CHAPTER XI
ZIKALI
Ten days had gone by when once more I found myself drawing near
to the mouth of the Black Kloof where dwelt Zikali the Wizard.
Our journey in Zululand had been tedious and uneventful. It
seemed to me that we met extraordinarily few people; it was as
though the place had suddenly become depopulated, and I even
passed great kraals where there was no one to be seen. I asked
Nombe what was the meaning of this, for she and three silent men
she had with her were acting as our guides. Once she answered
that the people had moved because of lack of food, as the season
had been one of great scarcity owing to drought, and once that
they had been summoned to a gathering at the king's kraal near
Ulundi. At any rate they were not there, and the few who did
appear stared at us strangely.
Moreover, I noticed that they were not allowed to speak to us.
Also Heda was kept in the cart and Nombe insisted that the rear
canvas curtain should be closed and a blanket fastened behind
Anscombe who drove, evidently with the object that she should not
be seen. Further, on the plea of weariness, from the time that
we entered Zulu territory Nombe asked to be allowed to ride in
the cart with Kaatje and Heda, her real reason, as I was sure,
being that she might keep a watch on them. Lastly we travelled
by little-frequented tracks, halting at night in out-of-the-way
places, where, however, we always found food awaiting us,
doubtless by arrangement.
With one man whom I had known in past days and who recognized me,
I did manage to have a short talk. He asked me what I was doing
in Zululand at that time. I replied that I was on a visit to
Zikali, whereon he said I should be safer with him than with any
one else.
Our conversation went no further, for just then one of Nombe's
servants appeared and made some remark to the man of which I
could not catch the meaning, whereon he promptly turned and
deported, leaving me wondering and uneasy.
Evidently we were being isolated, but when I remonstrated with
Nombe she only answered with her most unfathomable smile--
"O Macumazahn, you must ask Zikali of all these things. I am no
one and know nothing, who only do what the Master tells me is for
your good."
"I am minded to turn and depart from Zululand," I said angrily,
"for in this low veld whither you have led us there is fever and
the horses will catch sickness or be bitten by the tsetse fly and
perish."
"I cannot say, Macumazahn, who only travel by the road the Master
pointed out. Yet if you will be guided by me, you will not try
to leave Zululand."
"You mean that I am in a trap, Nombe."
"I mean that the country is full of soldiers and that all white
men have fled from it. Therefore, even if you were allowed to
pass because the Zulus love you, Macumazahn, it might well happen
that those with you would stay behind, sound asleep, Macumazahn,
for which, like you, I should be sorry."
After this I said no more, for I knew that she meant to warn me.
We had entered on this business and must see it through to its
end, sweet or bitter.
As for Anscombe and Heda their happiness seemed to be complete.
The novelty of the life charmed them, and of its dangers they
took no thought, being content to leave me, in whom they had a
blind faith, to manage everything. Moreover, Heda, who in the
joy of her love was beginning to forget the sorrow of her
father's death and the other tragic events through which she had
just passed, took a great fancy to the young witch-doctoress who
conversed with her in Zulu, a language of which, having lived so
long in Natal, Heda knew much already. Indeed, when I suggested
to her that to be over-trusting was not wise, she fired up and
replied that she had been accustomed to natives all her life and
could judge them, adding that she had every confidence in Nombe.
After this I held my tongue and said no more of my doubts. What
was the use since Heda would not listen to them, and at that time
Anscombe was nothing but her echo?
So this, for me, very dull journey continued, till at length,
after being held up for a couple of days by a flooded river where
there was nothing to do but sit and smoke, as Nombe requested me
not to make a noise by shooting at the big game that abounded, we
began to emerge from the bush-veld on to the lovely uplands in
the neighbourhood of Nongoma. Leaving these on our right we
headed for a place called Ceza, a natural stronghold consisting
of a flat plain on the top of a mountain, which plain is
surrounded by bush. It is at the foot of this stronghold that
the Black Kloof lies, being one of the ravines that run up into
the mountain.
