rate to lessen his chances of being struck, and to make
him a very lion of strength and courage in the day of battle.

This over, yet one ceremony remained, to sing the war-song in the
presence of the King, and depart. A silence had fallen upon all after
the doctoring was concluded. Soon, however, it was broken by the
"praisers" shouting the King's titles.

As Lo Bengula appeared in front of his warriors, the whole immense
crescent fell forward like mown corn, and from every throat went up in
one single, deep-voiced, booming roar, the royal greeting:

Kumalo!

The King did not seat himself. With head erect and kindling eyes, he
paced up and down slowly, surveying the whole martial might of his
nation. He, too, was arrayed in full war costume, crowned with the
towering _intye_, and wearing a mutya of splendid leopard skin. He was
attended by his shield-bearer, holding aloft the great white shield of
state, but in his hand he carried another and a smaller shield, also
white, and a long-hafted, slender, casting assegai.

Long and loud were the shouts of _sibonga_ which rent the air as the
warriors fell back into a squatting posture, their shields lying flat in
front of them. They hailed him by every imaginable title of power and
of might--as their father, as their divinity, as the source of all that
was good and beneficial which they possessed. They called the
lightnings of the clouds, the thunders of the air--everything--into
requisition to testify as to his immensity--till at last, as though in
obedience to some sudden and mysterious signal, they subsided into
silence. Then Lo Bengula spoke:

"Children of Matyobane, the enemy is already in your land. These
Amakiwa, who came to me few and poor, and begging, are now many and
rich, and proud. They begged for a little land wherein to dig gold, and
I gave it them, but, lo, they want more. Like devouring locusts, these
few whites who came begging, and sat down here so humbly before me, were
but the advance-guard of a swarm. I gave them meat, and now they
require a whole ox. I gave them an ox, and now they require the whole
herd. I gave them the little land they craved for, and now, nothing
will satisfy them but to devour the whole land. Soon they will be here.

"There are dogs who bark and turn away, and there are dogs who bite.
There are dogs who are brave when it is a matter of pulling down an
antelope, but who put down their tails and slink away when