I think the Mazitu believed it was his fetish.

We didn't talk much, though once he said: "Well, the love of orchids has brought many a man to a bad end.

I wonder whether the Governor will keep my collection or sell it." After this he relapsed into silence, and not knowing and indeed not caring what would happen to his collection, I made no answer.
We had not far to go; personally I could have preferred a longer walk.
Passing with our guards down a kind of by-street, we emerged suddenly at the head of the market-place, to find that it was packed with thousands of people gathered there to see our execution.

I noticed that they were arranged in orderly companies and that a broad open roadway was left between them, running to the southern gate of the market, I suppose to facilitate the movements of so large a crowd.
All this multitude received us in respectful silence, though Sammy's howls caused some of them to smile, while the Zulu war-chant appeared to excite their wonder, or admiration.

At the head of the market-place, not far from the king's enclosure, fifteen stout posts had been planted on as many mounds.