章节正文
that her foot was pierced with a thorn, she lingered till the other
women had gone by. Then she came up to me, and we greeted one another,
gazing heavily into each other's eyes.
"In an ill day did I hearken to you, Baleka," I said, "to you and to
the Mother of the Heavens, and save your child alive. See now what has
sprung from this seed! Dead are all my house, dead is the Mother of
the Heavens--all are dead--and I myself have been put to the torment
by fire," and I held out my withered hand towards her.
"Ay, Mopo, my brother," she answered, "but flesh is nearest to flesh,
and I should think little of it were not my son Umslopogaas also dead,
as I have heard but now."
"You speak like a woman, Baleka. Is it, then, nothing to you that I,
your brother, have lost--all I love?"
"Fresh seed can yet be raised up to you, my brother, but for me there
is no hope, for the king looks on me no more. I grieve for you, but I
had this one alone, and flesh is nearest to flesh. Think you that I
shall escape? I tell you nay. I am but spared for a little, then I go
where the others have gone. Chaka has marked me for the grave; for a
little while I may be left, then I die: he does but play with me as a
leopard plays with a wounded buck. I care not, I am weary, but I
grieve for the boy; there was no such boy in the land. Would that I
might die swiftly and go to seek him."
"And if the boy is not dead, Baleka, what then?"
"What is that you said?" she answered, turning on me with wild eyes.
"Oh, say it again--again, Mopo! I would gladly die a hundred deaths to
know that Umslopogaas still lives."
"Nay, Baleka, I know nothing. But last night I dreamed a dream," and I
told her all my dream, and also of that which had gone before the
dream.
She listened as one listens to the words of a king when he passes
judgement for life or for death.
"I think that there is wisdom in your dreams, Mopo," she said at
length. "You were ever a strange man, to whom the gates of distance
are no bar. Now it is borne in upon my heart that Umslopogaas still
lives, and now I shall die happy. Yes, gainsay me not; I shall die, I
know it. I read it in the king's eyes. But what is it? It is nothing,
if only the prince Umslopogaas yet lives."
"Your love is great, woman," I said; "and this love of yours has
brought many woes upon us, and it may well happen that in the end it
shall all be for nothing, for there is an evil fate upon us. Say now,
what shall I do? Shall I fly, or shall I abide here, taking the chance
of things?"
"You must stay here, Mopo. See, now! This is in the king's mind. He
fears because of the death of his mother at his own hand--yes, even
he; he is afraid lest the people should turn upon him who killed his
own mother. Therefore he will give it out that he did not kill her,
but that she perished in the fire which was called down upon your
kraals by witchcraft; and, though all men know the lie, yet none shall
dare to gainsay him. As he said to you, there will be a smelling out,
but a smelling out of a new sort, for he and you shall be the witch-
finders, and at that smelling out he will give to death all those whom
he fears, all those whom he knows hate him for his wickedness and
because with his own hand he slew his mother. For this cause, then, he
will save you alive, Mopo--yes, and make you great in the land, for
if, indeed, his mother Unandi died through witchcraft, as he shall
say, are you not also wronged by him, and did not your wives and
children also perish by witchcraft? Therefore, do not fly; abide here
and become great--become great to the great end of vengeance, Mopo, my
brother. You have much wrong to wreak; soon you will have more, for I,
too, shall be gone, and my blood also shall cry for vengeance to you.
Hearken, Mopo. Are there not other princes in the land? What of
Dingaan, what of Umhlangana, what of Umpanda, brothers to the king? Do
not these also desire to be kings? Do they not day by day rise from
sleep feeling their limbs to know if they yet live, do they not night
by night lie down to sleep not knowing if it shall be their wives that
they shall kiss ere dawn or the red assegai of the king? Draw near to
them, my brother; creep into their hearts and learn their counsel or
teach them yours; so in the end shall Chaka be brought to that gate
through which your wives have passed, and where I also am about to
tread."
Thus Baleka spoke and she was gone, leaving me pondering, for her
words were heavy with wisdom. I knew well that the brothers of the
king went heavily and in fear of death, for his shadow was on them.
