South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
The Kaffir customs are far more artificial than one would suppose from
his ease of manner; every position of the body has been taught him
from his childhood. Whenever Kaffir men or women present themselves
before you, it is in the attitude they have been instructed as the
most becoming for the furtherance of their wishes. A man who comes
to ask for a favour which concerns the welfare of any member of his
family, takes quite a different attitude than when offering to exchange
something in barter. The young man who seeks to purchase the hand of
his wife, has certain modes of well-defined expression in the attitude
he assumes, whether hesitating or assured of success. The triumphal
swagger of a suitor who has been successful in such a mission is
something marvellous to behold--it really seems as if he thought the
earth would soil his feet as he treads upon it. On the other hand, if
he has been refused, and has no hopes of making a second more enticing
offer, he will retire in such hang-dog fashion as to make his worst
enemy inclined to pity him. The man who stands before you leaning
gracefully upon his assegai, in a posture that even a sculptor might
dream of as the embodiment of manhood and grace, is not what you might
suppose in a position taught by nature’s school, but the summing up of
what generations have thought to be the beau-ideal of a man.
Johnny Fingo once presented himself before me in so calm and dignified
a manner that he quite surprised me; and upon my asking him the nature
of the business he came upon, he replied that he was the bearer of a
communication from Sandilli. No Roman presenting himself on the part of
the senate, bringing an offer of peace or war to a foreign potentate,
could have done so with more calm assurance of the mighty import of his
mission.
The women are small in shape and frame compared with the men, and
extremely beautiful, as far as the moulding of the limbs is concerned;
but their features will not bear the same close inspection. Winsome,
coy, and to a certain degree striking when young, they become snappish,
coarse, and ungainly as they advance in years. Noziah, of whom mention
has already been made, was far handsomer than the ordinary women of
her tribe (Timbuctoo), and betrayed her birth by her stately carriage
and the extreme delicacy of her hands and feet. Her mental capacity
was equal to that of any untutored woman I ever came in contact with;
she understood thoroughly the intricate policy then being carried out
at the Cape, the position of the Dutch and English settlers, and the
use the Kaffirs might make of these two antagonistic interests for
their own profit. She also was well aware of the task the missionary
was performing, the progress of English civilisation, and the good and
evil that it was then bringing into the land. In short, she was a woman
capable of undertaking any noble task which Providence in its wisdom
might have thought necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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