Part 29 (2/2)

”Then,” said Mrs Daveney, ”this is the surest sign of an attack, if we wanted no other evidence of mischief. And now, G.o.d help us!” She withdrew with Marion.

At midnight the watch-fires sparkled on the mountains, and along the more distant ridges the war-cry sounded faintly; but before morning dawned it rang out, loud, prolonged, and clear, and the settlers at Annerley knew that Kafirland was ”up.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE SUNLESS KLOOF.

Meanwhile, guided by Doda, Lee, or, as we may now call him, Lyle, threaded his way through some of those innumerable defiles which, cleaving the great mountains of the Amakosa country in twain, afford covert for many a marauding party with its cattle; and, having pa.s.sed the Zonga River, the two wanderers sat down to rest in a ”murky glen,”

impervious to the sun.

At the time when the people at Umlala's Kraal were intent on torturing the unhappy Amayeka, Lyle and Doda were quietly preparing to refresh themselves with such provision as they had brought with them, and both were not a little startled at hearing the branches in the jungle giving way before some footsteps. There was a crash close to them; two horns emerged from the speck boom, or elephant bush, the head of a huge ox became visible, the body followed, and then two dusky figures. These were our old friend Zoonah and a thieving comrade. The animal had been abstracted from a kloof, where a herd of stolen cattle had been concealed, and the worthy pair had sought this solitary spot with intent to slaughter the beast, and keep holiday as long as it lasted.

The apparition of a white man, seated beside Doda, elicited from them the usual exclamation of ”Ma-wo!” but the party very soon understood each other, and the three Kafirs having _reimed_ the poor creature, they proceeded to destroy it after their own fas.h.i.+on, which I should be sorry to describe. Suffice it to say, that the wretched animal, being secured beyond all power of resistance, was deprived of its tongue by the most cruel process, and its skin subjected to the a.s.segai ere it was fairly dead.

Of late years the Kafirs have abandoned this shocking mode of slaughter; but some of them, when beyond the influence of the white man, or of their less, savage chiefs, will occasionally adhere to the old custom.

Lyle gave up all idea of proceeding on his journey that day; he knew his friends too well to suppose they would separate with such a feast before them. It is just to him to say that he turned with horror and disgust from the quivering body of the poor ox, and would have ended its agony by shooting it, had it been prudent to use firearms.

The three Kafirs--Doda, Zoonah, and Lulu--applied themselves to the plentiful meal before them with a gusto indescribable, and then lay down to sleep. Lyle would have travelled on alone, but this was impracticable, as the only paths that could be safely traversed were new to him; so he was fain to stretch himself on the gra.s.s, and reconsider his plans, which could not be matured till he came face to face with his desperate colleagues, the disaffected Boers. Zoonah was to be questioned as to what he knew of colonial matters, for Doda informed Lyle that he was a well-known spy; but greediness and sloth are the princ.i.p.al characteristics of the Kafir, and till these inclinations were satisfied, nothing could be elicited. Lyle knew that; so, giving way to weariness himself, he, too, fell asleep.

But for this, the noise of the explosion at Umlala's Kraal might have reached them.

They slept on through the hour of noon, till the sun, reaching its meridian, pierced even the dense jungle with a ray or two of light, and Lyle rose, and would have rejoiced much in a cool bath, had there been a stream near; but the torrent that in the rainy season roared and tumbled over the rocks in the middle of the kloof was almost dry; he could only lave his face and hands in the pools, but even this was refres.h.i.+ng.

The three Kafirs were talking together as he ascended the bank, and Doda related to him the tradition of the Sunless Kloof.

It was here that the first white man had been seen by the Amakosas. ”He came,” said Doda, ”from there,” pointing westward. ”The tribes whom this wild rider--for he was on horseback--pa.s.sed on the way were too much terrified to stop him--the covering on his head was supposed to be part of it, but when he lifted it, it caused still greater surprise. He was seen to get off his horse at one time, and the people followed the spoor. They had never seen shoes then; and the print of his feet, so different to our own, made them believe he was not formed like ourselves. He carried in his hand a long hollow weapon, from which there came forth fire, smoke, and thunder; and the horse, being an animal never before seen by Kafirs, caused deeper dread. The natives shunned him as a being not of earth. Some killed cattle on his approach, and placed it in his way as a peace-offering, and, in return, he would leave beads and tobacco beside it. Some honoured him as a wizard; from him the 'Wizard's Glen' takes its name, for his footprints were discovered there one day. He had nearly reached the sea, when Narini's people, believing him to be some unnatural animal, determined to kill him, and, watching him from the rocks, hunted him down, and a.s.segaied him. Since then, men have said that he was one of a tribe of white people, who had been sent by their chief to the country beyond s.h.i.+loh: almost all were murdered. Some found their way back by the Winterberg, but this one must have intended, to seek the Zooluh country, where it was known that a race with white skins, but hair dark as the crow's wing, exchanged beads for slaves.” [The Portuguese settled on the south-east coast.]

Doda ceased to speak, and Zoonah and Lulu commenced singing a wild air, the first words of which were intended to imitate the clatter of a horse's hoof.

”Ite cata, cata mawooka, Na injormane.”

”Clatter clatter, he is going; He goes with a horse, he goes with speed.”

Over and over again they repeated this inharmonious, monotonous ”Ite cata, cata mawooka,” and then drew the embers of the fire together, and prepared to set to work anew upon some fresh steaks of meat.

So, sleeping, and eating, and talking alternately, these savages pa.s.sed the day in the Sunless Kloof. Lyle was content to wait till nightfall ere he advanced, and as he was able to understand much of the language of these children of the wilderness, he listened not without interest to a conversation between Doda and Lulu, the latter never having been located, like Doda and Zoonah, among the missionaries. He had lately, however, paid, a visit to one of the larger frontier towns, where he had heard an account of a criminal's execution; he had not seen it himself, and therefore was sceptical.

”I do not doubt,” said Doda, ”for I have been told by the teacher that the English always kill a murderer.” [The literal translation is, ”one murders another.”]

”And I,” remarked Zoonah, ”have conversed with people who have described the manner in which they kill them by hanging them with string by the neck on poles.”

Lulu, after thinking for some minutes, observed, ”The English must have more people than they can manage?”

”Why do you say so?” asked Doda, who, being the elder, took the lead in the conversation.

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