Single Masai would spring upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of the axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts, the result was always the same.

Presently there was a great swing of the axe, a crashing sound, and another dead Masai.

That is, if the man was engaged with Sir Henry.
If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with the result indeed would be the same, but it would be differently attained.

It was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handed stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continually at his adversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end of the axe as a woodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood.
Presently a peck would go home, and his enemy would drop down with a neat little circular hole in his forehead or skull, exactly similar to that which a cheese-scoop makes in a cheese.

He never used the broad blade of the axe except when hard pressed, or when striking at a shield.