With Panda, indeed, little could be done, for he lived softly,
speaking always as one whose wits are few. But Dingaan and Umhlangana
were of another wood, and from them might be fashioned a kerrie that
should scatter the brains of Chaka to the birds. But the time to speak
was not now; not yet was the cup of Chaka full.
Then, having finished my thought, I rose, and, going to the kraal of
my friend, I doctored my burnt hand, that pained me, and as I was
doctoring it there came a messenger to me summoning me before the
king.
I went in before the king, and prostrated myself, calling him by his
royal names; but he took me by the hand and raised me up, speaking
softly.
"Rise, Mopo, my servant!" he said. "Thou hast suffered much woe
because of the witchcraft of thine enemies. I, I have lost my mother,
and thou, thou hast lost thy wives and children. Weep, my councillors,
weep, because I have lost my mother, and Mopo, my servant, as lost his
wives and children, by the witchcraft of our foes!"
Then all the councillors wept aloud, while Chaka glared at them.
"Hearken, Mopo!" said the king, when the weeping was done. "None can
give me back my mother; but I can give thee more wives, and thou shalt
find children. Go in among the damsels who are reserved to the king,
and choose thee six; go in among the cattle of the king, and choose
thee ten times ten of the best; call upon the servants of the king
that they build up thy kraal greater and fairer than it was before!
These things I give thee freely; but thou shalt have more, Mopo--yes!
thou shalt have vengeance! On the first day of the new moon I summon a
great meeting, a bandhla of all the Zulu people: yes, thine own tribe,
the Langeni, shall be there also. Then we will mourn together over our
woes; then, too, we will learn who brought these woes upon us. Go now,
Mopo, go! And go ye also, my councillors, leaving me to weep alone
because my mother is dead!"
Thus, then, my father, did the words of Baleka come true, and thus,
because of the craftypolicy of Chaka, I grew greater in the land than
ever I had been before. I chose the cattle, they were fat; I chose the
wives, they were fair; but I took no pleasure in them, nor were any
more children born to me. For my heart was like a withered stick; the
sap and strength had gone from my heart--it was drawn out in the fire
of Chaka's hut, and lost in my sorrow for those whom I had loved.
CHAPTER XII
THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF
Now, my father, I will go back a little, for my tale is long and winds
in and out like a river in a plain, and tell of the fate of
Umslopogaas when the lion had taken him, as he told it to me in the
after years.
The lioness bounded away, and in her mouth was Umslopogaas. Once he
struggled, but she bit him hard, so he lay quiet in her mouth, and
looking back he saw the face of Nada as she ran from the fence of
thorns, crying "Save him!" He saw her face, he heard her words, then
he saw and heard little more, for the world grew dark to him and he
passed, as it were, into a deep sleep. Presently Umslopogaas awoke
again, feeling pain in his thigh, where the lioness had bitten him,
and heard a sound of shouting. He looked up; near to him stood the
lioness that had loosed him from her jaws. She was snorting with rage,
and in front of her was a lad long and strong, with a grim face, and a
wolf's hide, black and grey, bound about his shoulders in such fashion
that the upper jar and teeth of the wolf rested on his head. He stood
before the lioness, shouting, and in one hand he held a large war-
shield, and in the other he grasped a heavy club shod with iron.
Now the lioness crouched herself to spring, growling terribly, but the
lad with the club did not wait for her onset. He ran in upon her and
struck her on the head with the club. He smote hard and well, but this
did not kill her, for she reared herself upon her hind legs and struck
at him heavily. He caught the blow upon his shield, but the shield was
driven against his breast so strongly that he fell backwards beneath
it, and lay there howling like a wolf in pain. Then the lioness sprang
upon him and worried him. Still, because of the shield, as yet she
could not come at him to slay him; but Umslopogaas saw that this might
not endure, for presently the shield would be torn aside and the
stranger must be killed. Now in the breast of the lioness still stood
the half of Umslopogaas's broken spear, and its blade was a span deep
in her breast. Then this thought came into the mind of Umslopogaas,
that he would drive the spear home or die. So he rose swiftly, for
strength came back to him in his need, and ran to where the lioness
worried at him who lay beneath the shield. She did not heed him, so he
flung himself upon his knees before her, and, seizing the haft of the
broken spear, drive it deep into her and wrenched it round. Now she
saw Umslopogaas and turned roaring, and clawed at him, tearing his
breast and arms. Then, as he lay, he heard a mighty howling, and,
behold! grey wolves and black leaped upon the lioness and rent and
worried her till she fell and was torn to pieces by them. After this
the senses of Umslopogaas left him again, and the light went out of
his eyes so that he was as one dead.
