he white men live there are kings even as there are in this land; and--
also as in this land--they are men undistinguishable from other men,
save by their clothing. Also, as in Mashonaland, the king is a soldier,
the chief and general of all his troops; and he is distinguishable from
all others by the magnificence of his clothing. Therefore, when I
decided to visit Mashonaland, and the matter of suitable presents arose
in my mind, I decided that I could not possibly offer anything more
suitable and acceptable to the King of Mashona than the garb of a
soldier such as a king wears. And, behold, there it is!"

"Au!" ejaculated Lomalindela, regarding the little heap with new
interest. "Is that, then, the garb that the king of the white men
wears?"

"Even so," I answered, straining the truth a little. "It is the garb of
a soldier, and that is the kind of garb which a white king wears upon
state occasions, such as a review of his troops, or upon the occasion of
some very great and important ceremonial."

"Good!" ejaculated the king. "Thy gift comes most opportunely.
To-morrow is the day of the great annual festival in Mashonaland, when I
review all my soldiers, and when the witch doctors smell out those who
are my secret enemies. I will wear it then. But thou, white man, must
show me how each thing is used, for I have never before seen anything
like them."

"Assuredly I will," said I. "Shall it be now?" The king considered for
a moment, and then answered in the affirmative, at the same time
beckoning to a certain chief, an elderly, grey-headed man, and giving
him an order; whereupon the chief--whom I assumed to be deep in his
monarch's confidence--left his place in the semicircular cordon behind
the throne, and, advancing to where the bundle lay at my feet, lifted it
reverentially and bore it away to a large, rectangular hut--which I took
to be the itunkulu, or king's house--at the far corner of the square,
whither Lomalindela and I forthwith followed him. This hut, which was
about fifty feet long by about forty feet broad, and some seven feet
high to the eaves of the roof, was built of what is known in Cape Colony
as "wattle and daub"; that is to say, the walls had been constructed of
interlaced wattle-work plastered over with mud and allowed to dry in the
heat of the sun, after which they and the roof had been thickly thatched
with palm leaves. This effectually turned the heavy tropical rain to
which the cou