Hunter Quatermains Story | Page 7

nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had
finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one,
Mashune and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
"'Hark to it!' sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of
keeping his spirits up than for any other reason--for he was a sort of
black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. 'Hark to the
wonderful sound with which the "Maboona" (the Boers) shook our
fathers to the ground at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry
now, my father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried
ox's paunch, but they will soon be full of good meat. Hans is a
Hottentot, and an "umfagozan," that is, a low fellow, but he shoots

straight--ah! he certainly shoots straight. Be of a good heart, my father,
there will soon be meat upon the fire, and we shall rise up men.'
"And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
made my head ache with his empty words.
"Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon,
and the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity
of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was
over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost
ominous--as though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which
was being enacted in her sight.
"It was quiet--quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.'
"'Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or
mayhap he has lost his way.'
"'Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?' I answered. 'Tell me, in
all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?'
"'Nay, Macumazahn' (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the
man who 'gets up by night,' or who 'is always awake'), 'I know not
where he is.'
"But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
Hottentot.
"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'go down to the water and bring me of those
green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.'
"'Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the

water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*]
told it me.'
[*] /Isanusi/, witch-finder.
"Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
"'Must I go myself, thou fool?' I said, sternly.
"'Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.'
"And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
"'Art thou not hungry?' I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat
eyeing me eating.
"'Never was I hungrier, my father.'
"'Then eat,' and I pointed to the watercresses.
"'Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.'
"'If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.'
"He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last seized
a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did so,
'Oh, why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like an ox?
Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me
when I was born!' and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, 'like snow upon a
mountain.' At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like
green food.
"Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud

'woof! woof!' of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to
our little skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness
and listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the
light of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw
some sticks on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the
desired effect, for we saw