It is not to be wondered at that Chaka's grandson, Cetawayo, led his
people to victory through so many wars, until the Zulu is called now by
other tribes the "Invincible." When a regiment returns from the field
without bringing a certain number of trophies, or having achieved a
great victory, it is publicly disgraced in the presence of the whole
army, its leader put to death, and the regiment disbanded, to be
distributed among other and more proved companies. In their kraals
their laws are equally stringent, and the colonists declare that until
the white man went among the Zulus, lying and thieving and immorality
were unknown. They are polygamists. A man may not marry a wife till he
has proved his valour on the field, can pay her parents for her, and can
show to the satisfaction of his chief that he is able to support her.
Any infidelity on the part of a wife is punished immediately with death.
The Zulu war, although three years had elapsed since that event, was
still the chief topic of conversation at the time of our visit. It was
a subject the good people of Natal seemed never tired of dilating upon,
nor were we unwilling listeners. Many of the narrators recount their
own personal adventures whilst serving at the front as volunteers, and
there was hardly one but had lost some dear friend or near relative
during the fierce and bloody struggle with the savage tribe. We had
many a chat with eye-witnesses of the terrible field of Isandhlwana,
where 800 soldiers were slaughtered by the Zulus, and fearful were the
tales they told of the ghastly scene. Lord Chelmsford's forces returned
to camp on the evening of the day of the massacre, and the troops had to
bivouac among the mutilated corpses of their comrades, fearing at any
moment that the now dreaded enemy might return. Imagine the sickening
situation of having to seek repose in the very midst of the fast
decomposing bodies of their comrades. Some went raving mad.
The Zulus are mighty hunters, and sportsmen are glad to get the
assistance of any of their number when they make up a hunting
expedition. One day we had quite a hunting adventure. Some friends had
organised a day's bush hunting, and invited us to join them. We
accepted their invitation so far as to join them at luncheon.
The spot fixed on was over twenty miles distant from Maritzberg. We
started at five o'clock, provided with a span of four horses and a fine
Cape cart, in which there was plenty of room for ourselves and our
contribution to the luncheon. Our team bowled us along in fine style,
after a pull over the town hill, which is four miles to the top, to the
village of Hornick, where we stayed at the hotel for breakfast.
There is a remarkably fine fall of water at this place. The Umgeni
River falls over a high precipice, and although for the greater part of
the year it is only an insignificant stream, the immense leap the waters
take over the rocky boulders makes a very imposing sight. Having plenty
of time before us, we spent nearly an hour beside the cataract, watching
the clouds of spray and mist which issued from the lower basin. After
the horses had been seen to, we started off, very soon diverging from
the main road, and traversed a country covered with tall grass, which
suggested "snakes." At last, at half past ten o'clock, we reached our
destination, on the outskirts of what appeared to us an extensive
forest.
We soon had the good things we had brought with us transferred from the
cart to a grassy knoll, and our charioteer outspanning and
knee-haltering the horses, let them wander away and graze. After having
made all our preparations, we sat down on a fallen log, and looked
around us. It was a beautiful spot; in the deep green forest convolvuli
and other flowering creepers had formed themselves into fantastic
arches, more lovely than art could fabricate. The silence of the
secluded spot was broken by the notes of many birds, some of them almost
meriting the name of songsters, while the air was full of the buzzing
hum of insects. The cry of the partridge issued from the underbrush,
and the voice of the lowrie and hornbill could be heard, while the rocks
and branches overhead resounded with the bark of baboons and the
chatterings of monkeys.
Whilst we were dreamily listening to the forest chorus, we thought we
could distinguish above it distant shouts of men, and we stood up
wondering if our hunters had mistaken the hour, or had driven up by
hunger nearly two hours before their time, when bang! bang! went a gun,
less than fifty yards away from us. Almost simultaneously a magnificent
bush buck burst through the thicket, breaking down everything before
him. For an instant he stopped short, gazing at us, while we,
spellbound, could only mutely return his stare; suddenly turning off at
right angles, he bounded through our luncheon already spread on the
grass, scattering the comestibles, crockery, and glassware in every
direction.
Just as he disappeared in the opposite bush, ten or twelve Zulus,
brandishing assegais and knob-kerries, with a pack of howling and
yelping dogs at their heels, sprang out from the underwood in hot
pursuit. In the rear came our sporting friends, looking almost as
savage as their Kafir allies, crashing through the thorn bushes,
seemingly as oblivious of the scratches they were receiving as they
evidently were of our presence. As they came opposite us, one of them
dropped on his knee, and, taking rapid aim at some object we could not
see, fired.
The shouts of the savages immediately announced that the antelope was
down. We all rushed in the direction of the spot where the barking and
the yelping of the dogs told us the noble animal was fighting with his
tormentors, and, scampering helter-skelter through the bushes, arrived
on the field of battle. The buck was down, and almost hidden by the
dogs which hung around him, growling and worrying, while over him in a
superb attitude stood one of the savages, whose gory knife bore evidence
of its having inflicted the _coup de grace_.
The other Kafirs soon drove the dogs away, and we retired to our _al
fresco_ dining hall, before they should proceed with any unromantic
skinning and dismembering. We had our revenge on the buck for upsetting
our banquet, for he appeared on the table again later on, but on a
_dish_, and very nicely he tasted.