Then, having obtained the rein, I returned to the colt—who stood quite still as I approached him—and, murmuring a caressing word or two to him, quietly lifted my hand and gently patted his neck. He flinched somewhat at my first touch, but did not attempt to run away, and presently, when Piet returned with more water, I seized the opportunity to slip the end of the rein round the little fellow's neck and knot it while he was drinking. He did not much like the feel of the rein round his neck at first, and tried to shake it off, but he no longer shrank from my touch, and allowed me to pat his neck, and even pull his ears gently, an operation which he appeared to enjoy greatly. Then, while I continued to handle the colt, Piet again turned his attention to the mare and gave her a further drink, when, after a few minutes, she made another effort to rise, which was this time successful. But for several minutes she could only stand with difficulty, trembling violently and not attempting to move. At this juncture I chanced to slip my hand into my jacket pocket, when it came into contact with some half-dozen small sweet biscuits for which I had rather a weakness. These I had slipped into my pocket the last thing before leaving the wagon and had then entirely forgotten; and the fancy seized me to offer one of them to the colt. He smelt at it for a moment or two, and then, somewhat hesitatingly, closed his teeth upon it and began to masticate it. Evidently he liked it, for having swallowed it he thrust forward his head, as though asking for more, whereupon I produced a second, which he at once accepted. I then offered a third, holding it far enough from him to compel him to advance a step or two in order to secure it, which he did. I next offered him a fourth in the same way; but as he moved forward so did I, compelling him to follow me a few steps before I let him have it, at the same time putting a gentle strain upon the rein round his neck, and by this means I successfully coaxed the little creature into submitting to be led.

When I had fairly got him going the mare followed, at first moving stiffly and with difficulty, uttering small whinnying sounds, as though entreating the colt not to leave her; but with every yard of progress her movements became less difficult, and by the time that we had traversed a quarter of a mile both animals were walking with comparative ease and following me quite contentedly, especially the colt, who continued to beg for biscuits until he had exhausted my limited supply. Meanwhile Piet, who clearly understood what I was endeavouring to do, returned to where we had left the horses and followed with them, and in this curious fashion we at length met the wagon, and, joining forces, arrived at the spot where I planned to outspan for the night. I had a little trouble with my captives when we first met the wagon, both of them being somewhat startled by the hideous yells and rifle-like whip-crackings wherewith Jan urged forward the oxen; but a few more biscuits, hastily obtained from the wagon, restored the colt's equanimity. And, not to dwell at undue length upon this incident, we had scarcely any further trouble with either of our prizes, the colt very rapidly developing perfect amenability, while the mare, although less tractable, never attempted to desert her offspring, and was becoming quite tame when tragedy unhappily overtook them both.



CHAPTER NINE.

I ARRIVE IN MASHONALAND.

The whole of the next morning was devoted by us to the task of cutting out the ivory from the three big tuskers killed in the forest, and the exceptional size of the elephants may be judged from the fact that the weight of ivory taken from them amounted in the aggregate to four hundred and forty-seven pounds. Then, about two o'clock in the afternoon, we inspanned the oxen and trekked in a north-easterly direction, with the range of hills cut through by the curious gorge about a quarter of a mile on our left and the Drakensberg range of mountains towering aloft on our right some fifty miles distant. We trekked until within half an hour of sunset, by which time we had rounded the north-eastern spur of the range of hills, passed the northern extremity of the gorge, and "struck" another river, about one hundred and twenty yards in width, flowing northward, on the right bank of which we outspanned for the night. Two days later, trekking northward along the course of the last-mentioned river, we arrived at its junction with the Limpopo, on the farther side of which lay my goal, Mashonaland; and here we again outspanned, while Piet and I went on a prospecting tour in search of a drift by means of which the wagon might be safely taken across.

Leaving the wagon, our spare horses, and the zebras in charge of Jan, the Hottentot driver, with strict injunctions that he was to take the utmost care of the captives, and treat them with the greatest kindness, Piet and I set out at daybreak—the former mounted upon Punch, while I rode Prince as usual—taking with us the elephant gun and my rifle, with a sufficiency of ammunition for each, and provisions for four days. The dogs Thunder and Juno accompanied us as a matter of course. We were on the right or southern bank of the mighty stream, and this we followed closely, mile after mile, anxiously scrutinising every foot of the turbid flood for signs indicative of a sand bar extensive enough to enable us to transport the wagon to the opposite bank; but although we found no less than four shoals in the course of our first day's search, three of them extended less than halfway across the river, while the fourth proved to be a quicksand in which we narrowly escaped losing both our horses, saving them at last only by the skin of our teeth and after nearly an hour's hard and strenuous labour. This occurred about three o'clock in the afternoon, and when at length we were all once more safe on solid ground we were, horses as well as men, so utterly fagged out that there was nothing for it but to off-saddle for the remainder of the day in order to recover. A good night's rest, however, completely restored us all, and enabled us to resume our search on the following morning.

Our experiences on the morning of this day were simply a repetition of those of the previous day, except that, profiting by experience, we took care not to allow ourselves to be trapped in any more quicksands; and I began to fear that our search was going to be a much more protracted one than I had anticipated. But shortly after midday we arrived at a spot where, on the opposite side of the river, another river, about a hundred yards wide, discharged into the main stream. At this point also the Limpopo widened out until it was fully a quarter of a mile in width, the combined effect of these two circumstances being the formation of numerous eddies and so much slack water that the soil held in suspension by the two streams was here afforded an opportunity to settle and form a shoal extending right across the main river, with a maximum depth of water over it of barely four feet. This shoal we thoroughly tested both on foot and on horseback, with the result that we found it to be an ideal crossing place.

Having satisfied myself as to this, my next business was to arrange for the dispatch of Piet as my ambassador into the Mashona country. I had been considering the matter very carefully during the past two days, recalling to mind all that my friend, Major Henderson, had told me with regard to his experiences among the Mashona, and the advice that he had given me; and I finally determined that my most prudent course would be to send Piet into the country absolutely empty-handed, with a message to the effect that I desired the permission of the king to cross his borders, traverse the country, and visit him at his Place, hunting and trading with his people on the way. I was at first somewhat undecided as to whether or not I should entrust Piet with a present for the king, but I finally decided that it would be better to wait until I should obtain audience with His Majesty and then personally hand him the gift; otherwise, for aught that I could tell to the contrary, the sable monarch might seize the gift and then do away with poor Piet in some horrible manner, while if the Tottie went empty-handed there would be no inducement for the king to destroy him, or rather there would be the prospect of the gift to deter him from doing so. Therefore, upon the following morning, after charging the man with my message, and making him repeat it over and over again to me until there was no possibility of his forgetting it, I sent him across the river on foot with all the provisions that we had left, and then, riding Prince and leading Punch, to whose saddle I had securely strapped the elephant gun and my stock of ammunition, I set out, accompanied by the dogs, on my return to the spot where I had left the wagon.

Upon my arrival I found Jan, my Tottie driver, in great tribulation, it appearing that he had been beset by lions during the second night of my absence, and that the brutes had killed no less than three of the oxen and both zebras, despite the utmost efforts of himself and 'Ngulubi, the Bantu voorlouper; while two other oxen had died through eating tulip, a poisonous plant which he had too late discovered grew in profusion in the immediate neighbourhood of the outspan. Furthermore, it appeared that four of the other oxen had suffered severely from the same poison, but had been saved by the prompt administration of a decoction made from the roots of the plant. This was serious news, because I had promised Piet that he should find us outspanned at the spot where he and I had parted, and I knew not how soon he might return; therefore it was very desirable that we should reach that spot without delay. After considering the matter, therefore, I finally decided to cache all the ivory which I had with me, abandon the pelts, and go forward to the rendezvous with nothing in the wagon save the "truck" which I had brought up with me as presents and for trading, the ammunition, and the remains of our stock of provisions, which by this time was becoming pretty well depleted. And this I did, arriving at the arranged meeting place three days later, without suffering any further loss.

It was well on in the afternoon of the tenth day after Piet's departure when he turned up again, dusty, leg-weary, and somewhat footsore, but otherwise not very much the worse for wear. He reported that the country was pretty densely populated, the kraals being very extensive, and dotted over the country at intervals of, in some cases, not more than twenty miles apart, the first kraal at which he arrived being within ten miles of the river bank. He described the Mashona as being a very fine race of people, almost if not quite equal in physique to the Zulus, but of a much more suspicious and unreliable character than the latter, and apparently exceedingly averse to the intrusion of strangers. Nevertheless, upon stating the nature of his mission, he had been passed on from kraal to kraal until finally he had arrived at Gwanda, the Place (or town) of King Lomalindela, which, it appeared, was situated among a rather curious group of mountains, five days' march from the river. Lomalindela, it seemed, had received my envoy with a very considerable display of austerity, and had submitted him to a most rigorous cross-questioning; but, luckily, the Tottie had nothing to conceal, and was therefore able to tell a perfectly straightforward story, which, as Piet believed, had not only allayed the monarch's suspicions, but had also aroused in him a very lively curiosity to see the white man and his wonderful fire tubes which slew from afar. The result of the mission was therefore, on the whole, quite satisfactory, the king having not only accorded me permission to enter his country and kill game in it, but also entrusted my messenger with an invitation to me to visit him at Gwanda, and remain there as long as I pleased. This being the case, and the river having fallen nearly a foot since Piet and I had first arrived at the ford, I seized the favourable opportunity, and safely transferred the wagon and all my other belongings to the Mashona side of the river upon the afternoon of the day of Piet's return; and, following the course of the stream to which I attributed the formation of the ford—and which, Piet informed me, led direct to Gwanda—outspanned for the night some six miles to the northward of the Limpopo.

