The Triumph of Hilary Blachland Part 29

With these it was nearly filled. Regiment upon regiment was mustered there: each drafted according to the standing of those who composed its ranks, from the Ingubu, which enjoyed the high privilege of attending as bodyguard upon the King, hence its name--the Blanket, i.e. the King's-- ever around the royal person--the fighting Imbizo, and the Induba--down to the slave regiments such as the Umcityu, composed of slaves and the descendants of conquered and therefore inferior races. All these were in full war array. The higher of them wore the _intye_, a combination of cape and headpiece made of the jetty plumage of the male ostrich, others were crowned with the _isiqoba_, a ball of feathers nodding over the forehead, and supporting the tall, pointed wing feather of the vulture, or the blue crane. Mutyas of monkey-skin and cat-tails, in some few instances leopard's skin, fantastic bunches of white cowhair at elbow and knee and ankle, with bead necklaces, varying in shape and colour, completed the adornment. But all were fully armed. The national weapon, the traditional implement of Zulu intrepidity and conquest, the broad-bladed, short-handled, close-quarter a.s.segai--of such each warrior carried two or three: a murderous-looking battle-axe with its sickle-like blade: a heavy-headed, short-handled k.n.o.b-kerrie, and the great war-shield, black, with its facings of white, a proportion white entirely--others red--others again, streaked, variegated, and surmounted by its tuft of fur or jackal's tail, or cowhair--this array, chanting in fierce strophes, stamping in unison, and clashing time with weapon-haft upon hard hide shield, amid the streaming dust, made up a picture--as terrific as it was formidable--of the ferocious and pent-up savagery of a hitherto unconquered, and in its own estimation, unconquerable race.

A musky, foetid effluvium hung in the air, the mingled result of all this gathering of perspiring, moving humanity, and vast heaps of decaying bones, already decomposing in the fierce sunlight there on the killing place just outside the huge kraal at its eastern end, where a great number of the King's cattle had been slaughtered on the previous day in order to feast the regiments mustered for war--while myriads of buzzing flies combined to render the surcharged atmosphere doubly pestilential. Seated together, in a group apart, the princ.i.p.al indunas of the nation were gathered in earnest conference, while, further on, the whole company of _iza.n.u.si_, or war-doctors, arrayed in the hideous and disgusting trappings of their order, were giving a final eye to the removal of huge _mutt_ bowls, containing some concoction equally hideous and disgusting, from the secluded and mysterious precincts wherein such had been brewed: for the whole army was about to be doctored for war.

Now a fresh stir arose among the excited armed mult.i.tude gathered there, and all eyes were turned to the eastward. Away over the rolling plain, from the direction of the flat-topped Intaba-'Zinduna, a moving ma.s.s was approaching, and as it drew nearer the gleam of spears and the sheen of hide shields flickered above the dark cloud. It was the Insukamini regiment, for whose presence those here had been waiting in order to render the master complete. As it swung up the slope, an old war-song of Umalikazi came volleying through the air to those here gathered:

"Yaingahlabi Leyo'mkonzi!

Yai ukufa!"

[Note: "That Bull did not gore (merely). It was death!"]

With full-throated roar the vast gathering took it up, re-echoing the fell chorus until it became indescribable in its strength of volume, and soon, the newly arrived regiment, over a thousand strong, filed in, and fell into line, amid the thunder of its vociferous welcome.

Then the company of _ixanuri_ came forward, and for some time these were busy as they went along the lines, administering to each warrior a morsel of the horrible hotch-potch they had been concocting, and which was designed to render him, if not quite impervious to the enemy's missiles, at any rate to lessen his chances of being struck, and to make him a very lion of strength and courage in the day of battle.

This over, yet one ceremony remained, to sing the war-song in the presence of the King, and depart. A silence had fallen upon all after the doctoring was concluded. Soon, however, it was broken by the "praisers" shouting the King's t.i.tles.

As Lo Bengula appeared in front of his warriors, the whole immense crescent fell forward like mown corn, and from every throat went up in one single, deep-voiced, booming roar, the royal greeting:

k.u.malo!

The King did not seat himself. With head erect and kindling eyes, he paced up and down slowly, surveying the whole martial might of his nation. He, too, was arrayed in full war costume, crowned with the towering _intye_, and wearing a mutya of splendid leopard skin. He was attended by his shield-bearer, holding aloft the great white shield of state, but in his hand he carried another and a smaller shield, also white, and a long-hafted, slender, casting a.s.segai.

Long and loud were the shouts of _sibonga_ which rent the air as the warriors fell back into a squatting posture, their shields lying flat in front of them. They hailed him by every imaginable t.i.tle of power and of might--as their father, as their divinity, as the source of all that was good and beneficial which they possessed. They called the lightnings of the clouds, the thunders of the air--everything--into requisition to testify as to his immensity--till at last, as though in obedience to some sudden and mysterious signal, they subsided into silence. Then Lo Bengula spoke:

"Children of Matyobane, the enemy is already in your land. These Amakiwa, who came to me few and poor, and begging, are now many and rich, and proud. They begged for a little land wherein to dig gold, and I gave it them, but, lo, they want more. Like devouring locusts, these few whites who came begging, and sat down here so humbly before me, were but the advance-guard of a swarm. I gave them meat, and now they require a whole ox. I gave them an ox, and now they require the whole herd. I gave them the little land they craved for, and now, nothing will satisfy them but to devour the whole land. Soon they will be here.

