He did not strike; but with infinite cruel cunning of hand--no measurable lapse of time ensuing--drew the assegai across the face of the astonished Emperor.
Hands gripped assegai hafts with fierce and bloodthirsty thrill, yet no weapon was to be used.
Or--" And the speaker made a quick, downward slash with his assegai that left room for no explanation in mere words.
In a moment they emerged, and the glint of assegai blades and the wave of hard sticks was everywhere, as the kraal became alive with swarming savages, the mutter of deep-toned voices eloquent with suppressed hate and menace.
But its owner, a hulking, ochre-smeared savage, emitted a howl and rushed forth from the crowd, a long tapering assegai in his hand poised for a throw.
Then the whole mighty mass moved forward in line, and the light of gushing flames gleamed redly on assegai blades as the foremost warriors went through the pantomime of striking down an imaginary foe.
An assegai or two would have answered all purposes there on the spot.
The assegai blade was lowered, and Sandgate's head was released.
However, dismounting, the men kicked his assegai out of his reach.
And in a moment the wretched Fingo's arms were tightly bound behind him with raw-hide, and he himself was hustled along, propelled by kicks and blows and assegai prods, towards the place of his ghastly death.
Anyhow, he 's done for; they drove a stabbing assegai clean through him and pinned him to a post of his own hut.
The next kraal heard of this, and decided at once that a chief had been insulted, and the next thing was a fight and the old headman with an assegai through him.
Each firmly gripped the other's right wrist, for the purpose of preventing the use of the broad-bladed, murderousassegai with which the right hand of each was armed.
They could even hear the rattle of the assegai hafts as the savages climbed up the opposite bank, laughing like children as they shook the water drops from their sleek, well-greased skins.
Then one, more daring or less credulous than his fellows, reached forward as if about to plunge his assegai into the motionless body.
It did not penetrate much that time; not that the blow wasn't hard enough, for it nearly knocked me down, but the assegai was a rotten one and made of soft iron, and the point flattened out like a Snider bullet.
Springing like a cat the savage made a swift stab at the breast of his intended victim, who swerved quickly, but not quickly enough, and the blade of the assegai descended, inflicting an ugly wound in the man's side.
Snatches of war-songs rise upon the air, and the rattle of assegai hafts blends with the barbaric melody.
There was the gleam of an assegai in the air--then darkness and the shatter of glass.
With a respectful salute to the white man they filed off into the bush, and soon the faint rattle of assegai hafts and the deep bass hum of their voices faded into silence.
Wait here until I return," he had seized his assegai and disappeared in the direction of the pit again.
It arrested assegai blades quivering to bury themselves in the fallen man's body.
Right through the breast of the portrait, the assegai point had pierced.
Weapons are brandished, and the firelight glows uponassegai points and rolling eyeballs.
Grasping theassegai in her powerful right hand, she advanced towards Eustace.
A slight start and exclamation of astonishment escaped him, then, recovering himself, he carefully examined, without touching it, the place where the assegai had struck.
From one cave to the right front an excessively heavy fire was kept up, and Colonel Wetherby dashed at this with his men just as Colonel Wood's horse staggered from a deep assegai wound in the chest.
She heard the man start to follow her, then the moonlight went out and he returned to his post grumbling over his lost assegai and saying that he would find it in the jackal's body on the morrow.
Then drawing the assegai from the cloak and keeping it in her hand, she crept on till she came to the back of the hut in safety.
God, six hundred of them, men and women, maids and children, and little babies at the breast, went down beneath the Zulu assegai in that red dawn.
Take that, you four-legged night thief," he said aloud, and hurled the assegai in his hand straight at her.
Here, there, everywhere spears flashed and stabbed, but as yet they were unhurt, for the very press saved them, although an assegai was quivering in the flank of the schimmel.
Lady," answered the old man coldly, "we dare because we must, for honour cannot live before the assegai of thirst.
One short hour, and if it was not enough then death by the Zulu assegai would be the portion of Suzanne and of those among whom she sheltered.
Then she put up her hand, and drew the assegaifrom her side.
But as he threw, my snake put it into the king's heart to sneeze, and thus it came to pass that the assegaionly pierced the outer leaves of the medicine, and did not touch the child.
Umslopogaas alone stood up to face her, for he only had withdrawn his assegai from the carcass of the lion.
Among the broken mealies we found the body of a very old man, as full of assegaiwounds as a porcupine with quills.
Think of my words when the assegai reddens before thee for the last time, king!
We had not far to look, for standing gazing at the huts, like one who is afraid to call, was a tall slim man, holding an assegai in one hand and a little shield in the other.
Those of them who escaped the assegai were enrolled into fresh regiments, and thus, though men died by thousands every month, yet the army grew.
