed, a warrior
+of warriors such as there used to be in the early world, if a savage.
+Well, believe me, Allan, savages are often the best. Moreover, all are
+still savage at heart, even you and I. For what is termed culture is
+but coat upon coat of paint laid on to hide our native colour, and often
+there is poison in the paint. That axe of his has drunk deep, I think,
+though always in fair fight, and I say that it shall drink deeper yet.
+Have I read these men aright, Allan?"
+
+"Not so ill," I answered.
+
+"I thought it," she said with a musical laugh, "although at this place I
+rust and grow dull like an unused sword. Now you would rest. Go--all of
+you. To-morrow you and I will talk alone. Fear nothing for your safety;
+you are watched by my slaves and I watch my slaves. Until to-morrow,
+then, farewell. Go now, eat and sleep, as alas we all must do who linger
+on this ball of earth and cling to a life we should do well to lose.
+Billali, lead them hence," and she waved her hand to signify that the
+audience was ended.
+
+At this sign Hans, who apparently was still much afraid, rose from his
+knees and literally bolted through the curtains. Robertson followed him.
+Umslopogaas stood a moment, drew himself up and lifting the great axe,
+cried _Bay�te_, after which he too turned and went.
+
+"What does that word mean, Allan?" she asked.
+
+I explained that it was the salutation which the Zulu people only give
+to kings.
+
+"Did I not say that savages are often the best?" she exclaimed in a
+gratified voice. "The white man, your companion, gave me no salute, but
+the Black One knows when he stands before a woman who is royal."
+
+"He too is of royal blood in his own land," I said.
+
+"If so, we are akin, Allan."
+
+Then I bowed deeply to her in my best manner and rising from her couch
+for the first time she stood up, looking very tall and commanding, and
+bowed back.
+
+After this I went to find the others on the further side of the
+curtains, except Hans, who had run down the long narrow hall and through
+the mats at its end. We followed, marching with dignity behind Billali
+and between the double line of guards, who raised their spears as we
+passed them, and on the further side of the mats discovered Hans, still
+looking terrified.
+
+"Baas," he said to me as we threaded our way through the court of
+columns, "in my life I have seen all kinds of dreadful things and faced
+them, but never have I been so much afraid as I am of that white witch.
+Baas, I think that she is the devil of whom your reverend father, the
+Predikant, used to talk so much, or perhaps his wife."
+
+"If so, Hans," I answered, "the devil is not so black as he is painted.
+But I advise you to be careful of what you say as she may have long
+ears."
+
+"It doesn't matter at all what one says, Baas, because she reads
+thoughts before they pass the lips. I felt her doing it there in that
+room. And do you be careful, Baas, or she will eat up your spirit and
+make you fall in love with her, who, I expect, is very ugly indeed,
+since otherwise she would not wear a veil. Whoever saw a pretty woman
+tie up her head in a sack, Baas?"
+
+"Perhaps she does this because she is so beautiful, Hans, that she fears
+the hearts of men who look upon her would melt."
+
+"Oh, no, Baas, all women want to melt men's hearts; the more the better.
+They seem to have other things in their minds, but really they think of
+nothing else until they are too old and ugly, and it takes them a long
+while to be sure of that."
+
+So Hans went on talking his shrewd nonsense till, following so far as
+I could see, the same road as that by which we had come, we reached our
+quarters, where we found food prepared for us, broiled goat's flesh
+with corncakes and milk, I think it was; also beds for us two white men
+covered with skin rugs and blankets woven of wool.
+
+These quarters, I should explain, consisted of rooms in a house built
+of stone of which the walls had once been painted. The roof of the house
+was gone now, for we could see the stars shining above us, but as the
+air was very soft in this sheltered plain, this was an advantage rather
+than otherwise. The largest room was reserved for Robertson and myself,
+while another at the back was given to Umslopogaas and his Zulus, and a
+third to the two wounded men.
+
+Billali showed us these arrangements by the light of lamps and
+apologised that they were not better because, as he explained, the place
+was a ruin and there had been no time to build us a house. He added that
+we might sleep without fear as we were guarded and none would dare to
+harm the guests of She-who-commands, on whom he was sure we, or at any
+rate I and the black Warrior, had produced an excellent impression. Then
+he bowed himself out, saying that he would return in the morning, and
+left us to our own devices.
+
+Robertson and I sat down on stools that had been set for us, and ate,
+but he seemed so overcome by his experiences, or by his sombre thoughts,
+that I could not draw him into conversation. All he remarked was that
+we had fallen into queer company and that those who supped with Satan
+needed a long spoon. Having delivered himself of this sentiment he
+threw himself upon the bed, prayed aloud for a while as had become his
+fashion, to be "protected from warlocks and witches," amongst other
+things, and went to sleep.
+
+Before I turned in I visited Umslopogaas's room to see that all was well
+with him and his people, and found him standing in the doorway staring
+at the star-spangled sky.
+
+"Greeting, Macumazahn," he said, "you who are white and wise and I am
+black and a fighter have seen many strange things beneath the sun, but
+never such a one as we have looked upon to-night. Who and what is that
+chieftainess, Macumazahn?"
+
+"I do not know," I said, "but it is worth while to have lived to see
+her, even though she be veiled."
+
+"Nor do I, Macumazahn. Nay, I do know, for my heart tells me that she
+is the greatest of all witches and that you will do well to guard your
+spirit lest she should steal it away. If she were not a witch, should I
+have seemed to behold the shape of Nada the Lily who was the wife of my
+youth, beneath those white robes of hers, and though the tongue in which
+she spoke was strange to me, to hear the murmur of Nada's voice between
+her lips, of Nada who has gone further from me than those stars. It
+is good that you wear the Great Medicine of Zikali upon your breast,
+Macumazahn, for perhaps it will shield you from harm at those hands that
+are shaped of ivory."
+
+"Zikali is another of the tribe," I answered, laughing, "although less
+beautiful to see. Also I am not afraid of any of them, and from this
+one, if she be more than some white woman whom it pleases to veil
+herself, I shall hope to gather wisdom."
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, such wisdom as Spirits and the dead have to give."
+
+"Mayhap, Umslopogaas, but we came here to seek Spirits and the dead, did
+we not?"
+
+"Aye," answered Umslopogaas, "these and war, and I think that we shall
+find enough of all three. Only I hope that war will come the first, lest
+the Spirits and the dead should bewitch me and take away my skill and
+courage."
+
+Then we parted, and too tired even to wonder any more, I threw myself
+down on my bed and slept.
+
+
+
+I was awakened when the sun was already high, by the sound of Robertson,
+who was on his knees, praying aloud as usual, a habit of his which I
+confess got on my nerves. Prayer, in my opinion, is a private matter
+between man and his Creator, that is, except in church; further, I did
+not in the least wish to hear all about Robertson's sins, which seemed
+to have been many and peculiar. It is bad enough to have to bear the
+burden of one's own transgressions without learning of those of other
+people, that is, unless one is a priest and must do so professionally.
+So I jumped up to escape and make arrangements for a wash, only to
+butt into old Billali, who was standing in the doorway contemplating
+Robertson with much interest and stroking his white beard.
+
+He greeted me with his courteous bow and said,
+
+"Tell your companion, O Watcher, that it is not necessary for him to go
+upon his knees to She-who-commands--and must be obeyed," he added with
+emphasis, "when he is not in her presence, and that even then he would
+do well to keep silent, since so much talking in a strange tongue might
+trouble her."
+
+I burst out laughing and answered,
+
+"He does not go upon his knees and pray to She-who-commands, but to the
+Great One who is in the sky."
+
+"Indeed, Watcher. Well, here we only know a Great One who is upon the
+earth, though it is true that perhaps she visits the skies sometimes."
+
+"Is it so, Billali?" I answered incredulously. "And now, I would ask you
+to take me to some place where I can bathe."
+
+"It is ready," he replied. "Come."
+
+So I called to Hans, who was hanging about with a rifle on his arm, to
+follow with a cloth and soap, of which fortunately we had a couple of
+pieces left, and we started along what had once been a paved roadway
+running between stone houses, whereof the time-eaten ruins still
+remained on either side.
+
+"Who and what is this Queen of yours, Billali?" I asked as we went.
+"Surely she is not of the Amahagger blood."
+
+"Ask it of herself, O Watcher, for I cannot tell you. All I know is
+that I can trace my own family for ten generations and that my tenth
+forefather told his son on his deathbed, for the saying has come down
+through his descendants--that when he was young She-who-commands had
+ruled the land for more scores of years than he could count months of
+life."
+
+I stopped and stared at him, since the lie was so amazing that it seemed
+to deprive me of the power of motion. Noting my very obvious disbelief
+he continued blandly,
+
+"If you doubt, ask. And now here is where you may bathe."
+
+Then he led me through an arched doorway and down a wrecked passage to
+what very obviously once had been a splendid bath-house such as some I
+have seen pictures of that were built by the Romans. Its size was that
+of a large room; it was constructed of a kind of marble with a sloping
+bottom that varied from three to seven feet in depth, and water still
+ran in and out of it through large glazed pipes. Moreover round it was
+a footway about five feet across, from which opened chambers, unroofed
+now, that the bathers used as dressing-rooms, while between these
+chambers stood the remains of statues. One at the end indeed, where an
+alcove had protected it from sun and weather, was still quite perfect,
+except for the outstretched arms which were gone (the right hand I
+noticed lying at the bottom of the bath). It was that of a nude young
+woman in the attitude of diving, a very beautiful bit of work, I
+thought, though of course I am no judge of sculpture. Even the smile
+mingled with trepidation upon the girl's face was most naturally
+portrayed.
+
+This statue showed two things, that the bath was used by females and
+that the people who built it were highly civilised, also that they
+belonged to an advanced if somewhat Eastern race, since the girl's nose
+was, if anything, Semitic in character, and her lips, though prettily
+shaped, were full. For the rest, the basin was so clean that I presume
+it must have been made ready for me or other recent bathers, and at
+its bottom I discovered gratings and broken pipes of earthenware which
+suggested that in the old days the water could be warmed by means of a
+furnace.
+
+This relic of a long-past civilisation excited Hans even more than it
+did myself, since having never seen anything of the sort, he thought it
+so strange that, as he informed me, he imagined that it must have been
+built by witchcraft. In it I had a most delightful and much-needed bath.
+Even Hans was persuaded to follow my example--a thing I had rarely known
+him to do before--and seated in its shallowest part, splashed some water
+over his yellow, wrinkled anatomy. Then we returned to our house, where
+I found an excellent breakfast had been provided which was brought to
+us by tall, silent, handsome women who surveyed us out of the corners of
+their eyes, but said nothing.
+
+Shortly after I had finished my meal, Billali, who had disappeared, came
+back again and said that She-who-commands desired my presence as she
+would speak with me; also that I must come alone. So, after attending to
+the wounded, who both seemed to be getting on well, I went, followed by
+Hans armed with his rifle, though I only carried my revolver. Robertson
+wished to accompany me, as he did not seem to care about being left
+alone with the Zulus in that strange place, but this Billali would not
+allow. Indeed, when he persisted, two great men stepped forward and
+crossed their spears before him in a somewhat threatening fashion. Then
+at my entreaty, for I feared lest trouble should arise, he gave in and
+returned to the house.
+
+Following our path of the night before, we walked up a ruined street
+which I could see was only one of scores in what had once been a very
+great city, until we came to the archway that I have mentioned, a large
+one now overgrown with plants that from their yellow, sweet-scented
+bloom I judged to be a species of wallflower, also with a kind of
+houseleek or saxifrage.
+
+Here Hans was stopped by guards, Billali explaining to me that he must
+await my return, an order which he obeyed unwillingly enough. Then I
+went on down the narrow passage, lined as before by guards who stood
+silent as statues, and came to the curtains at the end. Before these at
+a motion from Billali, who did not seem to dare to speak in this place,
+I stood still and waited.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE
+
+For some minutes I remained before those curtains until, had it not been
+for something electric in the air which got into my bones, a kind of
+force that, perhaps in my fancy only, seemed to pervade the place,
+I should certainly have grown bored. Indeed I was about to ask my
+companion why he did not announce our arrival instead of standing there
+like a stuck pig with his eyes shut as though in prayer or meditation,
+when the curtains parted and from between them appeared one of
+those tall waiting women whom we had seen on the previous night. She
+contemplated us gravely for a few moments, then moved her hand twice,
+once forward, towards Billali as a signal to him to retire, which he did
+with great rapidity, and next in a beckoning fashion towards myself to
+invite me to follow her.
+
+I obeyed, passing between the thick curtains which she fastened in some
+way behind me, and found myself in the same roofed and sculptured room
+that I have already described. Only now there were no lamps, such light
+as penetrated it coming from an opening above that I could not see, and
+falling upon the dais at its head, also on her who sat upon the dais.
+
+Yes, there she was in her white robes and veil, the point and centre of
+a little lake of light, a wondrous and in a sense a spiritual vision,
+for in truth there was something about her which was not of the world,
+something that drew and yet frightened me. Still as a statue she sat,
+like one to whom time is of no account and who has grown weary of
+motion, and on either side of her yet more still, like caryatides
+supporting a shrine, stood two of the stately women who were her
+attendants.
+
+For the rest a sweet and subtle odour pervaded the chamber which took
+hold of my senses as _hasheesh_ might do, which I was sure proceeded
+from her, or from her garments, for I could see no perfumes burning. She
+spoke no word, yet I knew she was inviting me to come nearer and moved
+forward till I reached a curious carved chair that was placed just
+beneath the dais, and there halted, not liking to sit down without
+permission.
+
+For a long while she contemplated me, for as before I could feel her
+eyes searching me from head to foot and as it were looking through me as
+though she would discover my very soul. Then at length she moved, waving
+those two ivory arms of hers outwards with a kind of swimming stroke,
+whereon the women to right and left of her turned and glided away, I
+know not whither.
+
+"Sit, Allan," she said, "and let us talk, for I think we have much to
+say to each other. Have you slept well? And eaten?--though I fear that
+the food is but rough. Also was the bath made ready for you?"
+
+"Yes, Ayesha," I answered to all three questions, adding, for I knew not
+what to say, "It seems to be a very ancient bath."
+
+"When I last saw it," she replied, "it was well enough with statues
+standing round it worked by a sculptor who had seen beauty in his
+dreams. But in two thousand years--or is it more?--the tooth of Time
+bites deep, and doubtless like all else in this dead place it is now a
+ruin."
+
+I coughed to cover up the exclamation of disbelief that rose to my lips
+and remarked blandly that two thousand years was certainly a long time.
+
+"When you say one thing, Allan, and mean another, your Arabic is even
+more vile than usual and does not serve to cloak your thought."
+
+"It may be so, Ayesha, for I only know that tongue as I do many other of
+the dialects of Africa by learning it from common men. My own speech
+is English, in which, if you are acquainted with it, I should prefer to
+talk."
+
+"I know not English, which doubtless is some language that has arisen
+since I left the world. Perhaps later you shall teach it to me. I tell
+you, you anger me whom it is not well to anger, because you believe
+nothing that passes my lips and yet do not dare to say so."
+
+"How can I believe one, Ayesha, who if I understand aright, speaks of
+having seen a certain bath two thousand years ago, whereas one hundred
+years are the full days of man? Forgive me therefore if I cannot believe
+what I know to be untrue."
+
+Now I thought that she would be very angry and was sorry that I had
+spoken. But as it happened she was not.
+
+"You must have courage to give me the lie so boldly--and I like
+courage," she said, "who have been cringed to for so long. Indeed, I
+know that you are brave, who have heard how you bore yourself in the
+fight yesterday, and much else about you. I think that we shall be
+friends, but--seek no more."
+
+"What else should I seek, Ayesha?" I asked innocently.
+
+"Now you are lying again," she said, "who know well that no man who is
+a man sees a woman who is beautiful and pleases him, without wondering
+whether, should he desire it, she could come to love him, that is, if
+she be young."
+
+"Which at least is not possible if she has lived two thousand years.
+Then naturally she would prefer to wear a veil," I said boldly, seeking
+to avoid the argument into which I saw she wished to drag me.
+
+"Ah!" she answered, "the little yellow man who is named
+Light-in-Darkness put that thought into your heart, I think. Oh, do not
+trouble as to how I know it, who have many spies here, as he guessed
+well enough. So a woman who has lived two thousand years must be hideous
+and wrinkled, must she? The stamp of youth and loveliness must long have
+fled from her; of that you, the wise man, are sure. Very well. Now you
+tempt me to do what I had determined I would not do and you shall pluck
+the fruit of that tree of curiosity which grows so fast within you.
+Look, Allan, and say whether I am old and hideous, even though I have
+lived two thousand years upon the earth and mayhap many more."
+
+Then she lifted her hands and did something to her veil, so that for
+a moment--only one moment--her face was revealed, after which the veil
+fell into its place.
+
+I looked, I saw, and if that chair had lacked a back I believe that I
+should have fallen out of it to the ground. As for what I saw--well,
+it cannot be described, at any rate by me, except perhaps as a flash of
+glory.
+
+Every man has dreamed of perfect beauty, basing his ideas of it perhaps
+on that of some woman he has met who chanced to take his fancy, with
+a few accessories from splendid pictures or Greek statues thrown in,
+_plus_ a garnishment of the imagination. At any rate I have, and here
+was that perfect beauty multiplied by ten, such beauty, that at the
+sight of it the senses reeled. And yet I repeat that it is not to be
+described.
+
+I do not know what the nose or the lips were like; in fact, all that I
+can remember with distinctness is the splendour of the eyes, of which
+I had caught some hint through her veil on the previous night. Oh, they
+were wondrous, those eyes, but I cannot tell their colour save that the
+groundwork of them was black. Moreover they seemed to be more than eyes
+as we understand them. They were indeed windows of the soul, out of
+which looked thought and majesty and infinite wisdom, mixed with all the
+allurements and the mystery that we are accustomed to see or to imagine
+in woman.
+
+Here let me say something at once. If this marvellous creature expected
+that the revelation of her splendour was going to make me her slave; to
+cause me to fall in love with her, as it is called, well, she must have
+been disappointed, for it had no such effect. It frightened and in a
+sense humbled me, that is all, for I felt myself to be in the presence
+of something that was not human, something alien to me as a man, which I
+could fear and even adore as humanity would adore that which is Divine,
+but with which I had no desire to mix. Moreover, was it divine, or was
+it something very different? I did not know, I only knew that it was not
+for me; as soon should I have thought of asking for a star to set within
+my lantern.
+
+I think that she felt this, felt that her stroke had missed, as the
+French say, that is if she meant to strike at all at this moment.
+Of this I am not certain, for it was in a changed voice, one with a
+suspicion of chill in it that she said with a little laugh,
+
+"Do you admit now, Allan, that a woman may be old and still remain fair
+and unwrinkled?"
+
+"I admit," I answered, although I was trembling so much that I could
+hardly speak with steadiness, "that a woman may be splendid and lovely
+beyond anything that the mind of man can conceive, whatever her age, of
+which I know nothing. I would add this, Ayesha, that I thank you very
+much for having revealed to me the glory that is hid beneath your veil."
+
+"Why?" she asked, and I thought that I detected curiosity in her
+question.
+
+"For this reason, Ayesha. Now there is no fear of my troubling you in
+such a fashion as you seemed to dread a little while ago. As soon would
+a man desire to court the moon sailing in her silver loveliness through
+heaven."
+
+"The moon! It is strange that you should compare me to the moon," she
+said musingly. "Do you know that the moon was a great goddess in Old
+Egypt and that her name was Isis and--well, once I had to do with Isis?
+Perhaps you were there and knew it, since more lives than one are given
+to most of us. I must search and learn. For the rest, all have not
+thought as you do, Allan. Many, on the contrary, love and seek to win
+the Divine."
+
+"So do I at a distance, Ayesha, but to come too near to it I do not
+aspire. If I did perhaps I might be consumed."
+
+"You have wisdom," she replied, not without a note of admiration in her
+voice. "The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the moths
+which live. Also I think that you have scorched your wings before and
+learned that fire hurts. Indeed, now I remember that I have heard of
+three such fires of love through which you have flown, Allan, though all
+of them are dead ashes now, or shine elsewhere. Two burned in your youth
+when a certain lady died to save you, a great woman that, is it not so?
+And the third, ah! she was fire indeed, though of a copper hue. What was
+her name? I cannot remember, but I think it had something to do with the
+wind, yes, with the wind when it wails."
+
+I stared at her. Was this Mameena myth to be dug up again in a secret
+place in the heart of Africa? And how the deuce did she know anything
+about Mameena? Could she have been questioning Hans or Umslopogaas? No,
+it was not possible, for she had never seen them out of my presence.
+
+"Perhaps," she went on in a mocking voice, "perhaps once again you
+disbelieve, Allan, whose cynic mind is so hard to open to new truths.
+Well, shall I show you the faces of these three? I can," and she waved
+her hand towards some object that stood on a tripod to the right of her
+in the shadow--it looked like a crystal basin. "But what would it serve
+when you who know them so well, believed that I drew their pictures out
+of your own soul? Also perchance but one face would appear and that one
+strange to you. [Lady Ragnall perhaps?--JB]
+
+"Have you heard, Allan, that among the wise some hold that not all of
+us is visible at once here on earth within the same house of flesh; that
+the whole self in its home above, separates itself into sundry parts,
+each of which walks the earth in different form, a segment of life's
+circle that can never be dissolved and must unite again at last?"
+
+I shook my head blankly, for I had never heard anything of the sort.
+
+"You have still much to learn, Allan, although doubtless there are some
+who think you wise," she went on in the same mocking voice. "Well, I
+hold that this doctrine is built upon a rock of truth; also," she added
+after studying me for a minute, "that in your case these three women
+do not complete that circle. I think there is a fourth who as yet is
+strange to you in this life, though you have known her well enough in
+others."
+
+I groaned, imagining that she alluded to herself, which was foolish of
+me, for at once she read my mind and went on with a rather acid little
+laugh,
+
+"No, no, not the humble slave who sits before you, whom, as you have
+told me, it would please you to reject as unworthy were she brought to
+you in offering, as in the old days was done at the courts of the great
+kings of the East. O fool, fool! who hold yourself so strong and do not
+know that if I chose, before yon shadow had moved a finger's breadth, I
+could bring you to my feet, praying that you might be suffered to kiss
+my robe, yes, just the border of my robe."
+
+"Then I beg of you not to choose, Ayesha, since I think that when there
+is work to be done by both of us, we shall find more comfort side
+by side than if I were on the ground seeking to kiss a garment that
+doubtless then it would delight you to snatch away."
+
+At these words her whole attitude seemed to change. I could see her
+lovely shape brace itself up, as it were, beneath her robes and felt
+in some way that her mind had also changed; that it had rid itself of
+mockery and woman's pique and like a shifting searchlight, was directed
+upon some new objective.
+
+"Work to be done," she repeated after me in a new voice. "Yes, I thank
+you who bring it to my mind, since the hours pass and that work presses.
+Also I think there is a bargain to be made between us who are both of
+the blood that keeps bargains, even if they be not written on a roll
+and signed and sealed. Why do you come to me and what do you seek of
+me, Allan, Watcher-in-the-Night? Say it and truthfully, for though I
+may laugh at lies and pass them by when they have to do with the eternal
+sword-play which Nature decrees between man and woman, until these break
+apart or, casting down the swords, seek arms in which they agree too
+well, when they have to do with policy and high purpose and ambition's
+ends, why then I avenge them upon the liar."
+
+Now I hesitated, as what I had to tell her seemed so foolish, indeed so
+insane, while she waited patiently as though to give me time to shape my
+thoughts. Speaking at last because I must, I said,
+
+"I come to ask you, Ayesha, to show me the dead, if the dead still live
+elsewhere."
+
+"And who told you, Allan, that I could show you the dead, if they are
+not truly dead? There is but one, I think, and if you are his messenger,
+show me his token. Without it we do not speak together of this
+business."
+
+"What token?" I asked innocently, though I guessed her meaning well
+enough.
+
+She searched me with her great eyes, for I felt, and indeed saw them on
+me through the veil, then answered,
+
+"I think--nay, let me be sure," and half rising from the couch, she bent
+her heard over the tripod that I have described, and stared into what
+seemed to be a crystal bowl. "If I read aright," she said, straightening
+herself presently, "it is a hideous thing enough, the carving of an
+abortion of a man such as no woman would care to look on lest her babe
+should bear its stamp. It is a charmed thing also that has virtues for
+him who wears it, especially for you, Allan, since something tells me
+that it is dyed with the blood of one who loved you. If you have it, let
+it be revealed, since without it I do not talk with you of these dead
+you seek."
+
+Now I drew Zikali's talisman from its hiding-place and held it towards
+her.
+
+"Give it to me," she said.
+
+I was about to obey when something seemed to warn me not to do so.
+
+"Nay," I answered, "he who lent me this carving for a while, charged me
+that except in emergency and to save others, I must wear it night and
+day till I returned it to his hand, saying that if I parted from it
+fortune would desert me. I believe none of this talk and tried to be rid
+of it, whereon death drew near to me from a snake, such a snake as I see
+you wear about you, which doubtless also has poison in its fangs, if of
+another sort, Ayesha."
+
+"Draw near," she said, "and let me look. Man, be not afraid."
+
+So I rose from my chair and knelt before her, hoping secretly that
+no one would see me in that ridiculous position, which the most
+unsuspicious might misinterpret. I admit, however, that it proved to
+have compensations, since even through the veil I saw her marvellous
+eyes better than I had done before, and something of the pure outline of
+her classic face; also the fragrance of her hair was wonderful.
+
+She took the talisman in her hand and examined it closely.
+
+"I have heard of this charm and it is true that the thing has power,"
+she said, "for I can feel it running through my veins, also that it is
+a shield of defence to him who wears it. Yes, and now I understand what
+perplexed me somewhat, namely, how it came about that when you vexed me
+into unveiling--but let that matter be. The wisdom was not your own, but
+another's, that is all. Yes, the wisdom of one whose years have borne
+him beyond the shafts that fly from woman's eyes, the ruinous shafts
+which bring men down to doom and nothingness. Tell me, Allan, is this
+the likeness of him who gave it to you?"
+
+"Yes, Ayesha, the very picture, as I think, carved by himself, though he
+said that it is ancient, and others tell that it has been known in the
+land for centuries."
+
+"So perchance has he," she answered drily, "since some of our company
+live long. Now tell me this wizard's names. Nay, wait awhile for I would
+prove that indeed you are his messenger with whom I may talk about the
+dead, and other things, Allan. You can read Arabic, can you not?"
+
+"A little," I answered.
+
+Then from a stool at her side she took paper, or rather papyrus and a
+reed pen, and on her knee wrote something on the sheet which she gave to
+me folded up.
+
+"Now tell me the names," she said, "and then let us see if they tally
+with what I have written, for if so you are a true man, not a mere
+wanderer or a spy."
+
+"The principal names of this doctor are Zikali, the Opener-of-Roads, the
+'_Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born_,'" I answered.
+
+"Read the writing, Allan," she said.
+
+I unfolded the sheet and read Arabic words which meant, "Weapons,
+Cleaver-of-Rocks, One-at-whom-dogs-bark-and-children-wail."
+
+"The last two are near enough," she said, "but the first is wrong."
+
+"Nay, Ayesha, since in this man's tongue the word 'Zikali' means
+'Weapons'"; intelligence at which she clapped her hands as a merry girl
+might do. "The man," I went on, "is without doubt a great doctor, one
+who sees and knows things that others do not, but I do not understand
+why this token carved in his likeness should have power, as you say it
+has."
+
+"Because with it goes his spirit, Allan. Have you never heard of the
+Egyptians, a very wise people who, as I remember, declared that man has
+a _Ka_ or Double, a second self, that can either dwell in his statue or
+be sent afar?"
+
+I answered that I had heard this.
+
+"Well the _Ka_ of this Zikali goes with that hideous image of him, which
+is perhaps why you have come safe through many dangers and why also I
+seemed to dream so much of him last night. Tell me now, what does Zikali
+want of me whose power he knows very well?"
+
+"An oracle, the answer to a riddle, Ayesha."
+
+"Then set it out another time. So you decide to see the dead, and this
+old dwarf, who is a home of wisdom, desires an oracle from one who is
+greater than he. Good. And what are you, or both of you, prepared to pay
+for these boons? Know, Allan, that I am a merchant who sells my favours
+dear. Tell me then, will you pay?"
+
+"I think that it depends upon the price," I answered cautiously. "Set
+out the price, Ayesha."
+
+"Be not afraid, O cunning dealer," she mocked. "I do not ask your soul
+or even that love of yours which you guard so jealously, since these
+things I could take without the asking. Nay, I ask only what a brave and
+honest man may give without shame: your help in war, and perhaps," she
+added with a softer tone, "your friendship. I think, Allan, that I like
+you well, perhaps because you remind me of another whom I knew long
+ago."
+
+I bowed at the compliment, feeling proud and pleased at the prospect of
+a friendship with this wonderful and splendid creature, although I was
+aware that it had many dangers. Then I sat still and waited. She also
+waited, brooding.
+
+"Listen," she said after a while, "I will tell you a story and when you
+have heard it you shall answer, even if you do not believe it, but not
+before. Does it please you to listen to something of the tale of my life
+which I am moved to tell you, that you may know with whom you have to
+deal?"
+
+Again I bowed, thinking to myself that I knew nothing that would please
+me more, who was eaten up with a devouring curiosity about this woman.
+
+Now she rose from her couch and descending off the dais, began to walk
+up and down the chamber. I say, to walk, but her movements were more
+like the gliding of an eagle through the air or the motion of a swan
+upon still water, so smooth were they and gracious. As she walked she
+spoke in a low and thrilling voice.
+
+"Listen," she said again, "and even if my story seems marvellous to you,
+interrupt, and above all, mock me not, lest I should grow angry, which
+might be ill for you. I am not as other women are, O Allan, who having
+conquered the secrets of Nature," here I felt an intense desire to ask
+what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, "to my sorrow have
+preserved my youth and beauty through many ages. Moreover in the past,
+perhaps in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which some
+memory remains with me.
+
+"By my last birth I am an Arab lady of royal blood, a descendant of the
+Kings of the East. There I dwelt in the wilderness and ruled a people,
+and at night I gathered wisdom from the stars and the spirits of the
+earth and air. At length I wearied of it all and my people too wearied
+of me and besought me to depart, for, Allan, I would have naught to do
+with men, yet men went mad because of my beauty and slew each other out
+of jealousy. Moreover other peoples made war upon my people, hoping to
+take me captive that I might be a wife to their kings. So I left them,
+and being furnished with great wealth in hoarded gold and jewels,
+together with a certain holy man, my master, I wandered through the
+world, studying the nations and their worships. At Jerusalem I tarried
+and learned of Jehovah who is, or was, its God.
+
+"At Paphos in the Isle of Chitim I dwelt a while till the folk of
+that city thought that I was Aphrodite returned to earth and sought to
+worship me. For this reason and because I made a mock of Aphrodite, I,
+who, as I have said, would have naught to do with men, she through her
+priests cursed me, saying that her yoke should lie more heavily upon my
+neck from age to age than on that of any woman who had breathed beneath
+the sun.
+
+"It was a wondrous scene," she added reflectively, "that of the cursing,
+since for every word I gave back two. Moreover I told the hoary villain
+of a high-priest to make report to his goddess that long after she was
+dead in the world, I would live on, for the spirit of prophecy was on me
+in that hour. Yet the curse fell in its season, since in her day, doubt
+it or not, Aphrodite had strength, as indeed under other names she has
+and will have while the world endures, and for aught I know, beyond it.
+Do they worship her now in any land, Allan?"
+
+"No, only her statues because of their beauty, though Love is always
+worshipped."
+
+"Yes, who can testify to that better than you yourself, Allan, if he
+who is called Zikali tells me the truth concerning you in the dreams he
+sends? As for the statues, I saw some of them as they left the master's
+hand in Greece, and when I told him that he might have found a better
+model, once I was that model. If this marble still endures, it must be
+the most famous of them all, though perchance Aphrodite has shattered it
+in her jealous rage. You shall tell me of these statues afterwards;
+mine had a mark on the left shoulder like to a mole, but the stone was
+imperfect, not my flesh, as I can prove if you should wish."
+
+Thinking it better not to enter on a discussion as to Ayesha's shoulder,
+I remained silent and she went on.
+
+"I dwelt in Egypt also, and there, to be rid of men who wearied me with
+their sighs and importunities, also to acquire more wisdom of which she
+was the mistress, I entered the service of the goddess Isis, Queen
+of Heaven, vowing to remain virgin for ever. Soon I became her
+high-priestess and in her most sacred shrines upon the Nile, I communed
+with the goddess and shared her power, since from me her daughter, she
+withheld none of her secrets. So it came about that though Pharaohs held
+the sceptre, it was I who ruled Egypt and brought it and Sidon to their
+fall, it matters not how or why, as it was fated that I must do. Yes,
+kings would come to seek counsel from me where I sat throned, dressed in
+the garb of Isis and breathing out her power. Yet, my task accomplished,
+of it all I grew weary, as men will surely do of the heavens that they
+preach, should they chance to find them."
+
+I wondered what this "task" might be, but only asked, "Why?"
+
+"Because in their pictured heaven all things lie to their hands and man,
+being man, cannot be happy without struggle, and woman, being woman,
+without victory over others. What is cheaply bought, or given, has no
+value, Allan; to be enjoyed, it must first be won. But I bade you not to
+break my thought."
+
+I asked pardon and she went on,
+
+"Then it was that the shadow of the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me,
+yes, and of the curse of Isis also, so that these twin maledictions have
+made me what I am, a lost soul dwelling in the wilderness waiting the
+fulfilment of a fate whereof I know not the end. For though I have all
+wisdom, all knowledge of the Past and much power together with the gift
+of life and beauty, the future is as dark to me as night without its
+moon and stars.
+
+"Hearken, this chanced to me. Though it be to my shame I tell it you
+that all may be clear. At a temple of Isis on the Nile where I ruled,
+there was a certain priest, a Greek by birth, vowed like myself to the
+service of the goddess and therefore to wed none but her, the goddess
+herself--that is, in the spirit. He was named Kallikrates, a man of
+courage and of beauty, such an one as those Greeks carved in the statues
+of their god Apollo. Never, I think, was a man more beautiful in face
+and form, though in soul he was not great, as often happens to men who
+have all else, and well-nigh always happens to women, save myself and
+perhaps one or two others that history tells of, doubtless magnifying
+their fabled charms.
+
+"The Pharaoh of that day, the last of the native blood, him whom the
+Persians drove to doom, had a daughter, the Princess of Egypt, Amenartas
+by name, a fair woman in her fashion, though somewhat swarthy. In her
+youth this Amenartas became enamoured of Kallikrates and he of her, when
+he was a captain of the Grecian Mercenaries at Pharaoh's Court. Indeed,
+she brought blood upon his hands because of her, wherefore he fled to
+Isis for forgiveness and for peace. Thither in after time she followed
+him and again urged her love.
+
+"Learning of the thing and knowing it for sacrilege, I summoned this
+priest and warned him of his danger and of the doom which awaited him
+should he continue in that path. He grew affrighted. He flung himself
+upon the ground before me with groans and supplications, and kissing
+my feet, vowed most falsely to me that his dealings with the royal
+Amenartas were but a veil and that it was I whom he worshipped. His
+unhallowed words filled me with horror and sternly I bade him begone and
+do penance for his crime, saying that I would pray the goddess on behalf
+of him.
+
+"He went, leaving me alone lost in thought in the darkening shrine. Then
+sleep fell on me and in my sleep I dreamed a dream, or saw a vision.
+For suddenly there stood before me a woman beauteous as myself clad in
+nothing save a golden girdle and a veil of gossamer.
+
+"'O Ayesha,' she said in a honeyed voice, 'priestess of Isis of the
+Egyptians, sworn to the barren worship of Isis and fed on the ashes of
+her unprofitable wisdom, know that I am Aphrodite of the Greeks whom
+many times thou hast mocked and defied, and Queen of the breathing
+world, as Isis is Queen of the world that is dead. Now because thou
+didst despise me and pour contempt upon my name, I smite thee with
+my strength and lay a curse upon thee. It is that thou shalt love and
+desire this man who but now hath kissed thy feet, ever longing till the
+world's end to kiss his lips in payment, although thou art as far above
+him as the moon thou servest is above the Nile. Think not that thou
+shalt escape my doom, for know that however strong the spirit, here upon
+the earth the flesh is stronger still and of all flesh I am the queen.'
+
+"Then she laughed softly and smiting me across the eyes with a lock of
+her scented hair, was gone.
+
+"Allan, I awoke from my sleep and a great trouble fell upon me, for I
+who had never loved before now was rent with a rage of love and for this
+man who till that moment had been naught to me but as some beauteous
+image of gold and ivory. I longed for him, my heart was racked with
+jealousy because of the Egyptian who favoured him, an eating flame
+possessed my breast. I grew mad. There in the shrine of Isis the divine
+I cast myself upon my knees and cried to Aphrodite to return and give me
+him I sought, for whose sake I would renounce all else, even if I must
+pour my wisdom into a beauteous, empty cup. Yes, thus I prayed and lay
+upon the ground and wept until, outworn, once more sleep fell upon me.
+
+"Now in the darkness of the holy place once more there came a dream or
+vision, since before me in her glory stood the goddess Isis crowned
+with the crescent of the young moon and holding in her hand the jewelled
+_sistrum_ that is her symbol, from which came music like to the melody
+of distant bells. She gazed at me and in her great eyes were scorn and
+anger.
+
+"'O Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom,' she said in a solemn voice, 'whom I,
+Isis, had come to look upon rather as a child than a servant, since in
+none other of my priestesses was such greatness to be found, and whom
+in a day to be I had purposed to raise to the very steps of my heavenly
+throne, thou hast broken thine oath and, forsaking me, hast worshipped
+false Aphrodite of the Greeks who is mine enemy. Yea, in the eternal war
+between the spirit and the flesh, thou hast chosen the part of flesh.
+Therefore I hate thee and add my doom to that which Aphrodite laid upon
+thee, which, hadst thou prayed to me and not to her, I would have lifted
+from thy heart.
+
+"'Hearken! The Grecian whom thou hast chosen, by Aphrodite's will, thou
+shalt love as the Pathian said. More, thy love shall bring his blood
+upon thy hands, nor mayest thou follow him to the grave. For I will show
+thee the Source of Life and thou shalt drink of it to make thyself more
+fair even than thou art and thus outpace thy rival, and when thy lover
+is dead, in a desolate place thou shalt wait in grief and solitude till
+he is born again and find thee there.
+
+"'Yet shall this be but the beginning of thy sorrows, since through all
+time thou shalt pursue thy fate till at length thou canst draw up this
+man to the height on which thine own soul stands by the ropes of love
+and loss and suffering. Moreover through it all thou shalt despise
+thyself, which is man's and woman's hardest lot, thou who having the
+rare feast of spirit spread out before thee, hast chosen to fill thyself
+from the troughs of flesh.'
+
+"Then, Allan, in my dream I made a proud answer to the goddess, saying,
+'Hear me, mighty mistress of many Forms who dost appear in all that
+lives! An evil fate has fallen upon me, but was it I who chose that
+fate? Can the leaf contend against the driving gale? Can the falling
+stone turn upwards to the sky, or when Nature draws it, can the tide
+cease to flow? A goddess whom I have offended, that goddess whose
+strength causes the whole world to be, has laid her curse upon me and
+because I have bent before the storm, as bend I must, or break, another
+goddess whom I serve, thou thyself, Mother Isis, hast added to the
+curse. Where then is Justice, O Lady of the Moon?'
+
+"'Not here, Woman,' she answered. 'Yet far away Justice lives and shall
+be won at last and mayhap because thou art so proud and high-stomached,
+it is laid upon thee to seek her blinded eyes through many an age. Yet
+at last I think thou shalt set thy sins against her weights and find
+the balance even. Therefore cease from questioning the high decrees
+of destiny which thou canst not understand and be content to suffer,
+remembering that all joy grows from the root of pain. Moreover, know
+this for thy comfort, that the wisdom which thou hast shall grow and
+gather on thee and with it thy beauty and thy power; also that at the
+last thou shalt look upon my face again, in token whereof I leave to
+thee my symbol, the _sistrum_ that I bear, and with it this command.
+Follow that false priest of mine wherever he may go and avenge me upon
+him, and if thou lose him there, wait while the generations pass till he
+return again. Such and no other is thy destiny.'
+
+"Allan, the vision faded and when I awoke the lights of dawn played upon
+the image of the goddess in the sanctuary. They played, moreover,
+upon the holy jewelled thing that in my dream her hand had held, the
+_sistrum_ of her worship, shaped like the loop of life, the magic symbol
+that she had vowed to me, wherewith goes her power, which henceforth was
+mine.
+
+"I took it and followed after the priest Kallikrates, to whom
+thenceforward I was bound by passion's ties that are stronger than all
+the goddesses in this wide universe."
+
+Here I, Allan, could contain myself no longer and asked, "What for?"
+then, fearing her wrath, wished that I had been silent.
+
+But she was not angry, perhaps because this tale of her interviews
+with goddesses, doubtless fabled, had made her humble, for she answered
+quietly,
+
+"By Aphrodite, or by Isis, or both of them I did not know. All I knew
+was that I _must_ seek him, then and evermore, as seek I do to-day and
+shall perchance through �ons yet unborn. So I followed, as I was taught
+and commanded, the _sistrum_ being my guide, how it matters not, and
+giving me the means, and so at last I came to this ancient land whereof
+the ruin in which you sit was once known as K�r."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY
+
+All the while that she was talking thus the Lady or the Queen or the
+Witch-woman, Ayesha, had been walking up and down the place from the
+curtains to the foot of the dais, sweeping me with her scented robes as
+she passed to and fro, and as she walked she waved her arms as an orator
+might do to emphasise the more moving passages of her tale. Now at the
+end of it, or what I took to be the end, she stepped on to the dais and
+sank upon the couch as if exhausted, though I think her spirit was weary
+rather than her body.
+
+Here she sat awhile, brooding, her chin resting on her hand, then
+suddenly looked up and fixing her glance upon me--for I could see the
+flash of it through her thin veil--said,
+
+"What think you of this story, Allan? Do you believe it and have you
+ever heard its like?"
+
+"_Never_," I answered with emphasis, "and of course I believe every
+word. Only there are one or two questions that with your leave I would
+wish to ask, Ayesha."
+
+"By which you mean, Allan, that you believe nothing, being by nature
+without faith and doubtful of all that you cannot see and touch and
+handle. Well, perhaps you are wise, since what I have told you is not
+all the truth. For example, it comes back to me now that it was not in
+the temple on the Nile, or indeed upon the Earth, that I saw the vision
+of Aphrodite and of Isis, but elsewhere; also that it was here in K�r
+that I was first consumed by passion for Kallikrates whom hitherto I had
+scorned. In two thousand years one forgets much, Allan. Out with your
+questions and I will answer them, unless they be too long."
+
+"Ayesha," I said humbly, reflecting to myself that my questions would,
+at any rate, be shorter than her varying tale, "even I who am not
+learned have heard of these goddesses of whom you speak, of the Grecian
+Aphrodite who rose from the sea upon the shores of Cyprus and dwelt at
+Paphos and elsewhere----"
+
+"Yes, doubtless like most men you have heard of her and perchance also
+have been struck across the eyes with her hair, like your betters before
+you," she interrupted with sarcasm.
+
+"----Also," I went on, avoiding argument, "I have heard of Isis of the
+Egyptians, Lady of the Moon, Mother of Mysteries, Spouse of Osiris whose
+child was Horus the Avenger."
+
+"Aye, and I think will hear more of her before you have done, Allan, for
+now something comes back to me concerning you and her and another. I
+am not the only one who has broken the oaths of Isis and received her
+curse, Allan, as _you_ may find out in the days to come. But what of
+these heavenly queens?"
+
+"Only this, Ayesha; I have been taught that they were but phantasms
+fabled by men with many another false divinity, and could have sworn
+that this was true. And yet you talk of them as real and living, which
+perplexes me."
+
+"Being dull of understanding doubtless it perplexes you, Allan. Yet if
+you had imagination you might understand that these goddesses are great
+Principles of Nature; Isis, of throned Wisdom and strait virtue, and
+Aphrodite, of Love, as it is known to men and women who, being human,
+have it laid upon them that they must hand on the torch of Life in their
+little hour. Also you would know that such Principles can seem to take
+shape and form and at certain ages of the world appear to their servants
+visible in majesty, though perchance to-day others with changed names
+wield their sceptres and work their will. Now you are answered on this
+matter. So to the next."
+
+Privately I did not feel as though I were answered at all and I was sure
+that I know nothing of the kind she indicated, but thinking it best to
+leave the subject, I went on,
+
+"If I understood rightly, Ayesha, the events which you have been pleased
+first to describe to me, and then to qualify or contradict, took place
+when the Pharaohs reigned. Now no Pharaoh has sat upon the throne of
+Egypt for near two thousand years, for the last was a Grecian woman whom
+the Romans conquered and drove to death. And yet, Ayesha, you speak as
+though you have lived all through that gulf of time, and in this there
+must be error, because it is impossible. Therefore I suppose you to mean
+that this history has come down to you in writing, or perhaps in dreams.
+I believe that even in such far-off times there were writers of romance,
+and we all know of what stuff dreams are made. At least this thought
+comes to me," I added hurriedly, fearing lest I had said too much, "and
+one so wise as you are, I repeat, knows well that a woman who says she
+has lived two thousand years must be mad or--suffer from delusions,
+because I repeat, it is impossible."
+
+At these quite innocent remarks she sprang to her feet in a rage that
+might truly be called royal in every sense.
+
+"Impossible! Romance! Dreams! Delusions! Mad!" she cried in a ringing
+voice. "Oh! of a truth you weary me, and I have a mind to send you
+whither you will learn what is impossible and what is not. Indeed, I
+would do it, and now, only I need your services, and if I did there
+would be none left for me to talk with, since your companion is
+moonstruck and the others are but savages of whom I have seen enough.
+
+"Hearken, fool! _Nothing_ is impossible. Why do you seek, you who talk
+of the impossible, to girdle the great world in the span of your two
+hands and to weigh the secrets of the Universe in the balance of your
+petty mind and, of that which you cannot understand, to say that it is
+not? Life you admit because you see it all about you. But that it should
+endure for two thousand years, which after all is but a second's beat in
+the story of the earth, that to you is 'impossible,' although in truth
+the buried seed or the sealed-up toad can live as long. Doubtless, also,
+you have some faith which promises you this same boon to all eternity,
+after the little change called Death.
+
+"Nay, Allan, it is possible enough, like to many other things of which
+you do not dream to-day that will be common to the eyes of those who
+follow after you. Mayhap you think it impossible that I should speak
+with and learn of you from yonder old black wizard who dwells in the
+country whence you came. And yet whenever I will I do so in the night
+because he is in tune with me, and what I do shall be done by all men in
+the years unborn. Yes, they shall talk together across the wide spaces
+of the earth, and the lover shall hear her lover's voice although great
+seas roll between them. Nor perchance will it stop at this; perchance in
+future time men shall hold converse with the denizens of the stars, and
+even with the dead who have passed into silence and the darkness. Do you
+hear and understand me?"
+
+"Yes, yes," I answered feebly.
+
+"You lie, as you are too prone to do. You hear but you do not understand
+nor believe, and oh! you vex me sorely. Now I had it in my mind to
+tell you the secret of this long life of mine; long, mark you, but not
+endless, for doubtless I must die and change and return again, like
+others, and even to show you how it may be won. But you are not worthy
+in your faithlessness."
+
+"No, no, I am not worthy," I answered, who at that moment did not feel
+the least desire to live two thousand years, perhaps with this woman as
+a neighbour, rating me from generation to generation. Yet it is true,
+that now when I am older and a certain event cannot be postponed much
+longer, I do often regret that I neglected to take this unique chance,
+if in truth there was one, of prolonging an existence which after all
+has its consolations--especially when one has made one's pile. Certainly
+it is a case, a flagrant case, of neglected opportunities, and my only
+consolation for having lost them is that this was due to the uprightness
+of my nature which made it so hard for me to acquiesce in alternative
+statements that I had every cause to disbelieve and thus to give offence
+to a very powerful and petulant if attractive lady.
+
+"So that is done with," she went on with a little stamp of indignation,
+"as soon you will be also, who, had you not crossed and doubted me,
+might have lived on for untold time and become one of the masters of the
+world, as I am."
+
+Here she paused, choked, I think, with her almost childish anger, and
+because I could not help it, I said,
+
+"Such place and power, if they be yours, Ayesha, do not seem to bring
+you much reward. If I were a master of the world I do not think that I
+should choose to dwell unchangingly among savages who eat men and in
+a pile of ruins. But perhaps the curses of Aphrodite and of Isis are
+stronger masters still?" and I paused inquiringly.
+
+This bold argument--for now I see that it was bold--seemed to astonish
+and even bewilder my wonderful companion.
+
+"You have more wisdom than I thought," she said reflectively, "who have
+come to understand that no one is really lord of anything, since above
+there is always a more powerful lord who withers all his pomp and pride
+to nothingness, even as the great kings learned in olden days, and I,
+who am higher than they are, am learning now. Hearken. Troubles beset me
+wherein I would have your help and that of your companions, for which I
+will pay each of you the fee that he desires. The brooding white man who
+is with you shall free his daughter and unharmed; though that _he_ will
+be unharmed I do not promise. The black savage captain shall fight his
+fill and gain the glory that he seeks, also something that he seeks
+still more. The little yellow man asks nothing save to be with his
+master like a dog and to satisfy at once his stomach and his apish
+curiosity. You, Allan, shall see those dead over whom you brood at
+night, though the other guerdon that you might have won is now passed
+from your reach because you mock me in your heart."
+
+"What must we do to gain these things?" I asked. "How can we humble
+creatures help one who is all powerful and who has gathered in her
+breast the infinite knowledge of two thousand years?"
+
+"You must make war under my banner and rid me of my foes. As for the
+reason, listen to the end of my tale and you shall learn."
+
+I reflected that it was a marvellous thing that this queen who claimed
+supernatural powers should need our help in a war, but thinking it wiser
+to keep my meditations to myself, said nothing. As a matter of fact I
+might just as well have spoken, since as usual she read my thoughts.
+
+"You are thinking that it is strange, Allan, that I, the Mighty and
+Undying, should seek your aid in some petty tribal battle, and so it
+would be were my foes but common savages. But they are more; they are
+men protected by the ancient god of this immemorial city of K�r, a great
+god in his day whose spirit still haunts these ruins and whose strength
+still protects the worshippers who cling to him and practise his unholy
+rites of human sacrifice."
+
+"How was this god named?" I asked.
+
+"_Rezu_ was his name, and from him came the Egyptian Re or Ra, since in
+the beginning K�r was the mother of Egypt and the conquering people of
+K�r took their god with them when they burst into the valley of the
+Nile and subdued its peoples long before the first Pharaoh, Menes, wore
+Egypt's crown."
+
+"Ra was the sun, was he not?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, and Rezu also was a sun-god whom from his throne in the fires of
+the Lord of Day, gave life to men, or slew them if he willed with his
+thunderbolts of drought and pestilence and storm. He was no gentle king
+of heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshippers,
+yes, even that of maids and children. So it came about that the people
+of K�r, who saw their virgins slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu,
+and their infants burned to ashes in the fires that his rays lit, turned
+themselves to the worship of the gentle moon, the goddess whom they
+named _Lulala_, while some of them chose Truth for their queen, since
+Truth, they said, was greater and more to be desired than the fierce
+Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them both
+throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu, grew
+wroth and sent a pestilence upon K�r and its subject lands and slew
+their people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy, and
+with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that
+escaped I know not how."
+
+"Did you see this great pestilence?" I asked, much interested.
+
+"Nay, it befell generations before I came to K�r. One Junis, a priest,
+wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where
+is the burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my
+day K�r, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the
+history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands amidst
+the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people
+named the Amahagger dwelt in Households, or Tribes and there sacrificed
+men by fire and devoured them, following the rites of the demon Rezu.
+For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence. Also
+there were certain others, children of the worshippers of Lulala whose
+kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the gentle
+worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the followers of
+Rezu."
+
+"What brought _you_ to K�r, Ayesha?" I asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of
+great Isis whom I serve? Also," she added after a pause, "that I might
+find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted
+thereto by the other."
+
+"And did you find them, Ayesha?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence
+the goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his
+temptress back to the world."
+
+"That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that
+you also--liked this priest."
+
+She sprang from her couch and in a low, hissing voice which resembled
+the sound made by an angry snake and turned my blood cold to hear,
+exclaimed,
+
+"Man, do you dare to mock me? Nay, you are but a blundering, curious
+fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like
+Kallikrates, never should you leave K�r living. Cease from seeking that
+which you may not learn. Suffice it for you to know that the doom of
+Isis fell upon the lost Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on me
+also fell her doom, who must dwell here, dead yet living, till he return
+again and the play begins afresh.
+
+"Stranger," she went on in a softer voice, "perchance your faith,
+whate'er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshippers and give
+strength to the arms of its prophesying priests, who swear they hold
+the keys of doom or of the eternal joys. I see you sign assent" (I had
+nodded at her extremely accurate guess) "and therefore can understand
+that in such a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for some
+two thousand years, expiating the crime of Powers above me whereof I
+am but the hand and instrument, since those Powers which decreed that I
+should love, decree also that I must avenge that love."
+
+She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by emotion, of which
+I could only guess the reasons, hiding her face in her hands. Presently
+she let them fall again and continued,
+
+"Of these woes ask me no more. They sleep till the hour of their
+resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you
+perchance----But let that be. 'Twas near the mark; nearer, Allan, than
+you know, not in it! Therefore leave them to their sleep as I would if
+I might--ah! if I might, whose companions they are throughout the weary
+ages. Alas! that through the secret which was revealed to me I remain
+undying on the earth who in death might perhaps have found a rest,
+and being human although half divine, must still busy myself with the
+affairs of earth.
+
+"Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I
+remained in my agony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk
+of the cup of enduring life and like the Prometheus of old fable, found
+myself bound to this changeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures
+of remorse tear out my living heart which in the watches of the night is
+ever doomed to grow again within my woman's breast, I was plunged into
+petty troubles of the flesh, aye and welcomed them because their irk at
+times gave me forgetfulness. When the savage dwellers in this land came
+to know that a mighty one had arisen among them who was the servant of
+the Lady of the Moon, those of them who still worshipped their goddess
+Lulala, gathered themselves about me, while those of them who worshipped
+Rezu sought to overthrow me.
+
+"'Here,' they said, 'is the goddess Lulala come to earth. In the name
+of Rezu let us slay her and make an end,' for these fools thought that I
+could be killed. Allan, I conquered them, but their captain, who also
+is named Rezu and whom they held and hold to be an emanation of the god
+himself walking the earth, I could not conquer."
+
+"Why not?" I asked.
+
+"For this reason, Allan. In some past age his god showed him the same
+secret that was shown to me. He too had drunk of the Cup of Life and
+lives on unharmed by Time, so that being in strength my equal, no spear
+of mine can reach his heart clad in the armour of his evil god."
+
+"Then what spear can?" I inquired helplessly, who was bewildered.
+
+"None at all, Allan, yet an _axe_ may, as you shall hear, or so I
+think. For many generations there has been peace of a sort between the
+worshippers of Lulala who dwell with me in the Plain of K�r, or rather
+of myself, since to these people _I_ am Lulala, and the worshippers of
+Rezu, who dwell in the strongholds beyond the mountain crest. But of
+late years their chief Rezu, having devastated the lands about, has
+grown restless and threatened to attack on K�r, which is not strong
+enough to stand against him. Moreover he has sought for a white queen to
+rule under him, purposing to set her up to mock my majesty."
+
+"Is that why those cannibals carried away the daughter of my companion,
+the Sea-Captain who is named Avenger?" I asked.
+
+"It is, Allan, since presently he will give it out that I am dead or
+fled, if he has not done so already, and that this new queen has arisen
+in my place. Thereby he hopes to draw away many who cling to me ere he
+advances upon K�r, carrying with him this girl veiled as I am, so that
+none may know the difference between us, since not a man of them has
+ever looked upon my face, Allan. Therefore this Rezu must die, if die he
+can; otherwise, although it is impossible that he should harm me, he may
+slay or draw away my people and leave me with none to rule in this
+place where by the decree of Fate I must dwell on until he whom I seek
+returns. You are thinking in your heart that such savages would be
+little loss and this is so, but still they serve as slaves to me in my
+loneliness. Moreover I have sworn to protect them from the demon Rezu
+and they have trusted in me and therefore my honour is at stake, for
+never shall it be said that those who trusted in She-who-commands, were
+overthrown because they put faith in one who was powerless."
+
+"What do you mean about an axe, Ayesha?" I asked. "Why can an axe alone
+kill Rezu?"
+
+"The thing is a mystery, O Allan, of which I may not tell you all, since
+to do so I must reveal secrets which I have determined you shall not
+learn. Suffice it to you to know that when this Rezu drank of the Cup
+of Life he took with him his axe. Now this axe was an ancient weapon
+rumoured to have been fashioned by the gods and, as it chanced, that axe
+drew to itself more and stronger life than did Rezu, how, it does not
+matter, if indeed the tale be more than a fable. At least this I know is
+true, for he who guarded the Gate of Life, a certain Noot, a master of
+mysteries, and mine also in my day of youth, who being a philosopher and
+very wise, chose never to pass that portal which was open to him, said
+it to me himself ere he went the way of flesh. He told this Rezu
+also that now he had naught to fear save his own axe and therefore he
+counselled him to guard it well, since if it was lifted against him in
+another's hands it would bring him down to death, which nothing
+else could do. Like to the heel of Achilles whereof the great Homer
+sings--have you read Homer, Allan?"
+
+"In a translation," I answered.
+
+"Good, then you will remember the story. Like to the heel of Achilles,
+I say, that axe would be the only gate by which death could enter his
+invulnerable flesh, or rather it alone could make the gate."
+
+"How did Noot know that?" I asked.
+
+"I cannot say," she answered with irritation. "Perchance he did not know
+it. Perchance it is all an idle tale, but at least it is true that Rezu
+believed and believes it, and what a man believes is true for him and
+will certainly befall. If it were otherwise, what is the use of faith
+which in a thousand forms supports our race and holds it from the
+horrors of the Pit? Only those who believe nothing inherit what they
+believe--nothing, Allan."
+
+"It may be so," I replied prosaically, "but what happened about the
+axe?"
+
+"In the end it was lost, or as some say stolen by a woman whom Rezu had
+deserted, and therefore he walks the world in fear from day to day. Nay,
+ask no more empty questions" (I had opened my mouth to speak) "but hear
+the end of the tale. In my trouble concerning Rezu I remembered this
+wild legend of the axe and since, when lost in a forest every path that
+may lead to safety should be explored, I sent my wisdom forth to make
+inquiry concerning it, as I who am great, have the power to do, of
+certain who are in tune with me throughout this wide land of Africa.
+Amongst others, I inquired of that old wizard whom you named Zikali,
+Opener of Roads, and he gave me an answer that there lived in his land a
+certain warrior who ruled a tribe called the People of the Axe by right
+of the Axe, of which axe none, not even he, knew the beginning or the
+legend. On the chance, though it was a small one, I bade the wizard
+send that warrior here with his axe. Last night he stood before me and I
+looked upon him and the axe, which at least is ancient and has a story.
+Whether it be the same that Rezu bore I do not know who never saw it,
+yet perchance he who bears it now is prepared to hold it aloft in battle
+even against Rezu, though he be terrible to see, and then we shall
+learn."
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "he is quite prepared, for that is his nature.
+Also among this man's people, the holder of the Axe is thought to be
+unconquerable."
+
+"Yet some must have been conquered who held it," she replied musingly.
+"Well, you shall tell me that tale later. Now we have talked long and
+you are weary and astonished. Go, eat and rest yourself. To-night when
+the moon rises I will come to where you are, not before, for I have much
+that must be done, and show you those with whom you must fight against
+Rezu, and make a plan of battle."
+
+"But I do not want to fight," I answered, "who have fought enough and
+came here to seek wisdom, not bloodshed."
+
+"First the sacrifice, then the reward," she answered, "that is if any
+are left to be rewarded. Farewell."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ROBERTSON IS LOST
+
+So I went and was conducted by Billali, the old chamberlain, for such
+seemed to be his office, who had been waiting patiently without all this
+while, back to our rest-house. On my way I picked up Hans, whom I found
+sitting outside the arch, and found that as usual that worthy had been
+keeping his eyes and ears open.
+
+"Baas," he said, "did the White Witch tell you that there is a big
+_impi_ encamped over yonder outside the houses, in what looks like a
+great dry ditch, and on the edge of the plain beyond?"
+
+"No, Hans, but she said that this evening she would show us those in
+whose company we must fight."
+
+"Well, Baas, they are there, some thousands of them, for I crept through
+the broken walls like a snake and saw them. And, Baas, I do not think
+they are men, I think that they are evil spirits who walk at night
+only."
+
+"Why, Hans?"
+
+"Because when the sun is high, Baas, as it is now, they are all
+sleeping. Yes, there they lie abed, fast asleep, as other people do at
+night, with only a few sentries out on guard, and these are yawning and
+rubbing their eyes."
+
+"I have heard that there are folk like that in the middle of Africa
+where the sun is very hot, Hans," I answered, "which perhaps is why
+She-who-commands is going to take us to see them at night. Also these
+people, it seems, are worshippers of the moon."
+
+"No, Baas, they are worshippers of the devil and that White Witch is his
+wife."
+
+"You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, Hans, for whatever she
+is I think that she can read thoughts from far away, as you guessed last
+night. Therefore I would not have any if I were you."
+
+"No, Baas, or if I must think, henceforth, it shall be only of gin which
+in this place is also far away," he replied, grinning.
+
+Then we came to the rest-house where I found that Robertson had already
+eaten his midday meal and like the Amahagger gone to sleep, while
+apparently Umslopogaas had done the same; at least I saw nothing of him.
+Of this I was glad, since that wondrous Ayesha seemed to draw vitality
+out of me and after my long talk with her I felt very tired. So I too
+ate and then went to lie down under an old wall in the shade at a little
+distance, and to reflect upon the marvellous things that I had heard.
+
+Here be it said at once that I believed nothing of them, or at least
+very little indeed. All the involved tale of Ayesha's long life I
+dismissed at once as incredible. Clearly she was some beautiful woman
+who was more or less mad and suffered from megalomania; probably an
+Arab, who had wandered to this place for reasons of her own, and become
+the chieftainess of a savage tribe whose traditions she had absorbed and
+reproduced as personal experiences, again for reasons of her own.
+
+For the rest, she was now threatened by another tribe and knowing that
+we had guns and could fight from what happened on the yesterday, wished
+naturally enough for our assistance in the coming battle. As for the
+marvellous chief Rezu, or rather for his supernatural attributes and all
+the cock-and-bull story about an axe--well, it was humbug like the rest,
+and if she believed in it she must be more foolish than I took her
+to be--even if she were unhinged on certain points. For the rest, her
+information about myself and Umslopogaas doubtless had reached her from
+Zikali in some obscure fashion, as she herself acknowledged.
+
+But heavens! how beautiful she was! That flash of loveliness when out of
+pique or coquetry she lifted her veil, blinded like the lightning. But
+thank goodness, also like the lightning it frightened; instinctively one
+felt that it was very dangerous, even to death, and with it I for one
+wished no closer acquaintance. Fire may be lovely and attractive, also
+comforting at a proper distance, but he who sits on the top of it is
+cremated, as many a moth has found.
+
+So I argued, knowing well enough all the while that if this particular
+human--or inhuman--fire desired to make an holocaust of me, it could do
+so easily enough, and that in reality I owed my safety so far to a lack
+of that desire on its part. The glorious Ayesha saw nothing to attract
+her in an insignificant and withered hunter, or at any rate in his
+exterior, though with his mind she might find some small affinity.
+Moreover to make a fool of him just for the fun of it would not
+serve her purpose, since she needed his assistance in a business that
+necessitated clear wits and unprejudiced judgment.
+
+Lastly she had declared herself to be absorbed in some tiresome
+complication with another man, of which it was rather difficult to
+follow the details. It is true that she described him as a handsome but
+somewhat empty-headed person whom she had last seen two thousand years
+ago, but probably this only meant that she thought poorly of him because
+he had preferred some other woman to herself, while the two thousand
+years were added to the tale to give it atmosphere.
+
+The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two
+thousand years; witness that of Cleopatra with C�sar, Mark Antony and
+other gentlemen. The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy, even
+in boarding-schools, and it is felt that were she by some miracle to be
+blotted out of the book of history, the loss would be enormous. The same
+applied to Helen, Phryne, and other bad lots. In fact now that one comes
+to think of it, most of the attractive personages in history, male or
+female, especially the latter, were bad lots. When we find someone to
+whose name is added "the good" we skip. No doubt Ayesha, being very
+clever, appreciated this regrettable truth, and therefore moved her
+murky entanglements of the past decade or so back for a couple of
+thousand years, as many of us would like to do.
+
+There remained the very curious circumstance of her apparent
+correspondence with old Zikali who lived far away. This, however, after
+all was not inexplicable. In the course of a great deal of experience I
+have observed that all the witch-doctor family, to which doubtless she
+belonged, have strange means of communication.
+
+In most instances these are no doubt physical, carried on by help of
+messengers, or messages passed from one to the other. But sometimes it
+is reasonable to assume what is known as telepathy, as their link of
+intercourse. Between two such highly developed experts as Ayesha and
+Zikali, it might for the sake of argument safely be supposed that it
+was thus they learned each other's mind and co-operated in each other's
+projects, though perhaps this end was effected by commoner methods.
+
+Whatever its interpretations, the issue of the business seemed to be
+that I was to be let in for more fighting. Well, in any case this could
+not be avoided, since Robertson's daughter, Inez, had to be saved at all
+costs, if it could possibly be done, even if we lost our lives in the
+attempt. Therefore fight we must, so there was nothing more to be said.
+Also without doubt this adventure was particularly interesting and I
+could only hope that good luck, or Zikali's Great Medicine, or rather
+Providence, would see me through it safely.
+
+For the rest the fact that our help was necessary to her in this
+war-like venture showed me clearly enough that all this wonderful
+woman's pretensions to supernatural powers were the sheerest nonsense.
+Had they been otherwise she would not have needed our help in her tribal
+fights, notwithstanding the rubbish she talked about the chief, Rezu,
+who according to her account of him, must resemble one of the fabulous
+"trolls," half-human and half-ghostly evil creatures, of whom I have
+read in the Norse Sagas, who could only be slain by some particular hero
+armed with a particular weapon.
+
+
+
+Reflecting thus I went to sleep and did not wake until the sun was
+setting. Finding that Hans was also sleeping at my feet just like a
+faithful dog, I woke him up and we went back together to the rest-house,
+which we reached as the darkness fell with extraordinary swiftness, as
+it does in those latitudes, especially in a place surrounded by cliffs.
+
+Not finding Robertson in the house, I concluded that he was somewhere
+outside, possibly making a reconnaissance on his own account, and told
+Hans to get supper ready for both of us. While he was doing so, by aid
+of the Amahagger lamps, Umslopogaas suddenly appeared in the circle of
+light, and looking about him, said,
+
+"Where is Red-Beard, Macumazahn?"
+
+I answered that I did not know and waited, for I felt sure that he had
+something to say.
+
+"I think that you had better keep Red-Beard close to you, Macumazahn,"
+he went on. "This afternoon, when you had returned from visiting the
+white doctoress and having eaten, had gone to sleep under the wall
+yonder, I saw Red-Beard come out of the house carrying a gun and a bag
+of cartridges. His eyes rolled wildly and he turned first this way and
+then that, sniffing at the air, like a buck that scents danger. Then he
+began to talk aloud in his own tongue and as I saw that he was speaking
+with his Spirit, as those do who are mad, I went away and left him."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Because, as you know, Macumazahn, it is a law among us Zulus never to
+disturb one who is mad and engaged in talking with his Spirit. Moreover,
+had I done so, probably he would have shot me, nor should I have
+complained who would have thrust myself in where I had no right to be."
+
+"Then why did you not come to call me, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Because then he might have shot you, for, as I have seen for some time
+he is inspired of heaven and knows not what he does upon the earth,
+thinking only of the Lady Sad-Eyes who has been stolen away from him, as
+is but natural. So I left him walking up and down, and when I returned
+later to look, saw that he was gone, as I thought into this walled hut.
+Now when Hansi tells me that he is not here, I have come to speak to you
+about him."
+
+"No, certainly he is not here," I said, and I went to look at the bed
+where Robertson slept to see if it had been used that evening.
+
+Then for the first time I saw lying on it a piece of paper torn from a
+pocketbook and addressed to myself. I seized and read it. It ran thus:
+
+
+"The merciful Lord has sent me a vision of Inez and shown me where she
+is over the cliff-edge away to the west, also the road to her. In
+my sleep I heard her talking to me. She told me that she is in great
+danger--that they are going to marry her to some brute--and called to
+me to come at once and save her; yes, and to come alone without saying
+anything to anyone. So I am going at once. Don't be frightened or
+trouble about me. All will be well, all will be quite well. I will tell
+you the rest when we meet."
+
+
+Horrorstruck I translated this insane screed to Umslopogaas and Hans.
+The former nodded gravely.
+
+"Did I not tell you that he was talking with his Spirit, Macumazahn?" (I
+had rendered "the merciful Lord" as the Good Spirit.) "Well, he has gone
+and doubtless his Spirit will take care of him. It is finished."
+
+"At any rate we cannot, Baas," broke in Hans, who I think feared that I
+might send him out to look for Robertson. "I can follow most spoors, but
+not on such a night as this when one could cut the blackness into lumps
+and build a wall of it."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "he has gone and nothing can be done at present,"
+though to myself I reflected that probably he had not gone far and would
+be found when the moon rose, or at any rate on the following morning.
+
+Still I was most uneasy about the man who, as I had noted for a long
+while, was losing his balance more and more. The shock of the barbarous
+and dreadful slaughter of his half-breed children and of the abduction
+of Inez by these grim, man-eating savages began the business, and I
+think that it was increased and accentuated by his sudden conversion to
+complete temperance after years of heavy drinking.
+
+When I persuaded him to this course I was very proud of myself, thinking
+that I had done a clever thing, but now I was not so sure. Perhaps it
+would have been better if he had continued to drink something, at
+any rate for a while, but the trouble is that in such cases there is
+generally no half-way house. A man, or still more a woman, given to this
+frailty either turns aggressively sober or remains very drunken. At
+any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted for the best and
+could not blame myself.
+
+For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious
+associations of his youth had re-asserted themselves with remarkable
+vigour, for I gathered that he had been brought up almost as a
+Calvinist, and in the rush of their return, had overset his equilibrium.
+As I have said, he prayed night and day without any of those reserves
+which most people prefer in their religious exercises, and when he
+talked of matters outside our quest, his conversation generally revolved
+round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to say the truth, did
+not make him a cheerful companion. Indeed in this respect I liked him
+much better in his old, unregenerate days, being, I fear, myself a
+somewhat worldly soul.
+
+Well, the sum of it was that the poor fellow had gone mad and given us
+the slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness
+was impossible. Indeed, even if it had been lighter, I do not think that
+it would have been safe among these Amahagger nightbirds whom I did not
+trust. Certainly I could not have asked Hans to undertake the task, and
+if I had, I do not think he would have gone since he was afraid of the
+Amahagger. Therefore there was nothing to be done except wait and hope
+for the best.
+
+So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had
+promised. Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded
+by Billali, followed by women, also cloaked, and surrounded by a guard
+of tall spearmen. I was seated outside the house, smoking, when suddenly
+she arrived from the shadows and stood before me.
+
+I rose respectfully and bowed, while Umslopogaas, Goroko and the other
+Zulus who were with me, gave her the royal salute, and Hans cringed like
+a dog that is afraid of being kicked.
+
+After a swift glance at them, as I guessed by the motion of her veiled
+head, she seemed to fix her gaze upon my pipe that evidently excited
+her curiosity, and asked me what it was. I explained as well as I could,
+expatiating on the charms of smoking.
+
+"So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and
+one that is filthy also," she said, sniffing at the smoke and waving her
+hand before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into my pocket, where,
+being alight, it burnt a hole in my best remaining coat.
+
+I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she was
+who, to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be astonished
+at a habit with which she must have been well acquainted, although I
+believe that it was unknown in the ancient world.
+
+"You are troubled," she went on, swiftly changing the subject, "I read
+it in your face. One of your company is missing. Who is it? Ah! I see,
+the white man you name Avenger. Where is he gone?"
+
+"That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha," I said.
+
+"How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which
+to look for things that pass afar. Still, let me try," and pressing her
+hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a minute, then
+spoke slowly.
+
+"I think that he has gone over the mountain lip towards the worshippers
+of Rezu. I think that he is mad; sorrow and something else which I do
+not understand have turned his brain; something that has to do with the
+Heavens. I think also that we shall recover him living, if only for a
+little while, though of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to
+me to read the future, but only the past, and sometimes the things that
+happen in the present though they be far away."
+
+"Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?" I asked anxiously.
+
+"Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
+might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to
+your companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to
+seek?"
+
+"More or less," I answered and translated to her the letter that
+Robertson had left for me.
+
+"It may be as the man writes," she commented, "since the mad often see
+well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he imagines.
+The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan, although it
+seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of vision or the
+fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns through the
+gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever
+fools may think, often madness is true wisdom. Now follow me with the
+little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe. Stay, let me look upon
+that axe."
+
+I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but refused
+to loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the leathern
+thong.
+
+"Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own weapon,
+I who am so weak and gentle?" she asked, laughing.
+
+"Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
+which he names 'Chieftainess and Groan-maker,' and clings to closer by
+day and night than a man does to his wife."
+
+"There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
+never such another axe. The thing is ancient," she added musingly after
+examining its every detail, "and who knows? It may be that whereof the
+legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this
+fierce-eyed Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to
+face the most terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a wizard
+also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this can he
+be made to bite the dust."
+
+I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,
+
+"Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom
+I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight,
+though once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death," and he
+touched the great hole in his forehead. "Say to her also that I have no
+fear of defeat, I from whom doom is, as I think, still far away, though
+the Opener-of-Roads has told me that among a strange people I shall die
+in war at last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in
+war."
+
+"He speaks well," she answered with a note of admiration in her voice.
+"By Isis, were he but white I would set him to rule these Amahagger
+under me. Tell him, Allan, that if he lays Rezu low he shall have a
+great reward."
+
+"And tell the White Witch, Macumazahn," Umslopogaas replied when I had
+translated, "that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the
+sight of one who is lost to me but with whom my heart still dwells, if
+indeed this Witch has strength to break the wall of blackness that is
+built between me and her who is 'gone down.'"
+
+"Strange," reflected Ayesha when she understood, "that this grim
+Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for
+one whom the grave has taken. Learn from it, Allan, that all humanity
+is cast in the same mould, since my longings and your longings are his
+also, though the three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon
+and the earth, and as different in every other quality. Yet it is true
+that sun and moon and earth are born of the same black womb of chaos.
+Therefore in the beginning they were identical, as doubtless they will
+be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light
+space with a flame at which the mocking gods that made them may warm
+their hands. Well, so it is with men, Allan, whose soul-stuff is drawn
+from the gulf of Spirit by Nature's hand, and, cast upon the cold air of
+this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each different to
+the other and yet, be sure, the same. Now talk no more, but follow me.
+Slave" (this was addressed to Billali), "bid the guards lead on to the
+camp of the servants of Lulala."
+
+So we went through the silent ruins. Ayesha walked, or rather glided a
+pace or two ahead, then came Umslopogaas and I side by side, while at
+our heels followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish
+to be out of reach of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally
+of the protection of axe and rifle.
+
+Thus we marched surrounded by the solemn guard for something between
+a quarter and half a mile, till at length we climbed the debris of a
+mighty wall that once had encompassed the city, and by the moonlight saw
+beneath us a vast hollow which clearly at some unknown time had been the
+bed of an enormous moat and filled with water.
+
+Now, however, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted numerous
+camp-fires round which men were moving, also some women who appeared to
+be engaged in cooking food. At a little distance too, upon the
+further edge of the moat-like depression were a number of white-robed
+individuals gathered in a circle about a large stone upon which
+something was stretched that resembled the carcase of a sheep or goat,
+and round these a great number of spectators.
+
+"The priests of Lulala who make sacrifice to the moon, as they do night
+by night, save when she is dead," said Ayesha, turning back towards
+me as though in answer to the query which I had conceived but left
+unuttered.
+
+What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation and
+briskness. All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved about
+quickly and with the same kind of liveliness which might animate a camp
+of more natural people at the rising of the sun. It was as though they
+had just got up full of vigour to commence their daily, or rather their
+nightly round, which in truth was the case, since as Hans discovered,
+by habitude these Amahagger preferred to sleep during the day unless
+something prevented them, and to carry on the activities of life at
+night. It only remains to add that there seemed to be a great number
+of them, for their fires following the round of the dry moat, stretched
+further than I could see.
+
+Scrambling down the crumpled wall by a zig-zag pathway, we came upon the
+outposts of the army beneath us who challenged, then seeing with whom
+they had to do, fell flat upon their faces, leaving their great spears,
+which had iron spikes on their shafts like to those of the Masai,
+sticking in the ground beside them.
+
+We passed on between some of the fires and I noted how solemn and
+gloomy, although handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom
+these were surrounded. Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different
+world to ours, one alien to the kindly race of men. There was nothing
+social about these Amahagger, who seemed to be a people labouring under
+some ancient ancestral curse of which they could never shake off
+the memory. Even the women rarely smiled; their clear-cut, stately
+countenances remained stern and set, except when they glowered at us
+incuriously. Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated themselves like the
+rest.
+
+We went on through them and across the moat, climbing its further slope
+and here suddenly came upon a host of men gathered in a hollow square,
+apparently in order to receive us. They stood in ranks of five or six
+deep and their spear-points glimmering in the moonlight looked like
+long bands of level steel. As we entered the open side of the square all
+these spears were lifted. Thrice they were lifted and at each uplifting
+there rose a deep-throated cry of _Hiya_, which is the Arabic for She,
+and I suppose was a salutation to Ayesha.
+
+She swept on taking no heed, till we came to the centre of the square
+where a number of men were gathered who prostrated themselves in the
+usual fashion. Motioning to them to rise she said,
+
+"Captains, this very night within two hours we march against Rezu and
+the sun-worshippers, since otherwise as my arts tell me, they march
+against us. She-who-commands is immortal, as your fathers have known
+from generation to generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her
+servants, can be destroyed, and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of
+Life, out-numbers you by three to one and prepares a queen to set up in
+my place over his own people and such of you as remain. As though,"
+she added with a contemptuous laugh, "any woman of a day could take my
+place."
+
+She paused and the spokesman of the captains said,
+
+"We hear, O Hiya, and we understand. What wouldst thou have us do,
+O Lulala-come-to-earth? The armies of Rezu are great and from the
+beginning he has hated thee and us, also his magic is as thy magic and
+his length of days as thy length of days. How then can we who are few,
+three thousand men at the most, match ourselves against Rezu, Son of
+the Sun? Would it not be better that we should accept the terms of Rezu,
+which are light, and acknowledge him as our king?"
+
+As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath
+her robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the meaning
+of them was clear enough, namely that rather than risk a battle with
+Rezu, these people were contemplating surrender and her own deposition,
+if indeed she could be deposed. Still she answered in a quiet voice,
+
+"It seems that I have dealt too gently with you and with your fathers,
+Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that
+because you only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sword within
+and that it can shine forth and smite. Well, why should I be wrath
+because the brutish will follow the law of brutes, though it be true
+that I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I less
+merciful I would leave you to the clutching hands of Rezu, who would
+drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your
+hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his heat. But I
+bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I
+knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you
+from yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.
+
+"Take counsel together now and say--Will you fight against Rezu, or will
+you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow's sun I
+will begone, taking these with me," and she pointed to us, "whom I have
+summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
+stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are
+the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,
+
+"'Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and
+save us from this hell?'
+
+"Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
+will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear
+no more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you
+and your ways."
+
+The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha
+stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the
+situation.
+
+It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against
+their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral nature,
+one that emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered was, being
+what she seemed to be, why she thought it worth while to exercise it at
+all. Then I remembered her statement that here and nowhere else she must
+abide for some secret reason, until a certain mystical gentleman with
+a Greek name came to fetch her away from this appointed _rendezvous_.
+Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or rather, suffering as she did
+from hallucinations, believed herself to have no choice and was obliged
+to put up with a crowd of disagreeable savages in quarters which were
+sadly out of repair.
+
+Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,
+
+"If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
+Hiya?"
+
+"My wisdom shall be your guide," she answered, "this white man shall be
+your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face to
+face and bring him to the dust," and she pointed to Umslopogaas leaning
+upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile.
+
+This reply did not seem to please the man for he withdrew to consult
+again with his companions. After a debate which I suppose was animated
+for the Amahagger, men of few words who did not indulge in oratory, all
+of them advanced on us and the spokesman said,
+
+"The choice of a General does not please us, Hiya. We know that the
+white man is brave because of the fight he made against the men of Rezu
+over the mountain yonder; also that he and his followers have weapons
+that deal death from afar. But there is a prophecy among us of which
+none know the beginning, that he who commands in the last great battle
+between Lulala and Rezu must produce before the eyes of the People of
+Lulala a certain holy thing, a charm of power, without which defeat will
+be the portion of Lulala. Of this holy thing, this spirit-haunted shape
+of power, we know the likeness and the fashion, for these have come down
+among our priests, though who told it to them we cannot tell, but of it
+I will say this only, that it speaks both of the spirit and the body, of
+man and yet of more than man."
+
+"And if this wondrous charm, this talisman of might, cannot be shown by
+the white lord here, what then?" asked Ayesha coldly.
+
+"Then, Hiya, this is the word of the People of Lulala, that we will not
+serve under him in the battle, and this also is their word that we will
+not go up against Rezu. That thou art mighty we know well, Hiya,
+also that thou canst slay if thou wilt, but we know also that Rezu is
+mightier and that against him thou hast no power. Therefore kill us if
+thou dost so desire, until thy heart is satisfied with death. For it
+is better that we should perish thus than upon the altar of sacrifice
+wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu."
+
+"So say we all," exclaimed the rest of the company when he had finished.
+
+"The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward
+blood and that of thy companions," said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she
+paused and turning to me, added, "O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is
+there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I
+have spread my feathers for so long?"
+
+I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as
+though they would go.
+
+Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of
+most African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali's Great Medicine."
+
+Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a
+"spirit-haunted shape of power" that spoke "both of the spirit and the
+body of man and yet of more than man," was so vague that it might mean
+anything or nothing. And yet----
+
+I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted should
+be produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu to the
+death. She did so and with one voice they replied,
+
+"Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom
+also our legend tells."
+
+Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of
+Zikali as far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,
+
+"Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend tells,
+O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?"
+
+The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire
+that burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared
+again; and as he did, so did the others bending over him.
+
+"Dog! would you singe my beard?" I cried in affected rage, and seizing
+the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.
+
+But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely
+to assert my authority. Still for a few moments he stared although the
+sparks from the wood were frizzling in his greasy hair, then of a sudden
+went down on his face before me, as did all the others and cried out,
+
+"It is the Holy Thing! It is the spirit-haunted Shape of Power itself,
+and we the Worshippers of Lulala will follow thee to the death, O white
+lord, Watcher-by-Night. Yes, where thou goest and he goes who bears the
+Axe, thither will we follow till not one of us is left upon his feet."
+
+"Then that's settled," I said, yawning, since it is never wise to show
+concern about anything before savages. Indeed personally I had no wish
+to be the leader of this very peculiar tribe in an adventure of which I
+knew nothing, and therefore had hoped that they would leave that honour
+to someone else. Then I turned and told Umslopogaas what had passed, a
+tale at which he only shrugged his great shoulders, handling his axe as
+though he were minded to try its edge upon some of these "Dark-lovers,"
+as he named the Amahagger people because of their nocturnal habits.
+
+Meanwhile Ayesha gave certain orders. Then she came to me and said,
+
+"These men march at once, three thousand strong, and by dawn will camp
+on the northern mountain crest. At sunrise litters will come to bear you
+and those with you if they will, to join them, which you should do by
+midday. In the afternoon marshall them as you think wise, for the battle
+will take place in the small hours of the following morning, since the
+People of Lulala only fight at night. I have said."
+
+"Do you not come with us?" I asked, dismayed.
+
+"Nay, not in a war against Rezu, why it matters not. Yet my Spirit will
+go with you, for I shall watch all that passes, how it matters not
+and perchance you may see it there--I know not. On the third day from
+to-morrow we shall meet again in the flesh or beyond it, but as I think
+in the flesh, and you can claim the reward which you journeyed here to
+seek. A place shall be prepared for the white lady whom Rezu would have
+set up as a rival queen to me. Farewell, and farewell also to yonder
+Bearer of the Axe that shall drink the blood of Rezu, also to the little
+yellow man who is rightly named Light-in-Darkness, as you shall learn
+ere all is done."
+
+Then before I could speak she turned and glided away, swiftly surrounded
+by her guards, leaving me astonished and very uncomfortable.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ALLAN'S VISION
+
+The old chamberlain, Billali, conducted us back to our camp. As we went
+he discoursed to me of these Amahagger, of whom it seemed he was himself
+a developed specimen, one who threw back, perhaps tens of generations,
+to some superior ancestor who lived before they became debased. In
+substance he told me that they were a wild and lawless lot who lived
+amongst ruins or in caves, or some of them in swamp dwellings, in
+small separate communities, each governed by its petty headman who was
+generally a priest of their goddess Lulala.
+
+Originally they and the people of Rezu were the same, in times when they
+worshipped the sun and the moon jointly, but "thousands of years" ago,
+as he expressed it, they had separated, the Rezuites having gone to
+dwell to the north of the Great Mountain, whence they continually
+threatened the Lulalaites whom, had it not been for She-who-commands,
+they would have destroyed long before. The Rezuites, it seemed, were
+habitual cannibals, whereas the Lulalaite branch of the Amahagger only
+practised cannibalism occasionally when by a lucky chance they got hold
+of strangers. "Such as yourself, Watcher-by-Night, and your companions,"
+he added with meaning. If their crime were discovered, however, Hiya,
+She-who-commands, punished it by death.
+
+I asked if she exercised an active rule over these people. He answered
+that she did not, as she lacked sufficient interest in them; only when
+she was angry with individuals she would destroy some of them by "her
+arts," as she had power to do if she chose. Most of them indeed had
+never seen her and only knew of her existence by rumour. To them she was
+a spirit or a goddess who inhabited the ancient tombs that lay to the
+south of the old city whither she had come because of the threatened war
+with Rezu, whom alone she feared, he did not know why. He told me again,
+moreover, that she was the greatest magician who had ever been, and
+that it was certain she did not die, since their forefathers knew her
+generations ago. Still she seemed to be under some curse, like the
+Amahagger themselves, who were the descendants of those who had once
+inhabited K�r and the country round it, as far as the sea-coast and
+for hundreds of miles inland, having been a mighty people in their day
+before a great plague destroyed them.
+
+For the rest he thought that she was a very unhappy woman who "lived
+with her own soul mourning the dead" and consorting with none upon the
+earth.
+
+I asked him why she stayed here, whereat he shook his head and replied,
+he supposed because of the "curse," since he could conceive of no other
+reason. He informed me also that her moods varied very much. Sometimes
+she was fierce and active and at others by comparison mild and
+low-spirited. Just now she was passing through one of the latter stages,
+perhaps because of the Rezu trouble, for she did not wish her people to
+be destroyed by this terrible person; or perhaps for some other reason
+with which he was not acquainted.
+
+When she chose, she knew all things, except the distant future. Thus
+she knew that we were coming, also the details of our march and that
+we should be attacked by the Rezuites who were going out to meet
+their returning company that had been sent afar to find a white queen.
+Therefore she had ordered him to go with soldiers to our assistance. I
+asked why she went veiled, and he replied, because of her beauty which
+drove even savage men mad, so that in old days she had been obliged to
+kill a number of them.
+
+That was all he seemed to know about her, except that she was kind to
+those who served her well, like himself, and protected them from evil of
+every sort.
+
+Then I asked him about Rezu. He answered that he was a dreadful person,
+undying, it was said, like She-who-commands, though he had never seen
+the man himself and never wanted to do so. His followers being cannibals
+and having literally eaten up all those that they could reach, were now
+desirous of conquering the people of Lulala that they might eat them
+also at their leisure. Each other they did not eat, because dog does not
+eat dog, and therefore they were beginning to grow hungry, although they
+had plenty of grain and cattle of which they used the milk and hides.
+
+As for the coming battle, he knew nothing about it or what would happen,
+save that She-who-commands said that it would go well for the Lulalaites
+under my direction. She was so sure that it would go well, that she did
+not think it worth while to accompany the army, for she hated noise and
+bloodshed.
+
+It occurred to me that perhaps she was afraid that she too would be
+taken captive and eaten, but I kept my reflection to myself.
+
+Just then we arrived at our camp-house, where Billali bade me farewell,
+saying that he wished to rest as he must be back at dawn with litters,
+when he hoped to find us ready to start. Then he departed. Umslopogaas
+and Hans also went away to sleep, leaving me alone who, having taken my
+repose in the afternoon, did not feel drowsy at the moment. So lovely
+was the night indeed that I made up my mind to take a little walk during
+the midnight hours, after the manner of the Amahagger themselves, for
+having now been recognised as Generalissimo of their forces, I had
+little fear of being attacked, especially as I carried a pistol in my
+pocket. So off I set strolling slowly down what seemed to have been
+a main street of the ancient city, which in its general appearance
+resembled excavated Pompeii, only on an infinitely larger scale.
+
+As I went I meditated on the strange circumstances in which I found
+myself. Really they tempted me to believe that I was suffering from
+delusions and perhaps all the while in fact lay stretched upon a bed
+in the delirium of fever. That marvellous woman, for instance--even
+rejecting her tale of miraculously extended life, which I did--what was
+I to make of her? I did not know, except that wondrous as she was,
+it remained clear that she claimed a great deal more power than she
+possessed. This was evident from her tone in the interview with the
+captains, and from the fact that she had shuffled off the command of her
+tribe on to my shoulders. If she were so mighty, why did she not command
+it herself and bring her celestial, or infernal, powers to bear upon the
+enemy? Again, I could not say, but one fact emerged, namely that she
+was as interesting as she was beautiful, and uncommonly clever into the
+bargain.
+
+But what a task was this that she had laid upon me, to lead into battle,
+with a foe of unascertained strength, a mob of savages probably quite
+undisciplined, of whose fighting qualities I knew nothing and whom I had
+no opportunity of organising. The affair seemed madness and I could only
+hope that luck or destiny would take me through somehow.
+
+To tell the truth, I believed it would, for I had grown almost as
+superstitious about Zikali and his Great Medicine as was Hans himself.
+Certainly the effect of it upon those captains was very odd, or would
+have been had not the explanation come to me in a flash. On the first
+night of our meeting, as I have described, I showed this talisman to
+Ayesha, as a kind of letter of credentials, and now I could see that
+it was she who had arranged all the scene with the captains, or their
+tribal magician, in order to get her way about my appointment to the
+command.
+
+Everything about her conduct bore this out, even her feigning ignorance
+of the existence of the charm and the leaving of it to Hans to
+suggest its production, which perhaps she did by influencing his mind
+subconsciously. No doubt more or less it fitted in with one of those
+nebulous traditions which are so common amongst ancient savage races,
+and therefore once shown to her confederate, or confederates, would be
+accepted by the common people as a holy sign, after which the rest was
+easy.
+
+Such an obvious explanation involved the death of any illusions I might
+still cherish about this Arab lady, Ayesha, and it is true that I parted
+with them with regret, as we all do when we think we have discovered
+something wonderful in the female line. But there it was, and to bother
+any more about her, her history and aims, seemed useless.
+
+So dismissing her and all present anxieties from my mind, I began to
+look about me and to wonder at the marvellous scene which unfolded
+itself before me in the moonlight. That I might see it better, although
+I was rather afraid of snakes which might hide among the stones, by
+an easy ascent I climbed a mount of ruins and up the broad slope of a
+tumbled massive wall, which from its thickness I judged must have been
+that of some fort or temple. On the crest of this wall, some seventy or
+eighty feet above the level of the streets, I sat down and looked about
+me.
+
+Everywhere around me stretched the ruins of the great city, now as
+fallen and as deserted as Babylon herself. The majestic loneliness
+of the place was something awful. Even the vision of companies and
+battalions of men crossing the plain towards the north with the
+moonlight glistening on their spear-points, did little to lessen this
+sense of loneliness. I knew that these were the regiments which I was
+destined to command, travelling to the camp where I must meet them. But
+in such silence did they move that no sound came from them even in the
+deathly stillness of the perfect night, so that almost I was tempted to
+believe them to be the shadow-ghosts of some army of old K�r.
+
+They vanished, and musing thus I think I must have dozed. At any rate it
+seemed to me that of a sudden the city was as it had been in the days
+of its glory. I saw it brilliant with a hundred colours; everywhere was
+colour, on the painted walls and roofs, the flowering trees that lined
+the streets and the bright dresses of the men and women who by thousands
+crowded them and the marts and squares. Even the chariots that moved to
+and fro were coloured as were the countless banners which floated from
+palace walls and temple tops.
+
+The enormous place teemed with every activity of life; brides being
+borne to marriage and dead men to burial; squadrons marching, clad
+in glittering armour; merchants chaffering; white-robed priests and
+priestesses passing in procession (who or what did they worship? I
+wondered); children breaking out of school; grave philosophers debating
+in the shadow of a cool arcade; a royal person making a progress
+preceded by runners and surrounded by slaves, and lastly the multitudes
+of citizens going about the daily business of life.
+
+Even details were visible, such as those of officers of the law chasing
+an escaped prisoner who had a broken rope tied to his arm, and a
+collision between two chariots in a narrow street, about the wrecks of
+which an idle mob gathered as it does to-day if two vehicles collide,
+while the owners argued, gesticulating angrily, and the police and
+grooms tried to lift a fallen horse on to its feet. Only no sound of the
+argument or of anything else reached me. I saw, and that was all. The
+silence remained intense, as well it might do, since those chariots must
+have come to grief thousands upon thousands of years ago.
+
+A cloud seemed to pass before my eyes, a thin, gauzy cloud which somehow
+reminded me of the veil that Ayesha wore. Indeed at the moment, although
+I could not see her, I would have sworn that she was present at my side,
+and what is more, that she was mocking me who had set her down as so
+impotent a trickstress, which doubtless was part of the dream.
+
+At any rate I returned to my normal state, and there about me were the
+miles of desolate streets and the thousands of broken walls, and the
+black blots of roofless houses and the wide, untenanted plain bounded by
+the battlemented line of encircling mountain crests, and above all, the
+great moon shining softly in a tender sky.
+
+I looked and thrilled, though oppressed by the drear and desolate beauty
+of the scene around me, descended the wall and the ruined slope and made
+my way homewards, afraid even of my own shadow. For I seemed to be the
+only living thing among the dead habitations of immemorial K�r.
+
+
+
+Reaching our camp I found Hans awake and watching for me.
+
+"I was just coming to look for you, Baas," he said. "Indeed I should
+have done so before, only I knew that you had gone to pay a visit to
+that tall white 'Missis' who ties up her head in a blanket, and thought
+that neither of you would like to be disturbed."
+
+"Then you thought wrong," I answered, "and what is more, if you had made
+that visit I think it might have been one from which you would never
+have come back."
+
+"Oh yes, Baas," sniggered Hans. "The tall white lady would not have
+minded. It is you who are so particular, after the fashion of men whom
+Heaven made very shy."
+
+Without deigning to reply to the gibes of Hans I went to lie down,
+wondering what kind of a bed poor Robertson occupied that night, and
+soon fell asleep, as fortunately for myself I have the power to do,
+whatever my circumstances at the moment. Men who can sleep are those who
+do the work of the world and succeed, though personally I have had more
+of the work than of the success.
+
+
+
+I was awakened at the first grey dawn by Hans, who informed me that
+Billali was waiting outside with litters, also that Goroko had already
+made his incantations and doctored Umslopogaas and his two men for war
+after the Zulu fashion when battle was expected. He added that these
+Zulus had refused to be left behind to guard and nurse their wounded
+companions, and said that rather than do so, they would kill them.
+
+Somehow, he informed me, in what way he could not guess, this had come
+to the ears of the White Lady who "hid her face from men because it was
+so ugly," and she had sent women to attend to the sick ones, with
+word that they should be well cared for. All of this proved to be true
+enough, but I need not enter into the details.
+
+In the end off we went, I in my litter following Billali's, with an
+express and a repeating rifle and plenty of ammunition for both, and
+Hans, also well armed, in that which had been sent for Umslopogaas, who
+preferred to walk with Goroko and the two other Zulus.
+
+For a little while Hans enjoyed the sensation of being carried by
+somebody else, and lay upon the cushions smoking with a seraphic smile
+and addressing sarcastic remarks to the bearers, who fortunately did not
+understand them. Soon, however, he wearied of these novel delights and
+as he was still determined not to walk until he was obliged, climbed on
+to the roof of the litter, astride of which he sat as though it were
+a horse, looking for all the world like a toy monkey on a horizontal
+stick.
+
+Our road ran across the level, fertile plain but a small portion of
+which was cultivated, though I could see that at some time or other,
+when its population was greater, every inch of it had been under crop.
+Now it was largely covered by trees, many of them fruit-bearing,
+between which meandered streams of water which once, I think, had been
+irrigation channels.
+
+About ten o'clock we reached the foot of the encircling cliffs and began
+the climb of the escarpment, which was steep, tortuous and difficult.
+By noon we reached its crest and here found all our little army encamped
+and, except for the sentries, sleeping, as seemed to be the invariable
+custom of these people in the daytime.
+
+I caused the chief captains to be awakened and with them made a circuit
+of the camp, reckoning the numbers of the men which came to about 3,250
+and learning what I could concerning them and their way of fighting.
+Then, accompanied by Umslopogaas and Hans with the Zulus as a guard,
+also by three of the head-captains of the Amahagger, I walked forward to
+study the lie of the land.
+
+Coming to the further edge of the escarpment, I found that at this place
+two broad-based ridges, shaped like those that spring from the boles of
+certain tropical forest trees, ran from its crest to the plain beneath
+at a gentle slope. Moreover I saw that on this plain between the ends
+of the ridges an army was encamped which, by the aid of my glasses, I
+examined and estimated to number at least ten thousand men.
+
+This army, the Amahagger captains informed me, was that of Rezu, who,
+they said, intended to commence his attack at dawn on the following
+morning, since the People of Rezu, being sun-worshippers, would never
+fight until their god appeared above the horizon. Having studied all
+there was to see I asked the captains to set out their plan of battle,
+if they had a plan.
+
+The chief of them answered that it was to advance halfway down the
+right-hand ridge to a spot where there was a narrow flat piece of
+ground, and there await attack, since at this place their smaller
+numbers would not so much matter, whereas these made it impossible for
+them to assail the enemy.
+
+"But suppose that Rezu should choose to come up to the other ridge and
+get behind you. What would happen then?" I inquired.
+
+He replied that he did not know, his ideas of strategy being, it was
+clear, of a primitive order.
+
+"Do your people fight best at night or in the day?" I went on.
+
+He said undoubtedly at night, indeed in all their history there was no
+record of their having done so in the daytime.
+
+"And yet you propose to let Rezu join battle with you when the sun is
+high, or in other words to court defeat," I remarked.
+
+Then I went aside and discussed things for a while with Umslopogaas and
+Hans, after which I returned and gave my orders, declining all argument.
+Briefly these were that in the dusk before the rising of the moon, our
+Amahagger must advance down the right-hand ridge in complete silence,
+and hide themselves among the scrub which I saw grew thickly near its
+root. A small party, however, under the leadership of Goroko, whom I
+knew to be a brave and clever captain, was to pass halfway down the
+left-hand ridge and there light fires over a wide area, so as to make
+the enemy think that our whole force had encamped there. Then at the
+proper moment which I had not yet decided upon, we would attack the army
+of Rezu.
+
+The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I think
+was too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together. Seeing that
+I must assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and said to
+their chief man,
+
+"Hearken, my friend. By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed
+your general and I expect to be obeyed without question. From the moment
+that the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the Black One,
+and if so much as one of your men hesitates or turns back, you will
+die," and I nodded towards the axe of Umslopogaas. "Moreover, afterwards
+She-who-commands will see that others of you die, should you escape in
+the fight."
+
+Still they hesitated. Thereon without another word, I produced Zikali's
+Great Medicine and held it before their eyes, with the result that the
+sight of this ugly thing did what even the threat of death could not do.
+They went flat on the ground, every one of them, and swore by Lulala
+and by She-who-commands, her priestess, that they would do all I said,
+however mad it seemed to them.
+
+"Good," I answered. "Now go back and make ready, and for the rest, by
+this time to-morrow we shall know who is or is not mad."
+
+From that moment till the end I had no more trouble with these
+Amahagger.
+
+
+
+I will get on quickly with the story of this fight whereof the
+preliminary details do not matter. At the proper time Goroko went off
+with two hundred and fifty men and one of the two Zulus to light the
+fires and, at an agreed signal, namely the firing of two shots in rapid
+succession by myself, to begin shouting and generally make as much noise
+as they could.
+
+We also went off with the remaining three thousand, and before the moon
+rose, crept as quietly as ghosts down the right-hand ridge. Being such
+a silent folk who were accustomed to move at night and could see in
+the dark almost as well as cats, the Amahagger executed this manoeuvre
+splendidly, wrapping their spear-blades in bands of dry grass lest light
+should glint on them and betray our movements. So in due course we came
+to the patch of bush where the ridge widened out about five hundred
+yards from the plain beneath, and there lay down in four companies or
+regiments, each of them about seven hundred and fifty strong.
+
+Now the moon had risen, but because of the mist which covered the
+surface of the plain, we could see nothing of the camp of Rezu which we
+knew must be within a thousand yards of us, unless indeed it had been
+moved, as the silence seemed to suggest.
+
+This circumstance gave me much anxiety, since I feared lest abandoning
+their reputed habits, these Rezuites were also contemplating a night
+attack. Umslopogaas, too, was disturbed on the subject, though because
+of Goroko and his men whose fires began to twinkle on the opposing ridge
+something over a mile away, they could not pass up there without our
+knowledge.
+
+Still, for aught I knew there might be other ways of scaling this
+mountain. I did not trust the Amahagger, who declared that none existed,
+since their local knowledge was slight as they never visited these
+northern slopes because of their fear of Rezu. Supposing that the enemy
+gained the crest and suddenly assaulted us in the rear! The thought of
+it made me feel cold down the back.
+
+While I was wondering how I could find out the truth, Hans, who was
+squatted behind a bush, suddenly rose and gave the rifle he was carrying
+to the remaining Zulu.
