Each company stood like a collection of bronze statues till we were opposite to it,when,at a signal given by its commanding officer,who,distinguished by a leopard-skin cloak,stood some paces in front,every spear was raised into the air,and from three hundred throats sprang forth with a sudden roar the royal salute of "Koom!"Then,when we had passed,the company formed behind us and followed us towards the kraal,till at last the whole regiment of the "Grays"(so called from their white shields),the crack corps of the Kukuana people,was marching behind us with a tread that shook the ground.At length,branching off from Solomon's Great.Road,we came to the wide fosse surrounding the kraal,which was at least a mile round and fenced with a strong palisade of piles formed of the trunks of trees.At the gateway this fosse was spanned by a primitive drawbridge which was let down by the guard to allow us to pass in.The kraal was exceedingly well laid out.Through the centre ran a wide pathway intersected at right angles by other pathways so arranged as to cut the huts into square blocks,each block being the quarters of a company.The huts were dome shaped,and built,like those of the Zulus,of a framework of wattle beautifully thatched with grass;but,unlike the Zulu huts,they had doorways through which one could walk.Also they were much larger,and surrounded with a veranda about six feet wide,beautifully paved with powdered lime trodden hard.All along each side of the wide pathway that pierced the kraal were ranged hundreds of women,brought out by curiosity to look at us.These women are,for a native race,exceedingly handsome.
They are tall and graceful,and their figures are wonderfully fine.The hair,though short,is rather curly than woolly,the features are frequently aquiline,and the lips are not unpleasantly thick,as is the case in most African races.But what struck us most was their exceeding quiet,dignified air.They were as well-bred in their way as the habituéof a fashionable drawing-room,and in this respect differ from Zulu women,and their cousins,the Masai,who inhabit the district behind Zanzibar.
Their curiosity had brought them out to see us,but they allowed no rude expression of wonder or savage criticism to pass their lips as we trudged wearily in front of them.Not even when old Infadoos with a surreptitious motion of the hand pointed out the crowning wonder of poor Good's "beautiful white legs,"did they allow the feeling of intense admiration which evidently mastered their minds to find expression.They fixed their dark eyes upon their snowy loveliness (Good's skin is exceedingly white)and that was all.But this was quite enough for Good,who is modest by nature.
When we got to the centre of the kraal Infadoos halted at the door of a large hut,which was surrounded at a distance by a circle of smaller ones.