Books: Nada the Lily

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

Thus Zinita spoke to him, very roughly--for she always blurted out
what was in her mind, and Umslopogaas could not challenge her to
battle. So he must bear her talk as best he might, for it is often
thus, my father, that the greatest of men grow small enough in their
own huts. Moreover, he knew that it was because Zinita loved him that
she spoke so bitterly.

Now on the third day all the fighting-men were gathered, and there
might have been two thousand of them, good men and brave. Then
Umslopogaas went out and spoke to them, telling them of this
adventure, and Galazi the Wolf was with him. They listened silently,
and it was plain to see that, as in the case of the headmen, some of
them thought one thing and some another. Then Galazi spoke to them
briefly, telling them that he knew the roads and the caves and the
number of the Halakazi cattle; but still they doubted. Thereon
Umslopogaas added these words:--

"To-morrow, at the dawn, I, Bulalio, Holder of the Axe, Chief of the
People of the Axe, go up against the Halakazi, with Galazi the Wolf,
my brother. If but ten men follow us, yet we will go. Now, choose, you
soldiers! Let those come who will, and let those who will stop at home
with the women and the little children."

Now a great shout rose from every throat.

"We will go with you, Bulalio, to victory or death!"

So on the morrow they marched, and there was wailing among the women
of the People of the Axe. Only Zinita did not wail, but stood by in
wrath, foreboding evil; nor would she bid her lord farewell, yet when
he was gone she wept also.

Now Umslopogaas and his impi travelled fast and far, hungering and
thirsting, till at length they came to the land of the Umswazi, and
after a while entered the territory of the Halakazi by a high and
narrow pass. The fear of Galazi the Wolf was that they should find
this pass held, for though they had harmed none in the kraals as they
went, and taken only enough cattle to feed themselves, yet he knew
well that messengers had sped by day and night to warn the people of
the Halakazi. But they found no man in the pass, and on the other side
of it they rested, for the night was far spent. At dawn Umslopogaas
looked out over the wide plains beyond, and Galazi showed him a long
low hill, two hours' march away.

"There, my brother," he said, "lies the head kraal of the Halakazi,
where I was born, and in that hill is the great cave."

Then they went on, and before the sun was high they came to the crest
of a rise, and heard the sound of horns on its farther side. They
stood upon the rise, and looked, and lo! yet far off, but running
towards them, was the whole impi of the Halakazi, and it was a great
impi.

"They have gathered their strength indeed," said Galazi. "For every
man of ours there are three of these Swazis!"

The soldiers saw also, and the courage of some of them sank low. Then
Umslopogaas spoke to them:--

"Yonder are the Swazi dogs, my children; they are many and we are few.
Yet, shall it be told at home that we, men of the Zulu blood, were
hunted by a pack of Swazi dogs? Shall our women and children sing THAT
song in our ears, O Soldiers of the Axe?"

Now some cried "Never!" but some were silent; so Umslopogaas spoke
again:--

"Turn back all who will: there is yet time. Turn back all who will,
but ye who are men come forward with me. Or if ye will, go back all of
you, and leave Axe Groan-Maker and Club Watcher to see this matter out
alone."

Now there arose a mighty shout of "We will die together who have lived
together!"

"Do you swear it?" cried Umslopogaas, holding Groan-Maker on high.

"We swear it by the Axe," they answered.

Then Umslopogaas and Galazi made ready for the battle. They posted all
the young men in the broken ground above the bottom of the slope, for
these could best be spared to the spear, and Galazi the Wolf took
command of them; but the veterans stayed upon the hillside, and with
them Umslopogaas.

Now the Halakazi came on, and there were four full regiments of them.
The plain was black with them, the air was rent with their shoutings,
and their spears flashed like lightnings. On the farther side of the
slope they halted and sent a herald forward to demand what the People
of the Axe would have from them. The Slaughterer answered that they
would have three things: First, the head of their chief, whose place
Galazi should fill henceforth; secondly, that fair maid whom men named
the Lily; thirdly, a thousand head of cattle. If these demands were
granted, then he would spare them, the Halakazi; if not, he would
stamp them out and take all.

So the herald returned, and when he reached the ranks of the Halakazi
he called aloud his answer. Then a great roar of laughter went up from
the Halakazi regiments, a roar that shook the earth. The brow of
Umslopogaas the Slaughterer burned red beneath the black when he heard
it, and he shook Groan-Maker towards their host.