+
+"Baas," he said, "I am going to look and find out what those people are
+doing, if they are still there, and then you will know how and when to
+attack them. Don't be afraid for me, Baas, it will be easy in that mist
+and you know I can move like a snake. Also if I should not come back, it
+does not matter and it will tell you that they _are_ there."
+
+I hesitated who did not wish to expose the brave little Hottentot to
+such risks. But when he understood, Umslopogaas said,
+
+"Let the man go. It is his gift and duty to spy, as it is mine to smite
+with the axe, and yours to lead, Macumazahn. Let him go, I say."
+
+I nodded my head, and having kissed my hand in his silly fashion in
+token of much that he did not wish to say, Hans slipped out of sight,
+saying that he hoped to be back within an hour. Except for his great
+knife, he went unarmed, who feared that if he took a pistol he might be
+tempted to fire it and make a noise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE
+
+That hour went by very slowly. Again and again I consulted my watch by
+the light of the moon, which was now rising high in the heavens, and
+thought that it would never come to an end. Listen as I would, there was
+nothing to be heard, and as the mist still prevailed the only thing
+I could see except the heavens, was the twinkling of the fires lit by
+Goroko and his party.
+
+At length it was done and there was no sign of Hans. Another half hour
+passed and still no sign of Hans.
+
+"I think that Light-in-Darkness is dead or taken prisoner," said
+Umslopogaas.
+
+I answered that I feared so, but that I would give him another fifteen
+minutes and then, if he did not appear, I proposed to order an advance,
+hoping to find the enemy where we had last seen them from the top of the
+mountain.
+
+The fifteen minutes went by also, and as I could see that the Amahagger
+captains who sat at a little distance were getting very nervous, I
+picked up my double-barrelled rifle and turned round so that I faced
+up hill with a view of firing it as had been agreed with Goroko, but in
+such a fashion that the flashes perhaps would not be seen from the plain
+below. For this purpose I moved a few yards to the left to get behind
+the trunk of a tree that grew there, and was already lifting the rifle
+to my shoulder, when a yellow hand clasped the barrel and a husky voice
+said,
+
+"Don't fire yet, Baas, as I want to tell you my story first."
+
+I looked down and there was the ugly face of Hans wearing a grin that
+might have frightened the man in the moon.
+
+"Well," I said with cold indifference, assumed I admit to hide my
+excessive joy at his safe return, "tell on, and be quick about it. I
+suppose you lost your way and never found them."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I lost my way for the fog was very thick down there. But in
+the end I found them all right, by my nose, Baas, for those man-eating
+people smell strong and I got the wind of one of their sentries. It was
+easy to pass him in the mist, Baas, so easy that I was tempted to cut
+his throat as I went, but I didn't for fear lest he should make a noise.
+No, I walked on right into the middle of them, which was easy too, for
+they were all asleep, wrapped up in blankets. They hadn't any fires
+perhaps because they didn't want them to be seen, or perhaps because it
+is so hot down in that low land, I don't know which.
+
+"So I crept on taking note of all I saw, till at last I came to a little
+hill of which the top rose above the level of the mist, so that I could
+see on it a long hut built of green boughs with the leaves still fresh
+upon them. Now I thought that I would crawl up to the hut since it came
+into my mind that Rezu himself must be sleeping there and that I might
+kill him. But while I stood hesitating I heard a noise like to that made
+by an old woman whose husband had thrown a blanket over her head to keep
+her quiet, or to that of a bee in a bottle, a sort of droning noise that
+reminded me of something.
+
+"I thought a while and remembered that when Red Beard was on his knees
+praying to Heaven, as is his habit when he has nothing else to do, Baas,
+he makes a noise just like that. I crept towards the sound and presently
+there I found Red Beard himself tied upon a stone and looking as mad as
+a buffalo bull stuck in a swamp, for he shook his head and rolled his
+eyes about, just as though he had had two bottles of bad gin, Baas, and
+all the while he kept saying prayers. Now I thought that I would cut him
+loose, and bent over him to do so, when by ill-luck he saw my face and
+began to shout, saying,
+
+"'Go away, you yellow devil. I know you have come to take me to hell,
+but you are too soon, and if my hands were loose I would twist your head
+off your shoulders.'
+
+"He said this in English, Baas, which as you know I can understand quite
+well, after which I was sure that I had better leave him alone. Whilst
+I was thinking, there came out of the hut above two old men dressed in
+night-shirts, such as you white people wear, with yellow things upon
+their heads that had a metal picture of the sun in front of them."
+
+"Medicine-men," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, Baas, or Predikants of some sort, for they were rather like
+your reverend father when he dressed himself up and went into a box to
+preach. Seeing them I slipped back a little way to where the mist began,
+lay down and listened. They looked at Red Beard, for his shouts at me
+had brought them out, but he took no notice of them, only went on making
+a noise like a beetle in a tin can.
+
+"'It is nothing,' said one of the Predikants to the other in the same
+tongue that these Amahagger use. 'But when is he to be sacrificed? Soon,
+I hope, for I cannot sleep because of the noise he makes.'
+
+"'When the edge of the sun appears, not before,' answered the other
+Predikant. 'Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and this
+white man will be sacrificed to her.'
+
+"'I think it is a pity to wait so long,' said the first Predikant, 'for
+never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on his head.'
+
+"'First the victory, then the feast,' answered the second Predikant,
+'though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman who was
+with the new queen.'
+
+"Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back
+towards the hut. But the other did not go back. No, he sat down on the
+ground and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone. More, he struck
+him on the face to make him quiet.
+
+"Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they
+had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit in
+me grew so very angry and I thought that I would give this old _skellum_
+(i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself, after which I
+purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get speech with the Lady
+Sad-Eyes, if she was there.
+
+"So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over
+Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would
+kill him at once. But it didn't, Baas, for he fell on to his face and
+began to make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him.
+Then I heard a sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run
+away into the mist, without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes.
+I ran very hard, Baas, making a wide circle to the left, and so at last
+got back here. That's all, Baas."
+
+"And quite enough, too," I answered, "though if they did not see you,
+the death of the Medicine-man may frighten them. Poor Janee! Well, I
+hope to come even with those devils before they are three hours older."
+
+Then I called up Umslopogaas and the Amahagger captains and told them
+the substance of the story, also that Hans had located the army, or part
+of it.
+
+The end of it was that we made up our minds to attack at once; indeed
+I insisted on this, as I was determined if I could to save that
+unfortunate man, Robertson, who, from Hans' account, evidently was now
+quite mad and raving. So I fired the two shots as had been arranged
+and presently heard the sound of distant shoutings on the slope of
+the opposing ridge. A few minutes later we started, Umslopogaas and I
+leading the vanguard and the Amahagger captains following with the three
+remaining companies.
+
+Now the reader, presuming the existence of such a person, will think
+that everything is sure to go right; that this cunning old fellow, Allan
+Quatermain, is going to surprise and wipe the floor with those Rezuites,
+who were already beguiled by the trick he had instructed Goroko to play.
+That after this he will rescue Robertson who doubtless shortly recovers
+his mind, also Inez with the greatest ease, in fact that everything will
+happen as it ought to do if this were a romance instead of a mere record
+of remarkable facts. But being the latter, as it happened, matters did
+not work out quite in this convenient way.
+
+To begin with, when those Amahagger told me that the Rezuites never
+fought in the dark or before the sun was well up, either they lied or
+they were much mistaken, for at any rate on this occasion they did the
+exact contrary. All the while that we thought we were stalking them,
+they were stalking us. The Goroko manoeuvre had not deceived them in the
+least, since from their spies they knew its exact significance.
+
+Here, I may add that those spies were in our own ranks, traitors, in
+short, who were really in the pay of Rezu and possibly belonged to his
+abominable faith, some of whom slipped away from time to time to the
+enemy to report our progress and plans, so far as they knew them.
+
+Further, what Hans had stumbled on was a mere rear guard left around the
+place of sacrifice and the hut where Inez was confined. The real army he
+never found at all. That was divided into two bodies and hidden in bush
+to the right and left of the ridge which we were descending just at the
+spot where it joined the plain beneath, and into the jaws of these two
+armies we marched gaily.
+
+Now that hypothetical reader will say, "Why didn't that silly old fool,
+Allan, think of all these things? Why didn't he remember that he was
+commanding a pack of savages with whom he had no real acquaintance,
+among whom there were sure to be traitors, especially as they were of
+the same blood as the Rezuites, and take precautions?"
+
+Ah! my dear reader, I will only answer that I wish you had handled the
+job yourself, and enjoyed the opportunity of seeing what _you_ could do
+in the circumstances. Do you suppose I didn't think of all these points?
+Of course I did. But have you ever heard of the difficulty of making
+silk purses out of sows' ears, or of turning a lot of gloomy and
+disagreeable barbarians whom you had never even drilled, into
+trustworthy and efficient soldiers ready to fight three times their own
+number and beat them?
+
+Also I beg to observe that I did get through somehow, as you shall
+learn, which is more than you might have done, Mr. Wisdom, though I
+admit, not without help from another quarter. It is all very well for
+you to sit in your armchair and be sapient and turn up your learned
+nose, like the gentlemen who criticise plays and poems, an easy job
+compared to the writing of them. From all of which, however, you
+will understand that I am, to tell the truth, rather ashamed of what
+followed, since _qui s'excuse, s'accuse_.
+
+As we slunk down that hill in the moonlight, a queer-looking crowd, I
+admit also that I felt very uncomfortable. To begin with I did not like
+that remark of the Medicine-man which Hans reported, to the effect that
+the feast must come after the victory, especially as he had said just
+before that Robertson was to be sacrificed as the sun rose, which would
+seem to suggest that the "victory" was planned to take place before that
+event.
+
+While I was ruminating upon this subject, I looked round for Hans to
+cross-examine him as to the priest's exact words, only to find that he
+had slunk off somewhere. A few minutes later he reappeared running back
+towards us swiftly and, I noticed, taking shelter behind tree trunks and
+rocks as he came.
+
+"Baas," he gasped, for he was out of breath, "be careful, those Rezu men
+are on either side ahead. I went forward and ran into them. They threw
+many spears at me. Look!" and he showed a slight cut on his arm from
+which blood was flowing.
+
+Instantly I understood that we were ambushed and began to think very
+hard indeed. As it chanced we were passing across a large flat space
+upon the ridge, say seven or eight acres in extent, where the bush grew
+lightly, though owing to the soil being better, the trees were tall.
+
+On the steep slope below this little plain it seemed to be denser and
+there it was, according to Hans, that the ambush was set. I halted my
+regiment and sent back messengers to the others that they were to halt
+also as they came up, on the pretext of giving them a rest before they
+were marshalled and we advanced to the battle.
+
+Then I told Umslopogaas what Hans said and asked him to send out his
+Zulu soldier whom he could trust, to see if he could obtain confirmation
+of the report. This he did at once. Also I asked him what he thought
+should be done, supposing that it was true.
+
+"Form the Amahagger into a ring or a square and await attack," he
+answered.
+
+I nodded, for that was my own opinion, but replied,
+
+"If they were Zulus, the plan would be good. But how do we know that
+these men will stand?"
+
+"We know nothing, Macumazahn, and therefore can only try. If they run it
+must be up-hill."
+
+Then I called the captains and told them what was toward, which seemed
+to alarm them very much. Indeed one or two of them wanted to retreat at
+once, but I said I would shoot the first man who tried to do so. In
+the end they agreed to my plan and said that they would post their best
+soldiers above, at the top of the square, with the orders to stop any
+attempt at a flight up the mountain.
+
+After this we formed up the square as best we could, arranging it in
+a rather rough, four-fold line. While we were doing this we heard some
+shouts below and presently the Zulu returned, who reported that all
+was as Hans had said and that Rezu's men were moving round us, having
+discovered, as he thought, that we had halted and escaped their ambush.
+
+Still the attack did not develop at once, for the reason that the Rezu
+army was crawling up the steep flanks of the spur on either side of the
+level piece of ground, with a view of encircling us altogether, so as
+to make a clean sweep of our force. As a matter of fact, considered from
+our point of view, this was a most fortunate move, since thereby they
+stopped any attempt at a retreat on the part of our Amahagger, whose
+bolt-hole was now blocked.
+
+When we had done all we could, we sat down, or at least I did, and
+waited. The night, I remember, was strangely still, only from the slopes
+on either side of our plateau came a kind of rustling sound which
+in fact was caused by the feet of Rezu's people, as they marched to
+surround us.
+
+It ceased at last and the silence grew complete, so much so that I could
+hear the teeth of some of our tall Amahagger chattering with fear, a
+sound that gave me little confidence and caused Umslopogaas to remark
+that the hearts of these big men had never grown; they remained "as
+those of babies." I told the captains to pass the word down the ranks
+that those who stood might live, but those who fled would certainly die.
+Therefore if they wished to see their homes again they had better stand
+and fight like men. Otherwise most of them would be killed and the rest
+eaten by Rezu. This was done, and I observed that the message seemed to
+produce a steadying effect upon our ranks.
+
+Suddenly all around us, from below, from above and on either side there
+broke a most awful roar which seemed to shape itself into the word,
+_Rezu_, and next minute also from above, below and either side, some ten
+thousand men poured forth upon our square.
+
+In the moonlight they looked very terrible with their flowing white
+robes and great gleaming spears. Hans and I fired some shots, though
+for all the effect they produced, we might as well have pelted a breaker
+with pebbles. Then, as I thought that I should be more useful alive than
+dead, I retreated within the square, Umslopogaas, his Zulu, and Hans
+coming with me.
+
+On the whole our Amahagger stood the attack better than I expected. They
+beat back the first rush with considerable loss to the enemy, also the
+second after a longer struggle. Then there was a pause during which we
+re-formed our ranks, dragging the wounded men into the square.
+
+Scarcely had we done this when with another mighty shout of "Rezu!" the
+enemy attacked again--that was about an hour after the battle had begun.
+But now they had changed their tactics, for instead of trying to rush
+all sides of the square at once, they concentrated their efforts on the
+western front, that which faced towards the plain below.
+
+On they came, and among them in the forefront of the battle, now and
+again I caught sight of a gigantic man, a huge creature who seemed to me
+to be seven feet high and big in proportion. I could not see him clearly
+because of the uncertain moonlight, but I noted his fierce aspect, also
+that he had an enormous beard, black streaked with grey, that flowed
+down to his middle, and that his hair hung in masses upon his shoulders.
+
+"Rezu himself!" I shouted to Umslopogaas.
+
+"Aye, Macumazahn, Rezu himself without doubt, and I rejoice to see him
+for he will be a worthy foe to fight. Look! he carries an axe as I do.
+Now I must save my strength for when we come face to face I shall need
+it all."
+
+I thought that I would spare Umslopogaas this exertion and watched my
+opportunity to put a bullet through this giant. But I could never get
+one. Once when I had covered him an Amahagger rushed in front of my gun
+so that I could not shoot, and when a second chance came a little cloud
+floated over the face of the moon and made him invisible. After that I
+had other things to which to attend, since, as I expected would happen,
+the western face of our square gave, and yelling like devils, the enemy
+began to pour in through the gap.
+
+A cold thrill went through me for I saw that the game was up. To re-form
+these undisciplined Amahagger was impossible; nothing was to be expected
+except panic, rout and slaughter. I cursed my folly for ever having had
+anything to do with the business, while Hans screamed to me in a thin
+voice that the only chance was for us three and the Zulu to bolt and
+hide in the bush.
+
+I did not answer him because, apart from any nasty pride, the thing was
+impossible, for how could we get through those struggling masses of men
+which surrounded us on every side? No, my clock had struck, so I went on
+making a kind of mental sandwich of prayers and curses; prayers for
+my soul and forgiveness for my sins, and curses on the Amahagger and
+everything to do with them, especially Zikali and the woman called
+Ayesha, who, between them, had led me into this affair.
+
+"Perhaps the Great Medicine of Zikali," piped Hans again as he fired a
+rifle at the advancing foe.
+
+"Hang the Great Medicine," I shouted back, "and Ayesha with it. No
+wonder she declined to take a hand in this business."
+
+As I spoke the words I saw old Billali, who not being a man of war was
+keeping as close to us as he could, go flat onto his venerable face, and
+reflected that he must have got a thrown spear through him. Casting a
+hurried glance at him to see if he were done for or only wounded, out
+of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something diaphanous which
+gleamed in the moonlight and reminded me of I knew not what at the
+moment.
+
+I looked round quickly to see what it might be and lo! there, almost at
+my side was the veiled Ayesha herself, holding in her hand a little rod
+made of black wood inlaid with ivory not unlike a field marshal's baton,
+or a sceptre.
+
+I never saw her come and to this day I do not know how she did so; she
+was just there and what is more she must have put luminous paint or
+something else on her robes, for they gleamed with a sort of faint,
+phosphorescent fire, which in the moonlight made her conspicuous all
+over the field of battle. Nor did she speak a single word, she only
+waved the rod, pointed with it towards the fierce hordes who were
+drawing near to us, killing as they came, and began to move forward with
+a gliding motion.
+
+Now from every side there went up a roar of "_She-who-commands!
+She-who-commands!_" while the people of Rezu in front shouted "_Lulala!
+Lulala!_ Fly, Lulala is upon us with the witchcrafts of the moon!"
+
+She moved forward and by some strange impulse, for no order was given,
+we all began to move after her. Yes, the ranks that a minute before were
+beginning to give way to wild panic, became filled with a marvellous
+courage and moved after her.
+
+The men of Rezu also, and I suppose with them Rezu himself, for I saw no
+more of him at that time, began to move uncommonly fast over the edge
+of the plateau towards the plain beneath. In fact they broke into flight
+and leaping over dead and dying, we rushed after them, always following
+the gleaming robe of Ayesha, who must have been an extremely agile
+person, since without any apparent exertion she held her place a few
+steps ahead of us.
+
+There was another curious circumstance about this affair, namely, that
+terrified though they were, those Rezuites, after the first break, soon
+seemed to find it impossible to depart with speed. They kept turning
+round to look behind them at that following vision, as though they were
+so many of Lot's wives. Moreover, the same fate overtook many of them
+which fell upon that scriptural lady, since they appeared to become
+petrified and stood there quite still, like rabbits fascinated by a
+snake, until our people came up and killed them.
+
+This slaying went on all down the last steep slope of the ridge, on
+which I suppose at least two-thirds of the army of Rezu must have
+perished, since our Amahagger showed themselves very handy men when it
+came to exterminating foes who were too terror-struck to fight, and,
+exhilarated by the occupation, gained courage every moment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SLAYING OF REZU
+
+At last we were on the plain, the bemused remnant of Rezu's army still
+doubling before us like a mob of game pursued by wild dogs. Here we
+halted to re-form our ranks; it seemed to me, although still she spoke
+no word, that some order reached me from the gleaming Ayesha that
+I should do this. The business took twenty minutes or so, and then,
+numbering about two thousand five hundred strong, for the rest had
+fallen in the fight of the square, we advanced again.
+
+Now there came that dusk which often precedes the rising of the sun, and
+through it I could see that the battle was not yet over, since gathered
+in front of us was still a force about equal to our own. Ayesha pointed
+towards it with her wand and we leapt forward to the attack. Here the
+men of Rezu stood awaiting us, for they seemed to overcome their terror
+with the approach of day.
+
+The battle was fierce, a very strange battle in that dim, uncertain
+light, which scarcely showed us friend from foe. Indeed I am not sure
+that we should have won it, since Ayesha was no longer visible to give
+our Amahagger confidence, and as the courage of the Rezuites increased,
+so theirs seemed to lessen with the passing of the night.
+
+Fortunately, however, just as the issue hung doubtful, there was a
+shout to our left and looking, I made out the tall shape of Goroko, the
+witch-doctor, with the other Zulu, followed by his two hundred and fifty
+men, and leaping on to the flank of the line of Rezu.
+
+That settled the business. The enemy crumpled up and melted, and just
+then the first lights of dawn appeared in the sky. I looked about me for
+Ayesha, but she had gone, where to I knew not, though at the moment I
+feared that she must have been killed in the m�l�e.
+
+Then I gave up looking and thinking, since now or never was the time
+for action. Signalling and shouting to those hatchet-faced Amahagger to
+advance, accompanied by Umslopogaas with Goroko who had joined us, and
+Hans, I sprang forward to give them an example, which, to be just to
+them, they took.
+
+"This is the mound on which Red-Beard should be," cried Hans as we faced
+a little slope.
+
+I ran up it and through the gloom which precedes the actual dawn, saw a
+group of men gathered round something, as people collect about a street
+accident.
+
+"Red-Beard on the stone. They are killing him," screeched Hans again.
+
+It was so; at least several white-robed priests were bending over a
+prostrate figure with knives in their hands, while behind stood the huge
+fellow whom I took to be Rezu, staring towards the east as though he
+were waiting for the rim of the sun to appear before he gave some order.
+At that very moment it did appear, just a thin edge of bright light on
+the horizon, and he turned, shouting the order.
+
+Too late! For we were on them. Umslopogaas cut down one of the priests
+with his axe, and the men about me dealt with the others, while Hans
+with a couple of sweeps of his long knife, severed the cords with which
+Robertson was tied.
+
+The poor man who in the growing light I could see was raving mad, sprang
+up, calling out something in Scotch about "the deil." Seizing a great
+spear which had fallen from the hand of one of the priests, he rushed
+furiously at the giant who had given the order, and with a yell drove
+it at his heart. I saw the spear snap, from which I concluded that this
+man, whom rightly I took to be Rezu, wore some kind of armour.
+
+Next instant the axe he held, a great weapon, flashed aloft and down
+went Robertson before its awful stroke, stone dead, for as we found out
+afterwards, he was cloven almost in two. At the sight of the death of
+my poor friend rage took hold of me. In my hand was a double-barrelled
+rifle, an Express loaded with hollow-pointed bullets. I covered the
+giant and let drive, first with one barrel and then with the other, and
+what is more, distinctly I heard both bullets strike upon him.
+
+Yet he did not fall. He rocked a little, that is all, then turned and
+marched off towards a hut, that whereof Hans had told me, which stood
+about fifty yards away.
+
+"Leave him to me," shouted Umslopogaas. "Steel cuts where bullets cannot
+pierce," and with a bound like to that of a buck, the great Zulu leapt
+away after him.
+
+I think that Rezu meant to enter the hut for some purpose of his own,
+but Umslopogaas was too hard upon his tracks. At any rate he ran past it
+and down the other slope of the little hill on to the plain behind where
+the remnants of his army were trying to re-form. There in front of them
+the giant turned and stood at bay.
+
+Umslopogaas halted also, waiting for us to come up, since, cunning old
+warrior as he was, he feared lest should he begin the fight before that
+happened, the horde of them would fall on him. Thirty seconds later
+we arrived and found him standing still with bent body, small shield
+advanced and the great axe raised as though in the act of striking, a
+wondrous picture outlined as it was against the swiftly rising-sun.
+
+Some ten paces away stood the giant leaning on the axe he bore, which
+was not unlike to that with which woodmen fell big trees. He was an evil
+man to see and at this, my first full sight of him, I likened him in
+my mind to Goliath whom David overthrew. Huge he was and hairy, with
+deep-set, piercing eyes and a great hooked nose. His face seemed thin
+and ancient also, when with a motion of the great head, he tossed his
+long locks back from about it, but his limbs were those of a Hercules
+and his movements full of a youthful vigour. Moreover his aspect as a
+whole was that of a devil rather than of a man; indeed the sight of it
+sickened me.
+
+"Let me shoot him," I cried to Umslopogaas, for I had reloaded the rifle
+as I ran.
+
+"Nay, Watcher-by-Night," answered the Zulu without moving his head,
+"rifle has had its chance and failed. Now let us see what axe can do. If
+I cannot kill this man, I will be borne hence feet first who shall have
+made a long journey for nothing."
+
+Then the giant began to talk in a low, rumbling voice that reverberated
+from the slope of the little hill behind us.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, speaking in the same tongue that the Amahagger
+use, "who dare to come face to face with Rezu? Black hound, do you not
+know that I cannot be slain who have lived a year for every week of your
+life's days, and set my foot upon the necks of men by thousands. Have
+you not seen the spear shatter and the iron balls melt upon my breast
+like rain-drops, and would you try to bring me down with that toy you
+carry? My army is defeated--I know it. But what matters that when I can
+get me more? Because the sacrifice was not completed and the white queen
+was not wed, therefore my army was defeated by the magic of Lulala, the
+White Witch who dwells in the tombs. But _I_ am not defeated who cannot
+be slain until I show my back, and then only by a certain axe which long
+ago has rusted into dust."
+
+Now of this long speech Umslopogaas understood nothing, so I answered
+for him, briefly enough, but to the point, for there flashed into my
+mind all Ayesha's tale about an axe.
+
+"A certain axe!" I cried. "Aye, a certain axe! Well, look at that which
+is held by the Black One, the captain who is named Slaughterer, the
+ancient axe whose title is Chieftainess, because if so she wills, she
+takes the lives of all. Look at it well, Rezu, Giant and Wizard, and
+say whether it is not that which your forefather lost, that which is
+destined to bring you to your doom?"
+
+Thus I spoke, very loudly that all might hear, slowly also, pausing
+between each word because I wished to give time for the light to
+strengthen, seeing as I did that the rays of the rising sun struck upon
+the face of the giant, whereas the eyes of Umslopogaas were less dazzled
+by it.
+
+Rezu heard, and stared at the axe which Umslopogaas held aloft, causing
+it to quiver slightly by an imperceptible motion of his arm. As he
+stared I saw his hideous face change, and that on it for the first time
+gathered a look of something resembling fear. Also his followers behind
+him who were also studying the axe, began to murmur together.
+
+For here I should say that as though by common consent the battle had
+been stayed; we no longer attacked and the enemy no longer ran. They,
+or whose who were left of them, stood still as though they felt that the
+real and ultimate issue of the fight depended upon the forthcoming duel
+between these two champions, though of that issue they had little
+doubt since, as I learned afterwards, they believed their king to be
+invulnerable.
+
+For quite a while Rezu went on staring. Then he said aloud as if he were
+thinking to himself.
+
+"It is like, very like. The horn haft is the same; the pointed gouge is
+the same; the blade shaped like the young moon is the same. Almost could
+I think that before me shook the ancient holy axe. Nay, the gods have
+taken that back long ago and this is but a trick of the witch, Lulala of
+the Caves."
+
+Thus he spoke, but still for a moment hesitated.
+
+"Umslopogaas," I said in the deep silence that followed, "hear me."
+
+"I hear you," he answered without turning his head or moving his arms.
+"What counsel, Watcher-by-Night?"
+
+"This, Slaughterer. Strike not at that man's face and breast, for there
+I think he is protected by witchcraft or by armour. Get behind him and
+strike at his back. Do you understand?"
+
+"Nay, Macumazahn, I understand not. Yet I will do your bidding because
+you are wiser than I and utter no empty words. Now be still."
+
+Then Umslopogaas threw the axe into the air and caught it as it fell,
+and as he did so began to chant his own praises Zulu fashion.
+
+"Oho!" he said, "I am the child of the Lion, the Black-maned Lion, whose
+claws never loosened of their prey. I am the Wolf-king, he who hunted
+with the wolves upon the Witch-mountain with my brother, Bearer of
+the Club named Watcher-of-the-Fords, I am he who slew him called the
+Unconquered, Chief of the People of the Axe, he who bore the ancient Axe
+before me; I am he who smote the Halakazi tribe in their caves and won
+me Nada the Lily to wife. I am he who took to the King Dingaan a gift
+that he loved little, and afterward with Mopo, my foster-sire, hurled
+this Dingaan down to death. I am the Royal One, named Bulalio the
+Slaughterer, named Woodpecker, named Umhlopekazi the Captain, before
+whom never yet man has stood in fair and open fight. Now, thou Wizard
+Rezu, now thou Giant, now thou Ghost-man, come on against me and before
+the sun has risen by a hand's breadth, all those who watch shall see
+which of us is better at the game of war. Come on, then! Come on, for
+I say that my blood boils over and my feet grow cold. Come on, thou
+grinning dog, thou monster grown fat with eating the flesh of men, thou
+hook-beaked vulture, thou old, grey-whiskered wolf!"
+
+Thus he changed in his fierce, boastful way, while his two remaining
+Zulus clapped their hands and sentence by sentence echoed his words, and
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, muttered incantations behind him.
+
+While he sang thus Umslopogaas began to stir. First only his head and
+shoulders moved gently, swaying from side to side like a reed shaken in
+the wind or a snake about to strike. Then slowly he put out first one
+foot and next the other and drew them back again, as a dancer might do,
+tempting Rezu to attack.
+
+But the giant would not, his shield held before him, he stood still and
+waited to see what this black warrior would do.
+
+The snake struck. Umslopogaas darted in and let drive with the long
+axe. Rezu raised his shield above his head and caught the blow. From the
+clank it made I knew that this shield which seemed to be of hide, was
+lined with iron. Rezu smote back, but before the blow could fall the
+Zulu was out of his reach. This taught me how great was the giant's
+strength, for though the stroke was heavy, like the steel-hatted axe he
+bore, still when he saw that it had missed he checked the weapon in mid
+air, which only a mighty man could have done.
+
+Umslopogaas saw these things also and changed his tactics. His axe was
+six or eight inches longer in the haft than that of Rezu, and therefore
+he could reach where Rezu could not, for the giant was short-armed.
+He twisted it round in his hand so that the moon-shaped blade was
+uppermost, and keeping it almost at full length, began to peck with the
+gouge-shaped point on the back at the head and arms of Rezu, that as I
+knew was a favourite trick of his in fight from which he won his name
+of "Woodpecker." Rezu defended his head with his shield as best he could
+against the sharp points of steel which flashed all about him.
+
+Twice it seemed to me that the Zulu's pecks went home upon the giant's
+breast, but if so they did no harm. Either Rezu's thick beard, or armour
+beneath it stopped them from penetrating his body. Still he roared
+out as though with pain, or fury, or both, and growing mad, charged at
+Umslopogaas and smote with all his strength.
+
+The Zulu caught the blow upon his shield, through which it shore as
+though the tough hide were paper. Stay the stroke it could not, yet it
+turned its direction, so that the falling axe slid past Umslopogaas's
+shoulder, doing him no hurt. Next instant, before Rezu could strike
+again, the Zulu threw the severed shield into his face and seizing the
+axe with both hands, leapt in and struck. It was a mighty blow, for I
+saw the rhinoceros-horn handle of the famous axe bend like a drawn bow,
+and it went home with a dull thud full upon Rezu's breast. He shook, but
+no more. Evidently the razor edge of _Inkosikaas_ had failed to pierce.
+There was a sound as though a hollow tree had been smitten and some
+strands of the long beard, shorn off, fell to the ground, but that was
+all.
+
+"_Tagati!_ (bewitched)," cried the watching Zulus. "That stroke should
+have cut him in two!" while I thought to myself that this man knew how
+to make good armour.
+
+Rezu laughed aloud, a bellowing kind of laugh, while Umslopogaas sprang
+back astonished.
+
+"Is it thus!" he cried in Zulu. "Well, all wizards have some door by
+which their Spirit enters and departs. I must find the door, I must find
+the door!"
+
+So he spoke and with springing movements tried to get past Rezu, first
+to the right and then to the left, all the while keeping out of reach.
+But Rezu ever turned and faced him, as he did so retreating step by
+step down the slope of the little hill and striking whenever he found a
+chance, but without avail, for always Umslopogaas was beyond his reach.
+Also the sunlight which now grew strong, dazzled him, or so I thought.
+Moreover he seemed to tire somewhat--or so I thought also.
+
+At any rate he determined to make an end of the play, for with a swift
+motion, as Umslopogaas had done, he threw away his shield and grasping
+the iron handle of his axe with both hands, charged the Zulu like a
+bull. Umslopogaas leapt back out of reach. Then suddenly he turned and
+ran up the rise. Yes, Bulalio the Slaughterer ran!
+
+A roar of mockery went up from the sun-worshippers behind, while our
+Amahagger laughed and Goroko and the two Zulus stared astonished and
+ashamed. Only I read his mind aright and wondered what guile he had
+conceived.
+
+He ran, and Rezu ran after him, but never could he catch the
+swiftest-footed man in Zululand. To and fro he followed him, for
+Umslopogaas was taking a zig-zag path towards the crest of the slope,
+till at length Rezu stopped breathless. But Umslopogaas still ran
+another twenty yards or so until he reached the top of the slope and
+there halted and wheeled round.
+
+For ten seconds or more he stood drawing his breath in great gasps, and,
+looking at his face, I saw that it had become as the face of a wolf.
+His lips were drawn up into a terrible grin, showing the white teeth
+between; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in and his eyes glared, while
+the skin over the hole in his forehead beat up and down.
+
+There he stood, gathering himself together for some mighty effort.
+
+"Run on!" shouted the spectators. "Run back to K�r, black dog!"
+
+Umslopogaas knew that they were mocking him, but he took no heed, only
+bent down and rubbed his sweating hand in the grit of the dry earth.
+Then he straightened himself and charged down on Rezu.
+
+I, Allan Quatermain, have seen many things in battle, but never before
+or since did I see aught like to this charge. It was swift as that of
+a lioness, so swift that the Zulu's feet scarcely seemed to touch the
+ground. On he sped like a thrown spear, till, when within about a dozen
+feet of Rezu who stood staring at him, he bent his frame almost double
+and leapt into the air.
+
+Oh! what a leap was that. Surely he must have learnt it from the lion,
+or the spring-buck. High he rose and now I saw his purpose; it was to
+clear the tall shape of Rezu. Aye, and he cleared him with half a foot
+to spare, and as he passed above, smote downwards with the axe so that
+the blow fell upon the back of Rezu's head. Moreover it went home this
+time, for I saw the red blood stream and Rezu fell forward on his face.
+Umslopogaas landed far beyond him, ran a little way because he must,
+then wheeled round and charged again.
+
+Rezu was rising, but before he gained his feet, the axe _Inkosikaas_
+thundered down where the neck joins the shoulder and sank in. Still, so
+great was his strength that Rezu found his feet and smote out wildly.
+But now his movements were slow and again Umslopogaas got behind him,
+smiting at his back. Once, twice, thrice, he smote, and at the third
+blow it seemed as though the massive spine were severed, for his weapon
+fell from Rezu's hand and slowly he sank down to the ground, and lay
+there, a huddled heap.
+
+Believing that all was over I ran to where he lay with Umslopogaas
+standing over him, as it seemed to me, utterly exhausted, for he
+supported himself by the axe and tottered upon his feet. But Rezu was
+not yet dead. He opened his cavernous eyes and glared at the Zulu with a
+look of hellish hate.
+
+"_Thou_ hast not conquered me, Black One," he gasped. "It is thine axe
+which gave thee victory; the ancient, holy axe that once was mine until
+the woman stole it, yes, that and the craft of the Witch of the Caves
+who told thee to smite where the Spirit of Life which I feared to enter
+wholly, had not kissed my flesh, and there only left me mortal. Wolf of
+a black man, may we meet elsewhere and fight this fray again. Ah! would
+that I could get these hands about thy throat and take thee with me down
+into the Darkness. But Lulala wins if only for a while, since her fate,
+I think, shall be worse than mine. Ah! I see the magic beauty that she
+boasts turn to shameful----"
+
+Here of a sudden life left him and throwing his great arms wide, a last
+breath passed bubbling from his lips.
+
+As I stooped to examine the man's huge and hairy carcase that to me
+looked only half human, with a thunder of feet our Amahagger rushed down
+upon us and thrusting me aside, fell upon the body of their ancient foe
+like hounds upon a helpless fox, and with hands and spears and knives
+literally tore and hacked it limb from limb, till no semblance of
+humanity remained.
+
+It was impossible to stop them; indeed I was too outworn with labours
+and emotions to make any such attempt. This I regret the more since
+I lost the opportunity of making an examination of the body of this
+troll-like man, and of ascertaining what kind of armour it was he wore
+beneath that great beard of his, which was strong enough to stop my
+bullets, and even the razor edge of the axe _Inkosikaas_ driven with all
+the might of the arms of the Zulu, Bulalio. For when I looked again
+at the sickening sight the giant was but scattered fragments and the
+armour, whatever it might have been, was gone, rent to little pieces and
+carried off, doubtless, by the Amahagger, perhaps to be divided between
+them to serve as charms.
+
+So of Rezu I know only that he was the hugest, most terrible-looking
+man I have ever seen, one too who carried his vast strength very late
+in life, since from the aspect of his countenance I imagine that he must
+have been nigh upon seventy years of age, though his supposed unnatural
+antiquity of course was nothing but a fable put about by the natives for
+their own purposes.
+
+Presently Umslopogaas seemed to recover from the kind of faint into
+which he had fallen and opening his eyes, looked about him. The first
+person they fell on was old Billali who stood stroking his white beard
+and contemplating the scene with an air which was at once philosophic
+and satisfied. This seemed to anger Umslopogaas, for he cried,
+
+"I think it was you, ancient bag of words and sweeper of paths for the
+feet of the great, who made a mock of me but now, when you thought
+that I fled before the horns of yonder man-eating bull--" and he nodded
+towards the fragments of what once had been Rezu. "Find now his axe
+and though I am weak and weary, I will wash away the insult with your
+blood."
+
+"What does this glorious black hero say, Watcher-by-Night?" asked
+Billali in his most courteous tones.
+
+I told him word by word, whereon Billali lifted his hands in horror,
+turned and fled. Nor did I see him again until we arrived at K�r.
+
+
+
+At the sight of the fall of their giant chief Rezu whom they believed
+to be invulnerable, his followers, who were watching the fray, set up
+a great wailing, a most mournful and uncanny noise to hear. Then, as I
+think did the hosts of the Philistines when David brought down Goliath
+by his admirable shot with a stone, they set out for their homes
+wherever these may have been, at an absolutely record pace and in the
+completest disarray.
+
+Our Amahagger followed them for a while, but soon were left standing
+still. So they contented themselves with killing any wounded they could
+find and returned. I did not accompany them; indeed the battle being
+won, metaphorically I washed my hands of them, and in my thoughts
+consigned them to a certain locality as a people of whom it might
+well be said that manners they had none and their customs were simply
+beastly. Also, although fierce and cruel, these night-bats were not
+good fighting men and in short never did I wish to have to do with such
+another company.
+
+Moreover, a very different matter pressed. The object of this business
+so far as I was concerned, had been to rescue poor Inez, since had
+it not been for her sake, never would I have consented to lead those
+Amahagger against their fellow blackguards, the Rezuites.
+
+But where was Inez? If Hans had understood the medicine-man aright,
+she was, or had been, in the hut, where it was my earnest hope that she
+still remained, since otherwise the hunt must be continued. This at
+any rate was easy to discover. Calling Hans, who was amusing himself
+by taking long shots at the flying enemy, so that they might not forget
+him, as he said, and the Zulus, I walked up the slope to the hut, or
+rather booth of boughs, for it was quite twenty feet long by twelve or
+fifteen broad.
+
+At its eastern end was a doorway or opening closed with a heavy curtain.
+Here I paused full of tremors, and listened, for to tell the truth I
+dreaded to draw that curtain, fearing what I might see within. Gathering
+up my courage at length I tore it aside and, a revolver in my hand,
+looked in. At first after the strong light without, for the sun was now
+well up, I could see nothing, since those green boughs and palm leaves
+were very closely woven. As my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom,
+however, I perceived a glittering object seated on a kind of throne
+at the end of the booth, while in a double row in front knelt six
+white-robed women who seemed to wear chains about their necks and
+carried large knives slung round their middles. On the floor between
+these women and the throne lay a dead man, a priest of some sort as
+I gathered from his garb, who still held a huge spear in his hand. So
+silent were the figure on the throne and those that knelt before it,
+that at first I thought that all of them must be dead.
+
+"Lady Sad-Eyes," whispered Hans, "and her bride-women. Doubtless that
+old Predikant came to kill her when he saw that the battle was lost, but
+the bride-women killed him with their knives."
+
+Here I may state that Hans' suppositions proved to be quite correct,
+which shows how quick and deductive was his mind. The figure on the
+throne was Inez; the priest in his disappointed rage _had_ come to kill
+her, and the bride-women had killed _him_ with their knives before he
+could do so.
+
+I bade the Zulus tear down the curtain and pull away some of the end
+boughs, so as to let in more light. Then we advanced up the place,
+holding our pistols and spears in readiness. The kneeling women turned
+their heads to look at us and I saw that they were all young and
+handsome in their fashion, although fierce-faced. Also I saw their hands
+go to the knives they wore. I called to them to let these be and come
+out, and that if they did so they had nothing to fear. But if they
+understood, they did not heed my words.
+
+On the contrary while Hans and I covered them with our pistols, fearing
+lest they should stab the person on the throne whom we took to be Inez,
+at some word from one of them, they bowed simultaneously towards her,
+then at another word, suddenly they drew the knives and plunged them to
+their own hearts!
+
+It was a dreadful sight and one of which I never saw the like. Nor to
+this day do I know why the deed was done, unless perhaps the women were
+sworn to the service of the new queen and feared that if they failed to
+protect her, they would be doomed to some awful end. At any rate we got
+them out dead or dying, for their blows had been strong and true, and
+not one of them lived for more than a few minutes.
+
+Then I advanced to the figure on the throne, or rather foot-stooled
+chair of black wood inlaid with ivory, which sat so silent and
+motionless that I was certain it was that of a dead woman, especially
+when I perceived that she was fastened to the chair with leather straps,
+which were sewn over with gold wire. Also she was veiled and, with one
+exception, made up, if I may use the term, exactly to resemble the lady
+Ayesha, even down to the two long plaits of black hair, each finished
+with some kind of pearl and to the sandalled feet.
+
+The exception was that about her hung a great necklace of gold ornaments
+from which were suspended pendants also of gold representing the rayed
+disc of the sun in rude but bold and striking workmanship.
+
+I went to her and having cut the straps, since I could not stop to untie
+their knots, lifted the veil.
+
+Beneath it was Inez sure enough, and Inez living, for her breast rose
+and fell as she breathed, but Inez senseless. Her eyes were wide open,
+yet she was quite senseless. Probably she had been drugged, or perhaps
+some of the sights of horror which she saw, had taken away her mind. I
+confess that I was glad that this was so, who otherwise must have told
+her the dreadful story of her father's end.
+
+We bore her out and away from that horrible place, apparently quite
+unhurt, and laid her under the shadow of a tree till a litter could be
+procured. I could do no more who knew not how to treat her state, and
+had no spirits with me to pour down her throat.
+
+
+
+This was the end of our long pursuit, and thus we rescued Inez, whom the
+Zulus called the Lady Sad-Eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE SPELL
+
+Of our return to K�r I need say nothing, except that in due course we
+reached that interesting ruin. The journey was chiefly remarkable for
+one thing, that on this occasion, I imagine for the first and last time
+in his life, Umslopogaas consented to be carried in a litter, at least
+for part of the way. He was, as I have said, unwounded, for the axe
+of his mighty foe had never once so much as touched his skin. What he
+suffered from was shock, a kind of collapse, since, although few would
+have thought it, this great and utterly fearless warrior was at bottom a
+nervous, highly-strung man.
+
+It is only the nervous that climb the highest points of anything, and
+this is true of fights as of all others. That fearful fray with Rezu had
+been a great strain on the Zulu. As he put it himself, "the wizard had
+sucked the strength" out of him, especially when he found that owing
+to his armour he could not harm him in front, and owing to his cunning
+could not get at him behind. Then it was that he conceived the desperate
+expedient of leaping over his head and smiting backwards as he leapt,
+a trick, he told me, that he had once played years before when he was
+young, in order to break a shield ring and reach one who stood in its
+centre.
+
+In this great leap over Rezu's head Umslopogaas knew that he must
+succeed, or be slain, which in turn would mean my death and that of the
+others. For this reason he faced the shame of seeming to fly in order to
+gain the higher ground, whence alone he could gather the speed necessary
+to such a terrific spring.
+
+Well, he made it and thereby conquered, and this was the end, but as he
+said, it had left him, "weak as a snake when it crawls out of its hole
+into the sun after the long winter sleep."
+
+Of one thing, Umslopogaas added, he was thankful, namely that Rezu
+had never succeeded in getting his arms round him, since he was quite
+certain that if he had he would have broken him "as a baboon breaks a
+mealie-stalk." No strength, not even his, could have resisted the iron
+might of that huge, gorilla-like man.
+
+I agreed with him who had noted Rezu's vast chest and swelling muscles,
+also the weight of the blows that he struck with the steel-hafted
+axe (which, by the way, when I sought for it, was missing, stolen, I
+suppose, by one of the Amahagger).
+
+Whence did that strength come, I wondered, in one who from his face
+appeared to be old? Was there perchance, after all, some truth in the
+legend of Samson and did it dwell in that gigantic beard and those long
+locks of his? It was impossible to say and probably the man was but a
+Herculean freak, for that he was as strong as Hercules all the stories
+that I heard afterwards of his feats, left little room for doubt.
+
+About one thing only was I certain in connection with him, namely, that
+the tales of his supernatural abilities were the merest humbug. He was
+simply one of the representatives of the family of "strong men," of whom
+examples are still to be seen doing marvellous feats all over the earth.
+
+For the rest, he was dead and broken up by those Amahagger blood-hounds
+before I could examine him, or his body-armour either, and there was
+an end of him and his story. But when I looked at the corpse of poor
+Robertson, which I did as we buried it where he fell, and saw that
+though so large and thick-set, it was cleft almost in two by a single
+blow of Rezu's axe, I came to understand what the might of this savage
+must have been.
+
+I say savage, but I am not sure that this is a right description of
+Rezu. Evidently he had a religion of a sort, also imagination, as was
+shown by the theft of the white woman to be his queen; by his veiling
+of her to resemble Ayesha whom he dreaded; by the intended propitiatory
+sacrifice; by the guard of women sworn to her service who slew the
+priest that tried to kill her, and afterwards committed suicide when
+they had failed in their office, and by other things. All this indicated
+something more than savagery, perhaps survivals from a forgotten
+civilisation, or perhaps native ability on the part of an individual
+ruler. I do not know and it matters nothing.
+
+Rezu is dead and the world is well rid of him, and those who want to
+learn more of his people can go to study such as remain of them in their
+own habitat, which for my part I never wish to visit any more.
+
+
+
+During our journey to K�r poor Inez never stirred. Whenever I went to
+look at her in the litter, I found her lying there with her eyes open
+and a fixed stare upon her face which frightened me very much, since I
+began to fear lest she should die. However I could do nothing to help
+her, except urge the bearers to top speed. So swiftly did we travel down
+the hill and across the plain that we reached K�r just as the sun was
+setting. As we crossed the moat I perceived old Billali coming to meet
+us. This he did with many bows, keeping an anxious eye upon the litter
+which he had learned contained Umslopogaas. Indeed his attitude and that
+of the Amahagger towards the two of us, and even Hans, thenceforward
+became almost abject, since after our victory over Rezu and his death
+beneath the axe, they looked upon us as half divine and treated us
+accordingly.
+
+"O mighty General," he said, "She-who-commands bids me conduct the lady
+who is sick to the place that has been made ready for her, which is near
+your own so that you may watch over her if you will."
+
+I wondered how Ayesha knew that Inez was sick, but being too tired
+to ask questions, merely bade him lead on. This he did, taking us to
+another ruined house next to our own quarters which had been swept,
+cleaned and furnished after a fashion, and moreover cleverly roofed in
+with mats, so that it was really quite comfortable. Here we found two
+middle-aged women of a very superior type, who, Billali informed me,
+were by trade nurses of the sick. Having seen her laid upon her bed, I
+committed Inez to their charge, since the case was not one that I dared
+to try to doctor myself, not knowing what drug of the few I possessed
+should be administered to her. Moreover Billali comforted me with the
+information that soon She-who-commands would visit her and "make her
+well again," as she could do.
+
+I answered that I hoped so and went to our quarters where I found an
+excellent meal ready cooked and with it a stone flagon, of the contents
+of which Billali said we were all three to drink by the command of
+Ayesha, who declared that it would take away our weariness.
+
+I tried the stuff, which was pale yellow in colour like sherry and, for
+aught I knew, might be poison, to find it most comforting, though it
+did not seem to be very strong to the taste. Certainly, too, its effects
+were wonderful, since presently all my great weariness fell from me
+like a discarded cloak, and I found myself with a splendid appetite and
+feeling better and stronger than I had done for years. In short that
+drink was a "cocktail" of the best, one of which I only wish I possessed
+the recipe, though Ayesha told me afterwards that it was distilled from
+quite harmless herbs and not in any sense a spirit.
+
+Having discovered this, I gave some of it to Hans, also to Umslopogaas,
+who was with the wounded Zulus, who, we found, were progressing well
+towards complete recovery, and lastly to Goroko who also was worn
+out. On all of these the effect of that magical brew proved most
+satisfactory.
+
+Then, having washed, I ate a splendid dinner, though in this respect
+Hans, who was seated on the ground nearby, far outpassed my finest
+efforts.
+
+"Baas," he said, "things have gone very well with us when they might
+have gone very ill. The Baas Red-Beard is dead, which is a good thing,
+since a madman would have been difficult to look after, and a brain full
+of moonshine is a bad companion for any one. Oh! without doubt he is
+better dead, though your reverend father the Predikant will have a hard
+job looking after him there in the Place of Fires."
+
+"Perhaps," I said with a sigh, "since it is better to be dead than
+to live a lunatic. But what I fear is that the lady his daughter will
+follow him."
+
+"Oh, no! Baas," replied Hans cheerfully, "though I daresay that she
+will always be a little mad also, because you see it is in her blood and
+doubtless she has looked on dreadful things. But the Great Medicine will
+see to it that she does not die after we have taken so much trouble
+and gone into such big dangers to save her. That Great Medicine is very
+wonderful, Baas. First of all it makes you General over those Amahagger
+who without you would never have fought, as the Witch who ties up her
+head in a cloth knew well enough. Then it brings us safe through the
+battle and gives strength to Umslopogaas to kill the old man-eating
+giant."
+
+"Why did it not give _me_ strength to kill him, Hans? I let him have two
+Express bullets on his chest, which hurt him no more than a tap upon the
+horns with a dancing stick would hurt a bull-buffalo."
+
+"Oh! Baas, perhaps you missed him, who because you hit things sometimes,
+think that you do so always."
+
+Having waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which
+of course I did not, he went on by way of letting me down easily, "Or
+perhaps he wore very good armour under his beard, for I saw some of
+those Amahagger who pulled his hair off and cut him to pieces, go away
+with what looked like little bits of brass. Also the Great Medicine
+meant that he should be killed by Umslopogaas and not by you, since
+otherwise Umslopogaas would have been sad for the rest of his life,
+whereas now he will walk about the world as proud as a cock with two
+tails and crow all night as well as all day. Then, Baas, when Rezu broke
+the square and the Amahagger began to run, without doubt it was the
+Great Medicine which changed their hearts and made them brave again, so
+that they charged at the right moment when they saw it going forward on
+your breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the cannibals."
+
+"Indeed! I thought that the Lady who dwells yonder had something to do
+with that business. Did you see her, Hans?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted the
+cloth from over her head and when the people of Rezu saw how ugly was
+the face beneath, it did frighten them a little. But doubtless the Great
+Medicine put that thought into her also, for, Baas, what could a silly
+woman do in such a case? Did you ever know of a woman who was of any use
+in a battle, or for anything else except to nurse babies, and this one
+does not even do that, no doubt because being so hideous under that
+sheet, no man can be found to marry her."
+
+Now I looked up by chance and in the light of the lamps saw Ayesha
+standing in the room, which she had entered through the open doorway,
+within six feet of Hans' back indeed.
+
+"Be sure Baas," he went on, "that this bundle of rags is nothing but a
+common old cheat who frightens people by pretending to be a spook, as,
+if she dared to say that it was she who made those stinking Amahagger
+charge, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would tell
+her to her face."
+
+Now I was too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it was
+fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch, she moved a little so that
+one of the lamps behind her caused her shadow to fall on to the back
+of the squatting Hans and over it on to the floor beyond. He saw it and
+stared at the distorted shape of the hooded head, then slowly screwed
+his neck round and looked upwards behind him.
+
+For a moment he went on staring as though he were frozen, then uttering
+a wild yell, he scrambled to his feet, bolted out of the house and
+vanished into the night.
+
+"It seems, Allan," said Ayesha slowly, "that yonder yellow ape of yours
+is very bold at throwing sticks when the leopardess is not beneath the
+tree. But when she comes it is otherwise with him. Oh! make no excuse,
+for I know well that he was speaking ill things of me, because being
+curious, as apes are, he burns to learn what is behind my veil, and
+being simple, believes that no woman would hide her face unless its
+fashion were not pleasing to the nice taste of men."
+
+Then, to my relief, she laughed a little, softly, which showed me that
+she had a sense of humour, and went on, "Well, let him be, for he is a
+good ape and courageous in his fashion, as he showed when he went out to
+spy upon the host of Rezu, and stabbed the murderer-priest by the stone
+of sacrifice."
+
+"How can you know the words of Hans, Ayesha," I asked, "seeing that he
+spoke in a tongue which you have never learned?"
+
+"Perchance I read faces, Allan."
+
+"Or backs," I suggested, remembering that his was turned to her.
+
+"Or backs, or voices, or hearts. It matters little which, since read I
+do. But have done with such childish talk and lead me to this maiden who
+has been snatched from the claws of Rezu and a fate that is worse than
+death. Do you understand, Allan, that ere the demon Rezu took her to
+wife, the plan was to sacrifice her own father to her and then eat him
+as the woman with her was eaten, and before her eyes? Now the father is
+dead, which is well, as I think the little yellow man said to you--nay,
+start not, I read it from his back [Ha!--JB]--since had he lived whose
+brain was rotted, he would have raved till his death's day. Better,
+therefore, that he should die like a man fighting against a foe
+unconquerable by all save one. But she still lives."
+
+"Aye, but mindless, Ayesha."
+
+"Which, in great trouble such as she has passed, is a blessed state, O
+Allan. Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your
+own life when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And
+should we not, perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we
+could not remember, foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven, but
+believe me, the real Heaven is one of dreamless sleep, since life
+and wakefulness, however high their scale and on whatever star, mean
+struggle, which being so oft mistaken, must breed sorrow--or remorse
+that spoils all. Come now."
+
+So I preceded her to the next ruined house where we found Inez lying on
+the bed still clothed in her barbaric trappings, although the veil had
+been drawn off her face. There she lay, wide-eyed and still, while the
+women watched her. Ayesha looked at her a while, then said to me,
+
+"So they tricked her out to be Ayesha's mock and image, and in time
+accepted by those barbarians as my very self, and even set the seals
+of royalty on her," and she pointed to the gold discs stamped with the
+likeness of the sun. "Well, she is a fair maiden, white and gently bred,
+the first such that I have seen for many an age. Nor did she wish this
+trickery. Moreover she has taken no hurt; her soul has sunk deep into a
+sea of horror and that is all, whence doubtless it can be drawn again.
+Yet I think it best that for a while she should remember naught, lest
+her brain break, as did her father's, and therefore no net of mine shall
+drag her back to memory. Let that return gently in future days, and then
+of it not too much, for so shall all this terror become to her a void in
+which sad shapes move like shadows, and as shadows are soon forgot
+and gone, no more to be held than dreams by the awakening sense. Stand
+aside, Allan, and you women, leave us for a while."
+
+I obeyed, and the women bowed and went. Then Ayesha drew up her veil,
+and knelt down by the bed of Inez, but in such a fashion that I could
+not see her face although I admit that I tried to do so. I could see,
+however, that she set her lips against those of Inez and as I gathered
+by her motions, seemed to breathe into her lips. Also she lifted her
+hands and placing one of them upon the heart of Inez, for a minute or
+more swayed the other from side to side above her eyes, pausing at times
+to touch her upon the forehead with her finger-tips.
+
+Presently Inez stirred and sat up, whereon Ayesha took a vessel of milk
+which stood upon the floor and held it to her lips. Inez drank to the
+last drop, then sank on to the bed again. For a while longer Ayesha
+continued the motions of her hands, then let fall her veil and rose.
+
+"Look, I have laid a spell upon her," she said, beckoning to me to draw
+near.
+
+I did so and perceived that now the eyes of Inez were shut and that she
+seemed to be plunged in a deep and natural sleep.
+
+"So she will remain for this night and that day which follows," said
+Ayesha, "and when she wakes it will be, I think, to believe herself once
+more a happy child. Not until she sees her home again will she find
+her womanhood, and then all this story will be forgotten by her. Of
+her father you must tell her that he died when you went out to hunt the
+river-beasts together, and if she seeks for certain others, that they
+have gone away. But I think that she will ask little more when she
+learns that he is dead, since I have laid that command upon her soul."
+
+"Hypnotic suggestion," thought I to myself, "and I only hope to heaven
+that it will work."
+
+Ayesha seemed to guess what was passing through my mind, for she nodded
+and said,
+
+"Have no fear, Allan, for I am what the black axe-bearer and the little
+yellow man called a 'witch' which means, as you who are instructed know,
+one who has knowledge of medicine and other things and who holds a key
+to some of the mysteries that lie hid in Nature."
+
+"For instance," I suggested, "of how to transport yourself into a battle
+at the right moment, and out of it again--also at the right moment."
+
+"Yes, Allan, since watching from afar, I saw that those Amahagger curs
+were about to flee and that I was needed there to hearten them and to
+put fear into the army of Rezu. So I came."
+
+"But how did you come, Ayesha?"
+
+She laughed as she answered,
+
+"Perhaps I did not come at all. Perhaps you only thought I came; since I
+seemed to be there the rest matters nothing."
+
+As I still looked unconvinced she went on,
+
+"Oh! foolish man, seek not to learn of that which is too high for you.
+Yet listen. You in your ignorance suppose that the soul dwells within
+the body, do you not?"
+
+I answered that I had always been under this impression.
+
+"Yet, Allan, it is otherwise, for the body dwells within the soul."
+
+"Like the pearl in an oyster," I suggested.
+
+"Aye, in a sense, since the pearl which to you is beautiful, is to the
+oyster a sickness and a poison, and so is the body to the soul whose
+temple it troubles and defiles. Yet round it is the white and holy soul
+that ever seeks to bring the vile body to its own purity and colour, yet
+oft-times fails. Learn, Allan, that flesh and spirit are the deadliest
+foes joined together by a high decree that they may forget their hate
+and perfect each other, or failing, be separate to all eternity, the
+spirit going to its own place and the flesh to its corruption."
+
+"A strange theory," I said.
+
+"Aye, Allan, and one which is so new to you that never will you
+understand it. Yet it is true and I set it out for this reason. The soul
+of man, being at liberty and not cooped within his narrow breast, is in
+touch with that soul of the Universe, which men know as God Whom they
+call by many names. Therefore it has all knowledge and perhaps all
+power, and at times the body within it, if it be a wise body, can draw
+from this well of knowledge and abounding power. So at least can I. And
+now you will understand why I am so good a doctoress and how I came to
+appear in the battle, as you said, at the right time, and to leave it
+when my work was done."
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "I quite understand. I thank you much for putting
+it so plainly."
+
+She laughed a little, appreciating my jest, looked at the sleeping Inez,
+and said,
+
+"The fair body of this lady dwells in a large soul, I think, though one
+of a somewhat sombre hue, for souls have their colours, Allan, and stain
+that which is within them. She will never be a happy woman."
+
+"The black people named her Sad-Eyes," I said.
+
+"Is it so? Well, I name her Sad-Heart, though for such often there is
+joy at last. Meanwhile she will forget; yes, she will forget the worst
+and how narrow was the edge between her and the arms of Rezu."
+
+"Just the width of the blade of the axe, _Inkosikaas_," I answered.
+"But tell me, Ayesha, why could not that axe cut and why did my bullets
+flatten or turn aside when these smote the breast of Rezu?"
+
+"Because his front-armour was good, Allan, I suppose," she replied
+indifferently, "and on his back he wore none."
+
+"Then why did you fill my ears with such a different tale about that
+horrible giant having drunk of a Cup of Life, and all the rest?" I asked
+with irritation.
+
+"I have forgotten, Allan. Perhaps because the curious, such as you are,
+like to hear tales even stranger than their own, which in the days to be
+may become their own. Therefore you will be wise to believe only what I
+do, and of what I tell you, nothing."
+
+"I don't," I exclaimed exasperated.
+
+She laughed again and replied,
+
+"What need to say to me that which I know already? Yet perhaps in the
+future it may be different, since often by the alchemy of the mind the
+fables of our youth are changed into the facts of our age, and we come
+to believe in anything, as your little yellow man believes in some
+savage named Zikali, and those Amahagger believe in the talisman round
+your neck, and I who am the maddest of you all, believe in Love and
+Wisdom, and the black warrior, Umslopogaas, believes in the virtue of
+that great axe of his, rather than in those of his own courage and of
+the strength that wields it. Fools, every one of us, though perchance
+I am the greatest fool among them. Now take me to the warrior,
+Umslopogaas, whom I would thank, as I thank you, Allan, and the little
+yellow man, although he jeers at me with his sharp tongue, not knowing
+that if I were angered, with a breath I could cause him to cease to be."
+
+"Then why did you not choose Rezu to cease to be, and his army also,
+Ayesha?"
+
+"It seems that I have done these things through the axe of Umslopogaas
+and by the help of your generalship, Allan. Why then, waste my own
+strength when yours lay to my hand?"
+
+"Because you had no power over Rezu, Ayesha, or so you told me."
+
+"Have I not said that my words are snowflakes, meant to melt and leave
+no trace, hiding my thoughts as this veil hides my beauty? Yet as the
+beauty is beneath the veil, perchance there is truth beneath the words,
+though not that truth you think. So you are well answered, and for the
+rest, I wonder whether Rezu thought I had no power over him when yonder
+on the mountain spur he saw me float down upon his companies like a
+spirit of the night. Well, perchance some day I shall learn this and
+many other things."
+
+I made no answer, since what was the use of arguing with a woman who
+told me frankly that all she said was false. So, although I longed to
+ask her why these Amahagger had such reverence for the talisman that
+Hans called the Great Medicine, since now I guessed that her first
+explanations concerning it were quite untrue, I held my tongue.
+
+Yet as we went out of the house, by some coincidence she alluded to this
+very matter.
+
+"I wish to tell you, Allan," she said, "why it was those Amahagger would
+not accept you as a General till their eyes had seen that which you wear
+upon your breast. Their tale of a legend of this very thing seemed that
+of savages or of their cunning priests, not to be believed by a wise man
+such as you are, like some others that you have heard in K�r. Yet it has
+in it a grain of truth, for as it chanced a little while ago, about a
+hundred years ago, I think, the old wizard whose picture is cut upon
+the wood, came to visit her who held my place before me as ruler of this
+tribe--she was very like me and as I believe, my mother, Allan--because
+of her repute for wisdom.
+
+"At that time I have heard there was a question of war between the
+worshippers of Lulala and the grandfather of Rezu. But this Zikali told
+the People of Lulala that they must not fight the People of Rezu until
+in a day to come a white man should visit K�r and bring with him a piece
+of wood on which was cut the image of a dwarf like to that of Zikali
+himself. Then and not before they must fight and conquer the People of
+Rezu. Now this story came down among them and you who may have thought
+the first tale magical, will understand it in its simplicity: is it not
+so, you wise Allan?"
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "except that I do not see how Zikali can have
+come here a hundred years ago, since men do not live as long, although
+he pretends to have done so."
+
+"No, Allan, nor do I, but perhaps it was his father, or his grandfather
+who came, since being observant, you will have noted that if the parent
+is mis-formed, so often are the descendants; also that the pretence of
+wizardry at times comes down with the blood."
+
+Again I made no answer for I saw that Ayesha was fooling me, and before
+she could exhaust that amusement we reached the place where Umslopogaas
+and his men were gathered round a camp fire. He sat silent, but Goroko
+with much animation was telling the story of the fight in picturesque
+and colourful language, or that part of it which he had seen, for the
+benefit of the two wounded men who took no share in it and who, lying on
+their blankets with heads thrust forward, were listening with eagerness
+to the entrancing tale. Suddenly they caught sight of Ayesha, and those
+of the party who could stand sprang to their feet, while one and all
+they gave her the royal salute of _Bay�te_.
+
+She waited till the sound had died away. Then she said,
+
+"I come to thank you and your men, O Wielder of the Axe, who have shown
+yourself very great in battle, and to say to you that my Spirit tells
+me that every one of you, yes, even those who are still sick, will come
+safe to your own land again and live out your years with honour."
+
+Again they saluted at this pleasing intelligence, when I had translated
+it to them, for of course they knew no Arabic. Then she went on,
+
+"I am told, Umslopogaas, Son of the Lion, as a certain king was named in
+your land, that the fight you made against Rezu was a very great fight,
+and that such a leap as yours above his head when you smote him with the
+axe on the hinder parts where he wore no armour, and brought him to his
+death, has not been seen before, nor will be again."
+
+I rendered the words, and Umslopogaas, preferring truth to modesty,
+replied emphatically that this was the case.
+
+"Because of that fight and that leap," Ayesha went on, "as for other
+deeds that you have done and will do, my Spirit tells me that your name
+will live in story for many generations. Yet of what use is fame to the
+dead? Therefore I make you an offer. Bide here with me and you shall
+rule these Amahagger, and with them the remnant of the People of Rezu.
+Your cattle shall be countless and your wives the fairest in the land,
+and your children many, for I will lift a certain curse from off you
+so that no more shall you be childless. Do you accept, O Holder of the
+Axe?"
+
+When he understood, Umslopogaas, after pondering a moment, asked if I
+meant to stay in this land and marry the white chieftainess who spoke
+such wise words and could appear and disappear in the battle at her
+will, and like a mountain-top hid her head in a cloud, which was his way
+of alluding to her veil.
+
+I answered at once and with decision that I intended to do nothing of
+the sort and immediately regretted my words, since, although I spoke
+in Zulu, I suppose she read their meaning from my face. At any rate she
+understood the drift of them.
+
+"Tell him, Allan," she said with a kind of icy politeness, "that you
+will not stop here and marry me, because if ever I chose a husband he
+would not be a little man at the doors of whose heart so many women's
+hands have knocked--yes, even those that are black--and not, I think, in
+vain. One, moreover, who holds himself so clever that he believes he
+has nothing left to learn, and in every flower of truth that is shown to
+him, however fair, smells only poison, and beneath, nurturing it, sees
+only the gross root of falsehood planted in corruption. Tell him these
+things, Allan, if it pleases you."
+
+"It does not please me," I answered in a rage at her insults.
+
+"Nor is it needful, Allan, since if I caught the meaning of that
+barbarous tongue you use aright, you have told him already. Well, let
+the jest pass, O man who least of all things desires to be Ayesha's
+husband, and whom Ayesha least of all things desires as her spouse, and
+ask the Axe-bearer nothing since I perceive that without you he will
+not stay at K�r. Nor indeed is it fated that he should do so, for now
+my Spirit tells me what it hid from me when I spoke a moment gone, that
+this warrior shall die in a great fight far away and that between then
+and now much sorrow waits him who save that of one, knows not how to win
+the love of women. Let him say moreover what reward he desires since if
+I can give it to him, it shall be his."
+
+Again I translated. Umslopogaas received her prophecies in stoical
+silence, and as I thought with indifference, and only said in reply,
+
+"The glory that I have won is my reward and the only boon I seek at this
+queen's hands is that if she can she should give me sight of a woman for
+whom my heart is hungry, and with it knowledge that this woman lives in
+that land whither I travel like all men."
+
+When she heard these words Ayesha said,
+
+"True, I had forgotten. Your heart also is hungry, I think, Allan, for
+the vision of sundry faces that you see no more. Well, I will do my
+best, but since only faith fulfils itself, how can I who must strive to
+pierce the gates of darkness for one so unbelieving, know that they will
+open at my word? Come to me, both of you, at the sunset to-morrow."
+
+Then as though to change the subject, she talked to me for a long while
+about K�r, of which she told me a most interesting history, true or
+false, that I omit here.
+
+At length, as though suddenly she had grown tired, waving her hand to
+show that the conversation was ended, Ayesha went to the wounded men and
+touched them each in turn.
+
+"Now they will recover swiftly," she said, and leaving the place was
+gone into the darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE GATE OF DEATH
+
+Before turning in I examined these wounded men for myself. The truth is
+that I was anxious to learn their exact condition in order that I might
+make an estimate as to when it would be possible for us to leave this
+valley or crater bottom of K�r, of which I was heartily tired. Who could
+desire to stay in a place where he had not only been involved in a deal
+of hard, doubtful, and very dangerous fighting from which all personal
+interest was absent, but where also he was meshed in a perfect spider's
+web of bewilderment, and exposed to continual insult into the bargain?
+
+For that is what it came to; this Ayesha took every opportunity to jeer
+at and affront me. And why? Just because I had conceived doubts, which
+somehow she discovered, of the amazing tales with which it had amused
+her to stuff me, as a farmer's wife does a turkey poult with meal
+pellets. How could she expect me, a man, after all, of some experience,
+to believe such lies, which, not half an hour before, in the coolest
+possible fashion she had herself admitted to be lies and nothing else,
+told for the mere pleasure of romancing?
+
+The immortal Rezu, for instance, who had drunk of the Cup of Life or
+some such rubbish, now turned out to be nothing but a brawny savage
+descended from generations of chiefs also called Rezu. Moreover the
+immemorial Ayesha, who also had drunk of Cups of Life, and according
+to her first story, had lived in this place for thousands of years, had
+come here with a mother, who filled the same mystic r�le before her for
+the benefit of an extremely gloomy and disagreeable tribe of Semitic
+savages. Yet she was cross with me because I had not swallowed her crude
+and indigestible mixture of fable and philosophy without a moment's
+question.
+
+At least I supposed that this was the reason, though another possible
+explanation did come into my mind. I had refused to be duly overcome
+by her charms, not because I was unimpressed, for who could be, having
+looked upon that blinding beauty even for a moment? but rather because,
+after sundry experiences, I had at last attained to some power of
+judgment and learned what it is best to leave alone. Perhaps this had
+annoyed her, especially as no white man seemed to have come her way for
+a long while and the fabulous Kallikrates had not put in his promised
+appearance.
+
+Also it was unfortunate that in one way or another--how did she do it, I
+wondered--she had interpreted Umslopogaas' question to me about marrying
+her, and my compromising reply. Not that for one moment, as I saw very
+clearly, did she wish to marry me. But that fact, intuition suggested to
+my mind, did not the least prevent her from being angry because I shared
+her views upon this important subject.
+
+Oh! the whole thing was a bore and the sooner I saw the last of that
+veiled lady and the interesting but wearisome ruins in which she
+dwelt, the better I should be pleased, although apparently I must trek
+homewards with a poor young woman who was out of her mind, leaving
+the bones of her unfortunate father behind me. I admitted to myself,
+however, that there were consolations in the fact that Providence
+had thus decreed, for Robertson since he gave up drink had not been a
+cheerful companion, and two mad people would really have been more than
+I could manage.
+
+To return, for these reasons I examined the two wounded Zulus with
+considerable anxiety, only to discover another instance of the chicanery
+which it amused this Ayesha to play off upon me. For what did I find?
+That they were practically well. Their hurts, which had never been
+serious, had healed wonderfully in that pure air, as those of savages
+have a way of doing, and they told me themselves that they felt quite
+strong again. Yet with colossal impudence Ayesha had managed to suggest
+to my mind that she was going to work some remarkable cure upon them,
+who were already cured.
+
+Well, it was of a piece with the rest of her conduct and there was
+nothing to do except go to bed, which I did with much gratitude that
+my resting place that night was not of another sort. The last thing I
+remember was wondering how on earth Ayesha appeared and disappeared
+in the course of that battle, a problem as to which I could find no
+solution, though, as in the case of the others, I was sure that one
+would occur to me in course of time.
+
+I slept like a top, so soundly indeed that I think there was some kind
+of soporific in the pick-me-up which looked like sherry, especially as
+the others who had drunk of it also passed an excellent night.
+
+About ten o'clock on the following morning I awoke feeling particularly
+well and quite as though I had been enjoying a week at the seaside
+instead of my recent adventures, which included an abominable battle and
+some agonising moments during which I thought that my number was up upon
+the board of Destiny.
+
+I spent the most of that day lounging about, eating, talking over the
+details of the battle with Umslopogaas and the Zulus and smoking more
+than usual. (I forgot to say that these Amahagger grew some capital
+tobacco of which I had obtained a supply, although like most Africans,
+they only used it in the shape of snuff.) The truth was that after all
+my marvellings and acute anxieties, also mental and physical exertions,
+I felt like the housemaid who caused to be cut upon her tombstone that
+she had gone to a better land where her ambition was to do nothing "for
+ever and ever." I just wanted to be completely idle and vacuous-minded
+for at least a month, but as I knew that all I could expect in that
+line was a single bank holiday, like a City clerk on the spree, of it I
+determined to make the most.
+
+The result was that before the evening I felt very bored indeed. I had
+gone to look at Inez, who was still fast asleep, as Ayesha said would be
+the case, but whose features seemed to have plumped up considerably. The
+reason of this I gathered from her Amahagger nurses, was that at
+certain intervals she had awakened sufficiently to swallow considerable
+quantities of milk, or rather cream, which I hoped would not make her
+ill. I had chatted with the wounded Zulus, who were now walking about,
+more bored even than I was myself, and heaping maledictions on their
+ancestral spirits because they had not been well enough to take part in
+the battle against Rezu.
+
+I even took a little stroll to look for Hans, who had vanished in his
+mysterious fashion, but the afternoon was so hot and oppressive with
+coming thunder, that soon I came back again and fell into a variety of
+reflections that I need not detail.
+
+While I was thus engaged and meditating, not without uneasiness, upon
+the ordeal that lay before me after sunset, for I felt sure that it
+would be an ordeal, Hans appeared and said that the Amahagger _impi_
+or army was gathered on that spot where I had been elected to the proud
+position of their General. He added that he believed--how he got this
+information I do not know--that the White Lady was going to hold a
+review of them and give them the rewards that they had earned in the
+battle.
+
+Hearing this, Umslopogaas and the other Zulus said that they would like
+to see this review if I would accompany them. Although I did not want to
+go nor indeed desired ever to look at another Amahagger, I consented to
+save the trouble of argument, on condition that we should do so from a
+distance.
+
+So, including the wounded men, we strolled off and presently came to the
+crumbled wall of the old city, beyond which lay the great moat now dry,
+that once had encircled it with water.
+
+Here on the top of this wall we sat down where we could see without
+being seen, and observed the Amahagger companies, considerably reduced
+during the battle, being marshalled by their captains beneath us and
+about a couple of hundred yards away. Also we observed several groups
+of men under guard. These we took to be prisoners captured in the fight
+with Rezu, who, as Hans remarked with a smack of his lips, were probably
+awaiting sacrifice.
+
+I said I hoped not and yawned, for really the afternoon was intensely
+hot and the weather most peculiar. The sun had vanished behind clouds,
+and vapours filled the still air, so dense that at times it grew almost
+dark; also when these cleared for brief intervals, the landscape in the
+grey, unholy light looked distorted and unnatural, as it does during an
+eclipse of the sun.
+
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, stared round him, sniffed the air and then
+remarked ocularly that it was "wizard's weather" and that there were
+many spirits about. Upon my word I felt inclined to agree with him, for
+my feelings were very uncomfortable, but I only replied that if so, I
+should be obliged if he, as a professional, would be good enough to keep
+them off me. Of course I knew that electrical charges were about, which
+accounted for my sensations, and wished that I had never left the camp.
+
+It was during one of these periods of dense gloom that Ayesha must have
+arrived upon the review ground. At least, when it lifted, there she
+was in her white garments, surrounded by women and guards, engaged
+apparently in making an oration, for although I could not hear a word, I
+could see by the motions of her arms that she was speaking.
+
+Had she been the central figure in some stage scene, no limelights could
+have set her off to better advantage, than did those of the heavens
+above her. Suddenly, through the blanket of cloud, flowing from a hole
+in it that looked like an eye, came a blood-red ray which fell full upon
+her, so that she alone was fiercely visible whilst all around was gloom
+in which shapes moved dimly. Certainly she looked strange and even
+terrifying in that red ray which stained her robe till I who had but
+just come out of battle with its "confused noise," began to think of
+"the garments rolled in blood" of which I often read in my favourite Old
+Testament. For crimson was she from head to foot; a tall shape of terror
+and of wrath.
+
+The eye in heaven shut and the ray went out. Then came one of the spaces
+of grey light and in it I saw men being brought up, apparently from the
+groups of prisoners, under guard, and, to the number of a dozen or more,
+stood in a line before Ayesha.
+
+Then I saw nothing more for a long while, because blackness seemed to
+flow in from every quarter of the heavens and to block out the scene
+beneath. At least after a pause of perhaps five minutes, during which
+the stillness was intense, the storm broke.
+
+It was a very curious storm; in all my experience of African tempests I
+cannot recall one which it resembled. It began with the usual cold and
+wailing wind. This died away, and suddenly the whole arch of heaven was
+alive with little lightnings that seemed to strike horizontally, not
+downwards to the earth, weaving a web of fire upon the surface of the
+sky.
+
+By the illumination of these lightnings which, but for the swiftness of
+their flashing and greater intensity, somewhat resembled a dense shower
+of shooting stars, I perceived that Ayesha was addressing the men that
+had been brought before her, who stood dejectedly in a long line with
+their heads bent, quite unattended, since their guards had fallen back.
+
+"If I were going to receive a reward of cattle or wives, I should look
+happier than those moon-worshippers, Baas," remarked Hans reflectively.
+
+"Perhaps it would depend," I answered, "upon what the cattle and wives
+were like. If the cattle had red-water and would bring disease into your
+herd, or wild bulls that would gore you, and the wives were skinny old
+widows with evil tongues, then I think you would look as do those men,
+Hans."
+
+I don't quite know what made me speak thus, but I believe it was some
+sense of pending death or disaster, suggested, probably, by the ominous
+character of the setting provided by Nature to the curious drama of
+which we were witnesses.
+
+"I never thought of that, Baas," commented Hans, "but it is true that
+all gifts are not good, especially witches' gifts."
+
+As he spoke the little net-like lightnings died away, leaving behind
+them a gross darkness through which, far above us, the wind wailed
+again.
+
+Then suddenly all the heaven was turned into one blaze of light, and by
+it I saw Ayesha standing tall and rigid with her hand pointed towards
+the line of men in front of her. The blaze went out, to be followed by
+blackness, and to return almost instantly in a yet fiercer blaze which
+seemed to fall earthwards in a torrent of fire that concentrated itself
+in a kind of flame-spout upon the spot where Ayesha stood.
+
+Through that flame or rather in the heart of it, I saw Ayesha and the
+file of men in front of her, as the great King saw the prophets in the
+midst of the furnace that had been heated sevenfold. Only these men did
+not walk about in the fire; no, they fell backwards, while Ayesha alone
+remained upon her feet with outstretched hand.
+
+Next came more blackness and crash upon crash of such thunder that the
+earth shook as it reverberated from the mountain cliffs. Never in my
+life did I hear such fearful thunder. It frightened the Zulus so much,
+that they fell upon their faces, except Goroko and Umslopogaas, whose
+pride kept them upon their feet, the former because he had a reputation
+to preserve as a "Heaven-herd," or Master of tempests.
+
+I confess that I should have liked to follow their example, and lie
+down, being dreadfully afraid lest the lightning should strike me. But
+there--I did not.
+
+At last the thunder died away and in the most mysterious fashion that
+violent tempest came to a sudden end, as does a storm upon the stage. No
+rain fell, which in itself was surprising enough and most unusual,
+but in place of it a garment of the completest calm descended upon
+the earth. By degrees, too, the darkness passed and the westering sun
+reappeared. Its rays fell upon the place where the Amahagger companies
+had stood, but now not one of them was to be seen.
+
+They were all gone and Ayesha with them. So completely had they vanished
+away that I should have thought that we suffered from illusions, were
+it not for the line of dead men which lay there looking very small and
+lonesome on the veld; mere dots indeed at that distance.
+
+We stared at each other and at them, and then Goroko said that he would
+like to inspect the bodies to learn whether lightning killed at K�r as
+it did elsewhere, also whether it had smitten them altogether or leapt
+from man to man. This, as a professional "Heaven-herd," he declared he
+could tell from the marks upon these unfortunates.
+
+As I was curious also and wanted to make a few observations, I
+consented. So with the exception of the wounded men, who I thought
+should avoid the exertion, we scrambled down the d�bris of the tumbled
+wall and across the open space beyond, reaching the scene of the tragedy
+without meeting or seeing anyone.
+
+There lay the dead, eleven of them, in an exact line as they had stood.
+They were all upon their backs with widely-opened eyes and an expression
+of great fear frozen upon their faces. Some of these I recognised, as
+did Umslopogaas and Hans. They were soldiers or captains who had marched
+under me to attack Rezu, although until this moment I had not seen any
+of them after we began to descend the ridge where the battle took place.
+
+"Baas," said Hans, "I believe that these were the traitors who slipped
+away and told Rezu of our plans so that he attacked us on the ridge,
+instead of our attacking him on the plain as we had arranged so nicely.
+At least they were none of them in the battle and afterwards I heard the
+Amahagger talking of some of them."
+
+I remarked that if so the lightning had discriminated very well in this
+instance.
+
+Meanwhile Goroko was examining the bodies one by one, and presently
+called out,
+
+"These doomed ones died not by lightning but by witchcraft. There is not
+a burn upon one of them, nor are their garments scorched."
+
+I went to look and found that it was perfectly true; to all outward
+appearance the eleven were quite unmarked and unharmed. Except for their
+frightened air, they might have died a natural death in their sleep.
+
+"Does lightning always scorch?" I asked Goroko.
+
+"Always, Macumazahn," he answered, "that is, if he who has been struck
+is killed, as these are, and not only stunned. Moreover, most of yonder
+dead wear knives which should have melted or shattered with the sheaths
+burnt off them. Yet those knives are as though they had just left the
+smith's hammer and the whet-stone," and he drew some of them to show me.
+
+Again it was quite true and here I may remark that my experience tallied
+with that of Goroko, since I have never seen anyone killed by lightning
+on whom or on whose clothing there was not some trace of its passage.
+
+"_Ow!_" said Umslopogaas, "this is witchcraft, not Heaven-wrath. The
+place is enchanted. Let us get away lest we be smitten also who have not
+earned doom like those traitors."
+
+"No need to fear," said Hans, "since with us is the Great Medicine of
+Zikali which can tie up the lightning as an old woman does a bundle of
+sticks."
+
+Still I observed that for all his confidence, Hans himself was the
+first to depart and with considerable speed. So we went back to our camp
+without more conversation, since the Zulus were scared and I confess
+that myself I could not understand the matter, though no doubt it
+admitted of some quite simple explanation.
+
+However that might be, this K�r was a queer place with its legends, its
+sullen Amahagger and its mysterious queen, to whom at times, in spite of
+my inner conviction to the contrary, I was still inclined to attribute
+powers beyond those that are common even among very beautiful and able
+women.
+
+This reflection reminded me that she had promised us a further
+exhibition of those powers and within an hour or two. Remembering this
+I began to regret that I had ever asked for any such manifestations, for
+who knew what these might or might not involve?
+
+So much did I regret it that I determined, unless Ayesha sent for us, as
+she had said she would do, I would conveniently forget the appointment.
+Luckily Umslopogaas seemed to be of the same way of thinking; at any
+rate he went off to eat his evening meal without alluding to it at all.
+So I made up my mind that I would not bring the matter to his notice and
+having ascertained that Inez was still asleep, I followed his example
+and dined myself, though without any particular appetite.
+
+As I finished the sun was setting in a perfectly clear sky, so as there
+was no sign of any messenger, I thought that I would go to bed early,
+leaving orders that I was not to be disturbed. But on this point my luck
+was lacking, for just as I had taken off my coat, Hans arrived and said
+that old Billali was without and had come to take me somewhere.
+
+Well, there was nothing to do but to put it on again. Before I had
+finished this operation Billali himself arrived with undignified
+and unusual haste. I asked him what was the matter, and he answered
+inconsequently that the Black One, the slayer of Rezu, was at the door
+"with his axe."
+
+"That generally accompanies him," I replied. Then, remembering the cause
+of Billali's alarm, I explained to him that he must not take too much
+notice of a few hasty words spoken by an essentially gentle-natured
+person whose nerve had given way beneath provocation and bodily effort.
+The old fellow bowed in assent and stroked his beard, but I noticed that
+while Umslopogaas was near, he clung to me like a shadow. Perhaps he
+thought that nervous attacks might be recurrent, like those of fever.
+
+Outside the house I found Umslopogaas leaning on his axe and looking at
+the sky in which the last red rays of evening lingered.
+
+"The sun has set, Macumazahn," he said, "and it is time to visit this
+white queen as she bade us, and to learn whether she can indeed lead us
+'down below' where the dead are said to dwell."
+
+So he had not forgotten, which was disconcerting. To cover up my own
+doubts I asked him with affected confidence and cheerfulness whether he
+was not afraid to risk this journey "down below," that is, to the Realm
+of Death.
+
+"Why should I fear to tread a road that awaits the feet of all of us
+and at the gate of which we knock day by day, especially if we chance
+to live by war, as do you and I, Macumazahn?" he inquired with a quiet
+dignity, which made me feel ashamed.
+
+"Why indeed?" I answered, adding to myself, "though I should much prefer
+any other highway."
+
+After this we started without more words, I keeping up my spirits by
+reflecting that the whole business was nonsense and that there could be
+nothing to dread.
+
+All too soon we passed the ruined archway and were admitted into
+Ayesha's presence in the usual fashion. As Billali, who remained outside
+of them, drew the curtains behind us, I observed, to my astonishment,
+that Hans had sneaked in after me, and squatted down quite close to
+them, apparently in the hope of being overlooked.
+
+It seemed, as I gathered later, that somehow or other he had guessed, or
+become aware of the object of our visit, and that his burning curiosity
+had overcome his terror of the "White Witch." Or possibly he hoped to
+discover whether or not she were so ugly as he supposed her veil-hidden
+face to be. At any rate there he was, and if Ayesha noticed him, as I
+think she did, for I saw by the motion of her head, that she was looking
+in his direction, she made no remark.
+
+For a while she sat still in her chair contemplating us both. Then she
+said,
+
+"How comes it that you are late? Those that seek their lost loves should
+run with eager feet, but yours have tarried."
+
+I muttered some excuse to which she did not trouble to listen, for she
+went on,
+
+"I think, Allan, that your sandals, which should be winged like to those
+of the Roman Mercury, are weighted with the grey lead of fear. Well, it
+is not strange, since you have come to travel through the Gates of Death
+that are feared by all, even by Ayesha's self, for who knows what he may
+find beyond them? Ask the Axe-Bearer if he also is afraid."
+
+I obeyed, rendering all that she had said into the Zulu idiom as best I
+could.
+
+"Say to the Queen," answered Umslopogaas, when he understood, "that I
+fear nothing, except women's tongues. I am ready to pass the Gates of
+Death and, if need be, to come back no more. With the white people
+I know it is otherwise because of some dark teachings to which they
+listen, that tell of terrors to be, such as we who are black do not
+dread. Still, we believe that there are ghosts and that the spirits of
+our fathers live on and as it chances I would learn whether this is so,
+who above all things desire to met a certain ghost, for which reason I
+journeyed to this far land.
+
+"Say these things to the white Queen, Macumazahn, and tell her that if
+she should send me to a place whence there is no return, I who do not
+love the world, shall not blame her overmuch, though it is true that I
+should have chosen to die in war. Now I have spoken."
+
+When I had passed on all this speech to Ayesha, her comment on it was,
+
+"This black Captain has a spirit as brave as his body, but how is it
+with your spirit, Allan? Are you also prepared to risk so much? Learn
+that I can promise you nothing, save that when I loose the bonds of your
+mortality and send out your soul to wander in the depths of Death, as
+I believe that I can do, though even of this I am not certain--you
+must pass through a gate of terrors that may be closed behind you by a
+stronger arm than mine. Moreover, what you will find beyond it I do not
+know, since be sure of this, each of us has his own heaven or his own
+hell, or both, that soon or late he is doomed to travel. Now will you go
+forward, or go back? Make choice while there is still time."
+
+At all this ominous talk I felt my heart shrivel like a fire-withered
+leaf, if I may use that figure, and my blood assume the temperature
+and consistency of ice-cream. Earnestly did I curse myself for having
+allowed my curiosity about matters which we are not meant to understand
+to bring me to the edge of such a choice. Swiftly I determined to
+temporise, which I did by asking Ayesha whether she would accompany me
+upon this eerie expedition.
+
+She laughed a little as she answered,
+
+"Bethink you, Allan. Am I, whose face you have seen, a meet companion
+for a man who desires to visit the loves that once were his? What would
+they say or think, if they should see you hand in hand with such a one?"
+
+"I don't know and don't care," I replied desperately, "but this is the
+kind of journey on which one requires a guide who knows the road. Cannot
+Umslopogaas go first and come back to tell me how it has fared with
+him?"
+
+"If the brave and instructed white lord, panoplied in the world's last
+Faith, is not ashamed to throw the savage in his ignorance out like a
+feather to test the winds of hell and watch the while to learn whether
+these blow him back unscorched, or waft him into fires whence there is
+no return, perchance it might so be ordered, Allan. Ask him yourself,
+Allan, if he is willing to run this errand for your sake. Or perhaps the
+little yellow man----" and she paused.
+
+At this point Hans, who having a smattering of Arabic understood
+something of our talk, could contain himself no longer.
+
+"No, Baas," he broke in from his corner by the curtain, "not _me_. I
+don't care for hunting spooks, Baas, which leave no spoor that you can
+follow and are always behind when you think they are in front. Also
+there are too many of them waiting for me down there and how can I stand
+up to them until I am a spook myself and know their ways of fighting?
+Also if you should die when your spirit is away, I want to be left that
+I may bury you nicely."
+
+"Be silent," I said in my sternest manner. Then, unable to bear more of
+Ayesha's mockery, for I felt that as usual she was mocking me, I added
+with all the dignity that I could command,
+
+"I am ready to make this journey through the gate of Death, Ayesha, if
+indeed you can show me the road. For one purpose and no other I came to
+K�r, namely to learn, if so I might, whether those who have died upon
+the world, live on elsewhere. Now, what must I do?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE LESSON
+
+"Yes," answered Ayesha, laughing very softly, "for that purpose alone,
+O truth-seeking Allan, whose curiosity is so fierce that the wide world
+cannot hold it, did you come to K�r and not to seek wealth or new lands,
+or to fight more savages. No, not even to look upon a certain Ayesha,
+of whom the old wizard told you, though I think you have always loved to
+try to lift the veil that hides women's hearts, if not their faces. Yet
+it was I who brought you to K�r for my own purposes, not your desire,
+nor Zikali's map and talisman, since had not the white lady who lies
+sick been stolen by Rezu, never would you have pursued the journey nor
+found the way hither."
+
+"How could you have had anything to do with that business?" I asked
+testily, for my nerves were on edge and I said the first thing that came
+into my mind.
+
+"That, Allan, is a question over which you will wonder for a long while
+either beneath or beyond the sun, as you will wonder concerning much
+that has to do with me, which your little mind, shut in its iron box of
+ignorance and pride, cannot understand to-day.
+
+"For example, you have been wondering, I am sure, how the lightning
+killed those eleven men whose bodies you went to look on an hour or two
+ago, and left the rest untouched. Well, I will tell you at once that it
+was not lightning that killed them, although the strength within me
+was manifest to you in storm, but rather what that witch-doctor of your
+following called wizardry. Because they were traitors who betrayed your
+army to Rezu, I killed them with my wrath and by the wand of my power.
+Oh! you do not believe, yet perhaps ere long you will, since thus to
+fulfil your prayer I must also kill you--almost. That is the trouble,
+Allan. To kill you outright would be easy, but to kill you just enough
+to set your spirit free and yet leave one crevice of mortal life through
+which it can creep back again, that is most difficult; a thing that only
+I can do and even of myself I am not sure."
+
+"Pray do not try the experiment----" I began thoroughly alarmed, but she
+cut me short.
+
+"Disturb me no more, Allan, with the tremors and changes of your
+uncertain mind, lest you should work more evil than you think, and
+making mine uncertain also, spoil my skill. Nay, do not try to fly, for
+already the net has thrown itself about you and you cannot stir, who
+are bound like a little gilded wasp in the spider's web, or like birds
+beneath the eyes of basilisks."
+
+This was true, for I found that, strive as I would, I could not move a
+limb or even an eyelid. I was frozen to that spot and there was nothing
+for it except to curse my folly and say my prayers.
+
+All this while she went on talking, but of what she said I have not
+the faintest idea, because my remaining wits were absorbed in these
+much-needed implorations.
+
+
+
+Presently, of a sudden, I appeared to see Ayesha seated in a temple,
+for there were columns about her, and behind her was an altar on which
+a fire burned. All round her, too, were hooded snakes like to that which
+she wore about her middle, fashioned in gold. To these snakes she sang
+and they danced to her singing; yes, with flickering tongues they danced
+upon their tails! What the scene signified I cannot conceive, unless it
+meant that this mistress of magic was consulting her familiars.
+
+Then that vision vanished and Ayesha's voice began to seem very far away
+and dreamy, also her wondrous beauty became visible to me through her
+veil, as though I had acquired a new sense that overcame the limitations
+of mortal sight. Even in this extremity I reflected it was well that the
+last thing I looked on should be something so glorious. No, not quite
+the last thing, for out of the corners of my eyes I saw that Umslopogaas
+from a sitting position had sunk on to his back and lay, apparently
+dead, with his axe still gripped tightly and held above his head, as
+though his arm had been turned to ice.
+
+After this terrible things began to happen to me and I became aware that
+I was dying. A great wind seemed to catch me up and blow me to and fro,
+as a leaf is blown in the eddies of a winter gale. Enormous rushes of
+darkness flowed over me, to be succeeded by vivid bursts of brightness
+that dazzled like lightning. I fell off precipices and at the foot of
+them was caught by some fearful strength and tossed to the very skies.
+
+From those skies I was hurled down again into a kind of whirlpool of
+inky night, round which I spun perpetually, as it seemed for hours and
+hours. But worst of all was the awful loneliness from which I suffered.
+It seemed to me as though there were no other living thing in all the
+Universe and never had been and never would be any other living thing. I
+felt as though _I_ were the Universe rushing solitary through space for
+ages upon ages in a frantic search for fellowship, and finding none.
+
+Then something seemed to grip my throat and I knew that I had died--for
+the world floated away from beneath me.
+
+Now fear and every mortal sensation left me, to be replaced by a new and
+spiritual terror. I, or rather my disembodied consciousness, seemed to
+come up for judgment, and the horror of it was that I appeared to be my
+own judge. There, a very embodiment of cold justice, my Spirit,
+grown luminous, sat upon a throne and to it, with dread and merciless
+particularity I set out all my misdeeds. It was as if some part of me
+remained mortal, for I could see my two eyes, my mouth and my hands, but
+nothing else--and strange enough they looked. From the eyes came tears,
+from the mouth flowed words and the hands were joined, as though in
+prayer to that throned and adamantine Spirit which was ME.
+
+It was as though this Spirit were asking how my body had served
+its purposes and advanced its mighty ends, and in reply--oh! what a
+miserable tale I had to tell. Fault upon fault, weakness upon weakness,
+sin upon sin; never before did I understand how black was my record. I
+tried to relieve the picture with some incidents of attempted good, but
+that Spirit would not hearken. It seemed to say that it had gathered up
+the good and knew it all. It was of the evil that it would learn, not
+of the good that had bettered it, but of the evil by which it had been
+harmed.
+
+Hearing this there rose up in my consciousness some memory of what
+Ayesha had said; namely, that the body lived within the temple of the
+spirit which is oft defied, and not the spirit in the body.
+
+
+
+The story was told and I hearkened for the judgment, my own judgment on
+myself, which I knew would be accepted without question and registered
+for good or ill. But none came, since ere the balance sank this way or
+that, ere it could be uttered, I was swept afar.
+
+Through Infinity I was swept, and as I fled faster than the light, the
+meaning of what I had seen came home to me. I knew, or seemed to know
+for the first time, that at the last _man must answer to himself_,
+or perhaps to a divine principle within himself, that out of his own
+free-will, through long �ons and by a million steps, he climbs or sinks
+to the heights or depths dormant in his nature; that from what he was,
+springs what he is, and what he is, engenders what he shall be for ever
+and aye.
+
+Now I envisaged Immortality and splendid and awful was its face. It
+clasped me to its breast and in the vast circle of its arms I was
+up-borne, I who knew myself to be without beginning and without end,
+and yet of the past and of the future knew nothing, save that these were
+full of mysteries.
+
+As I went I encountered others, or overtook them, making the same
+journey. Robertson swept past me, and spoke, but in a tongue I could
+not understand. I noted that the madness had left his eyes and that his
+fine-cut features were calm and spiritual. The other wanderers I did not
+know.
+
+
+
+I came to a region of blinding light; the thought rose in me that I
+must have reached the sun, or a sun, though I felt no heat. I stood in a
+lovely, shining valley about which burned mountains of fire. There were
+huge trees in that valley, but they glowed like gold and their flowers
+and fruit were as though they had been fashioned of many-coloured
+flames.
+
+The place was glorious beyond compare, but very strange to me and not
+to be described. I sat me down upon a boulder which burned like a ruby,
+whether with heat or colour I do not know, by the edge of a stream that
+flowed with what looked like fire and made a lovely music. I stooped
+down and drank of this water of flames and the scent and the taste of it
+were as those of the costliest wine.
+
+There, beneath the spreading limbs of a fire-tree I sat, and examined
+the strange flowers that grew around, coloured like rich jewels and
+perfumed above imagining. There were birds also which might have been
+feathered with sapphires, rubies and amethysts, and their song was so
+sweet that I could have wept to hear it. The scene was wonderful
+and filled me with exaltation, for I thought of the land where it is
+promised that there shall be no more night.
+
+People began to appear; men, women, and even children, though whence
+they came I could not see. They did not fly and they did not walk; they
+seemed to drift towards me, as unguided boats drift upon the tide.
+One and all they were very beautiful, but their beauty was not human
+although their shapes and faces resembled those of men and women made
+glorious. None were old, and except the children, none seemed very
+young; it was as though they had grown backwards or forwards to middle
+life and rested there at their very best.
+
+Now came the marvel; all these uncounted people were known to me, though
+so far as my knowledge went I had never set eyes on most of them before.
+Yet I was aware that in some forgotten life or epoch I had been intimate
+with every one of them; also that it was the fact of my presence and
+the call of my sub-conscious mind which drew them to this spot. Yet
+that presence and that call were not visible or audible to them, who,
+I suppose, flowed down some stream of sympathy, why or whither they did
+not know. Had I been as they were perchance they would have seen me,
+as it was they saw nothing and I could not speak and tell them of my
+presence.
+
+Some of this multitude, however, I knew well enough even when they had
+departed years and years ago. But about these I noted this, that every
+one of them was a man or a woman or a child for whom I had felt love or
+sympathy or friendship. Not one was a person whom I had disliked or whom
+I had no wish to see again. If they spoke at all I could not hear--or
+read--their speech, yet to a certain extent I could hear their thoughts.
+
+Many of these were beyond the power of my appreciation on subjects which
+I had no knowledge, or that were too high for me, but some were of quite
+simple things such as concern us upon the earth, such as of friendship,
+or learning, or journeys made or to be made, or art, or literature, or
+the wonders of Nature, or of the fruits of the earth, as they knew them
+in this region.
+
+This I noted too, that each separate thought seemed to be hallowed and
+enclosed in an atmosphere of prayer or heavenly aspiration, as a seed is
+enclosed in the heart of a flower, or a fruit in its odorous rind, and
+that this prayer or aspiration presently appeared to bear the thought
+away, whither I knew not. Moreover, all these thoughts, even of the
+humblest things, were beauteous and spiritual, nothing cruel or impure
+or even coarse was to be found among them: they radiated charity, purity
+and goodness.
+
+Among them I perceived were none that had to do with our earth; this and
+its affairs seemed to be left far behind these thinkers, a truth that
+chilled my soul was alien to their company. Worse still, so far as I
+could discover, although I knew that all these bright ones had been near
+to me at some hour in the measurements of time and space, not one of
+their musings dwelt upon me or on aught with which I had to do.
+
+Between me and them there was a great gulf fixed and a high wall built.
+
+Oh, look! One came shining like a star, and from far away came another
+with dove-like eyes and beautiful exceedingly, and with this last a
+maiden, whose eyes were as hers who my own heart told me was her mother.
+
+Well, I knew them both; they were those whom I had come to seek, the
+women who had been mind upon the earth, and at the sight of them my
+spirit thrilled. Surely they would discover me. Surely at least they
+would speak of me and feel my presence.
+
+But, although they stayed within a pace or two of where I rested, alas!
+it was not so. They seemed to kiss and to exchange swift thoughts about
+many things, high things of which I will not write, and common things;
+yes, even of the shining robes they wore, but never a one of _me!_ I
+strove to rise and go to them, but could not; I strove to speak and
+could not; I strove to throw out my thought to them and could not; it
+fell back upon my head like a stone hurled heavenward.
+
+They were remote from me, utterly apart. I wept tears of bitterness that
+I should be so near and yet so far; a dull and jealous rage burned in
+my heart, and this they did seem to feel, or so I fancied; at any rate,
+apparently by mutual consent, they moved further from me as though
+something pained them. Yes, my love could not reach their perfected
+natures, but my anger hurt them.
+
+As I sat chewing this root of bitterness, a man appeared, a very noble
+man, in whom I recognised my father grown younger and happier-looking,
+but still my father, with whom came others, men and women whom I knew
+to be my brothers and sisters who had died in youth far away in
+Oxfordshire. Joy leapt up in me, for I thought--these will surely know
+me and give me welcome, since, though here sex has lost its power, blood
+must still call to blood.
+
+But it was not so. They spoke, or interchanged their thoughts, but not
+one of me. I read something that passed from my father to them. It was
+a speculation as to what had brought them all together there, and read
+also the answer hazarded, that perhaps it might be to give welcome to
+some unknown who was drawing near from below and would feel lonely and
+unfriended. Thereon my father replied that he did not see or feel this
+wanderer, and thought that it could not be so, since it was his mission
+to greet such on their coming.
+
+
+
+Then in an instant all were gone and that lovely, glowing plain was
+empty, save for myself seated on the ruby-like stone, weeping tears of
+blood and shame and loss within my soul.
+
+
+
+So I sat a long while, till presently I was aware of a new presence, a
+presence dusky and splendid and arrayed in rich barbaric robes. Straight
+she came towards me, like a thrown spear, and I knew her for a
+certain royal and savage woman who on earth was named Mameena, or
+"Wind-that-wailed." Moreover she divined me, though see me she could
+not.
