Boyhood Days in Natal 25 



18,) used to parade the streets of Maritzburg, dressed 

 in a fringe of string about three inches deep round 

 the waist, and some brass anklets. Immediately 

 a cry of " Kelegeshla umtwau etu " would be raised 

 by dozens of Kaffir boys, grooms, house boys, shop 

 boys, etc., who would stop the girls in a row, each 

 boy selecting the one which he admired most, 

 the jokes that passed, and the language used from a 

 moral and social point of view left much to be 

 desired. These girls had a great advantage char- 

 coal would make a white mark on their faces so they 

 could not blush, and unlike Eve, they were naked and 

 not ashamed. They were healthier in the South 

 African climate with " zair nodings on " than in the 

 bedraggled finery and garments many of them now 

 wear. 



I love a good horse, and when we lived in Natal 

 we had some of the best ; they were cross bred 

 Arabs, grey, standing 14.2 to 15 hands and as hardy 

 in the limbs as they were good of heart and enduring. 

 They came from the Hantam, a district in Cape 

 Colony. One, Snowball, was stabbed in the neck 

 by a Kaffir in a brush with them under Gado- 

 Gado in 1853 and eventually killed by a lion on the 

 Crocodile River in 1858. 



Another, " Flam," after being used as a hunter, 

 and having run down more big game than any horse 

 I ever heard of, was sold to Signor Piavo Raposo of 

 Delagoa Bay and lived in luxury until he died of old 

 age. This class of riding horse does not now exist 

 in South Africa, what with weedy thorough- 

 breds, ugly floppy Holstein and Flemish brutes, 

 Argentines, etc., it will take some time before Africa 



Note. " Kflcpyshla, urntwa etu." Lit.: "Go nicely child 

 of ours," which might be more freely translated "How do you 

 do my little dears." (Editor.) 



