The King's Assegai Part 12

"'It has been a day too long, my father,' I jeered. 'Now I shall go back, and the King will allow me to _tunga_, for he has promised it. I will _lobola_ for Nangeza, and soon I shall be an _induna_, and she shall be my "great wife." Then, O Gungana, I will not rest until I have all your sons and kindred "smelt out" as _abatagati_, and "eaten up."

Old Masuka will see to that; so you may soon expect them in the world of shades.'

"_Whau, Nkose_! It was not well done, thus to mock and taunt a brave man and an _induna_ of the King, being helpless. But I was young then, and I hated Gungana beyond describing. I thought of Nangeza, and how he would have robbed me of her; I thought of his continual designs to compa.s.s my ruin and death, and I knew there was not room in this world for him and myself together, and my heart became hard and ferocious as that of a wild beast.

"'Is it comfortable down there, _induna_ of the King?' I jeered. 'Ha!

It is not much of a death for a warrior, for a brave commander of the King's armies, to die like an ant-bear in a dark hole. Oh no, it is not much of a death!'

"'Yet shalt thou die a worse one, O dog-whelp!' he answered. 'A worse one--forget not that!'

"'Ha-ha!' I laughed. Then I arose and went a little way, and soon returned with some large stones. Bending over the hole, as soon as my eyes became accustomed to the blackness of its depths, I could just make out the s.h.i.+mmer of Gungana's head-ring some way down. I took the largest of the stones in both hands, and, poising it over this, I let it fall. There was a crunching sound, and a deep, convulsive groan; then the noise of a heavy body rolling and sliding further and further.

"'_Hlala gahle_, Gungana!' I shouted mockingly. '_Hlala gahle_!'

['Rest in peace.' Zulu form of farewell from a person going away.]

Then I got up to go away.

"But as I rose from the spot, I did not feel glad. The sound of the stone as it struck Gungana's head, that quavering groan which shot upward into outer air, seemed to awaken other feelings within me but those of rejoicing. No, it was not well done, _Nkose_--yet it was to be my death or his. Still--it was not well done.

"Now the night drew on, and there was a rush of stars out into the blackness of the heavens, and I dared not move because of the holes and pitfalls which lay around. So I crouched down beneath the rock beside which I had first met Gungana, and s.h.i.+vered; for it was cold high up on that mountain-top, and my light war-adornments were of no use against the cold. Moreover, I was very hungry, having eaten nothing since before the attack--that is to say, before daybreak. Then a soft wind sprang up and wailed mournfully in the long gra.s.ses, and again I s.h.i.+vered, but not only with cold, for it seemed to me that the whole of that wild mountain-top was haunted--was peopled with the ghosts of those who had been slain that day, crying and whispering around me in the darkness; and ever and again I would hear the crunch of the stone upon Gungana's shaven skull, till I would fain stop my ears to shut out the sound; but that was of no use, because the sound was in my brain. And it seemed that Gungana's ghost had come up out of the earth, and was standing over me with hollow and blazing eyes, till at last I could bear it no longer, and rose up, resolved to get away from that spot, at any rate. So I walked on cautiously, and singing softly to myself to drive away these evil shapes of the darkness, and, wearied as I was, I preferred movement, for it warmed me.

"But towards morning a thick mist sprang up, and now I knew no longer what direction I was taking. I snuffed the wind, but it was coming in fitful puffs equally from every direction. Fearing to walk over the cliff, I returned to retrace my steps, and then--_Au_! that is a moment I can never forget, even now, old as I am. The ground failed beneath me, and I shot downwards feet foremost into the earth. For one sickening moment thus I fell, then stopped with a jerk. The stick of my s.h.i.+eld, my hold of which I had not relaxed, had wedged somehow crosswise and arrested my fall; and there I hung suspended in this black chasm, even as Gungana had hung suspended.

"But the straight drop seemed to end here, for I could now feel the rock with my feet sloping obliquely down. However, it was all the same, for I could not climb up; I had fallen too far and the sides were too straight for that. _Whau_! Gungana had spoken truly when he had predicted for me a worse death than his. For no merciful hand was there to crush in my skull with a stone from above, and so end my sufferings at once. No! I was destined to hours of horror down in my living tomb, holding on by a most frail support, to leave go when exhaustion should overpower me, and sink, buried alive, into the awful heart of the earth.

