The Vigil: a story of Zululand ... With ... illustrations by A. D. M'Cormick

Preface

An apology is due to the memory of the late King Cetywayo for representing him as a warlike monarch. In point of fact, as a rule he kept the peace until the war with us. He had the mis fortune to inherit the dominion over a people whose whole social and political system was based upon a military organisation which, by its very existence, threatened the peace of South Africa. Whatever opinions may be held as to our technical justification for invading Zululand, the fact remains that it was a political necessity. To any one having the barest acquaintance with the history of the people, Cetywayo personally is but a victim of circumstances, and a worthy object of the profoundest commiseration. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACE 1'AGE THE FIRES WERE BUILT UP AGAIN, .... 6 TOGETHER WE WOULD MAKE WREATHS, ... 9 SHE WAS SLIPPING TO THE GROUND INSENSIBLE, WHEN MY FATHER, JUST IN TIME, CAUGHT HER IN HIS ARMS, 43 FOUR-EYES SEATED HIMSELF ON A MAT FACING THE KING, 51 SPRINGING FORWARD, DROVE HIS ASSEGAI RIGHT BE TWEEN THE MURDEROUS JAWS, .... 65 WE CAME IN VIEW OF THE STRONGHOLD, ... 68 MOUNTING THE ROCK, I STOOD AT LANGA'S SIDE, . 75 DOWN BY THE RIVER I MET HER, . . . . 91 UNDER THE CARCASS OF THE LION WAS A HUMAN FORM, 127 I RESISTED ALL HER ENTREATIES, . . . . 135 HURLED MY STICK AT HIS HEAD, . . . .

I4I I HEARD A HISS AND FELT A SHOCK, . . . 180 HE DASHED THE POT FROM HER HANDS, . . .205 'STAND BACK, YOU BLACK HOUND,' . . . . 217 IN HIS ARMS THE LIFELESS FORM OF MY LITTLE SISTER, 245 LONG WE FOUGHT,

Chapter I Beside

a rivulet, far away in the heart of the South African bush veldt, a wagon was out spanned. The fires were dying out ; the oxen, wearied by a twenty mile trek that day, lay down beside the yokes, to which they were fastened by leather reins noosed around their horns. It was night, and the silence was unbroken save by the sound of the oxen chewing the cud, blowing, or occasionally giving a subdued low as an indica tion of rest and contentment, or by the chirping of the cicadas from the grass, or the croaking of the frogs from the marshy ground bordering the rivulet near which we had taken up our quarters for the night. All around, as far as we could see, was thorn bush, which shone a silvery grey in the light of the waning moon ; for every stem, twig, and leaf was heavily laden with dewdrops, glistening be neath the unclouded rays of the Queen of night, A Having finished my evening damper and cup of coffee, I drew my camp-stool up to the nearest fire, and lit my pipe to aid me in my cogitations upon the prospect of approaching sport.

Soon the wailing of jackals and the melancholy cry of a hyena broke the silence, and then in succession came the whinnying of zebras, the snorting of blue wilde beeste, and the croaking sound made by a troop of pallahs. Finally, a sound as of successive peals of muffled thunder, commencing low, and with each roar increasing in intensity, until the chorus reached a climax and then died away in short hoarse grunts, announced that two lions had killed about a mile from our encampment. There are some who decry the roar of a lion. True, in a menagerie it does not sound much ; but when a duet by a lion and lioness is heard amid their natural surroundings, it is most awe inspiring. Its reverberations affect the hearer very much in the same way as does the thunder of the surf upon a barren coast. 'Weh, Umkonto, bars' umlilo, '1 said I, and at the words there arose from the fireside a 1 ' Hullo, Umkonto, make up the fire.' magnificent savage, fully six feet in height, of a deep copper colour, of a beautifully pro portioned frame, indicating strength and activity combined, with well-shaped feet and hands, a good head, a good facial angle, a somewhat aquiline nose, expressive mouth, and snow-white teeth.

A few sparse hairs adorned his cheeks and jaws, for, as a rule, the Kaffirs are not a hirsute race. The features were far more of a Semitic than of a Negroid type. His only clothing consisted of two bunches of insimba x skins, which hung from a string fastened round his loins. Having replenished the fire by casting logs of wood upon it in obedience to my order, he resumed his seat upon the ground beside the fire, and gazed into the embers as though he were absorbed in thought. ' You look gloomy, Umkonto,' said I in Kaffir. ' No, 'Nkos ' (i.e. chief), replied he ; 'I was thinking of the days when I was a boy and tended my father's cattle at our kraal — the days when all my family were together, before we were broken up — before the fates decreed the downfall 1 A kind of wild cat or ferret. of the glory of my land — before I was a wanderer upon the face of the earth.' His voice was pure and resonant, with a timbre which in England is peculiar to, and surely indi cative of, the fact that the speaker is by birth of the cast of gentlefolk.

