LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6043, 27 September 1887, Page 1

LITERATURE.

ALLAN qUATEEMMK.

|[By"H:. -Eider Hagoabi*] (ConfinuetL} Chapter i\T. AEPHONSB AHT> HIS. JUSHSTTB. Afi^dinnerTTO'thoronghlyTnßpecfediaßV the outbuildings and grounds of the station, which £' considerthemost-succesG- • fnl as wellas^eonostbeautifnlplac»of the; :• sort that I hawe-seen in Airiea. "We-then ; Tetarnedrtov ; the'Vßrandah> wher&swe foundUmelopogaaß taking advantage of fids'/ fsrourabxe opportonity to clean all Hhe^ rffies Siaroughly. Thfe^eaffthe-orfy^work that he ever did<<ttrwaß asked^^ to-do, for«s?| ai>Zuhx chief it was beneath, htodignityto ■ ■work with hiahandai but -auch; aa it was y Bedidit very-well. Ibwa&pcnriousisigiit to see the great Zulu sitting-tiere upon. thedEbor, bis battle-axe resting against the. Trail behind him, whilst his long aristo-cratic-looking hands were-bnsily employed, delicately and with the 1 utmost care,, cleaning the mechanism of the-breechloaders. He had a name for each guru One— a double four-bore belongingi» Sir Henry — was. the Thunderer; another, my 500Express, which had a peculiarly sharp Deport, was "the little one who spoke like a-whipf" the Winchester repeaters were *£the women, who talked so- fast that you. could not tell one word from another the six Martinis were **"the common peoples'** and so <ut with, them aIL It was very curious to hear him address-' ing each gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an individual, and in a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the same with his battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend, and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over all his old adventures with it—and dreadful enough some of them were. By a piece of grim humour, he had named this axe " Ihkosikaas/' which, is the Zulu word for chieftainess. For a long while I could not make out why he gave it such a name, and at last I asked Mm, when he informed me that the axe was evidently feminine^ beeauseof henvomsnly habitof prying very deep' into things, and that she was clearly a chief tainess because all men fell down before her, . struck dumb at the sight of her beauty and power. In the same way he would consult <c lnkosi-kaaa "if in any dilemma; and when I asked him why he did so, he informed me it was because she must needs be wise, having- "looked into somany people's brains." I took up the axe and- closely- examined thia formidable weapon. It was* as I nave said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet three inches long, about an inch, and a quarter thick, and with a knob at the end as large as a Maltese orange, lef b there to prevent the hand from slipping. This horn, haft, though so massive, was as. flexible as cane, and practically unbreakable ; but, to make assurance doubly sure, it was whipped round at intervals of a few inches with copper wire — all the parts where the hands grip being thus treated. Just above where the haft entered the= head were scored a number of little nicks,, each nick representing a man killed in. battle with the weapon. The axe itself was, made of the most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though. TTmslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken it from the hand of a chief lie had lolled in battle many years before. It was not very heavy, the head weighing: 211 b, as nearly as I could judgeThe cutting part was slightly concsve in shape— not convex, as is generally the case with savage battle-axes--* and sharp as a razor, measuring sfin-. across the widest part;. From the: back of the axe sprang & stout spike.' 4in long, for the last two of which itwas hollow, and shaped like a leather: punch, with an opening for anything? forced into the hollow at the punch end to. be pushed out above — in fact, in this respect it exactly resembled a butcher's poleaxe. It was with this punch end, as we afterwards discovered, that TJmslopogaasusually Btruck when fighting, driving a neat round hole in his adversary's skull, and only using the broad cutting edge fora circular sweep, or sometimes in &4nSWe. I think he considered the punch a- neater and more' sportsmanlike tool, and it was from his habit of pecking at his enemy with it that he got his name of '^Woodpecker." Certainly in his hands it was a terribly efficient one. Such was XTmslopogaaß* axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and fatal hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished as much as his own life. It scarcely ever left his hand except when he was eating, and then he always sat with it under his leg. Just as I returned his axe to ITmslopogaas, Miss Flossie came up and took me off to see her collection of flowers, African liliums, and blooming sbrubß, some of which are very beautiful, many of the varieties being quite unknown to me, and also, I believe, to botauical science. I asked her if she had ever seen or heard of the "Goya" lily, which Central African explorers have told me they have occasionally met with, and whose wonderful loveliness has filled them with astonishment. This lily, which the natives say blooms only once in ten years, flourishes in the most arid soil. Compared to the size of the bloom, the bulb is small, generally weighing about four pounds. As for the flower itself (which I afterwards first saw under circumstances likely to impress its appearance fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe ita beauty and Bplendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its perfume. The flower — for it only has one bloom— rises from the crown of the bulb on a thick fleshy and flab-sided stem, the specimen that I saw measured 14in in diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the bloom of an ordinary "longiflorum" set vertically. First there is the green sheath, which in its early stage is not unlike that of a water-lily, but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and curls back gracefully towards theßtem. Then comes the bloom itself, a single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richest velvety crimson, j from the heart of which rises a golden- i coloured pistil. I have never seen ! anything to equal thia bloom in ' beauty or fragrance, and as I believe it is but little known, I take the liberty to describe it at length. Looking at it for the first time I well remember that I realised how even in a flower there dwells something of the majesty of ita Maker. To my great delight Miss Flossie told me that one knew the flower well, and had tried to grow it in her garden, but without success, adding, however, that as- : it should be in bloom at this time of year, she thought that she could procure me a specimen. After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here among all these savage people and without any companions of her own age. " Lonely ?" she said. " Oh, indeed no S I am as happy as the day is long, and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried in. a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell the difference! Here,"_Bhe said, giving her head a little toss, "~ am 1^ and every native for miles round knows the 'Waterlily/ for that is what they call me— and is ready to do what.l want, but in the books that I have read about little girla in Euglanditißnot like that. Everybody thinks them a <and they^haye to^do what., their. WamDhiaßtrqsßllikefl.-v'Oh i^itMaajaj&reak;

