Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/415

372 A KAFIR LAWSUIT.

From the Cape Law Journal.

KAFIR in the witness-box is often a surprise to those who know little or nothing of the traditions of the Kafir race. The ease with which the ordinary native parries the most dexterous cross-examination, the skill with which he extricates himself from the consequences of an unfortunate answer, and above all, the ready and staggering plausibility of his explanations, have often struck those who came in contact with him in the law Courts. He is far superior, as a rule, to the ordinary European in the witness-box. Keen-witted and ready, he is yet too cautious ever to answer a question the drift of which he does not clearly foresee, and which when he understands he at once proceeds, if necessary, to forestall by his reply. As a result, the truth of his evidence can only be sifted by very careful proceeding on the part of the cross-examiner, and by keeping him in the dark as much as possible as to the bearing of his answers upon the subject-matter of the suit. Whether this dialectic skill is innate in the Kafir, or whether it is the result of long cultivation, it is difficult to say, but as some proof of the former, we subjoin a very interesting extract from a book now unhappily becoming rare, viz. Colonel Maclean's "Handbook of Kafir Laws and Customs, compiled from Notes by Mr. Brownlee, Rev. Dugmore, and Mr. Ayliff," which will, we venture to think, throw a great deal of light upon the present abilities of the descendants of those whose judicial customs fifty years ago are so graphically described in the following words:—