o tell any one about
this buck having been killed. Inyoni at once skinned the buck and laid
out the skin on the ground, pegging it down with mimosa thorns. The two
boys then procured two sticks about a foot long, and of dry wood; these
sticks they selected with great care. Placing one of these on the
ground, Inyoni held down the ends with his feet, and then holding the
other stick upright, he worked it round and round between the palms of
his hands, and pressed it on to the second stick. Tembile relieved
Inyoni when the latter was tired, and so they went on, turn and turn
about, until the sawdust produced by this friction began to smoke and
then to catch fire. A wisp of dry grass was then gathered, the sparks
put into this, and the wisp swung round at arm's-length, when it very
soon began to blaze, and in a few minutes we had a capital wood fire.
With our assagies we now cut up the buck and fried it over the fire, and
had a great feast, eating about half the animal. The remainder we
concealed on the branches of a tree, for we knew that if we left it on
the ground, a jackal or leopard would find it, and we should get nothing
on the following day. I was told by my companions that if the men knew
we had killed this buck and had not carried it to the kraal, we should
all be beaten; so I must keep the secret, for my own sake as well as
theirs.

Our life was very simple and quiet; and I have often thought in later
years, that the life led by these Caffres was perfect freedom and
luxury, compared with the slavery endured by business men in cities. A
Caffre who possessed a hundred head of cattle might have acquired these
by his father giving him a cow and a calf when he was a boy. Cattle
increase in almost geometrical rates. Thus a cow and a calf would
probably become in ten years fifty head of cattle, and the young Caffre
would be a man of independent fortune. As soon as a Caffre possesses
cattle, he purchases a wife, and the limit to the number of his wives is
only drawn by the amount of cattle he possesses. A young good-looking
girl is purchased for from eight to ten cows. These are not always paid
at once, three or four being given at the time of marriage, and the
remainder paid in a year or two afterwards. A wife among these people
is not a matter of expense only, as it is with civilised nations; but is
a profitable investment, as the wives work in the mealie gardens, do the
digging and the sowing, and at the