20 Mr. John Brown — 



The opening half of the President's address was delivered here 

 and sections met for three days. 



On Saturday, 19th August, we sailed for Durban, a bright and 

 busy, well-kept town, with a fine harbour, well filled with shipping. 

 The streets are good, and there are electric trams, fare 3d. There 

 are also rickshaws, drawn by natives ; very fine men in fantastic 

 dresses, very active, graceful, and full of antics. We were told 

 they did not last long at this arduous work, partly on account of 

 the damper climate near the sea. There is a sugar industry also a 

 good locomotive works. Much of the retail trading appeared to 

 be done by Hindus. 



There is a beautiful suburb (the Berea). The vegetation in 

 Natal is luxuriant, and the soil appears fertile. Tea, tobacco, 

 sugar and maize are cultivated. Most delicious pine apples are 

 sold at 2d. and 3d. each; they grow in drills like turnips. 



Our next stay was Pietermaritzburg, another bright and pleasant 

 town, near which, among the hills at Henly, a Kaffir dance was held 

 in our honour by command of the Governor of the Colony, Sir 

 H. M'Callum. The natives assembled to the number of 1.000 or 

 more in war dresses of skins and beads, and with shields and poles, 

 representing assegais. They saluted the Governor and suite, the 

 salute being first a general hiss and then a crouching or " hunkering" 

 down, and then rising to full height with a terrifying yell or howl. 

 The dance was most strange. It was accompanied by a weird and 

 monotonous chant, and the prevailing step was a stamping in 

 unison with earth shaking power. The historians of the tribe 

 marched back and forth, across the front, reciting the victories 

 over their enemies. Occasionally a bevy of women would move 

 across in crouching or fantastic attitudes. Some of them waving 

 rolls of paper, which wc imagined might be important documents, 

 but which turned out to be bright coloured advertisements of 

 somebody's patent pills. 



After the dance came the marriage of a chief of the Inadi 

 tribe to a lady who was to be his chief wife and mother of his 

 principal heir. The ceremony began by dances of the bride's father, 