The next day we continued our trek, and shortly before noon arrived at the first Mashona village on the route. It was a place of some importance, containing about a thousand huts of the usual beehive shape, but somewhat larger than those usually built by the Zulus, and with entrances large enough to enable a man to pass through by merely bending his body instead of having to go down upon his knees. The village was circular in plan, and was protected by a solidly constructed stockade, built of stout tree trunks driven deeply into the ground, with a slight outward slope; the stockade being about sixteen feet high on the outside, with the tops of the piles sharpened to render it unclimbable. There were four gateways in the stockade, giving access to the two principal streets, which crossed each other at right angles, intersecting in the centre of the village, at which point there was a spacious open square, where the public business of the village was transacted and where the village sports were held. We did not enter the village, but outspanned at a distance of about half a mile from its eastern gate.

The cattle had scarcely been turned loose to graze, under the guardianship of 'Ngulubi, the voorlouper, when the headman of the village, accompanied by some half a dozen minor dignitaries, and followed by ten women bearing baskets containing preternaturally skinny fowls, eggs, green mealie cobs, sugar cane, and calabashes of milk, emerged from the village and advanced upon the wagon. The men were unarmed, and the presence of the women with the baskets—the contents of which were of course a present to us—showed that the visit was to be one of ceremony and compliment; therefore with Piet's assistance I at once proceeded to unpack one of my bales of "truck", and withdrew therefrom the articles which I proposed to present in turn. I had hardly completed my preparations when the little party arrived, and I had an opportunity to study the first Mashonas I had ever seen.

Both men and women were finely built and well proportioned, but their best friends could not conscientiously pronounce them handsome; and their unattractiveness was further increased by the expression of their countenances which seemed to be compounded of suspicion, craftiness, greed, and cruelty. They saluted me respectfully enough, however, offered their presents, and then sat down, at my invitation, squatting upon their heels in the usual native fashion, while I sorted out the gifts which I intended to give them. These consisted of a bandana handkerchief or two, a few yards of gaudily printed calico, a few yards of copper wire, and a handful of mixed beads to each of the women; and from the grins of appreciation of the recipients I concluded that they were all well satisfied. Then, with the inquisitiveness of the lower type of savage, they began to question me, not in a straightforward fashion, but covertly and by roundabout processes, with the view of discovering my motive for journeying so far from my own people; whereupon I told them frankly that I was a hunter and trader, seeking for ivory and gold. They did not seem to understand what I meant by "gold" until I spoke of it as the yellow metal that shines when polished, and showed them the ring that I wore; whereupon they nodded their heads in comprehension, and shortly afterward rose and returned to the village. But about half an hour later the headman and three others came back to the wagon, bringing with them a number of rough-shaped nuggets of a dull, ruddy-yellow gold, which looked as though they might have been crudely smelted out of the quarried ore, and wanted to trade them with me for beads and printed calico. The quantity which they brought amounted to about twelve pounds avoirdupois altogether, which I estimated to be worth between six and seven hundred pounds sterling; but they fixed such an exorbitant value upon the metal that had I acceded to their demands my stock of trade stuff would soon have been exhausted. Of course the gold was worth far more than my entire stock of "truck", but when I purchased the latter I had quite reckoned upon being able to obtain for it as much gold as I could possibly load upon the wagon, and still have "notions" enough left to supply all the presents that I should probably find it necessary to make; therefore as soon as my visitors pointed out to me what they required in exchange for their gold I laughed at them, waved them away, and proceeded—not too hurriedly—to repack my treasures. The result was what I had anticipated and intended; they refused to leave the wagon, and gradually reduced their demands until finally I obtained the whole of the gold for about two yards of calico, a bandana handkerchief, four yards of copper wire, and a handful of beads; and even these prices, I explained, were far higher than I could possibly afford to give in future!

I fully anticipated that the result of this transaction would be to bring out the remainder of the villagers with proposals to barter such gold as they might possess; but although so many of them turned out that by sunset I estimated that every man, woman, and child in the village must have visited the wagon, I saw no more gold that day. And for a very good reason; for it afterwards appeared that the headman had spent a busy afternoon going round the village, buying up every particle of gold he could lay hands upon, doubtless with much profit to himself: and on the following morning, while we were inspanning the oxen, he turned up, accompanied by a couple of women bearing between them nearly sixty pounds of gold, and detained me more than two hours while he haggled with me over the sale of it. But I had by this time come fully to understand that gold possessed absolutely no value for these people, except as a plaything for the children; and the result was that when at length I bade the man goodbye, and gave the order to trek, the fellow was glad to let me have the whole at my own price, and I secured it upon very favourable terms.

I was now in high feather, for I had already secured, from one village alone, more than seventy pounds of gold, which I estimated must be worth close upon four thousand pounds sterling; and if I could do so well at only one village, what might not I achieve by the time that I had traded away all my "truck"? Already, in imagination, I saw myself back at Bella Vista, with the house rebuilt and furnished in luxurious style, the land amply restocked, and plenty of money in the bank as well! Alas, I little guessed what lay before me; and it was just as well, perhaps, that I did not; otherwise—But I must not get ahead of my story.

With my head full of pleasant visions, and my imagination busily employed in the construction of chateaux en Espagne, we proceeded upon our journey, travelling over undulating country which ahead manifested a disposition to become hilly, and still closely following the course of the stream, until, about noon, we arrived in the midst of what in the distance had appeared to be a cluster of curiously shaped kopjes, but now proved, to my great surprise, to be ruins, thickly overgrown with vegetation. Here, my curiosity being powerfully aroused at so unexpected a sight, and it being also time to outspan, I called a halt; and while Piet busied himself in the preparation of my midday meal, I took my rifle and sauntered off to examine the ruins.

They proved to be very much more extensive than I had imagined, for when I came to inspect them at close quarters I found that the structures which had at first attracted my attention formed but a very small part of the whole, the greater portion of the buildings having been razed to the level of the ground, large heaps of rubbish and the foundations being all that now remained, with the exception of the ruins above-mentioned, of a town or village that had originally covered more than a hundred acres of ground.

But it was to the ruins which had originally arrested my attention that I now chiefly devoted myself, entirely forgetful of the fact that a meal was awaiting me at the wagon. And these remains I found to be extraordinarily interesting, for I had not been among them ten minutes before I became convinced that they were the work of a people of far higher intelligence than the Mashonas—that they must indeed have been built by a race having some pretensions to civilisation. For, while the walls were for the most part built of dry rubble masonry, the lintels and doorposts were of dressed stone, and—most remarkable circumstance of all—were in many cases adorned with sculptures in low relief, of a character strongly resembling those which I had seen portrayed in pictures of Egyptian ruins. For example, there were figures of men ploughing with oxen, driving laden asses, leading by the horns antelopes which were perfectly recognisable as the oryx and springbok, others leading baboons, leopards, giraffes, dogs, lions, and elephants, human figures with heads of birds, lions, and rams, and figures of sphynxes with human heads, or the heads of rams. And these figures were not by any means the rough efforts of uncultured savages; on the contrary, they were distinguished by a precision of line, a delicacy yet firmness of touch, and an artistic beauty that could only have resulted from a very high state of civilisation and culture.

The buildings appeared to be mostly circular in plan, ranging from about thirty to fifty feet in diameter, with walls averaging three feet in thickness, one or more of these being surrounded by an outer wall, approximately elliptical in plan, of some five feet in thickness. There were five of these structures still standing in a sufficient state of preservation to render them recognisable at a distance as buildings, and a great many more—the precise number I did not trouble to ascertain—of which nothing but the foundations remained. I prowled about among these intensely interesting remains for several hours, until close upon sunset in fact, examining them and striving to puzzle out their origin, and then made my way back to the wagon, where I found Piet and Jan rapidly working themselves into a fever of anxiety about my prolonged absence, and earnestly debating the propriety of instituting a search for me.

So profound were the interest and curiosity aroused within me by these remarkable and mysterious relics of a lost and forgotten civilisation that when Piet awakened me on the following morning with my early cup of coffee and the enquiry whether it was my pleasure that the oxen should be inspanned, I determined to devote at least a few hours to their further examination, and issued my instructions accordingly. Then, as soon as we had all breakfasted, I ordered Piet to take the sporting double-barrel while I carried my rifle, and, with the two dogs accompanying us, set out to complete my inspection. But, beyond the finding of an elaborately sculptured stone sarcophagus, which we took the liberty of breaking open, and which contained a mummified human body and several earthenware utensils decorated with exquisite paintings—one of which I appropriated and carried away—we discovered nothing further that was worthy of particular mention; and about two o'clock in the afternoon we inspanned and resumed our journey.

