THE STAMPING OF THE FIRE
On the morrow the impi awoke refreshed with sleep, and, after they had
eaten, Umslopogaas mustered them. Alas! nearly half of those who had
seen the sun of yesterday would wake no more forever. The Slaughterer
mustered them and thanked them for that which they had done, winning
fame and cattle. They were merry, recking little of those who were
dead, and sang his praises and the praises of Galazi in a loud song.
When the song was ended Umslopogaas spoke to them again, saying that
the victory was great, and the cattle they had won were countless. Yet
something was lacking—she was lacking whom he came to seek to be a gift
to Dingaan the king, and for whose sake this war was made. Where now
was the Lily? Yesterday she had been here, clad in a moocha like a man
and bearing a shield; this he knew from the captives. Where, then, was
she now?
Then all the soldiers said that they had seen nothing of her. When they
had done, Galazi spoke a word, as was agreed between him and
Umslopogaas. He said that when they stormed the cave he had seen a man
run at a warrior in the cave to kill him. Then as he came, he who was
about to be slain threw down the shield and cried for mercy, and Galazi
knew that this was no warrior of the Halakazi, but a very beautiful
girl. So he called to the man to let her alone and not to touch her,
for the order was that no women should be killed. But the soldier,
being mad with the lust of fight, shouted that maid or man she should
die, and slew her. Thereon, he—Galazi—in his wrath ran up and smote the
man with the Watcher and killed him also, and he prayed that he had
done no wrong.
“You have done well, my brother,” said Umslopogaas. “Come now, some of
you, and let us look at this dead girl. Perhaps it is the Lily, and if
so that is unlucky for us, for I do not know what tale we shall tell to
Dingaan of the matter.”
So the captains went with Umslopogaas and Galazi, and came to the spot
where the girl had been laid, and by her the man of the People of the
Axe.
“All is as the Wolf, my brother, has told,” said Umslopogaas, waving
the torch in his hand over the two who lay dead. “Here, without a
doubt, lies she who was named the Lily, whom we came to win, and by her
that fool who slew her, slain himself by the blow of the Watcher. An
ill sight to see, and an ill tale for me to tell at the kraal of
Dingaan. Still, what is is, and cannot be altered; and this maid who
was the fairest of the fair is now none too lovely to look on. Let us
away!” And he turned swiftly, then spoke again, saying:—
“Bind up this dead girl in ox hides, cover her with salt, and let her
be brought with us.” And they did so.
Then the captains said: “Surely it is so, my father; now it cannot be
altered, and Dingaan must miss his bride.” So said they all except that
man who had been captain of the guard when Umslopogaas and Galazi and
another passed through the archway. This man, indeed, said nothing, yet
he was not without his thoughts. For it seemed to him that he had seen
three pass through the archway, and not two. It seemed to him,
moreover, that the kaross which the third wore had slipped aside as she
pressed past him, and that beneath it he had seen the shape of a
beautiful woman, and above it had caught the glint of a woman’s eye—an
eye full and dark, like a buck’s.
Also, this captain noted that Bulalio called none of the captives to
swear to the body of the Lily maid, and that he shook the torch to and
fro as he held it over her—he whose hand was of the steadiest. All of
this he kept in his mind, forgetting nothing.
Now it chanced afterwards, on the homeward march, my father, that
Umslopogaas had cause to speak angrily to this man, because he tried to
rob another of his share of the spoil of the Halakazi. He spoke sharply
to him, degrading him from his rank, and setting another over him. Also
he took cattle from the man, and gave them to him whom he would have
robbed.
And thereafter, though he was justly served, this man thought more and
more of the third who had passed through the arch of the cave and had
not returned, and who seemed to him to have a fair woman’s shape, and
eyes which gleamed like those of a woman.
On that day, then, Umslopogaas began his march to the kraal
Umgugundhlovu, where Dingaan sat. But before he set his face homewards,
in the presence of the soldiers, he asked Galazi the Wolf if he would
come back with him, or if he desired to stay to be chief of the
Halakazi, as he was by right of birth and war. Then the Wolf laughed,
and answered that he had come out to seek for vengeance, and not for
the place of a chief, also that there were few of the Halakazi people
left over whom he might rule if he wished. Moreover, he added this:
that, like twin trees, they two blood-brethren had grown up side by
side till their roots were matted together, and that, were one of them
dug up and planted in Swazi soil, he feared lest both should wither,
or, at the least, that he, Galazi, would wither, who loved but one man
and certain wolves.
So Umslopogaas said no more of the chieftainship, but began his
journey. With him he brought a great number of cattle, to be a gift for
Dingaan, and a multitude of captives, young women and children, for he
would appease the heart of Dingaan, because he did not bring her whom
he sought—the Lily, flower of flowers. Yet, because he was cautious and
put little faith in the kindness of kings, Umslopogaas, so soon as he
reached the borders of Zululand, sent the best of the cattle and the
fairest of the maids and children on to the kraal of the People of the
Axe by the Ghost Mountain. And he who had been captain of the guard but
now was a common soldier noticed this also.
