H. Rider Haggard

“ To say that it was desert would be saying too much; it was more like the Karroo in the Cape—a vast sandy waste, studded here and there with low shrubs and scattered rocks. But it was a great expanse of desolate land, stretching further than the eye could reach, and bordered far away by a line of purple hills, in the centre of which a great solitary peak soared high into the air.
“Indaba-zimbi,” I said, “we can never cross this if we take six days.”
“As you will, Macumazahn,” he answered; “but I tell you that there”—and he pointed to the peak—“there the white man lives. ”

“ At his feet lay the senseless form of little Tota, to my left squatted Indaba-zimbi, nodding his white lock and muttering something—probably spells; while in front was my giant antagonist, his spear aloft and his plumes wavering in the gentle wind. Then over all, over grassy slope, river, and koppie, over the waggons of the laager, the piles of dead, the dense masses of the living, the swooning child, over all shone the bright impartial sun, looking down like the indifferent eye of Heaven upon the loveliness of nature and the cruelty of man. ”

“ I said, for Hendrika had been a Christian, and the torment of her remorse touched me.
“I ask no forgiveness,” she said. “May God torture me for ever, because I killed her; may I become a brute for ever till she comes to find me and forgives me! I only want her forgiveness.” And wailing in an anguish of the heart so strong that her bodily suffering seemed to be forgotten, Hendrika, the Baboon-woman, died.
I went back to the kraals, and, waking Indaba-zimbi, told him what had happened, asking him to send some one to watch the body, as I proposed to give it burial. ”

“ There, overgrown with grass, were the burnt ashes of the kraals, and there among the ashes, gleaming in the moonlight, lay the white bones of men. Now it was clear to me. The settlement had been fallen on by some powerful foe, and its inhabitants put to the assegai. The forebodings of the natives had come true; Babyan Kraals were peopled by memories alone.
I passed on up the terraces. There shone the roofs of the marble huts. They would not burn, and were too strong to be easily pulled down. I entered one of them—it had been our sleeping hut—and lit a candle which I had with me. ”

“ Some fifteen years after my darling’s death, when I was a man in middle life, I undertook an expedition to the Zambesi, and one night outspanned at the mouth of the well-known valley beneath the shadow of the great peak. I mounted my horse, and, quite alone, rode up the valley, noticing with a strange prescience of evil that the road was overgrown, and, save for the music of the waterfalls, the place silent as death. The kraals that used to be to the left of the road by the river had vanished. I rode towards their site; the mealie fields were choked with weeds, the paths were dumb with grass. ”

“ Stella went on, “I remember no more till I woke to find myself in a gloomy cave resting on a bed of skins. My legs were bound, and Hendrika sat near me watching me, while round the edge of the cave peered the heads of those horrible baboons. Tota was still in my arms, and half dead from terror; her moans were pitiful to hear. I spoke to Hendrika, imploring her to release us; but either she has lost all understanding of human speech, or she pretends to have done so. All she would do was to caress me, and even kiss my hands and dress with extravagant signs of affection. ”

“ Nothing was to be seen except the site, the domes of the marble huts, and the waterfalls. I took possession of the huts. I cleared the path of garden land and planted the orange grove. I had only six natives then, but by degrees others joined me, now my tribe is a thousand strong. Here we live in profound peace and plenty. I have all I need, and I seek no more. Heaven has prospered me so far—may it do so to the end, which for me draws nigh. And now I am tired and will go back. If you wish to see the old quarry and the mouth of the ancient mines, Stella will show them to you. ”

“ Now I know what it is that stirs us in the beauty of the sky, in the sound of water and in the scent of flowers. It is Love who speaks in everything, though till we hear his voice we understand nothing. But when we hear, then the riddle is answered and the gates of our heart are opened, and, Allan, we see the way that wends through death to heaven, and is lost in the glory of which our love is but a shadow. ”

