so to act as a reserve, and were instructed to come rushing
to our assistance when I signalled for them, yelling out their weird war-
cry of "Warra-hoo-oo,--warra-hoo-oo!" I concluded that this in itself
would strike terror into the hearts of our opponents, who were accustomed
to see the whole force engaged at one time, and knew nothing about troops
held in reserve, or tactics of any kind whatsoever. The native method of
procedure, as, I think, I have already remarked, was usually to dash pell-
mell at one another after the abuse and fight, until one side or the
other drew blood, without which no victory could be gained.

Just before the battle commenced I had a real inspiration which
practically decided the affair without any fighting at all. It occurred
to me that if I mounted myself on stilts, some eighteen inches high, and
shot an arrow or two from my bow, the enemy would turn tail and bolt. And
so it turned out. As the armies approached one another in full battle
array they presented quite an imposing appearance, and when a suitable
distance separated them they halted for the inevitable abusive parley.
Into the undignified abuse, needless to remark, I did not enter, but kept
well in the background. The spokesman of my tribe accused the enemy of
being without pluck--said that they were cowards, and would soon have
their livers eaten by the invaders. There was any amount of
spear-brandishing, yelling, and gesticulating. For these blacks
apparently find it impossible to come up to actual fighting pitch without
first being worked up to an extraordinary degree of excitement.

When at length the abuse had got perfectly delirious, and the first spear
was about to be thrown, I dashed to the front on my stilts. Several
spears were launched at me, but my shield-bearers turned them on one
side. I then shot half-a-dozen arrows into the enemy's ranks in almost
as many seconds. The consternation produced by this flight of "invisible
spears" was perfectly indescribable. With a series of appalling yells
the enemy turned and fled pell-mell. My men gave chase, and wounded many
of them. In the midst of the rout (the ruling thought being always
uppermost), it occurred to me that it might be a useful stroke of
business to make friends with this vanquished tribe, since they might
possibly be of service to me in that journey to civilisation, the idea of
which I never really abandoned from the day I was cast upon my little
s