An hour later, however, at a distance of some three miles from the ruins, we arrived opposite a hill of solid rock some four hundred feet in height and about a mile long, in the face of which I observed what I at first took to be the mouth of a cave; but, looking at it more closely, I presently perceived alongside it a great mass of debris. My curiosity again got the better of me, and, calling a halt, I walked over to it and proceeded to examine it at close quarters, with the result that I soon convinced myself that the "cave" and its accompanying mound of debris could be nothing else than an ancient working; while upon entering the opening, which extended inward and downward for a distance of nearly half a mile, I discovered evidence enough to prove that the working was that of an extraordinarily rich gold mine, visible gold showing everywhere in the worked face of the rock! And at once the idea seized me that if I could but contrive to ingratiate myself sufficiently with Lomalindela, His Majesty might be induced to grant me a concession to work the mine, and so place me in possession of wealth "beyond the dreams of avarice". I thought at first that possibly this might be the identical mine from which the gold in my wagon had come, but a close examination of the working at length convinced me that the rock had remained untouched for ages; and then it occurred to me that perhaps the dead and forgotten inhabitants of the ruined village which I had so recently left might have been the miners.

And now, with every mile of our progress, the country became more broken and hilly, and at the same time more open and park-like, the great masses of bush and scrub with which we had so long been familiar giving place to trees of handsome appearance and noble proportions, growing for the most part singly, but occasionally in clumps of from three or four to a dozen or two, while occasionally the clumps magnified themselves sufficiently to justify the term of a wood, or even a small forest; moreover, the grass was in places profusely dotted with beautiful flowers, while where the trees grew most thickly they were often enwreathed with parasitic growths which, if they were not actually orchids, very strongly resembled them, the blooms they abundantly bore being of the most remarkable and often most beautiful shapes and colours. Thus the broken character of the country, with its accompanying features of swelling hills, scarred here and there with foaming rivulets, ravines, and gorges hemmed in and overhung by lofty trees garlanded with flowering parasites, and intermingled in places with luxuriant shrubs—some of which bore leaves of such curious shapes and brilliant colours that they might easily have been mistaken for flowers—and with birds of strange forms and gaudy plumage flitting hither and thither, was a most agreeable change from the characteristic scenery of South Africa. It was a beautiful and very fertile country, taken as a whole, and the nearer that we drew to Gwanda the more forcibly was this fact borne in upon me, as also was the further fact that the Mashonas were a very powerful nation, so far at least as numbers were concerned; for every kraal at which we arrived was bigger and more important in every way than the one that preceded it.

The evening of the sixth day after we had crossed the Limpopo found us outspanned upon the left bank of the stream which we had been closely following from the moment of our passage of the river, with a lofty, flat-topped mountain range, some fifty miles long, on our left hand, springing from the plain close to the opposite margin of the stream, and on our right two enormous mountains, some twenty miles apart from peak to peak, and remarkable for their exceptional height—which I estimated at fully fourteen thousand feet—as well as from the fact that they were identical not only in shape, but also apparently in size and altitude. In shape they were almost hemispherical, and to add to their similarity each bore on its very summit a protuberance very much resembling in appearance a beehive-shaped Kafir hut, but much larger, being probably quite two hundred feet in height. The tops of these remarkable mountains were covered with snow for a distance of about two thousand feet from the summit, and very beautiful they looked, blushing a soft, delicate pink in the last rays of the setting sun. The ground between the two mountains—which I took to be a pair of long-extinct volcanoes— and the range on our left rose steadily, and therefore somewhat retarded our progress when we continued our trek on the following day; but about two o'clock in the afternoon we reached the summit of the slope and saw before us a valley or basin, roughly circular in shape and some twenty miles in diameter, hemmed in on all sides by hills, some of which were lofty enough to be snow-capped on their summits; and in the very centre of this valley lay Gwanda, the Kraal or Place of Lomalindela, the king of the Mashona nation.

It was an immense place, far exceeding in dimensions the biggest native kraal that I had ever yet seen. It was circular in plan, like the other Mashona kraals that I had passed on my way, and, also like them, it was intersected by two main roads or streets, crossing each other at right angles in the centre of the kraal, one road running due north and south, while the other ran east and west. Each of these roads was about two and a half miles long, with a great gate at either extremity, pierced in the high and strong circular palisade which completely surrounded the kraal; and at the point where these two main roads intersected in the centre of the kraal each was widened in such a manner as to form a great square about one hundred and sixty acres in extent, this doubtless being the spot where all business of a ceremonial character was conducted.

That some such business was impending we shortly afterward became aware, for during the descent of the wagon into the valley we were overtaken and passed by regiment after regiment of warriors, all decorated in full war paraphernalia; and the induna of one of these informed me that a general muster was proceeding, in preparation for the annual festival, which was to be held on the day after the morrow. During the remainder of that day we beheld an almost continuous stream of armed men converging upon the town, not only by way of the road along which we were travelling, but also from passes in the mountains all round the valley.

When the wagon had arrived within about a mile of the southern gate of the town I was met by an official, who bore me a formal message of welcome from the king, with an intimation that His Majesty would see me on the morrow. The officer also indicated a certain spot, about half a mile outside the south gate and near the bank of the stream, where he suggested I should outspan the wagon, explaining that the king was of opinion that I would be more comfortable out there, in comparative seclusion, than in the overcrowded town, an opinion with which my own completely coincided. And this opinion was strengthened to absolute conviction when, as the sun sank behind the western mountains and the soft, tropical night settled down upon the valley, our ears were assailed by a perfect babel of sound emanating from the town, which, even at the distance of half a mile, rendered sleep almost impossible. What it would have been like to be lodged in the midst of the storm focus I trembled to think.

The din above hinted at was kept up until such a preposterously late hour that it was not until early in the morning of the following day that I finally fell asleep, with the result that I rather overslept myself; and when Piet brought me my usual cup of coffee he at the same time brought me an intimation that envoys had already arrived from Gwanda with a message from the king, to the effect that His Majesty was now prepared to grant me an interview. I did not hurry, however, but rose and dressed with more deliberation than usual, for my experience is that a savage—even although that savage happens to be a king—respects a white man in direct proportion to the time that the latter keeps him waiting; therefore I directed Piet to inform the messengers that I was not yet ready to receive them, but would do so as soon as I had partaken of breakfast. I kept the men—it required six of them, it appeared, to bring the king's message—about an hour, and then condescended to interview them, sending them back with an intimation that I was about to select from among my treasures certain articles which I intended to offer as gifts to His Majesty, and that when I had done so I would so far honour him as to call and make the presentation in person.

I delivered this message with all the aloofness and dignity of manner that I could muster, and was gratified to observe that it was not without its effect upon the king's envoys, who accorded me the salute of "'Nkos'!" upon their departure. Then, as soon as they were gone, I unpacked my bales and proceeded to sort out and set aside the gifts which I intended to offer for His Majesty's acceptance. By dint of a little artful questioning I had contrived to gain the information that King Lomalindela was a man of about my own stature and build, and I kept this information in mind when selecting my gifts. I assumed that, as in the case of King Moshesh, a military uniform would prove the most acceptable gift that I could possibly offer a savage monarch; and upon examining my stock in trade I discovered that I possessed the complete uniform of a sergeant of hussars—tunic, pelisse, trousers and boots combined, shako with red and white horsehair plume complete, and a sabre—which, upon trial, seemed to fit me pretty well, if perhaps just a shade tight. I therefore decided upon this, together with a length of some two and a half feet of brass chain, the ends of which I united by a split ring, to which I attached one of my small circular shaving mirrors; and to this I added a dozen little brass boxes full of mixed beads, these last being intended as gifts for the king's favourite wives. Then, putting the whole in a parcel which I entrusted to Piet's care, I mounted Prince, and, accompanied by my trusty Hottentot henchman on foot, set out to traverse the short distance between the wagon and Gwanda.

The arrival of a white man in the Mashona country was evidently a quite unique event, exciting the utmost curiosity in the minds of the inhabitants—indeed, I subsequently learned that such a thing had never happened since the memorable visit of my friend Major Henderson and his partner, Van Raalte, consequently it was only a very few of the older men who had ever beheld a white man before; for as I rode along at a foot-pace, with Piet respectfully walking in my rear, the whole way was lined on either side by thousands of men, women, and children, who had turned out for the express purpose of beholding such an astonishing spectacle, this, it appeared, being rendered all the more extraordinary by the fact that horses were unknown to the Mashonas, and not one of them, save the half-dozen or so elders above-mentioned, had ever so much as heard of a mounted man! Therefore my slow progress was marked by a continuous volley of "Au's!" uttered with the hand held over the mouth, indicative of the utmost astonishment and awe. The same sort of thing, only in a very much more marked degree, prevailed inside the town, every one of the inhabitants of which appeared to have made a point of turning out to witness my arrival. I rode right up through the main street of the town as far as the great square of which I have spoken as occupying its centre, and there, finding that the entire square was lined with troops in full panoply of war—from which I surmised that my visit was intended to be regarded as a state function—I dismounted, and, still carrying my trusty rifle, turned my horse over to the care of a savage who seemed to be more than half-afraid of the animal. Then, with Piet following close at my heels, I passed through a gap which had been hastily made in the line of troops, and found myself in the great square—and in the presence of King Lomalindela.



