Seizing on a wild duck, just ready for the fire, the incorrigible ape bounded off with it, pursued by one of the Kaffirs. The monkey gained the neighbouring grove, and plunged in, followed by its pursuer. The next moment the animal dashed back, having dropped the bird, evidently terribly alarmed, and chattering its teeth, took refuge with Luji.

"There is something in the bush, Luji," said Hughes, s.n.a.t.c.hing up his rifle. "Wyzinski, look out, there is something wrong yonder."

The Kaffir, who had pursued the ape, had halted, and was staring fixedly in the direction of the wood.

"There's the solution of the mystery," returned the missionary, calmly, continuing his work as though nothing had happened, while one by one in Indian file, some fifty men, fully armed, and evidently belonging to a tribe not yet met with, stepped out of the wood and advanced towards the little camp. Halting about thirty paces distant, the party squatted on the ground, holding their long a.s.segais in their hands, and having their shields in readiness apparently for attack.

"Do you observe," remarked the missionary, raising his head from his work, "those men have none of the length of limb of the Zulu race, but are, on the contrary, small of stature and villainously ugly? There is the chief advancing towards us."

"Well, he is certainly a curious object," replied the soldier, leaning on his rifle. "I never saw a man with so low a forehead, so prominent cheek-bones, or so flat a nose. For all covering a piece of hide round the loins, and what on earth has he on his face? They look like b.u.t.ton mushrooms growing out of the flesh. Pah! it's enough to make one sick."

Low of stature, very black, and having the peculiarities named by Hughes, the chief's natural ugliness was greatly heightened by a row of gold b.u.t.tons, let into the flesh, from the point of the nose to the roots of the hair.

With a firm step and upright bearing, this hideous object advanced into the camp. Masheesh joined the group, and while the dusky braves, with their a.s.segais and shields, remained calmly looking on, a long parley took place before the tent.

The chief of this man's tribe had his kraal near Manica, and was a dependant of the great Machin himself, a rival of Mozelkatse. To him the Arab, Achmet Ben Arif, had sent a runner, telling of what bad pa.s.sed at Sofala, and also of the travellers' objects in thus seeking the interior. The chief invited the whole party to his kraal at Busi, and under the circ.u.mstances, with fifty lance-heads glittering in the sunshine, to enforce the proffered hospitality, it was difficult to say No.

"The direction, too," said the missionary, "is exactly that we wish to take; and if even we could help ourselves, which we can't, it will be better to go."

"Then we must leave the mysterious slabs on the top of yonder mountain, with their tales untold."

"Our first object," replied the missionary, "is to discover the ruined cities of Zulu land; we can return any time to Gorongoza; and who so likely to aid our search as this chief of Manica."

"If he is anything like his envoy, I don't care much to see him, for a more villainous lot I never met."

"Tell him we will break ground at daylight to-morrow, Matabele," said Wyzinski, and the interview ended. The armed men lounged lazily about the camp, the baggage was put in order, the slabs of Gorongoza were left behind, and the next day, having followed a northerly direction, with some westing in it, the Mahongo river was pa.s.sed. With so strong a party it was easy to drive the antelope, so hartebeest and eland meat was plentiful in the camp. The route sometimes led through thick forests, which the travellers would have had some difficulty in threading unguided, and it was only on the tenth day after quitting Gorongoza the party reached the kraal, to find the chief absent, having been called to Manica on a great hunting expedition. Wyzinski wished to proceed to Manica, but they found themselves virtually prisoners though their arms were left, and a hut was a.s.signed to the white men, Luji remaining with them. The baboon gradually gained a great reputation, and the Hottentot was looked upon as the "charmer" of the party, a reputation which pleased his childish nature, and which he added to by teaching the monkey all kind of tricks, and never moving about without it. He was in consequence regarded with some awe, and the baboon, supposed also to possess the secret of "charms," was always respected.

