ught, those wizards who dwelt in caves!
how they died! It seemed as though a warrior who had fought right hard
before only began to fight after he had been beaten down, for then it
was that, fierce and desperate, and in the throes of death, he would
grip and stab, and even tear with his teeth, those who were slaying him.
_Haul_ I was mad that day! I was bleeding from wounds, but at this I
laughed, even though they might be the poison wounds for which there is
no cure. I struck till my heavy knobstick was painted with gore. I
slashed with my broad _umkonto_, and it seemed that my arm was shivered
beneath the blows that rained upon my great war-shield. Yet fought I no
more bravely than many another.

"Further and further had we pressed them back into the cavern, until now
we were fighting almost beyond the light of day, and still fresh
warriors seemed to rise up to meet us, only to be borne back beneath the
weight of our numbers, the fury of our blows. And, indeed, had more
than twice our own numbers sprung suddenly upon us, we could not have
fallen back had we wished, for the eagerness of those who pressed on
behind. But where were their women, where their cattle?

"Stumbling, rolling, catching our footing again, choking with the dust
and hot foetid atmosphere, we beat them backward step by step, the now
black gloom ringing with a deafening and hideous clamour, the roar of
our war-shout, the shrill, vengeful yells of the maddened Baputi, and
the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying. _Hau_! I saw flames,
sparks! I bathed in a sea of fire, of blood! That was a fight! That
was a fight!

"And then the gloom seemed to brighten, and we saw a glimmer of daylight
in front. This came from above; and now we could see that the cavern
branched out into several forks, some seeming to ascend into the light,
others holding on straight into the blackest of gloom. And down these
latter we heard the lowing of cattle, the shrill voices of women and of
children.

"`Ha! Izinkomo!' shouted the bulk of our warriors, pouring after these
in pursuit. But I, with several others, was so hard engaged with an
extra fierce and resolute body of Baputi that we thought little of spoil
either in cattle or women, in the delirious madness of hard fighting.
We pressed this group step by step up one of these lightening tunnels,
slaying and being slain, until at length we gained the outer day; and
here, poised high above the world, w