They were little fellows, about the height of a well-grown English boy of ten years of age, but that they were full-grown men was evidenced by the luxuriant beards and moustaches which they all wore; indeed, one of them, their leader, appeared to be well advanced in years, for his hair and beard were dashed here and there with grey. It was a little difficult to judge what their natural complexion might be, for they were all deeply tanned by the sun, but I imagined it could be very little darker than my own, for I was as deeply bronzed as any of them, as I could see by a glance at my own sunburnt hands. They were clad in a uniform consisting of a sleeveless shirt that looked as though made of white thick silk, over which was worn a kind of tunic of fine scale armour, which gleamed and flashed in the sun as though made of gold—as indeed it afterwards proved to be. On their heads they wore plumed helmets of the same precious metal; their legs were bare, save for a kind of buskin made of leather, coloured white, reaching to just below the knee; they were armed with a short, broad-bladed sword, and a round target or shield, finely embossed, also made of gold; and they were mounted on zebras, the trappings of which were thickly studded with small gold bosses, the saddles consisting of thickly rolled blankets of some soft material strapped over big saddle cloths of crimson silk, edged with stout gold cord and adorned at the corners with tassels of gold bullion. There was a standard-bearer with them whose trappings were even richer and more ornate than those of the rank and file, and who bore aloft upon a slender lance a small standard of crimson silk, deeply edged with gold fringe, and beautifully emblazoned in gold thread with a device which seemed to be a hieroglyphic of some sort, of which I could make nothing.
Upon finding ourselves thus suddenly confronted with this extraordinary array, we promptly reined our horses back upon their haunches, while I with equal promptitude unslung my rifle and brought it to the “present”, more by instinct than anything else, for of course the idea of successfully resisting fifty of even such little fellows as these, if they were evilly disposed toward us and were possessed of only ordinary courage, was absurd. But their chief, or leader, quickly set our minds at rest, for without moving from his place in the front of his troop he threw up his right hand and exclaimed, in a rather high-pitched voice, and in the Bantu dialect with which I happened to be acquainted:
“Nay, mighty and noble lord, slay us not with thy lightnings, I pray thee, for we mean naught but good to thee and thine! I, Pousa, captain of the queen’s bodyguard, have been dispatched by Bimbane, the Deathless One, the Possessor of all Knowledge, the Reader of all Secrets, the High and Mighty Queen of the Bandokolo, to bid thee welcome to her country and to conduct thee in all honour to her gracious presence.”
“It is well, O Pousa, and I thank you,” answered I, as I lowered my rifle. “But tell me, I pray you, how came Bimbane to know that it is my purpose to visit her, and how came you to know where you would find me?”
“The queen knows all things; there is no secret hidden from her,” answered Pousa simply. “She has long known of thy coming and the reason for it, and at first she was minded to destroy thee and thy following and seize all thy belongings. Then she changed her mind and determined to forbid thine entrance into her country. And now, quite recently, she has again changed her mind, and has decided to receive thee in peace, with all honour. She it was who directed me how and when to come and where to lie in wait for thee. Ay, she even knows that Siluce, the outlawed rebel, went out upon the Dark Path from thine arms.”
“The dickens she does!” exclaimed I in English, in the height of my astonishment. “Nay, but how can that be, seeing that no one has passed from me to her to tell her so?” I continued in Bantu.
“It matters not, she knows,” answered Pousa; adding, with just a touch of impatience: “Do I not tell thee that she knows all things?”
“Yes,” I answered, “you certainly tell me so, but—”
I checked myself abruptly, realising that I was on the point of saying something that might easily be construed as offensive. “It will give me great pleasure to make the acquaintance of your queen,” I continued; “for a woman who possesses such an extraordinary gift of knowledge must be very well worth knowing. There are one or two matters upon which I am badly in need of reliable information. Perhaps she may be induced to give me that information?”
“She will, without doubt—if it so pleases her,” answered Pousa. “But,” he continued, “where is thy house that travels, being drawn of oxen, and where are the rest of thy followers? The queen told me that there were with thee four black ones, and that—”