CHAPTER XIV
THE VALLEY OF BONES
The week that followed my interview with Cetewayo was indeed a
miserable time for me. For myself, as I have said, I had no
fear, for the king's orders were strictly obeyed. Moreover, the
tale of what had happened to the brute who wished to hunt me down
in the cattle-kraal had travelled far and wide and none sought to
share his fate. My hut was inviolate and well supplied with
necessary food, as was my mare, and I could wander where I liked
and talk with whom I would. I could even ride to exercise the
horse, though this I did very sparingly and only in the immediate
neighbourhood of the town for fear of exciting suspicion or
meeting Zulus whom the king's word had not reached. Indeed on
these occasions I was always accompanied by a guard of
swift-footed and armed soldiers sent "to protect me," or more
probably to kill me if I did anything that seemed suspicious.
In the course of my rambles I met sundry natives whom I had known
in the old days, some of them a long while ago. They all seemed
glad to see me and were quite ready to talk of past times, but of
the present they would say little or nothing, except that they
were certain there would be war. Of Anscombe and Heda I could
hear nothing, and indeed did not dare to make any direct
inquiries concerning them, but several reliable men assured me
that the last missionaries and traders having departed, there was
not a white man, woman or child left in Zululand except myself.
It was "all black" they said, referring to the colour of their
people, as it had been before the time of Chaka. So I was forced
to eat out my heart with anxiety in silence, hoping and praying
that Zikali had played an honest part and sent them away safely.
Why should he not have done so, seeing that it was my presence he
had desired, not theirs? They were only taken, or rather snared,
because they were with me and could not be separated, or so I
believed at the time.
One ray of comfort I did get. About the fifth day after my
interview I saw Goza, who told me that the king's messengers were
back from the Black Kloof and had brought "a word" for me from
Zikali himself. The word was--
"Bid Goza say to Macumazahn that I was sorry not to see him to
say good-bye, because that morning I slept heavily. Bid him say
that I am glad he has seen the king, since for this purpose I
sought his presence in Zululand. Bid him say that he is to fear
nothing, and that if his heart is heavy about others whom he
loves, he should make it light again, since the Spirits have them
in their keeping as they have him, and never were they or he more
safe than they are to-day."
Now I looked at Goza and asked if I could see this messenger. He
replied, No, as he had already been despatched upon another
errand. Then I asked him if the messenger had said anything
else. He answered, Yes, one thing that he had forgotten, namely
that the writing about blankets should now be in Natal. Then
suddenly he changed the subject and asked me if I would like to
accompany him to the Valley of Bones where he was ordered to
inspect the huts which were being built for Zikali and his
people. Of course I said I should, hoping, quite without result,
that I might get something more out of him on the road.
Now this town of Cetewayo's stands, or rather stood, for it has
long been burnt, on the slope of the hills to the north-east of
the plains of Ulundi. Above it these hills grow steeper, and
deep in the recesses of one of them is the Valley of Bones.
There is nothing particularly imposing about the place; no
towering cliffs or pillars of piled granite, as at the Black
Kloof. It is just a vale cut out by water, bordered by steep
slopes on either side, and a still steeper slope strown with
large rocks at its end. Dotted here and there on these slopes
grew tall aloes that from a little distance looked like scattered
men, whereof the lower leaves were shrivelled and blackened by
veld fires. Also there were a few euphorbias, grey,
naked-looking things that end in points like fingers on a hand,
and among them some sparse thorn trees, struggling to live in an
inhospitable soil.
The place has one peculiarity. Jutting into it from the hillside
is a ridge or spur, sixty or seventy yards in length by perhaps
twenty broad, that ends in a flat point of rock which stands
about forty feet above the level of the rest of the little
valley. On this ridge also grew tall aloes until near its
extremity the soil ceased, or had been washed away from the
water-worn core of rock.
