When we entered the kotla, the whole of Manenko’s party saluted Shinte by clapping their hands, and Sambanza did obeisance by rubbing his chest and arms with ashes.  One of the trees being unoccupied, I retreated to it for the sake of the shade, and my whole party did the same.  We were now about forty yards from the chief, and could see the whole ceremony.  The different sections of the tribe came forward in the same way that we did, the head man of each making obeisance with ashes which he carried with him for the purpose; then came the soldiers, all armed to the teeth, running and shouting toward us, with their swords drawn, and their faces screwed up so as to appear as savage as possible, for the purpose, I thought, of trying whether they could not make us take to our heels.  As we did not, they turned round toward Shinte and saluted him, then retired.  When all had come and were seated, then began the curious capering usually seen in pichos.  A man starts up, and imitates the most approved attitudes observed in actual fight, as throwing one javelin, receiving another on the shield, springing to one side to avoid a third, running backward or forward, leaping, etc.  This over, Sambanza and the spokesman of Nyamoana stalked backward and forward in front of Shinte, and gave forth, in a loud voice, all they had been able to learn, either from myself or people, of my past history and connection with the Makololo; the return of the captives; the wish to open the country to trade; the Bible as a word from heaven; the white man’s desire for the tribes to live in peace:  he ought to have taught the Makololo that first, for the Balonda never attacked them, yet they had assailed the Balonda:  perhaps he is fibbing, perhaps not; they rather thought he was; but as the Balonda had good hearts, and Shinte had never done harm to any one, he had better receive the white man well, and send him on his way.  Sambanza was gayly attired, and, besides a profusion of beads, had a cloth so long that a boy carried it after him as a train.

Behind Shinte sat about a hundred women, clothed in their best, which happened to be a profusion of red baize.  The chief wife of Shinte, one of the Matebele or Zulus, sat in front with a curious red cap on her head.  During the intervals between the speeches, these ladies burst forth into a sort of plaintive ditty; but it was impossible for any of us to catch whether it was in praise of the speaker, of Shinte, or of themselves.  This was the first time I had ever seen females present in a public assembly.  In the south the women are not permitted to enter the kotla; and even when invited to come to a religious service there, would not enter until ordered to do so by the chief; but here they expressed approbation by clapping their hands, and laughing to different speakers; and Shinte frequently turned round and spoke to them.

A party of musicians, consisting of three drummers and four performers on the piano, went round the kotla several times, regaling us with their music.  Their drums are neatly carved from the trunk of a tree, and have a small hole in the side covered with a bit of spider’s web:  the ends are covered with the skin of an antelope pegged on; and when they wish to tighten it, they hold it to the fire to make it contract:  the instruments are beaten with the hands.