We had reached the bush after six hours' downhill trek over a pretty bad

track made by cattle--of course, there were no roads in Zululand at this

date. I remember the place well. It was a kind of spreading woodland

on a flat bottom, where trees of no great size grew sparsely. Some were

mimosa thorns, others had deep green leaves and bore a kind of plum with

an acid taste and a huge stone, and others silver-coloured leaves in

their season. A river, too, low at this time of the year, wound through

it, and in the scrub upon its banks were many guinea-fowl and other

birds. It was a pleasing, lonely place, with lots of game in it, that

came here in the winter to eat the grass, which was lacking on the

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higher veld. Also it gave the idea of vastness, since wherever one

looked there was nothing to be seen except a sea of trees.

Well, we outspanned by the river, of which I forget the name, at a spot

that Saduko showed us, and set to work to cook our food, that consisted

of venison from a blue wildebeest, one of a herd of these wild-looking

animals which I had been fortunate enough to shoot as they whisked past

us, gambolling in and out between the trees.

While we were eating I observed that armed Zulus arrived continually in

parties of from six to a score of men, and as they arrived lifted their

spears, though whether in salutation to Saduko or to myself I did

not know, and sat themselves down on an open space between us and the

river-bank. Although it was difficult to say whence they came, for

they appeared like ghosts out of the bush, I thought it well to take no

notice of them, since I guessed that their coming was prearranged.

"Who are they?" I whispered to Scowl, as he brought me my tot of

"squareface."

"Saduko's wild men," he answered in the same low voice, "outlaws of his

tribe who live among the rocks."

Now I scanned them sideways, while pretending to light my pipe and so

forth, and certainly they seemed a remarkably savage set of people.

Great, gaunt fellows with tangled hair, who wore tattered skins upon

their shoulders and seemed to have no possessions save some snuff, a few

sleeping-mats, and an ample supply of large fighting shields, hardwood

kerries or knob-sticks, and broad ixwas, or stabbing assegais. Such

was the look of them as they sat round us in silent semicircles, like

aas-võgels--as the Dutch call vultures--sit round a dying ox.

Still I smoked on and took no notice.

At length, as I expected, Saduko grew weary of my silence and spoke.

"These are men of the Amangwane tribe, Macumazahn; three hundred of

them, all that Bangu left alive, for when their fathers were killed,

the women escaped with some of the children, especially those of the

outlying kraals. I have gathered them to be revenged upon Bangu, I who

am their chief by right of blood."




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