22 2 MATABELE LAND. 
scantily -dressed gentlemen is something not to be 
forgotten. I don't know whether their condescen- 
sions or aggressions are the more difficult to bear 
with patience. Without patience it is hopeless to 
think of getting on at all. A long string of them 
filed past my abode lately, and making for Brown's 
store requested to be fed. This of course Brown 
complied with, as the land here is only held on 
sufferance, and these Matabele were supposed to 
be out on particular business — to murder a lot 
of poor Bushmen, as we were told afterwards. 
The latter are constantly being killed, and their 
life is one long struggle for existence. A gun is 
almost useless to them, as the brutal conquerors 
of the country are pretty sure to bag it, and ten 
to one knock the owner of it on the head into the 
bargain. 
" The Bushmen are the real wild men of the 
country, living in temporary huts, and subsisting 
entirely on what the veldt produces. They are 
wonderful runners, and possess certain mysterious 
instincts, raising them in that respect nearly to the 
level of some of the noblest animals. The Matabele, 
on the other hand, think themselves the lords of 
creation, and speak of the slaves (Makalakas) as 
'dogs;' and the Bushmen are only looked upon as 
game. I have one remarkably small creature of the 
Bushman race with me, who is working for a gun. 
He always takes to his heels and hides when he sees 
any Matabele, unless he is with his master and at 
the waggon. A kraal of these people was lately 
