AN UNEXPECTED GUEST. 199 



from the fire. I saw that my party expected me to speak, 

 so gave the usual salutation, " Saca bona" which was 

 responded to by him. I then asked him to come and sit 

 down and tell us the news, and offered him my snuff- 

 gourd. He soon told me that he was the head man of a 

 neighbouring kraal, that he had heard my Kaffirs singing ; 

 and, in fact, he thought a good thing was going on, and 

 he might as well have a slice of it. We handed him the 

 bones of the buck to pick, which were all that were left ; 

 he cleaned them most completely, scarcely leaving a 

 mouthful for my two dogs, which had been anxious 

 observers of our operations. My Kaffirs were asking all 

 sorts of questions from the new comer. I found great 

 satisfaction from understanding the language, and before 

 I retired for the night had made out the following as 

 having been the early career of our guest : 



His name was Eondema, and he was one of Panda's 

 officers. Panda being the great Zulu chief across the 

 Tugela, he mentioned Panda's name with great awe, as if 

 it were not quite safe even here to speak of it aloud. 

 Eondema was a very fast runner, and had therefore been 

 in Panda's light infantry regiment called the Impofarns 

 (Elands). 



" Panda," said he, " is a great chief, has many thousands 

 of cattle, and thousands of warriors. His hosts are like 

 the grass, or a flight of locusts ; you might cut them down, 

 or tread on them, but thousands would still come on, and 

 victory must be theirs." He had many regiments, which 

 he called by the names of animals, or by their qualities. 

 These were the Injlovus > or Elephants, all men of great 