So thither we came at last. It was drawing towards sunset, a
tremendous and stormy sunset, as we approached the place, and lo!
it looked exactly as it had done when first I saw it more than a
score of years before, forbidding as the mouth of hell, vast and
lonesome. There stood the columns of boulders fantastically
piled one upon another; there grew the sparse trees upon its
steep sides, mingled with aloes that looked like the shapes of
men; there was the granite bottom swept almost clean by floods in
some dim age, and the little stream that flowed along it. There,
too, was the spot where once I had outspanned my wagons on the
night when my servants swore that they saw the Imikovu, or
wizard-raised spectres, floating past them on the air in the
shapes of the Princes and others who were soon to fall at the
battle of the Tugela. Up it we went, I riding and Nombe, who had
descended from the cart that followed, walking by my side and
watching me.
"You seem sad, Macumazahn," she said at length.
"Yes, Nombe, I am sad. This place makes me so."
"Is it the place, Macumazahn, or is it the thought of one whom
once you met in the place, one who is dead?"
I looked at her, pretending not to understand, and she went on--
"I have the gift of vision, Macumazahn, which comes at times to
those of my trade, and now and again, amongst others, I have
seemed to see the spirit of a certain woman haunting this kloof
as though she were waiting for some one."
"Indeed, and what may that woman be like?" I inquired carelessly.
As it chances I can see her now gliding backwards in front of you
just there, and therefore am able to answer your question,
Macumazahn. She is tall and slender, beautifully made, and
light-coloured for one of us black people. She has large eyes
like a buck, and those eyes are full of fire that does not come
from the sun but from within. Her face is tender yet proud, oh!
so proud that she makes me afraid. She wears a cloak of grey
fur, and about her neck there is a circlet of big blue beads with
which her fingers play. A thought comes from her to me. These
are the words of the thought: 'I have waited long in this dark
place, watching by day and night till you, the Watcher-by-Night,
return to meet me here. At length you have come, and in this
enchanted place my hungry spirit can feed upon your spirit for a
while. I thank you for coming, who now am no more lonely. Fear
nothing, Macumazahn, for by a certain kiss I swear to you that
till the appointed hour when you become as I am, I will be a
shield upon your arm and a spear in your hand.' Such are the
words of her thought, Macumazahn, but she has gone away and I
hear no more. It was as though your horse rode over her and she
passed through you."
Then, like one who wished to answer no questions, Nombe turned
and went back to the cart, where she began to talk indifferently
with Heda, for as soon as we entered the kloof her servants had
drawn back the curtains and let fall the blanket. As for me, I
groaned, for of course I knew that Zikali, who was well
acquainted with the appearance of Mameena, had instructed Nombe
to say all this to me in order to impress my mind for some reason
of his own. Yet he had done it cleverly, for such words as those
Mameena might well have uttered could her great spirit have need
to walk the earth again. Was such a thing possible, I wondered?
No, it was not possible, yet it was true that her atmosphere
seemed to cling about this place and that my imagination, excited
by memory and Nombe's suggestions, seemed to apprehend her
presence.
As I reflected the horse advanced round the little bend in the
ever-narrowing cliffs, and there in front of me, under the
gigantic mass of overhanging rock, appeared the kraal of Zikali
surrounded by its reed fence, The gate of the fence was open, and
beyond it, on his stool in front of the large hut, sat Zikali.
Even at that distance it was impossible to mistake his figure,
which was like no other that I had known in the world. A
broad-shouldered dwarf with a huge head, deep, sunken eyes and
snowy hair that hung upon his shoulders; the whole frame and face
pervaded with an air of great antiquity, and yet owing to the
plumpness of the flesh and that freshness of skin which is
sometimes seen in the aged, comparatively young-looking.
