red I had no belief whatsoever, either
with or without its accessories of dried river-beds and water-holes.

"If all this old woman's talk has made _you_ afraid, however," I added,
"you can stop at the kraal with Mameena."

"Why should the talk make me afraid, Macumazahn? Zikali did not say that
this evil spirit of a buffalo would hurt _me_. If I fear, it is for you,
seeing that if you are hurt you may not be able to go with me to look
for Bangu's cattle."

"Oh!" I replied sarcastically; "it seems that you are somewhat selfish,
friend Saduko, since it is of your welfare and not of my safety that you
are thinking."

"If I were as selfish as you seem to believe, Inkoosi, should I advise
you to stop with your wagons, and thereby lose the good gun with two
mouths that you have promised me? Still, it is true that I should like
well enough to stay at Umbezi's kraal with Mameena, especially if Umbezi
were away."

Now, as there is nothing more uninteresting than to listen to
other people's love affairs, and as I saw that with the slightest
encouragement Saduko was ready to tell me all the history of his
courtship over again, I did not continue the argument. So we finished
our journey in silence, and arrived at Umbezi's kraal a little after
sundown, to find, to the disappointment of both of us, that Mameena was
still away.

Upon the following morning we started on our shooting expedition, the
party consisting of myself, my servant Scowl, who, as I think I said,
hailed from the Cape and was half a Hottentot; Saduko; the merry old
Zulu, Umbezi, and a number of his men to serve as bearers and beaters.
It proved a very successful trip--that is, until the end of it--for in
those days the game in this part of the country was extremely plentiful.
Before the end of the second week I killed four elephants, two of them
with large tusks, while Saduko, who soon developed into a very fair
shot, bagged another with the double-barrelled gun that I had promised
him. Also, Umbezi--how, I have never discovered, for the thing partook
of the nature of a miracle--managed to slay an elephant cow with fair
ivories, using the old rifle that went off at half-cock.

Never have I seen a man, black or white, so delighted as was that
vainglorious Kafir. For whole hours he danced and sang and took snuff
and saluted with his hand, telling me the story of his deed over and
over again, no single version of which tale agreed with the other. He
took a ne