(coffee) and showed great aptitude in imitating
the methods of the aborigines. Naturally there were conventions; the
chiefs talked fluent English, while the Zulu supers employed their own
vernacular, except in certain formal phrases, as when the "praisers" (my
programme's name for a sort of universal _claque_) punctuated the
speeches of their king with cries of "Yes, O Lion!" or "Yes, Great
Beast!" No doubt our honoured visitors could perceive many technical
points in which the ruling race exposed itself as having something yet
to learn, but they tactfully concealed all signs of superior
civilisation; and the British audience, well pleased with the novelty
and picturesqueness of the scenes, were content to waive invidious
distinctions.

The little brochure that was thrown in with the programme informs me
that the martial spirit of the Zulus (at that time under their own
_regime_) was "identical in many respects with 'Prussian Militarism.'"
Certainly there was a savagery about the way in which they progged the
air with their assegais that made one picture them as _capables de
tout_. But any comparison, whether in point of costume or royal bearing,
between _King Mpande_ and the GERMAN KAISER must have been in favour of
the latter. On the other hand, his son _Umbuyazi_ was a far nobler
figure than my conception of the CROWN PRINCE.

I may perhaps be excused if I do not dwell on the merits of the chief
actors or of the plot--not too easy to grasp at the first, thanks to the
difficulty we found in following the unfamiliar names of the characters.
Both these interests were dominated by the attraction of the admirable
setting. Fortunately the scenes were numerous and brief, but we still
suffered considerable tedium from the affected and drawling delivery of
the heroine. The frequent assurances which we received as to the
exceptional quality of _Mameena's_ beauty, and the fact that, to our
knowledge, she had three husbands in the course of the play, never quite
convinced us of the overwhelming character of her charms. Whether, with
a fair chance, she would have worked them successfully on a fourth man,
_Allan Quatermain_--the one white man who retained his native hue--I
cannot say, for somehow a stage diversion always intervened just as they
had begun to embrace. The reason, by the way, for _Quatermain's_
existence was never made too clear. Sportsman and dealer in general
stores, his habit of hanging vaguely about Zulu kraals