It was, and no doubt still is, a desolate-looking spot, at any
rate for most of the day when owing to the shadow of the
surrounding hills, it receives but little sun. Everything about
it, especially when I was there in a time of rain, seemed dank
and miserable, although the flat floor of the kloof was clothed
with a growth of tall, coarse grass, and weeds that bore an
evil-smelling flower. Perhaps some sense of appropriateness had
caused the Zulu kings to choose this lonesome, deathly-looking
gorge as one of their execution grounds. At any rate many had
been slain here, for skulls and the larger human bones, some of
them black with age, lay all about among the grass, as they had
been scattered by hyenas and jackals. They were particularly
thick beneath and around the table-like rock that I have
mentioned.
Goza told me that this was because the King's Slayers made a
custom of dragging the victim along the projecting tongue to the
edge of this rock and hurling him, either dead or living, to the
ground beneath; or, in the case of witches; driving them over
after they had been blinded.
Such was the spot that Zikali had selected to abide in during his
visit to Ulundi. Certainly where privacy was an object it was
well chosen, for, as Cetewayo had said and as Goza emphasized to
me, it had the repute of being the most thoroughly haunted place
in all Zululand, with the sole exception, perhaps, of the ridge
opposite to Dingaan's old kraal where once I shot the vultures
for my life and those of my companions.* Even in the daytime
people gave it a wide berth, and at night nothing would induce
them to approach it, at any rate alone.
[*--See the book called _Marie,_ by H. Rider Haggard.]
Here to one side of and near the root of the tongue of land of
which I have spoken, the huts that Zikali had demanded for
himself and his company were being rapidly built, close to a
spring of water, by a large body of men who laboured as though
they wished to be done with their task. Also about half way up
the donga, for really it was nothing more, at a distance of
perhaps five and twenty paces from its flat point whence the
condemned were hurled, a circular space of ground had been
cleared and levelled which was large enough to accommodate fifty
or sixty men. On this space, Goza told me, the King and the
Council were to sit when they came to seek light from Zikali.
In my heart I reflected that the light they were likely to get
from him would be such as may be supposed to be thrown by hell
fire. For be it remembered I knew what these people never seemed
to understand, that Zikali was the most bitter of their enemies.
To begin with, he was of Undwandwe blood, one of the people whom
the great king Chaka had destroyed. Then this same Chaka had
robbed him of his wives and murdered his children, in revenge for
which he had plotted the slaying of Chaka, as he did that of his
brothers, Umhlangana and Dingaan, the latter of whom he involved
in a quarrel with the Boers. Subsequently he brought about the
war between the princes Cetewayo and Umbelazi, in which I played
a part.
Now I was certain that he intended to bring about another war
between the English and the Zulus, knowing well that in the end
the latter would be destroyed, and with them the royal House of
Senzangacona which he had sworn to level with the dust. Had he
not told me as much years ago, and was he one to go back upon his
word? Had he not used Mameena with her beauty and ambitions as
his tool, and when she was of no further service to him, given
her to death, as he had used scores of others and in due season
given them to death? Was I not myself perhaps one of those tools
destined to be thrown into the pit of doom when my turn came,
though in what way I could help his plots was more than I could
see, since he knew well that I should do my best to oppose him?
Oh! I had half a mind to go to Cetewayo and tell him all I knew
about Zikali, even if it involved the breaking of confidences.
But stay! Even if I were believed, this far-seeing wizard held
hostages for my good behaviour, and if I betrayed him what would
happen to those hostages? He sent me messages saying that they
were safe, suggesting that they had escaped to Natal. How was I
to know that these were true? I was utterly bewildered; I could
not guess why I had been beguiled into Zululand, and I dared not
step either this way or that for fear lest I should fall into
some pit dug by his cunning hands and, what was worse, drag down
others with me.
Moreover, was this man quite human, or perhaps an emissary of
Satan upon earth who had knowledge denied to other men and a
certain mastery over the Powers of Ill? Again I could not say.
His term of life seemed to be extraordinarily prolonged, though
none knew how old exactly he might be. Also he had a wonderful
knowledge of what was passing in the minds of others, and by his
arts, as I had experienced only the other day, could summon up
apparitions or illusions before their eyes. Further, he was
aware of events which had happened at a distance and could send
or read dreams, since otherwise how did Nombe know what I had
dreamt at Marnham's house? Lastly he could foretell the future,
as once he had done in my own case, prophecying that I should be
injured by a buffalo with a split horn.
