sted His Majesty to get into it, and I buttoned it down the front.
Next I attached the fur-trimmed pelisse to one shoulder, adjusted the
shoulder belt, threw the brass chain with mirror attached round his
neck, placed the plumed shako on his head, girded the sword about his
waist, and there he stood, a most grotesque yet withal not unkingly
figure, fully attired in the uniform of a hussar.

The effect upon the induna was tremendous; he stood for several seconds
gazing open-mouthed upon the awe-inspiring apparition of his king in the
new and strange attire, and then, flinging himself prone upon the ground
with his hands over his eyes, exclaimed:

"It is too much; mine eyes are not strong enough to gaze upon so much
splendour! Bayete! Bayete!! Bayete!!!"

As for the king, his gratification and pride were unbounded: never
before, I suppose, had he beheld any man so completely overpowered with
admiration as this old induna; and if such was the effect of his
appearance upon a man with whom he was, comparatively speaking,
familiar, what might he not expect to be the result when he exhibited
himself in his kingly attire to his troops? He swelled visibly with
gratified vanity--for vanity and fear of witchcraft are the two
overmastering emotions of the savage--grinned from ear to ear as he took
the mirror in his hand and gazed admiringly at the reflected image of
himself crowned with the smart shako and its nodding horsehair plume,
and finally turned to me with the question:

"Say now, white man, what think ye? Do I look like a white king?"

"In every respect, Your Majesty," answered I, with several mental
reservations.

"Au! it is good; it is very good indeed!" he exclaimed. "Now am I a
white king, and when my enemies behold me they shall tremble, and their
hearts shall melt within them as the snow upon the mountain tops melts
when the glory of the sun shines upon it. Their courage shall fail and
their spirit shall wither at the sight of me, even as the grass withers
and shrivels at the breath of fire. I am the king!"

A silence of a few minutes followed this rhapsody, then he turned to the
still prostrate induna, and, kicking him gently in the ribs with his
booted foot, exclaimed:

"Rise, Mapela, and behold me! You must grow accustomed to the sight of
me in my kingly garb, for now that I have it I shall often delight the
eyes of my people by wearing it. Say, now, shall I go forth this
instant and make glad t