The place itself was curious enough. Three conical hills rose in the plain, the top of one of them being as it were shaved off, most probably by the action of time. This flat and rather inaccessible ground was the residence of the chief, and here too was the usual stockade, where the councils of the tribe were held. At the foot of this hill lay the huts of the kraal, one of which, detached from the rest, was given to the white men. In form it resembled exactly the dome-shaped tent of a subaltern in India, a pole also running up the centre, the whole being made of wood, covered with bark, and having, instead of a door, a small opening constructed like a narrow pa.s.sage. Skins served as a bed, and the furniture consisted of a large earthen vase made to contain the maize or manioc flour; the cowrie baskets and knapsacks having also been deposited inside. A large tree overshadowed the bark hut, and under it the greater part of the day was spent, and all cooking was carried on, the natives themselves evidently living almost wholly in the open air, and only retiring to their huts during bad weather. The women of this tribe were fully as repulsive as the men, and they too wore the curious b.u.t.tons, sometimes of bra.s.s, sometimes of copper, but always in rows as high as the cheek bone, and occasionally one or two in the chin, the b.u.t.tons being let into the flesh when young, and thus grown in. One strange peculiarity which struck the Europeans forcibly was that among the women, a slit was made in the skin on each side the hip. The youngest child is carried on the parent's back, and this slit serves it as a stirrup, so that with one arm round the mother's neck, the child is carried easily and safely, the mother having the free use of her hands.

This is the more necessary, as much of the labour is done by the women, the maize or manioc being all ground up by them, the instruments used and the mode of using them being exactly that shown forth in the old Egyptian symbolical sculpture. Among the males the Jewish custom of circ.u.mcision prevailed, and these were two points which struck Wyzinski particularly. The tribe was not indigenous, but under the control of Machin, chief of Manica, and was made up of a mixed race, being partly of the blood of the Makoapa, who owned k.n.o.bneusen as their chief, partly of that of a fierce and treacherous race called Banyai.

This native kraal of Busi is pleasantly situated. To the northward, far away in the distance, a lofty hill called "Morumbala," near whose base flows the "Zambesi," while to the southward the mountains of Nyamonga and Gorongoza stretch away into the horizon. Thick forests of trees, many of them of tropical growth, sweep around, while the plains are rich in luxuriant vegetation. The cedar, the ebony palmyra, mohonono, mashuka, acacia, mashanga, and the dwarf custard-apple, grow abundantly, while a bright red bean, called the mosika, together with maize, is much cultivated. Iron is found and worked on the hill-sides, after a very homely fashion, while coal actually crops up out of the ground, and is picked out by the women, who use only a hoe.

The copper and bra.s.s ornaments are procured, in the way of trade, from the Portuguese of the Zambesi; but gold is plentiful and its value known, the women washing it out of the ground in quant.i.ties, sometimes even finding it in pure nuggets. All this seemed strongly to confirm the missionary's firm belief that in this neighbourhood was once found and exported gold, cedar, and other riches. Elephants were numerous in the forests, and the ivory was sold to the Portuguese. It was to a grand elephant hunt the head of the tribe had been called, and, with the exception of the brave and his escort of fifty warriors who had accompanied the white men, none but the women remained in the kraal.

A week pa.s.sed by, and at its expiration the shouts of the men, and the shrill screams of the women, heralded the return of the head warrior Umhleswa, and told that the hunt had been a successful one.

Volume 1, Chapter X.

THE RUINED CITIES OF ZULU LAND.

The morning after the chief's arrival there was a great commotion in the kraal. Men ran to and fro, there was shouting and much talking, and at last, followed by his warriors, the chief Umhleswa came down from the council enclosure, and taking his way among the huts, halted at the entrance of that which had been a.s.signed to the white men. Umhleswa found them seated under the tree which overshadowed their home, and, whatever he might think of them, his own appearance was in no way prepossessing. Under the middle height, his legs were curved, or bowed, his forehead low and retreating, the part of the head behind the ears being very ma.s.sive. The ears themselves were enormous, and the mouth very large; the nose flattened, and the lips thick. He wore the usual set of small b.u.t.tons let into the flesh, but they were of virgin gold; and a panther skin was attached by a golden clasp round the waist, falling like a Highland kilt. A number of small objects of gla.s.s, beads, and ivory hung down from his waist, making a rattle as he walked.

Bound his ankles, wrists, and the fleshy part of the arm were circles of copper. He carried no arms, but held in his hand a stick, also of gold, about a foot long, and his teeth were filed, giving an appearance of savage ferocity to his repulsive face. The white men rose, and some additional skins being brought, the three chiefs, Umhleswa, the missionary, and the soldier, seated themselves, the warriors squatting in a circle around.

"The white chiefs are not traders, but like gold," said the savage, after a prolonged stare. "They seek some fallen huts, formerly made by their white fathers?" asked he, speaking in the Zulu tongue.

"Achmet Ben Arif spoke truly when he told you so, Umhleswa," was the reply.

"The white chiefs saw the fallen house at Sofala. In the mountains at Gorongoza are caves; the traders of the Zambesi built the house, the worshippers of the white man's G.o.d lived at Gorongoza. There are no other remains of them."

