276 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



While Sioomy was taking liis coffee, he told me that 

 he had dispatched men to bring elephants' teeth, which 

 he said were at a distance, and that h6 would purchase 

 everything as quickly as possible, that I might be en- 

 abled to leave the country before the Matabili should 

 come. This rumor about the ]V[atabili .1 at the time 

 suspected to be a fabrication, but I subsequently as- 

 certained that it was a fact. 



In the forenoon I occupied myself in writing my jour- 

 nal in my wagon, and I could see that the ki^was an- 

 noyed at my indifference about the trading. At length 

 he asked me to come out of the wagon, saying that he 

 had got a present for me, and he brought forward the 

 elephant's tusk which lay beneath the wagon. Hav- 

 ing thanked him,. I expressed myself satisfied with his 

 present, and, in return, immediately presented him with 

 what he reckoned an equivalent in beads. He asked 

 me the price of my muskets, and I answered four large 

 bull's teeth for each. He then retired to an adjacent 

 grove of shady trees, where he sat consulting with his 

 men for hours. . Two men at length appeared, coming 

 from opposite directions^ each bearing a bull's tooth. 

 When these arrived, Sioomy ordered them to be placed 

 before me, and, calling Isaac, he inflicted on me a long 



about the price of any article in the first instance ; and often, when trad- 

 ing has once commenced, and the natives are satisfied with the price, 

 exchanges are efiected rapidly. It is generally necessary for the trader 

 to ask a little more tllan he expects to get, that he may appear to yield 

 to their importunity,. otherwise they would not deal with, him. They 

 never conclude a bargain in a hurry, and always deem it necessary to 

 ask the advice of nearly every one present before they can make up 

 their minds; and if it should happen that any one individual presetit 

 disapprove of the bargain, the exchange is for the time at an end. 



I have more than once been prevented from effecting a sale, which I 

 had all but concluded, by some old wif6, who happened to be passing 

 at the moment, exclaimipg that I was too high in my' prices, although 

 she was perfectly ignorant of our transaction. 



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