AMONG THE BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 39

AMONG THE BOOKS.

MR RIDER HAGGARD'S "NADA."

There is a character in one of JEschylas' dramas which always toucheß the imagination of the schoolboy. The rest of the seven chiefs who came up against Thebes were well enough in their way, but Parthenopjeas wtfs a hero. In the words of Paley's prcsaic version, he was a warrior " not likely to do a small' business in fighting." There was nothing of the huckster or the pedlar about him. When he slaughtered it was on the wholesale system. This is Mr Haggard's principle, too. Some writers wallow in the pathetic ; he riots and revels in bloodshed. The chill penury of a Cooper or even a Mayne Reid in dealing with human life he disdains. In this volume, as in others, the victims are counted by hundreds ; and, not content with the sword of man and with such execution as it can inflict, he summons to his aid on this occasion ghostly creatures of supernatural strength and ferocity. The presence of the destroying angel may bo felt from the commencement to the close. But it is clear that Mr Haggard has been chastened by criticism. He has done bis work caiefully. He rarely, if ever, allows his tale to become monotonous. With unusual wisdom he has scrupulously avoided all efforts to be humorous. He has been sparing of that rhetorical, but proverbial, philosophy which was lavished with Bnch prodigality upon that most "impossible She." His pictures are vivid, and the situations strong. If anything is wanting it is a moral — a defect of which the modern reader is not likely to complain with any vigour. And it is quite possible that the few who still preserve the traditions of an earlier age may find a moral if they need one ; for the story undoubtedly shows that woman is as dangerous to savage as to civilised man, and that to slay a bad king in the hope of finding a better is the extremity of unwisdom. Though Nada, the heroine, gives her name to the romance, her real position in the plot is one of secondary importance. Mopo, her father, is the central figure, and it is from bis lips that the English traveller hears the story which he records. The earlier scenes give us a contrast of cunning and strength. Mopo embodies the one quality ; Chaka, the Zulu king, is the personification of the other. While etill children the two had met, and by an act of kindness Mopo bad won the gratitufle of the king to be. Arrived at man's estate, and flying from his tribe with his sister Baleka, he had sought and found refuge with the great ruler of the Zulu nation. Baleka becomes one of the king's wives, and Mopo, as Chaka's physician, soon rises to power and influence, provoking the envy of his rivals, who make a bold attempt to destroy him. But the king, already enraged by the destruction of some of his bravest chiefs, lays a trap for the witchfinders, and they perish by the hands of the victims whom they have been bidden to mark out. Yet the seed of suspicion is sown in Chaka's mind, and there it lives and grows. It is his will that no offspring of his shall be allowed to live. Every child is slain at birth . But Mopo, through love for his sister, substitutes a dead child of his own for the boy that she has borne, and although the secret is oarefully kept, the king has more than sufficient cause for uneasiness. Suspicion is already strong when his mother in the hour of death betrays the secret and her accomplices. As for Mopo's daughter Nada, and his supposititious son Umslopogaas, they, with Baleka, were already beyond the reach of harm. Nada had been sent far away ; and Umslopogaas, in the course of the same journey, had been seized and carried off by a lion. Mopo, at the moment of detection, is not in the country, and the king wreaks bis vengeance on those of his household who have remained behind. When Mopo reaches his home again he is dragged before Chaka and undergoes A Terrible Ordeal. "Knowest thou, Mopo," said the king, " that as my mother died yonder in the flames of thy kraal she cried out strange and terrible words, which came to my ears through the singing of the fire. These were her words : that thou, Mopo, aud thy sister Baleka, and thy wives had conspired together to give a child to me who would be childless. These were her word?, the words that came to me through the singing of the fire. Tell me now, Mopo, where are those children that thou leddesfc from thy kraal', the boy with the lion eyes who is named Umslopogaas, and the girl who is named Nada ? " ." Umslopogaas is dead by the lion's mouth) O king I " I answered, " and Nada sits in the Swazi caves." And I told him of the death of Umslopogaas and of how I had divorced Macropha, my wife. "The boy with the lion eyes to the lion's mouth ! " said Chaka. " Enough of him ;he is gone. Nada may yet be sought for with the assegai in the Swazi caves ; enough of her. Let us speak of this song that my mother — who, alas ! is dead, Mopo — this song she sang through the singing of the flames. Tell me, Mopo — tell me now — was it a true tale ? " "Nay, O king! surely the Mother of the Heavens was maddened by the Heavens when she sang that song," I answered. " I know nothing of it, 0 king." " Thou knowest naught of it, Mopo ? " said the kiug. And again he looked at me terribly ithrough the reek of the fire. "Thou knowest naught of it, llopo ? Surely thou art a-cold ; thy hands shake with cold. Nay, man, fear not — warm them, warm them, Mopo.' See, now, plunge that hand of thine into the heart of the flame ! " And he pointed with his little Sgsegai, the assegai handled with the royal wood, to where the fire glowed reddest — ay, he pointed and laughed. Then, my father I grew oold indeed^-yes, I grew cold who soon should be hot, for I saw the purpose of Chaka. He would put me to the trial by fire. " J?pr a moment I sat silent, thinking. Then jfcne king s'ppke again ma great voice: ."Nay, Mopo, be not so backward ; shall I3f fc warm, and see tfiee suffer cold? What, my counpjllorp rise, take the hand .of Mopo, and hold jfc to the flame, that his heart may rejpice in the warmth of the flame while we speak together of this matter of the child that was, bo ray mother sang, born to Baleka, njy wife, ti}e sister of Mopo, my servant." ' " There is little need for that, O king," I answered, being made bold' by fear, for I saw that if I did' 'nothing death would swiftly end 'my doubts. Once, indeed, I bethought me of the poison that I bore, and was minded to swallow it and make an end, but the desire to live is great, and keen is the thirßt for venfance, bo I said to my heart, "Not yet