"Ye shall sing another song before this sun is set," he cried, and
strode along the ranks speaking to this man and that by name, and
lifting up their hearts with great words.

Now the Halakazi raised a shout, and charged to come at the young men
led by Galazi the Wolf; but beyond the foot of the slope was peaty
ground, and they came through it heavily, and as they came Galazi and
the young men fell upon them and slew them; still, they could not hold
them back for long, because of their great numbers, and presently the
battle ranged all along the slope. But so well did Galazi handle the
young men, and so fiercely did they fight beneath his eye, that before
they could be killed or driven back all the force of the Halakazi was
doing battle with them. Ay, and twice Galazi charged with such as he
could gather, and twice he checked the Halakazi rush, throwing them
into confusion, till at length company was mixed with company and
regiment with regiment. But it might not endure, for now more than
half the young men were down, and the rest were being pushed back up
the hill, fighting madly.

But all this while Umslopogaas and the veterans sat in their ranks
upon the brow of the slope and watched. "Those Swazi dogs have a fool
for their general," quoth Umslopogaas. "He has no men left to fall
back on, and Galazi has broken his array and mixed his regiments as
milk and cream are mixed in a bowl. They are no longer an impi, they
are a mob."

Now the veterans moved restlessly on their haunches, pushing their
legs out and drawing them in again. They glanced at the fray, they
looked into each other's eyes and spoke a word here, a word there,
"Well smitten, Galazi! Wow! that one is down! A brave lad! Ho! a good
club is the Watcher! The fight draws near, my brother!" And ever as
they spoke their faces grew fiercer and their fingers played with
their spears.

At length a captain called aloud to Umslopogaas:--

"Say, Slaughterer, is it not time to be up and doing? The grass is wet
to sit on, and our limbs grow cramped."

"Wait awhile," answered Umslopogaas. "Let them weary of their play.
Let them weary, I tell you."

As he spoke the Halakazi huddled themselves together, and with a rush
drove back Galazi and those who were left of the young men. Yes, at
last they were forced to flee, and after them came the Swazis, and in
the forefront of the pursuit was their chief, ringed round with a
circle of his bravest.

Umslopogaas saw it and bounded to his feet, roaring like a bull. "At
them now, wolves!" he shouted.

Then the lines of warriors sprang up as a wave springs, and their
crests were like foam upon the wave. As a wave that swells to break
they rose suddenly, like a breaking wave they poured down the slope.
In front of them was the Slaughterer, holding Groan-Maker aloft, and
oh! his feet were swift. So swift were his feet that, strive as they
would, he outran them by the quarter of a spear's throw. Galazi heard
the thunder of their rush; he looked round, and as he looked, lo! the
Slaughterer swept past him, running like a buck. Then Galazi, too,
bounded forward, and the Wolf-Brethren sped down the hill, the length
of four spears between them.

The Halakazi also saw and heard, and strove to gather themselves
together to meet the rush. In front of Umslopogaas was their chief, a
tall man hedged about with assegais. Straight at the shield-hedge
drove Umslopogaas, and a score of spears were lifted to greet him, a
score of shields heaved into the air--this was a fence that none might
pass alive. Yet would the Slaughterer pass it--not alone! See! he
steadies his pace, he gathers himself together, and now he leaps! High
into the air he leaps; his feet knock the heads of the warriors and
rattle against the crowns of their shields. They smite upwards with
the spear, but he has swept over them like a swooping bird. He has
cleared them--he has lit--and now the shield-hedge guards two chiefs.
But not for long. Ou! Groan-Maker is aloft, he falls--and neither
shield nor axe may stay his stroke, both are cleft through, and the
Halakazi lack a leader.

The shield-ring wheels in upon itself. Fools! Galazi is upon you! What
was that? Look, now! see how many bones are left unbroken in him whom
the Watcher falls on full! What!--another down! Close up, shield-men--
close up! Ai! are you fled?

Ah! the wave has fallen on the beach. Listen to its roaring--listen to
the roaring of the shields! Stand, you men of the Halakazi--stand!
Surely they are but a few. So! it is done! By the head of Chaka! they
break--they are pushed back--now the wave of slaughter seethes along
the sands--now the foe is swept like floating weed, and from all the
line there comes a hissing like the hissing of thin waters. "S'gee!"
says the hiss. "S'gee! S'gee!"

