horus.

The Limpopo river was reached one evening after a hot, waterless march
of over forty miles. The summer floods had subsided, and the lovely,
forest-fringed stream, with crystal-clear currents swirling and eddying
amongst the rocks, lay before them, full three hundred yards in width.
The meat was nearly finished, the little remaining being putrid from
the heat, but Kondwana rested his men for a couple of days amongst the
shady trees on the bank. They knew that the Makalaka cattle were not
far off, and a couple of days' hunger was, to Zulu soldiers, not very
much of a hardship. On the morning of the third day after reaching the
river, the expedition crossed. The crossing was not easy work, as many
of the swirling channels were deep and rapid; moreover, on almost every
rock crocodiles basked. But the men linked arms, four abreast, and
dashed into the water singing their regimental war-song, and in spite
of all difficulties reached the opposite bank without the loss of a
man.

II.

A somewhat awkward circumstance was this;--a number of the men had lost
their spears, and the loss of his weapon by a Zulu soldier was a crime
admitting of no palliation or pardon. The Zulu soldier carried only one
spear--a frightful weapon, with a broad blade and a short, thick
handle. The use of this weapon (ikempe) had been introduced by Tshaka,
who substituted it for the light throwing assegai (umkonto). Although
quite discarded in war, the assegai was still used in the chase, and
the men and boys were encouraged to keep up the practice of assegai
throwing. Many of Kondwana's men had brought assegais with them; for
the expedition not being a purely military one, discipline was not kept
up so strictly as otherwise it would have been.

It was found, however, in hunting, that the light assegai was not
effective in bringing down game. When used in stabbing, the weight was
not sufficiently great, nor was the blade large enough to inflict a
fatal wound; when hurled, the weapon was often lost through the animal
escaping with it sticking fast, and being seen no more.

On some occasions the droves of game were so dense that no difficulty
was experienced in killing animals by stabbing them at close quarters,
but often such could not be done, only a few being driven into the
ambush. Then the men had to choose between growing hunger and the risk
of losing their spears through the wounded animals escaping, spears and
all. As a matter of fact