sichely's kraal. si 



CHAPTER XX. 



Arrive at Sichely's Kraal — Description of that Chief — His Wives — The 

 Rain-makers — My Gun Medicine — Bakatla — A Kraal stnick by 

 Lightning — Reach Mr. Moffat's Station at Kuruinau — Daring Rob- 

 beries of the Bushmen — Campbellsdorp — Discover my runaway Hot- 

 tentots — We cross the Vaal — The Inmates of a Farm terrified by my 

 wild Appearance — Colesberg and Grahamstowu — English Hounds in 

 Afi-ica. 



At an early hour on the 26th of November Sichely 

 presented himself with a large retinue. The appear 

 ance of this chief was prepossessing, and his manner 

 was civil and engaging ; his stature was about five feet 

 ten inches, and in his person he inclined to corpulency 

 His dress consisted of a handsome leopard-skin kaross 

 and on his arms and legs, which were stout and well 

 turned, he wore a profusion of brass and copper orna- 

 ments manufactured by tribes residing a long way to 

 the eastward. In the forenoon I accompanied Sichely 

 to his kraal, situated in the center of the town, and 

 alongside of it stood respectively the kraals of his wives, 

 which were five in number. These kraals were neatly 

 built, and were of a circular form, the walls and floors 

 being smoothly plastered with a composition of clay 

 and cow-dung, and secured from the weather by a firm 

 and well-constructed thatch of rank dry grass. Each 

 kraal was surroxmded by an area inclosed with a strong 

 impenetrable fence six feet in height. The town was 

 built on a gentle slope on the northern side of a broad 

 extensive strath, throughout the whole extent of which 

 lay wide fields and gardens inclosed with hedges of the 

 wait-a-bits. 



