Meanwhile, guided by Doda, Lee, or, as we may now call him, Lyle,
threaded his way through some of those innumerable defiles which,
cleaving the great mountains of the Amakosa country in twain, afford
covert for many a marauding party with its cattle; and, having passed
the Zonga River, the two wanderers sat down to rest in a "murky glen,"
impervious to the sun.
At the time when the people at Umlala's Kraal were intent on torturing
the unhappy Amayeka, Lyle and Doda were quietly preparing to refresh
themselves with such provision as they had brought with them, and both
were not a little startled at hearing the branches in the jungle giving
way before some footsteps. There was a crash close to them; two horns
emerged from the speck boom, or elephant bush, the head of a huge ox
became visible, the body followed, and then two dusky figures. These
were our old friend Zoonah and a thieving comrade. The animal had been
abstracted from a kloof, where a herd of stolen cattle had been
concealed, and the worthy pair had sought this solitary spot with intent
to slaughter the beast, and keep holiday as long as it lasted.
The apparition of a white man, seated beside Doda, elicited from them
the usual exclamation of "Ma-wo!" but the party very soon understood
each other, and the three Kafirs having _reimed_ the poor creature, they
proceeded to destroy it after their own fashion, which I should be sorry
to describe. Suffice it to say, that the wretched animal, being secured
beyond all power of resistance, was deprived of its tongue by the most
cruel process, and its skin subjected to the assegai ere it was fairly
dead.
Of late years the Kafirs have abandoned this shocking mode of slaughter;
but some of them, when beyond the influence of the white man, or of
their less, savage chiefs, will occasionally adhere to the old custom.
Lyle gave up all idea of proceeding on his journey that day; he knew his
friends too well to suppose they would separate with such a feast before
them. It is just to him to say that he turned with horror and disgust
from the quivering body of the poor ox, and would have ended its agony
by shooting it, had it been prudent to use firearms.
The three Kafirs--Doda, Zoonah, and Lulu--applied themselves to the
plentiful meal before them with a gusto indescribable, and then lay down
to sleep. Lyle would have travelled on alone, but this was
impracticable, as the only paths that could be safely traversed were new
to him; so he was fain to stretch himself on the grass, and reconsider
his plans, which could not be matured till he came face to face with his
desperate colleagues, the disaffected Boers. Zoonah was to be
questioned as to what he knew of colonial matters, for Doda informed
Lyle that he was a well-known spy; but greediness and sloth are the
principal characteristics of the Kafir, and till these inclinations were
satisfied, nothing could be elicited. Lyle knew that; so, giving way to
weariness himself, he, too, fell asleep.
But for this, the noise of the explosion at Umlala's Kraal might have
reached them.
They slept on through the hour of noon, till the sun, reaching its
meridian, pierced even the dense jungle with a ray or two of light, and
Lyle rose, and would have rejoiced much in a cool bath, had there been a
stream near; but the torrent that in the rainy season roared and tumbled
over the rocks in the middle of the kloof was almost dry; he could only
lave his face and hands in the pools, but even this was refreshing.
The three Kafirs were talking together as he ascended the bank, and Doda
related to him the tradition of the Sunless Kloof.
It was here that the first white man had been seen by the Amakosas. "He
came," said Doda, "from there," pointing westward. "The tribes whom
this wild rider--for he was on horseback--passed on the way were too
much terrified to stop him--the covering on his head was supposed to be
part of it, but when he lifted it, it caused still greater surprise. He
was seen to get off his horse at one time, and the people followed the
spoor. They had never seen shoes then; and the print of his feet, so
different to our own, made them believe he was not formed like
ourselves. He carried in his hand a long hollow weapon, from which
there came forth fire, smoke, and thunder; and the horse, being an
animal never before seen by Kafirs, caused deeper dread. The natives
shunned him as a being not of earth. Some killed cattle on his
approach, and placed it in his way as a peace-offering, and, in return,
he would leave beads and tobacco beside it. Some honoured him as a
wizard; from him the `Wizard's Glen' takes its name, for his footprints
were discovered there one day. He had nearly reached the sea, when
Narini's people, believing him to be some unnatural animal, determined
to kill him, and, watching him from the rocks, hunted him down, and
assegaied him. Since then, men have said that he was one of a tribe of
white people, who had been sent by their chief to the country beyond
Shiloh: almost all were murdered. Some found their way back by the
Winterberg, but this one must have intended, to seek the Zooluh country,
where it was known that a race with white skins, but hair dark as the
crow's wing, exchanged beads for slaves." [The Portuguese settled on
the south-east coast.]
Doda ceased to speak, and Zoonah and Lulu commenced singing a wild air,
the first words of which were intended to imitate the clatter of a
horse's hoof.
"Ite cata, cata mawooka,
Na injormane."
"Clatter clatter, he is going;
He goes with a horse, he goes with speed."
Over and over again they repeated this inharmonious, monotonous "Ite
cata, cata mawooka," and then drew the embers of the fire together, and
prepared to set to work anew upon some fresh steaks of meat.
So, sleeping, and eating, and talking alternately, these savages passed
the day in the Sunless Kloof. Lyle was content to wait till nightfall
ere he advanced, and as he was able to understand much of the language
of these children of the wilderness, he listened not without interest to
a conversation between Doda and Lulu, the latter never having been
located, like Doda and Zoonah, among the missionaries. He had lately,
however, paid, a visit to one of the larger frontier towns, where he had
heard an account of a criminal's execution; he had not seen it himself,
and therefore was sceptical.
"I do not doubt," said Doda, "for I have been told by the teacher that
the English always kill a murderer." [The literal translation is, "one
murders another."]
"And I," remarked Zoonah, "have conversed with people who have described
the manner in which they kill them by hanging them with string by the
neck on poles."
Lulu, after thinking for some minutes, observed, "The English must have
more people than they can manage?"
"Why do you say so?" asked Doda, who, being the elder, took the lead in
the conversation.
"Because I see no end to be answered in killing him; it is surely
sufficient that the one already dead should die. Killing his murderer
will not raise him to life again, neither will it benefit his family:
besides, it is depriving the chief of one man more."
Zoonah interposed, "The English say that the murderer must be made to
feel what the dead man felt--that was, to die."
"But what help," asked Lulu, who, though the least educated, was the
shrewdest of the three in argument,--"what help is that to the living?
Why do they not _eat him up_ [a Kafir phrase for ruining any one by
confiscation of his property], and let him live?"