Chap. XII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 97 



established in a sham fight with reeds, which took 

 place in presence of the assembled nation ; and 

 death by impalement was the penalty attached to 

 the loss of tlie spear in battle. The warriors had 

 now no alternative but to conquer or die; and as 

 an additional spur to their valour, the commissariat 

 of an invading army was never more than barely 

 sufficient to subsist them to the scene of action. 

 In order that the youths of the rising generation 

 might imbibe a taste for military tactics, they were 

 ordered to accompany the tried warriors in the ca- 

 pacity of esquires ; and having attained an age 

 which rendered them capable of wielding an assagai 

 with effect, they were immediately supplied with 

 arms, and duly incorporated. 



With a view to render the troops as ethcient as 

 possible, the most unnatural abstinence was enforced, 

 under the pretext that marriage deprives man of 

 his relish for war, and causes his thoughts to be 

 directed homewards, rather than towards his enemy. 

 Commerce was likewise strictly forbidden, under 

 the belief that it would enervate the people, and 

 unfit them for their military duties. Every plan, 

 in short, which ferocity and barbarity could devise, 

 was resorted to by Chaka to inspire his men with 

 a martial spirit ; and under the excuse of perfecting 

 the model of his army, the monster's unnatural 

 propensities and insatiable thirst for blood, induced 

 him, horrible to relate, to weed his warriors by 

 singling out the maimed, the aged, and the infirm, 

 to be put to the spear; observing, with savage 



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