"Here, I say. Tell them I'm devilish sorry," cried Falkner shaking off the stuff as best he could. "I'm not accustomed to these things, you know." I put it to them. They looked at Falkner, then at the shattered bowl, and as a Zulu is nothing if not humorous, one and all went off into a roar of laughter. "Hallo! That's better," grinned Falkner looking up, as he tried to wipe off the liquid with his handkerchief. "Why these are jolly sort of fellows after all. I was afraid they were going to look beastly glum over it. Tell them I'll get into their ways soon, Glanton. Meanwhile here's their jolly good health," taking a big drink out of a fresh bowl that was placed before him, only this time taking care to hold it with both hands. Soon the cracking of whips and an increased buzz of voices without announced the arrival of the waggons, and we all went out to the place of outspan. The sun was sinking behind the high ridge which bordered the great basin, and the plain in front of the kraal was dappled with homing herds, and on these I looked with the eye of a connoisseur and especially on the little fat, black Zulu oxen, which always fetch a good price for trek purposes. The shrill shout and whistle of the boy herds, blended with the trample and mooing of the cows brought in for the evening milking--but the chief interest on the part of the denizens of the great kraal was centred around the waggons. However it was too late to unload for trade purposes that evening, so beyond getting out a few things for gifts to Majendwa and some of the principal men of the place, I left everything undisturbed. "Here's our hut, Falkner," I said, presently, as we returned within the kraal. "We're going to sleep here." "Sleep here?" he echoed. "Don't know. I'd much rather sleep at the waggons. How about crawlers," surveying doubtfully the interior, wherein Tom was depositing the few things we should require for the night. "Oh, that won't trouble us. Beyond a few cockroaches of the smaller sort a new hut like this is clean enough. You see Majendwa's an old friend of mine, and he wouldn't take it in good part if we didn't sleep in his kraal, at any rate for a night or two. Now we're going to dine with him. Look they've just killed a young beast in honour of our arrival." And dine with him we did, and Falkner himself was fain to own that the great slabs of grilled beef, cut from the choicest part, down the back to wit, which were presently brought in, flanked by roasted mealies, and washed down by unlimited _tywala_ constituted a banquet by no means to be sneezed at. What though a clean grass mat did duty for a plate, and a skewer of wood for a fork, even he admitted that we might have fared much worse. I did not talk much as to the state of the country with our entertainers that night--that I could get at better by degrees, and later. But they chuckled mightily as I described the scrap with Dolf Norbury.