g of the
enclosure so as to leave the centre free for the reviews and war dances
of the Kaffirs. Gardiner was very near entering by the wrong gate, in
which case all his escort would have been put to death. A hut was
assigned to him, a sort of beehive of grass and mud, with a hole to enter
by. His own lines, strung together in his many unoccupied moments for
his children's benefit, are so good a description of the Kaffir huts that
form a kraal or village, as to be worth inserting:--

"I see them now, those four low props
That held the haystack o'er my head,
The dusky framework from their tops
Like a large mouse-trap round me spread.

To stand erect I never tried,
For reasons you may guess:
Full fourteen feet my hut was wide,
Its height was nine feet less.

My furniture, a scanty store,
On saddle-bags beside me laid,
A hurdle, used to close the door,
Raised upon stones, my table made."

There he received a bundle of the native sugar-cane, a bowl of maize beer
from Dingarn, and was invited to his palace.

This was surrounded by a fence, outside which the Captain was desired to
sit down. Presently a black head and very stout pair of shoulders
appeared above it, and a keen sable visage eyed the visitor fixedly for
some time, in silence, which was only broken by these words, while
indicating an ox, "There is the beast I give you to slaughter." His
black majesty then vanished, but presently to reappear from beneath the
gateway dressed in a long blue cloak, with a white collar, and devices at
the back. After directing the distribution of some heaps of freshly
slain oxen that lay around, he stood like a statue till a seat was
brought him, and then entered into conversation. Captain Gardiner made
him understand that trade was not the object of the visit; but the real
purpose was quite beyond him; he seemed to regard what was proposed to
him as an impossibility, and began to inquire after the presents, which,
unfortunately, were still on the road.

The delay exposed the Captain to some inconvenience and danger, and two
_indunas_, or chiefs, a sort of prime ministers, who were offended with
him for not having applied to the king through them, treated him with
increasing insolence. At last he persuaded them that he had better send
a note to hasten the coming of the presents, and he also managed to write
a letter for England, on his last half-sheet of paper, by