e handed over to it to take to wife. This regulation
came into force because it was found that men without home ties were
more ferocious and made better soldiers, and the result of these harsh
rules was that the Zulu warrior, living as he did under the shadow of a
savage discipline, for any breach of which there was but one punishment,
death, can hardly be said to have led a life of domestic comfort, such
as men of all times and nations have thought their common right. But
even a Zulu must have some object in life, some shrine at which to
worship, some mistress of his affections. Home he had none, religion he
had none, mistress he had none, but in their stead he had his career
as a warrior, and his hope of honour and riches to be gained by the
assegai. His home was on the war-track with his regiment, his religion
the fierce denunciation of the isanusi,[*] and his affections were fixed
on the sudden rush of battle, the red slaughter, and the spoils of
the slain. "War," says Sir T. Shepstone, in a very remarkable despatch
written about a year before the outbreak of the Zulu war, "is the
universal cry among the soldiers, who are anxious to live up to their
traditions, . . . . and the idea is gaining ground among the people that
their nation has outlived the object of its existence." Again he says,
"The engine (the Zulu military organisation) has not ceased to exist or
to generate its forces, although the reason or excuse for its existence
has died away: these forces have continued to accumulate and are daily
accumulating without safety-valve or outlet."

[*] _Witch-doctor._ These persons are largely employed in
Zululand to smell out witches who are supposed to have
bewitched others, and are of course very useful as political
agents. Any person denounced by them is at once executed. A
friend of the writer's was once present at a political
smelling-out on a large scale, and describes it as a very
curious and unpleasant scene. The men, of whom there were
some thousands, were seated in a circle, as pale with terror
as Zulus can be. Within the circle were several witch
doctors; one of whom amidst his or her incantations would
now and again step forward and touch some unfortunate man
with a forked stick. The victim was instantly led away a few
paces and his neck twisted. The circle awaited each
denunciation in breathless expectation, for not a man among