Jasper Lyle Part 19

Of the two, he hated Lee the most, for he could discriminate between the energy of the one and the pa.s.sive sorrow stamped on the countenance of the other. Then Doda was an object of special abhorrence; for Doda, when he could, pleaded the white man's cause. Amayeka, from her acquirements, invested her father with a power he would not otherwise have possessed; by her intelligence the wizard often found his plans forestalled, his prophecies doubted; but he had besides a deeper source of hatred against her, for a true Kafir she was not. Through her veins ran the blood of white forefathers; her ancestress was one of those unfortunates who had been stranded at the Umbeesam River when the _Grosvenor_ was wrecked.

To her lineage Amayeka owed her soft, though short, and wavy hair, her complexion of fairer hue than is usual among the Amakosa race, her delicately-chiselled outline of feature, and her falling shoulders. Her limbs I have described as exquisitely moulded, and the voice musically sweet.

But although pleased to refer to her white ancestress, whom she faintly remembered, shrunk, bronzed, withered with age, and degraded to the state of a savage, Amayeka's habits were those of the wild tribe to which she belonged; but tender-hearted, with something about her of the English attribute grat.i.tude, unknown amongst Kafirs, some of those old a.s.sociations, whose roots lie deepest in the human heart, had led her to take an interest in Lee and Gray when she first heard their voices in the midnight solitude of the Witches' Krantz. Lee's ungracious manner soon repelled her; but Gray's dependence on her good offices as guide drew her towards him; and now, kindred, tribe, allegiance, all were forgotten in her pa.s.sion for her white lover.

They sat together in silence for some moments, Amayeka resting her head on Gray's shoulder, her dusky locks mingling with his brown hair, which had grown long during his exile, and would have given to his countenance an air of effeminacy, but for the moustache shading his upper lip.

Horrible wizard! what a contrast to these youthful beings must thou have presented, leaning thy clay-painted face from its green covert!

Gall-bladders, jackals' tails, and the polished teeth of monkeys, wolves, and tigers, made the head inconceivably hideous; and the great eyes glittering in the dusk would have startled the lovers had they looked up.

But they had no thought beyond their own vague destinies. The shades of night deepened, they could hear the girls and children chanting monotonously on their way to the kraals, the stream rippled past them unheeded, the guanas plashing merrily among the little pools, and the meercat nestled closer to Amayeka's feet.

"They say, Amayeka," whispered Gray, "that war is proclaimed in the colony, and that soldiers are marching towards the Kei."

"Oute!" ("Hear!") said Amayeka, who often used this Kafir prefix. "The white man's word to kill has not yet gone forth. The red soldiers are scattered through the bush. The Amakosas sleep with an open eye, but are not yet up. Soon a voice will be heard on the mountains, and answered from the valleys, and the war-cry will fill the land."

There was a pause.

"Amayeka," said Gray, "what will you do when your tribe is roused? You cannot stay here. You must fly."

"And leave you?" asked Amayeka, in a tone indescribably mournful.

"I love you, Amayeka; you must fly with me."

"You love me, Martin, you love me!" repeated the Kafir girl, in distinct and sweetly-toned English, as if she had just acquired a knowledge of the value attached to the language, because her lover understood her at once; and then she went on in an innocent, childish way: "Ukutanda, diyatanda, diyatandiva, diyakutanda"--"To love, I love, I am loved, I will love;" and laughing gleefully at applying an old lesson to a purpose hitherto unthought of she forgot the war-cry--the red soldiers-- she began to teach Gray the lesson, and when he had repeated it over and over again, to her infinite satisfaction, she tried to look into his countenance by the dusky light, and laughed softly.

"But, Amayeka," said Gray again, "tell me, will you go with me from this wild tribe of yours?"

"Go!" said Amayeka, her low laugh turned into a sigh--"And whither?

Leave the land, and my people to sit in the ashes! Cowards only fly from a burning kraal; the brave stand by to quench the flame, and help the ruined."

"But the red soldiers are my countrymen," said Gray; "you would not have me fight them!"

Amayeka tried to understand her lover's notions of treachery; but the question resolved itself into these simple words--"Ah! you must not go; you belong to us now."

The deserter groaned.

She took his hand, bent her head upon it, and kissed it with mute tenderness.

They sat in silence till night fell, and a pale shimmer on the stream only served to make the darkness more palpable. But Amani's eyes still glared upon them fiercely, and he hated them with a deeper bitterness than ever.

They rose together, and walked leisurely by the waterside.

