CHAPTER XXVI
HOW GAASHA BROUGHT GOOD LUCK
When Ralph returned from pursuing the Zulus, as he drew near to thelaager he lingered a little behind the others, for he was very weary ofall this work of killing, also the flesh-wound that he had got fromthe Kaffir's spear having stiffened pained him when his horse cantered.There was no more danger now, for the savages were gone, leaving theirpath marked by the corpses of those who had been shot down by the Boers,or of men who had limped away wounded either to die upon the road or tobe killed by their comrades because their case was hopeless. Followingthis black trail of death backwards Ralph rode on, and when he waswithin a hundred yards of the waggons halted his horse to study thescene. He thought that he would never see such another, although, infact, that at the Blood River when we conquered the Zulu king, Dingaan,was even more strange and terrible.
The last crimson rays of the setting sun were flooding the plain withlight. Blood-red they shone upon the spear-torn canvas of the waggonsand upon the stained and trampled veldt. Even the bodies of the Kaffirslooked red as they lay in every shape and attitude; some as though theyslept; some with outstretched arms and spears gripped tight; some withopen mouths as they had died shouting their way-cry. Ralph looked atthem and was thankful that it was not we white people who lay thus,as it might well have been. Then, just as he was turning towards thelaager, he thought that he saw something move in a tussock of thickgrass, and rode towards it. Behind the tussock lay the body of a youngKaffir, not an uncommon sight just there, but Ralph was so sure that hehad seen it move that, stirred by an idle curiosity, he dismounted fromhis horse to examine it. This he did carefully, but the only hurt thathe could see was a flesh wound caused by a slug upon the foot, notserious in any way, but such as might very well prevent a man fromrunning.
"This fellow is shamming dead," he thought to himself, and lifted hisgun, for in those times we could not afford to nurse sick Kaffirs.
Then of a sudden the young man who had seemed to be a corpse rose tohis knees, and, clasping his hands, began to beg for mercy. Insteadof shooting him at once, as most Boers would have done, Ralph, whowas tender-hearted, hesitated and listened while the Kaffir, apleasant-faced lad and young, besought him for his life.
"Why should I spare you," asked Ralph, who understood his talk well,"seeing that, like all the rest of these, you set upon my people tomurder them?"
"Nay, chief," answered the young man, "it is not so. I am no Zulu. Ibelong to another tribe, and was but a slave and a carrier in the armyof Kalipi, for I was taken prisoner and forced to carry mats and foodand water," and he pointed to a bundle and some gourds that lay besidehim.
"It may be so," answered Ralph, "but the dog shares his master's fate."
"Chief," pleaded the man, "spare me. Although it prevented me fromrunning away with the others, my wound is very slight and will be healedin a day or two, and then I will serve you as your slave and be faithfulto you all my life. Spare me and I shall bring you good luck."
"I need that enough," said Ralph, "and I am sure that you are no Zulu,for a Zulu would not stoop to beg for his life thus," and he stoodthinking.
While he thought, Jan, who had seen him from the laager, came up behind.
"What are you doing, son," he asked in an angry voice, "talking to thisblack devil here alone among the dead? Stand aside and let me settle himif you have not the heart," and he lifted his gun.
"No, father," said Ralph, pushing it aside, "this man is not a Zulu; heis but a slave-carrier and he has prayed me to spare his life, swearingthat he will serve me faithfully. Also he says that he brings goodluck."
"Certainly he brought good luck to these," answered Jan, pointing to thescattered dead with his hand, and laughing grimly. "Allemachter! son,you must be mad to play the fool thus, for doubtless the sneakingvillain will murder you the first time your back is turned. Come, standaside and I will finish it."
Now the young man, whose name was Gaasha, seeing that he was about to beshot, threw himself upon the ground, and clasping Ralph round the knees,implored for mercy.
"Save me, Baas," he prayed, "save me, and you will always be glad of it,for I tell you I bring you good luck, I tell you I bring you good luck."
"Father," said Ralph, setting his mouth, "if you kill this Kaffir itwill be a cause of quarrel between us, and we never quarrelled yet."
"Quarrel or no quarrel, he shall die," said Jan in a rage, for hethought it the strangest folly that Ralph should wish to spare a blackman.
At that moment, however, something seemed to strike his mind, for hisface grew puzzled, and he looked about him almost anxiously.