+
+"Art there, Watcher-in-the-Night, watching in the light?" she said or
+thought, I know not which, but the words came to me in the Zulu tongue.
+
+"Aye," she went on, "I know that thou art there; from ten thousand
+leagues away I felt thy presence and broke from my own place to welcome
+thee, though I must pay for it with burning chains and bondage. How did
+those welcome thee whom thou camest out to seek? Did they clasp thee in
+their arms and press their kisses on thy brow? Or did they shrink away
+from thee because the smell of earth was on thy hands and lips?"
+
+I seemed to answer that they did not appear to know that I was there.
+
+"Aye, they did not know because their love is not enough, because they
+have grown too fine for love. But I, the sinner, I knew well, and here
+am I ready to suffer all for thee and to give thee place within this
+stormy heart of mine. Forget them, then, and come to rule with me who
+still am queen in my own house that thou shalt share. There we will live
+royally and when our hour comes, at least we shall have had our day."
+
+Now before I could reply, some power seemed to seize this splendid
+creature and whirl her thence so that she departed, flashing these words
+from her mind to mine,
+
+"For a little while farewell, but remember always that Mameena, the
+Wailing Wind, being still as a sinful woman in a woman's love and of
+the earth, earthy, found thee, whom all the rest forgot. O
+Watcher-in-the-Night, watch in the night for me, for there thou shalt
+find me, the Child of Storm, again, and yet again."
+
+She was gone and once more I sat in utter solitude upon that ruby stone,
+staring at the jewelled flowers and the glorious flaming trees and the
+lambent waters of the brook. What was the meaning of it all, I wondered,
+and why was I deserted by everyone save a single savage woman, and why
+had she a power to find me which was denied to all the rest? Well,
+she had given me an answer, because she was "as a sinful woman with
+a woman's love and of the earth, earthy," while with the rest it was
+otherwise. Oh! this was clear, that in the heavens man has no friend
+among the heavenly, save perhaps the greatest Friend of all Who
+understands both flesh and spirit.
+
+Thus I mused in this burning world which was still so beautiful, this
+alien world into which I had thrust myself unwanted and unsought.
+And while I mused this happened. The fiery waters of the stream were
+disturbed by something and looking up I saw the cause.
+
+A dog had plunged into them and was swimming towards me. At a glance
+I knew that dog on which my eyes had not fallen for decades. It was a
+mongrel, half spaniel and half bull-terrier, which for years had been
+the dear friend of my youth and died at last on the horns of a wounded
+wildebeeste that attacked me when I had fallen from my horse upon
+the veld. Boldly it tackled the maddened buck, thus giving me time to
+scramble to my rifle and shoot it, but not before the poor hound had
+yielded its life for mine, since presently it died disembowelled, but
+licking my hand and forgetful of its agonies. This dog, Smut by name, it
+was that swam or seemed to swim the brook of fire. It scrambled to the
+hither shore, it nosed the earth and ran to the ruby stone and stared
+about it whining and sniffing.
+
+At last it seemed to see or feel me, for it stood upon its hind legs
+and licked my face, yelping with mad joy, as I could see though I
+heard nothing. Now I wept in earnest and bent down to hug and kiss the
+faithful beast, but this I could not do, since like myself it was only
+shadow.
+
+
+Then suddenly all dissolved in a cataract of many-coloured flames and I
+fell down into an infinite gulf of blackness.
+
+
+Surely Ayesha was talking to me! What did she say? What did she say? I
+could not catch her words, but I caught her laughter and knew that after
+her fashion she was making a mock of me. My eyelids were dragged down
+as though with heavy sleep; it was difficult to lift them. At last they
+were open and I saw Ayesha seated on her couch before me and--this I
+noted at once--with her lovely face unveiled. I looked about me, seeking
+Umslopogaas and Hans. But they were gone as I guessed they must be,
+since otherwise Ayesha would not have been unveiled. We were quite
+alone. She was addressing me and in a new fashion, since now she
+had abandoned the formal "you" and was using the more impressive and
+intimate "thou," much as is the manner of the French.
+
+"Thou hast made thy journey, Allan," she said, "and what thou hast
+seen there thou shalt tell me presently. Yet from thy mien I gather
+this--that thou art glad to look upon flesh and blood again and, after
+the company of spirits, to find that of mortal woman. Come then and sit
+beside me and tell thy tale."
+
+"Where are the others?" I asked as I rose slowly to obey, for my head
+swam and my feet seemed feeble.
+
+"Gone, Allan, who as I think have had enough of ghosts, which is perhaps
+thy case also. Come, drink this and be a man once more. Drink it to me
+whose skill and power have brought thee safe from lands that human feet
+were never meant to tread," and taking a strange-shaped cup from a stool
+that stood beside her, she offered it to me.
+
+I drank to the last drop, neither knowing nor caring whether it were
+wine or poison, since my heart seemed desperate at its failure and my
+spirit crushed beneath the weight of its great betrayal. I suppose it
+was the former, for the contents of that cup ran through my veins like
+fire and gave me back my courage and the joy of life.
+
+I stepped to the dais and sat me down upon the couch, leaning against
+its rounded end so that I was almost face to face with Ayesha who had
+turned towards me, and thence could study her unveiled loveliness. For a
+while she said nothing, only eyed me up and down and smiled and smiled,
+as though she were waiting for that wine to do its work with me.
+
+"Now that thou art a man again, Allan, tell me what thou didst see when
+thou wast more--or less--than man."
+
+So I told her all, for some power within her seemed to draw the truth
+out of me. Nor did the tale appear to cause her much surprise.
+
+"There is truth in thy dream," she said when I had finished; "a lesson
+also."
+
+"Then it was all a dream?" I interrupted.
+
+"Is not everything a dream, even life itself, Allan? If so, what can
+this be that thou hast seen, but a dream within a dream, and itself
+containing other dreams, as in the old days the ball fashioned by the
+eastern workers of ivory would oft be found to contain another ball, and
+this yet another and another and another, till at the inmost might be
+found a bead of gold, or perchance a jewel, which was the prize of him
+who could draw out ball from ball and leave them all unbroken. That
+search was difficult and rarely was the jewel come by, if at all, so
+that some said there was none, save in the maker's mind. Yes, I have
+seen a man go crazed with seeking and die with the mystery unsolved. How
+much harder, then, is it to come at the diamond of Truth which lies at
+the core of all our nest of dreams and without which to rest upon they
+could not be fashioned to seem realities?"
+
+"But was it really a dream, and if so, what were the truth and the
+lesson?" I asked, determined not to allow her to bemuse or escape me
+with her metaphysical talk and illustrations.
+
+"The first question has been answered, Allan, as well as I can answer,
+who am not the architect of this great globe of dreams, and as yet
+cannot clearly see the ineffable gem within, whose prisoned rays
+illuminate their substance, though so dimly that only those with the
+insight of a god can catch their glamour in the night of thought, since
+to most they are dark as glow-flies in the glare of noon."
+
+"Then what are the truth and the lesson?" I persisted, perceiving that
+it was hopeless to extract from her an opinion as to the real nature of
+my experiences and that I must content myself with her deductions from
+them.
+
+"Thou tellest me, Allan, that in thy dream or vision thou didst seem to
+appear before thyself seated on a throne and in that self to find thy
+judge. That is the Truth whereof I spoke, though how it found its way
+through the black and ignorant shell of one whose wit is so small,
+is more than I can guess, since I believed that it was revealed to me
+alone."
+
+(Now I, Allan, thought to myself that I began to see the origin of all
+these fantasies and that for once Ayesha had made a slip. If she had a
+theory and I developed that same theory in a hypnotic condition, it was
+not difficult to guess its fount. However, I kept my mouth shut, and
+luckily for once she did not seem to read my mind, perhaps because she
+was too much occupied in spinning her smooth web of entangling words.)
+
+"All men worship their own god," she went on, "and yet seem not to know
+that this god dwells within them and that of him they are a part. There
+he dwells and there they mould him to their own fashion, as the potter
+moulds his clay, though whatever the shape he seems to take beneath
+their fingers, still he remains the god infinite and unalterable. Still
+he is the Seeker and the Sought, the Prayer and its Fulfilment, the Love
+and the Hate, the Virtue and the Vice, since all these qualities the
+alchemy of his spirit turns into an ultimate and eternal Good. For the
+god is in all things and all things are in the god, whom men clothe with
+such diverse garments and whose countenance they hide beneath so many
+masks.
+
+"In the tree flows the sap, yet what knows the great tree it nurtures of
+the sap? In the world's womb burns the fire that gives life, yet what of
+the fire knows the glorious earth it conceived and will destroy; in the
+heavens the great globes swing through space and rest not, yet what know
+they of the Strength that sent them spinning and in a time to come will
+stay their mighty motions, or turn them to another course? Therefore of
+everything this all-present god is judge, or rather, not one but many
+judges, since of each living creature he makes its own magistrate to
+deal out justice according to that creature's law which in the beginning
+the god established for it and decreed. Thus in the breast of everyone
+there is a rule and by that rule, at work through a countless chain of
+lives, in the end he shall be lifted up to Heaven, or bound about and
+cast down to Hell and death."
+
+"You mean a conscience," I suggested rather feebly, for her thoughts and
+images overpowered me.
+
+"Aye, a conscience, if thou wilt, and canst only understand that term,
+though it fits my theme but ill. This is my meaning, that consciences,
+as thou namest them, are many. I have one; thou, Allan, hast another;
+that black Axe-bearer has a third; the little yellow man a fourth, and
+so on through the tale of living things. For even a dog such as thou
+sawest has a conscience and--like thyself or I--must in the end be its
+own judge, because of the spark that comes to it from above, the same
+spark which in me burns as a great fire, and in thee as a smouldering
+ember of green wood."
+
+"When _you_ sit in judgment on yourself in a day to come, Ayesha,"
+I could not help interpolating, "I trust that you will remember that
+humility did not shine among your virtues."
+
+She smiled in her vivid way--only twice or thrice did I see her smile
+thus and then it was like a flash of summer lightning illumining a
+clouded sky, since for the most part her face was grave and even sombre.
+
+"Well answered," she said. "Goad the patient ox enough and even it will
+grow fierce and paw the ground.
+
+"Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part
+of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and
+they are few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned.
+Now I have told thee of the Truth thou sawest in thy vision and wouldst
+thou hear the Lesson?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, "since I may as well be done with it at once, and
+doubtless it will be good for me."
+
+"The Lesson, Allan, is one which thou preachest--humility. Vain man
+and foolish as thou art, thou didst desire to travel the Underworld in
+search of certain ones who once were all in all to thee--nay, not all in
+all since of them there were two or more--but at least much. Thus thou
+wouldst do because, as thou saidest, thou didst seek to know whether
+they still lived on beyond the gates of Blackness. Yes, thou saidest
+this, but what thou didst hope to learn in truth was whether they lived
+on in _thee_ and for _thee_ only. For thou, thou in thy vanity, didst
+picture these departed souls as doing naught in that Heaven they had
+won, save think of thee still burrowing on the earth, and, at times
+lightening thy labours with kisses from other lips than theirs."
+
+"Never!" I exclaimed indignantly. "Never! it is not true."
+
+"Then I pray pardon, Allan, who only judged of thee by others that were
+as men are made, and being such, not to be blamed if perchance from time
+to time, they turned to look on women, who alas! were as they are made.
+So at least it was when I knew the world, but mayhap since then its
+richest wine has turned to water, whereby I hope it has been bettered.
+At the least this was thy thought, that those women who had been thine
+for an hour, through all eternity could dream of naught else save thy
+perfections, and hope for naught else than to see thee at their sides
+through that eternity, or such part of thee as thou couldst spare to
+each of them. For thou didst forget that where they have gone there
+may be others even more peerless than thou art and more fit to hold a
+woman's love, which as we know on earth was ever changeful, and perhaps
+may so remain where it is certain that new lights must shine and new
+desires beckon. Dost understand me, Allan?"
+
+"I think so," I answered with a groan. "I understand you to mean that
+worldly impressions soon wear out and that people who have departed to
+other spheres may there form new ties and forget the old."
+
+"Yes, Allan, as do those who remain upon this earth, whence these others
+have departed. Do men and women still re-marry in the world, Allan, as
+in my day they were wont to do?"
+
+"Of course--it is allowed."
+
+"As many other things, or perchance this same thing, may be allowed
+elsewhere, for when there are so many habitations from which to choose,
+why should we always dwell in one of them, however strait the house or
+poor the prospect?"
+
+Now understanding that I was symbolised by the "strait house" and the
+"poor prospect" I should have grown angry, had not a certain sense of
+humour come to my rescue, who remembered that after all Ayesha's satire
+was profoundly true. Why, beyond the earth, should anyone desire
+to remain unalterably tied to and inextricably wrapped up in such a
+personality as my own, especially if others of superior texture abounded
+about them? Now that I came to think of it, the thing was absurd and
+not to be the least expected in the midst of a thousand new and vivid
+interests. I had met with one more disillusionment, that was all.
+
+"Dost understand, Allan," went on Ayesha, who evidently was determined
+that I should drink this cup to the last drop, "that these dwellers in
+the sun, or the far planet where thou hast been according to thy tale,
+saw thee not and knew naught of thee? It may chance therefore that at
+this time thou wast not in their minds which at others dream of thee
+continually. Or it may chance that they never dream of thee at all,
+having quite forgotten thee, as the weaned cub forgets its mother."
+
+"At least there was one who seemed to remember," I exclaimed, for her
+poisoned mocking stung the words out of me, "one woman and--a dog."
+
+"Aye, the savage, who being Nature's child, a sinner that departed hence
+by her own act" (how Ayesha knew this I cannot say, I never told her),
+"has not yet put on perfection and therefore still remembers him whose
+kiss was last upon her lips. But surely, Allan, it is not thy desire
+to pass from the gentle, ordered claspings of those white souls for the
+tumultuous arms of such a one as this. Still, let that be, for who knows
+what men will or will not do in jealousy and disappointed love? And the
+dog, it remembered also and even sought thee out, since dogs are more
+faithful and single-hearted than is mankind. There at least thou hast
+thy lesson, namely to grow more humble and never to think again that
+thou holdest all a woman's soul for aye, because once she was kind to
+thee for a little while on earth."
+
+"Yes," I answered, jumping up in a rage, "as you say, I have my lesson,
+and more of it than I want. So by your leave, I will now bid you
+farewell, hoping that when it comes to be _your_ turn to learn this
+lesson, or a worse, Ayesha, as I am sure it will one day, for something
+tells me so, you may enjoy it more than I have done."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+AYESHA'S FAREWELL
+
+Thus I spoke whose nerves were on edge after all that I had seen or, as
+even then I suspected, seemed to see. For how could I believe that these
+visions of mine had any higher origin than Ayesha's rather malicious
+imagination? Already I had formed my theory.
+
+It was that she must be a hypnotist of power, who, after she had put a
+spell upon her subject, could project into his mind such fancies as she
+chose together with a selection of her own theories. Only two points
+remained obscure. The first was--how did she get the necessary
+information about the private affairs of a humble individual like
+myself, for these were not known even to Zikali with whom she seemed
+to be in some kind of correspondence, or to Hans, at any rate in such
+completeness?
+
+I could but presume that in some mysterious way she drew them from, or
+rather excited them in my own mind and memory, so that I seemed to see
+those with whom once I had been intimate, with modifications and in
+surroundings that her intelligence had carefully prepared. It would not
+be difficult for a mind like hers familiar, as I gathered it was, with
+the ancient lore of the Greeks and the Egyptians, to create a kind of
+Hades and, by way of difference, to change it from one of shadow to one
+of intense illumination, and into it to plunge the consciousness of him
+upon whom she had laid her charm of sleep. I had seen nothing and heard
+nothing that she might not thus have moulded, always given that she had
+access to the needful clay of facts which I alone could furnish.
+
+Granting this hypothesis, the second point was--what might be the object
+of her elaborate and most bitter jest? Well, I thought that I could
+guess. First, she wished to show her power, or rather to make me
+believe that she had power of a very unusual sort. Secondly, she owed
+Umslopogaas and myself a debt for our services in the war with Rezu
+which we had been told would be repaid in this way. Thirdly, I had
+offended her in some fashion and she took her opportunity of settling
+the score. Also there was a fourth possibility--that really she
+considered herself a moral instructress and desired, as she said, to
+teach me a lesson by showing how futile were human hopes and vanities in
+respect to the departed and their affections.
+
+Now I do not pretend that all this analysis of Ayesha's motives occurred
+to me at the moment of my interview with her; indeed, I only completed
+it later after much careful thought, when I found it sound and good. At
+that time, although I had inklings, I was too bewildered to form a just
+judgment.
+
+Further, I was too angry and it was from this bow of my anger that
+I loosed a shaft at a venture as to some lesson which awaited _her_.
+Perhaps certain words spoken by the dying Rezu had shaped that shaft. Or
+perhaps some shadow of her advancing fate fell upon me.
+
+The success of the shot, however, was remarkable. Evidently it pierced
+the joints of her harness, and indeed went home to Ayesha's heart. She
+turned pale; all the peach-bloom hues faded from her lovely face, her
+great eyes seemed to lessen and grow dull and her cheeks to fall in.
+Indeed, for a moment she looked old, very old, quite an aged woman.
+Moreover she wept, for I saw two big tears drop upon her white raiment
+and I was horrified.
+
+"What has happened to you?" I said, or rather gasped.
+
+"Naught," she answered, "save that thou hast hurt me sore. Dost thou not
+know, Allan, that it is cruel to prophesy ill to any, since such words
+feathered from Fate's own wing and barbed with venom, fester in the
+breast and mayhap bring about their own accomplishment. Most cruel of
+all is it when with them are repaid friendship and gentleness."
+
+I reflected to myself--yes, friendship of the order that is called
+candid, and gentleness such as is hid in a cat's velvet paw, but
+contented myself with asking how it was that she who said she was so
+powerful, came to fear anything at all.
+
+"Because as I have told thee, Allan, there is no armour that can turn
+the spear of Destiny which, when I heard those words of thine, it seemed
+to me, I know not why, was directed by thy hand. Look now on Rezu who
+thought himself unconquerable and yet was slain by the black Axe-bearer
+and whose bones to-night stay the famine of the jackals. Moreover I am
+accursed who sought to steal its servant from Heaven to be my love, and
+how know I when and where vengeance will fall at last? Indeed, it has
+fallen already on me, who through the long ages amid savages must mourn
+widowed and alone, but not all of it--oh! I think, not all."
+
+Then she began to weep in good earnest, and watching her, for the
+first time I understood that this glorious creature who seemed to be so
+powerful, was after all one of the most miserable of women and as much a
+prey to loneliness, every sort of passion and apprehensive fear, as can
+be any common mortal. If, as she said, she had found the secret of life,
+which of course I did not believe, at least it was obvious that she had
+lost that of happiness.
+
+She sobbed softly and wept and while she did so the loveliness, which
+had left her for a little while, returned to her like light to a grey
+and darkened sky. Oh, how beautiful she seemed with the abundant locks
+in disorder over her tear-stained face, how beautiful beyond imagining!
+My heart melted as I studied her; I could think of nothing else except
+her surpassing charm and glory.
+
+"I pray you, do not weep," I said; "it hurts me and indeed I am sorry if
+I said anything to give you pain."
+
+But she only shook that glorious hair further about her face and behind
+its veil wept on.
+
+"You know, Ayesha," I continued, "you have said many hard things to me,
+making me the target of your bitter wit, therefore it is not strange
+that at last I answered you."
+
+"And hast thou not deserved them, Allan?" she murmured in soft and
+broken tones from behind that veil of scented locks.
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Because from the beginning thou didst defy me, showing in thine every
+accent that thou heldest me a liar and one of no account in body or in
+spirit, one not worthy of thy kind look, or of those gentle words which
+once were my portion among men. Oh! thou hast dealt hardly with me and
+therefore perchance--I know not--I paid thee back with such poor weapons
+as a woman holds, though all the while I liked thee well."
+
+Then again she fell to sobbing, swaying herself gently to and fro in her
+sweet sorrow.
+
+It was too much. Not knowing what else to do to comfort her, I patted
+her ivory hand which lay upon the couch beside me, and as this appeared
+to have no effect, I kissed it, which she did not seem to resent. Then
+suddenly I remembered and let it fall.
+
+She tossed back her hair from her face and fixing her big eyes on me,
+said gently enough, looking down at her hand,
+
+"What ails thee, Allan?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," I answered; "only I remembered the story you told me
+about some man called Kallikrates."
+
+She frowned.
+
+"And what of Kallikrates, Allan? Is it not enough that for my sins, with
+tears, empty longings and repentance, I must wait for him through all
+the weary centuries? Must I also wear the chains of this Kallikrates, to
+whom I owe many a debt, when he is far away? Say, didst thou see him in
+that Heaven of thine, Allan, for there perchance he dwells?"
+
+I shook my head and tried to think the thing out while all the time
+those wonderful eyes of hers seemed to draw the soul from me. It seemed
+to me that she bent forward and held up her face to me. Then I lost my
+reason and also bent forward. Yes, she made me mad, and, save her, I
+forgot all.
+
+Swiftly she placed her hand upon my heart, saying,
+
+"Stay! What meanest thou? Dost love me, Allan?"
+
+"I think so--that is--yes," I answered.
+
+She sank back upon the couch away from me and began to laugh very
+softly.
+
+"What words are these," she said, "that they pass thy lips so easily and
+so unmeant, perchance from long practice? Oh! Allan, I am astonished.
+Art thou the same man who some few days ago told me, and this unasked,
+that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the moon as of courting me?
+Art thou he who not a minute gone swore proudly that never had his heart
+and his lips wandered from certain angels whither they should not? And
+now, and now----?"
+
+I coloured to my eyes and rose, muttering,
+
+"Let me be gone!"
+
+"Nay, Allan, why? I see no mark here," and she held up her hand,
+scanning it carefully. "Thou art too much what thou wert before, except
+perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible," she added with a touch of
+malice. "Nor am I angry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to charm
+away my woe, I should have thought but poorly of thee as a man. There
+let it rest and be forgotten--or remembered as thou wilt. Still, in
+answer to thy words concerning my Kallikrates, what of those adored ones
+that, according to thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a place of
+light? Because they seemed faithless, shouldst thou be faithless also?
+Shame on thee, thou fickle Allan!"
+
+She paused, waiting for me to speak.
+
+Well, I could not. I had nothing to say who was utterly disgraced and
+overwhelmed.
+
+"Thou thinkest, Allan," she went on, "that I have cast my net about
+thee, and this is true. Learn wisdom from it, Allan, and never again
+defy a woman--that is, if she be fair, for then she is stronger than
+thou art, since Nature for its own purpose made her so. Whatever I have
+done by tears, that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is for
+thy instruction, Allan, that thou mayest benefit thereby."
+
+Again I sprang up, uttering an English exclamation which I trust Ayesha
+did not understand, and again she motioned to me to be seated, saying,
+
+"Nay, leave me not yet since, even if the light fancy of a man that
+comes and goes like the evening wind and for a breath made me dear
+to thee, has passed away, there remains certain work which we must do
+together. Although, thinking of thyself alone, thou hast forgotten it,
+having been paid thine own fee, one is yet due to that old wizard in a
+far land who sent thee to visit K�r and me, as indeed he has reminded me
+and within an hour."
+
+This amazing statement aroused me from my personal and painful
+pre-occupation and caused me to stare at her blankly.
+
+"Again thou disbelievest me," she said, with a little stamp. "Do so once
+more, Allan, and I swear I'll bring thee to grovel on the ground and
+kiss my foot and babble nonsense to a woman sworn to another man, such
+as never for all thy days thou shalt think of without a blush of shame."
+
+"Oh! no," I broke in hurriedly, "I assure you that you are mistaken. I
+believe every word you have said, or say or will say; I do in truth."
+
+"Now thou liest. Well, what is one more falsehood among so many? Let it
+pass."
+
+"What, indeed?" I echoed in eager affirmation, "and as for Zikali's
+message----" and I paused.
+
+"It was to recall to my mind that he desired to learn whether a certain
+great enterprise of his will succeed, the details of which he says thou
+canst tell me. Repeat them to me."
+
+So, glad enough to get away from more dangerous topics, I narrated
+to her as briefly and clearly as I could, the history of the old
+witch-doctor's feud with the Royal House of Zululand. She listened,
+taking in every word, and said,
+
+"So now he yearns to know whether he will conquer or be conquered; and
+that is why he sent, or thinks that he sent thee on this journey, not
+for thy sake, Allan, but for his own. I cannot tell thee, for what have
+I do to with the finish of this petty business, which to him seems so
+large? Still, as I owe him a debt for luring the Axe-Bearer here to rid
+me of mine enemy, and thee to lighten my solitude for an hour by the
+burnishing of thy mind, I will try. Set that bowl before me, Allan,"
+and she pointed to a marble tripod on which stood a basin half full of
+water, "and come, sit close by me and look into it, telling me what thou
+seest."
+
+I obeyed her instructions and presently found myself with my head over
+the basin, staring into the water in the exact attitude of a person who
+is about to be shampooed.
+
+"This seems rather foolish," I said abjectly, for at that moment I
+resembled the Queen of Sheba in one particular, if in no other, namely,
+that there was no more spirit in me. "What am I supposed to do? I see
+nothing at all."
+
+"Look again," she said, and as she spoke the water grew clouded. Then on
+it appeared a picture. I saw the interior of a Kaffir hut dimly lighted
+by a single candle set in the neck of a bottle. To the left of the door
+of the hut was a bedstead and on it lay stretched a wasted and dying
+man, in whom, to my astonishment, I recognised Cetywayo, King of the
+Zulus. At the foot of the bed stood another man--myself grown older by
+many years, and leaning over the bed, apparently whispering into the
+dying man's ear, was a grotesque and malevolent figure which I knew to
+be that of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, whose glowing eyes were fixed upon
+the terrified and tortured face of Cetywayo. All was as it happened
+afterwards, as I have written down in the book called "Finished."
+
+I described what I saw to Ayesha, and while I was doing so the picture
+vanished away, so that nothing remained save the clear water in the
+marble bowl. The story did not seem to interest her; indeed, she leaned
+back and yawned a little.
+
+"Thy vision is good, Allan," she said indifferently, "and wide also,
+since thou canst see what passes in the sun or distant stars, and
+pictures of things to be in the water, to say nothing of other pictures
+in a woman's eyes, all within an hour. Well, this savage business
+concerns me not and of it I want to know no more. Yet it would appear
+that here the old wizard who is thy friend, has the answer that he
+desires. For there in the picture the king he hates lies dying while he
+hisses in his ear and thou dost watch the end. What more can he seek?
+Tell him it when ye meet, and tell him also it is my will that in future
+he should trouble me less, since I love not to be wakened from my sleep
+to listen to his half-instructed talk and savage vapourings. Indeed,
+he presumes too much. And now enough of him and his dark plots. Ye have
+your desires, all of you, and are paid in full."
+
+"Over-paid, perhaps," I said with a sigh.
+
+"Ah, Allan, I think that Lesson thou hast learned pleases thee but
+little. Well, be comforted for the thing is common. Hast never heard
+that there is but one morsel more bitter to the taste than desire
+denied, namely, desire fulfilled? Believe me that there can be no
+happiness for man until he attains a land where all desire is dead."
+
+"That is what the Buddha preaches, Ayesha."
+
+"Aye, I remember the doctrines of that wise man well, who without doubt
+had found a key to the gate of Truth, one key only, for, mark thou,
+Allan, there are many. Yet, man being man must know desires, since
+without them, robbed of ambitions, strivings, hopes, fears, aye and of
+life itself, the race must die, which is not the will of the Lord of
+Life who needs a nursery for his servant's souls, wherein his swords of
+Good and Ill shall shape them to his pattern. So it comes about, Allan,
+that what we think the worst is oft the best for us, and with that
+knowledge, if we are wise, let us assuage our bitterness and wipe away
+our tears."
+
+"I have often thought that," I said.
+
+"I doubt it not, Allan, since though it has pleased me to make a jest
+of thee, I know that thou hast thy share of wisdom, such little share as
+thou canst gather in thy few short years. I know, too, that thy heart is
+good and aspires high, and Friend--well, I find in thee a friend indeed,
+as I think not for the first time, nor certainly for the last. Mark,
+Allan, what I say, not a lover, but a _friend_, which is higher far.
+For when passion dies with the passing of the flesh, if there be no
+friendship what will remain save certain memories that, mayhap, are well
+forgot? Aye, how would those lovers meet elsewhere who were never more
+than lovers? With weariness, I hold, as they stared into each other's
+empty soul, or even with disgust.
+
+"Therefore the wise will seek to turn those with whom Fate mates them
+into friends, since otherwise soon they will be lost for aye. More, if
+they are wiser still, having made them friends, they will suffer them
+to find lovers where they will. Good maxims, are they not? Yet hard to
+follow, or so, perchance, thou thinkest them--as I do."
+
+
+
+She grew silent and brooded a while, resting her chin upon her hand and
+staring down the hall. Thus the aspect of her face was different from
+any that I had seen it wear. No longer had it the allure of Aphrodite or
+the majesty of Hera; rather might it have been that of Athene herself.
+So wise it seemed, so calm, so full of experience and of foresight, that
+almost it frightened me.
+
+What was this woman's true story, I wondered, what her real self, and
+what the sum of her gathered knowledge? Perhaps it was accident, or
+perhaps, again, she guessed my mind. At any rate her next words seemed
+in some sense an answer to these speculations. Lifting her eyes she
+contemplated me a while, then said,
+
+"My friend, we part to meet no more in thy life's day. Often thou wilt
+wonder concerning me, as to what in truth I am, and mayhap in the end
+thy judgment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer
+who, rejected of the world or driven from it by her crimes, made
+choice to rule among savages, playing the part of Oracle to that little
+audience and telling strange tales to such few travellers as come her
+way. Perhaps, indeed, I do play this part among many others, and if so,
+thou wilt not judge me wrongly.
+
+"Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas, told
+me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed from
+dizzy cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shines. They told
+me also that whereas above the ocean's breast appears but a blue and
+dazzling point, sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle, invisible to
+man.
+
+"Such am I, Allan. Of my being thou seest but one little peak glittering
+in light or crowned with storm, as heaven's moods sweep over it. But in
+the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations, hollowed by
+the seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit doth inhabit.
+So picture me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a soul unknown, and
+pray that in time to come thou mayest see it in its splendour.
+
+"Hadst thou been other than thou art, I might have shown thee secrets,
+making clear to thee the parable of much that I have told thee in
+metaphor and varying fable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power
+and enduring days of which thou knowest nothing. But of those who visit
+shrines, O Allan, two things are required, worship and faith, since
+without these the oracles are dumb and the healing waters will not flow.
+
+"Now I, Ayesha, am a shrine; yet to me thou broughtest no worship until
+I won it by a woman's trick, and in me thou hast no faith. Therefore for
+thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will not
+flow. Yet I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard world
+has shaped thee.
+
+"And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not
+in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still
+exercise on earth, I, whom men name Ayesha, am in all things. I tell
+thee that I am not One but Many and, being many, am both Here and
+Everywhere. When thou standest beneath the sky at night and lookest on
+the stars, remember that in them mine eyes behold thee; when the soft
+winds of evening blow, that my breath is on thy brow and when the
+thunder rolls, that there am I riding on the lightnings and rushing with
+the gale."
+
+"Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?" I asked, bewildered.
+"Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her priestess?"
+
+"Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds do not reach thine ears; all
+sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf
+and blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worship is
+forgot, some spark of the spirit of that immortal Lady whose chariot was
+the moon, lingers on the earth in this woman's shape of mine, though her
+essence dwells afar, and perchance her other name is Nature, my mother
+and thine, O Allan. At the least hath not the World a soul--and of that
+soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou also? For the rest are not
+the priest and the Divine he bows to, oft the same?"
+
+It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a
+self-deceiver, but I did not.
+
+"Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha's benison go with thee. Safe shalt
+thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy
+companions with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy
+time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt find those whom thou hast
+lost more kind than they seemed to be to-night."
+
+She paused awhile, then added,
+
+"Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, much that I have told thee
+may bear a double meaning, as is the way of parables, to be interpreted
+as thou wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain man, in the old
+days named Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine decree,
+and I await him here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world without,
+tell him that Ayesha awaits him and grows weary in the waiting. Nay,
+thou wilt never find him, since even if he be born again, by what token
+would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge thee, keep my secrets
+well, lest Ayesha's curse should fall on thee. While thou livest tell
+naught of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou swear to keep my
+secrets, Allan?"
+
+"I swear, Ayesha."
+
+"I thank thee, Allan," she answered, and grew silent for a while.
+
+At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height,
+stood there majestic. Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too
+had risen and left the dais.
+
+I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over me as though in
+blessing, then pointed towards the curtains which at this moment were
+drawn asunder, by whom I do not know.
+
+I went and when I reached them, turned to look my last on her.
+
+There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes were fixed upon the
+ground and her face once more was brooding absently as though no such
+a man as I had ever been. It came into my mind that already she had
+forgotten me, the plaything of an hour, who had served her turn and been
+cast aside.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW
+
+Like one who drams I passed down the outer hall where stood the silent
+guards as statues might, and out through the archway. Here I paused for
+a moment, partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings of the
+night, and partly because I thought that I heard someone approaching me
+through the gloom, and in such a place where I might have many enemies,
+it was well to be prepared.
+
+As it chanced, however, my imaginary assailant was only Hans, who
+emerged from some place where he had been hiding; a very disturbed and
+frightened Hans.
+
+"Oh, Baas," he said in a low and shaky whisper, "I am glad to see you
+again, and standing on your feet, not being carried with them sticking
+straight in front of you as I expected."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, Baas, because of the things that happened in that place where the
+tall _vrouw_ with her head tied up as though she had tooth-ache, sits
+like a spider in a web."
+
+"Well, what happened, Hans?" I asked as we walked forward.
+
+"This, Baas. The Doctoress talked and talked at you and Umslopogaas, and
+as she talked, your faces began to look as though you had drunk half
+a flask too much of the best gin, such as I wish I had some of here
+to-night, at once wise and foolish, and full and empty, Baas. Then you
+both rolled over and lay there quite dead, and whilst I was wondering
+what I should do and how I should get out your bodies to bury them, the
+Doctoress came down off her platform and bent, first over you and next
+over Umslopogaas, whispering into the ears of both of you. Then she took
+off a snake that looked as though it were made of gold with green eyes,
+which she wears about her middle beneath the long dish-cloth, Baas, and
+held it to your lips and next to those of Umslopogaas."
+
+"Well, and what then, Hans?"
+
+"After that all sorts of things came about, Baas, and I felt as though
+the whole house were travelling through the air, Baas, twice as fast as
+a bullet does from a rifle. Suddenly, too, the room became filled with
+fire so hot that it scorched me, and so bright that it made my eyes
+water, although they can look at the sun without winking. And, Baas,
+the fire was full of spooks which walked around; yes, I saw some of them
+standing on your head and stomach, Baas, also on that of Umslopogaas,
+whilst others went and talked to the white Doctoress as quietly as
+though they had met her in the market-place and wanted to sell her
+eggs or butter. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend father, the
+Predikant, who looked as though he were red-hot, as doubtless he is in
+the Place of Fires. I thought he came up to me, Baas, and said, 'Get out
+of this, Hans. This is no place for a good Hottentot like you, Hans, for
+here only the very best Christians can bear the heat for long.'
+
+"That finished me, Baas. I just answered that I handed you, the Baas
+Allan his son, over to his care, hoping that he would see that you did
+not burn in that oven, whatever happened to Umslopogaas. Then I shut my
+eyes and mouth and held my nose, and wriggled beneath those curtains as
+a snake does, Baas, and ran down the hall and across the kraal-yard
+and through the archway out into the night, where I have been sitting
+cooling myself ever since, waiting for you to be carried away, Baas.
+And now you have come alive and with not even your hair burnt off, which
+shows how wonderful must be the Great Medicine of Zikali, Baas, since
+nothing else could have saved you in that fire, no, not even your
+reverend father, the Predikant."
+
+"Hans," I said when he had finished, "you are a very wonderful fellow,
+for you can get drunk on nothing at all. Please remember, Hans, that
+you have been drunk to-night, yes, very drunk indeed, and never dare to
+repeat anything that you thought you saw while you were drunk."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I understand that I was drunk and already have forgotten
+everything. But, Baas, there is still a bottle full of brandy and if I
+could have just one more tot I should forget _so_ much better!"
+
+By now we had reached our camp and here I found Umslopogaas sitting in
+the doorway and staring at the sky.
+
+"Good-evening to you, Umslopogaas," I said in my most unconcerned
+manner, and waited.
+
+"Good-evening, Watcher-by-Night, who I thought was lost in the night,
+since in the end the night is stronger than any of its watchers."
+
+At this cryptic remark I looked bewildered but said nothing. At length
+Umslopogaas, whose nature, for a Zulu, was impulsive and lacking in the
+ordinary native patience, asked,
+
+"Did you make a journey this evening, Macumazahn, and if so, what did
+you see?"
+
+"Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogaas?" I inquired by way of
+answer, "and if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut
+your eyes in the House of the White One yonder, doubtless because you
+were weary of talk which you did not understand."
+
+"Aye, Macumazahn, as you suppose I grew weary of that talk which flowed
+from the lips of the White Witch like the music that comes from a little
+stream babbling over stones when the sun is hot, and being weary, I fell
+asleep and dreamed. What I dreamed does not much matter. It is enough
+to say that I felt as though I were thrown through the air like a stone
+cast from his sling by a boy who is set upon a stage to scare the birds
+out of a mealie garden. Further than any stone I went, aye, further
+than a shooting star, till I reached a wonderful place. It does not much
+matter what it was like either, and indeed I am already beginning to
+forget, but there I met everyone I have ever known. I met the Lion of
+the Zulus, the Black One, the Earth-Shaker, he who had a 'sister' named
+Baleka, which sister," here he dropped his voice and looked about him
+suspiciously, "bore a child, which child was fostered by one Mopo,
+that Mopo who afterwards slew the Black one with the Princes. Now,
+Macumazahn, I had a score to settle with this Black One, aye, even
+though our blood be much of the same colour, I had a score to settle
+with him, because of the slaying of this sister of his, Baleka, together
+with the Langeni tribe.[*] So I walked up to him and took him by the
+head-ring and spat in his face and bade him find a spear and shield, and
+meet me as man to man. Yes, I did this."
+
+     [*] For the history of Baleka, the mother of Umslopogaas,
+     and Mopo, see the book called "Nada the Lily."--Editor.
+
+"And what happened then, Umslopogaas?" I said, when he paused in his
+narrative.
+
+"Macumazahn, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his
+head-ring and the skull beneath, and to shut upon itself while he went
+on talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognised, yes, one Faku,
+whom in the days of Dingaan, the Black One's brother, I myself slew upon
+the Ghost-Mountain.
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him
+and of the fight that I and my blood-brother and the wolves made, there
+on the knees of the old witch who sits aloft on the Ghost Mountain
+waiting for the world to die, for I could understand their talk, though
+mine went by them like the wind.
+
+"Macumazahn, they passed away and there came others, Dingaan among them,
+aye, Dingaan who also knows something of the Witch-Mountain, seeing that
+there Mopo and I hurled him to his death. With him also I would have had
+words, but it was the same story, only presently he caught sight of the
+Black One, yes, of Chaka whom he slew, stabbing him with the little
+red assegai, and turned and fled, because in that land I think he still
+fears Chaka, Macumazahn, or so the dream told.
+
+"I went on and met others, men I had fought in my day, most of them,
+among them was Jikiza, he who ruled the People of the Axe before me whom
+I slew with his own axe. I lifted the axe and made me ready to fight
+again, but not one of them took any note of me. There they walked about,
+or sat drinking beer or taking snuff, but never a sup of the beer or a
+pinch of the snuff did they offer me, no, not even those among them whom
+I chanced not to have killed. So I left them and walked on, seeking for
+Mopo, my foster-father, and a certain man, my blood-brother, by whose
+side I hunted with the wolves, yes, for them, and for another."
+
+"Well, and did you find them?" I asked.
+
+"Mopo I found not, which makes me think, Macumazahn, that, as once you
+hinted to me, he whom I thought long dead, perchance still lingers on
+the earth. But the others I did find . . ." and he ceased, brooding.
+
+Now I knew enough of Umslopogaas's history to be aware that he had loved
+this man and woman of whom he spoke more than any others on the earth.
+The "blood-brother," whose name he would not utter, by which he did not
+mean that he was his brother in blood but one with whom he had made
+a pact of eternal friendship by the interchange of blood or some such
+ceremony, according to report, had dwelt with him on the Witch-Mountain
+where legend told, though this I could scarcely believe, that they had
+hunted with a pack of hyenas. There, it said also, they fought a great
+fight with a band send out by Dingaan the king under the command of that
+Faku whom Umslopogaas had mentioned, in which fight the "Blood-Brother,"
+wielder of a famous club known as Watcher-of-the-Fords, got his death
+after doing mighty deeds. There also, as I had heard, Nada the Lily,
+whose beauty was still famous in the land, died under circumstances
+strange as they were sad.
+
+Naturally, remembering my own experiences, or rather what seemed to be
+my experiences, for already I had made up my mind that they were but
+a dream, I was most anxious to learn whether these two who had been so
+dear to this fierce Zulu, had recognised him.
+
+"Well, and what did they say to you, Umslopogaas?" I asked.
+
+"Macumazahn, they said nothing at all. Hearken! There stood this pair,
+or sometimes they moved to and fro; my brother, an even greater man
+than he used to be, with the wolfskin girt about him and the club,
+Watcher-of-the-Fords, which he alone could wield, upon his shoulder, and
+Nada, grown lovelier even than she was of old, so lovely, Macumazahn,
+that my heart rose into my throat when I saw her and stopped my breath.
+Yes, Macumazahn, there they stood, or walked about arm in arm as lovers
+might, and looked into each other's eyes and talked of how they had
+known each other on the earth, for I could understand their words or
+thoughts, and how it was good to be at rest together where they were."
+
+"You see, they were old friends, Umslopogaas," I said.
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, very old friends as I thought. So much so that they
+had never had a word to say of me who also was the old friend of both
+of them. Aye, my brother, whose name I am sworn not to speak, the
+woman-hater who vowed he loved nothing save me and the wolves, could
+smile into the face of Nada the Lily, Nada the bride of my youth, yet
+never a word of me, while she could smile back and tell him how great a
+warrior he had been and never a word of me whose deeds she was wont to
+praise, who saved her in the Halakazi caves and from Dingaan; no, never
+a word of me although I stood there staring at them."
+
+"I suppose that they did not see you, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is so, Macumazahn; I am sure that they did not see me, for if they
+had they would not have been so much at ease. But I saw them and as they
+would not take heed when I shouted, I ran up calling to my brother to
+defend himself with his club. Then, as he still took no note, I lifted
+the axe _Inkosikaas_, making it circle in the light, and smote with all
+my strength."
+
+"And what happened, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Only this, Macumazahn, that the axe went straight through my brother
+from the crown of his head to the groin, cutting him in two, and he just
+went on talking! Indeed, he did more, for stooping down he gathered a
+white lily-bloom which grew there and gave it to Nada, who smelt at
+it, smiled and thanked him, and then thrust it into her girdle, still
+thanking him all the while. Yes, she did this for I saw it with my eyes,
+Macumazahn."
+
+Here the Zulu's voice broke and I think that he wept, for in the faint
+light I saw him draw his long hand across his eyes, whereon I took the
+opportunity to turn my back and light a pipe.
+
+"Macumazahn," he went on presently, "it seems that madness took hold
+of me for a long while, for I shouted and raved at them, thinking that
+words and rage might hurt where good steel could not, and as I did
+so they faded away and disappeared, still smiling and talking, Nada
+smelling at the lily which, having a long stalk, rose up above her
+breast. After this I rushed away and suddenly met that savage king,
+Rezu, whom I slew a few days gone. At him I went with the axe, wondering
+whether he would put up a better fight this second time."
+
+"And did he, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Nay, but I think he felt me for he turned and fled and when I tried to
+follow I could not see him. So I ran on and presently who should I find
+but Baleka, Baleka, Chaka's 'sister' who--repeat it not, Macumazahn--was
+my mother; and, Macumazahn, _she_ saw me. Yes, though I was but little
+when last she looked on me who now am great and grim, she saw and knew
+me, for she floated up to me and smiled at me and seemed to press her
+lips upon my forehead, though I could feel no kiss, and to draw the
+soreness out of my heart. Then she, too, was gone and of a sudden I fell
+down through space, having, I suppose, stepped into some deep hole, or
+perchance a well.
+
+"The next thing I knew was that I awoke in the house of the White Witch
+and saw you sleeping at my side and the Witch leaning back upon her bed
+and smiling at me through the thin blanket with which she covers herself
+up, for I could see the laughter in her eyes.
+
+"Now I grew mad with her because of the things that I had seen in the
+Place of Dreams, and it came into my heart that it would be well to kill
+her that the world might be rid of her and her evil magic which can show
+lies to men. So, being distraught, I sprang up and lifted the axe and
+stepped towards her, whereon she rose and stood before me, laughing out
+loud. Then she said something in the tongue I cannot understand, and
+pointed with her finger, and lo! next moment it was as if giants had
+seized me and were whirling me away, till presently I found myself
+breathless but unharmed beyond the arch and--what does it all mean,
+Macumazahn?"
+
+"Very little, as I think, Umslopogaas, except that this queen has powers
+to which those of Zikali are as nothing, and can cause visions to float
+before the eyes of men. For know that such things as you saw, I saw, and
+in them those whom I have loved also seemed to take no thought of me
+but only to be concerned with each other. Moreover when I awoke and told
+this to the queen who is called She-who-commands, she laughed at me as
+she did at you, and said that it was a good lesson for my pride who in
+that pride had believed that the dead only thought of the living. But
+I think that the lesson came from her who wished to humble us,
+Umslopogaas, and that it was her mind that shaped these visions which we
+saw."
+
+"I think so too, Macumazahn, but how she knew of all the matters of your
+life and mine, I do not know, unless perchance Zikali told them to her,
+speaking in the night-watches as wizards can."
+
+"Nay, Umslopogaas, I believe that by her magic she drew our stories out
+of our own hearts and then set them forth to us afresh, putting her own
+colour on them. Also it may be that she drew something from Hans, and
+from Goroko and the other Zulus with you, and thus paid us the fee that
+she had promised for our service, but in lung-sick oxen and barren cows,
+not in good cattle, Umslopogaas."
+
+He nodded and said,
+
+"Though at the time I seemed to go mad and though I know that women are
+false and men must follow where they lead them, never will I believe
+that my brother, the woman-hater, and Nada are lovers in the land below
+and have there forgotten me, the comrade of one of them and the husband
+of the other. Moreover I hold, Macumazahn, that you and I have met with
+a just reward for our folly.
+
+"We have sought to look through the bottom of the grave at things which
+the Great-Great in Heaven above did not mean that men should see, and
+now that we have seen we are unhappier than we were, since such dreams
+burn themselves upon the heart as a red-hot iron burns the hide of an
+ox, so that the hair will never grow again where it has been and the
+hide is marred.
+
+"To you, Watcher-by-Night, I say, 'Content yourself with your watching
+and whatever it may bring to you in fame and wealth.' And to myself I
+say, 'Holder of the Axe, content yourself with the axe and what it may
+bring to you in fair fight and glory'; and to both of us I say, 'Let
+the Dead sleep unawakened until we go to join them, which surely will be
+soon enough.'"
+
+"Good words, Umslopogaas, but they should have been spoken ere ever we
+set out on this journey."
+
+"Not so, Macumazahn, since that journey we were fated to make to save
+one who lies yonder, the Lady Sad-Eyes, and, as they tell me, is
+well again. Also Zikali willed it, and who can resist the will of the
+Opener-of-Roads? So it is made and we have seen many strange things
+and won some glory and come to know how deep is the pool of our own
+foolishness, who thought that we could search out the secrets of Death,
+and there have only found those of a witch's mind and venom, reflected
+as in water. And now having discovered all these things I wish to be
+gone from this haunted land. When do we march, Macumazahn?"
+
+"To-morrow morning, I believe, if the Lady Sad-Eyes and the others are
+well enough, as She-who-commands says they will be."
+
+"Good. Then I would sleep who am more weary than I was after I had
+killed Rezu in the battle on the mountain."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "since it is harder to fight ghosts than men, and
+dreams, if they be bad, are more dreadful than deeds. Good-night,
+Umslopogaas."
+
+
+
+He went, and I too went to see how it fared with Inez. I found that she
+was fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which Ayesha
+seemed to have plunged her. Now it was absolutely natural and looking
+at her lying there upon the bed, I thought how young and healthy was
+her appearance. The women in charge of her also told me that she had
+awakened at the hour appointed by She-who-commands, as it seemed,
+quite well and very hungry, although she appeared to be puzzled by
+her surroundings. After she had eaten, they added that she had "sung
+a song," which was probably a hymn, and prayed upon her knees, "making
+signs upon her breast" and then gone quietly to bed.
+
+My anxiety relieved as regards Inez, I returned to my own quarters. Not
+feeling inclined for slumber, however, instead of turning in I sat at
+the doorway contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the
+countless fireflies that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning
+gold; also the great owls and other fowl that haunt the dark. These had
+come out in numbers from their hiding-places among the ruins and sailed
+to and fro like white-winged spirits, now seen and now lost in the
+gloom.
+
+
+
+While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary
+nature of my experiences during the past few days. Had any man ever
+known the like, I wondered? What could they mean and what could this
+marvellous woman Ayesha be? Was she perhaps a personification of Nature
+itself, as indeed to some extent all women are? Was she human at all,
+or was she some spirit symbolising a departed people, faith and
+civilisation, and haunting the ruins where once she reigned as queen?
+No, the idea was ridiculous, since such beings do not exist, though it
+was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of common
+humanity, as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than are given
+to any other woman.
+
+Of one thing I was certain, however, that the Shades I had seemed
+to visit had their being in the circle of her own imagination and
+intelligence. There Umslopogaas was right; we had seen no dead, we had
+only seen pictures and images that she drew and fashioned.
+
+Why did she do this, I wondered. Perhaps to pretend to powers which she
+did not possess, perhaps out of sheer elfish mischief, or perhaps, as
+she asserted, just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own
+sight. Well, if so she had succeeded, for never did I feel so crushed
+and humiliated as at that moment.
+
+I had seemed to descend, or ascend, into Hades, and there had only seen
+things that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds.
+Then, on awaking, I had been bewitched; yes, fresh from those visions
+of the most dear dead, I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic of
+this woman's loveliness and charm, and made a fool of myself, only to be
+brought back to my senses by her triumphant mockery. Oh, I was humbled
+indeed, and yet the odd thing is that I could not feel angry with her,
+and what is more that, perhaps from vanity, I believed in her profession
+of friendship towards myself.
+
+Well, the upshot of it was that, like Umslopogaas, more than anything
+else in the world did I desire to depart from this haunted K�r and to
+bury all its recollections in such activities as fortune might bring to
+me. And yet, and yet it was well to have seen it and to have plucked the
+flower of such marvellous experience, nor, as I knew even then, could I
+ever inter the memory of Ayesha the wise, the perfect in all loveliness,
+and the half-divine in power.
+
+
+
+When I awoke the next morning the sun was well up and after I had taken
+a swim in the old bath and dressed myself, I went to see how it
+fared with Inez. I found her sitting at the door of her house looking
+extremely well and with a radiant face. She was engaged in making a
+chain of some small and beautiful blue flowers of the iris tribe, of
+which quantities grew about, that she threaded together upon stalks of
+dry grass.
+
+This chain, which was just finished, she threw over her head so that
+it hung down upon her white robe, for now she was dressed like an Arab
+woman though without the veil. I watched her unseen for a little while
+then came forward and spoke to her. She started at the sight of me and
+rose as though to run away; then, apparently reassured by my appearance,
+selected a particularly fine flower and offered it to me.
+
+I saw at once that she did not know me in the least and thought that she
+had never seen me before, in short, that her mind had gone, exactly as
+Ayesha had said that it would do. By way of making conversation I asked
+her if she felt well. She replied, Oh, yes, she had never felt better,
+then added,
+
+"Daddy has gone on a long journey and will not be back for weeks and
+weeks."
+
+An idea came to me and I answered,
+
+"Yes, Inez, but I am a friend of his and he has sent me to take you to
+a place where I hope that we shall find him. Only it is far away, so you
+also must make a long journey."
+
+She clapped her hands and answered,
+
+"Oh, that will be nice, I do so love travelling, especially to find
+Daddy, who I expect will have my proper clothes with him, not these
+which, although they are very comfortable and pretty, seem different to
+what I used to wear. You look very nice too and I am sure that we shall
+be great friends, which I am glad of, for I have been rather lonely
+since my mother went to live with the saints in Heaven, because, you
+see, Daddy is so busy and so often away, that I do not see much of him."
+
+Upon my word I could have wept when I heard her prattle on thus. It is
+so terribly unnatural, almost dreadful indeed, to listen to a full grown
+woman who talks in the accents and expresses the thoughts of a child.
+However, under all the circumstances I recognised that her calamity was
+merciful, and remembering that Ayesha had prophesied the recovery of her
+mind as well as its loss and how great seemed to be her powers in these
+directions, I took such comfort as I could.
+
+Leaving her I went to see the two Zulus who had been wounded and found
+to my joy that they were now quite well and fit to travel, for here,
+too, Ayesha's prophecy had proved good. The other men also were
+completely rested and anxious to be gone like Umslopogaas and myself.
+
+While I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Billali,
+who with a sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we
+should be ready to start, as he had received orders to see to all the
+necessary arrangements. I replied--within an hour, and he departed in a
+hurry.
+
+But little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of
+litters and their bearers, also with a bodyguard of twenty-five picked
+men, all of whom we recognised as brave fellows who had fought well in
+the battle. These men and the bearers old Billali harangued, telling
+them that they were to guide, carry and escort us to the other side of
+the great swamp, or further if we needed it, and that it was the word of
+She-who-commands that if so much as the smallest harm came to any one
+of us, even by accident, they should die every man of them "by the
+hot-pot," whatever that might be, for I was not sure of the significance
+of this horror.[*] Then he asked them if they understood. They replied
+with fervour that they understood perfectly and would lead and guard us
+as though we were their own mothers.
+
+[*] For this see the book called "She."--Editor.
+
+As a matter of fact they did, and I think would have done so
+independently of Ayesha's command, since they looked upon Umslopogaas
+and myself almost as gods and thought that we could destroy them all if
+we wished, as we had destroyed Rezu and his host.
+
+I asked Billali if he were not coming with us, to which he replied, No,
+as She-who-commands had returned to her own place and he must follow
+her at once. I asked him again where her own place might be, to which
+he answered vaguely that it was everywhere and he stared first at the
+heavens and then at the earth as though she inhabited most of them,
+adding that generally it was "in the Caves," though what he meant by
+that I did not know. Then he said that he was very glad to have met us
+and that the sight of Umslopogaas killing Rezu was a spectacle that
+he would remember with pleasure all his life. Also he asked me for a
+present. I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little German
+silver case, with which he was delighted. Thus I parted with old
+Billali, of whom I shall always think with a certain affection.
+
+I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslopogaas,
+thinking, I suppose, that he might take a last opportunity to fulfil his
+threats and introduce him to his terrible Axe.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE
+
+A little while later we started, some of us in litters, including the
+wounded Zulus, who I insisted should be carried for a day or two, and
+some on foot. Inez I caused to be borne immediately in front of myself
+so that I could keep an eye upon her. Moreover I put her in the especial
+charge of Hans, to whom fortunately she took a great fancy at once,
+perhaps because she remembered subconsciously that she knew him and that
+he had been kind to her, although when they met after her long sleep, as
+in my own case, she did not recognise him in the least.
+
+Soon, however, they were again the fastest of friends, so much so that
+within a day or two the little Hottentot practically filled the place of
+a maid to her, attending to her every want and looking after her
+exactly as a nurse does after a child, with the result that it was quite
+touching to see how she came to depend upon him, "her monkey," as she
+called him, and how fond he grew of her.
+
+Once, indeed, there was trouble, since hearing a noise, I came up to
+find Hans bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the Zulus,
+who stupidly, or perhaps rudely, had knocked against the litter of Inez
+and nearly turned it over. For the rest, the Lady Sad-Eyes, as they
+called her, had for the time became the Lady Glad-Eyes, since she was
+merry as the day was long, laughing and singing and playing just as a
+healthy happy child should do.
+
+Only once did I see her wretched and weep. It was when a kitten which
+she had insisted on bringing with her, sprang out of the litter and
+vanished into some bush where it could not be found. Even when she
+was soon consoled and dried her tears, when Hans explained to her in a
+mixture of bad English and worse Portuguese, that it had only run away
+because it wished to get back to its mother which it loved, and that it
+was cruel to separate it from its mother.
+
+We made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over the
+crest of the cliff or volcano lip that encircles the great plain of K�r,
+and descending rapidly to a sheltered spot on the outer slope where our
+camp was to be set for the night.
+
+Not very far from this place, as I think I have mentioned, stood, and I
+suppose still stands, a very curious pinnacle of rock, which, doubtless
+being of some harder sort, had remained when, hundreds of thousands or
+millions of years before, the surrounding lava had been washed or had
+corroded away. This rock pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and as
+smooth as though it had been worked by man; indeed, I remembered having
+remarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas--I forget which--when we passed it on
+our inward journey, that there was a column which no monkey could climb.
+
+As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappeared
+behind the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struck
+upon a storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in a
+glow of angry light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon the
+summit of this strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.
+
+At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas at
+the end of the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncoming
+darkness. When we had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards,
+something caused Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered an
+exclamation which made me follow his example, with the result that I saw
+a very wonderful thing. For there on the point of the pillar, like St.
+Simeon Stylites on his famous column, glowing in the sunset rays as
+though she were on fire, stood Ayesha herself!
+
+It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus between
+earth and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather than
+a woman, standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness; since the
+shadows, save for the faintest outline, had swallowed up the column that
+supported her. Moreover, in the intense, rich light that was focussed
+on her, we could see every detail of her form and face, for she was
+unveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which gazed upwards emptily
+(at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the little gold studs
+that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake girdle she wore
+about her waist.
+
+We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,
+
+"Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me that
+She-who-commands had departed from K�r to her own place."
+
+"Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,
+Macumazahn."
+
+"If she be there," I answered angrily, for my nerves were at once
+thrilled and torn. "Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where else
+can she be when we see her with our eyes?"
+
+"Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds,
+are able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rock
+like a lizard, Macumazahn?"
+
+"Doubtless----" and I began some explanation which I have forgotten,
+when a passing cloud, or I know not what, cut off the light so that both
+the pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible. A minute later
+it returned for a little while, and there was the point of the
+needle-shaped rock, but it was empty, as, save for the birds that rested
+on it, it had been since the beginning of the world.
+
+Then Umslopogaas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence.
+
+
+
+This was the last that I saw of the glorious Ayesha, if indeed I did see
+her and not her ghost. Yet it is true that for all the first part of the
+journey, till we were through the great swamp in fact, from time to
+time I was conscious, or imagined that I was conscious of her presence.
+Moreover, once others saw her, or someone who might have been her. It
+happened thus.
+
+We were in the centre of the great swamp and the trained guides who were
+leading came to a place where the path forked and were uncertain
+which road to take. Finally they fixed on the right-hand path and were
+preparing to follow it together with those who bore the litter of Inez,
+by the side of which Hans was walking as usual.
+
+At this moment, as Hans told me, the guides went down upon their faces
+and he saw standing in front of them a white-veiled form who pointed to
+the left-hand path, and then seemed to be lost in the mist. Without a
+word the guides rose and followed this left-hand path. Hans stopped the
+litter till I came up when he told me what had happened, while Inez also
+began to chatter in her childish fashion about a "White Lady."
+
+I had the curiosity to walk a little way along the right-hand path which
+they were about to take. Only a few yards further on I found myself
+sinking in a floating quagmire, from which I extricated myself with much
+difficulty but just in time for as I discovered afterwards by probing
+with a pole, the water beneath the matted reeds was deep. That night
+I questioned the guides upon the subject, but without result, for they
+pretended to have seen nothing and not to understand what I meant. Of
+neither of these incidents have I any explanation to offer, except
+that once contracted, it is as difficult to be rid of the habit of
+hallucinations as of any other.
+
+
+
+It is not necessary that I should give all the details of our long
+homeward journey. So I will only say that having dismissed our bearers
+and escorts when we reached higher ground beyond the horrible swamp,
+keeping one litter for Inez in which the Zulus carried her when she
+was tired, we accomplished it in complete safety and having crossed the
+Zambesi, at last one evening reached the house called Strathmuir.
+
+Here we found the waggon and oxen quite safe and were welcomed
+rapturously by my Zulu driver and the _voorlooper_, who had made up
+their minds that we were dead and were thinking of trekking homewards.
+Here also Thomaso greeted us, though I think that, like the Zulus, he
+was astonished at our safe return and indeed not over-pleased to see us.
+I told him that Captain Robertson had been killed in a fight in which
+we had rescued his daughter from the cannibals who had carried her off
+(information which I cautioned him to keep to himself) but nothing else
+that I could help.
+
+Also I warned the Zulus through Umslopogaas and Goroko, that no mention
+was to be made of our adventures, either then or afterwards, since if
+this were done the curse of the White Queen would fall on them and bring
+them to disaster and death. I added that the name of this queen and
+everything that was connected with her, or her doings, must be locked up
+in their own hearts. It must be like the name of dead kings, not to
+be spoken. Nor indeed did they ever speak it or tell the story of our
+search, because they were too much afraid both of Ayesha whom they
+believed to be the greatest of all witches, and of the axe of their
+captain, Umslopogaas.
+
+Inez went to bed that night without seeming to recognise her old home,
+to all appearance just a mindless child as she had been ever since she
+awoke from her trance at K�r. Next morning, however, Hans came to tell
+me that she was changed and that she wished to speak with me. I went,
+wondering, to find her in the sitting-room, dressed in European clothes
+which she had taken from where she kept them, and once more a reasoning
+woman.
+
+"Mr. Quatermain," she said, "I suppose that I must have been ill, for
+the last thing I remember is going to sleep on the night after you
+started for the hippopotamus hunt. Where is my father? Did any harm come
+to him while he was hunting?"
+
+"Alas!" I answered, lying boldly, for I feared lest the truth
+should take away her mind again, "it did. He was trampled upon by a
+hippopotamus bull, which charged him, and killed, and we were obliged to
+bury him where he died."
+
+She bowed her head for a while and muttered some prayer for his soul,
+then looked at me keenly and said,
+
+"I do not think you are telling me everything, Mr. Quatermain, but
+something seems to say that this is because it is not well that I should
+learn everything."
+
+"No," I answered, "you have been ill and out of your mind for quite a
+long while; something gave you a shock. I think that you learned of your
+father's death, which you have now forgotten, and were overcome with the
+news. Please trust to me and believe that if I keep anything back from
+you, it is because I think it best to do so for the present."
+
+"I trust and I believe," she answered. "Now please leave me, but tell me
+first where are those women and their children?"
+
+"After your father died they went away," I replied, lying once more.
+
+She looked at me again but made no comment.
+
+Then I left her.
+
+
+
+How much Inez ever learned of the true story of her adventures I do not
+know to this hour, though my opinion is that it was but little. To
+begin with, everyone, including Thomaso, was threatened with the direst
+consequences if he said a word to her on the subject; moreover in her
+way she was a wise woman, one who knew when it was best not to ask
+questions. She was aware that she had suffered from a fit of aberration
+or madness and that during this time her father had died and certain
+peculiar things had happened. There she was content to leave the
+business and she never again spoke to me upon the subject. Of this I was
+very glad, as how on earth could I have explained to her about Ayesha's
+prophecies as to her lapse into childishness and subsequent return to a
+normal state when she reached her home seeing that I did not understand
+them myself?
+
+Once indeed she did inquire what had become of Janee to which I answered
+that she had died during her sickness. It was another lie, at any rate
+by implication, but I hold that there are occasions when it is righteous
+to lie. At least these particular falsehoods have never troubled my
+conscience.
+
+Here I may as well finish the story of Inez, that is, as far as I can.
+As I have shown she was always a woman of melancholy and religious
+temperament, qualities that seemed to grow upon her after her return to
+health. Certainly the religion did, for continually she was engaged in
+prayer, a development with which heredity may have had something to do,
+since after he became a reformed character and grew unsettled in his
+mind, her father followed the same road.
+
+On our return to civilisation, as it chanced, one of the first persons
+with whom she came in contact was a very earnest and excellent old
+priest of her own faith. The end of this intimacy was much what might
+have been expected. Very soon Inez determined to renounce the world,
+which I think never had any great attractions for her, and entered a
+sisterhood of an extremely strict Order in Natal, where, added to her
+many merits, her considerable possessions made her very welcome indeed.
+
+Once in after years I saw her again when she expected before long to
+become the Mother-Superior of her convent. I found her very cheerful and
+she told me that her happiness was complete. Even then she did not ask
+me the true story of what had happened to her during that period when
+her mind was a blank. She said that she knew something had happened but
+that as she no longer felt any curiosity about earthly things, she did
+not wish to know the details. Again I rejoiced, for how could I tell
+the true tale and expect to be believed, even by the most confiding and
+simple-minded nun?
+
+To return to more immediate events. When we had been at Strathmuir for
+a day or two and I thought that her mind was clear enough to judge of
+affairs, I told Inez that I must journey on to Natal, and asked her what
+she wished to do. Without a moment's hesitation she replied that she
+desired to come with me, as now that her father was dead nothing would
+induce her to continue to live at Strathmuir without friends, or indeed
+the consolations of religion.
+
+Then she showed me a secret hiding-place cunningly devised in a sort of
+cellar under the sitting-room floor, where her father was accustomed to
+keep the spirits of which he consumed so great a quantity. In this hole
+beneath some bricks, we discovered a large sum in gold stored away,
+which Robertson had always told his daughter she would find there, in
+the event of anything happening to him. With the money were his will
+and securities, also certain mementos of his youth and some love-letters
+together with a prayer-book that his mother had given him.
+
+These valuables, of which no one knew the existence except herself, we
+removed and then made our preparations for departure. They were simple;
+such articles of value as we could carry were packed into the waggon and
+the best of the cattle we drove with us. The place with the store and
+the rest of the stock were handed over to Thomaso on a half-profit
+agreement under arrangement that he should remit the share of Inez twice
+a year to a bank on the coast, where her father had an account. Whether
+or not he ever did this I am unable to say, but as no one wished to stop
+at Strathmuir, I could conceive no better plan because purchasers of
+property in that district did not exist.
+
+As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Inez whether she was sorry
+to leave the place.
+
+"No," she replied with energy, "my life there has been a hell and I
+never wish to see it again."
+
+
+
+Now it was after this, on the northern borders of Zululand, that
+Zikali's Great Medicine, as Hans called it, really played its chief
+part, for without it I think that we should have been killed, every one
+of us. I do not propose to set out the business in detail; it is too
+long and intricate. Suffice it to say, therefore, that it had to do with
+the plots of Umslopogaas against Cetywayo, which had been betrayed by
+his wife Monazi and her lover Lousta, both of whom I have mentioned
+earlier in this record. The result was that a watch for him was kept on
+all the frontiers, because it was guessed that sooner or later he would
+return to Zululand; also it had become known that he was travelling in
+my company.
+
+So it came about that when my approach was reported by spies, a company
+was gathered under the command of a man connected with the Royal House,
+and by it we were surrounded. Before attacking, however, this captain
+sent men to me with the message that with me the King had no quarrel,
+although I was travelling in doubtful company, and that if I would
+deliver over to him Umslopogaas, Chief of the People of the Axe, and his
+followers, I might go whither I wished unharmed, taking my goods with
+me. Otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed every one of
+us, since it was not desired that any witnesses should be left of what
+happened to Umslopogaas. Having delivered this ultimatum and declined
+any argument as to its terms, the messengers retired, saying that they
+would return for my answer within half an hour.
+
+When they were out of hearing Umslopogaas, who had listened to their
+words in grim silence, turned and spoke in such fashion as might have
+been expected of him.
+
+"Macumazahn," he said, "now I come to the end of an unlucky journey,
+though mayhap it is not so evil as it seems, since I who went out to
+seek the dead but to be filled by yonder White Witch with the meat of
+mocking shadows, am about to find the dead in the only way in which they
+can be found, namely by becoming of their number."
+
+"It seems that this is the case with all of us, Umslopogaas."
+
+"Not so, Macumazahn. That child of the King will give you safe-conduct.
+It is I and mine whose blood he seeks, as he has the right to do, since
+it is true that I would have raised rebellion against the King, I who
+wearied of my petty lot and knew that by blood his place was mine. In
+this quarrel you have no share, though you, whose heart is as white as
+your skin, are not minded to desert me. Moreover, even if you wished
+to fight, there is one in the waggon yonder whose life is not yours to
+give. The Lady Sad-Eyes is as a child in your arms and her you must bear
+to safety."
+
+Now this argument was so unanswerable that I did not know what to say.
+So I only asked what he meant to do, as escape was impossible, seeing
+that we were surrounded on every side.
+
+"Make a glorious end, Macumazahn," he said with a smile. "I will go out
+with those who cling to me, that is with all who remain of my men, since
+my fate must be theirs, and stand back to back on yonder mound and there
+wait till these dogs of the King come up against us. Watch a while,
+Macumazahn, and see how Umslopogaas, Bearer of the Axe, and the warriors
+of the Axe can fight and die."
+
+Now I was silent for I knew not what to say. There we all stood silent,
+while minute by minute I watched the shadow creeping forward towards a
+mark that the head messenger had made with his spear upon the ground,
+for he had said that when it touched that mark he would return for his
+answer.
+
+In this rather dreadful silence I heard a dry little cough, which I knew
+came from the throat of Hans, and to be his method of indicating that he
+had a remark to make.
+
+"What is it?" I asked with irritation, for it was annoying to see him
+seated there on the ground fanning himself with the remains of a hat and
+staring vacantly at the sky.
+
+"Nothing, Baas, or rather, only this, Baas: Those hyenas of Zulus are
+even more afraid of the Great Medicine than were the cannibals up north,
+since the maker of it is nearer to them, Baas. You remember, Baas, they
+knelt to it, as it were, when we were going out of Zululand."
+
+"Well, what of it, now that we are going into Zululand?" I inquired
+sharply. "Do you want me to show it to them?"
+
+"No, Baas. What is the use, seeing that they are ready to let you
+pass, also the Lady Sad-Eyes, and me and the cattle with the driver and
+_voorlooper_, which is better still, and all the other goods. So what
+have you to gain by showing them the medicine? But perchance if it were
+on the neck of Umslopogaas and _he_ showed it to them and brought it to
+their minds that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Zikali's
+Great Medicine, or aught that is his, die within three moons in this
+way or in that--well, Baas, who knows?" and again he coughed drily and
+stared up at the sky.
+
+I translated what Hans had said in Dutch to Umslopogaas, who remarked
+indifferently,
+
+"This little yellow man is well named Light-in-Darkness; at least the
+plan can be tried--if it fails there is always time to die."
+
+So thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so,
+for the first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so long,
+and Umslopogaas put it over his head and hid it beneath his blanket.
+
+
+
+A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain
+himself came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightly
+and once we had dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chat
+he turned to the matter of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at some
+length. I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a
+_very_ awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearer
+of the Great Medicine of Zikali itself. When the captain heard this his
+eyes almost started out of his head.
+
+"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!" he exclaimed. "Oh, now
+I understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe is
+unconquerable--such a wizard that no one is able to kill him."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "and you remember, do you not, that he who offends the
+Great Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies horribly
+within three moons, he and his household and all those with him?"
+
+"I have heard it," he said with a sickly smile.
+
+"And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true," I added
+cheerfully.
+
+Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.
+
+I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was that
+Umslopogaas came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss a
+single word, that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me,
+his friend, to be involved in any trouble, together with his men he had
+agreed to accompany this King's captain to the royal kraal where he had
+been guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had been
+brought against him. He added that the King's captain had sworn upon
+the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads to give him safe conduct and
+attempt no mischief against him which, as was well known throughout
+the land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished to
+continue to look upon the sun.
+
+I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loud
+voice. He replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas alive
+if he might. He was only to kill him if he would not come.
+
+Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of the
+waggon, I had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that the
+arrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with his
+people.
+
+"Be sure of this, Macumazahn," he said, "that if I do not escape,
+neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,
+and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that
+thick head of his and make friends with the brain inside.
+
+"Macumazahn," he added, "we have made a strange journey together and
+seen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I have
+fought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone
+was worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end as
+everything must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I do
+not think that I shall die on this journey with the captain, though I do
+think that others will die at the end of it," he added grimly, a saying
+which at the time I did not understand.
+
+"It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches and
+wizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept into
+my bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the
+after-years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last,
+as I believe that the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives in
+Zikali's Medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in
+words. I cannot say, but I pray that it is a true spirit, since although
+you are white and I am black and you are small and I am big, and you are
+gentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce and as open as the blade of my
+own axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as though we were born
+of the same mother and had been brought up in the same kraal. Now that
+captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I will return
+the Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he must send one
+of the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my bones.
+
+"Farewell to you also, Yellow Man," he went on to Hans, who had
+appeared, hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome;
+"well are you named Light-in-Darkness, and glad am I to have met you,
+who have learned from you how a snake moves and strikes, and how a
+jackal thinks and avoids the snare. Yes, farewell, for the spirit within
+me does not tell me that you and I shall meet again."
+
+Then he lifted the great axe, and gave me a formal salute, naming me
+"Chief and Father, Great Chief and Father, from of old" (_Baba! Koos y
+umcool! Koos y pagate!_), thereby acknowledging my superiority over him,
+a thing that he had never done before, and as he did, so did Goroko
+and the other Zulus, adding to their salute many titles of praise. In
+another minute he had gone with the King's captain, to whose side I
+noted he clung lovingly, his long, thin fingers playing about the horn
+handle of the axe that was named _Inkosikaas_ and Groan-maker.
+
+"I am glad we have seen the last of him and his axe, Baas," remarked
+Hans, spitting reflectively. "It is very well to sleep in the same hut
+with a tame lion sometimes, but after you have done so for many moons,
+you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pulling
+the blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws. Yes, I am
+very glad that this half-tame lion is gone, since sometimes I have
+thought that I should be obliged to poison it that we might sleep in
+peace. You know he called me a snake, Baas, and poison is a snake's
+only spear. Shall I tell the boys to inspan the oxen, Baas? I think
+the further we get from that King's captain and his men, the more
+comfortably shall we travel, especially now when we no longer have the
+Great Medicine to protect us."
+
+"You suggested giving it to him, Hans," I said.
+
+"Yes, Baas, I had rather that Umslopogaas went away with the Great
+Medicine, than that you kept the Great Medicine and he stopped with us
+here. Never travel with a traitor, Baas, at any rate in the land of the
+king whom he wishes to kill. Kings are very selfish people, Baas, and do
+not like being killed, especially by someone who wants to sit upon their
+stool and to take the royal salute. No one gives the royal salute to a
+dead king, Baas, however great he was before he died, and no one thinks
+the worse of a king who was a traitor before he became a king."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE
+
+Once more I sat in the Black Kloof face to face with old Zikali.
+
+"So you have got back safely, Macumazahn," he said. "Well, I told you
+you would, did I not? As for what happened to you upon the journey, let
+it be, for now that I am old long stories tire me and I daresay that
+there is nothing wonderful about this one. Where is the charm I lent
+you? Give it back now that it has served its turn."
+
+"I have not got it, Zikali. I passed it on to Umslopogaas of the Axe to
+save his life from the King's men."
+
+"Oh! yes, so you did. I had forgotten. Here it is," and opening his robe
+of fur, he showed me the hideous little talisman hanging about his
+neck, then added, "Would you like a copy of it, Macumazahn, to keep as a
+memory? If so, I will carve one for you."
+
+"No," I answered, "I should not. Has Umslopogaas been here?"
+
+"Yes, he has been and gone again, which is one of the reasons why I do
+not wish to hear your tale a second time."
+
+"Where to? The Town of the People of the Axe?"
+
+"No, Macumazahn, he came thence, or so I understood, but thither he will
+return no more."
+
+"Why not, Zikali?"
+
+"Because after his fashion he made trouble there and left some dead
+behind him; one Lousta, I believe, whom he had appointed to sit on his
+stool as chief while he was away, and a woman called Monazi, who was his
+wife, or Lousta's wife, or the wife of both of them, I forget which. It
+is said that having heard stories of her--and the ears of jealousy are
+long, Macumazahn--he cut off this woman's head with a sweep of the axe
+and made Lousta fight him till he fell, which the fool did almost before
+he had lifted his shield. It served him right who should have made sure
+that Umslopogaas was dead before he wrapped himself in his blanket and
+took the woman to cook his porridge."
+
+"Where has the Axe-bearer gone?" I asked without surprise, for this news
+did not astonish me.
+
+"I neither know nor care, Macumazahn. To become a wanderer, I suppose.
+He will tell you the tale when you meet again in the after-days, as I
+understand he thinks that you will do.[*] Hearken! I have done with this
+lion's whelp, who is Chaka over again, but without Chaka's wit. Yes, he
+is just a fighting man with a long reach, a sure eye and the trick of
+handling an axe, and such are of little use to me who know too many of
+them. Thrice have I tried to make him till my garden, but each time
+he has broken the hoe, although the wage I promised him was a royal
+_kaross_ and nothing less. So enough of Umslopogaas, the Woodpecker.
+Almost I wish that you had not lent him the charm, for then the King's
+men would have made an end of him, who knows too much and like some
+silly boaster, may shout out the truth when his axe is aloft and he is
+full of the beer of battle. For in battle he will live and in battle he
+will die, Macumazahn, as perhaps you may see one day."
+
+     [*] For the tale of this meeting see the book called "Allan
+     Quatermain."--Editor.
+
+"The fate of your friends does not trouble you over much,
+Opener-of-Roads," I said with sarcasm.
+
+"Not at all, Macumazahn, because I have none. The only friends of the
+old are those whom they can turn to their own ends, and if these fail
+them they find others."
+
+"I understand, Zikali, and know now what to expect from you."
+
+He laughed in his strange way and answered,
+
+"Aye, and it is good that you must expect, good in the future as in the
+past, for _you_, Macumazahn, who are brave in your own fashion, without
+being a fool like Umslopogaas, and, although you know it not, like some
+master-smith, forge my assegais out of the red ore I give you, tempering
+them in the blood of men, and yet keep your mind innocent and your hands
+clean. Friends like you are useful to such as I, Macumazahn, and must be
+well paid in those wares that please them."
+
+The old wizard brooded for a space, while I reflected upon his amazing
+cynicism, which interested me in a way, for the extreme of unmorality is
+as fascinating to study as the extreme of virtue and often more so. Then
+jerking up his great head, he asked suddenly,
+
+"What message had the White Queen for me?"
+
+"She said that you troubled her too much at night in dreams, Zikali."
+
+"Aye, but if I cease to do so, ever she desires to know the reason why,
+for I hear her asking me in the voices of the wind, or in the twittering
+of bats. After all, she is a woman, Macumazahn, and it must be dull
+sitting alone from year to year with naught to stay her appetite save
+the ashes of the past and dreams of the future, so dull that I wonder,
+having once meshed you in her web, how she found the heart to let you
+go before she had sucked out your life and spirit. I suppose that having
+made a mock of you and drained you dry, she was content to throw you
+aside like an empty gourd. Perchance, had she kept you at her side,
+you would have been a stone in her path in days to come. Perchance,
+Macumazahn, she waits for other travellers and would welcome them, or
+one of them alone, saying nothing of a certain Watcher-by-Night who has
+served her turn and vanished into the night.
+
+"But what other message had the White Queen for the poor old savage
+witch-doctor whose talk wearies her so much in her haunted sleep?"
+
+Then I told him of the picture that Ayesha had shown me in the water;
+the picture of a king dying in a hut and of two who watched his end.
+
+Zikali listened intently to every word, then broke into a peal of his
+unholy laughter.
+
+"_Oho-ho!_" he laughed, "so all goes well, though the road be long,
+since whatever this White One may have shown you in the fire of the
+heavens above, she could show you nothing but truth in the water of
+the earth below, for that is the law of our company of seers. You have
+worked well for me, Macumazahn, and you have had your fee, the fee of
+the vision of the dead which you desired above all mortal things."
+
+"Aye," I answered indignantly, "a fee of bitter fruits whereof the juice
+burns and twists the mouth and the stones still stick fast within the
+gizzard. I tell you, Zikali, that she stuffed my heart with lies."
+
+"I daresay, Macumazahn, I daresay, but they were very pretty lies, were
+they not? And after all I am sure that there was wisdom in them, as you
+will discover when you have thought them over for a score of years.
+
+"Lies, lies, all is lies! But beyond the lie stands Truth, as the White
+Witch stands behind her veil. You drew the veil, Macumazahn, and saw
+that beneath which brought you to your knees. Why, it is a parable.
+Wander on through the Valley of Lies till at last it takes a turn,
+and, glittering in the sunshine, glittering like gold, you perceive the
+Mountain of everlasting Truth, sought of all men but found by few.
+
+"Lies, lies, all is lies! Yet beyond I tell you, beauteous and
+eternal stands the Truth, Macumazahn. _Oho-ho! Oho-ho!_ Fare you well,
+Watcher-by-Night, fare you well, Seeker after Truth. After the Night
+comes Dawn and after Death comes what--Macumazahn? Well, you will learn
+one day, for always the veil is lifted, at last, as the White Witch
+shewed you yonder, Macumazahn."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+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: She and Allan
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHE AND ALLAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+SHE AND ALLAN
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+First Published 1921.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+
+My friend, into whose hands I hope that all these manuscripts of mine
+will pass one day, of this one I have something to say to you.
+
+A long while ago I jotted down in it the history of the events that
+it details with more or less completeness. This I did for my own
+satisfaction. You will have noted how memory fails us as we advance
+in years; we recollect, with an almost painful exactitude, what we
+experienced and saw in our youth, but the happenings of our middle
+life slip away from us or become blurred, like a stretch of low-lying
+landscape overflowed by grey and nebulous mist. Far off the sun still
+seems to shine upon the plains and hills of adolescence and early
+manhood, as yet it shines about us in the fleeting hours of our age,
+that ground on which we stand to-day, but the valley between is filled
+with fog. Yes, even its prominences, which symbolise the more startling
+events of that past, often are lost in this confusing fog.
+
+It was an appreciation of these truths which led me to set down the
+following details (though of course much is omitted) of my brief
+intercourse with the strange and splendid creature whom I knew under the
+names of _Ayesha_, or _Hiya_, or _She-who-commands_; not indeed with any
+view to their publication, but before I forgot them that, if I wished to
+do so, I might re-peruse them in the evening of old age to which I hope
+to attain.
+
+Indeed, at the time the last thing I intended was that they should be
+given to the world even after my own death, because they, or many of
+them, are so unusual that I feared lest they should cause smiles and
+in a way cast a slur upon my memory and truthfulness. Also, as you will
+read, as to this matter I made a promise and I have always tried to
+keep my promises and to guard the secrets of others. For these reasons I
+proposed, in case I neglected or forgot to destroy them myself, to leave
+a direction that this should be done by my executors. Further, I have
+been careful to make no allusion _whatever_ to them either in casual
+conversation or in anything else that I may have written, my desire
+being that this page of my life should be kept quite private, something
+known only to myself. Therefore, too, I never so much as hinted of them
+to anyone, not even to yourself to whom I have told so much.
+
+Well, I recorded the main facts concerning this expedition and its
+issues, simply and with as much exactness as I could, and laid them
+aside. I do not say that I never thought of them again, since amongst
+them were some which, together with the problems they suggested, proved
+to be of an unforgettable nature.
+
+Also, whenever any of Ayesha's sayings or stories which are not
+preserved in these pages came back to me, as has happened from time to
+time, I jotted them down and put them away with this manuscript. Thus
+among these notes you will find a history of the city of Kor as she told
+it to me, which I have omitted here. Still, many of these remarkable
+events did more or less fade from my mind, as the image does from
+an unfixed photograph, till only their outlines remained, faint if
+distinguishable.
+
+To tell the truth, I was rather ashamed of the whole story in which
+I cut so poor a figure. On reflection it was obvious to me, although
+honesty had compelled me to set out all that is essential exactly as it
+occurred, adding nothing and taking nothing away, that I had been the
+victim of very gross deceit. This strange woman, whom I had met in the
+ruins of a place called Kor, without any doubt had thrown a glamour over
+my senses and at the moment almost caused me to believe much that is
+quite unbelievable.
+
+For instance, she had told me ridiculous stories as to interviews
+between herself and certain heathen goddesses, though it is true that,
+almost with her next breath, these she qualified or contradicted. Also,
+she had suggested that her life had been prolonged far beyond our mortal
+span, for hundreds and hundreds of years, indeed; which, as Euclid says,
+is absurd, and had pretended to supernatural powers, which is still more
+absurd. Moreover, by a clever use of some hypnotic or mesmeric power,
+she had feigned to transport me to some place beyond the earth and in
+the Halls of Hades to show me what is veiled from the eyes of man,
+and not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi, commonly called
+Umslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot, was my companion
+upon that adventure. There were like things equally incredible, such as
+her appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle with the troll-like
+Rezu. To omit these, the sum of it was that I had been shamefully duped,
+and if anyone finds himself in that position, as most people have at one
+time or another in their lives, Wisdom suggests that he had better keep
+the circumstances to himself.
+
+Well, so the matter stood, or rather lay in the recesses of my mind--and
+in the cupboard where I hide my papers--when one evening someone, as a
+matter of fact it was Captain Good, an individual of romantic tendencies
+who is fond, sometimes I think too fond, of fiction, brought a book to
+this house which he insisted over and over again really I must peruse.
+
+Ascertaining that it was a novel I declined, for to tell the truth I am
+not fond of romance in any shape, being a person who has found the hard
+facts of life of sufficient interest as they stand.
+
+Reading I admit I like, but in this matter, as in everything else, my
+range is limited. I study the Bible, especially the Old Testament, both
+because of its sacred lessons and of the majesty of the language of its
+inspired translators; whereof that of Ayesha, which I render so poorly
+from her flowing and melodious Arabic, reminded me. For poetry I turn
+to Shakespeare, and, at the other end of the scale, to the Ingoldsby
+Legends, many of which I know almost by heart, while for current affairs
+I content myself with the newspapers.
+
+For the rest I peruse anything to do with ancient Egypt that I happen to
+come across, because this land and its history have a queer fascination
+for me, that perhaps has its roots in occurrences or dreams of which
+this is not the place to speak. Lastly now and again I read one of the
+Latin or Greek authors in a translation, since I regret to say that my
+lack of education does not enable me to do so in the original. But for
+modern fiction I have no taste, although from time to time I sample it
+in a railway train and occasionally am amused by such excursions into
+the poetic and unreal.
+
+So it came about that the more Good bothered me to read this particular
+romance, the more I determined that I would do nothing of the sort.
+Being a persistent person, however, when he went away about ten o'clock
+at night, he deposited it by my side, under my nose indeed, so that it
+might not be overlooked. Thus it came about that I could not help seeing
+some Egyptian hieroglyphics in an oval on the cover, also the title,
+and underneath it your own name, my friend, all of which excited
+my curiosity, especially the title, which was brief and enigmatic,
+consisting indeed of one word, "_She_."
+
+I took up the work and on opening it the first thing my eye fell upon
+was a picture of a veiled woman, the sight of which made my heart stand
+still, so painfully did it remind me of a certain veiled woman whom once
+it had been my fortune to meet. Glancing from it to the printed page one
+word seemed to leap at me. It was _Kor_! Now of veiled women there are
+plenty in the world, but were there also two Kors?
+
+Then I turned to the beginning and began to read. This happened in
+the autumn when the sun does not rise till about six, but it was broad
+daylight before I ceased from reading, or rather rushing through that
+book.
+
+Oh! what was I to make of it? For here in its pages (to say nothing of
+old Billali, who, by the way lied, probably to order, when he told Mr.
+Holly that no white man had visited his country for many generations,
+and those gloomy, man-eating Amahagger scoundrels) once again I
+found myself face to face with _She-who-commands_, now rendered as
+_She-who-must-be-obeyed_, which means much the same thing--in her case
+at least; yes, with Ayesha the lovely, the mystic, the changeful and the
+imperious.
+
+Moreover the history filled up many gaps in my own limited experiences
+of that enigmatical being who was half divine (though, I think, rather
+wicked or at any rate unmoral in her way) and yet all woman. It is true
+that it showed her in lights very different from and higher than those
+in which she had presented herself to me. Yet the substratum of her
+character was the same, or rather of her characters, for of these she
+seemed to have several in a single body, being, as she said of herself
+to me, "not One but Many and not Here but Everywhere."
+
+Further, I found the story of Kallikrates, which I had set down as a
+mere falsehood invented for my bewilderment, expanded and explained. Or
+rather not explained, since, perhaps that she might deceive, to me
+she had spoken of this murdered Kallikrates without enthusiasm, as a
+handsome person to whom, because of an indiscretion of her youth, she
+was bound by destiny and whose return--somewhat to her sorrow--she must
+wait. At least she did so at first, though in the end when she bared her
+heart at the moment of our farewell, she vowed she loved him only and
+was "appointed" to him "by a divine decree."
+
+Also I found other things of which I knew nothing, such as the Fire of
+Life with its fatal gift of indefinite existence, although I remember
+that like the giant Rezu whom Umslopogaas defeated, she did talk of a
+"Cup of Life" of which she had drunk, that might have been offered to my
+lips, had I been politic, bowed the knee and shown more faith in her and
+her supernatural pretensions.
+
+Lastly I saw the story of her end, and as I read it I wept, yes, I
+confess I wept, although I feel sure that she will return again. Now I
+understood why she had quailed and even seemed to shrivel when, in my
+last interview with her, stung beyond endurance by her witcheries and
+sarcasms, I had suggested that even for her with all her powers, Fate
+might reserve one of its shrewdest blows. Some prescience had told her
+that if the words seemed random, Truth spoke through my lips, although,
+and this was the worst of it, she did not know what weapon would deal
+the stroke or when and where it was doomed to fall.
+
+I was amazed, I was overcome, but as I closed that book I made up my
+mind, first that I would continue to preserve absolute silence as to
+Ayesha and my dealings with her, as, during my life, I was bound by
+oath to do, and secondly that I would _not_ cause my manuscript to be
+destroyed. I did not feel that I had any right to do so in view of what
+already had been published to the world. There let it lie to appear one
+day, or not to appear, as might be fated. Meanwhile my lips were sealed.
+I would give Good back his book without comment and--buy another copy!
+
+One more word. It is clear that I did not touch more than the fringe
+of the real Ayesha. In a thousand ways she bewitched and deceived me so
+that I never plumbed her nature's depths. Perhaps this was my own fault
+because from the first I shewed a lack of faith in her and she wished to
+pay me back in her own fashion, or perhaps she had other private reasons
+for her secrecy. Certainly the character she discovered to me differed
+in many ways from that which she revealed to Mr. Holly and to Leo
+Vincey, or Kallikrates, whom, it seems, once she slew in her jealousy
+and rage.
+
+She told me as much as she thought it fit that I should know, and no
+more!
+
+Allan Quatermain.
+
+The Grange, Yorkshire.
+
+
+
+
+
+SHE AND ALLAN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TALISMAN
+
+I believe it was the old Egyptians, a very wise people, probably indeed
+much wiser than we know, for in the leisure of their ample centuries
+they had time to think out things, who declared that each individual
+personality is made up of six or seven different elements, although the
+Bible only allows us three, namely, body, soul, and spirit. The body
+that the man or woman wore, if I understand their theory aright which
+perhaps I, an ignorant person, do not, was but a kind of sack or fleshly
+covering containing these different principles. Or mayhap it did not
+contain them all, but was simply a house as it were, in which they lived
+from time to time and seldom all together, although one or more of them
+was present continually, as though to keep the place warmed and aired.
+
+This is but a casual illustrative suggestion, for what right have
+I, Allan Quatermain, out of my little reading and probably erroneous
+deductions, to form any judgment as to the theories of the old
+Egyptians? Still these, as I understand them, suffice to furnish me with
+the text that man is not one, but many, in which connection it may be
+remembered that often in Scripture he is spoken of as being the home of
+many demons, seven, I think. Also, to come to another far-off example,
+the Zulus talk of their witch-doctors as being inhabited by "a multitude
+of spirits."
+
+Anyhow of one thing I am quite sure, we are not always the same.
+Different personalities actuate us at different times. In one hour
+passion of this sort or the other is our lord; in another we are reason
+itself. In one hour we follow the basest appetites; in another we hate
+them and the spirit arising through our mortal murk shines within or
+above us like a star. In one hour our desire is to kill and spare not;
+in another we are filled with the holiest compassion even towards an
+insect or a snake, and are ready to forgive like a god. Everything
+rules us in turn, to such an extent indeed, that sometimes one begins to
+wonder whether we really rule anything.
+
+Now the reason of all this homily is that I, Allan, the most practical
+and unimaginative of persons, just a homely, half-educated hunter and
+trader who chances to have seen a good deal of the particular little
+world in which his lot was cast, at one period of my life became the
+victim of spiritual longings.
+
+I am a man who has suffered great bereavements in my time such as have
+seared my soul, since, perhaps because of my rather primitive and simple
+nature, my affections are very strong. By day or night I can never
+forget those whom I have loved and whom I believe to have loved me.
+
+For you know, in our vanity some of us are apt to hold that certain
+people with whom we have been intimate upon the earth, really did
+care for us and, in our still greater vanity--or should it be called
+madness?--to imagine that they still care for us after they have left
+the earth and entered on some new state of society and surroundings
+which, if they exist, inferentially are much more congenial than any
+they can have experienced here. At times, however, cold doubts strike us
+as to this matter, of which we long to know the truth. Also behind looms
+a still blacker doubt, namely whether they live at all.
+
+For some years of my lonely existence these problems haunted me day by
+day, till at length I desired above everything on earth to lay them
+at rest in one way or another. Once, at Durban, I met a man who was a
+spiritualist to whom I confided a little of my perplexities. He laughed
+at me and said that they could be settled with the greatest ease. All
+I had to do was to visit a certain local medium who for a fee of one
+guinea would tell me everything I wanted to know. Although I rather
+grudged the guinea, being more than usually hard up at the time, I
+called upon this person, but over the results of that visit, or rather
+the lack of them, I draw a veil.
+
+My queer and perhaps unwholesome longing, however, remained with me and
+would not be abated. I consulted a clergyman of my acquaintance, a good
+and spiritually-minded man, but he could only shrug his shoulders and
+refer me to the Bible, saying, quite rightly I doubt not, that with what
+it reveals I ought to be contented. Then I read certain mystical
+books which were recommended to me. These were full of fine words,
+undiscoverable in a pocket dictionary, but really took me no forwarder,
+since in them I found nothing that I could not have invented myself,
+although while I was actually studying them, they seemed to convince
+me. I even tackled Swedenborg, or rather samples of him, for he is very
+copious, but without satisfactory results. [Ha!--JB]
+
+Then I gave up the business.
+
+
+
+Some months later I was in Zululand and being near the Black Kloof
+where he dwelt, I paid a visit to my acquaintance of whom I have
+written elsewhere, the wonderful and ancient dwarf, Zikali, known as
+"The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born," also more universally
+among the Zulus as "Opener-of-Roads." When we had talked of many things
+connected with the state of Zululand and its politics, I rose to leave
+for my waggon, since I never cared for sleeping in the Black Kloof if it
+could be avoided.
+
+"Is there nothing else that you want to ask me, Macumazahn?" asked
+the old dwarf, tossing back his long hair and looking at--I had almost
+written through--me.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"That is strange, Macumazahn, for I seem to see something written on
+your mind--something to do with spirits."
+
+Then I remembered all the problems that had been troubling me, although
+in truth I had never thought of propounding them to Zikali.
+
+"Ah! it comes back, does it?" he exclaimed, reading my thought. "Out
+with it, then, Macumazahn, while I am in a mood to answer, and before
+I grow tired, for you are an old friend of mine and will so remain till
+the end, many years hence, and if I can serve you, I will."
+
+I filled my pipe and sat down again upon the stool of carved red-wood
+which had been brought for me.
+
+"You are named 'Opener-of-Roads,' are you not, Zikali?" I said.
+
+"Yes, the Zulus have always called me that, since before the days of
+Chaka. But what of names, which often enough mean nothing at all?"
+
+"Only that _I_ want to open a road, Zikali, that which runs across the
+River of Death."
+
+"Oho!" he laughed, "it is very easy," and snatching up a little assegai
+that lay beside him, he proffered it to me, adding, "Be brave now and
+fall on that. Then before I have counted sixty the road will be wide
+open, but whether you will see anything on it I cannot tell you."
+
+Again I shook my head and answered,
+
+"It is against our law. Also while I still live I desire to know whether
+I shall meet certain others on that road after my time has come to cross
+the River. Perhaps you who deal with spirits, can prove the matter to
+me, which no one else seems able to do."
+
+"Oho!" laughed Zikali again. "What do my ears hear? Am I, the poor Zulu
+cheat, as you will remember once you called me, Macumazahn, asked
+to show that which is hidden from all the wisdom of the great White
+People?"
+
+"The question is," I answered with irritation, "not what you are asked
+to do, but what you can do."
+
+"That I do not know yet, Macumazahn. Whose spirits do you desire to see?
+If that of a woman called Mameena is one of them, I think that perhaps I
+whom she loved----"[*]
+
+     [*] For the history of Mameena see the book called "Child of
+     Storm."--Editor.
+
+"She is _not_ one of them, Zikali. Moreover, if she loved you, you paid
+back her love with death."
+
+"Which perhaps was the kindest thing I could do, Macumazahn, for reasons
+that you may be able to guess, and others with which I will not trouble
+you. But if not hers, whose? Let me look, let me look! Why, there seems
+to be two of them, head-wives, I mean, and I thought that white men only
+took one wife. Also a multitude of others; their faces float up in the
+water of your mind. An old man with grey hair, little children, perhaps
+they were brothers and sisters, and some who may be friends. Also very
+clear indeed that Mameena whom you do not wish to see. Well, Macumazahn,
+this is unfortunate, since she is the only one whom I can show you,
+or rather put you in the way of finding. Unless indeed there are other
+Kaffir women----"
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"I mean, Macumazahn, that only black feet travel on the road which I can
+open; over those in which ran white blood I have no power."
+
+"Then it is finished," I said, rising again and taking a step or two
+towards the gate.
+
+"Come back and sit down, Macumazahn. I did not say so. Am I the only
+ruler of magic in Africa, which I am told is a big country?"
+
+I came back and sat down, for my curiosity, a great failing with me, was
+excited.
+
+"Thank you, Zikali," I said, "but I will have no dealings with more of
+your witch-doctors."
+
+"No, no, because you are afraid of them; quite without reason,
+Macumazahn, seeing that they are all cheats except myself. I am the last
+child of wisdom, the rest are stuffed with lies, as Chaka found out when
+he killed every one of them whom he could catch. But perhaps there might
+be a white doctor who would have rule over white spirits."
+
+"If you mean missionaries----" I began hastily.
+
+"No, Macumazahn, I do not mean your praying men who are cast in one
+mould and measured with one rule, and say what they are taught to say,
+not thinking for themselves."
+
+"Some of them think, Zikali."
+
+"Yes, and then the others fall on them with big sticks. The real priest
+is he to whom the Spirit comes, not he who feeds upon its wrappings, and
+speaks through a mask carved by his father's fathers. I am a priest like
+that, which is why all my fellowship have hated me."
+
+"If so, you have paid back their hate, Zikali, but cease to cast round
+the lion, like a timid hound, and tell me what you mean. Of whom do you
+speak?"
+
+"That is the trouble, Macumazahn. I do not know. This lion, or rather
+lioness, lies hid in the caves of a very distant mountain and I have
+never seen her--in the flesh."
+
+"Then how can you talk of what you have never seen?"
+
+"In the same way, Macumazahn, that your priests talk of what they have
+never seen, because they, or a few of them, have knowledge of it. I
+will tell you a secret. All seers who live at the same time, if they are
+great, commune with each other because they are akin and their spirits
+meet in sleep or dreams. Therefore I know of a mistress of our craft, a
+very lioness among jackals, who for thousands of years has lain sleeping
+in the northern caves and, humble though I am, she knows of me."
+
+"Quite so," I said, yawning, "but perhaps, Zikali, you will come to the
+point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she exists
+will she help me?"
+
+"I will answer your question backwards, Macumazahn. I think that she
+will help you if you help her, in what way I do not know, because
+although witch-doctors sometimes work without pay, as I am doing now,
+Macumazahn, witch-doctoresses never do. As for her name, the only one
+that she has among our company is 'Queen,' because she is the first of
+all of them and the most beauteous among women. For the rest I can tell
+you nothing, except that she has always been and I suppose, in this
+shape or in that, will always be while the world lasts, because she has
+found the secret of life unending."
+
+"You mean that she is immortal, Zikali," I answered with a smile.
+
+"I do not say that, Macumazahn, because my little mind cannot shape the
+thought of immortality. But when I was a babe, which is far ago, she had
+lived so long that scarce would she knew the difference between then
+and now, and already in her breast was all wisdom gathered. I know it,
+because although, as I have said, we have never seen each other, at
+times we walk together in our sleep, for thus she shares her loneliness,
+and I think, though this may be but a dream, that last night she told me
+to send you on to her to seek an answer to certain questions which you
+would put to me to-day. Also to me she seemed to desire that you should
+do her a service; I know not what service."
+
+Now I grew angry and asked,
+
+"Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If
+there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called _Queen_ lives
+and how I am to come to her."
+
+The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me and
+with its blade raked our ashes from the fire that always burnt in front
+of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random
+fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white man whom
+he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also of other
+matters, none of which interested me much at the time. These ashes
+he patted down flat and then on them drew a map with the point of his
+spear, making grooves for streams, certain marks for bush and forest,
+wavy lines for water and swamps and little heaps for hills.
+
+When he had finished it all he bade me come round the fire and study the
+picture across which by an after-thought he drew a wandering furrow with
+the edge of the assegai to represent a river, and gathered the ashes in
+a lump at the northern end to signify a large mountain.
+
+"Look at it well, Macumazahn," he said, "and forget nothing, since if
+you make this journey and forget, you die. Nay, no need to copy it in
+that book of yours, for see, I will stamp it on your mind."
+
+Then suddenly he gathered up the warm ashes in a double handful and
+threw them into my face, muttering something as he did so and adding
+aloud,
+
+"There, now you will remember."
+
+"Certainly I shall," I answered, coughing, "and I beg that you will not
+play such a joke upon me again."
+
+As a matter of fact, whatever may have been the reason, I never forgot
+any detail of that extremely intricate map.
+
+"That big river must be the Zambesi," I stuttered, "and even then the
+mountain of your Queen, if it be her mountain, is far away, and how can
+I come there alone?"
