where. The result was everlasting trouble with the 

 waggon-boys and a chronic state of war between them 

 and the natives and the banyans or Arab traders of 

 the place. The boys, with pockets full of wages, haggled 

 and were cheated in the stores, and by the hawkers, 

 and in the canteens ; and they often ended up the night 

 with beer-drinking at the kraals or reprisals on their 

 enemies. Every night there were fights and rob- 

 beries : the natives or Indians would rob and half- 

 kill a waggon-boy ; then he in turn would rally his 

 friends, and raid and clear out the kraal or the store. 

 Most of the waggon-boys were Zulus or of Zulu 

 descent, and they were always ready for a fight and 

 would tackle any odds when their blood was up. 



It was the third night of our stay, and the usual 

 row was on. Shouts and cries, the beating of tom- 

 toms, and shrill ear-piercing whistles, came from all 

 sides ; and through it all the dull hum of hundreds 

 of human voices, all gabbling together. Near to us 

 there was another camp of four waggons drawn up 

 in close order, and as we sat talking and wondering 

 at the strange babel in the beautiful calm moonlight 

 night, one sound was ever recurring, coming away 

 out of all the rest with something in it that fixed our 

 attention. It was the sound of two voices from the 

 next waggons. One voice was a kaffir's a great, 

 deep, bull-throated voice ; it was not raised it was 

 monotonously steady and low; but it carried far, with 

 the ring and the lingering vibration of a big gong. 



" Funa 'nyama, Inkos ; funa 'nyama ! " (" I want 

 meat, Chief ; I want meat ! ") was what the kaffir's 

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