CHAPTER IV
THE LION AND THE AXE
Next day early I left the town of the People of the Axe, having bid a
formal farewell to Umslopogaas, saying in a voice that all could hear
that as the rivers were still flooded, I proposed to trek to the
northern parts of Zululand and trade there until the weather was
better. Our private arrangement, however, was that on the night of the
next full moon, which happened about four weeks later, we should meet
at the eastern foot of a certain great, flat-topped mountain known to
both of us, which stands to the north of Zululand but well beyond its
borders.
So northward I trekked, slowly to spare my oxen, trading as I went.
The details do not matter, but as it happened I met with more luck
upon that journey than had come my way for many a long year. Although
I worked on credit since nearly all my goods were sold, as owing to my
repute I could always do in Zululand, I made some excellent bargains
in cattle, and to top up with, bought a large lot of ivory so cheap
that really I think it must have been stolen.
All of this, cattle, and ivory together, I sent to Natal in charge of
a white friend of mine whom I could trust, where the stuff was sold
very well indeed, and the proceeds paid to my account, the "trade"
equivalents being duly remitted to the native vendors.
In fact, my good fortune was such that if I had been superstitious
like Hans, I should have been inclined to attribute it to the
influence of Zikali's "Great Medicine." As it was I knew it to be one
of the chances of a trader's life and accepted it with a shrug as
often as I had been accustomed to do in the alternative of losses.
Only one untoward incident happened to me. Of a sudden a party of the
King's soldiers under the command of a well-known /Induna/ or
Councillor, arrived and insisted upon searching my waggon, as I
thought at first in connection with that cheap lot of ivory which had
already departed to Natal. However, never a word did they say of
ivory, nor indeed was a single thing belonging to me taken by them.
I was very indignant and expressed my feelings to the /Induna/ in no
measured terms. He on his part was most apologetic, and explained that
what he did he was obliged to do "by the King's orders." Also he let
it slip that he was seeking for a certain "evil-doer" who, it was
thought, might be with me without my knowing his real character, and
as this "evil-doer," whose name he would not mention, was a very
fierce man, it had been necessary to bring a strong guard with him.
Now I bethought me of Umslopogaas, but merely looked blank and
shrugged my shoulders, saying that I was not in the habit of
consorting with evil-doers.
Still unsatisfied, the /Induna/ questioned me as to the places where I
had been during this journey of mine in the Zulu country. I told him
with the utmost frankness, mentioning among others--because I was sure
that already he knew all my movements well--the town of the People of
the Axe.
Then he asked me if I had seen its Chief, a certain Umslopogaas or
Bulalio. I answered, Yes, that I had met him there for the first time
and thought him a very remarkable man.
With this the /Induna/ agreed emphatically, saying that perhaps I did
not know /how/ remarkable. Next he asked me where he was now, to which
I replied that I had not the faintest idea, but I presumed in his
kraal where I had left him. The /Induna/ explained that he was /not/
in his kraal; that he had gone away leaving one Lousta and his own
head wife Monazi to administer the chieftainship for a while, because,
as he stated, he wished to make a journey.
I yawned as if weary of the subject of this chief, and indeed of the
whole business. Then the /Induna/ said that I must come to the King
and repeat to him all the words that I had spoken. I replied that I
could not possibly do so as, having finished my trading, I had
arranged to go north to shoot elephants. He answered that elephants
lived a long while and would not die while I was visiting the King.
Then followed an argument which grew heated and ended in his declaring
that to the King I must come, even if he had to take me there by
force.
I sat silent, wondering what to say or do and leant forward to pick a
piece of wood out of the fire wherewith to light my pipe. Now my shirt
was not buttoned and as it chanced this action caused the ivory image
of Zikali that hung about my neck to appear between its edges. The
/Induna/ saw it and his eyes grew big with fear.
"Hide that!" he whispered, "hide that, lest it should bewitch me.
Indeed, already I feel as though I were being bewitched. It is the
Great Medicine itself."
"That will certainly happen to you," I said, yawning again, "if you
insist upon my taking a week's trek to visit the Black One, or
interfere with me in any way now or afterwards," and I lifted my hand
towards the talisman, looking him steadily in the face.