What, Mopo," he said to me, "shall I rear up children to put me to the assegai when they grow great?
Nada may yet be sought for with the assegai in the Swazi caves; enough of her.
So I cut my way through the reed fence with my assegai and crept to the hut where Baleka was with some of her half-sisters.
Presently he bethought himself of the white praying man, who had come to the kraal seeking to teach us people of the Zulu to worship other gods than the assegai and the king.
Prince Dingaan, and drew an assegai from under his kaross.
Then I stretched out the handle of my assegai towards her.
Although quite discarded in war, the assegai was still used in the chase, and the men and boys were encouraged to keep up the practice of assegai throwing.
They found, moreover, that throwing the assegai was not of much avail on account of the large shields which the Zulus carried.
The use of this weapon (ikempe) had been introduced by Tshaka, who substituted it for the light throwing assegai (umkonto).
It was found, however, in hunting, that the light assegai was not effective in bringing down game.
That jackal man knows your secret, girl, and soon or late will loose the assegai on you.
Therefore if they were detained he would be obliged to live at some distance from her where an assegai might find him at night or poison be put in his food.
With a few swift cuts of the spear she held Rachel severed his bonds, then picked up his own assegai that lay at his feet she thrust it into his numbed hand.
Only the shadow of that Zulu assegai still lay upon them, for if Chaka was dead Dingaan ruled a few miles away across the Tugela.
Taking the assegai with her she went to the door in the high wall and found that it was barred on the further side.
Use that assegai at once, for your wound must be painful, or perhaps as you are down upon the ground Ibubesi will do it for you.
As she went her eyes fell upon the assegai that lay near to the dead Zulu.
The wounded man watched them pass the door, and when the last of them had gone he used the assegai upon himself, and with his failing hand flung it feebly at Ishmael.
There at her side lay a means of death--the assegai which she had found by the body of the Zulu in Ramah, and none had taken from her.
Kaffirs do not like death, unless it comes by the assegaiin war, and Tom, a good creature, had been fond of that baby during its short little life.
He carried an old musket and was attended by two youngsters armed with throwing-sticks and a hunting assegai each.
One of these sudden reappearances brought him once more abreast, and quite near to us, and Jim with a fierce yell and with his assegai held high in his right hand dashed into the water, going through the shallows in wild leaps.
We were bunched together, preparing to crawl along a rock overhanging a little pool, when the boy in front made a sign and pointed with his assegai to the dogs.
A kaffir jumped out with assegai aloft; but Teddy, with the spring of a tiger and a yell of rage, swung his rifle round and down onassegai arm and head, and dropped the boy in his tracks.
Jim gave a yell and shot past me, plunging his assegai into the object and shouting "Porcupine, porcupine," at the top of his voice.
Well, that time I came on a regiment in Pluto's Vale, when a Kaffir poked his assegai in the big drum, and the Colonel he give me a big knife for what I did.
And the next minnit an assegai struck him on the neck, and he fell into my arms.
Well, the Kaffirs they dropped, crawling for shelter, and Harry came in as cool as you please, with an assegai in his hand that he picked up.
Dog,' he said, and druv' his assegai in over the blade.
The Kaffirs is beaten,' he says; and just then a young Kaffir leapt outer the bush and rammed his assegai into the big drum.
There he were among the rushes, bleeding to death from an assegai wound, and one of them pioneers, his arms all bloody, lifted the young chap up and carried him to the waggons.
He jes' slipped behind a tree, and when I ris my head out of them ferns he druv his assegai at me, and it clean pinned my left arm to my side.
And as I watched 'em go, blow me ef one of them in the rear didn't drop his assegai on puppose.
Then he reached down, took up a length of roasting flesh, caught hold of a mouthful and saw off the chunk with the blade of his assegai 'twixt his hand and his lips.
A big Matabele warrior was half in the room; another, quick as thought, drove his assegai clean through the Cockney prospector.
And now footsteps were heard approaching the scherm, together with the rattle of assegai hafts.
Assegai blades flashed suddenly aloft, drawn forth from their places of concealment, and the plain was alive with the dark forms of bounding savages.
Then, pointing at them with the broad-bladed assegai in his hand, he said: "Who are these?
See there, white man," pointing with his great assegaiat Mushad.
His rifle lay on the ground beside him, but his left hand grasped his great war-shield, while with the right he was alternately beating time with his assegai to his song, or making short, quick lunges at empty air.
That very evening as we all sat at supper, the children having gone to bed, an assegai suddenly flew just over Mrs. Gadsby's head, and struck quivering in the wall behind her.
Evidently the man cannot have heard this native approach; we supposed he must have been at the other side of the house, but we afterwards discovered that the poor fellow lay killed with another assegai through him.