There, my father, I am old. What have I do with the battle any more,
with the battle and its joy? Yet it is better to die in such a fight
as that than to live any other way. I have seen such--I have seen many
such. Oh! we could fight when I was a man, my father, but none that I
knew could ever fight like Umslopogaas the Slaughterer, son of Chaka,
and his blood-brother Galazi the Wolf! So, so! they swept them away,
those Halakazi; they swept them as a maid sweeps the dust of a hut, as
the wind sweeps the withered leaves. It was soon done when once it was
begun. Some were fled and some were dead, and this was the end of that
fight. No, no, not of all the war. The Halakazi were worsted in the
field, but many lived to win the great cave, and there the work must
be finished. Thither, then, went the Slaughterer presently, with such
of his impi as was left to him. Alas! many were killed; but how could
they have died better than in that fight? Also those who were left
were as good as all, for now they knew that they should not be
overcome easily while Axe and Club still led the way.

Now they stood before a hill, measuring, perhaps, three thousand paces
round its base. It was of no great height, and yet unclimbable, for,
after a man had gone up a little way, the sides of it were sheer,
offering no foothold except to the rock-rabbits and the lizards. No
one was to be seen without this hill, nor in the great kraal of the
Halakazi that lay to the east of it, and yet the ground about was
trampled with the hoofs of oxen and the feet of men, and from within
the mountain came a sound of lowing cattle.

"Here is the nest of Halakazi," quoth Galazi the Wolf.

"Here is the nest indeed," said Umslopogaas; "but how shall we come at
the eggs to suck them? There are no branches on this tree."

"But there is a hole in the trunk," answered the Wolf.

Now he led them a little way till they came to a place where the soil
was trampled as it is at the entrance to a cattle kraal, and they saw
that there was a low cave which led into the cliff, like an archway
such as you white men build. But this archway was filled up with great
blocks of stone placed upon each other in such a fashion that it could
not be forced from without. After the cattle were driven in it had
been filled up.

"We cannot enter here," said Galazi. "Follow me."

So they followed him, and came to the north side of the mountain, and
there, two spear-casts away, a soldier was standing. But when he saw
them he vanished suddenly.

"There is the place," said Galazi, "and the fox has gone to earth in
it."

Now they ran to the spot and saw a little hole in the rock, scarcely
bigger than an ant-bear's burrow, and through the hole came sounds and
some light.

"Now where is the hyena who will try a new burrow?" cried Umslopogaas.
"A hundred head of cattle to the man who wins through and clears the
way!"

Then two young men sprang forward who were flushed with victory and
desired nothing more than to make a great name and win cattle,
crying:--

"Here are hyenas, Bulalio."

"To earth, then!" said Umslopogaas, "and let him who wins through hold
the path awhile till others follow."

The two young men sprang at the hole, and he who reached it first went
down upon his hands and knees and crawled in, lying on his shield and
holding his spear before him. For a little while the light in the
burrow vanished, and they heard the sound of his crawling. Then came
the noise of blows, and once more light crept through the hole. The
man was dead.

"This one had a bad snake," said the second soldier; "his snake
deserted him. Let me see if mine is better."

So down he went on his hands and knees, and crawled as the first had
done, only he put his shield over his head. For awhile they heard him
crawling, then once more came the sound of blows echoing on the
ox-hide shield, and after the blows groans. He was dead also, yet it
seemed that they had left his body in the hole, for now no light came
through. This was the cause, my father: when they struck the man he
had wriggled back a little way and died there, and none had entered
from the farther side to drag him out.

Now the soldiers stared at the mouth of the passage and none seemed to
love the look of it, for this was but a poor way to die. Umslopogaas
and Galazi also looked at it, thinking.

"Now I am named Wolf," said Galazi, "and a wolf should not fear the
dark; also, these are my people, and I must be the first to visit
them," and he went down on his hands and knees without more ado. But
Umslopogaas, having peered once more down the burrow, said: "Hold,
Galazi; I will go first! I have a plan. Do you follow me. And you, my
children, shout loudly, so that none may hear us move; and, if we win
through, follow swiftly, for we cannot hold the mouth of that place
for long. Hearken, also! this is my counsel to you: if I fall choose
another chief--Galazi the Wolf, if he is still living."

"Nay, Slaughterer, do not name me," said the Wolf, "for together we
live or die."

"So let it be, Galazi. Then choose you some other man and try this
road no more, for if we cannot pass it none can, but seek food and sit
down here till those jackals bolt; then be ready. Farewell, my
children!"

