The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: the Amangwane free-spears. A very different set of men they looked on
this triumphant day to those fierce fellows who had slipped out of the
trees at the call of their chief. As we went through the country Saduko
had bought fine moochas and blankets for them; also head-dresses had
been made with the long black feathers of the sakabuli finch, and
shields and leglets of the hides and tails of oxen. Moreover, having
fed plentifully and travelled easily, they were fat and well-favoured,
as, given good food, natives soon become after a period of abstinence.
The plan of Saduko was to lie quiet in the bush that night, and on the
following morning to advance in all his grandeur, accompanied by his
spears, present the hundred head of cattle that had been demanded, and
 Child of Storm |