THROUGH ZAMBESI A. 
355 
whose sides were so smooth that even a cat could not 
scale them, were filled with stout posts interlaced 
with thorny bushes. It appeared to me that it would 
lie impossible to effect an entrance without the aid 
of some one inside. All this powerful fortifying is 
carried out in order to secure their lives against the 
murderous attacks of their dreaded foes. Undisputed 
by the owners and tillers of the soil, all property in the 
form of corn and cattle must be abandoned to the 
caprice of the conquering Matabeli. 
Attack is entirely a matter of cunning and stalking. 
A Matabeli impi (army) will approach as stealthily, and 
as invisibly as snakes, crawling as closely upon the 
ground, and concealed by the undergrowth, they watch 
the movements of their intended victims, the timid 
Mashona. Then, when a favourable opportunity occurs, 
up they rise like a wild black cloud of destruction. 
Hissing and shrieking their fiercest battle cry, they 
bound and leap like the “ klipspringer,” * from rock to 
rock, dealing with fearful precision the death-giving 
blow of the assegai ; and ever and anon shouting with 
thrilling ecstasy, their terrific cry of triumph, as they 
tear out the yet beating hearts of their victims. 
After a pursuit of the flying and panic-stricken horde, 
the ravagers herd in the straying cattle, and then the 
devastating cloud moves away, gathering, in its 
circuitous route, other nebulae in the shape of slave 
girls and boys, as well as the cattle from perhaps 
hundreds of hitherto quiet and smiling valleys. They 
return to their king with news of victory ; dancing as 
they sing the story of their soul-stirring and daring 
deeds, while in feasting they drink the beer made by 
the hands of the girls whose parents’ lives and property 
were the fruits of the chase, their bones lying bleaching 
in the sun amid the weather-worn rocks of the deserted 
highland home. 
On such 'occasions the king; rewards his generals much 
in the same way as is done by the English. He gives 
them the currency of the country (cattle), although 
* A small but extremely agile antelope living in the rocky kopijies. 
2 A 2 