At length his mind came back to him, and with it his memory, and he
remembered the lioness and looked up to find her. But he did not find
her, and he saw that he lay in a cave upon a bed of grass, while all
about him were the skins of beasts, and at his side was a pot filled
with water. He put out his hand and, taking the pot, drank of the
water, and then he saw that his arm was wasted as with sickness, and
that his breast was thick with scars scarcely skinned over.
Now while he lay and wondered, the mouth of the cave was darkened, and
through it entered that same lad who had done battle with the lioness
and been overthrown by her, bearing a dead buck upon his shoulders. He
put down the buck upon the ground, and, walking to where Umslopogaas
lay, looked at him.
"Ou!" he said, "your eyes are open--do you, then, live, stranger?"
"I live," answered Umslopogaas, "and I am hungry."
"It is time," said the other, "since with toil I bore you here through
the forest, for twelve days you have lain without sense, drinking
water only. So deeply had the lion clawed you that I thought of you as
dead. Twice I was near to killing you, that you might cease to suffer
and I to be troubled; but I held my hand, because of a word which came
to me from one who is dead. Now eat, that your strength may return to
you. Afterwards, we will talk."
So Umslopogaas ate, and little by little his health returned to him--
every day a little. And afterwards, as they sat at night by the fire
in the cave they spoke together.
"How are you named?" asked Umslopogaas of the other.
"I am named Galazi the Wolf," he answered, "and I am of Zulu blood--
ay, of the blood of Chaka the king; for the father of Senzangacona,
the father of Chaka, was my great-grandfather."
"Whence came you, Galazi?"
"I came from Swaziland--from the tribe of the Halakazi, which I should
rule. This is the story: Siguyana, my grandfather, was a younger
brother of Senzangacona, the father of Chaka. But he quarrelled with
Senzangacona, and became a wanderer. With certain of the people of the
Umtetwa he wandered into Swaziland, and sojourned with the Halakazi
tribe in their great caves; and the end of it was that he killed the
chief of the tribe and took his place. After he was dead, my father
ruled in his place; but there was a great party in the tribe that
hated his rule because he was of the Zulu race, and it would have set
up a chief of the old Swazi blood in his place. Still, they could not
do this, for my father's hand was heavy on the people. Now I was the
only son of my father by his head wife, and born to be chief after
him, and therefore those of the Swazi party, and they were many and
great, hated me also. So matters stood till last year in the winter,
and then my father set his heart on killing twenty of the headmen,
with their wives and children, because he knew that they plotted
against him. But the headmen learned what was to come, and they
women had gone by. Then she came up to me, and we greeted one another,
gazing heavily into each other's eyes.
"In an ill day did I hearken to you, Baleka," I said, "to you and to
the Mother of the Heavens, and save your child alive. See now what has
sprung from this seed! Dead are all my house, dead is the Mother of
the Heavens--all are dead--and I myself have been put to the torment
by fire," and I held out my withered hand towards her.
"Ay, Mopo, my brother," she answered, "but flesh is nearest to flesh,
and I should think little of it were not my son Umslopogaas also dead,
as I have heard but now."
"You speak like a woman, Baleka. Is it, then, nothing to you that I,
your brother, have lost--all I love?"
