Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/21

 Rh been postponed in order that the association might have the opportunity of witnessing it. The bride, who is to be Mhlola's chief wife, is a 'commoner,' contrary to the usual custom. It is probably the only occasion that a royal Zulu wedding has been attended by a large party of invited guests of the white race. We watched the official part of the ceremony for some three hours; dances, speechmaking and chanting of war-songs not unlike Gregorian chants occupied most of the time. The part of the ceremony which constituted a legal marriage was followed by the presentation of gifts from the bride to her husband's principal female relatives and of symbolical presents to the bridegroom consisting of a lamp, a water jug, basin and soap, a chair and an umbrella. The festivities were to last two or three days, but the members of the association had to leave for other scenes, and they preferred the conventional lunch provided by the residents of the city to the oxen roasted over open wood fires and the Kaffir beer in which the natives delight. This attractive program occupying the only full day spent at Maritzburg prevented many of the visitors from joining in the numerous other excursions which the hospitable residents had arranged. Some idea of our activity throughout the trip may be gathered from my movements on the previous day. Leaving Durban at 8:50 and reaching Maritzburg at 1:10, I spent the early afternoon in riding round on the electric cars, seeing the town and visiting the new botanical garden. Then to a garden party at Government House, and after dinner to a lecture on 'Sleeping Sickness,' by Colonel Bruce!

It was a fortunate circumstance that the third volume of the Times' history of the Boer war, containing a full account of the operations round Ladysmith, should have been published early in the year. Those who had read it during the outward voyage were able to picture to themselves the various incidents of the struggle as the trains slowly steamed through the area past Estcourt, Frere and Chiveley, to Colenso. An afternoon was spent in climbing the nearer hills of Fort Wylie and Hlangwani, and in viewing the devious course of the Tugela as it threads its sunken bed through the rolling ground lying in front of the round-topped hills which faced the army at Colenso. Stone sangars, but little damaged, are still to be seen on every hand, but the hunters of curios in the shape of bullets and portions of shells had done their work too well long before our arrival, and few relics were discovered. Here the special trains were side-tracked for the night so that the points of interest along the short distance to Ladysmith could be seen by daylight. The residents of this quiet country town lying in a warm hollow on the Klip River had gathered together every available private and public conveyance and drove us to the scene of the most famous incident of the siege, Wagon Hill. This spot, about