fashioned clerk--the minister explained that I was the wife of
another inkosi, and that I wanted to see and hear how Kafirmen
stated their case when anything went wrong with their affairs. This
explanation was perfectly satisfactory to all parties, and they
regarded me no more, but immediately set to work on the subject in
hand. A sort of _precis_ of each case had been previously prepared
from the magistrate's report for Mr. S----'s information by his clerk,
and these documents greatly helped me to understand what was going on.
No language can be more beautiful to listen to than either the Kafir
or Zulu tongue: it is soft and liquid as Italian, with just the same
gentle accentuation on the penultimate and antepenultimate syllables.
The clicks which are made with the tongue every now and then, and
are part of the language, give it a very quaint sound, and the proper
names are excessively harmonious.
In the first cause which was taken the plaintiff, as I said before,
was not quite satisfied with the decision of his own local magistrate,
and had therefore come here to restate his case. The story was
slightly complicated by the plaintiff having two distinct names by
which he had been known at different times of his life. "Tevula," he
averred, was the name of his boyhood, and the other, "Mazumba," the
name of his manhood. The natives have an unconquerable aversion
to giving their real names, and will offer half a dozen different
aliases, making it very difficult to trace them if they are "wanted,"
and still more difficult to get at the rights of any story they may
have to tell. However, if they are ever frank and open to anybody, it
is to their own minister, who speaks their language as well as they
do themselves, and who fully understands their mode of reasoning and
their habits of mind.
Tevula told his story extremely well, I must say--quietly, but
earnestly, and with, the most perfectly respectful though manly
bearing. He sometimes used graceful and natural gesticulation, but not
a bit more than was needed to give emphasis to his oratory. He was a
strongly-built, tall man, about thirty-five years of age, dressed in
a soldier's great-coat--for it was a damp and drizzling day--had bare
legs and feet, and wore nothing on his head except the curious ring
into which the men weave their hair. So soon as a youth is considered
old enough to assume the duties and responsibilities of manhood
he begins to weave his short crisp h
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