"Fresh seed can yet be raised up to you, my brother, but for me there
is no hope, for the king looks on me no more. I grieve for you, but I
had this one alone, and flesh is nearest to flesh. Think you that I
shall escape? I tell you nay. I am but spared for a little, then I go
where the others have gone. Chaka has marked me for the grave; for a
little while I may be left, then I die: he does but play with me as a
leopard plays with a wounded buck. I care not, I am weary, but I
grieve for the boy; there was no such boy in the land. Would that I
might die swiftly and go to seek him."
"And if the boy is not dead, Baleka, what then?"
"What is that you said?" she answered, turning on me with wild eyes.
"Oh, say it again--again, Mopo! I would gladly die a hundred deaths to
know that Umslopogaas still lives."
"Nay, Baleka, I know nothing. But last night I dreamed a dream," and I
told her all my dream, and also of that which had gone before the
dream.
She listened as one listens to the words of a king when he passes
judgement for life or for death.
"I think that there is wisdom in your dreams, Mopo," she said at
length. "You were ever a strange man, to whom the gates of distance
are no bar. Now it is borne in upon my heart that Umslopogaas still
lives, and now I shall die happy. Yes, gainsay me not; I shall die, I
know it. I read it in the king's eyes. But what is it? It is nothing,
if only the prince Umslopogaas yet lives."
"Your love is great, woman," I said; "and this love of yours has
brought many woes upon us, and it may well happen that in the end it
shall all be for nothing, for there is an evil fate upon us. Say now,
what shall I do? Shall I fly, or shall I abide here, taking the chance
of things?"
"You must stay here, Mopo. See, now! This is in the king's mind. He
fears because of the death of his mother at his own hand--yes, even
he; he is afraid lest the people should turn upon him who killed his
own mother. Therefore he will give it out that he did not kill her,
but that she perished in the fire which was called down upon your
kraals by witchcraft; and, though all men know the lie, yet none shall
dare to gainsay him. As he said to you, there will be a smelling out,
but a smelling out of a new sort, for he and you shall be the witch-
finders, and at that smelling out he will give to death all those whom
he fears, all those whom he knows hate him for his wickedness and
because with his own hand he slew his mother. For this cause, then, he
will save you alive, Mopo--yes, and make you great in the land, for
if, indeed, his mother Unandi died through witchcraft, as he shall
say, are you not also wronged by him, and did not your wives and
children also perish by witchcraft? Therefore, do not fly; abide here
and become great--become great to the great end of vengeance, Mopo, my
brother. You have much wrong to wreak; soon you will have more, for I,
too, shall be gone, and my blood also shall cry for vengeance to you.
Hearken, Mopo. Are there not other princes in the land? What of
Dingaan, what of Umhlangana, what of Umpanda, brothers to the king? Do
not these also desire to be kings? Do they not day by day rise from
sleep feeling their limbs to know if they yet live, do they not night
by night lie down to sleep not knowing if it shall be their wives that
they shall kiss ere dawn or the red assegai of the king? Draw near to
them, my brother; creep into their hearts and learn their counsel or
teach them yours; so in the end shall Chaka be brought to that gate
through which your wives have passed, and where I also am about to
tread."
Thus Baleka spoke and she was gone, leaving me pondering, for her
words were heavy with wisdom. I knew well that the brothers of the
king went heavily and in fear of death, for his shadow was on them.
With Panda, indeed, little could be done, for he lived softly,
speaking always as one whose wits are few. But Dingaan and Umhlangana
were of another wood, and from them might be fashioned a kerrie that
should scatter the brains of Chaka to the birds. But the time to speak
was not now; not yet was the cup of Chaka full.
Then, having finished my thought, I rose, and, going to the kraal of
my friend, I doctored my burnt hand, that pained me, and as I was
doctoring it there came a messenger to me summoning me before the
king.
I went in before the king, and prostrated myself, calling him by his
royal names; but he took me by the hand and raised me up, speaking
softly.
"Rise, Mopo, my servant!" he said. "Thou hast suffered much woe
because of the witchcraft of thine enemies. I, I have lost my mother,
and thou, thou hast lost thy wives and children. Weep, my councillors,
weep, because I have lost my mother, and Mopo, my servant, as lost his
wives and children, by the witchcraft of our foes!"