my heart;, to be put in. a cage J£ke-that,and. Hot to be-feee — free as^theaiz." •'Would you- not like to -; learn T^H asked. "So. I do laarn. Eather teaches ma : I»a£br.andJE'reHeh and arithmetic." "And are you neror afraid among* all ;thßse-wilcl men:?" * c; Afraid^ Oh no I they-never interfere twlthme. .Bttrink they- believe that lam #jf the Divinity) because I am [so white and have fair hair. And look \heref* and^dxdnglier ! little.'hand into the 3&odiceto£' hex-dress she-produced a donble■ibarrelfed nickel-plated Derringer, "I cany that loaded,, and if anybody tried to-toucJh;inelsbx>xild\Bhoot him. Once % tOxab a leopard that jumped upon my idonkoy as.l wasriding along. Itfrightened ane ■seryTnueh, bub I shotit in the ear and Sfe l eH dead,,and I have its skin upon my liad. Look there ! w ßhe went on in an; .altered voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, " I said Ijnst now that I had companions ; there is :one of them." I looked , and for the first time there burst upon my sight the glory of Mount Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always been hidden in mist, but now its radiant beauty was unveiled for many thousand' feet, although the base wasstill wrapped in vapour so that the lofty peak orpillar, towering nearly 20,000 ft into the sky, appeared to be a fairy vision, hanging between-earthand Heaven,,and based upon the clouds. The solemn majesty and beauty of this white peak are together beyond the power of my poor pen to de-. scribe. There it rose straight and. sheer — & white glory, its crest piercing the , very blue of Heaven. As I gazed at it with thatiittle girl I felt my whole heart lifted up with an indescribable emotion,, and for a moment great and won-' derful thoughts seemed x to break upon my mind, even as the arrows of thesetting sun were breaking on Kenia's snows. Mr Mackenzie's natives call the.; mountain the ' Finger of God/ and to meifc; did seem eloquent of immortal peace and? of the pure high calm that surely lies above this fevered world. Somewhere I had heard a line of poetry, A thing o£ beauty is a joy for ever, and now it came into my mind, and for th& first time I thoroughly understood what the poet meant. Base, indeed, would be the man who could look upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile — that white old tombstone of the years, and not feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatsoever name he calls Him, worship God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of the spirit ; they throw wide the windows of the chamber of our small selfishness and let in a breath of that air that rushes round the rolling spheres, and for a while illumine our darkness with a far-off gleam of the white light-which beats upon the Throne. (To be continued.)