I may perhaps be excused if I do not dwell on the merits of the chief actors or of the plot--not too easy to grasp at the first, thanks to the difficulty we found in following the unfamiliar names of the characters. Both these interests were dominated by the attraction of the admirable setting. Fortunately the scenes were numerous and brief, but we still suffered considerable tedium from the affected and drawling delivery of the heroine. The frequent assurances which we received as to the exceptional quality of _Mameena's_ beauty, and the fact that, to our knowledge, she had three husbands in the course of the play, never quite convinced us of the overwhelming character of her charms. Whether, with a fair chance, she would have worked them successfully on a fourth man, _Allan Quatermain_--the one white man who retained his native hue--I cannot say, for somehow a stage diversion always intervened just as they had begun to embrace. The reason, by the way, for _Quatermain's_ existence was never made too clear. Sportsman and dealer in general stores, his habit of hanging vaguely about Zulu kraals and Zulu impis, on nodding terms with just anybody, did not greatly increase my pride of race, notwithstanding the statement made to him by _Mameena_: "I shall never love another man as I love you, however many I marry." Mr. OSCAR ASCHE, who dramatised Sir RIDER HAGGARD'S _Child of Storm_, did not aim at subtlety. But a rather nice question arose over the rival immoralities of _Mameena's_ second and third husbands. _Prince Umbuyazi_ (No. 3) had expressed regret to his old friend and comrade, _Saduka_ (No. 2), for appropriating his wife; but the apology was not received in the spirit in which it was tendered, and during the fight between _Umbuyazi_ and his brother _Cetshwayo_ the wronged husband went over with his impis to the camp of the enemy. _Umbuyazi_ made a strong protest against this treachery, but he must have seen (for he had much intelligence) that his case was a bad one; and this reflection no doubt had something to do with the final act by which (in the old Roman way) he fell upon his own assegai and dropped backwards--an admirable gymnastic--off one of the high rocks above the Tugela. I have already referred to the difficulties of Zulu nomenclature, and I would add that the native custom of addressing a man by his proper name in the course of every sentence materially extended the operation of the play. It must have made a difference--which I, for one, bitterly grudged--of nearly half-an-hour. How much more satisfactory the economy of a certain author of whom CHARLIE BROOKFIELD used to say: "He read his play to the company, and it took three solid hours, _and even so he didn't put in any of the 'h's.'_" O. S. * * * * * Illustration: SOME OF THE GREATEST FIGURES OF ALL AGES. _Recently discovered, by German research, to have been of Teutonic birth._ JULIUS KAISER. GENERAL HERCULES. JOHANNA VON ARKSTEIN.