koppies
which were joined together with walls. Also the place was strongly
fortified with fences and in every other way known to the native mind.

With the help of the spare oxen we crossed the river safely at the ford,
although it was very full, and on the further side were received by a
guard of men, tall, soldierlike fellows, all of them armed with axes as
the messengers had been. They led us up to the cattle enclosure in the
centre of the town, which although it could be used to protect beasts in
case of emergency, also served the practical purpose of a public square.

Here some ceremony was in progress, for soldiers stood round the kraal
while heralds pranced and shouted. At the head of the place in front
of the chief's big hut was a little group of people, among whom a big,
gaunt man sat upon a stool clad in a warrior's dress with a great and
very long axe hafted with wire-lashed rhinoceros horn, laid across his
knees.

Our guides led me, with Hans sneaking after me like a dejected and
low-bred dog (for the waggon had stopped outside the gate), across the
kraal to where the heralds shouted and the big man sat yawning. At once
I noted that he was a very remarkable person, broad and tall and spare
of frame, with long, tough-looking arms and a fierce face which reminded
me of that of the late King Dingaan. Also he had a great hole in his
head above the temple where the skull had been driven in by some blow,
and keen, royal-looking eyes.

He looked up and seeing me, cried out,

"What! Has a white man come to fight me for the chieftainship of the
People of the Axe? Well, he is a small one."

"No," I answered quietly, "but Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, has come
to visit you in answer to your request, O Umslopogaas; Macumazahn whose
name was known in this land before yours was told of, O Umslopogaas."

The Chief heard and rising from his seat, lifted the big axe in salute.

"I greet you, O Macumazahn," he said, "who although you are small
in stature, are very great indeed in fame. Have I not heard how you
conquered Bangu, although Saduko slew him, and of how you gave up the
six hundred head of cattle to Tshoza and the men of the Amangwane who
fought with you, the cattle that were your own? Have I not heard how you
led the Tulwana against the Usutu and stamped flat three of Cetywayo's
regiments in the days of Panda, although, alas! because of an oath of
mine I lifted no steel in that battle, I who will have nothin