The wizard left his covert, and, gliding along the bank above, peeped over it occasionally to watch them. Sometimes they stopped on their way and whispered. He could hear Amayeka's voice falter, and he cursed her knowledge of the white man's language. Once, just where the moon's rays glinted, they stood, and Amani could see in Amayeka's hands something glittering. He recognised it as a steel chain, which he had observed round Gray's neck, with a knife of many blades suspended by it. How often he had coveted it! He heard the knife drop; Gray was unconscious of its fall. The Kafir girl picked it up, and gave it to her lover.

Little thought Amayeka of the great need in which that knife would help her within a few hours.

At the lower drift Amayeka crossed the stream. Gray watched her over; took a keen glance up and down, little dreaming that Amani was watching him from a wolf-hole ten yards off; and then a low chirrup, like the cry of the quail, announced that all was safe in the copse Amayeka had entered. Gray then traversed the stones of the ford.

Ere long, Amani could see them emerge singly from the covert, Amayeka taking one path, for it was not too dark for Kafir eyes to distinguish the outline of a woman's form, with the little meercat trotting after her; her lover went another way, and then the wizard, profiting by a cloud which overshadowed the moon's silver rim for a minute or two, stepped stealthily across; and, biding his time, sought his hut, and retiring therein, closed the matted entrance, and began to chant his demoniacal incantations, to the great awe of the people a.s.sembled round their fires at the doors of their dwellings.

Gray found Lee supping on broiled meat, and one of poor Amayeka's coa.r.s.e, sweet cakes; and Lee, after rallying the deserter on his pa.s.sion, informed him that he proposed next day to start for the foot of the mountains with Doda, who had got leave from Umlala to guide the "White Brother" to the trading station.

Gray was pa.s.sive in the strong man's hand. If he ever attempted remonstrance with his master--for such he felt the elder convict to be-- the latter invariably denounced him as too weak to be vicious, swearing he would be a knave if he dared. As to escape from such thraldom, he could see none; and on the other side of the picture was Amayeka, the only creature on earth whom he loved, or who loved him. Honourable servitude was beyond his reach at present, and in the mean time he was pledged to Amayeka--vaguely--but still pledged. To her he owed all the comforts of his present sad existence, and she had many ways and means of ministering to them; he was bound to her by the ties of grat.i.tude as well as of affection; he pitied her, and he believed, moreover, that if he left her, she must die--die perhaps by torture!

He sat down in the hut among the ashes of the dying fire. Lee could not see his comrade's face, for it was buried in his hands, bowed upon his knees; but the young man's frame shook like an aspen-tree; and oh! the bitter agony of the voice that cried aloud, "G.o.d have mercy on me!"

Surely the good angels then shedding their influence on the desolate being dictated that solemn and heart-rending appeal, and then heralded the cry to heaven!

Lee looked at the deserter with some contempt, but uttered no harsh word. He contented himself with sketching out a plan for Gray's guidance on the arrival of trading messengers between the Umzimvooboo and the Witches' Krantz; delivered to his charge a letter in cipher, to be forwarded to Brennard, explaining the necessity of his visit to the Stormberg, on trading "thoughts intent," and transmitting a receipt connected with certain monetary transactions. He also mentioned his intention of returning to Umlala's kraal within a given time, and then, in serio-comic phraseology, proceeded to inform Gray that, on rejoining him, he should make a barter with the chief for "a few Kafir wives."

"Don't be frightened, my lad," continued the reckless convict; "I a.s.sure you I have no intention of interfering with you, though I must own to a little regard for your girl on account of her white blood. Not that I owe the country I came from anything but a curse; but she is a deuced deal better-looking for her straight nose and smooth hair. The girl has good points, and I have shared the luck if I have not the love, for she makes good cakes, and can wash and mend my clothes as well as any Englishwoman. I should think, too, she was not to be had cheap; but you can afford to give a good lot of cattle for her, eh!" and Lee went on jeering, and puffing _dagha_ [the wild hemp, the seeds of which possess much of the stupefying powers of opium] out of a long wooden pipe, till Gray was too stupified with the vapour to resent the brutality of his companion, who having, at the opening of the conversation, drawn from the deserter all that he could touching his position with Amayeka, suggested finally, with apparent good faith, that in the event of any great crisis suddenly taking place among Umlala's people, the lovers should make their way to a spot, to be selected by Doda, in the road to the Stormberg. Doda, however, was to imagine the rendezvous was only for Lee and Gray, and under no circ.u.mstances to be enlightened as to the part Amayeka was to take in this episode of the young deserter's life.

