to carry back with him. He grunted and groaned, poor old King, and then told Sapena to take us to his hut, shaking hands with us all twice again. We went to his hut, and there sitting in the spacious court we found his great wife. She was a woman about forty years of age, but still remarkably handsome, with brilliant quick eyes, of an olive rather than black colour. She wore a fur hat or cap,—somewhat like a pork-pie hat,—which became her wonderfully; and though she was squatting on the ground with her knees high and her back against the fence,—not of all attitudes the most dignified,—still there was much of dignity about her. She shook hands with us, still seated, and then bade one of the girls take us into the hut. There was nothing in this especial, except that a portion of it was screened off by furs, behind which we did not of course penetrate. All these huts are very roomy and perfectly light They are lofty, so that a man cannot touch the roof in the centre, and clean. Into the ordinary Kafir hut the visitor has to creep,—and when there he creeps out at once because of the heat, the smell, and the smoke. These were of course royal huts, but the huts of all the Baralongs are better than those of the Kafirs.
The King or Chief administers justice sitting outside in his Court with his Councillors round him; and whatever he pronounces, with their assistance,—that is law. His word without theirs would be law too,—but would be law probably at the expense of his throne or life if often so pronounced. There are Statutes which are well understood, and a Chief who persistently ignored the Statutes would not
