ing, they who were food for death. They seated themselves; then
round them on the outside of the circle gathered knots of warriors,
chosen men, great and fierce, armed with kerries only. These were the
slayers.

When all was ready, the king came out, followed by his indunas and by
me. As he appeared, wrapped in the kaross of tiger-skins and towering
a head higher than any man there, all the multitude--and it was many
as the game on the hills--cast themselves to earth, and from every lip
sharp and sudden went up the royal salute of Bayete. But Chaka took no
note; his brow was cloudy as a mountain-top. He cast one glance at the
people and one at the slayers, and wherever his eye fell men turned grey
with fear. Then he stalked on, and sat himself upon a stool to the north
of the great ring looking toward the open space.

For awhile there was silence; then from the gates of the women's
quarters came a band of maidens arrayed in their beaded dancing-dresses,
and carrying green branches in their hands. As they came, they clapped
their hands and sang softly:--

We are the heralds of the king's feast. Ai! Ai!
Vultures shall eat it. Ah! Ah!
It is good--it is good to die for the king!

They ceased, and ranged themselves in a body behind us. Then Chaka held
up his hand, and there was a patter of running feet. Presently from
behind the royal huts appeared the great company of the Abangoma, the
witch-doctors--men to the right and women to the left. In the left
hand of each was the tail of a vilderbeeste, in the right a bundle of
assegais and a little shield. They were awful to see, and the bones
about them rattled as they ran, the bladders and the snake-skins floated
in the air behind them, their faces shone with the fat of anointing,
their eyes started like the eyes of fishes, and their lips twitched
hungrily as they glared round the death-ring. Ha! ha! little did those
evil children guess who should be the slayers and who should be the
slain before that sun sank!

On they came, like a grey company of the dead. On they came in silence
broken only by the patter of their feet and the dry rattling of their
bony necklets, till they stood in long ranks before the Black One.
Awhile they stood thus, then suddenly every one of them thrust forward
the little shield in his hand, and with a single voice they cried,
"Hail, Father!"

"Hail, my children!" answered Chaka.

"What seekest thou, Father?" they cried again. "Blo