t comfortable building the court used to be
held out in the open air under the shade of some large trees--a
more picturesque method of doing business, certainly, but subject to
inconveniences on account of the weather. It is altogether the most
primitive and patriarchal style of business one ever saw, but all the
more delightful on that account.

It is inexpressibly touching to see with one's own eyes the
wonderfully deep personal devotion and affection of the Kafirs for the
kindly English gentleman who for thirty years and more has been their
real ruler and their wise and judicious friend. Not a friend to pamper
their vices and give way to their great fault of idleness, but a true
friend to protect their interests, and yet to labor incessantly for
their social advancement and for their admission into the great field
of civilized workers. The Kafirs know little and care less for all
the imposing and elaborate machinery of British rule; the queen on
her throne is but a fair and distant dream-woman to them; Sir Garnet
himself, that great inkosi, was as nobody in their eyes compared to
their own chieftain, their king of hearts, the one white man to whom
of their own free will and accord they give the royal salute whenever
they see him. I have stood in magnificent halls and seen king and
kaiser pass through crowds of bowing courtiers, but I never saw
anything which impressed me so strongly as the simultaneous springing
to the feet, the loud shout of _Bayete!_ given with the right hand
upraised (a higher form of salutation than _Inkosi!_ and only accorded
to Kafir royalty), the look, of love and rapture and satisfied
expectation in all those keen black faces, as the minister, quite
unattended, without pomp or circumstance of any sort or kind, quietly
walked into the large room and sat himself down at his desk with some
papers before him. There was no clerk, no official of any sort: no
one stood between the people and the fountain of justice. The
extraordinary simplicity of the trial which commenced was only to be
equaled by the decorum and dignity with which it was conducted. First
of all, everybody sat down upon the floor, the plaintiff and defendant
amicably side by side opposite to the minister's desk, and the other
natives, about a hundred in number, squatted in various groups. Then,
as there was evidently a slight feeling of surprise at my sitting
myself down in the only other chair--they probably considered me a
new--