Such was the great wizard Zikali, known throughout the land for
longer than any living man could remember as "Opener of Roads," a
title that referred to his powers of spiritual vision, also as
the "Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born," a name given to him
by Chaka, the first and greatest of the Zulu kings, because of
his deformity.
There he sat silent, impassive, staring open-eyed at the red ball
of the setting sun, looking more like some unshapely statue than
a man. His silent, fierce-faced servants appeared. To me they
looked like the same men whom I had seen here three and twenty
years before, only grown older. Indeed, I think they were, for
they greeted me by name and saluted by raising their broad
spears. I dismounted and waited while Anscombe, whose foot was
now quite well again, helped Heda from the cart which was led
away by the servants. Anscombe, who seemed a little oppressed,
remarked that this was a strange place.
"Yes," said Heda, "but it is magnificent. I like it."
Then her eye fell upon Zikali seated before the hut and she
turned pale.
"Oh! what a terrible-looking man," she murmured, "if he is a
man."
The maid Kaatje saw him also and uttered a little cry.
"Don't be frightened, dear," said Anscombe, "he is only an old
dwarf."
"I suppose so," she exclaimed doubtfully, "but to me he is like
the devil."
Nombe slid past us. She threw off the kaross she wore and for
the first time appeared naked except for the mucha about her
middle and her ornaments. Down she went on her hands and knees
and in this humble posture crept towards Zikali. Arriving in
front of him she touched the ground with her forehead, then
lifting her right arm, gave the salute of Makosi, to which as a
great wizard he was entitled, being supposed to be the home of
many spirits. So far as I could see he took no notice of her.
Presently she moved and squatted herself down on his right hand,
while two of his attendants appeared from behind the hut and took
their stand between him and its doorway, holding their spears
raised. About a minute later Nombe beckoned to us to approach,
and we went forward across the courtyard, I a little ahead of the
others. As we drew near Zikali opened his mouth and uttered a
loud and terrifying laugh. How well I remembered that laugh
which I had first heard at Dingaan's kraal as a boy after the
murder of Retief and the Boers.*
[See the book called _Marie,_ by H. Rider Haggard.]
"I begin to think that you are right and that this old gentleman
must be the devil," said Anscombe to Heda, then lapsed into
silence.
As I was determined not to speak first I took the opportunity to
fill my pipe. Zikali, who was watching me, although all the
while he seemed to be staring at the setting sun, made a sign.
One of the servants dashed away and immediately returned, bearing
a flaming brand which proffered to me as a pipe-lighter. Then he
departed again to bring three carved stools of red wood which he
placed for us. I looked at mine and knew it again by the
carvings. It was the same on which I had sat when first I met
Zikali. At length he spoke in his deep, slow voice.
"Many years have gone by, Macumazahn, since you made use of that
stool. They are cut in notches upon the leg you hold and you may
count them if you will."
I examined the leg. There were the notches, twenty-two or three
of them. On the other legs were more notches too numerous to
reckon.
"Do not look at those, Macumazahn, for they have nothing to do
with you. They tell the years since the first of the House of
Senzangacona sat upon that stool, since Chaka sat upon it, since
Dingaan and others sat upon it, one Mameena among them. Well,
much has happened since it served you for a rest. You have
wandered far and seen strange things and lived where others would
have died because it was your lot to live, of all of which we
will talk afterwards. And now when you are grey you have come
back here, as the Opener of Roads told you you would do, bringing
with you new companions, you who have the art of making friends
even when you are old, which is one given to few men. Where are
those with whom you used to company, Macumazahn? Where are
Saduko and Mameena and the rest? All gone except the
Thing-who-should-never-have-been-born," and again he laughed
loudly.
"And who it seems has never learned when to die," I remarked,
speaking for the first time.
"Just so, Macumazahn, because I cannot die until my work is
finished. But thanks be to the spirits of my fathers and to my
own that I live on to glut with vengeance, the end draws near at
last, and as I promised you in the dead days, you shall have your
share in it, Macumazahn."
