EN.

MNYAMANA'S CATTLE.

High up among the crags they crouched, like eagles looking forth from an
eyrie, sweeping indeed with eagle-like gaze the vast expanse of plain
which lay in many an undulating roll, outspread beneath.

Three dark forms, long and lithe, destitute of clothing save for the
_mutya_ and a few war adornments in the way of cow-hair tufts, or
feathers. Beside each were several bright, broad-bladed assegais, and
medium-sized shields, just where they had been deposited. Far away in
the distance rose a cloud of dust--a moving cloud of dust.

"_Ou_! the hand of the spoiler sweeps. The dust which it raises floats
away, that which causes it moves on."

A hum of assent greeted this murmured remark, and the eager attention of
the look-out was redoubled. The face of the mountain fell grandly away
in terraced slopes, rows of great krantzes intervening. There was a
glorious feeling of air, and height, and domination from this lofty post
of outlook. Far above, a number of white specks soared and floated
against the blue empyrean. The instinct of the vulture is unerring, and
that instinct had been kept well in practice as regarded this disturbed
region for some time past.

The dust cloud moved onward, drawing nearer, yet still a great way off.
The faces of the watching three were rigid in their eagerness, the eyes
dilated, the nostrils distended like those of a stag snuffing the wind.
Then the one who had spoken, taking a broad assegai from the bundle
which lay beside him, slid, with a serpentine writhe, down from his
coign of vantage, then when the ridge of this was well between him and
the expanse over which he had been watching, he drew himself up in a
sitting posture, and holding the spear so that it pointed vertically
upwards, took one glance at the sun, then twirled the bright blade
slowly, facing down upon the valley beneath. This was done several
times, until an answering gleam appeared far below. The signaller,
satisfied, wormed himself back into his former position on the very
crest of the mountain. They renewed their watch, those human eagles,
their tense, self-contained excitement deepening as the moments fled by,
and it preluded a swoop.

Looking back, to whence had come the answering signal gleam, a maze of
broken valley, interseamed with dongas, lay outspread. Opposite and
beyond this, a further rocky range towered in a crescent wall. A rugged
wilderness, silent, deserted, given ove