t propitious,
so said the 'doctors'; moreover, the soldiers had not been 'moutied,'
that is, sprinkled with medicines to 'put a great heart' into them and
ensure their victory. The intention of the generals was to attack the
camp at dawn on the 23rd; and the actual engagement was brought about by
an accident.

Before I tell of this or of the fight, however, it may be as well to
describe how these splendid savages were armed and disciplined. To begin
with, every corps had a particular head-dress and fighting shields of
one colour, just as in our army each regiment has its own facings on the
tunics. These shields are cut from the hides of oxen, and it is easy to
imagine what a splendid sight was presented by a Zulu impi twenty
thousand strong, divided into several regiments, one with snow-white
shields and tall cranes' feathers on their heads, one with coal-black
shields and black plumes, and others with red and mottled shields, and
bands of fur upon their foreheads. In their war with the English many of
the Zulus were armed with muzzle-loading guns and rifles of the worst
description, of which they could make little use, for few of them were
trained to handle firearms. A much more terrible weapon in their hands,
and one that did nearly all the execution at Isandhlwana, was the
broad-bladed short-shafted stabbing assegai. This shape of spear was
introduced by the great king Chaka, and if a warrior cast it at an
enemy, or even chanced to lose it in a fight, he was killed when the
fray was over. Before Chaka's day the Zulu tribes used light assegais,
which they threw at the enemy from a distance, and thus their ammunition
was sometimes spent before they came to close quarters with the foe.

Among the Zulus every able-bodied man was enrolled in one or other of
the regiments--even the girls and boys were made into regiments or
attached to them, and though these did not fight, they carried the mats
and cooking pots of the army, and drove the cattle for the soldiers to
eat when on the march. Thus it will be seen that this people differed
from any other in the world in modern days, for whereas even the most
courageous and martial of mankind look upon war as an exceptional state
of affairs and an evil only to be undertaken in self-defence, or perhaps
for purposes of revenge and aggrandisement, the Zulus looked on peace as
the exceptional state, and on warfare as the natural employment of man.
Chaka taught them that lesson, and t