Chapter Four.
The Tyay’igama Dance.
“Hardly had the word left Gungana’s lips than I was up and away. No thought of the witch-doctor was in my mind as I sped over the ground in that long, even trot which I could keep up for days, and eventually overtake a horse which had started at the same time. Of cuts and stabs many were upon me, and I was red and hideous with blood, flowing or dried. But this mattered less than nothing, and I laughed loud and joyously as I coursed along to be the first to bear to the King the news he most loved to hear. Of a truth, the old isanusi I had saved from death—if, indeed, I had saved him from death—had gone clean out of my mind. Yet, if I had but known it, that day was to my life what the bent rods are to the roof of a hut.
“Soon I found myself in the midst of the great dust-cloud we had seen, and behind it came herds of cattle spreading over the plain, tended by women and boys of all ages. These were the herds which we had brought out from Zululand, increased by those we had taken from the tribes on our way, and which we were carrying with us to the land where we should be commanded to settle.
“‘Make way!’ I shouted. ‘Make way for the “ears of the King”!’
“Then the women shrieked with excitement, and the boys, rushing in among the cattle with shrill whoops, scattered them out of my way; for the path of the King’s messenger must be straight, and woe to whosoever shall obstruct it. The bellowing and trampling of the cattle mingled with the shouts and cries as I dashed straight on. Then I heard a voice say:—
“‘Yau! It is Untúswa! Is he not a man? Is he not a warrior indeed, covered with blood and wounds, and carrying the King’s “word”? Look at him, Sitele!’
“I knew the voice, still I could not refrain from turning my head ever so slightly as I ran. Close to my path I beheld Nangeza, looking so tall and fine and straight, standing there with her little sister. Whau, Nkose! I would have gone against those Basutu kraals again single-handed to have been allowed to tunga with her for a wife.
“Then came another cloud of dust, and the steady tramp of marching feet, and the hum of deep-toned voices; then a wavy shimmer of spear-points, like the sunshine on the blue sea. Spread out over the plain in four dense black columns the regiments marched, and as I, looking neither to the right nor to the left, sped between these, the confused wonder which had greeted my first appearance was succeeded by a dead expectant silence.
“Umzilikazi was riding on horseback near the rear of the army, surrounded by a group of indunas, among whom was my father. A circle of izanusi, clad in cow-tails and entrails and all the hideous paraphernalia of their order, preceded the King, dancing and waving green boughs as they chanted his praises, and the swift and sudden destruction which even then was falling upon his enemies. As I drew near the doctors scattered out of my path like a lot of frightened jackals, for even they must give way before him who bears the King’s message. Casting my shield and assegais to the ground where their circle had been—for no man may approach armed to have speech with the King—I advanced ten paces nearer, and, halting, raised my right hand and shouted a sonorous Bayéte! Then I prostrated myself to the earth.
“‘Rise, son of Ntelani,’ said the King, as soon as the thunder of the salute royal, which had been immediately caught up and re-echoed by the whole army, had ceased. ‘Rise, and speak thy word.’
“‘Those against whom we went forth are removed from the path of the King!’ I cried out in a loud voice. ‘The smoke of their dwellings is rising to the heavens yonder. The path of the King is straight!’
“An immense chorus of bonga went up from the army when I had spoken. All were eager to arrive at the scene of the victory. Then the King bade me withdraw, which I was not sorry to do, for I was tired and fasting.
“You may have observed, Nkose, that my news was of victory alone; that no questions were asked as to our losses, who had been killed or who had not. It is not the custom of us Zulus, on these occasions, to mix up good and ill news. It was sufficient that the King’s enemies were stamped out. The relatives of the slain could hold ceremonies of mourning afterwards if they wished, but that was a private undertaking. Wherefore I only announced to the ears of the nation at large that we were victorious.
