"In that short flash of time I must have died a thousand deaths. In my
terror I made no attempt to arrest my downward course. Stones and dust
rattled past my ears, flashes, as of sparks, in front of my brain; then
I stopped.
"At first I hardly dared open my eyes, but, feeling the grip on my leg
relax, I looked beneath, shuddering, fearful as to what my glance might
rest upon--I who had boasted that I knew not fear.
"As my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I made out little slanting
rays of light penetrating from somewhere. I could see a vaulted rock
wall above, around. But beneath?
"The black darkness of another pit, wherein voices were murmuring,
shapes were moving. Ha! the vision of the wizard's _muti_! And as I
looked, claws shot upward to seize me. All the old horror which had
overwhelmed me in Masuka's hut came back to me now--the vision of the
living creatures; shadowy, shapeless, hideous; mouthing and gnashing to
draw me down. That frightful grip was again upon my legs, and,
struggling, gasping, amid a cloud of dust and falling shingle, I was
dragged down with a violent crash to the bottom of the pit.
"And now I could see I was beset by a number of the most grisly and
horrible shapes the eyes of man ever beheld, for it was not quite dark
in this evil hole. Frightful heads, with flattened skulls, and huge,
champing jaws and horn-like ears, were wagging over me as I lay, and a
bony claw put forth gripped me by the throat in the iron grip of
strangulation, and with a growling, worrying snarl more than one pair of
teeth seized me in different parts of the body.
"Then, desperate at the prospect of being torn in pieces and devoured by
these foul and loathsome creatures, with the very despair of terror I
put forth all my strength, and whirling my knobstick, it met and crashed
against what felt like a head. There was a most blood-chilling yell of
wild dismay; then these hideous ghosts flung themselves from me and fled
shrieking.
"As I leaped to my feet, shivering with the horror of this awful fate,
my eyes becoming more accustomed to the darkness, I made out that I was
in a great square chamber, on the floor of which lay several skulls.
"The odour which rose up from this was unspeakably fearful, and as the
shafts of light came in stronger I could make out six or eight shapes--
human shapes, I was going to say; but they were as the skeletons of
baboons with dry bags of skin hung around them, and they had huge heads.
They were huddled together on the opposite side of the hole, staring,
pointing at me with their bony claws, moving to and fro their hideous
heads, while whispering together in a hoarse and uncouth tongue of which
I could gather not a word. Then, while some still watched me, others
bent down, and there was a sound as of tearing of meat, of cracking of
bones; but what they had got before them I could not at first discern,
for the ground was almost in darkness. But while I watched I heard a
loud crack, and then two of them raised something from the ground--
something large and heavy--each holding one end in his claws and teeth,
tearing and growling like a beast. Then, _Nkose_, those unheard-of
terrors predicted by the witch doctor were upon me; for the thing they
held up and were thus devouring was the arm of a man, and I could see
the fingers of the dead hand as though about to clutch their faces.
What were these who haunted this gloomy hole of death? Were they indeed
evil spirits, or were they _Izimu_, or man-eaters, such as in times past
had been said to inhabit the country whence we had come out? Some,
indeed, were said still to live there, hiding away in holes and caves;
and such, you must know, _Nkose_, were held by us Zulus in the utmost
detestation, as practising the vilest form of _tagati_.
"While I was thus gazing upon them in horror and disgust, one of the
creatures, giving a frightful croak, as though to draw my attention,
held up something towards me. It was against the light, and was round
and shiny. I had not to look at it twice, for I knew it at a glance.
It was a Zulu head-ring.
"But whence had it come? Had these vultures been hovering over the
scene of the battle in order to drag away our brave dead to glut their
own foul and loathsome carcases with? In my fury and loathing at the
sight, I gripped my knobstick--for while falling I had not once lost
hold of my weapons--and was about to spring upon them and batter out
their miserable lives, when in the rapidly-increasing light I beheld
that which caused me once more to sicken and all my blood to turn to
ice. For in the torn and mangled body these carrion ghosts were
devouring, the battered skull and swollen features, I recognised what
had once been Gungana. This, then, was the very hole he had fallen
into! What sort of omen was it that had caused me to fall into it
likewise? In truth, his prediction that my death should be a worse one
than his had nearly been fulfilled, might even yet be fulfilled.