Yet all of this might be nothing more than a mixture of keen
observation, clever spying, trickery and mesmerism. I could not
say which it was, nor can I with certainty to this hour.
Such were the thoughts that passed through my mind as I walked
back from the Vale of Bones by the side of the big-paunched Goza,
whom I caught eyeing me from time to time as a curious crow eyes
any object that has attracted his attention.
"Goza," I said at last, "do the Zulus really mean to fight the
English?"
He turned and pointed to a spot where the hills ran down into the
great plain. Here two regiments were manoeuvring. One of these
held the slopes of the hill and the other was attacking them from
the plain, so fiercely that at a distance their onslaught looked
like that of actual warfare.
"That looks like fighting, does it not, Macumazahn?" he replied.
"Yes, Goza, yet it may be but play."
"Quite so, Macumazahn. It may be fighting or it may be but play.
Am I a prophet that I should be able to say which it is? Of that
there is but one man in Zululand who knows the truth. It is he
for whom the new huts are being built up yonder."
"You think he really knows, Goza?"
"No, Macumazahn, I do not think, I am sure. He is the greatest
of all wizards, as he was when my father held on to his mother's
apron. He pulls the strings and the Great-ones of the country
dance. If he wishes war, there will be war. If he wishes peace,
there will be peace."
"And which does he wish, Goza?"
"I thought perhaps you could tell me that, Macumazahn, who, he
says, are such an old friend of his; also why he chooses to
sojourn in a dark hole among the dead instead of in the sunshine
among the living, here at Ulundi."
"Well, I cannot, Goza, since the Opener of Roads does not open
his heart to me but keeps his secrets to himself. For the rest,
those who talk with the dead may prefer to dwell among the dead."
"Now as always you speak truth, Macumazahn," said Goza, looking
at me in a way which suggested to me that he believed I spoke
anything but the truth.
Indeed I am convinced he thought that I was in the council of
Zikali and acquainted with his plans. Also I am sure he knew
that I had not come to Zululand alone, the incident of the
blankets, which I had promised to him a bribe to keep silence,
showed it, and suspected that my companions were parties to some
plot together with myself. And yet at the time I could not be
quite sure, and therefore dared not ask anything concerning them
lest thus I should reveal their existence and bring them to
death.
As a matter of fact I need not have been anxious on this point,
since if Goza, who I may state, was a kind of secret service
officer as well as a head messenger, knew, as I think probable,
he had been commanded by Zikali to hold his tongue under penalty
of a curse. Perhaps the same was true of the soldiers who had
come with him to take me to Ulundi. The hint of Zikali was as
powerful as the word of the king, since they, like thousands of
others, believed that whereas Cetewayo could kill them, Zikali,
like Satan, could blast their spirits as well as their bodies.
But how was I to guess all these things at that time?
During the next two days nothing happened, though I heard that
there had been one if not two meetings of the Council at the
King's House during which the position of affairs was discussed.
Cetewayo I did not see, although twice he sent messengers to me
bringing gifts of food, who were charged to inquire whether I was
well and happy and if any had offered me hurt or insult. To
these I answered that I was well and unmolested but not happy,
who grew lonesome, being but a solitary white man among so many
thousands of the Zulus.
On the third morning, that of the day of the full moon, Goza came
and informed me that Zikali had arrived at the Valley of Bones
before dawn. I asked him how he, who was so old and feeble, had
walked so far. He answered that he had not walked, or so he
understood, but had been carried in a litter, or rather in two
litters, one for himself and one for his "spirit." This staggered
me even where Zikali was concerned, and I inquired what on earth
Goza meant.
"Macumazahn, how can I tell you who only know what I myself am
told?" he exclaimed. "Such is the report that the Opener of
Roads has made himself by messengers to the king. None have seen
him, for he journeys only in the night. Moreover, when Zikali
passes all men are blind and even women's tongues grow dumb.