Did ever living man feel as I felt, _Nkose_, as I clung there, realising that never again was I to behold the light of day? Surely not.

"And then a most unutterably fearsome thing happened. Strange, uncouth whisperings seemed to sound beneath, rising upward from the blackness of the pit. Then something grabbed me by the leg in a firm and bony grip.

The stick of the s.h.i.+eld gave way, and, with a last awful cry of wild terror and despair, I felt myself being dragged down--down!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE EATERS OF MEN.

"In that short flash of time I must have died a thousand deaths. In my terror I made no attempt to arrest my downward course. Stones and dust rattled past my ears, flashes, as of sparks, in front of my brain; then I stopped.

"At first I hardly dared open my eyes, but, feeling the grip on my leg relax, I looked beneath, shuddering, fearful as to what my glance might rest upon--I who had boasted that I knew not fear.

"As my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I made out little slanting rays of light penetrating from somewhere. I could see a vaulted rock wall above, around. But beneath?

"The black darkness of another pit, wherein voices were murmuring, shapes were moving. Ha! the vision of the wizard's _muti_! And as I looked, claws shot upward to seize me. All the old horror which had overwhelmed me in Masuka's hut came back to me now--the vision of the living creatures; shadowy, shapeless, hideous; mouthing and gnas.h.i.+ng to draw me down. That frightful grip was again upon my legs, and, struggling, gasping, amid a cloud of dust and falling s.h.i.+ngle, I was dragged down with a violent crash to the bottom of the pit.

"And now I could see I was beset by a number of the most grisly and horrible shapes the eyes of man ever beheld, for it was not quite dark in this evil hole. Frightful heads, with flattened skulls, and huge, champing jaws and horn-like ears, were wagging over me as I lay, and a bony claw put forth gripped me by the throat in the iron grip of strangulation, and with a growling, worrying snarl more than one pair of teeth seized me in different parts of the body.

"Then, desperate at the prospect of being torn in pieces and devoured by these foul and loathsome creatures, with the very despair of terror I put forth all my strength, and whirling my k.n.o.bstick, it met and crashed against what felt like a head. There was a most blood-chilling yell of wild dismay; then these hideous ghosts flung themselves from me and fled shrieking.

"As I leaped to my feet, s.h.i.+vering with the horror of this awful fate, my eyes becoming more accustomed to the darkness, I made out that I was in a great square chamber, on the floor of which lay several skulls.

"The odour which rose up from this was unspeakably fearful, and as the shafts of light came in stronger I could make out six or eight shapes-- human shapes, I was going to say; but they were as the skeletons of baboons with dry bags of skin hung around them, and they had huge heads.

They were huddled together on the opposite side of the hole, staring, pointing at me with their bony claws, moving to and fro their hideous heads, while whispering together in a hoa.r.s.e and uncouth tongue of which I could gather not a word. Then, while some still watched me, others bent down, and there was a sound as of tearing of meat, of cracking of bones; but what they had got before them I could not at first discern, for the ground was almost in darkness. But while I watched I heard a loud crack, and then two of them raised something from the ground-- something large and heavy--each holding one end in his claws and teeth, tearing and growling like a beast. Then, _Nkose_, those unheard-of terrors predicted by the witch doctor were upon me; for the thing they held up and were thus devouring was the arm of a man, and I could see the fingers of the dead hand as though about to clutch their faces.

What were these who haunted this gloomy hole of death? Were they indeed evil spirits, or were they _Izimu_, or man-eaters, such as in times past had been said to inhabit the country whence we had come out? Some, indeed, were said still to live there, hiding away in holes and caves; and such, you must know, _Nkose_, were held by us Zulus in the utmost detestation, as practising the vilest form of _tagati_.

"While I was thus gazing upon them in horror and disgust, one of the creatures, giving a frightful croak, as though to draw my attention, held up something towards me. It was against the light, and was round and s.h.i.+ny. I had not to look at it twice, for I knew it at a glance.

It was a Zulu head-ring.

"But whence had it come? Had these vultures been hovering over the scene of the battle in order to drag away our brave dead to glut their own foul and loathsome carcases with? In my fury and loathing at the sight, I gripped my k.n.o.bstick--for while falling I had not once lost hold of my weapons--and was about to spring upon them and batter out their miserable lives, when in the rapidly-increasing light I beheld that which caused me once more to sicken and all my blood to turn to ice. For in the torn and mangled body these carrion ghosts were devouring, the battered skull and swollen features, I recognised what had once been Gungana. This, then, was the very hole he had fallen into! What sort of omen was it that had caused me to fall into it likewise? In truth, his prediction that my death should be a worse one than his had nearly been fulfilled, might even yet be fulfilled.

