United States or Nauru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A few Sundays ago I went to one of these Kafir schools, and was much struck by the intently-absorbed air of the pupils, almost all of whom were youths about twenty years of age. They were learning to read the Bible in Kafir during my visit, sitting in couples, and helping each other on with immense diligence and earnestness. No looking about, no wandering, inattentive glances, did I see.
We heard a stealthy order to April to run, and the whip sounded again about one ox and another, while we were tipped about in all directions as the team suddenly put on a tremendous spurt. In the dim light we could see the outlines of a hut close by the road, and a Kafir sprang out of the doorway towards us shouting for his money.
At first, there was some doubt as to what would be the course taken under the circumstances by the volunteers enlisted by the late Republic. Major Clarke, R.A., was sent to convey the news, and to take command of them, unaccompanied save by his Kafir servant.
Was it you, Jantje?" "Yes, baas," responded the dutiful black, bobbing up and down on his master's spare horse. "Give him twenty with the sjambok." "Right!" Jantje and his master turned out of the road, and soon the unmistakable thwack! thwack! of the sjambok could be heard, mingled with subdued ejaculations in Kafir and Dutch.
The Englishman, though he may not be very fond of him, at any rate regards the Kafir as a fellow human being with feelings like his own. The average Boer does not. He looks upon the "black creature" as having been delivered into his hand by the "Lord" for his own purposes, that is, to shoot and enslave.
I was informed by a venerable old Negro, that when he first visited Tombuctoo, he took up his lodging at a sort of public inn, the landlord of which, when he conducted him into his hut, spread a mat on the floor, and laid a rope upon it, saying, "If you are a Mussulman you are my friend, sit down; but if you are a Kafir, you are my slave, and with this rope I will lead you to market."
The visitor to India comes to a keener appreciation of Rudyard Kipling's stories and poems of Indian life because of the accuracy with which they picture conditions; and the second "Maxim of Hafiz" is only one of many that have gained new meaning for me since my coming: "Yes, though a Kafir die, to him is remitted Jehannum, If he borrowed in life from a native at 60 per cent. per annum."
This provoked another snigger, and then the young ladies took up the ball. "Are you hungry, rooibaatje?" asked one in English. John was boiling with fury, but he was also starving, so he answered that he was. "Tie his hands behind him, and let us see if he can catch in his mouth, like a dog," suggested a gentle youth. "No, no; make him eat pap with a wooden spoon, like a Kafir," said another.
She was tall and straight, still unbent by that toil which is the portion of the female Kafir. Her teeth gleamed very white, and her breast swelled each year more temptingly over the edge other red blanket. As boy and girl they had grown up together, and long before she was of a marriageable age, he had determined eventually to marry her.
Small earthworks had been erected on the flanks near the gates, protecting every weak point; The summit of the ridge was strongly fenced and loopholed. Two other gates led from the amba to the foot of the mountain; one had some time before been closed, but the other, called Kafir Ber, opened in the direction of the Galla country.
Word Of The Day