"Where have I seen it before?" he said, as though he were speaking tohimself. "The veldt all red with blood and sunset, the laager behindand the Kaffir with the wounded foot holding Ralph by the knees.Allemachter! I know. It was that day in the _sit-kammer_[*] at the steadyonder, when the little doctoress, Sihamba, made me look into her eyes;yes, yes, I have seen it all in the eyes of Sihamba. Well, let the ladlive, for without a doubt Sihamba did not show me this picture thatshould be for nothing. Moreover, although I am stupid, as your mothersays, I have learned that there are many things in the world which wecannot understand but which play a part in our lives nevertheless."
[*] Sitting room.
So the lad Gaasha was brought to the laager, and upon the prayer of Janand Ralph, the commandant gave him his life, ordering, however, that heshould sleep outside the waggons.
"Well," I said when I heard the tale, "one thing is, that you will neversee him again, for he will be off during the night back to his friendsthe Zulus." But I was wrong, for next morning there was Gaasha, andthere he remained even after his foot was quite well, making the bestKaffir servant that ever I had to do with.
After that day we saw no more of the Zulus at Vetchkop, although laterwith the help of other Boers we attacked them twice, killing more thanfour thousand of them, and capturing six thousand head of cattle, sothat they fled north for good and all, and founded the nation of theMatabele far away.
But oh! our fate was hard there at Vetchkop; never have I known worsedays. The Zulus had taken away all our cattle, so that we could noteven shift the waggons from the scene of the fight, but must camp thereamidst the vultures and the mouldering skeletons, for the dead wereso many that it was impossible to bury them all. We sent messengers toother parties of Boers for help, and while they were gone we starved,for there was no food to eat, and game was very scarce. Yes, it wasa piteous sight to see the children cry for food and gnaw old bits ofleather or strips of hide cut from Kaffir shields to stay the cravingof their stomachs. Some of them died of that hunger, and I grew so thinthat when I chanced to see myself in a pool of water where I went towash I started back frightened.
At length, when we were all nearly dead, some oxen came and with them wedragged a few of the waggons to Moroko, where an English clergymanand his wife, taking pity on us, gave us corn, for which reason I havealways held that among the British the clergymen must be a great dealbetter than the rest of that proud and worthless race, for it is truethat we judge of people as they deal by us. Yes, and I will go so faras to say that I do not believe that the Reverend Mr. Owen, the Englishmissionary at the kraal of the Zulu King Dingaan, did in truth advisehim to massacre Retief and his seventy Boers, as was generally reportedamong my countrymen.
Well, after Moselikatse's Zulus were finally defeated the question arosewhether we should proceed to Zoutpansberg and settle there, or followour brethren who in large numbers had already crossed the QuathlambaMountains into Natal under the leadership of Retief. In the end wedecided for Natal because it was nearer the sea, for in those days wenever dreamed that the treacherous British Government would steal thatland also; so trekking slowly, we headed for Van Reenen's Pass, ourparty then numbering thirty waggons and about sixty white people.
It was when we were about four days trek, or sixty miles, from thepass that one evening, as we sat eating our food, Jan, Ralph, a
nd I--Iremember it was the fried steaks of an eland that Ralph had shot--thelad Gaasha, who had now served us for some six months, came up to thefire, and having saluted Ralph, squatted down before him Kaffir fashion,saying that he had a favour to ask.
"Speak on," said Ralph. "What is it?"
"Baas," replied Gaasha, "it is this; I want a week or ten days leave ofabsence to visit my people."
"You mean that you want to desert," I put in.
"No, lady," answered Gaasha; "you know that I love the Baas who savedmy life far too well ever to wish to leave him. I desire only to see myparents and to tell them that I am happy, for doubtless they think medead. The Baas proposes to cross into Natal by Van Reenen's Pass, doeshe not? Well, not so very far from my home, although none would guessit unless he knew the way, is another pass called Oliver's Hook, andby that pass, after I have spoken with my father and my mother if theystill live, I would cross the Quathlamba, finding the Baas again on thefurther side of the mountains, as I can easily do."
"I think that I will let you go as I can trust you, Gaasha," said Ralph,"but tell me the name of your home, that I may know where to send toseek you if you should not come back as you promise."
"Have I not said that I will come back, Baas, unless the lions or theZulus should eat me on the way? But the name of the house of my tribe isUmpondwana. It is only a little tribe, for the Zulus killed many of usin the time of Chaka, but their house is a very fine house."