Now it chanced that on a certain morning I, Mopo, sat in the kraal
Umgugundhlovu in attendance on Dingaan. For still I waited on the king,
though he had spoken no word to me, good or bad, since the yesterday,
when I foretold to him that in the blood of the white men whom he had
betrayed grew the flower of his own death. For, my father, it was on
the morrow of the slaying of the Amaboona that Umslopogaas came to the
kraal Umgugundhlovu.
Now the mind of Dingaan was heavy, and he sought something to lighten
it. Presently he bethought himself of the white praying man, who had
come to the kraal seeking to teach us people of the Zulu to worship
other gods than the assegai and the king. Now this was a good man, but
no luck went with his teaching, which was hard to understand; and,
moreover, the indunas did not like it, because it seemed to set a
master over the master, and a king over the king, and to preach of
peace to those whose trade was war. Still, Dingaan sent for the white
man that he might dispute with him, for Dingaan thought that he himself
was the cleverest of all men.
Now the white man came, but his face was pale, because of that which he
had seen befall the Boers, for he was gentle and hated such sights. The
king bade him be seated and spoke to him saying:—
“The other day, O White Man, thou toldest me of a place of fire whither
those go after death who have done wickedly in life. Tell me now of thy
wisdom, do my fathers lie in that place?”
“How can I know, King,” answered the prayer-doctor, “who may not judge
of the deeds of men? This I say only: that those who murder and rob and
oppress the innocent and bear false witness shall lie in that place of
fire.”
“It seems that my fathers have done all these things, and if they are
in this place I would go there also, for I am minded to be with my
fathers at the last. Yet I think that I should find a way to escape if
ever I came there.”
“How, King?”
Now Dingaan had set this trap for the prayer-doctor. In the centre of
that open space where he had caused the Boers to be fallen upon he had
built up a great pyre of wood—brushwood beneath, and on top of the
brushwood logs, and even whole trees. Perhaps, my father, there were
sixty full wagonloads of dry wood piled together there in the centre of
the place.
“Thou shalt see with thine eyes, White Man,” he answered, and bidding
attendants set fire to the pile all round, he summoned that regiment of
young men which was left in the kraal. Maybe there were a thousand and
half a thousand of them—not more—the same that had slain the Boers.
Now the fire began to burn fiercely, and the regiment filed in and took
its place in ranks. By the time that all had come, the pyre was
everywhere a sheet of raging flame, and, though we sat a hundred paces
from it, its heat was great when the wind turned our way.
“Now, Doctor of Prayers, is thy hot place hotter than yonder fire?”
said the king.
He answered that he did not know, but the fire was certainly hot.
“Then I will show thee how I will come out of it if ever I go to lie in
such a fire—ay, though it be ten times as big and fierce. Ho! my
children!” he cried to the soldiers, and, springing up, “You see yonder
fire. Run swiftly and stamp it flat with your feet. Where there was
fire let there be blackness and ashes.”
Now the White Man lifted his hands and prayed Dingaan not to do this
thing that should be the death of many, but the king bade him be
silent. Then he turned his eyes upward and prayed to his gods. For a
moment also the soldiers looked on each other in doubt, for the fire
raged furiously, and spouts of flame shot high toward the heaven, and
above it and about it the hot air danced. But their captain called to
them loudly: “Great is the king! Hear the words of the king, who
honours you! Yesterday we ate up the Amaboona—it was nothing, they were
unarmed. There is a foe more worthy of our valour. Come, my children,
let us wash in the fire—we who are fiercer than the fire! Great is the
king who honours us!”
Thus he spoke and ran forward, and, with a roar, after him sprang the
soldiers, rank by rank. They were brave men indeed; moreover, they knew
that if death lay before them death also awaited him who lagged behind,
and it is far better to die with honour than ashamed. On they went, as
to the joy of battle, their captain leading them, and as they went they
sang the Ingomo, the war-chant of the Zulu. Now the captain neared the
raging fire; we saw him lift his shield to keep off its heat. Then he
was gone—he had sprung into the heart of the furnace, and but little of
him was ever found again. After him went the first company. In they
went, beating at the flames with their ox-hide shields, stamping them
out with their naked feet, tearing down the burning logs and casting
them aside. Not one man of that company lived, my father; they fell
down like moths which flutter through a candle, and where they fell
they perished. But after them came other companies, and it was well for
those in this fight who were last to grapple with the foe. Now a great
smoke was mixed with the flame, now the flame grew less and less, and
the smoke more and more; and now blackened men, hairless, naked, and
blistered, white with the scorching of the fire, staggered out on the
farther side of the flames, falling to earth here and there. After them
came others; now there was no flame, only a great smoke in which men
moved dimly; and presently, my father, it was done: they had conquered
the fire, and that with but very little hurt to the last seven
companies, though every man had trodden it. How many perished?—nay, I
know not, they were never counted; but what between the dead and the
injured that regiment was at half strength till the king drafted more
men into it.