CHAPTER TEN.

I FIND MYSELF IN AN EXCEEDINGLY AWKWARD DILEMMA.

The king—as to whose identity there could be no possible mistake—was seated in the very centre of the great square upon some sort of throne, the precise shape and material of which I could not make out, for it was entirely hidden by an immense and magnificent kaross of lions' skins; and formed up in a semicircle behind and around him were about a hundred warriors, the arms and accoutrements of whom were of so elaborate and splendid a character that I at once judged them—rightly, as it afterward turned out—to be chiefs.

But since the king was seated in the exact centre of the great square, there was still a space of nearly four hundred and fifty yards separating us when I passed through the line of warriors; therefore, for the moment, I could only take in the general effect of the group, and very imposing it was. For, with the exception of some half a dozen elders, every one of those chiefs was in the very prime of life, ringed of course, standing fully six feet in height, each one of them bearing the scars of many battles—as I perceived when I drew near—and evidently men who knew not the meaning of the word fear. And in every respect worthy of them was their king, whom, as I approached, I saw to be a man apparently of about thirty-five to forty years of age, splendidly proportioned, and probably quite as tall as the tallest of his chiefs, although I could only judge his height approximately, since he was sitting down. Unlike his warriors, however, he was naked, save for the usual mucha or apron of monkeys' tails round his loins, and a superb leopard-skin kaross over his shoulders; and he was also unarmed, save for a bangwan or stabbing spear with an enormous blade, which he held carelessly across his knees as I approached. But I did not like the expression of his countenance, or indeed that of any of the Mashona, which seemed to me to be compounded of craftiness, treachery, and ferocious cruelty. Moreover, His Majesty seemed to be in anything but a good humour—perhaps I had kept him waiting rather too long; for as I approached near enough to note the expression upon his features I observed that his brows were contracted into a heavy frown, and there was a certain glitter in his eyes that I by no means liked. However, if he chanced to be striving to daunt me by his scowling looks it was important that he should be made to understand that he had by no means succeeded; therefore, walking slowly and with all the dignity I could assume, I marched straight up to him, and, looking him fearlessly in the eyes, halted about ten feet from him, and, giving him a military salute, remarked, in the Bantu tongue:

"Greeting, Lomalindela, King and Lord of the Mashona! I, Edward Laurence, one of the mighty English race, salute thee!"

"I see thee, white man of the unpronounceable name," answered the king somewhat ungraciously. "Ye desired audience of me, and I have given it you; say now, therefore, why have ye come into my country, and what want ye now that I have permitted you to enter it?"

"Nay, O King," I retorted, "beyond what you have already given me— namely, permission to hunt in your country—I want little or nothing, except permission to trade with your people. There is gold in Mashonaland, which is a metal that, so far as I have thus seen, ye have little use for; but among my own people it possesses a certain value: therefore have I come hither, bringing with me goods which I am prepared to barter for gold among your people, if they will. But if not, it matters not; I can buy ivory with those goods on my way back to mine own land. Also, I am seeking a young white 'ntombozaan who was stolen from among us some twenty-two moons ago, and carried off into the interior, whither I know not. I think she cannot have been brought so far as this; yet, who knows? Have you heard or seen aught of such an 'ntombozaan, O King?"

"I have not, white man, nor is she in Mashonaland, for otherwise I should have heard of it and seen her," answered Lomalindela. "The few strangers who enter my country are brought to me, and I deal with them as I will. No, she has not been here; therefore that part of your errand is soon disposed of. And as to the other part of it, I will consider the matter at my leisure. Have ye aught else to say to me?"

"Merely to ask Your Majesty's acceptance of certain gifts which I have brought with me. Is it the king's pleasure that I produce them?" I blandly enquired.

An expression of covetousness flashed into the king's eyes as he nodded and replied briefly:

"Yes, you may produce them."

I beckoned to Piet, who, as my supposed body servant, had been permitted to enter the great square with me, and he at once stepped forward with the bundle containing the presents, which he laid at my feet. Then deliberately, and with as much ceremony as I could infuse into so commonplace an act, I unfastened the bundle, extracted the items of uniform one by one, unfolded them, and held them up for inspection. The king regarded each garment attentively and somewhat wonderingly as I held it up, but did not appear to be very profoundly impressed; and I began to fear that my great coup was about to miss fire. When, however, I came to the sword, drew it from its scabbard, flourished the glittering blade round my head, and made several cuts and points at an imaginary enemy, His Majesty sat upright in his chair and began to manifest a little more interest.

"Is that one of the white man's fighting weapons?" he demanded, stretching forth his hand for it.

"It is," answered I, as I handed it to him. And forthwith I proceeded to explain to him how it was used. He examined the weapon with much curiosity, ran his thumb along the edge, remarked that it was not very sharp, and then, to my unutterable dismay, handed it back to me, saying:

"Good! Thou shalt show me how it is used. One of my warriors, armed with spear and shield, shall fight thee!"

For a second or two I was too dumbfounded to speak. I knew that savages were subject to queer and unexpected turns of thought, but this was a development that I had never foreseen even in my most fantastic imaginings, and I was utterly at a loss as to how I was to deal with such an extraordinary situation. It was not that I was exactly afraid to meet a savage in mortal combat, for I had often done so before; but that was on the field of battle, when my opponents were the enemies of my race, thirsting for the white man's blood, and when my only choice lay between killing and being killed. But to deliberately engage in a cold-blooded duel with a man against whom I had no grudge, and to incur the obligation of killing or being killed merely to gratify the whim of a savage monarch, was quite another matter, and one that, to confess the simple truth, I had no fancy for. Yet how to escape the dilemma I knew not, though it was forcibly borne in upon me that it would never do for me to betray the slightest hesitation, for savage kings are kittle cattle to deal with, and to cross even their lightest mood may often result in a ghastly tragedy. Therefore, more in the hope of gaining time than for any other reason, I said:

"Nay, O King, it were mere waste of good material to slay one of thy warriors in order to show thee how this weapon is used, nor is it necessary; I can make the matter quite clear to thee without killing a man, and will do so in due time. Let me now proceed to display the remainder of my gifts;" and hastily diving into the parcel I produced the length of brass chain with the shaving mirror attached, held it up for an instant that all might see, and then placed it round my own neck, to show how it was to be worn. And at that moment what seemed to me to be a brilliant inspiration seized me, and I began to talk somewhat hurriedly, in the hope of diverting the king's mind from the idea of the suggested duel.

"This," said I, removing the chain and mirror from my neck and offering it to His Majesty, "is great magic, for it enables a man to see himself. Behold!" And I held it up so that Lomalindela might see the reflection of his own visage in it. He took it doubtingly and hesitatingly in his hand—for there is nothing a South African savage dreads so much as magic or witchcraft—and a low, awestricken ejaculation of "Au!" escaped him at what he beheld.

"And that is not all," I continued. "This magic disk enables its owner to see what is happening behind him. As thus:" and I slightly turned the mirror in his hand as he held it, in such a fashion that he could see the faces of the various chiefs who stood behind him.

"Finally," I proceeded, "it has the power of temporarily blinding an enemy, and so giving its possessor power over him—thus:" and, as I spoke, I turned the mirror in such a fashion that it flashed the rays of the sun right into the eyes of several of the soldiers lining the square, who, despite the awful breach of discipline involved in the action, incontinently raised their shields as the dazzling reflection struck their eyes.

"Au!" ejaculated Lomalindela in awestruck tones, as he handled the mirror doubtfully; "it is great and good magic, for it enables a man to see the enemy who comes creeping up behind him, and to blind the enemy who assails him in front. I thank thee, white man. Thou shalt show me how to use it too."

"Certainly," I replied hastily. "All in good time. And now, lastly, behold! here are boxes of beads for thy favourite wives, wherewith they may adorn themselves."

The king took the brass boxes, one by one, in his hands, turned them over and looked at them, and then calmly drew from the lobe of his right ear an ivory snuffbox about the same size, and substituted therefor one of the other boxes, amid low murmurs of admiration from the chiefs in his rear.

"It is good; and again I thank thee, white man," he remarked, as he placed the remaining brass boxes in the hands of one of the chiefs, with a low-murmured order, the purport of which I could not catch. "Yes, it is good," he repeated, turning to me. "But what are these things good for?" he enquired, pointing to the little pile of clothes which I had replaced in the bundle.

