ld me that this and a few other
things were at his kraal, and he would show them to me. That evening he
took me to his kraal, and lifting up a wicker door, he showed me several
articles in a hole below. I there saw what I wanted, and took from the
hole a pair of opera-glasses in a leather case. I then went with Inyati
to a little hill near, and seeing about two miles off some Caffres, I
asked him who they were.

He said they were too far off to recognise.

I then adjusted the glasses for my focus and told him the names of the
Caffres, whom I knew, and then handing him the glasses showed him how to
use them.

I never saw greater astonishment than that of Inyati when he looked
through the glasses and perceived distant objects as plainly as though
they were near. He never seemed tired of looking, first at distant then
at nearer objects. He asked me what I called them, and I said in
English, "opera-glasses." He shook his head at this, and then said in
Caffre, "I shall call them `bring near.'" He went back to his kraal and
seemed deep in thought, and every now and then looked at the glasses,
which he preserved with the greatest care.

On the following morning he assembled all the men, and had a council.
He told them that I had shown him the use of a thing that was like
"_tagata_" (witchcraft); and that this thing, though quite harmless, was
wonderful. He said that people and things at a distance were instantly
brought close to you, and you could almost touch them with your hand.
At first the older men seemed inclined to disbelieve, but Inyati said,
"What I tell you, that I can show." There was one old man who had the
reputation of being a rain-maker, and was called Amanzinina, who would
not believe what Inyati told him. This old man had always disliked me,
and was one of those who had expressed the wish that I should be
assagied. He said that I might practise witchcraft, and that this thing
which made people come near was and could be only due to witchcraft; as
it was impossible to be anything else. He suggested that the glasses
should be burned, and that if I were burned too it would be all the
better for the tribe.

Inyati answered him; but a great many of the men who were afraid of
Amanzinina, agreed with him as to burning the glasses, though they said
that I might be spared. At first I felt disposed to laugh at the
nonsense spoken by this old man, but when I found how important his
remarks were conside