Now at the time she was riding on a path which ran along
the edge of a little rock-strewn donga not more than eight or ten feet
deep, but steep-sided. Into this donga the bull, which had shut its eyes
to charge after the fashion of its kind, plunged headlong, and as it
chanced struck its horns against a stone, twisting and dislocating the
neck, so that it lay there still and dead.
When the Zulus saw what had happened they uttered a long-drawn _Ow-w_ of
amazement, for had not the beast dared to attack the White Spirit, and had
not the Spirit rewarded it with instant death? Then a captain made a
motion with his hand and instantly men sprang upon the remaining cattle,
four or five of them that were following the bull, and despatched them
with assegais. Before Rachel could interfere they were pierced with a
hundred wounds. Now there was a little pause, while the carcases of the
beasts were dragged out of her path, and the bloodstains covered from her
eyes with fresh earth. Just as this task was finished there appeared,
scrambling up the denga, and followed, by some men, a fat and
hideous-looking woman, with fish bladders in her hair, and snake-skins
tied about her, who, from her costume, Rachel knew at once must be an
_Isanuzi_ or witch-doctoress.
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