"Listen, O King, and I will tell thee," I replied. "In the land where the white men live there are kings even as there are in this land; and— also as in this land—they are men undistinguishable from other men, save by their clothing. Also, as in Mashonaland, the king is a soldier, the chief and general of all his troops; and he is distinguishable from all others by the magnificence of his clothing. Therefore, when I decided to visit Mashonaland, and the matter of suitable presents arose in my mind, I decided that I could not possibly offer anything more suitable and acceptable to the King of Mashona than the garb of a soldier such as a king wears. And, behold, there it is!"

"Au!" ejaculated Lomalindela, regarding the little heap with new interest. "Is that, then, the garb that the king of the white men wears?"

"Even so," I answered, straining the truth a little. "It is the garb of a soldier, and that is the kind of garb which a white king wears upon state occasions, such as a review of his troops, or upon the occasion of some very great and important ceremonial."

"Good!" ejaculated the king. "Thy gift comes most opportunely. To-morrow is the day of the great annual festival in Mashonaland, when I review all my soldiers, and when the witch doctors smell out those who are my secret enemies. I will wear it then. But thou, white man, must show me how each thing is used, for I have never before seen anything like them."

"Assuredly I will," said I. "Shall it be now?" The king considered for a moment, and then answered in the affirmative, at the same time beckoning to a certain chief, an elderly, grey-headed man, and giving him an order; whereupon the chief—whom I assumed to be deep in his monarch's confidence—left his place in the semicircular cordon behind the throne, and, advancing to where the bundle lay at my feet, lifted it reverentially and bore it away to a large, rectangular hut—which I took to be the itunkulu, or king's house—at the far corner of the square, whither Lomalindela and I forthwith followed him. This hut, which was about fifty feet long by about forty feet broad, and some seven feet high to the eaves of the roof, was built of what is known in Cape Colony as "wattle and daub"; that is to say, the walls had been constructed of interlaced wattle-work plastered over with mud and allowed to dry in the heat of the sun, after which they and the roof had been thickly thatched with palm leaves. This effectually turned the heavy tropical rain to which the country is subject at certain seasons of the year, and was also a pretty effectual protection against the scorching rays of the sun; consequently the interior temperature of such a structure, stifling though it frequently was, was not nearly so great as that of the outer air. In this particular case, too, the doorway, unlike that of the usual Kafir hut, was high enough to permit a full-grown man to enter without stooping; but, like other Kafir huts, this was entirely destitute of windows, the only light, during the daytime at least, being what entered by the doorway. A minute or two, however, sufficed for the eye to become accustomed to the change of light, and when mine had done so I perceived that the interior of this particular hut was divided by wattle partitions into apparently three apartments, two in the front half and the other—which I surmised to be sacred to the king's emposeni, or harem—occupying the rear half. The apartment which we first entered was probably the king's sitting-room, for it contained nothing but a low divan-like arrangement running all round the walls and covered with rich karosses, while through the doorway leading to the other apartment I caught an indistinct glimpse of what looked like a rough imitation of a couch or bed, also heaped high with karosses.

The king lost no time in coming to the point. He signed to the attendant chief to place the bundle on the divan, then turned to me and said:

"Now, white man, teach me how to array myself in the garb of the white kings."

"Then," said I, taking up the booted trousers, "this is the first garment which Your Majesty must don." And I explained as best I could how he was to clothe himself. The fact that the boots were attached to the trousers made the assumption of the garment somewhat awkward, but luckily the boots were ample in size, and the monarch managed to get his feet into them without much difficulty. Then I explained how he must tuck the mucha inside, and when this was done, and the garment drawn up round his waist, I passed the braces over his shoulders and showed him how to button them. The trousers were scarlet—just a little off colour with wear, I am afraid—with a broad stripe of yellow braid down the outer seam, and the effect was evidently satisfactory to the king, who walked up and down the room several times admiring himself. Then I took up the tunic, and after I had explained how it was worn the induna and I assisted His Majesty to get into it, and I buttoned it down the front. Next I attached the fur-trimmed pelisse to one shoulder, adjusted the shoulder belt, threw the brass chain with mirror attached round his neck, placed the plumed shako on his head, girded the sword about his waist, and there he stood, a most grotesque yet withal not unkingly figure, fully attired in the uniform of a hussar.

The effect upon the induna was tremendous; he stood for several seconds gazing open-mouthed upon the awe-inspiring apparition of his king in the new and strange attire, and then, flinging himself prone upon the ground with his hands over his eyes, exclaimed:

"It is too much; mine eyes are not strong enough to gaze upon so much splendour! Bayete! Bayete!! Bayete!!!"

As for the king, his gratification and pride were unbounded: never before, I suppose, had he beheld any man so completely overpowered with admiration as this old induna; and if such was the effect of his appearance upon a man with whom he was, comparatively speaking, familiar, what might he not expect to be the result when he exhibited himself in his kingly attire to his troops? He swelled visibly with gratified vanity—for vanity and fear of witchcraft are the two overmastering emotions of the savage—grinned from ear to ear as he took the mirror in his hand and gazed admiringly at the reflected image of himself crowned with the smart shako and its nodding horsehair plume, and finally turned to me with the question:

"Say now, white man, what think ye? Do I look like a white king?"

"In every respect, Your Majesty," answered I, with several mental reservations.

"Au! it is good; it is very good indeed!" he exclaimed. "Now am I a white king, and when my enemies behold me they shall tremble, and their hearts shall melt within them as the snow upon the mountain tops melts when the glory of the sun shines upon it. Their courage shall fail and their spirit shall wither at the sight of me, even as the grass withers and shrivels at the breath of fire. I am the king!"

A silence of a few minutes followed this rhapsody, then he turned to the still prostrate induna, and, kicking him gently in the ribs with his booted foot, exclaimed:

"Rise, Mapela, and behold me! You must grow accustomed to the sight of me in my kingly garb, for now that I have it I shall often delight the eyes of my people by wearing it. Say, now, shall I go forth this instant and make glad the hearts of the soldiers who are gathered in the great square by showing myself to them?"

Mapela revolved this very important question in his mind for nearly a minute; then he raised his head and answered:

"If, O Great, Great One, the words of the humblest of thy servants carry weight with thee I would say, show not thyself in thy glorious garb until to-morrow. There are but a few warriors in the square to-day, so few that they are altogether unworthy of so great an honour as that which thou dost suggest; moreover, they would go away and babble to others of what they had seen, and much of the glory and splendour of thy first appearance in those magnificent garments would be wasted. Wait until to-morrow, O Elephant whose tread causes the earth to tremble with fear, and then—when the whole army is gathered together, and all can see thee at the same moment—thou shalt reveal thyself in all thy magnificent splendour, and—and—words fail me to predict the result."

"Perhaps thou art right, Mapela the Wise One," answered the king, kindly overlooking—or perhaps not noticing—the rather lame and impotent conclusion of the induna's high-flown speech. "Yes; perhaps thou art right," (this rather regretfully). "But there is no reason why I should not at once show myself to my wives; and, by the bones of my royal father, I will! There be those among them who of late have shown a tendency to make light of my words and hold me of small account. I will see what they will say and how they will act when they behold me as I now am!"

And therewith, Lomalindela, autocrat of the Mashona nation, lord of life and death over nearly a million people, stalked across the room with his sword clanking at his heels, drew aside a curtain, and disappeared behind it. There followed a breathless silence for the space of perhaps half a minute, a silence deep, pregnant, and almost awe-inspiring; and then there floated out from the other side of the kaross curtain a little shriek in an unmistakable feminine tone of voice, a shriek expressive of mingled astonishment, awestruck wonder, and delight, immediately followed by a perfectly deafening clamour of exclamations and laughter from at least fifty women—if their number might be gauged by the volume of sound that they created—amid which might be imperfectly caught, at intervals, the deep tones of Lomalindela's voice, raised apparently in remonstrance, entreaty, and indignation.

Mapela, the Wise One, and I glanced enquiringly at each other, and methought that even in the semi-obscurity of that darkened interior I could detect the ghost of a twinkle of amusement in the old induna's eyes; for my own part, I remember that I was grinning from ear to ear as my imagination conjured up a picture of the scene which was enacting behind that curtain. The shouts, exclamations, laughter, and remonstrances increased rather than diminished as the moments sped, and presently Mapela came to me, took me by the arm, and gently led me from the itunkulu, saying as he did so:

"Come, 'mlungu; let us go. A king is but a man, after all, among his women folk, and it is not seemly that you and I should linger and hear more of what is passing yonder."

Once safely away from the itunkulu, and beyond reach of the unseemly sounds which issued therefrom, Mapela conducted me to the group of chiefs still gathered round the royal chair and introduced me to them severally and individually; then, discreetly and with a certain air of mystery, he hinted to his fellow indunas that the investiture of the Great, Great One had been successfully accomplished, with such amazing and magnificently splendid results that it would be well for them all to spend the night in preparing to be astonished, for on the morrow they should find themselves overwhelmed with wonder and admiration. And finally, he threw out a cautious feeler with the object of ascertaining whether perchance it had occurred to me that it might be politic on my part to confirm the excellent impression which I had already made by bestowing upon him and his fellow indunas a small—a very small—modicum of the inestimable treasures which they all knew my wagon must still contain. To this I replied that the idea was at that moment the one uppermost in my mind, and that I gladly availed myself of the opportunity afforded by the king's temporary absence to invite them to call upon me in a body as soon as possible, to receive my largesse.

