three were badly mauled, but they recovered.

The Swazis knew nothing of money, except that it was supposed to be
worth something in parts remote from their then-isolated land. The
value of cash was gauged according to size; you could get more for a
penny than for a sovereign but not much for either. Gunpowder, lead,
and caps they were, of course, anxious to obtain for even if an
individual did not own a gun, it was always possible to borrow such a
weapon.

But the thing they valued above all else was salt. Their country
contained no saltpans, and they were cut off from the sea by a strip of
pestiferous jungle, which, moreover, belonged to the Portuguese or was
supposed so to belong. Fortunately I had brought with me a small bag of
salt; it contained about a pound in weight. Men used to come from long
distances to beg for a pinch. As I did not want the bag to be seen, it
was my practice, when salt was asked for, to enter the hut and bring
out a small pinch in my hand. On such occasions the old show-woman
would watch for me, and after I had transferred the salt to the one who
came for it, she used to seize my hand and lick out the palm.

After a week's rest I began prospecting in the neighborhood. I must
have "panned" in the present Sheba Valley and all over the vicinity, in
which Barberton now stands. It was only alluvial gold for which I
sought; there was a theory current among diggers of those days that
South African quartz contained no metal. It was thought that quartz
reefs had been subjected to such heat that all metals had been
expelled. "Color" I found almost everywhere I tried, but no coarse
gold.

Soon after I commenced prospecting I noticed a change in the demeanor
of the natives; they no longer treated me with the same friendliness.
In this matter they were, it must be confessed, actuated by sound
instinctive considerations; it was the subsequent discovery of gold
that caused their sad deterioration. 'Ntshindeen, who was always my
good friend but who often had to be away from home on the king's
business, gave me a confidential warning to beware of the boys, as they
did not like me. This dislike was shown mainly in a petty persecution
of my two Bapedi, to whom insulting remarks were often made. I felt I
had outstayed my welcome, so prepared to depart.

Accordingly, one morning I packed the swags, distributed the remainder
of the salt among the elders of the kraal giving the old woman who used
to lick my