The Induna's Wife Part 15

"What sayest thou, Untuswa?" said the King, turning to me.

"This, Great Great One. To destroy a locust swarm and to spare the eggs is of no great use. And the 'eggs' of this locust swarm are yonder."

"Ha! Thou art no fool, Untuswa," said the King, knowing that I meant the women and children of the invaders.

"This is my counsel, Great Great One. When the forerunners of this locust swarm sleep for ever tomorrow, let those be sent who shall stamp flat the remainder, sparing none."

All murmured in deep a.s.sent, and I continued:

"Let the camp of these plunderers be destroyed as quickly and as silently as possible. Then let strong bodies of warriors waylay the return of those outside. Such, suspecting nothing, will walk into the snare, so shall we be rid of the whole swarm. Thus, on like occasion, acted he whom I formerly served, and our success was thorough."

"Thou hast the mind of a leader of men Untuswa," said the King, greatly pleased. "Thou thyself shalt go to-morrow, and see thine own plans carried out."

I thanked the King, and when we had talked a little longer over our plans we left the presence and went to our huts to sleep, our hearts beating with fierce antic.i.p.ation over the thought of what the morrow was to bring.

Soon after daybreak Dingane sent word to the Amabuna, who were our visitors, that the time had come to speak decisively about the land, that he had talked the matter over in council with the _izinduna_ of the nation, and now he wanted them all to come into Nkunkundhlovu that all might hear his word and carry it back to their people, who awaited it and them.

Accordingly it was not long before the whole company of the Amabuna, with their slaves and attendants rode up to the gate. But there they were met by some who told them they must leave their horses and guns without the gate. This they liked not at all, objecting that on every other occasion of their visit they had been allowed to enter armed and mounted.

That was true, but on those occasions there were war dances, and the white men themselves had delighted their Amazulu brethren with a mounted display. But this was entirely a peace _indaba_. No warriors were in Nkunkundhlovu, and it was dead against Zulu custom for strangers to come before the King armed on such an occasion. In fact the King would be highly offended, and would almost certainly refuse to receive them at all.

Less and less did the Amabuna like this proposal. They muttered hurriedly among themselves; then it was just as we knew it would be.

They dismounted, stacked their guns outside, and giving their horses to their attendants to hold, entered the kraal.

"_Whau_! The head of the snake is now under the shadow of the stone that shall crush it," quoth fierce Tambusa, as we watched the approach of the unarmed Amabuna.

They saluted the King gravely, and sat down; but many of them looked displeased and troubled, and well they might, for what is more helpless than an unarmed man! This time the King, with the _izinduna_, was seated near the centre of the open s.p.a.ce, not at the upper end, as usual.

They spoke about the land. They were glad the King was to give them his word that morning, for the hearts of their countrymen would be glad too, when they should carry back that word.

Now great bowls of _tywala_ were brought, and as the white men drank, the King talked to them. He rejoiced that that great stretch of country should be used by his friends and brothers, the Amabuna. There were a few useless cowardly tribes still in that country, people whom he had spared, but who were thieves; and these he hoped his new friends would prevent from annoying him.

While Dingane was thus talking, people had been coming into the open s.p.a.ce by twos and threes, and now there was quite a number of men within the circle. These bearing no arms, but a stick only, roused no suspicion in the minds of the Amabuna, not even when they formed into two lines, or half circles, and began to dance; singing the while the song they had sung to welcome these people on their first arrival.

"The mouth of the white man is open; It shall be filled--it shall be filled.

Lo! they come, the friends of the Amazulu; Full, very full, shall their mouths be filled."

Swaying backward and forward, the two half circles danced, now joining at the lower end, so as to form a wall of bodies between those in the centre and the outer gate, now parting again, and leaving the ends open.

And, the while, more and more by degrees swelled the number, and the song rose and fell, not loud, but in long-drawn measured note. The while the King was speaking:

"Fare-ye-well, my brothers," he said. "Perchance I shall visit ye in this new land, when ye come to dwell in it. Depart now in peace to your countrymen, and tell them how good are the hearts of the Amazulu towards you, how good the heart of their King. Fare-ye-well! _Hambani-gahle_."

["Go ye in peace."]

Dingane had risen while he was speaking, and now, with these words, he turned to depart. The Amabuna, too, had risen.

"The white man's mouth opens very wide; It shall be filled--it shall be filled."

So howled the singers; and lo! a ma.s.s of warriors swept in between the King and these strangers; we, the _izinduna_, being outside the circle.

With alarm now in their faces, the Amabuna turned quickly towards the gate whereby they had entered. But on that side, too, the circle was complete. Then they knew that their time had come. They were walled in by a dense array of stalwart warriors.

Now began such a struggle as never could have been seen. Our people had sticks, but were otherwise unarmed, for they might not kill within the precincts of the King's kraal. The Amabuna, too, were unarmed, for it was to this end they had been obliged to leave their guns outside the gate. But many of them were large and powerful men, and all fought with the courage of desperate men. They struck out with their fists, and with their feet; they tore out eyes; some were able to draw knives, and with these they slashed and thrust, making the blood fly in spouts.

