106 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XIII. 



that on the morrow he contemplated putting to 

 death all who had offended since the commence- 

 ment of his reign, in order that nothing might be 

 wanting to complete his own happiness, and that of 

 his people. 



Shortly after the perpetration of this satanic deed, 

 Umnante, the queen mother, died ; and every 

 subject in the realm was expected to proceed, ac- 

 cordingr to established custom, to the kinor's residence, 

 there to mourn for the illustrious deceased, Um- 

 nante had been repudiated by Essenzinconyarna, 

 and had afterwards been guilty of signal infidelity 

 to the nation, by cohabiting with a commoner of her 

 father's tribe. Whether in consequence of this 

 lapse, or from some other circumstance, the usual 

 etiquette was somewhat laxly observed, and there 

 ensued an appalling tragedy, which had never been 

 exceeded either in brutality or foulness, by any of 

 the black and inhuman exploits detailed in the 

 long and bloody catalogue of Chaka's crimes ! Upon 

 the grounds that ''some of the subjects mu6-t have 

 been accessory by witchcraft to the death of the 

 queen mother, and did not therefore attend to mourn," 

 several kraals and villages were fired ; men, women, 

 and children, having first been cruelly tortured, were 

 roasted alive in the flames, by the ferocius agents of 

 a still more ferocius master; this act of unpre- 

 cedented barbarity being followed up by a general 

 massacre throughout the realm — the tide of blood 

 flowing for a whole fortnight, and reeking of cruelties 

 too revolting to narrate ! 



