phenomena was specially required in Zululand,--ordinary rains, of course, were greatly in demand in times of drought,--it devolved on the King to furnish the oxen, as a rule about ten, necessary for presentation at the foreign court, before the "lord of the elements" would consent to exercise his skill. Hence, "thunderbolt," in such context as the above, means either the King's own army (which never went through a country but its devastations resembled those of a hurricane), or a storm brought about through the King interceding with such other king as _could_ bring it on. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that, on hearing the command noised abroad, Natal Chiefs should have at once concluded it emanated from Dinuzulu who, though not a King, was the recognised representative of the Zulu royal house. Chiefs like Mveli near Pietermaritzburg, Mtambo and Ndunge near Durban, Tilonko and Sikukuku near Mid Illovo, and Mtele and Nondubela of Umsinga, and others, accordingly thought it right to dispatch messengers direct to Dinuzulu to ascertain if such order had or had not originated from him. Tilonko went further and asked Dinuzulu if he was to pay the poll tax or not. Dinuzulu promptly denied having issued any such "word." He added that if the people wished to conform to the supposed order it was no affair of his; they could please themselves. This denial, however, did not amount to much, for admission, assuming him to have been the originator, would have been tantamount to saying he was guilty of sedition. No assertion is here made that it did emanate from him. The reader must be left to draw his own inference. It is not a little remarkable that the Chiefs named should have associated Dinuzulu with the order and gone to the trouble of communicating with him at a distance of 200 miles without reference to the Government. That they should have done so is, perhaps, accounted for by Dinuzulu's having posed as agent-in-chief of the Zulu people. In connection with the locust invasion, for instance, partly civilized though he was, he is alleged to have sent ten oxen all the way to the notorious witch Mabelemade in the Transvaal to implore her to remove the plague. The plague afterwards vanished. If Dinuzulu did act in this way, to whom are ignorant Natives likely to have ascribed the relief they then got? And to whom would they look for deliverance on subsequent occasions of general misfortune?