done, but I do not wish to come to the wedding feast. May the spirits
of my ancestors pity me and save me from harming you or her. Depart in
peace!”
Three months after the wedding the two friends met under a cabbage
tree, took snuff together, and vowed to forget their grievance.
RULES OF A ZULU HUNT
Hunts are conducted on a large scale, and there are certain rules which
have to be kept. Generally the most important man in the neighbourhood
proclaims it, and young boys are sent round a day or two in advance
with a few branches of the wild cabbage tree (umsenge) in their hands
to invite those who are chosen to take part in the sport. All who see
these boys with umsenge branches ask from them where the hunt is to
take place, and are told in answer. It is an easy way of inviting
superiors to anything, for a Zulu youth may not address his senior
without being first spoken to.
All the men invited have to meet the chief at the starting point,
armed, and with their dogs. They dance round him and sing their hunting
songs, then they follow him to the place chosen for the hunt. While at
the hunt, if a buck is stabbed by more than one person before it falls,
it belongs to the man who first drew blood, and the man who gave it the
next stab, or whose dog caught it after it had received its first wound
is entitled to a leg; the man who wounded it a third time, or whose dog
pulled it down, takes a shoulder, if it is a large buck, but nothing if
the animal is a small one.
If caught by dogs without being previously wounded, and if it is not
known whose dog was the first to lay hold of it, the buck belongs to
the master of the hunt or the man who called the hunt together. And it
is the latter generally who settles a disputed question of ownership;
but he cannot mend the broken heads which so often follow such a
dispute. One seldom sees natives so excited as they over a buck killed
at a hunt, when there is any doubt as to the person to whom the buck
belongs. Many cases of assault, and even murder, arise out of quarrels
over a dead buck. It might therefore be very useful to know these rules.
UBUQILI BUKA BONGOZA
BONGOZA’S SMARTNESS
In the early days when the Boers invaded Zululand the Zulus twice set
traps for them, which were very successful. They were completely caught
in both.
Dingane, who was at that time King of the Zulus, prepared the first one
himself. He gave a great beer drink in his cattle kraal, and invited
all the Boers, with their leader (Piet Retief). These readily accepted
the invitation, came, and were highly entertained in various ways. A
good many Zulus were asked by Dingane to come and help to entertain by
singing and dancing while the tyuala (Kafir beer) was being passed
round. The Boers enjoyed the Kafir beer immensely, as well as the
singing and dancing, little guessing what was in store for them that
day.
When Dingane thought he had spent enough time with them, he gave a sign
to his people, which had been agreed upon beforehand. He just passed
the palm of his hand over his mouth, and that meant, “Sweep them all
off the face of the earth.” After having given this sign, he himself
went out of the kraal unnoticed. Hundreds of Zulus who had been waiting
outside the kraal ready armed set to at once, and those who had been
singing and dancing joined in as soon as the sign was given them. There
was a confusion of beer pots and assagais. The assagais came like a
hailstorm upon the unfortunate Boers. Their leader was the only one who
escaped by leaping over the cattle kraal fence and disappearing in a
most mysterious way.
A few years after he came forward again with another big commando, in
hopes of settling old scores, when he was led into another trap beyond
the White Umfolozi, at a place called Opate. He had been troubling the
Zulus a great deal all round about Mahlabatini (where the Natal Police
distinguished themselves in the recent Boer war). Dingane was quite at
a loss what to do with them, for he wished to put an end to it all.
Amongst his numerous chiefs he had one very smart general called
Nobongoza, who thought of a plan to catch the Dutchmen. He had a
private interview with the king, and made his plans known to him. They
were thought to be very good indeed, for Dingane left the management of
everything to him after that. Opate is a nice open plain, surrounded
with bushes and hills. To get to it one had to go through a narrow
pass. Nobongoza ordered a good number of his men to drive the king’s
cattle to this plain for safety; but he really had quite another object
in view in doing this. All the natives were to go armed, in readiness
to defend the cattle in case the Boers should find their hiding place
and try to take them. A day after the cattle had been taken to Opate,
Nobongoza sent a big army to hide in the bush all round the place; then
he turned traitor and went over to the Boers, saying he was tired of
fighting against them, therefore he was now willing to lead them to a
place where the king had hidden his cattle, and they could just help
themselves and go away. Piet Retief believed what Nobongoza said, and
was quite pleased. He allowed this chief to go as their leader, and
even promised to pay him for his trouble. So he led them through this
narrow pass, and when they had got through a fine sight came in view—a
sight that would make any Dutchman’s heart leap for joy—the plain was
alive with fine cattle. They at once made a dash for them, when
Nobongoza suddenly disappeared in the forest close by, where thousands
of armed Zulus were waiting for their prey. They rushed out from the
bush all round, closed in upon the Boers, and killed every one of them.
The cattle were then driven back triumphantly to the King’s kraal, and
Nobongoza was looked upon as a hero ever after.
These historical tales are repeated to this day. Anyone visiting
Zululand might ask a Zulu to relate to them “Ubiqili Buka Bongoza,” and
it would be told them with great glee. It is one of the most favourite
stories amongst the men.
When visiting Zululand only a short time ago I heard this story from an
old Zulu warrior who is now over a hundred years old. He seemed to have
a very good memory still, and enjoyed relating all his past victories.
He said he was quite a little boy when Chaka died, and he served as a
soldier under Dingane.
LABYRINTHS AND WAR GAME
The Zulus are very fond of drawing mazes (usogexe) on the ground with
the finger, or—after smoking hemp (insangu)—with saliva passed
through a hollow stem of tambootie grass and so made to trace a
labyrinth (tshuma sogexe) on a smooth floor. The one who draws
generally asks some one else to find the way into the royal hut. And
this he does with a pointer of tambootie, or failing to follow the
right course and getting cornered, is greeted with a general shout of
“Wapuka sogexe!” (you are done for in the labyrinth), and has to go
back to the start and begin the quest again. This game is a great
favourite, and is often played for hours at a time: the sons of Mpande
were great adepts at it. They would vary it sometimes by dotting rows
of warriors on the outside, and then success depended on the positions
that the combatants were made to assume, the great triumph being to
bring an army into the shape of a bull’s head and horns, when he whose
horn first touched the adversary’s line was acclaimed as winner.
[Illustration: The above is a copy of a Labyrinth made by a Zulu,
Ulutyetye, for the well-known missionary, the Rev. R. Robertson, and
first reproduced by Messrs. John Sanderson and Co., of Durban. It is
noticeable for having two huts to be reached—that in the centre being
the Royal one.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printed by
The Church Printing Company
Burleigh Street, Strand, W. C.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
The titles of the chapters in the Contents are not necessarily
consistent with titles of the chapters in the text, although their
order in the text is correct.
This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and
inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below.
Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected.
Text in italics in the original work is represented herein as _text_.
Small capitals are shown herein as all capitals.
Footnotes have been renumbered and then moved to the end of the chapter
to which they belong.
Page 2: “Ngashiy” and “Ngishiy” each appear once and they were retained
as printed.
Page 17: There was one character not printed at “country to [a] river”
and is shown here within the bracket.
Page 52: “Uzibebu” was changed to “Usibebu” to correspond to multiple
use in the footnote on the same page.