on the banks of that river at a spot
which was known to both of us. These words the messengers promised to
deliver for a fee of five head of cattle apiece, to be paid on their
return, or to their families if they died on the road, which cattle we
purchased and left in charge of a chief, who was their kinsman. As it
happened two of the poor fellows did die, one of them of cold in a swamp
through which they took a short cut, and the other at the teeth of a
hungry lion. The third, however, won through and delivered the message.

After resting for a fortnight in the northern parts of Zululand, to give
time to our wayworn oxen to get some flesh on their bones in the warm
bushveld where grass was plentiful even in the dry season, we trekked
forward by a route known to Hans and myself. Indeed it was the
same which we had followed on our journey from Mazituland after our
expedition in search for the Holy Flower.

We took with us a small army of Zulu bearers. This, although they were
difficult to feed in a country where no corn could be bought, proved
fortunate in the end, since so many of our cattle died from tsetse bite
that we were obliged to abandon one of the wagons, which meant that
the goods it contained must be carried by men. At length we reached the
banks of the river, and camped there one night by three tall peaks
of rock which the natives called "The Three Doctors," where I had
instructed the messengers to tell the Mazitu to meet us. For four days
we remained here, since rains in the interior had made the river quite
impassable. Every morning I climbed the tallest of the "Doctors" and
with my glasses looked over its broad yellow flood, searching the wide,
bush-clad land beyond in the hope of discovering the Mazitu advancing to
meet us. Not a man was to be seen, however, and on the fourth evening,
as the river had now become fordable, we determined that we would cross
on the morrow, leaving the remaining wagon, which it was impossible to
drag over its rocky bottom, to be taken back to Natal by our drivers.

Here a difficulty arose. No promise of reward would induce any of our
Zulu bearers even to wet their feet in the waters of this River Luba,
which for some reason that I could not extract from them they declared
to be _tagati_, that is, bewitched, to people of their blood. When I
pointed out that three Zulus had already undertaken to cross it, they
answered that those men were half-breeds, so that for them it was