THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF
Now, my father, I will go back a little, for my tale is long and winds
in and out like a river in a plain, and tell of the fate of Umslopogaas
when the lion had taken him, as he told it to me in the after years.
The lioness bounded away, and in her mouth was Umslopogaas. Once he
struggled, but she bit him hard, so he lay quiet in her mouth, and
looking back he saw the face of Nada as she ran from the fence of
thorns, crying “Save him!” He saw her face, he heard her words, then he
saw and heard little more, for the world grew dark to him and he
passed, as it were, into a deep sleep. Presently Umslopogaas awoke
again, feeling pain in his thigh, where the lioness had bitten him, and
heard a sound of shouting. He looked up; near to him stood the lioness
that had loosed him from her jaws. She was snorting with rage, and in
front of her was a lad long and strong, with a grim face, and a wolf’s
hide, black and grey, bound about his shoulders in such fashion that
the upper jaw and teeth of the wolf rested on his head. He stood before
the lioness, shouting, and in one hand he held a large war-shield, and
in the other he grasped a heavy club shod with iron.
Now the lioness crouched herself to spring, growling terribly, but the
lad with the club did not wait for her onset. He ran in upon her and
struck her on the head with the club. He smote hard and well, but this
did not kill her, for she reared herself upon her hind legs and struck
at him heavily. He caught the blow upon his shield, but the shield was
driven against his breast so strongly that he fell backwards beneath
it, and lay there howling like a wolf in pain. Then the lioness sprang
upon him and worried him. Still, because of the shield, as yet she
could not come at him to slay him; but Umslopogaas saw that this might
not endure, for presently the shield would be torn aside and the
stranger must be killed. Now in the breast of the lioness still stood
the half of Umslopogaas’s broken spear, and its blade was a span deep
in her breast. Then this thought came into the mind of Umslopogaas,
that he would drive the spear home or die. So he rose swiftly, for
strength came back to him in his need, and ran to where the lioness
worried at him who lay beneath the shield. She did not heed him, so he
flung himself upon his knees before her, and, seizing the haft of the
broken spear, drove it deep into her and wrenched it round. Now she saw
Umslopogaas and turned roaring, and clawed at him, tearing his breast
and arms. Then, as he lay, he heard a mighty howling, and, behold! grey
wolves and black leaped upon the lioness and rent and worried her till
she fell and was torn to pieces by them. After this the senses of
Umslopogaas left him again, and the light went out of his eyes so that
he was as one dead.
At length his mind came back to him, and with it his memory, and he
remembered the lioness and looked up to find her. But he did not find
her, and he saw that he lay in a cave upon a bed of grass, while all
about him were the skins of beasts, and at his side was a pot filled
with water. He put out his hand and, taking the pot, drank of the
water, and then he saw that his arm was wasted as with sickness, and
that his breast was thick with scars scarcely skinned over.
Now while he lay and wondered, the mouth of the cave was darkened, and
through it entered that same lad who had done battle with the lioness
and been overthrown by her, bearing a dead buck upon his shoulders. He
put down the buck upon the ground, and, walking to where Umslopogaas
lay, looked at him.
“_Ou!_” he said, “your eyes are open—do you, then, live, stranger?”
“I live,” answered Umslopogaas, “and I am hungry.”
“It is time,” said the other, “since with toil I bore you here through
the forest, for twelve days you have lain without sense, drinking water
only. So deeply had the lion clawed you that I thought of you as dead.
Twice I was near to killing you, that you might cease to suffer and I
to be troubled; but I held my hand, because of a word which came to me
from one who is dead. Now eat, that your strength may return to you.
Afterwards, we will talk.”
So Umslopogaas ate, and little by little his health returned to
him—every day a little. And afterwards, as they sat at night by the
fire in the cave they spoke together.
“How are you named?” asked Umslopogaas of the other.
“I am named Galazi the Wolf,” he answered, “and I am of Zulu blood—ay,
of the blood of Chaka the king; for the father of Senzangacona, the
father of Chaka, was my great-grandfather.”
“Whence came you, Galazi?”
“I came from Swaziland—from the tribe of the Halakazi, which I should
rule. This is the story: Siguyana, my grandfather, was a younger
brother of Senzangacona, the father of Chaka. But he quarrelled with
Senzangacona, and became a wanderer. With certain of the people of the
Umtetwa he wandered into Swaziland, and sojourned with the Halakazi
tribe in their great caves; and the end of it was that he killed the
chief of the tribe and took his place. After he was dead, my father
ruled in his place; but there was a great party in the tribe that hated
his rule because he was of the Zulu race, and it would have set up a
chief of the old Swazi blood in his place. Still, they could not do
this, for my father’s hand was heavy on the people. Now I was the only
son of my father by his head wife, and born to be chief after him, and
therefore those of the Swazi party, and they were many and great, hated
me also. So matters stood till last year in the winter, and then my
father set his heart on killing twenty of the headmen, with their wives
and children, because he knew that they plotted against him. But the
headmen learned what was to come, and they prevailed upon a wife of my
father, a woman of their own blood, to poison him. So she poisoned him
in the night and in the morning it was told me that my father lay sick
and summoned me, and I went to him. In his hut I found him, and he was
writhing with pain.
