The White Chief of the Caffres

  CHAPTER THREE.

  Immediately the council broke up I was taken by the chief Inyati to akraal about ten miles distant from that in which Mrs Apton and herdaughter and Constance were stopping. I took a fancy to Inyati, andtried by signs and a few words which were a mixture of English andHindostani, to ask him where I was being taken to. He seemed tounderstand my meaning, for he smiled, gave me a pat on the head, andgave me a knob-kerrie and an assagy to carry. Upon arriving at thekraal Inyati called out "Inyoni," "Tembile," and two Caffre boys aboutmy own size came running towards him. Inyati spoke to them for sometime, evidently about me, as he pointed to me often; the boys listenedwith great attention, and when he had finished, one of the boysrepeated, apparently word for word, what he had been told. The chiefnodded, and then walked away to one of the huts, whilst the boys put outeach a hand and shook hands with me and beckoned me to follow them.They took me out about a mile from the kraal and towards a herd ofcattle that were grazing on a hillside; we then sat down under the shadeof a tree, and the boys commenced talking to me. I shook my head toshow them I could not understand, and said, "Caffre humko malum ney,"which is the Hindostani for "I don't know Caffre." Somehow I thoughtthat, as the boys were black, they would understand Hindostani betterthan they would English. They talked together for some time, andappeared very earnest in some argument. They then sat down beside me,and, pointing to the assagy that I still carried, said, "Umkonto." I atonce understood that they were going to teach me to speak Caffre, andbeing anxious to learn, I was much pleased at their intention. Irepeated the word "umkonto," which I now knew meant an assagy, until Isaid it just as they did. They then pointed to the cattle and said,"Incomo," spreading out their hands so as to indicate all the herd.They then pointed at a chestnut-looking cow and said, "Imazi-e-bomvu,"then at a white cow and said, "Imazi-e-molope." I learnt these wordsvery quickly, and then, seeing a bird, I pointed at it, and lookedinquiringly at my companions. They at once said, "Inyoni," which I knewmeant a bird, and one of the boys, pointing to himself, said, "Igama'sam Inyoni," which I knew meant, "My name is Inyoni." The boy then said,"Igama's arko," and pointed to me. I knew he was asking what my namewas, so I said "Julius." They both tried to repeat the word after me,but it seemed more difficult for them to say "Julius" than it was for meto repeat Caffre words after them. Being anxious to learn useful words,I made signs of eating, and then of drinking. The boys were wonderfullyquick at understanding; and, pretending to eat, they said "ejla," andthen, pretending to drink, said "posa." The sun was shining, so Ipointed to it, and was at once told that it was "Ilanga." The boys thenpatted their stomachs and drew them in as if they were empty, and said"Lambili, funa ejla"; this I understood meant, "Hungry, I want to eat."

  Note: A Caffre chief who rebelled against us some years ago was calledby the English, Langerbelali. The name really was Ilanga-liba-leli,which means, "The Shining Sun."

  During this first day I learnt about forty words in Caffre, and as Iafterwards found that about five hundred words enables me to speak inmost languages, I was able in a fortnight to understand nearly all thatwas spoken, and also to make known what I wanted to say.

  When the sun was near the horizon, the two Caffre boys collected thecattle, and drove them home. I aided them in this work, and tried towhistle as they did, but this I could not accomplish for some days; thecattle, however, seemed to be more afraid of me than of the Caffres, soI was a great help to them in driving the animals home.

  On our reaching the kraal, the cattle were driven into the centre, wherethere was a circular space fenced round with tall upright poles. Themen belonging to the kraal then milked the cows; for this I found wasthe men's work, no woman being allowed to milk them. I was taken into ahut where there were two little girls about my own size, who laughed atme, but would not speak. These girls were the sisters of Inyoni andTembile, and one of them, although black, was very pretty. I was givena bowl of milk and some boiled Indian corn; and being very tired I soonfell asleep, and slept until disturbed shortly before sunrise by the twoboys, who made signs to me to go with them and drive the cattle out totheir grazing-ground.

