“_January 8th._--Day of the Great Dance. Very heavy rain fell at sunrise. As rain fell, girls bathing in rain-holes. Things in tent got very wet, and it was late before I could come out and begin to dry them. The heat soon became great, but the sun kept being more or less obscured by clouds. I learnt it was the day of the Great Dance, and hurried the drying and locking up of my things, so as to be ready to go and see it. Some majachas came out, and had a row, and bruised one another near my waggon. “As soon as I had finished packing I joined the Thomsons, whose waggon had drawn up in front of Myers’s store, where the dancing was to be. Meantime, Thomson says, they had been going through ceremonies at the kraal, where dancing was still going on, but very shortly they expected the king and people out. However, Thomson and I went to the kraal to see, and were well repaid. In the midst of a large circle formed by warriors, four wives of the king, dressed all alike, and modestly covered, were dancing, or rather slowly pacing. Each had a checked print over her shoulders, and a black skirt reaching low down. With them was a future wife, partially clad in gaily-coloured calicos, but without skirt. The wives, Thomson says, are very nice women. As I went with him through the crowd, I could not help seeing what respect is shown him, and how all make way for him. [Illustration: OX-HIDE SHIELD.] “Suddenly the royal sister appeared, and presented a most singular, not to say magnificent, appearance. It was something like the appearance of the _prima donna_ at the opera, or the leading spirit in some gorgeous pantomime. She is very stout, and tremendously _en bon point_, and her skin is of a coppery hue. She wore no dress, and the only covering above her waist was a number of gilded chains, some encircling her, some pendent. Round her arms were massive brazen bracelets. A blue and white freemason’s apron appeared in front, and looked strangely anomalous there, though really not unbecoming. From her waist also there hung down behind a number of brilliantly-coloured woollen neck-wraps, red being the predominant colour. Under the apron was a sort of short black skirt, covering the thighs, made of wrought ox-hide. Her legs and feet were bare, but round her ankles were the circlets of bells, worn by the women to make a noise when they dance. Her head-dress was decidedly pretty--a small bouquet of artificial flowers in front, and amongst the hair, standing in all directions, feathers of bee-eaters’ tails. A small circular ornament, fashioned out of red clay, was on the back of her head. She put herself in posture for the dance, but did not move very much or energetically whilst keeping time; she suffered too much from adiposity. She held one of the large oval black and white ox-hide shields, surmounted by a jackal’s tail, such as are carried by the warriors. The wives held long slender wands upright in their hands. The men, when they dance, usually carry a