“‘What is it, my father?’ I said. ‘Who has done this evil?’
“‘It is this, my son,’ he gasped, ‘that I am poisoned, and she stands
yonder who has done the deed.’ And he pointed to the woman, who stood
at the side of the hut near the door, her chin upon her breast,
trembling as she looked upon the fruit of her wickedness.
“Now the girl was young and fair, and we had been friends, yet I say
that I did not pause, for my heart was mad within me. I did not pause,
but, seizing my spear, I ran at her, and, though she cried for mercy, I
killed her with the spear.
“‘That was well done, Galazi!’ said my father. ‘But when I am gone,
look to yourself, my son, for these Swazi dogs will drive you out and
rob you of your place! But if they drive you out and you still live,
swear this to me—that you will not rest till you have avenged me.’
“‘I swear it, my father,’ I answered. ‘I swear that I will stamp out
the men of the tribe of Halakazi, every one of them, except those of my
own blood, and bring their women to slavery and their children to
bonds!’
“‘Big words for a young mouth,’ said my father. ‘Yet shall you live to
bring these things about, Galazi. This I know of you now in my hour of
death: you shall be a wanderer for a few years of your life, child of
Siguyana, and wandering in another land you shall die a man’s death,
and not such a death as yonder witch has given to me.’ Then, having
spoken thus, he lifted up his head, looked at me, and with a great
groan he died.
“Now I passed out of the hut dragging the body of the dead girl after
me. In front of the hut were gathered many headmen waiting for the end,
and I saw that their looks were sullen.
“‘The chief, my father, is dead!’ I cried in a loud voice, ‘and I,
Galazi, who am the chief, have slain her who murdered him!’ And I
rolled the body of the girl over on to her back so that they might look
upon her face.
“Now the father of the girl was among those who stood before me, he who
had persuaded her to the deed, and he was maddened at the sight.
“‘What, my brothers?’ he cried. ‘Shall we suffer that this young Zulu
dog, this murderer of a girl, be chief over us? Never! The old lion is
dead, now for the cub!’ And he ran at me with spear aloft.
“‘Never!’ shouted the others, and they, too, ran towards me, shaking
their spears.
“I waited, I did not hasten, for I knew well that I should not die
then, I knew it from my father’s last words. I waited till the man was
near me; he thrust, I sprang aside and drove my spear through him, and
on the daughter’s body the father fell dead. Then I shouted aloud and
rushed through them. None touched me; none could catch me; the man does
not live who can overtake me when my feet are on the ground and I am
away.”
“Yet I might try,” said Umslopogaas, smiling, for of all lads among the
Zulus he was the swiftest of foot.
“First walk again, then run,” answered Galazi.
“Take up the tale,” quoth Umslopogaas; “it is a merry one.”
“Something is left to tell, stranger. I fled from the country of the
Halakazi, nor did I linger at all in the land of the Swazis, but came
on swiftly into the Zulu. Now, it was in my mind to go to Chaka and
tell him of my wrongs, asking that he would send an impi to make an end
of the Halakazi. But while I journeyed, finding food and shelter as I
might, I came one night to the kraal of an old man who knew Chaka, and
had known Siguyana, my grandfather, and to him, when I had stayed there
two days, I told my tale. But the old man counselled me against my
plan, saying that Chaka, the king, did not love to welcome new shoots
sprung from the royal stock, and would kill me; moreover, the man
offered me a place in his kraal. Now, I held that there was wisdom in
his words, and thought no more of standing before the king to cry for
justice, for he who cries to kings for justice sometimes finds death.
Still, I would not stay in the kraal of the old man, for he had sons to
come after him who looked on me with no liking; moreover, I wished to
be a chief myself, even if I lived alone. So I left the kraal by night
and walked on, not knowing where I should go.
“Now, on the third night, I came to a little kraal that stands on the
farther side of the river at the foot of the mountain. In front of the
kraal sat a very old woman basking in the rays of the setting sun. She
saw me, and spoke to me, saying, ‘Young man, you are tall and strong
and swift of foot. Would you earn a famous weapon, a club, that
destroys all who stand before it?’
“I said that I wished to have such a club, and asked what I should do
to win it.
