se leaves broken up in his pocket, so he at once pulled
some of these out and half filled the claw-like hand outstretched to
receive them. The old native was voluble in his thanks. There was a
large ant-heap close to the one on which he had been sitting, and on
which he reseated himself while filling his pipe. Against this Langley
leaned and took a good look at his companion. The man had a most
extraordinary face. His lower jaw and cheek-bones were largely
developed, but Langley hardly noticed this, so struck was he with
the strange formation of the upper jaw. That portion of the superior
maxillary bone which lies between the sockets of the eye-teeth
protruded, with the sockets, to a remarkable degree, and instead of
being curved appeared to be quite straight. The incisor teeth were very
large and white, but it was the development of the eye-teeth that was
most startling. These, besides being very massive, were produced below
the level of the incisors to a depth of nearly a quarter of an inch.
They distinctly suggested to Langley the tusks of a baboon.

As is not very unusual with natives, the man was perfectly bald. His
back was bent, and his limbs were somewhat shrunken, but he did not
appear in the least degree decrepit. His eyelids were very red, and his
eyes, though dim, had a deep and intent look. Ugly as was the man--or
perhaps by virtue of his ugliness--he exercised a strange fascination
over Langley.

The old man, whose name turned out to be Ghamba, proved himself a talker
after Langley's own heart. They discussed all sorts of things. Ghamba
startled his hearer by his breadth of experience and his shrewdness. He
said he was a "Hlubi" Kaffir from Qumbu, in the territory of Griqualand
East, but that he had for some time past been living in Basutoland,
which is situated just behind the frowning wall of the Drakensberg, to
the southwest of where they were speaking, and not twenty miles distant.

They talked until it was time for Langley to return to camp. He was so
pleased at the entertainment afforded by Ghamba that all the tobacco
he had with him found its way into the claw-like hand of that
strange-looking man of many experiences and quaint ideas. So Langley
asked him to come to the ant-heap again on the following day, and have
another talk at the same hour. This Ghamba, with a wide and prolonged
exposure of his teeth, readily agreed to do.

Langley was extremely voluble to Whitson that night over his new
ac