"Farewell, father," they answered, "go warily, lest we be left like
cattle without a herdsman, wandering and desolate."

Then Umslopogaas crept into the hole, taking no shield, but holding
Groan-Maker before him, and at his heels crept Galazi. When he had
covered the length of six spears he stretched out his hand, and, as he
trusted to do, he found the feet of that man who had gone before and
died in the place. Then Umslopogaas the way did this: he put his head
beneath the dead man's legs and thrust himself onward till all the
body was on his back, and there he held it with one hand, gripping its
two wrists in his hand. Then he crawled forward a little space and saw
that he was coming to the inner mouth of the burrow, but that the
shadow was deep there because of a great mass of rock which lay before
the burrow shutting out the light. "This is well for me," thought
Umslopogaas, "for now they will not know the dead from the living. I
may yet look upon the sun again." Now he heard the Halakazi soldiers
talking without.

"The Zulu rats do not love this run," said one, "they fear the rat-
catcher's stick. This is good sport," and a man laughed.

Then Umslopogaas pushed himself forward as swiftly as he could,
holding the dead man on his back, and suddenly came out of the hole
into the open place in the dark shadow of the great rock.

"By the Lily," cried a soldier, "here's a third! Take this, Zulu rat!"
And he struck the dead man heavily with a kerrie. "And that!" cried
another, driving his spear through him so that it pricked Umslopogaas
beneath. "And that! and this! and that!" said others, as they smote
and stabbed.

Now Umslopogaas groaned heavily in the deep shadow and lay still. "No
need to waste more blows," said the man who had struck first. "This
one will never go back to Zululand, and I think that few will care to
follow him. Let us make an end: run, some of you, and find stones to
stop the burrow, for now the sport is done."

He turned as he spoke and so did the others, and this was what the
Slaughter sought. With a swift movement, he freed himself from the
dead man and sprang to his feet. They heard the sound and turned
again, but as they turned Groan-Maker pecked softly, and that man who
had sworn by the Lily was no more a man. Then Umslopogaas leaped
forwards, and, bounding on to the great rock, stood there like a buck
against the sky.

"A Zulu rat is not so easily slain, O ye weasels!" he cried, as they
came at him from all sides at once with a roar. He smote to the right
and the left, and so swiftly that men could scarcely see the blows
fall, for he struck with Groan-Maker's beak. But though men scarcely
saw the blows, yet, my father, men fell beneath them. Now foes were
all around, leaping up at the Slaughterer as rushing water leaps to
hide a rock--everywhere shone spears, thrusting at him from this side
and from that. Those in front and to the side Groan-Maker served to
stay, but one wounded Umslopogaas in the neck, and another was lifted
to pierce his back when the strength of its holder was bowed to the
dust--to the dust, to become of the dust.

For now the Wolf was through the hole also, and the Watcher grew very
busy; he was so busy that soon the back of the Slaughterer had nothing
to fear--yet those had much to fear who stood behind his back. The
pair fought bravely, making a great slaughter, and presently, one by
one, plumed heads of the People of the Axe showed through the burrow
and strong arms mingled in the fray. Swiftly they came, leaping into
battle as otters leap to the water--now there were ten of them, now
there were twenty--and now the Halakazi broke and fled, since they did
not bargain for this. Then the rest of the Men of the Axe came through
in peace, and the evening grew towards the dark before all had passed
the hole.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE FINDING OF NADA

Umslopogaas marshalled his companies.

"There is little light left," he said, "but it must serve us to start
these conies from their burrows. Come, my brother Galazi, you know
where the conies hide, take my place and lead us."

So Galazi led the impi. Turning a corner of the glen, he came with
them to a large open space that had a fountain in its midst, and this
place was full of thousands of cattle. Then he turned again to the
left, and brought them to the inner side of the mountain, where the
cliff hung over, and here was the mouth of a great cave. Now the cave
was dark, but by its door was stacked a pile of resinous wood to serve
as torches.

"Here is that which will give us light," said Galazi, and one man of
every two took a torch and lit it at a fire that burned near the mouth
of the cave. Then they rushed in, waving the flaring torches and with
assegais aloft. Here for the last time the Halakazi stood against
them, and the torches floated up and down upon the wave of war. But
they did not stand for very long, for all the heart was out of them.
Wow! yes, many were killed--I do not know how many. I know this only,
that the Halakazi are no more a tribe since Umslopogaas, who is named
Bulalio, stamped them with his feet--they are nothing but a name now.
The People of the Axe drove them out into the open and finished the
fight by starlight among the cattle.

