Through Veld and Forest Part 10

Then, with it in my hand, I turned to the king and said:

"Behold, Lomalindela! yonder is a flight of rock pigeons about to pa.s.s over our heads. If one of them should fall dead in this square, would you believe that I have told you the truth, and that you may break your oath with impunity?"

"Yea, I will," answered the king, looking in the direction toward which I was pointing, "for why should one of them fall dead, seeing that their flight is strong and full of life?"

"You shall see," said I, and slowly raised my rifle. The birds were flying very high, and I foresaw that the shot would be a difficult one, but I had accomplished others quite as difficult in my time, and was determined that I would not fail now; therefore, holding my breath as the pigeons drew overhead, I sighted about six inches ahead of the leader and pulled the trigger. A low-murmured e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of surprise followed the report of the piece, and simultaneously with it the leading pigeon was seen to spring convulsively upward about a foot, a feather or two detached themselves from its body, and then its wings collapsed and down it came, hurtling through the air, and falling, as luck would have it, within a few inches of the king's feet!

And, as though the soft thud of its body upon the ground had been a signal, up went the hand of every man present to his mouth, and a low "Au!" of awe and amazement rolled round the square like the mutter of distant thunder.

"Is it enough, O King; and are you satisfied?" I demanded, as I stepped forward and, picking up the bird, handed it to the monarch for his inspection.

"It is enough, and I am satisfied," answered the king. "I recall my oath, and the man's life is yours, to do as you will with it."

"I thank thee most heartily, O Great, Great One," answered I. Then, turning to 'Mfuni, I said: "Return now to your place in the ranks, 'Mfuni, and to your friends. You fought well, and it was through no fault of yours that you were defeated. And when you are dismissed from duty, come to my wagon, and I will see what may be done toward mending the wound that the king's sword inflicted upon you."

"'Nkos'!" answered 'Mfuni, throwing up his hand in salute as he swung round upon his heel and marched back to his place in the ranks. And as he went there gradually arose from the a.s.sembled troops a sound like the pattering of rain upon a roof, caused by the drumming of spear-haft upon s.h.i.+eld, beginning so gently that at first it was scarcely audible, but rapidly swelling in volume until it became almost deafening, when it as rapidly subsided into silence. I did not understand the meaning of it at the moment; but, later on, when I questioned Mapela, he informed me that it was the method adopted by the Mashona warriors to express admiration, approval, and appreciation of any act of an exceptionally generous and n.o.ble character, and had been evoked by my treatment in general of the 'Mfuni incident, and especially by my successful intervention to save the man from the most horrible form of death known among them.

From the fact that the scowl had vanished from the king's brow I surmised that he, too, was well pleased at the final outcome of the matter; and when presently the sound of the peculiar salute to which I have referred had died away, he pointed to the rifle in my hand and said:

"Is that the magic fire tube which kills from afar, of which thy servant spoke when he came hither to crave my permission that thou shouldst enter my country and visit me here?"

"Even so," I answered, offering it for examination, for I had not reloaded it, and knew that, however carelessly he might handle it, he could do no mischief. But he declined to touch it, saying:

"Nay, it is great and terrible magic, and I will have naught to do with it. And thou, white man with the unp.r.o.nounceable name, art also a great and wonderful magician, for at thy will the lightning flashes from thy fire tube and the very birds of the air fall dead at thy feet. Also, when thou didst fight 'Mfuni, thou didst cause the sword in thy hand to flash lightnings about thee by the swiftness with which thou didst wield it. Therefore I give thee a new name; and henceforth thou shalt be known as Chia'gnosi (The Smiter with Lightning). Go now, in peace, Chia'gnosi. I thank thee for the splendid gifts which thou hast bestowed upon me, and especially for the lightning-flas.h.i.+ng sword, as also for saving the life of one of my warriors. And to-morrow thou shalt sit beside me, here in this great square, and witness the annual festival of the Mashona nation. Sala guhli!"

Accepting this as my dismissal, I saluted, and, wheeling round, beckoned Piet to follow me to the place where I had left my horse, at the entrance to the square. But I had not gone six steps upon my way when-- whether spontaneously or in response to some signal I know not--up went the spear of every warrior present, in salute, and a great shout of "Chia'gnosi--Chia'gnosi--'Nkos'!" rent the air, to which I, as in duty bound, responded by halting for a moment and raising my hand to my hat-brim in a military salute.

About twenty minutes after my return to the wagon, 'Mfuni, my late antagonist, put in an appearance, in obedience to my instructions. He was still in full panoply of war, as he had appeared on parade, and had provided himself with a new bangwan, or stabbing spear, which, with his s.h.i.+eld, war club, and a sheaf of hunting a.s.sagais, he respectfully laid at my feet as he halted before me.

"Why do you do that, 'Mfuni?" I asked, regarding the man with some surprise.

"Because henceforth I am thy man, O Chia'gnosi," he answered. Then, in reply, I suppose, to my look of continued astonishment, he added: "The 'Nkosi spared my life, and the king gave me to him; therefore henceforth I am his man."

"Do you mean that you intend to attach yourself to me, to become one of my servants?" I demanded.

