“Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way from any kraal, the matter did not attract my particular notice; I merely called to one of the men, and told him to bargain with the woman for the mealies, and ask her if there were any more to be bought in the neighbourhood. Then I turned my head and continued to superintend the cutting of the tusk. Presently a shadow fell upon me. I looked up, and saw that the girl was standing before me, the basket of mealies still on her head.
“‘Marême, Marême,’ she said, gently clapping her hands together. The word Marême among these Matuku (though she was no Matuku) answers to the Zulu ‘Koos,’ and the clapping of hands is a form of salutation very common among the tribes of the Basutu race.
“‘What is it, girl?’ I asked her in Sisutu. ‘Are those mealies for sale?’
“‘No, great white hunter,’ she answered in Zulu, ‘I bring them as a gift.’
“‘Ah,’ I grumbled, ‘the old story—nothing for nothing in this wicked world. What do you want—beads?’
“She nodded, and I was about to tell one of the men to go and fetch some from one of the packs, when she checked me.
“‘A gift from the giver’s own hand is twice a gift,’ she said, and I thought that she spoke meaningly.
“‘You mean that you want me to give them to you myself?’
“I rose to go with her. ‘How is it that, being of the Matuku, you speak in the Zulu tongue?’ I asked suspiciously.
“‘I am not of the Matuku,’ she answered as soon as we were out of hearing of the men. ‘I am of the people of Nala, whose tribe is the Butiana tribe, and who lives there,’ and she pointed over the mountain. ‘Also I am one of the wives of Wambe,’ and her eyes flashed as she said the name.
“We reached the packs, and undoing one of them, I extracted a handful of beads. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘a gift for a gift. Hand over the mealies.’
“She took the beads without even looking at them, which struck me as curious, and setting the basket of mealies on the ground, emptied it.
“At the bottom of the basket were some curiously-shaped green leaves, rather like the leaves of the gutta-percha tree in shape, only somewhat thicker and of a more fleshy substance. As though by hazard, the girl picked one of these leaves out of the basket and smelt it. Then she handed it to me. I took the leaf, and supposing that she wished me to smell it also, was about to oblige her by doing so, when my eye fell upon some curious red scratches on the green surface of the leaf.