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Maiwa's Revenge

Maiwa's Revenge image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
October
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

- m roe center of the cave and with either end secural to the floor by strong stakes, was a huge doublé springed lion trap fringed with sharp and grinning teeth. It was set, and beyond the trap, indeed almost over it, a terrible struggle was in progress. A naked, or almost naked white man, with a great beard Imnging down over bis breast, was, in spite of his furious struggles, being slowly forced and dragged toward the trap by six or eight women. Only one man was present, a fat, cruel looking man, with small eyes and a hanging lip. It was the chief Wambi , and he stook by the trap ready to f orce the victim down upon it as soon as the women had dragged hira into the necessary position. "At this instant they caught sight of us, and there was a moment's pause; and then, before I knew what she was going to do, Maiwa lif ted the assegai she still held, and whirled it at Wambe's head. I saw th flash of light speed towards him, and so did he, forhestepped backward to avoid i t- ped backvvard right into the trap. He yelled with pain as the iron teeth of the Thing that bites' sprang up like living things and fasteued into him- such a yell I have not often heard. Now, at last, he tasted of the torture whieh he had inflicted upon so many, and though I trust X am a Christian, I cannot say that I feit sorry for hitn. "The assegai sped on and struck one of the ■woman vvho had hold of the unfortunate Every, piercinf; through her arm. This made her leave go- an example that the other women quickly followed, so that Every feil to the ground, where he lay gasping. " 'Kill the witehesl' roared Nala, in a voice of thunder, pointing to a group of women. " 'Nay,' gasped Every; 'spare them. He made them do it.' And he pointed to the human Ceml in the trap. Then Maiwa waved her hand to us to fall back, for U6 moment of her vengeance was come. We did s , and she strode up to her lord, and, flinging the white robe from her, stood before him, her fierce, beautiful face fixed like stone. " 'Who am I?' she cried, in so terrible a voice that he ceased hi3 yells. 'Am I that woman who was given to thee for wife, and whoso child thou slewest? Or am I a spirit come to see thee die ? What is this Í' she went on, drawiiiR tho withered baby hand from the pouoh at her side. 'Is it the hand of a babe, and how came that hand to be thus alone? What cut it off from tho babe, and where is the babe? Is it a hand, or is it the vision of a hand that shall presently toar thy throat? Where are thy soldiers, Wambe? Do they sleep, and eat, and go forth to do thy bidding, or are they perchance dead and seattered hke the winter leavesi' "He groaned, and the fierce eyed woman went on: 'Art thou still a chief, Wambe! or does another take tby town and power; and, say, lord, what dost thou there, and what is that slave's ieglet upon thy knee? Is it a dream, VVainbe, great lord and chief, or'- and she lifted her clinched hands and shook them in his face- 'hath a woinauVvengeance found thee out, and a woman's wit overmatched i hy ty rannous strength Í and art thou about to slowly die in tormenta horrible to think on, oh, thou accursed murderer of little children?' and with one wild soream she dashed the dead hand of the child straight into his face, and then feil senseless on the floor. As for the demon in the trap, he 8hrank back as far as its iron bounds would allow, his eyes starting out of his head with pain and terror, and then once more began to yell. "The whole scène was more than I could stand. " 'Nala,' I said, 'this must not go on. That man is a fiend, but he must not be lef t to die there. See thou to it.' " 'Nay,' answered Nala, 'let him taste pf the food wherewith he hath fed so many; leave him CÜ1 death shall find him.' " 'That -will I r.ot,' I answered. 'Let his end be sw-.ft. See thou to it.' " 'As tl m wilt, Macumazahn,' answered the chief , with a shrug of the shoulders. 