148 MATABELE LAND. 



Pietermaritzburg nearly twelve months before — and, 

 all seeming favourable, at once determined on prose- 

 cuting his journey to the Zambesi. There appeared 

 now every reason to anticipate a prosperous and 

 successful expedition, and he began at once to make 

 his preparations for it, laying in fresh supplies at the 

 stores and otherwise completing his equipment. 



Very little worthy of note occurred during the 

 time he was detained at Bamangwato. One evening, 

 however, a great noise and shouting at the kraal, 

 kept up till late, announced the return from the veldt 

 of a number of boys who had been out for circum- 

 cision. The following day, according to custom, 

 the same boys went forth again, and Frank Oates 

 saw them starting. " Party, say of two hundred 

 boys, went out," he writes, "into the veldt. They 

 are those who returned yesterday from circum- 

 cision, and I am told they will have to go to the 

 veldt every day for a week and look after the 

 king's cattle. They presented a striking and uniform 

 appearance. Each had a knob-kerry and a wand, 

 and round the middle a bit of skin. All these and 

 their entire bodies were rubbed with red ochre, their 

 heads shaved except the crown, on which the hair 

 was quite short, crisp, and bead-like. All the crown 

 and the part around it were brilliantly metallic, of a 

 dark steel-blue, produced by some preparation of a 

 kind of lead got here." 



The evening after this occurrence (April 24th), the 

 traveller's preparations were completed and a fresh 

 start made up country; but before proceeding further 