As she spoke the words, an assegaiflashed through the window-place, passing just between our heads.
The geese go straight, like an assegai to its mark.
As a matter of fact anassegai had gone half through it and hit upon the bone.
Yet, know that if you try to cry out, if you even struggle, you die," and he lifted theassegai so as to be ready to plunge it through my heart.
In my despair I seized the blade end of the broken assegai and dragged it from the body of the Kaffir, thinking that it would serve to kill her, then turned to do the deed.
Down it came between the Vrouw Prinsloo and the slayers, smashing the lifted assegai of one of them and hurling him to the earth.
The beast pulled up by the side of the mare which it had been pursuing, and in the faint light I saw that an assegai was fixed in its flank.
The wood began to give at last, an assegai appeared through a shattered plank, but Hans stabbed along the line of it with the spear he held, that which I had snatched from the flank of the horse, and it was dropped with a scream.
I took the candle from Marie's hand, and set it on the floor close to the wall, lest it should prove a target for an assegai or a bullet.
The playful dig with which the savage thrust forward his assegai at that final remark showed Granville Kelmscott in a moment this was no idle threat.
If Granville insisted, he showed in very frank dumb show, why--a thrust with the assegaiexplained the rest most persuasively.
These guards wove baskets, or shaped out bullet-moulds, or bound the assegai blades to the slender shafts; they did anything apparently but keep sentry over the domicile they so cautiously protected.
Mr Daveney said little, but took the assegai in hand to examine it.
Suffice it to say, that the wretched animal, being secured beyond all power of resistance, was deprived of its tongue by the most cruel process, and its skin subjected to the assegai ere it was fairly dead.
How many quailed before the assegai as it was again waved aloft!
The blade of the assegai still remained in the flesh, but the lioness waited no longer.
He was soon upon his feet, another assegai whistled through the air, and pierced through the neck of the lioness.
She might not have suffered it to go much farther; but it was now far enough for her adversary's purpose, for the shield suddenly became erect, and the Kaffir once more sent his assegai whirring from his hand.
Panda, on the Zululand frontier, growled over his assegai and knobkerry.
A scarred warrior exchanged his dripping assegai for the Queen's commission as a J.
An assegai or knobkerrie would do the trick just as well, and make no noise about it.
In more than one instance some desperate savage, mortally and otherwise disabled, gripped his assegai in a feigned death grip to strike a last blow at any who should be unwary enough to approach him.
By and by Birmingham-forged blades were imported, surreptitiously, by the traders; but the assegai turned out by old Malemba and his son never fell in reputation.
It was that wrested from Pandulu at the point of the assegai under those same dark forest shades.
But another sharp dig from the assegai again made him writhe.
In a moment four assegai blades were buried again and again in his body.
With the words he drove his assegai down hard between the prostrate man's shoulders.
I had fallen on my back, and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had driven the assegai a foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and was turning to fly.
In that light, too, his skin looked scarcely more than dark, except here and there where deep black scars marked old assegai wounds.
These knives, which are called "tollas" by the Kukuanas, take the place of the throwing assegai of the Zulus.
Khiva, the Zulu boy, saw his master fall, and brave lad as he was, turned and flung his assegai straight into the elephant's face.
As for Khiva himself, we buried what remained of him in an ant-bear hole, together with an assegaito protect himself with on his journey to a better world.
Forward he rode, till he was within ten yards of what had been the headquarter tents, when suddenly out of one of them there stalked a great Zulu, bearing in his hand a broad assegai from which blood was dripping.
Now a savage sprang on this man, and now on that; the assegai flashed up, a cry of agony echoed among the rocks, and a corpse fell heavily to the red earth.
This was what the Zulu desired; with a twist of his strong arm he wrenched the sword from his opponent's hand, and in another instant the unfortunate officer was down with an assegai through his breast.
When hardly more than a lad he could fling an assegai or a knobbed stick farther, and as true, as any man in the tribe.
He was armed with anassegai and several light throwing-clubs, and he carried two dead hares slung over his shoulder.
All the friends of the accused know that he possesses an assegai mended in the manner described, and they at once feel that he is guilty.
But the forward rush has carried some right among the remaining horses of the patrol, and the assegaiis plied with deadly effect, as the savages slash right and left, burying their reeking blades within the vitals of the poor animals.
They growled and mouthed around their white visitors, and one, at any rate, of these expected to feel the assegai through his back any moment.
Poising the long, slender, casting assegai in his hand with a nervous quiver, he hurled it far out over the stockade.
The savage has lost his assegai in the fall, and the white man is groping hungrily, eagerly, for his sheath knife.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "assegai" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