“ Presently I gave a stage shiver and lay still.
“See!” said the Zulus, “he is dead, the Spirit is dead. Look at the blood upon the assegai!”
“Stand back! stand back!” cried Indaba-zimbi, “or the ghost will haunt you. Yes, he is dead, and now I will call him back to life again. Look!” and putting down his hand, he plucked the spear from wherever it was fixed, and held it aloft. “The spear is red, is it not? Watch, men, watch! it grows white!”
“Yes, it grows white,” they said. “Ou! it grows white.”
“It grows white because the blood returns to whence it came,” said Indaba-zimbi. ”

“ And so I say to you that, had I not drawn him from the laager by my magic but three hours ago, you would have been conquered—yes, you would have been blown away like the dust before the wind; you would have been burnt up like the dry grass in the winter when the fire is awake among it. Ay, because he had but been there many of your bravest were slain in overcoming a few—a pinch of men who could be counted on the fingers. But because I loved you, because your chief Sususa is my half-brother—for had we not one father?—I came to you, I warned you. ”

“ You were very nearly dead to-night, Macumazahn.”
“Very nearly indeed,” I answered, still panting, and arranging the rags of my night-dress round me as best I might. Then the memory of my horrid dream flashed into my mind. Doubtless it had been conjured up by the sound of Hendrika dropping to the floor—in my dream it had been a grave that she dropped into. All of it, then, had been experienced in that second of time. Well, dreams are swift; perhaps Time itself is nothing but a dream, and events that seem far apart really occur simultaneously. ”

“ The spectators seem to see the boy go under the basket and there pierced with daggers, they seem to see women in a trance supported in mid-air upon the point of a single sword. In themselves these things are not possible, they violate the laws of nature, as those laws are known to us, and therefore must surely be illusion. And so through the glamour thrown upon them by Indaba-zimbi’s will, that Zulu Impi seemed to see me transfixed with an assegai which never touched me. ”

“ For us too, Macumazahn, as for the land we loved, the mystery and promise of the morning are outworn; the mid-day sun burns overhead, and at times the way is weary. Few of those we knew are left. Some are victims to battle and murder, their bones strew the veldt; death has taken some in a more gentle fashion; others are hidden from us, we know not where. ”

“ I had to draw all the healthy strength and life from my body in order to gather power to speak with the Star. It was a dangerous business, Macumazahn, for if I had let things go a little further they must have stopped so, and there would have been an end of Indaba-zimbi. Ah, you white men, you know so much that you think you know everything. But you don’t! You are always staring at the clouds and can’t see the things that lie at your feet. You hardly believe me now, do you, Macumazahn? ”

“ On rushed the elephant, awful to see; I made one more vain effort to stir the horse. Now the trunk of the great bull swung aloft above my head. A thought flashed through my brain. Quick as light I rolled from the saddle. By the side of the horse lay a fallen tree, as thick through as a man’s body. The tree was lifted a little off the ground by the broken boughs which took its weight, and with a single movement, so active is one in such necessities, I flung myself beneath it. ”

“ Of this I am sure, that when he has slain my son he will slay me, me also, and make himself chief in my place. I fear Indaba-zimbi. Ou!”
“Black One,” answered the induna, “wizards die as dogs die, and, once dead, dogs bark no more.”
“And once dead,” said the chief, “wizards work no more spells,” and he bent and whispered in the induna’s ear, looking at the assegai in his hand as he whispered.
“Good, my father, good!” said the induna, presently. “It shall be done to-night, if the lightning does not do it first.” ”

“ I answered.
“And so I tell you now to ride north, Macumazahn, for there you will find great happiness—yes, and great sorrow. But no man should run away from happiness because of the sorrow. As you will, as you will!”
Again I looked at him. In his divinations I did not believe, yet I came to the conclusion that he was speaking what he knew to be the truth. It struck me as possible that he might have heard of some white man living like a hermit in the wilds, but preferring to keep up his prophetic character would not say so.
“Very well, Indaba-zimbi,” I said, “let us ride north.” ”

