Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-09-16

- $4,000 $1,000 ~
and smoking Kaffir opium. On a sud
den with great granting and babbling
an indcscribable beast scrambled into
our presence and threw himself in a
heap at the feet of Potpan. OF course
ii was a Kaflir, but surely n more viii
famous looking compound was never
called human before or since.
"He was covered with a mass of
small skins, cat-tails, claws, teeth,
charms and dirt, and his face was TIA
tooed and painted in the most fantas-
tic and horrible manner
"But his appearance was no worse
than his trade, for he was Potpan's
high eNecutioner, and his name was
Booma Umkulu, which means the
Great Short Cut The creature rubbed
his nose in the dust for n while, then
looked up and winningly remarked to
Potpan:
Almighty, what about Inyoni, the
daughter of Gumkatz, the robber?'
"'Kill her.
"'Fivs and ten times Almightiest,
your slave Umsilo offers fifty COWS for
the girl
Strange her.
Lord of the world, once more. Her
father sends n wonderful ransom, he
puts his neck under the feet of Potpan
the Mighty, he says-spare the maiden
with the skin like the shining brown
berries that are sacred to every Kaffir
from the sea in the east to the wind
ing river that flows under the plains
Then Potpan grew angry and
shouted: 'Booma, look here, the sun
is now setting, drive the daughter of
Gumkatz into the snake ring, stone
her and quickly, too, or Booma I'm
kulu shall sleep tonight in the crops
of the Grey Nultures.'
This was enough for the Great
Short Cut, who sneaked away as if he
had received n stab in his vitals.
After a while the chief said to me:
Come and see Booma play and then
kill
$50 we walked round till we came
to the snake ring. There we found
scores of Kaffirs in groups, crouching
and watching a little girl who stood
alone in the middle OF the ring, hum
ming quietly to herself.
"She was about Is years of age |
should think, Of n very light copper
IOlOl, pllt WAS ClollOu JuSl us ldtulC
decks and adorns her children, unless
you except a light girdle Of blue beads
round her waist, a couple of brass
bangles on her ankles and a few on
her wrists.
"She might have been dead so far
as motion was concerned, only she
continued to hum quietly until the
chief came in sight, when she eN-
claimed:
THE king is great,
1.-THE king is good,
THE king is immortal
"All this time Booma has been
prancing and sneaking round and
round her, chanting and singing about
his own bravery and skill.
"He has placed a little fiat pebble
right on top of the girls head, and
now he will show the chief and the
people how easily and quickly he will
brighten it off, and finish the business.
But the Kafir law says, While the
stone remains on the head, no blood
must flow
80 Booma skips and skins round
the ring; he rolls, squirms and twists
this way and that, making dreadful
noises and hideous grimaces, n he
shakes his rattles and bones in de-
light. He begins to throw little rocks
at the girl, tossing them quite gently
at first, as if merely wishing TO tease
her, but every once in a while he hurls
a rock as big as your fist, just missing
the head or the body by an inch.
"And so on in this way for severa
minutes, until the crowd gets excited
in its hunger for the sight Of blood
and calls upon Booma to wake up,
for as yet the girl hasn't moved a
muscle, but is quietly singing to her
self something about Gumkatz being
brave, and she, Inyoni, is his daugh'
ter.
VERY soon | become nervous and
said to Potpan:
"Let the girl go. You admire BRAY
cry; she is brave. Come, now, | will
give you twenty blankets and the
weight of my big dog in %gunpowder
for her life
Ono. Her father is a traitor; his
children are under the ban. When
catch them, they die
"By this time the hideous Booma is
half crazy with rage and fear on ac'
count of the failure of his efforts
With great leaps and somersaults he
threatens her, now with n spear, o
with a club, now with a keen-edget
knife, but all in vain, for the little
pebble still faces him, unmoved, i'm
movable.
"As for me, / could stand it NJ
longer. So I walked up to Potpan ant
almost Kissed in his face:
"'Send Inyoni home to her people
or by the sacred hide of your moth
er's white heifer l will betray you t.
Cetywayo.'
"Potpan seemed to be d%umfoundeC
at my audaSity, but he knew me o
old, so, stepping to n side, he saiC
to me:
LET the blankets and the powde,
be mine. AS for Inyoni, take her on
of my sight
Now, when l looked round, / saw
Booma sneaking away, with his rag
and his charms and his feathers, blu
Inyoni sat in the dust, and was quietl,
toying with a leaf which the evenin,
breeze had waited to her feet.
and the old grizzled warriors, witt
the black rings of fat on their heads
came crowding around, and one o
them shouted:
"'She is worthy to couch with tn,
lion! And another exclaimed: Or L
suckle the cubs of the tiger!'
after a few words with Potpan ]
too, crossed the ring, and, sitting dow
In the dust at the feet of the girl,
said to her:
The great chief is willing. Inyon
is free. Two of my own faithful boy
shall guide and protect until Inyon
has crossed the Sand river and cal
see the white rocks shining on tn
hillside where her home is and tn
kraals of her people. And now Rooa