'First, let the white man and Maiwa be brought forth.' "So the soldiere came forward and carried Every and tho woman into the open air. As the f ormer was borne past nis tormentor the fallen chief, so cowardly was his wicked heart, actually prayed him to intercede for him and save him frora a fate which, but for our providential appearance, would have been Every's own. "So we went away, and in another moment one of the biugest villains on the earth troubled it no more. Once in the fresh air, Every quickly recovered. I looked at him, and horror and sorrow pierced me through to see such a sight. His face was the face of a man of 60, though he was not yet 40, and his poor body was cut to pieces with stripes and scars, and other marks of the torments which Wambe had for years amused himself with inflicting on him. "As soon as he recovered himself a little he struggled on to nis knees, burst into a paroxysm of weeping, and. clasping my legs with his emaciated arms, would have actually kissed my feet. " 'VVhat are you about, old fellow? I said, f or I am not accustonied to that sort of thing, and it made me feel uncomfortable. " 'Oh, God bless youl' he moaned - 'Goc bless you ! If only you knew what I have gone through. And to think that you should have come to help me, and at the risk of your o wn lif e I Well, you were al ways a true friend- yes, yes, a true friend.' " 'Bosh!' I answered, testily; "Pm a trader, and I carne after that ivory,' and I pointed to the stockade of tusks. 'Did you ever hear of an elephant hunter who would not have risked his immortal soul for them, and mueh more his careass?' "But he took no noticeof my explanations, and went on God-blessing me as hard as ever, till at last I bethought me tliEO a nip of brandy, of which I had a flask full, might steady his nerves a bit. I gave it him, and was not disappointed in the result, for he brisked up wonderfully Then I hunted about in Wambe's hut, and f ound a kaross for him to put over his poor bruised shoulders, and he was quite a man again. " 'Now,' I said, 'why did the lato lamentad Wambe want toput you in that trap!' " 'Because, as soon as they heard that the fight was going against them and that Haiwa was charging at the head of Nala's impi, one of the women told Wambe that she had seen me write something on some leares and give them to Maiwa before she went away to purify herself. Then, of course, he guessed that I had had something to do with your seiziner the koppie and holding it while the impi rushed the place f rom the mountain, so he determined to torture me to death be f ore help could come. Oh, heavensl what a mercy it is to hear English againl' " 'How long have you been a prisoner here, Every?' I asked. " 'Six years and a bit, Quat-rmain; I have lost count of the odd months Utely. I came up here with Maj. Aldey and three other gentlemen and forty bearers. That devil Wambe ambushed us, and murdered the lot to get their guns. They weren't much use to him when he got them, being breech loaders, for the f ools fired away all the ammunition in amonth or two. Howevey, they are all in good order, and hanging up in the hut there. They didn't kill me because one of them saw me mending a gun just before they attacked us, so tbey kept me as a kind of armorer. Twice I tried to make a bolt of it, but was caught each time. Last time Wambe had me flogged very nearly to death; you can see the scars upou my back. Indeed, I should have died if it hadn't been for the girl Mai wa, whonursed me by stealth. He got that aecursed lion trap among our things also, and I suppose he has tortured between one and two hundred people to death in it. It was bis favorito amusement, and he would go every day and sit and watch his victim till he died. Sometimes he would give him food and water to keep him alive longer, telling him or her that he would let him go if he lived till a certain day. But he never did let them go. They all died tíere, and I could show you their bones behind that rock.' " 'The devil 1' I said, grinding my teeth. 'I wish I hadn't interfered. I wish I had left him to the same fate.1 " 'Well, he got a taste of it, anyway,' said Every. 'I'm glad he got a taste. There'a justice in it, and now he's gone to hell, and I ' ope there is another one ready f or him there. y Jo ve! I should like to have the setting "Ánd so he talked on, and I sat and listened to him, wondering how he had kept his reason for so many years. But he didn't talk, as I have written it, in good English. He spoke very slowly, and as though he had got something in his mouth, continually using nativo vvords, because the English ones had slipped his memory. "At last Nala carne up and told us that food was made ready, and thankful enough we were to get it, I can tell you. After we had eaten we held a consultation. Quite a thousand of Wambe's soldiers were put hors de combat, but at least two thousand remained bidden in the bush and rock, and these men, together with those in the outlying kraals, wom n sonrpe of cossible daneer. The tion aróse, therefore, what was to be done; were they to be followed or left alone? I waited till everybody had spoken, some giviug one opinión