He paused, then continued, still staring at the sinking sun,
which made his remarks about us, whom he did not seem to see,
uncanny--
"That white man with you is brave and well-born, one who loves
fighting, I think, and the maiden is fair and sweet, with a high
spirit. She is thinking to herself that I am an old wizard whom,
if she were not afraid of me, she would ask to tell her her
fortune. See, she understands and starts. Well, perhaps I will
one day. Meanwhile, here is a little bit of it. She will have
five children, of whom two will die and one will give her so much
trouble that she will wish it had died also. But who their
father will be I do not say. Nombe my child, lead away this
White One and her woman to the hut that has been made ready for
her, for she is weary and would rest. See, too, that she lacks
for nothing which we can give her who is our guest. Let the
white lord, Mauriti, accompany her to the hut and be shown that
next to it in which he and Macumazahn will sleep, so that he may
be sure that she is safe, and attend to the horses if he wills.
There is a place to tether them behind the huts, and the men who
travelled with you will help him. Afterwards, when I have spoken
with him, Macumazahn can join them that they may eat before they
sleep.
These directions I translated to Anscombe, who went gladly enough
with Heda, for I think they were both afraid of the terrible old
dwarf and did not desire his company in the gathering gloom.
"The sun sinks once more, Macumazahn," he said when they were
gone, "and the air grows chill. Come with me now into my hut
where the fire burns, for I am aged and the cold strikes through
me. Also there we can be alone."
So speaking he turned and crawled into the hut, looking like a
gigantic white-headed beetle as he did so, a creature, I
remembered, to which I had once compared him in the past. I
followed, carrying the historic stool, and when he had seated
himself on his kaross on the further side of the fire, took up my
position opposite to him. This fire was fed with some kind of
root or wood that gave a thin clear flame with little or no
smoke. Over it he crouched, so closely that his great head
seemed to be almost in the flame at which he stared with
unblinking eyes as he had done at the sun, circumstances which
added to his terrifying appearance and made me think of a certain
region and its inhabitants.
"Why do you come here, Macumazahn?" he asked after studying me
for a while through that window of fire.
"Because you brought me, Zikali, partly through your messenger,
Nombe, and partly by means of a dream which she says you sent."
"Did I, Macumazahn? If so, I have forgotten it. Dreams are as
many as gnats by the water; they bite us while we sleep, but when
we wake up we forget them. Also it is foolishness to say that
one man can send a dream to another."
"Then your messenger lied, Zikali, especially as she added that
she brought it."
"Of course she lied, Macumazahn. Is she not my pupil whom I have
trained from a child? Moreover, she lied well, it would seem,
who guessed what sort of a dream you would have when you thought
of turning your steps to Zululand."
"Why do you play at sticks (i.e. fence) with me, Zikali, seeing
that neither of us are children?"
"O Macumazahn, that is where you are mistaken, seeing that both
of us, old though we be and cunning though we think ourselves,
are nothing but babes in the arms of Fate. Well, well, I will
tell you the truth, since it would be foolish to try to throw
dust into such eyes as yours. I knew that you were down in
Sekukuni's country and I was watching you--through my spies. You
have been nowhere during all these years that I was not watching
you--through my spies. For instance, that Arab-looking man named
Harut, whom first you met at a big kraal in a far country, was a
spy of mine. He has visited me lately and told me much of your
doings. No, don't ask me of him now who would talk to you of
other matters--"
"Does Harut still live then, and has he found a new god in place
of the Ivory Child?" I interrupted.
"Macumazahn, if he did not live, how could he visit and speak
with me? Well, I watched you there by the Oliphant's River where
you fought Sekukuni's people, and afterwards in the marble hut
where you found the old white man dead in his chair and got the
writings that you have in your pocket which concern the maiden
Heddana; also afterwards when the white man, your friend, killed
the doctor who fell into a mud hole and the Basutos stole his
cattle and wagon."
"How do you know all these things, Zikali?"
