Assegai

“ He points at the individual whom he has decided to incriminate saying, “you [33] took the assegai with the crack in the handle which you mended with a thong of goat hide in the spring last year, and digging in front of the hut of the sick person, buried something (previously and in secret placed there by the Isanuse) , by which you bewitched the child.” This knowledge of details fills the spectators with dread and wonder at the powers of the “doctor” and convinces his friends, who know that he has an assegai, so mended, of his guilt. ”

“ In the evening Umzilikazi sent for me. I found him alone in his hut, and as I sat opposite him it seemed as though I were once more the inceku and shield-bearer, and that the dread ordeal which had terminated in the winning of my head-ring and the King’s Assegai had been all a dream.
“What think you, Untúswa?” said the King at first. “Is it for good or for ill that we leave Ekupumuleni, ‘The Place of Rest,’ and depart for this new land?”
“It is for good, Great Great One. The land is better one than this. There is more room in it for a new nation to become mighty and rich.” ”

“ I wearied of those brawling women.”
“So, Mopo,” said the soldier; “but to get other wives and have more children born to you, you must live yourself, for no children are born to the dead, and I think that Chaka has an assegai which you shall kiss.”
“Is it so?” I answered. “The king’s will be done. The sun is hot, and I tire of the road. He who kisses the assegai sleeps sound.”
Thus I spoke, my father, and, indeed, in that hour I desired to die. The world was empty for me. Macropha and Nada were gone, Umslopogaas was dead, and my other wives and children were murdered. ”

“ Seizing them by the ankles, I tugged with all my might.
“‘Come forth,’ I growled, for I was holding my assegai in my mouth to leave both hands free. ‘Come forth, and taste blade over again. Ha! killing is the only thing good to live for, after all. Come forth!’
“Jerking out these words, I threw the corpses aside as one might throw faggots from a stack of firewood. Then another tug, and I found I was holding by the legs the body of an old man, wrinkled and white-bearded. Beyond a gash or two in the chest, he seemed unwounded, but his head was covered with blood. ”

“ I would snatch the assegai from his hand and stab him! Yes, I would kill the king and then kill myself! Now the mat was unrolled. Inside were the brown leaves and roots of medicine; beneath them was the senseless babe wrapped in dead moss.
“Ugly stuff,” said the king, taking snuff. “Now see, Mopo, what a good aim I have! This for thy medicine!” And he lifted his assegai to throw it through the bundle. But as he threw, my snake put it into the king’s heart to sneeze, and thus it came to pass that the assegai only pierced the outer leaves of the medicine, and did not touch the child. ”

“ Never again while Chaka lived did a conquered force pass the gates of the king’s kraal.
That fight was but one war out of many. With every moon a fresh impi started to wash its spears, and came back few and thin, but with victory and countless cattle. Tribe after tribe went down before us. Those of them who escaped the assegai were enrolled into fresh regiments, and thus, though men died by thousands every month, yet the army grew. ”

“ If you are not a woman, show it. There is an armed Basuto among those rocks. He watches us. Your master cannot eat and sleep in peace when he is watched. Take that big stabbing assegai you are so fond of showing, and kill him, or die a coward! He must make no sound, remember.”
Mazooku turned towards Ernest for confirmation of the order. A Zulu always likes to take his orders straight from his own chief. Mr. Alston noticed it, and added:
“I am the Inkoosi's mouth, and speak his words.”
Mazooku saluted again, and turning, went to the waggon to fetch his assegai. ”

“ At night we would creep into some crevice or hole in the rocks, but it was seldom we dared make a fire, lest its light should be seen afar. Sometimes, however, we would find a deep cleft where the light would be screened by the rock in front, and then we would rejoice in the warmth while we roasted our game at the comforting blaze, for the mountain—side abounded in several species of small buck, which I had no difficulty in obtaining at any time with assegai or knobstick. ”

