The Induna's Wife

by Bertram Mitford

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  THE CRUSHING OF THE SNAKE.

  As we sat there, we _izinduna_, watching the place of slaughter wherethose evil-doers had found death, we heard the volume of a mightywar-song approaching. Those within Nkunkundhlovu hushed their ownsinging and gazed outward. A great _impi_ drew near, marching incolumns like unto broad black snakes gliding over the ground. Yet, notall black, but spotted; for the white and red of shields, the streamingof cowhair tufts, the rustling of feather capes, showed forth above theblackness of marching bodies. The wavy glint of spear-points in the sunwas as a sea of light--the tramp of feet as the dark and terrible arrayswung onward--the thunder of the war song! _Hau_! I could feel all theblood tingling within me, and my eyes were aglow as I gazed. Here was aforce, indeed. That which had been led against us by Mhlangana mightequal it, but could hardly surpass it.

  On they came--and as this vast mass of warriors poured in by the lowergate of Nkunkundhlovu they raised the war song of Dingane:

  "Us'eziteni, Asiyikuza sababona."

  Soon the great open space within was crowded. Rank upon rank thewarriors squatted there, crouching behind their shields, their eyesglaring like those of lions as they awaited the word which should letthem loose upon their prey. When the roar of the "_Bayete_," whichgreeted the King's appearance, had sunk into silence, Dingane addressedthem:

  "Lion cubs of Zulu, you are here in your might, for yonder lies preyworthy of your fangs. Yonder is an enemy who has swarmed down upon ourland like the deadly locust pest--an enemy who comes with soft words,but never fails to devour that people who is fool enough to believethose words.

  "There is not room for two nations in the land of Zulu. Two bullscannot rule in one kraal. Yonder is another bull who would bellowloudest in the Zulu fold. The horns of that bull are cut off, but thereis enough of him left to attract by his roarings other bulls like untohimself. Go now, therefore, and slay that bull. Make an end of himutterly."

  As the King paused, with a wave of the hand in the direction of thedistant camp of the Amabuna, the warriors made, as though they wouldhave sprung to their feet; but the King's hand restrained them, and theysank back. Dingane went on:

  "When we destroy a locust swarm which is devouring our lands, we do notdestroy the flying insects only. The young which appear after them,too, we stamp flat. So shall it be with this locust swarm. Stamp itflat. Make an end of it utterly. Let none escape. Go, my children!"

  As one man that dense mass of warriors rose to its feet. As from oneman the "_Bayete_" thundered forth from every throat; and the winnowingof shields and quivering rattle of spear-hafts was as a great galesweeping through a forest. They poured forth from the gates, thoseterrible ones, broadening out upon the plain beyond, in a great streamof rushing men--of lions, of leopards, hungry for blood; and we_izinduna_, who followed more leisurely, could see in the distance thewhite _Umfundisi_ standing at the door of his house, looking upon ourmovements.

  "_Whau_!" growled Tambusa, scowling towards the white man. "Such asthat should long since have travelled the way of the spear. It is suchevil crows whose croak brings our enemies upon us."

  "Yet that is not ill-doing," I said, "for without enemies how shouldthese lion-cubs find meat for their teeth?"

  "There is that without these swarms of white carrion," replied Tambusa,and his voice was as the snarling of a beast. "_Whau_! It is allalike. It licks the feet of the King when it thinks to get land fromhim. When it has got it, the Great Great One should be its dog, even asyonder crow dared to croak not many days since. My heart has been heavyever since that he was not sent to take the place of those upon thestakes."

  On they sped, those messengers of death, on through the burning glare ofmid-day; on through the black gloom of night; on ever, over ruggedheight, through tangled valley and rushing river, pausing but little totake rest.

  After many days we saw signs that we were near the camp of the Amabuna.We rested then, and pushed on cautiously during the night, until withinstriking distance. Then we paused. Little sleep was ours that night.In silence they lay, that black army of terrible ones, with eyesstrained upon the first streak of dawn that should reveal to them theirprey.