+
+"I don't know, Macumazahn, though perhaps you might do so in company. At
+least I believe that in the old days people used to travel to the place,
+since I have heard a great city stood there once which was the heart of
+a mighty empire."
+
+Now I pricked up my ears, for though I believed nothing of Zikali's
+story of a wonderful Queen, I was always intensely interested in past
+civilisations and their relics. Also I knew that the old wizard's
+knowledge was extensive and peculiar, however he came by it, and I did
+not think that he would lie to me in this matter. Indeed to tell the
+truth, then and there I made up my mind that if it were in any way
+possible, I would attempt this journey.
+
+"How did people travel to the city, Zikali?"
+
+"By sea, I suppose, Macumazahn, but I think that you will be wise not to
+try that road, since I believe that on the sea side the marshes are now
+impassable and you will be safer on your feet."
+
+"You want me to go on this adventure, Zikali. Why? I know you never do
+anything without motive."
+
+"Oho! Macumazahn, you are clever and see deeper into the trunk of a tree
+than most. Yes, I want you to go for three reasons. First, that you
+may satisfy your soul on certain matters and I would help you to do so.
+Secondly, because I want to satisfy mine, and thirdly, because I know
+that you will come back safe to be a prop to me in things that will
+happen in days unborn. Otherwise I would have told you nothing of this
+story, since it is necessary to me that you should remain living beneath
+the sun."
+
+"Have done, Zikali. What is it that you desire?"
+
+"Oh! a great deal that I shall get, but chiefly two things, so with
+the rest I will not trouble you. First I desire to know to know whether
+these dreams of mine of a wonderful white witch-doctoress, or witch, and
+of my converse with her are indeed more than dreams. Next I would learn
+whether certain plots of mine at which I have worked for years, will
+succeed."
+
+"What plots, Zikali, and how can my taking a distant journey tell you
+anything about them?"
+
+"You know them well enough, Macumazahn; they have to do with the
+overthrow of a Royal House that has worked me bitter wrong. As to how
+your journey can help me, why, thus. You shall promise to me to ask
+of this Queen whether Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, shall triumph or be
+overthrown in that on which he has set his heart."
+
+"As you seem to know this witch so well, why do you not ask her
+yourself, Zikali?"
+
+"To ask is one thing, Macumazahn. To get an answer is another. I have
+asked in the watches of the night, and the reply was, 'Come hither and
+perchance I will tell you.' 'Queen,' I said, 'how can I come save in the
+spirit, who am an ancient and a crippled dwarf scarcely able to stand
+upon my feet?'
+
+"'Then send a messenger, Wizard, and be sure that he is white, for of
+black savages I have seen more than enough. Let him bear a token also
+that he comes from you and tell me of it in your sleep. Moreover let
+that token be something of power which will protect him on the journey.'
+
+"Such is the answer that comes to me in my dreams, Macumazahn."
+
+"Well, what token will you give me, Zikali?"
+
+He groped about in his robe and produced a piece of ivory of the size
+of a large chessman, that had a hole in it, through which ran a plaited
+cord of the stiff hairs from an elephant's tail. On this article, which
+was of a rusty brown colour, he breathed, then having whispered to it
+for a while, handed it to me.
+
+I took the talisman, for such I guessed it to be, idly enough, held it
+to the light to examine it, and started back so violently that almost
+I let it fall. I do not quite know why I started, but I think it was
+because some influence seemed to leap from it to me. Zikali started also
+and cried out,
+
+"Have a care, Macumazahn. Am I young that I can bear bring dashed to the
+ground?"
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked, still staring at the thing which I
+perceived to be a most wonderfully fashioned likeness of the old dwarf
+himself as he appeared before me crouched upon the ground. There were
+the deepset eyes, the great head, the toad-like shape, the long hair,
+all.
+
+"It is a clever carving, is it not, Macumazahn? I am skilled in that
+art, you know, and therefore can judge of carving."
+
+"Yes, I know," I answered, bethinking me of another statuette of his
+which he had given to me on the morrow of the death of her from whom it
+was modelled. "But what of the thing?"
+
+"Macumazahn, it has come down to me through the ages. As you may
+have heard, all great doctors when they die pass on their wisdom and
+something of their knowledge to another doctor of spirits who is still
+living on the earth, that nothing may be lost, or as little as possible.
+Also I have learned that to such likenesses as these may be given the
+strength of him or her from whom they were shaped."
+
+Now I bethought me of the old Egyptians and their _Ka_ statues of which
+I had read, and that these statues, magically charmed and set in the
+tombs of the departed, were supposed to be inhabited everlastingly by
+the Doubles of the dead endued with more power even than ever these
+possessed in life. But of this I said nothing to Zikali, thinking that
+it would take too much explanation, though I wondered very much how he
+had come by the same idea.
+
+"When that ivory is hung over your heart, Macumazahn, where you must
+always wear it, learn that with it goes the strength of Zikali; the
+thought that would have been his thought and the wisdom that is his
+wisdom, will be your companions, as much as though he walked at your
+side and could instruct you in every peril. Moreover north and south and
+east and west this image is known to men who, when they see it, will
+bow down and obey, opening a road to him who wears the medicine of the
+Opener-of-Roads."
+
+"Indeed," I said, smiling, "and what is this colour on the ivory?"
+
+"I forget, Macumazahn, who have had it a great number of years, ever
+since it descended to me from a forefather of mine, who was fashioned in
+the same mould as I am. It looks like blood, does it not? It is a pity
+that Mameena is not still alive, since she whose memory was so excellent
+might have been able to tell you," and as he spoke, with a motion that
+was at once sure and swift, he threw the loop of elephant hair over my
+head.
+
+Hastily I changed the subject, feeling that after his wont this old
+wizard, the most terrible man whom ever I knew, who had been so much
+concerned with the tragic death of Mameena, was stabbing at me in some
+hidden fashion.
+
+"You tell me to go on this journey," I said, "and not alone. Yet for
+companion you give me only an ugly piece of ivory shaped as no man ever
+was," here I got one back at Zikali, "and from the look of it, steeped
+in blood, which ivory, if I had my way, I would throw into the camp
+fire. Who, then, am I to take with me?"
+
+"Don't do that, Macumazahn--I mean throw the ivory into the fire--since
+I have no wish to burn before my time, and if you do, you who have worn
+it might burn with me. At least certainly you would die with the magic
+thing and go to acquire knowledge more quickly than you desire. No, no,
+and do not try to take it off your neck, or rather try if you will."
+
+I did try, but something seemed to prevent me from accomplishing my
+purpose of giving the carving back to Zikali as I wished to do. First
+my pipe got in the way of my hand, then the elephant hairs caught in the
+collar of my coat; then a pang of rheumatism to which I was accustomed
+from an old lion-bite, developed of a sudden in my arm, and lastly I
+grew tired of bothering about the thing.
+
+Zikali, who had been watching my movements, burst out into one of his
+terrible laughs that seemed to fill the whole kloof and to re-echo from
+its rocky walls. It died away and he went on, without further reference
+to the talisman or image.
+
+"You asked whom you were to take with you, Macumazahn. Well, as to this
+I must make inquiry of those who know. Man, my medicines!"
+
+From the shadows in the hut behind darted out a tall figure carrying
+a great spear in one hand and in the other a catskin bag which with a
+salute he laid down at the feet of his master. This salute, by the way,
+was that of a Zulu word which means "Lord" or "Home" of Ghosts.
+
+Zikali groped in the bag and produced from it certain knuckle-bones.
+
+"A common method," he muttered, "such as every vulgar wizard uses, but
+one that is quick and, as the matter concerned is small, will serve my
+turn. Let us see now, whom you shall take with you, Macumazahn."
+
+Then he breathed upon the bones, shook them up in his thin hands and
+with a quick turn of the wrist, threw them into the air. After this
+he studied them carefully, where they lay among the ashes which he had
+raked out of the fire, those that he had used for the making of his map.
+
+"Do you know a man named Umslopogaas, Macumazahn, the chief of a tribe
+that is called The People of the Axe, whose titles of praise are Bulalio
+or the Slaughterer, and Woodpecker, the latter from the way he handles
+his ancient axe? He is a savage fellow, but one of high blood and
+higher courage, a great captain in his way, though he will never come to
+anything, save a glorious death--in your company, I think, Macumazahn."
+(Here he studied the bones again for a while.) "Yes, I am sure, in your
+company, though not upon this journey."
+
+"I have heard of him," I answered cautiously. "It is said in the land
+that he is a son of Chaka, the great king of the Zulus."
+
+"Is it, Macumazahn? And is it said also that he was the slayer of
+Chaka's brother, Dingaan, also the lover of the fairest woman that the
+Zulus have ever seen, who was called Nada the Lily? Unless indeed a
+certain Mameena, who, I seem to remember, was a friend of yours, may
+have been even more beautiful?"
+
+"I know nothing of Nada the Lily," I answered.
+
+"No, no, Mameena, 'the Waiting Wind,' has blown over her fame, so
+why should you know of one who has been dead a long while? Why also,
+Macumazahn, do you always bring women into every business? I begin to
+believe that although you are so strict in a white man's fashion, you
+must be too fond of them, a weakness which makes for ruin to any man.
+Well, now, I think that this wolf-man, this axe-man, this warrior,
+Umslopogaas should be a good fellow to you on your journey to visit the
+white witch, Queen--another woman by the way, Macumazahn, and
+therefore one of whom you should be careful. Oh! yes, he will come with
+you--because of a man called Lousta and a woman named Monazi, a wife of
+his who hates him and does--not hate Lousta. I am almost sure that he
+will come with you, so do not stop to ask questions about him."
+
+"Is there anyone else?" I inquired.
+
+Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with
+his toe, then replied with a yawn,
+
+"You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake
+who knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to lie
+hidden. I should take him too, if I were you."
+
+"You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans,
+clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my
+father before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there
+to be any others?"
+
+"No, I think you three will be enough, with a guard of soldiers from the
+People of the Axe, for you will meet with fighting and a ghost or two.
+Umslopogaas has always one at his elbow named Nada, and perhaps you have
+several. For instance, there was a certain Mameena whom I always seem to
+feel about me when you are near, Macumazahn.
+
+"Why, the wind is rising again, which is odd on so still an evening.
+Listen to how it wails, yes, and stirs your hair, though mine hangs
+straight enough. But why do I talk of ghosts, seeing that you travel to
+seek other ghosts, white ghosts, beyond my ken, who can only deal with
+those who were black?
+
+"Good-night, Macumazahn, good-night. When you return from visiting the
+white Queen, that Great One beneath those feet I, Zikali, who am also
+great in my way, am but a grain of dust, come and tell me her answer to
+my question.
+
+"Meanwhile, be careful always to wear that pretty little image which I
+have given you, as a young lover sometimes wears a lock of hair cut from
+the head of some fool-girl that he thinks is fond of him. It will bring
+you safety and luck, Macumazahn, which, for the most part, is more than
+the lock of hair does to the lover. Oh! it is a strange world, full of
+jest to those who can see the strings that work it. I am one of them,
+and perhaps, Macumazahn, you are another, or will be before all is
+done--or begun.
+
+"Good-night, and good fortune to you on your journeyings, and,
+Macumazahn, although you are so fond of women, be careful not to fall in
+love with that white Queen, because it would make others jealous; I mean
+some who you have lost sight of for a while, also I think that being
+under a curse of her own, she is not one whom you can put into your
+sack. _Oho! Oho-ho!_ Slave, bring me my blanket, it grows cold, and my
+medicine also, that which protects me from the ghosts, who are thick
+to-night. Macumazahn brings them, I think. _Oho-ho!_"
+
+I turned to depart but when I had gone a little way Zikali called me
+back again and said, speaking very low,
+
+"When you meet this Umslopogaas, as you will meet him, he who is called
+the Woodpecker and the Slaughterer, say these words to him,
+
+"'A bat has been twittering round the hut of the Opener-of-Roads, and
+to his ears it squeaked the name of a certain Lousta and the name of a
+woman called Monazi. Also it twittered another greater name that may not
+be uttered, that of an elephant who shakes the earth, and said that this
+elephant sniffs the air with his trunk and grows angry, and sharpens his
+tusks to dig a certain Woodpecker out of his hole in a tree that grows
+near the Witch Mountain. Say, too, that the Opener-of-Roads thinks that
+this Woodpecker would be wise to fly north for a while in the company of
+one who watches by night, lest harm should come to a bird that pecks at
+the feet of the great and chatters of it in his nest.'"
+
+
+
+Then Zikali waved his hand and I went, wondering into what plot I had
+stumbled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MESSENGERS
+
+I did not rest as I should that night who somehow was never able to
+sleep well in the neighbourhood of the Black Kloof. I suppose that
+Zikali's constant talk about ghosts, with his hints and innuendoes
+concerning those who were dead, always affected my nerves till, in a
+subconscious way, I began to believe that such things existed and were
+hanging about me. Many people are open to the power of suggestion, and I
+am afraid that I am one of them.
+
+However, the sun which has such strength to kill noxious things, puts an
+end to ghosts more quickly even than it does to other evil vapours and
+emanations, and when I woke up to find it shining brilliantly in a pure
+heaven, I laughed with much heartiness over the whole affair.
+
+Going to the spring near which we were outspanned, I took off my
+shirt to have a good wash, still chuckling at the memory of all the
+hocus-pocus of my old friend, the Opener-of-Roads.
+
+While engaged in this matutinal operation I struck my hand against
+something and looking, observed that it was the hideous little ivory
+image of Zikali, which he had set about my neck. The sight of the
+thing and the memory of his ridiculous talk about it, especially of its
+assertion that it had come down to him through the ages, which it could
+not have done, seeing that it was a likeness of himself, irritated me so
+much that I proceeded to take it off with the full intention of throwing
+it into the spring.
+
+As I was in the act of doing this, from a clump of reeds mixed with
+bushes, quite close to me, there came a sound of hissing, and suddenly
+above them appeared the head of a great black _immamba_, perhaps the
+deadliest of all our African snakes, and the only one I know which will
+attack man without provocation.
+
+Leaving go of the image, I sprang back in a great hurry towards where my
+gun lay. Then the snake vanished and making sure that it had departed to
+its hole, which was probably at a distance, I returned to the pool, and
+once more began to take off the talisman in order to consign it to the
+bottom of the pool.
+
+After all, I reflected, it was a hideous and probably a blood-stained
+thing which I did not in the least wish to wear about my neck like a
+lady's love-token.
+
+Just as it was coming over my head, suddenly from the other side of
+the bush that infernal snake popped up again, this time, it was
+clear, really intent on business. It began to move towards me in the
+lightning-like way _immambas_ have, hissing and flicking its tongue.
+
+I was too quick for my friend, however, for snatching up the gun that I
+had lain down beside me, I let it have a charge of buckshot in the
+neck which nearly cut it in two, so that it fell down and expired with
+hideous convulsive writhings.
+
+Hearing the shot Hans came running from the waggon to see what was the
+matter. Hans, I should say, was that same Hottentot who had been the
+companion of most of my journeyings since my father's day. He was with
+me when as a young fellow I accompanied Retief to Dingaan's kraal,
+and like myself, escaped the massacre.[*] Also we shared many other
+adventures, including the great one in the Land of the Ivory Child where
+he slew the huge elephant-god, Jana, and himself was slain. But of this
+journey we did not dream in those days.
+
+[*] See the book called "Marie."--Editor.
+
+For the rest Hans was a most entirely unprincipled person, but as the
+Boers say, "as clever as a waggonload of monkeys." Also he drank when he
+got the chance. One good quality he had, however; no man was ever more
+faithful, and perhaps it would be true to say that neither man nor woman
+ever loved me, unworthy, quite so well.
+
+In appearance he rather resembled an antique and dilapidated baboon;
+his face was wrinkled like a dried nut and his quick little eyes were
+bloodshot. I never knew what his age was, any more than he did himself,
+but the years had left him tough as whipcord and absolutely untiring.
+Lastly he was perhaps the best hand at following a spoor that ever I
+knew and up to a hundred and fifty yards or so, a very deadly shot
+with a rifle especially when he used a little single-barrelled,
+muzzle-loading gun of mine made by Purdey which he named _Intombi_ or
+Maiden. Of that gun, however, I have written in "The Holy Flower" and
+elsewhere.
+
+"What is it, Baas?" he asked. "Here there are no lions, nor any game."
+
+"Look the other side of the bush, Hans."
+
+He slipped round it, making a wide circle with his usual caution, then,
+seeing the snake which was, by the way, I think, the biggest _immamba_
+I ever killed, suddenly froze, as it were, in a stiff attitude that
+reminded me of a pointer when it scents game. Having made sure that it
+was dead, he nodded and said,
+
+"Black _'mamba_, or so you would call it, though I know it for something
+else."
+
+"What else, Hans?"
+
+"One of the old witch-doctor Zikali's spirits which he sets at the mouth
+of this kloof to warn him of who comes or goes. I know it well, and so
+do others. I saw it listening behind a stone when you were up the kloof
+last evening talking with the Opener-of-Roads."
+
+"Then Zikali will lack a spirit," I answered, laughing, "which perhaps
+he will not miss amongst so many. It serves him right for setting the
+brute on me."
+
+"Quite so, Baas. He will be angry. I wonder why he did it?" he added
+suspiciously, "seeing that he is such a friend of yours."
+
+"He didn't do it, Hans. These snakes are very fierce and give battle,
+that is all."
+
+Hans paid no attention to my remark, which probably he thought only
+worthy of a white man who does not understand, but rolled his yellow,
+bloodshot eyes about, as though in search of explanations. Presently
+they fell upon the ivory that hung about my neck, and he started.
+
+"Why do you wear that pretty likeness of the Great One yonder over your
+heart, as I have known you do with things that belonged to women in
+past days, Baas? Do you know that it is Zikali's Great Medicine, nothing
+less, as everyone does throughout the land? When Zikali sends an order
+far away, he always sends that image with it, for then he who receives
+the order knows that he must obey or die. Also the messenger knows that
+he will come to no harm if he does not take it off, because, Baas, the
+image is Zikali himself, and Zikali is the image. They are one and the
+same. Also it is the image of his father's father's father--or so he
+says."
+
+"That is an odd story," I said.
+
+Then I told Hans as much as I thought advisable of how this horrid
+little talisman came into my possession.
+
+Hans nodded without showing any surprise.
+
+"So we are going on a long journey," he said. "Well, I thought it was
+time that we did something more than wander about these tame countries
+selling blankets to stinking old women and so forth, Baas. Moreover,
+Zikali does not wish that you should come to harm, doubtless because he
+does wish to make use of you afterwards--oh! it's safe to talk now when
+that spirit is away looking for another snake. What were you doing with
+the Great Medicine, Baas, when the _'mamba_ attacked you?"
+
+"Taking it off to throw it into the pool, Hans, as I do not like the
+thing. I tried twice and each time the _immamba_ appeared."
+
+"Of course it appeared, Baas, and what is more, if you had taken that
+Medicine off and thrown it away _you_ would have disappeared, since the
+_'mamba_ would have killed you. Zikali wanted to show you that, Baas,
+and that is why he set the snake at you."
+
+"You are a superstitious old fool, Hans."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but my father knew all about that Great Medicine before me,
+for he was a bit of a doctor, and so does every wizard and witch for a
+thousand miles or more. I tell you, Baas, it is known by all though no
+one ever talks about it, no, not even the king himself. Baas, speaking
+to you, not with the voice of Hans the old drunkard, but with that of
+the Predikant, your reverend father, who made so good a Christian of
+me and who tells me to do so from up in Heaven where the hot fires are
+which the wood feeds of itself, I beg you not to try to throw away the
+Medicine again, or if you wish to do so, to leave me behind on this
+journey. For you see, Baas, although I am now so good, almost like one
+of those angels with the pretty goose's wings in the pictures, I feel
+that I should like to grow a little better before I go to the Place of
+Fires to make report to your reverend father, the Predikant."
+
+Thinking of how horrified my dear father would be if he could hear all
+this string of ridiculous nonsense and learn the result of his moral and
+religious lessons on raw Hottentot material, I burst out laughing. But
+Hans went on as gravely as a judge,
+
+"Wear the Great Medicine, Baas, wear it; part with the liver inside you
+before you part with that, Baas. It may not be as pretty or smell as
+sweet as a woman's hair in a little gold bottle, but it is much more
+useful. The sight of the woman's hair will only make you sick in your
+stomach and cause you to remember a lot of things which you had much
+better forget, but the Great Medicine, or rather Zikali who is in it,
+will keep the assegais and sickness out of you and turn back bad magic
+on to the heads of those who sent it, and always bring us plenty to eat
+and perhaps, if we are lucky, a little to drink too sometimes."
+
+"Go away," I said, "I want to wash."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but with the Baas's leave I will sit on the other side of
+that bush with the gun--not to look at the Baas without his clothes,
+because white people are always so ugly that it makes me feel ill to see
+them undressed, also because--the Baas will forgive me--but because they
+smell. No, not for that, but just to see that no other snake comes."
+
+"Get out of the road, you dirty little scoundrel, and stop your
+impudence," I said, lifting my foot suggestively.
+
+Thereon he scooted with a subdued grin round the other side of the bush,
+whence as I knew well he kept his eye fixed on me to be sure that I made
+no further attempt to take off the Great Medicine.
+
+
+
+Now of this talisman I may as well say at once that I am no believer
+in it or its precious influences. Therefore, although it was useful
+sometimes, notably twice when Umslopogaas was concerned, I do not know
+whether personally I should have done better or worse upon that journey
+if I had thrown it into the pool.
+
+It is true, however, that until quite the end of this history when
+it became needful to do so to save another, I never made any further
+attempt to remove it from my neck, not even when it rubbed a sore in my
+skin, because I did not wish to offend the prejudices of Hans.
+
+It is true, moreover, that this hideous ivory had a reputation which
+stretched very far from the place where it was made and was regarded
+with great reverence by all kinds of queer people, even by the Amahagger
+themselves, of whom presently, as they say in pedigrees, a fact of which
+I found sundry proofs. Indeed, I saw a first example of it when a little
+while later I met that great warrior, Umslopogaas, Chief of the People
+of the Axe.
+
+For, after determining firmly, for reasons which I will set out, that
+I would not visit this man, in the end I did so, although by then I
+had given up any idea of journeying across the Zambesi to look for a
+mysterious and non-existent witch-woman, as Zikali had suggested that I
+should do. To begin with I knew that his talk was all rubbish and,
+even if it were not, that at the bottom of it was some desire of the
+Opener-of-Roads that I should make a path for him to travel towards an
+indefinite but doubtless evil object of his own. Further, by this time
+I had worn through that mood of mine which had caused me to yearn
+for correspondence with the departed and a certain knowledge of their
+existence.
+
+I wonder whether many people understand, as I do, how entirely distinct
+and how variable are these moods which sway us, or at any rate some of
+us, at sundry periods of our lives. As I think I have already suggested,
+at one time we are all spiritual; at another all physical; at one time
+we are sure that our lives here are as a dream and a shadow and that the
+real existence lies elsewhere; at another that these brief days of ours
+are the only business with which we have to do and that of it we must
+make the best. At one time we think our loves much more immortal than
+the stars; at another that they are mere shadows cast by the baleful sun
+of desire upon the shallow and fleeting water we call Life which seems
+to flow out of nowhere into nowhere. At one time we are full of
+faith, at another all such hopes are blotted out by a black wall of
+Nothingness, and so on _ad infinitum_. Only very stupid people, or
+humbugs, are or pretend to be, always consistent and unchanging.
+
+To return, I determined not only that I would not travel north to seek
+that which no living man will ever find, certainty as to the future,
+but also, to show my independence of Zikali, that I would not visit
+this chief, Umslopogaas. So, having traded all my goods and made a fair
+profit (on paper), I set myself to return to Natal, proposing to rest
+awhile in my little house at Durban, and told Hans my mind.
+
+"Very good, Baas," he said. "I, too, should like to go to Durban. There
+are lots of things there that we cannot get here," and he fixed his
+roving eye upon a square-faced gin bottle, which as it happened was
+filled with nothing stronger than water, because all the gin was drunk.
+"Yet, Baas, we shall not see the Berea for a long while."
+
+"Why do you say that?" I asked sharply.
+
+"Oh! Baas, I don't know, but you went to visit the Opener-of-Roads,
+did you not, and he told you to go north and lent you a certain Great
+Medicine, did he not?"
+
+Here Hands proceeded to light his corncob pipe with an ash from the
+fire, all the time keeping his beady eyes fixed upon that part of me
+where he knew the talisman was hung.
+
+"Quite true, Hans, but now I mean to show Zikali that I am not his
+messenger, for south or north or east or west. So to-morrow morning we
+cross the river and trek for Natal."
+
+"Yes, Baas, but then why not cross it this evening? There is still
+light."
+
+"I have said that we will cross it to-morrow morning," I answered with
+that firmness which I have read always indicates a man of character,
+"and I do not change my word."
+
+"No, Baas, but sometimes other things change besides words. Will the
+Baas have that buck's leg for supper, or the stuff out of a tin with a
+dint in it, which we bought at a store two years ago? The flies have got
+at the buck's leg, but I cut out the bits with the maggots on it and ate
+them myself."
+
+
+
+Hans was right, things do change, especially the weather. That night,
+unexpectedly, for when I turned in the sky seemed quite serene, there
+came a terrible rain long before it was due, which lasted off and on for
+three whole days and continued intermittently for an indefinite period.
+Needless to say the river, which it would have been so easy to cross
+on this particular evening, by the morning was a raging torrent, and so
+remained for several weeks.
+
+In despair at length I trekked south to where a ford was reported,
+which, when reached, proved impracticable.
+
+I tried another, a dozen miles further on, which was very hard to come
+to over boggy land. It looked all right and we were getting across
+finely, when suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and
+there we stuck. Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would
+have remained in the neighbourhood of that ford to this day, had I not
+managed to borrow some extra oxen belonging to a Christian Kaffir, and
+with their help to drag it back to the bank whence we had started.
+
+As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storm which had
+burst further up the river, brought it down in flood again, a very heavy
+flood.
+
+In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere
+and no one seems to appreciate them. If they think of them at all it
+is to grumble about the cost of their upkeep. I wish they could have
+experienced what a lack of them means in a wild country during times of
+excessive rain, and the same remark applied to roads. You should
+think more of your blessings, my friends, as the old woman said to her
+complaining daughter who had twins two years running, adding that they
+might have been triplets.
+
+To return--after this I confessed myself beaten and gave up until such
+time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap. Trekking
+out of sight of that infernal river which annoyed me with its constant
+gurgling, I camped on a comparatively dry spot that overlooked a
+beautiful stretch of rolling veld. Towards sunset the clouds lifted
+and I saw a mile or two away a most extraordinary mountain on the lower
+slopes of which grew a dense forest. Its upper part, which was of bare
+rock, looked exactly like the seated figure of a grotesque person with
+the chin resting on the breast. There was the head, there were the arms,
+there were the knees. Indeed, the whole mass of it reminded me strongly
+of the effigy of Zikali which was tied about my neck, or rather of
+Zikali himself.
+
+"What is that called?" I said to Hans, pointing to this strange hill,
+now blazing in the angry fire of the setting sun that had burst out
+between the storm clouds, which made it appear more ominous even than
+before.
+
+"That is the Witch Mountain, Baas, where the Chief Umslopogaas and a
+blood brother of his who carried a great club used to hunt with the
+wolves. It is haunted and in a cave at the top of it lie the bones of
+Nada the Lily, the fair woman whose name is a song, she who was the love
+of Umslopogaas."[*]
+
+     [*] For the story of Umslopogaas and Nada see the book
+     called "Nada the Lily."--Editor.
+
+"Rubbish," I said, though I had heard something of all that story and
+remembered that Zikali had mentioned this Nada, comparing her beauty to
+that of another whom once I knew.
+
+"Where then lives the Chief Umslopogaas?"
+
+"They say that his town is yonder on the plain, Baas. It is called the
+Place of the Axe and is strongly fortified with a river round most of
+it, and his people are the People of the Axe. They are a fierce people,
+and all the country round here is uninhabited because Umslopogaas has
+cleaned out the tribes who used to live in it, first with his wolves
+and afterwards in war. He is so strong a chief and so terrible in battle
+that even Chaka himself was afraid of him, and they say that he brought
+Dingaan the King to his end because of a quarrel about this Nada.
+Cetywayo, the present king, too leaves him alone and to him he pays no
+tribute."
+
+Whilst I was about to ask Hans from whom he had collected all this
+information, suddenly I heard sounds, and looking up, saw three tall men
+clad in full herald's dress rushing towards us at great speed.
+
+"Here come some chips from the Axe," said Hans, and promptly bolted into
+the waggon.
+
+I did not bolt because there was no time to do so without loss of
+dignity, but, although I wished I had my rifle with me, just sat still
+upon my stool and with great deliberation lighted my pipe, taking not
+the slightest notice of the three savage-looking fellows.
+
+These, who I noted carried axes instead of assegais, rushed straight at
+me with the axes raised in such a fashion that anyone unacquainted with
+the habits of Zulu warriors of the old school, might have thought that
+they intended nothing short of murder.
+
+As I expected, however, within about six feet of me they halted suddenly
+and stood there still as statues. For my part I went on lighting my pipe
+as though I did not see them and when at length I was obliged to lift my
+head, surveyed them with an air of mild interest.
+
+Then I took a little book out of my pocket, it was my favourite copy of
+the Ingoldsby Legends--and began to read.
+
+The passage which caught my eye, if "axe" be substituted for "knife" was
+not inappropriate. It was from "The Nurse's Story," and runs,
+
+     "But, oh! what a thing 'tis to see and to know
+     That the bare knife is raised in the hand of the foe,
+     Without hope to repel or to ward off the blow!"
+
+This proceeding of mine astonished them a good deal who felt that they
+had, so to speak, missed fire. At last the soldier in the middle said,
+
+"Are you blind, White Man?"
+
+"No, Black Fellow," I answered, "but I am short-sighted. Would you be so
+good as to stand out of my light?" a remark which puzzled them so much
+that all three drew back a few paces.
+
+When I had read a little further I came to the following lines,
+
+                                 "'Tis plain,
+     As anatomists tell us, that never again,
+     Shall life revisit the foully slain
+     When once they've been cut through the jugular vein."
+
+In my circumstances at that moment this statement seemed altogether too
+suggestive, so I shut up the book and remarked,
+
+"If you are wanderers who want food, as I judge by your being so thin,
+I am sorry that I have little meat, but my servants will give you what
+they can."
+
+"_Ow!_" said the spokesman, "he calls us wanderers! Either he must be a
+very great man or he is mad."
+
+"You are right. I _am_ a great man," I answered, yawning, "and if you
+trouble me too much you will see that I can be mad also. Now what do you
+want?"
+
+"We are messengers from the great Chief Umslopogaas, Captain of the
+People of the Axe, and we want tribute," answered the man in a somewhat
+changed tone.
+
+"Do you? Then you won't get it. I thought that only the King of Zululand
+had a right to tribute, and your Captain's name is not Cetywayo, is it?"
+
+"Our Captain is King here," said the man still more uncertainly.
+
+"Is he indeed? Then away with you back to him and tell this King of whom
+I have never heard, though I have a message for a certain Umslopogaas,
+that Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, intends to visit him to-morrow, if
+he will send a guide at the first light to show the best path for the
+waggon."
+
+"Hearken," said the man to his companions, "this is Macumazahn himself
+and no other. Well, we thought it, for who else would have dared----"
+
+Then they saluted with their axes, calling me "Chief" and other fine
+names, and departed as they had come, at a run, calling out that my
+message should be delivered and that doubtless Umslopogaas would send
+the guide.
+
+
+
+So it came about that, quite contrary to my intention, after all
+circumstances brought me to the Town of the Axe. Even to the last moment
+I had not meant to go there, but when the tribute was demanded I saw
+that it was best to do so, and having once passed my word it could
+not be altered. Indeed, I felt sure that in this event there would be
+trouble and that my oxen would be stolen, or worse.
+
+So Fate having issued its decree, of which Hans's version was that
+Zikali, or his Great Medicine, had so arranged things, I shrugged my
+shoulders and waited.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE
+
+Next morning at the dawn guides arrived from the Town of the Axe,
+bringing with them a yoke of spare oxen, which showed that its Chief was
+really anxious to see me. So, in due course we inspanned and started,
+the guides leading us by a rough but practicable road down the steep
+hillside to the saucer-like plain beneath, where I saw many cattle
+grazing. Travelling some miles across this plain, we came at last to a
+river of no great breadth that encircled a considerable Kaffir town
+on three sides, the fourth being protected by a little line of koppies
+which were joined together with walls. Also the place was strongly
+fortified with fences and in every other way known to the native mind.
+
+With the help of the spare oxen we crossed the river safely at the ford,
+although it was very full, and on the further side were received by a
+guard of men, tall, soldierlike fellows, all of them armed with axes as
+the messengers had been. They led us up to the cattle enclosure in the
+centre of the town, which although it could be used to protect beasts in
+case of emergency, also served the practical purpose of a public square.
+
+Here some ceremony was in progress, for soldiers stood round the kraal
+while heralds pranced and shouted. At the head of the place in front
+of the chief's big hut was a little group of people, among whom a big,
+gaunt man sat upon a stool clad in a warrior's dress with a great and
+very long axe hafted with wire-lashed rhinoceros horn, laid across his
+knees.
+
+Our guides led me, with Hans sneaking after me like a dejected and
+low-bred dog (for the waggon had stopped outside the gate), across the
+kraal to where the heralds shouted and the big man sat yawning. At once
+I noted that he was a very remarkable person, broad and tall and spare
+of frame, with long, tough-looking arms and a fierce face which reminded
+me of that of the late King Dingaan. Also he had a great hole in his
+head above the temple where the skull had been driven in by some blow,
+and keen, royal-looking eyes.
+
+He looked up and seeing me, cried out,
+
+"What! Has a white man come to fight me for the chieftainship of the
+People of the Axe? Well, he is a small one."
+
+"No," I answered quietly, "but Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, has come
+to visit you in answer to your request, O Umslopogaas; Macumazahn whose
+name was known in this land before yours was told of, O Umslopogaas."
+
+The Chief heard and rising from his seat, lifted the big axe in salute.
+
+"I greet you, O Macumazahn," he said, "who although you are small
+in stature, are very great indeed in fame. Have I not heard how you
+conquered Bangu, although Saduko slew him, and of how you gave up the
+six hundred head of cattle to Tshoza and the men of the Amangwane who
+fought with you, the cattle that were your own? Have I not heard how you
+led the Tulwana against the Usutu and stamped flat three of Cetywayo's
+regiments in the days of Panda, although, alas! because of an oath of
+mine I lifted no steel in that battle, I who will have nothing to do
+with those that spring from the blood of Senzangacona--perhaps because
+I smell too strongly of it, Macumazahn. Oh! yes, I have heard these and
+many other things concerning you, though until now it has never been
+my fortune to look upon your face, O Watcher-by-Night, and therefore I
+greet you well, Bold one, Cunning one, Upright one, Friend of us Black
+People."
+
+"Thank you," I answered, "but you said something about fighting. If
+there is to be anything of the sort, let us get it over. If you want to
+fight, I am quite ready," and I tapped the rifle which I carried.
+
+The grim Chief broke into a laugh and said,
+
+"Listen. By an ancient law any man on this day in each year may fight me
+for this Chieftainship, as I fought and conquered him who held it before
+me, and take it from me with my life and the axe, though of late none
+seems to like the business. But that law was made before there were
+guns, or men like Macumazahn who, it is said, can hit a lizard on a wall
+at fifty paces. Therefore I tell you that if you wish to fight me with a
+rifle, O Macumazahn, I give in and you may have the chieftainship," and
+he laughed again in his fierce fashion.
+
+"I think it is too hot for fighting either with guns or axes, and
+Chieftainships are honey that is full of stinging bees," I answered.
+
+Then I took my seat on a stool that had been brought for me and placed
+by the side of Umslopogaas, after which the ceremony went on.
+
+The heralds cried out the challenge to all and sundry to come and fight
+the Holder of the Axe for the chieftainship of the Axe without the
+slightest result, since nobody seemed to desire to do anything of the
+sort. Then, after a pause, Umslopogaas rose, swinging his formidable
+weapon round his head and declared that by right of conquest he was
+Chief of the Tribe for the ensuing year, an announcement that everybody
+accepted without surprise.
+
+Again the heralds summoned all and sundry who had grievances, to come
+forward and to state them and receive redress.
+
+After a little pause there appeared a very handsome woman with large
+eyes, particularly brilliant eyes that rolled as though they were in
+search of someone. She was finely dressed and I saw by the ornaments she
+wore that she held the rank of a chief's wife.
+
+"I, Monazi, have a complaint to make," she said, "as it is the right
+of the humblest to do on this day. In succession to Zinita whom Dingaan
+slew with her children, I am your _Inkosikaas_, your head-wife, O
+Umslopogaas."
+
+"That I know well enough," said Umslopogaas, "what of it?"
+
+"This, that you neglect me for other women, as you neglected Zinita
+for Nada the Beautiful, Nada the witch. I am childless, as are all your
+wives because of the curse that this Nada left behind her. I demand that
+this curse should be lifted from me. For your sake I abandoned Lousta
+the Chief, to whom I was betrothed, and this is the end of it, that I am
+neglected and childless."
+
+"Am I the Heavens Above that I can cause you to bear children, woman?"
+asked Umslopogaas angrily. "Would that you had clung to Lousta, my
+blood-brother and my friend, whom you lament, and left me alone."
+
+"That still may chance, if I am not better treated," answered Monazi
+with a flash of her eyes. "Will you dismiss yonder new wife of yours and
+give me back my place, and will you lift the curse of Nada off me, or
+will you not?"
+
+"As to the first," answered Umslopogaas, "learn, Monazi, that I will not
+dismiss my new wife, who at least is gentler-tongued and truer-hearted
+than you are. As to the second, you ask that which it is not in my power
+to give, since children are the gift of Heaven, and barrenness is its
+bane. Moreover, you have done ill to bring into this matter the name of
+one who is dead, who of all women was the sweetest and most innocent.
+Lastly, I warn you before the people to cease from your plottings or
+traffic with Lousta, lest ill come of them to you, or him, even though
+he be my blood-brother, or to both."
+
+"Plottings!" cried Monazi in a shrill and furious voice. "Does
+Umslopogaas talk of plottings? Well, I have heard that Chaka the Lion
+left a son, and that this son has set a trap for the feet of him who
+sits on Chaka's throne. Perchance that king has heard it also; perchance
+the People of the Axe will soon have another Chief."
+
+"Is it thus?" said Umslopogaas quietly. "And if so, will he be named
+Lousta?"
+
+Then his smouldering wrath broke out and in a kind of roaring voice he
+went on,
+
+"What have I done that the wives of my bosom should be my betrayers,
+those who would give me to death? Zinita betrayed me to Dingaan and
+in reward was slain, and my children with her. Now would you, Monazi,
+betray me to Cetywayo--though in truth there is naught to betray? Well,
+if so, bethink you and let Lousta bethink him of what chanced to Zinita,
+and of what chances to those who stand before the axe of Umslopogaas.
+What have I done, I say, that women should thus strive to work me ill?"
+
+"This," answered Monazi with a mocking laugh, "that you have loved one
+of them too well. If he would live in peace, he who has wives should
+favour all alike. Least of anything should he moan continually over one
+who is dead, a witch who has left a curse behind her and thus insulted
+and do wrong to the living. Also he would be wise to attend to the
+matters of his own tribe and household and to cease from ambitions that
+may bring him to the assegai, and them with him."
+
+"I have heard your counsel, Wife, so now begone!" said Umslopogaas,
+looking at her very strangely, and it seemed to me not without fear.
+
+"Have you wives, Macumazahn?" he asked of me in a low voice when she was
+out of hearing.
+
+"Only among the spirits," I answered.
+
+"Well for you then; moreover, it is a bond between us, for I too have
+but one true wife and she also is among the spirits. But go rest a
+while, and later we will talk."
+
+So I went, leaving the Chief to his business, thinking as I walked away
+of a certain message with which I was charged for him and of how into
+that message came names that I had just heard, namely that of a man
+called Lousta and of a woman called Monazi. Also I thought of the hints
+which in her jealous anger and disappointment at her lack of children,
+this woman had dropped about a plot against him who sat on the throne of
+Chaka, which of course must mean King Cetywayo himself.
+
+I came to the guest-hut, which proved to be a very good place and clean;
+also in it I found plenty of food made ready for me and for my servants.
+After eating I slept for a time as it is always my fashion to do when I
+have nothing else on hand, since who knows for how long he may be kept
+awake at night? Indeed, it was not until the sun had begun to sink
+that a messenger came, saying that the Chief desired to see me if I had
+rested. So I went to his big hut which stood alone with a strong fence
+set round it at a distance, so that none could come within hearing of
+what was said, even at the door of the hut. I observed also that a man
+armed with an axe kept guard at the gateway in this fence round which he
+walked from time to time.
+
+The Chief Umslopogaas was seated on a stool by the door of his hut with
+his rhinoceros-horn-handled axe which was fastened to his right wrist
+by a thong, leaning against his thigh, and a wolfskin hanging from his
+broad shoulders. Very grim and fierce he looked thus, with the red light
+of the sunset playing on him. He greeted me and pointed to another stool
+on which I sat myself down. Apparently he had been watching my eyes, for
+he said,
+
+"I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards
+and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the
+soldier who guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how
+its gate is fashioned."
+
+"Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief."
+
+"Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance
+I shall soon be dead. It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the
+battle, Macumazahn. He who would sleep safe and of whom, when he dies,
+folk will say 'He has eaten' (i.e., he has lived out his life), must do
+more than this. He must guard his tongue and even his thoughts! he must
+listen to the stirring of rats in the thatch and look for snakes in
+the grass; he must trust few, and least of all those who sleep upon his
+bosom. But those who have the Lion's blood in them or who are prone to
+charge like a buffalo, often neglect these matters and therefore in the
+end they fall into a pit."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "especially those who have the lion's blood in them,
+whether that lion be man or beast."
+
+This I said because of the rumours I had heard that this Slaughterer was
+in truth the son of Chaka. Therefore not knowing whether or no he were
+playing on the word "lion," which was Chaka's title, I wished to draw
+him, especially as I saw in his face a great likeness to Chaka's brother
+Dingaan, whom, it was whispered, this same Umslopogaas had slain. As it
+happened I failed, for after a pause he said,
+
+"Why do you come to visit me, Macumazahn, who have never done so
+before?"
+
+"I do not come to visit you, Umslopogaas. That was not my intention. You
+brought me, or rather the flooded rivers and you together brought me,
+for I was on my way to Natal and could not cross the drifts."
+
+"Yet I think you have a message for me, White Man, for not long ago a
+certain wandering witch-doctor who came here told me to expect you and
+that you had words to say to me."
+
+"Did he, Umslopogaas? Well, it is true that I have a message, though it
+is one that I did not mean to deliver."
+
+"Yet being here, perchance you will deliver it, Macumazahn, for those
+who have messages and will not speak them, sometimes come to trouble."
+
+"Yes, being here, I will deliver it, seeing that so it seems to be
+fated. Tell me, do you chance to know a certain Small One who is
+great, a certain Old One whose brain is young, a doctor who is called
+Opener-of-Roads?"
+
+"I have heard of him, as have my forefathers for generations."
+
+"Indeed, and if it pleases you to tell me, Umslopogaas, what might be
+the names of those forefathers of yours, who have heard of this doctor
+for generations? They must have been short-lived men and as such I
+should like to know of them."
+
+"That you cannot," replied Umslopogaas shortly, "since they are
+_hlonipa_ (i.e. not to be spoken) in this land."
+
+"Indeed," I said again. "I thought that rule applied only to the names
+of kings, but of course I am but an ignorant white man who may well be
+mistaken on such matters of your Zulu customs."
+
+"Yes, O Macumazahn, you may be mistaken or--you may not. It matters
+nothing. But what of this message of yours?"
+
+"It came at the end of a long story, O Bulalio. But since you seek to
+know, these were the words of it, so nearly as I can remember them."
+
+Then sentence by sentence I repeated to him all that Zikali had said to
+me when he called me back after bidding me farewell, which doubtless he
+did because he wished to cut his message more deeply into the tablets of
+my mind.
+
+Umslopogaas listened to every syllable with a curious intentness, and
+then asked me to repeat it all again, which I did.
+
+"Lousta! Monazi!" he said slowly. "Well, you heard those names to-day,
+did you not, White Man? And you heard certain things from the lips
+of this Monazi who was angry, that give colour to that talk of the
+Opener-of-Roads. It seems to me," he added, glancing about him and
+speaking in a low voice, "that what I suspected is true and that without
+doubt I am betrayed."
+
+"I do not understand," I replied indifferently. "All this talk is dark
+to me, as is the message of the Opener-of-Roads, or rather its meaning.
+By whom and about what are you betrayed?"
+
+"Let that snake sleep. Do not kick it with your foot. Suffice it you to
+know that my head hangs upon this matter; that I am a rat in a forked
+stick, and if the stick is pressed on by a heavy hand, then where is the
+rat?"
+
+"Where all rats go, I suppose, that is, unless they are wise rats that
+bite the hand which holds the stick before it is pressed down."
+
+"What is the rest of this story of yours, Macumazahn, which was told
+before the Opener-of-Roads gave you that message? Does it please you to
+repeat it to me that I may judge of it with my ears?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, "on one condition, that what the ears hear, the
+heart shall keep to itself alone."
+
+Umslopogaas stooped and laid his hand upon the broad blade of the weapon
+beside him, saying,
+
+"By the Axe I swear it. If I break the oath be the Axe my doom."
+
+Then I told him the tale, as I have set it down already, thinking
+to myself that of it he would understand little, being but a wild
+warrior-man. As it chanced, however, I was mistaken, for he seemed to
+understand a great deal, perchance because such primitive natures are in
+closer touch with high and secret things than we imagine; perchance for
+other reasons with which I became acquainted later.
+
+"It stands thus," he said when I had finished, "or so I think. You,
+Macumazahn, seek certain women who are dead to learn whether they still
+live, or are really dead, but so far have failed to find them. Still
+seeking, you asked the counsel of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, he who among
+other titles is also called 'Home of Spirits.' He answered that he could
+not satisfy your heart because this tree was too tall for him to climb,
+but that far to the north there lives a certain white witch who has
+powers greater than his, being able to fly to the top of any tree, and
+to this white witch he bade you go. Have I the story right thus far?"
+
+I answered that he had.
+
+"Good! Then Zikali went on to choose you companions for your journey,
+but two, leaving out the guards or servants. I, Umhlopekazi, called
+Bulalio the Slaughterer, called the Woodpecker also, was one of these,
+and that little yellow monkey of a man whom I saw with you to-day,
+called Hansi, was the other. Then you made a mock of Zikali by
+determining not to visit me, Umhlopekazi, and not to go north to find
+the great white Queen of whom he had told you, but to return to Natal.
+Is that so?"
+
+I said it was.
+
+"Then the rain fell and the winds blew and the rivers rose in wrath so
+that you could not return to Natal, and after all by chance, or by fate,
+or by the will of Zikali, the wizard of wizards, you drifted here to the
+kraal of me, Umhlopekazi, and told me this story."
+
+"Just so," I answered.
+
+"Well, White Man, how am I to know that all this is not but a trap for
+my feet which already seem to feel cords between the toes of both of
+them? What token do you bring, O Watcher-by-Night? How am I to know that
+the Opener-of-Roads really sent me this message which has been delivered
+so strangely by one who wished to travel on another path? The wandering
+witch-doctor told me that he who came would bear some sign."
+
+"I can't say," I answered, "at least in words. But," I added after
+reflection, "as you ask for a token, perhaps I might be able to show you
+something that would bring proof to your heart, if there were any secret
+place----"
+
+Umslopogaas walked to the gateway of the fence and saw that the sentry
+was at his post. Then he walked round the hut casting an eye upon its
+roof, and muttered to me as he returned.
+
+"Once I was caught thus. There lived a certain wife of mine who set her
+ear to the smoke-hole and so brought about the death of many, and among
+them of herself and of our children. Enter. All is safe. Yet if you
+talk, speak low."
+
+So we went into the hut taking the stools with us, and seated ourselves
+by the fire that burned there on to which Umslopogaas threw chips of
+resinous wood.
+
+"Now," he said.
+
+I opened my shirt and by the clear light of the flame showed him the
+image of Zikali which hung about my neck. He stared at it, though touch
+it he would not. Then he stood up and lifting his great axe, he saluted
+the image with the word "_Makosi!_" the salute that is given to great
+wizards because they are supposed to be the home of many spirits.
+
+"It is the big Medicine, the Medicine itself," he said, "that which has
+been known in the land since the time of Senzangacona, the father of the
+Zulu Royal House, and as it is said, before him."
+
+"How can that be?" I asked, "seeing that this image represents Zikali,
+Opener-of-Roads, as an old man, and Senzangacona died many years ago?"
+
+"I do not know," he answered, "but it is so. Listen. There was a certain
+Mopo, or as some called him, Umbopo, who was Chaka's body-servant and my
+foster-father, and he told me that twice this Medicine," and he pointed
+to the image, "was sent to Chaka, and that each time the Lion obeyed the
+message that came with it. A third time it was sent, but he did not obey
+the message and then--where was Chaka?"
+
+Here Umslopogaas passed his hand across his mouth, a significant gesture
+amongst the Zulus.
+
+"Mopo," I said, "yes, I have heard the story of Mopo, also that Chaka's
+body became _his_ servant in the end, since Mopo killed him with the
+help of the princes Dingaan and Umhlangana. Also I have heard that this
+Mopo still lives, though not in Zululand."
+
+"Does he, Macumazahn?" said Umslopogaas, taking snuff from a spoon and
+looking at me keenly over the spoon. "You seem to know a great deal,
+Macumazahn; too much as some might think."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "perhaps I do know too much, or at any rate more than
+I want to know. For instance, O fosterling of Mopo and son of--was the
+lady named Baleka?--I know a good deal about _you_."
+
+Umslopogaas stared at me and laying his hand upon the great axe, half
+rose. Then he sat down again.
+
+"I think that this," and I touched the image of Zikali upon my breast,
+"would turn even the blade of the axe named Groan-maker," I said and
+paused. As nothing happened, I went on, "For instance, again I think I
+know--or have I dreamed it?--that a certain chief, whose mother's name
+I believe was Baleka--by the way, was she not one of Chaka's
+'sisters'?--has been plotting against that son of Panda who sits upon
+the throne, and that his plots have been betrayed, so that he is in some
+danger of his life."
+
+"Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas hoarsely, "I tell you that did you not
+wear the Great Medicine on your breast, I would kill you where you sit
+and bury you beneath the floor of the hut, as one who knows--too much."
+
+"It would be a mistake, Umslopogaas, one of the many that you have made.
+But as I _do_ wear the Medicine, the question does not arise, does it?"
+
+Again he made no answer and I went on, "And now, what about this journey
+to the north? If indeed I must make it, would you wish to accompany me?"
+
+Umslopogaas rose from the stool and crawled out of the hut, apparently
+to make some inspection. Presently he returned and remarked that the
+night was clear although there were heavy storm clouds on the horizon,
+by which I understood him to convey in Zulu metaphor that it was safe
+for us to talk, but that danger threatened from afar.
+
+"Macumazahn," he said, "we speak under the blanket of the
+Opener-of-Roads who sits upon your heart, and whose sign you bring to
+me, as he sent me word that you would, do we not?"
+
+"I suppose so," I answered. "At any rate we speak as man to man, and
+hitherto the honour of Macumazahn has not been doubted in Zululand. So
+if you have anything to say, Chief Bulalio, say it at once, for I am
+tired and should like to eat and rest."
+
+"Good, Macumazahn. I have this to say. I who am the son of one who was
+greater than he, have plotted to seize the throne of Zululand from him
+who sits upon that throne. It is true, for I grew weary of my idleness
+as a petty chief. Moreover, I should have succeeded with the help of
+Zikali, who hates the House of Senzangacona, though me, who am of its
+blood, he does not hate, because ever I have striven against that House.
+But it seems from his message and those words spoken by an angry woman,
+that I have been betrayed, and that to-night or to-morrow night, or
+by the next moon, the slayers will be upon me, smiting me before I can
+smite, at which I cannot grumble."
+
+"By whom have you been betrayed, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"By that wife of mine, as I think, Macumazahn. Also by Lousta, my
+blood-brother, over whom she has cast her net and made false to me,
+so that he hopes to win her whom he has always loved and with her the
+Chieftainship of the Axe. Now what shall I do?--Tell me, you whose eyes
+can see in the dark."
+
+I thought a moment and answered, "I think that if I were you, I would
+leave this Lousta to sit in my place for a while as Chief of the People
+of the Axe, and take a journey north, Umslopogaas. Then if trouble comes
+from the Great House where a king sits, it will come to Lousta who can
+show that the People of the Axe are innocent and that you are far away."
+
+"That is cunning, Macumazahn. There speaks the Great Medicine. If I go
+north, who can say that I have plotted, and if I leave my betrayer in my
+place, who can say that I was a traitor, who have set him where I used
+to sit and left the land upon a private matter? And now tell me of this
+journey of yours."
+
+So I told him everything, although until that moment I had not made up
+my mind to go upon this journey, I who had come here to his kraal
+by accident, or so it seemed, and by accident had delivered to him a
+certain message.
+
+"You wish to consult a white witch-doctoress, Macumazahn, who according
+to Zikali lives far to the north, as to the dead. Now I too, though
+perchance you will not think it of a black man, desire to learn of the
+dead; yes, of a certain wife of my youth who was sister and friend as
+well as wife, whom too I loved better than all the world. Also I desire
+to learn of a brother of mine whose name I never speak, who ruled the
+wolves with me and who died at my side on yonder Witch-Mountain, having
+made him a mat of men to lie on in a great and glorious fight. For of
+him as of the woman I think all day and dream all night, and I would
+know if they still live anywhere and I may look to see them again when
+I have died as a warrior should and as I hope to do. Do you understand,
+Watcher-by-Night?"
+
+I answered that I understood very well, as his case seemed to be like my
+own.
+
+"It may happen," went on Umslopogaas, "that all this talk of the dead
+who are supposed to live after they are dead, is but as the sound of
+wind whispering in the reeds at night, that comes from nowhere and goes
+nowhere and means nothing. But at least ours will be a great journey in
+which we shall find adventure and fighting, since it is well known in
+the land that wherever Macumazahn goes there is plenty of both. Also it
+seems well for reasons that have been spoken of between us, as Zikali
+says, that I should leave the country of the Zulus for a while, who
+desire to die a man's death at the last and not to be trapped like a
+jackal in a pit. Lastly I think that we shall agree well together though
+my temper is rough at times, and that neither of us will desert the
+other in trouble, though of that little yellow dog of yours I am not so
+sure."
+
+"I answer for him," I replied. "Hans is a true man, cunning also when
+once he is away from drink."
+
+
+
+Then we spoke of plans for our journey, and of when and where we should
+meet to make it, talking till it was late, after which I went to sleep
+in the guest-hut.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LION AND THE AXE
+
+Next day early I left the town of the People of the Axe, having bid a
+formal farewell to Umslopogaas, saying in a voice that all could
+hear that as the rivers were still flooded, I proposed to trek to the
+northern parts of Zululand and trade there until the weather was better.
+Our private arrangement, however, was that on the night of the next
+full moon, which happened about four weeks later, we should meet at the
+eastern foot of a certain great, flat-topped mountain known to both of
+us, which stands to the north of Zululand but well beyond its borders.
+
+So northward I trekked, slowly to spare my oxen, trading as I went. The
+details do not matter, but as it happened I met with more luck upon that
+journey than had come my way for many a long year. Although I worked
+on credit since nearly all my goods were sold, as owing to my repute I
+could always do in Zululand, I made some excellent bargains in cattle,
+and to top up with, bought a large lot of ivory so cheap that really I
+think it must have been stolen.
+
+All of this, cattle, and ivory together, I sent to Natal in charge of a
+white friend of mine whom I could trust, where the stuff was sold
+very well indeed, and the proceeds paid to my account, the "trade"
+equivalents being duly remitted to the native vendors.
+
+In fact, my good fortune was such that if I had been superstitious like
+Hans, I should have been inclined to attribute it to the influence of
+Zikali's "Great Medicine." As it was I knew it to be one of the chances
+of a trader's life and accepted it with a shrug as often as I had been
+accustomed to do in the alternative of losses.
+
+Only one untoward incident happened to me. Of a sudden a party of
+the King's soldiers under the command of a well-known _Induna_ or
+Councillor, arrived and insisted upon searching my waggon, as I thought
+at first in connection with that cheap lot of ivory which had already
+departed to Natal. However, never a word did they say of ivory, nor
+indeed was a single thing belonging to me taken by them.
+
+I was very indignant and expressed my feelings to the _Induna_ in no
+measured terms. He on his part was most apologetic, and explained that
+what he did he was obliged to do "by the King's orders." Also he let it
+slip that he was seeking for a certain "evil-doer" who, it was thought,
+might be with me without my knowing his real character, and as this
+"evil-doer," whose name he would not mention, was a very fierce man, it
+had been necessary to bring a strong guard with him.
+
+Now I bethought me of Umslopogaas, but merely looked blank and shrugged
+my shoulders, saying that I was not in the habit of consorting with
+evil-doers.
+
+Still unsatisfied, the _Induna_ questioned me as to the places where
+I had been during this journey of mine in the Zulu country. I told him
+with the utmost frankness, mentioning among others--because I was sure
+that already he knew all my movements well--the town of the People of
+the Axe.
+
+Then he asked me if I had seen its Chief, a certain Umslopogaas or
+Bulalio. I answered, Yes, that I had met him there for the first time
+and thought him a very remarkable man.
+
+With this the _Induna_ agreed emphatically, saying that perhaps I did
+not know _how_ remarkable. Next he asked me where he was now, to which
+I replied that I had not the faintest idea, but I presumed in his kraal
+where I had left him. The _Induna_ explained that he was _not_ in his
+kraal; that he had gone away leaving one Lousta and his own head wife
+Monazi to administer the chieftainship for a while, because, as he
+stated, he wished to make a journey.
+
+I yawned as if weary of the subject of this chief, and indeed of the
+whole business. Then the _Induna_ said that I must come to the King and
+repeat to him all the words that I had spoken. I replied that I could
+not possibly do so as, having finished my trading, I had arranged to go
+north to shoot elephants. He answered that elephants lived a long while
+and would not die while I was visiting the King.
+
+Then followed an argument which grew heated and ended in his declaring
+that to the King I must come, even if he had to take me there by force.
+
+I sat silent, wondering what to say or do and leant forward to pick a
+piece of wood out of the fire wherewith to light my pipe. Now my shirt
+was not buttoned and as it chanced this action caused the ivory image of
+Zikali that hung about my neck to appear between its edges. The _Induna_
+saw it and his eyes grew big with fear.
+
+"Hide that!" he whispered, "hide that, lest it should bewitch me.
+Indeed, already I feel as though I were being bewitched. It is the Great
+Medicine itself."
+
+"That will certainly happen to you," I said, yawning again, "if you
+insist upon my taking a week's trek to visit the Black One, or interfere
+with me in any way now or afterwards," and I lifted my hand towards the
+talisman, looking him steadily in the face.
+
+"Perhaps after all, Macumazahn, it is not necessary for you to visit the
+King," he said in an uncertain voice. "I will go and make report to him
+that you know nothing of this evil-doer."
+
+And he went in such a hurry that he never waited to say good-bye. Next
+morning before the dawn I went also and trekked steadily until I was
+clear of Zululand.
+
+
+
+In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had been
+so wet, had now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great,
+flat-topped hill that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high,
+sparsely-timbered veld that offered few difficulties to the waggon. This
+peculiar hill, known to such natives as lived in those parts by a long
+word that means "Hut-with-a-flat-roof," is surrounded by forest, for
+here trees grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water that
+flows from its slopes. Forcing our way through this forest, which was
+full of game, I reached its eastern foot and there camped, five
+days before that night of full moon on which I had arranged to meet
+Umslopogaas.
+
+That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly because
+I thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind about
+coming, and secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he had
+gone to call upon the King against his will, as I had been asked to do.
+It was evident to me that he was up to his eyes in some serious plot
+against Cetywayo, in which he was the old dwarf Zikali's partner, or
+rather, tool; also that his plot had been betrayed, with the result that
+he was "wanted" and would have little chance of passing safely through
+Zululand. So taking one thing with another I imagined that I had seen
+his grim face and his peculiar, ancient-looking axe for the last time.
+
+To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed to
+me a little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch chase
+through unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who dwelt
+far across the Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the thing,
+but if Umslopogaas did not appear, my obligations would be at an end
+and I should return to Natal at my leisure. First, however, I would do
+a little shooting since I found that a large herd of elephants haunted
+this forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack them at once, but did not
+do so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going north it would be
+difficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had to leave the waggon,
+and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the great beasts for the
+fun of the thing.
+
+So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the
+hours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most
+slopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more
+than a hundred yards above the timber line.
+
+At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;
+probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I
+found human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the
+cattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by piling
+up a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrow
+entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxen
+at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though I
+had neither seen nor heard them.
+
+So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever
+we wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a
+spot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came the
+time of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the truth, I
+had begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has always led an
+active life too much of it is very bad, for then he begins to think and
+thought in large doses is depressing.
+
+Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind
+that on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had
+shot--or failed to shoot--some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable
+to remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhaps
+why I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down such
+reminiscences as these.
+
+Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a good
+look at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned in. An
+hour or two later some noise from the direction of the cattle-kraal woke
+me up. As it did not recur, I thought that I would go to sleep again.
+Then an uneasy thought came to me that I could not remember having
+looked to see whether the entrance was properly closed, as it was
+my habit to do. It was the same sort of troublesome doubt which in
+a civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go along the cold
+passages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put out the lamp.
+It always proves that he _has_ put it out, but that does not prevent a
+repetition of the performance next time the perplexity arises.
+
+I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing their
+way through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that I had
+better go to see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went without
+waking Hans or the boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-barrelled
+rifle which I used for shooting small buck, but no spare cartridges.
+
+Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew a
+single big tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I looked
+and saw that the gateway was quite securely closed, as now I remembered
+I had noted at sunset. Then I started to go back but had not stepped
+more than two or three paces when, in the bright moonlight, I saw the
+head of my smallest ox, a beast of the Zulu breed, suddenly appear
+over the top of the wall. About this there would have been nothing
+particularly astonishing, had it not been for the fact that this head
+belonged to a dead animal, as I could tell from the closed eyes and the
+hanging tongue.
+
+"What in the name of goodness----" I began to myself, when my
+reflections were cut short by the appearance of another head, that of
+one of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, and
+with the enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by getting
+its back beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over the wall,
+to drag it away to devour at its leisure.
+
+There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it saw
+me as I saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
+
+"What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead," one can
+fancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift of
+God I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for even
+with the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have pierced
+through the soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have killed
+that lion as dead as Julius Caesar. Theoretically the thing was easy
+enough; indeed, although I was startled for a moment, by the time that
+I had the rifle to my shoulder I had little fear of the issue, unless
+there was a miss-fire, especially as the beast seemed so astonished that
+it remained quite still.
+
+Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life, particularly
+in hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I fired, but by
+misfortune the bullet struck the tip of the horn of that confounded ox,
+which tip either was or at that moment fell in front of the spot on the
+lion's throat whereat half-unconsciously I had aimed. Result: the ball
+was turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the skin of the lion's
+neck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make it madder than all
+the hatters in the world.
+
+Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at
+me--I remember that there seemed to be yards of it--I mean of the
+lion--in front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming
+teeth.
+
+I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because
+there was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way,
+that after all Zikali's Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The lion
+landed on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legs
+before getting to business, towering high above me but slightly to my
+left.
+
+Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past
+me--all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,
+probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it another
+shadow, that of a lion's paw dropping to the ground. Next there was a
+most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray as
+never I shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was fighting the great
+lion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind legs,
+striking at him with the other.
+
+The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back with
+the axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it
+came to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only one
+fore-foot on which to light.
+
+The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or do
+anything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into the
+head. After this all was over, for the beast's brain was cut in two.
+
+"I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas, for it
+was he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion's severed
+skull, "to find you watching by night as it is reported that you always
+do."
+
+"No," I retorted, for his tone irritated me, "you are late, Bulalio, the
+moon has been up some hours."
+
+"I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the _night_ of the full
+moon, not at the rising of the moon."
+
+"That is true," I replied, mollified, "and at any rate you came at a
+good moment."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "though as it happens in this clear light the thing
+was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the end
+might have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as I
+thought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a lion with
+a toy like that," and he pointed to the little rifle in my hand.
+
+"I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or
+another there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared to
+meet, Macumazahn."
+
+"You are right again," I replied.
+
+At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet
+distance by the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
+
+"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well," was all he
+said.
+
+"The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better," remarked
+Umslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe.
+"Never before since she came into my keeping has _Inkosikaas_ (i.e.
+'Chieftainess,' for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as to
+drink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she need
+not be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I have been
+told, are cunning, watch your master so ill?"
+
+"I was asleep," stuttered Hans indignantly.
+
+"Those who serve should never sleep," replied Umslopogaas sternly. Then
+he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at a
+little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing axes and
+wearing cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by raising their axes.
+
+"Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a mat,"
+said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away.
+
+"Who are these?" I asked.
+
+"A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There were
+one or two more, but they got lost on the way."
+
+Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.
+
+
+
+Next morning I told Umslopogaas of the visit I had received from the
+_Induna_ of the King who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He nodded
+and said,
+
+"As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why
+one or two of my people remain behind who will never travel again. We
+made good play with those thieves; not one of them escaped," he
+added grimly, "and their bodies we threw into a river where are many
+crocodiles. But their spears I brought away and I think that they are
+such as the King's guard use. If so, his search for them will be long,
+since the fight took place where no man lives and we burned the shields
+and trappings. Oho! he will think that the ghosts have taken them."
+
+That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for
+these "thieves" should strike and follow our spoor. Luckily the ox that
+the lion had killed was one of some spare cattle which I was driving
+with me, so its loss did not inconvenience us. As we went Umslopogaas
+told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife Monazi to rule
+the tribe during his absence, an office which they accepted doubtfully,
+Monazi acting as Chieftainess and Lousta as her head _Induna_ or
+Councillor.
+
+I asked him whether he thought this wise under all the circumstances,
+seeing that it had occurred to me since I made the suggestion, that they
+might be unwilling to surrender power on his return, also that other
+domestic complications might ensue.
+
+"It matters little, Macumazahn," he said with a shrug of his great
+shoulders, "for of this I am sure, that I have played my part with the
+People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death,
+who am a man betrayed. What do I care who love none and now have no
+children? Still, it is true that I might have fled to Natal with the
+cattle and there have led a fat and easy life. But ease and plenty I do
+not desire who would live and fall as a warrior should.
+
+"Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves
+ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die,
+or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with wives
+and oxen while I have _Inkosikaas_ the Groan-maker and she is true to
+me?" he added, shaking the ancient axe above his head so that the sun
+gleamed upon the curved blade and the hollow gouge or point at the back
+beyond the shaft socket. "Where the Axe goes, there go the strength and
+virtue of the Axe, O Macumazahn."
+
+"It is a strange weapon," I said.
+
+"Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a
+warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter who was also the
+first of smiths and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to return
+to his hand when its work is finished beneath the sun. That will be
+soon, Macumazahn, since Zikali told me that I am the last Holder of the
+Axe."
+
+"Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from
+Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought
+you to my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the spirit
+of a snake had told him that you tried to throw the Great Medicine into
+a pool, but were stopped by that snake, whilst it was still alive. This,
+he said, you must do no more, lest he should send another snake to stop
+_you_."
+
+"Did he?" I replied indignantly, for Zikali's power of seeing or
+learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed
+me.
+
+Only Hans grinned and said,
+
+"I told you so, Baas."
+
+
+
+On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and
+dangers as are common on roadless veld in Africa, but no more, for the
+grass was good and there was plenty of game, of which we shot what we
+wanted for meat. Indeed, here in the back regions of what is known as
+Portuguese South East Africa, every sort of wild animal was so numerous
+that personally I wished we could turn our journey into a shooting
+expedition.
+
+But of this Umslopogaas, whom hunting bored, would not hear. In fact,
+he was much more anxious than myself to carry out our original purpose.
+When I asked him why, he answered because of something Zikali had told
+him. What this was he would not say, except that in the country whither
+we wandered he would fight a great fight and win much honour.
+
+Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive
+joy in battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus only
+could a man decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person who
+loves quiet and a home. Still, I gave way, partly to please him, partly
+because I hoped that we might discover something of interest, and still
+more because, having once undertaken an enterprise, my pride prompted me
+to see it through.
+
+Now while he was preparing to draw his map in the ashes, or afterwards,
+I forget which, Zikali had told me that when we drew near to the great
+river we should come to a place on the edge of bush-veld that ran down
+to the river, where a white man lived, adding, after casting his bones
+and reading from them, that he thought this white man was a "trek-Boer."
+This, I should explain, means a Dutchman who has travelled away from
+wherever he lived and made a home for himself in the wilderness, as some
+wandering spirit and the desire to be free of authority often prompt
+these people to do. Also, after another inspection of his enchanted
+knuckle-bones, he had declared that something remarkable would happen to
+this man or his family, while I was visiting him. Lastly in that map he
+drew in the ashes, the details of which were impressed so indelibly
+upon my memory, he had shown me where I should find the dwelling of this
+white man, of whom and of whose habitation doubtless he knew through
+the many spies who seemed to be at the service of all witch-doctors, and
+more especially of Zikali, the greatest among them.
+
+Travelling by the sun and the compress I had trekked steadily in
+the exact direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful
+particular he was well named the "Opener-of-Roads," since always before
+me I found a practicable path, although to the right or to the left
+there would have been none. Thus when we came to mountains, it was at a
+spot where we discovered a pass; when we came to swamps it was where a
+ridge of high ground ran between, and so forth. Also such tribes as we
+met upon our journey always proved of a friendly character, although
+perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas and his fierce band whom, rather
+irreverently, I named his twelve Apostles, had a share in inducing this
+peaceful attitude.
+
+So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain
+intervals, that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be
+following some ancient road which at a forgotten period of history, had
+run from south to north, or _vice versa_. Or rather, to be honest, it
+was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications
+which had escaped my notice. I need not stop to detail them, but one
+of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high, rather
+barren land had been dug out, and in one or more instances, lined with
+stones after the fashion of an ancient well. Evidently we were following
+an old trade route made, perhaps, in forgotten ages when Africa was more
+civilised than it is now.
+
+Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our
+trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed
+itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the
+afternoon, and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense
+fog, we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in movable
+grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed sheep.
+
+These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did
+them no harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of
+a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who was
+a great master of different native dialects, discovered a tongue, or a
+mixture of tongues, in which he could make himself understood to some of
+them.
+
+They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man,
+although their fathers' fathers (an expression by which they meant their
+remote ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however, that if
+we went on steadily towards the north for another seven days' journey,
+we should come to a place where a white man lived, one, they had heard,
+who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as we did.
+
+Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down
+hill out of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld
+here was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East African
+plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as
+we could see where the rains had washed out dongas. The climate, too,
+seemed to be cool and very healthful. Altogether it was a pity to see
+such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless herds of game, for
+there were not any native inhabitants, or at least we met none.
+
+On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at length
+we saw far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed correctly,
+must fringe the great Zambesi River. Moreover we, or rather Hans, whose
+eyes were those of a hawk, saw something else, namely buildings of a
+more or less civilised kind, which stood among trees by the side of a
+stream several miles on this side of the great belt of bush.
+
+"Look, Baas," said Hans, "those wanderers did not lie; there is the
+house of the white man. I wonder if he drinks anything stronger than
+water," he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of
+his yellow throat.
+
+As it happened, he did.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INEZ
+
+We had sighted the house from far away shortly after sunrise and by
+midday we were there. As we approached I saw that it stood almost
+immediately beneath two great baobab trees, babyan trees we call them in
+South Africa, perhaps because monkeys eat their fruit. It was a thatched
+house with whitewashed walls and a stoep or veranda round it, apparently
+of the ordinary Dutch type. Moreover, beyond it, at a little distance
+were other houses or rather shanties with waggon sheds, etc., and
+beyond and mixed up with these a number of native huts. Further on were
+considerable fields green with springing corn; also we saw herds of
+cattle grazing on the slopes. Evidently our white man was rich.
+
+Umslopogaas surveyed the place with a soldier's eye and said to me,
+
+"This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is feared,
+since of defences I see none."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "why not, with a wilderness behind it and bush-veld
+and a great river in front?"
+
+"Men can cross rivers and travel through bush-veld," he answered, and
+was silent.
+
+Up to this time we had seen no one, although it might have been presumed
+that a waggon trekking towards the house was a sufficiently unusual
+sight to have attracted attention.
+
+"Where can they be?" I asked.
+
+"Asleep, Baas, I think," said Hans, and as a matter of fact he was
+right. The whole population of the place was indulging in a noonday
+siesta.
+
+At last we came so near to the house that I halted the waggon and
+descended from the driving-box in order to investigate. At this moment
+someone did appear, the sight of whom astonished me not a little,
+namely, a very striking-looking young woman. She was tall, handsome,
+with large dark eyes, good features, a rather pale complexion, and I
+think the saddest face that I ever saw. Evidently she had heard the
+noise of the waggon and had come out to see what caused it, for she
+had nothing on her head, which was covered with thick hair of a raven
+blackness. Catching sight of the great Umslopogaas with his gleaming axe
+and of his savage-looking bodyguard, she uttered an exclamation and not
+unnaturally turned to fly.
+
+"It's all right," I sang out, emerging from behind the oxen, and in
+English, though before the words had left my lips I reflected that there
+was not the slightest reason to suppose that she would understand them.
+Probably she was Dutch, or Portuguese, although by some instinct I had
+addressed her in English.
+
+To my surprise she answered me in the same tongue, spoken, it is true,
+with a peculiar accent which I could not place, as it was neither Scotch
+nor Irish.
+
+"Thank you," she said. "I, sir, was frightened. Your friends look----"
+Here she stumbled for a word, then added, "terrocious."
+
+I laughed at this composite adjective and answered,
+
+"Well, so they are in a way, though they will not harm you or me. But,
+young lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your husband----"
+
+"I have no husband, I have only a father, sir," and she sighed.
+
+"Well, then, could I speak to your father? My name is Allan Quatermain
+and I am making a journey of exploration, to find out about the country
+beyond, you know."
+
+"Yes, I will go to wake him. He is asleep. Everyone sleeps here at
+midday--except me," she said with another sigh.
+
+"Why do you not follow their example?" I asked jocosely, for this young
+woman puzzled me and I wanted to find out about her.
+
+"Because I sleep little, sir, who think too much. There will be plenty
+of time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?"
+
+I stared at her and inquired her name, because I did not know what else
+to say.
+
+"My name is Inez Robertson," she answered. "I will go to wake my father.
+Meanwhile please unyoke your oxen. They can feed with the others; they
+look as though they wanted rest, poor things." Then she turned and went
+into the house.
+
+"Inez Robertson," I said to myself, "that's a queer combination. English
+father and Portuguese mother, I suppose. But what can an Englishman be
+doing in a place like this? If it had been a trek-Boer I should not have
+been surprised." Then I began to give directions about out-spanning.
+
+We had just got the oxen out of the yokes, when a big, raw-boned,
+red-bearded, blue-eyed, roughly-clad man of about fifty years of age
+appeared from the house, yawning. I threw my eye over him as he advanced
+with a peculiar rolling gait, and formed certain conclusions. A drunkard
+who has once been a gentleman, I reflected to myself, for there was
+something peculiarly dissolute in his appearance, also one who has had
+to do with the sea, a diagnosis which proved very accurate.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Allan Quatermain, which I think my daughter said is
+your name, unless I dreamed it, for it is one that I seem to have heard
+before," he exclaimed with a broad Scotch accent which I do not attempt
+to reproduce. "What in the name of blazes brings you here where no real
+white man has been for years? Well, I am glad enough to see you any way,
+for I am sick of half-breed Portuguese and niggers, and snuff-and-butter
+girls, and gin and bad whisky. Leave your people to attend to those oxen
+and come in and have a drink."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Robertson----"
+
+"Captain Robertson," he interrupted. "Man, don't look astonished. You
+mightn't guess it, but I commanded a mail-steamer once and should like
+to hear myself called rightly again before I die."
+
+"I beg your pardon--Captain Robertson, but myself, I don't drink
+anything before sundown. However, if you have something to eat----?"
+
+"Oh yes, Inez--she's my daughter--will find you a bite. Those men of
+yours," and he also looked doubtfully at Umslopogaas and his savage
+company, "will want food as well. I'll have a beast killed for them;
+they look as if they could eat it, horns and all. Where are my people?
+All asleep, I suppose, the lazy lubbers. Wait a bit, I'll wake them up."
+
+Going to the house he snatched a great sjambok cut from hippopotamus
+hide, from where it hung on a nail in the wall, and ran towards the
+group of huts which I have mentioned, roaring out the name Thomaso, also
+a string of oaths such as seamen use, mixed with others of a Portuguese
+variety. What happened there I could not see because boughs were in
+the way, but presently I heard blows and screams, and caught sight of
+people, all dark-skinned, flying from the huts.
+
+A little later a fat, half-breed man--I should say from his curling hair
+that his mother was a negress and his father a Portuguese--appeared
+with some other nondescript fellows and began to give directions in a
+competent fashion about our oxen, also as to the killing of a calf. He
+spoke in bastard Portuguese, which I could understand, and I heard him
+talk of Umslopogaas to whom he pointed, as "that nigger," after the
+fashion of such cross-bred people who choose to consider themselves
+white men. Also he made uncomplimentary remarks about Hans, who of
+course understood every word he said. Evidently Thomaso's temper had
+been ruffled by this sudden and violent disturbance of his nap.
+
+Just then our host appeared puffing with his exertions and declaring
+that he had stirred up the swine with a vengeance, in proof of which he
+pointed to the sjambok that was reddened with blood.
+
+"Captain Robertson," I said, "I wish to give you a hint to be passed on
+to Mr. Thomaso, if that is he. He spoke of the Zulu soldier there as a
+nigger, etc. Well, he is a chief of a high rank and rather a terrible
+fellow if roused. Therefore I recommend Mr. Thomaso not to let him
+understand that he is insulting him."
+
+"Oh! that's the way of these 'snuff-and-butters' one of whose
+grandmothers once met a white man," replied the Captain, laughing, "but
+I'll tell him," and he did in Portuguese.
+
+His retainer listened in silence, looking at Umslopogaas rather sulkily.
+Then we walked into the house. As we went the Captain said,
+
+"Senor Thomaso--he calls himself Senor--is my manager here and a clever
+man, honest too in his way and attached to me, perhaps because I
+saved his life once. But he has a nasty temper, as have all these
+cross-breeds, so I hope he won't get wrong with that native who carries
+a big axe."
+
+"I hope so too, for his own sake," I replied emphatically.
+
+The Captain led the way into the sitting-room; there was but one in the
+house. It proved a queer kind of place with rude furniture seated with
+strips of hide after the Boer fashion, and yet bearing a certain air of
+refinement which was doubtless due to Inez, who, with the assistance
+of a stout native girl, was already engaged in setting the table.
+Thus there was a shelf with books, Shakespeare was one of these, I
+noticed--over which hung an ivory crucifix, which suggested that Inez
+was a Catholic. On the walls, too, were some good portraits, and on the
+window-ledge a jar full of flowers. Also the forks and spoons were of
+silver, as were the mugs, and engraved with a tremendous coat-of-arms
+and a Portuguese motto.
+
+Presently the food appeared, which was excellent and plentiful, and the
+Captain, his daughter and I sat down and ate. I noted that he drank gin
+and water, an innocent-looking beverage but strong as he took it. It was
+offered to me, but like Miss Inez, I preferred coffee.
+
+During the meal and afterwards while we smoked upon the veranda, I
+told them as much as I thought desirable of my plans. I said that I was
+engaged upon a journey of exploration of the country beyond the Zambesi,
+and that having heard of this settlement, which, by the way, was called
+Strathmuir, as I gathered after a place in far away Scotland where
+the Captain had been born and passed his childhood, I had come here to
+inquire as to how to cross the great river, and about other things.
+
+The Captain was interested, especially when I informed him that I was
+that same "Hunter Quatermain" of whom he had heard in past years, but he
+told me that it would be impossible to take the waggon down into the low
+bush-veld which we could see beneath us, as there all the oxen would die
+of the bite of the tsetse fly. I answered that I was aware of this and
+proposed to try to make an arrangement to leave it in his charge till I
+returned.
+
+"That might be managed, Mr. Quatermain," he answered. "But, man, will
+you ever return? They say there are queer folk living on the other side
+of the Zambesi, savage men who are cannibals, Amahagger I think they
+call them. It was they who in past years cleaned out all this country,
+except a few river tribes who live in floating huts or on islands among
+the reeds, and that's why it is so empty. But this happened long ago,
+much before my time, and I don't suppose they will ever cross the river
+again."
+
+"If I might ask, what brought you here, Captain?" I said, for the point
+was one on which I felt curious.
+
+"That which brings most men to wild places, Mr. Quatermain--trouble. If
+you want to know, I had a misfortune and piled up my ship. There were
+some lives lost and, rightly or wrongly, I got the sack. Then I started
+as a trader in a God-forsaken hole named Chinde, one of the Zambesi
+mouths, you know, and did very well, as we Scotchmen have a way of
+doing.
+
+"There I married a Portuguese lady, a real lady of high blood, one of
+the old sort. When my girl, Inez, was about twelve years old I got into
+more trouble, for my wife died and it pleased a certain relative of hers
+to say that it was because I had neglected her. This ended in a row and
+the truth is that I killed him--in fair fight, mind you. Still, kill him
+I did though I scarcely knew that I had done it at the time, after which
+the place grew too hot to hold me. So I sold up and swore that I would
+have no more to do with what they are pleased to call civilisation on
+the East Coast.
+
+"During my trading I had heard that there was fine country up this way,
+and here I came and settled years ago, bringing my girl and Thomaso, who
+was one of my managers, also a few other people with me. And here I have
+been ever since, doing very well as before, for I trade a lot of ivory
+and other things and grow stuff and cattle, which I sell to the River
+natives. Yes, I am a rich man now and could go to live on my means in
+Scotland, or anywhere."
+
+"Why don't you?" I asked.
+
+"Oh! for many reasons. I have lost touch with all that and become half
+wild and I like this life and the sunshine and being my own master.
+Also, if I did, things might be raked up against me, about that man's
+death. Also, though I daresay it will make you think badly of me for it,
+Mr. Quatermain, I have ties down there," and he waved is hand towards
+the village, if so it could be called, "which it wouldn't be easy for
+me to break. A man may be fond of his children, Mr. Quatermain, even
+if their skins ain't so white as they ought to be. Lastly I have
+habits--you see, I am speaking out to you as man to man--which might get
+me into trouble again if I went back to the world," and he nodded his
+fine, capable-looking head in the direction of the bottle on the table.
+
+"I see," I said hastily, for this kind of confession bursting out of
+the man's lonely heart when what he had drunk took a hold of him, was
+painful to hear. "But how about your daughter, Miss Inez?"
+
+"Ah!" he said, with a quiver in his voice, "there you touch it. She
+ought to go away. There is no one for her to marry here, where we
+haven't seen a white man for years, and she's a lady right enough, like
+her mother. But who is she to go to, being a Roman Catholic whom my own
+dour Presbyterian folk in Scotland, if any of them are left, would turn
+their backs on? Moreover, she loves me in her own fashion, as I love
+her, and she wouldn't leave me because she thinks it her duty to
+stay and knows that if she did, I should go to the devil altogether.
+Still--perhaps you might help me about her, Mr. Quatermain, that is if
+you live to come back from your journey," he added doubtfully.
+
+I felt inclined to ask how I could possibly help in such a matter, but
+thought it wisest to say nothing. This, however, he did not notice, for
+he went on,
+
+"Now I think I will have a nap, as I do my work in the early morning,
+and sometimes late at night when my brain seems to clear up again, for
+you see I was a sailor for many years and accustomed to keeping watches.
+You'll look after yourself, won't you, and treat the place as your own?"
+Then he vanished into the house to lie down.
+
+When I had finished my pipe I went for a walk. First I visited the
+waggon where I found Umslopogaas and his company engaged in cooking
+the beast that had been given them, Zulu fashion; Hans with his usual
+cunning had already secured a meal, probably from the servants, or from
+Inez herself; at least he left them and followed me. First we went down
+to the huts, where we saw a number of good-looking young women of mixed
+blood, all decently dressed and engaged about their household duties.
+Also we saw four or five boys and girls, to say nothing of a baby
+in arms, fine young people, one or two of whom were more white than
+coloured.
+
+"Those children are very like the Baas with the red beard," remarked
+Hans reflectively.
+
+"Yes," I said, and shivered, for now I understood the awfulness of this
+poor man's case. He was the father of a number of half-breeds who tied
+him to this spot as anchors tie a ship. I went on rather hastily past
+some sheds to a long, low building which proved to be a store. Here
+the quarter-blood called Thomaso, and some assistants were engaged in
+trading with natives from the Zambesi swamps, men of a kind that I had
+never seen, but in a way more civilised than many further south. What
+they were selling or buying, I did not stop to see, but I noticed that
+the store was full of goods of one sort or another, including a great
+deal of ivory, which, as I supposed, had come down the river from
+inland.
+
+Then we walked on to the cultivated fields where we saw corn growing
+very well, also tobacco and other crops. Beyond this were cattle kraals
+and in the distance we perceived a great number of cattle and goats
+feeding on the slopes.
+
+"This red-bearded Baas must be very rich in all things," remarked the
+observant Hans when we had completed our investigations.
+
+"Yes," I answered, "rich and yet poor."
+
+"How can a man be both rich and yet poor, Baas?" asked Hans.
+
+Just at that moment some of the half-breed children whom I have
+mentioned, ran past us more naked than dressed and whooping like little
+savages. Hans contemplated them gravely, then said,
+
+"I think I understand now, Baas. A man may be rich in things he loves
+and yet does not want, which makes him poor in other ways."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "as you _are_, Hans, when you take too much to
+drink."
+
+Just then we met the stately Miss Inez returning from the store,
+carrying some articles in a basket, soap, I think, and tea in a packet,
+amongst them. I told Hans to take the basket and bear it to the
+house for her. He went off with it and, walking slowly, we fell into
+conversation.
+
+"Your father must do very well here," I said, nodding at the store with
+the crowd of natives round it.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "he makes much money which he puts in a bank at the
+coast, for living costs us nothing and there is great profit in what he
+buys and sells, also in the crops he grows and in the cattle. But," she
+added pathetically, "what is the use of money in a place like this?"
+
+"You can get things with it," I answered vaguely.
+
+"That is what my father says, but what does he get? Strong stuff to
+drink; dresses for those women down there, and sometimes pearls, jewels
+and other things for me which I do not want. I have a box full of them
+set in ugly gold, or loose which I cannot use, and if I put them on, who
+is there to see them? That clever half-breed, Thomaso--for he is clever
+in his way, faithful too--or the women down there--no one else."
+
+"You do not seem to be happy, Miss Inez."
+
+"No. I cannot tell how unhappy others are, who have met none, but
+sometimes I think that I must be the most miserable woman in the world."
+
+"Oh! no," I replied cheerfully, "plenty are worse off."
+
+"Then, Mr. Quatermain, it must be because they cannot feel. Did you ever
+have a father whom you loved?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Inez. He is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of
+saint. Ask my servant, the little Hottentot Hans; he will tell you about
+him."
+
+"Ah! a very good man. Well, as you may have guessed, mine is not, though
+there is much good in him, for he has a kind heart, and a big brain. But
+the drink and those women down there, they ruin him," and she wrung her
+hands.
+
+"Why don't you go away?" I blurted out.
+
+"Because it is my duty to stop. That is what my religion teaches me,
+although of it I know little except through books, who have seen no
+priest for years except one who was a missionary, a Baptist, I think,
+who told me that my faith was false and would lead me to hell. Yes, not
+understanding how I lived, he said that, who did not know that hell is
+here. No, I cannot go, who hopes always that still God and the Saints
+will show me how to save my father, even though it be with my blood. And
+now I have said too much to you who are quite a stranger. Yet, I do not
+know why, I feel that you will not betray me, and what is more, that
+you will help me if you can, since you are not one of those who drink,
+or----" and she waved her hand towards the huts.
+
+"I have my faults, Miss Inez," I answered.
+
+"Yes, no doubt, else you would be a saint, not a man, and even the
+saints had their faults, or so I seem to remember, and became saints by
+repentance and conquering them. Still, I am sure that you will help me
+if you can."
+
+Then with a sudden flash of her dark eyes that said more than all her
+words, she turned and left me.
+
+Here's a pretty kettle of fish, thought I to myself as I strolled back
+to the waggon to see how things were going on there, and how to get the
+live fish out of the kettle before they boil or spoil is more than I
+know. I wonder why fate is always finding me such jobs to do.
+
+Even as I thought thus a voice in my heart seemed to echo that poor
+girl's words--because it is your duty--and to add others to them--woe
+betide him who neglects his duty. I was appointed to try to hook a few
+fish out of the vast kettle of human woe, and therefore I must go on
+hooking. Meanwhile this particular problem seemed beyond me. Perhaps
+Fate would help, I reflected. As a matter of fact, in the end Fate did,
+if Fate is the right word to use in this connection.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SEA-COW HUNT
+
+Now it had been my intention to push forward across the river at once,
+but here luck, or our old friend, Fate, was against me. To begin with
+several of Umslopogaas' men fell sick with a kind of stomach trouble,
+arising no doubt from something they had eaten. This, however, was not
+their view, or that of Umslopogaas himself. It happened that one of
+these men, Goroko by name, who practised as a witch-doctor in his
+lighter moments, naturally suspected that a spell had been cast upon
+them, for such people see magic in everything.
+
+Therefore he organised a "smelling-out" at which Umslopogaas, who was
+as superstitious as the rest, assisted. So did Hans, although he called
+himself a Christian, partly out of curiosity, for he was as curious as
+a magpie, and partly from fear lest some implication should be brought
+against him in his absence. I saw the business going on from a little
+distance, and, unseen myself, thought it well to keep an eye upon the
+proceedings in case anything untoward should occur. This I did with Miss
+Inez, who had never witnessed anything of the sort, as a companion.
+
+The circle, a small one, was formed in the usual fashion; Goroko rigged
+up in the best witch-doctor's costume that he could improvise, duly
+came under the influence of his "Spirit" and skipped about, waving a
+wildebeeste's tail, and so forth.
+
+Finally to my horror he broke out of the ring, and running to a group
+of spectators from the village, switched Thomaso, who was standing among
+them with a lordly and contemptuous air, across the face with the gnu's
+tail, shouting out that he was the wizard who had poisoned the bowels of
+the sick men. Thereon Thomaso, who although he could be insolent, like
+most crossbreeds was not remarkable for courage, seeing the stir that
+this announcement created amongst the fierce-faced Zulus and fearing
+developments, promptly bolted, none attempting to follow him.
+
+After this, just as I thought that everything was over and that the time
+had come for me to speak a few earnest words to Umslopogaas, pointing
+out that matters must go no further as regards Thomaso, whom I knew that
+he and his people hated, Goroko went back to the circle and was seized
+with a new burst of inspiration.
+
+Throwing down his whisk, he lifted his arms above his head and stared at
+the heavens. Then he began to shout out something in a loud voice which
+I was too far off to catch. Whatever it may have been, evidently it
+frightened his hearers, as I could see from the expressions on their
+faces. Even Umslopogaas was alarmed, for he let his axe fall for a
+moment, rose as though to speak, then sat down again and covered his
+eyes with his hands.
+
+In a minute it was over; Goroko seemed to become normal, took some snuff
+and as I guessed, after the usual fashion of these doctors, began to
+ask what he had been saying while the "Spirit" possessed him, which he
+either had, or affected to have, forgotten. The circle, too, broke up
+and its members began to talk to each other in a subdued way, while
+Umslopogaas remained seated on the ground, brooding, and Hans slipped
+away in his snake-like fashion, doubtless in search of me.
+
+"What was it all about, Mr. Quatermain?" asked Inez.
+
+"Oh! a lot of nonsense," I said. "I fancy that witch-doctor declared
+that your friend Thomaso put something into those men's food to make
+them sick."
+
+"I daresay that he did; it would be just like him, Mr. Quatermain, as I
+know that he hates them, especially Umslopogaas, of whom I am very fond.
+He brought me some beautiful flowers this morning which he had found
+somewhere, and made a long speech which I could not understand."
+
+The idea of Umslopogaas, that man of blood and iron, bringing flowers
+to a young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the
+sad-faced Inez smiled. Then she left me to see about something and I
+went to speak to Hans and asked him what had happened.
+
+"Something rather queer, I think, Baas," he answered vacuously, "though
+I did not quite understand the last part. The doctor, Goroko, smelt out
+Thomaso as the man who had made them sick, and though they will not kill
+him because we are guests here, those Zulus are very angry with Thomaso
+and I think will beat him if they get a chance. But that is only the
+small half of the stick," and he paused.
+
+"What is the big half, then?" I asked with irritation.
+
+"Baas, the Spirit in Goroko----"
+
+"The jackass in Goroko, you mean," I interrupted. "How can you, who are
+a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits? I only wish that my father
+could hear you."
+
+"Oh! Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is now wise enough
+to know all about Spirits and that there are some who come into black
+witch-doctors though they turn up their noses at white men and leave
+them alone. However, whatever it is that makes Goroko speak, got hold
+of him so that his lips said, though he remembered nothing of it
+afterwards, that soon this place would be red with blood--that there
+would be a great killing here, Baas. That is all."
+
+"Red with blood! Whose blood? What did the fool mean?"
+
+"I don't know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko, declared
+that those who are 'with the Great Medicine'--meaning what you wear,
+Baas--will be quite safe. So I hope that it will not be our blood; also
+that you will get out of this place as soon as you can."
+
+Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for
+I could see that he did believe it, then went to question Umslopogaas,
+whom I found looking quite pleased, which annoyed me still more.
+
+"What is it that Goroko has been saying and why do you smile, Bulalio?"
+I asked.
+
+"Nothing much, Macumazahn, except that the man who looks like tallow
+that has gone bad, put something in our food which made us sick, for
+which I would kill him were he not Red-beard's servant and that it would
+frighten the lady his daughter. Also he said that soon there will be
+fighting, which is why I smiled, who grow weary of peace. We came out to
+fight, did we not?"
+
+"Certainly not," I answered. "We came out to make a quiet journey in
+strange lands, which is what I mean to do."
+
+"Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom
+one does not always agree, and then _Inkosikaas_ begins to talk," and he
+whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it was
+forced through the gouge at its back.
+
+I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him
+that nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably
+quite unjustly accused, I went away.
+
+Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable impression on my mind,
+and I began to wish that we were safe across the Zambesi without more
+trouble. But we could not start at once because two of the Zulus were
+still not well enough to travel and there were many preparations to
+be made about the loads, and so forth, since the waggon must be left
+behind. Also, and this was another complication--Hans had a sore upon
+his foot, resulting from the prick of a poisonous thorn, and it was
+desirable that this should be quite healed before we marched.
+
+So it came about that I was really glad when Captain Robertson suggested
+that we should go down to a certain swamp formed, I gathered, by some
+small tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of hippopotamus
+battue. It seemed that at this season of the year these great animals
+always frequented the place in numbers, also that by barring a neck of
+deep water through which they gained it, they, or a proportion of them,
+could be cut off and killed.
+
+This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late,
+perhaps because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise such
+a hunt. Now he wished to do so again, taking advantage of my presence,
+both because of the value of the hides of the sea-cows which were cut up
+to be sent to the coast and sold as _sjamboks_ or whips, and because of
+the sport of the thing. Also I think he desired to show me that he was
+not altogether sunk in sloth and drink.
+
+I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in all my hunting life I
+had never seen anything of the sort, especially as I was told that the
+expedition would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick
+men and Hans would not be fit to travel sooner. So great preparations
+were made. The riverside natives, whose share of the spoil was to be the
+carcases of the slain sea-cows, were summoned by hundreds and sent off
+to their appointed stations to beat the swamps at a signal given by the
+firing of a great pile of reeds. Also many other things were done upon
+which I need not enter.
+
+Then came the time for us to depart to the appointed spot over twenty
+miles away, most of which distance it seemed we could trek in the
+waggon. Captain Robertson, who for the time had cut off his gin, was
+as active about the affair as though he were once more in command of a
+mail-steamer. Nothing escaped his attention; indeed, in the care which
+he gave to details he reminded me of the captain of a great ship that
+is leaving port, and from it I learned how able a man he must once have
+been.
+
+"Does your daughter accompany us?" I asked on the night before we
+started.
+
+"Oh! no," he answered, "she would only be in the way. She will be quite
+safe here, especially as Thomaso, who is no hunter, remains in charge
+of the place with some of the older natives to look after the women and
+children."
+
+Later I saw Inez herself, who said that she would have liked to come,
+although she hated to see great beasts killed, but that her father was
+against it because he thought she might catch fever. So she supposed
+that she had better remain where she was.
+
+I agreed, though in my heart I was doubtful, and said that I would leave
+Hans, whose foot was not as yet quite well, and with whom she had made
+friends as she had done with Umslopogaas, to look after her. Also there
+would be with him the two great Zulus who were now recovering from their
+attack of stomach sickness, so that she would have nothing to fear. She
+answered with her slow smile that she feared nothing, still, she would
+have liked to come with us. Then we parted, as it proved for a long
+time.
+
+It was quite a ceremony. Umslopogaas, "in the name of the Axe" solemnly
+gave over Inez to the charge of his two followers, bidding them guard
+her with so much earnestness that I began to suspect he feared something
+which he did not choose to mention. My mind went back indeed to the
+prophecy of the witch-doctor Goroko, of which it was possible that he
+might be thinking, but as while he spoke he kept his fierce eyes fixed
+upon the fat and pompous quarter-breed, Thomaso, I concluded that here
+was the object of his doubts.
+
+It might have occurred to him that this Thomaso would take the
+opportunity of her father's absence to annoy Inez. If so I was sure that
+he was mistaken for various reasons, of which I need only quote one,
+namely, that even if such an idea had ever entered his head, Thomaso was
+far too great a coward to translate it into action. Still, suspecting
+something, I also gave Hans instructions to keep a sharp eye on Inez
+and generally to watch the place, and if he saw anything suspicious, to
+communicate with us at once.
+
+"Yes, Baas," said Hans, "I will look after 'Sad-Eyes'"--for so with
+their usual quickness of observation our Zulus had named Inez--"as
+though she were my grandmother, though what there is to fear for her, I
+do not know. But, Baas, I would much rather come and look after you, as
+your reverend father, the Predikant, told me to do always, which is my
+duty, not girl-herding, Baas. Also my foot is now quite well and--I want
+to shoot sea-cows, and----" Here he paused.
+
+"And what, Hans?"
+
+"And Goroko said that there was going to be much fighting and if there
+should be fighting and you should come to harm because I was not there
+to protect you, what would your reverend father think of me then?"
+
+All of which meant two things: that Hans never liked being separated
+from me if he could help it, and that he much preferred a shooting trip
+to stopping alone in this strange place with nothing to do except eat
+and sleep. So I concluded, though indeed I did not get quite to the
+bottom of the business. In reality Hans was putting up a most gallant
+struggle against temptation.
+
+As I found out afterwards, Captain Robertson had been giving him strong
+drink on the sly, moved thereto by sympathy with a fellow toper. Also he
+had shown him where, if he wanted it, he could get more, and Hans always
+wanted gin very badly indeed. To leave it within his reach was like
+leaving a handful of diamonds lying about in the room of a thief. This
+he knew, but was ashamed to tell me the truth, and thence came much
+trouble.
+
+"You will stop here, Hans, look after the young lady and nurse your
+foot," I said sternly, whereon he collapsed with a sigh and asked for
+some tobacco.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Robertson, who I think had been taking a stirrup cup
+to cheer him on the road, was making his farewells down in what was
+known as "the village," for I saw him there kissing a collection of
+half-breed children, and giving Thomaso instructions to look after them
+and their mothers. Returning at length, he called to Inez, who remained
+upon the veranda, for she always seemed to shrink from her father after
+his visits to the village, to "keep a stiff upper lip" and not feel
+lonely, and commanded the cavalcade to start.
+
+So off we went, about twenty of the village natives, a motley crew armed
+with every kind of gun, marching ahead and singing songs. Then came the
+waggon with Captain Robertson and myself seated on the driving-box,
+and lastly Umslopogaas and his Zulus, except the two who had been left
+behind.
+
+We trekked along a kind of native road over fine veld of the same
+character as that on which Strathmuir stood, having the lower-lying
+bush-veld which ran down to the Zambesi on our right. Before nightfall
+we came to a ridge whereon this bush-veld turned south, fringing that
+tributary of the great river in the swamps of which we were to hunt for
+sea-cows. Here we camped and next morning, leaving the waggon in charge
+of my _voorlooper_ and a couple of the Strathmuir natives, for the
+driver was to act as my gun-bearer--we marched down into the sea of
+bush-veld. It proved to be full of game, but at this we dared not fire
+for fearing of disturbing the hippopotami in the swamps beneath, whence
+in that event they might escape us back to the river.
+
+About midday we passed out of the bush-veld and reached the place where
+the drive was to be. Here, bordered by steep banks covered with bush,
+was swampy ground not more than two hundred yards wide, down the centre
+of which ran a narrow channel of rather deep water, draining a vast
+expanse of morass above. It was up this channel that the sea-cows
+travelled to the feeding ground where they loved to collect at that
+season of the year.
+
+There with the assistance of some of the riverside natives we made our
+preparations under the direction of Captain Robertson. The rest of these
+men, to the number of several hundreds, had made a wide detour to the
+head of the swamps, miles away, whence they were to advance at a certain
+signal. These preparations were simple. A quantity of thorn trees were
+cut down and by means of heavy stones fastened to their trunks, anchored
+in the narrow channel of deep water. To their tops, which floated on the
+placid surface, were tied a variety of rags which we had brought with
+us, such as old red flannel shirts, gay-coloured but worn-out blankets,
+and I know not what besides. Some of these fragments also were attached
+to the anchored ropes under water.
+
+Also we selected places for the guns upon the steep banks that I have
+mentioned, between which this channel ran. Foreseeing what would happen,
+I chose one for myself behind a particularly stout rock and what is
+more, built a stone wall to the height of several feet on the landward
+side of it, as I guessed that the natives posted near to me would prove
+wild in their shooting.
+
+These labours occupied the rest of that day, and at night we retired to
+higher ground to sleep. Before dawn on the following morning we returned
+and took up our stations, some on one side of the channel and some on
+the other which we had to reach in a canoe brought for the purpose by
+the river natives.
