these people employed. For
example, they had no knowledge of time, as we understand it: "an hour"
or "ten minutes" would be unintelligible terms to them. If a Caffre
wished to tell you how long a time it would occupy you to journey to
some near river or kraal, he would point to the sky and say, "You will
journey there whilst the sun is travelling from where he is to that
point in the sky." If the journey was a very long one, occupying many
days, he would name the number of days; or he would refer to the moon
and say, "If the moon is half grown when you start, it will be full size
when you arrive." A two-moon journey would be two months. Then, for
short distances, a Caffre would describe it as two assagy-throws, which
would be a little more than one hundred yards; twice or three times my
length would be about twelve or eighteen feet. After a time these
comparisons become quite natural to one, and when I go back in memory to
my life among them, I at once speak as I then spoke.

"I am going half a moon's journey in the direction of the rising sun," a
Caffre would say; and this would mean that he was going a journey of
fourteen days towards the east.

The patience that Caffres will show when waiting for an enemy or for
some animal to approach them was well shown on this occasion. Not a man
showed himself, or spoke above a whisper, during at least two hours; at
the end of which time one of our scouts signalled to us, and then came
rapidly somewhat in our direction; but he was too well-trained to come
to us, for he might have been seen, and our ambuscade consequently would
have been a failure. This scout ran past the bush where we were
concealed, and about four assagy-throws to the left of it. After he had
passed us a long way, he disappeared behind some bushes, and immediately
commenced creeping towards us. We could only now and then get a glimpse
of him, but an enemy at a distance could not have seen him. On reaching
our position the scout told Eondema that all the Zulus were coming, and
were following my footprints; that they were all armed with assagies
except one, who possessed a gun. He added that the Zulus did not seem
to be aware that any enemy was near, for they had no spies out, that he
could see; although three or four men walked on each side of the main
body, and at some distance, so as to be ready to run round and cut off
my retreat, in case they found me unprepared for them. From my ambush I
was ab