  During the next day I learned the Caffre for the numbers from one toten. One they called _munye_, two was _mabili_, and ten _ishumi_. Ialso learned that some of the fruit in the bush was good and some bad.One fruit that these boys were fond of and was very good, they calledMartingula; it grew on a tree something like the English holly and wasabout the size of a plum. It was red in colour, and varied very much inflavour: we found plenty of these trees, and ate a good deal of thefruit. The boys explained to me that whatever a monkey ate a man mighteat, as monkeys knew quite well what was fit and what poisonous forfood. Each day I became more apt in speaking Caffre, and as I heardnothing else spoken, I used to think in Caffre, and thought it a verypretty language. My young companions were light-hearted, and very kind,and quite unlike English boys, who too often chaff or bully a strangeboy, especially if this boy belongs to a strange nation. But the youngCaffres amused themselves for hours each day in throwing an assagy at amark. The mark was a large hard fruit, in shape and size like anorange. It was placed on the top of a stick, and the boys threw at itfrom a distance of forty paces. I was very awkward at first, but havinglearned how to hold and throw the assagy, I became at the end of a weekas expert as they were, and being stouter and stronger, I could throwthe assagy to a greater distance. I also practised throwing theknob-kerrie, which did not require so much skill, but which I soon foundwas a very useful weapon, as quails in hundreds soon visited thecountry, and I and my companions used to knock down twenty or thirtyquails a day with these sticks, and we used to make a fire and cookthem, and found them excellent eating.

  My first great sporting achievement was in killing a duiker, a smallantelope that was found in bushy or stony country. This animal, whichthe Caffres termed _Impenze_, was very cunning, and could conceal itselfin long grass in a wonderful way. I possessed very good sight, andrarely missed seeing anything that was to be seen, though I had yet tolearn how to properly use this sight. We were sitting watching thecattle one morning, when I obtained a glimpse of an object moving insome long grass about a hundred yards from where we were. I did not sayanything to my companions, but got up, and making a circular course,went quietly up to a rock which overlooked the grass in which I fanciedI had seen the moving object. As I peeped over the stone I saw theimpenze, standing broadside to, and about twenty yards from me. I hadmy assagy all ready to throw, and sent it with all my strength at thebuck. The blade of the assagy went right through the buck's neck, andthough it did not kill him, it prevented him from moving quickly throughthe grass and bushes, as it remained fast in his neck. I jumped downquickly and struck him with my knob-kerrie, and killed him with two orthree blows on the head. The two Caffre boys had now joined me, as theysaw I was attacking some animal. They jumped about in a state of greatexcitement when they saw the dead antelope; and then taking a good lookall round, they told me to keep quiet, and not to tell any one aboutthis buck having been killed. Inyoni at once skinned the buck and laidout the skin on the ground, pegging it down with mimosa thorns. The twoboys then procured two sticks about a foot long, and of dry wood; thesesticks they selected with great care. Placing one of these on theground, Inyoni held down the ends with his feet, and then holding theother stick upright, he worked it round and round between the palms ofhis hands, and pressed it on to the second stick. Tembile relievedInyoni when the latter was tired, and so they went on, turn and turnabout, until the sawdust produced by this friction began to smoke andthen to catch fire. A wisp of dry grass was then gathered, the sparksput into this, and the wisp swung round at arm's-length, when it verysoon began to blaze, and in a few minutes we had a capital wood fire.With our assagies we now cut up the buck and fried it over the fire, andhad a great feast, eating about half the animal. The remainder weconcealed on the branches of a tree, for we knew that if we left it onthe ground, a jackal or leopard would fin
d it, and we should get nothingon the following day. I was told by my companions that if the men knewwe had killed this buck and had not carried it to the kraal, we shouldall be beaten; so I must keep the secret, for my own sake as well astheirs.

