Part 2 (1/2)
”Very good, Baas,” he said ”I, too, should like to go to Durban There are lots of things there that we cannot get here,” and he fixed his roving eye upon a square-faced gin bottle, which as it happened was filled with nothing stronger than water, because all the gin was drunk ”Yet, Baas, we shall not see the Berea for a long while”
”Why do you say that?” I asked sharply
”Oh! Baas, I don't know, but you went to visit the Opener-of-Roads, did you not, and he told you to go north and lent you a certain Great Medicine, did he not?”
Here Hands proceeded to light his corncob pipe with an ash fro his beady eyes fixed upon that part of
”Quite true, Hans, but now I er, for south or north or east or west So to- we cross the river and trek for Natal”
”Yes, Baas, but then why not cross it this evening? There is still light”
”I have said that ill cross it to-,” I answered with that firmness which I have read always indicates a e e besides words Will the Baas have that buck's leg for supper, or the stuff out of a tin with a dint in it, which we bought at a store two years ago? The flies have got at the buck's leg, but I cut out the bits with the ht, things do change, especially the weather That night, unexpectedly, for when I turned in the sky see before it was due, which lasted off and on for three whole days and continued intermittently for an indefinite period Needless to say the river, which it would have been so easy to cross on this particular evening, by thetorrent, and so reth I trekked south to where a ford was reported, which, when reached, proved impracticable
I tried another, a dozen y land It looked all right and ere getting across finely, when suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and there we stuck Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would have rehbourhood of that ford to this day, had I notto a Christian Kaffir, and with their help to drag it back to the bank whence we had started
As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storht it down in flood again, a very heavy flood
In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere and no one seerumble about the cost of their upkeep I wish they could have experienced what a lack of the times of excessive rain, and the same res, hter who had twins two years running, adding that they ht have been triplets
To return-after this I confessed ave up until such time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap Trekking out of sight of that infernal river which annoyed , I camped on a comparatively dry spot that overlooked a beautiful stretch of rolling veld Towards sunset the clouds lifted and I saw a mile or tay a rew a dense forest Its upper part, which was of bare rock, looked exactly like the seated figure of a grotesque person with the chin resting on the breast There was the head, there were the arms, there were the knees Indeed, the whole y of Zikali which was tied about my neck, or rather of Zikali hi to this strange hill, now blazing in the angry fire of the setting sun that had burst out between the storm clouds, which made it appear more ominous even than before
”That is the Witch Mountain, Baas, where the Chief Ureat club used to hunt with the wolves It is haunted and in a cave at the top of it lie the bones of Nada the Lily, the fair woaas”[]
[] For the story of Uaas and Nada see the book called ”Nada the Lily”-Editor
”Rubbish,” I said, though I had heard so of all that story and re her beauty to that of another whoaas?”
”They say that his town is yonder on the plain, Baas It is called the Place of the Axe and is strongly fortified with a river round most of it, and his people are the People of the Axe They are a fierce people, and all the country round here is uninhabited because Uaas has cleaned out the tribes who used to live in it, first with his wolves and afterwards in war He is so strong a chief and so terrible in battle that even Chaka hiaan the King to his end because of a quarrel about this Nada Cetywayo, the present king, too leaves him alone and to him he pays no tribute”
Whilst I was about to ask Hans from whom he had collected all this infor up, saw three tall reat speed
”Here come some chips froon
I did not bolt because there was no tih I wished I had reat deliberation lighted e-looking fellows
These, who I noted carried axes instead of assegais, rushed straight at me with the axes raised in such a fashi+on that anyone unacquainted with the habits of Zulu warriors of the old school,short of murder
As I expected, however, within about six feet of me they halted suddenly and stood there still as statues For h I did not see theed to lift my head, surveyed them with an air of mild interest
Then I took a little book out of ends-and began to read
The passage which caught my eye, if ”axe” be substituted for ”knife” was not inappropriate It was fro 'tis to see and to know That the bare knife is raised in the hand of the foe, Without hope to repel or to ward off the blow!”
This proceeding of ood deal who felt that they had, so to speak, missed fire At last the soldier in the middle said, ”Are you blind, White Man?”
”No, Black Fellow,” I answered, ”but I aood as to stand out of ht?” a remark which puzzled them so much that all three drew back a few paces
When I had read a little further I ca lines, ”'Tis plain, As anatoain, Shall life revisit the foully slain When once they've been cut through the jugular vein”
In ether too suggestive, so I shut up the book and ree by your being so thin, I aive you what they can”
”Ow!” said the spokesreat reat , ”and if you trouble me too much you will see that I can be ers froaas, Captain of the People of the Axe, and ant tribute,” answered the ed tone
”Do you? Then you won't get it I thought that only the King of Zululand had a right to tribute, and your Captain's na here,” said the man still more uncertainly
”Is he indeed? Then aith you back to hih I have a aas, that Macuht, intends to visit hiht to show the best path for the waggon”
”Hearken,” said the man to his companions, ”this is Macuht it, for who else would have dared--”
Then they saluted with their axes, calling me ”Chief” and other fine na out that aas would send the guide
So it came about that, quite contrary to ht me to the Town of the Axe Even to the last o there, but when the tribute was de once passed my word it could not be altered Indeed, I felt sure that in this event there would be trouble and thatissued its decree, of which Hans's version was that Zikali, or his Great Medicine, had so arranged things, I shrugged my shoulders and waited
CHAPTER III
UMSLOPOGAAS OF THE AXE
Next uides arrived fro with them a yoke of spare oxen, which showed that its Chief was really anxious to see uides leading us by a rough but practicable road down the steep hillside to the saucer-like plain beneath, where I sawsoreat breadth that encircled a considerable Kaffir town on three sides, the fourth being protected by a little line of koppies which were joined together alls Also the place was strongly fortified with fences and in every other way known to the native mind