ry to receive
those who come to consult him than is the average doctor or lawyer of
twentieth-century England, however eager he may be in his heart of
hearts to do so, and the last of the Matabele kings was not the man to
forget what was due to his exalted position.

"What does it all mean, Sybrandt?" said Blachland, as, sitting down upon
the dusty ground, they lighted their pipes. "Why are the swine so
infernally aggressive? What does it mean anyhow?"

"Mean?" returned Young, answering for Sybrandt, who was talking to the
induna, Sikombo. "Why, it means that our people yonder will soon have
to fight like blazes if they don't want their throats cut,"--with a jerk
of the hand in the direction of the newly occupied Mashunaland. "The
_majara_ are bound to force Lo Ben's hand--if they haven't already."

From all sides of the great kraal the ground sloped away in gentle
declivity, and the situation commanded a wide and pleasant view in the
golden sunlight, and beneath the vivid blue of a cloudless subtropical
sky. To the north and west the dark, rolling, bush-clad undulations
beyond the Umguza River--eastward again, the plain, dotted with several
small kraals, each contributing its blue smoke reek, led the eye on to
the long flat-topped Intaba-'Zinduna. Down in the valley bottom--where
now stands the huge straggling town, humming with life and commerce--
vast cornfields, waving with plumed maize and the beer-yielding
_amabele_; and away southward the shining rocky ridge of the
Matya'mhlope; while, dappling the plain, far and near, thousands of
multi-coloured cattle--the King's herds--completed the scene of pleasant
and pastoral prosperity. In strange contrast to which the cloud of
armed warriors, squatted within the gates, chanting their menacing and
barbarous strophes.

Suddenly these were hushed, so suddenly indeed as to be almost
startling. For other voices were raised, coming from the stockade which
railed in the _esibayaneni_--the _sanctum sanctorum_. They were those
of the royal "praisers" stentoriously shouting forth the king's
_sibonga_:--

"He comes--the Lion!"--and they roared.

"Behold him--the Bull, the black calf of Matyobane!"--and at this they
bellowed.

"He is the Eagle which preys upon the world!"--here they screamed; and
as each imitative shout was taken up by the armed regiments, going
through every conceivable form of animal voice--the growling of
leopards, the hissing of serpents, even