The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-08-05
By H. RIDER HAGGARD.
CHAPTER X.
THE TALE OF GALAz1 THE WOLF.

The lioness bounded away, and in hel
mouth was UmslOpOgaas. Once he strug
gled, but she bit him hard, so he LAY
quiet in her mouth, and looked back and
saw the face of NADIA as she ran from
the fence of thorns, crying Save himP
He saw her face, he heard her words
then he saw and heard little more, fol
the world grew dark 10 him, and he
PASSED, as it were, into a deep sleep.
Presently Umslopogaas awoke again.
feeling pain in his thigh where the lion
ess had bitten him, and heard a sound OF
shouting. He looked up; near TO him stood
the lioness that had loosened him from
her jaws. She was snOrting with rage.
and in front of her was lad-a lad long
and strong, with a grim. face and a
VOLTS hide. black and gray, bound about
his shoulders in such fashion that the
upper jaw and teeth of the wolf rested
on his head. He stood before the honess,
shouting, and III one hand he held large
war shield and in the other he grasped a
heavy club shOd with iron.
Now the honess crouched herself 70
spring, growing terribly, but the lad
with the club did not wait for the spring.
He ran III upon her and smote her on the
head with the club, yet did not kill her,
for she reared herself upon her hind legs
and struck at him heavily. He caught
the blow upon his shield, but the shield
was driven against his breast so strongly
that he fell backward beneath the shield.
Then the honess sprang upon him and
worried at him. Still, because of the
shield, as yet she could not come to
him to slay him. But UmslOpOgaas saw
that this might not endure, for present
ly the shield would be torn aside and
the stranger must be killed. Now, in
the breast of the lioness yet stood the
half of UmslopOgaas' broken spear, and
the blade of it was a span deep in her
breast. So he rose swiftly, ran to where
the lioness worried at him who lay be-
meath the shield and, seizing the haft
Of the broken spear, drove it deep into
her and wrenched it around. Now she
turned, roaring, and clawed at him,
tearing his breast and arms. Then, as
he lay, he heard mighty bowling, and
behold! gray wolves and black leaped
upon the honess and rent and worried
her till she fell and was torn to pieces
by them. After this the senses of UNI
slopOgaas left him again.
At length his mind came back to him,
and he saw that he lay in a cave upon a
bed of grass, while all about him were
the skins of beasts and at his side was a
pot filled with water. He drank of the
water, and then he saw that his arm
was wasted as with sickness, and that
his breast was thick with scars scarcely
skinned over.
Now while he lay and wondered the
mouth of the cave was darkened, and
through it came that same lad who had
done battle with the honess and been
overthrown by her, bearing dead buck
upon his shoulders. He put down the
buck upon the ground, and walking to
where UmslOpogaas lay looked upon him.
Our he said, ''your eyes are open
do you, then, live. Stranger
II live" answered UmsIopogaas, land
| am hungry"
1T is time" said the other; "since
with toll bore you here through the
forest, for twelve days you have lain
without sense, drinking water only.
Twice 1 was near to killing you, that
you might cease to suffer and 1 70 be
troubled, but held my hand because Of
u word which came TO me from one who
is dead. Now eat, that your strength may
return to you. Afterward we will talk"
And afterward, as they sat at night by
the fire in the cave, they spoke together.
How are you named?" asked Um-
slopogaas of the other.
II am named Galazi the Wolf" he
answered, "and am of Zulu blood-aye,
of the blood of Chaka, the king; for the
father of SonzaDgacona, the father Of
Chaka, was my great-grandfather."
whence, then. came you, GalaziY'
II came from Swaziland-from the |
tribe of the Halakazi, which l should |
rule. This is the story: Siguyana, my
was a younger brother Of
the father of Chaka, but |
he quarreled with SenZangacona and
became a wanderer. With certain of ,
the people of the Umtetwa he wandered |
into Swaziland and sojourned with the |
IIalakaZi tribe i'll their great caves, and !
the end of it was that no slew the chief |
of the tribe and took his place. After |
he was dead my father ruled in his |
place, but there was a great party in |
the tribe that hated his rule because he |
was of the Zulu race. and it would have |
set up chief of the old Swat blood in |
his place. Still, they could not do this, !
for my fathers hand was heavy on the
people. Now / was the only son of my
father by his head wife and should lie
chief after him, and therefore those of
the Swat party-and they We're many
and great-hated me also.
80 matters stood till last year i'll the
winter, and then my father set his heart !
upon killing twenty of the headmen,
with their wives and children, because
he knew that they plotted against him. !
But the headmen learned what was to |
come and they prevailed upon wife OF
my father-a woman of their own blood |
to poison him. So she poisoned him |
in the night, and i'll the morning it was |
told me that my father lay sick and |
summoned me, and l went to my father.
In his hut l found him, and he was
writing with pain.
What is it, my father said. Who
has done this evilY'
8" 1t is this. my son. he gasped, that
am poisoned, and yonder she stands
who has dore the deed, and he pointed
TO the woman.
"NOw the girl was young and fair,
and we had been friends, yet | say that
| did not pause, for my heart was mad
in me. l did not pause, but seizing my
spear l ran ut her and, though she cried
for mercy, killed her with the spear.
"'That was well done, Galazi, said my
father. But when l am gone look to
my son, for these Swat dogs
VIII drive you out and rob you of your
placed But if they drive you out and
you yet live, swear this to me, that you
will not rest till you avenge me-.
81 swear it, my father answered.
1 swear that l will stamp the men of
the tribe of Halakazi fiat, every one of
them except those CT my own blood, and
bring their women to slavery and their
children to bondsr
big words for a young mouth said
my father. Yet you shall live to bring
these things about, Galazi. This l know
of you now in my hour of death; you
shall be a wanderer for the few years of
your life, child of Siguyana, and
III another land you shall die
u mans death, and not such death as
yonder witch has given to me- Then
with a great groan he died.
Now passed out. dragging the body
of the dead girl after me. In front of