The White Hecatomb Part 12

"Yes, I am very old. I remember, like it were yesterday, the time when Ncapay was killed by the Pondos, when he and his 'impi' were driven over the cliff on the Umzimvubu, and I have seen our chief, Makaula, herding calves when he was a boy. My first husband was old Palelo (he died when I was away at Umzimkulu), and my second was Momlotyolo, who got his head broken with a club in a fight with the Pondomisi. He came home with his head tied up, and laid himself down on a mat. Next day he could not speak. He lay snoring for five days, and then died in a fit. I had only been married to him three years, and we had three children. The first was a girl, she died when still a child, and the second a boy whom we called Tutani. He was drowned trying to cross the Umzimvubu after a beer-drink.

"The first time I was married? That is long ago, and I have almost forgotten all about it. We were then living in what is now Cweraland.

I was quite a young girl when old Palelo took me as his wife. Yes, he had six other wives then living, and several others had died. Palelo was a very old man, but he was rich and my father was poor. Eighteen head of cattle were given as my dowry, and a new hut was built for me.

In this hut old Palelo nearly lived for two years, and I was quite glad when I heard that he was paying 'lobola' for another girl, as I knew that when he married her, he'd leave me alone for a time.

"Who told you that I went to Umzimkulu? So, so, I had forgotten mentioning it. Well, I suppose I may as well tell you everything about it now, because you might hear it spoken of by others who do not know all that happened, and thus come to think evil of me, not knowing that it was Lamla's fault, and that I was blameless.

"You have heard of the charm which a man places upon a woman to make her follow him. Perhaps you do not believe in such things, eh? I thought not. It is strange what a lot of true things you wise people disbelieve in. Well, well, if you do not believe in such things why do you want to hear about them? I think I know the reason, but it runs on a different spoor to that of your words. Whether you believe in them or not, these things exist. I have lived much longer than you in spite of the drought on the top of your head, and I have not only seen, but experienced the effect of such a charm. No, no, although you are old enough to know better, you are also old enough to have seen that the eyes of a young woman do not shine on you as on younger men, and this knowledge might lead you into mischief.

"Well, I will tell you of some, but not of the strongest. There are many things which can be used as charms, and some work quite differently from others. Some are of use only to a young man, and some to one who is old. There is the 'duba' (wild garlic: _Tulbaghia alliacea_) which is pounded up with fat and clay, and kept in the tip of a goat's horn.

If a young man touch a young woman with this it will make her think of him night and day, until the 'umdhlemnyana' (a kind of hysteria) seizes her. This will never leave her unless he releases her, or she can steal the charm from where he has to keep it, wrapped in a skin, in the roof of his dwelling. Then there is the 'insonga 'mazwe' (literally 'turner'

or 'wrapper up' of words--_Commelyna speciosa_--a little blue, furry flower, with bright yellow anthers). If a young man bathes, and then rubs himself all over with this, his words become so wise and sweet to the ear, that no woman can deny him anything. Besides, there is that stuff which can be bought at the big stores, 'zamlandela' (camphor; literally 'that which leads,' or 'induces'). If a young man rub his hands with this, and he touch a girl on the cheeks, she will dream of him whether she be asleep or awake. There are other things; roots and flowers which, if placed by a man in the water-pool at which the girls drink, or in which they bathe in hot weather, will have such an effect that their fathers and brothers will want to shed blood. Then there is another flower which, if broken up and scattered on a path along which a woman walks, will make her follow the man who scattered it wheresoever he leads her. It was in this way I was charmed and led away to Umzimkulu, where I dwelt for a year.

"Lamla came to dwell in our neighbourhood nearly two years after I had married old Palelo. He was a young man of Umzimkulu. He had been obliged to flee for a time from there on account of having broken the law. He was related to some people of a kraal near ours, and with them he stayed. He was a very big man and a strong dancer, and was nearly always laughing.

