THE MAGIC OF INDABA-ZIMBI
We gained the spot by the stream where Stella had been taken. The
natives looked at the torn fragments of the dogs, and at the marks of
violence, and I heard them swearing to each other, that whether the
Star lived or died they would not rest till they had exterminated every
baboon on Babyan’s Peak. I echoed the oath, and, as shall be seen, we
kept it.
We started on along the stream, following the spoor of the baboons as
we best could. But the stream left no spoor, and the hard, rocky banks
very little. Still we wandered on. All night we wandered through the
lonely moonlit valleys, startling the silence into a thousand echoes
with our cries. But no answer came to them. In vain our eyes searched
the sides of precipices formed of water-riven rocks fantastically piled
one upon another; in vain we searched through endless dells and
fern-clad crannies. There was nothing to be found. How could we expect
to find two human beings hidden away in the recesses of this vast
stretch of mountain ground, which no man yet had ever fully explored.
They were lost, and in all human probability lost for ever.
To and fro we wandered hopelessly, till at last dawn found us footsore
and weary nearly at the spot whence we had started. We sat down waiting
for the sun to rise, and the men ate of such food as they had brought
with them, and sent to the kraals for more.
I sat upon a stone with a breaking heart. I cannot describe my
feelings. Let the reader put himself in my position and perhaps he may
get some idea of them. Near me was old Indaba-zimbi, who sat staring
straight before him as though he were looking into space, and taking
note of what went on there. An idea struck me. This man had some occult
power. Several times during our adventures he had prophesied, and in
every case his prophecies had proved true. He it was who, when we
escaped from the Zulu Impi, had told me to steer north, because there
we should find the place of a white man who lived under the shadow of a
great peak that was full of baboons. Perhaps he could help in this
extremity—at any rate it was worth trying.
“Indaba-zimbi,” I said, “you say that you can send your spirit through
the doors of space and see what we cannot see. At the least I know that
you can do strange things. Can you not help me now? If you can, and
will save her, I will give you half the cattle that we have here.”
“I never said anything of the sort, Macumazahn,” he answered. “I do
things, I do not talk about them. Neither do I seek reward for what I
do like a common witch-doctor. It is well that you have asked me to use
my wisdom, Macumazahn, for I should not have used it again without
being asked—no, not even for the sake of the Star and yourself, whom I
love, for if so my Spirit would have been angry. In the other matters I
had a part, for my life was concerned as well as yours; but in this
matter I have no part, and therefore I might not use my wisdom unless
you thought well to call upon my Spirit. However, it would have been no
good to ask me before, for I have only just found the herb I want,” and
he produced a handful of the leaves of a plant that was unfamiliar to
me. It had prickly leaves, shaped very much like those of the common
English nettle.
“Now, Macumazahn,” he went on, “bid the men leave us alone, and then
follow me presently to the little glade down there by the water.”
I did so. When I reached the glade I found Indaba-zimbi kindling a
small fire under the shadow of a tree by the edge of the water.
“Sit there, Macumazahn,” he said, pointing to a stone near the fire,
“and do not be surprised or frightened at anything you see. If you move
or call out we shall learn nothing.”
I sat down and watched. When the fire was alight and burning brightly,
the old fellow stripped himself stark naked, and, going to the foot of
the pool, dipped himself in the water. Then he came back shivering with
the cold, and, leaning over the little fire, thrust leaves of the plant
I have mentioned into his mouth and began to chew them, muttering as he
chewed. Most of the remaining leaves he threw on to the fire. A dense
smoke rose from them, but he held his head in this smoke and drew it
down his lungs till I saw that he was exhibiting every sign of
suffocation. The veins in his throat and chest swelled, he gasped
loudly, and his eyes, from which tears were streaming, seemed as though
they were going to start from his head. Presently he fell over on his
side, and lay senseless. I was terribly alarmed, and my first impulse
was to run to his assistance, but fortunately I remembered his caution,
and sat quiet.