“ Then I shouted to the men to open out and form a line from side to side of the shelving gulley. Furious at the loss of their two comrades, they obeyed me, and keeping in the water-way myself, together with Indaba-zimbi and the other guns, I gave the word to charge.
Then the real battle began. It is difficult to say who fought the most fiercely, the natives or the baboons. The Kaffirs charged along the slopes, and as they came, encouraged by the screams of Hendrika, who rushed to and fro holding the wretched Tota before her as a shield, the apes bounded at them in fury. ”

“ I gasped in English as well as my swollen tongue would allow; “give me water.”
“Ah, he lives!” cried the beautiful girl, “and he talks English. See, sir, here is water in your own bottle; you were quite close to a spring, it is on the other side of the tree.”
I struggled to a sitting position, lifted the bottle to my lips, and drank from it. Oh! that drink of cool, pure water! never had I tasted anything so delicious. With the first gulp I felt life flow back into me. But wisely enough she would not let me have much. “No more! no more!” ”

“ I said; “wait till you are asked, you old humbug.”
“You had better ask me, then, Macumazahn, for if you don’t you will never come back alive. Now that the old chief (my father) is gone to where the storms come from,” and he nodded to the sky, “I feel myself getting into bad habits again. So last night I just threw up the bones and worked out about your journey, and I can tell you this, that if you don’t take me you will die, and, what is more, you will lose one who is dearer to you than life in a strange fashion. ”

“ She started up. “Are you an English gentleman?” she said. “Ah, I have always longed to see an English gentleman. I have never seen but one Englishman since we lived here, and he certainly was not a gentleman—no white people at all, indeed, except a few wandering Boers. We live among black people and baboons—only I have read about English people—lots of books—poetry and novels. But tell me what is your name? Macumazahn the black man called you, but you must have a white name, too.”
“My name is Allan Quatermain,” I said. ”

“ The figure on the box slowly unrolled the blanket, and with great deliberation took a pinch of snuff.
“It was a good fire-fight, white man, was it not?” said Indaba-zimbi, in his high, cracked voice. “But he never had a chance against me, poor boy. He knew nothing about it. See, white man, what becomes of presumption in the young. It is sad, very sad, but I made the flashes fly, didn’t I?”
“You old humbug,” I said, “unless you are careful you will soon learn what comes of presumption in the old, for your chief is after you with an assegai, and it will take all your magic to dodge that.” ”

“ When all these had rapidly succeeded each other, Indaba-zimbi quietly woke up.
I was too astonished to speak; I simply looked at him with my mouth open.
“Well, Macumazahn,” he said, putting his head on one side like a bird, and nodding his white lock in a comical fashion, “it is all right; I have seen her.”
“Seen who?” I said.
“The Star, your wife, and the little maid. They are much frightened, but unharmed. The Babyan-frau watches them. She is mad, but the baboons obey her, and do not hurt them. ”

“ Now I was not more superstitious than other people, but somehow old Indaba-zimbi impressed me. Also I knew his extraordinary influence over every class of native, and bethought me that he might be useful in that way.
“All right,” I said: “I appoint you witch-finder to the expedition without pay.”
“First serve, then ask for wages,” he answered. “I am glad to see that you have enough imagination not to be altogether a fool, like most white men, Macumazahn. Yes, yes, it is want of imagination that makes people fools; they won’t believe what they can’t understand. ”

“ Say, my people, what reward should be given to her?”
“Death,” said the circle of indunas, pointing their thumbs downwards, and all the multitude beyond echoed the word “Death.”
“Death,” repeated the head induna, adding, “If you save her, my father, we will slay her with our own hands. She is a Babyan-woman, a devil-woman; ah, yes, we have heard of such before; let her be slain before she works more evil.”
Then it was that Stella stepped forward and begged for Hendrika’s life in moving terms. ”

“ I had my elephant gun and ammunition. Indaba-zimbi had his medicine bag and an assegai. We crept to the top of the rise like sportsmen stalking a buck. The slope on the other side was strewn with rocks, among which grew bushes and tall grass. ”