"Have I not told you--through my spies. Was there not a
half-breed driver called Footsack, and do not the Basutos come
and go between the Black Kloof and Sekukuni's town, bearing me
tidings?"
"Yes, Zikali, and so does the wind and so do the birds."
"True! O Macumazahn, I see that you are one who has watched
Nature and its ways as closely as my spies watch you. So I
learned these matters and knew that you were in trouble over the
death of these white men, and your friends likewise, and as you
were always dear to me, I sent that child Nombe to bring you to
me, thinking from what I knew of you that you would be more
likely to follow a woman who is both wise and good to look at,
than a man who might be neither. I told her to say to you that
you and the others would be safer here than in Natal at present.
It seems that you hearkened and came. That is all."
"Yes, I hearkened and came. But, Zikali, that is not all, for
you know well that you sent for me for your own sake, not for
mine."
"O Macumazahn, who can prevent a needle from piercing cloth when
it is pushed by a finger like yours? Your wits are too sharp for
me, Macumazahn; your eyes read through the blanket of cunning
with which I would hide my thought. You speak truly. I did send
for you for my own sake as well as for yours. I sent for you
because I wanted your counsel, Macumazahn, and because Cetewayo
the king also wants your counsel, and I wished to see you before
you saw Cetewayo. Now you have the whole truth."
"What do you want my counsel about, Zikali?"
He leaned forward till his white locks almost seemed to mingle
with the thin flame, through which he glared at me with eyes that
were fiercer than the fire.
"Macumazahn, you remember the story that I told you long ago, do
you not?"
"Very well, Zikali. It was that you hate the House of
Senzangacona which has given all its kings to Zululand. First,
because you are one of the Dwandwe tribe whom the Zulus crushed
and mocked at. Secondly, because Chaka the Lion named you the
"Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born" and killed your wives,
for which crime you brought about the death of Chaka. Thirdly,
because you have matched your single wit for many years against
all the power of the royal House and yet kept your life in you,
notably when Panda threatened you in my presence at the trial of
one who has 'gone down,' and you told him to kill you if he
dared. Now you would prove that you were right by causing your
cunning to triumph over the royal House."
"True, quite true, O Macumazahn. You have a good memory,
Macumazahn, especially for anything that has to do with that
woman who has 'gone down.' I sent her down, but how was she
named, Macumazahn? I forget, I forget, whose mind being old,
falls suddenly into black pits of darkness--like her who went
down.
He paused and we stared at each other through the veil of fire.
Then as I made no answer, he went on--
"Oh! I remember now, she was called Mameena, was she not, a name
taken from the wailing of the wind? Hark! It is wailing now."
I listened; it was, and I shivered to hear it, since but a minute
before the night had been quite still. Yes, the wind moaned and
wailed about the rocks of the Black Kloof.
"Well, enough of her. Why trouble about the dead when there are
so many to be sent to join them? Macumazahn, the hour is at
hand. The fool Cetewayo has quarrelled with your people, the
English, and on my counsel. He has sent and killed women, or
allowed others to do so, across the river in Natal. His
messengers came to me asking what he should do. I answered,
'Shall a king of the blood of Chaka fear to allow his own wicked
ones to be slain because they have stepped across a strip of
water, and still call himself king of the Zulus?' So those women
were dragged back across the water and killed; and now the
Queen's man from the Cape asks many things, great fines of
cattle, the giving up of the slayers, and that an end should be
made of the Zulu army, which is to lay down its spears and set to
hoeing like the old women in the kraals."
"And if the king refuses, what then, Zikali?"
"Then, Macumazahn, the Queen's man will declare war on the Zulus;
already he gathers his soldiers for the war."
"Will Cetewayo refuse, Zikali?"
"I do not know. His mind swings this way and that, like a pole
balanced on a rock. The ends of the pole are weighted with much
counsel, and it hangs so even that if a grasshopper lit on one
end or the other, it would turn the scale."
