________________________________________________
_ For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile
gone to sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge
misty shapes moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of
long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours rising from their
watery bed to greet the sun. Then the grey turned to primrose,
and the primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars of light
sprang up across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant
messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy way,
scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a
kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to
longitude. Another moment, and the golden gates were open and
the sun himself came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with
pomp and glory and a flashing as of ten million spears, and
embraced the night and covered her with brightness, and it was
day.
But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above,
for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though
the whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool.
By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw
that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which
I could not make out the shore. Some eight or ten miles behind
us, however, there stretched as far as the eye could reach a
range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining wall of the
lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some entrance
in these hills that the subterranean river found its way into the
open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be the
fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary
strength and directness of the current of the mysterious river
that the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering to it.
Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just then,
discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it was.
Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas called
my attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought
the canoe to the spot, whereupon we discovered that the object
was the body of a man floating face downwards. This was bad
enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas having turned him
on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunken
features the lineaments of--whom do you suppose? None other than
our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the
waters of the subterranean river. It quite frightened me. I
thought that we had left him behind for ever, and behold! borne
by the current, he had made the awful journey with us, and with
us had reached the end. His appearance also was dreadful, for he
bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire--one arm being
completely shrivelled up and all his hair being burnt off. The
features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they preserved
upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon his
living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight
unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone
through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly and without any
warning the body began to sink just as though it had had a
mission, which having been accomplished, it retired; the real
reason no doubt being that turning it on its back allowed a free
passage to the gas. Down it went to the transparent
depths--fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at
last a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each
other to the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At
length these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor
servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
'What did he follow us for?' he asked. ''Tis an ill omen for
thee and me, Macumazahn.' And he laughed.
I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant
suggestions. If people have such ideas, they ought in common
decency to keep them to themselves. I detest individuals who
make on the subject of their disagreeable presentiments, or who,
when they dream that they saw one hanged as a common felon, or
some such horror, will insist upon telling one all about it at
breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do it.
Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice
exceedingly at finding that we were out of that dreadful river
and once more beneath the blue sky. Then followed a babel of
talk and suggestions as to what we were to do next, the upshot of
all of which was that, as we were excessively hungry, and had
nothing whatsoever left to eat except a few scraps of biltong
(dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained of our
provisions to those horrible freshwater crabs, we determined to
make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not know
where the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs
through which the subterranean river made its entry, could see
nothing but a wide expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing,
however, that the long flights of aquatic birds kept flying from
our left, we concluded that they were advancing from their
feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the lake, and
accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they came,
and began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze
sprang up, blowing directly in the direction we wanted, so we
improvized a sail with a blanket and the pole, which took us
along merrily. This done, we devoured the remnants of our
biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and then lit our
pipes and awaited whatever might turn up.
When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the
horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he
saw land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour of
the water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a
river. In another minute we perceived a great golden dome, not
unlike that of St Paul's, piercing the morning mists, and while
we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reported
another and still more important discovery, namely, that a small
sailing-boat was advancing towards us. This bit of news, which
we were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threw us
into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this unknown
lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that
they possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more
minutes it became evident that the occupant or occupants of the
advancing boat had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in
the wind as though in doubt, and then came tacking towards us
with great swiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a
hundred yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat--not a
canoe 'dug out', but built more or less in the European fashion
with planks, and carrying a singularly large sail for her size.
But our attention was soon diverted from the boat to her crew,
which consisted of a man and a woman, NEARLY AS WHITE AS
OURSELVES.
We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be
mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not
fair, but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white as
distinguished from a black race, as white, for instance, as
Spaniards or Italians. It was a patent fact. So it was true,
after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, we
had discovered this wonderful people. I could have shouted for
joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing; and
as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on the
unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I heard
rumours of a white race that existed in the highlands of this
vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here
I saw it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir
Henry said, the old Roman was right when he wrote 'Ex Africa
semper aliquid novi', which he tells me means that out of Africa
there always comes some new thing.
