red and fifty women received them with a chant,
expressed in low murmuring tones, not unlike the lullaby with which a
mother sings her child to sleep.

The houses of the kraal were constructed stockade fashion, in rows of
upright poles, interlaced with reeds or long grass, and then covered
with a plaster of mud. Through these the hunters were conducted to a
long shed in the centre of the village, where the saddles were taken
from their horses, which were afterwards led off to the grazing ground.

Although Macora's subjects had been allowed but three hours' notice,
they had prepared a splendid feast for his visitors.

The young hunters sat down to a dinner of roast antelope, _biltongue_,
stews of hippopotamus and buffalo flesh, baked fish, ears of green maize
roasted, with wild honey, stewed pumpkin, melons, and plenty of good
milk.

The young hunters and all their following were waited on with the
greatest courtesy. Even their dogs were feasted, while Swartboy and
Congo had never in all their lives been treated with so much
consideration.

In the afternoon, Macora informed his guests that he should give them an
entertainment; and, in order that they should enjoy the spectacle
intended for them, he informed them, by way of prologue, of the
circumstances under which it was to be enacted.

His statement was to the effect that his companions in the canoe, at the
time it was capsized by the hippopotamus, had reached home, bringing
with them the story of their mishap; that the tribe had afterwards made
a search for their chief, but not finding him, had come to the
conclusion that he had been either drowned or killed by the sea-cow.
They had given him up for lost; and another important member of the
community, named Sindo, had proclaimed himself chief of the tribe.

When Macora reached home that morning, Sindo had not yet come forth from
his house; and, before he was aware of the chief's reappearance, the
house had been surrounded and the usurper made prisoner. Sindo, fast
bound and guarded, was now awaiting execution; and this was the
spectacle which the hunters were to be treated to.

It was a scene that none of the young hunters had any desire to be
present at; but, yielding to the importunities of their host, they
accompanied him to the spot where the execution was to take place. This
was in the suburbs of the village, where they found the prisoner fast
tied to a tree. Nearly all the inhabitants of the commun