"And the stone tablets on the mountain?" eagerly asked the missionary.

The lips of the savage parted, showing the sharp filed teeth. "They are the graves of those who served the white man's G.o.d."

"And no other ruined huts are here?"

"None. Let the white chiefs hunt with my warriors, they are welcome; the elephant and the rhinoceros are in plenty. The Zambesi is not far distant, when they are tired of the hunt."

The missionary was terribly disappointed, for the chief's face bore on it a look of truthfulness. There was no reason for doubting him, and he did not do so.

"Umhleswa would see the chiefs hunt himself. Cattle were carried away from his kraal last night. The robbers were three in number, and are panthers. My scouts are out on the spoor: will the white men join my braves this day?"

"Willingly," replied the missionary, who at once explained what had pa.s.sed to the soldier. Tired of a week's inactivity, the latter was enchanted at the chance. The rifles and ammunition were soon ready.

One of the scouts came in with his report that the spoor had been followed into a neighbouring wood, and that the three panthers had not left it. The party consisted of the Europeans and the Matabele chief, together with Umhleswa and about thirty of his tribe. The men were armed with spears, some carrying bows and arrows, the chief alone having an old Spanish long-barrelled fowling piece, damascened with gold.

About four miles of plain lay stretched between the Amatonga village and the forest line, and it was to this the whole troop of noisy savages, headed by their chief and the two white men, took their way in a body.

The forest-land, broken at intervals by patches of plain watered by a small stream, stretched away to the mountains, and once it was reached, Umhleswa made his arrangements. All the men armed with a.s.segais were told off as beaters, and advancing in a long line they carried the bush before them. The rest, armed with bows and arrows, were stationed in small groups at the further extremity of the thick cover. Several patches of bush had thus been beaten out, and no game was found.

"What immense numbers of parrots these woods contain," said Hughes.

"And how slowly and well these savages beat. I should not like to face a panther with nothing but an a.s.segai," replied Wyzinski.

The two were standing close to the chief as the missionary spoke, a strong party of the bowmen near, when a tremendous uproar took place among the spearmen, a shrill, piercing scream sounding high above the clamour.

"The panther has struck down one of my braves," exclaimed the Amatonga chief, listening eagerly.

The clamour became louder and louder, seeming to recede.

"Look out, Hughes, they are doubling back, and, if they don't succeed, must break out."

Hardly had the words been uttered, when three panthers dashed out from the cover, about twenty paces only from where Umhleswa stood. They looked beautiful but dangerous, as they crouched for a few moments on their bellies in the sand, the bright sun streaming over their painted hides, the end of the tail moving slowly to and fro, and showing their white teeth; then rising, the three, evidently male and female, with their young one a little behind them, came slowly forward, ever crouching for the spring and snarling savagely.

"Are you ready, Wyzinski?" said Hughes, in a low hoa.r.s.e tone; "take the female--it is nearest to you."

The men with the bows had disappeared; not so Umhleswa, who stood his ground firmly.

"Take the young one, chief," whispered the missionary to the Amatonga.

Both the rifles united in one common report, the Spanish piece ringing out a second later. The male panther sprang into the air and fell, nearly at the feet of the little party, quite dead. The female, badly wounded, broke away towards the mountains, while the young one made his spring, striking down the Amatonga chief, and, dashing through a party of the a.s.segai men, again sought shelter in the bush. The fore-arm of the female panther was broken, but it ultimately gained the mountains, with a party of some dozen men after it, yelling, shouting, and discharging their arrows at impossible distances. The poor fellow who had been struck down in the bush was dead, and his body was laid beside the carca.s.s of the leopard. Umhleswa was a good deal hurt; the blow having struck his head, but the animal being young, weak, and frightened, had inflicted only a scalp wound; nevertheless, the chief was stunned, and it was an hour before he recovered consciousness.

For the first time since their arrival among the Amatongas the white men were left to their own device. The confusion was very great, and all a.s.sembled round their unconscious chief. A litter was constructed, and they started for the kraal, the whole party of savages accompanying it.

The two Europeans, having once more loaded their rifles, stood watching the retiring and discomfited savages.

"We ought to have that second tiger, Wyzinski; you fired too low," at last observed Hughes.

"I suppose I did, confused doubtless by the three leaping animals. I am sorry for it. Umhleswa missed his, and it is humiliating that I only wounded mine."

"Well, what say you, shall we follow the spoor; it will lead us to yonder mountains, where we shall in all probability find the wounded panther?"