Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/157

 servation; those which had been deposited most recently were only milk-teeth, and consequently worthless; in all probability they had been placed there since the Marutse had become better acquainted with the value of ivory, so that the deeds of reverence for the departed had not defrauded the rulers of any portion of their revenue. As I returned I passed several sycamores growing on the bank, their stems as well as their branches thickly covered with figs, none of which, however, were yet ripe.

Blockley arrived in the afternoon. He gave each of his bearers a quarter of a pound of beads as payment for their services, but the Masupias rejected all the red beads, refusing to take any but the dark blue. They wanted them, they said, to purchase assegais, and the tribe from which they bought them insisted on having blue beads and no other.

The embarkation of the bearers on their return was an interesting scene. Their canoes, about twenty in number, had been waiting for them in the creek, and late in the afternoon they all pushed off to the opposite shore. They were very slim, varying in length from seven to sixteen feet, and manned by one, two, three, or four men, according to their size. A few of them had to carry back the empty shells that had contained the corn, several were full of firewood, and some conveyed various pieces of the carcase of a great buffalo-cow that had just been killed. The last to leave were my mulekow friend and four others. They were in a large canoe, while he, anxious to display his skill in paddling, had his canoe to himself. He made a great effort to outstrip