awhile ; I will endure this'also ; afterwards, if need be, I can die." " I thanked the king for his graciousness, and I will warm me at the fire. Speak on, O king, while I warm myself, and thou shalfc hear true words," I said boldly. Then, my father, I stretched out my left hand and plunged it into the fire — not into the hottest of the fire, but where the smoke leapt from the flame. Now my flesh was wet with the sweat of fear, and for a little moment the flames curled round it and did not burn me. But I knew that the torment was to come. For a short while Chaka watched me, smiling. Then he spoke slowly, that the fire might find time to do its work. "Say, then, Mopo, thou knowest nothing of this matter of the birth of a son to thy sister Baleka?" "I know this 0n1y,,0 king!" I answered, 41 that a son was born in past years to thy wife Baleka, that I killed the child in obedience to thy word, and laid its body before thee." Now, my father, the steam from my flesh had been drawn from my hand by the heat, and the flame got hold of me and ate into my flesh, and its torment was groat. But of this I showed no sign upon my face, for I knew well that if I showed sign or uttered cry, then, having failed in the trial death would be my portion. Then the king spoke again,- " Dost thou swear by my head, Mopo, that no son of mine was suckled in thy kraals ? " " I swear ifc, O king ! I swear ifc by thy head," I answered. And now, my father,, the agony of the fire was such as may not be told. I felt my eyes start forward in their sockets, my blood seemed to boil within me, it rushed into my head, and down my face there ran two tears of blood. But yet I held my hand in the fire and made no sign, while the king and his councillors watched me curiously. Still, for a moment, Chaka said nothing, and that moment seemed to me as all the years of my life. "Ah ! " he said at length, " I see that thou growest warm, Mopo ! Withdraw thy hand from the flame. I am answered ; thou hast passed the trial ; thy heart is clean ; for had there been lies in it the fire had given them tongue, and thou hadst cried aloud, making thy last music, Mopo ! " Now I took my hand from the flame, and for a while the torment left me. " Ifc is well, O king ! " I--«aid calmly. " Firm has no power of hurt on those whose heart is pure." But as I spoke I looked at my left hand. It was black, my father — black as a charred stick, and the nails were gone from the twisted fingers. Look at it now, my father ; you can see, though my eyes are blind. The hand is white, like yours — it is white and dead and shrivelled. These are the marks of the fire in Chaka's hut — the fire that kissed me many, many years ago ; I have had but little use of that hand since that night of torment. But my tight arm yet remained to me, my father, and, ah ! I used it. In fiction, if not in life, it is always the improbable that occurs. Nada, as we have seen, has vanished. Umslopogaas has escaped from the lion by the timely aid of Galazi, a hero equal to him ia daring and hardly less in strength. With him he has become a leader of the ghostly wolves who .hunt by night, bringing death to beast and to man. They make short work of a force sent by Chaka to seek and slay Umslopogaas, whom he hates and fears as a possible rival in power. The Death of the King's Slayers. So they rested and ate, and afterwards went out armed, and Galazi howled to the wolves, and they came in tens and twenties till all were gathered together. Galazi moved among them, shaking the Watcher, as they sat upon their haunches, and followed him with their fiery eyes. "We do not hunt game to-night, little people," he cried, "but men, and you love the flesh of men." Now all the wolves howled as though they understood. Then the pack divided itself as was its custom, the she-wolves following Umslopogaas, the dog-wolves following Galazi, and in silence they moved swiftly down towards the plain. They came to the river and swam it, and their, eight spear-throws away, on the farther side of the river, stood the kraal. Now the Wolf-Brethren took counsel together, and Galazi, with the dog-wolves, went to the North gate, and Umslopogaa3 with the she-wolves to the south gate. They reached them safely and in silence, for at the bidding of the brethren the wolves ceased from their bowlings. The gates were stopped with thorns, but the brethren pulled out the thorns and made a passage. As they did this it chanced that certain dogs in the kraal heard the sound of the stirred boughs, and awakening, caught the smell of the wolves that were with Umslopogaas, for the wind blow from that quarter. These dogs ran out barking, and presently they came to the south gate of the kraal, aud flew at Umslopogaas, who pulled away the thorns. Now when the wolves saw the dogs they could be restrained no longer, but sprang on them and tore them to fragments, and the sound of their worrying camo to the ears of the soldiers of Chaka and of the dwellers in the kraal so that they sprang from sleep, snatching their arms. And as they came out of the huts they saw in the moonlight a man wearing a wolf's hide rushing across the empty cattle kraal, for the grass was long and the cattle were out at graze, and with him countless wolves, black and grey. Then they cried aloud in terror, saying that the ghosts were on them, and turned to flee to the north gate of the kraal. But behold ! here also they met a man clad in a wolf's skin only, and with him countless wolves, black and grey. Npw some flung themselves to earth screaming in their fear, and some strove to run away, but the greater part of the soldiers, and with them many of the men of the kraal, came together in knots, being minded to die like men at the teeth of the ghosts, and that though they shook with fear. Then Umslopogaas hdwled aloud, and howled Galazi, aud they flung themselves upon the soldiers and the people of the kraal, and with them came the wolves. Then a crying and a baying rose up to heaven as the grey wolves leaped and bit and tore. Little they heeded the spears and kerries of the soldiers. Some were killed, but the rest did not stay. Presently the knots of men broke up, and to each raan wolves hung by twos and threes, dragging him to eailh. Some few fled, indeed, but the wolves hunted them by gaze and scent, and pulled them down before they passed the gates of the kjraaj. ' Chaka himself is doompd, as we}l as his men. The misdeeds of the past are not forgotten, and he crowns them by a merciless vengeance inflicted on Mopo's people, including Baleka, who ha 3 fallpn once more into the king's power. Mopo vows revenge. He intrigues with other princes. Chaka is plain, and ftingaan reigns tn his stead. Umslopogaas, meanwhile; has won in single combat the headship of a tribe, and a wife and an invincible aze at the Bame time, Regarding himself as Mopo's son, he vows to take signal, retribution lor tbe {ate which,