“‘You shall do this,’ said the old woman: ‘to-morrow morning, at the
first light, you shall go up to yonder mountain,’ and she pointed to
the mountain where you are now, stranger, on which the stone Witch sits
forever waiting for the world to die. ‘Two-thirds of the way up the
mountain you will come to a path that is difficult to climb. You shall
climb the path and enter a gloomy forest. It is very dark in the
forest, but you must push through it till you come to an open place
with a wall of rock behind it. In the wall of rock is a cave, and in
the cave you will find the bones of a man. Bring down the bones in a
bag, and I will give you the club!’
“While she spoke thus people came out of the kraal and listened.
“‘Do not heed her, young man,’ they said, ‘unless you are weary of
life. Do not heed her: she is crazy. The mountain is haunted; it is a
place of ghosts. Look at the stone Witch who sits upon it! Evil spirits
live in that forest, and no man has walked there for many years. This
woman’s son was foolish: he went to wander in the forest, saying that
he cared nothing for ghosts, and the _Amatongo_, the ghost-folk, killed
him. That was many years ago, and none have dared to seek his bones.
Ever she sits here and asks of the passers by that they should bring
him to her, offering the great club for a reward; but they dare not!’
“‘They lie!’ said the old woman. ‘There are no ghosts there. The ghosts
live only in their cowardly hearts; there are but wolves. I know that
the bones of my son lie in the cave, for I have seen them in a dream;
but, alas! my old limbs are too weak to carry me up the mountain path,
and all these are cowards; there is no man among them since the Zulus
killed my husband, covering him with wounds!’
“Now, I listened, answering nothing; but when all had done, I asked to
see the club which should be given to him who dared to face the
_Amatongo_, the spirits who lived in the forest upon the Ghost
Mountain. Then the old woman rose, and creeping on her hands went into
the hut. Presently she returned again, dragging the great club after
her.
“Look at it, stranger! look at it! Was there ever such a club?” And
Galazi held it up before the eyes of Umslopogaas.
In truth, my father, that was a club, for I, Mopo, saw it in after
days. It was great and knotty, black as iron that had been smoked in
the fire, and shod with metal that was worn smooth with smiting.
“I looked at it,” went on Galazi, “and I tell you, stranger, a great
desire came into my heart to possess it.
“‘How is this club named?’ I asked of the old woman.
“‘It is named Watcher of the Fords,’ she answered, ‘and it has not
watched in vain. Five men have held that club in war and a
hundred-and-seventy-three have given up their lives beneath its
strokes. He who held it last slew twenty before he was slain himself,
for this fortune goes with the club—that he who owns it shall die
holding it, but in a noble fashion. There is but one other weapon to
match with it in Zululand, and that is the great axe of Jikiza, the
chief of the People of the Axe, who dwells in the kraal yonder; the
ancient horn-hafted _Imbubuzi_, the Groan-Maker, that brings victory.
Were axe, Groan-Maker, and club, Watcher of the Fords, side by side,
there are no thirty men in Zululand who could stand before them. I have
said. Choose!’ And the aged woman watched me cunningly through her
horny eyes.
“‘She speaks truly now,’ said one of those who stood near. ‘Let the
club be, young man: he who owns it smites great blows indeed, but in
the end he dies by the assegai. None dare own the Watcher of the
Fords.’
“‘A good death and a swift!’ I answered. And pondered a time, while
still the old woman watched me through her horny eyes. At length she
rose, ‘La!, la!’ she said, ‘the Watcher is not for this one. This is
but a child, I must seek me a man, I must seek me a man!’
“‘Not so fast, old wife,’ I said. ‘Will you lend me this club to hold
in my hand while I go to find the bones of your son and to snatch them
from the people of the ghosts?’
“‘Lend you the Watcher, boy? Nay, nay! I should see little of you again
or of the good club either.’
“‘I am no thief,’ I answered. ‘If the ghosts kill me, you will see me
no more, or the club either; but if I live I will bring you back the
bones, or, if I do not find them, I will render the Watcher into your
hands again. At the least I say that if you will not lend me the club,
then I will not go into the haunted place.’
“‘Boy, your eyes are honest,’ she said, still peering at me. ‘Take the
Watcher, go seek the bones. If you die, let the club be lost with you;
if you fail, bring it back to me; but if you win the bones, then it is
yours, and it shall bring you glory and you shall die a man’s death at
last holding him aloft among the dead.’
“So on the morrow at dawn I took the club Watcher in my hand and a
little dancing shield, and made ready to start. The old woman blessed
me and bade me farewell, but the other people of the kraal mocked,
saying: ‘A little man for so big a club! Beware, little man, lest the
ghosts use the club on you!’ So they spoke, but one girl in the
kraal—she is a granddaughter of the old woman—led me aside, praying me
not to go, for the forest on the Ghost Mountain had an evil name: none
dared walk there, since it was certainly full of spirits, who howled
like wolves. I thanked the girl, but to the others I said nothing, only
I asked of the path to the Ghost Mountain.
