The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kafir Stories, by William Charles Scully

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Title: Kafir Stories
Seven Short Stories

Author: William Charles Scully

Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20491]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KAFIR STORIES ***

Produced by Charles Klingman

KAFIR STORIES
SEVEN SHORT STORIES

BY

WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY

AUTHOR OF

"POEMS," ETC., ETC.

LONDON

T. FISHER UNWIN

1895

COPYRIGHT BY T. FISHER UNWIN
for Great Britain and the United States of America.

TO

KATE FREILIGRATH KROEKER

AND

J. H. MEIRING BECK
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED.

"So geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er uninhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns."

SWIFT.

Glossary

Allemagtig, almighty

Boomslang, an innocuous colubrine snake

*Donga, a gully with steep sides

Drift, the ford of a river

*E-hea, exactly so

*Ewe, yes

Hamel, a wether sheep

*Icanti, a fabulous serpent, the mere appearance of which is supposed
to cause death

*Impandulu, the lightning bird. The Kafirs believe the lightning to be
a bird

*Impi, an army or any military force on the war path

*Induna, a Zulu councilor or general

Kapater, a wether goat

Kerrie, a stick such as is almost invariably carried by a Kafir

Kloof, a gorge or valley

Kaffirboom, a large arboreal aloe

Kopje, an abrupt hillock

Kraal, (1) an enclosure for stock; a fold or pen. (2) a native hut, or
collection of huts

Krantz, a cliff

*Lobola, the payment of cattle by a man to the father of the girl he
wants to marry

*Mawo, an exclamation of surprise

Mealies, maize

Op togt, on a trading trip

Ou Pa, grandfather

Outspan, to unyoke a team

Raak, hit

Reim, a leather thong

Reimje, diminutive of foregoing

Schulpad, a tortoise

Sjambok: a heavy whip made of rhinocerous hide

Stoep, a space about two yards, in width along the front or side of a
house. Usually covered by a verandah in the case of South African
houses

Taaibosch, "tough bush," a shrub. Rhus lucida

*Tikoloshe, a water spirit who is supposed, when people