ight and of the
considerable losses which their people had sustained, for their
reception of us prisoners was most unfriendly. Indeed the men shook
their fists at us, the women screamed out curses, while the children
stuck out their tongues in token of derision or defiance. Most of these
demonstrations, however, were directed at Marut and his followers, who
only smiled indifferently. At me they stared in wonder not unmixed with
fear.

A quarter of a mile or so from the gate we came to an inner enclosure,
that answered to the South African cattle kraal, surrounded by a dry
ditch and a timber palisade outside of which was planted a green fence
of some shrub with long white thorns. Here we passed through more
gates, to find ourselves in an oval space, perhaps five acres in extent.
Evidently this served as a market ground, but all around it were open
sheds where hundreds of horses were stabled. No cattle seemed to be kept
there, except a few that with sheep and goats were driven in every day
for slaughter purposes at a shambles at the north end, from the great
stock kraals built beyond the forest to the south, where they were safe
from possible raiding by the White Kendah.

A tall reed fence cut off the southern end of this marketplace, outside
of which we were ordered to dismount. Passing through yet another gate
we found within the fence a large hut or house built on the same model
as the others in the town, which Marut whispered to me was that of the
king. Behind it were smaller houses in which lived his queen and women,
good-looking females, who advanced to meet him with obsequious bows. To
the right and left were two more buildings of about equal size, one of
which was occupied by the royal guard and the other was the guest-house
whither we were conducted.

It proved to be a comfortable dwelling about thirty feet square but
containing only one room, with various huts behind it that served for
cooking and other purposes. In one of these the three camelmen were
placed. Immediately on our arrival food was brought to us, a lamb or kid
roasted whole upon a wooden platter, and some green mealie-cobs boiled
upon another platter; also water to drink and wash with in earthenware
jars of sun-dried clay.

I ate heartily, for I was starving. Then, as it was useless to attempt
precautions against murder, without any talk to my fellow prisoner, for
which we were both too tired, I threw myself down on a mattress stuffed
with cor