"There are dogs who bark and turn away, and there are dogs who bite.

There are dogs who are brave when it is a matter of pulling down an antelope, but who put down their tails and slink away when it is a lion who fronts them. Of which are ye?

"Lo, the spirit of the Great Great One who founded this nation is still alive. His serpent still watches over those whom he made great in the art of war. Shall you shame his name, his memory? Of a truth, no.

"Yonder comes the white army--nearer, nearer day by day. Soon it will be here. But first it will have to pa.s.s over the bodies of the lions of Matyobane. Shall it do so? Of a truth, no!"

The King ceased. And upon the silence arose mighty shouts. To the death they would oppose this invasion. The King, their father, might sit safe, since his children, his fighting dogs were at large. They would eat up these whites--ha--ha! a mere mouthful, and the race of Matyobane should be greater than ever among the great nations of the world.

Then again a silence fell suddenly, and immediately from a score of points along the lines, voices began to lead off the war-song:

"Woz'ubone!

Woz'ubone, kiti kwazulu!

Woz'ubone! Nantz'indaba.

Indaba yemkonto.

Jji-jji! Jji-jji!

"Nantz'indaba? Indaba yezizwe?

Akwasimuntu.

Jji-jji! Jji-jji!

"Woz'ubone! Nantz'indaba.

Indaba ka Matyobane."

[See Note 1.]

Louder and louder, in its full-throated cadence, the national war-song rolled forth, thundrous in its wild weird strophes, to the accompaniment of stamping feet and clashing of shields--the effect of the deep humming hiss of the death chorus alone appalling in its fiendlike intensity.

The vast crescent of bedizened warriors swayed and waved in its uncontrollable excitement, and the dust clouds streamed overhead as an earnest of the smoke of burning and pillage, which was wont to mark the fiery path of this terrible race in its conquering progress. Louder, louder, the song roared forth, and then, when excitement had reached its highest pitch, silence fell with a suddenness as startling as the mighty outburst which had preceded it.

For the King had advanced from where he had been standing. Facing eastward he now stood. Poising the long, slender, casting a.s.segai in his hand with a nervous quiver, he hurled it far out over the stockade.

"Go now, children of Matyobane!" he cried in tones of thunder.

It was the signal. Rank upon rank the armed legions filed forth from the gates of the great kraal. In perfect silence now they marched, their faces set eastward--a fell, vast, unsparing host upon destruction bent. Woe to the invading force if it should fail to repel the might of these!

Note 1.

"Come behold come behold at the High Place!

That is the tale--the tale of the spears.

That is the tale? The tale of the nations?

n.o.body knows.

Come behold. That is the tale.

The tale of Matyobane."

"Jji-jji!" is the cry uttered on closing in battle.

CHAPTER TWO.

"THE TALE OF THE SPEAR."

"_Whau_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ziboza, one of the fighting indunas of the Ingubu Regiment. "These two first."

The two men const.i.tuting the picket are seated under a bush in blissful unconsciousness; their horses, saddled and bridled, grazing close at hand. Away over the veldt, nearly half a mile distant, the column is laagered.

In obedience to their leader's mandate a line of dark savages darts forth, like a tongue, from the main body. Worming noiselessly through the bush and gra.s.s, yet moving with incredible rapidity, these are advancing swiftly and surely upon the two white men, their objective the point where they can get between the latter and their horses.

These men are there to watch over the safety of the column laagered up yonder, but who shall watch over their own safety? Nearer--nearer! and now the muscles start from each bronze frame, and the fell, murderous a.s.segai is grasped in sinewy grip. Straining eyeb.a.l.l.s stare forth in bloodthirsty exultation. The prey is secure.

No. Not quite. The horses, whose keener faculties can discern the approach of a crowd of musky-smelling barbarians, while the denser perceptions of the two obtuse humans cannot, now cease grazing and throw up their heads and snort. Even the men can hardly close their eyes to such a danger signal as this. Starting to their feet they gaze eagerly forth, and--make for the horses as fast as they can.

Too late, however, in the case of one of them. The enemy is upon them, and one of the horses, scared by the terrible Matabele battle-hiss, and the waving of shields and the leaping of dark, fantastically arrayed forms, refuses to be caught. The owner starts to run, but what chance has he against these? He is soon overtaken, and blades rise and fall, and the ferocity of the exultant death-hiss of the barbarians mingles with the dropping rifle. Are they are keeping up on his fleeing companion, and the sputter and roll of volleys from the laager. For this is what has been happening there.

Steadily, ever with the most perfect discipline and organisation, the column had advanced, and now after upwards of a month of care and vigilance, and difficulties met and surmounted, was drawing very near its goal.

The enemy had hovered, upon its flanks since the last pitched battle, now nearly a week ago, as though making up his mind to do something towards redeeming his defeat upon that occasion; but unremitting vigilance together with a few timely and long range sh.e.l.ls had seemed to damp his aspirations that way.

"I wonder if they'll try conclusions with us once more, before we get there," observed the commanding officer, scanning the country, front and flank, with his field gla.s.ses. "What do you think, Blachland?"