In our own vulgar land, companies would be running cheap excursions to witness the siege of Ladysmith--one shilling extra to see "Long Tom" in action.
In the morning they buried a Hindoo bearer who had died of pneumonia.
The grave was dug among the unmarked heaps of the native graveyard on the river bank.

It took five hours to make it deep enough, and meantime the dead man lay on a stretcher, wrapped in a clean white sheet.

His friends, about twenty of them, squatted round, almost motionless, and quite indifferent to time and space.

In their midst a thin grey smoke rose from a brazen jar, in which smouldered scented wood, spices, lavender, and the fresh blossom of one yellow flower like an aster.

At intervals of about a minute, one of the Hindoos raised a short, wailing chant, in parts of which the others joined.