"Old Palelo had many sons and daughters, and as he was rich, there was plenty of feasting at our kraal. Lamla often visited my hut and seemed to be very fond of talking to Palelo about old times, and about the deeds my husband had done in his youth. The two would often sit over the fire, far into the night, and I used to lie on my mat, my head covered with a kaross, listening. There was a little hole in the kaross, and through this I used to watch Lamla, who always sat with his face towards me. I do not know how it was, but somehow that part of the kaross with the hole in it was always just in front of my eyes. It was strange to see how fond old Palelo was of Lamla; I think it was because Lamla listened to him so quietly, and just let him talk.

"Lamla said very little to me on these occasions, but we used often to meet when I went down to the pool to fetch water, or to the millet-field to hoe. I did not altogether like meeting him alone, because the way in which he talked and went on annoyed me. It was not so much his words as his ways that made me angry. Whenever we were alone he mimicked old Palelo--his walk, his voice, his way of taking snuff--everything.

Although I could not keep from laughing, I did not like Lamla to go on like this. He said he meant to make himself so like Palelo that none would be able to tell one from the other, and that he came to practise before me, so that I could tell him how he was getting on.

"Sometimes he would tell me about what a lot of girls were in love with him at Umzimkulu, and when I told him to go back to them and not trouble me any more, he said he had got so fond of Palelo that he could not bear to think of departing. Occasionally he would come down to the field where I was hoeing, and if it were a hot day would make me sit with him under a tree, chewing 'imfe' (sweet reed), and listening while he blew music on the 'ugwalo' (a musical instrument formed of a single string attached to a quill, and stretched along a stick), or talking nonsense.

"One day as I was returning from the pool carrying a pot of water, I met Lamla coming out of the bush with a lot of yellow flowers in his hands.

I inquired as to what he was going to do with these, and he said he was going to do some 'doctoring.' 'Who, then, is sick?' I asked. 'I am,'

he replied. I laughed at this, because at the dance the day before he had tired all the others out. 'Do you know what sickness these are to cure?' he asked, looking at me very hard. 'No,' said I, 'unless it be the sickness that makes people think they are not themselves; that is the only sickness you have got.' 'Why, you are almost as good as a doctor yourself,' he replied; then he laughed and went away.

"Next morning I saw some little bits of yellow stuff on the ground just outside my hut, and also strewn along the pathway leading to the millet-field. I picked a piece up, and found it to be very like a portion of a flower such as Lamla had been carrying when I met him coming out of the bush. I soon picked up a whole flower. This, without considering what I was doing, I stuck into the carrying-hole of my left ear. Then it suddenly seemed as if something began to sing inside me, and I felt very happy, but rather frightened.

"On that day I could not work. I felt as if quite changed in every way.

I could not forget the yellow flowers, or Lamla. I just stuck my hoe into the ground and went to the spot under the big tree where he and I used to sit. It was very hot, so I lay down and soon fell fast asleep.

"I had a strange dream. I thought that Lamla came to me with a lot of yellow flowers tied around his head in the way the Pondos tie the 'imvani' (wild asparagus) when they want rain to fall. I thought he kept changing into old Palelo, and then back into himself again, and that I was running away from him and at the same time feeling sorry that he could not catch me. Just as I thought he had caught me, I woke up suddenly, and there he stood.

"I got such a fright that I screamed out and then began to weep. Lamla sat down next to me. I told him to leave me alone, but he would not, so I jumped up and ran away home.

"That night I could eat nothing, and the 'umdhlemnyana' sickness seized me so badly that old Palelo became quite frightened, and said he would fetch the witch-doctor next day to see who had bewitched me. When I felt better I lay down to try and sleep, but it was of no use. I dreamed of Lamla's coming, but when it got late and he had not come, I felt like a long-tailed finch trying to fly against the wind on a wet day. I kept wondering as to where he was, and the thought that he might be at a feast at another kraal where there was a girl who I knew liked him, troubled me so much that I got another 'umdhlemnyana' fit, and when old Palelo came to me with a pot of water, I threw the water all over him, and broke the pot. This made me feel a little better, so I lay quiet, pretending to be asleep.

