dices and quirks, have a natural bias toward truth. Two or three
years ago Tevula began by claiming, as heir-at-law, though the old
woman still lives, twenty cows from the defendant as the increase of
these heifers: _now_ he demands between thirty and forty. When asked
why he only claimed twenty, as nobody denies that the produce of the
heifers has increased to double that number, he says naively, but
without hesitation, that there is a fee to be paid of a shilling
a head on such a claim if established, and that he only had twenty
shillings in the world; so, as he remarked with a knowing twinkle in
his eye, "What was the use of my claiming more cows than I had money
to pay the fee for?" But times have improved with Tevula since then,
and he is now in a position to claim the poor defendant's whole herd,
though he generously says he will not insist on his refunding those
cows which do not resemble the original heifers, and are not, as they
were, dun and red and white. This sounded magnanimous, and met
with grunts of approval until the blear-eyed defendant remarked,
hopelessly, "They are all of those colors," which changed the
sympathies of the audience once more. Tevula saw this at a glance, and
hastened to improve his position by narrating an anecdote. No words
of mine could reproduce the dramatic talent that man displayed in his
narration. I did not understand a syllable of his language, and yet I
could gather from his gestures, his intonation, and above all from
the expression of his hearers' faces, the sort of story he was telling
them. After he had finished, Mr. S---- turned to me and briefly
translated the episode with which Tevula had sought to rivet the
attention and sympathy of the court. Tevula's tale, much condensed,
was this: Years ago, when his attention had first been directed to
the matter, he went with the defendant out on the veldt to look at the
herd. No sooner did the cattle see them approaching than a beautiful
little dun-colored heifer, the exact counterpart of her grandmother
(Mamusa's cow), left the others and ran up to him, Tevula, lowing and
rubbing her head against his shoulder, and following him all about
like a dog. In vain did her reputed owner try to drive her away: she
persisted in following Tevula all the way back to his kraal, right up
to the entrance of his hut. "I was her master, and the inkomokazi knew
it," cried Tevula triumphantly, looking round at the defendant with a
knowing nod, as