"Perhaps after all, Macumazahn, it is not necessary for you to visit
the King," he said in an uncertain voice. "I will go and make report
to him that you know nothing of this evil-doer."
And he went in such a hurry that he never waited to say good-bye. Next
morning before the dawn I went also and trekked steadily until I was
clear of Zululand.
In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had been so
wet, had now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great,
flat-topped hill that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high,
sparsely-timbered veld that offered few difficulties to the waggon.
This peculiar hill, known to such natives as lived in those parts by a
long word that means "Hut-with-a-flat-roof," is surrounded by forest,
for here trees grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water
that flows from its slopes. Forcing our way through this forest, which
was full of game, I reached its eastern foot and there camped, five
days before that night of full moon on which I had arranged to meet
Umslopogaas.
That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly because
I thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind about
coming, and secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he had
gone to call upon the King against his will, as I had been asked to
do. It was evident to me that he was up to his eyes in some serious
plot against Cetywayo, in which he was the old dwarf Zikali's partner,
or rather, tool; also that his plot had been betrayed, with the result
that he was "wanted" and would have little chance of passing safely
through Zululand. So taking one thing with another I imagined that I
had seen his grim face and his peculiar, ancient-looking axe for the
last time.
To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed
to me a little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch
chase through unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who
dwelt far across the Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the
thing, but if Umslopogaas did not appear, my obligations would be at
an end and I should return to Natal at my leisure. First, however, I
would do a little shooting since I found that a large herd of
elephants haunted this forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack them at
once, but did not do so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going
north it would be difficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had
to leave the waggon, and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the
great beasts for the fun of the thing.
So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the
hours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most
slopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more
than a hundred yards above the timber line.
At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;
probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I found
human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the
cattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by piling
up a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrow
entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxen
at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though
I had neither seen nor heard them.
So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever
we wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a
spot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came
the time of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the
truth, I had begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has
always led an active life too much of it is very bad, for then he
begins to think and thought in large doses is depressing.
Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind
that on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had
shot--or failed to shoot--some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable
to remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is
perhaps why I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down
such reminiscences as these.
Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a
good look at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned
in. An hour or two later some noise from the direction of the cattle-
kraal woke me up. As it did not recur, I thought that I would go to
sleep again. Then an uneasy thought came to me that I could not
remember having looked to see whether the entrance was properly
closed, as it was my habit to do. It was the same sort of troublesome
doubt which in a civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go
along the cold passages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put
out the lamp. It always proves that he /has/ put it out, but that does
not prevent a repetition of the performance next time the perplexity
arises.
I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing
their way through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that
I had better go to see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went
without waking Hans or the boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-
barrelled rifle which I used for shooting small buck, but no spare
cartridges.
Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew a
single big tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I
looked and saw that the gateway was quite securely closed, as now I
remembered I had noted at sunset. Then I started to go back but had
not stepped more than two or three paces when, in the bright
moonlight, I saw the head of my smallest ox, a beast of the Zulu
breed, suddenly appear over the top of the wall. About this there
would have been nothing particularly astonishing, had it not been for
the fact that this head belonged to a dead animal, as I could tell
from the closed eyes and the hanging tongue.
"What in the name of goodness----" I began to myself, when my
reflections were cut short by the appearance of another head, that of
one of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat,
and with the enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by
getting its back beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over
the wall, to drag it away to devour at its leisure.
There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it saw
me as I saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
"What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead," one
can fancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift
of God I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for
even with the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have
pierced through the soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have
killed that lion as dead as Julius Cęsar. Theoretically the thing was
easy enough; indeed, although I was startled for a moment, by the time
that I had the rifle to my shoulder I had little fear of the issue,
unless there was a miss-fire, especially as the beast seemed so
astonished that it remained quite still.
Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life,
particularly in hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I
fired, but by misfortune the bullet struck the tip of the horn of that
confounded ox, which tip either was or at that moment fell in front of
the spot on the lion's throat whereat half-unconsciously I had aimed.