  It came at last, that dawn. No sound from the camp of those whites toldthat any were awake and watching. They slept as though safe in theirown land, as though they had not of their own accord come to place theirnecks beneath the paw of the Lion of Zulu. Only the crunch of the jawsof cattle, only the occasional sneeze of a goat, broke the silence.

  In such silence--in such stillness--did the dawn lighten. Then two orthree men began to stir, moving sleepily inside the encampment. Wecould wait no longer. The word was given to fall on.

  I could not sit still with the _izinduna_ when blows were falling, andat the head of the right horn of the _impi_ I found myself flying overthe defences, spear in hand. Within, the awakening for those whites wasterrible. Wild shrieks arose with the roar of our appalling war-shout,as women, with the stamp of death upon their pale countenances, rolledfrom the waggons, and with arms tossed on high, screamed for that mercywe were not there to show. Men were there, too; but these were few, yetthey fought. Shaggy faces confronted me, jets of flame shone redly inmy eyes. My great assegai was shearing around, cleaving the hearts andbodies of these. _Whau_! that was a moment! And through it all, Icould see lines upon lines of flying bodies, of tufted shields andgleaming spears come surging over the waggons on the other side. We hadtaken the camp.

  Not yet, however, was our work complete. Grouping together, thoseAmabuna stood and fought. _Au_! they fought! It was worth living,_Nkose_, to see the fight those men made. With hatchets and knives theydefended themselves; with clubbed guns, too, for they could no longerreload. Man to man, hand to hand, eye to eye, they fought. But thebreadth of our broad shields met blow or stab, and the whelming weightof those behind threw upon them such masses of men that they could nolonger lift hand, and were borne to earth. Blood streamed fortheverywhere, and amid the grim death-yells of the Amabuna and the screamsof their women beneath the assegais rose the shrill "_I-ji_!" the fiercetriumph hiss of each victorious warrior as he drove his spear home.

  And now the whole inside of that great waggon camp was as a den ofraging lions let loose. The dead lay in heaps, but any movement seenamong such heaps would draw a rush to the place, to stab and stab again.Children of all ages--boys, girls, infants--were dragged from theirhiding-places and speared. Even the cattle within the enclosure wereripped and slain. Nothing was spared, young or old, male or female--allwere slain; for it was not our custom to spare; and in this matter theKing's word had been explicit: "Make an end of them utterly." And thiswe had done.

  Now that all were slain we began to see what plunder the camp contained,that it might be collected for the King. And there was much of it--forbesides all manner of provisions and stores, there were things of ironand of glass, knives and axes, and all manner of useful things; but,best of all, there were the long guns of the Amabuna, and powder andball. So much of all this was there that it took time to remove it all,and arrange it in such wise that it could be borne back toNkunkundhlovu, and even then we had to leave some of it.

  "Make an end of them utterly." Such had been the word of Dingane, andlooking at that waggon camp when we left it, I think, _Nkose_, you wouldhave said we had obeyed the word of the Great Great One to the full. Byhundreds the slain lay there, heaps and heaps of dead bodies whom theassegai had kissed again and again. In darker heaps, too, lay our owndead; but of this we thought not much, for even these whites, dreadedalike by all nations who had met them, had not been able to stand beforethe power of Zulu. They had been swept away, as all black nations hadbeen before them; swallowed up, and the wave of our might had rolledover them. And as we moved from the place a fierce new song of triumphthundered forth from the ranks of our host.

  There were some who would have burned the waggons and such stuff ascould not be taken away,
but this we _izinduna_ would not permit, lestthe smoke, seen from afar, should convey warning to other camps of theAmabuna. For our work was not yet done.

  Word was now passed that the _impi_ should form up, and indeed not muchtelling was needed, for their appetite for blood, only whetted with whathad already been shed, the warriors could hardly be kept in hand, soeager were they to reach those other camps. But it would have served nogood purpose that they should tire themselves by marching at a run.Yet, short of this, our advance was a rapid one.