There was a singular quiet dignity in his manner and speech. Like the shepherd or gamekeeper of the Highlands or the peasant of Ireland, the Zulu Kaffir is often homely but seldom or never vulgar ; hence those who know his nature can converse freely with him without any feeling of unpleasant restraint, or any fear that he will take liberties, or in any way transgress the canons of good taste. ' Then you were not born in Natal ? ' ' No, 'Nkos,' replied he ; 'I was born in Teg wayo's country, by the Umfolosi river in Zulu land.' 'Well, then, how do you come to be a Natal Kaffir ? ' ' Ah, 'Nkos, your words make my heart sore, for they call back shadows of old things which I would rather have left buried in the past.' ' Your sympathies are with the Zulu country, I suppose ? ' ''Nkos, I am grateful to the white lords — I thank the shield of the Government under which I found shade and refuge.

They are just, they are merciful ; but oh ! son of a white man, the Zulu country is our England, and while my heart beats I must love the Zulu country, though my duty led me to bear shield and spear against it — but hist ! heard you not that ? ' — as he spoke, he sprang to his feet, and remained rigid in an attitude of listening expectancy. With a sudden rattling of yokes and trek chains, the oxen rose to their legs, and, snuffling the night air, began to manifest signs of uneasi ness ; the horse which that day had carried me gallantly up to a troop of elands, and was now fastened to the rear wheel of the wagon, ceased munching his Indian corn, and, giving a snort of alarm, reared back until the rein which held him fast threatened to part at the ring of the head stall. 'Wo-ho! Sterling — quiet, boy — quiet.

What is it, Umkonto ? ' ' It is as I thought, 'Nkos : did you not hear them? They are lions — and hungry ones, too. The oxen and the horse have got the wind of them. The moon is sinking fast, and it will be a dark night. Hungry lions are bold in the darkness, and they may attempt to stampede the oxen by making a night attack, so let us pile more wood on the fires and keep a sharp look-out.' ' You are right ; pass me my rifle and the cartridge belt. Hullo, you boys, wake up, all of you, and tend the fires ; see to the reims, too, that each ox is securely fastened.' The Kaffir, awakened from pleasant dreams of beer, dancing, war, fat cattle, fat wives, and all other things in which the Kaffir's soul delights, yawning and grumbling set about their work, till a low hoarse moan, thrice repeated, infused energy into them and elicited shouts of ' Lions — and hungry ones, too — Eeyah ! you brutes — don't come here — get back, will you.' The hungry lion never roars loudly.

He gives a succession of appalling moans. A lion that moans on a dark night will take anything that comes in his way. By the time the fires were built up again, and Umkonto and myself had resumed our seats, the moon had sunk below the horizon. The lions still hung about the encampment, and it was obvious that there would be no sleep for THE FIRES WERE BUILT UP AGAI THE VIGIL 7 us that night, so, resigning myself to the inevitable, I filled my pipe and took up conversation with Umkonto at the point at which it had been broken off by the disturbance created by the lions. ' Why did you leave the Zulu country ? ' 'Nkos, it is a long story, but as we have to watch through the night, perhaps you would like to hear my history. If so, I will gladly tell you, though as a rule I seldom speak of the past, for it saddens me.

Indeed, my chief reason for following you on this expedition is that in the excitement of the chase — in the sights and sounds of the game country, I may find a veil which shall at any rate for a time hide the vision of the past.' ' Say on, Umkonto — I am all attention.' And thus I heard the story which I am now about to relate to my readers.

Chapter II

'NKOS, my father Sitanda sprang from the same tree as the Chief Mnyaman, and my mother was of the family of Punga, from whose loins issued the kings who ruled our land, — thus I, poor as I am, in blood am not inferior to any in all broad Zululand. My father was a Zulu with a white heart. No man more respected in the whole country than he. The stranger passing our kraal found beer and food and lodging of the best — never a man did he defraud — faithful and true was he in all his dealings, and kept his word to the letter though it were to his own loss. He was a good husband to his four wives, and his stick was never used upon his children excepting with justice. When John Schelm the trader left a heifer with my father for safe keeping, the heifer died of lung sickness three weeks after. Three years after wards, John Schelm called for his heifer, and my OGETHER WE WOULD MAKE WREATHS father gave him another heifer in place of it, also three calves which John Schelm's heifer would have borne in those three years had it not died of lung sickness — so just was my father.