Then all the councillors wept aloud, while Chaka glared at them.
"Hearken, Mopo!" said the king, when the weeping was done. "None can
give me back my mother; but I can give thee more wives, and thou shalt
find children. Go in among the damsels who are reserved to the king,
and choose thee six; go in among the cattle of the king, and choose
thee ten times ten of the best; call upon the servants of the king
that they build up thy kraal greater and fairer than it was before!
These things I give thee freely; but thou shalt have more, Mopo--yes!
thou shalt have vengeance! On the first day of the new moon I summon a
great meeting, a bandhla of all the Zulu people: yes, thine own tribe,
the Langeni, shall be there also. Then we will mourn together over our
woes; then, too, we will learn who brought these woes upon us. Go now,
Mopo, go! And go ye also, my councillors, leaving me to weep alone
because my mother is dead!"
Thus, then, my father, did the words of Baleka come true, and thus,
because of the craftypolicy of Chaka, I grew greater in the land than
ever I had been before. I chose the cattle, they were fat; I chose the
wives, they were fair; but I took no pleasure in them, nor were any
more children born to me. For my heart was like a withered stick; the
sap and strength had gone from my heart--it was drawn out in the fire
of Chaka's hut, and lost in my sorrow for those whom I had loved.
CHAPTER XII
THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF
Now, my father, I will go back a little, for my tale is long and winds
in and out like a river in a plain, and tell of the fate of
Umslopogaas when the lion had taken him, as he told it to me in the
after years.
The lioness bounded away, and in her mouth was Umslopogaas. Once he
struggled, but she bit him hard, so he lay quiet in her mouth, and
looking back he saw the face of Nada as she ran from the fence of
thorns, crying "Save him!" He saw her face, he heard her words, then
he saw and heard little more, for the world grew dark to him and he
passed, as it were, into a deep sleep. Presently Umslopogaas awoke
again, feeling pain in his thigh, where the lioness had bitten him,
and heard a sound of shouting. He looked up; near to him stood the
lioness that had loosed him from her jaws. She was snorting with rage,
and in front of her was a lad long and strong, with a grim face, and a
wolf's hide, black and grey, bound about his shoulders in such fashion
that the upper jar and teeth of the wolf rested on his head. He stood
before the lioness, shouting, and in one hand he held a large war-
shield, and in the other he grasped a heavy club shod with iron.
Now the lioness crouched herself to spring, growling terribly, but the
lad with the club did not wait for her onset. He ran in upon her and
struck her on the head with the club. He smote hard and well, but this
did not kill her, for she reared herself upon her hind legs and struck
at him heavily. He caught the blow upon his shield, but the shield was
driven against his breast so strongly that he fell backwards beneath
it, and lay there howling like a wolf in pain. Then the lioness sprang
upon him and worried him. Still, because of the shield, as yet she
could not come at him to slay him; but Umslopogaas saw that this might
not endure, for presently the shield would be torn aside and the
stranger must be killed. Now in the breast of the lioness still stood
the half of Umslopogaas's broken spear, and its blade was a span deep
in her breast. Then this thought came into the mind of Umslopogaas,
that he would drive the spear home or die. So he rose swiftly, for
strength came back to him in his need, and ran to where the lioness
worried at him who lay beneath the shield. She did not heed him, so he
flung himself upon his knees before her, and, seizing the haft of the
broken spear, drive it deep into her and wrenched it round. Now she
saw Umslopogaas and turned roaring, and clawed at him, tearing his
breast and arms. Then, as he lay, he heard a mighty howling, and,
behold! grey wolves and black leaped upon the lioness and rent and
worried her till she fell and was torn to pieces by them. After this
the senses of Umslopogaas left him again, and the light went out of
his eyes so that he was as one dead.
At length his mind came back to him, and with it his memory, and he
remembered the lioness and looked up to find her. But he did not find
her, and he saw that he lay in a cave upon a bed of grass, while all
about him were the skins of beasts, and at his side was a pot filled
with water. He put out his hand and, taking the pot, drank of the
water, and then he saw that his arm was wasted as with sickness, and
that his breast was thick with scars scarcely skinned over.