  Our life was very simple and quiet; and I have often thought in lateryears, that the life led by these Caffres was perfect freedom andluxury, compared with the slavery endured by business men in cities. ACaffre who possessed a hundred head of cattle might have acquired theseby his father giving him a cow and a calf when he was a boy. Cattleincrease in almost geometrical rates. Thus a cow and a calf wouldprobably become in ten years fifty head of cattle, and the young Caffrewould be a man of independent fortune. As soon as a Caffre possessescattle, he purchases a wife, and the limit to the number of his wives isonly drawn by the amount of cattle he possesses. A young good-lookinggirl is purchased for from eight to ten cows. These are not always paidat once, three or four being given at the time of marriage, and theremainder paid in a year or two afterwards. A wife among these peopleis not a matter of expense only, as it is with civilised nations; but isa profitable investment, as the wives work in the mealie gardens, do thedigging and the sowing, and at the time of harvest gather in the crops.If then a man possess three or four wives, he cultivates a large pieceof ground and has plenty of corn, pumpkins, and other grain, and alsohas cows from which he obtains milk. The men never drank fresh milk,which they call _ubisi_: this they consider only fit for women and boys.They placed the fresh milk in large gourds made from dried pumpkins,and which contained about two quarts of milk, which was kept for somehours exposed to the sun; the gourd was then shaken, and again allowedto rest; in about three days the milk turned and became lumpy, and had atart taste about it, and was really meat and drink. When in this stateit was called _amasi_. This amasi and boiled mealies were food enoughfor the Caffres, meat being eaten only about once a month, when somewedding took place, or a hunting expedition was successful. The Caffremen did very little except milk the cows, which they never allowed thewomen to do, go out hunting, and have dances, and long talks in theirkraals. I should like to know what more pleasant life could be passedby any man in a civilised country than this. Had I been older or moreexperienced when I was living among these people, I should have beenmore surprised than I was at the absence of all those wishes, andanxieties, which form the principal desires of men and women incivilised countries. These Caffres had no desire for more than theypossessed, except as regards cattle, and thus afforded an excellentexample of the proverbs that "He who curtails his wants increases hisincome," and "He whose requirements are less than his means of supply,is the only rich man."

  I was so fully occupied with the work that was drawn out for me by theCaffres, that I had not thought with much anxiety about my latefellow-passengers. I wished, however, to see Constance, and now that Icould speak a little in the Caffre language, I asked where she was, andwhen I could see her. My inquiry and wish seemed to puzzle Inyoni, whotold me she was well, but that I must not see her yet, as the chief hadso ordered it. So, during six months I never saw a white person, and bythat time I was to all purposes a regular Caffre boy. I could speak thelanguage well, I could click out the proper clicks at right words, couldthrow an assagy better than any Caffre boy of my size. I could runfaster than other Caffre boys, though I could not keep it up so well,but for a quarter of a mile I was very fast. I knew nearly every cow'sname, and could whistle and drive a herd of cattle like a Caffre. Theone thing from which I suffered was the tenderness of my feet. My bootshad been worn out long since, and my feet, from having worn shoes all mylife, were very tender; but each day they became harder, though I oftenhad to stop and sit down when I had trodden on a sharp stone. My onlysuit of clothes was worn out, but I had made a set of what the Caffresconsidered clothes, but were merely strips of goat's-skin about a footlong, fastened to a leather strap round my waist. This absence of dressI found caused me to be too hot in the warm weather and too cold in theearly mornings and in the cold weather; but I hardened under theconditions, and soon did not mind it.