“And then, as we drew near to the scene of our fierce and bloody conflict, what remained of the impi which had gone out against the Basutu kraals drew near to hail the King. It had gone out a full regiment—as we were in those days about fifteen hundred men—but little more than half were left alive; for, as I have said, the Basutu were numerous, and had fought bravely. Still, as our warriors advanced in a column with waving plumes, and beating time with shield and assegai to the thunder of a mighty war-song, and the marks of the recent battle upon them, my heart swelled within me as I thought that I had borne a man’s part that day with these.
“‘Go forward, Untúswa,’ said the King, who had caught sight of me in the ranks. ‘Go forward and join the fighters, you who have fought so well this day. Your place is among them.’
“I thundered out the royal praises, and darted forth to meet those who were approaching; and falling into my place, we advanced, singing:
“‘Hail, King, Father of a new nation!
We, thy children, have smoothed a way before thee.
Thine enemies - where are they?
Their dwellings - where are they?
As the smoke which climbeth to heaven
their might is broken and shattered.
Might? Ha! ha! No might had these;
like blades of the grass when trampled,
Down went their bravest before the might of the Elephant,
Beneath the foot of the Elephant, whose tread shaketh the world.
Hail, King! Father! the chief and the maker of nations!’
“Thus sang the warriors, their voices roaring like the thunder of the heavens. Then, having prostrated ourselves, we rose, and wheeling up we fell into rank before the whole army escorting the King, and the march was continued until we were some distance beyond the smoking ruins of the Basutu kraals, for we might not halt upon the site of the battle, lest those who had borne no part in shedding it might be denied by the blood that had flowed. Here our vast camp was pitched, and by the light of hundreds of fires we who had fought, having gone through the ceremony of purification at the hands of the izanusi, were paraded before the King in full war array, and such of us as could establish a claim were allowed to perform the Tyay’igama, or the ‘calling by name,’ dance.
“This custom, you must know, Nkose, is one which consists of warriors who have performed deeds of distinction during the recent battle being pointed at by their commanders and called forward out of the ranks to dance before the King, while narrating their claims to notice for especial valour—who they have killed and how it has been done. They dance and leap with a quickness and to a height that would astonish you white people, springing from the earth more than their own height in the air, clashing their shields with both feet while leaping, and so on—the while telling of their deeds. It is arranged with the indunas in command as to who shall be allowed so to claim notice, and Gungana had readily accorded me a first place.
“Ha! that night! It was a sight to live in a man’s memory. By the red light of a thousand huge fires there was assembled the whole might of a nation, of a new nation, of a nation of warriors. The King sat in the midst of his indunas, an open space before him. On either side stretched a monster crescent of armed men, the glint of their spears, the sheen of their great hide shields, flickering in the wavy glow. Up the middle of this space our impi advanced, singing a battle-song, even the war-song of Umzilikazi:
“‘Yaingahlabi leyo’nkunzi!
Yai ukúfa!’
(That bull did not gore! It was death!—meaning “That bull did gore,” but in the most deadly manner.)
“Then, halting before the King, we shouted the Bayéte, and falling back, left a space for those who were to perform in the dance.
“They came out one by one, each, as he paused to take breath after recounting his deeds, being greeted by a roar of applause from the throats of the surrounding warriors. Then my turn came.
“I know not how it was, Nkose, unless it were the thoughtless rashness of youth, which has caused me to do many foolish and fatal things, but which has also carried me unscathed through their fearful consequences; but when I found myself thus, with a free hand, I forgot all prudence and diplomacy.