and some another, and then, beTng appealed to, I gare mine. It was to the effect that Nala should take a leaf out of the great Zulú T'Chaka's book, and incorpórate the tribe, not destroy it. We had a good many women among the prisoners. Let them, I suggested, be sent to the hiding places of the soldiers and make an offer, lf the men would como and lay down their arms and declare their allegiance to Nala, they and their town and cattle should be spared. Wambe's cattle alone would be seized as tho prize of war. Moreover, Wambe having left no children, bis wife, Maiwa, should bo declared chieftainess of the tribe, under Nala. If they did not accept this offer by the morning of the second day, it should bo taken as a declaration that" they wished to continue the war. Their town should be burned, their cattle, which our uien were already collecting and driving in in great numbers, would be Uken, and they should be hunted down. "This advice was at once declared to be wiseand acted on. The women were dispatched, and I saw from their faces that they never expected to get such terins, and did not think that their mission would be in vain. Neverthelcsá we spent that afteruoon in preparations against possible surprise, and also in collectiug all the wounded of both partiesinto a hospital which we zed out of some huts, and there attending to j them as best we could. ïhat evening poor Svery had the first pipe of tobáceo that he asted for six years. Poorfellow! henearly cried with joy over it. The nlght passed without any sign of attack, and on the folowing morning we began to see the efifect of our message, for women, childrèn, and a "ew men carne in in little knots, and took possession of their huts. It was, of course, rather difflcult to prevent our men from looting, and generally going on as natives, and, Eor the matter of that, white men too, are in the habit of doing after a victory. But one man, who, after warning, was caught maltreating a woman, was brought out and killed by Nala's order, and though thero was a little grumbling, that put a stop to f urther trouble. "On the second morning the headmen and numbers of their f ollowers came in in groups, and about midday a deputation of theformer presented themselves before us without their weapons. They were conquered, they said, and Wambe was dead, so they carne to hear the words of the great lion who had eaten them up, and of the crafty white man, the jackal who had dug a hole for them tof all in, and of Maiwa, Lady of War, who had led the charge and turned the fate of the battle. "So we let them hear the words; and when we had done, an oíd man rose and said that in the name of the people he accepted the yoke that was laid upon their shoulders, and that the more gladly because even the rule of a woman could not be worse than the rule of Wambe. Moreover, they knew Maiwa, the Lady of War, and fearedher not, though she was a witch, and terrible to see in battle. "Then Nala asked his daughter if she was willing to become chieftainess of the tribe under him. "Maiwa, who had been very silent since ner revenge was accomplished, answered yes, that she was, and that her rule should be good and gentle to those who were good and gentle to her, but the forward and rebellious she would smite with a rod of iron, which, from my knowledge of her character, 1 thought exceedingly probable. "The headmen replied that that was a good saying, and they did not complain of it, and so the meeting ended. "Next day we spent in preparations for departure. Mine consisted in chiefly superintending the digging up of the stockadeof ivorytusks, which I did with the greatest satisfaction. There were some five hundred of them altogether. I made inquiries about it f rom Every, who told me that the stockade had been there so long that nobody seemed to exactly know who had originally collected the tusks. There was, however, a kind of superstitious feeling about them, wbich had always prevented the chiefs from tryingto sell this great massof ivory. Every and I examined it carefully, and found that although it was so old, its quality was really as good as ever, and there was very little soft ivory in the lot. At ürst I was rather afraid lest now that my services had been rendered, Nala should hesitate to part with so mueh valuable property ; tut this was not the case. When I spoke to him on the subject ha merely said, 'Take it, Macumazahn, take it- you have earned it well.' And to speak the truth, though I say it who shouldn't, I think I had. So we pressed several hundred Matuku bearers into our service, and next day marched off with the'lot. "Before we went I took