My sister Inyezi and I were by the Inkosikazi.1 I was older than Inyezi by two years, and it was I who taught her how to plait mats, and to sew the tail feathers of the sakoboola2 into plumes for the warriors. I knew every spot where the wild flowers grew, and when I went out to herd the cattle little Inyezi would follow me, and to gether we would make wreaths of the blue flowers in the dells that she loved so. It was my hand she always grasped when first learning to dance. We grew up together as twin leaves on one stalk. If she had a secret, it was in my ear alone that she whispered it. No thought had she that I did not share. Inyezi was fair — paler than is common with our people. Her hands and feet were small, but her eyes were large and dark as the sloe berries, and so was her heart, though that was white indeed.

Alas me ! Women I have known many, but 1 Head wife. 2 A little bird with a long tail. Inyezi was not as other women. There was one other such as she, but of that anon. My half-brothers, Bube and Pandela, were older than I, Matiyan and Twili were younger. When I was still a half-grown lad, Bube and Pandela were young men, and were called to the king's kraal for military service. From time to time they came home on leave of absence. How I envied them their catskins, plumes, and oxtails, their glittering assegais and huge war-shields, and I too longed for the day when I might bear the isihlangu,1 as all my fathers had done. White man, you must know that in the old Zululand — that land which was once and has now passed away — war was the breath of our nostrils. It was the path, the only path to distinction, fame, power, the respect of many, the respect of a man for himself even, the love of woman and all that makes life worth living.

The very children sang songs of blood and strife, and waved their toy shields and sticks as they boasted either of what their fathers had done, or what they would do themselves when they had the opportunity. The nation was intoxicated by martial ardour, 1 War shield. and our military system fostered this feeling ; for no man could marry except by the king's leave, and that leave was never given until the warrior had seen military service against real enemies. If you keep a lion you must feed it with flesh, so the spirit of Zululand meant terror for the surrounding nations. Somtseu 1 knew this, and he drew the fangs and cut the claws of the lion. Our kraal was upon the summit of a ridge. About a mile distant was the kraal of Balela upon another ridge, and between the ridges flowed a small rivulet at which both our cattle and Balela's cattle drank morning and night.

I was very happy as a boy. My only work was herding the cattle and assisting to milk them morning and evening. Langa, the son of Balela, a lad of about my own age, herded his father's cattle. When the cattle lay down quietly to chew the cud, we used to leave them and meet in the rivulet which divided our pastures. Little Inyezi sometimes made a third at these meetings. Langa was clever at snaring birds, and killing the wild rabbits and the young buck. We 1 Sir Theophilus Shepstone. used to wander away for hours together hunting. When we were tired we sat down and invented stories of war and of the chase, until little Langa would get excited, and, flourishing his stick, would cry out, ' You be a lion or a buffalo, and I will attack you,' or 'You be the Basutos, and I will be King Chaka and will come and fight with you.' So carried away were we by these fancies, that we used to fight fiercely together until we were exhausted, and then we embraced and made friends.

If Inyezi was present she somewhat interfered with our sport, for upon the first signs of battle she would scream and rush between us, just in time to receive the blows of both com batants, until, when ordered by us to stand aside and not intervene in the affairs of warriors, she would cower and weep until the combat was over. But Langa was a fine boy. He loved me well, and between us arose a friendship which, though afterwards clouded for a time, never ended till Langa slept his last sleep. May the fates be propitious to him ! On my return home, all covered with bruises and scars after one of these tournaments, my father would say, ' Ah ! sprig of the old tree, what now ? The Basuto campaign was it ? Good lad ! I was there and slew three warriors with this old hand ; nevertheless, you are over wild ' — and he would aim a tremendous cut at me with the wand which he always carried for the correc tion of his children.

But I, being active, generally evaded this, and effected my escape, leaving my father murmuring, ' He must be well beaten — 'tis good for the training of a small warrior.'