The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine
physique, and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline
features, and an intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown
cloth garment, something like a flannel shirt without the
sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of the same material. The
legs and feet were bare. Round the right arm and left leg he
wore thick rings of yellow metal that I judged to be gold. The
woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling
brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the
man's, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a
linen under-garment that hung down to her knee, and then of a
single long strip of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long,
which was wound round the body in graceful folds and finally
flung over the left shoulder so that the end, which was dyed blue
or purple or some other colour, according to the social standing
of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm and breast
being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress,
especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was young and
pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. Good (who has an eye
for such things) was greatly struck with it, and so indeed was I.
It was so simple and yet so effective.
Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man
and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us.
As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder,
and for a while hovered round our canoe, but would not approach.
At last, however, he came within hailing distance, and called to
us in a language that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of
which we could not understand one word. So we hailed back in
English, French, Latin, Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu,
Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I am acquainted
with, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues;
indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she was
busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the
compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a
proceeding that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At
length, the man, being unable to make anything of us, suddenly
turned his boat round and began to head off for the shore, his
little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow. As she
passed across our bows the man turned to attend to the large
sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss his hand to
the young lady. I was horrified at this proceeding, both on
general grounds and because I feared that she might take offence,
but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and
seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was
engaged, she promptly kissed hers back.
'Ah!' said I. 'It seems that we have at last found a language
that the people of this country understand.'
'In which case,' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an invaluable
interpreter.'
I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities, and he
knows it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects.
'It is very clear to me,' I said, 'that the man will be back
before long with a host of his fellows, so we had best make up
our minds as to how we are going to receive them.'
'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir Henry.
As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small
square tin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings
from under a pile of baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with
Good about this tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward
thing to carry, and he had never given any very explicit account
as to its contents; but he had insisted on keeping it, saying
mysteriously that it might come in very useful one day.
'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir Henry.
'Do--why dress, of course! You don't expect me to appear in a
new country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to his
soiled and worn garments, which were however, like all Good's
things, very tidy, and with every tear neatly mended.
We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless
interest. His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly
competent in such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the most
approved fashion. I think that if he had had some hot water and
a cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the latter; but
he had not. This done, he suggested that we should lower the
sail of the canoe and all take a bath, which we did, greatly to
the horror and astonishment of Alphonse, who lifted his hands and
ejaculated that these English were indeed a wonderful people.
Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred Zulus,
scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of
swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild
amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold
water, and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box,
and produced first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had
left a London steam laundry, and then some garments wrapped first
in brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper. We watched
this undoing with the tenderest interest and much speculation.
One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their splendours,
carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he did so;
and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its golden
epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's
full-dress uniform--dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather
boots and all. We literally gasped.
'WHAT!' we said, 'WHAT! Are you going to put those things on?'
'Certainly,' he answered composedly; 'you see so much depends
upon a first impression, especially,' he added, 'as I observe
that there are ladies about. One at least of us ought to be
decently dressed.'
We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we
considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the
contents of that box for all these months. Only one suggestion
did we make--namely, that he should wear his mail shirt next his
skin. He replied that he feared it would spoil the set of his
coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the creases out,
but finally consented to this precautionary measure. The most
amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old Umslopogaas's
astonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's transformation.
When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to the
medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still
waters of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in
ancient history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in
love with his own shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain
his feelings.
'Oh, Bougwan!' he said. 'Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee an
ugly little man, and fat--fat as the cows at calving time; and
now thou art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out.
Surely, Bougwan, it hurts my eyes to look at thee.'
Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell
the truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had
brought him down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased at
Umslopogaas's admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite
delighted.
'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air--the air of the warrior.
It is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore.
Monsieur is complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand--'
Here we stopped Alphonse.
As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of
emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves
up as well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to
do was to array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes,
of which we each had several, all the fine clothes in the world
could never make it otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but
Sir Henry looked what he is, a magnificent man in his nearly new
tweed suit, gaiters, and boots. Alphonse also got himself up to
kill, giving an extra turn to his enormous moustaches. Even old
Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way given to the vain
adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern and a bit
of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone like
Good's patent leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir
Henry had given him and his 'moocha', and, having cleaned up
Inkosi-kaas a little, stood forth complete.
