I observed also that a man armed with an axe kept guard at the gateway in this fence round which he walked from time to time.
The Chief Umslopogaas was seated on a stool by the door of his hut with his rhinoceros-horn-handled axe which was fastened to his right wrist by a thong, leaning against his thigh, and a wolfskin hanging from his broad shoulders.

Very grim and fierce he looked thus, with the red light of the sunset playing on him.

He greeted me and pointed to another stool on which I sat myself down.

Apparently he had been watching my eyes, for he said, "I see that like other creatures which move at night, such as leopards and hyenas, you take note of all, O Watcher-by-Night, even of the soldier who guards this place and of where the fence is set and of how its gate is fashioned." "Had I not done so I should have been dead long ago, O Chief." "Yes, and because it is not my nature to do so as I should, perchance I shall soon be dead.

It is not enough to be fierce and foremost in the battle, Macumazahn.