CHAPTER II

I We grew apace, and took all our pleasures to gether, until the people all said we were as brothers. Not very far from our kraals was a mission station, presided over by an Umfundisi.1 He was a good man, though he wore a long beard and had four eyes.2 He belonged to the tribe called German, which are different from the English, and notwithstand ing all his talk of peace, he had been himself a warrior in his youth — and a brave one, too, for I have heard he possessed a little iron ornament which his king gave him as a reward for his conduct in a war expedition against a tribe called French. He had two wounds upon his body, and also scars upon his face. These he told me he got as a young man when playing with other young men. 1 Teacher. 2 i.e. wore glasses. Inyezi was the first who went to hear his teaching, and one day she persuaded Langa and myself to accompany her.

Inyezi was a great favourite with Four Eyes, and used to sit at his feet for hours listening to his teaching ; but it suited her, for it was all of peace and kindness, and that was what Inyezi ever loved. Afterwards she was washed by him and became one of his people, but he told her she might remain at our kraal, and attend to our father. It is well he said this, for Inyezi would never have consented to leave our father. We too liked his teaching about justice and also truth, but Langa did not like the mention of peace at all. Four Eyes spoke many things — beautiful things — about the Tixo l and about a Great Prince, but we could not make out a great deal of the history he gave us. There was a story about a fish which Langa would not believe ; but Langa liked to hear about the wars, and the killing of people.

I think that is really all he cared about. By and by Four Eyes gave us shirts, and when we used to go and see him we wore the shirts, 1 The Almighty. but always took them off immediately after wards. Four Eyes liked us — but then he liked every body, except very wicked people. He asked us to be washed, but we refused, because Four Eyes taught that man should not fight, and we thought that men should fight for the king whenever the king orders them to do so, be it right or wrong. He also taught that men should only take one wife, and all the world knows that no household can be properly conducted in Kaffirland unless there are at least three wives to do the work. The hymns annoyed us too, but the tintinning of a bell was worst of all. However, as I said, we liked Four Eyes, and might have gone on visiting him, but for an in cident which befel us, and which caused us to prefer following in the steps of our fathers.

There was a mission Kaffir named Indaba, who I do not think knew nearly so much as Four Eyes did, but he spoke more boldly. One day we were going to visit Four Eyes, carrying our shirts wrapped up on our heads, and on the way we met Indaba, who as usual saluted and said, ' Give me snuff, sons of my father.' Well, we sat down to converse. We had never been washed by Four Eyes, and Indaba urged us to be washed and to join the mission station, saying that unless we were washed we should certainly perish everlastingly. As neither our fathers nor any of our relatives had ever been washed for the mission station, we asked what would become of them. Indaba repeated that undoubtedly they would perish. Langa asked him, ' My fathers, all of them brave men and honest men, who fought well for the king whenever they were ordered to, and who never did wrongs to any men, will they perish too?' ' Undoubtedly,' replied Indaba. ' Ears of a dog, you lie ! ' shouted Langa in his anger at hearing such words. ' I forgive you,' replied Indaba, ' but the truth must be told.

The missionary and I myself and all washed persons are sheep and will be saved, but you and all your father's house are goats and will perish.' Langa could endure no longer, so he arose and smote him on the head with his knob-stick. May B the Great Being forgive Langa if he was wrong, but I don't think Langa could help himself at that moment. We went to see Four Eyes, and told him all about it, and returned the shirts to him. Four Eyes was not very angry; he only said, 'You should not have struck him, although he was wrong, very wrong, to say what he did.' We saluted him and turned to go, when he recalled us, and, placing a hand upon each of our heads, said, 'You are good lads, both of you — perhaps I should not wonder that you cannot now accept the way of peace. The Tixo is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and if not now, yet I trust that at the end of all the ages, when time shall be no longer, he will gather you both in.

Only remember this. In each of you is a book in which all that you think and do is written. That book is your memory. Some day that book will be opened again to yourselves, and to all men. Take care, therefore, neither to think nor to do aught that you would not have read from that book. Think and do what you believe to be right in all honesty and truth of heart.' So saying he lifted up his eyes towards the sky, and his lips moved but without sound, and then he removed his hands from our heads, and turned away into the house. I know not what all his words meant, but I think he intended good towards us. As we walked back we were both silent. I turned to look at Langa, and there was a tear upon his nose. Langa saw that I noticed it, for he got angry and said, ' If you ever tell any one that you saw a tear upon my nose — the nose of a man who will be a great warrior some day — you must fight me with sticks.'

