ountry had never been known to come
out again. He had made himself troublesome, too, to more than one
exploring party.

"Well, we'd better keep our eyes open, so as to give them a warm
reception if they bother us," said Oakley, when this was translated.

"I know, and that's why I'm not over-keen on this hippo-shoot when we
strike the river," said Haviland. "Far better go without meat a little
longer than get ourselves into a beastly unequal fight. And the banging
of guns can be heard a deuce of a distance. We'll call Somala, and get
his opinion."

But the Arab had not much to add to the Zulu's information. Him,
however, Oakley understood, and needed no translation.

"Did you ever notice those two chaps; what an extraordinary family
likeness there is between them?" said Haviland, as the two departed.
"If you clapped a turban and long clothes on to Kumbelwa he'd pass for
Somala's brother, and if you rigged out Somala in a _mutya_ and
head-ring he'd pass for a Zulu. The same type of face exactly."

"By Jove it is! Think there's a lot of Arab in the Zulu, then?"

"Not a doubt about it. You see, the Zulus didn't originally belong
where they now are. They came down from the north, somewhere about
where we are now, I shouldn't wonder. They had another custom, too,
which was Mohammedan, as most of the other tribes have at the present
day, but Tshaka stopped it among them. And I have a theory that the
head-ring is a survival of the turban."

"That might be. But, I say, Haviland, you seem to have got their lingo
all right. Were you much in the country?"

"A good bit. I haven't got it by any means all right, though I know a
great number of words, but my grammar's of the shakiest. I often set
them roaring with laughter over some absurd mistake; and I don't even
know what it is myself. By the way, there was a chap at school with
me--a Zulu from Zululand. He conceived a sort, of attachment for me
because I smacked a fellow's head for bullying him when he first came,
and he was a useful chap too; first-rate at egg-hunting, and we got into
all sorts of rows together. The other fellows used to call him
`Haviland's Chum,' to rag me, you know; but I didn't mind it. Well, he
taught me some of his lingo, and made me want to see his country."

"I wonder they took a black chap in an English school," said Oakley.

"So did I. So did most of us. But he was put there by a missionary,
and old Bowen was nuts on the m