"Enter,sons of the stars,"he.said,in a magniloquent voice,"and deign to rest awhile in our humble habitations.A little food shall be brought to you,so that ye shall have no need to draw your belts tight from hunger;some honey and some milk,and an ox or two,and a few sheep;not much,my lords,but still a little food.""It is good,"said I,"Infadoos,we are weary with travelling through realms of air;now let us rest."Accordingly we entered into the hut,which we found amply prepared for our comfort.Couches of tanned skins were spread for us to rest on,and water was placed for us to wash in.
Presently we heard a shouting outside,and,stepping to the door,saw a line of damsels bearing milk and roasted mealies and honey in a pot.
Behind these were some youths driving a fat young ox.We received the gifts,and then one of the young men took the knife from his girdle and dexterously cut the ox's throat.In ten minutes it was dead,skinned,and cut up.The best of the meat was then cut off for us,and the rest I,in the name of our party,presented to the warriors round us,who took it off and distributed the "white men's gift."Umbopa set to work,with the assistance of an extremely prepossessing young woman,to boil our portion in a huge earthenware pot over a fire which was built outside the hut,and when it was nearly ready we sent a message to Infadoos,and asked him,and Scragga the king's son,to join us.
Presently they came,and,sitting down upon little stools,of which there were several about the hut (for the Kukuanas do not in general squat upon their haunches like the Zulus),helped us to get through our dinner.The old gentleman was most affable and polite,but it struck us that the young one regarded us with suspicion.He had,together with the rest of the party,been overawed by our white appearance and by our magic properties;but it seemed to me that on discovering that we ate,drank,and slept like other mortals,his awe was beginning to wear off and be replaced by a sullen suspicion,which made us feel rather uncomfortable.
In the course of our meal Sir Henry suggested to me that it might be well to try and discover if our hosts knew anything of his brother's fate,or if they had ever seen or heard of him;but,on the whole,I thought that it would be wiser to say nothing of the matter at that time.
After supper we filled our pipes and lit them;a proceeding which filled Infadoos and Scragga with astonishment.The Kukuanas were evidently unacquainted with the divine uses of tobacco-smoke.The herb was grown among them extensively;but,like the Zulus,they only used it for snuff,and quite failed to identify it in its new form.
Presently I asked Infadoos when we were to proceed on our journey,and was delighted to learn that preparations had been made for us to leave on the following morning,messengers having already left to inform Twala,the king,of our coming.It appeared that Twala was at his principal place,known as Loo,making ready for the great annual feast which was held in the first week of June.At this gathering all the regiments,with the exception of certain detachments left behind for garrison purposes,were brought up and paraded before the king,and the great annual witch-hunt,of which more by and by,was held.
We were to start at dawn;and Infadoos,who was to accompany us,expected that we should,unless we were detained by accident or by swollen rivers,reach Loo on the night of the second day.
When they had given us this information our visitors bade us good-night;and,having arranged to watch turn and turn about,three of us flung ourselves down and slept the sweet sleep of the weary,while the fourth sat up on the lookout for possible treachery.
