100 KAFFIR MESSENGERS. 



happiness, consequently, is repose; they thus wisely 

 avoid many troubles and annoyances that more mercurial 

 or enterprising temperaments may meet. Upon proceed- 

 ing to Pietermaritzburg, I found that I had a pleasant 

 little manor, extending for about fifteen miles in every 

 direction, plentifully supplied with reitbok, ourebis, 

 duikers, rhe-bok, bustard, pheasant, partridge, guinea- 

 fowl, and sometimes a wild boar and a stray hyaena or 

 leopard. I adopted an original plan for my day's sport. 

 Sending for one of my Kaffirs, I would give him a pound 

 of beef and some snuff, and tell him to go on to the top 

 of a hill which I would point out to him, and request that 

 he kept me in sight all day. This hill would be some 

 seven or eight miles distant. I would then send for 

 another Kaffir and give him similar directions, pointing 

 to a second hill, perhaps four miles from the first. 



These Kaffirs, who worked for five shillings a month, 

 and nearly found themselves, were capital fellows, and 

 obeyed orders without a murmur. Sometimes, at Natal, 

 I would call a Kaffir, and say, " So-and-So, tabata 

 s'incwade, musi inglovu" (this would be broken Kaffir 

 for " Take this letter to Pietermaritzburg, wait for an 

 answer, and come back ") only fifty -three miles! In 

 about ten minutes this Kaffir would be seen going off 

 with a little skin-bag filled with corn, the letter carefully 

 inserted in a split stick, whilst he occasionally worked his 

 arms about in all the pleasant imaginary castle- building 

 of knocking over enemies or wild beasts. In three days 

 he would come back, with the single remark, " Fikile " 

 (arrived), and deliver the answer to the note. 



