There were tall Zulus and Swazis with ringkops and feather head-dresses.

There were men from the north with heavy brass collars and anklets; men with quills in their ears, and earrings and nose-rings; shaven heads, and heads with wonderfully twisted hair; bodies naked or all but naked, and bodies adorned with skins and necklets.

Some were light in colour, and some were black as coal; some had squat negro features, and some thin, high-boned Arab faces.

But in all there was the air of mad enthusiasm.
For a day they were forsworn from blood, but their wild eyes and twitching hands told their future purpose.
For an hour or two I had been living in a dream-world.

Suddenly my absorption was shattered, for I saw that my time to swear was coming.
I sat in the extreme back row at the end nearest the entrance, and therefore I should naturally be the last to go forward.