"And do you wish me to be that grasshopper, Zikali?"
"Who else? That is why I brought you to Zululand."
"So you wish me to counsel Cetewayo to lie down in the bed that
the English have made for him. If he seeks my advice I will do
so gladly, for so I am sure he will sleep well."
"Why do you mock me, Macumazahn? I wish you to counsel Cetewayo
to throw back his word into the teeth of the Queen's man and to
fight the English."
"And thus bring destruction on the Zulus and death to thousands
of them and of my own people, and in return gain nothing but
remorse. Do you think me mad or wicked, or both, that I should
do this thing?"
"Nay, Macumazahn, you would gain much. I could show you where
the king's cattle are hidden. The English will never find them,
and after the war you might take as many as you chose. But it
would be useless, for knowing you well, I am sure that you would
only hand them over to the British Government, as once you handed
over the cattle of Bangu, being fashioned that way by the
Great-Great, Macumazahn."
"Perhaps I might, but then what should I gain, Zikali?"
"This: you would so bring things about that, being broken by war,
the Zulu power could never again menace the white men, which
would be a great and good deed, Macumazahn."
"Mayhap--I am not sure. But of this I am sure, that I will nor
thrust my face into your nest of wasps, that the English hornets
may steal the honey when they are disturbed. I leave such
matters to the Queen and those who rule under her. So have done
with such talk, for you do but waste your breath, Zikali."
"It is as I guessed it would be," he answered, shaking his great
head. "You are too honest to prosper in the world, Macumazahn.
Well, I must find other means to bring the House of Cetewayo to
the end that he deserves, who has been an evil and a cruel king."
All this he said, showing neither surprise nor resentment, which
convinced me of what I had suspected throughout, that never for
an instant did he believe that I should fall in with his
suggestions and try to influence the Zulus to declare war. No,
this talk of his was but a blind; there was some deeper scheme at
work in his cunning old brain which he was hiding from me. Why
exactly had he beguiled me to Zululand? I could not divine, and
to ask him would be worse than useless, but then and there I made
up my mind that I would get away from the Black Kloof early on
the following morning, if that were possible.
He began to speak of other matters in a low, droning voice, like
a man who converses with himself. Sad, all of them, such as the
haunted death of Saduko who had betrayed his lord, the Prince
Umbelazi, because of a woman, every circumstance of which seemed
to be familiar to him.
I made no answer, who was waiting for an opportunity to leave the
hut, and did not care to dwell on these events. He ceased and
brooded for a while, then said suddenly--
"You are hungry and would eat, Macumazahn, and I who eat little
would sleep, for in sleep the multitudes of Spirits visit me,
bringing tidings from afar. Well, we have spoken together and of
that I am glad, for who knows when the chance will come again,
though I think that soon we shall meet at Ulundi, Ulundi where
Fate spreads its net. What was it I had to say to you? Ah! I
remember. There is one who is always in your thoughts and whom
you wish to see, one too who wishes to see you. You shall, you
shall in payment for the trouble you have taken in coming so far
to visit a poor old Zulu doctor whom, as you told me long ago,
you know to be nothing but a cheat."
He paused and, why I could not tell, I grew weak with fear of I
knew not what, and bethought me of flight.
"It is cold in this hut, is it not?" he went on. "Burn up, fire,
burn up!" and plunging his hand into a catskin bag of medicines
which he wore, he drew out some powder which he threw upon the
embers that instantly burst into bright flame.
"Look now, Macumazahn," he said, "look to your right."
I looked and oh Heaven! there before me with outstretched arms
and infinite yearning on her face, stood Mameena, Mameena as I
had last seen her after I gave her the promised kiss that she
used to cover her taking of the poison. For five seconds,
mayhap, she stood thus, living, wonderful, but still as death,
the fierce light showing all. Then the flame died down again and
she was gone.
I turned and next instant was out of the hut, pursued by the
terrible laughter of Zikali.
