572 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
senenge and the beads he received from the traders, lie, 
of course, did not keep himself, but divided among his 
sweethearts of the kraal. 
And so with war and women, life passed in happy 
fashion. His demeanour was serious, and his expression 
ferocious, though he acquired an aristocratic hauteur 
truly striking. He showed curiosity in a dignified 
manner. He rarely indulged in vulgar laughter, and 
smiling was hardly possible on a face which could only 
be called fiendish. 
He passed some twenty years in this manner. At 
last his father was found to be on the point of death, 
and he was sent for. Shortly after his arrival, the old 
man succumbed. It was not thought necessary to recog- 
nize this commonplace occurrence in any way whatever, 
and therefore, Moran lost no time in picking up the 
corpse and throwing it outside the kraal. Next morning, 
he smiled grimly as, on going out, he kicked aside some 
freshly-picked bones, and glanced at some disgusting 
hyenas slinking away, in company with marabout storks, 
while vultures flapped grossly overhead. 
He was now sole heir of his father’s herds, for his 
younger brothers did not receive a single head of cattle, 
though they had captured in their raids considerable 
numbers of them. Any they might secure now, how- 
ever, would be their own property. Moran decidedly 
preferred the free and easy life of the warrior’s kraal, 
but, alas ! he discovered, not that he was becoming bald 
or developing grey hairs, but that he could not take 
the regulation dose of purgative as formerly. From 
this, coupled with the fact that he could not take such 
liberties with his stomach, he gathered that he was not 
quite so strong as formerly. We can imagine how he 
would curse his luck and look fiendish on discovering 
this unpalatable truth. There was nothing for it but to 
marry, and become a staid and respectable member of 
society. He had sown his wild oats. 
Casting about, he fixed upon a damsel after his heart. 
The preliminaries having been arranged — the number 
of bullocks to be paid, &c. — she was sealed to him. 
