Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South AfricaAnderson, Andrew A.
History
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Anderson, Andrew A.
Africa, Southern -- Description and travel; Anderson, Andrew A. -- Travel -- Africa, Southern
Tuesday, a very hot day. Many divisions of the Impi coming in from all
quarters and marching up to the great camp; as this is the last day of
the old year with this nation, they commemorate it by great national
rejoicings. About twelve o'clock I walked up with several of the
hunters and traders, and took up our position close to the entrance of
the king's private grounds, when regiment after regiment came marching
up, dressed in their war dress as before described, with shield and
assagai, and took up their position so as to form an immense circle of
ten and twelve deep, within the enclosure close to the king's kraal, who
came out to show himself for a few minutes and retired. In the mean
time, his wives, dressed in beads and bright yellow kerchiefs over their
shoulders, and long black kilts or skirts down below the knees, young
girls dressed in short kilts, and a profusion of ornaments round their
loins, arms and heads, stepped into the open space within the circle of
troops, and chanted songs, moving forward at the same time, the warriors
singing and raising their shields up and down, keeping time with their
feet. Nina, the king's sister, came forward also, dressed in beads of
many colours round her waist, back, and skirt, brass and gold chains,
gold watch and chain. After a time Lo-Bengulu came forward with a
dancing gait, and took the lead out of the station at the head of his
own particular regiment or bodyguard, whose dress and shields are all
black, each soldier not less than six feet, followed by the other
regiments, when they formed into three sides of a square. Then the king
came forward, surrounded by his bodyguard, and threw an assagai at an
imaginary enemy, when all the troops were instantly in motion and
returned to the open space in the enclosure, when the rain came down so
fast that it put a stop to further proceedings. But previous to the
king's leaving, about 100 oxen were driven out of the circle where they
had been kept by the whole of the Impi, and were soon slaughtered for
the great feast that was to come off that night. Altogether it was a
pretty and novel sight, and if the weather had been fine, the effect
would have been most singular and striking. Some 500 women and girls
stood in groups to witness the performances. The women who danced held
sticks ten feet in length with the bark peeled off; the slave population
looked on at a distance. I made the best of my way to Mr. Peterson's
store, where I found Mr. and Mrs. Elm, Mr. and Mrs. Coillard and the
sister, and took cake and coffee with them, and then to my waggon which
was outspanned on the opposite hill. The programme for this review was
upon a much grander scale than the former already described. The next
day the troops returned to the respective military camps, and the last
of the military dances ended in a downpour of rain, amidst crashing
thunder and flash after flash of the most vivid lightning I have seen
for a long time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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