Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/79

Rh themselves unnecessarily to danger, and tried always to attack from an ambush or a place that would give them the advantage of striking the first blow before their adversaries were aware of their presence. A poisoned arrow, shot from a little scrub in which a Bushman was lying concealed, often ended the career of an unwary Hottentot traveller.

This habit caused them to be feared by Hottentots and Bantu alike. There is an excellent representation of the feeling of the Bantu towards the primitive people, given by a Zulu to the reverend Canon Callaway, and published by him in his Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus. It reads as follows:

“They are dreaded by men; they are not dreadful for the greatness of their bodies, nor for appearing to be men; no, there is no appearance of manliness; and greatness there is none; they are little things, which go under the grass. And a man goes looking in front of him, thinking, ‘If there come a man or a wild beast, I shall see.’ And, forsooth, an Umutwa is there under the grass; and the man feels when he is already pierced by an arrow; he looks, but does not see the man who shot it. It is this, then, that takes away the strength; for they will die without seeing the man with whom they will fight. On that account, then, the country of the Abatwa is dreadful; for men do not see the man with whom they are going to fight. The Abatwa are fleas, which are unseen whence they come; yet they teaze a man; they rule over him, they exalt themselves over him, until he is unable to sleep, being unable to lie down, and unable to quiet his heart; for the flea is small; the hand of a man is large; it is necessary that it should lay hold of something which can be felt. Just so are the Abatwa; their strength is like that of the fleas, which have the mastery in the night, and the Abatwa have the mastery through high grass, for it conceals them; they are not seen. That then is the power with which the Abatwa conquer men, concealment, they laying wait for men; they see them for their part, but they are not seen.

“The bow with which they shoot beast or man does not kill by itself alone; it kills because the point of their arrow is smeared with poison, in order that as soon as it enters, it may cause much blood to flow; blood runs from the whole body, and the man dies