"Even so, 'Nkos'," he answered simply.

"But," I said, "the king will never permit that, 'Mfuni; he would be very angry indeed with me should he discover that I had carried off one of his warriors. Probably he would send an impi after us to eat us up."

"Nay, O Chia'gnosi, he would not; for it was the Great One himself who ordered me to come to thee," replied 'Mfuni. "He gave me to thee; and the king does not go back from his word."

"Very well. In that case thou mayst remain, and glad shall I be to have thee," said I. "And now, let me look at thy hand; I must see what can be done to heal the hurt that the sword inflicted upon thee."

The gash seemed to be a rather severe one, practically incapacitating the member for the time being, and it took me the best part of half an hour to extract the splinters of bone and bind up the wound, during which time I must have inflicted a good deal of pain upon the poor fellow, for the perspiration streamed down his face like rain. Yet all the time he sat motionless and impa.s.sive as a statue, never moving a muscle or shrinking in the least.

Before I had finished with my surgery, Mapela and the rest of the chiefs turned up, in response to my invitation to call at the wagon to receive the gifts which I proposed to distribute among them; and I soon gathered, from their conversation, that 'Mfuni's story was perfectly true, and that the king had indeed given the man to me as a present.

To distribute gifts to nearly one hundred chiefs proved to be a somewhat lengthy business, also it made a pretty severe inroad into my stock of "truck"; still, it had to be done, and I could only hope that, in the long run, my generosity would not be without its reward. I treated them all alike, or practically so, giving each man a yard of thin copper wire, a gill measure of mixed beads, and either a bandana handkerchief or a yard of printed calico.

And while the distribution was proceeding my visitors chatted volubly with me, and still more volubly with each other, the princ.i.p.al topic of interest, I soon discovered, being the festival which was to commence one hour after daybreak on the morrow, and to last all through the day and well on into the hours of the succeeding night. The chiefs conversed with the utmost freedom in my presence and hearing, but at the outset I was too much engrossed in the business of distributing gifts to pay very much attention to what was said, a stray word or two here and there being all that I caught at first. At length, however, it began to dawn upon me that the so-called "festival" promised to be anything rather than festive, if I had not completely misunderstood the trend of certain of the remarks which had attracted my attention, and accordingly I p.r.i.c.ked up my ears, and began to ask a few questions. And then I learned, to my horror, that the first feature of the festival, namely, the "smelling out" of the king's secret enemies by the witch doctors, was more likely to resemble closely an orgy of wholesale murder than anything else that I could imagine.

The ceremony, I gathered, was somewhat as follows. The "witch doctors"

or magicians of the nation--numbering in all something over a hundred-- all of whom were then in Gwanda for the purposes of the ceremony, would a.s.semble at sunset that same evening in a sort of fetish house; and there, under the leaders.h.i.+p and direction of one Machenga, the head or chief witch doctor, would perform certain mysterious rites, and submit themselves to a certain mysterious form of treatment, lasting the entire night, which, it was generally understood, would enable them infallibly to "smell out" or detect every individual who might harbour evil thoughts or designs against the king. And these unfortunates, it appeared, would, upon detection, be haled forth and summarily executed there and then! I learned, further, that while the king put the most implicit faith in the infallibility of the witch doctors, and especially in that of Machenga, the head or chief of them, a few of the indunas who were then talking to me held rather strongly to the opinion that the selection of victims was not so much the result of supernatural guidance and wisdom vouchsafed to the witch doctors, as it was--at least in the case of the more important and distinguished victims--governed rather by Machenga's personal hatred, or his cupidity; a few of the shrewder observers having noticed, each year, that the chosen victims invariably included certain men toward whom the head witch doctor was well known to cherish a feeling of strong enmity, while other victims comprised those chiefs who were numbered among the richest men in the community--the law being that, while the property of the alleged traitors was forfeited to the king, half of it was surrendered to the head witch doctor, as his fee for the detection of the criminals. Mapela, "the Wise One", was one of the strongest upholders of the above theory, and in support of the soundness of it he whispered to me:

"You see that tall induna yonder, talking with two others? Yes, the man with the necklace of lions' teeth. He is Logwane, reputed to be the most wealthy induna. For a number of years he has paid heavy tribute to Machenga, thus purchasing immunity from being 'smelled out'; but during this last year he has become a favourite of the Great, Great One, and presuming upon this, I understand that now he has refused to pay further tribute to Machenga, and has defied him. _Mark my words: he will be among those smelled out to-morrow_!"

"You think so?" I whispered back. "And, if so, what will be his fate?"

"Chiele (slain)!" answered Mapela tersely, accompanying the word with an expressive movement of his right hand, imitative of a man stabbing another.

"What! notwithstanding the fact that he is a favourite of the king?" I demanded incredulously.

"Neither that nor the fact that he is highly esteemed by us all and is well known to be absolutely loyal to the king will save him. You will see," replied Mapela.

"But," I exclaimed hotly, "that would be monstrous--nothing short of deliberate, cold-blooded murder! Do you really think that the king will permit it? And if he should, will none of you intervene?"

