?"

"They are out grazing now, _Umlungu_. At milking-time they will be
here. Then they shall be driven to your herd."

"Quite so. And then the skin shall be carried to your hut, O chief,"
returned Dawes, coolly. "And now I will drive my waggons hence and
outspan them outside the kraal." Then he proceeded to give orders to
his native servants as unconcernedly as though he were starting from
Maritzburg instead of moving through the armed ranks of hundreds of
lawless and turbulent savages.

In the evening the ten head of cattle were duly delivered. They were
indifferent-looking beasts for the most part. Dawes surveyed them
critically.

"I don't know that old Ingonyama hasn't done us now, Ridgeley," he said.
"These are weedy looking brutes, but three, or perhaps four of them,
ain't bad; and I suppose we must take what we can get. I shall be glad
enough to say good-bye to this place, and as soon as the stock and
things are rested, we will try our hand at trekking away. And now let's
take the skin over."

Followed by Sintoba, bearing the lion's skin, the two proceeded to
Ingonyama's hut. As before, the chief was seated outside on a
bullock-hide, with Vunawayo and half a dozen other _amakehla_, or ringed
men, around him. This time he waxed quite friendly and conversational,
and invited his involuntary visitors to sit down and drink _tywala_.
This liquor, which is a species of beer brewed from maize or millet, was
brought in huge bowls of baked clay. A gourd was apportioned to the two
white men, but the Zulus contented themselves with the simple process of
picking up the clay bowl and drinking therefrom; and Gerard, who had
seen some beer-drinking among natives, still found room for astonishment
over the enormous quantities which his present entertainers were able to
absorb.

The sun had gone down, and the afterglow had faded red on the
surrounding cliffs, then merged into the pearly grey of twilight. The
picturesque circle of the great kraal was alive with the figures of its
wild denizens, lounging in groups or stalking among the huts. Files of
girls returning from the spring, calabash on head, made melody on the
evening air, lifting up their voices in song as they walked; and though
the strain was monotonous and barbaric, the effect was not unpleasing;
and the deep tone of men's voices mingled with the shrill laughter and
shriller shriek of children. The wavy glow of fires shone out upon the
deepening t