dence of their efficiency in this respect during
their three days' halt in the rocky defile. Like all other huts
belonging to savages in these regions, they had only one opening, which
served as door, window, and chimney.

The boys had only time for a very cursory survey of these particulars,
when they were hurried into the dwelling of Umboo the chief of the
tribe, who, they were told, was impatiently expecting them. Without
waiting therefore to wash or cool themselves, or change any part of
their dress, they passed into the royal hut, as it might be termed;
though, on examination, it was not found to be materially different from
those around it.

It was larger, certainly, and perhaps a foot higher, the ordinary huts
not being more than five feet in height. The floor was strewn with
karosses, on one of which the great Umboo was sitting when they entered.
In the background several of his wives--he was said to have nearly a
dozen--were sitting; mostly young, well-shaped women, though their
figures were almost concealed from sight by numberless necklaces,
girdles, armlets, and anklets, ornamented after a strange and bizarre
fashion with shells, tigers' teeth, polished stones, and metal spangles
of all shapes and sizes--obtained doubtless from tradings with the
whites. The chief himself was attired after a fashion so extraordinary,
that the boys, and particularly Nick, could with difficulty restrain a
shout of laughter as their eyes lighted upon him.

He was a tall and very stout man, with features which, for one of his
race, might be accounted handsome; and his dress, however anomalous in
the estimation of Europeans, was doubtless regarded with respect and
even awe by his own subjects. It consisted of a full-bottomed wig,
which had probably once graced the head of some Dutch official, though
every vestige of powder had long disappeared. The lower folds of this
headdress fell over the collar of the red coat of an English grenadier--
a souvenir probably of Muizenberg or Blauenberg--the rusty buttons and
tarnished embroidery testifying to the hard service which the garment in
question had seen. Below the coat, so far as the mid-calf, Umboo's
person remained in its natural state, always excepting the red ochre and
grease with which it was liberally besmeared, the odour from which,
under the broiling sun, was almost unendurable. The royal costume was
completed by a pair of top-boots with brass spurs attached--suggesti