"What does Umpondwana mean?" asked Ralph idly as he lit his pipe.
"It means the Mountain of the Man's Hand, Baas."
Ralph let his pipe fall to the ground, and I saw his face turn whitebeneath the sunburn, while of a sudden his grey eyes looked as thoughthey were about to leap from their sockets.
"Why is it called the Mountain of the Man's Hand?" he asked in a hollowvoice. "Speak quick now, and do not lie to me."
Gaasha looked up at him astonished. "How should I know, Baas, when theplace was named so before I was born, and none have told me? But I thinkthat it may be because upon one of the slopes of the mountain, which hasgreat cliffs of red rock, are five ridges, which, seen from the plainbelow, look like the four fingers and thumb of a man. Also the placehas another name, which means 'where the water springs out of the rock,'because from between two of the ridges, those that are like the thumband first finger, flows a stream which comes from the heart of themountain."
"On which side of the mountain are the ridges and the stream?" askedRalph in the same unnatural voice.
"Baas, when the sun rises it strikes on them."
Now Ralph swung to and fro like a drunken man, and had I not put my armabout him I believe that he would have fallen.
"It is the mountain of my vision," he gasped.
"Be not foolish," I answered, for I feared lest when he found thatall this strange resemblance was a chance, the bitterness of hisdisappointment might overwhelm him. "Be not foolish, son; are there notmany hills in this great land with ridges on their flanks, and streamsof water running down them?"
Then, as Ralph seemed unable to answer me, I asked of Gaasha:
"Who is the chief of this tribe of yours?"
"He is named Koraanu," he answered, "if he still lives, but a man I metsome months ago told me that he has been dead these two years, and thatshe who used to rule us when I was a little child had come back fromthe lands whither she had wandered, and is now _Inkoosikaas_ of theUmpondwana."
"What is the name of this chieftainess?" I asked in the midst of a greatsilence.
Gaasha answered at once; that is, after he had taken a pinch of snuff,but to us it seemed a year before the words crossed his lips.
"Her name, lady," and he sneezed, "is"--and he sneezed again, rockinghimself to and fro. Then slowly wiping away the tears which the snuffhad brought to his eyes with the back of his hand he said, "Ow! this isthe best of snuff, and I thank the Baas for giving it to me."
"Answer," roared Jan, speaking for the first time, and in such a fiercevoice that Gaasha sprang to his feet and began to run away.
"Come back, Gaasha, come back," I called, and he came doubtfully, forGaasha was not very brave, and ever since he had wished to shoot him hetrembled even at the sight of Jan. "Be silent, you fool," I whispered tothe latter as the lad drew near, then said aloud, "Now, Gaasha."
"Lady," he answered, "it is indeed as I have told you; the Baas gave methe snuff a long time ago; he took it out of the ear-boxes of the deadmen at Vetchkop. He gave it to me. I did not steal it. He will say sohimself."
"Never mind the snuff, Gaasha," I said in a voice half-choked with doubtand anxiety, for the sight of Ralph's piteous face and the strangenessof it all were fast overwhelming me, "but tell us what is the name ofthis chieftainess whom you have heard is now the ruler of your tribe?"
"Her name, lady," he answered, much relieved, "why it is well known, forthough she is small, it is said that she is the best of doctoresses andrain-makers."
Now Jan could no longer be restrained, for stretching out his great handhe gripped Gaasha by the throat, saying:
"Accursed _swartzel_, if you do not tell us the name at once I will killyou."
"Madman," I exclaimed, "how can the lad speak while you are chokinghim?"
Then Jan shifted his grip and Gaasha began to cry for pity.
"The name, the name," said Jan.
"Why should I hide it? Have I not told it? Baas, it is _SihambaNgenyanga_."
As the words passed his lips Jan let go of him so suddenly that Gaashafell to the ground and sat there staring at us, for without doubt hethought that we had all gone mad.
Jan looked up to the skies and said, "Almighty, I thank Thee, Who canstmake dreams to fly to the heart of a man as a night-bird to its nestthrough the darkness, and Who, because of what I saw in the eyes ofSihamba, didst turn aside my gun when it was pointed at the breast ofthis Kaffir."
Then he looked at Ralph, and was quiet, for Ralph had swooned away.