Indaba-zimbi lay on the ground like a person quite dead. His limbs had
all the utter relaxation of death. But as I watched I saw them begin to
stiffen, exactly as though _rigor mortis_ had set in. Then, to my
astonishment, I perceived them once more relax, and this time there
appeared upon his chest the stain of decomposition. It spread and
spread; in three minutes the man, to all appearance, was a livid
corpse.
I sat amazed watching this uncanny sight, and wondering if any further
natural process was about to be enacted. Perhaps Indaba-zimbi was going
to fall to dust before my eyes. As I watched I observed that the
discoloration was beginning to fade. First it vanished from the
extremities, then from the larger limbs, and lastly from the trunk.
Then in turn came the third stage of relaxation, the second stage of
stiffness or _rigor_, and the first stage of after-death collapse. When
all these had rapidly succeeded each other, Indaba-zimbi quietly woke
up.
I was too astonished to speak; I simply looked at him with my mouth
open.
“Well, Macumazahn,” he said, putting his head on one side like a bird,
and nodding his white lock in a comical fashion, “it is all right; I
have seen her.”
“Seen who?” I said.
“The Star, your wife, and the little maid. They are much frightened,
but unharmed. The Babyan-frau watches them. She is mad, but the baboons
obey her, and do not hurt them. The Star was sleeping from weariness,
so I whispered in her ear and told her not to be frightened, for you
would soon rescue her, and that meanwhile she must seem to be pleased
to have Hendrika near her.”
“You whispered in her ear?” I said. “How could you whisper in her ear?”
“Bah! Macumazahn. How could I seem to die and go rotten before your
eyes? You don’t know, do you? Well, I will tell you one thing. I had to
die to pass the doors of space, as you call them. I had to draw all the
healthy strength and life from my body in order to gather power to
speak with the Star. It was a dangerous business, Macumazahn, for if I
had let things go a little further they must have stopped so, and there
would have been an end of Indaba-zimbi. Ah, you white men, you know so
much that you think you know everything. But you don’t! You are always
staring at the clouds and can’t see the things that lie at your feet.
You hardly believe me now, do you, Macumazahn? Well, I will show you.
Have you anything on you that the Star has touched or worn?”
I thought for a moment, and said that I had a lock of her hair in my
pocket-book. He told me to give it him. I did so. Going to the fire, he
lit the lock of hair in the flame, and let it burn to ashes, which he
caught in his left hand. These ashes he mixed up in a paste with the
juice of one of the leaves of the plant I have spoken of.
“Now, Macumazahn, shut your eyes,” he said.
I did so, and he rubbed his paste on to my eyelids. At first it burnt
me, then my head swam strangely. Presently this effect passed off, and
my brain was perfectly clear again, but I could not feel the ground
with my feet. Indaba-zimbi led me to the side of the stream. Beneath us
was a pool of beautifully clear water.
“Look into the pool, Macumazahn,” said Indaba-zimbi, and his voice
sounded hollow and far away in my ears.
I looked. The water grew dark; it cleared, and in it was a picture. I
saw a cave with a fire burning in it. Against the wall of the cave
rested Stella. Her dress was torn almost off her, she looked dreadfully
pale and weary, and her eyelids were red as though with weeping. But
she slept, and I could almost think that I saw her lips shape my name
in her sleep. Close to her, her head upon Stella’s breast, was little
Tota; she had a skin thrown over her to keep out the night cold. The
child was awake, and appeared to be moaning with fear. By the fire, and
in such a position that the light fell full upon her face, and engaged
in cooking something in a rough pot shaped from wood, sat the
Baboon-woman, Hendrika. She was clothed in baboon skins, and her face
had been rubbed with some dark stain, which was, however, wearing off
it. In the intervals of her cooking she would turn on Stella her wild
eyes, in which glared visible madness, with an expression of tenderness
that amounted to worship. Then she would stare at the child and gnash
her teeth as though with hate. Clearly she was jealous of it. Round the
entrance arch of the cave peeped and peered the heads of many baboons.
