Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-05-02

III
dow. To this hut Hendrix carried the
sack. and, having united the mouth, put
it down on the floor. and ran from the
place. shutting the door behind him.
ssIn another moment the poor little thing
was out and dashing round the stone hut
as though it were mad. It sprung at the
bars of the window, chung there, and beat
its head against them till the blood came.
Then it fell to the floor, and sat there cry
ing like child, aud rocking itself back
ward and forward. 1t was so sad to see it
that began to cry. too
Just then my father came in and asked
what all the fuss was about. ! told him
that we had caught a young white ba-
boon, and he was angry, and said that II
must be let go. But when he looked at it
through the bars of the window he nearly
fell Gown with establishment.
"'WhyF he said, this is not baboon, it
is white child that the balloons have
stolen and brought upr
''NOw. Mr. Allan, whether my father is
right or wrong, you can judge for your
self. You see Hendrika-we named her
that after Hendrix, who caught her-she
is woman, not monkey, and yet she
has many of the WAYS of monkeys, and
looks like one too. You saw how she can
climb, for instance, and you hear how she
talks Also she is very savage, and when
she is angry or jealous she seems t. go
mad, though she is as clever as anybodv.
! think that she must have been stolen by
the balloons when she was quite tiny and
nUrtured by them, and that is why she Is
so like them.
But to go on. Ny father said that it
was our duty to keep Hendrika at any
cost. The worst of it was, that for three
days she would eat nothing, and Thought
that she would die, for all the while she
sat and walled. On the third day, how
ever, went to the bars of the window
place, and held out cup of milk and
some fruit to her. She looked at it for Il
long while, then crept up moaning, took
the milk from my hand and drank it
greedily, and afterwards ate the fruit.
From that time forward she took food
readily enough, but only if l would feed
her. But | must tell you of the dreadful
end of Hendrix From the day that we
captured Hendrika the whole place began
to swarm with balloons which were evil
IDENTITY employed in watching the kraals.
One day Hendrix went out towards the
hills alone to gather some medicine. He
did not come back again, so next day
search was made. BY big rock which
/ can show you they found his scattered
and broken bones, the fragments of his
assegai, and four dead baboous They
had set upon him and torn him to pieces.
My father was very much frightened
at this, but still he would not let Hen
drika 90, because LIE said she was human,
and that it was our duty to reclaim her.
And so we did-tO a certain extent, at
least. After the murder of Hendrix the
balloons vanished from the neighbOrhOOd,
and have only returned quite recently,
so ut length we ventured to let Henkrika
out BY this time she had grown very
fond of me; still, on the first opportunity
she ran away. But in the evening she re-
t=rced again. She had been seeking tho
DaDOons, ana could not find them.
shortly afterwards she began to speak
I taught her-and from that time she has
loved me so that she will not leave me.
think it would kill her if | went away
from her. She watches me all day and at
night sleeps on the floor of my hut, Once,
too she saved my life when was swept
down the river in flood; but she is jeal-
Gus, and hates everybody else. Look, how
Sut ~ SldIlu9 Ut you now DCCdHSG duJ
talking to your
| looked. Hendrika was tramping along
with the child in her arms and staring at
me in most sinister fashion out of the
corners Of her eyes.
While | was rejecting on the baboon
woman's strange story, and thinking that
she was an exceedingly awkward custom
er the path took Il sudden turn.
Look said Stella, there is our house.
| Is it not beautifully"
1t was beautiful indeed. Here on the
| western side of The great peak n bay had
| been formed in the mountain, which might
| have measured eight hundred or a thou
| sand yards across by .thIee-quarters of q
| mile in depth. At the back of the linden
tation the sheer cliff rose to the height oil
| several hundred feet, and behind it and
| above it the great Babyan Peak lowered
up towards the heavens. The space Of
| ground, embraced thus in the arms of the
mountain as it were, was laid out, as
! though by the cunning hand of man, il
| three terraces that rose one above the
| other.
To the right and left of the topmost ter
race were chasms in the cliff, and from
| each chasm fell IL waterfall. from no great
height. indeed, but of considerable vol
ume. These two streams flowed away OF
either side of the inclosed space, one to
wards the north, and the other. the course
of which we had been following rounG
the base of the mountain. At eli terrace
| they made Il cascade, so that the traveller
| approaching had view OF eight water
falls at once.
Along the edge of the stream to our left
were placed Kaffir kraals, built In orderly
groups with verandas. after the Basutu
fashion, and a very large part of the en-
tire space of land was under cultivation.
All of this | noted at once, as well as the
extraordinary richness and depth of the
soil, which for many ages past had been
washed down from the mountain heights
Then followed the line of an excellent
wagon road, on which we now found our
selves, that wound up from terrace to ter
race, my eye lit upon the crowning won.
der of the scene.
For in the centre of the topmost platform
or terrace, which may have enclosed eight
or ten acres of ground and, almost sur
rounded by groves of orange trees, gleam-
ed buildings of which l had never seen
the like. There We're three groups OF
them, one in the middle, and one on either
side. and a little to the rear but. as l af-
forwards discovered, the plan of all was
the same.
In the centre was an edifice constructed
like an ordinary Zulu hut-that is to say,
in the shave of beehive, only it was five
times the size of any hut ever saw, and
built Of blocks of hewn white marble, fit
ted together with extraordinary knowl-
edge of the principles aud properties OF
arch building, and with so much accur-
aCy and finish that it was often difficult
to find the joints of the massive blocks.
From this centre hut ran three covered
passages, leading to other buildings OF
an exactly similar character, only small.
er, and each whole block was enclosed
by marble wall about four feet in
height.
Or course we were as yet too far off to
see ali these details, but the general out
line saw Mt once, and it astonished me
considerably. Even old linda ba-zimbi.
whom the baboop-woman had been uu-
able to move, deigned to show wonder.
'Oh!' he said. this is place of mar
wells. Who ever saw kraals built of white
stone9n
Stella watched our faces with an express
sion of intense amusement, but said moth.
ing.
Did your father build those kraals?' j
gasped, at length.
swered. How would it have been posi-
e, !.