"Old Palelo went to sleep on his mat, but I lay long awake, until at length I felt I could not stay in the hut any longer; something seemed to draw me outside. I took my kaross and left the hut. The moon was large and yellow. The stream of water in the kloof just below was making a noise exactly like some one speaking, and at length I found out what it was saying. It was 'lam-lam-lam-la-la-la-lam-la-la-lam-la-lam-la-lam-la,' that the water was calling out over and over again as it ran over the stones. Lamla seemed to be all about me, and I kept looking behind me to see if he was not there.

"A jackal up on the hill was calling out 'yonk, yonk, yonk, yow-a-a-ow,'

like a man singing through his nose. The bats and night-jars were flitting about, and two owls were crying out to each other among the tops of the yellow-wood trees.

"I first sat down near the hut, but old Palelo was snoring like a big frog, so I walked away beyond the cattle kraal, and laid myself down on the short, green gra.s.s, which was cool and wet with dew.

"All this time I could think of nothing but Lamla, and I kept wondering why this should be so. Why did I feel so strange and so changed? My thoughts went back to the first time I had seen him. It was at the wedding feast of one of Palelo's daughters. I remember thinking I had never seen any one dance so well. Then I went over, one by one, all the occasions upon which we had since met. Although they were many I think I remembered every one of them. I began to laugh when I thought of the way he used to mimic my husband. Then I thought of the long talks in the hut at night, so I lay back and covered myself up with the kaross, looking through the same little hole at a post standing near me, and trying to imagine it was Lamla, giving his ears to Palelo and his eyes to me.

"Next I remembered his coming out of the bush with the yellow flowers, and this set me thinking of what had been strewn on the path. Then I suddenly understood the whole thing--I was bewitched. Lamla had said the flowers were for medicine, and this was what he had meant, the rogue.

"When the thought first struck me I felt very much frightened, and I jumped up, meaning to run into the hut at once. However, I remained where I was for a little time, and then my fright seemed to pa.s.s away.

Then I walked on a few yards and sat down on the gra.s.s.

"I listened to the water calling out Lamla's name, and thought seriously over the whole matter of Lamla and his doings. After considering for a while I concluded that in spite of the 'umdhlemnyana' sickness, being bewitched was, after all, not so very terrible. I had often heard of girls being charmed in this way, and I knew that one cure for it was to follow the man about, and make him take off the charm. 'Ah, ha, my friend Lamla,' thought I, 'I am up to your ways and tricks, and will let you know it the next time we meet. You have not got a silly girl to deal with this time, but a woman who has been married nearly two years, and who can take care of herself very well, in spite of the "umdhlemnyana."'

"The dogs suddenly began to bark all together, and then they rushed round to the back of the cattle kraal, where they all ceased barking.

Just afterwards a man walked out into the moonlight from behind the kraal-fence, and came slowly towards me. It was Lamla. The dogs knew him, and were running after him and fawning.

"He came up to where I was sitting, and without saying a word took my hands in his and drew me gently towards him. I stood up, and then he walked on, and I followed. I could not have resisted then, even if I had wanted to, but I do not think I wanted to at all. You see, the charm had influenced me more strongly than I had thought. I was no longer myself, but just Lamla and nothing else.

"I followed Lamla down the hill along the path to the millet-field, and then we sat down under the tree. The dogs came too, and Lamla got very angry because he could not at first manage to drive them back. 'Lamla,'

said I, 'you have bewitched me with those yellow flowers, and we will both be killed by Palelo's sons.' 'No,' said he, 'it is you that have bewitched me, and I only used those flowers to cure myself.'

"After a while we went on together, Lamla leading me by the hand. When we reached a little bush near the kraal he was living at, he left me for a short time, and then he returned with two bundles, one of which he gave me to carry. We walked on all night. Just before daybreak we turned to the left and entered a thick forest. Here we spent the day.

