276 ADVENTURES .7X SOUTH AFRICA. 



While Sicomy was taking his coffee, he told me that 

 he had dispatched men to bring elephants' teeth, which 

 he said.were at a distance, and that ho would purchase 

 every thing as quickly as possible, that I might be en- 

 abled to leave the country before the Matabili should 

 come. This rumor about the Matabili I at the time 

 suspected to be a fabrication, but I subsequently as- 

 certained that it was a fact. 



In the forenoon I occupied myself in writing my jour- 

 nal in my wagon, and I could see that the king was an- 

 noyed at ray indifference about the trading. At length 

 he asked me to come out of the wagon, saying that he 

 had got a present for me, and he brought forward the 

 elephant's tusk which lay beneath the wagon. Hav- 

 ing thanked him, I expressed myself satisfied with his 

 present, and, in return, immediately presented him with 

 what he reckoned an equivalent in beads. He asked 

 me the price of my muskets, and I answered four large 

 bull's teeth for each. He then retired to an adjacent 

 grove of shady trees, where he sat consulting with his 

 men for hours. Two men at length appeared, coming 

 from opposite directions, each bearing a bull's tooth. 

 When these arrived, Sicomy ordered them to be placed 

 before me, and, calling Isaac, he inflicted on me a long 



about the price of any article in the first instance ; and often, wlien ti'ad 

 ing has once commeuced, and the natives are satisfied with tlie- price, 

 exchanges are effected rapidly. It is generally necessary for the trader 

 to ask a little more than he expects to get, that he may appear to yield 

 to their importunity, otherwise they would not deal with him. They 

 never conclude a bargain in a hurry, and always deem it necessary to 

 ask the advice of nearly every one present before they can make up 

 their minds; and if it should happen that any one individual present 

 disapprove of the bargain, the exchange is for the time at an end. 



I have more than once been prevented from effecting a sale, which I 

 had all but concluded, by some old wife, who happened to be passing 

 at the moment, exclaiming that I was too high in my prices, although 

 she was perfectly ignorant of our transaction. 



