park-like in character, with dotted clumps of trees among which ran,
or rather wound, a silver stream that seemed to issue from between two
rocky koppies in the distance.

These koppies, the guides told them, were the gates of Sisa Town. They
neglected to add that it lay in a hot and unhealthy hill-ringed hollow
beyond them, the site having originally been chosen because it was
difficult to attack, being only approachable through certain passes.
Therefore it was a very suitable place in which to kraal the cattle
of the Zulu kings in times of danger. That day they travelled down the
declivity into the plain, where they camped. By the following afternoon
they came to the koppies through which the river ran, and asked its
name. The answer was _Ukufa_.

"_Ukufa?_" said Thomas. "Why, that means Death."

"Yes," was the reply, "because in the old days this river was the River
of Death where evil-doers were sent to be slain."

"How horrible!" said Dorcas, for unfortunately she had overheard and
understood this conversation.

By the side of the river was a kind of shelf of rock that was used as a
road, and over this they bumped in their wagon, till presently they were
past the koppies and could see their future home beyond. It was a plain
some miles across, and entirely surrounded by precipitous hills, the
river entering it through a gorge to the north. In the centre of this
plain was another large koppie of which the river _Ukufa_, or Death,
washed one side. Around this koppie, amid a certain area of cultivated
land, stood the "town" of the Christian branch of the Sisa. It consisted