Between Sun and Sand Part 17

It is the rule of the Steinmetz household that nothing but the English language shall be spoken--unless when there happen to be Dutch guests present. Susannah is thus rapidly acquiring a knowledge of her husband's mother-tongue. To this end Max encourages her to read English books, and he corrects, in private, the faults of her speech.

Max still has the diamonds in his safe. He means some day to take them to England. If, however, his business continues to prosper at the same rate as during the past few years, there is at least a chance of his not disposing of them. It may be--for Max has a sound instinctive knowledge of human nature--that he will have them cut and made into a necklace, and that he may attempt to bribe Susannah with this to reconsider her decision never to leave her beloved Bushmanland. Max knows that Susannah has an extremely pretty neck; what is more, she knows it too-- moreover, he knows that she knows it.

If Susannah's command of the English language improves, it is quite possible that the effect of the necklet may be all that Max desires.

_Bultong_.--Dried meat.

_Cartel_.--A framework of wood, filled in with laced thongs. It is usually slung in the tent of a wagon, but is occasionally fixed upon forked sticks driven into the ground, and used as a bedstead.

_Kaross_.--A rug made of brayed skins.

_Kloof_.--A valley with steep sides.

_Koekerboom_.--A large arboreal aloe (_Aloe dichotoma_).

_Kopje_.--An abrupt hillock.

_Mat-house_.--A structure made of mats stretched over laths.

_Meerkat_.--A weasel-like ichneumon.

_Mens_.--A person.

_Nachtmaal_.--The celebration of the Lord's Supper.

_Oom_.--Uncle.

_Ou' ma_.--Grandmother.

_p.r.o.nk_.--The springbucks are said to "p.r.o.nk" when they bound along with arched back and erected mane.

_Ramkee_.--A musical instrument resembling a banjo, which is in use among the Hottentots.

_Reim_.--A thong.

_Sampau_.--A creature resembling a tick, which is extremely poisonous.

_Schepsel_.--Creature, usually meant in a derogatory sense.

_Scherm_.--A low screen of bushes.

_Tanta_.--Aunt.

_Trek_.--(verb) To pull. The term is used to describe anything moving from place to place.

_Tronk_.--A prison.

_Veld_.--The open, uncultivated country.

_Feld-kost_.--Tubers, bulbs, of wild plants, suitable as food.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

NOQUALA'S CATTLE--A TRAGEDY OF THE RINDERPEST.

A KAFFIR AT HOME.

It was about eleven o'clock of a winter's morning in 1897 when Noquala stood before his hut and watched his cattle being driven in for milking.

A n.o.ble, dun-coloured bull, in whose lowing the amatory and the defiant were about equally mingled, led the herd through the narrow gateway of the kraal, in which ample enclosure he stood, pawing the dusty manure over his shoulders and flanks. From a smaller enclosure a few yards away to the right came a chorus of agonised appeals for milk from the waiting calves. The herd of cattle numbered rather more than a hundred, and it could be seen by the most unprofessional eye that in quality its members were far superior to the usual run of cattle that one sees at the ordinary native kraal. The majority were dun-coloured.

Noquala was a jovial-looking Hlubi of about fifty years of age, stoutly built, and with a shrewd, lively eye. His hair and beard were markedly tinged with grey. His only clothing was a red blanket loosely drooped around his middle, leaving his trunk and his strong shoulders bare. On his right arm, above the elbow, he wore a thick ring of ivory; otherwise he wore no ornament whatever.

Makalipa, Noquala's wife, was sitting in the sun at the side of the hut, lazily engaged in making a mat out of rushes. She addressed her husband by name once or twice, but he, being absorbed in the contemplation of his herd of cattle, which was the thing he most loved in the world--his children not excepted--took no notice whatever of her.

"You, you--I wonder you do not sleep in the kraal; I wonder you do not eat gra.s.s," she said, in an audible soliloquy. "If I loved cattle like you do I would tie a pair of horns on my head and go on all fours. You are more of a bull than a man, and ought to be married to a cow."

The cattle were all in by this time, and the youngest of the calves, a glossy-black little beast, was conducted to the kraal by a naked lad, about ten years of age. The little animal strained at the leash like a hound, and plunged forward with its tail twisting violently, roaring l.u.s.tily the while. Others followed, and then the milking began.

Noquala turned to his wife--

"What were you saying, old money-buryer?"

Makalipa was a large, spare, angular woman, whose years were probably ten less in number than those of her husband. She was dressed in a clean white skirt and a very short bodice. As the garments did not meet, a zone of black skin was strongly visible between the respective upper and nether edges. Over her head was folded, in the characteristic native fashion, a coiffure of red Turkey twill. She paused in her occupation of mat-making, letting her hands rest upon her knees, and regarded her husband with a half-angry expression.

"Have you forgotten that your son, your eldest son, Elijah, will arrive this evening, and that you promised to kill a goat so that he might have a bit of meat to eat after his long walk?"

"If you did not love your mats more than I love my cattle you would know that the best goat of my flock is now hanging in the store-hut."

"Hau! You killed it secretly, so that I might not get the skin to sell at the shop, eh?"

"Did you want the money to bury, or the meat for your son--your _eldest_ son?"

Noquala walked away without giving his wife time to reply. She at once arose from her work and strode over to the store-hut, whence she emerged soon afterwards, carrying a quant.i.ty of meat, which she began to prepare for cooking.

Noquala, although a heathen, was not a polygamist--a fact, for a man of his wealth, deserving of note. Makalipa was a Christian. When he married her, twenty-two years previously, Noquala promised never to take another wife. To every one's (including, probably, Makalipa's) surprise, he never even suggested breaking his promise.

Noquala was certainly the richest man in his district. The herd of cattle which he kept at his own kraal only represented about half of his wealth. Far and wide his stock was distributed--let out to be farmed on shares, under the custom called "ngqoma," in terms of which cattle are a.s.signed by the owner to some one who looks after them, milks them, and receives as reward a small share of the increase. Sometimes stock let out under this system is handed down from generation to generation.

Even at the present day lawsuits are inst.i.tuted for the recovery of cattle, the progenitors of which were a.s.signed in the days of Tshaka.

Native law recognises no prescription.

Some there were who smiled meaningly when the persistent faithfulness of Noquala to Makalipa was spoken of, and it was hinted that the rigours of his monogamy were somewhat mitigated by certain relationships which he had contracted at kraals where the whole wealth was held under his "ngqoma." Be this as it may, Makalipa seemed quite contented with her lot. She was her husband's only "wife," and that was enough for her.

Noquala was really a very liberal man, and was deservedly popular, so it was not by grasping and overreaching his fellows that he became wealthy.

His success could only be attributed to sheer good fortune. His kraal was situated in a warm, fertile nook of one of the foot-ranges to the Drakensberg, and cattle throve there pa.s.sing well. He inherited a fair amount of stock from his father, and this herd became a fountain of the only kind of wealth which the native values. His principle for many years had been to weed out the inferior animals, and subst.i.tute for them any superior cattle obtainable. If a young man paying "lobola" [The cattle given in payment for a wife] had a very good cow, he knew that by taking it to Noquala's kraal he could exchange it for two oxen of fair quality. As "lobola" cattle are estimated by number and not by individual value, the gain to the young man is, of course, obvious.

Goats and sheep he also had, but these he did not much regard. In fact, if it had not been for his wife he would not have had any small stock at all, except a few goats for slaughtering.

Makalipa was intensely frugal, if not miserly, by nature--and was well known to have a considerable store of money put by. She kept her wealth wrapped up in rags, and buried in various places. She had thus been ama.s.sing money by little and little for over twenty years. She claimed as her perquisite the proceeds of every skin of the respective beasts that were slaughtered or that died; and she earned a great deal by making and selling mats. The first and only time she ever drew any of her savings was when she put her son Elijah to school at Blythswood. It was her dream that Elijah should be a minister, and his own ambitions seconded hers. He was now a man of twenty-one, and had made good progress with his studies. At the point where this story opens he was expected back for his holidays. The school had broken up two days previously, and he was due to arrive within a few hours.