arkably energetic skeleton. "Greeting to
you, son of Ntelani, _induna_ of the Elephant who of late trumpeted in
the North! Greeting also to the King's Assegai!"

"You are my father, _Nkose_!" cried the old man, sinking down into a
sitting posture in our midst. "Yes, the King's Assegai is still alive,
like its old owner," he said, exhibiting the splendid spear, and
balancing it lovingly in his hands. "When I saw yonder wagon and the
black oxen which draw it, I said to myself--`There goes the white man to
whom I told that tale.'"

"True, Untuswa, and a right stirring tale it was. But I seem to
remember, that when we parted on the Entonjaneni heights, the word was
that other matters, at least as strange, remained to be told, should we
behold each other again. And here now we do behold each other again,
and the day is yet young. Further, here is good store of tobacco, and
if there is anything which constitutes a better accompaniment to a
story, why, I never heard of it."

The eyes of old Untuswa brightened as he received the much-prized
_gwai_, holding out both hands for it, as the courteous custom of this
people is, even though the gift be no weightier than a threepenny-piece.
For to receive anything with one hand only, would, to the minds of
these "barbarians," imply a contempt alike for the gift and for the
giver.

High up on the ill-omened Hlobane Mountain we were seated, whose savage
fastnesses I had spent days in exploring. It was early morning, and the
weather was grey and depressing, seeming to threaten rain. Beneath lay
a great panorama of desolate rolling plain and craggy spurs--treeless,
forbidding--with here and there a kraal, dotted at intervals,
symmetrical in its circular ring-fences. But here, where we sat, poised
high above the world, I had come upon another small kraal, and, turning
my pony loose to graze, had, as usual, tarried to make friends with its
people.

Now, the older of the two warriors with whom I had been in converse,
called aloud, and presently there appeared a couple of stalwart,
shapely-limbed damsels, bearing a very large earthen bowl brimming with
_tywala_, or corn-beer, and a basket containing roasted mealies. A
goodly portion of the liquor was poured into a smaller bowl and handed
to me, after the preliminary sip required by Zulu etiquette, the others
taking draughts in common from the large earthen pot.

Zulus, like most uncivilised races, are extremely fond of listeni