a formal farewell of Maiwa, whom we left with a bodyguard nf ñnf) men to assist her in settling the country. She gave me her hand to kiss in a queenly sort of way, and then said: 'Macumazahn, you are a brave man, and have been a good f riend to me in my need. If ever you want help or shelter, rememberthat Maiwa has a good memory for f riend and foe. All I have is yours.' "And so 1 thanked her, and went. She certainly was a very remarkable woman. A year or two ago I heard that her father Nala was dead, aüd that she had succeeded to the chief taiiiship of both tribes, which sho ruled with great justice and firmness. "I can assure you that we ascended the pass leading to Wambe's town with feelings very different from those with which we had descended it a few days before. But it I was gratef ui for the issue of events, you can easily imagine what poor Every's feelings were. When we got to the top of the pass he actually, before the whole impi, flopped down upon his knees and thanked Heaven for his escape with the tears running down his face. But then, as I have said, his nerve9 were shaken ; tnougn, now iuhi. w beard was trimmed and he had got some sori of clothes on his back and hope in his heart, he looked a very different man from the poor wretch whom we had rescued from death by tortura " Well, we separated from Nala at the little stairway or pass over the mountain, Every and I and the ivory going down the river which we had come up a few weeks before, and the chief returning to his own kraal on the farther side of the mountain. He gave us an escort of 150 men, however, with instructions to accompany us for eix. days' journey and keep the Matuku bearers in order and then return. I knew that in six days we would be able to reach a district where porters were plentiful and whence we could easily get the ivory conveyed to Delagoa bay." "And did you land it up safe?" I asked. "Well, no," said Quatermain; "we lost abouta third of it in crossing a river. A flood came down suddenly, just as the men were crossing, and many of them had to throwdown their tusks to save their lives. We had no means of flshing it up, and so we had to leave it, which was very sad. However, we sold what remained for nearly L7 000; so we did not do so badly. I don't mean that I got L7,000 out oí ít, Decause you see, I insisted upon Every taking a half share. Poor íeUow, he had earned it if ever a man did. He set up a Btore in the old colony on the proceeds, and did unconimonly well." "And what did you do with the lion trapr asked Sir Henry. "Oh, I brought that away with me also, I and when I got to Durban I put it in my house. But rcally, I could not bear to sit opposite to it nights as I smoked. Visions oT that poor woman and the hand of her dead ehild would riso up in my mind,and also of all the otuer horrors of which it had been Uie instrument. I beean to dream at lat that it had me by the leg. This was toa much for my nerves, so I just packed it up and shipped it to its maker in Shemeld, whose name was stamped upon the steel, sending him a letter at the same time to teil himto what purpose the infernal machine had been put I believe that he gave it to some museum or other." "And what became of the tusks of the three bulls which you shot? You must have left them at Nala's kraal, I suppose." The old gentleman's face feil at this question. "Ah," he said, "that is a very sad story. Nala promised to send them with the goods to my agent at Delagoa, and so he did. But the men who brought them were unarmed, and, as it happened, they fellin with a slave caravan under the command of a half -breed Portugee, who seized the tusks, and, what is worse, swore that he had shot them. I paid him out afterwards, however," he added, with a smile of satisfaction; "but it did not o-ivB mn back mv tusks, which no doubt have long ago been turned into hair brushes!" And he sighed. "Well," said (Jood, "that is a capital yarn of yours, Quatermain; "but" "But whatr he asked, sharply, forseeing a draw. "But I don't think that it was so good as mine about the ibex- it hasn't the same finish." Mr. Quatermain made no reply. Good was beneath it. "Do you know, gentlemen," he said, "it is half past 2 in the morning, and if we are going to snoot the big wood to-morrow we ought to leave here at 9:30 snarp?" "Oh, if you snoot for a hundred years you will never beat the record of those threa woodcock," I said. "Orof those three elephants," added Sir Henry. And then we all went to bed, and I dreamed that I had married Maiwa and was mach ifraid of that determined lady. THE END.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register