334 THE WIT AND WISDOM (iK VUV. i'.ANTU. 



fine, large, healthy family — there has evidently been no wizard 

 about here. (There are no silly, selfish decadents and no empty 

 cradles m Kaffirland.) They have many sayings illustrating the 

 resemblances due to heredity: Uiiwiindla uzek' indicia, the hare 

 keeps to the path the old hare made ("Like father, like son"). 

 Wamfusa, kasliiva iiaciiba. he resembled his father to the last 

 leaf — i.e., in every single feature. Lihluma csiqivijii ikikizela, the 

 shoot grows from the old stock. Injalo yapunia cdunjini, its 

 like came out of the Kaffir-potato ("He's a chii) of the old 

 block"). Isinkonyana sHandcla otiina, the calves go after {i.e., 

 take after) thcir mothers. IValandcla uynnhvana ainabeka, the 

 child went after the dowry cattle (i.e., took after its mother's 

 side of the house, to which the dowry cattle went). They have 

 not failed to notice that acquired characters are not always 

 transmitted. The good milker does not reproduce herself (The 

 daughter is very unlike her fine mother). Umtati zoaaal' miilota, 

 the sneeze wood begat only ashes (A worthy father has often a 

 worthless son). The Bantu are affectionate, even indulgent, 

 parents, but disci])line must be maintained : Uya kukolwa yeyo- 

 kivosa, eyoknpeka iiiu/akayidli, you will be content with the roast 

 meat, you won't wait for the boiled, is a warnin^i' to a naughty 

 boy. Another is : uktihlwa kiiya kttkiibiita, the dusk will rake you 

 in; or, wolibamba, iiiigatslioiii; catch it (the sun) — don't let it go 

 down (When the darkness comes on you'll have to come home, 

 and you'll catch it — in another sense — then). 



On Self and Others. 



Egotism is a human characteristic that is by no means un- 

 knovv'u among the Bantu, and it is mercilessly satirized by citing 

 instances of its like in the meanest creatures. " I and my rhino- 

 ceros," said the tick-bird, according to the Basuto (Ego et rex 

 mens, said Cardinal Wolsey). "The monkey does not see the 

 bump on its own forehead," says one tribe ; " The monkey does 

 not see its own hollow cheeks," says another. There is no httle 

 coney but boasts itself. Even the field-mouse thinks itself great. 

 There is no wild beast but roars in its own den. Even the 

 civet-cat — the little black-and-white striped muishond — roars at 

 its own hole. (" Every cock," as we say, " crows on its own 

 dunghill.") Akiiko ndlovu isindwa iigumboko zvayo, no elephant 

 feels the weight of its own trunk. Akuko qaqa liziv' ukunuka, 

 no civet feels its own bad smell. (No one adnnts his own failure 

 or is conscious of his own defects.) There is no commoner ob- 

 ject by the side of every stream yoti cross in Kafifirland than the 

 comical-looking paddavanger or hammerhead, which the Kaffirs 

 call Qimngqoshe, and the Zulus Tekzvane. Well, the Tekwane, 

 looking into the river as it always does, and pluming its feathers, 

 says to itself, according to the Zulus, Ngangimulile, Tekwane, 

 ngonizva yilokii luuokii, " I, Tekwane. would be qtiite nice-looking 

 if 1 weren't si)oiled by this and by that." 



And how ready we are to excuse ourselves : Ukuzensa 

 akunjengakKCuziwa, doing it to oneself is not like having it 



