203 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



possesses a certain code of honour, although to us it 

 seems rather a queer one. For instance, though he will 

 on no account rob his own master, he will not hesitate 

 to steal a sheep from a neighbouring farm, if he should 

 happen to feel inclined for a " big feed"; on which occa- 

 sion the amount of meat he is able to consume at one 

 sitting is positively alarming. He evidently looks upon 

 the sheep much as Queen Elizabeth is said to have re- 

 garded the goose, viz., as a creature of most inconvenient 

 size, " too much for one, but not enough for two." When 

 periodical rations of meat are served out to him he 

 always eats up the whole of his allowance on the first 

 evening, apparently oblivious of the fact that he will 

 have to go without for the rest of the week. And then 

 he subsists, contentedly enough, on mealies, till the 

 joyful time comes for his next good square meal of 

 goat or mutton. He is the happiest and best-tempered 

 of souls, never bearing any animosity, and always 

 ready to forgive ; and although he seems incapable of 

 any real attachment to his employers, and is most 

 strangely destitute of all sense of gratitude, one cannot 

 help liking him. Altogether the Zulus are quite the 

 aristocracy of the negro race ; and, even at their worst, 

 contrast very favourably with the Hottentots and 

 Bushmen, whose character has hardly a redeeming 

 point, and seems made up of all the lowest and most 

 ignoble qualities. 