“See, Doctor of Prayers,” said Dingaan, with a laugh, “thus shall I
escape the fires of that land of which thou tellest, if such there be
indeed: I will bid my impis stamp them out.”
Then the praying man went from the kraal saying that he would teach no
more among the Zulus, and afterwards he left the land. When he had gone
the burnt wood and the dead were cleared away, the injured were
doctored or killed according to their hurts, and those who had little
harm came before the king and praised him.
“New shields and headdresses must be found for you, my children,” said
Dingaan, for the shields were black and shrivelled, and of heads of
hair and plumes there were but few left among that regiment.
“_Wow!_” said Dingaan again, looking at the soldiers who still lived:
“shaving will be easy and cheap in that place of fire of which the
white man speaks.”
Then he ordered beer to be brought to the men, for the heat had made
them thirsty.
Now though you may not guess it, my father, I have told you this tale
because it has something to do with my story; for scarcely had the
matter been ended when messengers came, saying that Bulalio, chief of
the People of the Axe, and his impi were without, having returned with
much spoil from the slaying of the Halakazi in Swaziland. Now when I
heard this my heart leapt for joy, seeing that I had feared greatly for
the fate of Umslopogaas, my fosterling. Dingaan also was very glad,
and, springing up, danced to and fro like a child.
“Now at last we have good tidings,” he said, at once forgetting the
stamping of the fire, “and now shall my eyes behold that Lily whom my
hand has longed to pluck. Let Bulalio and his people enter swiftly.”
For awhile there was silence; then from far away, without the high
fence of the great place, there came a sound of singing, and through
the gates of the kraal rushed two great men, wearing black plumes upon
their heads, having black shields in their left hands, and in their
right, one an axe and one a club; while about their shoulders were
bound wolf-skins. They ran low, neck and neck, with outstretched
shields and heads held forward, as a buck runs when he is hard pressed
by dogs, and no such running had been seen in the kraal Umgugundhlovu
as the running of the Wolf-Brethren. Half across the space they ran,
and halted suddenly, and, as they halted, the dead ashes of the fire
flew up before their feet in a little cloud.
“By my head! look, these come armed before me!” said Dingaan, frowning,
“and to do this is death. Now say who is that man, great and fierce,
who bears an axe aloft? Did I not know him dead I should say it was the
Black One, my brother, as he was in the days of the smiting of Zwide:
so was his head set on his shoulders and so he was wont to look round,
like a lion.”
“I think that is Bulalio the Slaughterer, chief of the People of the
Axe, O King,” I answered.
“And who is the other with him? He is a great man also. Never have I
seen such a pair!”
“I think that is Galazi the Wolf, he who is blood-brother to the
Slaughterer, and his general,” I said again.
Now after these two came the soldiers of the People of the Axe, armed
with short sticks alone. Four by four they came, all holding their
heads low, and with black shields outstretched, and formed themselves
into companies behind the Wolf-Brethren, till all were there. Then,
after them, the crowd of the Halakazi slaves were driven in,—women,
boys, and maids, a great number—and they stood behind the ranks huddled
together like frightened calves.
“A gallant sight, truly!” said Dingaan, as he looked upon the companies
of black-plumed and shielded warriors. “I have no better soldiers in my
impis, and yet my eyes behold these for the first time,” and again he
frowned.
Now suddenly Umslopogaas lifted his axe and started forward at full
speed, and after him thundered the companies. On they rushed, and their
plumes lay back upon the wind, till it seemed as though they must stamp
us flat. But when he was within ten paces of the king Umslopogaas
lifted Groan-Maker again, and Galazi held the Watcher on high, and
every man halted where he was, while once more the dust flew up in
clouds. They halted in long, unbroken lines, with outstretched shields
and heads held low; no man’s head rose more than the length of a dance
kerrie from the earth. So they stood one minute, then, for the third
time, Umslopogaas lifted Groan-Maker, and in an instant every man
straightened himself, each shield was tossed on high, and from every
throat was roared the royal salute, “_Bayéte!_”
“A pretty sight forsooth,” quoth Dingaan; “but these soldiers are too
well drilled who have never done me service nor the Black One who was
before me, and this Slaughterer is too good a captain, I say. Come
hither, ye twain!” he cried aloud.
Then the Wolf-Brethren strode forward and stood before the king, and
for awhile they looked upon each other.