SORAIS' SONG
After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to

our quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two
Queens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing

us honour and showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little
incident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were

quite content to leave it. Every day deputations and individuals
waited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts,

and our instruments, especially our watches, with which they
were much delighted. In short, we became quite the rage, so

much so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendi
began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry's

shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion.

This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those
who generally came to visit us. They were little insignificant

men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour;
and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing

the details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they took
copious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at the

time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading
tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when on

attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very

fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind.
I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust.

It was after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because
our clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up, that we

resolved to adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable one
we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked sufficiently

ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas would
have none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce

old Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim
and naked as his own battleaxe.

Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made
very good progress. On the morning following our adventure in

the temple, three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves
armed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and

indicated that they had been sent to teach us. So, with the
exception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will, doing

four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he would have none of
that either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's talk', not

he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive

way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag
under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang

up with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes
of our learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt to

teach him Zu-Vendi.
Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more

and more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were
given up to recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one

to the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both of
which I wish I had space and time to describe; and sometimes

we went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose,
and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agricultural

enclosures and our horses were magnificent. This is not to be
wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our command,

in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given
to us by Nyleptha.

Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great
favour among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a

species of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and
strength of its flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird

appears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flies
high into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport. I have seen

one of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed
by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitary

snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in this
country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and

highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging
of the great snipe and the lightningrapidity of the flight and

movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful
one. Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of

a very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and it
certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and

soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and
then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some

cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the

eagle takes the buck running.
On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some

of the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages
clustering beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields

and well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them as
filled me with delight, for I do love a good tree. There it

stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type
of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head

to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices
when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too,

when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot
equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All

day it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and
thus passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through the

centuries, come storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance from
the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as the slow years roll

by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay. And
so on and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs,

dynasties -- all save the landscape it adorns and human nature
-- till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle

and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke
to his fungus-fingered work.

Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself

to dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties -- not every night,
indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they had

not much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it.
And I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the

most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with.
How true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always

the most simple and kindly. It is from your half-and-half sort
of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the difference

between the two being very much what you one sees every day in
England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family,

and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take the
place'. I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her

sweet simplicity, and her kindly genuine interest even in little
things. She is the simplest woman I ever knew, and where her

passions are not involved, one of the sweetest; but she can look
queenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as any savage too.

For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the
first time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis.

It came about in this way -- all through Good's weakness for
ladies' society. When we had been employed for some three months

in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master Good that he was getting
rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the honour to lead

us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without saying
a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiar

fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the deeper
intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by ladies

-- young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country,
he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking