Black Heart and White Heart | Page 9

camping place, in the vague hope that he might find
an opportunity of speaking with or at least of seeing Nanea, the girl to
whom he was affianced, who within a few weeks must be taken from
him, and given over to the king.
A more eerie-looking spot than that where they were encamped Hadden
had never seen. Behind them lay a tract of land--half-swamp and half-
bush--in which the buffalo were supposed to be hiding. Beyond, in
lonely grandeur, rose the mountain of Isandhlwana, while in front was
an amphitheatre of the most gloomy forest, ringed round in the distance
by sheer-sided hills. Into this forest there ran a river which drained the
swamp, placidly enough upon the level. But it was not always level, for
within three hundred yards of them it dashed suddenly over a precipice,
of no great height but very steep, falling into a boiling rock-bound pool
that the light of the sun never seemed to reach.
"What is the name of that forest, Nahoon?" asked Hadden.
"It is named /Emagudu/, The Home of the Dead," the Zulu replied
absently, for he was looking towards the kraal of Nanea, which was
situated at an hour's walk away over the ridge to the right.
"The Home of the Dead! Why?"
"Because the dead live there, those whom we name the /Esemkofu/, the
Speechless Ones, and with them other Spirits, the /Amahlosi/, from
whom the breath of life has passed away, and who yet live on."
"Indeed," said Hadden, "and have you ever seen these ghosts?"

"Am I mad that I should go to look for them, White Man? Only the
dead enter that forest, and it is on the borders of it that our people make
offerings to the dead."
Followed by Nahoon, Hadden walked to the edge of the cliff and
looked over it. To the left lay the deep and dreadful-looking pool, while
close to the bank of it, placed upon a narrow strip of turf between the
cliff and the commencement of the forest, was a hut.
"Who lives there?" asked Hadden.
"The great /Isanusi/--she who is named /Inyanga/ or Doctoress; she
who is named Inyosi (the Bee), because she gathers wisdom from the
dead who grow in the forest."
"Do you think that she could gather enough wisdom to tell me whether
I am going to kill any buffalo, Nahoon?"
"Mayhap, White Man, but," he added with a little smile, "those who
visit the Bee's hive may hear nothing, or they may hear more than they
wish for. The words of that Bee have a sting."
"Good; I will see if she can sting me."
"So be it," said Nahoon; and turning, he led the way along the cliff till
he reached a native path which zig-zagged down its face.
By this path they climbed till they came to the sward at the foot of the
descent, and walked up it to the hut which was surrounded by a low
fence of reeds, enclosing a small court-yard paved with ant-heap earth
beaten hard and polished. In this court-yard sat the Bee, her stool being
placed almost at the mouth of the round opening that served as a
doorway to the hut. At first all that Hadden could see of her, crouched
as she was in the shadow, was a huddled shape wrapped round with a
greasy and tattered catskin kaross, above the edge of which appeared
two eyes, fierce and quick as those of a leopard. At her feet smouldered
a little fire, and ranged around it in a semi-circle were a number of
human skulls, placed in pairs as though they were talking together,

whilst other bones, to all appearance also human, were festooned about
the hut and the fence of the courtyard.
"I see that the old lady is set up with the usual properties," thought
Hadden, but he said nothing.
Nor did the witch-doctoress say anything; she only fixed her beady
eyes upon his face. Hadden returned the compliment, staring at her with
all his might, till suddenly he became aware that he was vanquished in
this curious duel. His brain grew confused, and to his fancy it seemed
that the woman before him had shifted shape into the likeness of
colossal and horrid spider sitting at the mouth of her trap, and that these
bones were the relics of her victims.
"Why do you not speak, White Man?" she said at last in a slow clear
voice. "Well, there is no need, since I can read your thoughts. You are
thinking that I who am called the Bee should be better named the
Spider. Have no fear; I did not kill these men. What would it profit me
when the dead are so many? I suck the souls of men,