Also, if the tale were true, it was his duty as his spiritual
adviser to remonstrate with him.
So his poor wife gave up arguing, as she always did, and long before dawn
on the following morning, Mr. Dove, accompanied by two guides, departed
upon his errand.
After he had ridden some twelve miles across the plain which lay behind
Ramah, just at daybreak, he reached a pass or nek between two swelling
hills, beyond which the guides said lay the kraal that was called Mafooti.
Presently he saw it, a place situated in a cup-like valley, chosen
evidently because the approaches to it were easy to defend. On a knoll in
the centre of this rich valley stood the kraal, a small native town
surrounded by walls, and stone enclosures full of cattle. As they
approached the kraal, from its main entrance issued four or five
good-looking native women, one of them accompanied by a boy, and all
carrying hoes in their hands, for they were going out at sunrise to work
in the mealie fields. When they saw Mr. Dove they stood still, staring at
him, till he called to them not to be afraid, and riding up, asked them
who they were.
"We are of the number of the wives of Ibubesi, the Lion," answered their
spokeswoman, who held the little boy by the hand.
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