+
+Then, before the sun rose, Captain Robertson fired a huge pile of dried
+reeds and bushes, which was to give the signal to the river natives
+far away to begin their beat. This done, we sat down and waited, after
+making sure that every gun had plenty of ammunition ready.
+
+As the dawn broke, by climbing a tree near my _schanze_ or shelter, I
+saw a good many miles away to the south a wide circle of little fires,
+and guessed that the natives were beginning to burn the dry reeds of the
+swamp. Presently these fires drew together into a thin wall of flame.
+Then I knew that it was time to return to the _schanze_ and prepare. It
+was full daylight, however, before anything happened.
+
+Watching the still channel of water, I saw ripples on it and bubbles
+of air rising. Suddenly there appeared the head of a great
+bull-hippopotamus which, having caught sight of our rag barricade,
+either above or below water, had risen to the surface to see what it
+might be. I put a bullet from an eight-bore rifle through its brain,
+whereon it sank, as I guessed, stone dead to the bottom of the channel,
+thus helping to increase the barricade by the bulk of its great body.
+Also it had another effect. I have observed that sea-cows cannot bear
+the smell and taint of blood, which frightens them horribly, so that
+they will expose themselves to almost any risk, rather than get it into
+their nostrils.
+
+Now, in this still water where there was no perceptible current, the
+blood from the dead bull soon spread all about so that when the herd,
+following their leader, began to arrive they were much alarmed. Indeed,
+the first of them on winding or tasting it, turned and tried to get
+back up the channel where, however, they met others following, and
+there ensued a tremendous confusion. They rose to the surface, blowing,
+snorting, bellowing and scrambling over each other in the water, while
+continually more and more arrived behind them, till there was a perfect
+pandemonium in that narrow place.
+
+All our guns opened fire wildly upon the mass; it was like a battle
+and through the smoke I caught sight of the riverside natives who were
+acting as beaters, advancing far away, fantastically dressed, screaming
+with excitement and waving spears, or sometimes torches of flaming
+reeds. Most of these were scrambling along the banks, but some of
+the bolder spirits advanced over the lagoon in canoes, driving the
+hippopotami towards the mouth of the channel by which alone they could
+escape into the great swamps below and so on to the river. In all my
+hunting experience I do not think I ever saw a more remarkable scene.
+Still, in a way, to me it was unpleasant, for I flatter myself that I am
+a sportsman and a battle of this sort is not sport as I understand the
+term.
+
+At length it came to this; the channel for quite a long way was
+literally full of hippopotami--I should think there must have been a
+hundred of them or more of all sorts and sizes, from great bulls down to
+little calves. Some of these were killed, not many, for the shooting of
+our gallant company was execrable and almost at hazard. Also for every
+sea-cow that died, of which number I think that Captain Robertson and
+myself accounted for most--many were only wounded.
+
+Still, the unhappy beasts, crazed with noise and fire and blood, did not
+seem to dare to face our frail barricade, probably for the reason that
+I have given. For a while they remained massed together in the water, or
+under it, making a most horrible noise. Then of a sudden they seemed to
+take a resolution. A few of them broke back towards the burning reeds,
+the screaming beaters and the advancing canoes. One of these, indeed,
+a wounded bull, charged a canoe, crushed it in its huge jaws and killed
+the rower, how exactly I do not know, for his body was never found. The
+majority of them, however, took another counsel, for emerging from the
+water on either side, they began to scramble towards us along the steep
+banks, or even to climb up them with surprising agility. It was at this
+point in the proceedings that I congratulated myself earnestly upon
+the solid character of the water-worn rock which I had selected as a
+shelter.
+
+Behind this rock together with my gun-bearer and Umslopogaas, who, as
+he did not shoot, had elected to be my companion, I crouched and banged
+away at the unwieldy creatures as they advanced. But fire fast as I
+might with two rifles, I could not stop the half of them--they were
+drawing unpleasantly near. I glanced at Umslopogaas and even then
+was amused to see that probably for the first time in his life that
+redoubtable warrior was in a genuine fright.
+
+"This is madness, Macumazahn," he shouted above the din. "Are we to stop
+here and be stamped flat by a horde of water-pigs?"
+
+"It seems so," I answered, "unless you prefer to be stamped flat
+outside--or eaten," I added, pointing to a great crocodile that had also
+emerged from the channel and was coming along towards us with open jaws.
+
+"By the Axe!" shouted Umslopogaas again, "I--a warrior--will not die
+thus, trodden on like a slug by an ox."
+
+Now I have mentioned a tree which I climbed. In his extremity
+Umslopogaas rushed for that tree and went up it like a lamplighter, just
+as the crocodile wriggled past its trunk, snapping at his retreating
+legs.
+
+After this I took no more note of him, partly because of the advancing
+sea-cows, and more for the reason that one of the village natives posted
+above me, firing wildly, put a large round bullet through the sleeve
+of my coat. Indeed, had it not been for the wall which I built that
+protected us, I am certain that both my bearer and I would have been
+killed, for afterwards I found it splashed over with lead from bullets
+which had struck the stones.
+
+Well, thanks to the strength of my rock and to the wall, or as Hans said
+afterwards, to Zikali's Great Medicine, we escaped unhurt. The rush went
+by me; indeed, I killed one sea-cow so close that the powder from the
+rifle actually burned its hide. But it did go by, leaving us untouched.
+All, however, were not so fortunate, since of the village natives two
+were trampled to death, while a third had his leg broken.
+
+Also, and this was really amusing--a bewildered bull charging at full
+speed, crashed into the trunk of Umslopogaas' tree, and as it was not
+very thick, snapped it in two. Down came the top in which the dignified
+chief was ensconced like a bird in a nest, though at that moment there
+was precious little dignity about him. However, except for scratches he
+was not hurt, as the hippopotamus had other business in urgent need of
+attention and did not stop to settle with him.
+
+"Such are the things which happen to a man who mixes himself up with
+matters of which he knows nothing," said Umslopogaas sententiously to
+me afterwards. But all the same he could never bear any allusion to this
+tree-climbing episode in his martial career, which, as it happened, had
+taken place in full view of his retainers, among whom it remained the
+greatest of jokes. Indeed, he wanted to kill a man, the wag of the
+party, who gave him a slang name which, being translated, means
+"_He-who-is-so-brave-that-he-dares-to-ride-a-water-horse-up-a-tree._"
+
+It was all over at last, for which I thanked Providence devoutly. A good
+many of the sea-cows were dead, I think twenty-one was out exact bag,
+but the majority of them had escaped in one way or another, many as I
+fear, wounded. I imagine that at the last the bulk of the herd overcame
+its fears and swimming through our screen, passed away down the channel.
+At any rate they were gone, and having ascertained that there was
+nothing to be done for the man who had been trampled on my side of the
+channel, I crossed it in the canoe with the object of returning quietly
+to our camp to rest.
+
+But as yet there was to be no quiet for me, for there I found Captain
+Robertson, who I think had been refreshing himself out of a bottle and
+was in a great state of excitement about a native who had been killed
+near him who was a favourite of his, and another whose leg was broken.
+He declared vehemently that the hippopotamus which had done this had
+been wounded and rushed into some bushes a few hundred yards away, and
+that he meant to take vengeance upon it. Indeed, he was just setting off
+to do so.
+
+Seeing his agitated state I thought it wisest to follow him. What
+happened need not be set out in detail. It is sufficient to say that
+he found that hippopotamus and blazed both barrels at it in the bushes,
+hitting it, but not seriously. Out lumbered the creature with its mouth
+open, wishing to escape. Robertson turned to fly as he was in its path,
+but from one cause or another, tripped and fell down. Certainly he would
+have been crushed beneath its huge feet had I not stepped in front of
+him and sent two solid eight-bore bullets down that yawning throat,
+killing it dead within three feet of where Robertson was trying to rise,
+and I may add, of myself.
+
+This narrow escape sobered him, and I am bound to say that his gratitude
+was profuse.
+
+"You are a brave man," he said, "and had it not been for you by now I
+should be wherever bad people go. I'll not forget it, Mr. Quatermain,
+and if ever you want anything that John Robertson can give, why, it's
+yours."
+
+"Very well," I answered, being seized by an inspiration, "I do want
+something that you can give easily enough."
+
+"Give it a name and it's yours, half my place, if you like."
+
+"I want," I went on as I slipped new cartridges into the rifle, "I want
+you to promise to give up drink for your daughter's sake. That's what
+nearly did for you just now, you know."
+
+"Man, you ask a hard thing," he said slowly. "But by God I'll try for
+her sake and for yours too."
+
+Then I went to help to set the leg of the injured man, which was all the
+rest I got that morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE OATH
+
+We spent three more days at that place. First it was necessary to allow
+time to elapse before the gases which generated in their great bodies
+caused those of the sea-cows which had been killed in the water, to
+float. Then they must be skinned and their thick hides cut into strips
+and pieces to be traded for _sjamboks_ or to make small native shields
+for which some of the East Coast tribes will pay heavily.
+
+All this took a long while, during which I amused, or disgusted myself
+in watching those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts.
+The lean, what there was of it, they dried and smoked into a kind of
+"biltong," but a great deal of the fat they ate at once. I had the
+curiosity to weigh a lump which was given to one thin, hungry-looking
+fellow. It scaled quite twenty pounds. Within four hours he had eaten it
+to the last ounce and lay there, a distended and torpid log. What would
+not we white people give for such a digestion!
+
+At last all was over and we started homewards, the man with a broken leg
+being carried in a kind of litter. On the edge of the bush-veld we found
+the waggon quite safe, also one of Captain Robertson's that had followed
+us from Strathmuir in order to carry the expected load of hippopotamus'
+hides and ivory. I asked my _voorlooper_ if anything had happened during
+our absence. He answered nothing, but on the previous evening after
+dark, he had seen a glow in the direction of Strathmuir which lay on
+somewhat lower ground about twenty miles away, as though numerous fires
+had been lighted there. It struck him so much, he added, that he
+climbed a tree to observe it better. He did not think, however, that any
+building had been burned there, as the glow was not strong enough for
+that.
+
+I suggested that it was caused by some grass fire or reed-burning, to
+which he replied indifferently that he did not think so as the line of
+the glow was not sufficiently continuous.
+
+There the matter ended, though I confess that the story made me anxious,
+for what exact reason I could not say. Umslopogaas also, who had
+listened to it, for our talk was in Zulu, looked grave, but made no
+remark. But as since his tree-climbing experience he had been singularly
+silent, of this I thought little.
+
+We had trekked at a time which we calculated would bring us to
+Strathmuir about an hour before sundown, allowing for a short halt half
+way. As my oxen were got in more quickly than those of the other waggon
+after this outspan, I was the first away, followed at a little distance
+by Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk with his Zulus. The truth was that
+I could not get that story about the glow of fires out of my mind and
+was anxious to push on, which had caused me to hurry up the inspanning.
+
+Perhaps we had covered a couple of miles of the ten or twelve which
+still lay between us and Strathmuir, when far off on the crest of one
+of the waves of the veld which much resembled those of the swelling sea
+frozen while in motion, I saw a small figure approaching us at a rapid
+trot. Somehow that figure suggested Hans to my mind, so much so that I
+fetched my glasses to examine it more closely. A short scrutiny through
+them convinced me that Hans it was, Hans and no other, advancing at a
+great pace.
+
+Filled with uneasiness, I ordered the driver to flog up the oxen,
+with the result that in a little over five minutes we met. Halting the
+waggon, I leapt from the waggon-box and calling to Umslopogaas who had
+kept up with us at a slow, swinging trot, went to Hans, who, when he saw
+me, stood still at a little distance, swinging his apology for a hat in
+his hand, as was his fashion when ashamed or perplexed.
+
+"What is the matter, Hans?" I asked when we were within speaking
+distance.
+
+"Oh! Baas, everything," he answered, and I noticed that he kept his eyes
+fixed upon the ground and that his lips twitched.
+
+"Speak, you fool, and in Zulu," I said, for by now Umslopogaas had
+joined me.
+
+"Baas," he answered in that tongue, "a terrible thing has come about
+at the farm of Red-Beard yonder. Yesterday afternoon at the time when
+people are in the habit of sleeping there till the sun grows less hot,
+a body of great men with fierce faces who carried big spears--perhaps
+there were fifty of them, Baas--crept up to the place through the long
+grass and growing crops, and attacked it."
+
+"Did you see them come?" I asked.
+
+"No, Baas. I was watching at a little distance as you bade me do and the
+sun being hot, I shut my eyes to keep out the glare of it, so that I did
+not see them until they had passed me and heard the noise."
+
+"You mean that you were asleep or drunk, Hans, but go on."
+
+"Baas, I do not know," he answered shamefacedly, "but after that I
+climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it" (I ascertained
+afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned palm), "and from it I
+saw everything without being seen."
+
+"What did you see, Hans?" I asked him.
+
+"I saw the big men run up and make a kind of circle round the village.
+Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see what
+was the matter. Thomaso and some of the men caught sight of them first
+and ran away fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow,
+before the circle was complete. Then the women and the children came out
+and the big men killed them with their spears--all, all!"
+
+"Good God!" I exclaimed. "And what happened at the house and to the
+lady?"
+
+"Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the
+noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came
+the two Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite
+recovered. A number of the big men ran as though to take her, but the
+two Zulus made a great fight in front of the little steps to the stoep,
+having their backs protected by the stoep, and killed six of them before
+they themselves were killed. Also Sad-Eyes shot one with a pistol she
+carried, and wounded another so that the spear fell out of his hand.
+
+"Then the rest fell on her and tied her up, setting her in a chair on
+the stoep where two remained to watch her. They did her no hurt, Baas;
+indeed, they seemed to treat her as gently as they could. Also they
+went into the house and there they caught that tall fat yellow girl who
+always smiles and is called Janee, she who waits upon the Lady Sad-Eyes,
+and brought her out to her. I think they told her, Baas, that she must
+look after her mistress and that if she tried to run away she would be
+killed, for afterwards I saw Janee bring her food and other things."
+
+"And then, Hans?"
+
+"Then, Baas, most of the great men rested a while, though some of them
+went through the store gathering such things as they liked, blankets,
+knives and iron cooking-pots, but they set fire to nothing, nor did they
+try to catch the cattle. Also they took dry wood from the pile and lit
+big fires, eight or nine of them, and when the sun set they began to
+feast."
+
+"What did they feast on, Hans, if they took no cattle?" I asked with a
+shiver, for I was afraid of I knew not what.
+
+"Baas," answered Hans, turning his head away and looking at the ground,
+"they feasted on the children whom they had killed, also on some of the
+young women. These tall soldiers are men-eaters, Baas."
+
+At this horrible intelligence I turned faint and felt as though I was
+going to fall, but recovering myself, signed to him to go on with his
+story.
+
+"They feasted quite nicely, Baas," he continued, "making no noise. Then
+some of them slept while others watched, and that went on all night. As
+soon as it was dark, but before the moon rose, I slid down the tree and
+crept round to the back of the house without being seen or heard, as
+I can, Baas. I got into the house by the back door and crawled to
+the window of the sitting-room. It was open and peeping through I saw
+Sad-Eyes still tied to the seat on the stoep not more than a pace away,
+while the girl Janee crouched on the floor at her feet--I think she was
+asleep or fainting.
+
+"I made a little noise, like a night-adder hissing, and kept on making
+it, till at last Sad-Eyes turned her head. Then I spoke in a very low
+whisper, for fear lest I should wake the two guards who were dozing on
+either side of her wrapped in their blankets, saying, 'It is I, Hans,
+come to help you.' 'You cannot,' she answered, also speaking very low.
+'Get to your master and tell him and my father to follow. These men are
+called Amahagger and live far away across the river. They are going to
+take me to their home, as I understand, to rule them, because they want
+a white woman to be a queen over them who have always been ruled by a
+certain white queen, against whom they have rebelled. I do not think
+they mean to do me any harm, unless perhaps they want to marry me
+to their chief, but of this I am not sure from their talk which I
+understand badly. Now go, before they catch you.'
+
+"'I think you might get away,' I whispered back. 'I will cut your bonds.
+When you are free, slip through the window and I will guide you.'
+
+"'Very well, try it,' she said.
+
+"So I drew my knife and stretched out my arm. But then, Baas, I showed
+myself a fool--if the Great Medicine had still been there I might have
+known better. I forgot the starlight which shone upon the blade of the
+knife. That girl Janee came out of her sleep or swoon, lifted her head
+and saw the knife. She screamed once, then at a word from her mistress
+was silent. But it was enough, for it woke up the guards who glared
+about them and threatened Janee with their great spears, also they went
+to sleep no more, but began to talk together, though what they said I
+could not hear, for I was hiding on the floor of the room. After this,
+knowing that I could do no good and might do harm and get myself killed,
+I crept out of the house as I had crept in, and crawled back to my
+tree."
+
+"Why did you not come to me?" I asked.
+
+"Because I still hoped I might be able to help Sad-Eyes, Baas. Also I
+wanted to see what happened, and I knew that I could not bring you here
+in time to be any good. Yet it is true I thought of coming though I did
+not know the road."
+
+"Perhaps you were right."
+
+"At the first dawn," continued Hans, "the great men who are called
+Amahagger rose and ate what was left over from the night before. Then
+they gathered themselves together and went to the house. Here they found
+a large chair, that seated with _rimpis_ in which the Baas Red-Beard
+sits, and lashed two poles to the chair. Beneath the chair they tied
+the garments and other things of the Lady Sad-Eyes which they made
+Janee gather as Sad-Eyes directed her. This done, very gently they sat
+Sad-Eyes herself in the chair, bowing while they made her fast. After
+this eight of them set the poles upon their shoulders, and they all went
+away at a trot, heading for the bush-veld, driving with them a herd of
+goats which they had stolen from the farm, and making Janee run by the
+chair. I saw everything, Baas, for they passed just beneath my tree.
+Then I came to seek you, following the outward spoor of the waggons
+which I could not have done well at night. That is all, Baas."
+
+"Hans," I said, "you have been drinking and because of it the lady
+Sad-Eyes is taken a prisoner by cannibals; for had you been awake and
+watching, you might have seen them coming and saved her and the rest.
+Still, afterwards you did well, and for the rest you must answer to
+Heaven."
+
+"I must tell your reverend father, the Predikant, Baas, that the white
+master, Red-Beard, gave me the liquor and it is rude not to do as a
+great white master does, and drink it up. I am sure he will understand,
+Baas," said Hans abjectly.
+
+I thought to myself that it was true and that the spear which Robertson
+cast had fallen upon his own head, as the Zulus say, but I made no
+answer, lacking time for argument.
+
+"Did you say," asked Umslopogaas, speaking for the first time, "that my
+servants killed only six of these men-eaters?"
+
+Hans nodded and answered, "Yes, six. I counted the bodies."
+
+"It was ill done, they should have killed six each," said Umslopogaas
+moodily. "Well, they have left the more for us to finish," and he
+fingered the great axe.
+
+Just then Captain Robertson arrived in his waggon, calling out anxiously
+to know what was the matter, for some premonition of evil seemed to have
+struck him. My heart sank at the sight of him, for how was I to tell
+such a story to the father of the murdered children and of the abducted
+girl?
+
+In the end I felt that I could not. Yes, I turned coward and saying that
+I must fetch something out of the waggon, bolted into it, bidding Hans
+go forward and repeat his tale. He obeyed unwillingly enough and looking
+out between the curtains of the waggon tent I saw all that happened,
+though I could not hear the words that passed.
+
+Robertson had halted the oxen and jumping from the waggon-box strode
+forward and met Hans, who began to speak with him, twitching his hat in
+his hands. Gradually as the tale progressed, I saw the Captain's face
+freeze into a mask of horror. Then he began to argue and deny, then to
+weep--oh! it was a terrible sight to see that great man weeping over
+those whom he had lost, and in such a fashion.
+
+After this a kind of blind rage seized him and I thought he was going
+to kill Hans, who was of the same opinion, for he ran away. Next he
+staggered about, shaking his fists, cursing and shouting, till presently
+he fell of a heap and lay face downwards, beating his head against the
+ground and groaning.
+
+Now I went to him and sat up.
+
+"That's a pretty story, Quatermain, which this little yellow monkey has
+been gibbering at me. Man, do you understand what he says? He says that
+all those half-blood children of mine are dead, murdered by savages from
+over the Zambesi, yes, and eaten, too, with their mothers. Do you take
+the point? Eaten like lambs. Those fires your man saw last night
+were the fires on which they were cooked, my little _so-and-so_ and
+_so-and-so_," and he mentioned half a dozen different names. "Yes,
+cooked, Quatermain. And that isn't all of it, they have taken Inez too.
+They didn't eat her, but they have dragged her off a captive for God
+knows what reason. I couldn't understand. The whole ship's crew is gone,
+except the captain absent on leave and the first officer, Thomaso, who
+deserted with some Lascar stokers, and left the women and children to
+their fate. My God, I'm going mad. I'm going mad! If you have any mercy
+in you, give me something to drink."
+
+"All right," I said, "I will. Sit here and wait a minute."
+
+Then I went to the waggon and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into
+which I put an amazing doze of bromide from a little medicine chest I
+always carry with me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it.
+All this compound I mixed up with a little water and took it to him in a
+tin cup so that he could not see the colour.
+
+He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the
+veld, groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance,
+for Hans had joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in
+drought-parched grass.
+
+In a few minutes the drugs began to take effect upon Robertson's
+tortured nerves, for he rose and said quietly,
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Vengeance, or rather justice," I answered.
+
+"Yes," he exclaimed, "vengeance. I swear that I will be avenged, or
+die--or both."
+
+Again I saw my opportunity and said, "You must swear more than that,
+Robertson. Only sober men can accomplish great things, for drink
+destroys the judgment. If you wish to be avenged for the dead and to
+rescue the living, you must be sober, or I for one will not help you."
+
+"Will you help me if I do, to the end, good or ill, Quatermain?" he
+added.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"That's as much as another's oath," he muttered. "Still, I will put my
+thought in words. I swear by God, by my mother--like these natives--and
+by my daughter born in honest marriage, that I will never touch another
+drop of strong drink, until I have avenged those poor women and their
+little children, and rescued Inez from their murderers. If I do you may
+put a bullet through me."
+
+"That's all right," I said in an offhand fashion, though inwardly I
+glowed with pride at the success of my great idea, for at the time I
+thought it great, and went on,
+
+"Now let us get to business. The first thing to do is to trek to
+Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail. Come
+to sit on the waggon with me and tell me what guns and ammunition you
+have got, for according to Hans those savages don't seem to have touched
+anything, except a few blankets and a herd of goats."
+
+He did as I asked, telling me all he could remember. Then he said,
+
+"It is a strange thing, but now I recall that about two years ago a
+great savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like
+Inez, I understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and
+said he wanted to trade. I asked him what in, and he answered that
+he would like to buy some children. I told him that I was not a
+slave-dealer. Then he looked at Inez, who was moving about, and said
+that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his Chief, and offered
+some fabulous sum in ivory and in gold, which he said should be paid
+before she was taken away. I snatched his big spear from his hand, broke
+it over his head and gave him the best hiding with its shaft that he had
+ever heard of. Then I kicked him off the place. He limped away but when
+he was out of reach, turned and called out that one day he would come
+again with others and take her, meaning Inez, without leaving the price
+in ivory and gold. I ran for my gun, but when I got back he had gone and
+I never thought of the matter again from that day to this."
+
+"Well, he kept his promise," I said, but Robertson made no answer, for
+by this time that thundering dose of bromide and laudanum had taken
+effect on him and he had fallen asleep, of which I was glad, for I
+thought that this sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for a
+while.
+
+We reached Strathmuir towards sunset, too late to think of attempting
+the pursuit that day. Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter
+out carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be
+useless. We must rest and make preparations; also there was no hope of
+our overtaking these brutes who already had a clear twelve hours' start,
+by a sudden spurt. They must be run down patiently by following their
+spoor, if indeed they could be run down at all before they vanished into
+the vast recesses of unknown Africa. The most we could do this night was
+to get ready.
+
+Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of
+this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not
+pleasant to behold, especially when they are----! Indeed, of these I
+determined to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and
+some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by
+touching such human remnants--I made up two of the smouldering fires,
+the light of which the _voorlooper_ had seen upon the sky, and on to
+them cast, or caused to be cast, those poor fragments. Also I told the
+farm natives to dig a big grave and in it to place the other bodies and
+generally to remove the traces of murder.
+
+Then I went on to the house, and not too soon. Seeing the waggons arrive
+and having made sure that the Amahagger were gone, Thomaso and the other
+cowards emerged from their hiding-places and returned. Unfortunately for
+the former the first person he met was Umslopogaas, who began to revile
+the fat half-breed in no measured terms, calling him dog, coward, and
+other opprobrious names, such as deserter of women and children, and so
+forth--all of which someone translated.
+
+Thomaso, an insolent person, tried to swagger the matter out, saying
+that he had gone to get assistance. Infuriated at this lie, Umslopogaas
+leapt upon him with a roar and though he was a strong man, dealt with
+him as a lion does with a buck. Lifting him from his feet, he hurled him
+to the ground, then as he strove to rise and run, caught him again and
+as it seemed to me, was about to break his back across his knee. Just at
+this juncture I arrived.
+
+"Let the man go," I shouted to him. "Is there not enough death here
+already?"
+
+"Yes," answered Umslopogaas, "I think there is. Best that this jackal
+should live to eat his own shame," and he cast Thomaso to the ground,
+where he lay groaning.
+
+Robertson, who was still asleep in the waggon, woke up at the noise, and
+descended from it, looking dazed. I got him to the house and in doing so
+made my way past, or rather between the bodies of the two Zulus and of
+the six men whom they had killed, also of him whom Inez had shot. Those
+Zulus had made a splendid fight for they were covered with wounds, all
+of them in front, as I found upon examination.
+
+Having made Robertson lie down upon his bed, I took a good look at the
+slain Amahagger. They were magnificent men, all of them; tall, spare
+and shapely with very clear-cut features and rather frizzled hair.
+From these characteristics, as well as the lightness of their colour,
+I concluded that they were of a Semitic or Arab type, and that the
+admixture of their blood with that of the Bantus was but slight, if
+indeed there were any at all. Their spears, of which one had been cut
+through by a blow of a Zulu's axe, were long and broad, not unlike to
+those used by the Masai, but of finer workmanship.
+
+By this time the sun was setting and thoroughly tired by all that I had
+gone through, I went into the house to get something to eat, having told
+Hans to find food and prepare a meal. As I sat down Robertson joined me
+and I made him also eat. His first impulse was to go to the cupboard and
+fetch the spirit bottle; indeed, he rose to do so.
+
+"Hans is making coffee," I said warningly.
+
+"Thank you," he answered, "I forgot. Force of habit, you know."
+
+Here I may state that never from that moment did I see him touch another
+drop of liquor, not even when I drank my modest tot in front of him.
+His triumph over temptation was splendid and complete, especially as the
+absence of his accustomed potations made him ill for some time and of
+course depressed his spirits, with painful results that were apparent in
+due course.
+
+In fact, the man became totally changed. He grew gloomy but resourceful,
+also full of patience. Only one idea obsessed him--to rescue his
+daughter and avenge the murder of his people; indeed, except his sins,
+he thought of and found interest in nothing else. Moreover, his iron
+constitution cast off all the effects of his past debauchery and he
+grew so strong that although I was pretty tough in those days, he could
+out-tire me.
+
+To return; I engaged him in conversation and with his help made a list
+of what we should require on our vendetta journey, all of which served
+to occupy his mind. Then I sent him to bed, saying that I would call him
+before dawn, having first put a little more bromide into his third cup
+of coffee. After this I turned in and notwithstanding the sight of those
+remains of the cannibal feast and the knowledge of the dead men who lay
+outside my window, I slept like a top.
+
+Indeed, it was the Captain who awakened me, not I the Captain, saying
+that daylight was on the break and we had better be stirring. So we went
+down to the Store, where I was thankful to find that everything had been
+tidied up in accordance with my directions.
+
+On our way Robertson asked me what had become of the remains, whereon I
+pointed to the smouldering ashes of one of the great fires. He went to
+it and kneeling down, said a prayer in broad Scotch, doubtless one that
+he had learned at his mother's knee. Then he took some of the ashes from
+the edge of the pyre--for such it was--and threw them into the glowing
+embers where, as he knew, lay all that was left of those who had sprung
+from him. Also he tossed others of them into the air, though what he
+meant by this I did not understand and never asked. Probably it was
+some rite indicative of expiation or of revenge, or both, which he had
+learned from the savages among whom he had lived so long.
+
+After this we went into the Store and with the help of some of
+the natives, or half-breeds, who had accompanied us on the sea-cow
+expedition, selected all the goods we wanted, which we sent to the
+house.
+
+As we returned thither I saw Umslopogaas and his men engaged, with the
+usual Zulu ceremonies, in burying their two companions in a hole they
+had made in the hillside. I noted, however, that they did not inter
+their war-axes or their throwing-spears with them as usual, probably
+because they thought that these might be needed. In place of them they
+put with the dead little models roughly shaped of bits of wood, which
+models they "killed" by first breaking them across.
+
+I lingered to watch the funeral and heard Goroko, the witch-doctor, make
+a little speech.
+
+"O Father and Chief of the Axe," he said, addressing Umslopogaas, who
+stood silent leaning on his weapon and watching all, a portentous figure
+in the morning mist, "O Father, O Son of the Heavens" (this was an
+allusion to the royal blood of Umslopogaas of which the secret was well
+known, although it would never have been spoken aloud in Zululand), "O
+Slaughterer (Bulalio), O Woodpecker who picks at the hearts of men; O
+King-Slayer; O Conqueror of the Halakazi; O Victor in a hundred fights;
+O Gatherer of the Lily-bloom that faded in the hand; O Wolf-man, Captain
+of the Wolves that ravened; O Slayer of Faku; O Great One whom it
+pleases to seem small, because he must follow his blood to the end
+appointed----"
+
+This was the opening of the speech, the "_bonga_-ing" or giving of
+Titles of Praise to the person addressed, of which I have quoted but a
+sample, for there were many more of them that I have forgotten. Then the
+speaker went on,
+
+"It was told to me, though of it I remember nothing, that when my Spirit
+was in me a while ago I prophesied that this place would flow with
+blood, and lo! the blood has flowed, and with it that of these our
+brothers," and he gave the names of the two dead Zulus, also those of
+their forefathers for several generations.
+
+"It seems, Father, that they died well, as you would have wished them
+to die, and as doubtless they desired to die themselves, leaving a tale
+behind them, though it is true that they might have died better, killing
+more of the men-eaters, as it is certain they would have done, had they
+not been sick inside. They are finished; they have gone beyond to await
+us in the Under-world among the ghosts. Their story is told and soon to
+their children they will be but names whispered in honour after the sun
+has set. Enough of them who have showed us how to die as our fathers did
+before them."
+
+Goroko paused a while, then added with a waving of his hands,
+
+"My Spirit comes to me again and I know that these our brothers shall
+not pass unavenged. Chief of the Axe, great glory awaits the Axe, for it
+shall feed full. I have spoken."
+
+"Good words!" grunted Umslopogaas. Then he saluted the dead by raising
+_Inkosikaas_ and came to me to consult about our journey.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PURSUIT
+
+After all we did not get away much before noon, because first there was
+a great deal to be done. To begin with the loads had to be arranged.
+These consisted largely of ammunition, everything else being cut down to
+an irreducible minimum. To carry them we took two donkeys there were
+on the place, also half a dozen pack oxen, all of which animals were
+supposed to be "salted"--that is, to have suffered and recovered from
+every kind of sickness, including the bite of the deadly tsetse fly.
+I suspected, it is true, that they would not be proof against further
+attacks, still, I hoped that they would last for some time, as indeed
+proved to be the case.
+
+In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best
+of those Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip, to
+serve as bearers when it became necessary. It cannot be said that these
+snuff-and-butter fellows--for most, if not all of them had some dash of
+white blood in their veins--were exactly willing volunteers. Indeed, if
+a choice had been left to them, they would, I think, have declined this
+adventure.
+
+But there was no choice. Their master, Robertson, ordered them to come
+and after a glance at the Zulus they concluded that the command was one
+which would be enforced and that if they stopped behind, it would not
+be as living men. Also some of them had lost wives or children in the
+slaughter, which, if they were not very brave, filled them with a desire
+for revenge. Lastly, they could all shoot after a fashion and had good
+rifles; moreover if I may say so, I think that they put confidence in my
+leadership. So they made the best of a bad business and got themselves
+ready.
+
+Then arrangements must be made about the carrying on of the farm and
+store during our absence. These, together with my waggon and oxen, were
+put in the charge of Thomaso, since there was no one else who could be
+trusted at all--a very battered and crestfallen Thomaso, by the way.
+When he heard of it he was much relieved, since I think he feared lest
+he also should be expected to take part in the hunt of the Amahagger
+man-eaters. Also it may have occurred to him that in all probability
+none of us would ever come back at all, in which case by a process of
+natural devolution, he might find himself the owner of the business and
+much valuable property. However, he swore by sundry saints--for Thomaso
+was nominally a Catholic--that he would look after everything as though
+it were his own, as no doubt he hoped it might become.
+
+"Hearken, fat pig," said Umslopogaas, Hans obligingly translating so
+that there might be no mistake, "if I come back, and come back I shall
+who travel with the Great Medicine--and find even one of the cattle of
+the white lord, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, missing, or one article
+stolen from his waggon, or the fields of your master not cultivated or
+his goods wasted, I swear by the Axe that I will hew you into pieces
+with the axe; yes, if to do it I have to hunt you from where the sun
+rises to where it sets and down the length of the night between. Do
+you understand, fat pig, deserter of women and children, who to save
+yourself could run faster than a buck?"
+
+Thomaso replied that he understood very clearly indeed, and that, Heaven
+helping him, all should be kept safe and sound. Still, I was sure that
+in his manly heart he was promising great gifts to the saints if they
+would so arrange matters that Umslopogaas and his axe were never seen at
+Strathmuir again, and reflecting that after all the Amahagger had their
+uses. However, as I did not trust him in the least, much against their
+will, I left my driver and _voorlooper_ to guard my belongings.
+
+At last we did get off, pursued by the fervent blessings of Thomaso and
+the prayers of the others that we would avenge their murdered relatives.
+We were a curious and motley procession. First went Hans, because at
+following a spoor he was, I believe, almost unequalled in Africa, and
+with him, Umslopogaas, and three of his Zulus to guard against surprise.
+These were followed by Captain Robertson, who seemed to prefer to walk
+alone and whom I thought it best to leave undisturbed. Then I came
+and after me straggled the Strathmuir boys with the pack animals, the
+cavalcade being closed by the remaining Zulus under the command of
+Goroko. These walked last in case any of the mixed-bloods should attempt
+to desert, as we thought it quite probable that they would.
+
+Less than an hour's tramp brought us to the bush-veld where I feared
+that our troubles might begin, since if the Amahagger were cunning,
+they would take advantage of it to confuse or hide their spoor. As it
+chanced, however, they had done nothing of the sort and a child could
+have followed their march. Just before nightfall we came to their first
+halting-place where they had made a fire and eaten one of the herd of
+farm goats which they had driven away with them, although they left the
+cattle, I suppose, because goats are docile and travel well.
+
+Hans showed us everything that had happened; where the chair in which
+Inez was carried was set down, where she and Janee had been allowed to
+walk that she might stretch her stiff limbs, the dregs of some coffee
+that evidently Janee had made in a saucepan, and so forth.
+
+He even told us the exact number of the Amahagger, which he said
+totalled forty-one, including the man whom Inez had wounded. His spoor
+he distinguished from that of the others both by an occasional drop of
+blood and because he walked lightly on his right foot, doubtless for
+the reason that he wished to avoid jarring his wound, which was on that
+side.
+
+At this spot we were obliged to stay till daybreak, since it was
+impossible to follow the spoor by night, a circumstance that gave the
+cannibals a great advantage over us.
+
+The next two days were repetitions of the first, but on the fourth we
+passed out of the bush-veld into the swamp country that bordered the
+great river. Here our task was still easy since the Amahagger had
+followed one of the paths made by the river-dwellers who had their
+habitations on mounds, though whether these were natural or artificial I
+am not sure, and sometimes on floating islands.
+
+On our second day in the reeds we came upon a sad sight. To our left
+stood one of these mound villages, if a village it could be called,
+since it consisted only of four or five huts inhabited perhaps by twenty
+people. We went up to it to obtain information and stumbled across the
+body of an old man lying in the pathway. A few yards further on we
+found the ashes of a big fire and by it such remains as we had seen at
+Strathmuir. Here there had been another cannibal feast. The miserable
+huts were empty, but as at Strathmuir, had not been burnt.
+
+We were going away when the acute ears of Hans caught the sound of
+groans. We searched about and in a clump of reeds near the foot of the
+mound, found an old woman with a great spear wound just above her
+skinny thigh piercing deep into the vitals, but of a nature which is
+not immediately mortal. One of Robertson's people who understood the
+language of these swamp-dwellers well, spoke to her. She told him that
+she wanted water. It was brought and she drank copiously. Then in answer
+to his questions she began to talk.
+
+She said that the Amahagger had attacked the village and killed all who
+could not escape. They had eaten a young woman and three children. She
+had been wounded by a spear and fled away into the place where we found
+her, where none of them took the trouble to follow her as she "was not
+worth eating."
+
+By my direction the man asked her whether she knew anything of these
+Amahagger. She replied that her grandfathers had, though she had heard
+nothing of them since she was a child, which must have been seventy
+years before. They were a fierce people who lived far up north across
+the Great River, the remnants of a race that had once "ruled the world."
+
+Her grandfathers used to say that they were not always cannibals, but
+had become so long before because of a lack of food and now had acquired
+the taste. It was for this purpose that they still raided to get
+other people to eat, since their ruler would not allow them to eat one
+another. The flesh of cattle they did not care for, although they had
+plenty of them, but sometimes they ate goats and pigs because they said
+they tasted like man. According to her grandfathers they were a very
+evil people and full of magic.
+
+All of this the old woman told us quite briskly after she had drunk the
+water, I think because her wound had mortified and she felt no pain. Her
+information, however, as is common with the aged, dealt entirely with
+the far past; of the history of the Amahagger since the days of her
+forebears she knew nothing, nor had she seen anything of Inez. All she
+could tell us was that some of them had attacked her village at dawn and
+that when she ran out of the hut she was speared.
+
+While Robertson and I were wondering what we should do with the poor old
+creature whom it seemed cruel to leave here to perish, she cleared up
+the question by suddenly expiring before our eyes. Uttering the name of
+someone with whom, doubtless, she had been familiar in her youth, three
+or four times over, she just sank down and seemed to go to sleep and on
+examination we found that she was dead. So we left her and went on.
+
+Next day we came to the edge of the Great River, here a sheet of placid
+running water about a mile across, for at this time of the year it was
+low. Perceiving quite a big village on our left, we went to it and
+made enquiries, to find that it had not been attacked by the cannibals,
+probably because it was too powerful, but that three nights before some
+of their canoes had been stolen, in which no doubt these had crossed the
+river.
+
+As the people of this village had traded with Robertson at Strathmuir,
+we had no difficulty in obtaining other canoes from them in which to
+cross the Zambesi in return for one of our oxen that I could see was
+already sickening from tsetse bite. These canoes were large enough to
+take the donkeys that were patient creatures and stood still, but the
+cattle we could not get into them for fear of an upset. So we killed
+the two driven beasts that were left to us and took them with us as
+dead meat for food, while the three remaining pack oxen we tried to swim
+across, dragging them after the canoes with hide _reims_ round their
+horns. As a result two were drowned, but one, a bold-hearted and
+enterprising animal, gained the other bank.
+
+Here again we struck a sea of reeds in which, after casting about, Hans
+once more found the spoor of the Amahagger. That it was theirs beyond
+doubt was proved by the circumstance that on a thorny kind of weed we
+found a fragment of a cotton dress which, because of the pattern stamped
+on it, we all recognised as one that Inez had been wearing. At first I
+thought that this had been torn off by the thorns, but on examination
+we became certain that it had been placed there purposely, probably
+by Janee, to give us a clue. This conclusion was confirmed when at
+subsequent periods of the hunt we found other fragments of the same
+garment.
+
+Now it would be useless for me to set out the details of this prolonged
+and arduous chase which in all endured for something over three weeks.
+Again and again we lost the trail and were only able to recover it by
+long and elaborate search, which occupied much time. Then, after we
+escaped from the reeds and swamps, we found ourselves upon stony
+uplands where the spoor was almost impossible to follow, indeed, we only
+rediscovered it by stumbling across the dead body of that cannibal whom
+Inez had wounded. Evidently he had perished from his hurt, which I could
+see had mortified. From the state of his remains we gathered that the
+raiders must be about two days' march ahead of us.
+
+Striking their spoor again on softer ground where the impress of their
+feet remained--at any rate to the cunning sight of Hans--we followed
+them down across great valleys wherein trees grew sparsely, which
+valleys were separated from each other by ridges of high and barren
+land. On these belts of rocky soil our difficulties were great, but here
+twice we were put on the right track by more fragments torn from the
+dress of Inez.
+
+At length we lost the spoor altogether; not a sign of it was to be
+found. We had no idea which way to go. All about us appeared these
+valleys covered with scattered bush running this way and that, so that
+we could not tell which of them to follow or to cross. The thing seemed
+hopeless, for how could we expect to find a little body of men in
+that immensity? Hans shook his head and even the fierce and steadfast
+Robertson was discouraged.
+
+"I fear my poor lassie is gone," he said, and relapsed into brooding as
+had become his wont.
+
+"Never say die! It's dogged as does it!" I replied cheerfully in the
+words of Nelson, who also had learned what it meant to hunt an enemy
+over trackless wastes, although his were of water.
+
+I walked to the top of the rise where we were encamped, and sat down
+alone to think matters over. Our condition was somewhat parlous; all
+our beasts were now dead, even the second donkey, which was the last of
+them, having perished that morning, and been eaten, for food was scanty
+since of late we had met with little game. The Strathmuir men, who now
+must carry the loads, were almost worn out and doubtless would have
+deserted, except for the fact that there was no place to which they
+could go. Even the Zulus were discouraged, and said they had come
+away from home across the Great River to fight, not to run about in
+wildernesses and starve, though Umslopogaas made no complaint, being
+buoyed up by the promise of his soothsayer, Goroko, that battle was
+ahead of him in which he would win great glory.
+
+Hans, however, remained cheerful, for the reason, as he remarked
+vacuously, that the Great Medicine was with us and that therefore,
+however bad things seemed to be, all in fact was well; an argument that
+carried no conviction to my soul.
+
+It was on a certain evening towards sunset that I went away thus alone.
+I looked about me, east and west and north. Everywhere appeared the
+same bush-clad valleys and barren rises, miles upon miles of them. I
+bethought me of the map that old Zikali had drawn in the ashes, and
+remembered that it showed these valleys and rises and that beyond them
+there should be a great swamp, and beyond the swamp a mountain. So it
+seemed that we were on the right road to the home of his white Queen,
+if such a person existed, or at any rate we were passing over country
+similar to that which he had pictured or imagined.
+
+But at this time I was not troubling my head about white queens. I was
+thinking of poor Inez. That she was alive a few days before we knew from
+the fragments of her dress. But where was she now? The spoor was utterly
+lost on that stony ground, or if any traces of it remained a heavy
+deluge of rain had washed them away. Even Hans had confessed himself
+beaten.
+
+I stared about me helplessly, and as I did so a flying ray of light
+from the setting sun reflected downwards from a storm-cloud, fell upon a
+white patch on the crest of one of the distant land-waves. It struck me
+that probably limestone outcropped at this spot, as indeed proved to be
+the case; also that such a patch of white would be a convenient guide
+for any who were travelling across that sea of bush. Further, some
+instinct within seemed to impel me to steer for it, although I had all
+but made up my mind to go in a totally different direction many more
+points to the east. It was almost as though a voice were calling to me
+to take this path and no other. Doubtless this was an effect produced
+by weariness and mental overstrain. Still, there it was, very real and
+tangible, one that I did not attempt to combat.
+
+So next morning at the dawn I headed north by west, laying my course for
+that white patch and for the first time breaking the straight line of
+our advance. Captain Robertson, whose temper had not been bettered
+by prolonged and frightful anxiety, or I may add, by his unaccustomed
+abstinence, asked me rather roughly why I was altering the course.
+
+"Look here, Captain," I answered, "if we were at sea and you did
+something of the sort, I should not put such a question to you, and if
+by any chance I did, I should not expect you to answer. Well, by your
+own wish I am in command here and I think that the same argument holds."
+
+"Yes," he replied. "I suppose you have studied your chart, if there
+is any of this God-forsaken country, and at any rate discipline is
+discipline. So steam ahead and don't mind me."
+
+The others accepted my decision without comment; most of them were so
+miserable that they did not care which way we went, also they were good
+enough to repose confidence in my judgment.
+
+"Doubtless the Baas has reasons," said Hans dubiously, "although the
+spoor, when last we saw it, headed towards the rising sun and as the
+country is all the same, I do not see why those man-eaters should have
+returned."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I have reasons," although in fact I had none at all.
+
+Hans surveyed me with a watery eye as though waiting for me to explain
+them, but I looked haughty and declined to oblige.
+
+"The Baas has reasons," continued Hans, "for taking us on what I think
+to be the wrong side of that great ridge, there to hunt for the spoor of
+the men-eaters, and they are so deep down in his mind that he cannot
+dig them up for poor old Hans to look at. Well, the Baas wears the Great
+Medicine and perhaps it is there that the reasons sit. Those Strathmuir
+fellows say that they can go no further and wish to die. Umslopogaas
+has just gone to them with his axe to tell them that he is ready to help
+them to their wish. Look, he has got there, for they are coming quickly,
+who after all prefer to live."
+
+Well, we started for my white patch of stones which no one else had
+noticed and of which I said nothing to anyone, and reached it by the
+following evening, to find, as I expected, that it was a lime outcrop.
+
+By now we were in a poor way, for we had practically nothing left to
+eat, which did not tend to raise the spirits of the party. Also that
+lime outcrop proved to be an uninteresting spot overlooking a wide
+valley which seemed to suggest that there were other valleys of a
+similar sort beyond it, and nothing more.
+
+Captain Robertson sat stern-faced and despondent at a distance muttering
+into his beard, as had become a habit with him. Umslopogaas leaned upon
+his axe and contemplated the heavens, also occasionally the Strathmuir
+men who cowered beneath his eye. The Zulus squatted about sharing such
+snuff as remained to them in economic pinches. Goroko, the witch-doctor,
+engaged himself in consulting his "Spirit," by means of bone-throwing,
+upon the humble subject of whether or no we should succeed in killing
+any game for food to-morrow, a point on which I gathered that his
+"Spirit" was quite uncertain. In short, the gloom was deep and universal
+and the sky looked as though it were going to rain.
+
+Hans became sarcastic. Sneaking up to me in his most aggravating way,
+like a dog that means to steal something and cover up the theft with
+simulated affection, he pointed out one by one all the disadvantages of
+our present position. He indicated _per contra_, that if _his_ advice
+had been followed, his conviction was that even if we had not found the
+man-eaters and rescued the lady called Sad-Eyes, our state would have
+been quite different. He was sure, he added, that the valley which he
+had suggested we should follow, was one full of game, inasmuch as he had
+seen their spoor at its entrance.
+
+"Then why did you not say so?" I asked.
+
+Hans sucked at his empty corn-cob pipe, which was his way of indicating
+that he would like me to give him some tobacco, much as a dog groans
+heavily under the table when he wants a bit to eat, and answered that it
+was not for him to point out things to one who knew everything, like the
+great Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, his honoured master. Still, the luck
+did seem to have gone a bit wrong. The privations could have been put up
+with (here he sucked very loudly at the empty pipe and looked at mine,
+which was alight), everything could have been put up with, if only there
+had been a chance of coming even with those men-eaters and rescuing the
+Lady Sad-Eyes, whose face haunted his sleep. As it was, however, he
+was convinced that by following the course I had mapped out we had lost
+their spoor finally and that probably they were now three days' march
+away in another direction. Still, the Baas had said that he had his
+reasons, and that of course was enough for him, Hans, only if the Baas
+would condescend to tell him, he would as a matter of curiosity like to
+know what the reasons were.
+
+At that moment I confess that, much as I was attached to him, I should
+have liked to murder Hans, who, I felt, believing that he had me "on
+toast," to use a vulgar phrase, was taking advantage of my position to
+make a mock of me in his sly, Hottentot way.
+
+I tried to continue to look grand, but felt that the attitude did
+not impress. Then I stared about me as though taking counsel with the
+Heavens, devoutly hoping that the Heavens would respond to my mute
+appeal. As a matter of fact they did.
+
+"There is my reason, Hans," I said in my most icy voice, and I pointed
+to a faint line of smoke rising against the twilight sky on the further
+side of the intervening valley.
+
+"You will perceive, Hans," I added, "that those Amahagger cannibals have
+forgotten their caution and lit a fire yonder, which they have not done
+for a long time. Perhaps you would like to know why this has happened.
+If so I will tell you. It is because for some days past I have purposely
+lost their spoor, which they knew we were following, and lit fires to
+puzzle them. Now, thinking that they have done with us, they have become
+incautious and shown us where they are. That is my reason, Hans."
+
+He heard and, although of course he did not believe that I had lost the
+spoor on purpose, stared at me till I thought his little eyes were going
+to drop out of his head. But even in his admiration he contrived to
+convey an insult as only a native can.
+
+"How wonderful is the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, that it
+should have been able thus to instruct the Baas," he said. "Without
+doubt the Great Medicine is right and yonder those men-eaters are
+encamped, who might just as well as have been anywhere else within a
+hundred miles."
+
+"Drat the Great Medicine," I replied, but beneath my breath, then added
+aloud,
+
+"Be so good, Hans, as to go to Umslopogaas and to tell him that
+Macumazahn, or the Great Medicine, proposes to march at once to attack
+the camp of the Amahagger, and--here is some tobacco."
+
+"Yes, Baas," answered Hans humbly, as he snatched the tobacco and
+wriggled away like a worm.
+
+Then I went to talk with Robertson.
+
+The end of it was that within an hour we were creeping across that
+valley towards the spot where I had seen the line of smoke rising
+against the twilight sky.
+
+Somewhere about midnight we reached the neighbourhood of this place. How
+near or how far we were from it, we could not tell since the moon was
+invisible, as of course the smoke was in the dark. Now the question was,
+what should we do?
+
+Obviously there would be enormous advantages in a night attack, or at
+least in locating the enemy, so that it might be carried out at dawn
+before he marched. Especially was this so, since we were scarcely in a
+condition even if we could come face to face with them, to fight these
+savages when they were prepared and in the light of day. Only we two
+white men, with Hans, Umslopogaas and his Zulus, could be relied upon
+in such a case, since the Strathmuir mixed-bloods had become entirely
+demoralised and were not to be trusted at a pinch. Indeed, tired and
+half starving as we were, none of us was at his best. Therefore a
+surprise seemed our only chance. But first we must find those whom we
+wished to surprise.
+
+Ultimately, after a hurried consultation, it was agreed that Hans and
+I should go forward and see if we could locate the Amahagger. Robertson
+wished to come too, but I pointed out that he must remain to look after
+his people, who, if he left them, might take the opportunity to melt
+away in the darkness, especially as they knew that heavy fighting was
+at hand. Also if anything happened to me it was desirable that one white
+man should remain to lead the party. Umslopogaas, too, volunteered, but
+knowing his character, I declined his help. To tell the truth, I was
+almost certain that if we came upon the men-eaters, he would charge the
+whole lot of them and accomplish a fine but futile end after hacking
+down a number of cannibal barbarians, whose extinction or escape
+remained absolutely immaterial to our purpose, namely, the rescue of
+Inez.
+
+So it came about that Hans and I started alone, I not at all enjoying
+the job. I suppose that there lurks in my nature some of that primeval
+terror of the dark, which must continually have haunted our remote
+forefathers of a hundred or a thousand generations gone and still
+lingers in the blood of most of us. At any rate even if I am named the
+Watcher-by-Night, greatly do I prefer to fight or to face peril in the
+sunlight, though it is true that I would rather avoid both at any time.
+
+In fact, I wished heartily that the Amahagger were at the other side
+of Africa, or in heaven, and that I, completely ignorant of the person
+called Inez Robertson, were seated smoking the pipe of peace on my own
+stoep in Durban. I think that Hans guessed my state of mind, since
+he suggested that he should go alone, adding with his usual unveiled
+rudeness, that he was quite certain that he would do much better without
+me, since white men always made a noise.
+
+"Yes," I replied, determined to give him a Roland for his Oliver, "I
+have no doubt you would--under the first bush you came across, where you
+would sleep till dawn, and then return and say that you could not find
+the Amahagger."
+
+Hans chuckled, quite appreciating the joke, and having thus mutually
+affronted each other, we started on our quest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SWAMP
+
+Neither Hans nor I carried rifles that we knew would be in the way on
+our business, which was just to scout. Moreover, one is always tempted
+to shoot if a gun is at hand, and this I did not want to do at present.
+So, although I had my revolver in case of urgent necessity, my only
+other weapon was a Zulu axe, that formerly had belonged to one of those
+two men who died defending Inez on the veranda at Strathmuir, while Hans
+had nothing but his long knife. Thus armed, or unarmed, we crept forward
+towards that spot whence, as we conjectured, we had seen the line of
+smoke rising some hours before.
+
+For about a quarter of a mile we went on thus without seeing or hearing
+anything, and a difficult job it was in that gloom among the scattered
+trees with no light save such as the stars gave us. Indeed, I was about
+to suggest that we had better abandon the enterprise until daybreak when
+Hans nudged me, whispering,
+
+"Look to the right between those twin thorns."
+
+I obeyed and following the line of sight which he had indicated,
+perceived, at a distance of about two hundred yards a faint glow, so
+faint indeed that I think only Hans would have noticed it. Really it
+might have been nothing more than the phosphorescence rising from a heap
+of fungus, or even from a decaying animal.
+
+"The fire of which we saw the smoke that has burnt to ashes," whispered
+Hans again. "I think that they have gone, but let us look."
+
+So we crawled forward very cautiously to avoid making the slightest
+noise; so cautiously, indeed, that it must have taken us nearly half an
+hour to cover those two hundred yards.
+
+At length we were within about forty yards of that dying fire and,
+afraid to go further, came to a stand--or rather, a lie-still--behind
+some bushes until we knew more. Hans lifted his head and sniffed with
+his broad nostrils; then he whispered into my ear, but so low that I
+could scarcely hear him.
+
+"Amahagger there all right, Baas, I smell them."
+
+This of course was possible, since what wind there was blew from the
+direction of the fire, although I whose nose is fairly keen could smell
+nothing at all. So I determined to wait and watch a while, and indicated
+my decision to Hans, who, considering our purpose accomplished, showed
+signs of wishing to retreat.
+
+Some minutes we lay thus, till of a sudden this happened. A branch of
+resinous wood of which the stem had been eaten through by the flames,
+fell upon the ashes of the fire and burnt up with a brilliant light. In
+it we saw that the Amahagger were sleeping in a circle round the fire
+wrapped in their blankets.
+
+Also we saw another thing, namely that nearer to us, not more than a
+dozen yards away, indeed, was a kind of little tent, also made of fur
+rugs or blankets, which doubtless sheltered Inez. Indeed, this was
+evident from the fact that at the mouth of it, wrapped up in something,
+lay none other than her maid, Janee, for her face being towards us, was
+recognised by us both in the flare of the flaming branch. One more thing
+we noted, namely, that two of the cannibals, evidently a guard, were
+sleeping between us and the little tent. Of course they ought to have
+been awake, but fatigue had overcome them and there they slumbered,
+seated on the ground, their heads hanging forward almost upon their
+knees.
+
+An idea came to me. If we could kill those men without waking the others
+in that gloom, it might be possible to rescue Inez at once. Rapidly I
+weighed the _pros_ and _cons_ of such an attempt. Its advantages, if
+successful, were that the object of our pursuit would be carried through
+without further trouble and that it was most doubtful whether we should
+ever get such a chance again. If we returned to fetch the others and
+attacked in force, the probability was that those Amahagger, or one of
+them, would hear some sound made by the advance of a number of men, and
+fly into the darkness; or, rather than lose Inez, they might kill her.
+Or if they stood and fought, she might be slain in the scrimmage. Or,
+as after all we had only about a dozen effectives, for the Strathmuir
+bearers could not be relied upon, they might defeat and kill us whom
+they outnumbered by two or three to one.
+
+These were the arguments for the attempt. Those for not making it were
+equally obvious. To begin with it was one of extraordinary risk; the two
+guards or someone else behind them might wake up--for such people, like
+dogs, mostly sleep with one eye open, especially when they knew that
+they are being pursued. Or if they did not we might bungle the business
+so that they raised an outcry before they grew silent for ever, in which
+case both of us and perhaps Inez also would probably pay the penalty
+before we could get away.
+
+Such was the horned dilemma upon one point or other of which we ran the
+risk of being impaled. For a full minute or more I considered the matter
+with an earnestness almost amounting to mental agony, and at last all
+but came to the conclusion that the danger was too enormous. It would be
+better, notwithstanding the many disadvantages of that plan, to go back
+and fetch the others.
+
+But then it was that I made one of my many mistakes in life. Most of
+us do more foolish things than wise ones and sometimes I think that
+in spite of a certain reputation for caution and far-sightedness, I am
+exceptionally cursed in this respect. Indeed, when I look back upon my
+past, I can scarcely see the scanty flowers of wisdom that decorate
+its path because of the fat, ugly trees of error by which it is
+overshadowed.
+
+On that occasion, forgetting past experiences where Hans was concerned,
+my natural tendency to blunder took the form of relying upon another's
+judgment instead of on my own. Although I had formed a certain view as
+to what should be done, the _pros_ and _cons_ seemed so evenly balanced
+that I determined to consult the little Hottentot and accept his
+verdict. This, after all, was but a form of gambling like pitch and
+toss, since, although it is true Hans was a clever, or at any rate a
+cunning man according to his lights, and experienced, it meant that
+I was placing my own judgment in abeyance, which no one considering
+a life-and-death enterprise should do, taking the chance of that of
+another, whatever it might be. However, not for the first time, I did
+so--to my grief.
+
+In the tiniest of whispers with my lips right against his smelly head, I
+submitted the problem to Hans, asking him what we should do, go on or go
+back. He considered a while, then answered in a voice which he contrived
+to make like the drone of a night beetle.
+
+"Those men are fast asleep, I know it by their breathing. Also the Baas
+has the Great Medicine. Therefore I say go on, kill them and rescue
+Sad-Eyes."
+
+Now I saw that the Fates to which I had appealed had decided against me
+and that I must accept their decree. With a sick and sinking heart--for
+I did not at all like the business--I wondered for a moment what had
+led Hans to take this view, which was directly opposite to any I had
+expected from him. Of course his superstition about the Great Medicine
+had something to do with it, but I felt convinced that this was not all.
+
+Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him, of which
+the first was that he desired, if possible, to put an end to this
+intolerable and unceasing hunt which had worn us all out, no matter
+what that end might be. The second and more powerful, however, was, I
+believed, and rightly, that the idea of this stealthy, midnight blow
+appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild nature in which the
+strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with that of the
+human being. For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer of
+civilisation, Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages had
+preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems.
+
+The die having been cast, in the same infinitesimal whispers we made our
+arrangements, which were few and simple. They amounted to this--that
+we were to creep on to the men and each of us to kill that one who was
+opposite to him, I with the axe and Hans with his knife, remembering
+that it must be done with a single stroke--that is, if they did not
+wake up and kill us--after which we were to get Inez out of her shelter,
+dressed or undressed, and make off with her into the darkness where we
+were pretty sure of being able to baffle pursuit until we reached our
+own camp.
+
+Provided that we could kill the two guards in the proper fashion--rather
+a large proviso, I admit--the thing was simple as shelling peas which,
+notwithstanding the proverb, in my experience is not simple at all,
+since generally the shells crack the wrong way and at least one of the
+peas remained in the pod. So it happened in this case, for Janee, whom
+we had both forgotten, remained in the pod.
+
+I am sure I don't know why we overlooked her; indeed, the error was
+inexcusable, especially as Hans had already experienced her foolishness
+and she was lying there before our eyes. I suppose that our minds were
+so concentrated upon the guard-killing and the tragic and impressive
+Inez that there was no room in them for the stolid and matter-of-fact
+Janee. At any rate she proved to be the pea that would not come out of
+the pod.
+
+Often in my life I have felt terrified, not being by nature one of those
+who rejoices in dangers and wild adventures for their own sake, which
+only the stupid do, but who has, on the contrary, been forced to
+undertake them by the pressure of circumstances, a kind of hydraulic
+force that no one can resist, and who, having undertaken, has been
+carried through them, triumphing over the shrinkings of his flesh by
+some secret reserve of nerve power. Almost am I tempted to call it
+spirit-power, something that lives beyond and yet inspires our frail and
+fallible bodies.
+
+Well, rarely have I been more frightened than I was at this moment.
+Actually I hung back until I saw that Hans slithering through the grass
+like a thick yellow snake with the great knife in his right hand,
+was quite a foot ahead of me. Then my pride came to the rescue and I
+spurted, if one can spurt upon one's stomach, and drew level with him.
+After this we went at a pace so slow that any able-bodied snail would
+have left us standing still. Inch by inch we crept forward, lying
+motionless a while after each convulsive movement, once for quite a
+long time, since the left-hand cannibal seemed about to wake up, for he
+opened his mouth and yawned. If so, he changed his mind and rolling from
+a sitting posture on to his side, went to sleep much more soundly than
+before.
+
+A minute or so later the right-hand ruffian, my man, also stirred, so
+sharply that I thought he had heard something. Apparently, however, he
+was only haunted by dreams resulting from an evil life, or perhaps
+by the prescience of its end, for after waving his arm and muttering
+something in a frightened voice, he too, wearied out, poor devil, sank
+back into sleep.
+
+At last we were on them, but paused because we could not see exactly
+where to strike and knew, each of us, that our first blow must be the
+last and fatal. A cloud had come up and dimmed what light there was, and
+we must wait for it to pass. It was a long wait, or so it seemed.
+
+At length that cloud did pass and in faint outline I saw the classical
+head of my Amahagger bowed in deep sleep. With a heart beating as it
+does only in the fierce extremities of love or war, I hissed like a
+snake, which was our agreed signal. Then rising to my knees, I lifted
+the Zulu axe and struck with all my strength.
+
+The blow was straight and true; Umslopogaas himself could not have
+dealt a better. The victim in front of me uttered no sound and made
+no movement; only sank gently on to his side, and there lay as dead as
+though he had never been born.
+
+It appeared that Hans had done equally well, since the other man kicked
+out his long legs, which struck me on the knees. Then he also became
+strangely still. In short, both of them were stone dead and would tell
+no stories this side of Judgment Day.
+
+Recovering my axe, which had been wrenched from my hand, I crept forward
+and opened the curtain-like rugs or blankets, I do not know which they
+were, that covered Inez. I heard her stir at once. The movement had
+wakened her, since captives sleep lightly.
+
+"Make no noise, Inez," I whispered. "It is I, Allan Quatermain, come to
+rescue you. Slip out and follow me; do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, quite," she whispered back and began to rise.
+
+At this moment a blood-curdling yell seemed to fill earth and heaven, a
+yell at the memory of which even now I feel faint, although I am writing
+years after its echoes died away.
+
+I may as well say at once that it came from Janee who, awaking suddenly,
+had perceived against the background of the sky, Hans standing over her,
+looking like a yellow devil with a long knife in his hand, which she
+thought was about to be used to murder her.
+
+So, lacking self-restraint, she screamed in the most lusty fashion, for
+her lungs were excellent, and--the game was up.
+
+Instantly every man sleeping round the fire leapt to his feet and rushed
+in the direction of the echoes of Janee's yell. It was impossible to get
+Inez free of her tent arrangement or to do anything, except whisper to
+her,
+
+"Feign sleep and know nothing. We will follow you. Your father is with
+us."
+
+Then I bolted back into the bushes, which Hans had reached already.
+
+A minute or two later when we were clear of the hubbub and nearing our
+own camp, Hans remarked to me sententiously,
+
+"The Great Medicine worked well, Baas, but not quite well enough, for
+what medicine can avail against a woman's folly?"
+
+"It was our own folly we should blame," I answered. "We ought to have
+known that fool-girl would shriek, and taken precautions."
+
+"Yes, Baas, we ought to have killed her too, for nothing else would have
+kept her quiet," replied Hans in cheerful assent. "Now we shall have to
+pay for our mistake, for the hunt must go on."
+
+At this moment we stumbled across Robertson and Umslopogaas who, with
+the others, and every living thing within a mile or two had also heard
+Janee's yell, and briefly told our story. When he learned how near we
+had been to rescuing his daughter, Robertson groaned, but Umslopogaas
+only said,
+
+"Well, there are two less of the men-eaters left to deal with. Still,
+for once your wisdom failed you, Macumazahn. When you had found the camp
+you should have returned, so that we might all attack it together. Had
+we done so, before the dawn there would not have been one of them left."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "I think that my wisdom did fail me, if I have any to
+fail. But come; perhaps we may catch them yet."
+
+So we advanced, Hans and I showing the road. But when we reached the
+place it was too late, for all that remained of the Amahagger, or of
+Inez and Janee, were the two dead men whom we had killed, and in that
+darkness pursuit was impossible. So we went back to our own camp to rest
+and await the dawn before taking up the trail, only to find ourselves
+confronted with a new trouble. All the Strathmuir half-breeds whom we
+had left behind as useless, had taken advantage of our absence and that
+of the Zulus, to desert. They had just bolted back upon our tracks and
+vanished into the sea of bush. What became of them I do not know, as we
+never saw them again, but my belief is that these cowardly fellows all
+perished, for certainly not one of them reached Strathmuir.
+
+Fortunately for us, however, they departed in such a hurry that they
+left all their loads behind them, and even some of the guns they
+carried. Evidently Janee's yell was the last straw which broke the back
+of such nerve as remained to them. Doubtless they believed it to be the
+signal of attack by hordes of cannibals.
+
+As there was nothing to said or done, since any pursuit of these curs
+was out of the question, we made the best of things as they were. It
+proved a simple business. From the loads we selected such articles as
+were essential, ammunition for the most part, to carry ourselves--and
+the rest we abandoned, hiding it under a pile of stones in case we
+should ever come that way again.
+
+The guns they had thrown aside we distributed among the Zulus who had
+none, though the thought that they possessed them, so far as I was
+concerned, added another terror to life. The prospect of going into
+battle with those wild axemen letting off bullets in every direction was
+not pleasant, but fortunately when that crisis came, they cast them away
+and reverted to the weapons to which they were accustomed.
+
+Now all this sounds much like a tale of disaster, or at any rate of
+failure. It is, however, wonderful by what strange ways good results
+are brought about, so much so that at times I think that these seeming
+accidents must be arranged by an Intelligence superior to our own, to
+fulfil through us purposes of which we know nothing, and frequently,
+be it admitted, of a nature sufficiently obscure. Of course this is a
+fatalistic doctrine, but then, as I have said before, within certain
+limits I am a fatalist.
+
+To take the present case, for instance, the whole Inez episode at first
+sight might appear to be an excrescence on my narrative, of which the
+object is to describe how I met a certain very wonderful woman and what
+I heard and experienced in her company. Yet it is not really so, since
+had it not been for the Inez adventure, it is quite clear that I should
+never have reached the home of this woman, if woman she were, or have
+seen her at all. Before long this became very obvious to me, as shall be
+told.
+
+From the night upon which Hans and I failed to rescue Inez we had
+no more difficulty in following the trail of the cannibals, who
+thenceforward were never more than a few hours ahead of us and had no
+time to be careful or to attempt to hide their spoor. Yet so fast did
+they travel that do what we would, burdened and wearied as we were, it
+proved impossible to overtake them.
+
+For the first three days the track ran on through scattered, rolling
+bush-veld of the character that I have described, but tending
+continually down hill. When we broke camp on the morning of the fourth
+day, eating a hasty meal at dawn (for now game had become astonishingly
+plentiful, so that we did not lack food) the rising sun showed beneath
+us an endless sea of billowy mist stretching in every direction far as
+the sight could carry.
+
+To the north, however, it did come to an end, for there, as I judged
+fifty or sixty miles away, rose the grim outline of what looked like a
+huge fortress, which I knew must be one of those extraordinary mountain
+formations, probably owing their origin to volcanic action, that are to
+be met with here and there in the vast expanses of Central and Eastern
+Africa. Being so distant it was impossible to estimate its size, which
+I guessed must be enormous, but in looking at it I bethought me of that
+great mountain in which Zikali said the marvellous white Queen lived,
+and wondered whether it could be the same, as from my memory of his map
+upon the ashes, it well might be, that is, if such a place existed
+at all. If so the map had shown it as surrounded by swamps and--well,
+surely that mist hid the face of a mighty swamp?
+
+It did indeed, since before nightfall, following the spoor of those
+Amahagger, we had plunged into a morass so vast that in all my
+experience I have never seen or heard of its like. It was a veritable
+ocean of papyrus and other reeds, some of them a dozen or more feet
+high, so that it was impossible to see a yard in any direction.
+
+Here it was that the Amahagger ahead of us proved our salvation, since
+without them to guide us we must soon have perished. For through that
+gigantic swamp there ran a road, as I think an ancient road, since in
+one or two places I saw stone work which must have been laid by man. Yet
+it was not a road which it would have been possible to follow without
+a guide, seeing that it also was overgrown with reeds. Indeed, the only
+difference between it and the surrounding swamp was that on the road
+the soil was comparatively firm, that is to say, one seldom sank into
+it above the knee, whereas on either side of it quagmires were often
+apparently bottomless, and what is more, partook of the nature of
+quicksand.
+
+This we found out soon after we entered the swamp, since Robertson,
+pushing forward with the fierce eagerness which seemed to consume him,
+neglected to keep his eye upon the spoor and stepped off the edge on to
+land that appeared to be exactly similar to its surface. Instantly he
+began to sink in greasy and tenacious mud. Umslopogaas and I were only
+twenty yards behind, yet by the time we reached him in answer to his
+shouts, already he was engulfed up to his middle and going down so
+rapidly that in another minute he would have vanished altogether. Well,
+we got him out but not with ease, for that mud clung to him like the
+tentacles of an octopus. After this we were more careful.
+
+Nor did this road run straight; on the contrary, it curved about and
+sometimes turned at right angles, doubtless to avoid a piece of swamp
+over which it had proved impossible for the ancients to construct a
+causeway, or to follow some out-crop of harder soil beneath.
+
+The difficulties of that horrible place are beyond description, and
+indeed can scarcely be imagined. First there was that of a kind of grass
+which grew among the roots of the reeds and had edges like to those of
+knives. As Robertson and I wore gaiters we did not suffer so much from
+it, but the poor Zulus with their bare legs were terribly cut about and
+in some cases lame.
+
+Then there were the mosquitoes which lived here by the million and all
+seemed anxious for a bite; also snakes of a peculiarly deadly kind were
+numerous. A Zulu was bitten by one of them of so poisonous a nature that
+he died within three minutes, for the venom seemed to go straight to his
+heart. We threw his body into the swamp, where it vanished at once.
+
+Lastly there was the all-pervading stench and the intolerable heat of
+the place, since no breath of air could penetrate that forest of
+reeds, while a minor trouble was that of the multitude of leeches
+which fastened on to our bodies. By looking one could see the creatures
+sitting on the under side of leaves with their heads stretched out
+waiting to attack anything that went by. As wayfarers there could not
+have been numerous, I wondered what they had lived on for the last few
+thousand years. By the way, I found that paraffin, of which we had a
+small supply for our hand-lamps, rubbed over all exposed surfaces, was
+to some extent a protection against these blood-sucking worms and the
+gnats, although it did make one go about smelling like a dirty oil tin.
+
+During the day, except for the occasional rush of some great iguana
+or other reptile, and the sound of the wings of the flocks of wildfowl
+passing over us from time to time, the march was deathly silent. But at
+night it was different, for then the bull-frogs boomed incessantly, as
+did the bitterns, while great swamp owls and other night-flying birds
+uttered their weird cries. Also there were mysterious sucking noises
+caused, no doubt, by the sinking of areas of swamp, with those of
+bursting bubbles of foul, up-rushing gas.
+
+Strange lights, too, played about, will-o'-the-wisps or St. Elmo fires,
+as I believe they are called, that frightened the Zulus very much, since
+they believed them to be spirits of the dead. Perhaps this superstition
+had something to do with their native legend that mankind was "torn out
+of the reeds." If so, they may have imagined that the ghosts of men went
+back to the reeds, of which there were enough here to accommodate those
+of the entire Zulu nation. Any way they were much scared; even the bold
+witch-doctor, Goroko, was scared and went through incantations with the
+little bag of medicines he carried to secure protection for himself and
+his companions. Indeed, I think even the iron Umslopogaas himself was
+not as comfortable as he might have been, although he did inform me that
+he had come out to fight and did not care whether it were with man, or
+wizard, or spirit.
+
+In short, of all the journeys that I have made, with the exception of
+the passage of the desert on our way to King Solomon's Mines, I think
+that through this enormous swamp was the most miserable. Heartily did I
+curse myself for ever having undertaken such a quest in a wild attempt
+to allay that sickness, or rather to quench that thirst of the soul
+which, I imagine, at times assails most of those who have hearts and
+think or dream.
+
+For this was at the bottom of the business: this it was which had
+delivered me into the hands of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, who, as now I
+am sure, was merely making use of me for his private occult purposes. He
+desired to consult the distant Oracle, if such a person existed, as to
+great schemes of his own, and therefore, to attain his end, made use
+of my secret longings which I had been so foolish as to reveal to him,
+quite careless of what happened to me in the process. [A bit narrow and
+uncharitable, this view. It seems to me that Zikali is taking a big risk
+in giving him the Great Medicine.--JB]
+
+Well, I was in for the business and must follow it to the finish
+whatever that might be. After all it was very interesting and if
+there were anything in what Zikali said (if there were not I could not
+conceive what object he had in sending me on such a wild-goose chase
+through this home of geese and ducks), it might become more interesting
+still. For being pretty well fever-proof I did not think I should die
+in that morass, as of course nine white men out of ten would have done,
+and, beyond it lay the huge mountain which day by day grew larger and
+clearer.
+
+Nor did Hans, who, with a childlike trust, pinned his faith to the Great
+Medicine. This, he remarked, was the worst veld through which he had
+ever travelled, but as the Great Medicine would never consent to be
+buried in that stinking mud, he had no doubt that we should come safely
+through it some time. I replied that this wonderful medicine of his had
+not saved one of our companions who had now made a grave in the same
+mud.
+
+"No, Baas," he said, "but those Zulus have nothing to do with the
+Medicine which was given to you, and to me who accompanied you when we
+saw the Opener-of-Roads. Therefore perhaps they will all die, except
+Umslopogaas, whom you were told to take with you. If so, what does
+it matter, since there are plenty of Zulus, although there be but one
+Macumazahn or one Hans? Also the Baas may remember that he began by
+offending a snake and therefore it is quite natural that this snake's
+brother should have bitten the Zulu."
+
+"If you are right, he should have bitten me, Hans."
+
+"Yes, Baas, and so no doubt he would have done had you not been
+protected by the Great Medicine, and me too had not my grandfather been
+a snake-charmer, to say nothing of the smell of the Medicine being on me
+as well. The snakes know those that they should bite, Baas."
+
+"So do the mosquitoes," I answered, grabbing a handful of them. "The
+Great Medicine has no effect upon them."
+
+"Oh! yes, Baas, it has, since though it pleases them to bite, the bites
+do us no harm, or at least not much, and all are made happy. Still,
+I wish we could get out of these reeds of which I never want to see
+another, and Baas, please keep your rifle ready for I think I hear a
+crocodile stirring there."
+
+"No need, Hans," I remarked sarcastically. "Go and tell him that I have
+the Great Medicine."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I will; also that if he is very hungry, there are some Zulus
+camped a few yards further down the road," and he went solemnly to the
+reeds a little way off and began to talk to them.
+
+"You infernal donkey!" I murmured, and drew my blanket over my head in
+a vain attempt to keep out the mosquitoes and smoking furiously with the
+same object, tried to get to sleep.
+
+
+
+At last the swamp bottom began to slope upwards a little, with the
+result that as the land dried through natural drainage, the reeds grew
+thinner by degrees, until finally they ceased and we found ourselves on
+firmer ground; indeed, upon the lowest slopes of the great mountain that
+I have mentioned, that now towered above us, forbidden and majestic.
+
+I had made a little map in my pocket-book of the various twists and
+turns of the road through that vast Slough of Despond, marking them from
+hour to hour as we followed its devious wanderings. On studying this
+at the end of that part of our journey I realised afresh how utterly
+impossible it would have been for us to thread that misty maze where a
+few false steps would always have meant death by suffocation, had it not
+been for the spoor of those Amahagger travelling immediately ahead of us
+who were acquainted with its secrets. Had they been friendly guides they
+could not have done us a better turn.
+
+What I wondered was why they had not tried to ambush us in the reeds,
+since our fires must have shown them that we were close upon their
+heels. That they did try to burn us out was clear from certain evidences
+that I found, but fortunately at this season of the year in the absence
+of a strong wind the rank reeds were too green to catch fire. For the
+rest I was soon to learn the reason of their neglect to attack us in
+that dense cover.
+
+They were waiting for a better opportunity!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ATTACK
+
+We won out of the reeds at last, for which I fervently thanked God,
+since to have crossed that endless marsh unguided, with the loss of only
+one man, seemed little less than miraculous. We emerged from them late
+in the afternoon and being wearied out, stopped for a while to rest and
+eat of the flesh of a buck that I had been fortunate enough to shoot
+upon their fringe. Then we pushed forward up the slope, proposing to
+camp for the night on the crest of it a mile or so away where I thought
+we should escape from the deadly mist in which we had been enveloped for
+so long, and obtain a clear view of the country ahead.
+
+Following the bank of a stream which here ran down into the marsh, we
+came at length to this crest just as the sun was sinking. Below us lay
+a deep valley, a fold, as it were, in the skin of the mountain, well
+but not densely bushed. The woods of this valley climbed up the mountain
+flank for some distance above it and then gave way to grassy slopes that
+ended in steep sides of rock, which were crowned by a black and frowning
+precipice of unknown height.
+
+There was, I remember, something very impressive about this towering
+natural wall, which seemed to shut off whatever lay beyond the gaze of
+man, as though it veiled an ancient mystery. Indeed, the aspect of it
+thrilled me, I knew not why. I observed, however, that at one point in
+the mighty cliff there seemed to be a narrow cleft down which, no doubt,
+lava had flowed in a remote age, and it occurred to me that up this
+cleft ran a roadway, probably a continuation of that by which we had
+threaded the swamp. The fact that through my glasses I could see herds
+of cattle grazing on the slopes of the mountain went to confirm this
+view, since cattle imply owners and herdsmen, and search as I would, I
+could find no native villages on the slopes. The inference seemed to be
+that those owners dwelt beyond or within the mountain.
+
+All of these things I saw and pointed out to Robertson in the light of
+the setting sun.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas had been engaged in selecting the spot where we
+were to camp for the night. Some soldierlike instinct, or perchance some
+prescience of danger, caused him to choose a place particularly suitable
+to defence. It was on a steep-sided mound that more or less resembled a
+gigantic ant-heap. Upon one side this mound was protected by the stream
+which because of a pool was here rather deep, while at the back of it
+stood a collection of those curious and piled-up water-worn rocks that
+are often to be found in Africa. These rocks, lying one upon another
+like the stones of a Cyclopean wall, curved round the western side of
+the mound, so that practically it was only open for a narrow space,
+say thirty or forty feet, upon that face of it which looked on to the
+mountain.
+
+"Umslopogaas expects battle," remarked Hans to me with a grin,
+"otherwise with all this nice plain round us he would not have chosen to
+camp in a place which a few men could hold against many. Yes, Baas, he
+thinks that those cannibals are going to attack us."
+
+"Stranger things have happened," I answered indifferently, and having
+seen to the rifles, went to lie down, observing as I did so that the
+tired Zulus seemed already to be asleep. Only Umslopogaas did not sleep.
+On the contrary, he stood leaning on his axe staring at the dim outlines
+of the opposing precipice.
+
+"A strange mountain, Macumazahn," he said, "compared to it that of the
+Witch, beneath which my kraal lies, is but a little baby. I wonder what
+we shall find within it. I have always loved mountains, Macumazahn, ever
+since a dead brother of mine and I lived with the wolves in the Witch's
+lap, for on them I have had the best of my fighting."
+
+"Perhaps it is not done with yet," I answered wearily.
+
+"I hope not, Macumazahn, since some is due for us, after all these days
+of mud and stench. Sleep a while now, Macumazahn, for that head of yours
+which you use so much, must need rest. Fear not, I and the little yellow
+man who do not think as much as you do, will keep watch and wake you if
+there is need, as mayhap there will be before the dawn. Here none can
+come at us except in front, and the place is narrow."
+
+So I lay down and slept as soundly as ever I had done in my life, for a
+space of four or five hours I suppose. Then, by some instinct perhaps, I
+awoke suddenly, feeling much refreshed in that sweet mountain air, a new
+man indeed, and in the moonlight saw Umslopogaas striding towards me.
+
+"Arise, Macumazahn," he said, "I hear men stirring below us."
+
+At this moment Hans slipped past him, whispering,
+
+"The cannibals are coming, Baas, a good number of them. I think they
+mean to attack before dawn."
+
+Then he passed behind me to warn the Zulus. As he went by, I said to
+him,
+
+"If so, Hans, now is the time for your Great Medicine to show what it
+can do."
+
+"The Great Medicine will look after you and me all right, Baas," he
+replied, pausing and speaking in Dutch, which Umslopogaas did not
+understand, "but I expect there will be fewer of those Zulus to cook for
+before the sun grows hot. Their spirits will be turned into snakes and
+go back into the reeds from which they say they were 'torn out,'" he
+added over his shoulder.
+
+I should explain that Hans acted as cook to our party and it was a
+grievance with him that the Zulus ate so much of the meat which he was
+called upon to prepare. Indeed, there is never much sympathy between
+Hottentots and Zulus.
+
+"What is the little yellow man saying about us?" asked Umslopogaas
+suspiciously.
+
+"He is saying that if it comes to battle, you and your men will make a
+great fight," I replied diplomatically.
+
+"Yes, we will do that, Macumazahn, but I thought he said that we should
+be killed and that this pleased him."
+
+"Oh dear no!" I answered hastily. "How could he be pleased if that
+happened, since then he would be left defenceless, if he were not killed
+too. Now, Umslopogaas, let us make a plan for this fight."
+
+So, together with Robertson, rapidly we discussed the thing. As a
+result, with the help of the Zulus, we dragged together some loose
+stones and the tops of three small thorn trees which we had cut
+down, and with them made a low breastwork, sufficient to give us some
+protection if we lay down to shoot. It was the work of a few minutes
+since we had prepared the material when we camped in case an emergency
+should arise.
+
+Behind this breastwork we gathered and waited, Robertson and I being
+careful to get a little to the rear of the Zulus, who it will be
+remembered had the rifles which the Strathmuir bastards had left behind
+them when they bolted, in addition to their axes and throwing assegais.
+The question was how these cannibals would fight. I knew that they were
+armed with long spears and knives but I did not know if they used those
+spears for thrusting or for throwing. In the former case it would be
+difficult to get at them with the axes because they must have the longer
+reach. Fortunately as it turned out, they did both.
+
+At length all was ready and there came that long and trying wait, the
+most disagreeable part of a fight in which one grows nervous and begins
+to reflect earnestly upon one's sins. Clearly the Amahagger, if they
+really intended business, did not mean to attack till just before dawn,
+after the common native fashion, thinking to rush us in the low and
+puzzling light. What perplexed me was that they should wish to attack
+us at all after having let so many opportunities of doing so go by.
+Apparently these men were now in sight of their own home, where no doubt
+they had many friends, and by pushing on could reach its shelter before
+us, especially as they knew the roads and we did not.
+
+They had come out for a secret purpose that seemed to have to do with
+the abduction of a certain young white woman for reasons connected
+with their tribal statecraft or ritual, which is the kind of thing that
+happens not infrequently among obscure and ancient African tribes. Well,
+they had abducted their young woman and were in sight of safety and
+success in their objects, whatever these might be. For what possible
+reason, then, could they desire to risk a fight with the outraged
+friends and relatives of that young woman?
+
+It was true that they outnumbered us and therefore had a good chance
+of victory, but on the other hand, they must know that it would be very
+dearly won, and if it were not won, that we should retake their captive,
+so that all their trouble would have been for nothing. Further they must
+be as exhausted and travel-worn as we were ourselves and in no condition
+to face a desperate battle.
+
+The problem was beyond me and I gave it up with the reflection that
+either this threatened attack was a mere feint to delay us, or that
+behind it was something mysterious, such as a determination to prevent
+us at all hazards from discovering the secrets of that mountain
+stronghold.
+
+When I put the riddle to Hans, who was lying next to me, he was ready
+with another solution.
+
+"They are men-eaters, Baas," he said, "and being hungry, wish to eat us
+before they get to their own land where doubtless they are not allowed
+to eat each other."
+
+"Do you think so," I answered, "when we are so thin?" and I surveyed
+Hans' scraggy form in the moonlight.
+
+"Oh! yes, Baas, we should be quite good boiled--like old hens, Baas.
+Also it is the nature of cannibals to prefer thin man to fat beef. The
+devil that is in them gives them that taste, Baas, just as he makes me
+like gin, or you turn your head to look at pretty women, as those Zulus
+say you always did in their country, especially at a certain witch who
+was named Mameena and whom you kissed before everybody----"
+
+Here I turned my head to look at Hans, proposing to smite him with
+words, or physically, since to have this Mameena myth, of which I have
+detailed the origin in the book called _Child of Storm_, re-arise out
+of his hideous little mouth was too much. But before I could get out a
+syllable he held up his finger and whispered,
+
+"Hush! the dawn breaks and they come. I hear them."
+
+I listened intently but could distinguish nothing. Only straining my
+eyes, presently I thought that about a hundred yards down the slope
+beneath us in the dim light I caught sight of ghostlike figures flitting
+from tree to tree; also that these figures were drawing nearer.
+
+"Look out!" I said to Robertson on my right, "I believe they are
+coming."
+
+"Man," he answered sternly, "I hope so, for whom else have I wanted to
+meet all these days?"
+
+Now the figures vanished into a little fold of the ground. A minute or
+so later they re-appeared upon its hither side where such light as there
+was from the fading stars and the gathering dawn fell full upon them,
+for here were no trees. I looked and a thrill of horror went through me,
+for with one glance I recognised that these were _not the men whom we
+had been following_. To begin with, there were many more of them, quite
+a hundred, I should think, also they had painted shields, wore feathers
+in their hair, and generally so far as I could judge, seemed to be fat
+and fresh.
+
+"We have been led into an ambush," I said first in Zulu to Umslopogaas
+immediately in front, and then in English to Robertson.
+
+"If so, man, we must just do the best we can," answered the latter, "but
+God help my poor daughter, for those other devils will have taken her
+away, leaving their brethren to make an end of us."
+
+"It is so, Macumazahn," broke in Umslopogaas. "Well, whatever the end of
+it, we shall have a better fight. Now do you give the word and we will
+obey."
+
+The savages, for so I call them, although I admit that cannibals or not,
+they looked more like high-class Arabs than savages, came on in perfect
+silence, hoping, I suppose, to catch us asleep. When they were about
+fifty yards away, running in a treble line with spears advanced, I
+called out "Fire!" in Zulu, and set the example by loosing off both
+barrels of my express rifle at men whom I had picked out as leaders,
+with results that must have been more satisfactory to me than to the two
+Amahagger whose troubles in this world came to an end.
+
+There followed a tremendous fusillade, the Zulus banging off their guns
+wildly, but even at that distance managing for the most part to shoot
+over the enemy's heads. Captain Robertson and Hans, however, did better
+and the general result was that the Amahagger, who appeared to be
+unaccustomed to firearms, retreated in a hurry to a fold of the ground
+whence they had emerged. Before the last of them got there I loaded
+again, so that two more stopped behind. Altogether we had put nine or
+ten of them out of action.
+
+Now I hoped that they would give the business up. But this was not so,
+for being brave fellows, after a pause of perhaps five minutes, once
+more they charged in a body, hoping to overwhelm us. Again we greeted
+them with bullets and knocked out several, whereon the rest threw
+a volley of their long spears at us. I was glad to see them do this
+although one of the Zulus got his death from it, while two more were
+wounded. I myself had a very narrow escape, for a spear passed between
+my neck and shoulder. Each of them carried but one of these weapons
+and I knew that if they used them up in throwing, only their big knives
+would remain to them with which to attack us.
+
+After this discharge of spears which was kept up for some time, they
+rushed at us and there followed a great fight. The Zulus, throwing down
+their guns, rose to their feet and holding their little fighting shields
+which had been carried in their mats, in the left hand, wielded their
+axes with the right. Umslopogaas, who stood in the centre of them,
+however, had no shield and swung his great axe with both arms. This was
+the first time that I had seen him fight and the spectacle was in a way
+magnificent. Again and again the axe crashed down and every time it
+fell it left one dead beneath the stroke, till at length those Amahagger
+shrank back out of his reach.
+
+Meanwhile Robertson, Hans and I, standing on some stones at the back,
+kept up a continual fire upon them, shooting over the heads of the
+Zulus, who were playing their part like men. Yes, they shrank back,
+leaving many dead behind them. Then a captain tried to gather them for
+another rush, and once more they moved forward. I killed that captain
+with a revolver shot, for my rifle had become too hot to hold, and at
+the sight of his fall, they broke and ran back into the little hollow
+where our bullets could not reach them.
+
+So far we had held our own, but at a price, for three of the Zulus were
+now dead and three more wounded, one of them severely, the other two but
+enough to cripple them. In fact, now there were left of them but three
+untouched men, and Umslopogaas, so that in all for fighting purposes
+we were but seven. What availed it that we had killed a great number of
+these Amahagger, when we were but seven? How could seven men withstand
+such another onslaught?
+
+There in the pale light of the dawn we looked at each other dismayed.
+
+"Now," said Umslopogaas, leaning on his red axe, "there remains but one
+thing to do, make a good end, though I would that it were in a greater
+cause. At least we must either fight or fly," and he looked down at the
+wounded.
+
+"Think not of us, Father," murmured one of them, the man who had a
+mortal hurt. "If it is best, kill us and begone that you may live to
+bear the Axe in years to come."
+
+"Well spoken!" said Umslopogaas, and again stood still a while, then
+added, "The word is with you, Macumazahn, who are our captain."
+
+I set out the situation to Robertson and Hans as briefly as I could,
+showing that there was a chance of life if we ran, but so far as I could
+see, none if we stayed.
+
+"Go if you like, Quatermain," answered the Captain, "but I shall stop
+and die here, for since my girl is gone I think I'm better dead."
+
+I motioned to Hans to speak.
+
+"Baas," he answered, "the Great Medicine is here with us upon the earth
+and your reverend father, the Predikant, is with us in the sky, so I
+think we had better stop here and do what we can, especially as I do not
+want to see those reeds any more at present."
+
+"So do I," I said briefly, giving no reasons.
+
+So we made ready for the next attack which we knew would be the last,
+strengthening our little wall and dragging the dead Amahagger up against
+it as an added protection. As we were thus engaged the sun rose and in
+its first beams, some miles away on the opposing slopes of the mountain
+looking tiny against the black background of the precipice, we saw
+a party of men creeping forward. Lifting my glasses I studied it and
+perceived that in its midst was a litter.
+
+"There goes your daughter," I said, and handed the glasses to Robertson.
+
+"Oh! my God," he answered, "those villains have outwitted us after all."
+
+Another minute and the litter, or rather the chair with its escort,
+had vanished into the shadow of the great cliffs, probably up some pass
+which we could not see.
+
+Next moment our thoughts were otherwise engaged, since from various
+symptoms we gathered that the attack was about to be renewed. Spears
+upon which shone the light of the rising sun, appeared above the edge of
+the ground-fold that I have mentioned, which to the east increased to a
+deep, bush-clad ravine. Also there were voices as of leaders encouraging
+their men to a desperate effort.
+
+"They are coming," I said to Robertson.
+
+"Yes," he answered, "they are coming and we are going. It's a queer
+end to the thing we call life, isn't it, Quatermain, and hang it all!
+I wonder what's beyond? Not much for me, I expect, but whatever it is
+could scarcely be worse than what I've gone through here below in one
+way and another."
+
+"There's hope for all of us," I replied as cheerfully as I could, for
+the man's deep depression disturbed me.
+
+"Mayhap, Quatermain, for who knows the infinite mercy of whatever made
+us as we are? My old mother used to preach of it and I remember her
+words now. But in my case I expect it will stop at hope, or sleep, and
+if it wasn't for Inez, I'd not mind so much, for I tell you I've had
+enough of the world and life. Look, there's one of them. Take that, you
+black devil!" and lifting his rifle he aimed and fired at an Amahagger
+who appeared upon the edge of the fold of ground. What is more he hit
+him, for I saw the man double up and fall backwards.
+
+Then the game began afresh, for the cannibals (I suppose they were
+cannibals like their brethren) crept out of shelter, advancing on their
+stomachs or their hands and knees, so as to offer a smaller mark, and
+dragging between them a long and slender tree-trunk with which clearly
+they intended to batter down our wall.
+
+Of course I blazed away at them, pretty carefully too, for I was
+determined that what I believed to be the last exercise of the gift of
+shooting that has been given to me, should prove a record. Therefore
+I selected my men and even where I would hit them, and as subsequent
+examination showed, I made no mistakes in the seven or eight shots that
+I fired. But all the while, like poor Captain Robertson, I was thinking
+of other things; namely, where I was bound for presently and if I should
+meet certain folk there and what was the meaning of this show called
+Life, which unless it leads somewhere, according to my judgment has none
+at all. Until these questions were solved, however, my duty was to kill
+as many of those ruffians as I could, and this I did with finish and
+despatch.
+
+Robertson and Hans were firing also, with more or less success, but
+there were too many to be stopped by our three rifles. Still they came
+on till at length their fierce faces were within a few yards of our
+little parapet and Umslopogaas had lifted his great axe to give them
+greeting. They paused a moment before making their final rush, and so
+did we to slip in fresh cartridges.
+
+"Die well, Hans," I said, "and if you get there first, wait for me on
+the other side."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I always meant to do that, though not yet. We are not going
+to die this time, Baas. Those who have the Great Medicine don't die; it
+is the others who die, like that fellow," and he pointed to an Amahagger
+who went reeling round and round with a bullet from his Winchester
+through the middle, for he had fired in the midst of his remarks.
+
+"Curse--I mean bless--the Great Medicine," I said as I lifted my rifle
+to my shoulder.
+
+At that moment all those Amahagger--there were about sixty of them
+left--became seized with a certain perturbation. They stood still, they
+stared towards the fold of ground out of which they had emerged; they
+called to each other words which I did not catch, and then--they turned
+to run.
+
+Umslopogaas saw, and with a leader's instinct, acted. Springing over the
+parapet, followed by his remaining Zulus of the Axe, he leapt upon them
+with a roar. Down they went before _Inkosikaas_, like corn before a
+sickle. The thing was marvellous to see, it was like the charge of a
+leopard, so swift was the rush and so lightning-like were the strokes or
+rather the pecks of that flashing axe, for now he was tapping at their
+heads or spines with the gouge-like point upon its back. Nor were these
+the only victims, for those brave followers of his also did their part.
+In a minute all who remained upon their feet of the Amahagger were in
+full flight, vanishing this way and that among the trees. Hans fired
+a parting shot after the last of them, then sat down upon a stone and
+finding his corn-cob pipe, proceeded to fill it.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas," he began sententiously, "or perhaps
+your reverend father, the Predikant----" Here he paused and pointed
+doubtfully with the bowl of the pipe towards the fold in the ground,
+adding, "Here it is, but I think it must be your reverend father, not
+the Great Medicine, yes, the Predikant himself, returned from Heaven,
+the Place of Fires!"
+
+Looking vaguely in the direction indicated, for I could not conceive
+what he meant and thought that the excitement must have made him mad, I
+perceived a venerable old man with a long white beard and clothed in a
+flowing garment, also white, who reminded me of Father Christmas at a
+child's party, walking towards us and radiating benignancy. Also behind
+him I perceived a whole forest of spear points emerging from the gully.
+He seemed to take it for granted that we should not shoot at him, for he
+came on quite unconcerned, carefully picking his way among the corpses.
+When he was near enough he stopped and said in a kind of Arabic which I
+could understand,
+
+"I greet you, Strangers, in the name of her I serve. I see that I am
+just in time, but this does not surprise me, since she said that it
+would be so. You seem to have done very well with these dogs," and
+he prodded a dead Amahagger with his sandalled foot. "Yes, very well
+indeed. You must be great warriors."
+
+Then he paused and we stared at each other.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN WALL
+
+"These do not seem to be friends of yours," I said, pointing to the
+fallen. "And yet," I added, nodding towards the spearmen who were now
+emerging from the gully, "they are very like your friends."
+
+"Puppies from the same litter are often alike, yet when they grow up
+sometimes they fight each other," replied Father Christmas blandly.
+"At least these come to save and not to kill you. Look! they kill the
+others!" and he pointed to them making an end of some of the wounded
+men. "But who are these?" and he glanced with evident astonishment,
+first at the fearsome-looking Umslopogaas and then at the grotesque
+Hans. "Nay, answer not, you must be weary and need rest. Afterwards we
+can talk."
+
+"Well, as a matter of fact we have not yet breakfasted," I replied.
+"Also I have business to attend to here," and I glanced at our wounded.
+
+The old fellow nodded and went to speak to the captains of his force,
+doubtless as to the pursuit of the enemy, for presently I saw a company
+spring forward on their tracks. Then, assisted by Hans and the remaining
+Zulus, of whom one was Goroko, I turned to attend to our own people.
+The task proved lighter than I expected, since the badly injured man
+was dead or dying and the hurts of the two others were in their legs
+and comparatively slight, such as Goroko could doctor in his own native
+fashion.
+
+After this, taking Hans to guard my back, I went down to the stream and
+washed myself. Then I returned and ate, wondering the while that I could
+do so with appetite after the terrible dangers which we had passed.
+Still, we had passed them, and Robertson, Umslopogaas with three of his
+men, I and Hans were quite unharmed, a fact for which I returned thanks
+in silence but sincerely enough to Providence.
+
+Hans also returned thanks in his own fashion, after he had filled
+himself, not before, and lit his corn-cob pipe. But Robertson made no
+remark; indeed, when he had satisfied his natural cravings, he rose and
+walking a few paces forward, stood staring at the cleft in the mountain
+cliff into which he had seen the litter vanish that bore his daughter to
+some fate unknown.
+
+Even the great fight that we had fought and the victory we had won
+against overpowering odds did not appear to impress him. He only glared
+at the mountain into the heart of which Inez had been raped away, and
+shook his fist. Since she was gone all else went for nothing, so much so
+that he did not offer to assist with the wounded Zulus or show curiosity
+about the strange old man by whom we had been rescued.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas," said Hans in a bewildered way, "is even more
+powerful than I thought. Not only has it brought us safely through the
+fighting and without a scratch, for those Zulus there do not matter and
+there will be less cooking for me to do now that they are gone; it has
+also brought down your reverend father the Predikant from the Place of
+Fires in Heaven, somewhat changed from what I remember him, it is
+true, but still without doubt the same. When I make my report to him
+presently, if he can understand my talk, I shall----"
+
+"Stop your infernal nonsense, you son of a donkey," I broke in, for at
+this moment old Father Christmas, smiling more benignly than before,
+re-appeared from the kloof into which he had vanished and advanced
+towards us bowing with much politeness.
+
+Having seated himself upon the little wall that we had built up,
+he contemplated us, stroking his beautiful white beard, then said,
+addressing me,
+
+"Of a certainty you should be proud who with a few have defeated so
+many. Still, had I not been ordered to come at speed, I think that by
+now you would have been as those are," and he looked towards the dead
+Zulus who were laid out at a distance like men asleep, while their
+companions sought for a place to bury them.
+
+"Ordered by whom?" I asked.
+
+"There is only one who can order," he answered with mild astonishment.
+"'She-who-commands, She-who-is-everlasting'!"
+
+It occurred to me that this must be some Arabic idiom for the Eternal
+Feminine, but I only looked vague and said,
+
+"It would appear that there are some whom this exalted everlasting She
+cannot command; those who attacked us; also those who have fled away
+yonder," and I waved my hand towards the mountain.
+
+"No command is absolute; in every country there are rebels, even, as I
+have heard, in Heaven above us. But, Wanderer, what is your name?"
+
+"Watcher-by-Night," I answered.
+
+"Ah! a good name for one who must have watched well by night, and by day
+too, to reach this country living where She-who-commands says that no
+man of your colour has set foot for many generations. Indeed, I think
+she told me once that two thousand years had gone by since she spoke to
+a white man in the City of Kor."
+
+"Did she indeed?" I exclaimed, stifling a cough.
+
+"You do not believe me," he went on, smiling. "Well, She-who-commands
+can explain matters for herself better than I who was not alive two
+thousand years ago, so far as I remember. But what must I call him with
+the Axe?"
+
+"Warrior is his name."
+
+"Again a good name, as to judge by the wounds on them, certain of those
+rebels I think are now telling each other in Hell. And this man, if
+indeed he be a man----" he added, looking doubtfully at Hans.
+
+"Light-in-Darkness is his name."
+
+"I see, doubtless because his colour is that of the winter sun in thick
+fog, or a bad egg broken into milk. And the other white man who mutters
+and whose brow is like a storm?"
+
+"He is called Avenger; you will learn why later on," I answered
+impatiently, for I grew tired of this catechism, adding, "And what are
+you called and, if you are pleased to tell it to us, upon what errand do
+you visit us in so fortunate an hour?"
+
+"I am named Billali," he answered, "the servant and messenger of
+She-who-commands, and I was sent to save you and to bring you safely to
+her."
+
+"How can this be, Billali, seeing that none knew of our coming?"
+
+"Yet She-who-commands knew," he said with his benignant smile. "Indeed,
+I think that she learned of it some moons ago through a message that was
+sent to her and so arranged all things that you should be guided safely
+to her secret home; since otherwise how would you have passed a great
+pathless swamp with the loss, I think she said, of but one man whom a
+snake bit?"
+
+Now I stared at the old fellow, for how could he know of the death of
+this man, but thought it useless to pursue the conversation further.
+
+"When you are rested and ready," he went on, "we will start. Meanwhile I
+leave you that I may prepare litters to carry those wounded men, and
+you also, Watcher-by-Night, if you wish." Then with a dignified bow,
+for everything about this old fellow was stately, he turned and vanished
+into the kloof.