“ However, when we came near the country of the Basutu we got fighting enough, for these people were brave, and though they would not meet us in the open, would retire to their cliff dwellings and hill forts and resist us fiercely, studding the approaches to their strongholds with assegai points to cut our feet and legs to pieces as we drew near, or rolling down showers of rocks upon us, so that we must flee or be crushed. This sort of fighting was not to our tastes, and we would taunt them and call them cowards for skulking behind rocks instead of coming forth to meet us in the open, man to man ”

“ My news, however, caused Nangeza to clap her hands delightedly.
“‘You are indeed a man, Untúswa!’ she cried. ‘Keep well within the favour of the King. One day you will be an induna. Who knows? One day you may command the whole army in battle.’
“‘Why not propose that one day I may reign as King?’ I said banteringly. ‘The one is as likely as the other.’
“‘Well, what then? Even that may be,’ was her cool reply. ‘A man who is brave and cautious may climb to any height; and did not the King promise you his dark-handled assegai? ”

“ I know not how it is among you white people, Nkose, but among ourselves, when we are yet young, we are ever as fools in such matters; when we are older—ah, then it is different.
While we talked, her eye fell upon my broad spear—the King’s Assegai—and, reaching for it, she examined it knowingly.
“Worthy to be wielded by Tshaka himself,” she muttered. “A splendid spear! A royal weapon,” examining the haft, which was dark-red then, although it is now black with age. “Truly a royal weapon!” ”

“ Come, we will help you kill it.’ And, poising his assegai, he sprang forward to the old Mosutu witch-doctor.
(Mosutu and Basutu. Basutu is a plural word, and denotes the tribe, or more than one member of it. The singular is Mosutu.)
“‘Stand! Stand back!’ I thundered. ‘This is not a man to kill. He must be taken to the King.’
“‘To the King! Ha, ha! The King does not want to see the faces of such withered old images. You are mad, Untúswa.’
“‘Mad or sane, this man shall be taken to the King,’ I answered.
“‘Ha! Since when has Untúswa, the umfane been made an induna?’ they jeered. ”

“ I talk not with children.”
The hubbub grew deafening and they drew in closer—growling, chattering in their fine deep voices, pointing viciously at us with their blades. My taunt had exasperated them to a dangerous degree. One fellow went so far as to dance out from among the rest and gwaza at me with his assegai, and all were brandishing theirs and closing in upon us nearer and nearer. ”

“ There you will take your stand, holding in your right hand a little assegai which will be given to you. Nombé will not accompany you to the rock, but she will crouch between the stones at the head of the path and perhaps from time to time whisper to you what to do. ”

“ Such had been the word of Dingane, and looking at that waggon camp when we left it, I think, Nkose, you would have said we had obeyed the word of the Great Great One to the full. By hundreds the slain lay there, heaps and heaps of dead bodies whom the assegai had kissed again and again. In darker heaps, too, lay our own dead; but of this we thought not much, for even these whites, dreaded alike by all nations who had met them, had not been able to stand before the power of Zulu. ”

“ Amongst the stronger and more uncommon of the assegais are those belonging to the chieftains, and serving as insignia of their office; they vary from five feet to six and a half feet in length, a third part of which is iron; the shafts are the most substantial that are made north of the Zambesi, and are generally carved or ornamented with indented lines or circles.
The assegai that is used for hand-to-hand fights is a most formidable weapon, especially as wielded by the Matabele. It has a kind of gutter running along the blade; the neck is formed of embossed rings ”

“ In a military sense they all possess bravery, skill in ambush, and resourcefulness in attack or defence. The assegai is certainly a manly weapon in many respects, as well as a deadly one. It required physical strength, skill and courage in assault, and marked powers of endurance in the long marches which they have so often undertaken to surprise a foe or raid a kraal, to attack a British force or a Dutch commando. The southern tribes—Zulus, Pondos, Tembus and Kosas—have been perhaps the fiercest and strongest warriors, but the Matabele of the north ran them pretty close. ”

“ His methods of government and warfare were peculiar and somewhat drastic, but most effective. As he conquered a tribe, he enrolled its remnants in his army, so that they might in their turn help to conquer others. He armed his regiments with the short stabbing assegai, instead of the throwing assegai which they had been accustomed to use, and kept them subject to an iron discipline. If a man was observed to show the slightest hesitation about coming to close quarters with the enemy, he was executed as soon as the fight was over. ”

