THE PIONEER ADVANCE			93
	race. He was more than six feet in height, and every inch was pulsing with vigor. No rival could leap as high or hurl an
	assagai as far. In later life his shapely features were swollen with ugly passions and debauch, and his lithe body was overlaid with fat, but he never lost the beauty of his deep-set, brilliant black eyes, fringed with their long, curved eyelashes. For some cause Chaka, while only a lad, was forced to fly for refuge to Dingiswayo, chief of the Abatetwa, the master tribe of the district. Under protection of this chief he was made a sol­dier, and took by craft the head­ship of his own Zulu tribe when his father died. Then he was
	able to betray and put to death his protector Dingiswayo, and
		spread his mastery by force or terror over the surrounding tribes. As he grew in power he showed an unfolding genius for war and command. He pressed every young and strong man within reach into his army. He marshalled his men in impis or regiments. He discarded the old bunch of assagais and armed each man with a single, short-handled, long-bladed unkonto or spear, and protected him with a shield of oxhide. He aimed with his
	weapon to make every fight hand to hand, where every man must kill or be killed. If a soldier lost his spear he was