Result: the ball was turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the
skin of the lion's neck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make
it madder than all the hatters in the world.
Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at me
--I remember that there seemed to be yards of it--I mean of the lion--
in front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming teeth.
I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because
there was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent
way, that after all Zikali's Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The
lion landed on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind
legs before getting to business, towering high above me but slightly
to my left.
Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past
me--all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,
probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it
another shadow, that of a lion's paw dropping to the ground. Next
there was a most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such
a fray as never I shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was
fighting the great lion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon
its hind legs, striking at him with the other.
The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back with
the axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it
came to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only one
fore-foot on which to light.
The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or
do anything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into
the head. After this all was over, for the beast's brain was cut in
two.
"I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas, for
it was he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion's
severed skull, "to find you watching by night as it is reported that
you always do."
"No," I retorted, for his tone irritated me, "you are late, Bulalio,
the moon has been up some hours."
"I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the /night/ of the
full moon, not at the rising of the moon."
"That is true," I replied, mollified, "and at any rate you came at a
good moment."
"Yes," he answered, "though as it happens in this clear light the
thing was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the
end might have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever
as I thought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a
lion with a toy like that," and he pointed to the little rifle in my
hand.
"I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas."
"That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or
another there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared to
meet, Macumazahn."
"You are right again," I replied.
At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet
distance by the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well," was all
he said.
"The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better,"
remarked Umslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe.
"Never before since she came into my keeping has /Inkosikaas/ (i.e.
'Chieftainess,' for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as to
drink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she
need not be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I
have been told, are cunning, watch your master so ill?"
"I was asleep," stuttered Hans indignantly.
"Those who serve should never sleep," replied Umslopogaas sternly.
Then he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that
grew at a little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them
bearing axes and wearing cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by
raising their axes.
"Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a mat,"
said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away.
"Who are these?" I asked.
"A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There were
one or two more, but they got lost on the way."
Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.
Next morning I told Umslopogaas of the visit I had received from the
/Induna/ of the King who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He
nodded and said,
"As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why
one or two of my people remain behind who will never travel again. We
made good play with those thieves; not one of them escaped," he added
grimly, "and their bodies we threw into a river where are many
crocodiles. But their spears I brought away and I think that they are
such as the King's guard use. If so, his search for them will be long,
since the fight took place where no man lives and we burned the
shields and trappings. Oho! he will think that the ghosts have taken
them."
That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for
these "thieves" should strike and follow our spoor. Luckily the ox
that the lion had killed was one of some spare cattle which I was
driving with me, so its loss did not inconvenience us. As we went
Umslopogaas told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife
Monazi to rule the tribe during his absence, an office which they
accepted doubtfully, Monazi acting as Chieftainess and Lousta as her
head /Induna/ or Councillor.
I asked him whether he thought this wise under all the circumstances,
seeing that it had occurred to me since I made the suggestion, that
they might be unwilling to surrender power on his return, also that
other domestic complications might ensue.
"It matters little, Macumazahn," he said with a shrug of his great
shoulders, "for of this I am sure, that I have played my part with the
People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death,
who am a man betrayed. What do I care who love none and now have no
children? Still, it is true that I might have fled to Natal with the
cattle and there have led a fat and easy life. But ease and plenty I
do not desire who would live and fall as a warrior should.
"Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves
ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die,
or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with
wives and oxen while I have /Inkosikaas/ the Groan-maker and she is
true to me?" he added, shaking the ancient axe above his head so that
the sun gleamed upon the curved blade and the hollow gouge or point at
the back beyond the shaft socket. "Where the Axe goes, there go the
strength and virtue of the Axe, O Macumazahn."
"It is a strange weapon," I said.
"Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a
warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter who was also the
first of smiths and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to
return to his hand when its work is finished beneath the sun. That
will be soon, Macumazahn, since Zikali told me that I am the last
Holder of the Axe."
"Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?" I asked.
"Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from
Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought
you to my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the
spirit of a snake had told him that you tried to throw the Great
Medicine into a pool, but were stopped by that snake, whilst it was
still alive. This, he said, you must do no more, lest he should send
another snake to stop /you/."