Now while he lay and wondered, the mouth of the cave was darkened, and
through it entered that same lad who had done battle with the lioness
and been overthrown by her, bearing a dead buck upon his shoulders. He
put down the buck upon the ground, and, walking to where Umslopogaas
lay, looked at him.
"Ou!" he said, "your eyes are open--do you, then, live, stranger?"
"I live," answered Umslopogaas, "and I am hungry."
"It is time," said the other, "since with toil I bore you here through
the forest, for twelve days you have lain without sense, drinking
water only. So deeply had the lion clawed you that I thought of you as
dead. Twice I was near to killing you, that you might cease to suffer
and I to be troubled; but I held my hand, because of a word which came
to me from one who is dead. Now eat, that your strength may return to
you. Afterwards, we will talk."
So Umslopogaas ate, and little by little his health returned to him--
every day a little. And afterwards, as they sat at night by the fire
in the cave they spoke together.
"How are you named?" asked Umslopogaas of the other.
"I am named Galazi the Wolf," he answered, "and I am of Zulu blood--
ay, of the blood of Chaka the king; for the father of Senzangacona,
the father of Chaka, was my great-grandfather."
"Whence came you, Galazi?"
"I came from Swaziland--from the tribe of the Halakazi, which I should
rule. This is the story: Siguyana, my grandfather, was a younger
brother of Senzangacona, the father of Chaka. But he quarrelled with
Senzangacona, and became a wanderer. With certain of the people of the
Umtetwa he wandered into Swaziland, and sojourned with the Halakazi
tribe in their great caves; and the end of it was that he killed the
chief of the tribe and took his place. After he was dead, my father
ruled in his place; but there was a great party in the tribe that
hated his rule because he was of the Zulu race, and it would have set
up a chief of the old Swazi blood in his place. Still, they could not
do this, for my father's hand was heavy on the people. Now I was the
only son of my father by his head wife, and born to be chief after
him, and therefore those of the Swazi party, and they were many and
great, hated me also. So matters stood till last year in the winter,
and then my father set his heart on killing twenty of the headmen,
with their wives and children, because he knew that they plotted
against him. But the headmen learned what was to come, and they
- grieve [gri:v]
v.&n.(使)悲痛；哀悼 (初中英语单词) - swiftly [´swiftli] ad.迅速地，敏捷地 (初中英语单词)
- wisdom [´wizdəm] n.智慧，聪明，才智 (初中英语单词)
- prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- perish [´periʃ] v.灭亡；消灭；(使)死去 (初中英语单词)
- knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
- counsel [´kaunsəl] n.商议；劝告；律师 (初中英语单词)
- messenger [´mesindʒə] n.使者；送信人 (初中英语单词)
- freely [´fri:li] ad.自由地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- terribly [´terəbli] ad.可怕地 (初中英语单词)
- shield [ʃi:ld] n.盾牌；防御 v.保护 (初中英语单词)
- strongly [´strɔŋli] ad.强烈地；强有力地 (初中英语单词)
- endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
- sickness [´siknis] n.生病；呕吐，恶心 (初中英语单词)
- grandfather [´grænd,fɑ:ðə] n.(外)祖父；祖先 (初中英语单词)
- gladly [´glædli] ad.愉快地，高兴地 (高中英语单词)
- vengeance [´vendʒəns] n.报复，复仇 (高中英语单词)
- summon [´sʌmən] vt.召集；号召 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- overthrown [,əuvə´θrəun] overthrow的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- hearken [´hɑ:kən] vi.听 (英语四级单词)
- policy [´pɔlisi] n.政策；权谋；保险单 (英语四级单词)
- bitten [´bitn] bite的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- witchcraft [´witʃkrɑ:ft] n.巫术 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
- crafty [´krɑ:fti] a.狡猾的 (英语六级单词)
- backwards [´bækwədz] ad.向后 a.向后的 (英语六级单词)
- wanderer [´wɔndərə] n.流浪者 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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