Presently Hendrika made a sign to one of them; apparently she did not
speak, or rather grunt, in order not to wake Stella. The brute hopped
forward, and she gave it a second rude wooden pot which was lying by
her. It took it and went. The last thing that I saw, as the vision
slowly vanished from the pool, was the dim shadow of the baboon
returning with the pot full of water.
Presently everything had gone. I ceased to feel strange. There beneath
me was the pool, and at my side stood Indaba-zimbi, smiling.
“You have seen things,” he said.
“I have,” I answered, and made no further remark on the matter. What
was there to say?[*] “Do you know the path to the cave?” I added.
[*] For some almost equally remarkable instances of Kaffir magic the
reader is referred to a work named “Among the Zulus,” by David
Leslie.—Editor.
He nodded his head. “I did not follow it all just now, because it
winds,” he said. “But I know it. We shall want the ropes.”
“Then let us be starting; the men have eaten.”
He nodded his head again, and going to the men I told them to make
ready, adding that Indaba-zimbi knew the way. They said that was all
right, if Indaba-zimbi had “smelt her out,” they should soon find the
Star. So we started cheerfully enough, and my spirits were so much
improved that I was able to eat a boiled mealie cob or two as we
walked.
We went up the valley, following the course of the stream for about a
mile; then Indaba-zimbi made a sudden turn to the right, along another
kloof, of which there were countless numbers in the base of the great
hill.
On we went through kloof after kloof. Indaba-zimbi, who led us, was
never at a loss, he turned up gulleys and struck across necks of hills
with the certainty of a hound on a hot scent. At length, after about
three hours’ march, we came to a big silent valley on the northern
slope of the great peak. On one side of this valley was a series of
stony koppies, on the other rose a sheer wall of rock. We marched along
the wall for a distance of some two miles. Then suddenly Indaba-zimbi
halted.
“There is the place,” he said, pointing to an opening in the cliff.
This opening was about forty feet from the ground, and ellipse-shaped.
It cannot have been more than twenty feet high by ten wide, and was
partially hidden by ferns and bushes that grew about it in the surface
of the cliff. Keen as my eyes were, I doubt if I should ever have
noticed it, for there were many such cracks and crannies in the rocky
face of the great mountain.
We drew near and looked carefully at the place. The first thing I
noticed was that the rock, which was not quite perpendicular, had been
worn by the continual passage of baboons; the second, that something
white was hanging on a bush near the top of the ascent.
It was a pocket-handkerchief.
Now there was no more doubt about the matter. With a beating heart I
began the ascent. For the first twenty feet it was comparatively easy,
for the rock shelved; the next ten feet was very difficult, but still
possible to an active man, and I achieved it, followed by Indaba-zimbi.
But the last twelve or fifteen feet could only be scaled by throwing a
rope over the trunk of a stunted tree, which grew at the bottom of the
opening. This we accomplished with some trouble, and the rest was easy.
A foot or two above my head the handkerchief fluttered in the wind.
Hanging to the rope, I grasped it. It was my wife’s. As I did so I
noticed the face of a baboon peering at me over the edge of the cleft,
the first baboon we had seen that morning. The brute gave a bark and
vanished. Thrusting the handkerchief into my breast, I set my feet
against the cliff and scrambled up as hard as I could go. I knew that
we had no time to lose, for the baboon would quickly alarm the others.
I gained the cleft. It was a mere arched passage cut by water, ending
in a gulley, which led to a wide open space of some sort. I looked
through the passage and saw that the gulley was black with baboons. On
they came by the hundred. I unslung my elephant gun from my shoulders
and waited, calling to the men below to come up with all possible
speed. The brutes streamed on down the gloomy gulf towards me, barking,
grunting, and showing their huge teeth. I waited till they were within
fifteen yards. Then I fired the elephant gun, which was loaded with
slugs, right into the thick of them. In that narrow place the report
echoed like a cannon shot, but its sound was quickly swallowed in the
volley of piercing human-sounding groans and screams that followed. The
charge of heavy slugs had ploughed through the host of baboons, of
which at least a dozen lay dead or dying in the passage. For a moment
they hesitated, then they came on again with a hideous clamour.