+
+The next hour or so was occupied in the burial of the dead Zulus, a
+ceremony in which I took no part beyond standing up and raising my hat
+as they were borne away, for as I have said somewhere, it is best to
+leave natives alone on these occasions. Indeed, I lay down, reflecting
+that strangely enough there seemed to be something in old Zikali's tale
+of a wonderful white Queen who lived in a mountain fastness, since there
+was the mountain as he had drawn it on the ashes, and the servants of
+that Queen who, apparently, had knowledge of our coming, appeared in the
+nick of time to rescue us from one of the tightest fixes in which ever I
+found myself.
+
+Moreover, the antique and courteous individual called Billali, spoke of
+her as "She-who-is-everlasting." What the deuce could he mean by that,
+I wondered? Probably that she was very old and therefore disagreeable to
+look on, which I confessed to myself would be a disappointment.
+
+And how did she know that we were coming? I could not guess and when I
+asked Robertson, he merely shrugged his shoulders and intimated that he
+took no interest in the matter. The truth is that nothing moved the man,
+whose whole soul was wrapped in one desire, namely to rescue, or avenge,
+the daughter against whom he knew he had so sorely sinned.
+
+In fact, this loose-living but reformed seaman was becoming a
+monomaniac, and what is more, one of the religious type. He had a Bible
+with him that had been given to him by his mother when he was a boy, and
+in this he read constantly; also he was always on his knees and at night
+I could hear him groaning and praying aloud. Doubtless now that the
+chains of drink had fallen off him, the instincts and the blood of
+the dour old Covenanters from whom he was descended, were asserting
+themselves. In a way this was a good thing though for some time past
+I had feared lest it should end in his going mad, and certainly as a
+companion he was more cheerful in his unregenerate days.
+
+Abandoning speculation as useless and taking my chance of being murdered
+where I lay, for after all Billali's followers were singularly like
+the men with whom we had been fighting and for aught I knew might be
+animated by identical objects--I just went to sleep, as I can do at
+any time, to wake up an hour or so later feeling wonderfully refreshed.
+Hans, who when I closed my eyes was already asleep slumbering at my feet
+curled up like a dog on a spot where the sun struck hotly, roused me by
+saying:
+
+"Awake, Baas, they are here!"
+
+I sprang up, snatching at my rifle, for I thought that he meant that
+we were being attacked again, to see Billali advancing at the head of
+a train of four litters made of bamboo with grass mats for curtains
+and coverings, each of which was carried by stalwart Amahagger, as I
+supposed that they must be. Two of these, the finest, Billali indicated
+were for Robertson and myself, and the two others for the wounded.
+Umslopogaas and the remaining Zulus evidently were expected to walk, as
+was Hans.
+
+"How did you make these so quickly," I asked, surveying their elegant
+and indeed artistic workmanship.
+
+"We did not make them, Watcher-by-Night, we brought them with us folded
+up. She-who-commands looked in her glass and said that four would be
+needed, besides my own which is yonder, two for white lords and two for
+wounded black men, which you see is the number required."
+
+"Yes," I answered vaguely, marvelling what kind of a glass it was that
+gave the lady this information.
+
+Before I could inquire upon the point Billali added,
+
+"You will be glad to learn that my men caught some of those rebels who
+dared to attack you, eight or ten of them who had been hurt by your
+missiles or axe-cuts, and put them to death in the proper fashion--yes,
+quite the proper fashion," and he smiled a little. "The rest had gone
+too far where it would have been dangerous to follow them among the
+rocks. Enter now, my lord Watcher-by-Night, for the road is steep and we
+must travel fast if we would reach the place where She-who-commands is
+camped in the ancient holy city, before the moon sinks behind the cliffs
+to-night."
+
+So having explained matters to Robertson and Umslopogaas, who announced
+that nothing would induce _him_ to be carried like an old woman, or
+a corpse upon a shield, and seen that the hurt Zulus were comfortably
+accommodated, Robertson and I got into our litters, which proved to be
+delightfully easy and restful.
+
+Then when our gear was collected by the hook-nosed bearers to whom we
+were obliged to trust, though we kept with us our rifles and a certain
+amount of ammunition, we started. First went a number of Billali's
+spearmen, then came the litters with the wounded alongside of which
+Umslopogaas and his three uninjured Zulus talked or trotted, then
+another litter containing Billali, then my own by which ran Hans,
+and Robertson's, and lastly the rest of the Amahagger and the relief
+bearers.
+
+"I see now, Baas," said Hans, thrusting his head between my curtains,
+"that yonder Whitebeard cannot be your reverend father, the Predikant,
+after all."
+
+"Why not?" I asked, though the fact was fairly obvious.
+
+"Because, Baas, if he were, he would not have left Hans, of whom he
+always thought so well, to run in the sun like a dog, while he and
+others travel in carriages like great white ladies."
+
+"You had better save your breath instead of talking nonsense, Hans," I
+said, "since I believe that you have a long way to go."
+
+In fact, it proved to be a very long way indeed, especially as after we
+began to breast the mountain, we must travel slowly. We started about
+ten o'clock in the morning, for the fight which after all did not take
+long--had, it will be remembered, begun shortly after dawn, and it was
+three in the afternoon before we reached the base of the towering cliff
+which I have mentioned.
+
+Here, at the foot of a remarkable, isolated column of rock, on which I
+was destined to see a strange sight in the after days, we halted and ate
+of the remaining food which we had brought with us, while the Amahagger
+consumed their own, that seemed to consist largely of curdled milk, such
+as the Zulus call _maas_, and lumps of a kind of bread.
+
+I noted that they were a very curious people who fed in silence and on
+whose handsome, solemn faces one never saw a smile. Somehow it gave me
+the creeps to look at them. Robertson was affected in the same way, for
+in one of the rare intervals of his abstraction he remarked that they
+were "no canny." Then he added,
+
+"Ask yon old wizard who might be one of the Bible prophets come to
+life--what those man-eating devils have done with my daughter."
+
+I did so, and Billali answered,
+
+"Say that they have taken her away to make a queen of her, since having
+rebelled against their own queen, they must have another who is white.
+Say too that She-who-commands will wage war on them and perhaps win her
+back, unless they kill her first."
+
+"Ah!" Robertson repeated when I had translated, "unless they kill her
+first--or worse." Then he relapsed into his usual silence.
+
+Presently we started on again, heading straight for what looked like a
+sheer wall of black rock a thousand feet or more in height, up a path so
+steep that Robertson and I got out and walked, or rather scrambled, in
+order to ease the bearers. Billali, I noticed, remained in his litter.
+The convenience of the bearers did not trouble him; he only ordered an
+extra gang to the poles. I could not imagine how we were to negotiate
+this precipice. Nor could Umslopogaas, who looked at it and said,
+
+"If we are to climb that, Macumazahn, I think that the only one who will
+live to get to the top will be that little yellow monkey of yours," and
+he pointed with his axe at Hans.
+
+"If I do," replied that worthy, much nettled, for he hated to be called
+a "yellow monkey" by the Zulus, "be sure that I will roll down stones
+upon any black butcher whom I see sprawling upon the cliff below."
+
+Umslopogaas smiled grimly, for he had a sense of humour and could
+appreciate a repartee even when it hit him hard. Then we stopped talking
+for the climb took all our breath.
+
+At length we came to the cliff face where, to all appearance, our
+journey must end. Suddenly, however, out of the blind black wall in
+front of us started the apparition of a tall man armed with a great
+spear and wearing a white robe, who challenged us hoarsely.
+
+Suddenly he stood before us, as a ghost might do, though whence he came
+we could not see. Presently the mystery was explained. Here in the cliff
+face there was a cleft, though one invisible even from a few paces away,
+since its outer edge projected over the inner wall of rock. Moreover,
+this opening was not above four feet in width, a mere split in the huge
+mountain mass caused by some titanic convulsion in past ages. For it was
+a definite split since, once entered, far, far above could be traced
+a faint line of light coming from the sky, although the gloom of the
+passage was such that torches, which were stored at hand, must be used
+by those who threaded it. One man could have held the place against a
+hundred--until he was killed. Still, it was guarded, not only at the
+mouth where the warrior had appeared, but further along at every turn in
+the jagged chasm, and these were many.
+
+Into this grim place we went. The Zulus did not like it at all, for
+they are a light-loving people and I noted that even Umslopogaas
+seemed scared and hung back a little. Nor did Hans, who with his usual
+suspicion, feared some trap; nor, for the matter of that, did I, though
+I thought it well to appear much interested. Only Robertson seemed quite
+indifferent and trudged along stolidly after a man carrying a torch.
+
+Old Billali put his head out of the litter and shouted back to me
+to fear nothing, since there were no pitfalls in the path, his voice
+echoing strangely between those narrow walls of measureless height.
+
+For half an hour or more we pursued this dreary, winding path round the
+corners of which the draught tore in gusts so fierce that more than once
+the litters with the wounded men and those who bore them were nearly
+blown over. It was safe enough, however, since on either side of us,
+smooth and without break, rose the sheer walls of rock over which lay
+the tiny ribbon of blue sky. At length the cleft widened somewhat and
+the light grew stronger, making the torches unnecessary.
+
+Then of a sudden we came to its end and found ourselves upon a little
+plateau in the mountainside. Behind us for a thousand feet or so rose
+the sheer rock wall as it did upon the outer face, while in front and
+beneath, far beneath, was a beautiful plain circular in shape and of
+great extent, which plain was everywhere surrounded, so far as I could
+see, by the same wall of rock. In short, notwithstanding its enormous
+size, without doubt it was neither more nor less than the crater of a
+vast extinct volcano. Lastly, not far from the centre of this plain was
+what appeared to be a city, since through my glasses I could see great
+walls built of stone, and what I thought were houses, all of them of a
+character more substantial than any that I had discovered in the wilds
+of Africa.
+
+I went to Billali's litter and asked him who lived in the city.
+
+"No one," he answered, "it has been dead for thousands of years, but
+She-who-commands is camped there at present with an army, and thither we
+go at once. Forward, bearers."
+
+So, Robertson and I having re-entered our litters, we started on down
+hill at a rapid pace, for the road, though steep, was safe and kept in
+good order. All the rest of that afternoon we travelled and by sunset
+reached the edge of the plain, where we halted a while to rest and eat,
+till the light of the growing moon grew strong enough to enable us to
+proceed. Umslopogaas came up and spoke to me.
+
+"Here is a fortress indeed, Macumazahn," he said, "since none can climb
+that fence of rock in which the holes seem to be few and small."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "but it is one out of which those who are in, would
+find it difficult to get out. We are buffaloes in a pit, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is so," he answered, "I have thought it already. But if any would
+meddle with us we still have our horns and can toss for a while."
+
+Then he went back to his men.
+
+The sunset in that great solemn place was a wonderful thing to see.
+First of all the measureless crater was filled with light like a bowl
+with fire. Then as the great orb sank behind the western cliff, half of
+the plain became quite dark while shadows seemed to rush forward over
+the eastern part of its surface, till that too was swallowed up in gloom
+and for a little while there remained only a glow reflected from the
+cliff face and from the sky above, while on the crest of the parapet of
+rock played strange and glorious fires. Presently these too vanished and
+the world was dark.
+
+Then the half moon broke from behind a bank of clouds and by its silver,
+uncertain light we struggled forward across the flat plain, rather
+slowly now, for even the iron muscles of those bearers grew tired. I
+could not see much of it, but I gathered that we were passing through
+crops, very fine crops to judge by their height, as doubtless they would
+be upon this lava soil; also once or twice we splashed through streams.
+
+At length, being tired and lulled by the swaying of the litter and by
+the sound of a weird, low chant that the bearers had set up now that
+they neared home and were afraid of no attack, I sank into a doze. When
+I awoke again it was to find that the litter had halted and to hear the
+voice of Billali say,
+
+"Descend, White Lords, and come with your companions, the black Warrior
+and the yellow man who is named Light-in-Darkness. She-who-commands
+desires to see you at once before you eat and sleep, and must not be
+kept waiting. Fear not for the others, they will be cared for till you
+return."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE WHITE WITCH
+
+I descended from the litter and told the others what the old fellow had
+said. Robertson did not want to come, and indeed refused to do so until
+I suggested to him that such conduct might prejudice a powerful person
+against us. Umslopogaas was indifferent, putting, as he remarked, no
+faith in a ruler who was a woman.
+
+Only Hans, although he was so tired, acquiesced with some eagerness,
+the fact being that his brain was more alert and that he had all the
+curiosity of the monkey tribe which he so much resembled in appearance,
+and wanted to see this queen whom Zikali revered.
+
+In the end we started, conducted by Billali and by men who carried
+torches whereof the light showed me that we were passing between houses,
+or at any rate walls that had been those of houses, and along what
+seemed to be a paved street.
+
+Walking under what I took to be a great arch or portico, we came into
+a court that was full of towering pillars but unroofed, for I could see
+the stars above. At its end we entered a building of which the doorway
+was hung with mats, to find that it was lighted with lamps and that
+all down its length on either side guards with long spears stood at
+intervals.
+
+"Oh, Baas," said Hans hesitatingly, "this is the mouth of a trap," while
+Umslopogaas glared about him suspiciously, fingering the handle of his
+great axe.
+
+"Be silent," I answered. "All this mountain is a trap, therefore another
+does not matter, and we have our pistols."
+
+Walking forward between the double line of guards who stood immovable as
+statues, we came to some curtains hung at the end of a long, narrow hall
+which, although I know little of such things, were, I noted, made of
+rich stuff embroidered in colours and with golden threads. Before these
+curtains Billali motioned us to halt.
+
+After a whispered colloquy with someone beyond carried on through the
+join of the curtains, he vanished between them, leaving us alone for
+five minutes or more. At length they opened and a tall and elegant woman
+with an Arab cast of countenance and clad in white robes, appeared and
+beckoned to us to enter. She did not speak or answer when I spoke to
+her, which was not wonderful as afterwards I discovered that she was a
+mute. We went in, I wondering very much what we were going to see.
+
+On the further side of the curtains was a room of no great size
+illumined with lamps of which the light fell upon sculptured walls. It
+looked to me as though it might once have been the inmost court or a
+sanctuary of some temple, for at its head was a dais upon which once
+perhaps had stood the shrine or statue of a god. On this dais there was
+now a couch and on the couch--a goddess!
+
+There she sat, straight and still, clothed in shining white and veiled,
+but with her draperies so arranged that they emphasised rather than
+concealed the wonderful elegance of her tall form. From beneath the
+veil, which was such as a bride wears, appeared two plaits of glossy,
+raven hair of great length, to the end of each of which was suspended a
+single large pearl. On either side of her stood a tall woman like to her
+who had led us through the curtains, and on his knees in front, but to
+the right, knelt Billali.
+
+About this seated personage there was an air of singular majesty, such
+as might pervade a queen as fancy paints her, though she had a nobler
+figure than any queen I ever saw depicted. Mystery seemed to flow from
+her; it clothed her like the veil she wore, which of course heightened
+the effect. Beauty flowed from her also; although it was shrouded I knew
+that it was there, no veil or coverings could obscure it--at least, to
+my imagination. Moreover she breathed out power also; one felt it in the
+air as one feels a thunderstorm before it breaks, and it seemed to me
+that this power was not quite human, that it drew its strength from afar
+and dwelt a stranger to the earth.
+
+To tell the truth, although my curiosity, always strong, was enormously
+excited and though now I felt glad that I had attempted this journey
+with all its perils, I was horribly afraid, so much afraid that I should
+have liked to turn and run away. From the beginning I knew myself to
+be in the presence of an unearthly being clothed in soft and perfect
+woman's flesh, something alien, too, and different from our human race.
+
+What a picture it all made! There she sat, quiet and stately as a
+perfect marble statue; only her breast, rising and falling beneath the
+white robe, showed that she was alive and breathed as others do. Another
+thing showed it also--her eyes. At first I could not see them through
+the veil, but presently either because I grew accustomed to the light,
+or because they brightened as those of certain animals have power to do
+when they watch intently, it ceased to be a covering to them. Distinctly
+I saw them now, large and dark and splendid with a tinge of deep blue
+in the iris; alluring and yet awful in their majestic aloofness which
+seemed to look through and beyond, to embrace all without seeking and
+without effort. Those eyes were like windows through which light flows
+from within, a light of the spirit.
+
+I glanced round to see the effect of this vision upon my companions. It
+was most peculiar. Hans had sunk to his knees; his hands were joined in
+the attitude of prayer and his ugly little face reminded me of that of a
+big fish out of water and dying from excess of air. Robertson, startled
+out of his abstraction, stared at the royal-looking woman on the couch
+with his mouth open.
+
+"Man," he whispered, "I've got them back although I have touched nothing
+for weeks, only this time they are lovely. For yon's no human lady, I
+feel it in my bones."
+
+Umslopogaas stood great and grim, his hands resting on the handle of his
+tall axe; and he stared also, the blood pulsing against the skin that
+covered the hole in his head.
+
+"Watcher-by-Night," he said to me in his deep voice, but also speaking
+in a whisper, "this chieftainess is not one woman, but all women.
+Beneath those robes of hers I seem to see the beauty of one who has
+'gone Beyond,' of the Lily who is lost to me. Do you not feel it thus,
+Macumazahn?"
+
+Now that he mentioned it, certainly I did; indeed, I had felt it
+all along although amid the rush of sensations this one had scarcely
+disentangled itself in my mind. I looked at the draped shape and
+saw--well, never mind whom I saw; it was not one only but several in
+sequence; also a woman who at that time I did not know although I came
+to know her afterwards, too well, perhaps, or at any rate quite
+enough to puzzle me. The odd thing was that in this hallucination the
+personalities of these individuals seemed to overlap and merge, till at
+last I began to wonder whether they were not parts of the same entity
+or being, manifesting itself in sundry shapes, yet springing from one
+centre, as different coloured rays flow from the same crystal, while the
+beams from their source of light shift and change. But the fancy is too
+metaphysical for my poor powers to express as clearly as I would. Also
+no doubt it was but a hallucination that had its origin, perhaps, in the
+mischievous brain of her who sat before us.
+
+At length she spoke and her voice sounded like silver bells heard over
+water in a great calm. It was low and sweet, oh! so sweet that at its
+first notes for a moment my senses seemed to swoon and my pulse to stop.
+It was to me that she addressed herself.
+
+"My servant here," and ever so slightly she turned her head towards the
+kneeling Billali, "tells me that you who are named Watcher-in-the-Night,
+understand the tongue in which I speak to you. Is it so?"
+
+"I understand Arabic of a kind well enough, having learned it on the
+East Coast and from Arabs in past years, but not such Arabic as you use,
+O----" and I paused.
+
+"Call me _Hiya_," she broke in, "which is my title here, meaning, as you
+know, She, or Woman. Or if that does not please you, call me Ayesha.
+It would rejoice me after so long to hear the name I bore spoken by the
+lips of one of my colour and of gentle blood."
+
+I blushed at the compliment so artfully conveyed, and repeated stupidly
+enough,
+
+"--Not such Arabic as you use, O--Ayesha."
+
+"I thought that you would like the sound of the word better than that
+of _Hiya_, though afterwards I will teach you to pronounce it as you
+should, O--have you any other name save Watcher-by-Night, which seems
+also to be a title?"
+
+"Yes," I answered. "Allan."
+
+"--O--Allan. Tell me of these," she went on quickly, indicating my
+companions with a sweep of her slender hand, "for they do not speak
+Arabic, I think. Or stay, I will tell you of them and you shall say if
+I do so rightly. This one," and she nodded towards Robertson, "is a man
+bemused. There comes from him a colour which I see if you cannot, and
+that colour betokens a desire for revenge, though I think that in his
+time he has desired other things also, as I remember men always did from
+the beginning, to their ruin. Human nature does not change, Allan, and
+wine and women are ancient snares. Enough of him for this time. The
+little yellow one there is afraid of me, as are all of you. That is
+woman's greatest power, although she is so weak and gentle, men are
+still afraid of her just because they are so foolish that they cannot
+understand her. To them after a million years she still remains the
+Unknown and to us all the Unknown is also the awful. Do you remember the
+proverb of the Romans that says it well and briefly?"
+
+I nodded, for it was one of the Latin tags that my father had taught me.
+
+"Good. Well, he is a little wild man, is he not, nearer to the apes from
+whose race our bodies come? But do you know that, Allan?"
+
+I nodded again, and said,
+
+"There are disputes upon the point, Ayesha."
+
+"Yes, they had begun in my day and we will discuss them later. Still, I
+say--nearer to the ape than you or I, and therefore of interest, as the
+germ of things is always. Yet he has qualities, I think; cunning, and
+fidelity and love which in its round is all in all. Do you understand,
+Allan, that love is all in all?"
+
+I answered warily that it depended upon what she meant by love, to which
+she replied that she would explain afterwards when we had leisure to
+talk, adding,
+
+"What this little yellow monkey understands by it at least has served
+you well, or so I believe. You shall tell me the tale of it some day.
+Now of the last, this Black One. Here I think is a man indeed, a warrior
+of warriors such as there used to be in the early world, if a savage.
+Well, believe me, Allan, savages are often the best. Moreover, all are
+still savage at heart, even you and I. For what is termed culture is
+but coat upon coat of paint laid on to hide our native colour, and often
+there is poison in the paint. That axe of his has drunk deep, I think,
+though always in fair fight, and I say that it shall drink deeper yet.
+Have I read these men aright, Allan?"
+
+"Not so ill," I answered.
+
+"I thought it," she said with a musical laugh, "although at this place I
+rust and grow dull like an unused sword. Now you would rest. Go--all of
+you. To-morrow you and I will talk alone. Fear nothing for your safety;
+you are watched by my slaves and I watch my slaves. Until to-morrow,
+then, farewell. Go now, eat and sleep, as alas we all must do who linger
+on this ball of earth and cling to a life we should do well to lose.
+Billali, lead them hence," and she waved her hand to signify that the
+audience was ended.
+
+At this sign Hans, who apparently was still much afraid, rose from his
+knees and literally bolted through the curtains. Robertson followed him.
+Umslopogaas stood a moment, drew himself up and lifting the great axe,
+cried _Bayete_, after which he too turned and went.
+
+"What does that word mean, Allan?" she asked.
+
+I explained that it was the salutation which the Zulu people only give
+to kings.
+
+"Did I not say that savages are often the best?" she exclaimed in a
+gratified voice. "The white man, your companion, gave me no salute, but
+the Black One knows when he stands before a woman who is royal."
+
+"He too is of royal blood in his own land," I said.
+
+"If so, we are akin, Allan."
+
+Then I bowed deeply to her in my best manner and rising from her couch
+for the first time she stood up, looking very tall and commanding, and
+bowed back.
+
+After this I went to find the others on the further side of the
+curtains, except Hans, who had run down the long narrow hall and through
+the mats at its end. We followed, marching with dignity behind Billali
+and between the double line of guards, who raised their spears as we
+passed them, and on the further side of the mats discovered Hans, still
+looking terrified.
+
+"Baas," he said to me as we threaded our way through the court of
+columns, "in my life I have seen all kinds of dreadful things and faced
+them, but never have I been so much afraid as I am of that white witch.
+Baas, I think that she is the devil of whom your reverend father, the
+Predikant, used to talk so much, or perhaps his wife."
+
+"If so, Hans," I answered, "the devil is not so black as he is painted.
+But I advise you to be careful of what you say as she may have long
+ears."
+
+"It doesn't matter at all what one says, Baas, because she reads
+thoughts before they pass the lips. I felt her doing it there in that
+room. And do you be careful, Baas, or she will eat up your spirit and
+make you fall in love with her, who, I expect, is very ugly indeed,
+since otherwise she would not wear a veil. Whoever saw a pretty woman
+tie up her head in a sack, Baas?"
+
+"Perhaps she does this because she is so beautiful, Hans, that she fears
+the hearts of men who look upon her would melt."
+
+"Oh, no, Baas, all women want to melt men's hearts; the more the better.
+They seem to have other things in their minds, but really they think of
+nothing else until they are too old and ugly, and it takes them a long
+while to be sure of that."
+
+So Hans went on talking his shrewd nonsense till, following so far as
+I could see, the same road as that by which we had come, we reached our
+quarters, where we found food prepared for us, broiled goat's flesh
+with corncakes and milk, I think it was; also beds for us two white men
+covered with skin rugs and blankets woven of wool.
+
+These quarters, I should explain, consisted of rooms in a house built
+of stone of which the walls had once been painted. The roof of the house
+was gone now, for we could see the stars shining above us, but as the
+air was very soft in this sheltered plain, this was an advantage rather
+than otherwise. The largest room was reserved for Robertson and myself,
+while another at the back was given to Umslopogaas and his Zulus, and a
+third to the two wounded men.
+
+Billali showed us these arrangements by the light of lamps and
+apologised that they were not better because, as he explained, the place
+was a ruin and there had been no time to build us a house. He added that
+we might sleep without fear as we were guarded and none would dare to
+harm the guests of She-who-commands, on whom he was sure we, or at any
+rate I and the black Warrior, had produced an excellent impression. Then
+he bowed himself out, saying that he would return in the morning, and
+left us to our own devices.
+
+Robertson and I sat down on stools that had been set for us, and ate,
+but he seemed so overcome by his experiences, or by his sombre thoughts,
+that I could not draw him into conversation. All he remarked was that
+we had fallen into queer company and that those who supped with Satan
+needed a long spoon. Having delivered himself of this sentiment he
+threw himself upon the bed, prayed aloud for a while as had become his
+fashion, to be "protected from warlocks and witches," amongst other
+things, and went to sleep.
+
+Before I turned in I visited Umslopogaas's room to see that all was well
+with him and his people, and found him standing in the doorway staring
+at the star-spangled sky.
+
+"Greeting, Macumazahn," he said, "you who are white and wise and I am
+black and a fighter have seen many strange things beneath the sun, but
+never such a one as we have looked upon to-night. Who and what is that
+chieftainess, Macumazahn?"
+
+"I do not know," I said, "but it is worth while to have lived to see
+her, even though she be veiled."
+
+"Nor do I, Macumazahn. Nay, I do know, for my heart tells me that she
+is the greatest of all witches and that you will do well to guard your
+spirit lest she should steal it away. If she were not a witch, should I
+have seemed to behold the shape of Nada the Lily who was the wife of my
+youth, beneath those white robes of hers, and though the tongue in which
+she spoke was strange to me, to hear the murmur of Nada's voice between
+her lips, of Nada who has gone further from me than those stars. It
+is good that you wear the Great Medicine of Zikali upon your breast,
+Macumazahn, for perhaps it will shield you from harm at those hands that
+are shaped of ivory."
+
+"Zikali is another of the tribe," I answered, laughing, "although less
+beautiful to see. Also I am not afraid of any of them, and from this
+one, if she be more than some white woman whom it pleases to veil
+herself, I shall hope to gather wisdom."
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, such wisdom as Spirits and the dead have to give."
+
+"Mayhap, Umslopogaas, but we came here to seek Spirits and the dead, did
+we not?"
+
+"Aye," answered Umslopogaas, "these and war, and I think that we shall
+find enough of all three. Only I hope that war will come the first, lest
+the Spirits and the dead should bewitch me and take away my skill and
+courage."
+
+Then we parted, and too tired even to wonder any more, I threw myself
+down on my bed and slept.
+
+
+
+I was awakened when the sun was already high, by the sound of Robertson,
+who was on his knees, praying aloud as usual, a habit of his which I
+confess got on my nerves. Prayer, in my opinion, is a private matter
+between man and his Creator, that is, except in church; further, I did
+not in the least wish to hear all about Robertson's sins, which seemed
+to have been many and peculiar. It is bad enough to have to bear the
+burden of one's own transgressions without learning of those of other
+people, that is, unless one is a priest and must do so professionally.
+So I jumped up to escape and make arrangements for a wash, only to
+butt into old Billali, who was standing in the doorway contemplating
+Robertson with much interest and stroking his white beard.
+
+He greeted me with his courteous bow and said,
+
+"Tell your companion, O Watcher, that it is not necessary for him to go
+upon his knees to She-who-commands--and must be obeyed," he added with
+emphasis, "when he is not in her presence, and that even then he would
+do well to keep silent, since so much talking in a strange tongue might
+trouble her."
+
+I burst out laughing and answered,
+
+"He does not go upon his knees and pray to She-who-commands, but to the
+Great One who is in the sky."
+
+"Indeed, Watcher. Well, here we only know a Great One who is upon the
+earth, though it is true that perhaps she visits the skies sometimes."
+
+"Is it so, Billali?" I answered incredulously. "And now, I would ask you
+to take me to some place where I can bathe."
+
+"It is ready," he replied. "Come."
+
+So I called to Hans, who was hanging about with a rifle on his arm, to
+follow with a cloth and soap, of which fortunately we had a couple of
+pieces left, and we started along what had once been a paved roadway
+running between stone houses, whereof the time-eaten ruins still
+remained on either side.
+
+"Who and what is this Queen of yours, Billali?" I asked as we went.
+"Surely she is not of the Amahagger blood."
+
+"Ask it of herself, O Watcher, for I cannot tell you. All I know is
+that I can trace my own family for ten generations and that my tenth
+forefather told his son on his deathbed, for the saying has come down
+through his descendants--that when he was young She-who-commands had
+ruled the land for more scores of years than he could count months of
+life."
+
+I stopped and stared at him, since the lie was so amazing that it seemed
+to deprive me of the power of motion. Noting my very obvious disbelief
+he continued blandly,
+
+"If you doubt, ask. And now here is where you may bathe."
+
+Then he led me through an arched doorway and down a wrecked passage to
+what very obviously once had been a splendid bath-house such as some I
+have seen pictures of that were built by the Romans. Its size was that
+of a large room; it was constructed of a kind of marble with a sloping
+bottom that varied from three to seven feet in depth, and water still
+ran in and out of it through large glazed pipes. Moreover round it was
+a footway about five feet across, from which opened chambers, unroofed
+now, that the bathers used as dressing-rooms, while between these
+chambers stood the remains of statues. One at the end indeed, where an
+alcove had protected it from sun and weather, was still quite perfect,
+except for the outstretched arms which were gone (the right hand I
+noticed lying at the bottom of the bath). It was that of a nude young
+woman in the attitude of diving, a very beautiful bit of work, I
+thought, though of course I am no judge of sculpture. Even the smile
+mingled with trepidation upon the girl's face was most naturally
+portrayed.
+
+This statue showed two things, that the bath was used by females and
+that the people who built it were highly civilised, also that they
+belonged to an advanced if somewhat Eastern race, since the girl's nose
+was, if anything, Semitic in character, and her lips, though prettily
+shaped, were full. For the rest, the basin was so clean that I presume
+it must have been made ready for me or other recent bathers, and at
+its bottom I discovered gratings and broken pipes of earthenware which
+suggested that in the old days the water could be warmed by means of a
+furnace.
+
+This relic of a long-past civilisation excited Hans even more than it
+did myself, since having never seen anything of the sort, he thought it
+so strange that, as he informed me, he imagined that it must have been
+built by witchcraft. In it I had a most delightful and much-needed bath.
+Even Hans was persuaded to follow my example--a thing I had rarely known
+him to do before--and seated in its shallowest part, splashed some water
+over his yellow, wrinkled anatomy. Then we returned to our house, where
+I found an excellent breakfast had been provided which was brought to
+us by tall, silent, handsome women who surveyed us out of the corners of
+their eyes, but said nothing.
+
+Shortly after I had finished my meal, Billali, who had disappeared, came
+back again and said that She-who-commands desired my presence as she
+would speak with me; also that I must come alone. So, after attending to
+the wounded, who both seemed to be getting on well, I went, followed by
+Hans armed with his rifle, though I only carried my revolver. Robertson
+wished to accompany me, as he did not seem to care about being left
+alone with the Zulus in that strange place, but this Billali would not
+allow. Indeed, when he persisted, two great men stepped forward and
+crossed their spears before him in a somewhat threatening fashion. Then
+at my entreaty, for I feared lest trouble should arise, he gave in and
+returned to the house.
+
+Following our path of the night before, we walked up a ruined street
+which I could see was only one of scores in what had once been a very
+great city, until we came to the archway that I have mentioned, a large
+one now overgrown with plants that from their yellow, sweet-scented
+bloom I judged to be a species of wallflower, also with a kind of
+houseleek or saxifrage.
+
+Here Hans was stopped by guards, Billali explaining to me that he must
+await my return, an order which he obeyed unwillingly enough. Then I
+went on down the narrow passage, lined as before by guards who stood
+silent as statues, and came to the curtains at the end. Before these at
+a motion from Billali, who did not seem to dare to speak in this place,
+I stood still and waited.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ALLAN HEARS A STRANGE TALE
+
+For some minutes I remained before those curtains until, had it not been
+for something electric in the air which got into my bones, a kind of
+force that, perhaps in my fancy only, seemed to pervade the place,
+I should certainly have grown bored. Indeed I was about to ask my
+companion why he did not announce our arrival instead of standing there
+like a stuck pig with his eyes shut as though in prayer or meditation,
+when the curtains parted and from between them appeared one of
+those tall waiting women whom we had seen on the previous night. She
+contemplated us gravely for a few moments, then moved her hand twice,
+once forward, towards Billali as a signal to him to retire, which he did
+with great rapidity, and next in a beckoning fashion towards myself to
+invite me to follow her.
+
+I obeyed, passing between the thick curtains which she fastened in some
+way behind me, and found myself in the same roofed and sculptured room
+that I have already described. Only now there were no lamps, such light
+as penetrated it coming from an opening above that I could not see, and
+falling upon the dais at its head, also on her who sat upon the dais.
+
+Yes, there she was in her white robes and veil, the point and centre of
+a little lake of light, a wondrous and in a sense a spiritual vision,
+for in truth there was something about her which was not of the world,
+something that drew and yet frightened me. Still as a statue she sat,
+like one to whom time is of no account and who has grown weary of
+motion, and on either side of her yet more still, like caryatides
+supporting a shrine, stood two of the stately women who were her
+attendants.
+
+For the rest a sweet and subtle odour pervaded the chamber which took
+hold of my senses as _hasheesh_ might do, which I was sure proceeded
+from her, or from her garments, for I could see no perfumes burning. She
+spoke no word, yet I knew she was inviting me to come nearer and moved
+forward till I reached a curious carved chair that was placed just
+beneath the dais, and there halted, not liking to sit down without
+permission.
+
+For a long while she contemplated me, for as before I could feel her
+eyes searching me from head to foot and as it were looking through me as
+though she would discover my very soul. Then at length she moved, waving
+those two ivory arms of hers outwards with a kind of swimming stroke,
+whereon the women to right and left of her turned and glided away, I
+know not whither.
+
+"Sit, Allan," she said, "and let us talk, for I think we have much to
+say to each other. Have you slept well? And eaten?--though I fear that
+the food is but rough. Also was the bath made ready for you?"
+
+"Yes, Ayesha," I answered to all three questions, adding, for I knew not
+what to say, "It seems to be a very ancient bath."
+
+"When I last saw it," she replied, "it was well enough with statues
+standing round it worked by a sculptor who had seen beauty in his
+dreams. But in two thousand years--or is it more?--the tooth of Time
+bites deep, and doubtless like all else in this dead place it is now a
+ruin."
+
+I coughed to cover up the exclamation of disbelief that rose to my lips
+and remarked blandly that two thousand years was certainly a long time.
+
+"When you say one thing, Allan, and mean another, your Arabic is even
+more vile than usual and does not serve to cloak your thought."
+
+"It may be so, Ayesha, for I only know that tongue as I do many other of
+the dialects of Africa by learning it from common men. My own speech
+is English, in which, if you are acquainted with it, I should prefer to
+talk."
+
+"I know not English, which doubtless is some language that has arisen
+since I left the world. Perhaps later you shall teach it to me. I tell
+you, you anger me whom it is not well to anger, because you believe
+nothing that passes my lips and yet do not dare to say so."
+
+"How can I believe one, Ayesha, who if I understand aright, speaks of
+having seen a certain bath two thousand years ago, whereas one hundred
+years are the full days of man? Forgive me therefore if I cannot believe
+what I know to be untrue."
+
+Now I thought that she would be very angry and was sorry that I had
+spoken. But as it happened she was not.
+
+"You must have courage to give me the lie so boldly--and I like
+courage," she said, "who have been cringed to for so long. Indeed, I
+know that you are brave, who have heard how you bore yourself in the
+fight yesterday, and much else about you. I think that we shall be
+friends, but--seek no more."
+
+"What else should I seek, Ayesha?" I asked innocently.
+
+"Now you are lying again," she said, "who know well that no man who is
+a man sees a woman who is beautiful and pleases him, without wondering
+whether, should he desire it, she could come to love him, that is, if
+she be young."
+
+"Which at least is not possible if she has lived two thousand years.
+Then naturally she would prefer to wear a veil," I said boldly, seeking
+to avoid the argument into which I saw she wished to drag me.
+
+"Ah!" she answered, "the little yellow man who is named
+Light-in-Darkness put that thought into your heart, I think. Oh, do not
+trouble as to how I know it, who have many spies here, as he guessed
+well enough. So a woman who has lived two thousand years must be hideous
+and wrinkled, must she? The stamp of youth and loveliness must long have
+fled from her; of that you, the wise man, are sure. Very well. Now you
+tempt me to do what I had determined I would not do and you shall pluck
+the fruit of that tree of curiosity which grows so fast within you.
+Look, Allan, and say whether I am old and hideous, even though I have
+lived two thousand years upon the earth and mayhap many more."
+
+Then she lifted her hands and did something to her veil, so that for
+a moment--only one moment--her face was revealed, after which the veil
+fell into its place.
+
+I looked, I saw, and if that chair had lacked a back I believe that I
+should have fallen out of it to the ground. As for what I saw--well,
+it cannot be described, at any rate by me, except perhaps as a flash of
+glory.
+
+Every man has dreamed of perfect beauty, basing his ideas of it perhaps
+on that of some woman he has met who chanced to take his fancy, with
+a few accessories from splendid pictures or Greek statues thrown in,
+_plus_ a garnishment of the imagination. At any rate I have, and here
+was that perfect beauty multiplied by ten, such beauty, that at the
+sight of it the senses reeled. And yet I repeat that it is not to be
+described.
+
+I do not know what the nose or the lips were like; in fact, all that I
+can remember with distinctness is the splendour of the eyes, of which
+I had caught some hint through her veil on the previous night. Oh, they
+were wondrous, those eyes, but I cannot tell their colour save that the
+groundwork of them was black. Moreover they seemed to be more than eyes
+as we understand them. They were indeed windows of the soul, out of
+which looked thought and majesty and infinite wisdom, mixed with all the
+allurements and the mystery that we are accustomed to see or to imagine
+in woman.
+
+Here let me say something at once. If this marvellous creature expected
+that the revelation of her splendour was going to make me her slave; to
+cause me to fall in love with her, as it is called, well, she must have
+been disappointed, for it had no such effect. It frightened and in a
+sense humbled me, that is all, for I felt myself to be in the presence
+of something that was not human, something alien to me as a man, which I
+could fear and even adore as humanity would adore that which is Divine,
+but with which I had no desire to mix. Moreover, was it divine, or was
+it something very different? I did not know, I only knew that it was not
+for me; as soon should I have thought of asking for a star to set within
+my lantern.
+
+I think that she felt this, felt that her stroke had missed, as the
+French say, that is if she meant to strike at all at this moment.
+Of this I am not certain, for it was in a changed voice, one with a
+suspicion of chill in it that she said with a little laugh,
+
+"Do you admit now, Allan, that a woman may be old and still remain fair
+and unwrinkled?"
+
+"I admit," I answered, although I was trembling so much that I could
+hardly speak with steadiness, "that a woman may be splendid and lovely
+beyond anything that the mind of man can conceive, whatever her age, of
+which I know nothing. I would add this, Ayesha, that I thank you very
+much for having revealed to me the glory that is hid beneath your veil."
+
+"Why?" she asked, and I thought that I detected curiosity in her
+question.
+
+"For this reason, Ayesha. Now there is no fear of my troubling you in
+such a fashion as you seemed to dread a little while ago. As soon would
+a man desire to court the moon sailing in her silver loveliness through
+heaven."
+
+"The moon! It is strange that you should compare me to the moon," she
+said musingly. "Do you know that the moon was a great goddess in Old
+Egypt and that her name was Isis and--well, once I had to do with Isis?
+Perhaps you were there and knew it, since more lives than one are given
+to most of us. I must search and learn. For the rest, all have not
+thought as you do, Allan. Many, on the contrary, love and seek to win
+the Divine."
+
+"So do I at a distance, Ayesha, but to come too near to it I do not
+aspire. If I did perhaps I might be consumed."
+
+"You have wisdom," she replied, not without a note of admiration in her
+voice. "The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the moths
+which live. Also I think that you have scorched your wings before and
+learned that fire hurts. Indeed, now I remember that I have heard of
+three such fires of love through which you have flown, Allan, though all
+of them are dead ashes now, or shine elsewhere. Two burned in your youth
+when a certain lady died to save you, a great woman that, is it not so?
+And the third, ah! she was fire indeed, though of a copper hue. What was
+her name? I cannot remember, but I think it had something to do with the
+wind, yes, with the wind when it wails."
+
+I stared at her. Was this Mameena myth to be dug up again in a secret
+place in the heart of Africa? And how the deuce did she know anything
+about Mameena? Could she have been questioning Hans or Umslopogaas? No,
+it was not possible, for she had never seen them out of my presence.
+
+"Perhaps," she went on in a mocking voice, "perhaps once again you
+disbelieve, Allan, whose cynic mind is so hard to open to new truths.
+Well, shall I show you the faces of these three? I can," and she waved
+her hand towards some object that stood on a tripod to the right of her
+in the shadow--it looked like a crystal basin. "But what would it serve
+when you who know them so well, believed that I drew their pictures out
+of your own soul? Also perchance but one face would appear and that one
+strange to you. [Lady Ragnall perhaps?--JB]
+
+"Have you heard, Allan, that among the wise some hold that not all of
+us is visible at once here on earth within the same house of flesh; that
+the whole self in its home above, separates itself into sundry parts,
+each of which walks the earth in different form, a segment of life's
+circle that can never be dissolved and must unite again at last?"
+
+I shook my head blankly, for I had never heard anything of the sort.
+
+"You have still much to learn, Allan, although doubtless there are some
+who think you wise," she went on in the same mocking voice. "Well, I
+hold that this doctrine is built upon a rock of truth; also," she added
+after studying me for a minute, "that in your case these three women
+do not complete that circle. I think there is a fourth who as yet is
+strange to you in this life, though you have known her well enough in
+others."
+
+I groaned, imagining that she alluded to herself, which was foolish of
+me, for at once she read my mind and went on with a rather acid little
+laugh,
+
+"No, no, not the humble slave who sits before you, whom, as you have
+told me, it would please you to reject as unworthy were she brought to
+you in offering, as in the old days was done at the courts of the great
+kings of the East. O fool, fool! who hold yourself so strong and do not
+know that if I chose, before yon shadow had moved a finger's breadth, I
+could bring you to my feet, praying that you might be suffered to kiss
+my robe, yes, just the border of my robe."
+
+"Then I beg of you not to choose, Ayesha, since I think that when there
+is work to be done by both of us, we shall find more comfort side
+by side than if I were on the ground seeking to kiss a garment that
+doubtless then it would delight you to snatch away."
+
+At these words her whole attitude seemed to change. I could see her
+lovely shape brace itself up, as it were, beneath her robes and felt
+in some way that her mind had also changed; that it had rid itself of
+mockery and woman's pique and like a shifting searchlight, was directed
+upon some new objective.
+
+"Work to be done," she repeated after me in a new voice. "Yes, I thank
+you who bring it to my mind, since the hours pass and that work presses.
+Also I think there is a bargain to be made between us who are both of
+the blood that keeps bargains, even if they be not written on a roll
+and signed and sealed. Why do you come to me and what do you seek of
+me, Allan, Watcher-in-the-Night? Say it and truthfully, for though I
+may laugh at lies and pass them by when they have to do with the eternal
+sword-play which Nature decrees between man and woman, until these break
+apart or, casting down the swords, seek arms in which they agree too
+well, when they have to do with policy and high purpose and ambition's
+ends, why then I avenge them upon the liar."
+
+Now I hesitated, as what I had to tell her seemed so foolish, indeed so
+insane, while she waited patiently as though to give me time to shape my
+thoughts. Speaking at last because I must, I said,
+
+"I come to ask you, Ayesha, to show me the dead, if the dead still live
+elsewhere."
+
+"And who told you, Allan, that I could show you the dead, if they are
+not truly dead? There is but one, I think, and if you are his messenger,
+show me his token. Without it we do not speak together of this
+business."
+
+"What token?" I asked innocently, though I guessed her meaning well
+enough.
+
+She searched me with her great eyes, for I felt, and indeed saw them on
+me through the veil, then answered,
+
+"I think--nay, let me be sure," and half rising from the couch, she bent
+her heard over the tripod that I have described, and stared into what
+seemed to be a crystal bowl. "If I read aright," she said, straightening
+herself presently, "it is a hideous thing enough, the carving of an
+abortion of a man such as no woman would care to look on lest her babe
+should bear its stamp. It is a charmed thing also that has virtues for
+him who wears it, especially for you, Allan, since something tells me
+that it is dyed with the blood of one who loved you. If you have it, let
+it be revealed, since without it I do not talk with you of these dead
+you seek."
+
+Now I drew Zikali's talisman from its hiding-place and held it towards
+her.
+
+"Give it to me," she said.
+
+I was about to obey when something seemed to warn me not to do so.
+
+"Nay," I answered, "he who lent me this carving for a while, charged me
+that except in emergency and to save others, I must wear it night and
+day till I returned it to his hand, saying that if I parted from it
+fortune would desert me. I believe none of this talk and tried to be rid
+of it, whereon death drew near to me from a snake, such a snake as I see
+you wear about you, which doubtless also has poison in its fangs, if of
+another sort, Ayesha."
+
+"Draw near," she said, "and let me look. Man, be not afraid."
+
+So I rose from my chair and knelt before her, hoping secretly that
+no one would see me in that ridiculous position, which the most
+unsuspicious might misinterpret. I admit, however, that it proved to
+have compensations, since even through the veil I saw her marvellous
+eyes better than I had done before, and something of the pure outline of
+her classic face; also the fragrance of her hair was wonderful.
+
+She took the talisman in her hand and examined it closely.
+
+"I have heard of this charm and it is true that the thing has power,"
+she said, "for I can feel it running through my veins, also that it is
+a shield of defence to him who wears it. Yes, and now I understand what
+perplexed me somewhat, namely, how it came about that when you vexed me
+into unveiling--but let that matter be. The wisdom was not your own, but
+another's, that is all. Yes, the wisdom of one whose years have borne
+him beyond the shafts that fly from woman's eyes, the ruinous shafts
+which bring men down to doom and nothingness. Tell me, Allan, is this
+the likeness of him who gave it to you?"
+
+"Yes, Ayesha, the very picture, as I think, carved by himself, though he
+said that it is ancient, and others tell that it has been known in the
+land for centuries."
+
+"So perchance has he," she answered drily, "since some of our company
+live long. Now tell me this wizard's names. Nay, wait awhile for I would
+prove that indeed you are his messenger with whom I may talk about the
+dead, and other things, Allan. You can read Arabic, can you not?"
+
+"A little," I answered.
+
+Then from a stool at her side she took paper, or rather papyrus and a
+reed pen, and on her knee wrote something on the sheet which she gave to
+me folded up.
+
+"Now tell me the names," she said, "and then let us see if they tally
+with what I have written, for if so you are a true man, not a mere
+wanderer or a spy."
+
+"The principal names of this doctor are Zikali, the Opener-of-Roads, the
+'_Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born_,'" I answered.
+
+"Read the writing, Allan," she said.
+
+I unfolded the sheet and read Arabic words which meant, "Weapons,
+Cleaver-of-Rocks, One-at-whom-dogs-bark-and-children-wail."
+
+"The last two are near enough," she said, "but the first is wrong."
+
+"Nay, Ayesha, since in this man's tongue the word 'Zikali' means
+'Weapons'"; intelligence at which she clapped her hands as a merry girl
+might do. "The man," I went on, "is without doubt a great doctor, one
+who sees and knows things that others do not, but I do not understand
+why this token carved in his likeness should have power, as you say it
+has."
+
+"Because with it goes his spirit, Allan. Have you never heard of the
+Egyptians, a very wise people who, as I remember, declared that man has
+a _Ka_ or Double, a second self, that can either dwell in his statue or
+be sent afar?"
+
+I answered that I had heard this.
+
+"Well the _Ka_ of this Zikali goes with that hideous image of him, which
+is perhaps why you have come safe through many dangers and why also I
+seemed to dream so much of him last night. Tell me now, what does Zikali
+want of me whose power he knows very well?"
+
+"An oracle, the answer to a riddle, Ayesha."
+
+"Then set it out another time. So you decide to see the dead, and this
+old dwarf, who is a home of wisdom, desires an oracle from one who is
+greater than he. Good. And what are you, or both of you, prepared to pay
+for these boons? Know, Allan, that I am a merchant who sells my favours
+dear. Tell me then, will you pay?"
+
+"I think that it depends upon the price," I answered cautiously. "Set
+out the price, Ayesha."
+
+"Be not afraid, O cunning dealer," she mocked. "I do not ask your soul
+or even that love of yours which you guard so jealously, since these
+things I could take without the asking. Nay, I ask only what a brave and
+honest man may give without shame: your help in war, and perhaps," she
+added with a softer tone, "your friendship. I think, Allan, that I like
+you well, perhaps because you remind me of another whom I knew long
+ago."
+
+I bowed at the compliment, feeling proud and pleased at the prospect of
+a friendship with this wonderful and splendid creature, although I was
+aware that it had many dangers. Then I sat still and waited. She also
+waited, brooding.
+
+"Listen," she said after a while, "I will tell you a story and when you
+have heard it you shall answer, even if you do not believe it, but not
+before. Does it please you to listen to something of the tale of my life
+which I am moved to tell you, that you may know with whom you have to
+deal?"
+
+Again I bowed, thinking to myself that I knew nothing that would please
+me more, who was eaten up with a devouring curiosity about this woman.
+
+Now she rose from her couch and descending off the dais, began to walk
+up and down the chamber. I say, to walk, but her movements were more
+like the gliding of an eagle through the air or the motion of a swan
+upon still water, so smooth were they and gracious. As she walked she
+spoke in a low and thrilling voice.
+
+"Listen," she said again, "and even if my story seems marvellous to you,
+interrupt, and above all, mock me not, lest I should grow angry, which
+might be ill for you. I am not as other women are, O Allan, who having
+conquered the secrets of Nature," here I felt an intense desire to ask
+what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, "to my sorrow have
+preserved my youth and beauty through many ages. Moreover in the past,
+perhaps in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which some
+memory remains with me.
+
+"By my last birth I am an Arab lady of royal blood, a descendant of the
+Kings of the East. There I dwelt in the wilderness and ruled a people,
+and at night I gathered wisdom from the stars and the spirits of the
+earth and air. At length I wearied of it all and my people too wearied
+of me and besought me to depart, for, Allan, I would have naught to do
+with men, yet men went mad because of my beauty and slew each other out
+of jealousy. Moreover other peoples made war upon my people, hoping to
+take me captive that I might be a wife to their kings. So I left them,
+and being furnished with great wealth in hoarded gold and jewels,
+together with a certain holy man, my master, I wandered through the
+world, studying the nations and their worships. At Jerusalem I tarried
+and learned of Jehovah who is, or was, its God.
+
+"At Paphos in the Isle of Chitim I dwelt a while till the folk of
+that city thought that I was Aphrodite returned to earth and sought to
+worship me. For this reason and because I made a mock of Aphrodite, I,
+who, as I have said, would have naught to do with men, she through her
+priests cursed me, saying that her yoke should lie more heavily upon my
+neck from age to age than on that of any woman who had breathed beneath
+the sun.
+
+"It was a wondrous scene," she added reflectively, "that of the cursing,
+since for every word I gave back two. Moreover I told the hoary villain
+of a high-priest to make report to his goddess that long after she was
+dead in the world, I would live on, for the spirit of prophecy was on me
+in that hour. Yet the curse fell in its season, since in her day, doubt
+it or not, Aphrodite had strength, as indeed under other names she has
+and will have while the world endures, and for aught I know, beyond it.
+Do they worship her now in any land, Allan?"
+
+"No, only her statues because of their beauty, though Love is always
+worshipped."
+
+"Yes, who can testify to that better than you yourself, Allan, if he
+who is called Zikali tells me the truth concerning you in the dreams he
+sends? As for the statues, I saw some of them as they left the master's
+hand in Greece, and when I told him that he might have found a better
+model, once I was that model. If this marble still endures, it must be
+the most famous of them all, though perchance Aphrodite has shattered it
+in her jealous rage. You shall tell me of these statues afterwards;
+mine had a mark on the left shoulder like to a mole, but the stone was
+imperfect, not my flesh, as I can prove if you should wish."
+
+Thinking it better not to enter on a discussion as to Ayesha's shoulder,
+I remained silent and she went on.
+
+"I dwelt in Egypt also, and there, to be rid of men who wearied me with
+their sighs and importunities, also to acquire more wisdom of which she
+was the mistress, I entered the service of the goddess Isis, Queen
+of Heaven, vowing to remain virgin for ever. Soon I became her
+high-priestess and in her most sacred shrines upon the Nile, I communed
+with the goddess and shared her power, since from me her daughter, she
+withheld none of her secrets. So it came about that though Pharaohs held
+the sceptre, it was I who ruled Egypt and brought it and Sidon to their
+fall, it matters not how or why, as it was fated that I must do. Yes,
+kings would come to seek counsel from me where I sat throned, dressed in
+the garb of Isis and breathing out her power. Yet, my task accomplished,
+of it all I grew weary, as men will surely do of the heavens that they
+preach, should they chance to find them."
+
+I wondered what this "task" might be, but only asked, "Why?"
+
+"Because in their pictured heaven all things lie to their hands and man,
+being man, cannot be happy without struggle, and woman, being woman,
+without victory over others. What is cheaply bought, or given, has no
+value, Allan; to be enjoyed, it must first be won. But I bade you not to
+break my thought."
+
+I asked pardon and she went on,
+
+"Then it was that the shadow of the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me,
+yes, and of the curse of Isis also, so that these twin maledictions have
+made me what I am, a lost soul dwelling in the wilderness waiting the
+fulfilment of a fate whereof I know not the end. For though I have all
+wisdom, all knowledge of the Past and much power together with the gift
+of life and beauty, the future is as dark to me as night without its
+moon and stars.
+
+"Hearken, this chanced to me. Though it be to my shame I tell it you
+that all may be clear. At a temple of Isis on the Nile where I ruled,
+there was a certain priest, a Greek by birth, vowed like myself to the
+service of the goddess and therefore to wed none but her, the goddess
+herself--that is, in the spirit. He was named Kallikrates, a man of
+courage and of beauty, such an one as those Greeks carved in the statues
+of their god Apollo. Never, I think, was a man more beautiful in face
+and form, though in soul he was not great, as often happens to men who
+have all else, and well-nigh always happens to women, save myself and
+perhaps one or two others that history tells of, doubtless magnifying
+their fabled charms.
+
+"The Pharaoh of that day, the last of the native blood, him whom the
+Persians drove to doom, had a daughter, the Princess of Egypt, Amenartas
+by name, a fair woman in her fashion, though somewhat swarthy. In her
+youth this Amenartas became enamoured of Kallikrates and he of her, when
+he was a captain of the Grecian Mercenaries at Pharaoh's Court. Indeed,
+she brought blood upon his hands because of her, wherefore he fled to
+Isis for forgiveness and for peace. Thither in after time she followed
+him and again urged her love.
+
+"Learning of the thing and knowing it for sacrilege, I summoned this
+priest and warned him of his danger and of the doom which awaited him
+should he continue in that path. He grew affrighted. He flung himself
+upon the ground before me with groans and supplications, and kissing
+my feet, vowed most falsely to me that his dealings with the royal
+Amenartas were but a veil and that it was I whom he worshipped. His
+unhallowed words filled me with horror and sternly I bade him begone and
+do penance for his crime, saying that I would pray the goddess on behalf
+of him.
+
+"He went, leaving me alone lost in thought in the darkening shrine. Then
+sleep fell on me and in my sleep I dreamed a dream, or saw a vision.
+For suddenly there stood before me a woman beauteous as myself clad in
+nothing save a golden girdle and a veil of gossamer.
+
+"'O Ayesha,' she said in a honeyed voice, 'priestess of Isis of the
+Egyptians, sworn to the barren worship of Isis and fed on the ashes of
+her unprofitable wisdom, know that I am Aphrodite of the Greeks whom
+many times thou hast mocked and defied, and Queen of the breathing
+world, as Isis is Queen of the world that is dead. Now because thou
+didst despise me and pour contempt upon my name, I smite thee with
+my strength and lay a curse upon thee. It is that thou shalt love and
+desire this man who but now hath kissed thy feet, ever longing till the
+world's end to kiss his lips in payment, although thou art as far above
+him as the moon thou servest is above the Nile. Think not that thou
+shalt escape my doom, for know that however strong the spirit, here upon
+the earth the flesh is stronger still and of all flesh I am the queen.'
+
+"Then she laughed softly and smiting me across the eyes with a lock of
+her scented hair, was gone.
+
+"Allan, I awoke from my sleep and a great trouble fell upon me, for I
+who had never loved before now was rent with a rage of love and for this
+man who till that moment had been naught to me but as some beauteous
+image of gold and ivory. I longed for him, my heart was racked with
+jealousy because of the Egyptian who favoured him, an eating flame
+possessed my breast. I grew mad. There in the shrine of Isis the divine
+I cast myself upon my knees and cried to Aphrodite to return and give me
+him I sought, for whose sake I would renounce all else, even if I must
+pour my wisdom into a beauteous, empty cup. Yes, thus I prayed and lay
+upon the ground and wept until, outworn, once more sleep fell upon me.
+
+"Now in the darkness of the holy place once more there came a dream or
+vision, since before me in her glory stood the goddess Isis crowned
+with the crescent of the young moon and holding in her hand the jewelled
+_sistrum_ that is her symbol, from which came music like to the melody
+of distant bells. She gazed at me and in her great eyes were scorn and
+anger.
+
+"'O Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom,' she said in a solemn voice, 'whom I,
+Isis, had come to look upon rather as a child than a servant, since in
+none other of my priestesses was such greatness to be found, and whom
+in a day to be I had purposed to raise to the very steps of my heavenly
+throne, thou hast broken thine oath and, forsaking me, hast worshipped
+false Aphrodite of the Greeks who is mine enemy. Yea, in the eternal war
+between the spirit and the flesh, thou hast chosen the part of flesh.
+Therefore I hate thee and add my doom to that which Aphrodite laid upon
+thee, which, hadst thou prayed to me and not to her, I would have lifted
+from thy heart.
+
+"'Hearken! The Grecian whom thou hast chosen, by Aphrodite's will, thou
+shalt love as the Pathian said. More, thy love shall bring his blood
+upon thy hands, nor mayest thou follow him to the grave. For I will show
+thee the Source of Life and thou shalt drink of it to make thyself more
+fair even than thou art and thus outpace thy rival, and when thy lover
+is dead, in a desolate place thou shalt wait in grief and solitude till
+he is born again and find thee there.
+
+"'Yet shall this be but the beginning of thy sorrows, since through all
+time thou shalt pursue thy fate till at length thou canst draw up this
+man to the height on which thine own soul stands by the ropes of love
+and loss and suffering. Moreover through it all thou shalt despise
+thyself, which is man's and woman's hardest lot, thou who having the
+rare feast of spirit spread out before thee, hast chosen to fill thyself
+from the troughs of flesh.'
+
+"Then, Allan, in my dream I made a proud answer to the goddess, saying,
+'Hear me, mighty mistress of many Forms who dost appear in all that
+lives! An evil fate has fallen upon me, but was it I who chose that
+fate? Can the leaf contend against the driving gale? Can the falling
+stone turn upwards to the sky, or when Nature draws it, can the tide
+cease to flow? A goddess whom I have offended, that goddess whose
+strength causes the whole world to be, has laid her curse upon me and
+because I have bent before the storm, as bend I must, or break, another
+goddess whom I serve, thou thyself, Mother Isis, hast added to the
+curse. Where then is Justice, O Lady of the Moon?'
+
+"'Not here, Woman,' she answered. 'Yet far away Justice lives and shall
+be won at last and mayhap because thou art so proud and high-stomached,
+it is laid upon thee to seek her blinded eyes through many an age. Yet
+at last I think thou shalt set thy sins against her weights and find
+the balance even. Therefore cease from questioning the high decrees
+of destiny which thou canst not understand and be content to suffer,
+remembering that all joy grows from the root of pain. Moreover, know
+this for thy comfort, that the wisdom which thou hast shall grow and
+gather on thee and with it thy beauty and thy power; also that at the
+last thou shalt look upon my face again, in token whereof I leave to
+thee my symbol, the _sistrum_ that I bear, and with it this command.
+Follow that false priest of mine wherever he may go and avenge me upon
+him, and if thou lose him there, wait while the generations pass till he
+return again. Such and no other is thy destiny.'
+
+"Allan, the vision faded and when I awoke the lights of dawn played upon
+the image of the goddess in the sanctuary. They played, moreover,
+upon the holy jewelled thing that in my dream her hand had held, the
+_sistrum_ of her worship, shaped like the loop of life, the magic symbol
+that she had vowed to me, wherewith goes her power, which henceforth was
+mine.
+
+"I took it and followed after the priest Kallikrates, to whom
+thenceforward I was bound by passion's ties that are stronger than all
+the goddesses in this wide universe."
+
+Here I, Allan, could contain myself no longer and asked, "What for?"
+then, fearing her wrath, wished that I had been silent.
+
+But she was not angry, perhaps because this tale of her interviews
+with goddesses, doubtless fabled, had made her humble, for she answered
+quietly,
+
+"By Aphrodite, or by Isis, or both of them I did not know. All I knew
+was that I _must_ seek him, then and evermore, as seek I do to-day and
+shall perchance through aeons yet unborn. So I followed, as I was taught
+and commanded, the _sistrum_ being my guide, how it matters not, and
+giving me the means, and so at last I came to this ancient land whereof
+the ruin in which you sit was once known as Kor."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ALLAN MISSES OPPORTUNITY
+
+All the while that she was talking thus the Lady or the Queen or the
+Witch-woman, Ayesha, had been walking up and down the place from the
+curtains to the foot of the dais, sweeping me with her scented robes as
+she passed to and fro, and as she walked she waved her arms as an orator
+might do to emphasise the more moving passages of her tale. Now at the
+end of it, or what I took to be the end, she stepped on to the dais and
+sank upon the couch as if exhausted, though I think her spirit was weary
+rather than her body.
+
+Here she sat awhile, brooding, her chin resting on her hand, then
+suddenly looked up and fixing her glance upon me--for I could see the
+flash of it through her thin veil--said,
+
+"What think you of this story, Allan? Do you believe it and have you
+ever heard its like?"
+
+"_Never_," I answered with emphasis, "and of course I believe every
+word. Only there are one or two questions that with your leave I would
+wish to ask, Ayesha."
+
+"By which you mean, Allan, that you believe nothing, being by nature
+without faith and doubtful of all that you cannot see and touch and
+handle. Well, perhaps you are wise, since what I have told you is not
+all the truth. For example, it comes back to me now that it was not in
+the temple on the Nile, or indeed upon the Earth, that I saw the vision
+of Aphrodite and of Isis, but elsewhere; also that it was here in Kor
+that I was first consumed by passion for Kallikrates whom hitherto I had
+scorned. In two thousand years one forgets much, Allan. Out with your
+questions and I will answer them, unless they be too long."
+
+"Ayesha," I said humbly, reflecting to myself that my questions would,
+at any rate, be shorter than her varying tale, "even I who am not
+learned have heard of these goddesses of whom you speak, of the Grecian
+Aphrodite who rose from the sea upon the shores of Cyprus and dwelt at
+Paphos and elsewhere----"
+
+"Yes, doubtless like most men you have heard of her and perchance also
+have been struck across the eyes with her hair, like your betters before
+you," she interrupted with sarcasm.
+
+"----Also," I went on, avoiding argument, "I have heard of Isis of the
+Egyptians, Lady of the Moon, Mother of Mysteries, Spouse of Osiris whose
+child was Horus the Avenger."
+
+"Aye, and I think will hear more of her before you have done, Allan, for
+now something comes back to me concerning you and her and another. I
+am not the only one who has broken the oaths of Isis and received her
+curse, Allan, as _you_ may find out in the days to come. But what of
+these heavenly queens?"
+
+"Only this, Ayesha; I have been taught that they were but phantasms
+fabled by men with many another false divinity, and could have sworn
+that this was true. And yet you talk of them as real and living, which
+perplexes me."
+
+"Being dull of understanding doubtless it perplexes you, Allan. Yet if
+you had imagination you might understand that these goddesses are great
+Principles of Nature; Isis, of throned Wisdom and strait virtue, and
+Aphrodite, of Love, as it is known to men and women who, being human,
+have it laid upon them that they must hand on the torch of Life in their
+little hour. Also you would know that such Principles can seem to take
+shape and form and at certain ages of the world appear to their servants
+visible in majesty, though perchance to-day others with changed names
+wield their sceptres and work their will. Now you are answered on this
+matter. So to the next."
+
+Privately I did not feel as though I were answered at all and I was sure
+that I know nothing of the kind she indicated, but thinking it best to
+leave the subject, I went on,
+
+"If I understood rightly, Ayesha, the events which you have been pleased
+first to describe to me, and then to qualify or contradict, took place
+when the Pharaohs reigned. Now no Pharaoh has sat upon the throne of
+Egypt for near two thousand years, for the last was a Grecian woman whom
+the Romans conquered and drove to death. And yet, Ayesha, you speak as
+though you have lived all through that gulf of time, and in this there
+must be error, because it is impossible. Therefore I suppose you to mean
+that this history has come down to you in writing, or perhaps in dreams.
+I believe that even in such far-off times there were writers of romance,
+and we all know of what stuff dreams are made. At least this thought
+comes to me," I added hurriedly, fearing lest I had said too much, "and
+one so wise as you are, I repeat, knows well that a woman who says she
+has lived two thousand years must be mad or--suffer from delusions,
+because I repeat, it is impossible."
+
+At these quite innocent remarks she sprang to her feet in a rage that
+might truly be called royal in every sense.
+
+"Impossible! Romance! Dreams! Delusions! Mad!" she cried in a ringing
+voice. "Oh! of a truth you weary me, and I have a mind to send you
+whither you will learn what is impossible and what is not. Indeed, I
+would do it, and now, only I need your services, and if I did there
+would be none left for me to talk with, since your companion is
+moonstruck and the others are but savages of whom I have seen enough.
+
+"Hearken, fool! _Nothing_ is impossible. Why do you seek, you who talk
+of the impossible, to girdle the great world in the span of your two
+hands and to weigh the secrets of the Universe in the balance of your
+petty mind and, of that which you cannot understand, to say that it is
+not? Life you admit because you see it all about you. But that it should
+endure for two thousand years, which after all is but a second's beat in
+the story of the earth, that to you is 'impossible,' although in truth
+the buried seed or the sealed-up toad can live as long. Doubtless, also,
+you have some faith which promises you this same boon to all eternity,
+after the little change called Death.
+
+"Nay, Allan, it is possible enough, like to many other things of which
+you do not dream to-day that will be common to the eyes of those who
+follow after you. Mayhap you think it impossible that I should speak
+with and learn of you from yonder old black wizard who dwells in the
+country whence you came. And yet whenever I will I do so in the night
+because he is in tune with me, and what I do shall be done by all men in
+the years unborn. Yes, they shall talk together across the wide spaces
+of the earth, and the lover shall hear her lover's voice although great
+seas roll between them. Nor perchance will it stop at this; perchance in
+future time men shall hold converse with the denizens of the stars, and
+even with the dead who have passed into silence and the darkness. Do you
+hear and understand me?"
+
+"Yes, yes," I answered feebly.
+
+"You lie, as you are too prone to do. You hear but you do not understand
+nor believe, and oh! you vex me sorely. Now I had it in my mind to
+tell you the secret of this long life of mine; long, mark you, but not
+endless, for doubtless I must die and change and return again, like
+others, and even to show you how it may be won. But you are not worthy
+in your faithlessness."
+
+"No, no, I am not worthy," I answered, who at that moment did not feel
+the least desire to live two thousand years, perhaps with this woman as
+a neighbour, rating me from generation to generation. Yet it is true,
+that now when I am older and a certain event cannot be postponed much
+longer, I do often regret that I neglected to take this unique chance,
+if in truth there was one, of prolonging an existence which after all
+has its consolations--especially when one has made one's pile. Certainly
+it is a case, a flagrant case, of neglected opportunities, and my only
+consolation for having lost them is that this was due to the uprightness
+of my nature which made it so hard for me to acquiesce in alternative
+statements that I had every cause to disbelieve and thus to give offence
+to a very powerful and petulant if attractive lady.
+
+"So that is done with," she went on with a little stamp of indignation,
+"as soon you will be also, who, had you not crossed and doubted me,
+might have lived on for untold time and become one of the masters of the
+world, as I am."
+
+Here she paused, choked, I think, with her almost childish anger, and
+because I could not help it, I said,
+
+"Such place and power, if they be yours, Ayesha, do not seem to bring
+you much reward. If I were a master of the world I do not think that I
+should choose to dwell unchangingly among savages who eat men and in
+a pile of ruins. But perhaps the curses of Aphrodite and of Isis are
+stronger masters still?" and I paused inquiringly.
+
+This bold argument--for now I see that it was bold--seemed to astonish
+and even bewilder my wonderful companion.
+
+"You have more wisdom than I thought," she said reflectively, "who have
+come to understand that no one is really lord of anything, since above
+there is always a more powerful lord who withers all his pomp and pride
+to nothingness, even as the great kings learned in olden days, and I,
+who am higher than they are, am learning now. Hearken. Troubles beset me
+wherein I would have your help and that of your companions, for which I
+will pay each of you the fee that he desires. The brooding white man who
+is with you shall free his daughter and unharmed; though that _he_ will
+be unharmed I do not promise. The black savage captain shall fight his
+fill and gain the glory that he seeks, also something that he seeks
+still more. The little yellow man asks nothing save to be with his
+master like a dog and to satisfy at once his stomach and his apish
+curiosity. You, Allan, shall see those dead over whom you brood at
+night, though the other guerdon that you might have won is now passed
+from your reach because you mock me in your heart."
+
+"What must we do to gain these things?" I asked. "How can we humble
+creatures help one who is all powerful and who has gathered in her
+breast the infinite knowledge of two thousand years?"
+
+"You must make war under my banner and rid me of my foes. As for the
+reason, listen to the end of my tale and you shall learn."
+
+I reflected that it was a marvellous thing that this queen who claimed
+supernatural powers should need our help in a war, but thinking it wiser
+to keep my meditations to myself, said nothing. As a matter of fact I
+might just as well have spoken, since as usual she read my thoughts.
+
+"You are thinking that it is strange, Allan, that I, the Mighty and
+Undying, should seek your aid in some petty tribal battle, and so it
+would be were my foes but common savages. But they are more; they are
+men protected by the ancient god of this immemorial city of Kor, a great
+god in his day whose spirit still haunts these ruins and whose strength
+still protects the worshippers who cling to him and practise his unholy
+rites of human sacrifice."
+
+"How was this god named?" I asked.
+
+"_Rezu_ was his name, and from him came the Egyptian Re or Ra, since in
+the beginning Kor was the mother of Egypt and the conquering people of
+Kor took their god with them when they burst into the valley of the
+Nile and subdued its peoples long before the first Pharaoh, Menes, wore
+Egypt's crown."
+
+"Ra was the sun, was he not?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, and Rezu also was a sun-god whom from his throne in the fires of
+the Lord of Day, gave life to men, or slew them if he willed with his
+thunderbolts of drought and pestilence and storm. He was no gentle king
+of heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshippers,
+yes, even that of maids and children. So it came about that the people
+of Kor, who saw their virgins slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu,
+and their infants burned to ashes in the fires that his rays lit, turned
+themselves to the worship of the gentle moon, the goddess whom they
+named _Lulala_, while some of them chose Truth for their queen, since
+Truth, they said, was greater and more to be desired than the fierce
+Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them both
+throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu, grew
+wroth and sent a pestilence upon Kor and its subject lands and slew
+their people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy, and
+with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that
+escaped I know not how."
+
+"Did you see this great pestilence?" I asked, much interested.
+
+"Nay, it befell generations before I came to Kor. One Junis, a priest,
+wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where
+is the burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my
+day Kor, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the
+history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands amidst
+the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people
+named the Amahagger dwelt in Households, or Tribes and there sacrificed
+men by fire and devoured them, following the rites of the demon Rezu.
+For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence. Also
+there were certain others, children of the worshippers of Lulala whose
+kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the gentle
+worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the followers of
+Rezu."
+
+"What brought _you_ to Kor, Ayesha?" I asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of
+great Isis whom I serve? Also," she added after a pause, "that I might
+find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted
+thereto by the other."
+
+"And did you find them, Ayesha?" I asked.
+
+"Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence
+the goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his
+temptress back to the world."
+
+"That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that
+you also--liked this priest."
+
+She sprang from her couch and in a low, hissing voice which resembled
+the sound made by an angry snake and turned my blood cold to hear,
+exclaimed,
+
+"Man, do you dare to mock me? Nay, you are but a blundering, curious
+fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like
+Kallikrates, never should you leave Kor living. Cease from seeking that
+which you may not learn. Suffice it for you to know that the doom of
+Isis fell upon the lost Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on me
+also fell her doom, who must dwell here, dead yet living, till he return
+again and the play begins afresh.
+
+"Stranger," she went on in a softer voice, "perchance your faith,
+whate'er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshippers and give
+strength to the arms of its prophesying priests, who swear they hold
+the keys of doom or of the eternal joys. I see you sign assent" (I had
+nodded at her extremely accurate guess) "and therefore can understand
+that in such a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for some
+two thousand years, expiating the crime of Powers above me whereof I
+am but the hand and instrument, since those Powers which decreed that I
+should love, decree also that I must avenge that love."
+
+She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by emotion, of which
+I could only guess the reasons, hiding her face in her hands. Presently
+she let them fall again and continued,
+
+"Of these woes ask me no more. They sleep till the hour of their
+resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you
+perchance----But let that be. 'Twas near the mark; nearer, Allan, than
+you know, not in it! Therefore leave them to their sleep as I would if
+I might--ah! if I might, whose companions they are throughout the weary
+ages. Alas! that through the secret which was revealed to me I remain
+undying on the earth who in death might perhaps have found a rest,
+and being human although half divine, must still busy myself with the
+affairs of earth.
+
+"Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I
+remained in my agony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk
+of the cup of enduring life and like the Prometheus of old fable, found
+myself bound to this changeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures
+of remorse tear out my living heart which in the watches of the night is
+ever doomed to grow again within my woman's breast, I was plunged into
+petty troubles of the flesh, aye and welcomed them because their irk at
+times gave me forgetfulness. When the savage dwellers in this land came
+to know that a mighty one had arisen among them who was the servant of
+the Lady of the Moon, those of them who still worshipped their goddess
+Lulala, gathered themselves about me, while those of them who worshipped
+Rezu sought to overthrow me.
+
+"'Here,' they said, 'is the goddess Lulala come to earth. In the name
+of Rezu let us slay her and make an end,' for these fools thought that I
+could be killed. Allan, I conquered them, but their captain, who also
+is named Rezu and whom they held and hold to be an emanation of the god
+himself walking the earth, I could not conquer."
+
+"Why not?" I asked.
+
+"For this reason, Allan. In some past age his god showed him the same
+secret that was shown to me. He too had drunk of the Cup of Life and
+lives on unharmed by Time, so that being in strength my equal, no spear
+of mine can reach his heart clad in the armour of his evil god."
+
+"Then what spear can?" I inquired helplessly, who was bewildered.
+
+"None at all, Allan, yet an _axe_ may, as you shall hear, or so I
+think. For many generations there has been peace of a sort between the
+worshippers of Lulala who dwell with me in the Plain of Kor, or rather
+of myself, since to these people _I_ am Lulala, and the worshippers of
+Rezu, who dwell in the strongholds beyond the mountain crest. But of
+late years their chief Rezu, having devastated the lands about, has
+grown restless and threatened to attack on Kor, which is not strong
+enough to stand against him. Moreover he has sought for a white queen to
+rule under him, purposing to set her up to mock my majesty."
+
+"Is that why those cannibals carried away the daughter of my companion,
+the Sea-Captain who is named Avenger?" I asked.
+
+"It is, Allan, since presently he will give it out that I am dead or
+fled, if he has not done so already, and that this new queen has arisen
+in my place. Thereby he hopes to draw away many who cling to me ere he
+advances upon Kor, carrying with him this girl veiled as I am, so that
+none may know the difference between us, since not a man of them has
+ever looked upon my face, Allan. Therefore this Rezu must die, if die he
+can; otherwise, although it is impossible that he should harm me, he may
+slay or draw away my people and leave me with none to rule in this
+place where by the decree of Fate I must dwell on until he whom I seek
+returns. You are thinking in your heart that such savages would be
+little loss and this is so, but still they serve as slaves to me in my
+loneliness. Moreover I have sworn to protect them from the demon Rezu
+and they have trusted in me and therefore my honour is at stake, for
+never shall it be said that those who trusted in She-who-commands, were
+overthrown because they put faith in one who was powerless."
+
+"What do you mean about an axe, Ayesha?" I asked. "Why can an axe alone
+kill Rezu?"
+
+"The thing is a mystery, O Allan, of which I may not tell you all, since
+to do so I must reveal secrets which I have determined you shall not
+learn. Suffice it to you to know that when this Rezu drank of the Cup
+of Life he took with him his axe. Now this axe was an ancient weapon
+rumoured to have been fashioned by the gods and, as it chanced, that axe
+drew to itself more and stronger life than did Rezu, how, it does not
+matter, if indeed the tale be more than a fable. At least this I know is
+true, for he who guarded the Gate of Life, a certain Noot, a master of
+mysteries, and mine also in my day of youth, who being a philosopher and
+very wise, chose never to pass that portal which was open to him, said
+it to me himself ere he went the way of flesh. He told this Rezu
+also that now he had naught to fear save his own axe and therefore he
+counselled him to guard it well, since if it was lifted against him in
+another's hands it would bring him down to death, which nothing
+else could do. Like to the heel of Achilles whereof the great Homer
+sings--have you read Homer, Allan?"
+
+"In a translation," I answered.
+
+"Good, then you will remember the story. Like to the heel of Achilles,
+I say, that axe would be the only gate by which death could enter his
+invulnerable flesh, or rather it alone could make the gate."
+
+"How did Noot know that?" I asked.
+
+"I cannot say," she answered with irritation. "Perchance he did not know
+it. Perchance it is all an idle tale, but at least it is true that Rezu
+believed and believes it, and what a man believes is true for him and
+will certainly befall. If it were otherwise, what is the use of faith
+which in a thousand forms supports our race and holds it from the
+horrors of the Pit? Only those who believe nothing inherit what they
+believe--nothing, Allan."
+
+"It may be so," I replied prosaically, "but what happened about the
+axe?"
+
+"In the end it was lost, or as some say stolen by a woman whom Rezu had
+deserted, and therefore he walks the world in fear from day to day. Nay,
+ask no more empty questions" (I had opened my mouth to speak) "but hear
+the end of the tale. In my trouble concerning Rezu I remembered this
+wild legend of the axe and since, when lost in a forest every path that
+may lead to safety should be explored, I sent my wisdom forth to make
+inquiry concerning it, as I who am great, have the power to do, of
+certain who are in tune with me throughout this wide land of Africa.
+Amongst others, I inquired of that old wizard whom you named Zikali,
+Opener of Roads, and he gave me an answer that there lived in his land a
+certain warrior who ruled a tribe called the People of the Axe by right
+of the Axe, of which axe none, not even he, knew the beginning or the
+legend. On the chance, though it was a small one, I bade the wizard
+send that warrior here with his axe. Last night he stood before me and I
+looked upon him and the axe, which at least is ancient and has a story.
+Whether it be the same that Rezu bore I do not know who never saw it,
+yet perchance he who bears it now is prepared to hold it aloft in battle
+even against Rezu, though he be terrible to see, and then we shall
+learn."
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "he is quite prepared, for that is his nature.
+Also among this man's people, the holder of the Axe is thought to be
+unconquerable."
+
+"Yet some must have been conquered who held it," she replied musingly.
+"Well, you shall tell me that tale later. Now we have talked long and
+you are weary and astonished. Go, eat and rest yourself. To-night when
+the moon rises I will come to where you are, not before, for I have much
+that must be done, and show you those with whom you must fight against
+Rezu, and make a plan of battle."
+
+"But I do not want to fight," I answered, "who have fought enough and
+came here to seek wisdom, not bloodshed."
+
+"First the sacrifice, then the reward," she answered, "that is if any
+are left to be rewarded. Farewell."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ROBERTSON IS LOST
+
+So I went and was conducted by Billali, the old chamberlain, for such
+seemed to be his office, who had been waiting patiently without all this
+while, back to our rest-house. On my way I picked up Hans, whom I found
+sitting outside the arch, and found that as usual that worthy had been
+keeping his eyes and ears open.
+
+"Baas," he said, "did the White Witch tell you that there is a big
+_impi_ encamped over yonder outside the houses, in what looks like a
+great dry ditch, and on the edge of the plain beyond?"
+
+"No, Hans, but she said that this evening she would show us those in
+whose company we must fight."
+
+"Well, Baas, they are there, some thousands of them, for I crept through
+the broken walls like a snake and saw them. And, Baas, I do not think
+they are men, I think that they are evil spirits who walk at night
+only."
+
+"Why, Hans?"
+
+"Because when the sun is high, Baas, as it is now, they are all
+sleeping. Yes, there they lie abed, fast asleep, as other people do at
+night, with only a few sentries out on guard, and these are yawning and
+rubbing their eyes."
+
+"I have heard that there are folk like that in the middle of Africa
+where the sun is very hot, Hans," I answered, "which perhaps is why
+She-who-commands is going to take us to see them at night. Also these
+people, it seems, are worshippers of the moon."
+
+"No, Baas, they are worshippers of the devil and that White Witch is his
+wife."
+
+"You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, Hans, for whatever she
+is I think that she can read thoughts from far away, as you guessed last
+night. Therefore I would not have any if I were you."
+
+"No, Baas, or if I must think, henceforth, it shall be only of gin which
+in this place is also far away," he replied, grinning.
+
+Then we came to the rest-house where I found that Robertson had already
+eaten his midday meal and like the Amahagger gone to sleep, while
+apparently Umslopogaas had done the same; at least I saw nothing of him.
+Of this I was glad, since that wondrous Ayesha seemed to draw vitality
+out of me and after my long talk with her I felt very tired. So I too
+ate and then went to lie down under an old wall in the shade at a little
+distance, and to reflect upon the marvellous things that I had heard.
+
+Here be it said at once that I believed nothing of them, or at least
+very little indeed. All the involved tale of Ayesha's long life I
+dismissed at once as incredible. Clearly she was some beautiful woman
+who was more or less mad and suffered from megalomania; probably an
+Arab, who had wandered to this place for reasons of her own, and become
+the chieftainess of a savage tribe whose traditions she had absorbed and
+reproduced as personal experiences, again for reasons of her own.
+
+For the rest, she was now threatened by another tribe and knowing that
+we had guns and could fight from what happened on the yesterday, wished
+naturally enough for our assistance in the coming battle. As for the
+marvellous chief Rezu, or rather for his supernatural attributes and all
+the cock-and-bull story about an axe--well, it was humbug like the rest,
+and if she believed in it she must be more foolish than I took her
+to be--even if she were unhinged on certain points. For the rest, her
+information about myself and Umslopogaas doubtless had reached her from
+Zikali in some obscure fashion, as she herself acknowledged.
+
+But heavens! how beautiful she was! That flash of loveliness when out of
+pique or coquetry she lifted her veil, blinded like the lightning. But
+thank goodness, also like the lightning it frightened; instinctively one
+felt that it was very dangerous, even to death, and with it I for one
+wished no closer acquaintance. Fire may be lovely and attractive, also
+comforting at a proper distance, but he who sits on the top of it is
+cremated, as many a moth has found.
+
+So I argued, knowing well enough all the while that if this particular
+human--or inhuman--fire desired to make an holocaust of me, it could do
+so easily enough, and that in reality I owed my safety so far to a lack
+of that desire on its part. The glorious Ayesha saw nothing to attract
+her in an insignificant and withered hunter, or at any rate in his
+exterior, though with his mind she might find some small affinity.
+Moreover to make a fool of him just for the fun of it would not
+serve her purpose, since she needed his assistance in a business that
+necessitated clear wits and unprejudiced judgment.
+
+Lastly she had declared herself to be absorbed in some tiresome
+complication with another man, of which it was rather difficult to
+follow the details. It is true that she described him as a handsome but
+somewhat empty-headed person whom she had last seen two thousand years
+ago, but probably this only meant that she thought poorly of him because
+he had preferred some other woman to herself, while the two thousand
+years were added to the tale to give it atmosphere.
+
+The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two
+thousand years; witness that of Cleopatra with Caesar, Mark Antony and
+other gentlemen. The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy, even
+in boarding-schools, and it is felt that were she by some miracle to be
+blotted out of the book of history, the loss would be enormous. The same
+applied to Helen, Phryne, and other bad lots. In fact now that one comes
+to think of it, most of the attractive personages in history, male or
+female, especially the latter, were bad lots. When we find someone to
+whose name is added "the good" we skip. No doubt Ayesha, being very
+clever, appreciated this regrettable truth, and therefore moved her
+murky entanglements of the past decade or so back for a couple of
+thousand years, as many of us would like to do.
+
+There remained the very curious circumstance of her apparent
+correspondence with old Zikali who lived far away. This, however, after
+all was not inexplicable. In the course of a great deal of experience I
+have observed that all the witch-doctor family, to which doubtless she
+belonged, have strange means of communication.
+
+In most instances these are no doubt physical, carried on by help of
+messengers, or messages passed from one to the other. But sometimes it
+is reasonable to assume what is known as telepathy, as their link of
+intercourse. Between two such highly developed experts as Ayesha and
+Zikali, it might for the sake of argument safely be supposed that it
+was thus they learned each other's mind and co-operated in each other's
+projects, though perhaps this end was effected by commoner methods.
+
+Whatever its interpretations, the issue of the business seemed to be
+that I was to be let in for more fighting. Well, in any case this could
+not be avoided, since Robertson's daughter, Inez, had to be saved at all
+costs, if it could possibly be done, even if we lost our lives in the
+attempt. Therefore fight we must, so there was nothing more to be said.
+Also without doubt this adventure was particularly interesting and I
+could only hope that good luck, or Zikali's Great Medicine, or rather
+Providence, would see me through it safely.
+
+For the rest the fact that our help was necessary to her in this
+war-like venture showed me clearly enough that all this wonderful
+woman's pretensions to supernatural powers were the sheerest nonsense.
+Had they been otherwise she would not have needed our help in her tribal
+fights, notwithstanding the rubbish she talked about the chief, Rezu,
+who according to her account of him, must resemble one of the fabulous
+"trolls," half-human and half-ghostly evil creatures, of whom I have
+read in the Norse Sagas, who could only be slain by some particular hero
+armed with a particular weapon.
+
+
+
+Reflecting thus I went to sleep and did not wake until the sun was
+setting. Finding that Hans was also sleeping at my feet just like a
+faithful dog, I woke him up and we went back together to the rest-house,
+which we reached as the darkness fell with extraordinary swiftness, as
+it does in those latitudes, especially in a place surrounded by cliffs.
+
+Not finding Robertson in the house, I concluded that he was somewhere
+outside, possibly making a reconnaissance on his own account, and told
+Hans to get supper ready for both of us. While he was doing so, by aid
+of the Amahagger lamps, Umslopogaas suddenly appeared in the circle of
+light, and looking about him, said,
+
+"Where is Red-Beard, Macumazahn?"
+
+I answered that I did not know and waited, for I felt sure that he had
+something to say.
+
+"I think that you had better keep Red-Beard close to you, Macumazahn,"
+he went on. "This afternoon, when you had returned from visiting the
+white doctoress and having eaten, had gone to sleep under the wall
+yonder, I saw Red-Beard come out of the house carrying a gun and a bag
+of cartridges. His eyes rolled wildly and he turned first this way and
+then that, sniffing at the air, like a buck that scents danger. Then he
+began to talk aloud in his own tongue and as I saw that he was speaking
+with his Spirit, as those do who are mad, I went away and left him."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Because, as you know, Macumazahn, it is a law among us Zulus never to
+disturb one who is mad and engaged in talking with his Spirit. Moreover,
+had I done so, probably he would have shot me, nor should I have
+complained who would have thrust myself in where I had no right to be."
+
+"Then why did you not come to call me, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Because then he might have shot you, for, as I have seen for some time
+he is inspired of heaven and knows not what he does upon the earth,
+thinking only of the Lady Sad-Eyes who has been stolen away from him, as
+is but natural. So I left him walking up and down, and when I returned
+later to look, saw that he was gone, as I thought into this walled hut.
+Now when Hansi tells me that he is not here, I have come to speak to you
+about him."
+
+"No, certainly he is not here," I said, and I went to look at the bed
+where Robertson slept to see if it had been used that evening.
+
+Then for the first time I saw lying on it a piece of paper torn from a
+pocketbook and addressed to myself. I seized and read it. It ran thus:
+
+
+"The merciful Lord has sent me a vision of Inez and shown me where she
+is over the cliff-edge away to the west, also the road to her. In
+my sleep I heard her talking to me. She told me that she is in great
+danger--that they are going to marry her to some brute--and called to
+me to come at once and save her; yes, and to come alone without saying
+anything to anyone. So I am going at once. Don't be frightened or
+trouble about me. All will be well, all will be quite well. I will tell
+you the rest when we meet."
+
+
+Horrorstruck I translated this insane screed to Umslopogaas and Hans.
+The former nodded gravely.
+
+"Did I not tell you that he was talking with his Spirit, Macumazahn?" (I
+had rendered "the merciful Lord" as the Good Spirit.) "Well, he has gone
+and doubtless his Spirit will take care of him. It is finished."
+
+"At any rate we cannot, Baas," broke in Hans, who I think feared that I
+might send him out to look for Robertson. "I can follow most spoors, but
+not on such a night as this when one could cut the blackness into lumps
+and build a wall of it."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "he has gone and nothing can be done at present,"
+though to myself I reflected that probably he had not gone far and would
+be found when the moon rose, or at any rate on the following morning.
+
+Still I was most uneasy about the man who, as I had noted for a long
+while, was losing his balance more and more. The shock of the barbarous
+and dreadful slaughter of his half-breed children and of the abduction
+of Inez by these grim, man-eating savages began the business, and I
+think that it was increased and accentuated by his sudden conversion to
+complete temperance after years of heavy drinking.
+
+When I persuaded him to this course I was very proud of myself, thinking
+that I had done a clever thing, but now I was not so sure. Perhaps it
+would have been better if he had continued to drink something, at
+any rate for a while, but the trouble is that in such cases there is
+generally no half-way house. A man, or still more a woman, given to this
+frailty either turns aggressively sober or remains very drunken. At
+any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted for the best and
+could not blame myself.
+
+For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious
+associations of his youth had re-asserted themselves with remarkable
+vigour, for I gathered that he had been brought up almost as a
+Calvinist, and in the rush of their return, had overset his equilibrium.
+As I have said, he prayed night and day without any of those reserves
+which most people prefer in their religious exercises, and when he
+talked of matters outside our quest, his conversation generally revolved
+round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to say the truth, did
+not make him a cheerful companion. Indeed in this respect I liked him
+much better in his old, unregenerate days, being, I fear, myself a
+somewhat worldly soul.
+
+Well, the sum of it was that the poor fellow had gone mad and given us
+the slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness
+was impossible. Indeed, even if it had been lighter, I do not think that
+it would have been safe among these Amahagger nightbirds whom I did not
+trust. Certainly I could not have asked Hans to undertake the task, and
+if I had, I do not think he would have gone since he was afraid of the
+Amahagger. Therefore there was nothing to be done except wait and hope
+for the best.
+
+So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had
+promised. Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded
+by Billali, followed by women, also cloaked, and surrounded by a guard
+of tall spearmen. I was seated outside the house, smoking, when suddenly
+she arrived from the shadows and stood before me.
+
+I rose respectfully and bowed, while Umslopogaas, Goroko and the other
+Zulus who were with me, gave her the royal salute, and Hans cringed like
+a dog that is afraid of being kicked.
+
+After a swift glance at them, as I guessed by the motion of her veiled
+head, she seemed to fix her gaze upon my pipe that evidently excited
+her curiosity, and asked me what it was. I explained as well as I could,
+expatiating on the charms of smoking.
+
+"So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and
+one that is filthy also," she said, sniffing at the smoke and waving her
+hand before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into my pocket, where,
+being alight, it burnt a hole in my best remaining coat.
+
+I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she was
+who, to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be astonished
+at a habit with which she must have been well acquainted, although I
+believe that it was unknown in the ancient world.
+
+"You are troubled," she went on, swiftly changing the subject, "I read
+it in your face. One of your company is missing. Who is it? Ah! I see,
+the white man you name Avenger. Where is he gone?"
+
+"That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha," I said.
+
+"How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which
+to look for things that pass afar. Still, let me try," and pressing her
+hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a minute, then
+spoke slowly.
+
+"I think that he has gone over the mountain lip towards the worshippers
+of Rezu. I think that he is mad; sorrow and something else which I do
+not understand have turned his brain; something that has to do with the
+Heavens. I think also that we shall recover him living, if only for a
+little while, though of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to
+me to read the future, but only the past, and sometimes the things that
+happen in the present though they be far away."
+
+"Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?" I asked anxiously.
+
+"Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
+might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to
+your companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to
+seek?"
+
+"More or less," I answered and translated to her the letter that
+Robertson had left for me.
+
+"It may be as the man writes," she commented, "since the mad often see
+well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he imagines.
+The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan, although it
+seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of vision or the
+fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns through the
+gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever
+fools may think, often madness is true wisdom. Now follow me with the
+little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe. Stay, let me look upon
+that axe."
+
+I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but refused
+to loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the leathern
+thong.
+
+"Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own weapon,
+I who am so weak and gentle?" she asked, laughing.
+
+"Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
+which he names 'Chieftainess and Groan-maker,' and clings to closer by
+day and night than a man does to his wife."
+
+"There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
+never such another axe. The thing is ancient," she added musingly after
+examining its every detail, "and who knows? It may be that whereof the
+legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this
+fierce-eyed Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to
+face the most terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a wizard
+also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this can he
+be made to bite the dust."
+
+I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,
+
+"Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom
+I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight,
+though once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death," and he
+touched the great hole in his forehead. "Say to her also that I have no
+fear of defeat, I from whom doom is, as I think, still far away, though
+the Opener-of-Roads has told me that among a strange people I shall die
+in war at last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in
+war."
+
+"He speaks well," she answered with a note of admiration in her voice.
+"By Isis, were he but white I would set him to rule these Amahagger
+under me. Tell him, Allan, that if he lays Rezu low he shall have a
+great reward."
+
+"And tell the White Witch, Macumazahn," Umslopogaas replied when I had
+translated, "that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the
+sight of one who is lost to me but with whom my heart still dwells, if
+indeed this Witch has strength to break the wall of blackness that is
+built between me and her who is 'gone down.'"
+
+"Strange," reflected Ayesha when she understood, "that this grim
+Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for
+one whom the grave has taken. Learn from it, Allan, that all humanity
+is cast in the same mould, since my longings and your longings are his
+also, though the three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon
+and the earth, and as different in every other quality. Yet it is true
+that sun and moon and earth are born of the same black womb of chaos.
+Therefore in the beginning they were identical, as doubtless they will
+be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light
+space with a flame at which the mocking gods that made them may warm
+their hands. Well, so it is with men, Allan, whose soul-stuff is drawn
+from the gulf of Spirit by Nature's hand, and, cast upon the cold air of
+this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each different to
+the other and yet, be sure, the same. Now talk no more, but follow me.
+Slave" (this was addressed to Billali), "bid the guards lead on to the
+camp of the servants of Lulala."
+
+So we went through the silent ruins. Ayesha walked, or rather glided a
+pace or two ahead, then came Umslopogaas and I side by side, while at
+our heels followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish
+to be out of reach of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally
+of the protection of axe and rifle.
+
+Thus we marched surrounded by the solemn guard for something between
+a quarter and half a mile, till at length we climbed the debris of a
+mighty wall that once had encompassed the city, and by the moonlight saw
+beneath us a vast hollow which clearly at some unknown time had been the
+bed of an enormous moat and filled with water.
+
+Now, however, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted numerous
+camp-fires round which men were moving, also some women who appeared to
+be engaged in cooking food. At a little distance too, upon the
+further edge of the moat-like depression were a number of white-robed
+individuals gathered in a circle about a large stone upon which
+something was stretched that resembled the carcase of a sheep or goat,
+and round these a great number of spectators.
+
+"The priests of Lulala who make sacrifice to the moon, as they do night
+by night, save when she is dead," said Ayesha, turning back towards
+me as though in answer to the query which I had conceived but left
+unuttered.
+
+What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation and
+briskness. All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved about
+quickly and with the same kind of liveliness which might animate a camp
+of more natural people at the rising of the sun. It was as though they
+had just got up full of vigour to commence their daily, or rather their
+nightly round, which in truth was the case, since as Hans discovered,
+by habitude these Amahagger preferred to sleep during the day unless
+something prevented them, and to carry on the activities of life at
+night. It only remains to add that there seemed to be a great number
+of them, for their fires following the round of the dry moat, stretched
+further than I could see.
+
+Scrambling down the crumpled wall by a zig-zag pathway, we came upon the
+outposts of the army beneath us who challenged, then seeing with whom
+they had to do, fell flat upon their faces, leaving their great spears,
+which had iron spikes on their shafts like to those of the Masai,
+sticking in the ground beside them.
+
+We passed on between some of the fires and I noted how solemn and
+gloomy, although handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom
+these were surrounded. Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different
+world to ours, one alien to the kindly race of men. There was nothing
+social about these Amahagger, who seemed to be a people labouring under
+some ancient ancestral curse of which they could never shake off
+the memory. Even the women rarely smiled; their clear-cut, stately
+countenances remained stern and set, except when they glowered at us
+incuriously. Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated themselves like the
+rest.
+
+We went on through them and across the moat, climbing its further slope
+and here suddenly came upon a host of men gathered in a hollow square,
+apparently in order to receive us. They stood in ranks of five or six
+deep and their spear-points glimmering in the moonlight looked like
+long bands of level steel. As we entered the open side of the square all
+these spears were lifted. Thrice they were lifted and at each uplifting
+there rose a deep-throated cry of _Hiya_, which is the Arabic for She,
+and I suppose was a salutation to Ayesha.
+
+She swept on taking no heed, till we came to the centre of the square
+where a number of men were gathered who prostrated themselves in the
+usual fashion. Motioning to them to rise she said,
+
+"Captains, this very night within two hours we march against Rezu and
+the sun-worshippers, since otherwise as my arts tell me, they march
+against us. She-who-commands is immortal, as your fathers have known
+from generation to generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her
+servants, can be destroyed, and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of
+Life, out-numbers you by three to one and prepares a queen to set up in
+my place over his own people and such of you as remain. As though,"
+she added with a contemptuous laugh, "any woman of a day could take my
+place."
+
+She paused and the spokesman of the captains said,
+
+"We hear, O Hiya, and we understand. What wouldst thou have us do,
+O Lulala-come-to-earth? The armies of Rezu are great and from the
+beginning he has hated thee and us, also his magic is as thy magic and
+his length of days as thy length of days. How then can we who are few,
+three thousand men at the most, match ourselves against Rezu, Son of
+the Sun? Would it not be better that we should accept the terms of Rezu,
+which are light, and acknowledge him as our king?"
+
+As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath
+her robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the meaning
+of them was clear enough, namely that rather than risk a battle with
+Rezu, these people were contemplating surrender and her own deposition,
+if indeed she could be deposed. Still she answered in a quiet voice,
+
+"It seems that I have dealt too gently with you and with your fathers,
+Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that
+because you only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sword within
+and that it can shine forth and smite. Well, why should I be wrath
+because the brutish will follow the law of brutes, though it be true
+that I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I less
+merciful I would leave you to the clutching hands of Rezu, who would
+drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your
+hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his heat. But I
+bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I
+knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you
+from yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.
+
+"Take counsel together now and say--Will you fight against Rezu, or will
+you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow's sun I
+will begone, taking these with me," and she pointed to us, "whom I have
+summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
+stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are
+the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,
+
+"'Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and
+save us from this hell?'
+
+"Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
+will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear
+no more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you
+and your ways."
+
+The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha
+stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the
+situation.
+
+It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against
+their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral nature,
+one that emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered was, being
+what she seemed to be, why she thought it worth while to exercise it at
+all. Then I remembered her statement that here and nowhere else she must
+abide for some secret reason, until a certain mystical gentleman with
+a Greek name came to fetch her away from this appointed _rendezvous_.
+Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or rather, suffering as she did
+from hallucinations, believed herself to have no choice and was obliged
+to put up with a crowd of disagreeable savages in quarters which were
+sadly out of repair.
+
+Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,
+
+"If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
+Hiya?"
+
+"My wisdom shall be your guide," she answered, "this white man shall be
+your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face to
+face and bring him to the dust," and she pointed to Umslopogaas leaning
+upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile.
+
+This reply did not seem to please the man for he withdrew to consult
+again with his companions. After a debate which I suppose was animated
+for the Amahagger, men of few words who did not indulge in oratory, all
+of them advanced on us and the spokesman said,
+
+"The choice of a General does not please us, Hiya. We know that the
+white man is brave because of the fight he made against the men of Rezu
+over the mountain yonder; also that he and his followers have weapons
+that deal death from afar. But there is a prophecy among us of which
+none know the beginning, that he who commands in the last great battle
+between Lulala and Rezu must produce before the eyes of the People of
+Lulala a certain holy thing, a charm of power, without which defeat will
+be the portion of Lulala. Of this holy thing, this spirit-haunted shape
+of power, we know the likeness and the fashion, for these have come down
+among our priests, though who told it to them we cannot tell, but of it
+I will say this only, that it speaks both of the spirit and the body, of
+man and yet of more than man."
+
+"And if this wondrous charm, this talisman of might, cannot be shown by
+the white lord here, what then?" asked Ayesha coldly.
