THE A MAXELL' N ATION. 
27 
All the white shields are married, and when they go out to war their wives hang up upon the walls of the hut tin 
nuptial couch, a simple mat of rushes, and also the wooden stool which has been her husband s pillow, and the spoon 
with which he ate his food. It is when she gets up in the morning that the Zulu woman looks at these objects of 
affection; as long as they cast a little shadow upon the wall she imagines her husband is safe; but should they cease to 
do so, she views it as an ill omen, and gives way to evil forebodings. The black shields are never permitted to marry, 
unless an imperial order is given, as remuneration for some important service in battle, family ties being considered as 
prejudicial to the profession of arms. When the soldiers leave for war, young virgins run before them naked, and 
promises are held out to them that one of these will be given as a reward on their return, should they in all respects 
acquit themselves valiantly. Everything amongst the Zulus is sacrificed to the demon of war, and this because their 
despot wishes to he a god, and that his people should be a nation of slaves and worshippers. 
The Zulu monarch makes no account of men; human life is trifling in his esteem; at the tyrant’s nod the crimson 
tide of life is poured out a* from the slaughter-houses of a great city. There is no “to-morrow” for the unhappy Zulu. 
To a promise he replies with the proverb, “ Give it to-day ; to-morrow I may he killed.” 
In the month of January the Zulus hold annually the national feast of the first-fruits, or dance of the green corn. 
On this festival the people flock to the capital from all parts of the country; the crowd gather round the seraglio; the 
god conies out of his harem al the moment of sunrise; the people cry out, “ Ga bn a ante !—Let him be magnified! 
and at the same moment they fall prostrate before him, shouting liynle This human idol then magnifies himself 
above the orb of day, spits at it three or four times by wa\ of derision, and then goes in again to the recesses of 
his harem. 
It was the custom of Chaka, the late king, to deny that he had any heirs. One of his favourite wives, on one 
occasion, presented to him a son, doubtless too confident in the transports of her joy. The monster took the child by 
the feet, and with one blow dashed its brains out upon the stones; the mother, at the same moment, was thrust through 
with an assagai, and died whilst gazing on her murdered child. The Zulus, like all the other Kafir tribes, are very 
superstitious; they have magicians, both men and women, who pretend they possess power to curse or bless, and to cure 
or promote disease; they are also the wicked denouncers of imaginary crimes; the chiefs have recourse to them when 
they wish to make away with some obnoxious person: for instance, if a young man has taken umbrage at his elder 
brother, and he does not like to sacrifice him without some plausible pretext, he gets him denounced as a traitor by the 
witch-doctor, and immediately an assagai is buried in his heart; or, more frequently, stones are heated red-hot, and, by 
a peculiar refinement of cruelty, the accused is compelled to sit upon them, and they are renewed from time to time, till 
the wretched victim is burned to a cinder. The witches and wizard-doctors may generally be known by their filthy and 
wild appearance; the gall-bladders of animals are attached to their thick matted hair, and around their necks arc suspended 
charms, and frequently coils of entrails stuffed with fat. To cure sore eyes, the witch-doctors make a small puncture 
above the eyebrow, from whence they pretend to extract a pinch of snuff, placed there by an enemy, which is the cause 
of the disease. 
In order to extort confession from the bewitchers ( imtagati ), they are pinioned to the ground with forked stakes, 
with the head resting on an ant-hill, whilst the whole body is strewn over with the debris of ants’ nests from the 
surrounding trees; water is poured upon them to make the insects bite sharply: after being released from this horrible 
torture the body swells to a size that appears scarcely human. On fear of infection from any disease, one of the witch¬ 
doctors passes through the town, sprinkling the door and entrance of every hut with green houghs dipped in a calabash 
of water, which is borne by an attendant following him. Circumcision was practised by the Zulus up to the time of 
Chaka, who endeavoured to abolish it; it is still performed as a rite amongst most of the Kafir tribes: the strictest 
secrecy is observed during the ceremony; but there are dances and libations of millet-beer at the kraal, where the people, 
as on all festive occasions, become sadly inebriated. 
The crimes punishable with death amongst the Zulus are sorcery, adultery, murder, and, especially, speaking evil of 
the king. This last offence is always found out, the despot having spies everywhere, who report to him even the most 
trifling remarks of his soldiers and subjects.* Criminals are generally executed at the capital; they have their necks 
twisted, or they are strangled, impaled, or beaten to death with knobbed sticks (7 arris ). This people appear to have 
some faint glimmering of the immortality of the soul, from the fact of their offering propitiatory sacrifices to the spirits 
of the departed, as was the case with Dingaan, when he slew oxen on the spot where his brother Chaka was put 
to death. 
The common mode of disposing of the dead is to bury’ them in circular holes, with the knees bent upwards towards 
the chin. A Zulu will not approach a corpse if he can possibly avoid it.: frequently the dead bodies are dragged 
out from the kraal as soon as life is extinct, and east aside to he devoured by beasts of prey. When a death occurs in 
* This system of ajrimage is so universal in the Zulu country, throughout King Panda’s dominions, that everything 1 had said or done during my 
journey to the capital was known to the Icing himself long before my arrival there. 
