again was another palisade, equally as strong
and as high as the first. And, as in the case of the first palisade,
this also had a single gate, guarded by twenty fully armed men under the
command of an induna. We were permitted to pass through this second
gate unchallenged, and having done this I found myself in an open square
of about five acres in extent, near the far side of which were seven
huts, or houses, rather, for they were considerably larger and in every
way more important than the ordinary Kafir hut. Six of these--square
structures built of "wattle-and-daub" and roofed with thatch, the
largest of them measuring about twenty feet by twelve, and about seven
feet high to the overhanging eaves--were built in a row, with spaces of
about six feet between them; while the seventh, which I rightly
conjectured to be the itunkulu, or King's House, stood about twelve feet
in front of the others, and was about the same size as the largest of
them.

We were now upon what may be termed sacred ground, that is to say,
ground reserved for the exclusive use of the king himself and the
members of his immediate household; nobody being permitted to enter here
except persons belonging to the royal family, those especially invited
by the king, the chief witch doctor, and the king's own bodyguard,
consisting of one hundred specially picked men, under the command of an
induna who also filled the office of chief adviser, or prime minister,
to the king. At the moment of our entrance not a person but ourselves
was visible in the square, except the guard at the gate; but a few
seconds later twenty soldiers under the command of a very
splendid-looking officer emerged from one of the buildings and took up a
position on either side of a chair hewn out of a solid block of wood and
draped with a magnificent lion-skin kaross, which stood some half a
dozen paces in front of the itunkulu.

These men were the finest-looking body of savage warriors that I had up
till then ever seen, every one of them being quite as tall as, and far
more firmly knit than myself; while the chief was a truly magnificent
man, standing at least six feet two on his bare feet, with the limbs and
frame of a Hercules. They were all dressed in leopard-skin muchas, with
bracelets, armlets, garters, and anklets of cows' tails; all wore
keshlas; and each man carried a long shield and three throwing assagais
in his left hand, while in his right he held a stabbing assagai