San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-08-01

mountain. linen Cn6 Ola woman rose,
and creeping ON her hands went into the
hut. Presently she returned again
dragging the great club after her.
"'Look on it, stranger Look on it,
Was there ever such club% and Galazi
held it up before the eyes of Umslopo-
gaas.
Il looked at it," went on Galazi, and
Ttell you, stranger, great desire came
into my'heart to possess it.
"'How is this club named?' | asked
of the old woman.
9" He is named Watcher of the Fords,
she answered, and he has not watched
in vain. Five men have held that club
in war and hundred and seventy and
three have given up their lives beneath
its strokes. He who held it last slew
twenty before he was slain himself; for
this fortune goes with the club, that he
who owns it shall die holding it, but in
a great fashion. There is but one other
weapon to match with it in Zululand,
and that is the great ak of Jikiza, the
chief of the People of the AK, who
dwells in the kraal yonder-the ancient
horn HATED Imbubuzi, the Groanmaker
that brings victory. Were AK Groan-
maker and club Watcher of the Ford
side by side there are no thirty men in
Zululand who might stand before them.
| have said. Choose and she watched
me cunningly through her horny eyes
At length she rose. La! La she said
the Watcher is not for this one. This
one is but a child. | must seek me a
man; must seek me manp
"'Not so fast, old wife said; will
you lend me this club to hold in my
hand while go to find the bones of your
son and to snatch them from the people
of the ghosts?
"'Boy, your eyes are honest, she said
still peering at me. Take the Watcher
go seek the bones. If you die, let the
club be lost with you; if you fail, bring
him back to me; but if you win the
bones, then he is yours, and he shall
bring you glory, and you shall die a
great death at last, holding him aloft
among the dead.
the club Watcher in my hand and a lit
tie dancing shield and made ready to
start.
"Now, stranger, if you have strength
come to the mouth of the cave and look
out for the moon is bright"
So Umslopogaas rose and crept through
the narrow mouth of the cave. There,
above him, great gray peak, shaped
like seated woman, lowered high into
the air, her chin resting upon her breast
the place where the cave was being, as
it were, on the lapof the woman. Below
this place the rock ran down sharply
and was clothed with little bushes
Lower down yet was a forest, great and
dense, that stretched to the lip of cliff
and at the foot of the cliff, beyond the
waters of the river, lay the wide plains
of Zululand.
"Yonder, stranger" said Galazi, point
ing, "yonder is the kraal where the aged
woman dwelt. There is the cliff rising
from the plain up which must climb
there is the forest where dwell the Anna
tongo, the people of the ghosts; there, on
the hither side of the forest, runs the path
to the cave, and here is the cave itself
See this stone lying at the mouth of the
cave; it turns thus, shutting up the
mouth of the cave-it turns gently
though it is so large a child may move
it, for it rests upon a sharp point of rock.
''Only this, the stone may not be push
ed too far; for, look! if it came to here,
and he pointed to a mark in the mouth
of the cave, "then that man must be
strong who can draw it back again,
though | have done it myself, who am
not man full grown. But if it pass
beyond this mark, then, see, it will roll
down the neck of the cave like pebble
down the neck of gourd, and | think
that two men, one striving from within
and one dragging from without, scarce
ly could avail to push it clear. Look,
now, l close the stone, as is my custom OF
a night, thus"-and he grasped the rock
and swung it around upon its pivot, on
which it turned as door turns. THUS
leave it, and though, except those to
whom the secret is known, none would
guess that a cave was here, yet with
push of the hand it may be rolled back
But enough IF the stone.
81 started from the kraal of the old
woman, and the people of the kraal fol-
lowed me to the brink of the river. 1t
was in food and few had dared to
cross it.
81 bound the shield upon my shout
ders with string, and the bag that !
had brought made fast about my mid
die, and held the great club in my
teeth by the thong. Then l plunged
into the river and swan. Twice, stran-
ger, the current bore me under and those
on the bank shouted that was lost, but