Perchance by 'his spirit' he means his medicine or the
witch-doctoress, Nombe, whom folks say he created, since none
have seen her father or her mother, or heard who begat her; or
perchance his snake is hid behind the mats of the second litter,
if in truth there was one."
"It may be so," I said, feeling that it was useless to pursue the
matter. "Now, Goza, I would see Zikali and at once."
"That cannot be, Macumazahn, since he has given out that he will
see no one, who rests after his journey, and the king has issued
orders that any who attempt to approach the Valley of Bones shall
die, even if they be of the royal blood. Yes, if so much as a
dog dares to draw near that place, it must die. The soldiers who
ring it round have killed one already, so strict are the orders,
also a boy who went towards it searching for a calf, which I
think a bad omen."
"Then I will send a message to him," I persisted.
"Do so," mocked Goza. "Look, yonder sails a vulture. Ask it to
take your message, for nothing else will. Be not foolish,
Macumazahn, but have patience, for to-night you shall see the
Opener of Roads when he attends the Council of the king in the
Valley of Bones. This is the order of the king--that at the
rising of the moon I lead you thither, so that you may be present
at the Council in case he wishes to ask you any questions about
the White People or to give you any message to the Government in
Natal. Therefore at sunset I will come for you. Till then,
farewell. I have business that cannot wait."
"Can I see the king?" I cried.
"Not so, Macumazahn. All to-day he makes sacrifice to the
spirits of his ancestors and must not be approached," Goza called
back as he departed.
Availing myself of the permission of the king to go where I
would, a little later in the day I walked out of the town towards
the Valley of Bones in order to ascertain for myself whether what
Goza had told me was true. So it proved, for about three hundred
yards from the mouth of the valley, which at that distance looked
like a black hole in the hills, I found soldiers stationed about
ten paces apart in a great circle which ran right up the hillside
and vanished over the crest. Strolling up to one of these, whose
face I thought I knew, I asked him if he would let me pass to see
my friend, the Opener of Roads.
The man, who was something of a humourist replied--
"Certainly if you wish, Macumazahn. That is to say, I will let
your spirit pass, but to do this, if you come one step nearer I
must first make a hole in you with my spear out of which it can
fly."
I thanked him for his information and gave him some snuff, which
he took gratefully, being bored by his long vigil. Then I asked
him how many people the great witch-doctor had with him. He said
he did not know, but he had seen a number of tall men come to the
mouth of the donga to fetch food that had been placed there.
Again I inquired if he had seen any women, whereon he replied
none, Zikali being, he understood, too old to trouble himself
about the other sex. Just then an officer, making his rounds,
came up and looked at me so sternly that I thought it well to
retreat. Evidently there was no chance of getting through that
line.
On my way back I walked as near the fence of the King's House as
I dared, and saw witch-doctors passing in and out in their
hideous official panoply. This told me that here also Goza had
spoken the truth--the king was performing magical ceremonies,
which meant that it would be impossible to approach him. In
every direction I met with failure. The Fates were against me;
it lay over me like a spell. Indeed I grew superstitious and
began to think that Zikali had bewitched me, as he was said to
have the power to do. Well, perhaps he had, for the mere fact of
finding myself opposed by this persistent wall of difficulties
and silence convinced me that there was something behind it to be
learned.
I went back very dejected to my hut and talked to my mare which
whinnied and rubbed its nose against me, for although it was well
fed and looked after, the poor beast seemed as lonely as I was
myself. No wonder, since like myself it was separated from all
its kind and weary of inaction. After this I ate and smoked and
finally dozed, no more, for whenever I tried to go to sleep I
thought that I heard Zikali laughing at me, as mayhap he was
doing yonder in his hut.
At length that wearisome day drew towards its end. The sun began
to sink, a huge red ball of fire, now and again veiled by clouds,
for the sky was stormy. Its fierce rays, striking upon other
clouds, peopled the enormous heavens with fantastic shapes of
light which were thickest over the hills wherein was the Valley
of Bones. To my strained mind these clouds looked like battling
armies, figures of flame warring against figures of darkness.
The darkness won; no, the light broke out again and conquered it.
