24 Notes on South African Hunting, 
Appearance of Chiefs in imagination. 
to the feelings of the much-expecting and 
innocent traveller to see a South African chief. 
I know that in my own case I fully anticipated 
making the acquaintance of a series of magnifi¬ 
cent specimens of humanity, clothed in 
gorgeous barbaric costumes, and attended by 
a crowd of servile courtiers only less splendid 
than their master. I was also convinced that 
the abodes of these distinguished personages 
would be in every way fitted—as far as any 
poor production of the hands of man could be 
fitted—for their convenient and worthy recep¬ 
tion. I was also perfectly persuaded that 
unless one approached the kingly presence on 
bended knee, accompanied by an enormous 
cavalcade of inferiors mounted on chargers 
chafing even under the light restraint of the 
golden bit and silver bridle in which they were 
harnessed, and bearing priceless gifts from 
distant lands, most assuredly and certainly 
.would a terrific command thunder forth from 
the lips of the mighty potentate ordering the 
instant execution of every white man in the 
country, and relegating oneself to the hands of 
the court torturer; and that this sentence 