Then I, in turn, took up my parable, and, in humble emulation of Mapela's engaging frankness, hinted that if by any chance the king—or anybody else—should feel moved to display a feeling of friendliness to the extent of bestowing upon me a return present, I wanted nothing of actual value—such as spears, shields, and the like—but would gladly accept as much of that useless stuff, gold, as people might desire to force upon me, the accumulation of gold being one of my chief hobbies; eccentric, amusing, perhaps even ridiculous, but—well, there it was. And I accompanied my final statement with a shrug of the shoulders which I intended should express deprecation of my own folly. I intercepted a glance and nod of intelligence and amusement which passed round the circle at this naive confession of folly on my part, and at that moment the king, shorn of his temporary glories, and with a distinct frown of annoyance upon his royal brow, emerged from the itunkulu and stalked towards us. Also, to my secret discomfiture, I observed that he carried in his hand the sword which I had just presented to him, and in the use of which he had expressed a desire to be instructed. I began to think that I had permitted my passion for harmony and completeness to carry me rather too far when I included the sword with the other items of the uniform which I had selected for presentation to King Lomalindela; and I resolved, there and then, never again to include lethal weapons of any description among my gifts to savages.

The king flung himself down into his throne with much of the petulance of manner that is observable in the demeanour of a spoilt child when its temper has been ruffled, from which I surmised that the impression produced upon the ladies of his harem by His Majesty's martial garb had fallen short in some respects of what he had anticipated; that in fact, and not to put too fine a point upon it, His Majesty's vanity had been taken down a peg or two—for the which I was rather sorry, because I somehow had a premonition that the resulting soreness of temper would recoil upon me. And, for once in a way, my premonition was promptly verified; for after scowling round for a minute or two upon all and sundry, maintaining meanwhile an ominous silence, the king straightened himself up and said sharply:

"Now, white man, we have wasted enough time in folly; let us proceed with the matter which I was discussing when you interrupted me. You were about to show me how this thing which you call a 'sword' should be used. You shall show me now. Mapela, choose you a skilled warrior from your regiment, that he may fight this white man, and that I may thus be able to judge the real value of the white man's gift. The white man shall be armed only with the sword, and the Mashona's weapons shall be his shield and stabbing spear."

Saluting, Mapela strode across the square to where his regiment was drawn up, and moved slowly along the ranks, critically eyeing each man over as he did so. I believed that I had succeeded in producing a tolerably good impression upon Mapela; moreover, it was to his interest that I should not be killed, for if I should chance to be slain he might bid goodbye to his hopes of obtaining a present from me: and I began to wonder whether "the Wise One" possessed enough mental acuteness and alertness to conceive the idea of quietly warning the warrior whom he might choose that there was no need for him to put up a real fight, and that every purpose would be served if the warrior, while feigning to use his best endeavours to kill me, should skilfully permit me to disarm him. Unfortunately, however, Mapela could not know what was passing in my mind, and I had missed the only opportunity that had presented itself for discussing the matter with him—which was while the king was displaying his fine feathers to his ladies; and it might very well happen that the old induna, animated by the best intentions in the world toward me, might select a foeman whom he might deem well worthy of my steel, for the purpose of enabling me to display my skill before the king. It was a most annoying dilemma for a peaceably disposed young fellow like myself, with a natural aversion to unnecessary strife and bloodshed, to find himself in, and for the life of me I could see no way out of it. The king was clearly in no mood to listen to argument; indeed, he was evidently very much ruffled in temper, and in just that frame of mind which would impel him to insist the more strongly on having his own way should I attempt anything in the nature of dissuasion: therefore all I could see for it was to submit to his whim, and do my best to disarm my antagonist without hurting him.

By the time that I had thus far considered the matter, Mapela had made his choice, and now approached us, accompanied by a fine, stalwart young Mashona warrior of some five or six and twenty years of age, a ringed man, whose smooth, dark skin was already seamed here and there with scars that told of more than one hard-fought fight, and whose lithe and easy movements indicated that he was in the very pink of fighting condition. Halting within a pace or two of where I stood, near the king, Mapela saluted, and said:

"Behold, O Great, Great One, I have chosen a warrior, even as you bade me. He is named 'Mfuni, and is the son of Matanga, one of our most skilled and cunning fighters, who has carefully trained his son in all the arts of warfare. Is my choice approved?"

I looked at my proposed antagonist, and a single glance into his eyes, aglow with pride and resolution, convinced me that whatever hope I might have cherished regarding Mapela's supposed desire for my escape from the ordeal to which I was about to be subjected had been utterly misplaced. His cupidity in respect of possible gifts, if indeed he had been animated by any such feeling, had evidently been swamped by his sense of duty to his king, and he had as evidently picked a warrior well calculated, in his opinion, to uphold and maintain the honourable traditions of the Mashona army. 'Mfuni's every look and movement clearly proclaimed that he regarded himself as the chosen champion of the entire Mashona nation, and that he was fully prepared to lay down his life in the endeavour to uphold its prestige. It was clear that I should have to look well to myself if I desired to see the light of another day.

Moved by a sudden impulse to avoid, if possible, a combat that, however it might end, could be of no possible advantage to me, I turned to the king and said:

"Surely Your Majesty is not in earnest in insisting that I should fight the man in order to demonstrate the way in which the sword that I have given thee should be used? I can show thee all that there is to show, without the slightest need for bloodshed, as thus—permit me!" and I took the sword from the king's hand, unsheathed it, and, laying the scabbard at the king's feet, approached 'Mfuni, smiling into the man's eyes to show him that I meant him no harm.

"Now, 'Mfuni," said I, as I halted within striking distance of him, "raise thy spear, as though thou wert about to strike it through my heart."

The man looked doubtfully at me, and then flung a lightning glance of enquiry at the king. But the latter made no sign; therefore, after a moment's pause, 'Mfuni raised his spear as I had bade him.

"Now," I continued, in a low voice, intended only for his ear, "when I say 'Strike', thrust at me—not too quickly, but just quick enough to make the blow look real. Strike!"

Prompt at the word, the man struck, exactly as I had told him to do; and without the least difficulty I parried the blow, shearing the head of the spear from its haft, and leaving the latter in the astonished savage's hand.

"You see, O Great One?" I said, stepping back and turning to the king. "The thing is quite simple; a mere turn of the wrist does it—thus,"— and I illustrated my meaning by parrying an imaginary thrust. "The head of your adversary's spear is shorn off, and he is disarmed and at your mercy, to be slain or not, as you may choose. And that is all there is in it. No need to fight in order to show how the sword should be used."

The king glowered at me for several seconds in silence. Then, with a scornful laugh, he exclaimed:

"Pah! that was nothing; a boy of six years could have done as much. And 'Mfuni made no effort to slay thee, else thou wouldst not be alive now. I begin to have my doubts of thee, white man. Dost thou desire my death, that thou hast given me a weapon of no use in the time of battle?"

"But it is of use," I insisted hotly. "For nearly twelve moons I, with others, fought the Tembu, the Pondos, and the Griquas, using a similar weapon to this, and I am alive this day."

"Then," retorted Lomalindela, with a malicious grin, "if thou art so sure of the effectiveness of the weapon, let me see thee use it in a real fight. Mapela, give 'Mfuni thy spear. And, hark ye, 'Mfuni, if thou canst slay the white man, or even disable him, thou shalt choose twenty head of cattle from mine own herd, and they shall be thine. But if the white man proves to be the victor in the fight, and there is still life in thee when it is over, I swear, by the bones of my royal father, that thou shalt be given to the ants! Thou hearest?"

"I hear, O Great, Great One, Calf of the Black Bull, Elephant whose tread shakes the earth. Bayete!" answered 'Mfuni, lifting on high the haft of the spear from which I had shorn the head.

So I was in for it, with no ghost of a chance of escape; and the very gift—or, rather, one item of it—upon which I had so confidently relied to win me the favour and goodwill of the king had, through that monarch's capricious and suspicious nature, been the instrument by means of which I had become involved in a duel that must almost inevitably end in a ghastly tragedy. For, after what the king had said to my antagonist, there was no doubt that the fellow would do his utmost to kill me; while I, in pure self-defence, and also for his sake, must do my best to kill him. I fully understood, the meaning of the king's horrible threat to give the poor fellow to the ants; and, rather than see him condemned to so dreadful a fate, I would slay him with my own hand!



CHAPTER ELEVEN.

I FIGHT THE CHAMPION OF THE MASHONA ARMY.

