'Tween Snow and Fire: A Tale of the Last Kafir WarMitford, Bertram
History
'Tween Snow and Fire: A Tale of the Last Kafir War
Mitford, Bertram
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878 -- Fiction
A narrow opening is made in the fence and half a dozen Kafirs enter. An
ox is turned out. No sooner is the poor beast clear of the fence than
it is suddenly seen to plunge and fall forward in a heap, stabbed to the
heart by a broad-bladed assegai. The slaughterer steps back to his
lurking position and stands with arm upraised. Quickly another ox
follows upon the first. The weapon, now dimmed and reddened with blood,
flashes in the air. The second animal plunges forward dead. A third
follows, with like result.
Then, scenting danger, and terrified moreover by the crowd which is
gathering outside, the beasts stubbornly refuse to move. They huddle
together with lowered heads, backing away from the opening and emitting
the muffled, moaning noise evoked in cattle by the scent of blood. In
vain their would-be drivers shout and goad them with assegais. Move
they will not.
Another opening is made on the opposite side to that of the first.
After some trouble two oxen are driven through. They rush out together,
one falling by the hand of the lurking slaughterer, the other meeting a
speedy death at the assegais of the spectators.
There still remain upwards of a dozen within the kraal, but of these not
one can be induced to pass out. Panic-stricken they huddle together
closer still, until at last, their terror giving way to a frenzy of
rage, the maddened brutes turn and furiously charge their tormentors.
The air is rent with savage bellowings and the clashing of horns. The
dust flies in clouds from the rumbling earth as the frenzied creatures
tear round and round the inclosure. Two of the Kafirs, less agile or
less fortunate than their fellows, are flung high in the air, falling
with a lifeless thud among the spectators outside; then, crashing
through the fence in a body, the panic-stricken bullocks stream forth
into the open, scattering the crowd right and left before the fury of
their rush.
Then ensues a wild and stirring scene. Their great horns lowered, the
infuriated animals course madly through the village, each beset by a
crowd of armed savages whose dark, agile forms, avoiding the fierce
impetus of their charge, may be seen to spring alongside, plying the
deadly assegai. One turns suddenly and heads straight for its pursuers,
bellowing hideously. Like magic the crowd parts, there is a whizz of
assegais in the air, and the poor beast crashes earthward, bristling
with quivering assegai hafts, as a pin cushion with pins. Yelling,
whistling like fiends, in their uncontrollable excitement, the savages
dart in and out among the fleeing beasts, and the red firelight gleams
upon assegai points and rolling eyeballs, and the air rings with the
frenzied bellowing of the pursued, and the wild shouts of the pursuers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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