“ The missionary imported ploughs and taught them to improve their agriculture, so that ere long this rich, virgin soil brought forth abundantly. Their few cattle multiplied also in an amazing fashion, as did their families, and soon they were as prosperous as they had been in the good old days before they knew the Zulu assegai, especially as, to their amazement, the Shouter never took from them even a calf or a bundle of corn by way of tax. Only the shadow of that Zulu assegai still lay upon them, for if Chaka was dead Dingaan ruled a few miles away across the Tugela. ”

“ Take my weapons, men—I disarm.’ And I threw my assegais and shield on the ground beyond reach, and stood waiting.
“They surrounded me at once. Nangeza, who had been helping to kill the Baputi, stood by, also cool, brave, and fearless.
“‘You have made more trouble by slaying Njalo-njalo,’ said Ngubu discontentedly. ‘Whau, Untúswa! It is on us the King’s wrath will fall.’
“‘The King’s wrath never yet fell upon anybody who slew a coward, for he loves not such,’ I answered. ‘And now, Ngubu, being unarmed, I need no bonds. I have done with hope. ”

“ The Batonga will tell you that the assegai is the weapon of the man and the hoe of the woman. As one sees the men always armed with assegais, so the women generally carry a hoe; nor is it always just an ordinary hoe for digging. Her husband sometimes procures for her a dainty little hoe, having the handle beautifully ornamented with fine woven wire. This has no other use than to be carried with her as she goes on a journey or to a wailing, and she is very proud of it and nothing will induce her to part with it. ”

“ If these enthusiastic savages came far enough, they would tempt some of our men to dance out and meet them. This would mean a killing. There would be some rapid blows with the knob-kerries, accompanied by the hollow thud when the shields caught the strokes, and finally one blow would go home and the victim would drop. Like a flash would come the stab of the assegai and there would be a dead man on the ground!
[344] Our indunas knew this better than I did, and they walked up and down before their excited warriors watching for the first man to break ranks. ”

“ The weapons of the Swazis are much the same as those of the Zulus, but they have more variety in shape and quality of the assegai. The shields are smaller, and usually woven of stout reeds and then covered with undressed hide. They use also a heavy kind of lance which is adapted to the chase of large game.
A favourite amusement is a kind of war-dance, in which a warrior describes a conflict in which he was once engaged. ”

“ Once a lion found his way into the church at Richterfeldt! The alarm being given, the Damaras, assegai in hand, rushed to the spot, and, seizing him by the tail and ears, dragged him bodily out of the sacred edifice. The poor brute was actually dying from starvation, and offered but a very feeble resistance. I saw his skin.
At Barmen I was obliged to leave Mr. Rath's cattle; but, by the assistance of Mr. Hahn's wagon-driver, who, on reasonable terms, lent me half a dozen first-rate oxen, I was able to prosecute my journey. ”

“ In their war with the English many of the Zulus were armed with muzzle-loading guns and rifles of the worst description, of which they could make little use, for few of them were trained to handle fire-arms. A much more terrible weapon in their hands, and one that did nearly all the execution at Isandhlwana, was the broad-bladed short-shafted stabbing assegai. This shape of spear was introduced by the great king Chaka, and if a warrior cast it at an enemy, or oven chanced to lose it in a fight, he was killed when the fray was over. ”

“ I am an old man now, Nkose, and have lived to learn that women, like assegais, are all made very much on the same lines—like assegais, are keen and sharp to cut and destroy. But, old man as I am, I cannot even now quite forget that evening after I had talked with the King. ”

“ He yelled with pain as the iron teeth of the ‘Thing that bites’ sprang up with a rattling sound like living fangs and fastened into him—such a yell I have not often heard. Now at last he tasted of the torture which he had inflicted upon so many, and though I trust I am a Christian, I cannot say that I felt sorry for him.
“The assegai sped on and struck one of the women who had hold of the unfortunate Every, piercing through her arm. This made her leave go, an example that the other women quickly followed, so that Every fell to the ground, where he lay gasping. ”