"Things looked plainer now. One unexpected meal had come down to these wizards through the pit into which we had both fallen. On hearing the noise of my descent, in their eagerness for that which should yield another, they must have climbed up to drag me down. _Au_! it was fearful, the thought of such a fate; and, lest fear should again overpower me, I resolved to act. So with a shout I leaped across the floor of the pit. It crackled with bones.

"Those _abatagati_ did not rise; they sat there and screamed. _Au_!

that was a scream--one to come back to a man in his sleep, and cause him to start up trembling! It rang through that frightful den as though to pierce the very rocks. Something was hurled at me, but I stepped aside, and it s.h.i.+vered against the rock behind. It was the skull of a man.

Another flung a weighty object which struck me full in the chest, nearly overturning me. _Whau, Nkose_! Then was horror indeed! That which had so nearly overthrown me was a human leg freshly torn off, and was that of Gungana himself. What an omen, that the man whom I had killed should even in death continue to fight against me!

"Then in my fury I sprang at them, cras.h.i.+ng their brains out with my heavy k.n.o.bstick till I had killed several. The others threw themselves on the ground and screamed dismally. No attempt at resistance made they; indeed, it seemed as though they were hardly able to rise. And then through my rage it flashed upon me that, were I to slay them all, there would be none to reveal the way out; for a way out there must be, and that a secret one; for, save the hole by which I had fallen down, no pa.s.sage of any kind was there to be seen. So, standing over the three that yet remained alive, I held aloft my great k.n.o.bstick, all dripping with blood, and bade them show me the way forth.

"They screeched and chattered, not understanding a word I said. So I made signs by pointing to the hole I had dropped down by, and then making as though I would walk through the rock. This they understood, and with much head-shaking and gesture pointed high above their heads.

But all I could see there was solid rock.

"Yet--there was a crack; then two or three, letting in the light. It seemed to me, on looking long at this, that a flat, irregular hole was there stopped up by a slab of rock, and it was from the ground about twice the height of a tall man. Still, what could it mean? How could these miserable beings have entered by that--still more, how could they get out by it? More and more wonders were here.

"Not one word of their chattering could I understand. But at length, after trying all manner of signs, one of them seemed to convey to me two things--that they entered and went out by means of a thong, and that I must sit down and wait. Again I threatened them with death, but it was of no use. They could do no more than they had done--they still could only sign to me to wait and watch.

"_Au, Nkose_! Truly indeed did the old Mosutu speak when he predicted that I should pa.s.s through horrors which the imagination of man could not invent. For as the long watches of that awful day went by, and I sat there in that darksome den lighted by a crevice here and there in the rocks, sat there among skulls and crackling bones, while opposite me cowered the three evil shapes of those hideous beings among the corpses--more hideous still--of their kind, while on the ground in front of them lay the mangled and torn remains of my own countryman, whom I myself had given over to this fate, then indeed it seemed as though I were one already dead and pa.s.sed away.

"Sometimes I would sing to drive away the awful thoughts which were crowding upon me, but then the _Izimu_ would sign wildly for me to desist, pointing above their heads to the supposed doorway. _Au_! I would not live through that day again--no, not to reign as King over the Amazulu or over the Amandebili for twice the life-time of a man. For that long day came to an end at last, and then, instead of the bright threads of sun-dart through the crevices, there came greyness as though the shades of evening were falling. Think of it, _Nkose_! The day had been bad enough. But night, black rayless night, spent down there among these _abatagati_, among all the foul horrors of these _Izimu_--eaters of men!

"I had risen, and was preparing in my rage to slay those who were left, lest they should bind their magic around me and fall upon me in the darkness, and my fate should be even as that of Gungana, when I perceived them making quick signs to me to sit down, at the same time pointing to the stone overhead. Then I heard sounds above.

"With all the blood in my body tingling, I crouched in the shadow at the further end of the den, and sitting upon my s.h.i.+eld to hide it, I fixed my eyes upon the stone which had been pointed out to me. I saw it move--move away with a rasping noise--and there was a hole wide enough to give pa.s.sage to a man's body. Two or three heads appeared against this and were withdrawn, amid mutterings in an unknown tongue.

