It was a vast cleft in which granite boulders were piled up fantastically, perched one upon another in great columns, and upon its sides grew dark trees set sparsely among the rocks.

It faced towards the west, but the light of the sinking sun that flowed up it served only to accentuate its vast loneliness, for it was a big cleft, the best part of a mile wide at its mouth.
Up this dreary gorge we marched, mocked at by chattering baboons and following a little path not a foot wide that led us at length to a large hut and several smaller ones set within a reed fence and overhung by a gigantic mass of rock that looked as though it might fall at any moment.
At the gate of the fence two natives of I know not what tribe, men of fierce and forbidding appearance, suddenly sprang out and thrust their spears towards my breast.
"Whom bring you here, Saduko ?" asked one of them sternly.
"A white man that I vouch for," he answered.

"Tell Zikali that we wait on him." "What need to tell Zikali that which he knows already ?" said the sentry.
"Your food and that of your companion is already cooked in yonder hut.
Enter, Saduko, with him for whom you vouch." So we went into the hut and ate, also I washed myself, for it was a beautifully clean hut, and the stools, wooden bowls, etc., were finely carved out of red ivory wood, this work, Saduko informed me, being done by Zikali's own hand.

Just as we were finishing our meal a messenger came to tell us that Zikali waited our presence.

We followed him across an open space to a kind of door in the tall reed fence, passing which I set eyes for the first time upon the famous old witch-doctor of whom so many tales were told.
Certainly he was a curious sight in those strange surroundings, for they were very strange, and I think their complete simplicity added to the effect.