ying:

"This is Masapo, chief of the Amansomi, of the Quabe race, who desires
to know you, Macumazahn."

"Very kind of him, I am sure," I replied coolly, as I threw my eye over
Masapo. He was, as I have said, a big man, and of about fifty years
of age, for his hair was tinged with grey. To be frank, I took a great
dislike to him at once, for there was something in his strong, coarse
face, and his air of insolent pride, which repelled me. Then I was
silent, since among the Zulus, when two strangers of more or less equal
rank meet, he who speaks first acknowledges inferiority to the other.
Therefore I stood and contemplated this new suitor of Mameena, waiting
on events.

Masapo also contemplated me, then made some remark to one of his
attendants, that I did not catch, which caused the fellow to laugh.

"He has heard that you are an ipisi" (a great hunter), broke in Umbezi,
who evidently felt that the situation was growing strained, and that it
was necessary to say something.

"Has he?" I answered. "Then he is more fortunate than I am, for I have
never heard of him or what he is." This, I am sorry to say, was a fib,
for it will be remembered that Mameena had mentioned him in the hut as
one of her suitors, but among natives one must keep up one's dignity
somehow. "Friend Umbezi," I went on, "I have come to bid you farewell,
as I am about to trek for Durban."

At this juncture Masapo stretched out his great hand to me, but without
rising, and said:

"Siyakubona [that is, good-day], White Man."

"Siyakubona, Black Man," I answered, just touching his fingers, while
Mameena, who had come up again with her beer, and was facing me, made a
little grimace and tittered.

Now I turned on my heel to go, whereon Masapo said in a coarse, growling
voice:

"O Macumazana, before you leave us I wish to speak with you on a certain
matter. Will it please you to sit aside with me for a while?"

"Certainly, O Masapo." And I walked away a few yards out of hearing,
whither he followed me.

"Macumazahn," he said (I give the gist of his remarks, for he did not
come to the point at once), "I need guns, and I am told that you can
provide them, being a trader."

"Yes, Masapo, I dare say that I can, at a price, though it is a risky
business smuggling guns into Zululand. But might I ask what you need
them for? is it to shoot elephants?"

"Yes, to shoot elephants," he replied, rolling his big eyes round him.
"Macumazahn, I am told that