_Whau_! That was a struggle--that was a sight. _Whau_! Hither and thither it swayed--that heaving, striving ma.s.s--the shouts and curses of the desperate Amabuna rising hoa.r.s.e amid the din and scuffle of feet, the gasping and the yells, as those of our warriors who were on the outside of the struggle encouraged those within it by yell and whistle.

_Whau_! How they howled and leapt, how they swung to and fro, how they even rolled on the ground--great heaps of men piled high upon each other, but all kicking, all struggling. But it could not last, for what could three-score and ten men, all unarmed, however valorous, do against a thousand, or, indeed, several thousand? They were borne down and overpowered at last--some were bound with thongs--but all were dragged out from Nkunkundhlovu to the place where those were killed whom the King adjudged to die, and there beaten to death with sticks, as the usual manner was.

"_Hau_! The head of the snake is now crushed!" cried Tambusa.

"_Hambani-gahle, abatagati_!" ["Go in peace, doer of dark deeds."]

Then the hissing and the roars of the savage slayers ceased, and the whole ma.s.s of our people trooped back from the place of slaughter, howling, in derision, the song they had made for the Amabuna.

"The mouth of the white man is open very wide; It _has_ been filled--it _has_ been filled."

Thus they died, those Amabuna--nor did one of them escape; for even their servants, whom they had left outside to hold their horses, were all seized at the same time, and taken to the place of doom. As Tambusa had declared, the head of the snake was crushed at last.

It is said by you white people, _Nkose_, that Dingane acted a cruel and treacherous part in thus causing the leaders of the Amabuna to be slain.

That may be, when seen with a white man's eyes. But seen with ours the thing is different. These Amabuna had come to take a large portion of the Zulu country from the Zulu people, and, had they done so, how long would it have been before they had taken the whole? They made a show of asking the land from the King, but had Dingane refused to listen to them, would they have gone back the way they came? Is that the manner of the Amabuna, I would ask you, _Nkose_? Again, if their hearts were good, and free from deceit, why did they not send messengers to Nkunkundhlovu before they entered the land as they did, to obtain the answer of the King and the Zulu people? But instead of doing this, they came over Kwahlamba in great numbers, with their horses and their guns, their waggons and their oxen, their cattle and their women, falling upon the land like a vast swarm of devouring locusts. Whether they obtained leave or not, they had come to stay, and that we did not wish; and further, by thus entering the Zulu country in armed force without the King's permission! they had deserved death.

It is true that these people who had been slain were the King's guests, but then we have a custom under which one great chief must not go to the kraal of another great chief of equal rank. The great chief of the Amabuna claimed to be the equal of the House of Senzangakona. He did not approach the King as a subject, but as an equal; and by our custom Dingane was justified in causing him and his followers to be slain, for he had placed himself within the power of the King, and that as an equal. _Whau, Nkose_! You white people and ourselves see things differently, and I suppose it will always be so. Dingane and the Zulu people did not choose these invaders to seize their land, so they used what they thought was the quickest and easiest way of preventing them from doing so.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

THE CRUSHING OF THE SNAKE.

As we sat there, we _izinduna_, watching the place of slaughter where those evil-doers had found death, we heard the volume of a mighty war-song approaching. Those within Nkunkundhlovu hushed their own singing and gazed outward. A great _impi_ drew near, marching in columns like unto broad black snakes gliding over the ground. Yet, not all black, but spotted; for the white and red of shields, the streaming of cowhair tufts, the rustling of feather capes, showed forth above the blackness of marching bodies. The wavy glint of spear-points in the sun was as a sea of light--the tramp of feet as the dark and terrible array swung onward--the thunder of the war song! _Hau_! I could feel all the blood tingling within me, and my eyes were aglow as I gazed. Here was a force, indeed. That which had been led against us by Mhlangana might equal it, but could hardly surpa.s.s it.

On they came--and as this vast ma.s.s of warriors poured in by the lower gate of Nkunkundhlovu they raised the war song of Dingane:

"Us'eziteni, Asiyikuza sababona."

Soon the great open s.p.a.ce within was crowded. Rank upon rank the warriors squatted there, crouching behind their shields, their eyes glaring like those of lions as they awaited the word which should let them loose upon their prey. When the roar of the "_Bayete_," which greeted the King's appearance, had sunk into silence, Dingane addressed them:

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

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

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

"When we destroy a locust swarm which is devouring our lands, we do not destroy the flying insects only. The young which appear after them, too, we stamp flat. So shall it be with this locust swarm. Stamp it flat. Make an end of it utterly. Let none escape. Go, my children!"

As one man that dense ma.s.s of warriors rose to its feet. As from one man the "_Bayete_" thundered forth from every throat; and the winnowing of shields and quivering rattle of spear-hafts was as a great gale sweeping through a forest. They poured forth from the gates, those terrible ones, broadening out upon the plain beyond, in a great stream of rushing men--of lions, of leopards, hungry for blood; and we _izinduna_, who followed more leisurely, could see in the distance the white _Umfundisi_ standing at the door of his house, looking upon our movements.

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

"Yet that is not ill-doing," I said, "for without enemies how should these 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 all alike. It licks the feet of the King when it thinks to get land from him. When it has got it, the Great Great One should be its dog, even as yonder crow dared to croak not many days since. My heart has been heavy ever since that he was not sent to take the place of those upon the stakes."