Presently we were alongside, and I could see that our appearance -- and especially Good's and Umslopogaas's -- filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment, not unmixed with awe.

He was dressed after the same fashion as the man we first met, except that his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of pure white linen hemmed with purple.

The kilt, however, was identical, and so were the thick rings of gold around the arm and beneath the left knee.

The rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist.

Good took off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra flourish, and inquired after his health in the purest English, to which he replied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a moment, which we took as his method of salutation.