33^ THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE HANTU. 



Lukwek'a'e hvexwili. he is the scab of a wild dog. (He is an 

 incorrigible beggar. 



Ukupa kuzlhekela, giving is laying by (or, as Scripttu-c has 

 it: "There is that scattereth ;i.id yet increaseth "). Givean- 

 Ox is not a fool (A gift appeascth wrath). The ox stops the 

 assegai (The vanquished chief sends an ox to the victor, and 

 thereuix>n peace is concluded). Ubnhelc hufiin obunye, a kind- 

 ness wants another one (" One good turn deserves another "). 



If liberality is thus commended, meanness is bitterly satirized: 

 Kokzvabanye mvayi-mvayi, kokivako roqo, for another's you itch, 

 itch, as regards your own you draw in your hand. Giving is fair 

 play, being stingy is making yourself notorious. The mouth that 

 does not eat puts by for that which does. If you are too smart 

 to pay the doctor, you had better be too smart to get sick, 

 Kancitshani! ubopa inja nesinkuni, just think! he is so stingy 

 that he ties his dog to the firewood (lest it should snatch a 

 scrap). 



Gratitude has been defined as an acknowdedgment of past 

 favours and a lively sense of favours yet to come. All this 

 and more is pithily expressed in what is perhaps the best-known 

 of all the Kaffir sayings : Ungadhnva nangomso, don't be tired 

 even to-morrow. The natural gratitude of the native for the 

 smallest favours is indicated 1)} the way in which he receives 

 your donation or reward, even if it is only the ubiquitous tickey, 

 namely, by holding up both hands to take it. " You have taken 

 the wedge from between n\y teeth," means : " You have relieved 

 me from great embarrassment." Ingratitude is condemned in 

 sayings like these : The dog I brought up now bites me. Musa 

 ukupa izmtsehva njenja-Batwa. Dont pull up the gourds like 

 the Bushnien (after drinking out of the calabashes ; i.e., don'v 

 speak ill of a benefactor). Thanks are not rendered to those wht^ 

 can hear them (We often remember our indebtedness too late). 



On Hatred and its Associates. 



Of Hatred and its associates. Anger, Envy, Malice, Cruelty, 

 Jealousy, the Bantu speak in many proverbs : Inyosi sinobusi, 

 the bees have honey, they say, when one flies suddenly into a 

 passion ; the fcees have honey, and so are easily excited. Nga- 

 lutinfa ukuni lombangandlala, I touched a log of the flare-up 

 tree, is said of a very irritable person. Of an angry man they 

 say : Usibekele, He is overcast, like the sky on a doudy day ; or, 

 He has got his mane up (He is bristling with wrath). Induku 

 itshaya imviki, the stick hits the warder oft", indicates that resis- 

 tance increases anger. Ukumtshisela ibudle, to burn the porridge- 

 stick for him, is to make it very un])leasant for one. Ukubeka 

 ximntn ncnyoka, to look at a man as at a snake, is to look at him 

 with deadly hatred. " They beat each other with a live snake '' 

 means that they are at daggers drawn. Tambo lenyoka, hlab' 

 omsondayo, lihlaba libolile, bone of a snake, stab him whom thou 

 hatest, stab though rotten, is a deadly curse. Impi yakzva-Ma- 

 bomva-bulawe, it is the army of Kill-him-at-Sight, is an expres- 