All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had
finished bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land,
or, rather, for the mouth of a great river. Presently--in all
about an hour and a half after the little boat had left us--we
saw emerging from the river or harbour a large number of boats,
ranging up to ten or twelve tons burden. One of these was
propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the rest sailed.
Looking through the glass we soon made out that the row-boat was
an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of
uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of
venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword
strapped to his side, who was evidently the commander of the
craft. The other boats were apparently occupied by people
brought out by curiosity, and were rowing or sailing towards us
as quickly as they could.
'Now for it,' said I. 'What is the betting? Are they going to
be friendly or to put an end to us?'
Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike
appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little
anxious.
Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about
two hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a
bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power by
shooting some of them if possible. This, unluckily enough,
struck us as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out our
eight-bore rifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left,
and prepared for action. There were four of the animals, a big
bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three parts grown. We got
up to them without difficulty, the great animals contenting
themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again a
few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me
as being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five
hundred yards away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the
three parts grown young one. The heavy bullet struck it fair
between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull, killed it, and
it sank, leaving a long train of blood behind it. At the same
moment I fired at the cow, and Good at the old bull. My shot
took effect, but not fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with
a prodigious splashing, only to rise again presently blowing and
grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round her crimson, when
I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who is an execrable
shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely
cutting the side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after
I had fired my second shot, I perceived that the people we had
fallen among were evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms,
for the consternation caused by our shots and their effect upon
the animals was prodigious. Some of the parties in the boats
began to cry out in fear; others turned and made off as hard as
they could; and even the old gentleman with the sword looked
greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted his big row-boat. We
had, however, but little time for observation, for just then the
old bull, rendered furious by the wound he had received, rose
fair within forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired,
and hit him in various places, and down he went. We all fired,
and hit him in various places, and down he went, badly wounded.
Curiosity now began to overcome the fear of the onlookers, and
some of them sailed on up close to us, amongst these being the
man and woman whom we had first seen a couple of hours or so
before, who drew up almost alongside. Just then the great brute
rose again within ten yards of their base, and instantly with a
roar of fury made at it open-mouthed. The woman shrieked, and
the man tried to give the boat way, but without success. In
another second I saw the huge red jaws and gleaming ivories close
with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous mouthful out
of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its
occupants struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could
do anything towards saving them, the huge and furious creature
was up again and making open-mouthed at the poor girl, who was
struggling in the water. Lifting my rifle just as the grinding
jaws were about to close on her, I fired over her head right down
the hippopotamus's throat. Over he went, and commenced turning
round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of blood
through his nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however,
I let him have the other barrel in the side of the throat, and
that finished him. He never moved or struggled again, but
instantly sank. Our next effort was directed towards saving the
girl, the man having swum off towards another boat; and in this
we were fortunately successful, pulling her into the canoe
(amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably exhausted and
frightened, but otherwise unhurt.
Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and we
could see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened,
were consulting what to do. Without giving them time for further
consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to
ourselves, we instantly took our paddles and advanced towards
them, Good standing in the bow and taking off his cocked hat
politely in ever direction, his amiable features suffused by a
bland but intelligent smile. Most of the craft retreated as we
advanced, but a few held their ground, while the big row-boat
came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and I could see
that our appearance--and especially Good's and
Umslopogaas's--filled the venerable-looking commander with
astonishment, not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the
same fashion as the man we first met, except that his shirt was
not made of brown cloth, but of pure white linen hemmed with
purple. The kilt, however, was identical, and so were the thick
rings of gold around the arm and beneath the left knee. The
rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist.