"Things looked plainer now. One unexpected meal had come down to these
wizards through the pit into which we had both fallen. On hearing the
noise of my descent, in their eagerness for that which should yield
another, they must have climbed up to drag me down. _Au_! it was
fearful, the thought of such a fate; and, lest fear should again
overpower me, I resolved to act. So with a shout I leaped across the
floor of the pit. It crackled with bones.
"Those _abatagati_ did not rise; they sat there and screamed. _Au_!
that was a scream--one to come back to a man in his sleep, and cause him
to start up trembling! It rang through that frightful den as though to
pierce the very rocks. Something was hurled at me, but I stepped aside,
and it shivered against the rock behind. It was the skull of a man.
Another flung a weighty object which struck me full in the chest, nearly
overturning me. _Whau, Nkose_! Then was horror indeed! That which had
so nearly overthrown me was a human leg freshly torn off, and was that
of Gungana himself. What an omen, that the man whom I had killed should
even in death continue to fight against me!
"Then in my fury I sprang at them, crashing their brains out with my
heavy knobstick till I had killed several. The others threw themselves
on the ground and screamed dismally. No attempt at resistance made
they; indeed, it seemed as though they were hardly able to rise. And
then through my rage it flashed upon me that, were I to slay them all,
there would be none to reveal the way out; for a way out there must be,
and that a secret one; for, save the hole by which I had fallen down, no
passage of any kind was there to be seen. So, standing over the three
that yet remained alive, I held aloft my great knobstick, all dripping
with blood, and bade them show me the way forth.
"They screeched and chattered, not understanding a word I said. So I
made signs by pointing to the hole I had dropped down by, and then
making as though I would walk through the rock. This they understood,
and with much head-shaking and gesture pointed high above their heads.
But all I could see there was solid rock.
"Yet--there was a crack; then two or three, letting in the light. It
seemed to me, on looking long at this, that a flat, irregular hole was
there stopped up by a slab of rock, and it was from the ground about
twice the height of a tall man. Still, what could it mean? How could
these miserable beings have entered by that--still more, how could they
get out by it? More and more wonders were here.
"Not one word of their chattering could I understand. But at length,
after trying all manner of signs, one of them seemed to convey to me two
things--that they entered and went out by means of a thong, and that I
must sit down and wait. Again I threatened them with death, but it was
of no use. They could do no more than they had done--they still could
only sign to me to wait and watch.
"_Au, Nkose_! Truly indeed did the old Mosutu speak when he predicted
that I should pass through horrors which the imagination of man could
not invent. For as the long watches of that awful day went by, and I
sat there in that darksome den lighted by a crevice here and there in
the rocks, sat there among skulls and crackling bones, while opposite me
cowered the three evil shapes of those hideous beings among the
corpses--more hideous still--of their kind, while on the ground in front
of them lay the mangled and torn remains of my own countryman, whom I
myself had given over to this fate, then indeed it seemed as though I
were one already dead and passed away.
"Sometimes I would sing to drive away the awful thoughts which were
crowding upon me, but then the _Izimu_ would sign wildly for me to
desist, pointing above their heads to the supposed doorway. _Au_! I
would not live through that day again--no, not to reign as King over the
Amazulu or over the Amandebili for twice the life-time of a man. For
that long day came to an end at last, and then, instead of the bright
threads of sun-dart through the crevices, there came greyness as though
the shades of evening were falling. Think of it, _Nkose_! The day had
been bad enough. But night, black rayless night, spent down there among
these _abatagati_, among all the foul horrors of these _Izimu_--eaters
of men!
"I had risen, and was preparing in my rage to slay those who were left,
lest they should bind their magic around me and fall upon me in the
darkness, and my fate should be even as that of Gungana, when I
perceived them making quick signs to me to sit down, at the same time
pointing to the stone overhead. Then I heard sounds above.
"With all the blood in my body tingling, I crouched in the shadow at the
further end of the den, and sitting upon my shield to hide it, I fixed
my eyes upon the stone which had been pointed out to me. I saw it
move--move away with a rasping noise--and there was a hole wide enough
to give passage to a man's body. Two or three heads appeared against
this and were withdrawn, amid mutterings in an unknown tongue.