Gray was awoke the next morning by the light streaming in through the hut door, which was ajar. He had been late in falling asleep, and was heavy, and disinclined to rise for the day; but he looked out,--the huts were yet closed, the cattle still in the kraals; there was profound silence on the plain,--the sun had just gilded the eastern heights.

Gray closed the door, which had not been carefully drawn to by Lee, who had evidently, without rousing his comrade, departed on his journey; for the "traps" he had set in order to take with him had disappeared. Gray cast himself down in a sort of sullen despair, and weary thoughts of past and future disturbed his aching brain.

Ere long the whole hamlet woke up; the cattle came lowing from the folds, the dogs were giving tongue, the women and girls were astir, preparing for the hard labours of the day, building huts, hewing wood, and tilling the ground. Several youths were a.s.sembled on the plain, some to start on a hunting expedition, some on marauding parties, for much fine cattle had been brought in the preceding evening by a foraging band, and was being paraded before Umlala, that he might feast his eyes on the prize. The sight was a strong temptation to the young men to try their luck in an adjoining kloof, where it was expected some colonial cattle had been driven by a neighbouring tribe, ready to swear to the British authorities that they were alike guiltless and ignorant in the matter, though in treaty with Umlala to share the stolen property with him if he would shelter it.

But all these preparations were brought to a standstill by the unexpected appearance of the wizard Amani, whose great clay-painted face first emerged from the low entrance of his hut; he crawled out of it, and stood upright, waving an a.s.segai with his brawny arm. The people stood still at sight of this awful apparition, for he was arrayed in the hideous costume peculiar to these wretches when it is their will and pleasure to call a solemn a.s.sembly of the tribe for the purpose of publicly denouncing some unhappy creature, whom it is their interest, or their inclination, to bring to a fearful punishment, by death or torture.

The cattle-drivers went on leisurely with their herds towards the pasture-grounds, but sat down on a near hill-side, to see what would follow. They were mostly boys, and were not of sufficient importance to have incurred the wizard's displeasure. The women laid their implements of labour at their feet, and their children clung to them with vague dread; the old men trembled as Amani stalked past them, and the youths parted right and left to let him go by. Amayeka, who had been up and out before the rest, and had half-crossed the plain with a bundle of sticks on her head, dropped her burden in great terror, and stood paralysed, for she had her misgivings. The meercat seated himself beside her, and glanced his keen black eyes rapidly to and fro; hers were fixed on Amani, who, advancing to Umlala's hut, the largest in the Kraal [Note 1], drew the chief's attention to him by a frightful yell.

I have already given you some notion of his aspect, with its savage head-gear. A kaross of lion's skin was slung about his short but powerful frame, the mane forming a ruff round his huge bull-neck. The kaross was fastened on the right shoulder, leaving the arm free. With this he continued to wave the a.s.segai, its tip of highly-polished iron, and the brazen bangles on the wrist, glinting in the morning sunshine, so brilliant in the Kafir summer-time. The drapery was short enough to display the legs, which, unlike the limbs of a Kafir, were thick and unshapely, and ornamented, like the arms, with bangles of burnished bra.s.s; strings of beads, of various colours, and mingled with necklaces of animals' teeth, garnished his throat, and round his waist, where the kaross opened, was discernible an elastic brazen belt, from which dangled a catskin pouch, a small tortoise-sh.e.l.l and spoon appended for taking snuff, a pipe of tambootie wood, hard almost as iron, and a variety of other articles, an English coin, an old buckle, etc.

To the head-dress I have before described, were now added two long feathers of the beautiful Kafir crane; these being drawn upward by the breeze, resembled horns, and gave the wizard an appearance more demoniacal than can be conceived.

He had doubtless been smoking dagha all the night. His eyes glared with unnatural light, his lips were parted, his white teeth gleaming between when he uttered his unearthly cry; and as he advanced, his movements became more excited; and finally, with a tremendous leap in the air, he dropped as from a height before Umlala, and writhed and gibbered like some wretch possessed of a devil.

The chief councillors gathered the people of the Kraal in a great circle fronting Umlala's dwelling, which was distinguished from the rest by its size. Most of the princ.i.p.al members of the tribe had gone towards the colony as plunderers or spies, or were scattered through the hills and valleys as scouts and messengers; the circle, therefore, was less extensive than usual,--still there was a gathering of some three hundred human beings.

There were none among these startled creatures who would not willingly have fled had they dared, but they knew flight or resistance were alike useless, and they maintained an impressive silence, while Umlala took his seat on the ground in the s.p.a.ce within the circle, Amani on his right hand, though slightly in the rear, and a chief councillor on his left, preserving the same respectful distance.