Chapter IV

At last we were young men — Langa and I — and, though I say it myself, there were in all the countryside no youths who could throw an assegai more truly, run more swiftly, or wrestle more dexterously than we two. We were now per mitted to sit not in the circle, but just outside the circle of the grown men, and to listen to their conversation, though remarks from us were forbidden, except in whispered tones to each other. Thus we gradually became acquainted with the subjects which were of interest to the elders, viz., marriages, lawsuits, divinations, war expeditions past or in contemplation. After the elders had satisfied their thirst, the beer pot was passed back to us, and we began to feel that at last we were entering upon the dignity and re sponsibility of life. I remember the keen feeling of pleasure I experienced when I donned my first plumes and my dancing shield, and when my father pre sented me with one of his broad-bladed war assegais.

Langa often came over to our kraal, and at all the festivities he was present. We paid visits to other kraals in the neighbourhood, and I endeavoured to ape my brothers in their strut, and to ogle the young girls. At this time I received many a rebuff which sorely hurt me. The girls would say, ' Your feathers are not yet grown ; come and whistle for us when your assegai is reddened in war.' I bore this meekly, but Langa foamed under it, and muttered, ' Wait — wait a bit ; we will wade in blood up to our eyelids, and will love daughters of chiefs only.' To see Langa's face at such a moment reminded me of an evil spirit. He looked as though he thirsted to massacre all men ; but yet Langa was kind, and there was no softer heart than his. Inyezi made my bead ornaments, she tied up my plumes, and wove the calf-skin thongs that encircled my waist when I went abroad in my best costume.

I think she was very proud of her brother, and I know that I loved her well. One day I met Langa by appointment, to visit a kraal at some distance where there was a festivity. The headman's daughter was to be married, cattle were to be killed, and whosoever willed was invited to come and drink beer and eat beef. So I went in my very best array. On meeting Langa, I saw that his things were knitted in a pattern similar to my own, and asked him where he got them. He made as though he heard not, and pointing across the valley before us said, ' Look at yonder eagle, he soars in circles ; I think he sees a fawn, and will soon stoop upon it.' I repeated my question, and Langa replied, ' Inyezi — who else should it be ; know you not the pattern ? ' and as he spoke he looked away again fixedly at the eagle.

I thought to myself, 'Can it be? If it were any, I would wish it were Langa ; but he, like myself, is but a youth, and she — she cannot have thought of such things.' Nevertheless it remained in my mind, and I was thoughtful. We spoke not again about it ; but that evening when I returned home, and found myself alone with Inyezi, I said, ' Inyezi, the thongs of Langa are fairly worked.' She turned and looked upon me, and by that look it came to me that she was much older. It was no longer the little sister that stood beside me, but a new Inyezi of whom I had not dreamed hitherto. She lowered her eyes again, and swiftly turning away, left me, nor did I for some days stand beside her alone again. She said no word, but thus I came to know that in Inyezi's heart dwelt Langa. Langa and I now took part in all the great drives and hunting parties.

The game that we killed we divided between us, and he always helped me to carry my portion home. When he arrived at our kraal, he was always so ex hausted that he could not leave for some time, and then his memory was so bad that he always forgot something — an assegai, or a favourite knobkerry — and had to return for it on the next day. He very often got a thorn in his foot when he came over, and was unable to walk back home until the evening was come. And now one day came to our ears great news, which thrilled our pulses and made our hearts beat the faster. Amongst the circle of elders it was whispered that the king of all the Zulus, the lion, the elephant, the soaring eagle, the bull which thrusts with the horn and tramples the nations, was about to call up another levy of youths to be embodied into a regiment to serve him with honour — to carry his shield into distant lands — to gather cattle, and to make the Zulu name respected amongst the peoples.

And Langa and I would be included in the levy. Soon the news was confirmed, and later on a runner arrived from Ulundi who was received with all pomp and reverence. He announced that at the new moon all the youths born in certain years were to assemble at Ulundi, excepting those who were halt, blind, or maimed, and who therefore were not accounted amongst men. Great was our exultation. How the elders smiled as we strutted about ! How proudly and contemptuously we looked upon the youths who were just too young to be included in the levy! My father gave an entertainment, and slew an ox in honour of the occasion of my assuming arms. Inyezi wept, but I assuaged her grief, saying, ' Weep not for warriors, but for boys only — I go to make our name famous.' The great day arrived at last. Langa came over to join me.

Farewells were said, and we started off at a run, singing the song of Dingaan. As we reached the brow of the hill we turned for a moment to take our last look as boys at our homes. A crowd of people had come out of my father's kraal, and were waving their hands to us, and amongst them stood Inyezi. ' See, Langa,' said I, ' Inyezi waves to me.' ' No,' said Langa, ' was it to thee ? '