And see, there above them both squatted a strange black presence
crowned with fire. It might have been that of Zikali magnified
ten thousand times, and hark! it laughed with the low
reverberating voice of distant thunder.
Suddenly I felt that I was no longer alone and looking round, saw
Goza at my side.
"What do you see up there, Macumazahn, that you stare so hard?"
he asked, pointing at the sky with his stick.
"Impis fighting," I answered briefly.
"Then you must be a 'heaven-doctor,' Macumazahn, for I only see
black and red clouds. Well, it is time to go to learn whether or
no the impis will fight, for Zikali awaits us and the Council has
started already. By the way, the king says that you will do well
to put your pistol in your pocket in case any should seek to harm
you in the dark."
"It is there. But, Goza, I pray you to protect me, since in the
dark bullets fly wide, and if I began to shoot, one might hit
you, Goza."
He smiled, making no answer, but I noticed that during the rest
of that night he was careful to keep behind me as much as
possible.
Our way led us through the town where everybody seemed to be
standing about doing nothing and speaking very little. There was
a curious air of expectancy upon their faces. They knew that the
crisis was at hand, that their nation's fate hung upon the
scales, and they watched my every look and movement as though in
them they expected to read an omen. I too watched them out of
the corners of my eyes, wondering whether I should escape from
their savage company alive. If once the blood lust broke out
among them, it seemed to me that I should have about as much
chance as a chopped fox among a pack of hungry hounds.
Once out of the town we saw no one until we came to the circle of
guards which I have already mentioned, who stood there like an
endless line of black statues. In answer to their challenge Goza
gave some complicated password in which my name occurred, whereon
they opened out and let us through. Then we marched on to the
mouth of the kloof. The place was very dark, for now the sun was
down in the west and the moon in the east was cut off from us by
the hills and would not be visible here for half an hour or more.
Presently I saw a spot of light. It was a small fire burning
near the tongue of rock which I have described.
At a distance, in front of the fire on the patch of prepared
ground, squatted a number of men, between twenty and thirty of
them, in a semicircle. They were wrapped up in karosses and
blankets, and in their centre sat a large figure on a chair of
wood.
"The King and the Great Council," whispered Goza.
One of them looked round and saw us. At some sign from the king
he rose, and against the fire I saw that he was the Prime
Minister, Umnyamana. He came to me and, with a nod of
recognition, conducted me some paces to the right where a
euphorbia tree grew among the rank herbage. Here I found a stool
placed ready on which I sat down, Goza, who of course was not of
the Council, squatting at my side in the grass.
Now I found that I was so situated that I could not well be seen
from the fire, or even from the rock above it, while I, by moving
my head a little, could see both quite clearly. After this as
the last reflection from the sunk sun faded, the darkness
increased until nothing remained visible except the fire and the
massive outline of the rock behind. The silence was complete,
for none of the Council spoke. They were so still that they
might have been dead, so still that a beetle suddenly booming
past me made me start as though it had been a bullet. The
general impression was almost mesmeric. I felt as though I were
going to sleep and yet my mind remained painfully awake, so that
I was able to think things out.
I understood clearly that the body of men to my left had come
together to decide whether there should be peace or war; that
there were divisions of opinion among them; that the king was
ready to follow the party which should prove itself the
strongest, but that the real voice of decision would speak from
behind that fire. It was the case of the Delphic Oracle over
again with a priest instead of a priestess, and what a priest!
It was evident to me also that Zikali, who knew human nature, and
especially savage human nature, had arranged all this with a view
to scenic and indeed supernatural effect. Moreover, he had done
it very well, since I knew myself that in this place and hour
words and occurrences would affect me deeply at which I should
have laughed in the sunlight and open plain. Already the Zulus
were affected, for I could hear the teeth of some of them
chattering, and Goza began to shiver at my side. He muttered
that it was cold, and lied for the donga was extremely hot and
stuffy.
At length the silver radiance of the moon spread itself on the
high curtain of the dark. Then the edge of her orb appeared
above the hill and an arrow of white light fell into the little
valley. It struck upon and about the jutting rock, revealing a
misshapen, white-headed figure squatted between its base and the
fire, the figure of Zikali.