In obedience to the king's command, Mapela left his place among his fellow indunas, and, stalking across the intervening space, handed his bangwan—a spear with a stout haft about three and a half feet long, to which was attached a head some eighteen inches long by seven and a half inches wide, the two edges of which were almost razor keen—to 'Mfuni. And while he was doing this, and whispering a few hurried words to my prospective antagonist, I divested myself of my jacket, and handing it and my rifle to Piet, who all this while had stood motionless as a statue, said:

"Take these and hold them for me, Piet. And if I should be killed, make your way at once to the place where I have left my horse, shooting any man who may attempt to stop you—the rifle is loaded—and mount and ride for your life to the wagon. And if you are fortunate enough to reach it alive, you, with Jan and 'Ngulubi, had better take all the horses, all the guns, and as much ammunition as you may have time to lay your hands on, and ride for your lives back to the Limpopo, on the other side of which you will be reasonably safe. After which, you must do the best you can for yourselves. And if you should be lucky enough to get back home, find Major Henderson and tell him all that has happened and—how I died."

"All right, baas," answered Piet cheerfully, as he took my coat and rifle from me; "I'll remember all that you say. But I ain't afraid, baas; you're not goin' to die just yet. You'll beat that black nigger all right." (The fellow was himself as black as the ace of spades.) "All you got to do, baas, is to take care that he don' work roun' you so's to get the sun in your eyes, that's all."

By this time 'Mfuni was once more armed, while Mapela had left him and was wending his way back to his place among his fellow indunas, whose eyes, like those of the king, and indeed every man in the square, were now intently watching every movement of their champion and myself. As I walked leisurely toward 'Mfuni, rolling up my right shirt sleeve the while, I saw that the fellow was watching me keenly as a cat watches a mouse, and, despite my apparent unconcern, I kept an equally wary eye upon him, knowing, from his tense attitude, that he might attack me at any moment. As I now approached him, the sun was immediately behind me, and, mindful of Piet's advice, I was determined to keep it there, if possible; although there was this disadvantage about the arrangement, that the king, with his group of indunas, was far enough forward on my left front to be just within my range of vision, and any sudden movement upon the part of any of them was liable to attract my attention from my antagonist and leave me open to his attack. But I quickly made up my mind to dismiss them altogether from my thoughts; and at the instant when I came to this resolution 'Mfuni, with a sudden spring, leapt within arm's length of me, with his spear upraised in the act of striking.

Instantly I threw up my blade in position, ready to parry; but beyond this, and coming to a halt, I took no notice of my antagonist's movement, for I had already made my plans for the fight, these consisting simply in acting upon the defensive until a favourable opportunity should reveal itself—and keeping my back to the sun. But 'Mfuni was as quick as myself to recognise the advantage that the latter would give me, and did his utmost to deprive me of it by springing first to one side and then to the other, hoping no doubt that I should be tempted to turn and face him, until, by repeated turns, he should contrive to get the sun in my eyes. I defeated this amiable project, however, by keeping my eyes steadfastly fixed upon his, and thus reading and forestalling his intentions—for I have found that the eye is the one feature of the human countenance that will not lend itself to deception; and thus for several minutes we danced hither and thither, right and left, my opponent continually flashing his spear before my eyes and making feints, while I simply held myself ready to parry his stroke the moment that I should see it coming. And presently it came in good earnest, for the patience of the savage is soon worn down—came with the quickness of a lightning flash. But, quick as it was, I intercepted it; the moment I saw that it was really coming, round whirled my blade, and down fell the point of the spear, shorn clean off at its junction with the haft, and 'Mfuni stood disarmed before me.

For the fraction of a second he stood gazing with dilated eyes, apparently unable to realise that he was beaten; then, to my amazement, he stooped swiftly and snatched the severed spearhead from the ground. Unprepared as I was for the action, I yet had enough presence of mind to spring back and away from him; and well was it for me that I did so, for almost before I could recover from my astonishment the man was upon me, stabbing furiously at me with the spearhead in one hand, while with his shield in the other he covered his body. So sudden and furious was the onslaught that, in spite of myself, I was driven back some half a dozen paces, while a low murmur from the onlookers rapidly strengthened to a deafening roar of applause and encouragement; then, in parrying an unusually vicious stab, I unwittingly slashed the poor fellow across the right hand so severely that he incontinently dropped his blade and once more stood disarmed before me: whereupon, driving him back by threatening him with my point, I stepped forward and placed my foot upon the spearhead.

"Do you yield and admit yourself beaten, 'Mfuni?" I demanded in a low voice.

"I yield; I am beaten, 'Nkos'," answered the man, lowering his hands. "Strike me now through the heart, I pray thee, and save me from the torture of the ants."

"Wait!" I enjoined him briefly. Then, turning to the king, I said—the shouts of applause and encouragement having ceased on the instant of 'Mfuni's discomfiture:

"Thou hast seen, O King! Although thy chosen champion fought well and did his best, I have conquered him with this weapon, of which thou wert inclined to think so little. Art thou still inclined to think lightly of it; or art thou convinced that it is a good weapon, capable of protecting a man's life in the heat of battle?"

"Nay," answered Lomalindela, "it is a good weapon; thou hast proved it to be so at the risk of thy life, and I thank thee for the gift. Ask me now what shall I give thee in return for it? Wilt thou have gold or cattle? Thou hast but to say, and it shall be thine; for thy gift is good, and mine shall equal it."

This answer, by good luck, afforded me the very opening that I wanted, and at once I replied:

"I thank thee, Great, Great One, and take thee at thy word. I want none of the things that thou hast named; but if thou dost really value my gift to thee I ask thee to give me in return the life of 'Mfuni, the man who fought with me and whom I conquered by the might and magic of this sword. He fought bravely and well; worthily did he uphold the finest traditions of the Mashona warriors: but against this sword he had no chance; he could not conquer me. Therefore, because it is not his fault that he has been beaten—your soldiers and indunas, to a man, will admit that—I ask you to give the man his life, free from all stigma or disgrace of defeat; and to repeal your sentence that, if conquered, he should be given to the ants."

The silence that followed this bold request of mine was so intensely profound that when it had endured for a minute or more at its full tension I began to suspect that I had unwittingly committed some utterly unpardonable offence, and that all nature was breathlessly awaiting the fall of the avenging thunderbolt. For it was not only that every man present in that great open space seemed tongue-tied, they seemed to be not even drawing their breath; they were as absolutely motionless as so many statues; there was not even the faint sound of a man shifting his weight from one leg to the other, not even the scarcely perceptible touch of a spear-haft upon a shield, nor even the faint rustle of the warriors' plumes in the wind, for, strangely enough, at that precise moment even the wind itself seemed to pause in its breathing: and glancing round me in vague discomfiture I perceived that every man in the square was staring blankly before him, right into space. The fact was—as I subsequently learned—that in preferring my request I had asked the king, in so many words, to break the most sacred oath known to the Mashonas, and had he risen in his wrath and plunged his bangwan through my heart, nobody would have been in the least degree surprised; that, indeed, was the logical sequence for which everybody was at that moment waiting. But my request must have touched some hitherto hidden and unsuspected chord in the king's heart, for presently, when the tension had become almost unendurable, Lomalindela raised his head and said, in so gentle a tone of voice that it electrified everybody:

"Au, white man, you know not what you ask! I have sworn by the bones of my royal father that if that man was conquered, and survived the fight, I would give him to the ants; and that is an oath which I dare not break, for otherwise great evils would fall upon the house of Lomalindela, King of the Mashona."

"Doubtless, O King, what thou sayest is true—under ordinary circumstances," I replied. "But these circumstances are not ordinary; on the contrary, they are so exceptional that they will probably never again occur. The oath which you took was taken in ignorance. You did not know that, in taking that oath, you were virtually condemning a man to a dreadful death for failing to accomplish an impossibility, did you?"

"That is true, white man; I did not know it," answered the king.

"Therefore," I continued, with increasing confidence, "by every law of right and equity your ignorance of that important fact absolves you from your oath, and you are entitled to break it, if you please. And I ask you to break it, knowing that you may certainly do so with impunity, because, in demanding that 'Mfuni should conquer me—or, rather, the sword which I gave you—you demanded of him that which neither he nor any other warrior could possibly accomplish."

Then ensued another tense silence, during which the king appeared to be meditating upon what I had said. Presently he beckoned to Mapela, "the Wise One", and conferred with him in a low voice for a brief space. Then, turning to me, he said:

"I am inclined to believe that what thou hast said as to the impossibility of 'Mfuni conquering the sword is true; for Mapela informs me that he chose the man because of his reputation as the most skilled fighter in the whole Mashona army. Therefore, because of what thou hast said, I would willingly break my oath, if I could but be sure that, in so doing, I should not be bringing evil upon myself and my house. But how can I be sure?"