"I saw something drop down the rock till it reached the bottom of the
den. It was a line. Immediately a man, passing himself backwards
through the hole, slid down this. I, crouching in shadow, was unseen by
him, and, gripping my weapons, I gathered myself for a spring, for I
could see that deliverance was to be now or never, and resolved with all
my might that it should be now.
"He dropped upon the rocky floor, and stood upright. He was entirely
naked, and in build and feature very like the mountain tribe against
whom we had been fighting. He was armed with an assegai and battle-axe,
and as he stood there rolling his eyes around, I could see the three
miserable wretches shivering and speechless with fear.
"He made one spring, and drove his assegai through the body of the
foremost; then, not waiting till the wretch was dead, he knelt upon the
still struggling carcase, and with the axe hacked off the head, flinging
it with a laugh across the horrible hole. It bounded over the crackling
bones, nearly striking me where I sat. Then, dragging the spouting
carcase to the line, he began to make fast the feet preparatory to the
hauling of it up.
"Now, I began to see clearly where I was, and all manner of tales heard
in childhood crowded back. Not these miserable beings, who were shut up
in this place, were eaters of men--though probably they had been driven
by hunger to devour the corpse of Gungana. Those who kept them there
were the cannibals, and now I remembered wild and hideous legends of
just such practices current among certain of the mountain tribes, and
how their captives were shut up in caves or hollows and eaten one by one
as they were required. I saw, too, how it was that the place was strewn
with skulls. For some dark reason or other the heads were flung away
here as I had seen this one flung. Those whom I had first found here
were `cattle.' It was the slaughterhouse of the _Izimu_.
"As the man bent down to knot the feet of the corpse to the line, I
stepped lightly up behind him, and with one swift blow of my heavy
knobstick shattered his skull to atoms. Then, tying around me the end
of the line, which was of raw hide and strong, I signed to the two still
alive that they should call to those above to draw up the line. This
they did, being crafty enough to hope that my escape was to compass
their own.
"Fortunately for me, the aperture was not large enough to admit the
passage of more than one body at a time, wherefore, when my head rose
above the surface, the only things I saw were the backs of eight or ten
men who had hauled me to the surface by the simple plan of walking away
with the other end of the thong! They must have thought that the slayer
and the `ox' were being drawn up together, from the weight of it. How
they were tugging and straining! _Au, Nkose_! you would have laughed
aloud to have seen the scare on the faces of those men when they turned
round to behold--not the dead carcase, their expected cannibal feast,
but a big live Zulu warrior, fully armed with shield and weapons,
charging upon them like lightning, roaring out the war-shout with all
the power of his lungs! _Hau_! Did they run? Did they scream? _Hau_!
I saw nothing but their backs as they leaped away among the rocks in
all directions, and, indeed, it is little to be wondered at if they did.
And I, _Nkose_--having sufficiently frightened them, I did not linger
either.
"When I emerged from the hole into the broad light of day--the shades of
evening, rather, for it was growing dark--I saw that I was in a small
rocky hollow, in the middle of which a fire was burning, doubtless for
cooking the expected meal of the _Izimu_. But having given those who
fled a sufficient fright, I lost no time in doing as they did, and
fleeing myself. The growing darkness, too, was in my favour, and as I
gained the outer ridge of the hollow, I saw beneath, a long rugged slope
falling into the far depths of the defile up which our _impi_ had
marched the day before, and then my heart felt light again, and I began
to sing softly to myself for joy, for now I could find my way back to
Ekupumuleni. My enemy Gungana was cleared out of my path, I had fought
well and bravely, and Kalipe, the war-chief who would succeed him, and
who was kindly disposed towards me, would `point at' me at the
_Tyay'igama_ dance. Then, after all I had gone through and my strange
experiences, the face of the King would soften towards me, and I should
obtain my heart's desire. And, as though it were a good omen, I almost
stumbled over a young buck crouching on the mountain-side, to send an
assegai through which was as a flash of time. But I dared not light a
fire, lest scattered bands of enemies should still be lurking about;
yet, as I was nearly starving, in any event I could not have waited. So
I devoured great portions of the animal raw, as I walked, carrying the
remainder with me. Then a great weariness came upon me, and, crawling
into a hole among the rocks, I slept until the next sun was very high.