gned
to show wonder.

"Ou!" he said; "this is a place of marvels. Who ever saw kraals built of
white stone?"

Stella watched our faces with an expression of intense amusement, but
said nothing.

"Did your father build those kraals?" I gasped, at length.

"My father! no, of course not," she answered. "How would it have been
possible for one white man to do so, or to have made this road? He found
them as you see."

"Who built them, then?" I said again.

"I do not know. My father thinks that they are very ancient, for the
people who live here now do not know how to lay one stone upon another,
and these huts are so wonderfully constructed that, though they must
have stood for ages, not a stone of them had fallen. But I can show you
the quarry where the marble was cut; it is close by and behind it is the
entrance to an ancient mine, which my father thinks was a silver mine.
Perhaps the people who worked the mine built the marble huts. The
world is old, and no doubt plenty of people have lived in it and been
forgotten."[*]

[*] Kraals of a somewhat similar nature to those described
by Mr. Quatermain have been discovered in the Marico
district of the Transvaal, and an illustration of them is to
be found in Mr. Anderson's "Twenty-five Years in a Waggon,"
vol. ii. p. 55. Mr. Anderson says, "In this district are the
ancient stone kraals mentioned in an early chapter; but it
requires a fuller description to show that these extensive
kraals must have been erected by a white race who understood
building in stone and at right angles, with door-posts,
lintels, and sills, and it required more than Kaffir skill
to erect the stone huts, with stone circular roofs,
beautifully formed and most substantially erected; strong
enough, if not disturbed, to last a thousand years."
--Editor.

Then we rode on in silence. I have seen many beautiful sights in Africa,
and in such matters, as in others, comparisons are odious and worthless,
but I do not think that I ever saw a lovelier scene. It was no one
thing--it was the combination of the mighty peak looking forth on to the
everlasting plains, the great cliffs, the waterfalls that sparkled
in rainbow hues, the rivers girdling the rich cultivated lands, the
gold-specked green of the orange trees, the flashing domes of the marble
huts, and a thousand other things. Then over all brooded the peace of
evening, and the inf