THREA TENED B Y KAFFIRS. 1 6 7 



(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 Kaffir 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 Kaffirs 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 Kaffirs 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 Kaffir was a word 

 or two of his own language, meaning ' Go away, you 

 scoundrel.' 



"It was Sunday, and at this moment a white 



