Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-01-03

OAh1 4, l0JU.
 suffering core than usual from the, depredations of the Kaffir thieves, who stole our sheep at night, and, as. had
 done before, and not without success, I
 had determined to watch the kraal and
 sec if could catch them. Indeed, it was, from this habit of mine of watching at night that first got my native name of, MacumA:ahr, which may be roughly translated as ''he who sleeps with one; eye open" So l took my rife and rose to, go. But he called me to him and kissed, me on the forehead, saying: God,
 bless you, Allan. 1 hope that you will think of your old father sometimes, and that you will lead 8 good and happy; life"
 remember that I did not much like. his tone at tho time, but set it down toi | an attack of low spirits, to which hei grew very subject as the years went on, l went down to the kraal and watched, till within an hour of sunrise; then, as no thieves appeared, returned to the, station. As l came near I was aston | lshed to see a f1gure sitting in sny; fathers chair. At first I thought it must be a drunken Kaffir, then that my; father had fallen asleep there. And so: he had, indeed, for he was dead! l CHAPTER II.
 When I had buried my father and, seen his successor installed in his place for the station was the property of tho Society," set to work to carry out plan which had long cherished, but, been unable to execute because it wouldt have involved separation from myi father. Put shortly, it was to under take trading journey of exploration, right through the countries now known as tho Free State and the Transvaal, and as much further north as I could, go. It was an adventurous scheme, for though the emiGrant Boers had begun to occupy positions in these territories, they were still, to all practical pur- poses, unexplored. But I was nowt alone in the world, and it mattered lit, tie what became of me; so. driven on, by the overmastering love of adventure, which, old as l am, will, perhaps, still
 be my cause of death, I determined to l undertake it. ] | Accordingly I sold such stocks and l goods as we had upon the station, rel serving only tho two best wagons and two pairs of oxen. The proceeds I in-! vested in such goods as were then in, fashion. for trading purposes, and in, guns and ammunition. The guns would! have moved any modern explorer to l merriment; but such as they were man. | aged to do good deal of execution | with them. One of them was single: | barreled, smooth bore, fitted for percus-. | sion caps-a roer we called it-which, | threw a three-ounce ball, and was | charged with handful of coarse black powder. Many is tho elephant killed with that roer, although it generally knocked me backwards when I fired. it, which I only did under compulsion. Tho best of the lot, perhaps, was double-barreled No. 12 shotgun, but it had flint-locks. Also there were some old tower musketS, which might or. might not throw straight at seventy, | yards. I took six Katiirs with me, and three good horses, which were supposed to be salted-that is, proof against sick ness. Among the Kaffirs was an old fel- 1 low named Inda ba-zimbi, which, bcinS | translated, means tongue of iron.' 1 l suppose he got his name from his strident voice and eXhaustless eloquence | This man was a great character in his way. He had been a noted witch-doc- tor among neighboring tribe, and came to the station under tho following cir cumstances, which, as he plays q con siderable part in this history, are, per | haps, worth recording.
 Two years before my fathers death I | had occasion to search tho country round for some lost oxen. After a long and
 useless quest it occurred to mo thatI had better go to tho place where the oxen were bred by a kafiir chief, whose name l forget, but whose lraal was about fifty miles from our station. | There I went, and found the oxen safe at home. The chief entertained me handsomely, and on the following morn
 ing l went to pay my respects to him before leaving, and was somewhat sur
 prised to find q collection of soma hun
 dreds of men and women sitting round
 him anxiously watching tho sky, in
 which the thunder-clouds were banking up in very ominous way.
 "You had better wait, white man." said the chief, land sec the rain-doctors
 fight the lightning"
 inquired what he meant, and learned that this man, Indaba-zimbi, had for some years occupied tho position of 'wizard-in-chief to the tribe, although ne was not mem per Of 1t, having been
 born in the country now known as Zu- luland. But a son of the chief, a man of about thirty, had lately set up as rival in supernatural powers. This irritated Indaba-zimbi beyond measure, and quarrel ensued between the two witch-doctors that resulted in a chal- lenge to trial by lightning being given and accepted. These were the condi- | %y~vNr r;,y -11 4l.~o
 ing of serious thunderstorm; no ordinary tempest would servo their turn. Then, carrying assegais in their hands, they must take their stand with in fifty paces of each other upon q cer- .4aix 4al. c>E II l.;