That was a puzzler, with a vengeance; and I looked about me in perplexity, searching earth and sky for an answer. As I did so, I saw, far away in the northern sky, a filmy something that, even as I looked, resolved itself into a flock of rock pigeons coming directly toward us. I knew, from long experience, the propensity of these birds to fly straight, and I felt sure that, unless something happened to divert their course, they would presently pass right over our heads; therefore, since a man's life was hanging in the balance and only I could save it, I determined to take a chance, and called to Piet to hand me my rifle. Then, with it in my hand, I turned to the king and said:

"Behold, Lomalindela! yonder is a flight of rock pigeons about to pass over our heads. If one of them should fall dead in this square, would you believe that I have told you the truth, and that you may break your oath with impunity?"

"Yea, I will," answered the king, looking in the direction toward which I was pointing, "for why should one of them fall dead, seeing that their flight is strong and full of life?"

"You shall see," said I, and slowly raised my rifle. The birds were flying very high, and I foresaw that the shot would be a difficult one, but I had accomplished others quite as difficult in my time, and was determined that I would not fail now; therefore, holding my breath as the pigeons drew overhead, I sighted about six inches ahead of the leader and pulled the trigger. A low-murmured ejaculation of surprise followed the report of the piece, and simultaneously with it the leading pigeon was seen to spring convulsively upward about a foot, a feather or two detached themselves from its body, and then its wings collapsed and down it came, hurtling through the air, and falling, as luck would have it, within a few inches of the king's feet!

And, as though the soft thud of its body upon the ground had been a signal, up went the hand of every man present to his mouth, and a low "Au!" of awe and amazement rolled round the square like the mutter of distant thunder.

"Is it enough, O King; and are you satisfied?" I demanded, as I stepped forward and, picking up the bird, handed it to the monarch for his inspection.

"It is enough, and I am satisfied," answered the king. "I recall my oath, and the man's life is yours, to do as you will with it."

"I thank thee most heartily, O Great, Great One," answered I. Then, turning to 'Mfuni, I said: "Return now to your place in the ranks, 'Mfuni, and to your friends. You fought well, and it was through no fault of yours that you were defeated. And when you are dismissed from duty, come to my wagon, and I will see what may be done toward mending the wound that the king's sword inflicted upon you."

"'Nkos'!" answered 'Mfuni, throwing up his hand in salute as he swung round upon his heel and marched back to his place in the ranks. And as he went there gradually arose from the assembled troops a sound like the pattering of rain upon a roof, caused by the drumming of spear-haft upon shield, beginning so gently that at first it was scarcely audible, but rapidly swelling in volume until it became almost deafening, when it as rapidly subsided into silence. I did not understand the meaning of it at the moment; but, later on, when I questioned Mapela, he informed me that it was the method adopted by the Mashona warriors to express admiration, approval, and appreciation of any act of an exceptionally generous and noble character, and had been evoked by my treatment in general of the 'Mfuni incident, and especially by my successful intervention to save the man from the most horrible form of death known among them.

From the fact that the scowl had vanished from the king's brow I surmised that he, too, was well pleased at the final outcome of the matter; and when presently the sound of the peculiar salute to which I have referred had died away, he pointed to the rifle in my hand and said:

"Is that the magic fire tube which kills from afar, of which thy servant spoke when he came hither to crave my permission that thou shouldst enter my country and visit me here?"

"Even so," I answered, offering it for examination, for I had not reloaded it, and knew that, however carelessly he might handle it, he could do no mischief. But he declined to touch it, saying:

"Nay, it is great and terrible magic, and I will have naught to do with it. And thou, white man with the unpronounceable name, art also a great and wonderful magician, for at thy will the lightning flashes from thy fire tube and the very birds of the air fall dead at thy feet. Also, when thou didst fight 'Mfuni, thou didst cause the sword in thy hand to flash lightnings about thee by the swiftness with which thou didst wield it. Therefore I give thee a new name; and henceforth thou shalt be known as Chia'gnosi (The Smiter with Lightning). Go now, in peace, Chia'gnosi. I thank thee for the splendid gifts which thou hast bestowed upon me, and especially for the lightning-flashing sword, as also for saving the life of one of my warriors. And to-morrow thou shalt sit beside me, here in this great square, and witness the annual festival of the Mashona nation. Sala guhli!"

Accepting this as my dismissal, I saluted, and, wheeling round, beckoned Piet to follow me to the place where I had left my horse, at the entrance to the square. But I had not gone six steps upon my way when— whether spontaneously or in response to some signal I know not—up went the spear of every warrior present, in salute, and a great shout of "Chia'gnosi—Chia'gnosi—'Nkos'!" rent the air, to which I, as in duty bound, responded by halting for a moment and raising my hand to my hat-brim in a military salute.

About twenty minutes after my return to the wagon, 'Mfuni, my late antagonist, put in an appearance, in obedience to my instructions. He was still in full panoply of war, as he had appeared on parade, and had provided himself with a new bangwan, or stabbing spear, which, with his shield, war club, and a sheaf of hunting assagais, he respectfully laid at my feet as he halted before me.

"Why do you do that, 'Mfuni?" I asked, regarding the man with some surprise.

"Because henceforth I am thy man, O Chia'gnosi," he answered. Then, in reply, I suppose, to my look of continued astonishment, he added: "The 'Nkosi spared my life, and the king gave me to him; therefore henceforth I am his man."

"Do you mean that you intend to attach yourself to me, to become one of my servants?" I demanded.

"Even so, 'Nkos'," he answered simply.

"But," I said, "the king will never permit that, 'Mfuni; he would be very angry indeed with me should he discover that I had carried off one of his warriors. Probably he would send an impi after us to eat us up."

"Nay, O Chia'gnosi, he would not; for it was the Great One himself who ordered me to come to thee," replied 'Mfuni. "He gave me to thee; and the king does not go back from his word."

"Very well. In that case thou mayst remain, and glad shall I be to have thee," said I. "And now, let me look at thy hand; I must see what can be done to heal the hurt that the sword inflicted upon thee."

The gash seemed to be a rather severe one, practically incapacitating the member for the time being, and it took me the best part of half an hour to extract the splinters of bone and bind up the wound, during which time I must have inflicted a good deal of pain upon the poor fellow, for the perspiration streamed down his face like rain. Yet all the time he sat motionless and impassive as a statue, never moving a muscle or shrinking in the least.

Before I had finished with my surgery, Mapela and the rest of the chiefs turned up, in response to my invitation to call at the wagon to receive the gifts which I proposed to distribute among them; and I soon gathered, from their conversation, that 'Mfuni's story was perfectly true, and that the king had indeed given the man to me as a present.

To distribute gifts to nearly one hundred chiefs proved to be a somewhat lengthy business, also it made a pretty severe inroad into my stock of "truck"; still, it had to be done, and I could only hope that, in the long run, my generosity would not be without its reward. I treated them all alike, or practically so, giving each man a yard of thin copper wire, a gill measure of mixed beads, and either a bandana handkerchief or a yard of printed calico.

And while the distribution was proceeding my visitors chatted volubly with me, and still more volubly with each other, the principal topic of interest, I soon discovered, being the festival which was to commence one hour after daybreak on the morrow, and to last all through the day and well on into the hours of the succeeding night. The chiefs conversed with the utmost freedom in my presence and hearing, but at the outset I was too much engrossed in the business of distributing gifts to pay very much attention to what was said, a stray word or two here and there being all that I caught at first. At length, however, it began to dawn upon me that the so-called "festival" promised to be anything rather than festive, if I had not completely misunderstood the trend of certain of the remarks which had attracted my attention, and accordingly I pricked up my ears, and began to ask a few questions. And then I learned, to my horror, that the first feature of the festival, namely, the "smelling out" of the king's secret enemies by the witch doctors, was more likely to resemble closely an orgy of wholesale murder than anything else that I could imagine.

The ceremony, I gathered, was somewhat as follows. The "witch doctors" or magicians of the nation—numbering in all something over a hundred— all of whom were then in Gwanda for the purposes of the ceremony, would assemble at sunset that same evening in a sort of fetish house; and there, under the leadership and direction of one Machenga, the head or chief witch doctor, would perform certain mysterious rites, and submit themselves to a certain mysterious form of treatment, lasting the entire night, which, it was generally understood, would enable them infallibly to "smell out" or detect every individual who might harbour evil thoughts or designs against the king. And these unfortunates, it appeared, would, upon detection, be haled forth and summarily executed there and then! I learned, further, that while the king put the most implicit faith in the infallibility of the witch doctors, and especially in that of Machenga, the head or chief of them, a few of the indunas who were then talking to me held rather strongly to the opinion that the selection of victims was not so much the result of supernatural guidance and wisdom vouchsafed to the witch doctors, as it was—at least in the case of the more important and distinguished victims—governed rather by Machenga's personal hatred, or his cupidity; a few of the shrewder observers having noticed, each year, that the chosen victims invariably included certain men toward whom the head witch doctor was well known to cherish a feeling of strong enmity, while other victims comprised those chiefs who were numbered among the richest men in the community—the law being that, while the property of the alleged traitors was forfeited to the king, half of it was surrendered to the head witch doctor, as his fee for the detection of the criminals. Mapela, "the Wise One", was one of the strongest upholders of the above theory, and in support of the soundness of it he whispered to me: