1812. 
SURPRISE AND LAUGHTER. 
339 
believed I always committed to memory his answers to my questions, 
and that my making ' black scratches' upon the paper with my pen, 
was only what he had at Klaarwater seen and heard called schryvende 
(w^riting). He was, he said, exceedingly surprised at my remember- 
ing so well every thing he had taught me, and even those words 
which he had never told me but once. When I explained, that it 
was the marks which I had made in the book while he was in the 
waggon, which now showed me what I was to say, he laughed most 
heartily, and desired to see the very words which I was pronouncing. 
On pointing them out, he laughed again ; and his three countrymen, 
whose mouth and eyes had by this time recovered from their expres- 
sion of surprise, joined in the laughter; while I myself, as I shut the 
book, was unable to resist the impression which their ludicrous 
appearance and distorted countenances made upon me. 