  There was an amusement that I and my two companions carried on which Iafterwards found very useful. This was to procure two or three straightcanes about five feet long: one end of these we used to cover with clay,we then stood opposite each other, and danced and jumped about, and thensuddenly threw these at, each other, using them like an assagy. Atfirst the Caffres used to hit me at nearly every shot, and I nevertouched them; but after considerable practice I became as expert as theywere, and could spring on one side so as just to avoid the blow, orthrow myself down, or turn the spear aside with my shield, which was anoval-shaped piece of ox-hide. At about thirty paces from each other wecould never hit one another, and then we closed in till one of us washit. We used to keep a score on a stick of the number of hits againsteach of us, a notch in the stick being the mark. In after years, whenit was a matter of life and death, the training and practice I hadgained in my boyhood was of vital importance to me in avoiding anassagy, when one was thrown at me, and my dexterity in throwing one soonbecame known among the tribe with which I lived. The things I couldaccomplish with the assagy were the following. I could throw an assagysixty paces, which, for a boy, was very good, but two or three of themen could throw the same assagy ninety paces. At forty paces I couldhit a mark as big as a man's head about every other shot. I could throwthe assagy either overhand or underhand, quivering it at the same time.If thrown overhand, the hand was held above the shoulder, and the armfrom the hand to the elbow was vertical when the assagy left the hand.When thrown underhand, the back of the hand was down, and the arm fromthe hand to the elbow was horizontal when the spear left the hand. Thisunderhand throwing was very effective in taking your adversary bysurprise; for if you jumped about quickly and made feints, pretending tothrow overhand, then suddenly throwing underhand, he very often couldnot dodge quickly enough to escape the weapon.

  I never left my hut without one or two assagies and a knob-kerrie in myhand; for close to our kraal there were leopards, hyaenas, and otheranimals that were very dangerous.

  There was one accomplishment that I had acquired from my companions thatI had thought about night and day, and which I found very fascinating.This was "spooring," as the English and Dutch in South Africa call it;that is, telling by the footprints what animals have passed over theground, when they passed, and at what pace. This study is quite an art,and I occupied many months in arriving at even a superficial knowledgeof the subject. Although I of course had no opportunity of learningarithmetic or any of those things that boys learn in English schools,yet I had my brain exercised by such studies as spooring and theobservation necessary to enable me to practise the art. To spoor wellit is necessary to know many things that appear at first sight to havenothing to do with the question. One of the things to learn was tobreak off branches of various sizes from different trees, to place thesein the sunshine and in the shade, and then to notice how long it tookfor these leaves and branches to look withered or otherwise. Thesmaller the branch the sooner it withered, and in the sun it witheredsooner than in the shade. Then some trees, the wood of which was hard,would look fresh for a long time, whereas soft wood would soon showsigns of withering. If the day was moist or wet, the branch that woulddry on a sunny day would look fresh after the same interval of time. Iused to take great pleasure in finding out these things, and Inyoni andTembile used to break branches in the bush one day, and then take me tosee them afterwards, and get me to guess how long a time had elapsedsince they broke them. Of course we knew nothing about hours, but weused to point in the sky and say, "The sun was there yesterday, orto-day, when you broke this off the tree."

  In this part of Africa the dew falls very heavily, and I found that thedew fell most just after the sun had set. This was a great aid intelling the time that had elapsed since an animal had passed over theground, for we could tell whether it was after the dew, or before thedew had fallen. The footprints of the vario
us animals I learnt aftersome time, for it was not very easy to tell the difference between alarge black bush-buck's footprint and that of a wild pig. Also it wassometimes difficult to distinguish between a wild buffalo's footprintand that of one of our cattle; that is, if the buffalo was a young one.After a few months, however, I had gained much experience, and couldtell the footprints of the following animals, all of which were to beseen near our kraal:--The hippopotamus, called _imvubu_ by the Caffres,the buffalo, the large black bush-buck, the red bush-buck, and smallblue bush-buck, the reit-buck, duiker, leopard, hyaena, the ratal, andmany smaller animals. I acquired the habit of watching the ground as Iwalked along, and noting what spoor there was on it, and could thusdiscover what animals were in the neighbourhood; and I soon thoughtmyself very clever as a spoor-finder. But I had yet much to learn, andsoon found that, compared with my Caffre companions, I was blind andunobservant.