"The king will permit it, because he has absolute faith in Machenga,"

answered Mapela. "And, as for us, who are we that we should intervene to prevent that which the Great, Great One permits?"

"And are the victims killed there and then, on the spot?" demanded I.

"Have they no chance given them to appeal against Machenga's judgment, no opportunity to produce proof of their innocence?"

"None," answered Mapela. "They are dragged forth; the executioners take them; and--they die! You will see; for the king has bidden you to be present to-morrow."

"I shall not see," I retorted, "for I shall decline to be present.

Nothing shall induce me to countenance by my presence such a scene of cold-blooded atrocity!"

"Nay, my friend," answered Mapela, laying his hand impressively upon my arm, "you must not dream of attempting to evade the king's command. To do so would be fatal to you and your followers, for it would be interpreted to mean that in your heart you cherish evil thoughts against the king, and fear to face the ordeal. And an impi would instantly be dispatched with orders to 'eat up' you and yours! No; however disagreeable to you may be the sights which you will witness to-morrow, you must on no account seek to evade them. I tell you this as your friend, because I wish you well, and because my snake tells me that in some way--how I know not--your presence at the 'smelling out' to-morrow will be the means whereby many valuable lives will be saved. And now it is time that we should depart; we have been with you long enough. Sala guhli, Chia'gnosi, until to-morrow. And bear well in mind my caution to you," he concluded in a whisper. Then, rising, he made a sign to the rest of the chiefs, who sprang to their feet, saluted, and retired in a body, after reiterating their thanks for the "splendid" gifts I had bestowed upon them.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

MACHENGA, THE CHIEF WITCH DOCTOR OF THE MASHONA.

It was about mid-afternoon of that same day when, as I sat in the shadow of the wagon tent, pondering upon the possibility of my being able successfully to approach the king upon the question of a concession to mine gold in Mashonaland, Piet informed me that certain men, whom 'Mfuni recognised as messengers from the king, were coming toward the wagon from Gwanda; and some five minutes later they arrived.

There were six of them, and they were laden with goods which I needed not their explanation to a.s.sure me were presents from the king. One bore a complete Mashona warrior's panoply, consisting of plumed headdress, leopard-skin mantle, mucha of leopards' tails, armlets, anklets, and garters of cows' tails, a necklace consisting of about forty gold nuggets, bored and strung upon a strip of rimpi, s.h.i.+eld, war club, and an immense bangwan, or stabbing spear. This gift was of course to be regarded as a logical sequence and appropriate return for the uniform which I had presented to His Majesty that morning. But there were other gifts as well, and exceedingly valuable ones, too, three of the other messengers being bearers each of a most magnificent kaross, or skin rug, one being made of lions' skins, one of leopards'

skins, and one--the finest of all--of monkeys' skins of some species unknown to me, the black fur being extraordinarily long, thick, and glossy. The remaining two men carried, each of them, a leather bag weighing about sixty pounds, one bag containing coa.r.s.e gold dust, while the other was full of small, rough nuggets of gold. These two men were also the bearers of a message of apology from the king, to the effect that, since I seemed to have a liking for gold, he regretted that he had no more to offer me, but that as gold was of no value in the country, and was not particularly sought after, it was only occasionally that a stray nugget or a handful of dust was found; and that the contents of the bags represented the casual findings of many years.

It was somewhat disappointing to learn that here, in Gwanda, where I had confidently antic.i.p.ated that gold in practically unlimited quant.i.ty might be had almost for the asking, there should be so little; yet the situation was not without its compensations, for if the natives attached so little value to the metal that they would not even take the trouble to hunt for it, there ought to be all the more for me--if I could but coax the king into granting me a concession. So I dissembled my disappointment, handed over the gifts to Piet, with instructions to pack them away in the rear of the wagon, rewarded the messengers who had brought them, and dismissed them, happy in the possession of a few mixed beads.

About half-past ten o'clock that night I was sitting in my wagon, reading by the light of the all but full moon--for, this being the eve of the great annual festival, the town was in an uproar, and the volume of sound emanating from it and from the temporary encampments outside it rendered sleep impossible--when I became aware of a figure m.u.f.fled in a great kaross in such a manner as to render identification impossible.

Apart from this circ.u.mstance, however, there was a certain suggestion of furtiveness in the movements of the figure, a something indicative of a desire to avoid observation, that attracted my attention from my book and aroused my curiosity. It seemed to be wandering about aimlessly; but when I had been watching it for some ten minutes I became convinced that, erratic as its movements seemed to be, they were not without method; and that method, I soon saw, was causing the unknown one--a man--to gravitate slowly but surely toward the wagon. So I waited patiently, and a quarter of an hour later he accomplished a masterly movement which brought him within the shadow of the wagon.

"S'a bona muntu," I remarked quietly. "What is the business that brings you by such a crooked path to my wagon to-night?"

"Au!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the mysterious one in some confusion. "Chia'gnosi has good eyes; nothing escapes him; he sees even the little red ticks that hide themselves on the blades of the gra.s.s. If his ears are as good as his eyes he will perchance have heard of one named Machenga."