this is the case,
a cause for slaughter and appropriation is soon discovered; the other
parties are equally on the alert to watch for suspicious demonstrations
against them. If they suppose that anything is intended, they leave
their cattle, and make a rush into the district under English control:
they are _there_ safe, and cannot be pursued by the army of the
indignant chief, as it would be a breach of frontier rules. The chief
to whom I refer had upon one occasion crossed the boundary after a
renegade; so we sent an ambassador to him to remind him of his conduct,
and demand an apology. On the matter being discussed, the Kaffir
remarked that it was very hard that we did not allow him to punish his
traitors by following and slaying them. "If," said he, "your own men
mutinied, murdered your officers, and ran into my country, you, I know,
would want to follow and punish them, while I am not allowed to do so."
It was true enough that, should this have happened, we certainly should
have followed and captured the mutineers. So the ambassador had but one
answer, which was, "The Englishman's laws are so just and good that all
men, black or white, run to them instead of away from them." A Kaffir
is very grasping in bargains; he will always ask much more than he
purposes taking, and will argue and talk for a considerable time before
he can be beaten down. If some easy person once pays a high price for
an article, it is afterwards very difficult to obtain the same sort of
thing for a lower, and the market is at once spoiled. A man of mine
wounded by accident an old Kaffir woman in the leg; the headman of the
kraal at once demanded from me a cow as compensation, as accidents are
not recognised by Kaffirs. He brought his dinner and snuff-box to my
hut early, and sat talking until late, for three days, gradually
lessening his demands, until two sticks of Cavendish tobacco eventually
satisfied him. Had I given in to his exorbitant demand, the price would
have been an established one, and an old Kaffir woman could not have
been wounded under the penalty of a cow. The Kaffir notation is
different from ours; they calculate so many elephants' tusks = so much
money, so much money = one cow; six cows = one wife; this being the
highest currency amongst them. It may strike many of my readers (in
case I have them) as odd, that a wife should be valued at such a price.
Their family arrangements, however, are different from ours: where