THREATENED BY KAFIRS. 167 
(and a ferocious beast he looked) — What business 
was it of mine to visit the bones ? All this, of 
course, arose from the Dutchman having made it 
known that I wanted the bones. The ferocious- 
looking Kafir further went on to say that he should 
complain of my conduct to the king, the only way to 
avoid which catastrophe being to give him something 
out of my waggon, to bribe his silence. Moreover, 
he hinted that if I did not comply, he should not 
stick at helping himself, and went through a panto- 
mime with his knob-kerry (a stick with a round knob 
at one end, with which Kafirs knock their enemies 
on the head), illustrating what he would do to me. 
All this was bounce, though no doubt he would 
have liked to do it had he dared, and he thought to 
frighten me. My pusillanimous Dutchman at once 
begged me to give the fellow something. This I 
stoutly refused, not only as a disgraceful proceeding 
on my part, but as an act of bad policy. I knew 
better than to show him I was afraid of him, and I 
knew the king was not likely to go against me, even 
if the worst came to the worst. There were two 
other Kafirs with this one, also from the mine, to 
back him up. Finding the Dutchman disposed to be 
friendly with them, the spokesman asked him for a 
cigar, seeing us smoking, and the Dutchman wanted 
me to comply, as a preliminary to talking the matter 
over. All I said, however, to the Kafir was a word 
or two of his own language, meaning ' Go away, you 
scoundrel.' 
"It was Sunday, and at this moment a white 
