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At the same moment his companion observed part of a Kafir's form opposite to him, and, firing, brought him to the ground. Seeing this the other savages made a rush at the mound, supposing probably that both guns were empty. They had either forgotten about or were ignorant of double-barrelled weapons.
The mass of tangled aloes, ragged thorn, and prim-looking poison trees, must once have been populous; tombs and houses of the early Moslems covered with ruins the hills and ridges. About noon, we arrived at a spot called the Kafir's Grave.
He commenced his travels with an intention of winning the crown of glory without delay, by murdering the British Resident at Aden : struck, however, with the order and justice of our rule, he changed his intentions and offered El Islam to the officer, who received it so urbanely, that the simple Eastern repenting having intended to cut the Kafir's throat, began to pray fervently for his conversion.
Some of our men who had seen the Watuta in Utambara, declared these savages to resemble them in every particular, save one small specialty in their costume, alluded to in the description of the Zulu Kafir's dress. The hair of the men was dressed in the same fantastic fashion, and the women placed half-gourds over the baby as it rode on its mother's back.
The Kafir's companions, amazed at first, began to roll their eyes and draw a knife or two; but Dick ran forward, and said, "Don't hurt him: he is wrong HERE." This representation pacified them more readily than one might have expected. Dick added hastily, "We'll get you out of the hole OUR way, and cry quits."
Their spears and bows are of a very ordinary kind, and the shield is constructed something like the Kafir's, from a long strip of bull's hide, which is painted over with ochreish earth.
Full of indignation, when he heard this, the Governor summoned Hintza to his presence and related what had occurred. "Well, and what then?" was the Kafir's cool reply, "are they not my dogs?" Sir Benjamin met this by giving orders that Hintza and all the people with him should be put under guard, and held as hostages for the safety of the Fingoes.
Now Jantje had all a Hottentot's natural love for animals, which is, generally speaking, as marked as is the Kafir's callousness towards them, and he was particularly fond of the dog Stomp, which always went out with him those rare occasions when he thought it safe or desirable to walk like an ordinary man instead of wriggling from bush to bush like a panther, or wriggling through the grass like a snake.
The swift-eared Ucatella clutched Christopher's arm, and turning round, pointed back, with eyeballs white and rolling. There were full a dozen animals following them, whose bodies seemed colorless as shadows, but their eyes little balls of flaming lime-light. "GUN!" said Christie, and gave the Kafir's arm a pinch. She flew to the caravan; he walked backwards, facing the foe.
In the meantime, it began to be whispered at Teesee that the bushreen, who always performed his evening devotions at the door of the kafir's hut, was more intimate with the young wife than he ought to be.
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