Good took off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra
flourish, and inquired after his health in the purest English, to
which he replied by laying the first two fingers of his right
hand horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a
moment, which we took as his method of salutation. Then he also
addressed some remarks to us in the same soft accents that had
distinguished our first interviewer, which we were forced to
indicate we did not understand by shaking our heads and shrugging
our shoulders. This last Alphonse, being to the manner born, did
to perfection, and in so polite a way that nobody could take any
offence. Then we came a standstill, till I, being exceedingly
hungry, thought I might as well call attention to the fact, and
did so first by opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then
rubbing my stomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly
understood, for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed
towards the harbour; and at the same time one of the men on his
boat threw us a line and motioned to us to make it fast, which we
did. The row-boat then took us in tow, and went with great
rapidity towards the mouth of the river, accompanied by all the
other boats. In about twenty minutes more we reached the
entrance to the harbour, which was crowded with boats full of
people who had come out to see us. We observed that all the
occupants were more or less of the same type, though some were
fairer than others. Indeed, we noticed certain ladies whose skin
was of a most dazzling whiteness; and the darkest shade of colour
which we saw was about that of a rather swarthy Spaniard.
Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did so an
exclamation of astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we
caught our first view of the place that we afterwards knew as
Milosis, or the Frowning City (from mi, which means city, and
losis, a frown).
At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bank
rose a sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in
height, which had no doubt once formed the bank itself--the
intermediate space of land now utilized as docks and roadways
having been gained by draining, and deepening and embanking the
stream.
On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same
granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square,
the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced
at its base by a little door. This imposing place we afterwards
discovered was the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens.
At the back of the palace the town sloped gently upwards to a
flashing building of white marble, crowned by the golden dome
which we had already observed. The city was, with the exception
of this one building, entirely built of red granite, and laid out
in regular blocks with splendid roadways between. So far as we
could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached, with
gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye wearied
with the vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a road
of extraordinary width stretched away up the hill for a distance
of a mile and a half or so, and appeared to terminate at an open
space surrounding the gleaming building that crowned the hill.
But right in front of us was the wonder and glory of Milosis--the
great staircase of the palace, the magnificence of which took our
breath away. Let the reader imagine, if he can, a splendid
stairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to balustrade,
consisting of two vast flights, each of one hundred and
twenty-five steps of eight inches in height by three feet broad,
connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and
running from the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to
meet a waterway or canal cut to its foot from the river. This
marvellous staircase was supported upon a single enormous granite
arch, of which the resting-place between the two flights formed
the crown; that is, the connecting open space lay upon it. From
this archway sprang a subsidiary flying arch, or rather something
that resembled a flying arch in shape, such as none of us had
seen in any other country, and of which the beauty and wonder
surpassed all that we had ever imagined. Three hundred feet from
point to point, and no less than five hundred and fifty round the
curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for
a space of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the
parent archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of
the side of the precipice.
This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which any
living man might have been proud, both on account of its
magnitude and its surpassing beauty. Four times, as we
afterwards learnt, did the work, which was commenced in remote
antiquity, fail, and was then abandoned for three centuries when
half-finished, till at last there rose a youthful engineer named
Rademas, who said that he would complete it successfully, and
staked his life upon it. If he failed he was to be hurled from
the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded, he was
to be rewarded by the hand of the king's daughter. Five years
was given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of
labour and material. Three times did his arch fall, till at
last, seeing failure to be inevitable, he determined to commit
suicide on the morrow of the third collapse. That night,
however, a beautiful woman came to him in a dream and touched his
forehead, and of a sudden he saw a vision of the completed work,
and saw too through the masonry and how the difficulties
connected with the flying arch that had hitherto baffled his
genius were to be overcome. Then he awoke and once more
commenced the work, but on a different plan, and behold! he
achieved it, and on the last day of the five years he led the
princess his bride up the stair and into the palace. And in due
course he became king by right of his wife, and founded the
present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this day called the 'House
of the Stairway', thus proving once more how energy and talent
are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And to commemorate
his triumph he fashioned a statue of himself dreaming, and of the
fair woman who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in the
great hall of the palace, and there it stands to this day.
Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond.
No wonder they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly those
mighty works in solid granite did seem to frown down upon our
littleness in their sombre splendour. This was so even in the
sunshine, but when the storm-clouds gathered on her imperial brow
Milosis looked more like a supernatural dwelling-place, or some
imagining of a poet's brain, than what she is--a mortal city,
carven by the patient genius of generations out of the red
silence of the mountain side. _
Read next: CHAPTER XII - THE SISTER QUEENS
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