In one corner of the cave Umslopogaas saw a knot of men clustering
round something as though to guard it. He rushed at the men, and with
him went Galazi and others. But when Umslopogaas was through, by the
light of his torch he perceived a tall and slender man, who leaned
against the wall of the cave and held a shield before his face.

"You are a coward!" he cried, and smote with Groan-Maker. The great
axe pierced the hide, but, missing the head behind, rang loudly
against the rock, and as it struck a sweet voice said:--

"Ah! soldier, do not kill me! Why are you angry with me?"

Now the shield had come away from its holder's hands upon the blade of
the axe, and there was something in the notes of the voice that caused
Umslopogaas to smite no more: it was as though a memory of childhood
had come to him in a dream. His torch was burning low, but he thrust
it forward to look at him who crouched against the rock. The dress was
the dress of a man, but this was no man's form--nay, rather that of a
lovely woman, well-nigh white in colour. She dropped her hands from
before her face, and now he could see her well. He saw eyes that shone
like stars, hair that curled and fell upon the shoulders, and such
beauty as was not known among our people. And as the voice had spoken
to him of something that was lost, so did the eyes seem to shine
across the blackness of many years, and the beauty to bring back he
knew not what.

He looked at the girl in all her loveliness, and she looked at him in
his fierceness and his might, red with war and wounds. They both
looked long, while the torchlight flared on them, on the walls of the
cave, and the broad blade of Groan-Maker, and from around rose the
sounds of the fray.

"How are you named, who are so fair to see?" he asked at length.

"I am named the Lily now: once I had another name. Nada, daughter of
Mopo, I was once; but name and all else are dead, and I go to join
them. Kill me and make an end. I will shut my eyes, that I may not see
the great axe flash."

Now Umslopogaas gazed upon her again, and Groan-Maker fell from his
hand.

"Look on me, Nada, daughter of Mopo," he said in a low voice; "look at
me and say who am I."

She looked once more and yet again. Now her face was thrust forward as
one who gazes over the edge of the world; it grew fixed and strange.
"By my heart," she said, "by my heart, you are Umslopogaas, my brother
who is dead, and whom dead as living I have loved ever and alone."

Then the torch flared out, but Umslopogaas took hold of her in the
darkness and pressed her to him and kissed her, the sister whom he
found after many years, and she kissed him.

"You kiss me now," she said, "yet not long ago that great axe shore my
locks, missing me but by a finger's-breadth--and still the sound of
fighting rings in my ears! Ah! a boon of you, my brother--a boon: let
there be no more death since we are met once more. The people of the
Halakazi are conquered, and it is their just doom, for thus, in this
same way, they killed those with whom I lived before. Yet they have
treated me well, not forcing me into wedlock, and protecting me from
Dingaan; so spare them, my brother, if you may."

Then Umslopogaas lifted up his voice, commanding that the killing
should cease, and sent messengers running swiftly with these words:
"This is the command of Bulalio: that he should lifts hand against one
more of the people of the Halakazi shall be killed himself"; and the
soldiers obeyed him, though the order came somewhat late, and no more
of the Halakazi were brought to doom. They were suffered to escape,
except those of the women and children who were kept to be led away as
captives. And they ran far that night. Nor did they come together
again to be a people, for they feared Galazi the Wolf, who would be
chief over them, but they were scattered wide in the world, to sojourn
among strangers.

Now when the soldiers had eaten abundantly of the store of the
Halakazi, and guards had been sent to ward the cattle and watch
against surprise, Umslopogaas spoke long with Nada the Lily, taking
her apart, and he told her all his story. She told him also the tale
which you know, my father, of how she had lived with the little people
that were subject to the Halakazi, she and her mother Macropha, and
how the fame of her beauty had spread about the land. Then she told
him how the Halakazi had claimed her, and of how, in the end, they had
taken her by force of arms, killing the people of that kraal, and
among them her own mother. Thereafter, she had dwelt among the
Halakazi, who named her anew, calling her the Lily, and they had
treated her kindly, giving her reverence because of her sweetness and
beauty, and not forcing her into marriage.

"And why would you not wed, Nada, my sister?" asked Umslopogaas, "you
who are far past the age of marriage?"

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24