Kafir Stories

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Kafir Stories, by William Charles Scully

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Title: Kafir Stories Seven Short Stories
Author: William Charles Scully
Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20491]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KAFIR STORIES ***

Produced by Charles Klingman

KAFIR STORIES SEVEN SHORT STORIES
BY
WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY
AUTHOR OF
"POEMS," ETC., ETC.
LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
1895
COPYRIGHT BY T. FISHER UNWIN for Great Britain and the United States of America.
TO
KATE FREILIGRATH KROEKER
AND
J. H. MEIRING BECK THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED.

"So geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns."
SWIFT.
Glossary
Allemagtig, almighty
Boomslang, an innocuous colubrine snake
*Donga, a gully with steep sides
Drift, the ford of a river
*E-hea, exactly so
*Ewe, yes
Hamel, a wether sheep
*Icanti, a fabulous serpent, the mere appearance of which is supposed to cause death
*Impandulu, the lightning bird. The Kafirs believe the lightning to be a bird
*Impi, an army or any military force on the war path
*Induna, a Zulu councilor or general
Kapater, a wether goat
Kerrie, a stick such as is almost invariably carried by a Kafir
Kloof, a gorge or valley
Kaffirboom, a large arboreal aloe
Kopje, an abrupt hillock
Kraal, (1) an enclosure for stock; a fold or pen. (2) a native hut, or collection of huts
Krantz, a cliff
*Lobola, the payment of cattle by a man to the father of the girl he wants to marry
*Mawo, an exclamation of surprise
Mealies, maize
Op togt, on a trading trip
Ou Pa, grandfather
Outspan, to unyoke a team
Raak, hit
Reim, a leather thong
Reimje, diminutive of foregoing
Schulpad, a tortoise
Sjambok: a heavy whip made of rhinocerous hide
Stoep, a space about two yards, in width along the front or side of a house. Usually covered by a verandah in the case of South African houses
Taaibosch, "tough bush," a shrub. Rhus lucida
*Tikoloshe, a water spirit who is supposed, when people are drowned, to have pulled them under water by the feet
"Ukushwama, the feast of first fruits;--celebrated by the Bacas and some other Bantu tribes
*Umtagati, magic;--witchcraft
Veldt. unenclosed and uncultivated land. The open country
Veldschoens, home-made boots such as those in general use amongst South African Boers
Voor-huis, the dining and sitting-room in a Dutch house
*Yebo, yes
*Kafir terms are marked by an asterisk.

Contents
CHAP.
I. THE EUMENIDES IN KAFIRLAND
II. THE FUNDAMENTAL AXIOM
III. KELLSON'S NEMESIS
IV. THE QUEST OF THE COPPER
V. GHAMBA
VI. UKUSHWAMA
VII. UMTAGATI

THE EUMENIDES IN KAFIRLAND.
"Fate leadeth through the garden shews The trees of Knowledge, Death, and Life; On this, the wholesome apple grows,-- On that, fair fruit with poison rife. Yet sometimes apples deadly be. Whilst poison-fruits may nourish thee."
SHAGBAG'S Advice to Beginners.
I.
THIS is how it all happened. They met at the canteen on Monday morning at eight o'clock--Jim Gubo, the policeman, and Kalaza, who had just been released from the convict station where, for five long years, he had been expiating a particularly cruel assault with violence upon a woman. 'Ntsoba, the fat Fingo barman, leant lazily over the counter, but as the regular customers for the morning "nip" had all departed, and no one else had yet come, he went outside and sat in the sunshine, smoking his oily pipe with thorough enjoyment. He did not in the least mind leaving Jim Gubo in the canteen, because Jim and he had long since come to an understanding, and this with the full approval of the proprietor. Jim was, so to say, free of the house, and got his daily number of tots of poisonous "dop" brandy measured out in the thick glass tumbler, the massive exterior of which was quite out of proportion to the comparatively limited interior space. These tots (and an occasional bottle) were Jim's reward for not exercising too severe a supervision over the canteen, and for always happening to be round the corner when a row took place. Moreover, the till, besides being as yet nearly empty, was well out of reach; the counter was high and broad, and the shelving, sparsely filled with filthy looking black bottles, was fixed well back, so as to be out of the way of the whirling kerries which were often in evidence, especially on Saturday afternoons. The great brown, poisonous looking hogsheads--suggestive of those very much swollen and unpleasant looking fecund female insects which are to be found in the nethermost chamber of the city of the termites, and which lay thousands of eggs daily--had safety taps, of which 'Ntsoba's master kept the keys.
Jim Gubo and Kalaza talked about many things--of life at the convict station, for Kalaza was the nephew of Jim's father's second wife, and Jim consequently knew all about his companion; of the decadence of the times, in which it was so