  Even then, however, rapid as it was, we were not to fall upon thoseother camps, as we had expected, all unprepared. Whether it was thatsome had escaped from the first camp, or that the noise of the shoutingand the firing had reached their ears, we found these Amabuna with theirwaggons drawn up so as to form a wall, the spaces between the wheelseven being filled in with bags and boxes, and as we drew near they werestill busy driving in their cattle and horses, for some of their herdshad sighted us from afar. Yet even then they were obliged to leave muchof their cattle outside.

  But to this we gave no heed, for we counted all these as ours already,and such as were scattered about the land we could collect at ourleisure. With a roar and a rush our _impi_ went at the waggon forts,spreading out in "horns" so as to enwrap the whole in a wall of livingleaping men.

  But the long guns from within began to spit forth destruction and death.Pouring into the dense masses of the charging warriors the storm oflead wrought terrible havoc. Those behind, eager to get in among theenemy, bore onward the front ranks, and for these there was no turningback. The air trembled with roars of anguish and of fury, as the leadploughed through body and limb; and in the death-throes the warriors inthe foremost ranks would make one more effort to hurl themselves uponthe grim foe who lined the waggons, so resolute, so cool, and yet soprompt to strike hard when opportunity offered.

  Sudden as our onslaught had been, huge our force, so grimly determinedwas the resistance of those Amabuna, fighting for their lives and fortheir cattle and women, that they actually beat back one side of theattack. Now we, _izinduna_, as the Zulu custom had then become, weretaking no active part in the battle, but from our station on aneighbouring rise were directing the movement of our people, by signalor by runner. But seeing one side of the _impi_ falling into confusionwe could sit still no longer. Tambusa's eyes were like those of ahungry lion, and for long my broad assegai--Umzilikazi's gift--hadseemed to burn within my grasp. We sprang to our feet.

  "Now, Untuswa!" cried Silwane, "you and I will fight side by side, evenas once we fought against each other."

  Down we rushed. We were here--there--everywhere. Under the influenceof our presence, the encouragement of our voices, the wavering side ofthe _impi_ rallied, and hurled itself--a solid black wave--upon thewaggon barricade once more. _Hau_! I seemed to see nothing clearlythen. All was red about me. Our warriors, baring their teeth, howledlike beasts, making furious leaps in their attempts to reach thesedetermined and terrible enemies; but ever to be met by those fierce,shaggy countenances, smoke-blackened, whence gleamed forth eyes fellwith hate and purpose; and the flashes of the guns would singe andblind, so near were they, as they were thrust forward and dischargedwhere the crowd was thickest and most threatening. Even their womenfought. We could see them behind, loading the guns as fast as theAmabuna could fire almost. Great broad-faced hags would reach over thewaggons and hack at our warriors with axes and choppers, or hurl pans ofboiling water over their naked bodies when they approached too near.

  More hot, more fierce, their fire hissed through our ranks. The Amabunahad loaded their guns with many bullets at a time, and these, tearingthrough our serried ranks at close quarters, cut down our men like corn.

  Again and again they fell back, only to rush forward once more. Butevery such onward rush was made with less and less of heart. They couldnot face those terrific storms of lead, and we, _izinduna_, seeing thatthe day was lost, made haste to draw off our warriors before these,panic-stricken, should break and flee. And what a loss had been ours!The waggon forts seemed ringed in with the heaps of our dead. And thosewho lived! Bleeding, panting, begrimed; shields hacked and slit, brokenspears, wounds gaping redly--such was our aspect. Many with shatteredlimbs, where the bullets of the Amabuna had met them, dragged themselvesforward and begged of their brethren the death of the spear, which wasgranted them. Our repulse was complete.

  Yet there remained the cattle, and all outside the waggon forts wespeedily collected; for the Amabuna, valiant as they were when underthat shelter, were too wise to leave it and come forth to meet us in theopen. But although it was a very large and fine herd of beasts which weswept before us on our return to Nkunkundhlovu, our minds were uneasy.Those Amabuna had held their own against us, and were left alive.Presently they would bring others. For every one we could kill, fivewould grow in his place, as, indeed, we were soon to see.