The scene of the coming spectacle of this bright new day lies spread
before us, and certainly no spot could have been better chosen for
dramatic effect. In front of the waggons is a large, flat, open space,
backed by bold rising ground with jutting crags and dotted clumps of
luxuriant vegetation. All around spreads the dense thorn-bush, allowing
but of one way of approach, from the left. During the morning we could
hear snatches of distant chants growing louder and louder as time wore
on, and could catch glimpses of wild figures threading the thorns,
warriors hastening to the meeting-place. All through the past night the
farmers for miles around had been aroused by the loud insistent cries
of the chief's messengers as they flitted far and wide, stopping but a
moment wherever one of their tribe sojourned, and bidding him come, and
bring plume and shield, for Pagadi had need of him. This day, we may be
sure, the herds are left untended, the mealie-heads ungathered, for the
herdsmen and the reapers have come hither to answer to the summons of
their chief.
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