"Did he?" I replied indignantly, for Zikali's power of seeing or
learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed
me.
Only Hans grinned and said,
"I told you so, Baas."
On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and
dangers as are common on roadless veld in Africa, but no more, for the
grass was good and there was plenty of game, of which we shot what we
wanted for meat. Indeed, here in the back regions of what is known as
Portuguese South East Africa, every sort of wild animal was so
numerous that personally I wished we could turn our journey into a
shooting expedition.
But of this Umslopogaas, whom hunting bored, would not hear. In fact,
he was much more anxious than myself to carry out our original
purpose. When I asked him why, he answered because of something Zikali
had told him. What this was he would not say, except that in the
country whither we wandered he would fight a great fight and win much
honour.
Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive
joy in battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus
only could a man decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person who
loves quiet and a home. Still, I gave way, partly to please him,
partly because I hoped that we might discover something of interest,
and still more because, having once undertaken an enterprise, my pride
prompted me to see it through.
Now while he was preparing to draw his map in the ashes, or
afterwards, I forget which, Zikali had told me that when we drew near
to the great river we should come to a place on the edge of bush-veld
that ran down to the river, where a white man lived, adding, after
casting his bones and reading from them, that he thought this white
man was a "trek-Boer." This, I should explain, means a Dutchman who
has travelled away from wherever he lived and made a home for himself
in the wilderness, as some wandering spirit and the desire to be free
of authority often prompt these people to do. Also, after another
inspection of his enchanted knuckle-bones, he had declared that
something remarkable would happen to this man or his family, while I
was visiting him. Lastly in that map he drew in the ashes, the details
of which were impressed so indelibly upon my memory, he had shown me
where I should find the dwelling of this white man, of whom and of
whose habitation doubtless he knew through the many spies who seemed
to be at the service of all witch-doctors, and more especially of
Zikali, the greatest among them.
Travelling by the sun and the compress I had trekked steadily in the
exact direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful
particular he was well named the "Opener-of-Roads," since always
before me I found a practicable path, although to the right or to the
left there would have been none. Thus when we came to mountains, it
was at a spot where we discovered a pass; when we came to swamps it
was where a ridge of high ground ran between, and so forth. Also such
tribes as we met upon our journey always proved of a friendly
character, although perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas and his fierce
band whom, rather irreverently, I named his twelve Apostles, had a
share in inducing this peaceful attitude.
So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain
intervals, that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be
following some ancient road which at a forgotten period of history,
had run from south to north, or /vice versā/. Or rather, to be honest,
it was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various
indications which had escaped my notice. I need not stop to detail
them, but one of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a
high, rather barren land had been dug out, and in one or more
instances, lined with stones after the fashion of an ancient well.
Evidently we were following an old trade route made, perhaps, in
forgotten ages when Africa was more civilised than it is now.
Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our
trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed
itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the
afternoon, and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense
fog, we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in
movable grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed
sheep.
These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did
them no harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also
of a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who
was a great master of different native dialects, discovered a tongue,
or a mixture of tongues, in which he could make himself understood to
some of them.
They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man,
although their fathers' fathers (an expression by which they meant
their remote ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however,
that if we went on steadily towards the north for another seven days'
journey, we should come to a place where a white man lived, one, they
had heard, who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as we
did.
Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down
hill out of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld
here was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East
African plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured
soil, as we could see where the rains had washed out dongas. The
climate, too, seemed to be cool and very healthful. Altogether it was
a pity to see such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless
herds of game, for there were not any native inhabitants, or at least
we met none.
On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at
length we saw far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed
correctly, must fringe the great Zambesi River. Moreover we, or rather
Hans, whose eyes were those of a hawk, saw something else, namely
buildings of a more or less civilised kind, which stood among trees by
the side of a stream several miles on this side of the great belt of
bush.
"Look, Baas," said Hans, "those wanderers did not lie; there is the
house of the white man. I wonder if he drinks anything stronger than
water," he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of
his yellow throat.
As it happened, he did.