Fortunately by this time Indaba-zimbi, who also had a gun, was standing
by my side, otherwise I should have been torn to pieces before I could
re-load. He fired both barrels into them, and again checked the rush.
But they came on again, and notwithstanding the appearance of two other
natives with guns, which they let off with more or less success, we
should have been overwhelmed by the great and ferocious apes had I not
by this time succeeded in re-loading the elephant gun. When they were
right on us, I fired, with even more deadly effect than before, for at
that distance every slug told on their long line. The howls and screams
of pain and rage were now something inconceivable. One might have
thought that we were doing battle with a host of demons; indeed in that
light—for the overhanging arch of rock made it very dark—the gnashing
snouts and sombre glowing eyes of the apes looked like those of devils
as they are represented by monkish fancy. But the last shot was too
much for them; they withdrew, dragging some of their wounded with them,
and thus gave us time to get our men up the cliff. In a few minutes all
were there, and we advanced down the passage, which presently opened
into a rocky gulley with shelving sides. This gulley had a water-way at
the bottom of it; it was about a hundred yards long, and the slopes on
either side were topped by precipitous cliffs. I looked at these
slopes; they literally swarmed with baboons, grunting, barking,
screaming, and beating their breasts with their long arms, in fury. I
looked up the water-way; along it, accompanied by a mob, or, as it
were, a guard of baboons, ran Hendrika, her long hair flying, madness
written on her face, and in her arms was the senseless form of little
Tota.
She saw us, and a foam of rage burst from her lips. She screamed aloud.
To me the sound was a mere inarticulate cry, but the baboons clearly
understood it, for they began to roll rocks down on to us. One boulder
leaped past me and struck down a Kaffir behind; another fell from the
roof of the arch on to a man’s head and killed him. Indaba-zimbi lifted
his gun to shoot Hendrika; I knocked it up, so that the shot went over
her, crying that he would kill the child. Then I shouted to the men to
open out and form a line from side to side of the shelving gulley.
Furious at the loss of their two comrades, they obeyed me, and keeping
in the water-way myself, together with Indaba-zimbi and the other guns,
I gave the word to charge.
Then the real battle began. It is difficult to say who fought the most
fiercely, the natives or the baboons. The Kaffirs charged along the
slopes, and as they came, encouraged by the screams of Hendrika, who
rushed to and fro holding the wretched Tota before her as a shield, the
apes bounded at them in fury. Scores were killed by the assegais, and
many more fell beneath our gun-shots; but still they came on. Nor did
we go scathless. Occasionally a man would slip, or be pulled over in
the grip of a baboon. Then the others would fling themselves upon him
like dogs on a rat, and worry him to death. We lost five men in this
way, and I myself received a bite through the fleshy part of the left
arm, but fortunately a native near me assegaied the animal before I was
pulled down.
At length, and all of a sudden, the baboons gave up. A panic seemed to
seize them. Notwithstanding the cries of Hendrika they thought no more
of fight, but only of escape; some even did not attempt to get away
from the assegais of the Kaffirs, they simply hid their horrible faces
in their paws, and, moaning piteously, waited to be slain.
Hendrika saw that the battle was lost. Dropping the child from her
arms, she rushed straight at us, a very picture of horrible insanity. I
lifted my gun, but could not bear to shoot. After all she was but a mad
thing, half ape, half woman. So I sprang to one side, and she landed
full on Indaba-zimbi, knocking him down. But she did not stay to do any
more. Wailing terribly, she rushed down the gulley and through the
arch, followed by a few of the surviving baboons, and vanished from our
sight.