We did not light a fire. Lamla had brought some millet already boiled, in a skin bag. We ate this, and also some roots which he dug up with the blade of his spear. From a hollow tree he brought some of the sweetest honey I have ever tasted. He did not seem to mind the bees stinging him at all.

"All this time we hardly spoke a word. In the afternoon we were sitting together hidden in some thick, green brushwood; I heard a rustle and, looking up, saw a long green snake gliding through the branches just over Lamla's head. I called out: 'Look, there is a snake.' He just smiled and, without standing up, killed the snake with one blow of his stick. It nearly fell on him, so I screamed out, but he laughed and comforted me and said that he had been doctored by a great wizard against all dangerous things except me.

"Then he asked me how I liked being bewitched. I replied: 'I like it very well now, because the charm is on me, but I know that by and by I will be very angry.' He laughed very loud at this. Afterwards he asked me if I knew what had really happened. I answered: 'Yes, Lamla, you wicked man, you have bewitched me and made me follow you away from my home.' 'No, you are mistaken,' said he, 'I am not Lamla at all, but your husband Palelo in Lamla's body; Lamla is still at the kraal in the body of Palelo.' I could not understand how this could be, and I now know that he was talking nonsense, but at the time the charm was so strong on me that I would have believed anything he told me.

"That night we crossed the Umzimvubu, and reached the big forest below the Tabankulu. Here we laid down and slept. The sun was high when we awoke. We travelled on through the forest, and again rested and spent the night on the other side.

"Next day we went on without concealment through the open country. We were now in Pondoland, so had nothing to fear, so we just wandered on quietly from kraal to kraal, getting food in plenty; for Lamla had such pleasant ways, especially with the women, that we were always made welcome. Lamla said I was his wife, whom he had fetched from the Pondomisi country, and no one seemed to doubt his words.

"When we reached the Baca country at Umzimkulu, we went straight to the kraal of Lamla's father, and when he told his relations that I was his wife, and that he had paid 'lobola' for me, they all laughed at him, and asked whether horns or feathers grew on the 'lobola' cattle. I did not see at the time why they should have doubted his words, but I found out the reason afterwards.

"At first we lived very happily, for the charm was still strong upon me, but after some months Lamla began to go away from home very often, and then I heard that he was courting another girl. Well, he married her, and she and I quarrelled, and he took her part and beat me, so I became very miserable. It was nearly a year after we came to Umzimkulu that my baby, a boy, was born.

"One day, when my baby was over a month old, who should walk up to the kraal but the Matshoba, old Palelo's 'great son.' I picked up the child and ran away into the bush, but next day I got hungry and had to return.

Matshoba was not very angry. It turned out that Palelo was dead.

Matshoba said that I must return with him. I was not sorry to do so, because the charm had now quite pa.s.sed away from me.

"Matshoba brought a law case before the chief against Lamla for taking me away. I told all about the charm which had been used, and Lamla did not deny having used it. He was ordered by the chief to pay ten head of cattle as a fine. These his father had to pay, because Lamla had no cattle of his own. The chief said that if Lamla's father had got him a wife Lamla would not have gone about bewitching the wives of other people. When the cattle were paid the chief took five head, and Matshoba and I drove the other five to my old home. Soon afterwards I was married to Momlotyolo.

"My baby grew up and became just like his father both in appearance and ways. When quite a young man he was 'smelt out' for bewitching one of the wives of the chief, and had to flee for his life. I have never heard of him since.

"No, no; I am not going to tell you anything more about the flower. It was not a yellow flower at all, but one of quite another colour.

Besides, it is a young man's charm, and therefore would be of no use to you."

CHAPTER TEN.

DERELICTS.

"G.o.d help all poor souls lost in the dark."

_The Heretic's Tragedy_.

"There is, after all, nothing equal to philosophic cultivation of the mind for enabling one to withstand misfortune," said the man, as he entered the room.