as to represent,
with considerable skill and fidelity, a fleshless skeleton. His head
was decorated with a pair of bullock's horns, firmly secured by means of
straps; round his neck he wore a necklace composed entirely of skeleton
human hands, which had been severed at the wrists; about his waist was a
girdle of animals' teeth and claws, supporting a mucha, or rather a
short petticoat made of dry grass, from beneath the rear portion of
which dangled a bullock's tail; and in his right hand he carried a
formidable bangwan or stabbing spear.

Notwithstanding his great age, this man--who, of course, was Machenga,
the dreaded chief witch doctor--capered and pirouetted with astounding
agility in the centre of the arena for fully five minutes; then he
suddenly dashed forward, and, prostrating himself at Lomalindela's feet,
proceeded to do bonga, or homage, by shouting the various titles of the
king, and exalting His Majesty to the skies as the greatest, most
potent, most wonderful, most glorious monarch in the universe, the only
king, in fact, worthy of serious mention. This sort of thing,
punctuated at intervals by thunderous shouts of acclamation from the
troops, continued until the king, satiated with praise, put a stop to
it, when the man, after a brief interval of silence, rose to his feet
and stood staring intently for a few minutes up into the rich blue
splendour of the cloudless sky.

Then, gliding meanwhile slowly hither and thither in a series of narrow
circles and turns and twists, in a kind of slow waltz step, Machenga
began a song, the burden of which was the glory, majesty, and power of
the king, and the inexpressible wickedness of those who presumptuously
dared to entertain evil thoughts of him. This continued for about
twenty minutes, during which the singer gradually worked himself up into
a state of excitement and exaltation that finally became a perfect
frenzy, under the influence of which his voice rose to a piercing
shriek, while he dashed hither and thither with a display of strength,
agility, and fury that seemed to me incredible. Finally, the man
collapsed and sank to the ground exhausted, and foaming at the mouth;
and at the same instant out from the rear dashed the entire company of
subordinate witch doctors, in number fully one hundred, who, forming up
about their prostrate chief, began to dance madly round him, singing a
weird song of which I could make nothing except an occasional word, here