+
+"Then, Hiya, this is the word of the People of Lulala, that we will not
+serve under him in the battle, and this also is their word that we will
+not go up against Rezu. That thou art mighty we know well, Hiya,
+also that thou canst slay if thou wilt, but we know also that Rezu is
+mightier and that against him thou hast no power. Therefore kill us if
+thou dost so desire, until thy heart is satisfied with death. For it
+is better that we should perish thus than upon the altar of sacrifice
+wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu."
+
+"So say we all," exclaimed the rest of the company when he had finished.
+
+"The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward
+blood and that of thy companions," said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she
+paused and turning to me, added, "O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is
+there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I
+have spread my feathers for so long?"
+
+I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as
+though they would go.
+
+Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of
+most African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.
+
+"The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali's Great Medicine."
+
+Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a
+"spirit-haunted shape of power" that spoke "both of the spirit and the
+body of man and yet of more than man," was so vague that it might mean
+anything or nothing. And yet----
+
+I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted should
+be produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu to the
+death. She did so and with one voice they replied,
+
+"Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom
+also our legend tells."
+
+Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of
+Zikali as far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,
+
+"Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend tells,
+O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?"
+
+The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire
+that burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared
+again; and as he did, so did the others bending over him.
+
+"Dog! would you singe my beard?" I cried in affected rage, and seizing
+the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.
+
+But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely
+to assert my authority. Still for a few moments he stared although the
+sparks from the wood were frizzling in his greasy hair, then of a sudden
+went down on his face before me, as did all the others and cried out,
+
+"It is the Holy Thing! It is the spirit-haunted Shape of Power itself,
+and we the Worshippers of Lulala will follow thee to the death, O white
+lord, Watcher-by-Night. Yes, where thou goest and he goes who bears the
+Axe, thither will we follow till not one of us is left upon his feet."
+
+"Then that's settled," I said, yawning, since it is never wise to show
+concern about anything before savages. Indeed personally I had no wish
+to be the leader of this very peculiar tribe in an adventure of which I
+knew nothing, and therefore had hoped that they would leave that honour
+to someone else. Then I turned and told Umslopogaas what had passed, a
+tale at which he only shrugged his great shoulders, handling his axe as
+though he were minded to try its edge upon some of these "Dark-lovers,"
+as he named the Amahagger people because of their nocturnal habits.
+
+Meanwhile Ayesha gave certain orders. Then she came to me and said,
+
+"These men march at once, three thousand strong, and by dawn will camp
+on the northern mountain crest. At sunrise litters will come to bear you
+and those with you if they will, to join them, which you should do by
+midday. In the afternoon marshall them as you think wise, for the battle
+will take place in the small hours of the following morning, since the
+People of Lulala only fight at night. I have said."
+
+"Do you not come with us?" I asked, dismayed.
+
+"Nay, not in a war against Rezu, why it matters not. Yet my Spirit will
+go with you, for I shall watch all that passes, how it matters not
+and perchance you may see it there--I know not. On the third day from
+to-morrow we shall meet again in the flesh or beyond it, but as I think
+in the flesh, and you can claim the reward which you journeyed here to
+seek. A place shall be prepared for the white lady whom Rezu would have
+set up as a rival queen to me. Farewell, and farewell also to yonder
+Bearer of the Axe that shall drink the blood of Rezu, also to the little
+yellow man who is rightly named Light-in-Darkness, as you shall learn
+ere all is done."
+
+Then before I could speak she turned and glided away, swiftly surrounded
+by her guards, leaving me astonished and very uncomfortable.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ALLAN'S VISION
+
+The old chamberlain, Billali, conducted us back to our camp. As we went
+he discoursed to me of these Amahagger, of whom it seemed he was himself
+a developed specimen, one who threw back, perhaps tens of generations,
+to some superior ancestor who lived before they became debased. In
+substance he told me that they were a wild and lawless lot who lived
+amongst ruins or in caves, or some of them in swamp dwellings, in
+small separate communities, each governed by its petty headman who was
+generally a priest of their goddess Lulala.
+
+Originally they and the people of Rezu were the same, in times when they
+worshipped the sun and the moon jointly, but "thousands of years" ago,
+as he expressed it, they had separated, the Rezuites having gone to
+dwell to the north of the Great Mountain, whence they continually
+threatened the Lulalaites whom, had it not been for She-who-commands,
+they would have destroyed long before. The Rezuites, it seemed, were
+habitual cannibals, whereas the Lulalaite branch of the Amahagger only
+practised cannibalism occasionally when by a lucky chance they got hold
+of strangers. "Such as yourself, Watcher-by-Night, and your companions,"
+he added with meaning. If their crime were discovered, however, Hiya,
+She-who-commands, punished it by death.
+
+I asked if she exercised an active rule over these people. He answered
+that she did not, as she lacked sufficient interest in them; only when
+she was angry with individuals she would destroy some of them by "her
+arts," as she had power to do if she chose. Most of them indeed had
+never seen her and only knew of her existence by rumour. To them she was
+a spirit or a goddess who inhabited the ancient tombs that lay to the
+south of the old city whither she had come because of the threatened war
+with Rezu, whom alone she feared, he did not know why. He told me again,
+moreover, that she was the greatest magician who had ever been, and
+that it was certain she did not die, since their forefathers knew her
+generations ago. Still she seemed to be under some curse, like the
+Amahagger themselves, who were the descendants of those who had once
+inhabited Kor and the country round it, as far as the sea-coast and
+for hundreds of miles inland, having been a mighty people in their day
+before a great plague destroyed them.
+
+For the rest he thought that she was a very unhappy woman who "lived
+with her own soul mourning the dead" and consorting with none upon the
+earth.
+
+I asked him why she stayed here, whereat he shook his head and replied,
+he supposed because of the "curse," since he could conceive of no other
+reason. He informed me also that her moods varied very much. Sometimes
+she was fierce and active and at others by comparison mild and
+low-spirited. Just now she was passing through one of the latter stages,
+perhaps because of the Rezu trouble, for she did not wish her people to
+be destroyed by this terrible person; or perhaps for some other reason
+with which he was not acquainted.
+
+When she chose, she knew all things, except the distant future. Thus
+she knew that we were coming, also the details of our march and that
+we should be attacked by the Rezuites who were going out to meet
+their returning company that had been sent afar to find a white queen.
+Therefore she had ordered him to go with soldiers to our assistance. I
+asked why she went veiled, and he replied, because of her beauty which
+drove even savage men mad, so that in old days she had been obliged to
+kill a number of them.
+
+That was all he seemed to know about her, except that she was kind to
+those who served her well, like himself, and protected them from evil of
+every sort.
+
+Then I asked him about Rezu. He answered that he was a dreadful person,
+undying, it was said, like She-who-commands, though he had never seen
+the man himself and never wanted to do so. His followers being cannibals
+and having literally eaten up all those that they could reach, were now
+desirous of conquering the people of Lulala that they might eat them
+also at their leisure. Each other they did not eat, because dog does not
+eat dog, and therefore they were beginning to grow hungry, although they
+had plenty of grain and cattle of which they used the milk and hides.
+
+As for the coming battle, he knew nothing about it or what would happen,
+save that She-who-commands said that it would go well for the Lulalaites
+under my direction. She was so sure that it would go well, that she did
+not think it worth while to accompany the army, for she hated noise and
+bloodshed.
+
+It occurred to me that perhaps she was afraid that she too would be
+taken captive and eaten, but I kept my reflection to myself.
+
+Just then we arrived at our camp-house, where Billali bade me farewell,
+saying that he wished to rest as he must be back at dawn with litters,
+when he hoped to find us ready to start. Then he departed. Umslopogaas
+and Hans also went away to sleep, leaving me alone who, having taken my
+repose in the afternoon, did not feel drowsy at the moment. So lovely
+was the night indeed that I made up my mind to take a little walk during
+the midnight hours, after the manner of the Amahagger themselves, for
+having now been recognised as Generalissimo of their forces, I had
+little fear of being attacked, especially as I carried a pistol in my
+pocket. So off I set strolling slowly down what seemed to have been
+a main street of the ancient city, which in its general appearance
+resembled excavated Pompeii, only on an infinitely larger scale.
+
+As I went I meditated on the strange circumstances in which I found
+myself. Really they tempted me to believe that I was suffering from
+delusions and perhaps all the while in fact lay stretched upon a bed
+in the delirium of fever. That marvellous woman, for instance--even
+rejecting her tale of miraculously extended life, which I did--what was
+I to make of her? I did not know, except that wondrous as she was,
+it remained clear that she claimed a great deal more power than she
+possessed. This was evident from her tone in the interview with the
+captains, and from the fact that she had shuffled off the command of her
+tribe on to my shoulders. If she were so mighty, why did she not command
+it herself and bring her celestial, or infernal, powers to bear upon the
+enemy? Again, I could not say, but one fact emerged, namely that she
+was as interesting as she was beautiful, and uncommonly clever into the
+bargain.
+
+But what a task was this that she had laid upon me, to lead into battle,
+with a foe of unascertained strength, a mob of savages probably quite
+undisciplined, of whose fighting qualities I knew nothing and whom I had
+no opportunity of organising. The affair seemed madness and I could only
+hope that luck or destiny would take me through somehow.
+
+To tell the truth, I believed it would, for I had grown almost as
+superstitious about Zikali and his Great Medicine as was Hans himself.
+Certainly the effect of it upon those captains was very odd, or would
+have been had not the explanation come to me in a flash. On the first
+night of our meeting, as I have described, I showed this talisman to
+Ayesha, as a kind of letter of credentials, and now I could see that
+it was she who had arranged all the scene with the captains, or their
+tribal magician, in order to get her way about my appointment to the
+command.
+
+Everything about her conduct bore this out, even her feigning ignorance
+of the existence of the charm and the leaving of it to Hans to
+suggest its production, which perhaps she did by influencing his mind
+subconsciously. No doubt more or less it fitted in with one of those
+nebulous traditions which are so common amongst ancient savage races,
+and therefore once shown to her confederate, or confederates, would be
+accepted by the common people as a holy sign, after which the rest was
+easy.
+
+Such an obvious explanation involved the death of any illusions I might
+still cherish about this Arab lady, Ayesha, and it is true that I parted
+with them with regret, as we all do when we think we have discovered
+something wonderful in the female line. But there it was, and to bother
+any more about her, her history and aims, seemed useless.
+
+So dismissing her and all present anxieties from my mind, I began to
+look about me and to wonder at the marvellous scene which unfolded
+itself before me in the moonlight. That I might see it better, although
+I was rather afraid of snakes which might hide among the stones, by
+an easy ascent I climbed a mount of ruins and up the broad slope of a
+tumbled massive wall, which from its thickness I judged must have been
+that of some fort or temple. On the crest of this wall, some seventy or
+eighty feet above the level of the streets, I sat down and looked about
+me.
+
+Everywhere around me stretched the ruins of the great city, now as
+fallen and as deserted as Babylon herself. The majestic loneliness
+of the place was something awful. Even the vision of companies and
+battalions of men crossing the plain towards the north with the
+moonlight glistening on their spear-points, did little to lessen this
+sense of loneliness. I knew that these were the regiments which I was
+destined to command, travelling to the camp where I must meet them. But
+in such silence did they move that no sound came from them even in the
+deathly stillness of the perfect night, so that almost I was tempted to
+believe them to be the shadow-ghosts of some army of old Kor.
+
+They vanished, and musing thus I think I must have dozed. At any rate it
+seemed to me that of a sudden the city was as it had been in the days
+of its glory. I saw it brilliant with a hundred colours; everywhere was
+colour, on the painted walls and roofs, the flowering trees that lined
+the streets and the bright dresses of the men and women who by thousands
+crowded them and the marts and squares. Even the chariots that moved to
+and fro were coloured as were the countless banners which floated from
+palace walls and temple tops.
+
+The enormous place teemed with every activity of life; brides being
+borne to marriage and dead men to burial; squadrons marching, clad
+in glittering armour; merchants chaffering; white-robed priests and
+priestesses passing in procession (who or what did they worship? I
+wondered); children breaking out of school; grave philosophers debating
+in the shadow of a cool arcade; a royal person making a progress
+preceded by runners and surrounded by slaves, and lastly the multitudes
+of citizens going about the daily business of life.
+
+Even details were visible, such as those of officers of the law chasing
+an escaped prisoner who had a broken rope tied to his arm, and a
+collision between two chariots in a narrow street, about the wrecks of
+which an idle mob gathered as it does to-day if two vehicles collide,
+while the owners argued, gesticulating angrily, and the police and
+grooms tried to lift a fallen horse on to its feet. Only no sound of the
+argument or of anything else reached me. I saw, and that was all. The
+silence remained intense, as well it might do, since those chariots must
+have come to grief thousands upon thousands of years ago.
+
+A cloud seemed to pass before my eyes, a thin, gauzy cloud which somehow
+reminded me of the veil that Ayesha wore. Indeed at the moment, although
+I could not see her, I would have sworn that she was present at my side,
+and what is more, that she was mocking me who had set her down as so
+impotent a trickstress, which doubtless was part of the dream.
+
+At any rate I returned to my normal state, and there about me were the
+miles of desolate streets and the thousands of broken walls, and the
+black blots of roofless houses and the wide, untenanted plain bounded by
+the battlemented line of encircling mountain crests, and above all, the
+great moon shining softly in a tender sky.
+
+I looked and thrilled, though oppressed by the drear and desolate beauty
+of the scene around me, descended the wall and the ruined slope and made
+my way homewards, afraid even of my own shadow. For I seemed to be the
+only living thing among the dead habitations of immemorial Kor.
+
+
+
+Reaching our camp I found Hans awake and watching for me.
+
+"I was just coming to look for you, Baas," he said. "Indeed I should
+have done so before, only I knew that you had gone to pay a visit to
+that tall white 'Missis' who ties up her head in a blanket, and thought
+that neither of you would like to be disturbed."
+
+"Then you thought wrong," I answered, "and what is more, if you had made
+that visit I think it might have been one from which you would never
+have come back."
+
+"Oh yes, Baas," sniggered Hans. "The tall white lady would not have
+minded. It is you who are so particular, after the fashion of men whom
+Heaven made very shy."
+
+Without deigning to reply to the gibes of Hans I went to lie down,
+wondering what kind of a bed poor Robertson occupied that night, and
+soon fell asleep, as fortunately for myself I have the power to do,
+whatever my circumstances at the moment. Men who can sleep are those who
+do the work of the world and succeed, though personally I have had more
+of the work than of the success.
+
+
+
+I was awakened at the first grey dawn by Hans, who informed me that
+Billali was waiting outside with litters, also that Goroko had already
+made his incantations and doctored Umslopogaas and his two men for war
+after the Zulu fashion when battle was expected. He added that these
+Zulus had refused to be left behind to guard and nurse their wounded
+companions, and said that rather than do so, they would kill them.
+
+Somehow, he informed me, in what way he could not guess, this had come
+to the ears of the White Lady who "hid her face from men because it was
+so ugly," and she had sent women to attend to the sick ones, with
+word that they should be well cared for. All of this proved to be true
+enough, but I need not enter into the details.
+
+In the end off we went, I in my litter following Billali's, with an
+express and a repeating rifle and plenty of ammunition for both, and
+Hans, also well armed, in that which had been sent for Umslopogaas, who
+preferred to walk with Goroko and the two other Zulus.
+
+For a little while Hans enjoyed the sensation of being carried by
+somebody else, and lay upon the cushions smoking with a seraphic smile
+and addressing sarcastic remarks to the bearers, who fortunately did not
+understand them. Soon, however, he wearied of these novel delights and
+as he was still determined not to walk until he was obliged, climbed on
+to the roof of the litter, astride of which he sat as though it were
+a horse, looking for all the world like a toy monkey on a horizontal
+stick.
+
+Our road ran across the level, fertile plain but a small portion of
+which was cultivated, though I could see that at some time or other,
+when its population was greater, every inch of it had been under crop.
+Now it was largely covered by trees, many of them fruit-bearing,
+between which meandered streams of water which once, I think, had been
+irrigation channels.
+
+About ten o'clock we reached the foot of the encircling cliffs and began
+the climb of the escarpment, which was steep, tortuous and difficult.
+By noon we reached its crest and here found all our little army encamped
+and, except for the sentries, sleeping, as seemed to be the invariable
+custom of these people in the daytime.
+
+I caused the chief captains to be awakened and with them made a circuit
+of the camp, reckoning the numbers of the men which came to about 3,250
+and learning what I could concerning them and their way of fighting.
+Then, accompanied by Umslopogaas and Hans with the Zulus as a guard,
+also by three of the head-captains of the Amahagger, I walked forward to
+study the lie of the land.
+
+Coming to the further edge of the escarpment, I found that at this place
+two broad-based ridges, shaped like those that spring from the boles of
+certain tropical forest trees, ran from its crest to the plain beneath
+at a gentle slope. Moreover I saw that on this plain between the ends
+of the ridges an army was encamped which, by the aid of my glasses, I
+examined and estimated to number at least ten thousand men.
+
+This army, the Amahagger captains informed me, was that of Rezu, who,
+they said, intended to commence his attack at dawn on the following
+morning, since the People of Rezu, being sun-worshippers, would never
+fight until their god appeared above the horizon. Having studied all
+there was to see I asked the captains to set out their plan of battle,
+if they had a plan.
+
+The chief of them answered that it was to advance halfway down the
+right-hand ridge to a spot where there was a narrow flat piece of
+ground, and there await attack, since at this place their smaller
+numbers would not so much matter, whereas these made it impossible for
+them to assail the enemy.
+
+"But suppose that Rezu should choose to come up to the other ridge and
+get behind you. What would happen then?" I inquired.
+
+He replied that he did not know, his ideas of strategy being, it was
+clear, of a primitive order.
+
+"Do your people fight best at night or in the day?" I went on.
+
+He said undoubtedly at night, indeed in all their history there was no
+record of their having done so in the daytime.
+
+"And yet you propose to let Rezu join battle with you when the sun is
+high, or in other words to court defeat," I remarked.
+
+Then I went aside and discussed things for a while with Umslopogaas and
+Hans, after which I returned and gave my orders, declining all argument.
+Briefly these were that in the dusk before the rising of the moon, our
+Amahagger must advance down the right-hand ridge in complete silence,
+and hide themselves among the scrub which I saw grew thickly near its
+root. A small party, however, under the leadership of Goroko, whom I
+knew to be a brave and clever captain, was to pass halfway down the
+left-hand ridge and there light fires over a wide area, so as to make
+the enemy think that our whole force had encamped there. Then at the
+proper moment which I had not yet decided upon, we would attack the army
+of Rezu.
+
+The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I think
+was too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together. Seeing that
+I must assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and said to
+their chief man,
+
+"Hearken, my friend. By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed
+your general and I expect to be obeyed without question. From the moment
+that the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the Black One,
+and if so much as one of your men hesitates or turns back, you will
+die," and I nodded towards the axe of Umslopogaas. "Moreover, afterwards
+She-who-commands will see that others of you die, should you escape in
+the fight."
+
+Still they hesitated. Thereon without another word, I produced Zikali's
+Great Medicine and held it before their eyes, with the result that the
+sight of this ugly thing did what even the threat of death could not do.
+They went flat on the ground, every one of them, and swore by Lulala
+and by She-who-commands, her priestess, that they would do all I said,
+however mad it seemed to them.
+
+"Good," I answered. "Now go back and make ready, and for the rest, by
+this time to-morrow we shall know who is or is not mad."
+
+From that moment till the end I had no more trouble with these
+Amahagger.
+
+
+
+I will get on quickly with the story of this fight whereof the
+preliminary details do not matter. At the proper time Goroko went off
+with two hundred and fifty men and one of the two Zulus to light the
+fires and, at an agreed signal, namely the firing of two shots in rapid
+succession by myself, to begin shouting and generally make as much noise
+as they could.
+
+We also went off with the remaining three thousand, and before the moon
+rose, crept as quietly as ghosts down the right-hand ridge. Being such
+a silent folk who were accustomed to move at night and could see in
+the dark almost as well as cats, the Amahagger executed this manoeuvre
+splendidly, wrapping their spear-blades in bands of dry grass lest light
+should glint on them and betray our movements. So in due course we came
+to the patch of bush where the ridge widened out about five hundred
+yards from the plain beneath, and there lay down in four companies or
+regiments, each of them about seven hundred and fifty strong.
+
+Now the moon had risen, but because of the mist which covered the
+surface of the plain, we could see nothing of the camp of Rezu which we
+knew must be within a thousand yards of us, unless indeed it had been
+moved, as the silence seemed to suggest.
+
+This circumstance gave me much anxiety, since I feared lest abandoning
+their reputed habits, these Rezuites were also contemplating a night
+attack. Umslopogaas, too, was disturbed on the subject, though because
+of Goroko and his men whose fires began to twinkle on the opposing ridge
+something over a mile away, they could not pass up there without our
+knowledge.
+
+Still, for aught I knew there might be other ways of scaling this
+mountain. I did not trust the Amahagger, who declared that none existed,
+since their local knowledge was slight as they never visited these
+northern slopes because of their fear of Rezu. Supposing that the enemy
+gained the crest and suddenly assaulted us in the rear! The thought of
+it made me feel cold down the back.
+
+While I was wondering how I could find out the truth, Hans, who was
+squatted behind a bush, suddenly rose and gave the rifle he was carrying
+to the remaining Zulu.
+
+"Baas," he said, "I am going to look and find out what those people are
+doing, if they are still there, and then you will know how and when to
+attack them. Don't be afraid for me, Baas, it will be easy in that mist
+and you know I can move like a snake. Also if I should not come back, it
+does not matter and it will tell you that they _are_ there."
+
+I hesitated who did not wish to expose the brave little Hottentot to
+such risks. But when he understood, Umslopogaas said,
+
+"Let the man go. It is his gift and duty to spy, as it is mine to smite
+with the axe, and yours to lead, Macumazahn. Let him go, I say."
+
+I nodded my head, and having kissed my hand in his silly fashion in
+token of much that he did not wish to say, Hans slipped out of sight,
+saying that he hoped to be back within an hour. Except for his great
+knife, he went unarmed, who feared that if he took a pistol he might be
+tempted to fire it and make a noise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE
+
+That hour went by very slowly. Again and again I consulted my watch by
+the light of the moon, which was now rising high in the heavens, and
+thought that it would never come to an end. Listen as I would, there was
+nothing to be heard, and as the mist still prevailed the only thing
+I could see except the heavens, was the twinkling of the fires lit by
+Goroko and his party.
+
+At length it was done and there was no sign of Hans. Another half hour
+passed and still no sign of Hans.
+
+"I think that Light-in-Darkness is dead or taken prisoner," said
+Umslopogaas.
+
+I answered that I feared so, but that I would give him another fifteen
+minutes and then, if he did not appear, I proposed to order an advance,
+hoping to find the enemy where we had last seen them from the top of the
+mountain.
+
+The fifteen minutes went by also, and as I could see that the Amahagger
+captains who sat at a little distance were getting very nervous, I
+picked up my double-barrelled rifle and turned round so that I faced
+up hill with a view of firing it as had been agreed with Goroko, but in
+such a fashion that the flashes perhaps would not be seen from the plain
+below. For this purpose I moved a few yards to the left to get behind
+the trunk of a tree that grew there, and was already lifting the rifle
+to my shoulder, when a yellow hand clasped the barrel and a husky voice
+said,
+
+"Don't fire yet, Baas, as I want to tell you my story first."
+
+I looked down and there was the ugly face of Hans wearing a grin that
+might have frightened the man in the moon.
+
+"Well," I said with cold indifference, assumed I admit to hide my
+excessive joy at his safe return, "tell on, and be quick about it. I
+suppose you lost your way and never found them."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I lost my way for the fog was very thick down there. But in
+the end I found them all right, by my nose, Baas, for those man-eating
+people smell strong and I got the wind of one of their sentries. It was
+easy to pass him in the mist, Baas, so easy that I was tempted to cut
+his throat as I went, but I didn't for fear lest he should make a noise.
+No, I walked on right into the middle of them, which was easy too, for
+they were all asleep, wrapped up in blankets. They hadn't any fires
+perhaps because they didn't want them to be seen, or perhaps because it
+is so hot down in that low land, I don't know which.
+
+"So I crept on taking note of all I saw, till at last I came to a little
+hill of which the top rose above the level of the mist, so that I could
+see on it a long hut built of green boughs with the leaves still fresh
+upon them. Now I thought that I would crawl up to the hut since it came
+into my mind that Rezu himself must be sleeping there and that I might
+kill him. But while I stood hesitating I heard a noise like to that made
+by an old woman whose husband had thrown a blanket over her head to keep
+her quiet, or to that of a bee in a bottle, a sort of droning noise that
+reminded me of something.
+
+"I thought a while and remembered that when Red Beard was on his knees
+praying to Heaven, as is his habit when he has nothing else to do, Baas,
+he makes a noise just like that. I crept towards the sound and presently
+there I found Red Beard himself tied upon a stone and looking as mad as
+a buffalo bull stuck in a swamp, for he shook his head and rolled his
+eyes about, just as though he had had two bottles of bad gin, Baas, and
+all the while he kept saying prayers. Now I thought that I would cut him
+loose, and bent over him to do so, when by ill-luck he saw my face and
+began to shout, saying,
+
+"'Go away, you yellow devil. I know you have come to take me to hell,
+but you are too soon, and if my hands were loose I would twist your head
+off your shoulders.'
+
+"He said this in English, Baas, which as you know I can understand quite
+well, after which I was sure that I had better leave him alone. Whilst
+I was thinking, there came out of the hut above two old men dressed in
+night-shirts, such as you white people wear, with yellow things upon
+their heads that had a metal picture of the sun in front of them."
+
+"Medicine-men," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, Baas, or Predikants of some sort, for they were rather like
+your reverend father when he dressed himself up and went into a box to
+preach. Seeing them I slipped back a little way to where the mist began,
+lay down and listened. They looked at Red Beard, for his shouts at me
+had brought them out, but he took no notice of them, only went on making
+a noise like a beetle in a tin can.
+
+"'It is nothing,' said one of the Predikants to the other in the same
+tongue that these Amahagger use. 'But when is he to be sacrificed? Soon,
+I hope, for I cannot sleep because of the noise he makes.'
+
+"'When the edge of the sun appears, not before,' answered the other
+Predikant. 'Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and this
+white man will be sacrificed to her.'
+
+"'I think it is a pity to wait so long,' said the first Predikant, 'for
+never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on his head.'
+
+"'First the victory, then the feast,' answered the second Predikant,
+'though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman who was
+with the new queen.'
+
+"Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back
+towards the hut. But the other did not go back. No, he sat down on the
+ground and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone. More, he struck
+him on the face to make him quiet.
+
+"Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they
+had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit in
+me grew so very angry and I thought that I would give this old _skellum_
+(i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself, after which I
+purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get speech with the Lady
+Sad-Eyes, if she was there.
+
+"So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over
+Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would
+kill him at once. But it didn't, Baas, for he fell on to his face and
+began to make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him.
+Then I heard a sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run
+away into the mist, without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes.
+I ran very hard, Baas, making a wide circle to the left, and so at last
+got back here. That's all, Baas."
+
+"And quite enough, too," I answered, "though if they did not see you,
+the death of the Medicine-man may frighten them. Poor Janee! Well, I
+hope to come even with those devils before they are three hours older."
+
+Then I called up Umslopogaas and the Amahagger captains and told them
+the substance of the story, also that Hans had located the army, or part
+of it.
+
+The end of it was that we made up our minds to attack at once; indeed
+I insisted on this, as I was determined if I could to save that
+unfortunate man, Robertson, who, from Hans' account, evidently was now
+quite mad and raving. So I fired the two shots as had been arranged
+and presently heard the sound of distant shoutings on the slope of
+the opposing ridge. A few minutes later we started, Umslopogaas and I
+leading the vanguard and the Amahagger captains following with the three
+remaining companies.
+
+Now the reader, presuming the existence of such a person, will think
+that everything is sure to go right; that this cunning old fellow, Allan
+Quatermain, is going to surprise and wipe the floor with those Rezuites,
+who were already beguiled by the trick he had instructed Goroko to play.
+That after this he will rescue Robertson who doubtless shortly recovers
+his mind, also Inez with the greatest ease, in fact that everything will
+happen as it ought to do if this were a romance instead of a mere record
+of remarkable facts. But being the latter, as it happened, matters did
+not work out quite in this convenient way.
+
+To begin with, when those Amahagger told me that the Rezuites never
+fought in the dark or before the sun was well up, either they lied or
+they were much mistaken, for at any rate on this occasion they did the
+exact contrary. All the while that we thought we were stalking them,
+they were stalking us. The Goroko manoeuvre had not deceived them in the
+least, since from their spies they knew its exact significance.
+
+Here, I may add that those spies were in our own ranks, traitors, in
+short, who were really in the pay of Rezu and possibly belonged to his
+abominable faith, some of whom slipped away from time to time to the
+enemy to report our progress and plans, so far as they knew them.
+
+Further, what Hans had stumbled on was a mere rear guard left around the
+place of sacrifice and the hut where Inez was confined. The real army he
+never found at all. That was divided into two bodies and hidden in bush
+to the right and left of the ridge which we were descending just at the
+spot where it joined the plain beneath, and into the jaws of these two
+armies we marched gaily.
+
+Now that hypothetical reader will say, "Why didn't that silly old fool,
+Allan, think of all these things? Why didn't he remember that he was
+commanding a pack of savages with whom he had no real acquaintance,
+among whom there were sure to be traitors, especially as they were of
+the same blood as the Rezuites, and take precautions?"
+
+Ah! my dear reader, I will only answer that I wish you had handled the
+job yourself, and enjoyed the opportunity of seeing what _you_ could do
+in the circumstances. Do you suppose I didn't think of all these points?
+Of course I did. But have you ever heard of the difficulty of making
+silk purses out of sows' ears, or of turning a lot of gloomy and
+disagreeable barbarians whom you had never even drilled, into
+trustworthy and efficient soldiers ready to fight three times their own
+number and beat them?
+
+Also I beg to observe that I did get through somehow, as you shall
+learn, which is more than you might have done, Mr. Wisdom, though I
+admit, not without help from another quarter. It is all very well for
+you to sit in your armchair and be sapient and turn up your learned
+nose, like the gentlemen who criticise plays and poems, an easy job
+compared to the writing of them. From all of which, however, you
+will understand that I am, to tell the truth, rather ashamed of what
+followed, since _qui s'excuse, s'accuse_.
+
+As we slunk down that hill in the moonlight, a queer-looking crowd, I
+admit also that I felt very uncomfortable. To begin with I did not like
+that remark of the Medicine-man which Hans reported, to the effect that
+the feast must come after the victory, especially as he had said just
+before that Robertson was to be sacrificed as the sun rose, which would
+seem to suggest that the "victory" was planned to take place before that
+event.
+
+While I was ruminating upon this subject, I looked round for Hans to
+cross-examine him as to the priest's exact words, only to find that he
+had slunk off somewhere. A few minutes later he reappeared running back
+towards us swiftly and, I noticed, taking shelter behind tree trunks and
+rocks as he came.
+
+"Baas," he gasped, for he was out of breath, "be careful, those Rezu men
+are on either side ahead. I went forward and ran into them. They threw
+many spears at me. Look!" and he showed a slight cut on his arm from
+which blood was flowing.
+
+Instantly I understood that we were ambushed and began to think very
+hard indeed. As it chanced we were passing across a large flat space
+upon the ridge, say seven or eight acres in extent, where the bush grew
+lightly, though owing to the soil being better, the trees were tall.
+
+On the steep slope below this little plain it seemed to be denser and
+there it was, according to Hans, that the ambush was set. I halted my
+regiment and sent back messengers to the others that they were to halt
+also as they came up, on the pretext of giving them a rest before they
+were marshalled and we advanced to the battle.
+
+Then I told Umslopogaas what Hans said and asked him to send out his
+Zulu soldier whom he could trust, to see if he could obtain confirmation
+of the report. This he did at once. Also I asked him what he thought
+should be done, supposing that it was true.
+
+"Form the Amahagger into a ring or a square and await attack," he
+answered.
+
+I nodded, for that was my own opinion, but replied,
+
+"If they were Zulus, the plan would be good. But how do we know that
+these men will stand?"
+
+"We know nothing, Macumazahn, and therefore can only try. If they run it
+must be up-hill."
+
+Then I called the captains and told them what was toward, which seemed
+to alarm them very much. Indeed one or two of them wanted to retreat at
+once, but I said I would shoot the first man who tried to do so. In
+the end they agreed to my plan and said that they would post their best
+soldiers above, at the top of the square, with the orders to stop any
+attempt at a flight up the mountain.
+
+After this we formed up the square as best we could, arranging it in
+a rather rough, four-fold line. While we were doing this we heard some
+shouts below and presently the Zulu returned, who reported that all
+was as Hans had said and that Rezu's men were moving round us, having
+discovered, as he thought, that we had halted and escaped their ambush.
+
+Still the attack did not develop at once, for the reason that the Rezu
+army was crawling up the steep flanks of the spur on either side of the
+level piece of ground, with a view of encircling us altogether, so as
+to make a clean sweep of our force. As a matter of fact, considered from
+our point of view, this was a most fortunate move, since thereby they
+stopped any attempt at a retreat on the part of our Amahagger, whose
+bolt-hole was now blocked.
+
+When we had done all we could, we sat down, or at least I did, and
+waited. The night, I remember, was strangely still, only from the slopes
+on either side of our plateau came a kind of rustling sound which
+in fact was caused by the feet of Rezu's people, as they marched to
+surround us.
+
+It ceased at last and the silence grew complete, so much so that I could
+hear the teeth of some of our tall Amahagger chattering with fear, a
+sound that gave me little confidence and caused Umslopogaas to remark
+that the hearts of these big men had never grown; they remained "as
+those of babies." I told the captains to pass the word down the ranks
+that those who stood might live, but those who fled would certainly die.
+Therefore if they wished to see their homes again they had better stand
+and fight like men. Otherwise most of them would be killed and the rest
+eaten by Rezu. This was done, and I observed that the message seemed to
+produce a steadying effect upon our ranks.
+
+Suddenly all around us, from below, from above and on either side there
+broke a most awful roar which seemed to shape itself into the word,
+_Rezu_, and next minute also from above, below and either side, some ten
+thousand men poured forth upon our square.
+
+In the moonlight they looked very terrible with their flowing white
+robes and great gleaming spears. Hans and I fired some shots, though
+for all the effect they produced, we might as well have pelted a breaker
+with pebbles. Then, as I thought that I should be more useful alive than
+dead, I retreated within the square, Umslopogaas, his Zulu, and Hans
+coming with me.
+
+On the whole our Amahagger stood the attack better than I expected. They
+beat back the first rush with considerable loss to the enemy, also the
+second after a longer struggle. Then there was a pause during which we
+re-formed our ranks, dragging the wounded men into the square.
+
+Scarcely had we done this when with another mighty shout of "Rezu!" the
+enemy attacked again--that was about an hour after the battle had begun.
+But now they had changed their tactics, for instead of trying to rush
+all sides of the square at once, they concentrated their efforts on the
+western front, that which faced towards the plain below.
+
+On they came, and among them in the forefront of the battle, now and
+again I caught sight of a gigantic man, a huge creature who seemed to me
+to be seven feet high and big in proportion. I could not see him clearly
+because of the uncertain moonlight, but I noted his fierce aspect, also
+that he had an enormous beard, black streaked with grey, that flowed
+down to his middle, and that his hair hung in masses upon his shoulders.
+
+"Rezu himself!" I shouted to Umslopogaas.
+
+"Aye, Macumazahn, Rezu himself without doubt, and I rejoice to see him
+for he will be a worthy foe to fight. Look! he carries an axe as I do.
+Now I must save my strength for when we come face to face I shall need
+it all."
+
+I thought that I would spare Umslopogaas this exertion and watched my
+opportunity to put a bullet through this giant. But I could never get
+one. Once when I had covered him an Amahagger rushed in front of my gun
+so that I could not shoot, and when a second chance came a little cloud
+floated over the face of the moon and made him invisible. After that I
+had other things to which to attend, since, as I expected would happen,
+the western face of our square gave, and yelling like devils, the enemy
+began to pour in through the gap.
+
+A cold thrill went through me for I saw that the game was up. To re-form
+these undisciplined Amahagger was impossible; nothing was to be expected
+except panic, rout and slaughter. I cursed my folly for ever having had
+anything to do with the business, while Hans screamed to me in a thin
+voice that the only chance was for us three and the Zulu to bolt and
+hide in the bush.
+
+I did not answer him because, apart from any nasty pride, the thing was
+impossible, for how could we get through those struggling masses of men
+which surrounded us on every side? No, my clock had struck, so I went on
+making a kind of mental sandwich of prayers and curses; prayers for
+my soul and forgiveness for my sins, and curses on the Amahagger and
+everything to do with them, especially Zikali and the woman called
+Ayesha, who, between them, had led me into this affair.
+
+"Perhaps the Great Medicine of Zikali," piped Hans again as he fired a
+rifle at the advancing foe.
+
+"Hang the Great Medicine," I shouted back, "and Ayesha with it. No
+wonder she declined to take a hand in this business."
+
+As I spoke the words I saw old Billali, who not being a man of war was
+keeping as close to us as he could, go flat onto his venerable face, and
+reflected that he must have got a thrown spear through him. Casting a
+hurried glance at him to see if he were done for or only wounded, out
+of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something diaphanous which
+gleamed in the moonlight and reminded me of I knew not what at the
+moment.
+
+I looked round quickly to see what it might be and lo! there, almost at
+my side was the veiled Ayesha herself, holding in her hand a little rod
+made of black wood inlaid with ivory not unlike a field marshal's baton,
+or a sceptre.
+
+I never saw her come and to this day I do not know how she did so; she
+was just there and what is more she must have put luminous paint or
+something else on her robes, for they gleamed with a sort of faint,
+phosphorescent fire, which in the moonlight made her conspicuous all
+over the field of battle. Nor did she speak a single word, she only
+waved the rod, pointed with it towards the fierce hordes who were
+drawing near to us, killing as they came, and began to move forward with
+a gliding motion.
+
+Now from every side there went up a roar of "_She-who-commands!
+She-who-commands!_" while the people of Rezu in front shouted "_Lulala!
+Lulala!_ Fly, Lulala is upon us with the witchcrafts of the moon!"
+
+She moved forward and by some strange impulse, for no order was given,
+we all began to move after her. Yes, the ranks that a minute before were
+beginning to give way to wild panic, became filled with a marvellous
+courage and moved after her.
+
+The men of Rezu also, and I suppose with them Rezu himself, for I saw no
+more of him at that time, began to move uncommonly fast over the edge
+of the plateau towards the plain beneath. In fact they broke into flight
+and leaping over dead and dying, we rushed after them, always following
+the gleaming robe of Ayesha, who must have been an extremely agile
+person, since without any apparent exertion she held her place a few
+steps ahead of us.
+
+There was another curious circumstance about this affair, namely, that
+terrified though they were, those Rezuites, after the first break, soon
+seemed to find it impossible to depart with speed. They kept turning
+round to look behind them at that following vision, as though they were
+so many of Lot's wives. Moreover, the same fate overtook many of them
+which fell upon that scriptural lady, since they appeared to become
+petrified and stood there quite still, like rabbits fascinated by a
+snake, until our people came up and killed them.
+
+This slaying went on all down the last steep slope of the ridge, on
+which I suppose at least two-thirds of the army of Rezu must have
+perished, since our Amahagger showed themselves very handy men when it
+came to exterminating foes who were too terror-struck to fight, and,
+exhilarated by the occupation, gained courage every moment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SLAYING OF REZU
+
+At last we were on the plain, the bemused remnant of Rezu's army still
+doubling before us like a mob of game pursued by wild dogs. Here we
+halted to re-form our ranks; it seemed to me, although still she spoke
+no word, that some order reached me from the gleaming Ayesha that
+I should do this. The business took twenty minutes or so, and then,
+numbering about two thousand five hundred strong, for the rest had
+fallen in the fight of the square, we advanced again.
+
+Now there came that dusk which often precedes the rising of the sun, and
+through it I could see that the battle was not yet over, since gathered
+in front of us was still a force about equal to our own. Ayesha pointed
+towards it with her wand and we leapt forward to the attack. Here the
+men of Rezu stood awaiting us, for they seemed to overcome their terror
+with the approach of day.
+
+The battle was fierce, a very strange battle in that dim, uncertain
+light, which scarcely showed us friend from foe. Indeed I am not sure
+that we should have won it, since Ayesha was no longer visible to give
+our Amahagger confidence, and as the courage of the Rezuites increased,
+so theirs seemed to lessen with the passing of the night.
+
+Fortunately, however, just as the issue hung doubtful, there was a
+shout to our left and looking, I made out the tall shape of Goroko, the
+witch-doctor, with the other Zulu, followed by his two hundred and fifty
+men, and leaping on to the flank of the line of Rezu.
+
+That settled the business. The enemy crumpled up and melted, and just
+then the first lights of dawn appeared in the sky. I looked about me for
+Ayesha, but she had gone, where to I knew not, though at the moment I
+feared that she must have been killed in the melee.
+
+Then I gave up looking and thinking, since now or never was the time
+for action. Signalling and shouting to those hatchet-faced Amahagger to
+advance, accompanied by Umslopogaas with Goroko who had joined us, and
+Hans, I sprang forward to give them an example, which, to be just to
+them, they took.
+
+"This is the mound on which Red-Beard should be," cried Hans as we faced
+a little slope.
+
+I ran up it and through the gloom which precedes the actual dawn, saw a
+group of men gathered round something, as people collect about a street
+accident.
+
+"Red-Beard on the stone. They are killing him," screeched Hans again.
+
+It was so; at least several white-robed priests were bending over a
+prostrate figure with knives in their hands, while behind stood the huge
+fellow whom I took to be Rezu, staring towards the east as though he
+were waiting for the rim of the sun to appear before he gave some order.
+At that very moment it did appear, just a thin edge of bright light on
+the horizon, and he turned, shouting the order.
+
+Too late! For we were on them. Umslopogaas cut down one of the priests
+with his axe, and the men about me dealt with the others, while Hans
+with a couple of sweeps of his long knife, severed the cords with which
+Robertson was tied.
+
+The poor man who in the growing light I could see was raving mad, sprang
+up, calling out something in Scotch about "the deil." Seizing a great
+spear which had fallen from the hand of one of the priests, he rushed
+furiously at the giant who had given the order, and with a yell drove
+it at his heart. I saw the spear snap, from which I concluded that this
+man, whom rightly I took to be Rezu, wore some kind of armour.
+
+Next instant the axe he held, a great weapon, flashed aloft and down
+went Robertson before its awful stroke, stone dead, for as we found out
+afterwards, he was cloven almost in two. At the sight of the death of
+my poor friend rage took hold of me. In my hand was a double-barrelled
+rifle, an Express loaded with hollow-pointed bullets. I covered the
+giant and let drive, first with one barrel and then with the other, and
+what is more, distinctly I heard both bullets strike upon him.
+
+Yet he did not fall. He rocked a little, that is all, then turned and
+marched off towards a hut, that whereof Hans had told me, which stood
+about fifty yards away.
+
+"Leave him to me," shouted Umslopogaas. "Steel cuts where bullets cannot
+pierce," and with a bound like to that of a buck, the great Zulu leapt
+away after him.
+
+I think that Rezu meant to enter the hut for some purpose of his own,
+but Umslopogaas was too hard upon his tracks. At any rate he ran past it
+and down the other slope of the little hill on to the plain behind where
+the remnants of his army were trying to re-form. There in front of them
+the giant turned and stood at bay.
+
+Umslopogaas halted also, waiting for us to come up, since, cunning old
+warrior as he was, he feared lest should he begin the fight before that
+happened, the horde of them would fall on him. Thirty seconds later
+we arrived and found him standing still with bent body, small shield
+advanced and the great axe raised as though in the act of striking, a
+wondrous picture outlined as it was against the swiftly rising-sun.
+
+Some ten paces away stood the giant leaning on the axe he bore, which
+was not unlike to that with which woodmen fell big trees. He was an evil
+man to see and at this, my first full sight of him, I likened him in
+my mind to Goliath whom David overthrew. Huge he was and hairy, with
+deep-set, piercing eyes and a great hooked nose. His face seemed thin
+and ancient also, when with a motion of the great head, he tossed his
+long locks back from about it, but his limbs were those of a Hercules
+and his movements full of a youthful vigour. Moreover his aspect as a
+whole was that of a devil rather than of a man; indeed the sight of it
+sickened me.
+
+"Let me shoot him," I cried to Umslopogaas, for I had reloaded the rifle
+as I ran.
+
+"Nay, Watcher-by-Night," answered the Zulu without moving his head,
+"rifle has had its chance and failed. Now let us see what axe can do. If
+I cannot kill this man, I will be borne hence feet first who shall have
+made a long journey for nothing."
+
+Then the giant began to talk in a low, rumbling voice that reverberated
+from the slope of the little hill behind us.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, speaking in the same tongue that the Amahagger
+use, "who dare to come face to face with Rezu? Black hound, do you not
+know that I cannot be slain who have lived a year for every week of your
+life's days, and set my foot upon the necks of men by thousands. Have
+you not seen the spear shatter and the iron balls melt upon my breast
+like rain-drops, and would you try to bring me down with that toy you
+carry? My army is defeated--I know it. But what matters that when I can
+get me more? Because the sacrifice was not completed and the white queen
+was not wed, therefore my army was defeated by the magic of Lulala, the
+White Witch who dwells in the tombs. But _I_ am not defeated who cannot
+be slain until I show my back, and then only by a certain axe which long
+ago has rusted into dust."
+
+Now of this long speech Umslopogaas understood nothing, so I answered
+for him, briefly enough, but to the point, for there flashed into my
+mind all Ayesha's tale about an axe.
+
+"A certain axe!" I cried. "Aye, a certain axe! Well, look at that which
+is held by the Black One, the captain who is named Slaughterer, the
+ancient axe whose title is Chieftainess, because if so she wills, she
+takes the lives of all. Look at it well, Rezu, Giant and Wizard, and
+say whether it is not that which your forefather lost, that which is
+destined to bring you to your doom?"
+
+Thus I spoke, very loudly that all might hear, slowly also, pausing
+between each word because I wished to give time for the light to
+strengthen, seeing as I did that the rays of the rising sun struck upon
+the face of the giant, whereas the eyes of Umslopogaas were less dazzled
+by it.
+
+Rezu heard, and stared at the axe which Umslopogaas held aloft, causing
+it to quiver slightly by an imperceptible motion of his arm. As he
+stared I saw his hideous face change, and that on it for the first time
+gathered a look of something resembling fear. Also his followers behind
+him who were also studying the axe, began to murmur together.
+
+For here I should say that as though by common consent the battle had
+been stayed; we no longer attacked and the enemy no longer ran. They,
+or whose who were left of them, stood still as though they felt that the
+real and ultimate issue of the fight depended upon the forthcoming duel
+between these two champions, though of that issue they had little
+doubt since, as I learned afterwards, they believed their king to be
+invulnerable.
+
+For quite a while Rezu went on staring. Then he said aloud as if he were
+thinking to himself.
+
+"It is like, very like. The horn haft is the same; the pointed gouge is
+the same; the blade shaped like the young moon is the same. Almost could
+I think that before me shook the ancient holy axe. Nay, the gods have
+taken that back long ago and this is but a trick of the witch, Lulala of
+the Caves."
+
+Thus he spoke, but still for a moment hesitated.
+
+"Umslopogaas," I said in the deep silence that followed, "hear me."
+
+"I hear you," he answered without turning his head or moving his arms.
+"What counsel, Watcher-by-Night?"
+
+"This, Slaughterer. Strike not at that man's face and breast, for there
+I think he is protected by witchcraft or by armour. Get behind him and
+strike at his back. Do you understand?"
+
+"Nay, Macumazahn, I understand not. Yet I will do your bidding because
+you are wiser than I and utter no empty words. Now be still."
+
+Then Umslopogaas threw the axe into the air and caught it as it fell,
+and as he did so began to chant his own praises Zulu fashion.
+
+"Oho!" he said, "I am the child of the Lion, the Black-maned Lion, whose
+claws never loosened of their prey. I am the Wolf-king, he who hunted
+with the wolves upon the Witch-mountain with my brother, Bearer of
+the Club named Watcher-of-the-Fords, I am he who slew him called the
+Unconquered, Chief of the People of the Axe, he who bore the ancient Axe
+before me; I am he who smote the Halakazi tribe in their caves and won
+me Nada the Lily to wife. I am he who took to the King Dingaan a gift
+that he loved little, and afterward with Mopo, my foster-sire, hurled
+this Dingaan down to death. I am the Royal One, named Bulalio the
+Slaughterer, named Woodpecker, named Umhlopekazi the Captain, before
+whom never yet man has stood in fair and open fight. Now, thou Wizard
+Rezu, now thou Giant, now thou Ghost-man, come on against me and before
+the sun has risen by a hand's breadth, all those who watch shall see
+which of us is better at the game of war. Come on, then! Come on, for
+I say that my blood boils over and my feet grow cold. Come on, thou
+grinning dog, thou monster grown fat with eating the flesh of men, thou
+hook-beaked vulture, thou old, grey-whiskered wolf!"
+
+Thus he changed in his fierce, boastful way, while his two remaining
+Zulus clapped their hands and sentence by sentence echoed his words, and
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, muttered incantations behind him.
+
+While he sang thus Umslopogaas began to stir. First only his head and
+shoulders moved gently, swaying from side to side like a reed shaken in
+the wind or a snake about to strike. Then slowly he put out first one
+foot and next the other and drew them back again, as a dancer might do,
+tempting Rezu to attack.
+
+But the giant would not, his shield held before him, he stood still and
+waited to see what this black warrior would do.
+
+The snake struck. Umslopogaas darted in and let drive with the long
+axe. Rezu raised his shield above his head and caught the blow. From the
+clank it made I knew that this shield which seemed to be of hide, was
+lined with iron. Rezu smote back, but before the blow could fall the
+Zulu was out of his reach. This taught me how great was the giant's
+strength, for though the stroke was heavy, like the steel-hatted axe he
+bore, still when he saw that it had missed he checked the weapon in mid
+air, which only a mighty man could have done.
+
+Umslopogaas saw these things also and changed his tactics. His axe was
+six or eight inches longer in the haft than that of Rezu, and therefore
+he could reach where Rezu could not, for the giant was short-armed.
+He twisted it round in his hand so that the moon-shaped blade was
+uppermost, and keeping it almost at full length, began to peck with the
+gouge-shaped point on the back at the head and arms of Rezu, that as I
+knew was a favourite trick of his in fight from which he won his name
+of "Woodpecker." Rezu defended his head with his shield as best he could
+against the sharp points of steel which flashed all about him.
+
+Twice it seemed to me that the Zulu's pecks went home upon the giant's
+breast, but if so they did no harm. Either Rezu's thick beard, or armour
+beneath it stopped them from penetrating his body. Still he roared
+out as though with pain, or fury, or both, and growing mad, charged at
+Umslopogaas and smote with all his strength.
+
+The Zulu caught the blow upon his shield, through which it shore as
+though the tough hide were paper. Stay the stroke it could not, yet it
+turned its direction, so that the falling axe slid past Umslopogaas's
+shoulder, doing him no hurt. Next instant, before Rezu could strike
+again, the Zulu threw the severed shield into his face and seizing the
+axe with both hands, leapt in and struck. It was a mighty blow, for I
+saw the rhinoceros-horn handle of the famous axe bend like a drawn bow,
+and it went home with a dull thud full upon Rezu's breast. He shook, but
+no more. Evidently the razor edge of _Inkosikaas_ had failed to pierce.
+There was a sound as though a hollow tree had been smitten and some
+strands of the long beard, shorn off, fell to the ground, but that was
+all.
+
+"_Tagati!_ (bewitched)," cried the watching Zulus. "That stroke should
+have cut him in two!" while I thought to myself that this man knew how
+to make good armour.
+
+Rezu laughed aloud, a bellowing kind of laugh, while Umslopogaas sprang
+back astonished.
+
+"Is it thus!" he cried in Zulu. "Well, all wizards have some door by
+which their Spirit enters and departs. I must find the door, I must find
+the door!"
+
+So he spoke and with springing movements tried to get past Rezu, first
+to the right and then to the left, all the while keeping out of reach.
+But Rezu ever turned and faced him, as he did so retreating step by
+step down the slope of the little hill and striking whenever he found a
+chance, but without avail, for always Umslopogaas was beyond his reach.
+Also the sunlight which now grew strong, dazzled him, or so I thought.
+Moreover he seemed to tire somewhat--or so I thought also.
+
+At any rate he determined to make an end of the play, for with a swift
+motion, as Umslopogaas had done, he threw away his shield and grasping
+the iron handle of his axe with both hands, charged the Zulu like a
+bull. Umslopogaas leapt back out of reach. Then suddenly he turned and
+ran up the rise. Yes, Bulalio the Slaughterer ran!
+
+A roar of mockery went up from the sun-worshippers behind, while our
+Amahagger laughed and Goroko and the two Zulus stared astonished and
+ashamed. Only I read his mind aright and wondered what guile he had
+conceived.
+
+He ran, and Rezu ran after him, but never could he catch the
+swiftest-footed man in Zululand. To and fro he followed him, for
+Umslopogaas was taking a zig-zag path towards the crest of the slope,
+till at length Rezu stopped breathless. But Umslopogaas still ran
+another twenty yards or so until he reached the top of the slope and
+there halted and wheeled round.
+
+For ten seconds or more he stood drawing his breath in great gasps, and,
+looking at his face, I saw that it had become as the face of a wolf.
+His lips were drawn up into a terrible grin, showing the white teeth
+between; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in and his eyes glared, while
+the skin over the hole in his forehead beat up and down.
+
+There he stood, gathering himself together for some mighty effort.
+
+"Run on!" shouted the spectators. "Run back to Kor, black dog!"
+
+Umslopogaas knew that they were mocking him, but he took no heed, only
+bent down and rubbed his sweating hand in the grit of the dry earth.
+Then he straightened himself and charged down on Rezu.
+
+I, Allan Quatermain, have seen many things in battle, but never before
+or since did I see aught like to this charge. It was swift as that of
+a lioness, so swift that the Zulu's feet scarcely seemed to touch the
+ground. On he sped like a thrown spear, till, when within about a dozen
+feet of Rezu who stood staring at him, he bent his frame almost double
+and leapt into the air.
+
+Oh! what a leap was that. Surely he must have learnt it from the lion,
+or the spring-buck. High he rose and now I saw his purpose; it was to
+clear the tall shape of Rezu. Aye, and he cleared him with half a foot
+to spare, and as he passed above, smote downwards with the axe so that
+the blow fell upon the back of Rezu's head. Moreover it went home this
+time, for I saw the red blood stream and Rezu fell forward on his face.
+Umslopogaas landed far beyond him, ran a little way because he must,
+then wheeled round and charged again.
+
+Rezu was rising, but before he gained his feet, the axe _Inkosikaas_
+thundered down where the neck joins the shoulder and sank in. Still, so
+great was his strength that Rezu found his feet and smote out wildly.
+But now his movements were slow and again Umslopogaas got behind him,
+smiting at his back. Once, twice, thrice, he smote, and at the third
+blow it seemed as though the massive spine were severed, for his weapon
+fell from Rezu's hand and slowly he sank down to the ground, and lay
+there, a huddled heap.
+
+Believing that all was over I ran to where he lay with Umslopogaas
+standing over him, as it seemed to me, utterly exhausted, for he
+supported himself by the axe and tottered upon his feet. But Rezu was
+not yet dead. He opened his cavernous eyes and glared at the Zulu with a
+look of hellish hate.
+
+"_Thou_ hast not conquered me, Black One," he gasped. "It is thine axe
+which gave thee victory; the ancient, holy axe that once was mine until
+the woman stole it, yes, that and the craft of the Witch of the Caves
+who told thee to smite where the Spirit of Life which I feared to enter
+wholly, had not kissed my flesh, and there only left me mortal. Wolf of
+a black man, may we meet elsewhere and fight this fray again. Ah! would
+that I could get these hands about thy throat and take thee with me down
+into the Darkness. But Lulala wins if only for a while, since her fate,
+I think, shall be worse than mine. Ah! I see the magic beauty that she
+boasts turn to shameful----"
+
+Here of a sudden life left him and throwing his great arms wide, a last
+breath passed bubbling from his lips.
+
+As I stooped to examine the man's huge and hairy carcase that to me
+looked only half human, with a thunder of feet our Amahagger rushed down
+upon us and thrusting me aside, fell upon the body of their ancient foe
+like hounds upon a helpless fox, and with hands and spears and knives
+literally tore and hacked it limb from limb, till no semblance of
+humanity remained.
+
+It was impossible to stop them; indeed I was too outworn with labours
+and emotions to make any such attempt. This I regret the more since
+I lost the opportunity of making an examination of the body of this
+troll-like man, and of ascertaining what kind of armour it was he wore
+beneath that great beard of his, which was strong enough to stop my
+bullets, and even the razor edge of the axe _Inkosikaas_ driven with all
+the might of the arms of the Zulu, Bulalio. For when I looked again
+at the sickening sight the giant was but scattered fragments and the
+armour, whatever it might have been, was gone, rent to little pieces and
+carried off, doubtless, by the Amahagger, perhaps to be divided between
+them to serve as charms.
+
+So of Rezu I know only that he was the hugest, most terrible-looking
+man I have ever seen, one too who carried his vast strength very late
+in life, since from the aspect of his countenance I imagine that he must
+have been nigh upon seventy years of age, though his supposed unnatural
+antiquity of course was nothing but a fable put about by the natives for
+their own purposes.
+
+Presently Umslopogaas seemed to recover from the kind of faint into
+which he had fallen and opening his eyes, looked about him. The first
+person they fell on was old Billali who stood stroking his white beard
+and contemplating the scene with an air which was at once philosophic
+and satisfied. This seemed to anger Umslopogaas, for he cried,
+
+"I think it was you, ancient bag of words and sweeper of paths for the
+feet of the great, who made a mock of me but now, when you thought
+that I fled before the horns of yonder man-eating bull--" and he nodded
+towards the fragments of what once had been Rezu. "Find now his axe
+and though I am weak and weary, I will wash away the insult with your
+blood."
+
+"What does this glorious black hero say, Watcher-by-Night?" asked
+Billali in his most courteous tones.
+
+I told him word by word, whereon Billali lifted his hands in horror,
+turned and fled. Nor did I see him again until we arrived at Kor.
+
+
+
+At the sight of the fall of their giant chief Rezu whom they believed
+to be invulnerable, his followers, who were watching the fray, set up
+a great wailing, a most mournful and uncanny noise to hear. Then, as I
+think did the hosts of the Philistines when David brought down Goliath
+by his admirable shot with a stone, they set out for their homes
+wherever these may have been, at an absolutely record pace and in the
+completest disarray.
+
+Our Amahagger followed them for a while, but soon were left standing
+still. So they contented themselves with killing any wounded they could
+find and returned. I did not accompany them; indeed the battle being
+won, metaphorically I washed my hands of them, and in my thoughts
+consigned them to a certain locality as a people of whom it might
+well be said that manners they had none and their customs were simply
+beastly. Also, although fierce and cruel, these night-bats were not
+good fighting men and in short never did I wish to have to do with such
+another company.
+
+Moreover, a very different matter pressed. The object of this business
+so far as I was concerned, had been to rescue poor Inez, since had
+it not been for her sake, never would I have consented to lead those
+Amahagger against their fellow blackguards, the Rezuites.
+
+But where was Inez? If Hans had understood the medicine-man aright,
+she was, or had been, in the hut, where it was my earnest hope that she
+still remained, since otherwise the hunt must be continued. This at
+any rate was easy to discover. Calling Hans, who was amusing himself
+by taking long shots at the flying enemy, so that they might not forget
+him, as he said, and the Zulus, I walked up the slope to the hut, or
+rather booth of boughs, for it was quite twenty feet long by twelve or
+fifteen broad.
+
+At its eastern end was a doorway or opening closed with a heavy curtain.
+Here I paused full of tremors, and listened, for to tell the truth I
+dreaded to draw that curtain, fearing what I might see within. Gathering
+up my courage at length I tore it aside and, a revolver in my hand,
+looked in. At first after the strong light without, for the sun was now
+well up, I could see nothing, since those green boughs and palm leaves
+were very closely woven. As my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom,
+however, I perceived a glittering object seated on a kind of throne
+at the end of the booth, while in a double row in front knelt six
+white-robed women who seemed to wear chains about their necks and
+carried large knives slung round their middles. On the floor between
+these women and the throne lay a dead man, a priest of some sort as
+I gathered from his garb, who still held a huge spear in his hand. So
+silent were the figure on the throne and those that knelt before it,
+that at first I thought that all of them must be dead.
+
+"Lady Sad-Eyes," whispered Hans, "and her bride-women. Doubtless that
+old Predikant came to kill her when he saw that the battle was lost, but
+the bride-women killed him with their knives."
+
+Here I may state that Hans' suppositions proved to be quite correct,
+which shows how quick and deductive was his mind. The figure on the
+throne was Inez; the priest in his disappointed rage _had_ come to kill
+her, and the bride-women had killed _him_ with their knives before he
+could do so.
+
+I bade the Zulus tear down the curtain and pull away some of the end
+boughs, so as to let in more light. Then we advanced up the place,
+holding our pistols and spears in readiness. The kneeling women turned
+their heads to look at us and I saw that they were all young and
+handsome in their fashion, although fierce-faced. Also I saw their hands
+go to the knives they wore. I called to them to let these be and come
+out, and that if they did so they had nothing to fear. But if they
+understood, they did not heed my words.
+
+On the contrary while Hans and I covered them with our pistols, fearing
+lest they should stab the person on the throne whom we took to be Inez,
+at some word from one of them, they bowed simultaneously towards her,
+then at another word, suddenly they drew the knives and plunged them to
+their own hearts!
+
+It was a dreadful sight and one of which I never saw the like. Nor to
+this day do I know why the deed was done, unless perhaps the women were
+sworn to the service of the new queen and feared that if they failed to
+protect her, they would be doomed to some awful end. At any rate we got
+them out dead or dying, for their blows had been strong and true, and
+not one of them lived for more than a few minutes.
+
+Then I advanced to the figure on the throne, or rather foot-stooled
+chair of black wood inlaid with ivory, which sat so silent and
+motionless that I was certain it was that of a dead woman, especially
+when I perceived that she was fastened to the chair with leather straps,
+which were sewn over with gold wire. Also she was veiled and, with one
+exception, made up, if I may use the term, exactly to resemble the lady
+Ayesha, even down to the two long plaits of black hair, each finished
+with some kind of pearl and to the sandalled feet.
+
+The exception was that about her hung a great necklace of gold ornaments
+from which were suspended pendants also of gold representing the rayed
+disc of the sun in rude but bold and striking workmanship.
+
+I went to her and having cut the straps, since I could not stop to untie
+their knots, lifted the veil.
+
+Beneath it was Inez sure enough, and Inez living, for her breast rose
+and fell as she breathed, but Inez senseless. Her eyes were wide open,
+yet she was quite senseless. Probably she had been drugged, or perhaps
+some of the sights of horror which she saw, had taken away her mind. I
+confess that I was glad that this was so, who otherwise must have told
+her the dreadful story of her father's end.
+
+We bore her out and away from that horrible place, apparently quite
+unhurt, and laid her under the shadow of a tree till a litter could be
+procured. I could do no more who knew not how to treat her state, and
+had no spirits with me to pour down her throat.
+
+
+
+This was the end of our long pursuit, and thus we rescued Inez, whom the
+Zulus called the Lady Sad-Eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE SPELL
+
+Of our return to Kor I need say nothing, except that in due course we
+reached that interesting ruin. The journey was chiefly remarkable for
+one thing, that on this occasion, I imagine for the first and last time
+in his life, Umslopogaas consented to be carried in a litter, at least
+for part of the way. He was, as I have said, unwounded, for the axe
+of his mighty foe had never once so much as touched his skin. What he
+suffered from was shock, a kind of collapse, since, although few would
+have thought it, this great and utterly fearless warrior was at bottom a
+nervous, highly-strung man.
+
+It is only the nervous that climb the highest points of anything, and
+this is true of fights as of all others. That fearful fray with Rezu had
+been a great strain on the Zulu. As he put it himself, "the wizard had
+sucked the strength" out of him, especially when he found that owing
+to his armour he could not harm him in front, and owing to his cunning
+could not get at him behind. Then it was that he conceived the desperate
+expedient of leaping over his head and smiting backwards as he leapt,
+a trick, he told me, that he had once played years before when he was
+young, in order to break a shield ring and reach one who stood in its
+centre.
+
+In this great leap over Rezu's head Umslopogaas knew that he must
+succeed, or be slain, which in turn would mean my death and that of the
+others. For this reason he faced the shame of seeming to fly in order to
+gain the higher ground, whence alone he could gather the speed necessary
+to such a terrific spring.
+
+Well, he made it and thereby conquered, and this was the end, but as he
+said, it had left him, "weak as a snake when it crawls out of its hole
+into the sun after the long winter sleep."
+
+Of one thing, Umslopogaas added, he was thankful, namely that Rezu
+had never succeeded in getting his arms round him, since he was quite
+certain that if he had he would have broken him "as a baboon breaks a
+mealie-stalk." No strength, not even his, could have resisted the iron
+might of that huge, gorilla-like man.
+
+I agreed with him who had noted Rezu's vast chest and swelling muscles,
+also the weight of the blows that he struck with the steel-hafted
+axe (which, by the way, when I sought for it, was missing, stolen, I
+suppose, by one of the Amahagger).
+
+Whence did that strength come, I wondered, in one who from his face
+appeared to be old? Was there perchance, after all, some truth in the
+legend of Samson and did it dwell in that gigantic beard and those long
+locks of his? It was impossible to say and probably the man was but a
+Herculean freak, for that he was as strong as Hercules all the stories
+that I heard afterwards of his feats, left little room for doubt.
+
+About one thing only was I certain in connection with him, namely, that
+the tales of his supernatural abilities were the merest humbug. He was
+simply one of the representatives of the family of "strong men," of whom
+examples are still to be seen doing marvellous feats all over the earth.
+
+For the rest, he was dead and broken up by those Amahagger blood-hounds
+before I could examine him, or his body-armour either, and there was
+an end of him and his story. But when I looked at the corpse of poor
+Robertson, which I did as we buried it where he fell, and saw that
+though so large and thick-set, it was cleft almost in two by a single
+blow of Rezu's axe, I came to understand what the might of this savage
+must have been.
+
+I say savage, but I am not sure that this is a right description of
+Rezu. Evidently he had a religion of a sort, also imagination, as was
+shown by the theft of the white woman to be his queen; by his veiling
+of her to resemble Ayesha whom he dreaded; by the intended propitiatory
+sacrifice; by the guard of women sworn to her service who slew the
+priest that tried to kill her, and afterwards committed suicide when
+they had failed in their office, and by other things. All this indicated
+something more than savagery, perhaps survivals from a forgotten
+civilisation, or perhaps native ability on the part of an individual
+ruler. I do not know and it matters nothing.
+
+Rezu is dead and the world is well rid of him, and those who want to
+learn more of his people can go to study such as remain of them in their
+own habitat, which for my part I never wish to visit any more.
+
+
+
+During our journey to Kor poor Inez never stirred. Whenever I went to
+look at her in the litter, I found her lying there with her eyes open
+and a fixed stare upon her face which frightened me very much, since I
+began to fear lest she should die. However I could do nothing to help
+her, except urge the bearers to top speed. So swiftly did we travel down
+the hill and across the plain that we reached Kor just as the sun was
+setting. As we crossed the moat I perceived old Billali coming to meet
+us. This he did with many bows, keeping an anxious eye upon the litter
+which he had learned contained Umslopogaas. Indeed his attitude and that
+of the Amahagger towards the two of us, and even Hans, thenceforward
+became almost abject, since after our victory over Rezu and his death
+beneath the axe, they looked upon us as half divine and treated us
+accordingly.
+
+"O mighty General," he said, "She-who-commands bids me conduct the lady
+who is sick to the place that has been made ready for her, which is near
+your own so that you may watch over her if you will."
+
+I wondered how Ayesha knew that Inez was sick, but being too tired
+to ask questions, merely bade him lead on. This he did, taking us to
+another ruined house next to our own quarters which had been swept,
+cleaned and furnished after a fashion, and moreover cleverly roofed in
+with mats, so that it was really quite comfortable. Here we found two
+middle-aged women of a very superior type, who, Billali informed me,
+were by trade nurses of the sick. Having seen her laid upon her bed, I
+committed Inez to their charge, since the case was not one that I dared
+to try to doctor myself, not knowing what drug of the few I possessed
+should be administered to her. Moreover Billali comforted me with the
+information that soon She-who-commands would visit her and "make her
+well again," as she could do.
+
+I answered that I hoped so and went to our quarters where I found an
+excellent meal ready cooked and with it a stone flagon, of the contents
+of which Billali said we were all three to drink by the command of
+Ayesha, who declared that it would take away our weariness.
+
+I tried the stuff, which was pale yellow in colour like sherry and, for
+aught I knew, might be poison, to find it most comforting, though it
+did not seem to be very strong to the taste. Certainly, too, its effects
+were wonderful, since presently all my great weariness fell from me
+like a discarded cloak, and I found myself with a splendid appetite and
+feeling better and stronger than I had done for years. In short that
+drink was a "cocktail" of the best, one of which I only wish I possessed
+the recipe, though Ayesha told me afterwards that it was distilled from
+quite harmless herbs and not in any sense a spirit.
+
+Having discovered this, I gave some of it to Hans, also to Umslopogaas,
+who was with the wounded Zulus, who, we found, were progressing well
+towards complete recovery, and lastly to Goroko who also was worn
+out. On all of these the effect of that magical brew proved most
+satisfactory.
+
+Then, having washed, I ate a splendid dinner, though in this respect
+Hans, who was seated on the ground nearby, far outpassed my finest
+efforts.
+
+"Baas," he said, "things have gone very well with us when they might
+have gone very ill. The Baas Red-Beard is dead, which is a good thing,
+since a madman would have been difficult to look after, and a brain full
+of moonshine is a bad companion for any one. Oh! without doubt he is
+better dead, though your reverend father the Predikant will have a hard
+job looking after him there in the Place of Fires."
+
+"Perhaps," I said with a sigh, "since it is better to be dead than
+to live a lunatic. But what I fear is that the lady his daughter will
+follow him."
+
+"Oh, no! Baas," replied Hans cheerfully, "though I daresay that she
+will always be a little mad also, because you see it is in her blood and
+doubtless she has looked on dreadful things. But the Great Medicine will
+see to it that she does not die after we have taken so much trouble
+and gone into such big dangers to save her. That Great Medicine is very
+wonderful, Baas. First of all it makes you General over those Amahagger
+who without you would never have fought, as the Witch who ties up her
+head in a cloth knew well enough. Then it brings us safe through the
+battle and gives strength to Umslopogaas to kill the old man-eating
+giant."
+
+"Why did it not give _me_ strength to kill him, Hans? I let him have two
+Express bullets on his chest, which hurt him no more than a tap upon the
+horns with a dancing stick would hurt a bull-buffalo."
+
+"Oh! Baas, perhaps you missed him, who because you hit things sometimes,
+think that you do so always."
+
+Having waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which
+of course I did not, he went on by way of letting me down easily, "Or
+perhaps he wore very good armour under his beard, for I saw some of
+those Amahagger who pulled his hair off and cut him to pieces, go away
+with what looked like little bits of brass. Also the Great Medicine
+meant that he should be killed by Umslopogaas and not by you, since
+otherwise Umslopogaas would have been sad for the rest of his life,
+whereas now he will walk about the world as proud as a cock with two
+tails and crow all night as well as all day. Then, Baas, when Rezu broke
+the square and the Amahagger began to run, without doubt it was the
+Great Medicine which changed their hearts and made them brave again, so
+that they charged at the right moment when they saw it going forward on
+your breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the cannibals."
+
+"Indeed! I thought that the Lady who dwells yonder had something to do
+with that business. Did you see her, Hans?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted the
+cloth from over her head and when the people of Rezu saw how ugly was
+the face beneath, it did frighten them a little. But doubtless the Great
+Medicine put that thought into her also, for, Baas, what could a silly
+woman do in such a case? Did you ever know of a woman who was of any use
+in a battle, or for anything else except to nurse babies, and this one
+does not even do that, no doubt because being so hideous under that
+sheet, no man can be found to marry her."
+
+Now I looked up by chance and in the light of the lamps saw Ayesha
+standing in the room, which she had entered through the open doorway,
+within six feet of Hans' back indeed.
+
+"Be sure Baas," he went on, "that this bundle of rags is nothing but a
+common old cheat who frightens people by pretending to be a spook, as,
+if she dared to say that it was she who made those stinking Amahagger
+charge, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would tell
+her to her face."
+
+Now I was too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it was
+fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch, she moved a little so that
+one of the lamps behind her caused her shadow to fall on to the back
+of the squatting Hans and over it on to the floor beyond. He saw it and
+stared at the distorted shape of the hooded head, then slowly screwed
+his neck round and looked upwards behind him.
+
+For a moment he went on staring as though he were frozen, then uttering
+a wild yell, he scrambled to his feet, bolted out of the house and
+vanished into the night.
+
+"It seems, Allan," said Ayesha slowly, "that yonder yellow ape of yours
+is very bold at throwing sticks when the leopardess is not beneath the
+tree. But when she comes it is otherwise with him. Oh! make no excuse,
+for I know well that he was speaking ill things of me, because being
+curious, as apes are, he burns to learn what is behind my veil, and
+being simple, believes that no woman would hide her face unless its
+fashion were not pleasing to the nice taste of men."
+
+Then, to my relief, she laughed a little, softly, which showed me that
+she had a sense of humour, and went on, "Well, let him be, for he is a
+good ape and courageous in his fashion, as he showed when he went out to
+spy upon the host of Rezu, and stabbed the murderer-priest by the stone
+of sacrifice."
+
+"How can you know the words of Hans, Ayesha," I asked, "seeing that he
+spoke in a tongue which you have never learned?"
+
+"Perchance I read faces, Allan."
+
+"Or backs," I suggested, remembering that his was turned to her.
+
+"Or backs, or voices, or hearts. It matters little which, since read I
+do. But have done with such childish talk and lead me to this maiden who
+has been snatched from the claws of Rezu and a fate that is worse than
+death. Do you understand, Allan, that ere the demon Rezu took her to
+wife, the plan was to sacrifice her own father to her and then eat him
+as the woman with her was eaten, and before her eyes? Now the father is
+dead, which is well, as I think the little yellow man said to you--nay,
+start not, I read it from his back [Ha!--JB]--since had he lived whose
+brain was rotted, he would have raved till his death's day. Better,
+therefore, that he should die like a man fighting against a foe
+unconquerable by all save one. But she still lives."
+
+"Aye, but mindless, Ayesha."
+
+"Which, in great trouble such as she has passed, is a blessed state, O
+Allan. Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your
+own life when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And
+should we not, perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we
+could not remember, foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven, but
+believe me, the real Heaven is one of dreamless sleep, since life
+and wakefulness, however high their scale and on whatever star, mean
+struggle, which being so oft mistaken, must breed sorrow--or remorse
+that spoils all. Come now."
+
+So I preceded her to the next ruined house where we found Inez lying on
+the bed still clothed in her barbaric trappings, although the veil had
+been drawn off her face. There she lay, wide-eyed and still, while the
+women watched her. Ayesha looked at her a while, then said to me,
+
+"So they tricked her out to be Ayesha's mock and image, and in time
+accepted by those barbarians as my very self, and even set the seals
+of royalty on her," and she pointed to the gold discs stamped with the
+likeness of the sun. "Well, she is a fair maiden, white and gently bred,
+the first such that I have seen for many an age. Nor did she wish this
+trickery. Moreover she has taken no hurt; her soul has sunk deep into a
+sea of horror and that is all, whence doubtless it can be drawn again.
+Yet I think it best that for a while she should remember naught, lest
+her brain break, as did her father's, and therefore no net of mine shall
+drag her back to memory. Let that return gently in future days, and then
+of it not too much, for so shall all this terror become to her a void in
+which sad shapes move like shadows, and as shadows are soon forgot
+and gone, no more to be held than dreams by the awakening sense. Stand
+aside, Allan, and you women, leave us for a while."
+
+I obeyed, and the women bowed and went. Then Ayesha drew up her veil,
+and knelt down by the bed of Inez, but in such a fashion that I could
+not see her face although I admit that I tried to do so. I could see,
+however, that she set her lips against those of Inez and as I gathered
+by her motions, seemed to breathe into her lips. Also she lifted her
+hands and placing one of them upon the heart of Inez, for a minute or
+more swayed the other from side to side above her eyes, pausing at times
+to touch her upon the forehead with her finger-tips.
+
+Presently Inez stirred and sat up, whereon Ayesha took a vessel of milk
+which stood upon the floor and held it to her lips. Inez drank to the
+last drop, then sank on to the bed again. For a while longer Ayesha
+continued the motions of her hands, then let fall her veil and rose.
+
+"Look, I have laid a spell upon her," she said, beckoning to me to draw
+near.
+
+I did so and perceived that now the eyes of Inez were shut and that she
+seemed to be plunged in a deep and natural sleep.
+
+"So she will remain for this night and that day which follows," said
+Ayesha, "and when she wakes it will be, I think, to believe herself once
+more a happy child. Not until she sees her home again will she find
+her womanhood, and then all this story will be forgotten by her. Of
+her father you must tell her that he died when you went out to hunt the
+river-beasts together, and if she seeks for certain others, that they
+have gone away. But I think that she will ask little more when she
+learns that he is dead, since I have laid that command upon her soul."
+
+"Hypnotic suggestion," thought I to myself, "and I only hope to heaven
+that it will work."
+
+Ayesha seemed to guess what was passing through my mind, for she nodded
+and said,
+
+"Have no fear, Allan, for I am what the black axe-bearer and the little
+yellow man called a 'witch' which means, as you who are instructed know,
+one who has knowledge of medicine and other things and who holds a key
+to some of the mysteries that lie hid in Nature."
+
+"For instance," I suggested, "of how to transport yourself into a battle
+at the right moment, and out of it again--also at the right moment."
+
+"Yes, Allan, since watching from afar, I saw that those Amahagger curs
+were about to flee and that I was needed there to hearten them and to
+put fear into the army of Rezu. So I came."
+
+"But how did you come, Ayesha?"
+
+She laughed as she answered,
+
+"Perhaps I did not come at all. Perhaps you only thought I came; since I
+seemed to be there the rest matters nothing."
+
+As I still looked unconvinced she went on,
+
+"Oh! foolish man, seek not to learn of that which is too high for you.
+Yet listen. You in your ignorance suppose that the soul dwells within
+the body, do you not?"
+
+I answered that I had always been under this impression.
+
+"Yet, Allan, it is otherwise, for the body dwells within the soul."
+
+"Like the pearl in an oyster," I suggested.
+
+"Aye, in a sense, since the pearl which to you is beautiful, is to the
+oyster a sickness and a poison, and so is the body to the soul whose
+temple it troubles and defiles. Yet round it is the white and holy soul
+that ever seeks to bring the vile body to its own purity and colour, yet
+oft-times fails. Learn, Allan, that flesh and spirit are the deadliest
+foes joined together by a high decree that they may forget their hate
+and perfect each other, or failing, be separate to all eternity, the
+spirit going to its own place and the flesh to its corruption."
+
+"A strange theory," I said.
+
+"Aye, Allan, and one which is so new to you that never will you
+understand it. Yet it is true and I set it out for this reason. The soul
+of man, being at liberty and not cooped within his narrow breast, is in
+touch with that soul of the Universe, which men know as God Whom they
+call by many names. Therefore it has all knowledge and perhaps all
+power, and at times the body within it, if it be a wise body, can draw
+from this well of knowledge and abounding power. So at least can I. And
+now you will understand why I am so good a doctoress and how I came to
+appear in the battle, as you said, at the right time, and to leave it
+when my work was done."
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "I quite understand. I thank you much for putting
+it so plainly."
+
+She laughed a little, appreciating my jest, looked at the sleeping Inez,
+and said,
+
+"The fair body of this lady dwells in a large soul, I think, though one
+of a somewhat sombre hue, for souls have their colours, Allan, and stain
+that which is within them. She will never be a happy woman."
+
+"The black people named her Sad-Eyes," I said.
+
+"Is it so? Well, I name her Sad-Heart, though for such often there is
+joy at last. Meanwhile she will forget; yes, she will forget the worst
+and how narrow was the edge between her and the arms of Rezu."
+
+"Just the width of the blade of the axe, _Inkosikaas_," I answered.
+"But tell me, Ayesha, why could not that axe cut and why did my bullets
+flatten or turn aside when these smote the breast of Rezu?"
+
+"Because his front-armour was good, Allan, I suppose," she replied
+indifferently, "and on his back he wore none."
+
+"Then why did you fill my ears with such a different tale about that
+horrible giant having drunk of a Cup of Life, and all the rest?" I asked
+with irritation.
+
+"I have forgotten, Allan. Perhaps because the curious, such as you are,
+like to hear tales even stranger than their own, which in the days to be
+may become their own. Therefore you will be wise to believe only what I
+do, and of what I tell you, nothing."
+
+"I don't," I exclaimed exasperated.
+
+She laughed again and replied,
+
+"What need to say to me that which I know already? Yet perhaps in the
+future it may be different, since often by the alchemy of the mind the
+fables of our youth are changed into the facts of our age, and we come
+to believe in anything, as your little yellow man believes in some
+savage named Zikali, and those Amahagger believe in the talisman round
+your neck, and I who am the maddest of you all, believe in Love and
+Wisdom, and the black warrior, Umslopogaas, believes in the virtue of
+that great axe of his, rather than in those of his own courage and of
+the strength that wields it. Fools, every one of us, though perchance
+I am the greatest fool among them. Now take me to the warrior,
+Umslopogaas, whom I would thank, as I thank you, Allan, and the little
+yellow man, although he jeers at me with his sharp tongue, not knowing
+that if I were angered, with a breath I could cause him to cease to be."
+
+"Then why did you not choose Rezu to cease to be, and his army also,
+Ayesha?"
+
+"It seems that I have done these things through the axe of Umslopogaas
+and by the help of your generalship, Allan. Why then, waste my own
+strength when yours lay to my hand?"
+
+"Because you had no power over Rezu, Ayesha, or so you told me."
+
+"Have I not said that my words are snowflakes, meant to melt and leave
+no trace, hiding my thoughts as this veil hides my beauty? Yet as the
+beauty is beneath the veil, perchance there is truth beneath the words,
+though not that truth you think. So you are well answered, and for the
+rest, I wonder whether Rezu thought I had no power over him when yonder
+on the mountain spur he saw me float down upon his companies like a
+spirit of the night. Well, perchance some day I shall learn this and
+many other things."
+
+I made no answer, since what was the use of arguing with a woman who
+told me frankly that all she said was false. So, although I longed to
+ask her why these Amahagger had such reverence for the talisman that
+Hans called the Great Medicine, since now I guessed that her first
+explanations concerning it were quite untrue, I held my tongue.
+
+Yet as we went out of the house, by some coincidence she alluded to this
+very matter.
+
+"I wish to tell you, Allan," she said, "why it was those Amahagger would
+not accept you as a General till their eyes had seen that which you wear
+upon your breast. Their tale of a legend of this very thing seemed that
+of savages or of their cunning priests, not to be believed by a wise man
+such as you are, like some others that you have heard in Kor. Yet it has
+in it a grain of truth, for as it chanced a little while ago, about a
+hundred years ago, I think, the old wizard whose picture is cut upon
+the wood, came to visit her who held my place before me as ruler of this
+tribe--she was very like me and as I believe, my mother, Allan--because
+of her repute for wisdom.
+
+"At that time I have heard there was a question of war between the
+worshippers of Lulala and the grandfather of Rezu. But this Zikali told
+the People of Lulala that they must not fight the People of Rezu until
+in a day to come a white man should visit Kor and bring with him a piece
+of wood on which was cut the image of a dwarf like to that of Zikali
+himself. Then and not before they must fight and conquer the People of
+Rezu. Now this story came down among them and you who may have thought
+the first tale magical, will understand it in its simplicity: is it not
+so, you wise Allan?"
+
+"Oh! yes," I answered, "except that I do not see how Zikali can have
+come here a hundred years ago, since men do not live as long, although
+he pretends to have done so."
+
+"No, Allan, nor do I, but perhaps it was his father, or his grandfather
+who came, since being observant, you will have noted that if the parent
+is mis-formed, so often are the descendants; also that the pretence of
+wizardry at times comes down with the blood."
+
+Again I made no answer for I saw that Ayesha was fooling me, and before
+she could exhaust that amusement we reached the place where Umslopogaas
+and his men were gathered round a camp fire. He sat silent, but Goroko
+with much animation was telling the story of the fight in picturesque
+and colourful language, or that part of it which he had seen, for the
+benefit of the two wounded men who took no share in it and who, lying on
+their blankets with heads thrust forward, were listening with eagerness
+to the entrancing tale. Suddenly they caught sight of Ayesha, and those
+of the party who could stand sprang to their feet, while one and all
+they gave her the royal salute of _Bayete_.
+
+She waited till the sound had died away. Then she said,
+
+"I come to thank you and your men, O Wielder of the Axe, who have shown
+yourself very great in battle, and to say to you that my Spirit tells
+me that every one of you, yes, even those who are still sick, will come
+safe to your own land again and live out your years with honour."
+
+Again they saluted at this pleasing intelligence, when I had translated
+it to them, for of course they knew no Arabic. Then she went on,
+
+"I am told, Umslopogaas, Son of the Lion, as a certain king was named in
+your land, that the fight you made against Rezu was a very great fight,
+and that such a leap as yours above his head when you smote him with the
+axe on the hinder parts where he wore no armour, and brought him to his
+death, has not been seen before, nor will be again."
+
+I rendered the words, and Umslopogaas, preferring truth to modesty,
+replied emphatically that this was the case.
+
+"Because of that fight and that leap," Ayesha went on, "as for other
+deeds that you have done and will do, my Spirit tells me that your name
+will live in story for many generations. Yet of what use is fame to the
+dead? Therefore I make you an offer. Bide here with me and you shall
+rule these Amahagger, and with them the remnant of the People of Rezu.
+Your cattle shall be countless and your wives the fairest in the land,
+and your children many, for I will lift a certain curse from off you
+so that no more shall you be childless. Do you accept, O Holder of the
+Axe?"
+
+When he understood, Umslopogaas, after pondering a moment, asked if I
+meant to stay in this land and marry the white chieftainess who spoke
+such wise words and could appear and disappear in the battle at her
+will, and like a mountain-top hid her head in a cloud, which was his way
+of alluding to her veil.
+
+I answered at once and with decision that I intended to do nothing of
+the sort and immediately regretted my words, since, although I spoke
+in Zulu, I suppose she read their meaning from my face. At any rate she
+understood the drift of them.
+
+"Tell him, Allan," she said with a kind of icy politeness, "that you
+will not stop here and marry me, because if ever I chose a husband he
+would not be a little man at the doors of whose heart so many women's
+hands have knocked--yes, even those that are black--and not, I think, in
+vain. One, moreover, who holds himself so clever that he believes he
+has nothing left to learn, and in every flower of truth that is shown to
+him, however fair, smells only poison, and beneath, nurturing it, sees
+only the gross root of falsehood planted in corruption. Tell him these
+things, Allan, if it pleases you."
+
+"It does not please me," I answered in a rage at her insults.
+
+"Nor is it needful, Allan, since if I caught the meaning of that
+barbarous tongue you use aright, you have told him already. Well, let
+the jest pass, O man who least of all things desires to be Ayesha's
+husband, and whom Ayesha least of all things desires as her spouse, and
+ask the Axe-bearer nothing since I perceive that without you he will
+not stay at Kor. Nor indeed is it fated that he should do so, for now
+my Spirit tells me what it hid from me when I spoke a moment gone, that
+this warrior shall die in a great fight far away and that between then
+and now much sorrow waits him who save that of one, knows not how to win
+the love of women. Let him say moreover what reward he desires since if
+I can give it to him, it shall be his."
+
+Again I translated. Umslopogaas received her prophecies in stoical
+silence, and as I thought with indifference, and only said in reply,
+
+"The glory that I have won is my reward and the only boon I seek at this
+queen's hands is that if she can she should give me sight of a woman for
+whom my heart is hungry, and with it knowledge that this woman lives in
+that land whither I travel like all men."
+
+When she heard these words Ayesha said,
+
+"True, I had forgotten. Your heart also is hungry, I think, Allan, for
+the vision of sundry faces that you see no more. Well, I will do my
+best, but since only faith fulfils itself, how can I who must strive to
+pierce the gates of darkness for one so unbelieving, know that they will
+open at my word? Come to me, both of you, at the sunset to-morrow."
+
+Then as though to change the subject, she talked to me for a long while
+about Kor, of which she told me a most interesting history, true or
+false, that I omit here.
+
+At length, as though suddenly she had grown tired, waving her hand to
+show that the conversation was ended, Ayesha went to the wounded men and
+touched them each in turn.
+
+"Now they will recover swiftly," she said, and leaving the place was
+gone into the darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE GATE OF DEATH
+
+Before turning in I examined these wounded men for myself. The truth is
+that I was anxious to learn their exact condition in order that I might
+make an estimate as to when it would be possible for us to leave this
+valley or crater bottom of Kor, of which I was heartily tired. Who could
+desire to stay in a place where he had not only been involved in a deal
+of hard, doubtful, and very dangerous fighting from which all personal
+interest was absent, but where also he was meshed in a perfect spider's
+web of bewilderment, and exposed to continual insult into the bargain?
+
+For that is what it came to; this Ayesha took every opportunity to jeer
+at and affront me. And why? Just because I had conceived doubts, which
+somehow she discovered, of the amazing tales with which it had amused
+her to stuff me, as a farmer's wife does a turkey poult with meal
+pellets. How could she expect me, a man, after all, of some experience,
+to believe such lies, which, not half an hour before, in the coolest
+possible fashion she had herself admitted to be lies and nothing else,
+told for the mere pleasure of romancing?
+
+The immortal Rezu, for instance, who had drunk of the Cup of Life or
+some such rubbish, now turned out to be nothing but a brawny savage
+descended from generations of chiefs also called Rezu. Moreover the
+immemorial Ayesha, who also had drunk of Cups of Life, and according
+to her first story, had lived in this place for thousands of years, had
+come here with a mother, who filled the same mystic role before her for
+the benefit of an extremely gloomy and disagreeable tribe of Semitic
+savages. Yet she was cross with me because I had not swallowed her crude
+and indigestible mixture of fable and philosophy without a moment's
+question.
+
+At least I supposed that this was the reason, though another possible
+explanation did come into my mind. I had refused to be duly overcome
+by her charms, not because I was unimpressed, for who could be, having
+looked upon that blinding beauty even for a moment? but rather because,
+after sundry experiences, I had at last attained to some power of
+judgment and learned what it is best to leave alone. Perhaps this had
+annoyed her, especially as no white man seemed to have come her way for
+a long while and the fabulous Kallikrates had not put in his promised
+appearance.
+
+Also it was unfortunate that in one way or another--how did she do it, I
+wondered--she had interpreted Umslopogaas' question to me about marrying
+her, and my compromising reply. Not that for one moment, as I saw very
+clearly, did she wish to marry me. But that fact, intuition suggested to
+my mind, did not the least prevent her from being angry because I shared
+her views upon this important subject.
+
+Oh! the whole thing was a bore and the sooner I saw the last of that
+veiled lady and the interesting but wearisome ruins in which she
+dwelt, the better I should be pleased, although apparently I must trek
+homewards with a poor young woman who was out of her mind, leaving
+the bones of her unfortunate father behind me. I admitted to myself,
+however, that there were consolations in the fact that Providence
+had thus decreed, for Robertson since he gave up drink had not been a
+cheerful companion, and two mad people would really have been more than
+I could manage.
+
+To return, for these reasons I examined the two wounded Zulus with
+considerable anxiety, only to discover another instance of the chicanery
+which it amused this Ayesha to play off upon me. For what did I find?
+That they were practically well. Their hurts, which had never been
+serious, had healed wonderfully in that pure air, as those of savages
+have a way of doing, and they told me themselves that they felt quite
+strong again. Yet with colossal impudence Ayesha had managed to suggest
+to my mind that she was going to work some remarkable cure upon them,
+who were already cured.
+
+Well, it was of a piece with the rest of her conduct and there was
+nothing to do except go to bed, which I did with much gratitude that
+my resting place that night was not of another sort. The last thing I
+remember was wondering how on earth Ayesha appeared and disappeared
+in the course of that battle, a problem as to which I could find no
+solution, though, as in the case of the others, I was sure that one
+would occur to me in course of time.
+
+I slept like a top, so soundly indeed that I think there was some kind
+of soporific in the pick-me-up which looked like sherry, especially as
+the others who had drunk of it also passed an excellent night.
+
+About ten o'clock on the following morning I awoke feeling particularly
+well and quite as though I had been enjoying a week at the seaside
+instead of my recent adventures, which included an abominable battle and
+some agonising moments during which I thought that my number was up upon
+the board of Destiny.
+
+I spent the most of that day lounging about, eating, talking over the
+details of the battle with Umslopogaas and the Zulus and smoking more
+than usual. (I forgot to say that these Amahagger grew some capital
+tobacco of which I had obtained a supply, although like most Africans,
+they only used it in the shape of snuff.) The truth was that after all
+my marvellings and acute anxieties, also mental and physical exertions,
+I felt like the housemaid who caused to be cut upon her tombstone that
+she had gone to a better land where her ambition was to do nothing "for
+ever and ever." I just wanted to be completely idle and vacuous-minded
+for at least a month, but as I knew that all I could expect in that
+line was a single bank holiday, like a City clerk on the spree, of it I
+determined to make the most.
+
+The result was that before the evening I felt very bored indeed. I had
+gone to look at Inez, who was still fast asleep, as Ayesha said would be
+the case, but whose features seemed to have plumped up considerably. The
+reason of this I gathered from her Amahagger nurses, was that at
+certain intervals she had awakened sufficiently to swallow considerable
+quantities of milk, or rather cream, which I hoped would not make her
+ill. I had chatted with the wounded Zulus, who were now walking about,
+more bored even than I was myself, and heaping maledictions on their
+ancestral spirits because they had not been well enough to take part in
+the battle against Rezu.
+
+I even took a little stroll to look for Hans, who had vanished in his
+mysterious fashion, but the afternoon was so hot and oppressive with
+coming thunder, that soon I came back again and fell into a variety of
+reflections that I need not detail.
+
+While I was thus engaged and meditating, not without uneasiness, upon
+the ordeal that lay before me after sunset, for I felt sure that it
+would be an ordeal, Hans appeared and said that the Amahagger _impi_
+or army was gathered on that spot where I had been elected to the proud
+position of their General. He added that he believed--how he got this
+information I do not know--that the White Lady was going to hold a
+review of them and give them the rewards that they had earned in the
+battle.
+
+Hearing this, Umslopogaas and the other Zulus said that they would like
+to see this review if I would accompany them. Although I did not want to
+go nor indeed desired ever to look at another Amahagger, I consented to
+save the trouble of argument, on condition that we should do so from a
+distance.
+
+So, including the wounded men, we strolled off and presently came to the
+crumbled wall of the old city, beyond which lay the great moat now dry,
+that once had encircled it with water.
+
+Here on the top of this wall we sat down where we could see without
+being seen, and observed the Amahagger companies, considerably reduced
+during the battle, being marshalled by their captains beneath us and
+about a couple of hundred yards away. Also we observed several groups
+of men under guard. These we took to be prisoners captured in the fight
+with Rezu, who, as Hans remarked with a smack of his lips, were probably
+awaiting sacrifice.
+
+I said I hoped not and yawned, for really the afternoon was intensely
+hot and the weather most peculiar. The sun had vanished behind clouds,
+and vapours filled the still air, so dense that at times it grew almost
+dark; also when these cleared for brief intervals, the landscape in the
+grey, unholy light looked distorted and unnatural, as it does during an
+eclipse of the sun.
+
+Goroko, the witch-doctor, stared round him, sniffed the air and then
+remarked ocularly that it was "wizard's weather" and that there were
+many spirits about. Upon my word I felt inclined to agree with him, for
+my feelings were very uncomfortable, but I only replied that if so, I
+should be obliged if he, as a professional, would be good enough to keep
+them off me. Of course I knew that electrical charges were about, which
+accounted for my sensations, and wished that I had never left the camp.
+
+It was during one of these periods of dense gloom that Ayesha must have
+arrived upon the review ground. At least, when it lifted, there she
+was in her white garments, surrounded by women and guards, engaged
+apparently in making an oration, for although I could not hear a word, I
+could see by the motions of her arms that she was speaking.
+
+Had she been the central figure in some stage scene, no limelights could
+have set her off to better advantage, than did those of the heavens
+above her. Suddenly, through the blanket of cloud, flowing from a hole
+in it that looked like an eye, came a blood-red ray which fell full upon
+her, so that she alone was fiercely visible whilst all around was gloom
+in which shapes moved dimly. Certainly she looked strange and even
+terrifying in that red ray which stained her robe till I who had but
+just come out of battle with its "confused noise," began to think of
+"the garments rolled in blood" of which I often read in my favourite Old
+Testament. For crimson was she from head to foot; a tall shape of terror
+and of wrath.
+
+The eye in heaven shut and the ray went out. Then came one of the spaces
+of grey light and in it I saw men being brought up, apparently from the
+groups of prisoners, under guard, and, to the number of a dozen or more,
+stood in a line before Ayesha.
+
+Then I saw nothing more for a long while, because blackness seemed to
+flow in from every quarter of the heavens and to block out the scene
+beneath. At least after a pause of perhaps five minutes, during which
+the stillness was intense, the storm broke.
+
+It was a very curious storm; in all my experience of African tempests I
+cannot recall one which it resembled. It began with the usual cold and
+wailing wind. This died away, and suddenly the whole arch of heaven was
+alive with little lightnings that seemed to strike horizontally, not
+downwards to the earth, weaving a web of fire upon the surface of the
+sky.
+
+By the illumination of these lightnings which, but for the swiftness of
+their flashing and greater intensity, somewhat resembled a dense shower
+of shooting stars, I perceived that Ayesha was addressing the men that
+had been brought before her, who stood dejectedly in a long line with
+their heads bent, quite unattended, since their guards had fallen back.
+
+"If I were going to receive a reward of cattle or wives, I should look
+happier than those moon-worshippers, Baas," remarked Hans reflectively.
+
+"Perhaps it would depend," I answered, "upon what the cattle and wives
+were like. If the cattle had red-water and would bring disease into your
+herd, or wild bulls that would gore you, and the wives were skinny old
+widows with evil tongues, then I think you would look as do those men,
+Hans."
+
+I don't quite know what made me speak thus, but I believe it was some
+sense of pending death or disaster, suggested, probably, by the ominous
+character of the setting provided by Nature to the curious drama of
+which we were witnesses.
+
+"I never thought of that, Baas," commented Hans, "but it is true that
+all gifts are not good, especially witches' gifts."
+
+As he spoke the little net-like lightnings died away, leaving behind
+them a gross darkness through which, far above us, the wind wailed
+again.
+
+Then suddenly all the heaven was turned into one blaze of light, and by
+it I saw Ayesha standing tall and rigid with her hand pointed towards
+the line of men in front of her. The blaze went out, to be followed by
+blackness, and to return almost instantly in a yet fiercer blaze which
+seemed to fall earthwards in a torrent of fire that concentrated itself
+in a kind of flame-spout upon the spot where Ayesha stood.
+
+Through that flame or rather in the heart of it, I saw Ayesha and the
+file of men in front of her, as the great King saw the prophets in the
+midst of the furnace that had been heated sevenfold. Only these men did
+not walk about in the fire; no, they fell backwards, while Ayesha alone
+remained upon her feet with outstretched hand.
+
+Next came more blackness and crash upon crash of such thunder that the
+earth shook as it reverberated from the mountain cliffs. Never in my
+life did I hear such fearful thunder. It frightened the Zulus so much,
+that they fell upon their faces, except Goroko and Umslopogaas, whose
+pride kept them upon their feet, the former because he had a reputation
+to preserve as a "Heaven-herd," or Master of tempests.
+
+I confess that I should have liked to follow their example, and lie
+down, being dreadfully afraid lest the lightning should strike me. But
+there--I did not.
+
+At last the thunder died away and in the most mysterious fashion that
+violent tempest came to a sudden end, as does a storm upon the stage. No
+rain fell, which in itself was surprising enough and most unusual,
+but in place of it a garment of the completest calm descended upon
+the earth. By degrees, too, the darkness passed and the westering sun
+reappeared. Its rays fell upon the place where the Amahagger companies
+had stood, but now not one of them was to be seen.
+
+They were all gone and Ayesha with them. So completely had they vanished
+away that I should have thought that we suffered from illusions, were
+it not for the line of dead men which lay there looking very small and
+lonesome on the veld; mere dots indeed at that distance.
+
+We stared at each other and at them, and then Goroko said that he would
+like to inspect the bodies to learn whether lightning killed at Kor as
+it did elsewhere, also whether it had smitten them altogether or leapt
+from man to man. This, as a professional "Heaven-herd," he declared he
+could tell from the marks upon these unfortunates.
+
+As I was curious also and wanted to make a few observations, I
+consented. So with the exception of the wounded men, who I thought
+should avoid the exertion, we scrambled down the debris of the tumbled
+wall and across the open space beyond, reaching the scene of the tragedy
+without meeting or seeing anyone.
+
+There lay the dead, eleven of them, in an exact line as they had stood.
+They were all upon their backs with widely-opened eyes and an expression
+of great fear frozen upon their faces. Some of these I recognised, as
+did Umslopogaas and Hans. They were soldiers or captains who had marched
+under me to attack Rezu, although until this moment I had not seen any
+of them after we began to descend the ridge where the battle took place.
+
+"Baas," said Hans, "I believe that these were the traitors who slipped
+away and told Rezu of our plans so that he attacked us on the ridge,
+instead of our attacking him on the plain as we had arranged so nicely.
+At least they were none of them in the battle and afterwards I heard the
+Amahagger talking of some of them."
+
+I remarked that if so the lightning had discriminated very well in this
+instance.
+
+Meanwhile Goroko was examining the bodies one by one, and presently
+called out,
+
+"These doomed ones died not by lightning but by witchcraft. There is not
+a burn upon one of them, nor are their garments scorched."
+
+I went to look and found that it was perfectly true; to all outward
+appearance the eleven were quite unmarked and unharmed. Except for their
+frightened air, they might have died a natural death in their sleep.
+
+"Does lightning always scorch?" I asked Goroko.
+
+"Always, Macumazahn," he answered, "that is, if he who has been struck
+is killed, as these are, and not only stunned. Moreover, most of yonder
+dead wear knives which should have melted or shattered with the sheaths
+burnt off them. Yet those knives are as though they had just left the
+smith's hammer and the whet-stone," and he drew some of them to show me.