“Bounding forward in all my bravery of war, in my jackals’ tails and cowhair, with a great plume of cranes’ feathers streaming from my head, rapping my great shield against my knees, I leaped high in the air about ten times, each time spinning completely round before touching ground again. The roaring ‘Ha! ha!’ with which the whole multitude greeted this display completely intoxicated me. I felt as mad, as drunk, as though I had partaken of the white man’s tywala. With my eyes blazing from my head, I cried aloud the whole story of our attack upon the kraal. Not a word said I of having been Gungana’s left hand, of having carried out the plan which Gungana sent me to carry out. No, of this not a word; instead, I poured forth the whole naked truth—how that Masipele, the head induna, being killed, the impi was on the point of suffering defeat, when I conceived the idea of braving certain death by myself entering the kraal, which the rest were unable to enter, and myself setting it on fire, thus forcing the Basutu into the open and saving the day. I shouted out the number and description of the enemies who had fallen by my hand, and went through the exact performance of how they had met me and how I had slain them; but all the time never a word about Gungana and his generalship. I told no more, no less than the truth, with all my boasting; but, Nkose, he who does this is frequently no more and no less than a very great fool—at least, so it is among ourselves; I know not how it may be among you white people.
“Well, I was carried away by my conceit; partly because, when I leaped in the air, I could see in the background, above and beyond the surrounding regiments, the face and form of my love, Nangeza. She was standing among the women, watching, listening in a perfect ecstasy of admiration and excitement. This was what nerved me to go through a Tyay’igama performance such as, surely, could never have been seen before. I extolled myself and my own deeds as though I were the only man alone in the whole world. The roaring shouts of the warriors rent the night in a frenzy of enthusiasm. The King, I could see, looked upon me approvingly, and I heard him mutter to my father, Ntelani, that he had bred a right good lion-cub indeed. I was drunk with my success. Then, when I had told all my story, as I was the last, the King gave orders for the beef feast to begin and the Tyay’igama dance was at an end.
“The huge joints were hissing and sputtering upon the fires, giving forth a most delicious odour to our hungry nostrils, and as we squatted around waiting until they should be sufficiently cooked, we talked over the events of the day, and congratulated ourselves on having escaped from the rule of Tshaka. For to us younger men there was something intoxicating in this journeying in search of a new land, fighting our way as we went, stamping out tribe after tribe which lay in our path. And Umzilikazi, had he not a free and an open hand? He never stinted his warriors, and after such a battle as that of to-day there was beef and tywala enough and to spare. Yes, it was good to konza to Umzilikazi. Moreover, he rarely caused any of his subjects to be killed; unlike Tshaka, who was wont to keep the slayers pretty busy. Had but another regiment or two joined us, we might have been strong enough to overturn the House of Senzangakona, to have slain Tshaka, and set up Umzilikazi as King in Zululand. Then we need never have started in search of a new country. On such matters, Nkose, did the tongues of us young men wag when among ourselves.
“After the feast, while I was returning to my place in the camp—for we had no huts at that time, moving as we were from day to day—someone came behind me in the darkness, and a man’s voice said:
“‘You are as great in the Tyay’igama dance as in battle, son of Ntelani. And I think you are greater with your tongue than in either.’ I knew the voice as that of Gungana, but its tone—ah! I liked not that.
“‘It is as you say, O my father,’ I answered. ‘But I am a child—and children sometimes talk too much.’
“‘That is so, Untúswa,’ he said. ‘And sometimes a dog thinks himself bigger than his master. The dog runs down and catches the buck, but tell me, umfane, who takes the dog to where he may find the buck?’
“‘His master,’ I answered. ‘But the dog is carried away by the chase, and sometimes linds it difficult to quit the game he has killed.’
“‘Until he is whipped off, Untúswa. And that has to be done sometimes. Ha! Go now and rest, for you must be badly in need of it after all your exertions.’
“Then Gungana left me, and I felt very uneasy. In my foolish egotism I had omitted any reference to him, had claimed all the credit—which, though really my due, I was a fool to insist on—and now the dark meaning of his words, the malice underlying his cold, sneering tones, left me under no sort of doubt that I had made for myself a most dangerous enemy. My attempts at apology had been lame in the extreme. Gungana had seen through them, and they had failed to appease him. And he was a powerful induna, and would certainly succeed to the command of my regiment. Of a truth, Nkose, when I lay down that night, it seemed that my coveted head-ring and the fulfilment of the King’s promise had faded away into the very furthest mists of the never-to-be.