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Allan Quatermain-Part7_H.Rider Haggard(1856-1925)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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think, Mr Quatermain?'

I shook my head, and answered, 'I don't know. There are so many



queer things hidden away in the heart of this great continent

that I should be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it.



Anyhow, we mean to try and find out. We intend to journey to

Lekakisera, and thence, if we live to get so far, to this Lake



Laga; and, if there are any white people beyond, we will do our

best to find them.'



'You are very venturesome people,' said Mr Mackenzie,

with a smile, and the subject dropped.



CHAPTER IV

ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE



After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and

grounds of the station, which I consider the most successful



as well as the most beautiful place of the sort that I have seen

in Africa. We then returned to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaas



taking advantage of this favourable opportunity to clean all

the rifles thoroughly. This was the only work that he ever did



or was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it was beneath his dignity

to work with his hands; but such as it was he did it very well.



It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu sitting there upon

the floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall behind him,



whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily employed,

delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism of



the breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One -- a double

four-bore belonging to Sir Henry -- was the Thunderer; another,



my 500 Express, which had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'the

little one who spoke like a whip'; 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 people'; and



so on with them all. It was very curious to hear him addressing

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 'Inkosi-kaas',

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 him, when he informed me that the axe was very evidently



feminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very deep into

things, and that she was clearly a chieftainess because all men



fell down before her, struck dumb at the sight of her beauty

and power. In the same way he would consult 'Inkosi-kaas' 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



so many people's brains'.

I took up the axe and closely examined this formidableweapon.



It was, as I have 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, left 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 Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken

it from the hand of a chief he had killed in battle many years



before. It was not very heavy, the head weighing two and a half

pounds, as nearly as I could judge. The cutting part was slightly



concave in shape -- not convex, as it generally the case with

savage battleaxes -- and sharp as a razor, measuring five and



three-quarter inches across the widest part. From the back of

the axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last two



of which it was 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 pole-axe. It was with this punch end,



as we afterwards discovered, that Umslopogaas usually struck

when fighting, driving a neat round hole in his adversary's skull,






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