“There wasn’t a weapon among the whole crowd; all they were allowed was rope to bind him. They did it, too; marched out into the bush and caught their lion and brought him in to the king. It must have been something of a job. Forty were killed, and over two hundred clawed. You’d call those chaps warriors, wouldn’t you?”
“And now they haul one round in rickshaws! Doesn’t it make one feel small!” Jim ejaculated. “Well, Chaka was a cruel brute, but he must have been a good deal of a man himself to be able to handle such men as those fellows, and send them marching to death, saluting him. Leaders like that don’t seem to get born nowadays.”
“Let me commend to your notice, Norah, that method of doing your hair!” said Mr. Linton, indicating two Kaffir girls who were passing. Their hair was drawn tightly back from their faces and dressed in a kind of hard club, about a foot long, that stuck out stiffly from the backs of their heads, slanting upwards.
“Good gracious!” said Norah, weakly.
“Do you suppose they take that erection down every night?” Jim asked.
“No, indeed—it looks calculated to last for years,” Norah answered. “I wonder how on earth they build it, and why.”
“It’s a handle,” Wally said, solemnly. “Their husbands pick them up by it when they’re tired. Also it might be used as a flag-staff, or a hat-peg: you could find ever so many uses about a house for it. And then it saves them for ever from buying hats. They might possibly make a forage-cap sitting on one eyebrow work in with that hair, but no other kind of head-dress would fit on. Think of the economy!”
“Think of trying to sleep in it!” said Norah, gazing sympathetically after the retreating brown ladies. “It could only be comfortable if they lay on their noses.”
“Well, their noses would rather give you the impression that they did,” Jim said. “Most of them are as flat as a pancake. I say, do we stand on the steps of this post office all day? Because I saw a shop with a touching legend about strawberries across the street; and I haven’t seen a strawberry for nearly a year. Let’s explore.”
They explored, and found the Durban strawberries so good that the exploration was indefinitely prolonged; then they sought curio-shops, and rummaged among assegais and knob-kerries, rhinoceros-hide shields, Zulu trinkets, Kaffir wire-work, ostrich feathers, and queer carved figures; and Norah found herself the delighted possessor of a little silver box with top and bottom of beautiful dark-blue agate, veined with white. It was very hot, and the city streets, crowded and dusty, were not inviting; so they hailed rickshaws, and soon were running smoothly along a wide road that led away from the town and towards the ocean beach. There was a steep pull up a long hill, which made the passengers strongly inclined to get out and walk, except that no one else in rickshaws seemed to think of doing so. The “boys” went up it at a good pace, though panting audibly. At the top they came in sight of the sea; a long strip of beach, on which big rollers pounded incessantly. On the left the steep slope down to it was terraced in lawn and garden, with seats here and there, summer-houses overgrown with gay creepers, and fountains, throwing aloft sparkling jets of water. The clean salt air blew strongly towards them.