+
+Again it was quite true and here I may remark that my experience tallied
+with that of Goroko, since I have never seen anyone killed by lightning
+on whom or on whose clothing there was not some trace of its passage.
+
+"_Ow!_" said Umslopogaas, "this is witchcraft, not Heaven-wrath. The
+place is enchanted. Let us get away lest we be smitten also who have not
+earned doom like those traitors."
+
+"No need to fear," said Hans, "since with us is the Great Medicine of
+Zikali which can tie up the lightning as an old woman does a bundle of
+sticks."
+
+Still I observed that for all his confidence, Hans himself was the
+first to depart and with considerable speed. So we went back to our camp
+without more conversation, since the Zulus were scared and I confess
+that myself I could not understand the matter, though no doubt it
+admitted of some quite simple explanation.
+
+However that might be, this Kor was a queer place with its legends, its
+sullen Amahagger and its mysterious queen, to whom at times, in spite of
+my inner conviction to the contrary, I was still inclined to attribute
+powers beyond those that are common even among very beautiful and able
+women.
+
+This reflection reminded me that she had promised us a further
+exhibition of those powers and within an hour or two. Remembering this
+I began to regret that I had ever asked for any such manifestations, for
+who knew what these might or might not involve?
+
+So much did I regret it that I determined, unless Ayesha sent for us, as
+she had said she would do, I would conveniently forget the appointment.
+Luckily Umslopogaas seemed to be of the same way of thinking; at any
+rate he went off to eat his evening meal without alluding to it at all.
+So I made up my mind that I would not bring the matter to his notice and
+having ascertained that Inez was still asleep, I followed his example
+and dined myself, though without any particular appetite.
+
+As I finished the sun was setting in a perfectly clear sky, so as there
+was no sign of any messenger, I thought that I would go to bed early,
+leaving orders that I was not to be disturbed. But on this point my luck
+was lacking, for just as I had taken off my coat, Hans arrived and said
+that old Billali was without and had come to take me somewhere.
+
+Well, there was nothing to do but to put it on again. Before I had
+finished this operation Billali himself arrived with undignified
+and unusual haste. I asked him what was the matter, and he answered
+inconsequently that the Black One, the slayer of Rezu, was at the door
+"with his axe."
+
+"That generally accompanies him," I replied. Then, remembering the cause
+of Billali's alarm, I explained to him that he must not take too much
+notice of a few hasty words spoken by an essentially gentle-natured
+person whose nerve had given way beneath provocation and bodily effort.
+The old fellow bowed in assent and stroked his beard, but I noticed that
+while Umslopogaas was near, he clung to me like a shadow. Perhaps he
+thought that nervous attacks might be recurrent, like those of fever.
+
+Outside the house I found Umslopogaas leaning on his axe and looking at
+the sky in which the last red rays of evening lingered.
+
+"The sun has set, Macumazahn," he said, "and it is time to visit this
+white queen as she bade us, and to learn whether she can indeed lead us
+'down below' where the dead are said to dwell."
+
+So he had not forgotten, which was disconcerting. To cover up my own
+doubts I asked him with affected confidence and cheerfulness whether he
+was not afraid to risk this journey "down below," that is, to the Realm
+of Death.
+
+"Why should I fear to tread a road that awaits the feet of all of us
+and at the gate of which we knock day by day, especially if we chance
+to live by war, as do you and I, Macumazahn?" he inquired with a quiet
+dignity, which made me feel ashamed.
+
+"Why indeed?" I answered, adding to myself, "though I should much prefer
+any other highway."
+
+After this we started without more words, I keeping up my spirits by
+reflecting that the whole business was nonsense and that there could be
+nothing to dread.
+
+All too soon we passed the ruined archway and were admitted into
+Ayesha's presence in the usual fashion. As Billali, who remained outside
+of them, drew the curtains behind us, I observed, to my astonishment,
+that Hans had sneaked in after me, and squatted down quite close to
+them, apparently in the hope of being overlooked.
+
+It seemed, as I gathered later, that somehow or other he had guessed, or
+become aware of the object of our visit, and that his burning curiosity
+had overcome his terror of the "White Witch." Or possibly he hoped to
+discover whether or not she were so ugly as he supposed her veil-hidden
+face to be. At any rate there he was, and if Ayesha noticed him, as I
+think she did, for I saw by the motion of her head, that she was looking
+in his direction, she made no remark.
+
+For a while she sat still in her chair contemplating us both. Then she
+said,
+
+"How comes it that you are late? Those that seek their lost loves should
+run with eager feet, but yours have tarried."
+
+I muttered some excuse to which she did not trouble to listen, for she
+went on,
+
+"I think, Allan, that your sandals, which should be winged like to those
+of the Roman Mercury, are weighted with the grey lead of fear. Well, it
+is not strange, since you have come to travel through the Gates of Death
+that are feared by all, even by Ayesha's self, for who knows what he may
+find beyond them? Ask the Axe-Bearer if he also is afraid."
+
+I obeyed, rendering all that she had said into the Zulu idiom as best I
+could.
+
+"Say to the Queen," answered Umslopogaas, when he understood, "that I
+fear nothing, except women's tongues. I am ready to pass the Gates of
+Death and, if need be, to come back no more. With the white people
+I know it is otherwise because of some dark teachings to which they
+listen, that tell of terrors to be, such as we who are black do not
+dread. Still, we believe that there are ghosts and that the spirits of
+our fathers live on and as it chances I would learn whether this is so,
+who above all things desire to met a certain ghost, for which reason I
+journeyed to this far land.
+
+"Say these things to the white Queen, Macumazahn, and tell her that if
+she should send me to a place whence there is no return, I who do not
+love the world, shall not blame her overmuch, though it is true that I
+should have chosen to die in war. Now I have spoken."
+
+When I had passed on all this speech to Ayesha, her comment on it was,
+
+"This black Captain has a spirit as brave as his body, but how is it
+with your spirit, Allan? Are you also prepared to risk so much? Learn
+that I can promise you nothing, save that when I loose the bonds of your
+mortality and send out your soul to wander in the depths of Death, as
+I believe that I can do, though even of this I am not certain--you
+must pass through a gate of terrors that may be closed behind you by a
+stronger arm than mine. Moreover, what you will find beyond it I do not
+know, since be sure of this, each of us has his own heaven or his own
+hell, or both, that soon or late he is doomed to travel. Now will you go
+forward, or go back? Make choice while there is still time."
+
+At all this ominous talk I felt my heart shrivel like a fire-withered
+leaf, if I may use that figure, and my blood assume the temperature
+and consistency of ice-cream. Earnestly did I curse myself for having
+allowed my curiosity about matters which we are not meant to understand
+to bring me to the edge of such a choice. Swiftly I determined to
+temporise, which I did by asking Ayesha whether she would accompany me
+upon this eerie expedition.
+
+She laughed a little as she answered,
+
+"Bethink you, Allan. Am I, whose face you have seen, a meet companion
+for a man who desires to visit the loves that once were his? What would
+they say or think, if they should see you hand in hand with such a one?"
+
+"I don't know and don't care," I replied desperately, "but this is the
+kind of journey on which one requires a guide who knows the road. Cannot
+Umslopogaas go first and come back to tell me how it has fared with
+him?"
+
+"If the brave and instructed white lord, panoplied in the world's last
+Faith, is not ashamed to throw the savage in his ignorance out like a
+feather to test the winds of hell and watch the while to learn whether
+these blow him back unscorched, or waft him into fires whence there is
+no return, perchance it might so be ordered, Allan. Ask him yourself,
+Allan, if he is willing to run this errand for your sake. Or perhaps the
+little yellow man----" and she paused.
+
+At this point Hans, who having a smattering of Arabic understood
+something of our talk, could contain himself no longer.
+
+"No, Baas," he broke in from his corner by the curtain, "not _me_. I
+don't care for hunting spooks, Baas, which leave no spoor that you can
+follow and are always behind when you think they are in front. Also
+there are too many of them waiting for me down there and how can I stand
+up to them until I am a spook myself and know their ways of fighting?
+Also if you should die when your spirit is away, I want to be left that
+I may bury you nicely."
+
+"Be silent," I said in my sternest manner. Then, unable to bear more of
+Ayesha's mockery, for I felt that as usual she was mocking me, I added
+with all the dignity that I could command,
+
+"I am ready to make this journey through the gate of Death, Ayesha, if
+indeed you can show me the road. For one purpose and no other I came to
+Kor, namely to learn, if so I might, whether those who have died upon
+the world, live on elsewhere. Now, what must I do?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE LESSON
+
+"Yes," answered Ayesha, laughing very softly, "for that purpose alone,
+O truth-seeking Allan, whose curiosity is so fierce that the wide world
+cannot hold it, did you come to Kor and not to seek wealth or new lands,
+or to fight more savages. No, not even to look upon a certain Ayesha,
+of whom the old wizard told you, though I think you have always loved to
+try to lift the veil that hides women's hearts, if not their faces. Yet
+it was I who brought you to Kor for my own purposes, not your desire,
+nor Zikali's map and talisman, since had not the white lady who lies
+sick been stolen by Rezu, never would you have pursued the journey nor
+found the way hither."
+
+"How could you have had anything to do with that business?" I asked
+testily, for my nerves were on edge and I said the first thing that came
+into my mind.
+
+"That, Allan, is a question over which you will wonder for a long while
+either beneath or beyond the sun, as you will wonder concerning much
+that has to do with me, which your little mind, shut in its iron box of
+ignorance and pride, cannot understand to-day.
+
+"For example, you have been wondering, I am sure, how the lightning
+killed those eleven men whose bodies you went to look on an hour or two
+ago, and left the rest untouched. Well, I will tell you at once that it
+was not lightning that killed them, although the strength within me
+was manifest to you in storm, but rather what that witch-doctor of your
+following called wizardry. Because they were traitors who betrayed your
+army to Rezu, I killed them with my wrath and by the wand of my power.
+Oh! you do not believe, yet perhaps ere long you will, since thus to
+fulfil your prayer I must also kill you--almost. That is the trouble,
+Allan. To kill you outright would be easy, but to kill you just enough
+to set your spirit free and yet leave one crevice of mortal life through
+which it can creep back again, that is most difficult; a thing that only
+I can do and even of myself I am not sure."
+
+"Pray do not try the experiment----" I began thoroughly alarmed, but she
+cut me short.
+
+"Disturb me no more, Allan, with the tremors and changes of your
+uncertain mind, lest you should work more evil than you think, and
+making mine uncertain also, spoil my skill. Nay, do not try to fly, for
+already the net has thrown itself about you and you cannot stir, who
+are bound like a little gilded wasp in the spider's web, or like birds
+beneath the eyes of basilisks."
+
+This was true, for I found that, strive as I would, I could not move a
+limb or even an eyelid. I was frozen to that spot and there was nothing
+for it except to curse my folly and say my prayers.
+
+All this while she went on talking, but of what she said I have not
+the faintest idea, because my remaining wits were absorbed in these
+much-needed implorations.
+
+
+
+Presently, of a sudden, I appeared to see Ayesha seated in a temple,
+for there were columns about her, and behind her was an altar on which
+a fire burned. All round her, too, were hooded snakes like to that which
+she wore about her middle, fashioned in gold. To these snakes she sang
+and they danced to her singing; yes, with flickering tongues they danced
+upon their tails! What the scene signified I cannot conceive, unless it
+meant that this mistress of magic was consulting her familiars.
+
+Then that vision vanished and Ayesha's voice began to seem very far away
+and dreamy, also her wondrous beauty became visible to me through her
+veil, as though I had acquired a new sense that overcame the limitations
+of mortal sight. Even in this extremity I reflected it was well that the
+last thing I looked on should be something so glorious. No, not quite
+the last thing, for out of the corners of my eyes I saw that Umslopogaas
+from a sitting position had sunk on to his back and lay, apparently
+dead, with his axe still gripped tightly and held above his head, as
+though his arm had been turned to ice.
+
+After this terrible things began to happen to me and I became aware that
+I was dying. A great wind seemed to catch me up and blow me to and fro,
+as a leaf is blown in the eddies of a winter gale. Enormous rushes of
+darkness flowed over me, to be succeeded by vivid bursts of brightness
+that dazzled like lightning. I fell off precipices and at the foot of
+them was caught by some fearful strength and tossed to the very skies.
+
+From those skies I was hurled down again into a kind of whirlpool of
+inky night, round which I spun perpetually, as it seemed for hours and
+hours. But worst of all was the awful loneliness from which I suffered.
+It seemed to me as though there were no other living thing in all the
+Universe and never had been and never would be any other living thing. I
+felt as though _I_ were the Universe rushing solitary through space for
+ages upon ages in a frantic search for fellowship, and finding none.
+
+Then something seemed to grip my throat and I knew that I had died--for
+the world floated away from beneath me.
+
+Now fear and every mortal sensation left me, to be replaced by a new and
+spiritual terror. I, or rather my disembodied consciousness, seemed to
+come up for judgment, and the horror of it was that I appeared to be my
+own judge. There, a very embodiment of cold justice, my Spirit,
+grown luminous, sat upon a throne and to it, with dread and merciless
+particularity I set out all my misdeeds. It was as if some part of me
+remained mortal, for I could see my two eyes, my mouth and my hands, but
+nothing else--and strange enough they looked. From the eyes came tears,
+from the mouth flowed words and the hands were joined, as though in
+prayer to that throned and adamantine Spirit which was ME.
+
+It was as though this Spirit were asking how my body had served
+its purposes and advanced its mighty ends, and in reply--oh! what a
+miserable tale I had to tell. Fault upon fault, weakness upon weakness,
+sin upon sin; never before did I understand how black was my record. I
+tried to relieve the picture with some incidents of attempted good, but
+that Spirit would not hearken. It seemed to say that it had gathered up
+the good and knew it all. It was of the evil that it would learn, not
+of the good that had bettered it, but of the evil by which it had been
+harmed.
+
+Hearing this there rose up in my consciousness some memory of what
+Ayesha had said; namely, that the body lived within the temple of the
+spirit which is oft defied, and not the spirit in the body.
+
+
+
+The story was told and I hearkened for the judgment, my own judgment on
+myself, which I knew would be accepted without question and registered
+for good or ill. But none came, since ere the balance sank this way or
+that, ere it could be uttered, I was swept afar.
+
+Through Infinity I was swept, and as I fled faster than the light, the
+meaning of what I had seen came home to me. I knew, or seemed to know
+for the first time, that at the last _man must answer to himself_,
+or perhaps to a divine principle within himself, that out of his own
+free-will, through long aeons and by a million steps, he climbs or sinks
+to the heights or depths dormant in his nature; that from what he was,
+springs what he is, and what he is, engenders what he shall be for ever
+and aye.
+
+Now I envisaged Immortality and splendid and awful was its face. It
+clasped me to its breast and in the vast circle of its arms I was
+up-borne, I who knew myself to be without beginning and without end,
+and yet of the past and of the future knew nothing, save that these were
+full of mysteries.
+
+As I went I encountered others, or overtook them, making the same
+journey. Robertson swept past me, and spoke, but in a tongue I could
+not understand. I noted that the madness had left his eyes and that his
+fine-cut features were calm and spiritual. The other wanderers I did not
+know.
+
+
+
+I came to a region of blinding light; the thought rose in me that I
+must have reached the sun, or a sun, though I felt no heat. I stood in a
+lovely, shining valley about which burned mountains of fire. There were
+huge trees in that valley, but they glowed like gold and their flowers
+and fruit were as though they had been fashioned of many-coloured
+flames.
+
+The place was glorious beyond compare, but very strange to me and not
+to be described. I sat me down upon a boulder which burned like a ruby,
+whether with heat or colour I do not know, by the edge of a stream that
+flowed with what looked like fire and made a lovely music. I stooped
+down and drank of this water of flames and the scent and the taste of it
+were as those of the costliest wine.
+
+There, beneath the spreading limbs of a fire-tree I sat, and examined
+the strange flowers that grew around, coloured like rich jewels and
+perfumed above imagining. There were birds also which might have been
+feathered with sapphires, rubies and amethysts, and their song was so
+sweet that I could have wept to hear it. The scene was wonderful
+and filled me with exaltation, for I thought of the land where it is
+promised that there shall be no more night.
+
+People began to appear; men, women, and even children, though whence
+they came I could not see. They did not fly and they did not walk; they
+seemed to drift towards me, as unguided boats drift upon the tide.
+One and all they were very beautiful, but their beauty was not human
+although their shapes and faces resembled those of men and women made
+glorious. None were old, and except the children, none seemed very
+young; it was as though they had grown backwards or forwards to middle
+life and rested there at their very best.
+
+Now came the marvel; all these uncounted people were known to me, though
+so far as my knowledge went I had never set eyes on most of them before.
+Yet I was aware that in some forgotten life or epoch I had been intimate
+with every one of them; also that it was the fact of my presence and
+the call of my sub-conscious mind which drew them to this spot. Yet
+that presence and that call were not visible or audible to them, who,
+I suppose, flowed down some stream of sympathy, why or whither they did
+not know. Had I been as they were perchance they would have seen me,
+as it was they saw nothing and I could not speak and tell them of my
+presence.
+
+Some of this multitude, however, I knew well enough even when they had
+departed years and years ago. But about these I noted this, that every
+one of them was a man or a woman or a child for whom I had felt love or
+sympathy or friendship. Not one was a person whom I had disliked or whom
+I had no wish to see again. If they spoke at all I could not hear--or
+read--their speech, yet to a certain extent I could hear their thoughts.
+
+Many of these were beyond the power of my appreciation on subjects which
+I had no knowledge, or that were too high for me, but some were of quite
+simple things such as concern us upon the earth, such as of friendship,
+or learning, or journeys made or to be made, or art, or literature, or
+the wonders of Nature, or of the fruits of the earth, as they knew them
+in this region.
+
+This I noted too, that each separate thought seemed to be hallowed and
+enclosed in an atmosphere of prayer or heavenly aspiration, as a seed is
+enclosed in the heart of a flower, or a fruit in its odorous rind, and
+that this prayer or aspiration presently appeared to bear the thought
+away, whither I knew not. Moreover, all these thoughts, even of the
+humblest things, were beauteous and spiritual, nothing cruel or impure
+or even coarse was to be found among them: they radiated charity, purity
+and goodness.
+
+Among them I perceived were none that had to do with our earth; this and
+its affairs seemed to be left far behind these thinkers, a truth that
+chilled my soul was alien to their company. Worse still, so far as I
+could discover, although I knew that all these bright ones had been near
+to me at some hour in the measurements of time and space, not one of
+their musings dwelt upon me or on aught with which I had to do.
+
+Between me and them there was a great gulf fixed and a high wall built.
+
+Oh, look! One came shining like a star, and from far away came another
+with dove-like eyes and beautiful exceedingly, and with this last a
+maiden, whose eyes were as hers who my own heart told me was her mother.
+
+Well, I knew them both; they were those whom I had come to seek, the
+women who had been mind upon the earth, and at the sight of them my
+spirit thrilled. Surely they would discover me. Surely at least they
+would speak of me and feel my presence.
+
+But, although they stayed within a pace or two of where I rested, alas!
+it was not so. They seemed to kiss and to exchange swift thoughts about
+many things, high things of which I will not write, and common things;
+yes, even of the shining robes they wore, but never a one of _me!_ I
+strove to rise and go to them, but could not; I strove to speak and
+could not; I strove to throw out my thought to them and could not; it
+fell back upon my head like a stone hurled heavenward.
+
+They were remote from me, utterly apart. I wept tears of bitterness that
+I should be so near and yet so far; a dull and jealous rage burned in
+my heart, and this they did seem to feel, or so I fancied; at any rate,
+apparently by mutual consent, they moved further from me as though
+something pained them. Yes, my love could not reach their perfected
+natures, but my anger hurt them.
+
+As I sat chewing this root of bitterness, a man appeared, a very noble
+man, in whom I recognised my father grown younger and happier-looking,
+but still my father, with whom came others, men and women whom I knew
+to be my brothers and sisters who had died in youth far away in
+Oxfordshire. Joy leapt up in me, for I thought--these will surely know
+me and give me welcome, since, though here sex has lost its power, blood
+must still call to blood.
+
+But it was not so. They spoke, or interchanged their thoughts, but not
+one of me. I read something that passed from my father to them. It was
+a speculation as to what had brought them all together there, and read
+also the answer hazarded, that perhaps it might be to give welcome to
+some unknown who was drawing near from below and would feel lonely and
+unfriended. Thereon my father replied that he did not see or feel this
+wanderer, and thought that it could not be so, since it was his mission
+to greet such on their coming.
+
+
+
+Then in an instant all were gone and that lovely, glowing plain was
+empty, save for myself seated on the ruby-like stone, weeping tears of
+blood and shame and loss within my soul.
+
+
+
+So I sat a long while, till presently I was aware of a new presence, a
+presence dusky and splendid and arrayed in rich barbaric robes. Straight
+she came towards me, like a thrown spear, and I knew her for a
+certain royal and savage woman who on earth was named Mameena, or
+"Wind-that-wailed." Moreover she divined me, though see me she could
+not.
+
+"Art there, Watcher-in-the-Night, watching in the light?" she said or
+thought, I know not which, but the words came to me in the Zulu tongue.
+
+"Aye," she went on, "I know that thou art there; from ten thousand
+leagues away I felt thy presence and broke from my own place to welcome
+thee, though I must pay for it with burning chains and bondage. How did
+those welcome thee whom thou camest out to seek? Did they clasp thee in
+their arms and press their kisses on thy brow? Or did they shrink away
+from thee because the smell of earth was on thy hands and lips?"
+
+I seemed to answer that they did not appear to know that I was there.
+
+"Aye, they did not know because their love is not enough, because they
+have grown too fine for love. But I, the sinner, I knew well, and here
+am I ready to suffer all for thee and to give thee place within this
+stormy heart of mine. Forget them, then, and come to rule with me who
+still am queen in my own house that thou shalt share. There we will live
+royally and when our hour comes, at least we shall have had our day."
+
+Now before I could reply, some power seemed to seize this splendid
+creature and whirl her thence so that she departed, flashing these words
+from her mind to mine,
+
+"For a little while farewell, but remember always that Mameena, the
+Wailing Wind, being still as a sinful woman in a woman's love and of
+the earth, earthy, found thee, whom all the rest forgot. O
+Watcher-in-the-Night, watch in the night for me, for there thou shalt
+find me, the Child of Storm, again, and yet again."
+
+She was gone and once more I sat in utter solitude upon that ruby stone,
+staring at the jewelled flowers and the glorious flaming trees and the
+lambent waters of the brook. What was the meaning of it all, I wondered,
+and why was I deserted by everyone save a single savage woman, and why
+had she a power to find me which was denied to all the rest? Well,
+she had given me an answer, because she was "as a sinful woman with
+a woman's love and of the earth, earthy," while with the rest it was
+otherwise. Oh! this was clear, that in the heavens man has no friend
+among the heavenly, save perhaps the greatest Friend of all Who
+understands both flesh and spirit.
+
+Thus I mused in this burning world which was still so beautiful, this
+alien world into which I had thrust myself unwanted and unsought.
+And while I mused this happened. The fiery waters of the stream were
+disturbed by something and looking up I saw the cause.
+
+A dog had plunged into them and was swimming towards me. At a glance
+I knew that dog on which my eyes had not fallen for decades. It was a
+mongrel, half spaniel and half bull-terrier, which for years had been
+the dear friend of my youth and died at last on the horns of a wounded
+wildebeeste that attacked me when I had fallen from my horse upon
+the veld. Boldly it tackled the maddened buck, thus giving me time to
+scramble to my rifle and shoot it, but not before the poor hound had
+yielded its life for mine, since presently it died disembowelled, but
+licking my hand and forgetful of its agonies. This dog, Smut by name, it
+was that swam or seemed to swim the brook of fire. It scrambled to the
+hither shore, it nosed the earth and ran to the ruby stone and stared
+about it whining and sniffing.
+
+At last it seemed to see or feel me, for it stood upon its hind legs
+and licked my face, yelping with mad joy, as I could see though I
+heard nothing. Now I wept in earnest and bent down to hug and kiss the
+faithful beast, but this I could not do, since like myself it was only
+shadow.
+
+
+Then suddenly all dissolved in a cataract of many-coloured flames and I
+fell down into an infinite gulf of blackness.
+
+
+Surely Ayesha was talking to me! What did she say? What did she say? I
+could not catch her words, but I caught her laughter and knew that after
+her fashion she was making a mock of me. My eyelids were dragged down
+as though with heavy sleep; it was difficult to lift them. At last they
+were open and I saw Ayesha seated on her couch before me and--this I
+noted at once--with her lovely face unveiled. I looked about me, seeking
+Umslopogaas and Hans. But they were gone as I guessed they must be,
+since otherwise Ayesha would not have been unveiled. We were quite
+alone. She was addressing me and in a new fashion, since now she
+had abandoned the formal "you" and was using the more impressive and
+intimate "thou," much as is the manner of the French.
+
+"Thou hast made thy journey, Allan," she said, "and what thou hast
+seen there thou shalt tell me presently. Yet from thy mien I gather
+this--that thou art glad to look upon flesh and blood again and, after
+the company of spirits, to find that of mortal woman. Come then and sit
+beside me and tell thy tale."
+
+"Where are the others?" I asked as I rose slowly to obey, for my head
+swam and my feet seemed feeble.
+
+"Gone, Allan, who as I think have had enough of ghosts, which is perhaps
+thy case also. Come, drink this and be a man once more. Drink it to me
+whose skill and power have brought thee safe from lands that human feet
+were never meant to tread," and taking a strange-shaped cup from a stool
+that stood beside her, she offered it to me.
+
+I drank to the last drop, neither knowing nor caring whether it were
+wine or poison, since my heart seemed desperate at its failure and my
+spirit crushed beneath the weight of its great betrayal. I suppose it
+was the former, for the contents of that cup ran through my veins like
+fire and gave me back my courage and the joy of life.
+
+I stepped to the dais and sat me down upon the couch, leaning against
+its rounded end so that I was almost face to face with Ayesha who had
+turned towards me, and thence could study her unveiled loveliness. For a
+while she said nothing, only eyed me up and down and smiled and smiled,
+as though she were waiting for that wine to do its work with me.
+
+"Now that thou art a man again, Allan, tell me what thou didst see when
+thou wast more--or less--than man."
+
+So I told her all, for some power within her seemed to draw the truth
+out of me. Nor did the tale appear to cause her much surprise.
+
+"There is truth in thy dream," she said when I had finished; "a lesson
+also."
+
+"Then it was all a dream?" I interrupted.
+
+"Is not everything a dream, even life itself, Allan? If so, what can
+this be that thou hast seen, but a dream within a dream, and itself
+containing other dreams, as in the old days the ball fashioned by the
+eastern workers of ivory would oft be found to contain another ball, and
+this yet another and another and another, till at the inmost might be
+found a bead of gold, or perchance a jewel, which was the prize of him
+who could draw out ball from ball and leave them all unbroken. That
+search was difficult and rarely was the jewel come by, if at all, so
+that some said there was none, save in the maker's mind. Yes, I have
+seen a man go crazed with seeking and die with the mystery unsolved. How
+much harder, then, is it to come at the diamond of Truth which lies at
+the core of all our nest of dreams and without which to rest upon they
+could not be fashioned to seem realities?"
+
+"But was it really a dream, and if so, what were the truth and the
+lesson?" I asked, determined not to allow her to bemuse or escape me
+with her metaphysical talk and illustrations.
+
+"The first question has been answered, Allan, as well as I can answer,
+who am not the architect of this great globe of dreams, and as yet
+cannot clearly see the ineffable gem within, whose prisoned rays
+illuminate their substance, though so dimly that only those with the
+insight of a god can catch their glamour in the night of thought, since
+to most they are dark as glow-flies in the glare of noon."
+
+"Then what are the truth and the lesson?" I persisted, perceiving that
+it was hopeless to extract from her an opinion as to the real nature of
+my experiences and that I must content myself with her deductions from
+them.
+
+"Thou tellest me, Allan, that in thy dream or vision thou didst seem to
+appear before thyself seated on a throne and in that self to find thy
+judge. That is the Truth whereof I spoke, though how it found its way
+through the black and ignorant shell of one whose wit is so small,
+is more than I can guess, since I believed that it was revealed to me
+alone."
+
+(Now I, Allan, thought to myself that I began to see the origin of all
+these fantasies and that for once Ayesha had made a slip. If she had a
+theory and I developed that same theory in a hypnotic condition, it was
+not difficult to guess its fount. However, I kept my mouth shut, and
+luckily for once she did not seem to read my mind, perhaps because she
+was too much occupied in spinning her smooth web of entangling words.)
+
+"All men worship their own god," she went on, "and yet seem not to know
+that this god dwells within them and that of him they are a part. There
+he dwells and there they mould him to their own fashion, as the potter
+moulds his clay, though whatever the shape he seems to take beneath
+their fingers, still he remains the god infinite and unalterable. Still
+he is the Seeker and the Sought, the Prayer and its Fulfilment, the Love
+and the Hate, the Virtue and the Vice, since all these qualities the
+alchemy of his spirit turns into an ultimate and eternal Good. For the
+god is in all things and all things are in the god, whom men clothe with
+such diverse garments and whose countenance they hide beneath so many
+masks.
+
+"In the tree flows the sap, yet what knows the great tree it nurtures of
+the sap? In the world's womb burns the fire that gives life, yet what of
+the fire knows the glorious earth it conceived and will destroy; in the
+heavens the great globes swing through space and rest not, yet what know
+they of the Strength that sent them spinning and in a time to come will
+stay their mighty motions, or turn them to another course? Therefore of
+everything this all-present god is judge, or rather, not one but many
+judges, since of each living creature he makes its own magistrate to
+deal out justice according to that creature's law which in the beginning
+the god established for it and decreed. Thus in the breast of everyone
+there is a rule and by that rule, at work through a countless chain of
+lives, in the end he shall be lifted up to Heaven, or bound about and
+cast down to Hell and death."
+
+"You mean a conscience," I suggested rather feebly, for her thoughts and
+images overpowered me.
+
+"Aye, a conscience, if thou wilt, and canst only understand that term,
+though it fits my theme but ill. This is my meaning, that consciences,
+as thou namest them, are many. I have one; thou, Allan, hast another;
+that black Axe-bearer has a third; the little yellow man a fourth, and
+so on through the tale of living things. For even a dog such as thou
+sawest has a conscience and--like thyself or I--must in the end be its
+own judge, because of the spark that comes to it from above, the same
+spark which in me burns as a great fire, and in thee as a smouldering
+ember of green wood."
+
+"When _you_ sit in judgment on yourself in a day to come, Ayesha,"
+I could not help interpolating, "I trust that you will remember that
+humility did not shine among your virtues."
+
+She smiled in her vivid way--only twice or thrice did I see her smile
+thus and then it was like a flash of summer lightning illumining a
+clouded sky, since for the most part her face was grave and even sombre.
+
+"Well answered," she said. "Goad the patient ox enough and even it will
+grow fierce and paw the ground.
+
+"Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part
+of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and
+they are few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned.
+Now I have told thee of the Truth thou sawest in thy vision and wouldst
+thou hear the Lesson?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, "since I may as well be done with it at once, and
+doubtless it will be good for me."
+
+"The Lesson, Allan, is one which thou preachest--humility. Vain man
+and foolish as thou art, thou didst desire to travel the Underworld in
+search of certain ones who once were all in all to thee--nay, not all in
+all since of them there were two or more--but at least much. Thus thou
+wouldst do because, as thou saidest, thou didst seek to know whether
+they still lived on beyond the gates of Blackness. Yes, thou saidest
+this, but what thou didst hope to learn in truth was whether they lived
+on in _thee_ and for _thee_ only. For thou, thou in thy vanity, didst
+picture these departed souls as doing naught in that Heaven they had
+won, save think of thee still burrowing on the earth, and, at times
+lightening thy labours with kisses from other lips than theirs."
+
+"Never!" I exclaimed indignantly. "Never! it is not true."
+
+"Then I pray pardon, Allan, who only judged of thee by others that were
+as men are made, and being such, not to be blamed if perchance from time
+to time, they turned to look on women, who alas! were as they are made.
+So at least it was when I knew the world, but mayhap since then its
+richest wine has turned to water, whereby I hope it has been bettered.
+At the least this was thy thought, that those women who had been thine
+for an hour, through all eternity could dream of naught else save thy
+perfections, and hope for naught else than to see thee at their sides
+through that eternity, or such part of thee as thou couldst spare to
+each of them. For thou didst forget that where they have gone there
+may be others even more peerless than thou art and more fit to hold a
+woman's love, which as we know on earth was ever changeful, and perhaps
+may so remain where it is certain that new lights must shine and new
+desires beckon. Dost understand me, Allan?"
+
+"I think so," I answered with a groan. "I understand you to mean that
+worldly impressions soon wear out and that people who have departed to
+other spheres may there form new ties and forget the old."
+
+"Yes, Allan, as do those who remain upon this earth, whence these others
+have departed. Do men and women still re-marry in the world, Allan, as
+in my day they were wont to do?"
+
+"Of course--it is allowed."
+
+"As many other things, or perchance this same thing, may be allowed
+elsewhere, for when there are so many habitations from which to choose,
+why should we always dwell in one of them, however strait the house or
+poor the prospect?"
+
+Now understanding that I was symbolised by the "strait house" and the
+"poor prospect" I should have grown angry, had not a certain sense of
+humour come to my rescue, who remembered that after all Ayesha's satire
+was profoundly true. Why, beyond the earth, should anyone desire
+to remain unalterably tied to and inextricably wrapped up in such a
+personality as my own, especially if others of superior texture abounded
+about them? Now that I came to think of it, the thing was absurd and
+not to be the least expected in the midst of a thousand new and vivid
+interests. I had met with one more disillusionment, that was all.
+
+"Dost understand, Allan," went on Ayesha, who evidently was determined
+that I should drink this cup to the last drop, "that these dwellers in
+the sun, or the far planet where thou hast been according to thy tale,
+saw thee not and knew naught of thee? It may chance therefore that at
+this time thou wast not in their minds which at others dream of thee
+continually. Or it may chance that they never dream of thee at all,
+having quite forgotten thee, as the weaned cub forgets its mother."
+
+"At least there was one who seemed to remember," I exclaimed, for her
+poisoned mocking stung the words out of me, "one woman and--a dog."
+
+"Aye, the savage, who being Nature's child, a sinner that departed hence
+by her own act" (how Ayesha knew this I cannot say, I never told her),
+"has not yet put on perfection and therefore still remembers him whose
+kiss was last upon her lips. But surely, Allan, it is not thy desire
+to pass from the gentle, ordered claspings of those white souls for the
+tumultuous arms of such a one as this. Still, let that be, for who knows
+what men will or will not do in jealousy and disappointed love? And the
+dog, it remembered also and even sought thee out, since dogs are more
+faithful and single-hearted than is mankind. There at least thou hast
+thy lesson, namely to grow more humble and never to think again that
+thou holdest all a woman's soul for aye, because once she was kind to
+thee for a little while on earth."
+
+"Yes," I answered, jumping up in a rage, "as you say, I have my lesson,
+and more of it than I want. So by your leave, I will now bid you
+farewell, hoping that when it comes to be _your_ turn to learn this
+lesson, or a worse, Ayesha, as I am sure it will one day, for something
+tells me so, you may enjoy it more than I have done."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+AYESHA'S FAREWELL
+
+Thus I spoke whose nerves were on edge after all that I had seen or, as
+even then I suspected, seemed to see. For how could I believe that these
+visions of mine had any higher origin than Ayesha's rather malicious
+imagination? Already I had formed my theory.
+
+It was that she must be a hypnotist of power, who, after she had put a
+spell upon her subject, could project into his mind such fancies as she
+chose together with a selection of her own theories. Only two points
+remained obscure. The first was--how did she get the necessary
+information about the private affairs of a humble individual like
+myself, for these were not known even to Zikali with whom she seemed
+to be in some kind of correspondence, or to Hans, at any rate in such
+completeness?
+
+I could but presume that in some mysterious way she drew them from, or
+rather excited them in my own mind and memory, so that I seemed to see
+those with whom once I had been intimate, with modifications and in
+surroundings that her intelligence had carefully prepared. It would not
+be difficult for a mind like hers familiar, as I gathered it was, with
+the ancient lore of the Greeks and the Egyptians, to create a kind of
+Hades and, by way of difference, to change it from one of shadow to one
+of intense illumination, and into it to plunge the consciousness of him
+upon whom she had laid her charm of sleep. I had seen nothing and heard
+nothing that she might not thus have moulded, always given that she had
+access to the needful clay of facts which I alone could furnish.
+
+Granting this hypothesis, the second point was--what might be the object
+of her elaborate and most bitter jest? Well, I thought that I could
+guess. First, she wished to show her power, or rather to make me
+believe that she had power of a very unusual sort. Secondly, she owed
+Umslopogaas and myself a debt for our services in the war with Rezu
+which we had been told would be repaid in this way. Thirdly, I had
+offended her in some fashion and she took her opportunity of settling
+the score. Also there was a fourth possibility--that really she
+considered herself a moral instructress and desired, as she said, to
+teach me a lesson by showing how futile were human hopes and vanities in
+respect to the departed and their affections.
+
+Now I do not pretend that all this analysis of Ayesha's motives occurred
+to me at the moment of my interview with her; indeed, I only completed
+it later after much careful thought, when I found it sound and good. At
+that time, although I had inklings, I was too bewildered to form a just
+judgment.
+
+Further, I was too angry and it was from this bow of my anger that
+I loosed a shaft at a venture as to some lesson which awaited _her_.
+Perhaps certain words spoken by the dying Rezu had shaped that shaft. Or
+perhaps some shadow of her advancing fate fell upon me.
+
+The success of the shot, however, was remarkable. Evidently it pierced
+the joints of her harness, and indeed went home to Ayesha's heart. She
+turned pale; all the peach-bloom hues faded from her lovely face, her
+great eyes seemed to lessen and grow dull and her cheeks to fall in.
+Indeed, for a moment she looked old, very old, quite an aged woman.
+Moreover she wept, for I saw two big tears drop upon her white raiment
+and I was horrified.
+
+"What has happened to you?" I said, or rather gasped.
+
+"Naught," she answered, "save that thou hast hurt me sore. Dost thou not
+know, Allan, that it is cruel to prophesy ill to any, since such words
+feathered from Fate's own wing and barbed with venom, fester in the
+breast and mayhap bring about their own accomplishment. Most cruel of
+all is it when with them are repaid friendship and gentleness."
+
+I reflected to myself--yes, friendship of the order that is called
+candid, and gentleness such as is hid in a cat's velvet paw, but
+contented myself with asking how it was that she who said she was so
+powerful, came to fear anything at all.
+
+"Because as I have told thee, Allan, there is no armour that can turn
+the spear of Destiny which, when I heard those words of thine, it seemed
+to me, I know not why, was directed by thy hand. Look now on Rezu who
+thought himself unconquerable and yet was slain by the black Axe-bearer
+and whose bones to-night stay the famine of the jackals. Moreover I am
+accursed who sought to steal its servant from Heaven to be my love, and
+how know I when and where vengeance will fall at last? Indeed, it has
+fallen already on me, who through the long ages amid savages must mourn
+widowed and alone, but not all of it--oh! I think, not all."
+
+Then she began to weep in good earnest, and watching her, for the
+first time I understood that this glorious creature who seemed to be so
+powerful, was after all one of the most miserable of women and as much a
+prey to loneliness, every sort of passion and apprehensive fear, as can
+be any common mortal. If, as she said, she had found the secret of life,
+which of course I did not believe, at least it was obvious that she had
+lost that of happiness.
+
+She sobbed softly and wept and while she did so the loveliness, which
+had left her for a little while, returned to her like light to a grey
+and darkened sky. Oh, how beautiful she seemed with the abundant locks
+in disorder over her tear-stained face, how beautiful beyond imagining!
+My heart melted as I studied her; I could think of nothing else except
+her surpassing charm and glory.
+
+"I pray you, do not weep," I said; "it hurts me and indeed I am sorry if
+I said anything to give you pain."
+
+But she only shook that glorious hair further about her face and behind
+its veil wept on.
+
+"You know, Ayesha," I continued, "you have said many hard things to me,
+making me the target of your bitter wit, therefore it is not strange
+that at last I answered you."
+
+"And hast thou not deserved them, Allan?" she murmured in soft and
+broken tones from behind that veil of scented locks.
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Because from the beginning thou didst defy me, showing in thine every
+accent that thou heldest me a liar and one of no account in body or in
+spirit, one not worthy of thy kind look, or of those gentle words which
+once were my portion among men. Oh! thou hast dealt hardly with me and
+therefore perchance--I know not--I paid thee back with such poor weapons
+as a woman holds, though all the while I liked thee well."
+
+Then again she fell to sobbing, swaying herself gently to and fro in her
+sweet sorrow.
+
+It was too much. Not knowing what else to do to comfort her, I patted
+her ivory hand which lay upon the couch beside me, and as this appeared
+to have no effect, I kissed it, which she did not seem to resent. Then
+suddenly I remembered and let it fall.
+
+She tossed back her hair from her face and fixing her big eyes on me,
+said gently enough, looking down at her hand,
+
+"What ails thee, Allan?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," I answered; "only I remembered the story you told me
+about some man called Kallikrates."
+
+She frowned.
+
+"And what of Kallikrates, Allan? Is it not enough that for my sins, with
+tears, empty longings and repentance, I must wait for him through all
+the weary centuries? Must I also wear the chains of this Kallikrates, to
+whom I owe many a debt, when he is far away? Say, didst thou see him in
+that Heaven of thine, Allan, for there perchance he dwells?"
+
+I shook my head and tried to think the thing out while all the time
+those wonderful eyes of hers seemed to draw the soul from me. It seemed
+to me that she bent forward and held up her face to me. Then I lost my
+reason and also bent forward. Yes, she made me mad, and, save her, I
+forgot all.
+
+Swiftly she placed her hand upon my heart, saying,
+
+"Stay! What meanest thou? Dost love me, Allan?"
+
+"I think so--that is--yes," I answered.
+
+She sank back upon the couch away from me and began to laugh very
+softly.
+
+"What words are these," she said, "that they pass thy lips so easily and
+so unmeant, perchance from long practice? Oh! Allan, I am astonished.
+Art thou the same man who some few days ago told me, and this unasked,
+that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the moon as of courting me?
+Art thou he who not a minute gone swore proudly that never had his heart
+and his lips wandered from certain angels whither they should not? And
+now, and now----?"
+
+I coloured to my eyes and rose, muttering,
+
+"Let me be gone!"
+
+"Nay, Allan, why? I see no mark here," and she held up her hand,
+scanning it carefully. "Thou art too much what thou wert before, except
+perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible," she added with a touch of
+malice. "Nor am I angry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to charm
+away my woe, I should have thought but poorly of thee as a man. There
+let it rest and be forgotten--or remembered as thou wilt. Still, in
+answer to thy words concerning my Kallikrates, what of those adored ones
+that, according to thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a place of
+light? Because they seemed faithless, shouldst thou be faithless also?
+Shame on thee, thou fickle Allan!"
+
+She paused, waiting for me to speak.
+
+Well, I could not. I had nothing to say who was utterly disgraced and
+overwhelmed.
+
+"Thou thinkest, Allan," she went on, "that I have cast my net about
+thee, and this is true. Learn wisdom from it, Allan, and never again
+defy a woman--that is, if she be fair, for then she is stronger than
+thou art, since Nature for its own purpose made her so. Whatever I have
+done by tears, that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is for
+thy instruction, Allan, that thou mayest benefit thereby."
+
+Again I sprang up, uttering an English exclamation which I trust Ayesha
+did not understand, and again she motioned to me to be seated, saying,
+
+"Nay, leave me not yet since, even if the light fancy of a man that
+comes and goes like the evening wind and for a breath made me dear
+to thee, has passed away, there remains certain work which we must do
+together. Although, thinking of thyself alone, thou hast forgotten it,
+having been paid thine own fee, one is yet due to that old wizard in a
+far land who sent thee to visit Kor and me, as indeed he has reminded me
+and within an hour."
+
+This amazing statement aroused me from my personal and painful
+pre-occupation and caused me to stare at her blankly.
+
+"Again thou disbelievest me," she said, with a little stamp. "Do so once
+more, Allan, and I swear I'll bring thee to grovel on the ground and
+kiss my foot and babble nonsense to a woman sworn to another man, such
+as never for all thy days thou shalt think of without a blush of shame."
+
+"Oh! no," I broke in hurriedly, "I assure you that you are mistaken. I
+believe every word you have said, or say or will say; I do in truth."
+
+"Now thou liest. Well, what is one more falsehood among so many? Let it
+pass."
+
+"What, indeed?" I echoed in eager affirmation, "and as for Zikali's
+message----" and I paused.
+
+"It was to recall to my mind that he desired to learn whether a certain
+great enterprise of his will succeed, the details of which he says thou
+canst tell me. Repeat them to me."
+
+So, glad enough to get away from more dangerous topics, I narrated
+to her as briefly and clearly as I could, the history of the old
+witch-doctor's feud with the Royal House of Zululand. She listened,
+taking in every word, and said,
+
+"So now he yearns to know whether he will conquer or be conquered; and
+that is why he sent, or thinks that he sent thee on this journey, not
+for thy sake, Allan, but for his own. I cannot tell thee, for what have
+I do to with the finish of this petty business, which to him seems so
+large? Still, as I owe him a debt for luring the Axe-Bearer here to rid
+me of mine enemy, and thee to lighten my solitude for an hour by the
+burnishing of thy mind, I will try. Set that bowl before me, Allan,"
+and she pointed to a marble tripod on which stood a basin half full of
+water, "and come, sit close by me and look into it, telling me what thou
+seest."
+
+I obeyed her instructions and presently found myself with my head over
+the basin, staring into the water in the exact attitude of a person who
+is about to be shampooed.
+
+"This seems rather foolish," I said abjectly, for at that moment I
+resembled the Queen of Sheba in one particular, if in no other, namely,
+that there was no more spirit in me. "What am I supposed to do? I see
+nothing at all."
+
+"Look again," she said, and as she spoke the water grew clouded. Then on
+it appeared a picture. I saw the interior of a Kaffir hut dimly lighted
+by a single candle set in the neck of a bottle. To the left of the door
+of the hut was a bedstead and on it lay stretched a wasted and dying
+man, in whom, to my astonishment, I recognised Cetywayo, King of the
+Zulus. At the foot of the bed stood another man--myself grown older by
+many years, and leaning over the bed, apparently whispering into the
+dying man's ear, was a grotesque and malevolent figure which I knew to
+be that of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, whose glowing eyes were fixed upon
+the terrified and tortured face of Cetywayo. All was as it happened
+afterwards, as I have written down in the book called "Finished."
+
+I described what I saw to Ayesha, and while I was doing so the picture
+vanished away, so that nothing remained save the clear water in the
+marble bowl. The story did not seem to interest her; indeed, she leaned
+back and yawned a little.
+
+"Thy vision is good, Allan," she said indifferently, "and wide also,
+since thou canst see what passes in the sun or distant stars, and
+pictures of things to be in the water, to say nothing of other pictures
+in a woman's eyes, all within an hour. Well, this savage business
+concerns me not and of it I want to know no more. Yet it would appear
+that here the old wizard who is thy friend, has the answer that he
+desires. For there in the picture the king he hates lies dying while he
+hisses in his ear and thou dost watch the end. What more can he seek?
+Tell him it when ye meet, and tell him also it is my will that in future
+he should trouble me less, since I love not to be wakened from my sleep
+to listen to his half-instructed talk and savage vapourings. Indeed,
+he presumes too much. And now enough of him and his dark plots. Ye have
+your desires, all of you, and are paid in full."
+
+"Over-paid, perhaps," I said with a sigh.
+
+"Ah, Allan, I think that Lesson thou hast learned pleases thee but
+little. Well, be comforted for the thing is common. Hast never heard
+that there is but one morsel more bitter to the taste than desire
+denied, namely, desire fulfilled? Believe me that there can be no
+happiness for man until he attains a land where all desire is dead."
+
+"That is what the Buddha preaches, Ayesha."
+
+"Aye, I remember the doctrines of that wise man well, who without doubt
+had found a key to the gate of Truth, one key only, for, mark thou,
+Allan, there are many. Yet, man being man must know desires, since
+without them, robbed of ambitions, strivings, hopes, fears, aye and of
+life itself, the race must die, which is not the will of the Lord of
+Life who needs a nursery for his servant's souls, wherein his swords of
+Good and Ill shall shape them to his pattern. So it comes about, Allan,
+that what we think the worst is oft the best for us, and with that
+knowledge, if we are wise, let us assuage our bitterness and wipe away
+our tears."
+
+"I have often thought that," I said.
+
+"I doubt it not, Allan, since though it has pleased me to make a jest
+of thee, I know that thou hast thy share of wisdom, such little share as
+thou canst gather in thy few short years. I know, too, that thy heart is
+good and aspires high, and Friend--well, I find in thee a friend indeed,
+as I think not for the first time, nor certainly for the last. Mark,
+Allan, what I say, not a lover, but a _friend_, which is higher far.
+For when passion dies with the passing of the flesh, if there be no
+friendship what will remain save certain memories that, mayhap, are well
+forgot? Aye, how would those lovers meet elsewhere who were never more
+than lovers? With weariness, I hold, as they stared into each other's
+empty soul, or even with disgust.
+
+"Therefore the wise will seek to turn those with whom Fate mates them
+into friends, since otherwise soon they will be lost for aye. More, if
+they are wiser still, having made them friends, they will suffer them
+to find lovers where they will. Good maxims, are they not? Yet hard to
+follow, or so, perchance, thou thinkest them--as I do."
+
+
+
+She grew silent and brooded a while, resting her chin upon her hand and
+staring down the hall. Thus the aspect of her face was different from
+any that I had seen it wear. No longer had it the allure of Aphrodite or
+the majesty of Hera; rather might it have been that of Athene herself.
+So wise it seemed, so calm, so full of experience and of foresight, that
+almost it frightened me.
+
+What was this woman's true story, I wondered, what her real self, and
+what the sum of her gathered knowledge? Perhaps it was accident, or
+perhaps, again, she guessed my mind. At any rate her next words seemed
+in some sense an answer to these speculations. Lifting her eyes she
+contemplated me a while, then said,
+
+"My friend, we part to meet no more in thy life's day. Often thou wilt
+wonder concerning me, as to what in truth I am, and mayhap in the end
+thy judgment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer
+who, rejected of the world or driven from it by her crimes, made
+choice to rule among savages, playing the part of Oracle to that little
+audience and telling strange tales to such few travellers as come her
+way. Perhaps, indeed, I do play this part among many others, and if so,
+thou wilt not judge me wrongly.
+
+"Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas, told
+me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed from
+dizzy cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shines. They told
+me also that whereas above the ocean's breast appears but a blue and
+dazzling point, sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle, invisible to
+man.
+
+"Such am I, Allan. Of my being thou seest but one little peak glittering
+in light or crowned with storm, as heaven's moods sweep over it. But in
+the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations, hollowed by
+the seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit doth inhabit.
+So picture me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a soul unknown, and
+pray that in time to come thou mayest see it in its splendour.
+
+"Hadst thou been other than thou art, I might have shown thee secrets,
+making clear to thee the parable of much that I have told thee in
+metaphor and varying fable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power
+and enduring days of which thou knowest nothing. But of those who visit
+shrines, O Allan, two things are required, worship and faith, since
+without these the oracles are dumb and the healing waters will not flow.
+
+"Now I, Ayesha, am a shrine; yet to me thou broughtest no worship until
+I won it by a woman's trick, and in me thou hast no faith. Therefore for
+thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will not
+flow. Yet I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard world
+has shaped thee.
+
+"And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not
+in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still
+exercise on earth, I, whom men name Ayesha, am in all things. I tell
+thee that I am not One but Many and, being many, am both Here and
+Everywhere. When thou standest beneath the sky at night and lookest on
+the stars, remember that in them mine eyes behold thee; when the soft
+winds of evening blow, that my breath is on thy brow and when the
+thunder rolls, that there am I riding on the lightnings and rushing with
+the gale."
+
+"Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?" I asked, bewildered.
+"Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her priestess?"
+
+"Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds do not reach thine ears; all
+sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf
+and blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worship is
+forgot, some spark of the spirit of that immortal Lady whose chariot was
+the moon, lingers on the earth in this woman's shape of mine, though her
+essence dwells afar, and perchance her other name is Nature, my mother
+and thine, O Allan. At the least hath not the World a soul--and of that
+soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou also? For the rest are not
+the priest and the Divine he bows to, oft the same?"
+
+It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a
+self-deceiver, but I did not.
+
+"Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha's benison go with thee. Safe shalt
+thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy
+companions with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy
+time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt find those whom thou hast
+lost more kind than they seemed to be to-night."
+
+She paused awhile, then added,
+
+"Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, much that I have told thee
+may bear a double meaning, as is the way of parables, to be interpreted
+as thou wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain man, in the old
+days named Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine decree,
+and I await him here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world without,
+tell him that Ayesha awaits him and grows weary in the waiting. Nay,
+thou wilt never find him, since even if he be born again, by what token
+would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge thee, keep my secrets
+well, lest Ayesha's curse should fall on thee. While thou livest tell
+naught of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou swear to keep my
+secrets, Allan?"
+
+"I swear, Ayesha."
+
+"I thank thee, Allan," she answered, and grew silent for a while.
+
+At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height,
+stood there majestic. Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too
+had risen and left the dais.
+
+I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over me as though in
+blessing, then pointed towards the curtains which at this moment were
+drawn asunder, by whom I do not know.
+
+I went and when I reached them, turned to look my last on her.
+
+There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes were fixed upon the
+ground and her face once more was brooding absently as though no such
+a man as I had ever been. It came into my mind that already she had
+forgotten me, the plaything of an hour, who had served her turn and been
+cast aside.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW
+
+Like one who drams I passed down the outer hall where stood the silent
+guards as statues might, and out through the archway. Here I paused for
+a moment, partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings of the
+night, and partly because I thought that I heard someone approaching me
+through the gloom, and in such a place where I might have many enemies,
+it was well to be prepared.
+
+As it chanced, however, my imaginary assailant was only Hans, who
+emerged from some place where he had been hiding; a very disturbed and
+frightened Hans.
+
+"Oh, Baas," he said in a low and shaky whisper, "I am glad to see you
+again, and standing on your feet, not being carried with them sticking
+straight in front of you as I expected."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, Baas, because of the things that happened in that place where the
+tall _vrouw_ with her head tied up as though she had tooth-ache, sits
+like a spider in a web."
+
+"Well, what happened, Hans?" I asked as we walked forward.
+
+"This, Baas. The Doctoress talked and talked at you and Umslopogaas, and
+as she talked, your faces began to look as though you had drunk half
+a flask too much of the best gin, such as I wish I had some of here
+to-night, at once wise and foolish, and full and empty, Baas. Then you
+both rolled over and lay there quite dead, and whilst I was wondering
+what I should do and how I should get out your bodies to bury them, the
+Doctoress came down off her platform and bent, first over you and next
+over Umslopogaas, whispering into the ears of both of you. Then she took
+off a snake that looked as though it were made of gold with green eyes,
+which she wears about her middle beneath the long dish-cloth, Baas, and
+held it to your lips and next to those of Umslopogaas."
+
+"Well, and what then, Hans?"
+
+"After that all sorts of things came about, Baas, and I felt as though
+the whole house were travelling through the air, Baas, twice as fast as
+a bullet does from a rifle. Suddenly, too, the room became filled with
+fire so hot that it scorched me, and so bright that it made my eyes
+water, although they can look at the sun without winking. And, Baas,
+the fire was full of spooks which walked around; yes, I saw some of them
+standing on your head and stomach, Baas, also on that of Umslopogaas,
+whilst others went and talked to the white Doctoress as quietly as
+though they had met her in the market-place and wanted to sell her
+eggs or butter. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend father, the
+Predikant, who looked as though he were red-hot, as doubtless he is in
+the Place of Fires. I thought he came up to me, Baas, and said, 'Get out
+of this, Hans. This is no place for a good Hottentot like you, Hans, for
+here only the very best Christians can bear the heat for long.'
+
+"That finished me, Baas. I just answered that I handed you, the Baas
+Allan his son, over to his care, hoping that he would see that you did
+not burn in that oven, whatever happened to Umslopogaas. Then I shut my
+eyes and mouth and held my nose, and wriggled beneath those curtains as
+a snake does, Baas, and ran down the hall and across the kraal-yard
+and through the archway out into the night, where I have been sitting
+cooling myself ever since, waiting for you to be carried away, Baas.
+And now you have come alive and with not even your hair burnt off, which
+shows how wonderful must be the Great Medicine of Zikali, Baas, since
+nothing else could have saved you in that fire, no, not even your
+reverend father, the Predikant."
+
+"Hans," I said when he had finished, "you are a very wonderful fellow,
+for you can get drunk on nothing at all. Please remember, Hans, that
+you have been drunk to-night, yes, very drunk indeed, and never dare to
+repeat anything that you thought you saw while you were drunk."
+
+"Yes, Baas, I understand that I was drunk and already have forgotten
+everything. But, Baas, there is still a bottle full of brandy and if I
+could have just one more tot I should forget _so_ much better!"
+
+By now we had reached our camp and here I found Umslopogaas sitting in
+the doorway and staring at the sky.
+
+"Good-evening to you, Umslopogaas," I said in my most unconcerned
+manner, and waited.
+
+"Good-evening, Watcher-by-Night, who I thought was lost in the night,
+since in the end the night is stronger than any of its watchers."
+
+At this cryptic remark I looked bewildered but said nothing. At length
+Umslopogaas, whose nature, for a Zulu, was impulsive and lacking in the
+ordinary native patience, asked,
+
+"Did you make a journey this evening, Macumazahn, and if so, what did
+you see?"
+
+"Did you have a dream this evening, Umslopogaas?" I inquired by way of
+answer, "and if so, what was it about? I thought that I saw you shut
+your eyes in the House of the White One yonder, doubtless because you
+were weary of talk which you did not understand."
+
+"Aye, Macumazahn, as you suppose I grew weary of that talk which flowed
+from the lips of the White Witch like the music that comes from a little
+stream babbling over stones when the sun is hot, and being weary, I fell
+asleep and dreamed. What I dreamed does not much matter. It is enough
+to say that I felt as though I were thrown through the air like a stone
+cast from his sling by a boy who is set upon a stage to scare the birds
+out of a mealie garden. Further than any stone I went, aye, further
+than a shooting star, till I reached a wonderful place. It does not much
+matter what it was like either, and indeed I am already beginning to
+forget, but there I met everyone I have ever known. I met the Lion of
+the Zulus, the Black One, the Earth-Shaker, he who had a 'sister' named
+Baleka, which sister," here he dropped his voice and looked about him
+suspiciously, "bore a child, which child was fostered by one Mopo,
+that Mopo who afterwards slew the Black one with the Princes. Now,
+Macumazahn, I had a score to settle with this Black One, aye, even
+though our blood be much of the same colour, I had a score to settle
+with him, because of the slaying of this sister of his, Baleka, together
+with the Langeni tribe.[*] So I walked up to him and took him by the
+head-ring and spat in his face and bade him find a spear and shield, and
+meet me as man to man. Yes, I did this."
+
+     [*] For the history of Baleka, the mother of Umslopogaas,
+     and Mopo, see the book called "Nada the Lily."--Editor.
+
+"And what happened then, Umslopogaas?" I said, when he paused in his
+narrative.
+
+"Macumazahn, nothing happened at all. My hand seemed to go through his
+head-ring and the skull beneath, and to shut upon itself while he went
+on talking to someone else, a captain whom I recognised, yes, one Faku,
+whom in the days of Dingaan, the Black One's brother, I myself slew upon
+the Ghost-Mountain.
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, and Faku was telling him the tale of how I killed him
+and of the fight that I and my blood-brother and the wolves made, there
+on the knees of the old witch who sits aloft on the Ghost Mountain
+waiting for the world to die, for I could understand their talk, though
+mine went by them like the wind.
+
+"Macumazahn, they passed away and there came others, Dingaan among them,
+aye, Dingaan who also knows something of the Witch-Mountain, seeing that
+there Mopo and I hurled him to his death. With him also I would have had
+words, but it was the same story, only presently he caught sight of the
+Black One, yes, of Chaka whom he slew, stabbing him with the little
+red assegai, and turned and fled, because in that land I think he still
+fears Chaka, Macumazahn, or so the dream told.
+
+"I went on and met others, men I had fought in my day, most of them,
+among them was Jikiza, he who ruled the People of the Axe before me whom
+I slew with his own axe. I lifted the axe and made me ready to fight
+again, but not one of them took any note of me. There they walked about,
+or sat drinking beer or taking snuff, but never a sup of the beer or a
+pinch of the snuff did they offer me, no, not even those among them whom
+I chanced not to have killed. So I left them and walked on, seeking for
+Mopo, my foster-father, and a certain man, my blood-brother, by whose
+side I hunted with the wolves, yes, for them, and for another."
+
+"Well, and did you find them?" I asked.
+
+"Mopo I found not, which makes me think, Macumazahn, that, as once you
+hinted to me, he whom I thought long dead, perchance still lingers on
+the earth. But the others I did find . . ." and he ceased, brooding.
+
+Now I knew enough of Umslopogaas's history to be aware that he had loved
+this man and woman of whom he spoke more than any others on the earth.
+The "blood-brother," whose name he would not utter, by which he did not
+mean that he was his brother in blood but one with whom he had made
+a pact of eternal friendship by the interchange of blood or some such
+ceremony, according to report, had dwelt with him on the Witch-Mountain
+where legend told, though this I could scarcely believe, that they had
+hunted with a pack of hyenas. There, it said also, they fought a great
+fight with a band send out by Dingaan the king under the command of that
+Faku whom Umslopogaas had mentioned, in which fight the "Blood-Brother,"
+wielder of a famous club known as Watcher-of-the-Fords, got his death
+after doing mighty deeds. There also, as I had heard, Nada the Lily,
+whose beauty was still famous in the land, died under circumstances
+strange as they were sad.
+
+Naturally, remembering my own experiences, or rather what seemed to be
+my experiences, for already I had made up my mind that they were but
+a dream, I was most anxious to learn whether these two who had been so
+dear to this fierce Zulu, had recognised him.
+
+"Well, and what did they say to you, Umslopogaas?" I asked.
+
+"Macumazahn, they said nothing at all. Hearken! There stood this pair,
+or sometimes they moved to and fro; my brother, an even greater man
+than he used to be, with the wolfskin girt about him and the club,
+Watcher-of-the-Fords, which he alone could wield, upon his shoulder, and
+Nada, grown lovelier even than she was of old, so lovely, Macumazahn,
+that my heart rose into my throat when I saw her and stopped my breath.
+Yes, Macumazahn, there they stood, or walked about arm in arm as lovers
+might, and looked into each other's eyes and talked of how they had
+known each other on the earth, for I could understand their words or
+thoughts, and how it was good to be at rest together where they were."
+
+"You see, they were old friends, Umslopogaas," I said.
+
+"Yes, Macumazahn, very old friends as I thought. So much so that they
+had never had a word to say of me who also was the old friend of both
+of them. Aye, my brother, whose name I am sworn not to speak, the
+woman-hater who vowed he loved nothing save me and the wolves, could
+smile into the face of Nada the Lily, Nada the bride of my youth, yet
+never a word of me, while she could smile back and tell him how great a
+warrior he had been and never a word of me whose deeds she was wont to
+praise, who saved her in the Halakazi caves and from Dingaan; no, never
+a word of me although I stood there staring at them."
+
+"I suppose that they did not see you, Umslopogaas."
+
+"That is so, Macumazahn; I am sure that they did not see me, for if they
+had they would not have been so much at ease. But I saw them and as they
+would not take heed when I shouted, I ran up calling to my brother to
+defend himself with his club. Then, as he still took no note, I lifted
+the axe _Inkosikaas_, making it circle in the light, and smote with all
+my strength."
+
+"And what happened, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Only this, Macumazahn, that the axe went straight through my brother
+from the crown of his head to the groin, cutting him in two, and he just
+went on talking! Indeed, he did more, for stooping down he gathered a
+white lily-bloom which grew there and gave it to Nada, who smelt at
+it, smiled and thanked him, and then thrust it into her girdle, still
+thanking him all the while. Yes, she did this for I saw it with my eyes,
+Macumazahn."
+
+Here the Zulu's voice broke and I think that he wept, for in the faint
+light I saw him draw his long hand across his eyes, whereon I took the
+opportunity to turn my back and light a pipe.
+
+"Macumazahn," he went on presently, "it seems that madness took hold
+of me for a long while, for I shouted and raved at them, thinking that
+words and rage might hurt where good steel could not, and as I did
+so they faded away and disappeared, still smiling and talking, Nada
+smelling at the lily which, having a long stalk, rose up above her
+breast. After this I rushed away and suddenly met that savage king,
+Rezu, whom I slew a few days gone. At him I went with the axe, wondering
+whether he would put up a better fight this second time."
+
+"And did he, Umslopogaas?"
+
+"Nay, but I think he felt me for he turned and fled and when I tried to
+follow I could not see him. So I ran on and presently who should I find
+but Baleka, Baleka, Chaka's 'sister' who--repeat it not, Macumazahn--was
+my mother; and, Macumazahn, _she_ saw me. Yes, though I was but little
+when last she looked on me who now am great and grim, she saw and knew
+me, for she floated up to me and smiled at me and seemed to press her
+lips upon my forehead, though I could feel no kiss, and to draw the
+soreness out of my heart. Then she, too, was gone and of a sudden I fell
+down through space, having, I suppose, stepped into some deep hole, or
+perchance a well.
+
+"The next thing I knew was that I awoke in the house of the White Witch
+and saw you sleeping at my side and the Witch leaning back upon her bed
+and smiling at me through the thin blanket with which she covers herself
+up, for I could see the laughter in her eyes.
+
+"Now I grew mad with her because of the things that I had seen in the
+Place of Dreams, and it came into my heart that it would be well to kill
+her that the world might be rid of her and her evil magic which can show
+lies to men. So, being distraught, I sprang up and lifted the axe and
+stepped towards her, whereon she rose and stood before me, laughing out
+loud. Then she said something in the tongue I cannot understand, and
+pointed with her finger, and lo! next moment it was as if giants had
+seized me and were whirling me away, till presently I found myself
+breathless but unharmed beyond the arch and--what does it all mean,
+Macumazahn?"
+
+"Very little, as I think, Umslopogaas, except that this queen has powers
+to which those of Zikali are as nothing, and can cause visions to float
+before the eyes of men. For know that such things as you saw, I saw, and
+in them those whom I have loved also seemed to take no thought of me
+but only to be concerned with each other. Moreover when I awoke and told
+this to the queen who is called She-who-commands, she laughed at me as
+she did at you, and said that it was a good lesson for my pride who in
+that pride had believed that the dead only thought of the living. But
+I think that the lesson came from her who wished to humble us,
+Umslopogaas, and that it was her mind that shaped these visions which we
+saw."
+
+"I think so too, Macumazahn, but how she knew of all the matters of your
+life and mine, I do not know, unless perchance Zikali told them to her,
+speaking in the night-watches as wizards can."
+
+"Nay, Umslopogaas, I believe that by her magic she drew our stories out
+of our own hearts and then set them forth to us afresh, putting her own
+colour on them. Also it may be that she drew something from Hans, and
+from Goroko and the other Zulus with you, and thus paid us the fee that
+she had promised for our service, but in lung-sick oxen and barren cows,
+not in good cattle, Umslopogaas."
+
+He nodded and said,
+
+"Though at the time I seemed to go mad and though I know that women are
+false and men must follow where they lead them, never will I believe
+that my brother, the woman-hater, and Nada are lovers in the land below
+and have there forgotten me, the comrade of one of them and the husband
+of the other. Moreover I hold, Macumazahn, that you and I have met with
+a just reward for our folly.
+
+"We have sought to look through the bottom of the grave at things which
+the Great-Great in Heaven above did not mean that men should see, and
+now that we have seen we are unhappier than we were, since such dreams
+burn themselves upon the heart as a red-hot iron burns the hide of an
+ox, so that the hair will never grow again where it has been and the
+hide is marred.
+
+"To you, Watcher-by-Night, I say, 'Content yourself with your watching
+and whatever it may bring to you in fame and wealth.' And to myself I
+say, 'Holder of the Axe, content yourself with the axe and what it may
+bring to you in fair fight and glory'; and to both of us I say, 'Let
+the Dead sleep unawakened until we go to join them, which surely will be
+soon enough.'"
+
+"Good words, Umslopogaas, but they should have been spoken ere ever we
+set out on this journey."
+
+"Not so, Macumazahn, since that journey we were fated to make to save
+one who lies yonder, the Lady Sad-Eyes, and, as they tell me, is
+well again. Also Zikali willed it, and who can resist the will of the
+Opener-of-Roads? So it is made and we have seen many strange things
+and won some glory and come to know how deep is the pool of our own
+foolishness, who thought that we could search out the secrets of Death,
+and there have only found those of a witch's mind and venom, reflected
+as in water. And now having discovered all these things I wish to be
+gone from this haunted land. When do we march, Macumazahn?"
+
+"To-morrow morning, I believe, if the Lady Sad-Eyes and the others are
+well enough, as She-who-commands says they will be."
+
+"Good. Then I would sleep who am more weary than I was after I had
+killed Rezu in the battle on the mountain."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "since it is harder to fight ghosts than men, and
+dreams, if they be bad, are more dreadful than deeds. Good-night,
+Umslopogaas."
+
+
+
+He went, and I too went to see how it fared with Inez. I found that she
+was fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which Ayesha
+seemed to have plunged her. Now it was absolutely natural and looking
+at her lying there upon the bed, I thought how young and healthy was
+her appearance. The women in charge of her also told me that she had
+awakened at the hour appointed by She-who-commands, as it seemed,
+quite well and very hungry, although she appeared to be puzzled by
+her surroundings. After she had eaten, they added that she had "sung
+a song," which was probably a hymn, and prayed upon her knees, "making
+signs upon her breast" and then gone quietly to bed.
+
+My anxiety relieved as regards Inez, I returned to my own quarters. Not
+feeling inclined for slumber, however, instead of turning in I sat at
+the doorway contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the
+countless fireflies that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning
+gold; also the great owls and other fowl that haunt the dark. These had
+come out in numbers from their hiding-places among the ruins and sailed
+to and fro like white-winged spirits, now seen and now lost in the
+gloom.
+
+
+
+While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary
+nature of my experiences during the past few days. Had any man ever
+known the like, I wondered? What could they mean and what could this
+marvellous woman Ayesha be? Was she perhaps a personification of Nature
+itself, as indeed to some extent all women are? Was she human at all,
+or was she some spirit symbolising a departed people, faith and
+civilisation, and haunting the ruins where once she reigned as queen?
+No, the idea was ridiculous, since such beings do not exist, though it
+was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of common
+humanity, as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than are given
+to any other woman.
+
+Of one thing I was certain, however, that the Shades I had seemed
+to visit had their being in the circle of her own imagination and
+intelligence. There Umslopogaas was right; we had seen no dead, we had
+only seen pictures and images that she drew and fashioned.
+
+Why did she do this, I wondered. Perhaps to pretend to powers which she
+did not possess, perhaps out of sheer elfish mischief, or perhaps, as
+she asserted, just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own
+sight. Well, if so she had succeeded, for never did I feel so crushed
+and humiliated as at that moment.
+
+I had seemed to descend, or ascend, into Hades, and there had only seen
+things that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds.
+Then, on awaking, I had been bewitched; yes, fresh from those visions
+of the most dear dead, I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic of
+this woman's loveliness and charm, and made a fool of myself, only to be
+brought back to my senses by her triumphant mockery. Oh, I was humbled
+indeed, and yet the odd thing is that I could not feel angry with her,
+and what is more that, perhaps from vanity, I believed in her profession
+of friendship towards myself.
+
+Well, the upshot of it was that, like Umslopogaas, more than anything
+else in the world did I desire to depart from this haunted Kor and to
+bury all its recollections in such activities as fortune might bring to
+me. And yet, and yet it was well to have seen it and to have plucked the
+flower of such marvellous experience, nor, as I knew even then, could I
+ever inter the memory of Ayesha the wise, the perfect in all loveliness,
+and the half-divine in power.
+
+
+
+When I awoke the next morning the sun was well up and after I had taken
+a swim in the old bath and dressed myself, I went to see how it
+fared with Inez. I found her sitting at the door of her house looking
+extremely well and with a radiant face. She was engaged in making a
+chain of some small and beautiful blue flowers of the iris tribe, of
+which quantities grew about, that she threaded together upon stalks of
+dry grass.
+
+This chain, which was just finished, she threw over her head so that
+it hung down upon her white robe, for now she was dressed like an Arab
+woman though without the veil. I watched her unseen for a little while
+then came forward and spoke to her. She started at the sight of me and
+rose as though to run away; then, apparently reassured by my appearance,
+selected a particularly fine flower and offered it to me.
+
+I saw at once that she did not know me in the least and thought that she
+had never seen me before, in short, that her mind had gone, exactly as
+Ayesha had said that it would do. By way of making conversation I asked
+her if she felt well. She replied, Oh, yes, she had never felt better,
+then added,
+
+"Daddy has gone on a long journey and will not be back for weeks and
+weeks."
+
+An idea came to me and I answered,
+
+"Yes, Inez, but I am a friend of his and he has sent me to take you to
+a place where I hope that we shall find him. Only it is far away, so you
+also must make a long journey."
+
+She clapped her hands and answered,
+
+"Oh, that will be nice, I do so love travelling, especially to find
+Daddy, who I expect will have my proper clothes with him, not these
+which, although they are very comfortable and pretty, seem different to
+what I used to wear. You look very nice too and I am sure that we shall
+be great friends, which I am glad of, for I have been rather lonely
+since my mother went to live with the saints in Heaven, because, you
+see, Daddy is so busy and so often away, that I do not see much of him."
+
+Upon my word I could have wept when I heard her prattle on thus. It is
+so terribly unnatural, almost dreadful indeed, to listen to a full grown
+woman who talks in the accents and expresses the thoughts of a child.
+However, under all the circumstances I recognised that her calamity was
+merciful, and remembering that Ayesha had prophesied the recovery of her
+mind as well as its loss and how great seemed to be her powers in these
+directions, I took such comfort as I could.
+
+Leaving her I went to see the two Zulus who had been wounded and found
+to my joy that they were now quite well and fit to travel, for here,
+too, Ayesha's prophecy had proved good. The other men also were
+completely rested and anxious to be gone like Umslopogaas and myself.
+
+While I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Billali,
+who with a sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we
+should be ready to start, as he had received orders to see to all the
+necessary arrangements. I replied--within an hour, and he departed in a
+hurry.
+
+But little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of
+litters and their bearers, also with a bodyguard of twenty-five picked
+men, all of whom we recognised as brave fellows who had fought well in
+the battle. These men and the bearers old Billali harangued, telling
+them that they were to guide, carry and escort us to the other side of
+the great swamp, or further if we needed it, and that it was the word of
+She-who-commands that if so much as the smallest harm came to any one
+of us, even by accident, they should die every man of them "by the
+hot-pot," whatever that might be, for I was not sure of the significance
+of this horror.[*] Then he asked them if they understood. They replied
+with fervour that they understood perfectly and would lead and guard us
+as though we were their own mothers.
+
+[*] For this see the book called "She."--Editor.
+
+As a matter of fact they did, and I think would have done so
+independently of Ayesha's command, since they looked upon Umslopogaas
+and myself almost as gods and thought that we could destroy them all if
+we wished, as we had destroyed Rezu and his host.
+
+I asked Billali if he were not coming with us, to which he replied, No,
+as She-who-commands had returned to her own place and he must follow
+her at once. I asked him again where her own place might be, to which
+he answered vaguely that it was everywhere and he stared first at the
+heavens and then at the earth as though she inhabited most of them,
+adding that generally it was "in the Caves," though what he meant by
+that I did not know. Then he said that he was very glad to have met us
+and that the sight of Umslopogaas killing Rezu was a spectacle that
+he would remember with pleasure all his life. Also he asked me for a
+present. I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little German
+silver case, with which he was delighted. Thus I parted with old
+Billali, of whom I shall always think with a certain affection.
+
+I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslopogaas,
+thinking, I suppose, that he might take a last opportunity to fulfil his
+threats and introduce him to his terrible Axe.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE
+
+A little while later we started, some of us in litters, including the
+wounded Zulus, who I insisted should be carried for a day or two, and
+some on foot. Inez I caused to be borne immediately in front of myself
+so that I could keep an eye upon her. Moreover I put her in the especial
+charge of Hans, to whom fortunately she took a great fancy at once,
+perhaps because she remembered subconsciously that she knew him and that
+he had been kind to her, although when they met after her long sleep, as
+in my own case, she did not recognise him in the least.
+
+Soon, however, they were again the fastest of friends, so much so that
+within a day or two the little Hottentot practically filled the place of
+a maid to her, attending to her every want and looking after her
+exactly as a nurse does after a child, with the result that it was quite
+touching to see how she came to depend upon him, "her monkey," as she
+called him, and how fond he grew of her.
+
+Once, indeed, there was trouble, since hearing a noise, I came up to
+find Hans bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the Zulus,
+who stupidly, or perhaps rudely, had knocked against the litter of Inez
+and nearly turned it over. For the rest, the Lady Sad-Eyes, as they
+called her, had for the time became the Lady Glad-Eyes, since she was
+merry as the day was long, laughing and singing and playing just as a
+healthy happy child should do.
+
+Only once did I see her wretched and weep. It was when a kitten which
+she had insisted on bringing with her, sprang out of the litter and
+vanished into some bush where it could not be found. Even when she
+was soon consoled and dried her tears, when Hans explained to her in a
+mixture of bad English and worse Portuguese, that it had only run away
+because it wished to get back to its mother which it loved, and that it
+was cruel to separate it from its mother.
+
+We made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over the
+crest of the cliff or volcano lip that encircles the great plain of Kor,
+and descending rapidly to a sheltered spot on the outer slope where our
+camp was to be set for the night.
+
+Not very far from this place, as I think I have mentioned, stood, and I
+suppose still stands, a very curious pinnacle of rock, which, doubtless
+being of some harder sort, had remained when, hundreds of thousands or
+millions of years before, the surrounding lava had been washed or had
+corroded away. This rock pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and as
+smooth as though it had been worked by man; indeed, I remembered having
+remarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas--I forget which--when we passed it on
+our inward journey, that there was a column which no monkey could climb.
+
+As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappeared
+behind the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struck
+upon a storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in a
+glow of angry light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon the
+summit of this strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.
+
+At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas at
+the end of the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncoming
+darkness. When we had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards,
+something caused Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered an
+exclamation which made me follow his example, with the result that I saw
+a very wonderful thing. For there on the point of the pillar, like St.
+Simeon Stylites on his famous column, glowing in the sunset rays as
+though she were on fire, stood Ayesha herself!
+
+It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus between
+earth and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather than
+a woman, standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness; since the
+shadows, save for the faintest outline, had swallowed up the column that
+supported her. Moreover, in the intense, rich light that was focussed
+on her, we could see every detail of her form and face, for she was
+unveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which gazed upwards emptily
+(at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the little gold studs
+that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake girdle she wore
+about her waist.
+
+We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,
+
+"Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me that
+She-who-commands had departed from Kor to her own place."
+
+"Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,
+Macumazahn."
+
+"If she be there," I answered angrily, for my nerves were at once
+thrilled and torn. "Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where else
+can she be when we see her with our eyes?"
+
+"Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds,
+are able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rock
+like a lizard, Macumazahn?"
+
+"Doubtless----" and I began some explanation which I have forgotten,
+when a passing cloud, or I know not what, cut off the light so that both
+the pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible. A minute later
+it returned for a little while, and there was the point of the
+needle-shaped rock, but it was empty, as, save for the birds that rested
+on it, it had been since the beginning of the world.
+
+Then Umslopogaas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence.
+
+
+
+This was the last that I saw of the glorious Ayesha, if indeed I did see
+her and not her ghost. Yet it is true that for all the first part of the
+journey, till we were through the great swamp in fact, from time to
+time I was conscious, or imagined that I was conscious of her presence.
+Moreover, once others saw her, or someone who might have been her. It
+happened thus.
+
+We were in the centre of the great swamp and the trained guides who were
+leading came to a place where the path forked and were uncertain
+which road to take. Finally they fixed on the right-hand path and were
+preparing to follow it together with those who bore the litter of Inez,
+by the side of which Hans was walking as usual.
+
+At this moment, as Hans told me, the guides went down upon their faces
+and he saw standing in front of them a white-veiled form who pointed to
+the left-hand path, and then seemed to be lost in the mist. Without a
+word the guides rose and followed this left-hand path. Hans stopped the
+litter till I came up when he told me what had happened, while Inez also
+began to chatter in her childish fashion about a "White Lady."
+
+I had the curiosity to walk a little way along the right-hand path which
+they were about to take. Only a few yards further on I found myself
+sinking in a floating quagmire, from which I extricated myself with much
+difficulty but just in time for as I discovered afterwards by probing
+with a pole, the water beneath the matted reeds was deep. That night
+I questioned the guides upon the subject, but without result, for they
+pretended to have seen nothing and not to understand what I meant. Of
+neither of these incidents have I any explanation to offer, except
+that once contracted, it is as difficult to be rid of the habit of
+hallucinations as of any other.
+
+
+
+It is not necessary that I should give all the details of our long
+homeward journey. So I will only say that having dismissed our bearers
+and escorts when we reached higher ground beyond the horrible swamp,
+keeping one litter for Inez in which the Zulus carried her when she
+was tired, we accomplished it in complete safety and having crossed the
+Zambesi, at last one evening reached the house called Strathmuir.
+
+Here we found the waggon and oxen quite safe and were welcomed
+rapturously by my Zulu driver and the _voorlooper_, who had made up
+their minds that we were dead and were thinking of trekking homewards.
+Here also Thomaso greeted us, though I think that, like the Zulus, he
+was astonished at our safe return and indeed not over-pleased to see us.
+I told him that Captain Robertson had been killed in a fight in which
+we had rescued his daughter from the cannibals who had carried her off
+(information which I cautioned him to keep to himself) but nothing else
+that I could help.
+
+Also I warned the Zulus through Umslopogaas and Goroko, that no mention
+was to be made of our adventures, either then or afterwards, since if
+this were done the curse of the White Queen would fall on them and bring
+them to disaster and death. I added that the name of this queen and
+everything that was connected with her, or her doings, must be locked up
+in their own hearts. It must be like the name of dead kings, not to
+be spoken. Nor indeed did they ever speak it or tell the story of our
+search, because they were too much afraid both of Ayesha whom they
+believed to be the greatest of all witches, and of the axe of their
+captain, Umslopogaas.
+
+Inez went to bed that night without seeming to recognise her old home,
+to all appearance just a mindless child as she had been ever since she
+awoke from her trance at Kor. Next morning, however, Hans came to tell
+me that she was changed and that she wished to speak with me. I went,
+wondering, to find her in the sitting-room, dressed in European clothes
+which she had taken from where she kept them, and once more a reasoning
+woman.
+
+"Mr. Quatermain," she said, "I suppose that I must have been ill, for
+the last thing I remember is going to sleep on the night after you
+started for the hippopotamus hunt. Where is my father? Did any harm come
+to him while he was hunting?"
+
+"Alas!" I answered, lying boldly, for I feared lest the truth
+should take away her mind again, "it did. He was trampled upon by a
+hippopotamus bull, which charged him, and killed, and we were obliged to
+bury him where he died."
+
+She bowed her head for a while and muttered some prayer for his soul,
+then looked at me keenly and said,
+
+"I do not think you are telling me everything, Mr. Quatermain, but
+something seems to say that this is because it is not well that I should
+learn everything."
+
+"No," I answered, "you have been ill and out of your mind for quite a
+long while; something gave you a shock. I think that you learned of your
+father's death, which you have now forgotten, and were overcome with the
+news. Please trust to me and believe that if I keep anything back from
+you, it is because I think it best to do so for the present."
+
+"I trust and I believe," she answered. "Now please leave me, but tell me
+first where are those women and their children?"
+
+"After your father died they went away," I replied, lying once more.
+
+She looked at me again but made no comment.
+
+Then I left her.
+
+
+
+How much Inez ever learned of the true story of her adventures I do not
+know to this hour, though my opinion is that it was but little. To
+begin with, everyone, including Thomaso, was threatened with the direst
+consequences if he said a word to her on the subject; moreover in her
+way she was a wise woman, one who knew when it was best not to ask
+questions. She was aware that she had suffered from a fit of aberration
+or madness and that during this time her father had died and certain
+peculiar things had happened. There she was content to leave the
+business and she never again spoke to me upon the subject. Of this I was
+very glad, as how on earth could I have explained to her about Ayesha's
+prophecies as to her lapse into childishness and subsequent return to a
+normal state when she reached her home seeing that I did not understand
+them myself?
+
+Once indeed she did inquire what had become of Janee to which I answered
+that she had died during her sickness. It was another lie, at any rate
+by implication, but I hold that there are occasions when it is righteous
+to lie. At least these particular falsehoods have never troubled my
+conscience.
+
+Here I may as well finish the story of Inez, that is, as far as I can.
+As I have shown she was always a woman of melancholy and religious
+temperament, qualities that seemed to grow upon her after her return to
+health. Certainly the religion did, for continually she was engaged in
+prayer, a development with which heredity may have had something to do,
+since after he became a reformed character and grew unsettled in his
+mind, her father followed the same road.
+
+On our return to civilisation, as it chanced, one of the first persons
+with whom she came in contact was a very earnest and excellent old
+priest of her own faith. The end of this intimacy was much what might
+have been expected. Very soon Inez determined to renounce the world,
+which I think never had any great attractions for her, and entered a
+sisterhood of an extremely strict Order in Natal, where, added to her
+many merits, her considerable possessions made her very welcome indeed.
+
+Once in after years I saw her again when she expected before long to
+become the Mother-Superior of her convent. I found her very cheerful and
+she told me that her happiness was complete. Even then she did not ask
+me the true story of what had happened to her during that period when
+her mind was a blank. She said that she knew something had happened but
+that as she no longer felt any curiosity about earthly things, she did
+not wish to know the details. Again I rejoiced, for how could I tell
+the true tale and expect to be believed, even by the most confiding and
+simple-minded nun?
+
+To return to more immediate events. When we had been at Strathmuir for
+a day or two and I thought that her mind was clear enough to judge of
+affairs, I told Inez that I must journey on to Natal, and asked her what
+she wished to do. Without a moment's hesitation she replied that she
+desired to come with me, as now that her father was dead nothing would
+induce her to continue to live at Strathmuir without friends, or indeed
+the consolations of religion.
+
+Then she showed me a secret hiding-place cunningly devised in a sort of
+cellar under the sitting-room floor, where her father was accustomed to
+keep the spirits of which he consumed so great a quantity. In this hole
+beneath some bricks, we discovered a large sum in gold stored away,
+which Robertson had always told his daughter she would find there, in
+the event of anything happening to him. With the money were his will
+and securities, also certain mementos of his youth and some love-letters
+together with a prayer-book that his mother had given him.
+
+These valuables, of which no one knew the existence except herself, we
+removed and then made our preparations for departure. They were simple;
+such articles of value as we could carry were packed into the waggon and
+the best of the cattle we drove with us. The place with the store and
+the rest of the stock were handed over to Thomaso on a half-profit
+agreement under arrangement that he should remit the share of Inez twice
+a year to a bank on the coast, where her father had an account. Whether
+or not he ever did this I am unable to say, but as no one wished to stop
+at Strathmuir, I could conceive no better plan because purchasers of
+property in that district did not exist.
+
+As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Inez whether she was sorry
+to leave the place.
+
+"No," she replied with energy, "my life there has been a hell and I
+never wish to see it again."
+
+
+
+Now it was after this, on the northern borders of Zululand, that
+Zikali's Great Medicine, as Hans called it, really played its chief
+part, for without it I think that we should have been killed, every one
+of us. I do not propose to set out the business in detail; it is too
+long and intricate. Suffice it to say, therefore, that it had to do with
+the plots of Umslopogaas against Cetywayo, which had been betrayed by
+his wife Monazi and her lover Lousta, both of whom I have mentioned
+earlier in this record. The result was that a watch for him was kept on
+all the frontiers, because it was guessed that sooner or later he would
+return to Zululand; also it had become known that he was travelling in
+my company.
+
+So it came about that when my approach was reported by spies, a company
+was gathered under the command of a man connected with the Royal House,
+and by it we were surrounded. Before attacking, however, this captain
+sent men to me with the message that with me the King had no quarrel,
+although I was travelling in doubtful company, and that if I would
+deliver over to him Umslopogaas, Chief of the People of the Axe, and his
+followers, I might go whither I wished unharmed, taking my goods with
+me. Otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed every one of
+us, since it was not desired that any witnesses should be left of what
+happened to Umslopogaas. Having delivered this ultimatum and declined
+any argument as to its terms, the messengers retired, saying that they
+would return for my answer within half an hour.
+
+When they were out of hearing Umslopogaas, who had listened to their
+words in grim silence, turned and spoke in such fashion as might have
+been expected of him.
+
+"Macumazahn," he said, "now I come to the end of an unlucky journey,
+though mayhap it is not so evil as it seems, since I who went out to
+seek the dead but to be filled by yonder White Witch with the meat of
+mocking shadows, am about to find the dead in the only way in which they
+can be found, namely by becoming of their number."
+
+"It seems that this is the case with all of us, Umslopogaas."
+
+"Not so, Macumazahn. That child of the King will give you safe-conduct.
+It is I and mine whose blood he seeks, as he has the right to do, since
+it is true that I would have raised rebellion against the King, I who
+wearied of my petty lot and knew that by blood his place was mine. In
+this quarrel you have no share, though you, whose heart is as white as
+your skin, are not minded to desert me. Moreover, even if you wished
+to fight, there is one in the waggon yonder whose life is not yours to
+give. The Lady Sad-Eyes is as a child in your arms and her you must bear
+to safety."
+
+Now this argument was so unanswerable that I did not know what to say.
+So I only asked what he meant to do, as escape was impossible, seeing
+that we were surrounded on every side.
+
+"Make a glorious end, Macumazahn," he said with a smile. "I will go out
+with those who cling to me, that is with all who remain of my men, since
+my fate must be theirs, and stand back to back on yonder mound and there
+wait till these dogs of the King come up against us. Watch a while,
+Macumazahn, and see how Umslopogaas, Bearer of the Axe, and the warriors
+of the Axe can fight and die."
+
+Now I was silent for I knew not what to say. There we all stood silent,
+while minute by minute I watched the shadow creeping forward towards a
+mark that the head messenger had made with his spear upon the ground,
+for he had said that when it touched that mark he would return for his
+answer.
+
+In this rather dreadful silence I heard a dry little cough, which I knew
+came from the throat of Hans, and to be his method of indicating that he
+had a remark to make.
+
+"What is it?" I asked with irritation, for it was annoying to see him
+seated there on the ground fanning himself with the remains of a hat and
+staring vacantly at the sky.
+
+"Nothing, Baas, or rather, only this, Baas: Those hyenas of Zulus are
+even more afraid of the Great Medicine than were the cannibals up north,
+since the maker of it is nearer to them, Baas. You remember, Baas, they
+knelt to it, as it were, when we were going out of Zululand."
+
+"Well, what of it, now that we are going into Zululand?" I inquired
+sharply. "Do you want me to show it to them?"
+
+"No, Baas. What is the use, seeing that they are ready to let you
+pass, also the Lady Sad-Eyes, and me and the cattle with the driver and
+_voorlooper_, which is better still, and all the other goods. So what
+have you to gain by showing them the medicine? But perchance if it were
+on the neck of Umslopogaas and _he_ showed it to them and brought it to
+their minds that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Zikali's
+Great Medicine, or aught that is his, die within three moons in this
+way or in that--well, Baas, who knows?" and again he coughed drily and
+stared up at the sky.
+
+I translated what Hans had said in Dutch to Umslopogaas, who remarked
+indifferently,
+
+"This little yellow man is well named Light-in-Darkness; at least the
+plan can be tried--if it fails there is always time to die."
+
+So thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so,
+for the first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so long,
+and Umslopogaas put it over his head and hid it beneath his blanket.
+
+
+
+A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain
+himself came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightly
+and once we had dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chat
+he turned to the matter of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at some
+length. I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a
+_very_ awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearer
+of the Great Medicine of Zikali itself. When the captain heard this his
+eyes almost started out of his head.
+
+"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!" he exclaimed. "Oh, now
+I understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe is
+unconquerable--such a wizard that no one is able to kill him."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "and you remember, do you not, that he who offends the
+Great Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies horribly
+within three moons, he and his household and all those with him?"
+
+"I have heard it," he said with a sickly smile.
+
+"And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true," I added
+cheerfully.
+
+Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.
+
+I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was that
+Umslopogaas came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss a
+single word, that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me,
+his friend, to be involved in any trouble, together with his men he had
+agreed to accompany this King's captain to the royal kraal where he had
+been guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had been
+brought against him. He added that the King's captain had sworn upon
+the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads to give him safe conduct and
+attempt no mischief against him which, as was well known throughout
+the land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished to
+continue to look upon the sun.
+
+I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loud
+voice. He replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas alive
+if he might. He was only to kill him if he would not come.
+
+Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of the
+waggon, I had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that the
+arrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with his
+people.
+
+"Be sure of this, Macumazahn," he said, "that if I do not escape,
+neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,
+and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that
+thick head of his and make friends with the brain inside.
+
+"Macumazahn," he added, "we have made a strange journey together and
+seen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I have
+fought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone
+was worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end as
+everything must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I do
+not think that I shall die on this journey with the captain, though I do
+think that others will die at the end of it," he added grimly, a saying
+which at the time I did not understand.
+
+"It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches and
+wizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept into
+my bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the
+after-years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last,
+as I believe that the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives in
+Zikali's Medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in
+words. I cannot say, but I pray that it is a true spirit, since although
+you are white and I am black and you are small and I am big, and you are
+gentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce and as open as the blade of my
+own axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as though we were born
+of the same mother and had been brought up in the same kraal. Now that
+captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I will return
+the Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he must send one
+of the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my bones.
+
+"Farewell to you also, Yellow Man," he went on to Hans, who had
+appeared, hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome;
+"well are you named Light-in-Darkness, and glad am I to have met you,
+who have learned from you how a snake moves and strikes, and how a
+jackal thinks and avoids the snare. Yes, farewell, for the spirit within
+me does not tell me that you and I shall meet again."
+
+Then he lifted the great axe, and gave me a formal salute, naming me
+"Chief and Father, Great Chief and Father, from of old" (_Baba! Koos y
+umcool! Koos y pagate!_), thereby acknowledging my superiority over him,
+a thing that he had never done before, and as he did, so did Goroko
+and the other Zulus, adding to their salute many titles of praise. In
+another minute he had gone with the King's captain, to whose side I
+noted he clung lovingly, his long, thin fingers playing about the horn
+handle of the axe that was named _Inkosikaas_ and Groan-maker.
+
+"I am glad we have seen the last of him and his axe, Baas," remarked
+Hans, spitting reflectively. "It is very well to sleep in the same hut
+with a tame lion sometimes, but after you have done so for many moons,
+you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pulling
+the blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws. Yes, I am
+very glad that this half-tame lion is gone, since sometimes I have
+thought that I should be obliged to poison it that we might sleep in
+peace. You know he called me a snake, Baas, and poison is a snake's
+only spear. Shall I tell the boys to inspan the oxen, Baas? I think
+the further we get from that King's captain and his men, the more
+comfortably shall we travel, especially now when we no longer have the
+Great Medicine to protect us."
+
+"You suggested giving it to him, Hans," I said.
+
+"Yes, Baas, I had rather that Umslopogaas went away with the Great
+Medicine, than that you kept the Great Medicine and he stopped with us
+here. Never travel with a traitor, Baas, at any rate in the land of the
+king whom he wishes to kill. Kings are very selfish people, Baas, and do
+not like being killed, especially by someone who wants to sit upon their
+stool and to take the royal salute. No one gives the royal salute to a
+dead king, Baas, however great he was before he died, and no one thinks
+the worse of a king who was a traitor before he became a king."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ALLAN DELIVERS THE MESSAGE
+
+Once more I sat in the Black Kloof face to face with old Zikali.
+
+"So you have got back safely, Macumazahn," he said. "Well, I told you
+you would, did I not? As for what happened to you upon the journey, let
+it be, for now that I am old long stories tire me and I daresay that
+there is nothing wonderful about this one. Where is the charm I lent
+you? Give it back now that it has served its turn."
+
+"I have not got it, Zikali. I passed it on to Umslopogaas of the Axe to
+save his life from the King's men."
+
+"Oh! yes, so you did. I had forgotten. Here it is," and opening his robe
+of fur, he showed me the hideous little talisman hanging about his
+neck, then added, "Would you like a copy of it, Macumazahn, to keep as a
+memory? If so, I will carve one for you."
+
+"No," I answered, "I should not. Has Umslopogaas been here?"
+
+"Yes, he has been and gone again, which is one of the reasons why I do
+not wish to hear your tale a second time."
+
+"Where to? The Town of the People of the Axe?"
+
+"No, Macumazahn, he came thence, or so I understood, but thither he will
+return no more."
+
+"Why not, Zikali?"
+
+"Because after his fashion he made trouble there and left some dead
+behind him; one Lousta, I believe, whom he had appointed to sit on his
+stool as chief while he was away, and a woman called Monazi, who was his
+wife, or Lousta's wife, or the wife of both of them, I forget which. It
+is said that having heard stories of her--and the ears of jealousy are
+long, Macumazahn--he cut off this woman's head with a sweep of the axe
+and made Lousta fight him till he fell, which the fool did almost before
+he had lifted his shield. It served him right who should have made sure
+that Umslopogaas was dead before he wrapped himself in his blanket and
+took the woman to cook his porridge."
+
+"Where has the Axe-bearer gone?" I asked without surprise, for this news
+did not astonish me.
+
+"I neither know nor care, Macumazahn. To become a wanderer, I suppose.
+He will tell you the tale when you meet again in the after-days, as I
+understand he thinks that you will do.[*] Hearken! I have done with this
+lion's whelp, who is Chaka over again, but without Chaka's wit. Yes, he
+is just a fighting man with a long reach, a sure eye and the trick of
+handling an axe, and such are of little use to me who know too many of
+them. Thrice have I tried to make him till my garden, but each time
+he has broken the hoe, although the wage I promised him was a royal
+_kaross_ and nothing less. So enough of Umslopogaas, the Woodpecker.
+Almost I wish that you had not lent him the charm, for then the King's
+men would have made an end of him, who knows too much and like some
+silly boaster, may shout out the truth when his axe is aloft and he is
+full of the beer of battle. For in battle he will live and in battle he
+will die, Macumazahn, as perhaps you may see one day."
+
+     [*] For the tale of this meeting see the book called "Allan
+     Quatermain."--Editor.
+
+"The fate of your friends does not trouble you over much,
+Opener-of-Roads," I said with sarcasm.
+
+"Not at all, Macumazahn, because I have none. The only friends of the
+old are those whom they can turn to their own ends, and if these fail
+them they find others."
+
+"I understand, Zikali, and know now what to expect from you."
+
+He laughed in his strange way and answered,
+
+"Aye, and it is good that you must expect, good in the future as in the
+past, for _you_, Macumazahn, who are brave in your own fashion, without
+being a fool like Umslopogaas, and, although you know it not, like some
+master-smith, forge my assegais out of the red ore I give you, tempering
+them in the blood of men, and yet keep your mind innocent and your hands
+clean. Friends like you are useful to such as I, Macumazahn, and must be
+well paid in those wares that please them."
+
+The old wizard brooded for a space, while I reflected upon his amazing
+cynicism, which interested me in a way, for the extreme of unmorality is
+as fascinating to study as the extreme of virtue and often more so. Then
+jerking up his great head, he asked suddenly,
+
+"What message had the White Queen for me?"
+
+"She said that you troubled her too much at night in dreams, Zikali."
+
+"Aye, but if I cease to do so, ever she desires to know the reason why,
+for I hear her asking me in the voices of the wind, or in the twittering
+of bats. After all, she is a woman, Macumazahn, and it must be dull
+sitting alone from year to year with naught to stay her appetite save
+the ashes of the past and dreams of the future, so dull that I wonder,
+having once meshed you in her web, how she found the heart to let you
+go before she had sucked out your life and spirit. I suppose that having
+made a mock of you and drained you dry, she was content to throw you
+aside like an empty gourd. Perchance, had she kept you at her side,
+you would have been a stone in her path in days to come. Perchance,
+Macumazahn, she waits for other travellers and would welcome them, or
+one of them alone, saying nothing of a certain Watcher-by-Night who has
+served her turn and vanished into the night.
+
+"But what other message had the White Queen for the poor old savage
+witch-doctor whose talk wearies her so much in her haunted sleep?"
+
+Then I told him of the picture that Ayesha had shown me in the water;
+the picture of a king dying in a hut and of two who watched his end.
+
+Zikali listened intently to every word, then broke into a peal of his
+unholy laughter.
+
+"_Oho-ho!_" he laughed, "so all goes well, though the road be long,
+since whatever this White One may have shown you in the fire of the
+heavens above, she could show you nothing but truth in the water of
+the earth below, for that is the law of our company of seers. You have
+worked well for me, Macumazahn, and you have had your fee, the fee of
+the vision of the dead which you desired above all mortal things."
+
+"Aye," I answered indignantly, "a fee of bitter fruits whereof the juice
+burns and twists the mouth and the stones still stick fast within the
+gizzard. I tell you, Zikali, that she stuffed my heart with lies."
+
+"I daresay, Macumazahn, I daresay, but they were very pretty lies, were
+they not? And after all I am sure that there was wisdom in them, as you
+will discover when you have thought them over for a score of years.
+
+"Lies, lies, all is lies! But beyond the lie stands Truth, as the White
+Witch stands behind her veil. You drew the veil, Macumazahn, and saw
+that beneath which brought you to your knees. Why, it is a parable.
+Wander on through the Valley of Lies till at last it takes a turn,
+and, glittering in the sunshine, glittering like gold, you perceive the
+Mountain of everlasting Truth, sought of all men but found by few.
+
+"Lies, lies, all is lies! Yet beyond I tell you, beauteous and
+eternal stands the Truth, Macumazahn. _Oho-ho! Oho-ho!_ Fare you well,
+Watcher-by-Night, fare you well, Seeker after Truth. After the Night
+comes Dawn and after Death comes what--Macumazahn? Well, you will learn
+one day, for always the veil is lifted, at last, as the White Witch
+shewed you yonder, Macumazahn."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of She and Allan, by H. Rider Haggard
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