white man ; he was as void of principle as 

 well,*as his next of kin, the monkey ; yet, while 

 without either shame of, or contempt for, 

 cowardice ; he was wholly without fear of physical 

 danger, having a sort of fatalist's indifference to it ; 

 and that was something to set off against his moral 

 deficit. I put Jantje on to wash clothes the day he 

 turned up at the waggons to look for work, and as he 

 knelt on the rocks stripped to the waist I noticed a very 

 curious knotted line running up his right side from 

 the lowest rib into the armpit. The line was whiter 

 than his yellow skin; over each rib there was a knot 

 or widening in the line ; and under the arm there was a 

 big splotchy star all markings of some curious wound. 

 He laughed almost hysterically, his eyes disappearing 

 altogether and every tooth showing, as I lifted his arm 

 to investigate ; and then in high-pitched falsetto tones 

 he shouted in a sort of ecstasy of delight, " Die ouw 

 buffels, Baas ! Die buffels bull, Baas ! " 

 " Buffalo ! Did he toss you ? " I asked. 

 Jantje seemed to think it the best joke in the world 

 and with constant squeals of laughter and graphic 

 gestures gabbled off his account. 



His master, it appears, had shot at and slightly 

 wounded the buffalo, and Jantje had been placed at 

 one exit from the bush to prevent the herd from break- 

 ing away. As they came towards him he fired at the 

 foremost one ; but before he could reload the wounded 

 bull made for him and he ran for dear life to the only 

 tree near one of the flat-topped thorns. He heard 

 the thundering hoofs and the snorting breath behind, 



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