The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-20
REvERsIoN TO sAvAGERY.
From London and Bible Reading to Zu-
luland and Marriage With

From London and Bible Reading to Iu-
luland and a Marriage With
Cows"
l think quite the most curious in
stance Of the thinness of surface civili-
cation among these people came to me
in the case of a young Zulu girl, who
had been early left an orphan, and had
been carefully trained in a clergyman's
/ family. She was about sixteen years
old when she came as my nursemaid,
and was very plump and comedy, with
q beaming countenance and the sweet
est voice and prettiest manners posi-
bic. She had a great love of music and
performed tremendously enough on an
accordion, as we'll as on several queer
/ little pipes and reeds She could speak,
read and write Dutch perfectly, as we'll
as Zulu, and was nearly as proficient In
English. She carried a little Bible al
ways in her pocket, and often tried my
gravity by dropping on one knee by my
side whenever she caught me sitting
down and alone, and beginning to read
aloud from it. 1t was quite new pos
session, and she had not got beyond the
opening chapters of Genesis, and de-
| lighted in the story Of Dam and Eva
as she called our first parepts. She
proved an excellent nurse and thor
oughly trustworthy; the children were
devoted to her, especially the baby who
learned to speak Zulu before English,
and to throw reed assegal as soon as
he could stand firmly on his little fat
legs. L brought her to England after
she had been about year with me, and
she adapted herself marvelously and
unhesitatingly to the conditions Of
civilization far beyond what she had
ever dreamed of After she had got
over her surprise at the ship knowing
it's way across the ocean, she proved a
capital sailor. She took to London life
and London ways as If she had never
known anything else. The only serious
mistake she made was once in yielding
to the Establishments of persuasive
italian image man and promising to
buy his whole tray Of statues. l found
the hall filled with these works of art,
and Malta rendering, with sweetest
smiles, a few pence in exchange for
them. 1t was a disagreeable Job to
have to persuade the man to depart in
peace with all his images, even with a
little money to console him.
A friend of mine CHANGED to be re-
turning to Natal, and proposed that l
should spare my Zulu nurse to her.
Her husbands magstracy being close
to where Malia's tribe dwelt, 1t seemed
good opportunity for Malta to return
to her own country; so, of course, let
her go, begging my friend to tell me
how the girl got on. The parting from
the little boys was heart breaking
scene, nor was Malta at all comforted
by the fine clothes all my friends insist
ed on giving her. Not even a huge
Gainsborough hat, garnished with giant
peoples, could console her for leaving
her little chieftain," but it was, at all
events, something to send her off so
comfortably provided for, and with two
large boxes of good clothes.
In the course of few months / re-
ceived letter from my friend who
was then settled in her upcountry home,
but her story of Malas doings seemed
well-nigh Incredible, though perfectly
true.
All had gone well on the voyage, and
SO long as they remained at DURHAM
and Maritzburg, but as soon as the dis
tant settlement was reached Malia's
kinsmen came around her and began to
claim some share In her property.
Free fights were of constant occurrence,
and in one of them Malta, using the
skull of an OK as weapon, broke her
sisters leg. Soon after that she re-
turned to the savage life she had not
known since her infancy, and took to 1T
with delight. I don't know what be-
came of her Clothes but she presented
herself before my friend clad in an old
sack and with necklaces of wild ami
mails teeth, and proudly announced she
had Just been married with cows
thus showing how completely her
Christianity had fallen away from her,
and she had practically returned, on the
first opportunity, to the depth of that
savagery from which she had been
taken before she could even remember
It, I soon lost all trace of her, but Ma
las story has always remained in my
mind as an amazing instance of the
strength of race instinct.-Cornhill
Magazine.