gan current, German and barbarian, was arrested or
overwhelmed, first by the influx of the Christian religion,
then by the conquest of the Norman-French. But what remains
more than suffices to show the strange and powerful poetic
genius of the race, and to exhibit beforehand the flower in
the bud.

"If there has ever been anywhere a deep and serious poetic
sentiment, it is here. They do not speak: they sing, or
rather they shout. Each little verse is an acclamation,
which breaks forth like a growl; their strong breasts heave
with a groan of anger or enthusiasm, and a vehement or
indistinct phrase or expression rises suddenly, almost in
spite of them, to their lips. There is no art, no natural
talent, for describing, singly and in order, the different
parts of an object or an event. The fifty rays of light
which every phenomenon emits in succession to a regular and
well-directed intellect, come to them at once in a glowing
and confused mass, disabling them by their force and
convergence. Listen to their genuine war-chants, unchecked
and violent, as became their terrible voices! To this day,
at this distance of time, separated as they are by manners,
speech, ten centuries, we seem to hear them still."[96]

This glowing description of the poetry of the primitive and hardy
Saxon gives the reader an excellent idea of the vigorous, earnest, and
gorgeous effusions of the African. Panda was king of the Kaffirs. He
was considered quite a great warrior. It took a great many
_isi-bongas_ to describe his virtues. His chief _isi-bongas_ was
"O-Elephant." This was chosen to describe his strength and greatness.
Mr. Wood gives an account of the song in honor of Panda:--

"1. Thou brother of the Tchaks, _considerate forder_,
2. A _swallow which fled in the sky_;
3. A swallow with a whiskered breast;
4. Whose cattle was ever in so huddled a crowd,
5. They stumble for room when they ran.
6. Thou false adorer of the valor of another,
7. That valor thou tookest at the battle of Makonko.
8. Of the stock of N'dabazita, _ramrod of brass_,
9. _Survivor alone of all other rods_;
10. Others they broke and left this in the soot,
11. Thinking to burn at some rainy cold day.
12. _Thigh of the bullock of Inkakavini_,
13. Always delicious if only 'ti