  The principal event that proved to me how dull I was, led to my risingat once to a first place among the Caffres. It was during a warm daythat we had entered the bush near the ground where we watched thecattle, and were sitting in the shade talking, when Inyoni, who waslooking anxiously at a tree near, got up and walked to the tree andexamined the trunk. He then called us and pointed to some marks on thetree; and at length, stooping on the ground, picked up two or threesmall hairs. Both the Caffre boys examined these and then said aleopard had been here during the night and had climbed the tree. Themarks on the tree were from his claws, which he used just as does a catin climbing. We did not like to follow the spoor, as leopards are verysavage; but we went away from this place and sat down under the shade ofsome rocks at a short distance, and the boys told me stories about theleopard.

  During that night I thought a great deal about leopards; and Iremembered, in a book that my father had given me soon after I learnedto read, that there was a picture of a trap that some one had made tocatch cats. Now, the leopard is only a large cat, and is very like onein its habits, and the idea occurred to me that we might make a trap tocatch the leopard. I thought over this scheme, and the next day talkedto the boys about it. They were quite willing to try, so we set to workat once. The method we adopted was this. We cut down a great number ofstraight branches, about ten feet long and about two inches thick; thesewe stuck firmly in the ground in a circle, just as we used to constructa kraal. Peeling off the bark from some mimosa trees, we made a sort ofrope, and bending the tops of these branches together, we fastened themfirmly, so as to make a circular hut. After many days, we had so boundthese together that, with all our united force, we could not separatethem in the slightest degree. We then cut a small opening in this hutas a doorway, and we had a part of our trap complete. The mostdifficult part to make was the door itself. This we made byconstructing a door the same as you make a hurdle, and we made two ofthese doors, and then fastened them together to make them strong. Thisdoor we made inside the hut, because we wanted the door to be biggerthan the doorway. Having completed this door, we made out of buckskin alongish string, and fastened this to a stick in the centre of the hut;this string held the door up, but when the string was loosened the doorslid down between two stout posts, and it was necessary to lift the doorin order to get out of the doorway. All this being arranged in about aweek's time, we next had to procure some bait, and were lucky in gettinga guinea-fowl, which was a bird common in the bushes round our kraal.This bird we knocked over with our knob-kerries, and dragged it alongthe ground to the trap, and then fastened it to the string inside thetrap. The Caffres told me that the leopard was so strong that he wouldforce himself out of the hut if he had time to do so. We thereforeagreed to keep watch in a tree near on the first night, and if theleopard came, to run to the kraal and give notice to the men. We didnot tell any one at the kraal what we had done; for, to speak the truth,we had not much confidence in the success of our trap, and we did notlike to incur the risk of being laughed at. Our success therefore wasas unexpected as it was complete.

  Having driven the cattle home to the kraal, we ate some corn and dranksome milk, and then ran back to where our trap had been constructed, andclimbed into a large tree, from which we could obtain a good view allround. It had not even become dark when, as we sat silent andmotionless in the tree, we saw the leopard come through some long grassand creep towards our trap. It crouched for some time near the trap andseemed to be listening, and then slowly crept in. In half a minute thedoor dropped, and the leopard was trapped. In an instant Inyonidescended the tree and ran off to the kraal, whilst I and Tembileremained up the tree. We could hear the leopard moving about inside thehut, but whenever he did so we called out, and he was at once silent,and appeared as if he were afraid of making any noise.