This dread silence of the crowd was only broken by an occasional bitter laugh or wrathful exclamation from the wizard, who, having some days before been summoned by Umlala to prescribe for some trifling ailment, had taken care that the medicine given, a preparation of herbs, should not remedy the disease, but increase it. Umlala, however, had almost forgotten his ailment in his exultation over the cattle brought him by his foraging party. The wizard was determined on reminding him of it, and came to tell him now who had bewitched him, first as regarded his health, and secondly his judgment, which Amani p.r.o.nounced at fault, from Umlala having permitted Doda to attend the white man on a journey.

"Whither was the white man going? Did Umlala know his purpose? The white man's face was white, but his heart was black, and what but a spy could be the boy left behind?"

Gray, on hearing an unusual stir, crept from his domicile, which bordered a ravine, and, plunging into a tangled copse, made his way unnoticed to a little tuft of orange-trees on the site of an old missionary station, whence he determined on reconnoitring what was going on. He had a just horror of Amani as an impostor, but he had no conception of the power he derived from his misdirected abilities, for Amani was one of the shrewdest of his race, and possessed an evil influence over his chief.

Gray could see the whole face of the plain, and every figure in the semicircle spread out at his feet. He scanned it rapidly and uneasily, and, to his infinite dismay, discovered Amayeka. The grove in which he sat was one of the lovers' trysting-places; and, though the early morning was not a safe time for meeting, he had hoped to find her there, or within a short distance from it.

An undefinable feeling of horror stole over him; but he had sufficient presence of mind to pause and watch the proceedings. Whatever might be the result, he mourned his wretched position, not entirely for his own sake--indeed at this moment self was farthest from his thoughts. But what could this strange meeting portend? Mischief, he knew; but who was to be the victim? Naturally his alarm was connected with the unhappy girl, who had been his only friend of late. Her father was absent, her mother had years before vanished from the face of the earth, that is, perished in the bush, whither she had been carried in severe sickness, and left there to die or be devoured by the wild beasts roaming there,-- it was never ascertained which. After a lapse of time, some scattered bones were found, but these were left to whiten and fall to dust.

Gray climbed the tallest orange-tree, and looked down from its cl.u.s.tering boughs. He could not distinguish Amayeka's features, but her head drooped, her arms hung listlessly down, and at her side, in the begging att.i.tude so peculiar to these tiny brutes, sat the meercat, as if beseeching pity.

She looked so friendless, so helpless, yet so far above the other girls, who, forgetting their terror in excitement, were chattering and whirling about near her, that Gray could hardly resist his impulse to descend the hill, cross the glen, and hurry to the scene of action; but he had had sufficient experience of Kafir habits to feel that he could do no good by rushing into the midst of the excited a.s.sembly.

Indistinct sounds reached him, and he could see the people were every moment becoming more earnest as they watched the wizard, who continued to rock himself to and fro, gibbering and screeching. At length Amani suddenly sprang up, and rolled his fierce orbs round the circle.

Miserable victims of a power, which owns no law, a superst.i.tion based on cruelty and vice! How many quailed before the a.s.segai as it was again waved aloft! Unhappy wretch! who risked thy life to bring the poor settlers' cattle to thy selfish chieftain's kraal, dost thou think thou art discovered--doomed--because thou hast secreted in a wooded glen part of the plunder for thyself wherewith to buy thy wife? Thou boy warrior, of the strong arm and supple limbs, in form like a young Apollo, does the fearful wizard know, too, that thou hast fixed thy will upon the child of one of his foes, for he has many? Thou girl of a laughing eye and merry voice, does thy blood turn cold as thou rememberest the day when, resting from thy tillage in the meelie garden, thou didst mock the wizard, forgetting those were near thee who would seek his favour by betraying thee? Aged woman, with palsied head and shrivelled features, almost blind, too, but not deaf, art thou dreading his vengeance, because thou call'st to mind that he, by whose rude couch thou hast been watching all the night, and striving to aid in pain and sickness with thy poor herbal medicines, is one whom Amani hates? Thou mother, with a baby on thy shoulder, why are thy lips compressed, thy brow with anguish stamped? Dost thou quail at thought of thy tall son, who is betrothed to Umlala's daughter, the child of that Gaika wife, whose feet the great chief gashed and crippled, searing the gory wounds with red-hot a.s.segais, because Amani, the wizard, denounced her as untrue?