“Now stranger, if you have strength, come to the mouth of the cave and
look out, for the moon is bright.”
So Umslopogaas rose and crept through the narrow mouth of the cave.
There, above him, a great grey peak towered high into the air, shaped
like a seated woman, her chin resting upon her breast, the place where
the cave was being, as it were, on the lap of the woman. Below this
place the rock sloped sharply, and was clothed with little bushes.
Lower down yet was a forest, great and dense, that stretched to the top
of a cliff, and at the foot of the cliff, beyond the waters of the
river, lay the wide plains of Zululand.
“Yonder, stranger,” said Galazi, pointing with the club Watcher of the
Fords far away to the plain beneath; “yonder is the kraal where the
aged woman dwelt. There is a cliff rising from the plain, up which I
must climb; there is the forest where dwell the _Amatongo_, the people
of the ghosts; there, on the hither side of the forest, runs the path
to the cave, and here is the cave itself. See this stone lying at the
mouth of the cave, it turns thus, shutting up the entrance hole—it
turns gently; though it is so large, a child may move it, for it rests
upon a sharp point of rock. Only mark this, the stone must not be
pushed too far; for, look! if it came to here,” and he pointed to a
mark in the mouth of the cave, “then that man need be strong who can
draw it back again, though I have done it myself, who am not a man full
grown. But if it pass beyond this mark, then, see, it will roll down
the neck of the cave like a pebble down the neck of a gourd, and I
think that two men, one striving from within and one dragging from
without, scarcely could avail to push it clear. Look now, I close the
stone, as is my custom of a night, so,”—and he grasped the rock and
swung it round upon its pivot, on which it turned as a door turns.
“Thus I leave it, and though, except those to whom the secret is known,
none would guess that a cave was here, yet it can be rolled back again
with a push of the hand. But enough of the stone. Enter again,
wanderer, and I will go forward with my tale, for it is long and
strange.
“I started from the kraal of the old woman, and the people of the kraal
followed me to the brink of the river. It was in flood, and few had
dared to cross it.
“‘Ha! ha!’ they cried, ‘now your journey is done, little man; watch by
the ford you who would win the Watcher of the Ford! Beat the water with
the club, perhaps so it shall grow gentle that your feet may pass it!’
“I answered nothing to their mocking, only I bound the shield upon my
shoulders with a string, and the bag that I had brought I made fast
about my middle, and I held the great club in my teeth by the thong.
Then I plunged into the river and swam. Twice, stranger, the current
bore me under, and those on the bank shouted that I was lost; but I
rose again, and in the end I won the farther shore.
“Now those on the bank mocked no more; they stood still wondering, and
I walked on till I came to the foot of the cliff. That cliff is hard to
climb, stranger; when you are strong upon your feet, I will show you
the path. Yet I found a way up it, and by midday I came to the forest.
Here, on the edge of the forest, I rested awhile, and ate a little food
that I had brought with me in the bag, for now I must gather up my
strength to meet the ghosts, if ghosts there were. Then I rose and
plunged into the forest. The trees were great that grow there,
stranger, and their leaves are so thick that in certain places the
light is as that of night when the moon is young. Still, I wended on,
often losing my path. But from time to time between the tops of the
trees I saw the figure of the grey stone woman who sits on the top of
Ghost Mountain, and shaped my course towards her knees. My heart beat
as I travelled through the forest in dark and loneliness like that of
the night, and ever I looked round searching for the eyes of the
_Amatongo_. But I saw no spirits, though at times great spotted snakes
crept from before my feet, and perhaps these were the _Amatongo_. At
times, also, I caught glimpses of some grey wolf as he slunk from tree
to tree watching me, and always high above my head the wind sighed in
the great boughs with a sound like the sighing of women.
“Still, I went on, singing to myself as I went, that my heart might not
be faint with fear, and at length, towards the end of the second hour,
the trees grew fewer, the ground sloped upwards, and the light poured
down from the heavens again. But, stranger, you are weary, and the
night wears on; sleep now, and to-morrow I will end the tale. Say,
first, how are you named?”
“I am named Umslopogaas, son of Mopo,” he answered, “and my tale shall
be told when yours is done; let us sleep!”
Now when Galazi heard this name he started and was troubled, but said
nothing. So they laid them down to sleep, and Galazi wrapped
Umslopogaas with the skins of bucks.
But Galazi the Wolf was so hardy that he lay on the bare ground and had
no covering. So they slept, and without the door of the cave the wolves
howled, scenting the blood of men.