  In what appeared to be a very short time Inyoni came back, and with himabout twenty men, among whom was the chief. They were all armed withfive assagies each, and one of the men carried a piece of wood that wason fire. The Caffres came up very quietly, and then surrounded the hut,remaining about ten yards from it. In a few minutes dry wood had beencollected, and seven or eight fires were made round the trap in whichthe leopard was a prisoner. Sometimes the leopard would roar and tearat the side of his cage, but on hearing the Caffres outside he wouldbecome quiet again, and so the night passed. Soon after daybreak manymore Caffres came to us, for the news had spread to the villages round,and when the sun rose there were more than a hundred Caffres round thetrap. The chief now gave his orders, and the men obeyed him just assoldiers obey an officer. He directed one Caffre to go to the door ofthe trap, and with a long pole push up the door; all the other Caffresstood in a semicircle round the doorway and about fifty yards from it,each with an assagy in his hand ready to throw. No sooner was the doorraised a few inches than the leopard rushed at the stick, scratching andbiting at it furiously. The Caffre then retreated, and the leopardstruggled at the small opening and succeeded in getting half out. Thechief then shouted "_Bulala_!" and about forty assagies were thrown atthe leopard, nearly a dozen of which entered its body. In spite ofthese wounds the animal struggled out of the doorway and sprang at theCaffres in front of him. A shower of assagies were again hurled at him,but he succeeded in reaching one man, whom he seized by the leg with hisclaws. In an instant, however, the other men closed in: there was astruggling mass of men, and then a shout of "_Yena gofile_" ("he isdead.") I rushed up to the crowd, and there was the leopard covered withblood, his lips drawn back showing his teeth, and his limbs extended asthey had been in his last spring. I jumped about with delight andexcitement, for this was the first leopard I had ever seen killed, andit was by the aid of my trap that he had been secured.

  The legs of the leopard were tied together, and a long pole was theninserted between them, and he was carried to the kraal, the men singingsongs as they accompanied his body. Two men immediately set to work toskin him, they then extracted his teeth and claws. Of the use they weregoing to make of these latter I at the time was ignorant, but in a fewdays I learned their value. All the principal men from the neighbouringkraals were invited to come to our village in the evening, for theCaffres intended to eat the leopard, the flesh being supposed to give aman courage and endurance. A very small piece of meat could be sparedfor each man, as there were more than a hundred men assembled. They allsat in a circle on a piece of level ground outside our village, a firebeing lighted in the centre, at which the leopard, cut up into pieces,was being toasted. Many songs were sung by the men, the chorus beingshouted by all. This chorus was very little more than "_Ingwe gofile,Tina shiele, Yena shingarner, Yena gofile_:" which meant, "The leopardis dead, We have struck him, He is a rascal, He is dead."

  We sat several hours singing songs that were extemporised by the bestsingers, and occasionally drinking _Itchuala_, a sort of beer made outof corn, and then we all retired to our huts and slept. Three daysafter this the same men assembled at our kraal in the evening, and I wastold by the chief to come to the meeting. I did not know what it wasfor, but I found all
the Caffres looking at me, and the young girlsseemed to regard me most attentively. I thought perhaps they intendedto eat me, though I had seen nothing since my capture that frightenedme. When the men were seated in a circle, the chief stood up, and,going into the centre of the circle, made a long speech, which was tothis effect: "This white boy I prevented from being assagied; some ofyou wished to kill him, but I said, `No--he shall be as my son, let himlive.' You agreed, and he lives. Though his skin is white, his heartis the heart of an Umzimvubu. He can throw an assagy well. He thinks,and it is he who made the trap that caught the leopard. I ask you, men,does he not deserve the necklace of leopard's claws? Shall he not be ayoung chief? Say, men, what you think."

  There was immediately a shout of consent, and the chief, calling me tohim, gave me a necklace made out of the claws of the leopard, which hefastened round my neck, and immediately the men shouted, "_Inkosana_!"

  "He is a young chief!"

  I have, since those days, heard of men who by deeds of valour havegained the Victoria Cross, or by good service have received honours fromtheir sovereign; but I doubt if any of these felt more pride andgratification than I did when I received this necklace of leopard'sclaws from the hands of the chief. I immediately felt a craving foropportunities of distinguishing myself, and wished for another chance ata leopard or at some other savage animal, in order that I might prove mycourage, as ably as I had shown my skill in designing and constructingthe leopard-trap.