WAITING AT INTLHANGINI. 69 



man I met at the king's). He brought with him 

 two other chief men, given me as well as himself by 

 the king, and to all three I gave some 'lembo.' 1 The 

 induna said he would rather have a shirt, and I told 

 him I would give it him when he had got me the 

 boys. He only brought three to-day ; two volun- 

 teers, whom I told to wait, also presented themselves 

 from another distant kraal. 



"After this, as no more could be done, I went 

 out shooting with Mandy (one of the traders here) 

 in the afternoon, and got some birds. We had a 

 pleasant walk, and saw the wild cotton growing. 

 We also saw a beautiful tree with delicate green 

 leaves and wreaths of violet-coloured laburnum-like 

 blossoms ; also a very sweetly scented flower, white 

 and star -shaped, growing in small clusters upon a 

 tree of some size. Mandy says there are crocodiles 

 here, but the king does not allow them to be killed, 

 as it is thought that any one possessing the body can 

 work spells. It is death to a native to kill one. A 

 white man on one occasion shot one here eighteen 

 feet long, which had been destroying calves and 

 goats, and the king sent to have it buried, and had 

 men to watch the place. 



"It seems that lately, during a ceremony pre- 

 vious to the king's marriage (circumcision), it was 

 thought inauspicious for any guns to be fired in the 

 neighbourhood. They say a Kaffir who fired one 

 somewhere in the veldt at the time was impaled for it." 



The greater part of the following day (Septem- 



1 A native term applied to any kind of woven material. 