as he believes, has destroyed his father and his father's house. Tidings of his growing power and rumours of his threats reach the Zulu king. Dingaan is anxious to obtain recognition of his own supremacy, and is also bent on winning for himself a girl of surpassing beauty hidden away among the Halakazi people, whose fame had travelled far. Mopo volunteers to visit the young leader. He recognises in him the lost Umslopogaas, and induces him to win the king's favour by leading an expedition against the Halakazi in quest of the girl. But the best plans sometime* make the most mischief. The foray is successful. The girl is captured. But, finding her to be none other than Nada, his own sister, as he supposes, Umslopogaas contrives that she shall escape, endeavouring to deceive the king with a fictitious tale. His device is treacherously divulged. There is an outbreak of passion that nearly ends in conflict. Though averted for the moment, strife is inevitable. Nada returns, and Umslopogaas, having learned the secret of his birth, takes her for his wife, exciting jealousy within his own household, and rousing Dingaan to revenge. A force is sent out by the king, and in the battle that follows Galazi is slain, and Umslopogaas alone survives, though with a dangerous wound. Nada has taken refuge in a cave, and, forgetting the injunctions given her, she pushes the stone that closes the outlet over the socket, so imprisoning herself with a barrier that she cannot stir. When Umslopogaas returns, his weakness through loss of blood is so extreme that he can do nothing to save her, and she dies miserably within a few feet of him, with her hand stretched out through a fissure for him to grasp to the last. It is hardly necessary to add that Dingaan does not go unpunished. Everyone, in fact, is killed off at the close, with the single exception of Umslopogaas. This partiality, however invidious, was inevitable. Umslopogaas' subsequent adventures have already been recorded in other works, and Mr Haggard felt, not altogether without reason, that he could not kill his hero off at this stage without laying himself open to a charge of historical inconsistency. — " Literary World."