"I saw something drop down the rock till it reached the bottom of the den. It was a line. Immediately a man, pa.s.sing himself backwards through the hole, slid down this. I, crouching in shadow, was unseen by him, and, gripping my weapons, I gathered myself for a spring, for I could see that deliverance was to be now or never, and resolved with all my might that it should be now.

"He dropped upon the rocky floor, and stood upright. He was entirely naked, and in build and feature very like the mountain tribe against whom we had been fighting. He was armed with an a.s.segai and battle-axe, and as he stood there rolling his eyes around, I could see the three miserable wretches s.h.i.+vering and speechless with fear.

"He made one spring, and drove his a.s.segai through the body of the foremost; then, not waiting till the wretch was dead, he knelt upon the still struggling carcase, and with the axe hacked off the head, flinging it with a laugh across the horrible hole. It bounded over the crackling bones, nearly striking me where I sat. Then, dragging the spouting carcase to the line, he began to make fast the feet preparatory to the hauling of it up.

"Now, I began to see clearly where I was, and all manner of tales heard in childhood crowded back. Not these miserable beings, who were shut up in this place, were eaters of men--though probably they had been driven by hunger to devour the corpse of Gungana. Those who kept them there were the cannibals, and now I remembered wild and hideous legends of just such practices current among certain of the mountain tribes, and how their captives were shut up in caves or hollows and eaten one by one as they were required. I saw, too, how it was that the place was strewn with skulls. For some dark reason or other the heads were flung away here as I had seen this one flung. Those whom I had first found here were 'cattle.' It was the slaughterhouse of the _Izimu_.

"As the man bent down to knot the feet of the corpse to the line, I stepped lightly up behind him, and with one swift blow of my heavy k.n.o.bstick shattered his skull to atoms. Then, tying around me the end of the line, which was of raw hide and strong, I signed to the two still alive that they should call to those above to draw up the line. This they did, being crafty enough to hope that my escape was to compa.s.s their own.

"Fortunately for me, the aperture was not large enough to admit the pa.s.sage of more than one body at a time, wherefore, when my head rose above the surface, the only things I saw were the backs of eight or ten men who had hauled me to the surface by the simple plan of walking away with the other end of the thong! They must have thought that the slayer and the 'ox' were being drawn up together, from the weight of it. How they were tugging and straining! _Au, Nkose_! you would have laughed aloud to have seen the scare on the faces of those men when they turned round to behold--not the dead carcase, their expected cannibal feast, but a big live Zulu warrior, fully armed with s.h.i.+eld and weapons, charging upon them like lightning, roaring out the war-shout with all the power of his lungs! _Hau_! Did they run? Did they scream? _Hau_!

I saw nothing but their backs as they leaped away among the rocks in all directions, and, indeed, it is little to be wondered at if they did.

And I, _Nkose_--having sufficiently frightened them, I did not linger either.

"When I emerged from the hole into the broad light of day--the shades of evening, rather, for it was growing dark--I saw that I was in a small rocky hollow, in the middle of which a fire was burning, doubtless for cooking the expected meal of the _Izimu_. But having given those who fled a sufficient fright, I lost no time in doing as they did, and fleeing myself. The growing darkness, too, was in my favour, and as I gained the outer ridge of the hollow, I saw beneath, a long rugged slope falling into the far depths of the defile up which our _impi_ had marched the day before, and then my heart felt light again, and I began to sing softly to myself for joy, for now I could find my way back to Ekupumuleni. My enemy Gungana was cleared out of my path, I had fought well and bravely, and Kalipe, the war-chief who would succeed him, and who was kindly disposed towards me, would 'point at' me at the _Tyay'igama_ dance. Then, after all I had gone through and my strange experiences, the face of the King would soften towards me, and I should obtain my heart's desire. And, as though it were a good omen, I almost stumbled over a young buck crouching on the mountain-side, to send an a.s.segai through which was as a flash of time. But I dared not light a fire, lest scattered bands of enemies should still be lurking about; yet, as I was nearly starving, in any event I could not have waited. So I devoured great portions of the animal raw, as I walked, carrying the remainder with me. Then a great weariness came upon me, and, crawling into a hole among the rocks, I slept until the next sun was very high.

CHAPTER TWELVE.