Part 11 (1/2)
”No, they will not leave us, you may be certain; they will try to starve us out rather, and that reain before long” Without any loss of appetite from their late exciteain ready for a fresh attack
”So to take place,” exclaiain What have they there? It is two Busher for us See you what they will do?”
”The rascals--yes, they have made the Bushmen understand that unless they shoot us with their poisoned arrows they will be theht for our lives, indeed Down, Victor, under cover,” shouted Hans, and both men dropped behind their barricade just before two poisoned arrows flew over them, and struck the rock behind
”The Schelet a shot at them We must watch and wait for our chance We must shoot the Bushmen, for no Matabili can handle their weapons Let us kill theer”
The thorough Bushst the aborigines The Amakosa or Kaffir tribes on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony have for their national weapon the light throwing assagy This is a spear about six feet in length, an iron head about one-third or one-fourth the length being inserted into a wooden handle
An expert Kaffir will throw one of these assagies with precision about eighty yards, and with sufficient force to penetrate a man's body at that distance
The Zulu Kaffir and the Matabili use the heavier assagy, which is not so , but is more fitted for close quarters, and is hter assagy of the Amakosa are far less deadly than is the tiny arrow of the Bush, the haft is made of reed, the end of the arrow is made either of hard wood or bone This end is merely inserted into the hollow reed, and can be taken out and reversed if required, so that a Bushy in a reed-sheath as it were, until it is required for use, when he reverses it, and thus keeps the poison fresh
The poison itself is said to be a coetable, and mineral poison The animal is procured from poisonous snakes, many species of which are co these the cobra, puff-adder, ring-hals, etc, being nuetable is obtained from roots known to the Bushmen, and of species of the cactus The mineral is supposed to be some preparation of copper, which the Bushmen find in the country; but about, this composition there seeh little more than scratched with a Bush more than one or two hours The Bushe his arroith such speed, that he will often have three arrows in the air at the saed before the first has struck the ground
Knowing the accuracy of the Bushmen's aim, and the deadly nature of the poison they used, Hans and Victor fully coer, they now encountered The Bushman is as active as a baboon; and could these men have been trusted, they would have been ordered to ascend the rocks above the Dutchmen and shoot them from that position; but the Matabili dare not trust them: they had captured these two men, and noed theied themselves; thus the two tiny Bushmen used all their skill and watchfulness in order to save their own lives The Bushave no chance for a shot, requested to be allowed to ascend the rock and thus get a shot at their targets The Matabili, however, would not trust theo over to their enee of their spears; so they directed them to watch their chance of a shot, and if the white men showed even a hand above the rocks, this hand was to be at once struck with an arrow
Both parties were noatching to obtain a chance of a shot at the other: the white ive the Bush even at the rocks near where they were concealed; and the Bushed from tree to tree, in order to try to obtain a shot at some part of the Dutchmen
”I will try what sort of a shot I can make with a Bushman's bow and arrow,” said Hans; ”I know a fellow is behind that tree stem, so I will try and hit that with one of the arrows of the boe have”
”Don't expose an arh, Hans,” said Victor; ”for it is death even to be scratched by one of their arrows”
”I will be careful,” replied Hans, as he fitted an arrow to the bowstring, and crouching below the rocks they had piled up as a breastwork, drew the bow and discharged the arrow The little reed flew on, and fell at the side of the tree near which one of the Bushh he knew not who had discharged it, and, with an eagerness to possess himself of the weapon which quite overcarasped the arrohich he at once saw a the result of this, saw the act of the Bushed a bullet at him
True to its direction, the bullet struck the Bushh his ar his bow The wounded man had nothe could no longer be of service of the a natural hatred of Bush to the re the white men, he would soon meet the same fate as his companion
Scarcely had the two men taken their eyes off the tree behind which the Bushman had been killed, when Katrine's voice and words caused them to look on the plain to the eastward of their position
”Hans, Hans!” she called, ”look what is co: there are more Matabili
Are there not two hundredto help those who are now here? What can we do?”
Hans and Victor looked towards the east, and there saw a large body of Matabili co rapidly over the plains, and evidently directed, by souide, towards their present position
”They will be too many for us, Victor, I am afraid; what are we to do noonder?”
”Keep down, Hans! keep down!” said Victor; ”see what is in your hat!”
Hans instinctively crouched behind the breastwork, and taking off his hat, saw in the crown a Bushman's arrow
”There's another struck the rock behind us; we e now that his brother is killed There he is, Victor, in that fork of the tree, the rascal, he oes for two ounces of lead in hiun was followed by the dull sound of the Bush dead before he reached it Froeful yell answered the report of the gun, and the additional party of Matabili rushed onwards, their shouts being responded to by their cohold