e went, and when Hans was a little composed I told him all that I
had observed about the habits of the aasvogel in the air, and he told me
all that he had observed about their habits on the ground, which, as I
might not shoot them sitting, did not interest me. Still, he agreed with
me that the right moment to fire would be just before they pounced.

Whilst we were still talking we heard a sound of shouts, and, looking
over the brow of the hill that faced towards Umgungundhlovu, we saw
a melancholy sight. Being driven up the slope towards us by three
executioners and a guard of seven or eight soldiers, their hands tied
behind their backs, were three men, one very old, one of about fifty
years of age, and one a lad, who did not look more than eighteen. As I
soon heard, they were of a single family, the grandfather, the father,
and the eldest son, who had been seized upon some ridiculous charge of
witchcraft, but really in order that the king might take their cattle.

Having been tried and condemned by the Nyangas, or witch-doctors, these
poor wretches were now doomed to die. Indeed, not content with thus
destroying the heads of the tribe, present and to come, for three
generations, all their descendants and collaterals had already been
wiped out by Dingaan, so that he might pose as sole heir to the family
cattle.

Such were the dreadful cruelties that happened in Zululand in those
days.

CHAPTER XIV. THE PLAY

The doomed three were driven by their murderers into the centre of the
depression, within a few yards of which Hans and I were standing.

After them came the head executioner, a great brute who wore a curiously
shaped leopard-skin cap--I suppose as a badge of office--and held in
his hand a heavy kerry, the shaft of which was scored with many notches,
each of them representing a human life.

"See, White Man," he shouted, "here is the bait which the king sends to
draw the holy birds to you. Had it not been that you needed such bait,
perhaps these wizards would have escaped. But the Black One said the
little Son of George, who is named Macumazahn, needs them that he may
show his magic, and therefore they must die to-day."

Now, at this information I turned positively sick. Nor did it make me
feel better when the youngest of the victims, hearing the executioner's
words, flung himself upon his knees, and began to implore me to spare
him. His grandfather also addressed me, saying:

"Chief, will it not be e